Category Archives: Sales

Thinking Of Going Green? Cost And Other Realities Of Electric Vehicles

February 6, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

Owning a new compact electric vehicle, based on more than five years and 75,000 miles of driving, is only slightly more expensive – about $600 annually – than its gas-powered counterpart, and the experience of actually having a plug-in car eases a common fear: range anxiety.

Those are the highlights of new research that examined electric vehicle ownership released on Monday by the AAA automotive group.

“Although 40 million Americans have shown interest in buying electric for their next car, actual adoption is happening at a much slower rate,” Greg Brannon, AAA’s director of automotive engineering and industry relations, said in a statement. “AAA wanted to understand what kind of impact the experience of owning an electric vehicle has on perception of these cars and maybe more importantly, if given the chance would consumers choose to go green again.”

The analysis was based on a survey conducted in late 2019 by the AAA of 1,090 plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners , 71% of whom had not previously owned an electric car.

From the report:

—prior to owning an electric vehicle, most owners (91%) said that they had at least one concern, like insufficient range and finding a place to charge, but post purchase, many of these worries disappeared. (Previous AAA research found that the top two reasons why Americans shy away from electric vehicles are: not enough places to charge and the fear that they will run out of charge while driving.)

— the majority (96%) of respondents say they would buy or lease another electric vehicle the next time they were in the market for a new car.

– two in five (43%) owners said they drive more now than when they owned a gas-powered car.

— three quarters (78%) indicated that they also had a gas-powered car in the household, but reported doing most of their driving (87%) in their electric vehicle.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Electric car sales are rising, but so are emissions. What’s going on?

February 5, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

More of us are buying electric cars than ever before, but our emissions are still going up. Falling diesel and rising SUV sales are to blame

Here’s a misleading statistic: UK electric car sales doubled in 2019. According to market insights firm LMC Automotive, battery electric vehicles made up 1.6 per cent of UK sales in 2019, about double the year before. But this doesn’t mean the UK’s automotive emissions are heading in the right direction. The reality is far more murky.

Last year, the average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of cars sold in the UK rose for the third year in a row. And for every electric car purchased in 2019, we bought 37 SUVs. Our growing interest in bigger, heavier vehicles, plus the sudden decline in diesel car sales, has pulled the UK further away from its looming transport emissions targets.

It’s a big step backwards, at exactly the wrong moment. The average CO2 emissions per kilometre for UK cars now stands at 127.9 grams – well past the EU’s new target of 95g of CO2 per kilometre for new cars. If auto manufacturers don’t hit the target, they’ll be hit with big fines.

“It’s going to be a tough couple of years,” says Al Bedwell, head of powertrain forecast at LMC. “At the moment the gap between where CO2 is now and where it needs to be at the end of next year, for some car makers, is pretty big. So there’s a real dilemma.” Car brands may need to start selling electric vehicles at a loss in order to meet the goals, he says. “There is definitely a risk that some of them will miss the target and will end up paying quite big fines to the commission.”

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Norway cracks down: Is “self-charging” a misleading way to pitch hybrids

February 4, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

The phrase “self-charging” has been quite the lightning rod among electric-vehicle enthusiasts—especially in Norway.

Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand has continued—there, and in the UK and elsewhere in Europe—to run an ad campaign describing its hybrids as such.

In this era of wireless charging for our personal devices and on its way to more cars themselves (in BMW plug-in hybrids, for instance)—or with solar becoming increasingly feasible—some of Lexus’ explanations about being charged when you’re ready and never needing to be plugged in are potentially confusing at the least.

What is a Lexus self-charging hybrid?

Despite wide-ranging pushback on social media—some of it suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that the models must employ some sort of perpetual motion machine—Lexus has continued the campaign with its recent NX and UX hybrids.

Last month, Norway’s national Consumer Authority has stepped in about the campaign and presentation—finding that it is misleading to declare that the cars “produce their own electricity.”

The government agency, in a statement, found that [translated] it’s misleading to say that the electrical power in the hybrid battery is free, since the electricity produced by the car has gasoline consumption as a necessary condition. It issued specific advertising to be removed by December 20, and while it appears that mentions of free charging have been purged, as of January 25 Lexus is still advertising its hybrids on its Norwegian site as self-charging.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Nottingham Climate Emergency: Council’s zero-carbon target means only electric vehicles in the city by 2028

January 29, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

A draft plan, which was approved unanimously yesterday (Monday, January 13) will now go out for public consultation.

Nearly every vehicle currently on the roads of Nottingham will need to be replaced within just eight years if the city council is to meet its own zero-carbon target.

Nottingham City Council hopes to be the first in the UK to become carbon neutral and has now produced a plan on how it intends to do this by 2028.

