Renault and Nissan are investing around 600 million dollars in India to produce six new models at their joint plant in Chennai. These will include the first two electric cars companies will build in India.
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Mercedes-Benz has announced the introduction of the T-Class for the first half of 2022. This will be a compact van for private customers, which will be produced in cooperation with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and will also be available in a purely electric version.
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The UK-based taxi operator City Taxis announced plans to roll out 1,500 new vehicles and become one of the first firms in Europe to go fully electric. They plan to make the shift to electric cars by 2025 with cars from Nissan in Sheffield.
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Renault-Nissan and Daimler may make some cooperative efforts to include battery and autonomous driving technology. At least their executives, namely Carlos Ghosn and Dieter Zetsche saw chances to work more closely together when speaking to the press in Paris.
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The alliance of Daimler, Ford and Renault-Nissan working on commercialising a fuel cell car has hit a road block as Renault-Nissan pull out. The partners had aimed to develop shared components but now decided to focus on electric cars first.
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The EU Commission has made a deal with 8 partners to review regulations governing EV battery recycling and reuse scenarios. Among the signees is the Renault-Nissan Alliance next to ministers from both France and the Netherlands.
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Charging at service stations by law: Great Britain wants to oblige service station providers to install EV charging points. This claim is part of a new law for electrified and autonomous vehicles, announced during the course of the traditional “Queen’s Speech” in parliament.
fleetnews.co.uk, electrek.co
Big deal for Tritium: The Australian quick charging manufacturer says to have won a tender of utility Stromnetz Hamburg. Tritium has until October to supply 52 units of its quick-charger Vefill, that provides a 11kW AC output and is compatible with CHAdeMO and CCS.
electriccarsreport.com, tritium.com.au
Autonomous EV sharing by Renault-Nissan: The Franco-Japanese alliance wants to build up ride sharing services with self-driving EVs. Ogi Redzic, head of Renault-Nissan’s Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services division said, this new business line shall kick-off “certainly within 10 years.”
europe.autonews.com
Volvo’s biggest electric bus order to date has been handed in by Swedish Malmö. The city ordered 13 Volvo 7900 Electric that shall roll on Malmö’s streets by late 2018. According to Volvo, this is the biggest individual order for the 7900 Electric it ever received.
volvobuses.com
Europe’s biggest cargo bike sharing: Green Moves Rheinland, a subsidiary of eco energy provider Naturstrom, wants to kick-off the biggest rental programme for electric cargo bikes in Europe, namely in Cologne. Donk-EE will be presented at June, 28 with further details to follow only afterwards.
presseportal.de (in German)
Two Honda BEVs to come: This autumn, Honda intends to introduce a fully electrified vehicle based on the manufacturer’s new EV platform. More details have not yet been provided, but it will likely be the Clarity BEV and it will most likely debut at the IAA in Frankfurt. For the Chinese market, Honda is to launch an additional BEV in 2018. Furthermore, the Japanese carmaker confirmed that by 2030 it wants two-thirds of its global sales to be made up of electrified cars. This strategy also includes research on fast and wireless charging systems.
autoexpress.co.uk
Renault to challenge utility companies? Renault-Nissan and British Powervault recently announced their cooperation to give EV batteries a second life and stationery home. Now the French carmaker goes a step further and plans to team up with energy storage specialist The Mobility House in order to build a huge power storage plant in Europe reusing batteries from EVs. With a capacity of 100MW, the “mega battery” shall be big enough to power 120,000 homes and could thus replace a coal power station. The project is at “study phase” according to Renault to determine where to build the plant.
reuters.com
Semi serious: Serial production of Tesla’s electric truck Semi could start in 18 to 24 months, states Elon Musk with the prototype to go on display this September as planned. Meanwhile, the EV maker’s stock reached another record high with shares being worth 360 dollars each. It thus comes as no surprise, Tesla made it on the Fortune 500 list of companies with the highest-revenue worldwide.
