Wanting to drive a zero emission vehicle that runs on sunshine, Doug White decided to do an ICE to EV conversion. He wanted to make an all island, go anywhere electric vehicle and of course, to start an EV conversion, one needs a donor vehicle. He wondered what might be the best island car ever? And the good old Mini Moke popped into his mind. Instantly he decided to make an electric Mini Moke. The perfect island car!
It’s only really by driving a car that you can get a good impression of it, and I have been very fortunate to be offered the chance to borrow a brand new 2018 Nissan Leaf Tekna, complete with ProPilot, for two days. This was kindly lent to me by Annie Cooper, the Sales Manager at Sandicliffe Nissan in Nottingham.
The new Nissan LEAF doesn’t get a ton of attention or love. It was born in the shadow of the Tesla Model 3, and that’s a big shadow. But it’s a few leaps above the original LEAF, and that model is still the most common plug-in car on the planet as far as I’ve seen.
The city of Milan is getting set for a progressive ban on diesel cars, due to start as early as January 2019. The bold move was announced a few days ago by Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala at the annual Energy Festival in Rome. The brave message on the transition to clean transport is a welcome milestone set to cause a ripple effect way beyond its city limits.
Ben & Jerry’s stands behind wind power, and names clean power and climate justice as part of its “issues we care about,” and although the iconic ice cream maker is now owned by global heavyweight Unilever, it is still lending its weight to helping usher in solutions for a low carbon future.
Aside from just asking which companies will be semi-leaders, which will be surviving laggards, and which will go bankrupt or be acquired, a question that came to my mind this week was, “When will leading car companies go 100% electric?” So, let’s go through some companies and brands and consider this question.
Fully Charged, the popular YouTube channel hosted by British actor and electric cars’ advocate Robert Llewellyn, reached the next level last weekend as it turned into a live exhibition at Silverstone, UK’s famous F1 track. Thousands – including me – flocked to the brand new EV and renewable energy show, to witness the launch edition of what promises to be a very successful franchise in the years to come.
SunPower took the wraps off of its new SunPower Equinox home solar energy system today, which was designed to be compatible with leading residential energy storage products from sonnen and Tesla Energy.
Chinese battery heavyweight CATL is reportedly looking to invest up to €1 billion into a new battery factory in Germany, according to a Bloomberg report on the matter. The move would put one of the largest plug-in vehicle battery manufacturers right in the backyard of Germany’s lucrative luxury automotive manufacturers, including Daimler, Volkswagen, Porsche, and BMW.
We’ve previously written about Byton, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup that hopes to conquer the global market with its autonomous design and generous internal display, as well as other important features. The company just announced it has secured a Series B funding round to the tune of $500 million.
