More than 40 4x4s were targeted in the dead of night in Primrose Hill, Kensington and Chelsea, Dulwich, and Notting Hill by a group calling themselves The Tyre Extinguishers.
The group declared they want SUVs banned in urban areas, pollution levies to tax SUVs out of existence and investment in public transport.
London Climate March – the Rally (Image: T. Larkum)
SUVs have already been “disarmed” in Paris, Bristol, Bordeaux, Glasgow, New Jersey and now London where Last Gasp vowed to make it “impossible to own one”, Extinction Rebellion claimed on Twitter.
In a manifesto on their website, The Tyre Extinguishers said the vehicles “exist purely for the vanity of their owners, who see them as a status symbol” and “SUV drivers tend to be richer and therefore tend to be white”.
A Dulwich Society spokesperson, a community group representing the leafy south London neighbourhood, said: “Several cars were vandalised in Dulwich last night with tyres deflated and this poster left on windscreens.
“We are environmentally friendly but this is not who we are as a community.”
Andy Meyer, a councillor for the City of London, called the activists “narcissists”.
He added: “Vandalising vehicles that may include doctors on call. Just pathetic and dangerous.”
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CAR BUYERS in the UK have purchased the second highest number of EVs in the world – second only to China.
The staggering rise in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) purchased by Britons was underlined by new figures showing the UK second only to China in the amount of battery-powered cars bought in the past ten years. The research by experts at PartCatalog showed there were more than 1.75million EVs sold in Britain since 2010.
It also showed that between 2015 and 2020, yearly sales of electric cars have increased a massive 444 percent globally, going from around 500,000 sales to just shy of three million per year over the five years.
Nissan Ariya EV SUV (Image: Nissan)
China leads the world in EV uptake with more than 4.5million cars sold over the past decade.
The country also manufactures more EVs than anyone else, with even US-based Tesla making more cars in Shanghai than they do in California.
But the UK is runner-up and way ahead of countries like Germany, the USA and France.
Even traditionally early technology adopters like Japan are way down the table.
Both China and the UK have seen their Governments hand large subsidies and grants to buyers to tempt them into buying electric vehicles, which is likely to be an influence on the amount sold.
However the Government here will shortly scrap the £350 grant for installing a home charger and last month lowered the grant for buying an EV from £2,500 to £1,500.
It was originally £5,000 when initially introduced but has been reduced every year since.
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A large cargo vessel carrying cars has sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, thirteen days after a fire broke out on board.
The ship’s manager and Portuguese navy confirmed on Tuesday that the Felicity Ace sank around 400 kilometres off the Azores.
The Panama-flagged vessel was being towed after a salvage team had extinguished the fire, MOL Ship Management in Singapore said in a statement.
The view from our hotel window in Falmouth, ZOE in foreground (Image: T. Larkum)
The 200-metre-long vessel had been sailing from Germany to the United States before it caught fire last month. Portugal’s Air Force had evacuated the 22 crew members, before letting the ship drift for several days in the mid-Atlantic.
Ocean-going tugboats with firefighting equipment had been hosing down the ship’s hull to cool it.
It was not clear how many luxury cars were onboard, but vessels of the Felicity Ace’s size can carry at least 4,000 vehicles.The ship was transporting electric and non-electric vehicles, according to Portuguese authorities.
Authorities suspect the fire may have broken out due to the lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, but an investigation into the cause of the blaze is still underway.
The Portuguese navy confirmed the sinking of the Felicity Ace, saying it occurred outside Portuguese waters.
There were also concerns that the sunken vessel could pollute the ocean, given that it had been carrying 2,000 metric tons of both fuel and oil.
The Portuguese navy said in a statement that only a few pieces of wreckage and a small patch of oil was visible where the ship went down. The tugboats were breaking up the patch with hoses, it added.
A Portuguese Air Force plane and a Portuguese navy vessel will remain at the scene on the lookout for signs of pollution.
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A new solar-powered hub could charge up to 100 electric vehicles a day, according to the authority behind it.
The hub is opening in the car park of Gamston Community Centre in Nottinghamshire.
Rushcliffe Borough Council said the facility formed part of its carbon management plan and would, in time, largely be powered by natural light.
It said electric and hybrid users would be able to charge their vehicles up to 80% in 30 minutes.
‘Greener transport’
The facility will add to the council’s network of sites in Keyworth, Radcliffe on Trent, Cotgrave and Rushcliffe Arena in West Bridgford, the authority said.
