UK & Netherlands Shell Stations To Add EV Charging

Sometimes, it’s a good thing to change your spots. Shell is doing a bit of that. Shell is not a name I think of at all in terms of clean air infrastructure. More often, I reflect on the problems of the oil company in places it should not be — rainforests, the Arctic, etc. Changing its spots, Shell is offering a new face with a clean air emphasis. Shell is planning a second choice in how it fuels up cars, and it is a good thing for once. Parts of Europe will see the beginning of the change. Some Shell stations in UK and Netherlands will reportedly be adding EV charging stations later this year.

Gas is not cheap at all in that part of the world. The push towards renewable, clean energy is strong in Europe. One of the benefits of electric cars is the convenient ability to charge at home, or perhaps at your workplace, the grocery store, IKEA, etc. However, installing EV charging stations at gas stations can be helpful to bridge gaps in charging infrastructure for those who are out and about and low on charge.

→ Related: What Will The End Of Gasoline Cars Look Like?

An earlier CleanTechnica story on Shell and solar energy showed an adaptive shift might be planned: “Solar energy will comprise the backbone of the world’s energy system in years to come, according to the CEO of Shell (yes, that Shell), Ben van Beurden.”

The interesting/odd thing is that, to avoid a visit to a gas station and not have to smell gas so closely is one of the reasons some of us prefer EVs. On the other hand, I do think this will help many less adventurous types to feel secure. It will also help to normalize the idea of electric cars. People like familiarity. On a long trip without other options, this is a good additional location, I admit, even if $ is at the root. Ever wonder how much $ gas stations bring in with those high-priced bottles of water and snacks?

Shell sees the chargers as a business opportunity to sell more snacks. “We have a number of countries where we’re looking at having battery charging facilities,” John Abbott, Shell director of downstream business, commented in an interview with the Financial Times. “If you are sitting charging your vehicle, you will want to have a coffee or something to eat.”

Inverse.com highlighted the new Shell story with a focus on Tesla charging, but it’s actually non-Tesla fully electric car drivers who could make more use of EV charging stalls at gas stations — Teslas have the most range by far, and they also benefit from access to a fairly widespread Tesla super-fast charging (Supercharging) network. Nonetheless, more charging stations could even help Tesla drivers. Also, note that Tesla is partnering with gas stations in some European countries (e.g., with Orlen in Poland) to install Superchargers.

Netherlands Start-Up Offers Electric Car For $37 A Week

Would you pay $37 a week to have access to an all electric car with 250 miles of range and a top speed of 92 miles an hour that can accelerate to 60 in 7 seconds? For most of us, the only question is “Where do I sign up?” Amber Mobility of Eidenhoven in the Netherlands plans to offer just such a car. It says prototypes will appear in 2017 and cars people can actually buy will be available in 2018.

Its first electric car, appropriately called Amber One, is meant of move four people efficiently and as cheaply as possible. Once you sign up for an Amber One subscription, you will be entitled to grab which ever vehicle is closest and use it to go where you need to go. The company says its car will come with a guarantee that an Amber One will be available “within walking distance at any time.” That may be true for tightly packed European cities like Eidenhoven but may not be true in the hinterlands.

Amber says its electric car is designed to be modular so that it can be upgraded throughout its lifetime. That means it can be updated as new technology and improvements become available. It has been designed as a connected car from the ground up according to the company, which should help reduce overall operating costs. Semi and fully autonomous driving capabilities will be integrated later. Amber says self driving technology will further reduce costs associated with damage from accidents.

Amber One is a response to the fact that most cars sit idle 96% of the time. In urban areas, all those unused cars take up valuable space that could be used for other purposes, like bicycle pathways or green space. It also means that people pay a premium for owning an automobile because expenses like taxes, insurance, depreciation, and parking go on whether the car is being used or not. Car sharing is clearly the wave of the future, with even Elon Musk saying that when autonomous driving systems are perfected, Tesla owners will be able to recoup some of their ownership costs by renting their cars out when they are not being used.

There are still some details to be worked out, such as who cleans the car and who is responsible for plugging it in. Cities will need to agree on where shared cars can be parked. BMW recently pulled out of  a car sharing program in San Francisco after getting into a controversy with the city about where customers could leave the cars when they were through with them.

But those are just details to be worked out. Having access to a non-polluting electric car for less than $2,000 a year? Like I said at the beginning, “Where do I sign up?”

Source: TechCrunch  Photo credit: Amber Mobility

Netherlands Wants To Ban All Conventional Cars By 2025

The Netherlands plans to join Norway in an outright ban on new cars fueled by gasoline or diesel fuel. Pursuant to pending legislation, only zero emissions cars powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells will be permitted after 2025. Germany is not far behind. It proposes to ban conventional cars by 2030.

Heralded as a move “to save the Earth,” the ban is being promoted by the Dutch Labour Party, which currently governs the country as part of a coalition with the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. The idea first surfaced in the lower house of the Dutch parliament, which approved it in March. Now sources say it may soon be approved by the upper chamber and will “likely become law.”

Labour Party member Jan Vos is the driving force behind the project. He argues, “We need to phase out CO2 emissions and we need to change our pattern of using fossil fuels if we want to save the Earth,” according to the Yale Climate Connection.

Making the change will take more than a stroke of a legislative pen, however.  “Transportation with your own car shouldn’t be something that only rich people can afford,” Vos says. In order for zero emissions transportation to be affordable to everyone, the price of alternative energy cars will have to come down considerably from where it is today.

At $35,000, the Tesla Model 3 will list for half the cost of the least expensive Model S, but that may still be beyond the reach of many new car shoppers. The theory, if you listen to Elon Musk, is that building more cars will drive the price down just as the price of personal computers tumbled 30 years ago. Another good example is high definition televisions, which today sell for 20% or less of what they cost a decade ago. Not everyone believes those analogies will apply to alternative energy automobiles.

Norway is doing the best of all European countries at getting electric cars on its roads. Today, 24% of all cars in Norway are zero emissions. But the national government provides generous incentives to promote its goal. Neighboring Sweden has few incentives and has few zero emissions cars on its roads as a result.

Germany has an ambitious goal to reduce carbon emissions by up to 95% by 2030 but has only recently begun offering financial incentives to buyers of low or zero emissions cars. In total, there are about 130,000 hybrid and 25,000 electric cars in Germany, compared to a total of 30 million gasoline powered cars and 14.5 diesels. In the US, plug-ins and electric cars still represent less than 1% of the cars on American roads.

Goals are laudable, but there is a lot of hard work remaining to be done to turn them into reality.

Source: International Business Times