electrek.co (Tesla Semi), electrek.co (shares, Fortune 500)
New capital for Alta Motors: The Californian electric bike manufacturer raised a total of 27m dollars in its latest rounds of financing. The funds shall be invested in an expansion of a manufacturing and R&D facility in Brisbane and in further research of the company’s light electric vehicle technology.
prnewswire.com
Number plates for EVs in Korea: BEVs and FCVs shall be easy to identify in South Korea and that is why they get to bear blue number plates. Thanks to sensors recognising the colour, drivers of these vehicles are supposed to automatically pay less parking and toll charges.
koreaherald.com
Electric Tata Tiago? Tata Motors’ first EV reaching market maturity could be an electric version of the Tiago hatchback, Autocar India has learnt. More details have not been revealed, but it seems obvious that India’s recent push towards electric vehicles has hurried Tata’s plans to launch an electric line-up.
autocarindia.com
Siemens to mass produce Uniti: Swedish start-up Uniti has just become serious about building its biodegradable compact EV as Siemens jumped on board. The initially crowdfunded company that received 1.2m euros, thus enters the realm of mass production that may start as early as next year, when 50,000 LEV could roll off the lines to be delivered by 2019. In order to do so, a fully automated factory will be build in either Malmö or Landskrona and Siemens has invested 3m euros in the company to date. The L7e vehicle weighs just 400 kilos and is planned with a range of either 150 or 300 km at a price from 200,000 kronas (21,000 euros). Battery options are 11 or 22 kWh while speed is capped at 90 to 120 kph – just in line with the speed limits on Swedish highways.
nordic.businessinsider.com, digital.di.se (in Swedish), youtube.com (Uniti video update)
Renault-Nissan to form LCV unit: The alliance has created a new business unit to combine its light commercial vehicle activities, including those of Mitsubishi. As partners, they will leverage complementary markets and products while maintaining their own brand identity. Two electric vans exist already with the Nissan e-NV200 and Renault Kangoo Z.E., plus Renault said it would electrify the Master model within this year reportedly.
commercialfleet.org, alliance-renault-nissan.com
First drive: Get a taste of the Jaguar I-Pace with this review by Matt Saunders. He found the electric SUV concept “stunning” and is delighted the team is working on a production version as they prototype.
autocar.co.uk
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VW’s redemption starts: CARB has received the first 200m dollar instalment from Volkswagen as part of a plan on how to spend the money to serve ZEV. About 120m dollars shall be spend in California on EV charging infrastructure over the next 30 months following the diesel fraud, the rest is for EV demonstration purposes according to the plan, which the regulators have to accept first.
greencarcongress.com, arb.ca.gov (investment plan, pdf)
The ecological onslaught of the Trump administration continues as it seeks to roll back fuel economy regulations. This is welcomed by carmakers, who had lobbied against EPA rules under President Obama, but feared by environmentalists. The move to reopen the review has yet to be made officially.
bloomberg.com
Acura hybrid: There is a new hybrid out there, the 2017 Acura MDX Sport Hybrid. It uses a V6 engine and three electric motors to produce a total system output of 321 hp. Prices start from 51,960 dollars.
carscoops.com
Entirely new EV platform: Renault-Nissan is preparing a new platform for future electric vehicles. Due in 2020, the base shall incorporate fast-charging, high density batteries, according to Challenges. An official announcement is set within the framework of an upcoming technology alliance with Mitsubishi. But the article comtained yet another goodie – the 8,000 dollar EV Nissan plans to make for China may reach the European market as well.
challenges.fr (in French)
Great Wall to invest $9bn in green tech: Chinese carmaker Great Wall plans to invest 60bn yuan (8,7bn USD) to develop new energy vehicles, including FCV and plug-in hybrids, CEO Wang Fengying promised. Part of the push is to build facilities capable of producing 600,000 electrified cars a year.
nikkei.com
Porsche progresses on its Mission E and said the electric model will be offered in various variants with differing power outputs. Over the air updates like Tesla’s are planned as well once the Mission E hits the road in 2019. For now, prototype testing is scheduled for this summer.
