Category Archives: Electric Cars

News and reviews of the latest electric cars (full electrics and plug-in hybrids).

When Will Electric Cars Go Mainstream? It May Be Sooner Than You Think

August 2, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

As the world’s automakers place larger bets on electric vehicle technology, many industry analysts are debating a key question: How quickly can plug-in cars become mainstream?

The conventional view holds that electric cars will remain a niche product for many years, plagued by high sticker prices and heavily dependent on government subsidies.

But a growing number of analysts now argue that this pessimism is becoming outdated. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research group, suggests that the price of plug-in cars is falling much faster than expected, spurred by cheaper batteries and aggressive policies promoting zero-emission vehicles in China and Europe.

Between 2025 and 2030, the group predicts, plug-in vehicles will become cost competitive with traditional petroleum-powered cars, even without subsidies and even before taking fuel savings into account. Once that happens, mass adoption should quickly follow.

“Our forecast doesn’t hinge on countries adopting stringent new fuel standards or climate policies,”

said Colin McKerracher, the head of advanced transport analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“It’s an economic analysis, looking at what happens when the upfront cost of electric vehicles reaches parity. That’s when the real shift occurs.”

If that prediction pans out, it will have enormous consequences for the auto industry, oil markets and the world’s efforts to slow global warming.

It’s a world of worry for oil companies

August 1, 2017Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, OilJo

Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson announced last week that all Volvo cars will be electric or hybrid within two years. The Chinese-owned automotive group plans to phase out the conventional car engine.

India hopes to sell only electric vehicles by 2030. China is offering incentives to buy electric cars and investing heavily in renewable technologies. Volvo will scrap the pure internal combustion engine in favor of hybrids and electric cars.

And on Thursday, France announced it plans to ban the sale of diesel and gasoline-fueled cars by 2040.

The world’s major oil companies might disagree when global demand for petroleum will peak, but the news of the past seven months suggests that they should be worried, if they aren’t already. Nations, states and private companies are demanding cleaner energy, leaving the world’s oil producers to face a reckoning that many haven’t yet accepted.

European companies, analysts say, are at the forefront of recognizing this new reality.

Royal Dutch Shell and the Norway’s Statoil foresee peak demand hitting by 2030; others, like the French oil major Total and the British company BP, predict 2040. In contrast, American companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil don’t foresee oil demand peaking anytime soon, if ever.

Even as U.S. demand wanes with more efficient cars and changing commuting patterns, companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil are banking on the rising middle classes of China, India and other emerging nations to buy more cars, demand more consumer goods and suck up the juice that the companies sell.

But recent developments show they may be disappointed. In January, China, already offering incentives for electric vehicles, said it would spend $360 billion on renewable energy. That news was followed by India setting an ambitious goal of electric-only car sales in a little more than a decade.

Around the world, more car manufacturers are offering electric-only models. Last week, Volvo became the first company to plan a complete phase-out of traditional cars.

To be sure, Volvo’s goal of 1 million electric vehicles by 2025 would only cut 20,000 barrels a day in gasoline demand, and it will likely be years beyond that for electric vehicles to make big impact on global petroleum consumption.

The Germans are Coming!

August 1, 2017Blog, e-Golf, e-Up, Electric Cars, EVEC, Golf GTE, Milton Keynes, Passat GTE, Sales, VolkswagenTrevor Larkum

Volkswagen e-Up charging outside the Experience Centre (Image: T. Larkum)

The biggest manufacturers of all-electric cars sold in Europe are Nissan with their Leaf in 1st place in terms of sales (and e-NV200 van in 5th), Tesla with their Model S in 2nd place, and Renault with their ZOE in 3rd place. These manufacturers are, of course, Japanese, American and French respectively. What is interesting is that there is only one German entrant in the top 5, BMW with their i3 at 4th place, despite the fact that German manufacturers dominate the European market for fossil-fuelled cars.

Volkswagen Passat GTE (Image: T. Larkum)

The Germans do make electric cars – Mercedes has the B Class Electric and Volkswagen has the e-Golf and e-Up – but they appear to make no effort to market them. Historically they have also had lacklustre range and high prices. The bottom line is that they haven’t sold in significant numbers.

