Here we come with the final stage of our CleanTechnica Tesla Shuttle Adventure. Our previous entries attracted a lot of attention in the countries we visited and the photo of the Polish tourist in Macedonia was a Twitter hit. We also received emails from concerned EV enthusiasts from Hungary, who were sorry to hear about our difficulties in Debrecen.
Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary are all planning to build new nuclear power plants. But according to a new study by Energy Brainpool, commissioned by Greenpeace Energy, they could also opt for controllable renewable power plants.
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL has signed an agreement to supply batteries to Nissan and Renault. After an IPO later this year, it wants to build a factory in Europe and possibly one in America.
As we are receiving regular reports from Tomek and his fellow travelers, we can now put together a few stories from the first couple of days on the road with the Tesla. The most important news is there’s no real news — the first day driving through Poland was simply smooth and easy. There are two reasons behind this: Tesla’s range and GreenWay infrastructure. As Zach was already pointing out in the opening article, GreenWay has done a good job developing a network of fast chargers in Poland and Slovakia. It may still be challenging in a Nissan Leaf or Renault Zoe to get from charging point to charging point, but not so in a Tesla.
Some people seem to be born with a particularly adventurous, exploratory gene. I get the sense my colleague Tomek Gać, another Tesla Shuttle co-founder, is one of those people.
Battery sources are critical for any companies trying to to keep up in the race to field compelling long-range electric vehicles, and the competitors are already jostling for position.
Volkswagen will begin increasing the production capacity of the e-Golf at its facilities in Europe starting in March 2018, company spokespersons recently revealed. The plan is reportedly for the daily production capacity to be increased from 35 to 70 cars a day. Assuming that’s an average with no days off, that’s 25,550 Volkswagen e-Golfs per year — a bit more than the planned weekly production of the Tesla Model 3.
Today, Solid Power announced The BMW Group is partnering with the company to jointly develop its solid-state batteries for use in BMW’s future electric vehicle models. BMW will assist Solid Power to advance its technology to achieve performance levels demanded by its customers.
The battery market is one of the most interesting industries in the global economy. As part of our new “What Changed … ?” series, it seemed appropriate to include a thorough update of what changes in the EV battery market on a monthly basis. Below is a rundown of what changed in November.
For decades, electric cars have been a dream of the future. Magazines showed show cars and experiments, but fielded few or no production examples. During periods of high oil prices, their prospects rose, but as oil prices declined, they faded. Tinkerers and DIY mechanics made home-built lead-acid gas car conversions. There were tantalizing forays stimulated by California’s CARB ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandates, like the GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 EV, and Honda EV Plus, but they were in limited numbers and more often offered for lease but not for sale.
