Update Feb 2020. A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans. It’s been a slow start for the small electric city car. I wrote the following piece in 2011, in that optimistic pre-Olympics age. In… Continue reading
Posts tagged EV
The new Autostrada del Sole – how the sun might transform motoring in the ’20s
Could Lightyear, a solar power and electric car become the vehicle of choice in the 2020s? How a Dutch start-up is blazing the path towards low emission motoring. In 2010 I wrote about the launch of the first mainstream all-electric car in the UK. The Nissan Leaf has sold well since then, but it and… Continue reading →
German postal service’s electric delivery van goes mainstream
Update, April 13th, 2017. Deutsche Post announced (Apr 11, 2017) that it is to expand production of its electric delivery van, the StreetScooter, aiming to double production capacity by the end of 2017 from 10,000 to as many as 20,000. Deutsche Post developed the StreetScooter electric van itself, for its own deliveries. Such is its… Continue reading →
Nissan Leaf is on a road near you – but did it sell enough?
Sales of all plug in cars almost doubled, world-wide, in 2015 to around 1 million. But they still represent a tiny proportion of the cars on the road, less that 1%. The Nissan Leaf was launched six years ago this week, going on sale in 2011. It has sold 200,000 world-wide and is an important… Continue reading →
Charge while you shop: France’s biggest retailer embraces electric cars
It’s hard to miss the big green statement the E. Leclerc retail chain is making when you visit its hypermarket at Pont l’Abbé in Brittany, France. Photovoltaic panel lamps stand tall and prominent over the car park, in the centre of which is a double row of electric vehicle charging points, with, on our visit,… Continue reading →
All-electric cars – smog-free vision in a car park
It suits the governments to play down the man made contribution to the smog that affected southern Britain in the first few days of April, 2014. The Saharan dust was there for anyone to see and feel, on cars and in your eyes. Walking the three quarters of a mile from where I took the… Continue reading →