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!
Annual reports filed with the California DMV show Waymo leading all other autonomous car companies in most miles driven and least number of “disengagement events.” Tesla reported if conducted no autonomous driving testing on public roads in California last year.
Credit to the CleanTechnica reader who used the email subject “car gangsters” when he sent along news of ethically sketchy German auto industry “research.” Aside from the catchy phrasing, the astoundingly immoral approach that was employed on so many levels to deceive and harm society brought me back to a question that often pops into my head: Should buyers support car gangsters’ efforts to change their ways and offer electric cars, or should we just support companies that are “all in” on clean transport?
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.
The 2018 Global EVRT tour was designed to demonstrate that people in the United Arab Emirates could drive anywhere they want in the electric cars available today. It ended at The Sustainable City in Dubai after more than 1200 kilometers of emissions-free driving.
After a week of driving electric cars in the United Arab Emirates, I came away with some opinions about the Tesla cars and the Chevy Bolt. Your mileage may vary. See dealer for details.
One major advantage renewable energy has over fossil fuels and nuclear power is that it can typically be installed much faster. Nuclear power plants can require 5–15 years to complete and some have taken 20 or more. Constructing a new coal power plant can takes 4 years or more. (Another point about coal plants — if renewable energy costs continue to decline, some new coal power plants may be shut down soon after opening or not opened at all, and almost certainly will not reach their full operational lifespans. So, some portion of the cost to build them would be wasted.) Building a new gas-powered plant generally takes several years as well.
New chargers in Fujairah, UAE, were part of the Middle East 2018 Global EVRT’s effort to expose new people to EVs.
Over $90 billion in investments have now been pledged for the development of electric vehicles and associated battery tech by the world’s top auto manufacturers, going on a new analysis from Reuters.
