UK To Subsidise Electric Car Purchases, is that Enough?
The government has announced plans to give buyers of electric cars up to £5,000 towards their purchase, incentivising people to buy the pricey vehicles. It forms part of a £250m funding drive to bring the cars to the UK, including test-drive programs and the setting up of charging points.
Gordon Brown said last year that he wants all British vehicles to be hybrid or electric by 2020, and the announcement comes as various major car manufacturers outline their plans for electric cars. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was talking up his company’s prospects yesterday : ”Somebody’s got to invest massively and bring to the market zero emission cars, and we think we can do it”, he said, before slagging off GM’s Chevy Volt for being, at $40,000, way too expensive. Chrysler is developing the Dodge Circuit , an electric sports car, to be the first of five electric or hybrid models to be out by 2012 (that’s if it can negotiate a deal with Fiat to manufacture them). Mitsubishi have recently been showing off the i-Miev , a tiny car that looks like a cheerful robotic hamster storing food in its cheeks, and plans to launch it in 2010. Then there’s the adorably happy little gentleman pictured above , the Peapod, who can only go at 25mph and is designed as a “neighbourhood” vehicle, but which is so goshdarned cute I could just eat it all up.
This month’s Fortune magazine features Warren Buffett alongside the Chinese electric car company he’s invested in, BYD . Don’t underestimate the power of the Oracle - his slavish followers will be on the BYD waiting list before you know it. It only costs $22,000, and looks like a Saab if you squint hard enough, but does have its limitations - its 60-mile range is only good if you’re pootling along at 30mph, while lack of demand in China might be a stumbling block to expansion.
Vauxhall have announced the Ampera , which looks totally evil, the sort of thing the Terminator would take his kids to football practice in. Encouragingly though, it could be built at Ellesmere Port, helping the UK, as Boris Johnson potentially sees it , to be the “electric car capital of Europe”. Ah, and therein lies the rub.
£250m is a drop in the ocean in terms of the investment in infrastructure needed for electric cars to be feasible UK-wide. George Osbourne has described the plans as “fantasy” , highlighting the lack of preparation for charging points and no mention of a grid to deal with the extra electricity demands created by a nation of electric car drivers. And as John Sauven, chief exec of Greenpeace, told the Telegraph: “electric cars are only as green as the electricity they run on”. Read more
Oregon Builds a Statewide Electric Vehicle Charging Network
Portland Business Journal
Mitsubishi Motors North America today became the second auto-maker to commit to helping Oregon build a statewide electric vehicle charging network.
Shinichi Kurihara, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America, announced the partnership this morning during an address at the New York International Auto Show, where it showcased the plug-in electric i-MiEV, which stands for Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle.
The partnership means Mitsubishi will lend its input to the state’s efforts to employ vehicle charging stations.
The state received formed an earlier partnership with fellow Japanese auto-makers Nissan, which on Monday brought to Portland a prototype of its electric-drive vehicle technology, which it hopes to market in 2010.
Oregon has drawn similar interest from other automakers.
Last summer, Toyota Motor Corp. said it would put four electric RAV4 vehicles in Portland for use by Portland State University as shuttle vehicles.
BYD Co., a Chinese battery and auto manufacturer, has considered Oregon as a test market for its electric vehicles.
On Tuesday, Norwegian auto-maker Think announced that Oregon is one of eight states it is considering for a manufacturing plant for its plug-in electric Think city.
“Oregon welcomes the partnership with Mitsubishi as we transition to the next generation in vehicle technology. Together, we can build a consistent and reliable infrastructure so Oregonians can make the switch seamlessly to electric vehicles,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in a news release. “The partnership shows that a state can create opportunity for its commitment to a greener future — wins for our economy and our environment.”
The state Department of Transportation last week issued a first-of-its kind solicitation for manufacturers of electric charging stations. The idea is to use the state as a central clearinghouse for charging station manufacturing in order to avoid deployment of competing technologies.
Also part of the electric vehicle partnership is Portland General Electric Co., which has already deployed more than a dozen charging stations across the Portland metro area and Salem.
Department of Energy Opens Electric Car Stimulus Programs
The Department of Energy has begun accepting applications for two electric vehicle programs funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The DOE has allotted $400 million to establish development, demonstration, evaluation, and education projects “to accelerate the market introduction and penetration of advanced electric drive vehicles.” Applications are due May 13.
And the DOE also is accepting applications for grants to support the construction of US-based manufacturing plants for building batteries and electric drive components and has made $2 billion available for that program: the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative.
The grants represent the first two energy-related programs funded through the $787 billion federal stimulus package to take applications.
Both programs are through the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Office of Vehicle Technologies. The DOE has $32.7 billion in grant money to distribute from the federal stimulus package. That includes $5 billion for weatherization and $3.1 billion for state energy programs, $2 billion for advanced batteries manufacturing and $6.7 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy, $6 billion for environmental management, $4.5 billion for electricity transmission technologies, $3.4 billion for fossil energy research and development and other provisions.
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Electric Car Conversion Manual
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