GM has suspended production of the Volt at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant in order to get ready for the revamped 2016 Volt, which is to go on sale in the second half of this year. The company plans to invest a total of $343 million to retool for its lineup of next-generation hybrid vehicles. The production… Read more »
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BMW i3 nearing “sustainable” rate of sales
Sales of the BMW i3 are approaching “a sustainable rate” of 12,000 i3s annually, Ludwig Willisch, CEO of BMW of North America, told Automotive News. This figure seems roughly in line with that of auto consultant Sandy Munro, who has estimated that the i3 could be profitable for the company at a global volume of… Read more »
Kia dealer: Don’t buy a Soul EV
When it comes to EV sales, the biggest party-poopers may not be shadowy oil industry conspirators, but auto dealers, who often lack information about their manufacturers’ electric models, and sometimes actively discourage buyers from considering them. Kia of Vancouver provided a blatant example of this recently, when a sales manager replied to a potential customer’s… Read more »
Hawaiian Electric Companies launch online EV Bill Savings Estimator
Islands make perfect EV habitats, and the state of Hawaii is rapidly getting charged. To encourage off-peak charging, the Hawaiian Electric Companies offer special time-of-use (TOU) electric rates. The new EV Bill Savings Estimators give residential customers an online tool to estimate how much money they can save by driving electric. With a recent electric… Read more »
New hybrid Chevrolet Malibu uses tech from the Volt
The 2016 Chevrolet Malibu will be offered in a hybrid version that uses an adaptation of GM’s Voltec plug-in hybrid system. This will be the third generation of Malibu Hybrids, but the previous two had only a “mild hybrid” system that assists the gas engine. The new ‘bu is a “strong hybrid,” and can drive… Read more »
British Columbia renews Clean Energy Vehicle incentive program
British Columbia has announced the renewal of its Clean Energy Vehicle (CEV) incentive program, effective April 1 (via Green Car Reports). The CEV program, which expired in the spring of 2014 after exhausting its original $12-million budget, offers point-of-purchase rebates of up to $5,000 Canadian ($4,000 US) for battery EVs and $6,000 Canadian ($4,800 US)… Read more »
GM Exec: Low oil prices won’t stop our plans for electrification, MPG targets make it inevitable
How will low oil prices affect the growth in vehicle electrification? It’s a question we’ve heard a lot since the price of crude began to plummet about six months ago. A few studies have come out recently that find cheap oil has little or no effect on PEV sales. It seems that either buyers don’t… Read more »
Swedish city orders electric bus with CCS charging
Heliox, a manufacturer of power conversion equipment, has delivered its CCS 700 V charger to fellow Dutch firm VDL Bus and Coach. VDL’s Citea electric bus will be joining the fleet of Swedish transport operator Byberg & Nordin. Heliox says this will be the first European e-bus to use the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard…. Read more »
Is String Cell battery technology the future for EVs?
When it comes to finding a way to charge EVs more quickly, human ingenuity has come up with some pretty wide-ranging solutions, from battery-swapping to flow batteries that store energy in tanks of liquid electrolyte. The latest innovative idea comes from startup Tanktwo, and is called a String Battery. Tanktwo’s system replaces a vehicle’s battery pack with a container filled… Read more »
UK study: EVs could cut oil imports 40% by 2030
Policymakers in many countries remain skeptical about the benefits of EVs, but a new study has added weight to the pro-EV argument, at least in the UK. According to a paper that was written by Cambridge Econometrics and commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, large-scale deployment of EVs could cut the UK’s oil imports by… Read more »