autocar.co.uk
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Leaf in black: Nissan has launched a short run Black Edition variant of its Nissan Leaf in Great Britain, where prices start from 26,890 GBP after incentives. The limited edition model is on sale from March for a restricted production run up until August 2017.
fleetnews.co.uk
State tax credit for Rivian: Start-up Rivian Automotive receives 50m dollar state tax credit from Illinois, where it recently reutilised a former Mitsubishi facility. The plan is to mass produce electric cars there from 2019. The state funding has been approved provided Rivian creates 1,000 jobs within 10 years.
teslarati.com
The EV market in South Korea welcomes Tesla this week as the Californians will open two showrooms and announced deliveries to start by June. BMW too went east and opened the order books for its i3 94 Ah. In a more public move, BYD is to start selling its electric buses in Korea from July.
yonhapnews.co.kr (Tesla), koreaherald.com (BMW), chosun.com (BYD)
When two become one: The next generation of Renault’s and Nissan’s electric car models will be built on a joint platform, Automotive News reports, quoting Arnaud Deboeuf, vice-president of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. There is no official time table, but according to French media, the 2020 Renault Zoe could be the first model based on the EV platform. Meanwhile, Nissan still has to decide whether to continue producing its own batter cells or purchase them.
autonews.com
Low cost Renault SUV for China? Renault’s announced 8,000-dollar EV for China (we reported) could be an electric variant of the small Kwid SUV, Avere France speculates. To keep costs low, the carmaker is allegedly planning on using a smaller battery pack allowing for 100 km of range. An electric version of the Master transporter could also be in the pipelines.
avere-france.org (in French)
It’s settled: Tesla has come to an agreement with customers in Norway, who said Tesla’s claims about the output of its all-wheel drive models were misleading as the carmaker simply added the output of both electric motors together (we reported). That may work in theory, but not reality. There are no official statements about the settlement, but according to Norwegian media, customers could choose between a power upgrade or cash.
electrek.co
Suzuki premiers full hybrid: The carmaker is electrifying its portfolio and now offers its first full-hybrid in Japan. The Solio minivan starts at around 2m yen (about 17,365 dollars).
japantoday.com
Ready to go: Newly released photos seem to show the serial production version of the Baojun E100, a new electric car from the joint venture between SAIC, GM and Wuling in China. The small EV is to hit to road in China in January, after it was already expected to debut in September.
carnewschina.com
Test drive: Autocar got to test the BMW 330e iPerformance. While author Matt Saunders enjoyed his ride and liked the handling of the car, he criticised the BMW’s claimed all-electric range of 25 miles. He managed to only get 14 miles, which is “not great.”
autocar.co.uk
100,000 BMWi sold: Three years after launching the i-series, BMW has sold more than 100,000 electric and plug-in hybrid models worldwide. The BMW i3 sold 60,000 times, with the i8 billing another 10,000. The remaining 30,000 PHEV were sold via the iPerformance label.
greencarcongress.com, bmwgroup.com
8,000-dollar EV for China: Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn plans to tackle the Chinese market with an ultra-low priced EV. 8,000 dollars without incentives would redefine the idea of a low-cost or competitively priced electric car and would indeed “change the game,” as he put it.
autonews.com
Rimac is serious about its “Automobili” and intends to build a facility to serially produce electric cars, as well as batteries. Details remain scarce, as the Croatians are in the middle of a new round of financing and will wait until its completion to make further announcements.
poslovni.hr (in Croatian) via total-croatia-news.com
Daimler distributes its stationery batteries in the U.S. through Mercedes-Benz Energy Americas. The new firm is to develop and sell energy storage units for both households as well as industrial appliances and will offer first products in the U.S. from spring 2017.
greencarcongress.com, solarnovus.com, daimler.com
Bolt financing terms: Chevy dealerships have received financing terms for GM’s EV at 2.9 percent APR for 60 months. That means the monthly payment is about 18 dollars for every 1,000 dollars financed. After down payment and before subsidies, the monthly payment for the Chevy Volt would thus be around 600 dollars.
