Allego opens fast-charging hub at Milton Keynes stadium
Allego has opened its first fast-charging hub at a sports venue. The charging hub at MK Dons Stadium in Milton Keynes provides three 300kW chargers.
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UK funds zero-emission buses with £71 m.
The British government is funding five local transport authorities with a total of almost £71 million to support the introduction of up to 335 zero-emission buses as part of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area programme.
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£32Mn in funding for e-buses headed to Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes will see the arrival of 60 new electric buses in 2022 after a £16Mn bid by the MK Council in partnership with Arriva has been successful. Another £16Mn will be available through a special finance arrangement that will be offered to MK, bringing funding to £32Mn, nearly €38Mn.
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Char.gy and Hiyacar start inductive charging trial
In the UK, Char.gy is starting a 12 month wireless EV charging trial to be open to the general public in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Nine additional trials are to take place across Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.
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ViaVan launches fully electric van fleet in Milton Keynes
The ride-sharing provider ViaVan launches its first electric fleet in Great Britain. In the city of Milton Keynes, ViaVan is initially bringing five Mercedes Vito eTourers onto the roads and intends to expand its electric fleet there to 30 EVs by next year.
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UK: IONITY adds HPCs in Milton Keynes
IONITY is continuing the expansion of their UK EV charging network, and has added a 350 kW high power charger to their charging park in Milton Keynes.
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ViaVan plans to use only BEVs as of 2025
ViaVan, the joint venture of Mercedes-Benz Vans and the US startup Via, plans to convert all its locations to purely electric fleets by 2025. In Berlin, only fully electric vans are to be used from the end of 2020.
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UK: BP Chargemaster open large rapid-charge hub
BP Chargemaster and its network arm Polar have opened what they claim to be Britain’s biggest rapid-charge hub in Milton Keynes. Up to eight electric vehicles can charge with up to 50 kW at the multi-standard stations. The set-up uses existing facilities.
Read moreMilton Keynes, Chongqing Lifan Group, Scottland, Brazil, New Delhi.
Free EV parking: The English town of Milton Keynes has created 15,000 free parking spaces for electric vehicles with a Green Parking Permit. Funded by the “Go Ultra Low Cities” initiative, the spaces are only the first step in a multi-stage plan, which will includes the addition of charging hubs, residential chargers, and bus lanes access.
fleetnews.co.uk, autocar.co.uk
World’s biggest carsharing: Chinese Chongqing Lifan Group hopes to roll out the world’s largest carsharing scheme from next year, reaching a 300,000 electric car fleet by 2020. The company will use Lifan 300EV2 cars, which the manufacturer claims can be recharged in three minutes.
chinadaily.com
Scottish Borders fleet: The Scottish Borders Council used 87,000 pounds worth of government funding to purchase six electric vehicles. Two of the cars will be for social care staff and three for the council’s waste, neighbourhood services, and contracts staff.
holyrood.com
Brazil receives bus: The Brazilian city of Curitiba has received its first Volvo electric hybrid bus as part of Volvo’s electro-mobility project in Latin America. The vehicle comes with Zone Management, which allows areas where the bus can drive 100 percent electric to be defined and for the operator to limit the bus’ maximum speed in regions with high pedestrian traffic.
automotiveworld.com
New Delhi to hire fleet: The Union Transport Ministry in New Delhi has invited bids for hybrid and electric cars to be used by officials. They plan to hire at least 20 cars in each category for one year, with the possibility of extending the contract another year. Some criticise that the move may discourage taxi companies for investing in greener fleets.
livemint.com
United Kingdom, Honda + GM, Delaware, Milton Keynes.
