Electric Vehicles

At a time when most governments are looking at ways to encourage electric vehicle adoption, a Republican senator has now introduced a new bill to end the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars and instead tax them more.
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Gaius Auto has taken to the 2018 Paris Motor Show to unveil their new electric cargo scooter, the RAPIDE 3.

Combining the cargo capacity of a light truck and the nimbleness of a scooter, the RAPIDE 3 electric cargo scooter could have a huge impact on the transportation market of the developing world. It fuses a classic three-wheeled vehicle design with the latest in battery technology to create a revolutionary new commercial vehicle.

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To date, the best ad I’ve seen for electric vehicles has been a Dodge Challenger Demon ad (pictured above) because they had to include fine-prints saying that their “best” performance claims excluded electric cars.

That’s partly because automakers are still simply not advertising their electric vehicles as shown by a new study.
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The military has often led the development of technologies for defense and warfare, but it hasn’t so much been the case for electric vehicles. Lately, the US military has made some significant investments in EVs and they started showcasing some of their work.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently unveiled ‘extreme’ in-hub electric motors for vehicles with military applications.
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The Union of Auto Workers (UAW) has been trying to unionize electric vehicle production in the US for a while now. It first tried and failed with Nissan’s Smyrna factory, where they manufacture the Leaf, and they are now pursuing Tesla’s Fremont factory.

Now the UAW warns that electric vehicle revolution is going to result in job loses.
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Tesla is likely going to be the first automaker to hit the 200,000th electric car delivery threshold in the US this quarter, which will initiate a one-year-long phase-out period to eventually remove access to the $7,500 federal tax credit for Tesla buyers.

But a new bill to remove the controversial 200,000 delivery threshold has now been introduced in Congress.
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In the US, a study found that the electric vehicle shopping experience at car dealers is quite poor and a problem for EV adoption.

Now, a new study finds a similar problem in Europe where “dismissive and deceptive car dealerships create barriers to electric vehicle adoption at the point of sale.”
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Electric vehicles already have several advantages over gas-powered cars. From no fuel cost to zero tailpipe emission, but now a new study might confirm another often overlooked advantage of EVs.

The quieter driving environment of an electrically driven vehicle can have significant mental health benefits, according to a new brain monitoring study.
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A new AAA survey shows that 20 percent or 50 million Americans will likely go electric for their next vehicle purchase.

The data can be encouraging or depressing depending on how you look at it.
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With the countless number of issues that Uber has faced in recent years from regulatory compliance in many markets to major culture problems, people have often been turning to alternatives for ride-hailing services recently.

Lyft has been the main one, but other startups are also seeing opportunities to offer the service in a better way.

One of them is currently emerging in France as an all-electric and socially responsible ride-hailing service.
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At the New York International Auto Show this week, over a dozen major automakers have teamed up to launch a marketing campaign “to increase electric car use throughout the Northeast.”

But the effort is led by the automakers’ lobbying groups who have historically been anti-EV.
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The argument that electric vehicles are just as polluting as gas-powered vehicles because they consume electricity produced from polluting sources like coal plants has been debunked on many occasions at this point.

It’s now not only untrue, but electric vehicles are also rapidly becoming increasingly greener thanks to a cleaner electric grid.

In the US, the latest study shows that on average, an EV driving on electricity is equivalent to a conventional (nonexistent) gasoline car that gets 80 MPG.
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For years now, U.S. regulators have been working on a rule, known as the “quiet car rule”, that will force electric vehicle manufacturers to include a device in their EVs to emit a sound at up to 19 mph to protect pedestrians.

It was supposed to be implemented in EV models coming as soon as next year, but now automakers have one more year to adapt to the new rule.
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Research firm KPMG has released its annual automotive executive survey and it’s even more depressing than we could have imagined.

According to the survey, a majority of auto executives still think that battery electric cars will fail.
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Sorry for the snarky headline and the swipe at internal combustion engines, but I have seen so much misinformation spread about electric cars in cold weather lately that I had to clarify something.

Yes, electric cars are negatively affected by the extreme cold, but it’s perfectly manageable and arguably as manageable if not more easily manageable than gas-powered cars.
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In the general public, the range on a single charge is still the biggest concern when it comes to electric vehicles. That’s despite the fact that most EVs have enough range to cover their average commute several times over.

A longer range is believed to be key for wider EV adoption and the vehicles offered on the market are certainly going in the right direction with the median all-electric vehicle range growing from 73 miles (117 km) in model year 2011 to 114 miles (183 km) in model year 2017 of EVs available in the US.
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Bad news hit the EV world last week when Republicans unveiled their tax bill and it included a complete removal of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the end of the year.

The only hope for EV buyers is that the language about the tax credit changes by the time the bill becomes law. Now, those EV buyers might have an ally within the GOP.
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A new “Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill” is being introduced by the government in the UK in the Queen’s Speech.

It includes some interesting measures, including mandatory installations of electric car chargers at motorway services and gas stations.
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The International Energy Agency (IEA) came out with its 2017 Global EV Outlook and it highlights the fact that the world’s EV fleet reached over 2 million cars last year.

It also breaks down the distribution of electric vehicles around the world by country and shows how China as solidified its position as an EV leader.
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Honda, like most other major automakers in Japan and Korea, is still very much invested in fuel cell hydrogen powertrains, which has resulted in little development in battery-powered vehicles.

While the company is apparently not ready to give up on fuel cell, they announced plans to “strengthen the development” of battery vehicles and that they will unveil a new electric vehicle this autumn.
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Just as Texas was shutting the door on Tesla over their direct sale model last week, they relaunched their $2,500 electric vehicle rebate to spur EV adoption.

While it’s good news for EV buyers in general, Tesla buyers are not likely to have access to the program since its going through dealerships, which Tesla is not allowed to operate in the state.
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