Solar Charge Points charging electric cars (Image: T. Larkum)
The council’s portfolio holder for communities and climate change Abby Brennan said: “The charging point is an essential part of our work to… help reduce the environmental impact of our operations.
“As a council, we’re committed to installing more electric vehicle charging points across the borough.
“This will continue to encourage the use of electric or hybrid vehicles, as the infrastructure to support them becomes even more convenient and available to residents.”
The council’s portfolio holder for environment and safety Rob Inglis said: “We’re once again thrilled to bring more public electric charging points to Rushcliffe by providing this new solar-powered facility in Gamston and just yards from one of our major road routes.
“This infrastructure will continue to support residents to make the switch to greener transport and complement our existing sites with more to come later this year.”
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Electric cars could help to power millions of households in the coming years, simply by harnessing their battery power. The electricity in the vehicle’s battery could be plugged back into the grid, instead of being stored. The technique was pioneered in Japan and our research will help understand how best to use it in the UK.
Many electric vehicles (EVs) are being produced with the ability to use their onboard battery to send power back to the electricity supply they are connected to. Whether that is the owner’s house, or the electricity grid more generally, these technologies have been led by governments and electric car manufacturers mainly in order to balance the demand on the power transmission network, or grid.
The ability to use these huge connected batteries complies with the future management and provision of cleaner grids – instead of burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, we should harness clean renewable sources such as wind and solar when abundant, and store the electricity in batteries for when not. So by charging electrical vehicles from renewable sources, we can lower our greenhouse emissions.
BMW iX3
The plan sounds great, but is made tricky because electricity is difficult to store. But we already store huge amounts of electricity – in our cars. With around 1% of the UK’s 27 million households currently owning an EV, each with an average 60kWh battery, these 300,000 EVs could store an incredible 18GWh of electricity which could usefully be used to power houses. That’s more than the Dinorwig pumped storage plant in Snowdonia, the UK’s biggest storage facility, which stores around 9GWh.
By 2030, the UK could have almost 11 million electric vehicles on the road. Assuming 50% of these vehicles were able to feed unused energy back into the grid, this would open up opportunities to power 5.5 million households.
How do we make it happen?
In order to allow cars to power the grid on a technical level, three things need to happen. First, a two-way transfer of power from the car to its charging point should be made possible. This system is known as vehicle-to-grid and was first introduced in Japan after the Fukushima disaster and the following power shortage.
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With running-cost savings available, motorists are increasingly keen to go green
As some petrol stations ran out of fuel and queues of cars lined up outside those that did have stocks, causing lengthy waits for motorists waiting to fill up, many drivers’ thoughts turned to the option of buying an electric vehicle.
The classified ad website Autotrader says there was a 60% rise in searches for electric cars in the week after 24 September, when shortages at the pumps started. Industry figures show that the number of electric cars sold in the UK last month neared the figures for the whole of 2019.
Seán Kemple of Close Brothers Motor Finance, which offers car loans through dealerships, said the recent fuel shortages may act as a catalyst for some drivers to switch over sooner than planned. “With demand for electric vehicles already growing rapidly this year, the fuel shortages will have certainly further raised awareness for consumers of the benefits of owning an EV,” he said.
In the past, many drivers have been turned off by the upfront cost, which is typically higher than petrol equivalents. But with the price of production falling and battery prices coming down, switching is becoming more accessible. So is now the time to go electric?
The upfront cost
Although the cost of producing an electric car is decreasing, the price of an EV is still more than its petrol equivalent, a situation which is expected to continue for the next five years.
The insurer LV= compared similar models of electric and petrol vehicles, with the EVs coming out more expensive. For instance, it found that a Nissan Leaf cost just under £27,995, more than £5,000 more than a petrol Ford Focus; while the electric Tesla Model 3 cost almost £40,990, compared with £39,625 for a petrol BMW 320i.
There are options for those who do not have the money to buy outright and do not want to take out a loan. Many buyers will choose to lease their cars. This means the driver pays a monthly fee for a number of years, after which they hand back the car or take a newer model and start another contract.
Charging with an Ohme smart charging cable
DriveElectric, a leasing company in Buckinghamshire, says most customers lease for between two and four years and get a newer model at the end of the term. A Nissan Leaf can cost from £200 a month on a four-year contract with the firm.
Monique Furniss from Rotherham-based Norton Finance said this option appealed to people who wanted to have the most up-to-date vehicle. “Since electric vehicle technology is developing at such a rapid rate, people who are interested in enjoying the environmental and financial benefits of an electric car are more likely to want the newest and therefore most advanced cars,” she said.
