It was a good time to be interested in electric cars as Nissan announced their first new all electric car since the leaf launched almost 10 years ago. So that was a bit of a landmark Wednesday! We’re also sharing a review on the Mercedes EQC from Mark Goodier and the Fully Charged Show’s ‘Fully Charged Cities’ initiative which is seeking out trailblazing cities (and large towns) that are proactively pursuing clean energy, alternative fuelled vehicles and less cars on the roads overall. So let’s dive into the roundup:
(Thanks for reading!)
We mentioned in our June round up that the roll out of Green number plates has been confined from this autumn to help encourage drivers to make the switch to electric vehicles (EVs), but how easy is it for businesses to adopt EVs? We’ve shared our view on the ten actions companies can take to convert their fleets to electric; from fleet audits, getting employees involved all the way up to considering renewable energy tariffs.
Gnewt are one of our fleet clients and a leading last mile delivery service in London operating a 100% electric vehicle (EV) fleet. Gnewt’s electric delivery fleet proved so successful that in 2017 they succeeded in attracting funding from the Mayor of London to run a commercial electric vehicle trial testing new larger capacity electric vans (some of which were sourced by us!) for last mile deliveries in central London. The findings of this trial are now available.
(The trial was part funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) in partnership with Innovate UK and ran for 2 and a half years, finishing in December 2019.)
Admiral take a look at the effects felt by the motor industry following the Corona virus and our MD Mike made some contributions to this article from an EV sales point of view. The good news is that there are some planet friendly changes on the horizon. We can still look forward to a greener future on our roads as the UK government has pledged to ban the sale of all new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars by 2035.
Mike Potter of DriveElectric is confident that sales of EVs will still recover to hit the 100,000-target forecast in January, despite taking a hit during lockdown. “Actually, I’m still hopeful that 100k is possible – June BEV (battery electric vehicle) registrations were 8,900 and a lot of new product is due,”
BIG news, the new Nissan Ariya is coming soon and has been announced as a new electric car to watch out for in 2021. The Ariya electric car is built on a brand new EV platform and will be made in Japan and imported to the UK – unlike Nissan’s LEAF where UK models are built in the North of England at the Sunderland plant.
It’s surprising it has taken Nissan this long to release a new electric car since their LEAF first went on sale over 10 years ago (at that time the LEAF was pretty much the only EV option available!).
We’re looking forward to taking a test drive in the Ariya electric car next year; our expectations will be high for this EV. Nissan are billing it as the “ultimate icon of Nissan intelligent mobility” afterall, and the LEAF will be a difficult act to follow.
When movie-makers style cities of the future, there are generally roads in the sky, autonomous vehicles and flying cars, but maybe, just maybe the Cities of the Future could centre on some rather more mundane modes of transport… it’s more likely to be walking, biking and scooting that transforms urban transportation.
Our cities are changing at incredible speed. The original catalyser, air pollution, has suddenly been superseded by the ramifications of the coronavirus crisis, and it’s public transport that has taken a profound, potentially permanent, hit.
WhatCar rate every fully electric car currently available in the UK, good if you’re just dipping your toe in EV waters to get an idea of what’s out there, although do take their range figures with a pinch of salt as they’ve used the WLTP figures rather than ‘real-world’ estimates.
Radio broadcaster and long term EV enthusiast Mark Goodier shares his thoughts on the Mercedes EQC, which has enabled Mark Goodier and family to finally become an all electric family (…it was going to take something pretty special to replace the Goodier’s much loved Volvo hybrid!).
Mark has driven electric vehicles since 2002 and has owned a variety of makes and models and isn’t shy about public charging! Mark has written a balanced review of the EQC and detailed how this Luxury e-SUV stacks up against its Tesla alternatives.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are often seen as a problem in relation to increasing demand on electricity networks, but distribution network operator Western Power Distribution (WPD) instead sees EVs as a solution, and is demonstrating why this is the case through its Electric Nation Vehicle to Grid (V2G) project.
In partnership with CrowdCharge, WPD’s Electric Nation project is recruiting 100 Nissan EV owners in the Midlands, South West England and South Wales to take part in the trial of V2G smart charging technology. For more information and to apply to join the project visit www.electricnation.org.uk
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