Nissan is conducting a 200-day trial to find out if you can run an electric car on the power of the sun.
It’s the dream of any motorist: free fuel for life – and Nissan Australia is poised to find out if it’s possible and practical.
Nissan has unveiled three electric-car charging stations at its head office in Melbourne powered by solar panels on its roof.
They are part of a 200-day trial to find out if solar-powered charging stations can provide truly emissions-free motoring.
Nissan Leaf (Image: Nissan)
The charging station is the first of its type in Australia because it can be programmed to draw energy from a range of sources at certain times.
The charging stations can source energy from solar panels or the traditional coal-powered electricity grid.
Those sources of energy can then be used to charge the station’s built-in 6kWh battery pack – or send energy directly to an electric vehicle.
It means that depending on weather conditions, an electric car can be recharged using solar power only – or energy in the battery can be generated purely by solar power.
Tensions are rising in up to 34 counties in California as residents begin feeling the effects of Pacific Gas and Electric Co’s decision to cut power to around 800,000 customers as a way to avoid potential wildfires in the area.
Amidst the chaos, Tesla owners who have installed rooftop solar and Powerwall 2 batteries are reporting that they are weathering the widespread power outage with no problems.
PG&E’s shutdown has received widespread criticism among CA residents and officials alike. In a statement to The San Francisco Chronicle, Rep. Jared Huffman described the power provider’s strategy as a “lousy set of choices.” Michael Wara, director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford University, added that the widespread outage shows that the company cannot operate their system safely during challenging times. CHP officers have even started looking into an incident involving a PG&E vehicle in Colusa County that appeared to have been shot at by a disgruntled resident on Wednesday morning.
Tesla showroom (Image: T. Larkum)
This is particularly prominent among gas stations in the state, many of which require power to function. Only a few gas stations remain operational in CA amid the power outage, resulting in long lines of vehicles as owners attempt to acquire fuel. Ali Alezzani, a manager of an Exxon station on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, noted to the Chronicle that tensions are currently so high, some gas car owners almost got into fights while they were waiting for their turn at the pump. Videos taken of gas stations across the state hint at extremely long wait times as large numbers of car owners line up for a chance to acquire fuel.
A Renault Sport version of the ZOE electric hatch is being eyed up as an indirect replacement for the Clio RS, Auto Express can reveal.
Bosses at the firm told us a successor to the hot Clio is no longer a viable business proposition, and that a hot ZOE is currently the favoured option within the company to plug the gap.
Renault previously flirted with the idea of a performance-based EV back in 2017 when it showed the ZOE e-sport concept. The running prototype featured technology learned from the French firm’s efforts in Formula E; a twin-motor set-up delivered 454bhp and a 0-62mph time of 3.2 seconds, but the concept was never intended to be put into production.
Renault ZOE 2020 (Image: Renault.com)
However, Ali Kasai, Renault’s executive vice-president of product planning, told us that future Renault Sport models have to be in keeping with the brand’s electrification strategy.
“We need to be in line with the current trends; we have to invent the future sporty cars. This is the role of Renault Sport, to be innovative,” Kasai said. “ZOE, that concept, it is exactly what we were thinking and we still think. That car was appreciated by many people, they loved it, they want to buy it from the feedback we get.”
The latest ZOE is powered by a 52kWh battery that drives a 132bhp electric motor on the front axle. A range of up to 245 miles is claimed. There are various ways in which Renault Sport could develop a more performance-focused model; the first would be to sacrifice some of the car’s range while adding a more powerful electric motor. Another avenue would be to fit an additional motor on the ZOE’s rear axle.
The government’s EV charging fund is to have a broad scope, looking at “all geographical areas” of the UK, all charging speeds and a variety of use cases.
The £400 million Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), which is managed by Zouk Capital, was formally launched today (7 October 2019). The government is providing £200 million, with the rest to come from private investment.
The maiden investment of £35 million, then matched by the government, was put forward by Masdar last month, helping finance the installation of 3,000 rapid chargers.
However, it’s not only rapid chargers that will be funded.
Samer Salty, managing partner of Zouk Capital, confirmed that the fund intends “to cover as much as possible of the UK’s geography” to ensure that drivers have confidence to travel anywhere.
This was echoed by Philippa Eddie, commercial specialist at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, who said that from a policy perspective, the plan is to look at “all geographical areas” and “all speeds”, despite the initial investment into rapid chargers. However “ultimately its for Zouk Capital to decide” on where the investment goes and where the remaining private investment comes from.
I’ve tried very hard indeed to not become one of those evangelical electric car owners that we all try to avoid – but it’s slowly creeping in.
