My new car is electric!

Electric car enthusiasts should enjoy this Youtube from “Engineering Explained”.

The Nissan Leaf.

The host, Jason Fenske, has been given the new Nissan Leaf to “live with” for six months and here he gives viewer a brief rundown on the car.

He takes view for a drive and in doing that explains the differences in power and torque between electric cars and naturally aspirated fossil fuel power cars.

Watch the short video clip here - “My new car is electric!”

Nissan’s following Tesla into solar power and home batteries

GIVEN THE WEATHER in the United Kingdom—that cloudy, foggy, drizzly country—it doesn’t seem like the best place to launch a business that revolves around solar power. But this is where the builder of the world’s best-selling electric car just started selling Nissan Energy Solar, a generation-to-acceleration scheme that equips customers with roof-mounted panels and a battery to store some of the electricity they generate. If they drive a Leaf, or Nissan’s e-NV200 electric van, they can combine the whole process and drive from Scotland to Wales to wherever, guilt-free, fog lights on, windshield wipers whisking away.

The maker of the Leaf is now offering UK homeowners
 rooftop solar panels and big batteries for a clean ride
from generation to acceleration.

Despite the weather, solar works well in the UK. Panels can do their thing even with indirect sunlight, and the country’s northerly position makes for 16 hours of daytime during the summer. Nearly a million people there already use solar panels, according to Nissan. Adding batteries to the mix will help them stay powered up even when the weather turns, well, normal. “It enables UK homeowners to make significant savings on their household electricity bills, and become champions of sustainability and green technology,” says Gareth Dunsmore, electric vehicle director for Nissan Europe.

Read the story by Jack Stewart from Wired - “Nissan’s following Tesla into solar power and home batteries.”

Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead

When Hong Dan, 26, bought her first car six months ago, the choice to go electric was simple.

Young Beijing resident Dan Hong charges her new electric vehicle at a public charging station.

First, in pollution-conscious Beijing, getting a licence plate for an electric car is easier than a petrol car.

Beijing's annual quota for conventional tail-pipe licence plates was more than halved this year, from 90,000 to 40,000, and the capital is among seven major Chinese cities to restrict conventional licence plates. Would-be drivers wait years in an annual lottery.

Those willing to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle wait just a few months, with 60,000 plates on offer.

Read Kirsty Needham’s story from today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead.”

(The conversation, or the “debate” if you prefer to call it that, about electric cars has not even begun yet. If we are serious about the mitigation of climate change then privately owned cars, electric or otherwise, will disappear from our streets and road network - it is impossible to sustain the energy-rich infrastructure that supports the privately owned vehicle, The conversation we simply have to have will be about how best we structure, set up and operate and public transit system using electric vehicles which are recharged using solar power - Robert McLean)

Disruption from electric car 'revolution' will rival the introduction of the iPhone: Josh Frydenberg

The global electric car revolution is coming to Australia, Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has declared, likening the scale of technological disruption to the introduction of the iPhone.

Australia's Environment and Energy
Minister, Josh Frydenberg, says the
electric car revolution is coming.

In an interview and opinion piece for Fairfax Media, he said three barriers to electric vehicle uptake in Australia - high purchase prices, limited driving range and a lack of charging infrastructure – are on their way to being solved.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in today”s Melbourne Age - “Disruption from electric car 'revolution' will rival the introduction of the iPhone: Josh Frydenberg.”

(The idea of the electric car is, in itself, not offensive, but what is disturbing is the creation and establishment, of an industry and infrastructure that his enmeshed with the ideology of private profit and public expense. Rather than government endorsement of an electric car industry we need our politicians to support, in every sense, the creation of a publicly owned nation-wide fleet of autonomous vehicles that would respond to smartphone instructions, taking people hither and thither and once a task is completed, return to their base for recharging - Robert McLean)

Electric hybrid car emits four times more CO₂ than advertised, real-world testing shows

A purportedly eco-friendly hybrid electric car emits four times more greenhouse gas than manufacturers claim, according to a report backed by Australia's motoring heavyweights that opens up a new front in the nation's energy policy tussle.

Michael Bradley from the Australian
Automobile Association, which has
 released a new report into vehicle emissions. 

The report by the Australian Automobile Association, members of which include the NRMA and RACV and RACQ, says real-world testing reveals some new cars are using up to 59 per cent more fuel than advertised. Almost six in 10 exceeded the regulated limit for one or more pollutant in cold-start tests.

The AAA says consumers are being "increasingly ripped off", forking out for vehicle technology that cuts emissions in the laboratory, but not on the road.

It says the findings cast doubt on whether more stringent vehicle emissions laws – a move being considered by the Turnbull government – would reduce pollution and lower fuel use.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Electric hybrid car emits four times more CO₂ than advertised, real-world testing shows.”

Electric car charging stations power up in NSW with NRMA set to add 40 around the state

If you have an electric car, you would be hard pressed to take it on holiday, with only 50 charging stations across the country and just 11 in New South Wales.

In Newstead in Victoria, locals used their initiative
 and made a charging station from an old petrol bowser.

The state's peak road user group, the NRMA, is set to change that with plans to establish a network of fast-charging stations for electric and hybrid cars in NSW.

The plan involves a phased introduction of at least 40 stations at a cost of $10 million.

The NRMA and the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) believe vehicle price and a lack of charging infrastructure are barriers to growth in the uptake of electric cars in Australia.

According to the EVC, sales of electric vehicles across the nation slumped 23 per cent from 2015 to 2016.

Read the ABC News story - “Electric car charging stations power up in NSW with NRMA set to add 40 around the state.”

UK inventor James Dyson to launch electric car by 2020

James Dyson, the billionaire inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner and bladeless fan, is building an electric car that will launch by 2020, the latest firm to challenge traditional carmakers in a burgeoning market.

Billionaire inventor James Dyson said he finally
had the opportunity to bring all his company's
 technologies together into a single product.  

Tesla has already shaken up the sector around the world and Dyson said it would now spend $3.4 billion on solid-state battery technology and vehicle design.

The announcement could stoke debate in Australia over the subsidisation and slow adoption of electric cars. Australian drivers lag behind developed markets in their transition to green vehicles.

On a rare visit to Australia in June, Renault Nissan Alliance chairman Carlos Ghson told Fairfax Media that electric cars will not be a success in Australia until governments are willing to subsidise their use.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Paul Sandle - “UK inventor James Dyson to launch electric car by 2020.”

Brompton releasing folding e-bike with 50 miles of range

The Brampton electric
folding bike.

I've been writing a lot about electric cars and electric car charging infrastructure lately, but I'm still in agreement with Lloyd on this matter: Our society could definitely use a break from car addiction, regardless of the fuel used to power them.

Specifically, says Lloyd, we need an "all of the above approach", in which as much attention is given to walkability, bike infrastructure, cargo bikes and e-bikes as it is to Teslas and superchargers and autonomous vehicles.

Luckily, I believe some of that is happening already. True, we see many more blog posts about the demand for the Tesla Model 3, but sales of e-bikes have been exploding in recent years and now Brompton—the makers of one of the nicest folding bikes out there—are entering the fray too.

Read the Treehugger story by Sami Grover - “Brompton releasing folding e-bike with 50 miles of range.”