Alternatively, drivers can also now get EVs on a renewable monthly basis with everything included, giving them the opportunity of trying them out without committing to buying or a lengthy lease. Onto has contracts that automatically renew each month unless you cancel and has a Renault Zoe ZE50 on its books for £389 a month for a maximum of 1,000 miles with insurance, charging and maintenance included. Onto says there is no upfront deposit on the vehicles, but additional mileage above the monthly limit must be paid for, as well as delivery and collection fees. Elmo meanwhile has the same car from £379 a month with a limit of 800 miles. It costs £397.78 for 1,000 miles and £416.55 for 1,200 miles.
Melanie Shufflebotham, the co-founder of the Zap-Map website and app, which helps drivers find charging points, said the subscription model was a good way to test an EV for the first time.
If you would rather buy outright, the government offers a grant for the initial purchase of qualifying vehicles, although it is not as generous as it was. The plug-in vehicle grant gives you up to £2,500 off the price of a brand new qualifying car as long as it costs less than £35,000.
Running Costs
Although the headline price of an EV is higher than its petrol equivalent, the day-to-day cost of driving the car should be lower. The LV= survey found that the switch away from filling up offers the biggest saving, with EV drivers with an annual mileage of 12,000 saving more than £900 a year.
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Proposal by Great Britain’s regulator is to help make the switch from fossil fuel cars more affordable
Ofgem plans to make it easier for electric vehicle drivers to sell the energy stored in their car batteries back to power grid as part of a move to help make the switch away from fossil fuel cars more affordable.
Under the plan put forward by Great Britain’s energy regulator, electric vehicle drivers could earn money by effectively transforming their cars into mobile power plants by releasing power back to the energy network when demand on the electricity grid reaches a peak.
If enough drivers take up the chance to make money from their car batteries by using vehicle-to-grid technology, the UK could avoid investing in new power plants with the equivalent generation capacity of up to 10 large nuclear power stations.
This could help to keep energy bills lower, even for households in Great Britain that do not own an electric vehicle, according to Ofgem.
The number of electric vehicles on UK roads is expected to accelerate to an estimated 14m by 2030, requiring billions in investment to upgrade the electricity grid, but Ofgem hopes that by changing its grid rules it could unlock big savings for the energy system and consumer bills. There were about 535,000 electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, on UK roads at the end of May 2021.
Great Britain’s regulator plans to make it cheaper for charging stations to connect to the electricity grid, which should enable more drivers to have access to charge points where they need them.
Ofgem will also encourage “smart” car charging to make better use of electricity when demand is low and power is cheap before releasing the cheap energy back to the grid using vehicle-to-grid technology when demand rises.
Neil Kenward, a director at Ofgem, said the regulator would take a “three-prong approach” by increasing the use of electric vehicles, “smart” car charging and vehicle-to-grid technology “which together can help drive down costs for all GB bill payers”.
He said: “Electric vehicles will revolutionise the way we use energy and provide consumers with new opportunities, through smart products, to engage in the energy market to keep their costs as low as possible.”
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Region has fastest-growing network with number of electric vehicles in Coventry alone tripling in three years
The West Midlands has overtaken London as the region with the fastest-growing network of electric car chargers, thanks to a push by Coventry to rapidly move away from petrol and diesel cars.
The number of electric car chargers in the West Midlands rose by a fifth between April and July, according to data from Zap-Map and the Department for Transport. That compared with growth of 12.6% in the east of England.
London still attracted the most new charge points in absolute terms, with 309 additions, but the West Midlands, which has a much smaller population, was close behind, with 272.
The Climate Change Committee in June described improving the UK’s charging network as a priority for the government before the 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel engines. It said the government should aim for about 150,000 public charge points operating by 2025, “widely available across all regions of the UK”. However, London – with 13% of the population – still accounts for 31% of public chargers as charging companies cater for its wealthier citizens.
Ubitricity Electric Avenue project lamppost charging (Image: Siemens)
The UK had 24,400 public chargers in July, up from 15,000 in October 2019 when the DfT first started publishing comparable data. The chargers already outnumber the country’s 8,400 filling stations. However, the 7% quarterly growth rate between April and July would barely get the UK even a third of the way towards the CCC’s 2025 target.
Coventry has mostly used government funding to install chargers, with a quarter of the investment coming from private charge-point operators, who expect to make back their money in about seven years. It is part of a programme to embrace electric vehicles that also includes hosting the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre and securing preemptive planning permission for a “gigafactory” to build electric car batteries.
