Category Archives: Charging

Nissan Leaf gets approval for vehicle-to-grid use in Germany

November 3, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, V2GRepost

So-called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is a connection between the EV and the grid through which power can flow from the grid to the vehicle and vice-versa. That potentially enables car owners to sell energy to the network, while utilities could use electric cars as a backstop if demand rises.

Nissan said it would initially target corporate clients with fleets of more than 60 electric vehicles, adding that services based on V2G technology would be offered in Germany from next year onwards.

There will be 280 million electric vehicles by 2040, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency, compared with more than 3 million last year.

“We strongly believe in an emission-free future,” Guillaume Pelletreau, Vice President and Managing Director, Nissan Center Europe, said. “Leaf batteries could make an important contribution to energy transition in Germany and a sustainable future.”

Electric vehicle chargers could offer £6 billion opportunity to 2040 across shops, workplaces and motorways

November 2, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

An investment opportunity of up to £6 billion is available to 2040 owing to the need for millions of electric vehicle chargers at workplaces, shops and motorway services, according to a report out this week.

Released by Aurora Energy Research and supported by Eaton, NatWest, Lombard and the Renewable Energy Association, the study states the number of chargers needed at commercial and industrial (C&I) units could hit 3 million.

This would occur under a high deployment scenario with 35 million EVs on the road in Great Britain, as demand for charging facilities away from the residential sector increase.

Demand for these would be spread across fleet vans, workplace commuters, pubic car parks, and motorway stops, requiring between £2 billion to £6 billion of investment to fund the total cost of equipment and installation.

Dr. Felix Chow-Kambitsch, head of flexible energy and battery storage at Aurora said:

“High electric vehicle deployment over the next twenty years will radically transform Great Britain’s energy system, stimulating innovation through a shift to ‘smart’, increasing flexibility and enhancing the role of renewables in the energy mix.

“Commercial and Industrial ‘smart’ charging has a key role to play in meeting high levels of consumer ‘away-from-home’ EV charging demand and represents an exciting development for the whole energy industry.”

Response to BEIS Committee report on electric vehicles

November 1, 2018BP Chargemaster, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

Following the release of the Commons’ Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS) report into the future of electric vehicles published today, a number of interested parties have responded.

On the whole, the response has been positive, with the main criticism being that the government needs to be doing a lot more now to boost the roll-out of charging points. One dissenting voice comes from SMMT.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive:

“Government’s 2040 ambition was already extremely challenging, so to fast-track that by eight years would be nigh on impossible. We said we need world class infrastructure and world class incentives to have any chance of delivering so the recent cuts to the Plug-in Car Grant and lack of charging facilities – both of which are severely criticised by the Committee – show just how difficult it would be to accelerate this transition.

“Zero emission vehicles make up just 0.6% of the market meaning consumer appetite would have to grow by some 17,000% in just over a decade. This is unrealistic and rejects the evidence put forward by SMMT on behalf of the industry, which is investing billions into these technologies but which recognises consumers need greater confidence and support if they are to buy these vehicles in the numbers we all want.”

David Martell, Chief Executive of BP Chargemaster, said:

“We welcomed the invitation from the BEIS committee to present evidence to its enquiry and we are pleased to see many of our concerns are addressed in its findings.

“The largest factor limiting the growth of the UK EV market today is the number of electric cars physically available. There is probably sufficient demand for around 100,000 new EV registrations in 2018, but that number is likely to be around 60,000 due to supply constraints.

“In terms of charging infrastructure, while the committee endorses the provisions in the Automated and Electric Vehicle Act 2018 to ‘ensure interoperability’, it ignores the fact that this ease of access already exists thanks to the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017, which mandate ‘ad hoc’, pay-as-you-go access to all public charging points – so the aim of interoperability has already been achieved with existing legislation.

“The committee’s finding that EV charging infrastructure is ‘not fit for purpose’ does not correlate with the overall customer experience and appears to be based on outdated information, and figures relating only to publicly-funded charging points, ignoring the fact that the majority of new infrastructure is being privately-funded. BP Chargemaster will continue to expand its affordable, reliable and convenient charging network over the coming years, to make driving an EV as easy as possible.”

BVRLA Chief Executive Gerry Keaney said:

“The Government’s electric vehicle strategy needs to move from one based on visions to one based on actions. If India, China and Scotland feel able to set a target of banning new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032, then the UK should be brave enough to meet that challenge as well…”

BP to roll-out electric chargers widely over next 12 months

October 14, 2018BP Chargemaster, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

BP customers in the UK can expect to access BP Chargemaster chargers rolling out at scale on forecourts over the next 12 months, on both company owned and dealer channels.

