A common misconception is that electric cars are more expensive than their internal combustion engine equivalents. When looking at the total cost of ownership, this just isn’t the case. Furthermore, Forbes reports: “Electric vehicles cost less than half as much to operate as their gasoline-powered counterparts, according to a study of fuel costs released Thursday by the University of Michigan.”
There’s a common claim that autonomous vehicles will definitely take over the market and we humans will essentially stop driving ourselves places (except to the extent that some of us still keep horses to ride on). There’s an often combined claim that people will give up auto ownership and use robotaxis instead.
The pace of plug-in vehicle sales continues to ramp up, with 2017 the first year seeing more than 1 million plug-in vehicles sold globally.
The Chinese market for pure electric buses had approximately 89,546 sales last year. This is down from 115,700 sales in 2016. This means that year on year, the market sales decreased by 23%. Reports indicate that this decrease is down to multiple factors, but mainly due to changes to electric bus subsidies from Chinese national and local governments.
Looking at the US sales of top electric cars (including plug-in hybrids), one thing stands out in January: Tesla dominates. This is unlikely to change anytime soon. Though, hopefully Nissan LEAF sales surge with the new version and hopefully Bolt, Volt, and Prius Prime sales rise higher than they did by the end of 2017.
Five years ago, electric-powered vehicles began to make an appearance. Nissan and Tesla proceeded along two entirely different approaches to converting buyers from ICE vehicles to electric-powered vehicles. Nissan added the Leaf on top of its ICE vehicle lineup and Tesla was all in with its electric Model S. Other legacy manufacturers added small numbers of electric compliance cars to meet state requirements. Where is the free pass?
The top 30 CleanTechnica stories of January … er, top 32 … are below. Have fun!
Munro & Associates is a competitive benchmarking company that tears things apart to see how they are made. CEO Sandy Munro says the build quality of the Tesla Model 3 is equivalent to Kias from the 1990’s. Ouch!
Just a few weeks after placing his order, the satisfied first customer in Europe has promptly taken delivery of his brand new Nissan LEAF.
Episode 45 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Ferrari’s electric envy, California’s climate leadership, a “Dear Elon” letter, and Norway’s oil & gas expansion.