Shamala Evans-Gadgil, the programme manager in Coventry city council’s transport and innovation department, said she hoped their model for improving charger networks could show the way for the rest of the country. “We know that the ban is coming. We know that the infrastructure is necessary. It can’t just be Coventry. It needs to be across the board.”
The number of electric cars registered in the city has almost tripled to more than 1,000 in the past three years as the charging infrastructure has been rolled out. During 2021, the usage of chargers has also increased rapidly, Evans-Gadgil said.
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With electrified cars now coming in all shapes and sizes – and available to suit every budget – we’ve named the best models in every class. Here we look at the best used electric small car…
If you want a small electric vehicle (EV) but your budget is limited, the answer, of course, is to buy a used one. But even then, a lot of them are beyond the pocket of the average motorist.
That’s where the Renault Zoe scores. You see, the Zoe is one of the older EVs on the market now, and it really does bring zero-emissions motoring within the reach of the masses; you can pick up an early example for as little as £6000.
Renault ZOE 2020 (Image: Renault.com)
Admittedly, those earlier Zoes with the 22kWh battery and 88bhp motor had pretty modest ranges, but later models with a 41kWh battery upped the official range to 186 miles – a very respectable figure – and these can now be had from around £12,000. A major facelift in 2020 brought a further increase in official range to between 238 and 245 miles.
Whether you buy an older or newer Zoe, what you’ll get is a small hatchback that’s smooth and easy to drive, and if you go for our preferred version, the later ZE40 R110, it’s nippy as well. Ride comfort is also good, with broken urban surfaces absorbed effectively.
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When Henry Ford started to build his first car assembly line, horse dung was still littering the streets. What he invented in 1913 was not a new technology. Ford understood that mass production would mean the end of cars as a luxury item. 10 years on, motor cars had become accessible to most working people in the US. With the European Commission proposing to go to 100% zero emission cars sales from 2035, flanked by a 55% CO2 cut for new cars in 2030, we are about to witness another Henry Ford moment. This time in Europe – and with electric cars.
To meet our climate goals and be at zero in 2050, the last new car (or van) with any CO2 emitting engine – be it gas, diesel or hybrid – should be sold no later than 2035. But it is not just a climate essential, it is an industrial necessity too. Major economies such as the UK and Canada and even large carmakers such as VW all plan to go 100% electric by that date. The EU cannot afford to lag behind in this global race to zero emissions, and the current proposal will ensure all EU member states and carmakers transition on time.
The trajectory to get there matters. The 55% CO2 target means half of cars sold in 2030 across the EU will be battery electric (less if some of them are hybrids). This is considerably less than the two-thirds battery electric sales needed to be on a cost-effective path to full electric by 2035. Many current loopholes remain, such as CO2 credits for things like efficient lights or more lenient targets for heavier cars. So while better than the current target, the 55% goal will be less than that in reality.
Ford Mustang Mach-E (Image: Ford.co.uk)
On costs and volumes…
Produced in small numbers – just enough to allow car makers meet the CO2 targets until now – electric cars are still expensive. Carmakers need to move to mass production to drive costs down, just as Henry Ford did with petrol cars at the beginning of the last century. Except the conveyor belts of the 1910s have been replaced by platforms dedicated to EVs and battery gigafactories. Analysis shows that if we continue to ramp up electric car volumes, these will be cheaper to buy than petrol in just six years time.
That requires increasing the CO2 targets from 2025 onwards – not only in 2030 – to make them accessible and affordable to all Europeans from Porto to Poznań. Regrettably the Commission has only increased the 2030 target, meaning little progress in the next 9 years. Higher retail prices, slower uptake of charging infrastructure, and worse, supply from outside Europe will dominate if domestic supply is insufficient.
Some electric cars are more equal than others
But what electric cars will Europeans buy? We have the real deal: battery electric. And we have a transitional solution: plug-in hybrids, that in reality are driven on a petrol engine most of the time but tout low CO2 emissions on paper. Europe is where most of these “fake electrics” are sold today because they offer easy compliance with the current CO2 standards.
By not reforming the way credits are given to plug-in hybrid cars until 2030, the Commission has decided to continue over-rewarding them for another decade – way longer than their transitional status justifies. This is not just a question of climate credibility as many emit 3-4 times their official CO2 results, but also brings into question our regulatory standing. Europe is still living the aftermath of the Dieselgate emissions scandal with major carmakers still being fined for colluding to delay cleaner vehicles. There is no place for fake climate solutions: that means no hybrids after 2035, and no bad hybrids already today.
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