Tel Aviv is currently drawing up a strategic plan for the electrification of traffic in the Israeli city. This also includes banning “polluting vehicles” from Tel Aviv as of 2025. In the rest of the country, combustion engines will also be inexorably facing extinction.
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BMW is not the usual carmaker given they have made an earnest effort to deliver, well one so far, electric car as early as 2013. While they are also gearing up to deliver more PEVs in future, they have not yet let go of their gas guzzling past as this truly unfortunate slogan shows.
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In a call to action, the Mayor of London and cross-party leaders will urge the British government to end pure diesel and petrol sales in 2030, ten years earlier than planned. Together they are representing around 20m people from across England and Wales.
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The government of Brussels has agreed to a plan by the Minister of the Environment, Céline Fremault, to introduce a diesel ban in Belgium’s capital from 2030. The government also considers measures against petrol cars and is in favour of electric options.
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The EU Commission is getting tough and has announced to take six European states, among them France, Germany, and Britain to the EU Court of Justice for failing to respect air quality limits. They had been introduced in 2005 and 2010 and warnings had preceded the case.
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London’s mayor Sadiq Khan says he considers bringing the planned Zero Emission Zones (ZEZ) in the British capital forward from 2025 to 2020. This acceleration is down to local businesses and authorities that want to speed up adoption of electric vehicles.
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The centre-left government in Stockholm has given Sweden’s towns and cities the green light to decide to ban old cars. Local policies may prohibit vehicles below Euro 5 to drive into town from 2020 with all-electric rules being an option too.
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Paris may provide free public transport if a motion by Mayor Anne Hildago overcomes the opposition. A feasibility study is to see whether such a measure would motivate more people to take the Métro. Paris transport authority IDFM, rejected the proposal despite other examples from Europe.
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Tesla has to pay a fine in California as authorities found the EV maker guilty polluting the air in excess. It was not the all-electric Tesla cars emitting particles but the factory where they are made.
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The Belgian capital has passed a law which will make public transport and the bike sharing programme free on high pollution days. The law will also cut speed limits. Temporary ICE bans are also possible.
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The new German government is thinking to make public transport in cities free of charge for everybody in an attempt to clear the air with Brussels. The EU Commission threatens to file a lawsuit against Germany after cities continue to fail to stay within emission limits.
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Plug-in fuel cell hybrid: The Mercedes GLC F-Cell will feature a battery pack that can be charged externally and inductively. It complements two hydrogen tanks with enough hydrogen for 280 miles. The power pack adds another 30 miles of electric driving and makes the GLC the first fuel cell PHEV. Launch is set for next year. 2017 is also to see a face lifted S-Class with a plug-in hybrid variant featuring a 13.5 kWh battery rather than the previous 8.7 kWh. The doubling in capacity is said to last for 30 miles.
autocar.co.uk (GLC), autocar.co.uk (S-class)
London black cabs EU bound: The electric version of the iconic British taxi is seeking its very own Brexit as Geely pitches to Paris, Oslo, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Berlin. The TX5 prototype currently on display in the French capital could hit the Parisian roads already by 2018.
bloomberg.com, europe.autonews.com
Emission excess: Air pollution is still higher than its legal limit in 10 of 28 EU Member States. Data from the European Environment Agency (EEA) names emissions from road transport and agriculture as the worst offenders. Germany exceeded three out of its four emission ceilings in 2014.
greencarcongress.com
Suspension scandal suspended: Tesla has reacted to allegations of a failing Model S suspension and a wilful cover up. The story goes back to one model, which is driven on a dirt road daily, and has been spun further by the owner of the discontinued ‘Tesla Death Watch’ blog. NHTSA has been looking into the matter and has not found a recurring fault so far.
electrek.co, insideevs.com, teslamotors.com
Almost there: The Solar Impulse made it to New York, where it circled the Statue of Liberty on Saturday night. The solar-powered plane is now waiting for favourable weather conditions to start the last leg of its circumvention of the globe, the crossing of the Atlantic.
bbc.com
VW to electrify commercial vehicles: Volkswagen thinks about offering the Caddy and T-series as electric variants but only if the required technology becomes available at a reasonable price point. The Amarok however, is excluded from the modernising effort.
automobilwoche.de (in German)