You know the type I mean: the ones that constantly tell anyone who’ll listen just ‘how good electric cars are’, how they’re ‘easy to live with’ and that ‘they’re the future’.
They annoy me as much as they probably annoy you, but after nearly two months with the BMW i3 I’ve sort of become that person by default. The thing is, with a unique-looking car like the BMW, more people than usual ask you what it’s like to live with.
BMW i3 120Ah (Image: BMW Group)
I’ve had neighbours wait for me by the car in the morning to ask what it’s like and a group of shoppers at the local supermarket hang around and want to know how the charging works as I plug it into the fast charger there.
I can’t help but tell them just how much I love it. In fact, I’m genuinely surprised at how well it has fitted into my life. With a range of around 200 miles – which flexes up and down by around 20 miles depending on how and where I’m driving it – I’ve managed to get away with just two fast charges in that time.
By plugging it in at work every day, in a normal three-pin plug socket, I’ve managed to keep the i3 topped up enough for my daily usage. I haven’t got access to charging at home so am relying purely on this trickle-charging at work (it takes 15 hours for a full charge this way) and it’s working. It effectively means the 1,000 miles I’ve covered so far have cost me personally the grand sum of £14 for two fast charges. OK, so that’s not very realistic, as most owners will be paying for their electricity at home, but if you’ve got a free charging point at work then it could equate to very cheap motoring indeed.
Renault has been continuously updating the electric Zoe ever since it launched in the European market in 2012, but this last iteration is by far the biggest and more impressive change in the model’s successful career.
The biggest highlight is of course the adoption of a new larger 52 kWh battery pack, which enables the Zoe to travel up to 245 miles (345 km) on a full charge, according to the WLTP standards. Also new is the support of 50kW fast charging, which can replenish around 90 miles (145 km) of range in 30 minutes.
Renault ZOE 2020 (Image: Renault.com)
The new battery is accompanied by the more powerful R135 electric motor as well, producing 133 HP (135 PS) and 181lb-ft (245 Nm) of torque and giving the Zoe more poke than ever; Renault claims a 0-62mph (100km/h) in 10 seconds and a top speed of 87 mph (140km/h).
The range of the updated Zoe includes a base R110 version that’s powered by a 108 HP motor, known from the previous model.
The interior of the small EV is now made from better-quality materials and features a new dashboard design that hosts a large 9.3-inch infotainment system and a customisable 10-inch digital instrument cluster. Wireless phone charging, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as well as an upholstery made from recycled materials are also present.
Five-year-old vehicles are now great value and prices are rising as buyers cotton on
If the two people behind a major website championing electric cars have both done it, the rest of us should probably take note.
Whisper, so not too many people hear it, but used five-year-old electric cars are arguably one of the best vehicle purchases you can make right now, whatever your environmental credentials. It makes particular sense if you are one of the millions of people who use their car most days.
Cheapest Used Electric Cars in the UK (Image: Fuel Included)
Long considered way out of the price range of normal car buyers, good quality electric cars that were launched a few years ago, are now hitting the used market for less than £7,000.
Nissan Leafs, which cost £30,000 (after grants) eight years ago, can be found for £5,700 with about 60,000 miles on the clock.
A Renault Zoe, with a leased battery and with fewer miles on the clock, starts at about £6,500.
Even the more futuristic-looking and previously expensive BMW i3s, made from recyclable parts, can be had for £13,000 for a five-year-old, low-mileage model. Once purchased, these environmentally friendly cars cost a few pounds a week to run – attractive at a time when petrol costs £1.30 a litre and diesel averages £1.36.
Interestingly, used electric vehicle prices have, in recent months, started rising – a near unheard-of thing in the used car market – as demand outstrips supply. They are also increasingly being sold by a new group of car dealers that have emerged only selling electric vehicles.
The practical reasons against electric are disappearing – and now councils are stepping in to help
This feels like one of the “You’re the expert” questions that appear in Guardian Money every week. I have an old-ish petrol-fuelled car, sitting parked outside my terraced home, which I use only at weekends. And I have a brother-in-law who is evangelical about his Nissan Leaf. I’d like to be more like him. Yet the closest charging point for me is a 10-minute walk away, and often busy. Is it just too early to ditch my old car and go electric?
The question marks over electric vehicles used to be about battery technology and the cost. But “range anxiety” has largely been conquered. The first Nissan Leaf batteries took you about 80-85 miles without needing a charge; the latest ones do 150 miles. The new Kia e-Niro family car manages 300 miles, while at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes was showing off its Vision EQS model with a “comfortable” range of 435 miles. Given that the average car journey in the UK is just 10 miles, according to the RAC, fears over the usability of electric cars are fading fast.