Several actions are planned, including having all domestic heating from renewable energy or low-carbon sources, enforcing energy efficiency standards, further public transport improvements and expanding local energy creation.

The council already has a growing fleet of its own electric cars, but details are scant about how the council plans to facilitate a move away from petrol and diesel engines for regular motorists, and it has admitted that the scale of the change needed is ‘enormous’.

A draft plan, which was approved unanimously yesterday (Monday, January 13) will now go out for public consultation.

On the issue of removing petrol and diesel engines (Known as internal combustion engines or ICEs) it says: “To achieve the 2028 carbon neutrality ambition, it will be necessary to almost entirely replace existing fossil-fuel-based Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles with ULEVs (ultra-low-emission vehicles).

“Recent research suggests that the lifetime carbon emissions of ULEVs are half those of a conventional vehicle, with more efficient electric vehicles saving on the carbon produced in the batteries in just two or three years.”

As well as an action plan, the council also passed its own Carbon Neutral Charter, which expands on the council’s green ambitions.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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rel=”noopener”>Westbridgford Wire

EVs will need to become the norm if we don’t want to burn the planet

January 28, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, SalesRepost

If the ongoing bushfire crisis has taught Australians one thing, it is that the use of petrol and diesel vehicles will have to be minimised in the future in order to avoid pumping more carbon into the atmosphere and making the problem worse.

And that means electric vehicles will have to start becoming the rule, not the exception as they are now.

Prior to the 2019 May election, the Australian Labor Party offered as one of its policies a subsidy on electric vehicles. But the government that was elected had no such policy and as a result any Australian who has to buy an electric vehicle today will have to fork out from his/her own pocket.

Electric vehicles are not cheap. I recently had a test drive in the Nissan LEAF, one of the three EVs that is available for sale locally – the others are from BMW and Hyundai – and the price is something that a medium-level petrol vehicle will cost.

There are some pluses: services are only required once every 20,000 kms, there is a five-year warranty, the drive is very smooth and the handling is exceptional. But the cost is still a big factor; the LEAF costs about $50,000.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Sales of electric vehicles rise by 144 per cent as diesel cars decline in popularity

January 26, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

In a depressed new car market, sales of electric vehicles rose by 144 per cent in 2019, while diesel models continued the sharp slide in popularity witnessed in recent years.

Overall, Brexit uncertainties, weak consumer and business confidence and slow overall economic growth helped push new car sales down.

Preliminary figures suggest a fall of around 2.3 per cent in 2019, to 2.3 million units.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the main industry body, new cars sales will fall again in 2020, albeit by less than previously forecast and with the rate of decline slowing – down another 1.6 per cent by 2021.

Diesel is a major factor in the current market – a fall of 21.8 per cent last year as many potential customers simply postpone buying new until they have more clarity about future taxation and regulation of diesels.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT described it as a another “turbulent 12 months” with the trade facing the same tough challenges.

As one of the few bright features in a gloomy scene, the growing acceptance and popularity of pure electric cars and stands out as a trend that should help, albeit in a modest way, the government to achieve its targets on CO2 emissions.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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2020 will be a key year (and decade) for electric vehicles

January 25, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, TeslaRepost

You only have to look at the annual tech ritual that is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — which kicked off in Vegas this weekend amid a blur of oversized TVs, 5G phones and foldable tablets — to see how important electric vehicles will be in 2020.

Many of the big and small automakers that sell passenger vehicles will be showing off their newest electric models, such as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, Nissan’s electric crossover concept Ariya, Fiat Chrysler’s plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz’s EQC 400 4Matic and Vision EQS vehicles. Sunday at CES, Chinese EV maker Byton showed off its M-Byte (most famous for its 48-inch wrap-around dashboard screen), due out later this year. Other automakers that are hosting press conferences or booths this week include Audi, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Daimler.

While CES has long been shifting to a “car show disguised as a tech conference,” this year it would seem especially quaint if an automaker premiered a gas or diesel-powered model. The future is electric, and CES is an event all about looking forward.

2020 will indeed be the “year of the electric car” particularly across Europe, says the Guardian. Cities in Europe are banning diesel vehicles from city centers while European automakers launch flagship EVs with names like the Fiat 500 and the Mini. 175 EV models will be on sale by the end of 2020 for European consumers, such as Volkswagen’s id3, up from fewer than 100 right now.

