The non-profit organisation “Upcell – European Battery Manufacturing Alliance” was recently founded in Paris. The members and partners have set themselves the task of building a European value chain for batteries and thus accelerating the transition to electromobility.
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Paris-based energy management and automation company Schneider Electric has acquired California-based EV charging solution provider EV Connect.
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The US company AlphaStruxure, a joint venture of The Carlyle Group and Schneider Electric, has appointed The Mobility House as its technology partner. AlphaStruxure will use the Munich-based company’s charging and energy management system to integrate electric bus, truck and car fleets into site and distribution networks.
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Nissan’s car plant in Barcelona that the carmaker announced last year would close, could be transformed into a battery production plant for electric cars to save thousands of jobs, according to a media report. There are said to be prominent interested parties already.
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EVBox Group’s Everon presents a charging management platform designed to give fleet and site managers more control over the performance of their EV charging infrastructure with the new ‘Business Portal’ software.
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The Chinese EV charging company Star Charge has completed a funding round totalling $125 million. Chief investors included Schneider Electric and the Chinese CICC Capital’s sub fund.
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In Scottland, Swarco eVolt & Schneider Electric have been announced as suppliers for Project PACE – a project to develop over 40 new public EV charging hubs across Scottish county Lanarkshire.
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Verkor has announced its intention to produce battery cells for electric cars on a gigawatt scale in Europe, among other things. The newly founded French company relies on well-known partners and is already looking for a site for the factory.
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Groupe Renault has created a new subsidiary called Elexent to help other companies find solutions for charging their fleets of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. A branch office in France is already operational.
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Schneider Electric has joined the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, committing to the electrification of its corporate fleet. By 2030, Schneider Electric plans to replace 14,000 vehicles in over 50 countries with electric cars.
Read moreAudi and Porsche fast-charger: Both VW brands are looking at building their own rapid-charge network, German Wirtschaftswoche reports. “We will need to,” said Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller, but left open if Porsche and Audi would go at it alone or as a consortium. Fast-charging infrastructure will be needed if the new performance models go ahead as planned.
wiwo.de (in German)
GM carsharing: GM has bundled it mobility offers under the name Maven. The city-based carsharing app will first be made available in Michigan. The brand will also see the expansion of GM’s peer-to-peer carsharing offers in Berlin and Frankfurt. The move is said to keep up with companies like ZipCar and Uber and the Bolt would surely be a most suitable EV for sharing purposes.
autonews.com, carscoops.com
Canny charge initiative: Pod Point offered the boroughs of London to replace all broken charge points for free with the company’s own Open Point Charge POD. Pod Point even started a petition asking for support. Mind you, the subsequent maintenance agreements are part of the deal.
businesscar.co.uk, change.org (petition)
Leaf-to-Home: Nissan showcased the V2G capability of its electric vehicles in Davos. Visitors were greeted with hot chocolate, cooked on a stove powered by the Leaf battery. The Leaf-to-Home system has been available in Japan since 2012. At COP21, Nissan announced a partnership with ENEL to offer the technology in Europe as well.
blog.alliance-renault-nissan.com
Charging at home even if you live in a multi-tenant building will soon be possible as Schneider Electric and EverCharge enter into a global collaboration. Schneider Electric will deliver the charging equipment, while EverCharge’s technology allocates power according to the needs of EVs and building infrastructure.
greencarcongress.com
Tesla valet service: Luxe has become the EV maker’s latest partner. The valet-parking app will offer parking and charging services to Tesla drivers, as well as car wash and drive home services. A pilot is running in New York and San Francisco.
autoblog.com, valuewalk.com, techcrunch.com, luxe.com
Renault cooperates with Fortum to erect 100 charging stations, mainly 22-kW fast chargers, across Norway. The Finnish utility will be responsible for the installation and servicing, and plans to double its ‘Charge & Drive’ network in Norway, Sweden and Finland to 500 stations within the next nine months.
globenewswire.com
Schneider Electric in LA: Los Angeles County will deploy 82 EVlink charging stations by Schneider Electric. During the first year of the pilot programme, EV drivers can charge their electric cars for free for up to four hours. To date, 34 EVlink stations have been installed in LA County.