David Newton, chief operating officer at BP Chargemaster, told delegates at this week’s Forecourt Trader Electric Track Day that the company’s aim was to manage the energy transition and changing customer demand by supporting opportunities for customers to reduce their emissions.

“BP Chargemaster and BP believe that to accelerate the adoption of EVs, customers will require convenient access to fast and ultra-fast charging,” he said. “And we believe our retail network is well positioned to provide this access.”

Chargemaster Rapid Chargers next to Milton Keynes Central railway station parking (Image: T. Larkum)

He warned the move to electric mobility was a significant challenge and potentially a threat to the existing forecourt business, and needed careful thought by the industry as to how it would be achieved.

“Collaboration is key,” he said. “We will work pro-actively with the independent dealer community to develop mutually beneficial offers and propositions which will meet consumer demand – for now, and for the future.”

BMW says EV owners can turn i3 into ‘cash cow’, use more solar power

October 1, 2018BMW, Charging, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, i3, i3 94Ah, News, Reviews and Comment, Solar PowerRepost

Over the past 3 years, BMW has been running a trial of its ‘ChargeForward’ program with BMW i3 owners willing to automatically delay the charging of their vehicle at the request of their local electric utility, PG&E, in order to offset peak demand.

BMW is presenting the results of the trial and says that electric car owners can turn i3 into ‘cash cow’ and use more solar power with controllable load technology

The idea is quite simple. Under the program, PG&E can request BMW to delay the charging sessions of BMW i3 owners by up to an hour in order to reduce the load.

Instead, the owners are incentivized to charge for cheaper when renewable energy production is higher.

In return, owners are compensated for the possible inconvenience. For the first trial run, owners received a $1,000 “gift card” at the launch of the program and they were able to get up to $540 more based on how their charging sessions were affected. BMW is actually reducing the rewards for the second round, presumably because they realized that it was a lot of money for what they were asking of the i3 owners.

It’s important to note that owners can easily temporarily opt out of the program before starting a charging session if they absolutely need to charge. But if your car needs to charge, but it’s not urgent, you plug it in and if PG&E needs to offset demand, they will delay it and your car will take up to one more hour to charge.

Electric cars to become main form of mobility in few years

September 29, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

BONN – Electric vehicles will be the main form of mobility in the coming years, and the challenge of making smart charging technology using weather conditions is becoming increasingly pressing, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) officials told reporters on the sidelines of its Innovation Week in Bonn.

“Electric mobility will become the main form of mobility in some 7-8 years,” Adnan Amin, IRENA director-general, said.

About 4 million electric vehicles are out in the world at the moment, Dolf Gielen, director of IRENA innovation and technology center, said at a briefing .

“That is about half a percent of the global vehicles stock, so it’s still a relatively small percentage, but it’s growing very rapidly,” Gielen said.

According to Amin, the number of electric vehicles grew by 77 percent last year.

“In a country like Norway, the majority of car sales is electric at this moment. That’s going to have a very significant effect on the transport sector of course, on the gasoline demand, but also it opens up new opportunities to integrate more renewables,” Gielen said.

Smart charging, which employs renewable energy, such as sunlight or wind, could be one of these opportunities.

Read mmore: IOL.za

Scottish government pledges to roll out 1,500 electric vehicle chargers

September 23, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The Scottish government is to invest £15 million in the deployment of 1,500 electric vehicle (EV) charge points across homes, businesses and the public network under plans outlined officially today (4 September 2018).

First minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled her Programme for Government this afternoon, which included measures designed to ensure Scotland reaches its 2032 target of phasing out petrol and diesel cars.

The new investment will fund 150 publically available EV chargers which could be located across the 356 fire stations in Scotland under plans being considered by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). The emergency service is also planning to introduce up to 100 ultra-low emission plug-in vehicles to its light fleet.

The remaining chargers will be set for private locations and communities. The EV push will see the launch of ‘Plugged-In Households’, intended to widen access to electric vehicles for communities, including through housing associations and car clubs.

“In last year’s Programme for Government we committed to remove the need for petrol and diesel cars and vans on Scotland’s roads by 2032. Electrifying the road network and transforming the way we travel is vital to reducing our carbon emission, tackling climate change and improving air quality,” Sturgeon said.