European vehicle electrification will have profound effects on Europe’s carbon emissions, but it also will present a challenging transformation for European auto sectors. Germany, for example, is expected to shed jobs as plants close that make internal combustion parts. Electric vehicles are simpler to make and require fewer parts, meaning a tightened supply chain. But you can also point to the German auto industry’s resistance to change as an equally big challenge.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Average CO2 emissions of cars sold in UK up for third year in row

January 24, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

Popularity of SUVs and falling diesel sales hit Britain’s hopes of reaching climate targets

The average carbon dioxide emissions of cars sold in the UK rose for the third year in a row during 2019 as falling diesel sales and the rising popularity of SUVs dealt a blow to Britain’s hopes of reaching climate targets.

Average CO2 emissions rose for the third year in a row, up 2.7% year on year to 127.9g of CO2 per kilometre, according to data from the car industry body. This is far above the newly introduced EU target of 95g per kilometre carmakers need to achieve over this year and next for all new cars. Cars account for just over 18% of UK emissions, according to government figures. Transport emissions as a whole account for a third of the UK total, with the sector viewed as vital contributor if the country is to achieve goals of cutting emissions to 51% of 1990 levels by 2025 and to reach net zero by 2050.

All manufacturers selling in the EU are rushing to meet emissions regulations that came into force on 1 January. The regulations were introduced in response to the climate crisis, with road transport a major contributor to global CO2 emissions.

Overall UK car sales fell by 2.4% year on year to about 2.3m, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, with the industry body blaming Brexit uncertainty and the slump in diesel sales as the main factors.

This indicates the worst year for the UK market since 2013, when sales were 2.26m. They reached a peak of 2.7m in 2016 but have declined steadily since.

A quarter of the CO2 increase was caused by the 21.8% drop in diesel sales over the year. Newer diesels on average have lower CO2 emissions than petrol cars, despite a backlash prompted by air quality concerns. Another quarter was caused by increased sales of SUVs, which are often heavier and have much worse aerodynamic profiles than smaller cars. Increased fuel use by SUVs was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018, according to the International Energy Agency.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Driving towards a greener future

January 17, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

With almost 30,000 electric vehicles (EVs) registered in the UK so far this year, it’s clear that the number of EVs is climbing and many businesses are already taking steps to introduce them into their fleet.

Furthermore, as environmental targets become more stringent, many will be exploring how more carbon-friendly transport technology can make a difference to their firm and help reduce carbon emissions.

As the cost of going electric continues to fall, more firms are planning to, or already have, started transitioning their fleets. Indeed, our own research suggests that businesses are making inroads towards a greener future, with three quarters of firms telling us they plan to adopt EVs in the next five years.

Many of us will know about the well-publicised benefits of EVs over and above their environmental credentials – they are cheaper to maintain, run and tax and give unrestricted access to low emissions areas, such as the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) in central London.

But there is a surprising benefit that firms may not have considered. Electric fleets can do more for a business than lowering costs and reducing carbon emissions, they can actually become a source of revenue. The key to unlocking this? Coupling EV charging points with modern energy technology.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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2020 set to be year of the electric car, say industry analysts

January 12, 2020Cooper Electric, Corsa-e, Electric Cars, MINI, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, VauxhallRepost

Mini, Vauxhall Corsa and Fiat 5oo will join rapidly expanding European EV market

Europe’s carmakers are gearing up to make 2020 the year of the electric car, according to automotive analysts, with a wave of new models launching as the world’s biggest manufacturers scramble to lower the carbon dioxide emissions of their products.

Previous electric models have mostly been targeted at niche markets, but 2020 will see the launch of flagship electric models with familiar names, such as the Mini, the Vauxhall Corsa and the Fiat 500.

The number of electric vehicle (EV) models available to European buyers will jump from fewer than 100 to 175 by the end of 2020, according to data firm IHS Markit. By 2025 there will be more than 330, based on an analysis of company announcements.

The new supply will cater to a rapidly expanding market as demand for petrol-powered vehicles gradually recedes. UK EV sales will rise from 3.4% of all vehicles sold in 2019 to 5.5% in 2020 – or from 80,000 this year to 131,000 in 2020 – according to forecasts from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. By 2026 electric vehicle sales will account for a fifth of sales in the UK, the forecasts show. Similar predictions from LMC Automotive suggest 540,000 electric cars will be sold across the EU in 2020, up from 319,000 over the course of 2019.

New European Union rules come into force on 1 January that will heavily penalise carmakers if average carbon dioxide emissions from the cars they sell rise above 95g per kilometre. If carmakers exceed that limit, they will have to pay a fine of €95 (£79) for every gram over the target, multiplied by the total number of cars they sell.

The excess emissions bill would have been £28.6bn on 2018 sales figures, according to analysis by the automotive consultancy Jato Dynamics, illustrating the extent of the change required by carmakers over a short period of time. Jato analyst Felipe Muñoz said there will still be large fines, as companies keep selling profitable internal combustion engine cars and struggle to bring down EV prices to parity with their fossil-fuel peers.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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