Many electric vehicle advocates like to chastise American auto buyers for their love of pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, but like it or not, the growing popularity of these model types has significant implications for the future adoption of electric vehicles.
The European EV market had over 16,000 registrations last month, up 20% over February 2016, with YTD numbers up 38% year over year (YoY). The market is set to surpass 300,000 units (310,00) by year end. While the EV share is firmly north of the 1% mark, this growth is in no small part due to a refreshed BEV, that’s just gotten a 40 kWh battery.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is incrementally electrifying transportation on, from, and to the aviation hub. Being the largest airport in the Netherlands and the 3rd largest player in Europe, with 63.6 million passengers handled in 2016, Schiphol has expressed an ambition to become the most sustainable airport in the world. An important means of reaching this goal is by switching over to electric drivetrains for vehicles operating on the airport itself, as well as for transportation of passengers to and from Schiphol Airport.
“Well I can tell you the first thing I like about Nissans in general — is that I love their seats — the way they hug your body. The seats in my hybrid are not as nice.” Diego Alejandro continues: “This is really cool. I love all the high-tech stuff, the way it sounds when you turn it on. I like the sound. It sounds futuristic. It sounds like a jet.”
I like the breeze off the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s sometimes too strong — the summer hurricane season is upon us, and who knows what’s around the corner? Those essential services we typically take for granted can stop quickly, and then be gone for hours or even days. The dark is nice for a change, but the food might spoil. No lights, no electricity, no cooling, no heating, no stove, no refrigeration — lacking these essentials for long presents a huge challenge for 21st century creatures.
Nissan has a hot new model in town (in the UK) and it is stylish — the Nissan LEAF Black Edition. The always zero-emission LEAF is impressive in any style, in my humble opinion. The LEAF Black Edition proves there’s no need to compromise on style to be perfectly clean. Take notice of the extras as well. One of those: the first 200 customers will receive a free in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot.
Nissan began testing self-driving versions of its popular all-electric LEAF in London recently, as we already reported, but not much further information on the matter was available at the time.
Nissan will be debuting the new LEAF EV in September, with plans to begin sales and deliveries of the model before the end of the year, according to recent reports. Interestingly, the company will be offering lease extensions to current LEAF lessees (along with 3 months of courtesy payments) if they decide to get on the waiting list for the refreshed version of the popular model.
The Japanese electric vehicle market is comprised almost entirely of Japanese auto manufacturers (unsurprisingly), which makes the market an interesting contrast to free-for-all markets like the US.
US electric car sales jumped approximately 68% in February 2017 vs February 2016. Fully electric car sales were up 74%, while plug-in hybrid sales were up 61%. For the first two months of the year, that puts all plug-in car sales up 64%, fully electric car sales up 57%, and plug-in hybrid sales up 72%.