75m for electric transport: The British government and industry awarded almost 75m pounds to five projects. The biggest bulk (46.5m GBP) goes to the London Taxi Corporation to develop electric cabs. Morgan Motors receives funding to develop hybrid- and electric drives for sports cars, while AGM Batteries is working on battery packs. Parker Hannifin looks at electric forklifts and last, Jaguar Land Rover receives 13.1m GBP for turbocharger supply in the UK.
gov.uk
Joint fuel cell production: Honda and GM will set up a joint fuel cell production facility. The firms have been working together on the technology since 2013 and aim for a mass market eco car. The move is expected to decrease costs. Serial production of fuel cells will start by 2025 at the latest.
asahi.com
Fuel cell price break: A team from the University of Delaware was able to replace platinum catalysts with cheaper nickel ones, switching the operating environment from acidic to basic. The resulting hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell is hoped to considerably bring down cost of FCVs.
phys.org, greencarcongress.com
EV testing facility: Milton Keynes continues to bolster its smart city approach, opening a new testing centre for electric and hybrid vehicles. The Intertek facility has the biggest capacity in Great Britain and includes battery simulators and emissions measurement equipment.
miltonkeynes.co.uk, businesscar.co.uk
Graz, Long Beach, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Basel, eMotorWerks.
Electric buses for Austria: Holding Graz plans to electrify its entire bus fleet with the help of Chinese CSR. The latter builds buses with supercaps which are fast-charged within seconds at every second stop. Testing will begin in 2016 and if successful, Graz could see electric buses only.
steiermark.orf.at (in German)
New BYD orders: After a long bidding war, BYD won the contract in Californian Long Beach for the delivery of ten electric buses with options for 50 more. In total, the Chinese manufacturer hopes to sell about 200 electric buses in the States this year. Across the pond, another order over 13 electric buses has been placed by British Nottingham.
bloomberg.com (Long Beach), insideevs.com (Nottingham)
Free EV loan: Chargemaster is offering businesses in Milton Keynes electric cars for free. Two Nissan Leafs and a Renault Zoe are available to borrow for two weeks at a time and can be charged at over 200 charge points in the city for free.
mkweb.co.uk
Basel charged up: The utility of the Swiss city of Basel, IWB, plans to install 20 charging stations by the end of 2016. Four have already been set up in Basel and one in the neighbouring community Riehen.
iwb.ch (in German)
Smart kickstart: eMotorWerks says it has delivered over 3,500 JuiceBox charging stations and expects volumes to double this year. The company started trading its low-cost charging station kit in late 2013 after a successful crowdfunding campaign.
marketwatch.com
Lutz Pathfinder, Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation.
Video tip: With more than 20 sensors, including cameras, lidar and radar, the all-electric two-seater Lutz Pathfinder could roam the streets of the UK all by itself. Except that driverless cars are not yet allowed in Great Britain. But it is quite an eyecatcher, even on the track in Milton Keynes.
aol.com
Book tip: In his book “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation,” Tony Sheba predicts that the oil industry and electric utilities will be gone by 2030, because technological trends such as renewable energy, energy storage, EVs and autonomous vehicles build on and reinforce one another, making these older industries obsolete.
greencarreports.com
Milton Keynes, Greenwich, Gallium Nitride, London, ALABC.
Autonomous and electric: In the UK, five pilot projects with self-driving vehicles launched this Wednesday. In Milton Keynes, three electric pods named “Lutz Pathfinder” connect the main station with the city centre. And tourists visiting Greenwich can now take a seat in driverless electric shuttle buses.
transportevolved.com, theguardian.com, gov.uk, citymetric.com (pictures)
On-board charging: Fiat-Chrysler company FCA US, Delta Products, Transphorm and Virginia Tech together are developing an efficient 6.6kW bidirectional on-board charger for PEVs based on Gallium Nitride power switches. The U.S. Department of Energy supports the project with 3 million dollars.
greencarcongress.com
The Metrocab is now roaming the streets of London as the range-extended electric taxi has just been approved by Transport for London (TfL) to carry paying passengers. Made by British Frazer-Nash Research and Ecotive, the new black cab comes with panoramic glass roof and as a six-seater plus an optional front passenger’s seat. A trial is currently being run in Hackney, East London.
hybridcars.com (with video), taxileaks.de
48V mild hybrids: The Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) showcased three hybrid electric concept vehicles resulting from its R&D program that demonstrate the real-world potential of lead-carbon batteries in 48V architectures. Two of the cars were produced in association with major OEMs (Ford and Hyundai/Kia).
greencarcongress.com
– Feedback –
Most clicked link on Wednesday was the report from industry insider Georg Kacher on the upcoming BMW i5/i7.
carmagazine.co.uk
V2G, Manila, Chicago, Indiana, Milton Keynes.
