The take-off of EVs will happen when the lifetime cost of ownership falls below that for a conventional car. But letâs remember that âlifetimeâ for a Brit means 4 years as thatâs the average period of ownership. Gerard Wynn and Arjun Flora at IEEFA show how the payback period on Gerardâs Renault Zoe ZE50 has been cut by over a fifth simply by signing up to a smart meter tariff. Itâs dropped from 10 to 8 years. The UK is nearing the universal roll … [Read more...]
Accelerating electromobility in east Europe (part 2): buses
Sarah Keay-Bright plots an affordable pathway for low income nations to reduce the cost of bus electrification and scale up private investment. The first step is to put a true figure on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for electric buses versus existing conventional fossil fuel ones. Externalities such as air pollution are often left out. Subsidies, fuel and vehicle taxes also play a role. Every country is different, because of matters that … [Read more...]
Accelerating electromobility in east Europe: a how-to guide (part 1)
While record electric vehicle (EV) sales in high income countries keep making headlines theyâre struggling to take off anywhere else. Sarah Keay-Bright plots a pathway for change. Like anywhere else, public investment must come first, carefully paving the way for private to follow. So that means getting the tax regime right. As taxes rise to disincentivise fossil cars those revenues will fall as people go electric. So they need to be replaced. … [Read more...]
Grid balancing: Electric Cars are a lot like water heaters, so relax
Electric water heaters consume as much power as electric cars, drawing on the grid in much the same way: everyoneâs doing it at roughly the same time of day. The U.S. already has 60m such heaters and manages to balance the grid with no problem. So adding tens of millions of electric cars should be very manageable even without direct control of when the cars charge, says Jim Lazar at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP). It only takes two to … [Read more...]
New Car sales data shows EVs still a luxury as Petrols keep rising
Itâs hard to argue that the EV revolution is around the corner when petrol car sales keep rising. Yes, diesel sales are falling, but more people are switching to petrol than EVs. This month, two data releases from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) show that EVâs big gains are only happening in the high income countries. Even wealthy Norwayâs 49.1% EV market share is an exception. The nations that come second and third are … [Read more...]
Electric Cars: only big subsidies lift market share off the 1.5% floor
You only need to compare the US to Norway to see how the main driver for EV sales is coming from government subsidies. Total Norwegian EV incentives cut the cost of running a typical 60 kWh battery pack from over $200/kWh to negative $336/kWh. US incentives bring it down to negative $23/kWh. The consequences are clear: generous Norway sees EVs take 31% of the market share in cars. In the US itâs 1.4%. That makes EVs a luxury item in the US (like … [Read more...]
Should electric vehicle drivers pay a mileage tax?
In the U.S., EV drivers donât pay tax when they buy gasoline. That means EVs have reduced U.S. gasoline tax revenues by $250m annually. Itâs only 1% of the total, but thatâs because EVs are less than 1% of the vehicle stock. Clearly, as EV numbers increase, so will that lost revenue. As a result, several states are considering imposing a mileage tax on electric vehicle drivers to make up for it. And why not?! EVs are not carbon-zero (most … [Read more...]
Win a free 12-month subscription to Energy Post â Energy Quiz 2018
Take a look at the most popular posts on Energy Post in 2018 and answer the questions for your chance to win one of ten 12-month subscriptions to EPW (Energy Post Weekly) worth almost âŹ3000 absolutely FREE. Our most popular articles always give an indication of the crucial debates of the moment. THREE out of the top-TEN concern how we power our cars! Other perennially pre-occupying topics include the concept of a 100% renewable energy system and … [Read more...]
IEA: Future is electric and increasingly renewable
"The IEA is no longer the conservative bastion of oil it once was" writes Fereidoon Sioshansi. Distilling all 650 pages of their latest Outlook, he summarises how the pressing need to address climate change means the dwindling supremacy of oil is giving way to a growing role for electricity that will, amongst other things, cater for 1 billion EVs by 2040. Courtesy EEnergy Informer … [Read more...]
Charging electric vehicles: the challenges ahead
Forget the latest Tesla announcement, writes John Massey. What is more important for the future of electric cars is how we will solve the challenge of charging them. Massey, an independent energy analyst and trainer, discusses the four main challenges of EV charging and concludes that the outcome of the process will depend on the interplay between electricity supply options, market operations, grid costs, policy choices and consumer behaviour … [Read more...]