“This year we want to go further still, and through the package of support we’re announcing in this year’s Programme for Government, as well as our continued investment of £1 billion a year in low carbon and public transport, more people will be able to play their part in putting Scotland at the forefront of low carbon travel.”

Holyrood will also be more than doubling the Low Carbon Transport Loan Fund from £8 million to £20 million to enable more businesses and consumers to switch to EVs. To date the scheme has supported around 500 ULEV purchases; with another 450 forecast to be supported in 2018-19 with this increased funding.

More than 500 ultra low emission vehicles will also be added to public sector fleets, while a ‘Switched on Taxis’ initiative will be established to include a new fund for electrifying taxi ranks.

Could EVs Be the Secret to a 100% Renewable Grid?

September 13, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

It is possible to unlock a 100 percent renewably powered grid — without any coal, nuclear or gas storage baseload — within the next several years.

And any driver or homeowner could contribute to the solution by using electric vehicles (EVs) as mobile batteries that charge at one location when there’s a surge of renewable energy and deliver it back to the grid at another when it’s needed.

The storage potential of EVs is striking. Aggregating energy across one million EVs amounts to 50 to 100 GWh of storage capacity, according to industry analysts Brattle Group. Putting that into perspective, Tesla’s “big battery” in South Australia, currently the largest battery in the world, stores less than 1GWh.

With electric cars storing and transporting renewable power, we wouldn’t need to continue building expensive storage infrastructure. For utilities, this vast mobile power source could be a savior — or their downfall.

Batteries on wheels

EVs have more capacity than they need on a daily basis: The average daily car trip in the U.S. is about 30 miles, while most EVs have a range of 124 to 310 miles. Current base model vehicles with a 186.4-mile range on a 60 kW battery pack could run a typical house, including air conditioning, for four to five days. And despite some car owners’ concerns, discharging the battery won’t cause noticeable wear, because a typical battery’s life is longer than the lifetime of a vehicle.

Using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which allows vehicle batteries to store surplus energy from intermittent renewable resources like solar and wind, EV owners could power their homes with energy stored in car batteries or sell it back to utilities, balancing fluctuations in energy demand. Using real-time rates, utilities could encourage EV owners to charge up during the day, when there is excess (and therefore cheap) solar energy, and sell back to the grid during times of high demand.

Portsmouth City Council to roll out street light charging for electric vehicles

September 12, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UbitricityTrevor Larkum

Portsmouth City Council has become the latest local authority to take up street light charging as part of its electric vehicle infrastructure plans, which will see around 50 new charge points installed over the next few months.

Working with German firm ubitricity, the council has plans to roll-out the technology on 34 roads identified via resident requests, which determined where the chargers were needed most in residential areas across the city.

Those who requested a charge point will now be contacted by the council so the installation process can begin, although the initially selected locations may change subject to further consultation.

The three year trial will see ubitricity utilise the electricity provided by street light columns to charge EVs on a pay-as-you-go basis. Charging areas will be identifiable by a shared-use socket and a marked ‘electric vehicle charging’ bay.

Like London where street light chargers are also being installed, the solution has been selected to overcome the challenges presented by the lack of off-street parking for residents in the built-up city.

Myths And Shibboleths About Electric Vehicles: The Long Tailpipe Theory

September 5, 2018Charging, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, PollutionTrevor Larkum

One of the most frequent comments spouted by critics of electric vehicles is “the electricity they use is produced by fossil fuels, so actually they’re more polluting than petrol or diesel vehicles.” The long tailpipe theory, repeatedly trashed by science, is still the fallback argument for the ill-informed.

Where does it come from? The two main sources of air pollution are vehicles with diesel or gasoline engines and electricity generated by coal or diesel oil. Since many countries still generate electricity in this way, the argument goes that electric vehicles are simply transferring the pollution from our exhaust pipe to the chimney of a power station.

Is that true? No. The first reason is obvious: not all electricity is produced by coal and diesel power plants. More and more countries are using sustainable generation such as hydroelectric, wind, solar or other renewables, while at the same time, we are seeing an increase in distributed generation infrastructures such as solar panels in homes. Therefore, even if all we were doing was transferring pollution from one point to another, in the vast majority of countries a certain part of that electricity would come from clean sources.

In fossil fuel vehicles, this is not the case: everything it produces comes from where it comes from, and anybody with a minimum of environmental awareness should be ashamed every time they get behind the wheel.