The United Kingdom's Royal Postal Service has entered a new era as its first electric mail vans enter service. In total, nine electric postal vans from local company Arrival will enter the Royal Post's fleet, along with another 100 electric vans to be added in December from French brand Peugeot. The Arrival electric vans are capable of traveling... UK Royal Mail electric vans now entering service
The United Kingdom's Royal Postal Service has entered a new era as its first electric mail vans enter service. In total, nine electric postal vans from local company Arrival will enter the Royal Post's fleet, along with another 100 electric vans to be added in December from French brand Peugeot. The Arrival electric vans are capable of traveling...
The numbers are in, which means it's once again time take a look at European electric and plug-in hybrid sales. Delivery and registration data is compiled from January through June of 2017, and once more, it remains clear Europe has a favorite electric car. The Renault Zoe walks away with an even higher market share than it had in May and leaves...
The Volkswagen diesel scandal has largely fallen out of the public eye in the U.S., as VW and Audi buy back and modify roughly half a million noncompliant vehicles sold from 2009 through 2016. In Germany, meanwhile, the major sellers of diesel vehicles—not only VW Group but also Mercedes, Opel, and Fiat—have agreed to modify 5 million...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the country's leader, has detailed why she believes electric-car quotas are not a viable answer to emission and other issues plaguing Europe. Merkel, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, instead urged a much bigger-picture strategy, rather than a demand that more Europeans simply move to...
Almost two years ago, the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal burst into public view, and nothing has been quite the same since then. The news that VW Group engineers had deliberately cheated on eight years of emission tests for the "clean diesels" sold by Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche sent shockwaves around the world. Settling the criminal charges...
Porsche has big plans to expand the capability of the Combined Charging System (CCS) DC standard into much higher voltages to allow much faster electric-car charging. Now, it's completed a first step: at the brand's new branch office in Berlin-Adlershof, Porsche has installed a prototype 350-kilowatt, 800-volt charging station. The new technology...
The United Kingdom will follow in the footsteps of some European countries as it announced plans to ban the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars by the year 2040. The initiative closely follows a similar announcement from France, which also declared 2040 as the year it will phase out fossil-fuel vehicles Norway and the Netherlands have also...
The warning came even before last week's plans for updates to 9 million European diesel cars by German luxury makers Audi and Mercedes-Benz were announced. In a letter sent to the transport ministers of European Union countries, EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska warned that proposed bans on diesel cars in European cities could backfire...
As numerous political probes over the years have famously shown, once investigators dig into the circumstances around an alleged crime, anything can happen. The September 2015 announcement by the EPA that VW Group engineers had admitted to deliberate cheating on U.S. emission tests of the company's "clean diesel' engines may prove to be another...
Another month, and another round of European electric car sales data is ready for dissemination. Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles continue to earn a healthy share of the European car market, and it's clear there's still a definitive electric car for Europeans. That is the Renault Zoe, which once again leads the way in the...
Ask a North American driver to name companies that make electric cars, and you'll probably hear Tesla, maybe Nissan, and perhaps Chevy or BMW or Toyota. Chinese drivers may be more likely to say BYD (and perhaps Tesla), but Europeans will likely name Renault. (And Tesla.) The Renault Zoe, now in its fifth year but entirely unknown to U.S. and...
Mini, despite being owned by BMW since 1994, has long been a decidedly British brand. But its British roots may be overlooked as a decision on where Mini's electric car is to be built closes in. Most Mini production takes place at the brand's Oxford plant in England, but both supply-chain factors and Brexit may sway BMW board members into...
Diesel-powered vehicles are facing a tough road ahead as more European cities move to ban older, dirtier, oil-burning cars. Diesel has long been the preferred fuel of European drivers thanks to its efficiency and lower carbon dioxide levels. However, mounting research has shown diesel-powered cars spew harmful toxins that may cause cancer and...
Electric vehicle sales are holding steady in Europe; the latest sales data shows popular battery electric vehicles remain popular. Plug-in hybrids continue to hold their own as well, according to data aggregated from numerous individual national markets. The Renault Zoe, in particular, continues to sell quite well. DON'T MISS: European electric...
Deutsche Post, the German mail service, has long hoped to replace its fleet of 30,000 internal-combustion delivery vans with electric vehicles. In 2014, it bought the company Street Scooter, which has since built thousands of small car-sized electric delivery vans. Now Deutsche Post has announced it is partnering with Ford to put a larger...
With the prospect of multiple long-range electric cars hitting the market over the next few years, the prediction market is in full swing. Battery costs have fallen faster than predicted eight years ago, and virtually every carmaker plans to introduce at least one battery-electric vehicle with 200 miles of range or more. The Chevrolet Bolt EV...
When a major lobbying group issues a statement replying to an academic study before that study even hits the media, you know it's major. On Monday, the Diesel Technology Forum responded to an article in Nature with a statement that supported "improved real-world testing" of diesel emissions. Those more stringent tests, the group's executive...
In recent years, governments have increasingly worked to encourage the sales of plug-in electric vehicles. Incentive programs for the purchase of a low-emission vehicle have been adopted across the world. The amounts granted and the mechanisms vary according to the individual program, but the goal is the same: reduce emissions. DON’T MISS...
The first quarter of 2017 is now behind us, which means we get to take a peek at the European plug-in electric vehicle sale numbers. The year-to-date numbers show a significant growth in sales for most electric models, according to the recent European Alternative Fuels Observatory report. The Renault Zoe remains the top seller across the continent...
Despite efforts by Chevrolet to step into the void left by Volkswagen, sales of diesel passenger vehicles in the U.S. may have been permanently crippled by the VW diesel emission scandal. In Europe, however, diesel has been entrenched for decades as roughly 50 percent of the market. Even before the scandal, it wasn't expected to rise much beyond...