V2G project: The Air Force unveiled the Department of Defense’s first non-tactical vehicle fleet composed entirely of plug-in electric vehicles in Los Angeles. The PEV fleet includes both electric and hybrid vehicles ranging from sedans to trucks and a 12-passenger van. The vehicles include vehicle-to-grid technology, allowing them to feed energy back into the grid when not being used.
puregreencars.com, greencarcongress.com
200 hybrid buses for Manila: Operator Green Frog said it will be investing 1.2 billion Philippine peso (26.7 million USD) to service 20 more routes with electric-diesel buses in the Philippine capital of Manila. The company currently operates eight hybrid buses.
mb.com.ph
Free charging in Chicago: Nissan has kicked-off its “No Charge to Charge” programme in the mid-western city. Buyers of the Nissan Leaf will have free access to 17 rapid-chargers installed in the region for two years. By mid-January about 30 chargers will be operating.
chicagotribune.com, businesswire.com
EVs charge for free: An Indiana utility charges homeowners nothing to charge their electric car at home overnight. Moreover, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company offers a subsidy of up to 1,650 dollars to registered electric-car owners who install a separate meter just for EV charging – a grant that in some cases covers the entire installation.
greencarreports.com
Smart Cities: Indiana-based Mahindra Tech has teamed up with The Open University and Milton Keynes Council to transform the British city Milton Keynes into a smart city. The focus is on transportation, electric vehicles, connected ecosystems and internet of things.
cbronline.com, myiris.com
Milton Keynes, A2B, Naperville, AAA.
Let’s take the Pod: Funded by the UK government with 1.5 million pounds (2.47m dollars), 20 of these all-electric, autonomous driving machines on rails will be installed in Milton Keynes in 2015. Each Pod seats two and will transport people from the train station into the city centre. If the trial is successful, the government plans on putting 100 of the pods in service by 2017.
earthtechling.com
A2B takes over Electric Bicycle Network: The latter had counted some 5,000 e-bike rentals in the UK per year, especially to tourists in national parks. With the acquisition, A2B, an electric bicycle brand by Hero Cycles, hopes to extend cooperations with other tourism networks and therefore rental business of its e-bikes in the UK.
bikebiz.com
Naperville to get two new charging stations: Due to high demand, EV drivers have to queue before they can get power at the only existing charging point in the small town in Illinois. Even after a 1.50 dollar charging fee was introduced in 2013, the station remains overrun. The local government will now install two further chargers.
greencarreports.com
Extreme weather range: According to a new study by the American roadside assistance firm AAA, the range of EVs can drop by almost 60% in extreme cold and drop by 33% in extreme heat. In their research centre, the Nissan LEAF, Ford Focus EV and a Mitsubishi i-MiEV were put to the test.
thegreencarwebsite.co.uk
New York City, Milton Keynes, Sri Lanka.
NYC loves BYD: ‘It performed excellent’ is the verdict of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City, USA, after a two-months trial of a BYD electric bus. During testing, the e-bus covered 1,481 miles in Manhattan serving on different routes and could operate up to 30 hours on one charge in heavy traffic. The final report is now being distributed.
electriccarsreport.com, puregreencars.com
Recharge over a ‘cuppa’: The British town of Milton Keynes has now started a five-year trial of eight electric busses supported by Arup, Mitsui and the Borough‘s council. The vehicles will be charged wirelessly via two charging plates and shall recover 2/3 of their energy during the drivers‘ 10-minute tea breaks.
bbc.co.uk, businessgreen.com, thegreencarwebsite.co.uk
Sri Lanka to strengthen electric transport: The island state off the southern Indian coast plans to expand its network of charging stations and to import more EVs. The largest vehicle importers’ organisation believes that EVs will become a trend in 2014. Furthermore, a 100% cash margin on vehicle imports has just been withdrawn.
green.autoblog.com
