Enel earmarks 300m for EV infrastructure: Enel plans to establish a dedicated e-mobility unit within months to oversee its network of charging stations with 300m euros in its back. The Italian utility recently embarked on the EU project EVA+ together with Renault, Nissan, VW and BMW, that plans 200 multi-standard fast-chargers in Italy and Austria. tt.com (in German)
Go fun in Beijing: 5,000 additional electric cars shall enter EV sharing service GoFun in Beijing by 2018. A reasonable move given the capital’s ban on gas guzzlers that is unlikely to lessen. GoFun’s fleet in Beijing is 1,100 EV strong but the company ventured to three more Chinese cities already. thebeijinger.com
EV parking privilege to end? Philadelphia has secured free parking for electric cars since a decade but this programme may come to an end now. New permits are left pending as the council awaits a decision on whether to continue or to ax the scheme. philly.com
Hydrogen in NYC: Air Liquide said it will install two H2 charging station in New York. Planned in Brooklyn and Hempstead, the FCV stops shall go live in the second half of 2017. gasworld.com
San Diego doubles charging capacity: San Diego city completed a project that increased the number of EV charging stations at public locations to 57, while the number of ports for vehicles to plug into jumped from 32 to 68. kpbs.org
Utility kicks off charging offensive: Italian utility Enel wants to set up some 11,000 bi-directional chargers for electric vehicles in the next three years. EV drivers could then not only get energy, but also feed some back into the grid for monetary compensation. dailymail.co.uk
Good for the grid: As part of the project Smart Mobile Energy, Berlin, Birmingham and Valencia will look at the integration of V2G technology and using EVs as short time energy storage. The goal is to increase energy efficiency, lower CO2 emissions and help build new business models. autovolt-magazine.com, transportxtra.com
Belectric changes name to chargeIT mobility: The new name is said to help the infrastructure provider to become a leading providers of operating systems for EV chargers. IT solutions are becoming more and more important, the company stressed. pressebox.de
Bosch presents new charger: The company now offers two new level 2 chargers in the U.S. – the Power Max 2 and Power Max 2Plus. Both are available with 7.2 or 9.6 kW and start at 674 dollars. chargedevs.com
e-clearing.net grows its network: Dutch roaming network eViolin will add its 140,000 charge card holders and 40,000 charging stations to Smartlab’s European roaming-platform “e-clearing.net.” For Smartlab, it will open the door of the Dutch market, giving its customers access to one of the largest e-mobility networks worldwide. pressebox.de
Fastned with intelligent trip planer: The Dutch charging network provider now offers a trip planer in its app (and on the desktop) that not only shows the quickest way from A to B, but will also add stops for fast-charging at Fastned locations to the calculation. The planer will also take remaining range, car efficiency and traffic into account. fastnedcharging.com
E-Trike programme scrapped: The Philippines had planned to use 500m dollars to replace some 100,000 old trikes with electric ones. But due to the lack of interest from buyers and high production cost, the undertaking has come to a halt. More than the 1,600 units already built will not be produced. thestandard.com.ph
car2go leaves San Diego: The carsharer had replaced its electric Smarts with conventional ones in Mai (we reported), hoping to make the offering more attractive to customers. But the change in drivetrain did not spur a change of heart. car2go now announced that it will leave the California city at the end of the year. autoblog.com, 10news.com
EV plus charger: Enel and Nissan now offer the “E-go All Inclusive” in Italy. For just 299 euros per month for three years, customers will get a 30 kWh Nissan Leaf and homecharger from Enel, including installation. The two even through in a new charging app. At the end of the agreement, customers can decide to return the Leaf or refinance the remaining cost. newswiretoday.com
Diesel-gate to do good in Denver: Colorado’s capital will acquire 200 plug-in vehicles before the decade’s end as it replaces the city’s ageing fleet. It further hopes to invest part of the 61.3m dollars given to Colorado from the VW settlement fund in adding charging stations. The electric cars may be 80 percent funded by the Charge Ahead Colorado grant programme. denverpost.com
Mercedes car sharing open to all: Daimler launched a private car sharing app, which will go live in Munich at the beginning of next month. Croove is to be open to all brands and shall unite car owners with those wishing to hire. Mercedes calls it an “Air Bnb on wheels” and has connected the platform to its own payment platform already. Sharing is commercial once more. forbes.com, daimler.com
Charging Austria and Italy will be Enel that has won a European tender to install 200 electric vehicle charging stations along the motorways. 20 will be erected in the Alpine republic with the rest destined to line the Italian highways. The project is to start within weeks. finanzen.at (in German)
Clean move: Bury Council added two electric vans to its fleet, which already includes an electric sweeper and tipper for collecting litter. The EVs will be used by the street cleaning and disability services and replace diesel models. The council receives 5,000 GBP per EV from the UK government. burytimes.co.uk
