Uber to bank London surcharge toward electric vehicles for its drivers

Uber electric carUber announced Tuesday that it will levy a surcharge for its ride-hailing passengers in London. The goal: to get 20,000 drivers to go all-electric by the end of 2021, on the way to make every car using its ride-hailing app an electric vehicle in the smog- and congestion-prone city by 2025. The surcharge, which is part of the company’s...

EPA dissolves boards of pollution scientists

Smokestacks pollution air qualityThe EPA has dismissed two panels of outside scientists that advised the agency on particulate matter and ground-level ozone, which have been linked to smog and respiratory problems. Under acting administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal-industry lobbyist, analyzing those pollutants will be left to the EPA's internal Clean Air Scientific Advisory...

Dyson plans to build its electric car in Singapore

Dyson Automotive Manufacturing facility  -  Singapore  -  renderingDyson, the British maker of premium vacuum cleaners, aims to enter the electric-car arena—and it’s chosen Singapore as the global assembly site. The company confirmed that its board has ratified the decision for the company itself to construct what it calls a “purpose-built advanced automotive manufacturing facility” there...

Tesla Model 3 teardown underscores missed opportunities

Tesla Motors production line for Tesla Model S, Fremont, CaliforniaLast year employee parking lots overflowed at Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant. By comparing the headcount of Tesla's factory at present versus historically, it’s easy to grasp why the facility has seemed so crowded. At its heyday, Toyota and GM needed 4,400 people at Fremont. Tesla has an on-site workforce estimated to be...

Mercedes invests in pilot program to keep fuel cells alive

Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell, 2017 Frankfurt Motor ShowMercedes-Benz is launching a new trial for fuel-cell cars in Germany, with aims to study real-world use patterns. Mercedes will begin leasing its GLC F-Cell fuel-cell SUVs to fleet customers in Germany for $917 a month, according to a report in Automotive News Europe (Subscription required.) No information was available about how many GLC F-Cells...

New fast charger is more efficient, smaller, and half the cost

North Carolina State University fast charger is much smaller, half the costResearchers at North Carolina State University have developed a 50-kw fast charger that they say costs half as much as conventional DC fast chargers, is more efficient, and only 1/16th the size. Instead of being mounted on concrete slabs, sometimes in two locations, with a transformer behind a fence and a charge station box by a parking space, the...

Report: Battery production could offset emissions gains from electric cars

Nissan prototype 60-kWh battery pack  -  Nissan Technical Center, October 2015A new report shows that emissions from producing large battery packs for electric cars could cancel out improvements from their low emissions for years. The report comes from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which is usually optimistic about electric cars. In May, the analytic arm of the finance publishing house predicted that electric cars will make...