When a former co-founder of a game-changing company says great things, you know you are on the right track. In this case, it’s Steve Wozniak showering praise on Elon Musk and company. The Apple co-founder said last week Tesla is the “biggest disrupter” in the US auto market, speaking to CNBC Asia. Wozniak added Musk has […]
As a means of supporting the state’s growing electric bus market, the California Air Resources Board recently released a new downloadable tool online that allows you to easily estimate electricity costs that accompany battery-electric bus deployments in California. The new downloadable tool is a macro-enabled Excel worksheet, so it features fairly wide compatibility. It works by […]
I was never much of a forums dude. But I slowly got more and more into them while covering electric vehicles. I think I first stumbled across the GM-Volt.com forum, and then the Tesla Motors Club forum. As you’ve probably noticed, I also stalk the official BMW i forum now. There’s a lot of great stuff […]
Wondering how to save more money? Check out the fuel cost at Heron’s House, including the two cars and one home powered by the sunshine: from May 16, 2014, to May 15, 2015, total gasoline & utility energy cost for the year came to -$471.36. More of us can and will live like this, and reap similar savings. Simplicity […]
In our third article pulled from Electric Cars: What Early Adopters & First Followers Want — a new report from CleanTechnica, EV Obsession, and GAS2 — I’m jumping into who the respondents of the surveys were. Given that our readers were primarily the respondents, this is basically a look at who you are. One of the four surveys was directed only […]
Originally published on Clean Power Research. By Gavin Novotny Is it possible to save more money by combining an electric vehicle (EV) with a home solar PV system rather than considering each individually? Often the answer is yes, and the additional savings can be substantial. To help energy consumers answer that question, residents of New […]
Originally published on CleanTechnica. By Mike Barnard The Tesla Model X is the first fully electric SUV in the world. It was announced with much fanfare — Bioweapon Defense Mode! Falcon-wing doors! Clown-car volumes of people and luggage coming out! — by Musk with a handful of lucky and rich people getting early editions and […]
Originally published on CleanTechnica. By Mike Barnard Compared to gas, diesel, or electric options, hydrogen distribution and fueling will be more expensive, lose a lot of hydrogen, be harder to use, be dangerous in a way people aren’t familiar with, and won’t deliver any environmental benefits to speak of. Yet major automotive vendors and some politicians […]
[Update] This is an important comment from reader JimBouton: I was actually on this plan for about a year. It would be generous to say that it was a rip off. TXU misleads you by not including the TDU (transmission and other fees in their rate.) They are one of the only electric companies in Texas […]
Could mainstream electric vehicle adoption result in a significant drop in crude oil demand? While some impact would of course be expected with large-scale adoption, could the impact be larger than is currently supposed? An interesting new article published over on Seeking Alpha explores these questions, and provides in-depth descriptions of some interesting possible scenarios. […]
Cara Clairman gave the 4th presentation in the Renewable Cities “Trends, innovations, and barriers in electrifying transportation” panel that I recently moderated in Vancouver. (See my presentation, Brian Hansen’s, and Gil Friend’s if you missed them.) As the CEO and president of Plug’n Drive, as well as the driver of a Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi i-MiEV, […]
The common assumption is that getting an electric car will jack up your electricity usage and thus electricity bill, and that is probably the norm to one extent or another, but that’s not always the case. In fact, some people end up having a lower electricity bill after getting an electric car. I wrote about this […]
BMW and Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) have partnered to launch an 18-month pilot of the BMW i ChargeForward Program in San Francisco, according to recent reports. The pilot program will see roughly 100 BMW i3 drivers — selected from around 400 applicants — participate in a demonstration of the ways that “intelligent” managing of […]
Originally published on Gas2. While I focus a lot of attention on the electric vehicle consumer benefits of instant torque and convenience, another huge benefit is of course that they’re greener than gasmobiles and diesel cars. That is of course the reason why nonprofit organizations like the Sierra Club support their adoption. The Sierra Club’s […]
All 12 IKEA stores in Canada will soon have Sun Country Highway electric vehicle (EV) chargers in their parking lots, providing shoppers (and others) with free charging. Each of the 12 locations will install two 60-amp chargers, according to IKEA, with the installations taking place by the end of August. IKEA has a long history […]
Electric cars can boast that they have zero tailpipe emissions, which is absolutely true. But the electricity used to power EVs still has to come from somewhere, and at the moment in America, that “somewhere” is usually a dirty source of energy. So until all the world is powered by hydro, solar, and wind power, […]
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently went ahead and approved proposed EV-specific electricity rates (EV charging tariffs) for the state, becoming the first state to require investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to provide specific peak & off-peak rates for electric vehicle charging. (Note that, based on briefing papers, the requirement is only for IOUs, not public or […]
On October 10, Tesla CTO & co-founder JB Straubel gave a presentation at the Southern California Energy Summit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t at that one, but JB’s presentation was posted online, so I decided to pull out some interesting slides. For Tesla fanatics, I’m not sure if anything will be new for you (perhaps the quote […]