4-traders.com
Gnewt Cargo electrifies ‘final-mile’ deliveries in London, ordering three more Mercedes Vito E-Cell vans. Those will primarily be used by TNT Express within the city’s Congestion Zone. Gnewt stands for Green New Transport and offers a fleet of electric cargocycles and minivans for deliveries in Central London.
fleetnews.co.uk
E bus line in Berlin: In 2015, the German capital’s public transport provider will start testing to operate a complete downtown line with four Solaris electric buses. The buses are equipped with the PRIMOVE inductive charging system from Bombardier (we reported).
greencarcongress.com
EV campgrounds: America’s RV camp sites are experiencing an unexpected revival, as EV drivers find their 50-Amp electrical outlets a welcome way to recharge in the wilderness. Ben Rich knows how to deal with this new breed of short-term campers.
greencarreports.com
EVs for Orange: Renault-Nissan closed a deal with French telecommunication giant Orange to deliver 200 Renault Zoe and Kangoo Z.E. as well as Nissan LEAF and E-NV200 by 2015. Orange already has 30 Renault Twizy and plans to use the new arrivals mainly in internal carsharing.
greencarcongress.com, nissan-global.com
Electric Carabinieri: The Italian police acquired 23 Electric Vehicles (formerly known as i-MiEV) from Mitsubishi’s Italian distributor. The electric cars will serve mainly in locations with cultural-historical value.
autosieger.de (in German), gazzetta.it (in Italian)
More H2 for Japan: After Toyota recently started construction of its first public hydrogen station (we reported), Iawtani has announced another one. This first out of 20 planned H2 stations will be located at the Tokyo Tower and is set to be operational by March 2015.
ajw.asahi.com
Saving money is the motivation for Chivas Brother to electrify more of their fleet. The British company currently operates ten EVs and seven hybrids and sees savings of up to 1,600 pounds (2,600 dollars) per car and year already. The switch has been accompanied by advice from the Energy Saving Trust.
fleetnews.co.uk
New charging policies: CarCharging Group has now introduced kilowatt-hour (kWh) pricing on parts of its Blink network. Before, customers where charged for the time it took for the EV to charge rather than for the energy consumed. However, not all states in the U.S. permit the kWh-based pricing.
transportevolved.com, electriccarsreport.com
Discounted home charger: Schneider Electric offers its EVlink 30-Amp Generation 2.5 Level 2 charging station for 499 dollars this month to customers of Home Depot. The code to claim the 100-dollar discount is “EVLINKSUMMER”.
greencarreports.com
“Rapid Chargepoint” initiative: Transport for London and the Energy Saving Trust want to identify potential locations for charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles in London. They have invited business fleets who operate small lorries (up to 12.5 tonnes) and commercial vans to take part in the project. The goal is to further push for businesses to electrify their fleets.
businessgreen.com, fleetnews.co.uk, greenpowertrain.automotive-business-review.com
Hamburg to quadruple charging stations: The North German city wants to have a total of 592 charging points by mid-2016. Of those, 70 will be DC fast chargers. Currently there are 138 across the city. Also, Hamburg’s senate is looking to trade its petrol cars for vehicles with alternative drives. Hamburg aims to become a leader in the field of electric mobility in Germany and expected to have 5,000 EVs on its roads by 2016.
abendblatt.de, spiegel.de (both in German)
Madrid next on Supercharger map: According to a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Superchargers will be installed across southern Europe soon. Spain and Portugal are said to be covered by the end of next year. While the supercharger website was not updated yet, Tesla twittered the newest up-to-date version.
twitter.com via cleantechnica.com
BMW and Schneider Electric partner up: With the introduction of the BMW i3 in South Africa next year, the companies agreed that Schneider Electric will be in charge of installing chargers at dealerships, as well for the installation of wallboxes in customers’ homes. BMW and Schneider Electric have a similar agreement in Germany.
techcentral.co.za, businesstech.co.za
Cincinnati airport gets charging stations: Travellers who leave their car at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) can now use one of six charging stations. Two are located in the long-term parking lot, the others at terminal parking. Parking and charging is free. According to CVG, almost all types of plug-ins can be charged there in about eight hours.
bizjournals.com, local12.com
EVlink charging stations by Schneider Electric are cloud-enabled and can be integrated into the ChargePoint network. The new stations come either for wall or pedestal installation and feature the SAE J1772 connector (Type 1).
greencarcongress.com, altenergymag.com
Smart parking metres: The city of Madrid is installing smart parking metres that will charge drivers differently depending on their type of car and the current local parking demand. Hybrid cars will receive a 20% rebate on the standard rates, whereas electric cars park for free.
theguardian.com
E-Tuk goes USA: Amsterdam-based The Tuk Tuk Factory has secured a deal with e-Tuk USA, which now is the official E-Tuk distributor for the US. The first three vehicles have reached Denver and are currently in the process of gaining certification from the US Department of Transportation.
traveldailymedia.com
Made in Italy: Bicycles from Italy prove to be very popular among buyers in Europe. General export figures increased by 39% in 2013 compared to 2012. Because of anti-dumping duties on China-made bikes, the numbers on E-bike exports were able to rise by 12%.
bike-eu.com