German Plugin Hybrids (PHEVs)

Instead it seems that German manufacturers have decided that the plugin hybrid (PHEV) combining an electric drivetrain with a conventional petrol engine is what people want. Or at least they see it as an intermediate step towards full electrification. Considering PHEVs, the top 10 sales now include Mercedes with the C350e in 2nd place (after the Mitsubishi Outlander), the BMW 330e in 4th place and the Volkswagen Golf GTE at 6th place.

In fact, Volkswagen has arguably embraced PHEVs more than any other manufacture. They currently offer both of their two biggest selling cars, the Passat and the Golf, in PHEV form as the ‘GTE’. Both of them offer the ability to commute (up to about 20 miles) on electricity with the option of using petrol for longer distances – they also have pretty good 0-60 times too.

VW on the Rise

With these cars in the vanguard, and with the e-Up and newly improved e-Golf to come, Volkswagen may soon make significant inroads into plugin sales in the UK.

These were some of the thoughts that came to me looking at the row of EVs charging outside the Milton Keynes Electric Vehicle Experience Centre (EVEC). Of the eight cars, three were from Volkswagen (so nearly 40%). We ourselves are looking to start offering VW plugins soon, and I’m sure we’ll see VW as an EV brand on the rise from here on.

As ever, if you want to test drive any of the cars mentioned here just get in touch.

Will Tesla Model 3 be the breakthrough EV the world has been waiting for?

August 1, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaJo

Whatever you think about Tesla cars, you could never deny Elon Musk’s company of a lack of ambition. Here’s a car maker that has only been in business for a few years, building vehicles that many consider niche, and yet is currently valued more than Ford.

This is all the more amazing when you realise that Tesla has not made so much as one dollar’s worth of profit. In fact, it has made substantial losses despite selling more than 50,000 of its high cost electric cars in 2016.

Much of the reason for this industry-defying valuation is that the stock market reckons Tesla is a company very much in its ascendency. A good deal of that thinking is based on the launch of a third model, conveniently called Model 3.

Whereas Teslas to date have been expensive executive-rivalling machines for those early adopters and brand devotees, the Model 3 is a much more decisive addition. It’s set to be priced at less than £30,000 so it tackles the likes of the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 head-on.

Is the infrastructure in place to match Musk’s ambitions?

More importantly, this brings Tesla’s take on the EV slap-bang into the heart of territory presently occupied by the likes of the Audi A3, BMW 1 Series and Mercedes A-Class, as well as the pricier Volkswagen Golfs that so many of us love.

A practical EV with the lure of the Tesla badge and a battery range that means 300 miles between recharges is realistic makes the Model 3 a far more tempting proposition than any of its electric rivals. This is why the stock market is getting in a tizzy about Tesla.

As such, the Model 3 is definitely the breakthrough model in Tesla’s line-up. It’s the one that is set to take it from a small but interesting car maker into a global player, with Tesla theorising it will see annual production soar to 500,000 by the end of the decade.

These Countries Want to Ban All Vehicles That Run on Gas or Diesel

August 1, 2017Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentJo

If France’s Environment Minister has his way, the country could join a small but growing list of countries that plan to ban vehicles running on gasoline, diesel or other fossil fuels.

The proposal was announced late last week by Minister Nicolas Hulot and appeared timed to coincide with the G20 meeting in Germany where many European leaders, including new French President Emmanuel Macron, challenged U.S. President Donald Trump over his decision to walk away from the Paris Climate Accord.

Several countries have already laid out ambitious plans to eliminate fossil fuel-powered automobiles. Environment Minister Hulot said it won’t be easy for France, either.

“It’s a very difficult objective. But the solutions are there.”

And, as the world’s sixth-largest economy, and with one of the world’s largest automotive markets, the proposed ban on the internal combustion engine could have significant impact far beyond France’s borders.

Going Mainly Electric Within Six Years?

France has two major automakers based in Paris, both of which have made electrification key objectives. PSA Group — which owns the Peugeot and Citroen brands — plans to have 80 percent of its fleet electrified by 2023. Renault, along with its Japanese alliance partner Nissan, has produced more pure battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, than any other manufacturer over the past decade, including models such as the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe.

