In an effort to jumpstart adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles, Toyota Motors earlier this month made more than 5,600 patents available to other carmakers. A few days later, General Motors introduced…
In the 1970s, refineries in the Middle East controlled the world’s flow of oil. Not any more.
National Iranian Oil Company/Wikimedia Commons
With oil prices on the slide, members of the once-dominant Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided last week not to attempt to rally them by cutting production, leaving the Brent…
But where does the petrol go in?
Anna Gowthorpe/PA
British-owned car manufacturing has been in decline in UK for decades but the shift to electric cars might be just what is needed for a revival. The recent announcement by US-based Detroit Electric that…
Battery costs can make up a quarter of the cost of an electric car such as this Tesla Model S.
Shal Farley/Flickr
At the heart of the current debate around energy is the question of storage. In cars, how to build batteries that run for hundreds of kilometres; in electricity, storing energy from solar panels for when…
Electric cars have still not won over the public, and not just because some look like this.
wbaiv
The electric car trend is still to take off in the UK, with drivers largely put off by up-front costs, according to a survey by the Department for Transport. A measly 5% of respondents were thinking about…
More cars, even more better cars, is not the answer.
Doo Ho Kim
With the promise that Tesla’s Model S will “liberate its owners from the petroleum-burning paradigm”, this electric car is an example of just how far technological innovation could take us towards achieving…
The Tesla Model S electric car arrives in the UK this week. On the face of it this appears just another car launch, but is in fact something closer to a revolution. The Tesla Model S is the first battery-electric…
Footage of Google’s prototype driverless car has got people talking about the potential for self-driving vehicles. While this seems like an exciting new technological advance, in fact the idea is not so…
More people in fewer cars, especially in the countryside.
Owen Humphreys/PA
As a parallel to fuel poverty, where the cost of heating and lighting accounts for 10% of a household’s income, the RAC Foundation has suggested a similar idea of transport poverty. And while Britain’s…
Build it, and they will come. Eventually.
Chris Ison/PA
The announcement came at New Year that David Cameron’s cabinet members might be about to trade in their limousines for electric vehicles. Such a move would make the UK government the world’s first to run…
Will Norway’s electric car boom out-live the tax breaks that popularised them?
C.Bry@nt
Marianne Ryghaug, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Electric cars have been a huge success in Norway, with more electric cars per capita than anywhere else in the world. Sales are thriving, with Norway’s new car market boasting the largest share of electric…
Western Australia’s three-year trial found electric cars are a good fit for Australian cities.
Luke Stearns
Australia’s first electric vehicle trial has been completed. It ran from early 2010 to the end of 2012 with 11 electric Ford Focus and 23 fast-AC charging bays (Level-2). We found few technological barriers…
The 2011 Tesla Roadster Sports could hit 100 km/h in less than four seconds and be charged from a standard power point.
AAP Image/Tesla
Cars defined the 20th century … [They] shaped the wars that were fought, the way cities developed and how people and goods were moved around … [As] we look to alternative technologies to fuel more than…
How often do you see this? Not often enough.
Jaggery
The selection of cars launched and announced at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show underlines how the electric vehicle (EV) is finally showing signs of that long-awaited breakthrough to mass-market appeal…
More electric vehicles (EVs) are hitting Australia’s roads, and more public charging stations are being installed to support them. What is missing, however, is an Australian standard or even a recommendation…
Electric vehicles have been touted as the dream technology to solve our suburban transport challenges and rescue us from oil dependence and environmental threats. Yet technology use occurs in a social…
Changes to the Australian Design Rules have altered the landscape for electric bikes.
Chiemgau - Bayerns Lächeln
If you’ve not ridden an electric bicycle yet, chances are you know someone who has. Or maybe someone rode past you on one and you thought it was a conventional bike. Changes in permitted power output means…
When fewer than 10% of cars in Sydney travel more than 100 km, do we need charging infrastructure?
fa f c c/Flickr
Fast charging stations and battery swap stations are often proposed as being necessary infrastructure for electric cars. But do we need to wait for this infrastructure before we swap our petrol and diesel…
Volvo’s V60 Plug-in Hybrid – one of many attempts to make electric vehicles more seductive.
Overlaet, Wikimedia Commons
Electric vehicles (EVs) are not new. But recent developments could give them something of a boost in the eyes of the buying public. If so, it wouldn’t be the first time. By the turn of the 20th century…