hybridcars.com, insideevs.com
Electric buses for Hamburg: The city only wants to buy zero emission vehicles from 2020, which is why Hamburg’s transportation agencies have signed a partnership with bus manufacturer MAN. Together they want to develop especially fit electric and fuel cell buses. MAN will already show an articulated bus concept at the IAA in Frankfurt.
man.eu (in German)
Renault and Nissan in the UK: Renault delivered 55 Zoe to Europcar UK, which is looking to electrify 5 percent of its fleet by 2020. It is Renault’s biggest order in the UK to date. Nissan meanwhile sold its 15,000th Leaf on the Isles and now offers a 500-pound rebate for private buyers of the Leaf or e-NV200 until the end of September.
electriccarsreport.com (Renault), nissaninsider.co.uk (Nissan)
V2G research project is looking for drivers: The successor of the My Electric Avenue programme in the UK, Electric Nation, will look at the effects of EV charging on the local grid. It is still looking for some 500 to 700 EV and PHEV drivers to take part. Participants will get an intelligent charger for free.
fleetnews.co.uk
E-Carsharing: GreenCommuter will kick off its carsharing scheme with 20 Nissan Lean in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the coming weeks. The city has already had an all-electric shuttle bus in service for 26 years.
timesfreepress.com
Paying per mobile: Rolec EV has developed a new management system for EV chargers called ‘EV Charge Online.’ It will allow users to pay via their smartphone when at the charger, getting rid of some of the hassle many EV drivers sill face when plugging-in.
roleserv.com
Tesla truck: The announced semi is apparently already at a testing stage and could be unveiled as early as next year. This might be unknown territory for Tesla, but project manager Jerome Guillen, who was in charge of developing trucks at Daimler, brings enough experience to the team. Some media are still a little sceptical about Tesla’s trucking ambitions.
electrek.co, insideevs.com, businessinsider.de
Exclusive E-Morgan: The British automaker and high-end department store Selfridge are working together on a special edition of the three-wheeler. In honour of the year 1909, in which both companies were founded, only 19 units will be available. The electric motor stays the same, but bronze features are said to make it unique.
carscoops.com, youtube.com
China “pays court” to battery makers: The government wants to lure in more investments and know-how from international battery makers and suspends the need to form joint ventures in the free trade zones of Shanghai, Guandong, Tinjian and Fujian. Other sectors are hoping for a similar relaxation of rules.
automobil-produktion.de, insideevs.com
Battery JV for Leo Motors: The supplier has founded a Chinese subsidiary together with Zhong Ji Well Parking System. The goal is to enter the field of battery production and electric boats. Leo Motors contributes its know-how about electric drivetrains, e-boats and networks.
baystreet.ca
Renault-Nissan promotes sustainability: The alliance is the newest member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Other automotive OEMs already include BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota and Ford.
greencarcongress.com
Autopilot saves life: One driver from Washington, DC, was more than happy that he had the Autopilot activated. So was the pedestrian that he would have otherwise run over. Tesla confirmed that the system had saved the pedestrian’s life or prevented injury through the vehicle logs.
electrek.co
Audi manager signs with Tesla: Peter Hochholdinger, the former Senior Director of Production of Audi’s A4, A5, and Q5, joined the EV team as VP of Vehicle Production. He will be responsible for speeding up Model S and Model X production and for getting the Model 3 manufacturing programme off the ground. Hochholdinger replaces Greg Reichow, who left Tesla earlier this month. Josh Ensign, ex Tesla VP of manufacturing, has not been replaced yet.
electrek.co, autoblog.com
Bolt production kick-off? GM previously announced that it would begin building its all-electric Chevy Volt from October of this year at the Orion assembly plant, but has since removed the news from its website. Hybrid Cars asked the manufacturer to confirm those plans, but the latter simply referred to the previously announced timeline of “late 2016.”
hybridcars.com electrek.co
Phideon spotted: Though the VW Phideon is destined for the Chinese market, the luxury limousine was spotted on the streets of Hamburg, Germany, earlier this week. Why the vehicle was in the area remains unclear. The Phideon is said to be available as a plug-in hybrid in China.
