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No Love for Cash Incentives in Germany

A recent study has exposed deeper issues with the new German cash incentive. The low range of the cars and the poor infrastructure for refills aren’t the only reasons why electric vehicle sales haven’t been taking off: Prospective buyers don’t even find a model they like. Additionally, people view the financial incentives as “supporting the upper class” or “subsidizing carmakers,” (more…)

Hybrid Cars Put the Brakes on Electric Transportation

Hybrid Cars Put the Brakes on Electric Transportation

Juergen Halasz-web

Jürgen Halasz

The number of electric vehicles in use on Austrian roads could grow from 4,700 to around 8,000 this year, according to a statement made by the country’s environmental protection agency. In 2017, the figure could jump to 23,000; in 2020, there could be around 174,000 electric cars driving in the Alpine state. Jürgen Halasz, chair of the association for electric transportation at the federal level (BEÖ, see also HZwei issue from April 2015), an organization founded at the beginning of last year, believes that even a figure of 250,000 will be possible. All of these forecasts, however, include plug-in hybrids as well. (more…)

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How Much Electric is in Hybrid?

How Much Electric is in Hybrid?

BMW-i8-GeitmannAre cars like the BMW i8 electric vehicles? A question hotly debated by many stakeholders in the electric transportation industry, not least since the government has planned to introduce various incentives for these types of vehicles. The German Electric Mobility Act (EmoG) passed in June 2015 says that communities can allow electric cars on bus lanes – whether or not the vehicles in question are actually running on gas or electricity (more…)

A pauper’s oath for the automotive industry

A pauper’s oath for the automotive industry

Toyota-Mirai-IAA-2015

Toyota Mirai during IAA 2015

Seldom before was it evident just how big the gap between theory and practice can get than it was at the 66th International Motor Show (IAA). Indeed, in the run up to the IAA 2015, the show organizers, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) had said clearly and repeatedly that electric mobility would be a key topic again at this year’s event. In reality, things were very different, however: neither fuel cells nor battery powered vehicles proved to be a major topic at any of the auto manufacturers. Of those present, only Toyota made a clear focus on hybrid vehicles, presenting the new Mirai (more…)

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Teslas Powerwall battery causes hype

Teslas Powerwall battery causes hype

powerwall-web

Tesla Home Battery Powerwall (Source: Tesla)

Tesla (TSLA, US$245.00) has many friends in the offices of major banks and leading broking firms on the stock exchange. This is not only expressed in the market price, and especially the strong price increases in recent weeks (over 20%), but in many favorable comments and classifications. At the same time, there has been heavy speculation on falling prices when one looks at the number of short-sold shares (short interest) which is hovering around 24 million shares – with approx. 95 million shares which can be traded freely (approx. 124 million shares are outstanding).

Recently, the announcement of a new, high performance battery with the name PowerWall has recently caused a stir and resulted in strongly (more…)

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