September 9, 2011
Boris plugs the Renault Fluence Z.E. at EcoVelocity
Can anything upstage London’s ebullient Mayor, Boris Johnson? He was active on both sides of the Thames yesterday, with wheelchair tennis in Trafalgar Square and a test drive of Renault’s Fluence Z.E. saloon at Battersea Power Station.
London’s great white elephant (I mean the Power Station) was hosting Boris and EcoVelocity 2011, the Low Carbon Motor Festival. UK consumers got their first sight of the 100 per cent electric Fluence Z.E when the Mayor took part in the opening parade of electric and low-carbon vehicles.
Swapping his usual bicycle for something with a more 21st-century profile, Boris said: “I was delighted to try out one of Renault’s electric vehicles and glide it silently around the EcoVelocity test track.” It seems unlikely that Boris would do anything quietly, so perhaps Renault’s stylish 5-seater has more going for it than I realised.
The four-door Fluence Z.E will go on sale in the UK in the first half of 2012. (Just in time for those Olympic traffic jams.) It will be priced from £17,850 on the road — that takes account of the generous deduction of £5,000 for the government’s Plug-In Car Grant. That scheme runs until 31 March 2012 and also covers vehicles like the Vauxhall Ampera, Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-In.
An extra financial incentive for Fluence Z.E buyers is that they will be hiring rather than purchasing the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery. So, for £69.60 per month (including VAT) you can banish your fears of battery longevity and replacement costs.
Renault’s vision for an electric vehicle future also includes the two-seater Twizy, priced at a competitive £6,690 and an electric van, the Kangoo Van Z.E.
Not content with covering the Capital with bike stands, Boris is also firmly behind the Source London network, which aims to provide a membership scheme with 1300 charge points in place by 2013.
EcoVelocity 2011 will run from 8-11 September — unless those “range anxiety” fears prove valid and it runs out of juice.
March 31, 2011
Electric cars: 1 in 6 by 2030 – Why don’t you get yours today?
In order for the UK to meet its target for the reduction of CO2 emissions, it had been estimated that we will need more than 6,000,000 green cars driving on our roads by 2030.
This comes from a report from the WWF (The World Wildlife Fund) stating that if the UK is truly to decrease its dependency on oil, we would need at least 6.4 million electric cars by 2030 meaning approximately 1.7 million by 2020.
By 2050, the EU’s carbon reduction target is 80%. This means that if we stand any chance of succeeding, the electric car needs to intricate itself into the world at a much faster pace.
“Road transport accounts for 40 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the UK so a switch from conventional cars powered by petrol or diesel to electric vehicles would have a much needed impact on reducing fuel demand,” says David Norman, WWF.
March 28, 2011
Could this be the new look for Royal Mail?
Norway has taken new levels of dedication in order to reduce their CO2 emissions by 30% in the next four years. The biggest employer in the country, Norway Post, has bought 20 of The Ford Transit Connect Electric van’s with the potential of more in the future.
The vehicle has a top speed of 75mph and up to 80miles drive time on a fully charged battery, which can be recharged in eight hours.
If this is a hit, by 2015 the Norwegian Postal Service will have replaced 1,300 fossil fuelled cars with the new electric van. This is one of many ways the Postal service is hoping to reduce emissions.
This new electric van is one of five new electricity powered vehicles Ford will sell in Europe by 2013, including the Focus Electric arriving next year.
Could Norway Post be the first of many European companies to opt for a more environmentally friendly car, perhaps shaping the future for the auto industry as we know it? It won’t be long before we see more cars like these on the road.
June 23, 2010
Experts say that EVs will be ‘worthless’ in just five years
After examining the latest additions to the electric vehicle range, experts have made some shocking predictions for a market that is supposedly set to ‘take off’.
Glass’ Guide – who specialise in estimating the value of used cars – predict that, based on the lifespan of the new electric batteries, EV’s such as the new Nissan Leaf will only be worth 10% of their original value after five years.
One of the main arguments against this analysis is that it is based on the presumption that the battery will have little or no value after its life in the car. However, EV supporters believe that the batteries could serve a range of functions outside of the car.
Currently, one of the main arguments against buying any new vehicle is that they lose a substantial amount of their initial value the moment you drive them off the lot. If these presumptions about the future value of EV’s stand true, then the predicted depreciation could stunt the EV market’s growth before it really gets growing.
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