Carbon tax: Sri Lanka will reduce excise duty and subsidise interest rate on loans to buy electric vehicles with a power of less than 100 kW. The move is designed to replace rickshaws with electric ones, while a carbon tax will be imposed on vehicles other than electric cars and tractors. The initiative is limited to 1,000 units for now. economynext.com
2nd life for Nissan batteries: To give EV batteries a second life, Nissan teams up with Eaton. The power electronics specialist will take care of energy management in stationary energy storage units built from Nissan EV batteries. Another initiative with utility Enel will see electric Nissans serving as mobile energy sources in smart grid applications. automotiveworld.com (stationary), automotiveworld.com (mobile)
Battery recycling: Peugeot and Citroën batteries are not destined for a second life but for transformation as PSA has charged French SNAM to recycle electric and hybrid car batteries. SNAM is to collect the packs from European dealerships and garages to then single out materials for reuse. businesswire.com
Solid-state advance: Hitachi and the Tohoku University present technology that reduces the internal resistance of solid-state lithium ion batteries through the use of LiBH4-based complex hydrides as solid electrolytes. The research led to thermally durable solid-state Li-ion batteries. greencarcongress.com, hitachi.com
Power-to-Hydrogen pilot: Volvo subsidiary Powercell Sweden looks into the development of a system to store surplus energy from renewable sources as hydrogen to be used for fuel cells to provide electricity. The feasibility study could result in a demonstration project in 2016 and is conducted together with Wallenstam AB, Midroc Automation AB and Hydrogen Sweden. greencarcongress.com
– Feedback –
Most clicked link on Tuesday was Panasonic’s new e-bike dubbed Bibi ELE-432. autoevolution.com
New electric mobility alliance: Chinese communications provider ZTE will cooperate with Enel, Italy’s largest utility. The companies want to work together across different areas such as innovative solutions for recharging electric vehicles, smart grids and renewable energies. smartenergyuniverse.com, elp.com
Crowd-funded charging points: As we reported, the English provider of charging technology Pod Point had launched a crowdfunding campaign to expand its EV charging network across the UK – and they succeeded! The 1.2 million pound mark has been reached within just a few days. bdaily.co.uk, techcitynews.com
XL Hybrids retrofits Boston vans: A total of four city-owned vans have been retrofitted with the XL3 Hybrid Electric Drive System. The U.S. city aims to replace ten percent of its fleet with alternative fuel cars every year, in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. greencarcongress.com, businesswire.com
Hyundai installs hydrogen station in Australia: It will be the country’s first hydrogen refuelling point. In other words, fuel cell technology won’t arrive on the country’s shores too soon. In order to further develop infrastructure, Hyundai says, the Australian government needs to step up to the task. carsguide.com.au, performancedrive.com.au
Supercharger update: Put together, Europe and Asia now count more Tesla-chargers than the U.S. So far, 109 Superchargers have been installed in Europe, 42 in Asia and 140 across the United States. insideevs.com, teslamotors.com
Six pro EV bills in a row have just been signed by California’s governor Jerry Brown. Electric vehicles now get free or cheaper access to newly introduced high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, while more HOV stickers for plug-in hybrids have been made available. Low-income communities were promised easier access to EVs while renters now got the right to install chargers at their temporary homes. greencarcongress.com, insideevs.com
Tribal EVs: The Kashia tribe of Sonoma County, California, purchased two Toyota RAV4 EVs and two plug-in hybrid Ford C-Max Energis. The EVs serve Kashia’s Department of Environmental Planning. Additionally, six charging stations will be installed in both remote and urban areas. insideevs.com, sonomacountygazette.com
Mitsubishi in Laos: Mitsubishi’s importer in Lao just recently donated two i-MiEV to the Southeast Asian country’s government. The gesture is part of the Japanese company’s expansion into new markets. In Lao, hopes lie on green electricity generated through the country’s large rivers. ecoseed.org
Hubject goes south: The Berlin-based IT platform operator for charging infrastructure expands its European network once more by signing an agreement with Enel. The latter operates about 1,600 EV charge points in Italy and Spain which will become part of the eRoaming framework that now allows charging at 5,000 stations. hubject.com
Tesla to lease: British Ogilvie Fleet took delivery of two Model S that came together with two charge points at the company’s Stirling head quarters. The Teslas are available to the directors, staff as well as customers of the leasing company. fleetnews.co.uk
2nd life for Nissan batteries: To give EV batteries a second life, Nissan teams up with Eaton. The power electronics specialist will take care of energy management in stationary energy storage units built from Nissan EV batteries. Another initiative with utility Enel will see electric Nissans serving as mobile energy sources in smart grid applications.