Sales of all battery-based vehicles dipped globally in 2016. In the U.S., for example, hybrids, plug-ins, and BEVs collectively accounted for barely 3 percent of the overall new vehicle market. But there have been signs of an upturn. Renault sold more of the battery-electric Zoe city cars during the first half of 2017 than it did all last year.
And the Renault-Nissan Alliance is expecting a major surge in demand for the Leaf with the remake due later this year. Like the recently launched Chevrolet Bolt EV and the upcoming Tesla Model 3, it will boost range to over 200 miles while keeping its price tag in the $30,000 range, the company has hinted.

In general, EV prices are expected to tumble sharply over the coming decade, even as range rapidly increases.

Europe, and France in particular, is already working to establish a network of public charging stations, making it easier to own and operate plug-based vehicles.

Government puts up £20m for electric vehicle-to-grid tech development

July 31, 2017Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedJo

Government has freed-up £20 million to help kickstart vehicle-to-grid (V2G) development. The aim is to work out how electric vehicles can help balance the electricity system.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (Olev) said money is available for three types of V2G projects:

feasibility studies – investigating the ways vehicle to grid technology can be used in the future
industrial research or experimental development – for example, to develop vehicle-to-grid charging equipment
demonstrator trials in the real-world environment – projects that trial vehicle to grid technology in different locations across the country.

There are currently around 100,000 EVs on UK roads. That number is expected to swell significantly over the coming years. Manufacturers such as Volvo have grabbed headlines in recent weeks with commitments to focus entirely on electric vehicles, Tesla is launching its first mass production model and even Rolls Royce, which produces some of the biggest and best combustion engines in the world, accepts that eventually, its future business will be electric. Meanwhile, France’s policymakers have outlined a goal to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040.

With battery costs continuing to fall, some analysts now believe the EV market is approaching a tipping point, and that battery powered cars will be “cheaper to buy than internal combustion engines in most countries by 2025-29”. That analysis does not take into account any fuel savings or subsidies that may be on offer.

In the UK, Beis is keen for carmakers and battery firms to collaborate on energy storage and services in order to help decarbonise both electricity and transport sectors. While the former sector has decarbonised significantly due to subsidy regimes, the latter appears to be in reverse gear.

“The ability to marry energy and automotive [goals] is a wonderful opportunity that would be crazy to separate and dilute,” secretary of state Greg Clark said recently.

“If you can create jobs in both sectors and simultaneously address problems that do not respect boundaries… that is a huge opportunity.”

Some carmakers are ahead of the curve. Nissan, second only to Jaguar Land Rover in the UK in terms of cars produced, told National Grid’s recent Power Responsive conference that it was becoming an energy services company.

Is a carmaker about to save the planet?

July 31, 2017Electric Cars, Opinion, VolvoJo

Volvo’s move to electric demonstrates the role ethical business can play in shaping our society for the better

think a lot about electric cars,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously said at a party at the very end of the 80s. “Do you think a lot about electric cars?” The problem with thinking a lot about electric cars is that certain things become impossible to unthink: powering a car with fossil fuels, meeting 21st-century challenges with 19th-century answers, become more than irresponsible. It becomes ridiculous.

You’ll never know when the tipping point is – it’s possibly as little as five minutes – but think enough about electric cars, especially if you’re a car manufacturer, and wham … you’re Volvo. They were rolling along perfectly happily until they thought too hard: about their business model and benefit to society; about climate change and their future customers; and so they made the decision that all their cars would be fully electric, or at least hybrid, by 2019. Not one car solely powered by internal combustion engine will come off a Volvo production line by 2020.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of this, and not because you are ever likely to buy a brand-new Volvo. If every branded car is a Veblen good – that is, something you want precisely because it is expensive, to flag to the world your ability to own it – then the Volvo is a peculiar inversion, the car you buy that looks less flash than it is, to show the world that you’re not the kind of person who shows off what they’ve bought. Nope, nobody here is buying a brand-new Volvo in 2019.

