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
There are around 211,000 electric and hybrid cars on Dutch roads, a 33 percent increase compared to last year (60,000 new units). The Tesla Model S is the most popular fully electric vehicle, with the Mitsubishi Outlander, Volkswagen Golf PHEV and Toyota Auris topping the hybrid charts. dutchnews.dl
Destination Europe: Tesla announced that its Destination Charger programme will soon arrive on the old continent. Possible locations such as hotels, restaurants, shopping centres or resorts can be summited on the website. teslamotors.com
Best in show: U.S. company Black & Veatch says it will take part in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge. There are already 41 chargers at its headquarters near Kansas City, making Black & Veatch one of the region’s top providers of EV infrastructure at the workplace. globenewswire.com
Baltimore tests electrification: The city of Baltimore wants to electrify its fleet, leasing four EVs for three years to test the waters. It also installed a DC fast-charger and will look at i.e. financial benefits and at whether charging times affect the work flow. Meanwhile, Baltimore is working to double the number of charging stations (from 20 to 40). bizjournals.com
EVs and airports: The U.S. Transportation Ministry earmarked 955,088 dollars for the Zero Emissions Airport Vehicle (ZEV) programme. The bulk of the cash (926,789 dollars) will go to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is looking to buy an all-electric shuttle bus and install charging infrastructure, including inductive charging stations. aviationnews.ne, airport-world.com
Charging Sri Lanka: Vehicle importers Wasana Trading Lanka (WTL) says it installed a total of 100 charging spots in the country. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka now offers special electricity tariffs for charging EVs at home during off-peaks, namely at night. dailynews.lk (WTL), economynext.com (tariffs)
SLAM dunk: The first three rapid chargers of the German SLAM network have gone online as scheduled. Petrol station operator Tank & Rast installed them at its service stations along the motorway A9. A total of 400 fast-charging points will be installed by the end of 2017. Charging is free for now and the project includes all standards. SLAM is a joint project by BWM, Daimler, Ford, VW and the German ministry of economics. auto-medienportal.net (in German)
Clean air zones: The British Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs started consulting on its plan to improve air quality by banning or charging most pollutant vehicles like diesel cars in so-called clean air zones. Among the cities named likely to miss EU air quality standards are London, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby, and Southampton. telegraph.co.uk, consult.defra.gov.uk (consultation)
Support for TNM: The New Motion has gained AutoBinck as a new shareholder. Existing investors and founders will also help fund the expansion of the company’s charging network across Europe, namely in Great Britain, France and Germany. thenewmotion.pr.co
California charges: Six new charging stations were inaugurated by cutting a symbolic petrol pump hose in the Californian city of Torrance. The stations are part of a larger regional network. dailybreeze.com
Petrol stations to chargers: Sri Lanka decided to equip all petrol stations with EV chargers, as it believes demand for electric cars to be huge but hampered by the lack of charging infrastructure. hirunews.lk
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Most of the 2,000 hybrid cars ordered by car dealers in Sri Lanka are stuck at the country’s Hambantota Port. Dealers are unable to pay for the cars after currency fluctuations and high taxes on hybrids have made the vehicles a lot more expensive. If the cars are not paid for soon, they will be auctioned off. sundaytimes.lk
Island-wide EV charging: Sri Lanka’s Power & Energy Ministry plans to install a nationwide network of charging centres, which will be found at gas stations, supermarkets and also households. A tariff for off-peak charging was also proposed. When the stations could be set up has not been said though. lankabusinessonline.com, dailynews.lk
Dundee does it better: The Scottish city is pretty cued up on EVs as it only tripled charge points (we reported) and its cab companies like 203020 are too. Already operating a fleet of ten electric taxis, the firm is to replace its complete fleet of 60 diesels with electric cars this year. The city supports the move financially and will make all charging stations accessible. thecourier.co.uk
It looks like EVs in France might indeed be in for a good year as sales crossed the 1,000-unit line for the first time this January. 1,069 BEVs and PHEVs were sold, most of them homemade as Renault’s Zoe (297) and Kangoo Z.E. (200) take the top two positions followed by Bolloré’s Blue Car (120). ev-sales.blogspot.co.uk
Charge before you buy is a new programme by Alphabet UK. Together with EDF Energy, the company is offering short-term leasing of charging stations which can be tested for up to three months. evfleetworld.co.uk, businesscar.co.uk
Critical Californians: Taxpayer advocates are criticising the Golden state as it purchased 20 Ford Fusion Hybrids and other cars worth 540,000 dollars over the last 18 months. The Fusions are reserved for members of the Senate who say that the acquisition was part of normal procedure to swap cars with more eco-friendly vehicles. latimes.com
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Shanghai electrified: The Chinese metropolis plans to erect 1,800 charging stations by the end of the year and has another 2,400 in the pipeline for late 2015. The uptake of EVs in the city with 23 million inhabitants has doubled (from 581 in 2013) in the first half of 2014. ecns.cn
Sri Lanka is to build 40 charging spots next to supermarkets by August. More are to follow. The chargers will serve the Mahindra E20, which is now offered in Sri Lanka (we reported). The country hopes to quickly increase the number of EVs from currently 100. lbt.lk
Proterra launches 2nd generation: The company just sealed its first sale of its updated electric bus to its long-standing customer Foothill Transit in California. To acquire new sales, Proterra has went on an U.S. tour, promoting its offering to transportation officials. greencarcongress.com (sale in California), timesunion.com, albany.twcnews.com (tour stop in Albany)
Switching pays: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is to give 7.7 million dollars to individuals, businesses, governmental organisations and schools willing to exchange their old diesel vehicles with new alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles. Grants may cover up to 80% of the purchase cost. starlocalmedia.com
Three H2 stations: ITM Power has been contracted by London to build three hydrogen refueling stations for 2.8 million pounds (4.7m dollars). The stations are part of the HyFive project (we reported) and expected to go into operation by 2015. In February, ITM received planing permission for five hydrogen stations on the Isle of Wight. fleetnews.co.uk, itm-power.com
Battery swapping works better with electric scooters than cars it appears. Kentfa has installed 30 stations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where buyers of the company’s Isuda e-scooter can change their batteries. The system has been running smoothly since last August, so now Japanese and UK companies are showing interest. thegreencarwebsite.co.uk
Pro-Tesla bill: The governor of Washington state signed a bill allowing the Californian carmaker to keep its stores open and also to open new ones. This right is in fact exclusive to Tesla as it only applies to manufacturers who had a state dealership license before January 2014. green.autoblog.com
Fast forward: Will the number of EVs in Sri Lanka raise from today’s 60 to 100,000 in only two years? Yes, says the CEO of E-Lanka Automotive, Anuruddha Lihinikaduwa, who hopes the installation of charging infrastructure in Sri Lanka will be the main driver of this development. thesundayleader.lk
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
