The Japanese electric vehicle market is comprised almost entirely of Japanese auto manufacturers (unsurprisingly), which makes the market an interesting contrast to free-for-all markets like the US. The Nissan LEAF has over the past few years more or less dominated the market. Though, the first-generation Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid (PHEV) had respectable sales as well — which makes the […]
Global electric vehicle sales figures for Quarter 1 2016 were recently released by EV-Volumes (along with preliminary figures for April), revealing that plug-in sales in 2016 to date totaled 180,500 units. That’s a roughly 42% year-on-year increase as compared to the same period of time in 2015. The above figures, it should be noted, are with […]
Originally published on CleanTechnica. There are now more than 40,000 electric vehicle charging spots in Japan — which means that charging spots are now more common than the roughly 35,000 gas stations in the country — according to a new survey from Nissan. It should be noted here, though, that not all of the above-mentioned […]
The top producer of automotive-industry-utilized lithium-ion battery cells in 2014 was Japan — with around 2 gigawatt-hours of batteries produced in the country during the year — according to a new infographic from the US Department of Energy. The overall production capacity leader for the year, though, was China — with more than 10.4 gigawatt-hours […]
As noted in this article, I recently interviewed the CEO and founder of POD Point, Erik Fairbairn. POD Point is the top supplier of EV charging equipment in the UK, so it has quite a bit of useful data on hand. Following our interview, Erik passed along an interesting infographic, and I thought it would be fun […]
The Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid is now set to achieve a new sales record in Japan from the looks of it — with 2016’s cumulative sales now being set to almost definitely eclipse 2015’s cumulative sales. Sales picked up notably in Japan following on the release of the 2016 model year of the popular plug-in […]
Originally published on Sustainnovate. By Henry Lindon The Japanese company Toyota has begun trials of a 2-seat version of its electric vehicle the i-Road in Japan, according to recent reports. The trials — to take place in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward — are part of the company’s “Open Road Project,” which was launched back in July. […]
Incentives are an interesting thing. Sometimes, the ones you think will work the best don’t work too well. Sometimes, ones you don’t think will have as much effect end up having a huge effect. Sometimes, incentives work great with one population but don’t work so well with another population. Electric car incentives are so varied by […]
The “E-Mobility Index,” which examines electric car sales and model options in the world’s 7 largest automobile markets (Germany, France, Italy, the USA, Japan, China, and South Korea), has found that sales are still quite low (under 1% of all new car sales) in these markets on average, and the #1 reason for that is because automakers […]
Globally, plug-in electric car sales (including plug-in hybrid sales) will hit 1 million next month, September 2015. Global sales reached ~910,000 at the end of June, and with ~40,000 plug-in sales globally each month now, that makes September practically a given for the 1 million marker. These million sales have basically come in the last […]
Originally published on Gas2. I’m fairly turned off to infographics these days, as many are simply a lot of colors and squiggly lines with little substance. However, some really good ones come across my desk from time to time. Thanks to a good friend, Amber Archangel, I’ve got a great one to share. The infographic was created […]
For the suits in charge of Toyota, the only clear path forward for sustainable transportation are supposedly hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. That doesn’t mean the Japanese automaker is totally ignoring battery-electric vehicles, especially for short inner-city trips. The Toyota i-Road electric three-wheeler has already started testing in a carsharing service, and now four single-seat postal […]
Tesla Motors will be making a large investment into its charging infrastructure in Japan — with all charging stations there being either powered directly by solar energy, or indirectly through solar energy purchased from elsewhere — according to the company’s CEO, Elon Musk. The comments, made during an interview with Nikkei, were pretty straightforward: “We’ll […]
Last October, Nissan launched an EV initiative in the city of Yokohama called the One-Way Car Sharing Service, and Green Car Congress reports that the program has been extended another year after more than 10,000 people signed up for the service. In total, 10,651 people had joined the service, which had capped expectations at 10,000 […]
Tesla Supercharger maps offer a spectrum of information ranging from representations of the corridors Tesla has now and the end-of-2014 & 2015 corridors that it plans to enable. Exact locations and timing may vary depending on when you check in. If one views the map now, looking at the end of 2014 and 2015, one realizes that Tesla is quickening […]
Superheroes never stopped being popular in America, but over in Japan the campy superhero schtick is as strong as ever. Though “Ultraman” only ran for a single season from 1966 to 1967, it left a lasting impact on Japanese culture that today includes a manga and upcoming television show. Ultraman and his cohort of evil-fighting […]
With the Tesla Supercharger network helping spur Model S sales, other automakers are looking at charging networks of their own. Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Nissan have formed an alliance to bring a national EV charging network to Japan and called it the Nippon Charging Network. With a single access card that will offer drivers of […]
A new report by by Zentrums für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), which Green Car Congress somehow ran across, shows that the number of plug-in cars on the roads more than doubled from the end of 2012 to the end of 2013. That followed doubling of the number of plug-in cars on the road the […]