Yet this will instantly change the charging infrastructure for electric cars: there have already been pretty extraordinary advances in charge speed. You can fully charge an electric vehicle – one with a range of about 105 miles – in half an hour from a supercharger in a garage, which is the difference between being able to use an electric car in a normal way, and having to rebuild your life around it. However, there aren’t enough superchargers, in Europe or the US, and, maddeningly, a lot of the slower chargers – which take four to six hours – still call themselves “high speed” because that’s what they were when they were installed. Volvo will shunt progress forward worldwide on genuinely high-speed charging points, as well as battery production and research and development into battery storage.

Which are the best used electric and hybrid car buys?

July 30, 2017BMW, Electric Cars, i3, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanJo

As electric car sales rise, so does the number of them available on the used car market.

So the question is, which are the best used electric car buys available right now?

The first one is obvious – the BMW i3. This fantastically styled little hatchback is the embodiment of what we think of when someone says ‘electric car’. It has an exceptionally modern design that even four years on still looks futuristic, and the same can be said about the interior that is uber modern with its crisp design and light-coloured textiles and wood used throughout.

To buy one new today will set you back a minimum of £32,340 with a government grant of £4,500. However, search on the second-hand car market and you can pick yourself up a great deal.
According to research by valuation and provenance experts Cap HPI, a 2015 registration with just 20,000 miles on the clock can be bought for less than £14,650. Opt for the one with the range-extending three-cylinder petrol engine and you’ll pay from £18,400.

Another car on the list is the Nissan Leaf. This is an electric hatchback that has been with us for some years now but is still a very popular choice – much of which is down to its reliability and affordability.

A new top-spec Tekna variant of the Leaf will cost around the same as a BMW i3 with a few goodies, but second-hand and the savings are very impressive. A 2015 model can be had from £9,900, meaning electric cars can bought for an affordable price.

The third car on the list isn’t quite a fully electric vehicle, but the Toyota Prius is still a hybrid. Second-hand values are surprisingly strong, and have in fact risen slightly by 3.9 per cent.

The research shows that there are electric and hybrid models to suit most budgets out there, with used examples being excellent value for money when considering the savings on fuel over a 12-month period too.

Source: Aol.

Drivers would switch to an EV if charge points mandated at fuel stations

July 30, 2017Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

The availability and accessibility of charge points could overcome one of the “biggest barriers” to the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).

That’s according to the fleet industry and a Fleet News poll which revealed almost a third (29.2%) of drivers would make the switch to an EV if they were able to charge their car at the pumps.

A further one in five (22.2%) said they would consider choosing an EV, while one in 10 (9.9%) said they already drive a plug-in car.

The poll was conducted after the Government announced in the Queen’s Speech that it would introduce an Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill which will require the installation of charge points for EVs at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers.

The UK’s largest leasing company, Lex Autolease, welcomed the move.

“One of the biggest barriers to greater adoption of electric vehicles is range anxiety, so more charging points at petrol stations and motorway services will help to address that fear,”

said Chris Chandler, the firm’s principal consultant.

“The measures are a recognition of the need for pathway charging – essentially making it easier for electric vehicle drivers to get from one end of the country to the other, without worrying about their next charging point. This should broaden their appeal and open up the market for electric vehicles across the UK.”

Both Total and Shell had already confirmed their intention to install charge points at their stations, while earlier this year the head of BP Fuel Cards in the UK, Andy Allen, told Fleet News that charge points were a ‘logical step’ for the fuel giant.

Plug-In Vehicle Market Share In UK Hits New High Of 1.83% In June

July 29, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

As we saw this month in the US, the overall British auto market shrink by nearly 5% in June, while plug-in sales continued to still rise at a decent pace; hitting a new record market share of 1.83%.

Plug-in Electric Car Registrations in UK – June 2017

The number of new plug-in registrations stood at 4,444 (up 38% year-over-year).

Interestingly, two thirds of the sales fell to plug-in hybrids, a relative anomaly to the rest of the world’s PHEV-to-BEV splits:

1,466 BEVs (up 46 percent year-over-year)
2,978 PHEVs (up 34 percent year-over-year)

In the first half of this year, around 22,350 new plug-ins have been registered (nearly 15% more than year ago), good for an average 1.6% market share.

Source: Inside EVs