autobild.de (in German)
Plans for China: Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, expressed the need for both low and high spec vehicles for the Chinese market. Nissan will be producing a low spec EV with its Chinese partner Dongfeng, while Renault will launch its Freelance Electric in China, which falls more in the high spec category.
insidedevs.com
Range accuracy: The upcoming Tesla update is set to provide more accurate range predictions, but no further details nor the date of the over-the-air update have been announced so far. The 6.2 update and related features were already meant to deliver more accuracy, but some inefficiencies are still being reported.
electrek.co
Ciao ELR: Without much ado, Cadillac permanently cancelled production of their 2016 ELR. Production lines were already halted back in February, even though the ELR had just gotten an upgrade.
hybridcars.com
Faulty door suit: Tesla is taking supplier Hoerbiger to court, blaming the latter for the Model X’s faulty falcon doors at resulting delay in production and deliveries. The court date has been set for September 1st in San Jose, California.
automobilwoche.de (in German)
Cash-strapped: Barclays analyst expects Tesla to require a further 3bn dollars sometime in the second quarter to get the Gigafactory and Model 3 production going, leading to an 11 percent increase in outstanding shares.
hybridcars.com
The Model 3 unveiled: After much ado, Elon Musk finally took the wraps off the Model 3 in California. The smaller version of the Model S is said to have an EPA rating of 215 miles and will cost (as promised) 35,000 dollars. The base version of the EV will go from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds, while there are versions “that can go much faster.” Autopilot hardware also comes standard, as do supercharging capabilities, even though Musk did not mention whether fast-charging will cost extra. 115,000 units were reserved on March 31st, before the Model 3 had even been unveiled. Production is said to start late 2017, and Musk said that he feels “fairly confident” that deliveries will begin at the end of next year.
youtube.com (Presentation), theverge.com (with video), latimes.com, wired.com, businessinsider.de
Mercedes meets Renault-Nissan: Renault-Nissan and Mercedes producer Daimler plan to expand their partnership, the Handelsblatt reports. The two companies have been working together since 2008, but the new alliance could mean collaboration on electric cars. The carmakers plan to jointly operate a factory in Mexico, and also take additional stakes in each other’s businesses.
global.handelsblatt.com
Skoda expands: As part of a memorandum of understanding with Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Volkswagen. Skoda plans to expand their model range and technologies, and will invest 2bn euros in research and development in the next five years. The Czech automaker hopes to introduce two new SUV variants and one crossover utility vehicle in China.
greenvehicles.automotive-business-review.com
Bans in Mexico: Due to smog, Mexico City is limiting private and federal car usage in the city. Cars will be banned one day every week, as well as one Saturday each month. This follows a level 1 smog alert last month.
examiner.com
Volvo priced: The luxury Volvo XC90 Excellence will cost 106,000 dollars in U.S. This is a huge increase from the XC90 at 44,945 dollars, and the T8 Twin-Engine model at 69,095 dollars. The Excellence will be offered only as a plug-in hybrid. A limited number will be made available in the U.S., as it is primarily designed for the Chinese market.
autoblog.com
Mercedes moves production: Mercedes anticipates further capacity shifts from their South African Daimler production plants to East London. By the end of the year, the Mercedes-Benz C350e, their second plug-in model, will be produced at the East London plant. Investment specifically for the C350e has not yet been finalized, but officials describe the plant as capable of integrating work on hybrid vehicles.
iol.ca.za
A total of 302,000 electric vehicles have been sold by Renault-Nissan worldwide and a record breaking 84,754 units were added only last year. The Nissan Leaf remains the bestseller among EVs and has so far been acquired more than 201,000 times.
bloomberg.com
No German masterplan: The scheduled meeting of Chancellor Merkel and executives of Germany’s biggest carmakers ended without results. While industry bosses continue to call for subsidies for electric cars, the coalition government remains divided. At least German economics minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to propose a masterplan for EV incentives by March.