Kia e-Niro EV (Image: Kia)
Sadly, prices for new electric cars remain higher significantly higher than for petrol or diesel, with the eGolf at about £30,000 compared with petrol ones starting at about £20,000. But as we highlight this week, a used market is now developing in electric vehicles, with entry-level prices as low as £5,000 – with no annual tax, and low servicing charges to boot. What’s more, driving costs are a fraction of the cost of petrol, without even mentioning the enormous benefit to the environment, especially in cities.
So why aren’t we all switching over? The knee-jerk response is now about charging times, for city dwellers like me without the luxury of a drive or garage. Who in their right mind is going to spend half an hour queuing for a charge point, then sit there for an hour or so while it fills up? Or faff around finding the only on-street overnight charge point available, then walk home in the rain for half an hour? It’s not going to happen.
The correct response is that the climate crisis means we will have to live without the hyper-convenience we became accustomed to. If the average journey is just 10 miles, why not take the bus or use an e-bike? And if you must insist on a private car, is a 10- or 15-minute walk to a charging point really such a sacrifice to save the environment?
The growing adoption of electric vehicles could pave the way for an 80mph speed limit on UK motorways.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has suggested initial concerns over the extra pollution caused by increased speeds should be revisited, as zero-emission vehicles start to become commonplace.
But the RAC says motorway speed limits are “fundamentally an issue of safety” and an increase should only be considered if “compelling evidence” could guarantee that.
Hyundai IONIQ Electric 2020 (Image: Hyundai)
When last considered by the Government in 2011, an independent climate change committee warned that an 80mph speed limit would generate an extra 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
Mr Shapps said: “When it was looked at in 2011, it was thought the carbon emission addition would be too great… I think there is an argument that once you have increased the level of electrification and therefore decreased or entirely removed carbon, that you might look at those things again.”
Registrations of fully electric vehicles were up from 880 in July 2018 to 2,271 in July 2019, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). However, EVs still only account for 1% of all new vehicles registered in the UK.
The Transport Secretary told Conservatives that, as the owner of an electric vehicle himself, he has given the issue thought and sought advice on the subject.
His comments come during the same week he suggested the deadline for a ban on the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars, should brought forward from 2040 to 2035.
Mr Shapps added: “I think there is an argument for looking at our speed limits, both in terms of higher speed limits and actually lower limits – 20mph outside of schools.”
A recent report commissioned by the Department for Transport found that increasing the speed limit from 40 to 50mph for heavy goods vehicles has saved businesses millions of pounds and freed up thousands of driving hours.
The chief executive of Highways England, Jim O’Sullivan, said
“parts of the network could already operate with an 80mph limit, but such a move was being held back by public opinion.”
Early adopter of electric power has been refined rather than reinvented
What is it?
Like many French models, Zoe was at the cutting edge of fashion when she burst onto the scene in 2012. There weren’t many similar models doing what she did, and she quickly gained popularity with her convivial, easy-going nature and quietly subtle style.
But times change and, in the past few years, plenty of younger models have caught onto the trend Zoe helped to start – and while those models brought attention to her and increased her popularity, Zoe was starting to risk looking a little behind the times.
2020 Renault Zoe (Image: Renault)
Renault has already given Zoe a few nips and tucks, but has now treated her to a full makeover, and she’s emerged revitalised, refreshed and ready to prove that she still has what it takes against some trendy young upstarts.
We’ll end the tortured fashion/car analogy there, in order to focus on the changes Renault has made to what it calls the third-generation of its Zoe electric hatch, which is built on a reworked version of the same basic platform as the original. The exterior design has been refreshed, with new lines, a bigger, bolder Renault logo (which hides the charging ports), a new front bumper and new standard LED lights. The appearance is a little more stylish, and closely tied to the recently launched Clio.
More has changed inside the car, with a refreshed interior that feels a big step forward from the previous model. There’s a 10in digital instrument display as standard, customisable lighting and a revamped dashboard centred on an infotainment touchscreen (up to 9.3in in size) featuring the latest version of Renault’s Easy Link system. The perceived quality is an improvement, and the mix of physical buttons and the touchscreen makes the car pleasingly easy to operate.
Renault claims the soundproofing has also been substantially improved, and while some road noise did permeate at high speeds, the car does offer the quiet, engine-noise-free cruising many EV buyers enjoy.
More significant is the work Renault has done under the skin, with an upgraded battery and a new motor giving the Zoe more power and more range. The battery is 52kWh, compared with the previous Zoe’s 41kWh version, giving a range of up to 245 miles on the WLTP test cycle – which the firm claims is 32% more than the previous model.