reuters.com, bloomberg.com
Open to pollution: The EU parliament missed its chance to tighten car emission tests (RDE). MEPs failed to veto a proposal that will allow cars to emit twice the limit of NOx pollution, despite the exemptions being declared unlawful by the parliament’s legal committee. A harmful victory for lobbyists.
theguardian.com, europarl.europa.eu
Cheap EV for China: Renault-Nissan plans to develop a low-price electric car for the Chinese market, CEO Carlos Ghosn announced. The decision follows last year’s low sales of the Venucia e30 – the Chinese Leaf was bought just 1,273 times – which Nissan blames on its comparatively high price.
autonews.com
Tesla faces similar problems, announcing a price drop for the Model X in China. Due to high import tariffs and taxes, the California EVs are considerably more expensive than in America. The Model X 90D for example starts from 961,000 yuan (about 146,000 dollars). Deliveries are said to start in Q2.
insideevs.com
Porsche prototype pictures: The next-gen Cayenne has been spotted. The prototype is still in camouflage but will again be offered as a plug-in hybrid. Meanwhile, the hybrid Panamera has been sighted at its home base in Stuttgart, where it appears almost in its natural state.
worldcarfans.com (Cayenne), carscoops.com (Panamera)
Confirmed: The Caddy ELR will be discontinued. Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen said, the luxurious Volt will not see a second generation. Last year, GM only sold 1,024 units.
autoblog.com, insideevs.com
Video tip I: Nick Sampson of Faraday Future was a little evasive when asked about what the future of start-up’s EV adventure will look like. He did say however, we might get a better idea of what is coming “later in the year.”
youtube.com
Video tip II: Renault Nissan is currently testing the self-driving Leaf in Silicon Valley. The latter provides the ideal testing grounds and Nissan hopes to gain inside and benefit from others’ expertise.
youtube.com
Planning security: The UK Plug-In Grant has been extended until March 2018. But instead of 5,000 pounds, buyers of cars with at least 70 miles of electric range will receive 4,500 pounds. Plug-in hybrids are eligible for 2,500 pounds if their price is below 60,000 pounds. The grant to install a home charging station has been reduced to from 700 to 500 pounds. The changes will come into force by March 2016.
fleetnews.co.uk, autocar.co.uk, gov.uk
Climate Action Plan: The San Diego environment committee adopted a plan that will see the city cut carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2035. This decade, half of the government fleet will be electrified, 90 percent by 2035. The plan also includes more facilities for cycling and walking in the city.
sandiego6.com
Electric shuttle summary: The 200-strong fleet of Nissan and Renault electric vehicles drove 175,000 km at COP21 in Paris, saving 18 tons of CO2 emissions and 29,000 litres of petrol. About 3,800 transfers of delegates were made in Zoe, Leaf and e-NV200 vehicles driven by volunteering employees of the carmaker alliance.
media.blog.alliance-renault-nissan.com
Green cabs in London: Taxi operator Green Tomato Cars adds two Toyota Mirai to its fleet and is thus the first cab company in London running on hydrogen. Another five fuel cell cabs may follow in spring. Green Tomato Cars mostly uses Toyota hybrids in its 600 vehicle fleet.
standard.co.uk (with video)
Green car club: The City Car Club is coming to West Yorkshire. About a 100 vehicles, including 20 hybrids and five electric cars, will be available to share in Bradford, Calderdale and Wakefield. The car club cooperates with public transport as annual MCard holders benefit from reduced rates.
fleetnews.co.uk
Bank & Charge: TD bank will install EV charging stations at seven locations in British Columbia, Canada. Charging is free for customers of the self-declared first carbon neutral bank.
td.mediaroom.com
Click tip: Green Car Reports pitches the new Toyota Prius against the Chevy Volt inside and out. Conclusion: if you have no place to charge your vehicle, the hybrid best-seller is the closest to an EV you can get.
greencarreports.com (with video)
Video tip: The Renault-Nissan Alliance provided a 200 EV strong shuttle fleet for the COP21 in Paris, said to be the largest ZEV fleet ever assembled for an international conference. The carmaker here again outlines what can be done to push electrification.
alliance-renault-nissan.com
BMW charges U.S. faster: Together with EVgo, the German carmaker will expand the ‘ChargeNow DC Fast’ in the States. 500 more rapid-chargers across the U.S. will join the existing 100 stations in California by 2018. 50 will be installed this year already. BMW i3 drivers can use the network free of charge for two years after purchase. We do wonder why BMW has not launched initiative of a similar scale on its home market yet…
greencarcongress.com, transportevolved.com, insideevs.com
Charging COP21: Renault-Nissan will install 90 new charge points in and around Paris together with EDF, Schneider Electric, Aéroports de Paris, the Paris municipality and transport agency SNCF. They will power the electric shuttle service set up for delegates of the UN climate change negotiations (we reported).
alliance-renault-nissan.com, cleantechnology-business-review.com
Electric cabs in Canada: Montreal officially unveiled the announced electric taxi fleet. Operated by Téo, Nissan Leafs, Kia Soul EVs and Tesla Model S will hit the road next week. Only 500 selected users will be able to book the cars during a trial run until March 2016. After that, the 50-car strong fleet will be available to the public and is expected to grow to 2,000 taxis by 2019.
montrealgazette.com
Fastned for cities: Five fast-charging stations will be installed in The Hague by next year. The Dutch infrastructure provider says that more cities are to follow.
fastned-en.pr.co
An additional two million dollars will be poured into Connecticut’s CHEAPR programme that offers a cash rebate of up to 3,000 dollars to buyers of an electric, hydrogen or plug-in hybrid vehicle. Since the programme was launched in May, 278 such vehicles have been purchased or leased.
ctpost.com, fairfield.dailyvoice.com
Electric emergency service: The North East Ambulance Service in Britain adds five Nissan Leaf to its fleet, replacing five conventional gas guzzlers. They will be charged at nine charging points said to be capable of smart charging installed by Dutch ICU.
evfleetworld.co.uk
England charged: Cumbria will see the installation of 14 rapid-charging points. They are part of a total of 24 stations to be installed across the region by the Middlesex-based firm APT Control Group.
nwemail.co.uk
EV fleet for climate conference: The United Nation’s COP21 climate conference in Paris this December will use a 200-strong electric fleet to shuttle 20,000 delegates from 195 nations through the French capital. The electric cars and vans will be deployed by Renault-Nissan while the alliance also plans to install 50 new charging stations in Paris to power the EVs.
greencarcongress.com, ecomento.com
GM pilots electric car sharing: General Motors and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University started a pilot project in Shanghai. 16 small-size EV called Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 (Electric Networked Vehicle) are now integrated into the campus’ multi-modal transportation system while usage data is being collected.
greencarcongress.com
GoDrive electrically: Ford’s car sharing pilot GoDrive will now become available to the public in London. A total of 50 vehicles are put into service, half of them are Ford Focus Electric. They are available at 20 locations throughout the British capital and can be ordered and paid for via an app. Ford hopes to convince 2,000 users by September.
greencarcongress.com, europe.autonews.com
Electric bus in Bangkok: King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) and the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) now run an electric bus route. The pilot serves to see if some of the +3,000 diesel buses roaming the Thai capital might be replaced (we reported).
eco-business.com
Europe´s biggest Supercharger station to date has been finished as planned in Italy where a total of 14 chargers now await Tesla Model S drivers in the border region with France and Switzerland.
twitter.com
Shop and charge: Simon, a retail real estate company, and NRG EVgo have installed fast-charging “Freedom” stations at two Western Washington Simon shopping centres. Two more are to follow at two more outlets. The stations support CHAdeMO as well as Level 2 charging.
money.cnn.com
A total of 217,365 EVs were sold by Renault-Nissan to this date. 160,866 of those were Nissans while Renault added another 56,499 units. EV sales are growing as together the alliance sold 82,602 EVs last year, a 24-percent increase compared to 2013.
nissan-global.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
