Before The Flood - The Film, Renewables and EV's

While watching "Before the Flood", for a moment i had a sense of deja vu, as in some points it reminded me of another film, the 2006 An Inconvenient Truth,  excluding narrative and cinematology (Actual word) details, the fact is that the essence of both is the same: 

Climate Change and urgence to cope with it.

Well, after 10 years, has anything changed?

To answer that, we have to rewind time even further.

1. Kyoto Protocol

Following the 90's global warming concerns, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, with the objective to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with 192 countries currently now part of it. Only...It is non-binding for most countries, and also the USA, which accounted for 36% of emissions in 1990, signed the agreement but hasn't put it into practice, in fact things got worse in 2011, when Canada, Japan and Russia stated they would not take on Kyoto targets anymore.

In short, a lot of good intentions, but not a lot done in practice.

2. The Lost Years

The end of the Second Age of the Electric Car, in 2002, signaled also a slowdown in the cost reduction of Renewables, in fact we can say that the following 6 to 7 years after 2002 were lost to Green Tech, because of a hostile Political and Economical environment.   

 3. Back to Business

The year 2009 signaled a significant drop in Solar Power cost while at the same time the Third Age of the Electric Car started, leading to the point where we are now, Renewables and Electric Cars are the new Cool (Kudos Tesla) and ready to go into the mainstream business.

"Without time", some would say, as the four hottest years on record all happened after 2009, and 2015 was the hottest year ever, with the global climate giving its first signs of significant change, time seems in deed to be running out.

And that leads us to...

4. USA - The Lesser Evil Choice

Unlike what happened in the past, think around the year 2000, when the USA were a leader in Green Energy Tech, now that role belongs to Renewable Superpower China (#1 on EV's too), the choice US voters will make in a few days will still have an impact on the success of we how will tame Climate Change.

Regardless of what one might think regarding of each candidate (How did they managed to choose so poorly?), the fact is that US citizens have to choose between one of them, and this useful article helps to have an insight of what the outcome will be if one or the other gets elected regarding Climate Change.

EV Distribution - Portugal May 2015

Following a reader suggestion, i made a small study regarding the distribution of EV's in my home country, this is a small sample (70 units) of the 1.300-something EV's registered in Portugal, based on used car websites, so this should only be seen as an indication of how electric vehicles are distributed across the portuguese territory.

For the information to be easier to understand for people not familiar with the local geography, i have divided the country in seven areas: Northwest (Porto, Aveiro, Braga and Viana do Castelo  districts), Northeast (Bragança, Vila Real, Guarda and Viseu), Center (Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Leiria and Santarém), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Lisbon and Setubal), South (Portalegre, Evora, Beja and Faro), Azores and Madeira.

But let's look at the distribution of the best selling EV's:

Nissan Leaf 

From the snowy mountains of the Northeast to the scorching hot South, the most common EV in Portugal is present across mainland Portugal, being the only EV present in the harsh climate (Cold winters and hot summers) of the Northeast.

Here's how the japanese car is distributed: NW - 4 units; NE - 3; CT - 2; LIS - 4; SO - 2.

Mitsubishi I-Miev triplets (Includes Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero)

It's also spreaded across the mainland, but in this case it is visible the concentration in the major cities, with half of the 10 units concentrated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with an additional three distributed among the NW Braga-Porto-Aveiro industrial cluster and the remaining two distributed by the Center and South.

Renault Twizy

The french quadricycle is quite popular among the more tourism-friendly areas as a rental car, that's why it's present across the seaside areas and in the Azores and Madeira islands.

Here's the sample distribution: LIS - 3 units; CT - 2; MAD - 2; SO - 1; AZ - 1; NW - 1.

BMW i3

Having just two i-dealerships in Portugal (One in Oporto and the other in Lisbon), it isn't surprising that these hot hatches are concentrated in those areas, with three i3 in Lisbon (And the two existing i8's) and two in the northern capital.

There is also one i3 confirmed in the Azores islands, in Ponta Delgada (Regional capital), probably imported from the mainland, and it should be a blast to drive there, with that territory being fertile on narrow mountain roads, a place where the little german car excels.

Renault Zoe

Another car concentrated in the two larger metropolitan areas, with three in Porto (NW) and two in Lisbon, with the last one living further South, in the tourist-friendly Algarve.

It should be noted that the french carmaker has the largest dealership network in Portugal and the fact that these cars are concentrated in urban areas only reinforces the feeling that most of their dealerships aren't really prepared/willing to sell electric vehicles to the general public.


Others

In the more recent arrivals / smaller diffusion models, there are a couple cases worthy of mention, the five Outlander PHEV are more popular in the southern areas (two in the Center, one in Lisbon and two in the South), while the two V60 Plug-In are concentrated in the Northwest, but the reality is that EV's sold in small numbers tend to concentrate in Lisbon, like is the case of the  Smart Fortwo ED, with three out of four living in the Capital's Metropolitan Area and the remaining unit living up in the Northwest (Braga).

It would be interesting to have data on the Plug-In Porches, but looking at the general picture of other high-end EV's (The two BMW i8  reside in Lisbon and there also two Teslas in Lisbon, while the other is registered the Center of the country), it is possible to extract that the expensive plug-ins are also concentrated around Lisbon.

Together with the data above mentioned, this means that the NW industrial belt (Braga-Porto-Aveiro) is behind the curve regarding Lisbon in EV acceptance (16 EV's in NW vs 27 in LIS). 

Electric Airplanes - A reality in the Future?

My day job and EVS rarely intersect each other, but this was one of those exceptions...

Help Needed

Dear readers, as EV Sales grows, so does the need for more comprehensive and accurate data, on top of that, plug-ins are spreading to more and more countries and sometimes is difficult to detect and/or extract data from these new markets, so i'm calling for your help, if you can get EV sales data from the below markets, please send me an email (efeelblog@gmail.com), so that we can put them on the map and "Spread the Word". Your help can be anonymous if you want and will be greatly appreciated.

China

It is still uncharted territory, with regular data from dedicated models (ex: BYD Qin), but numbers from plug-in versions of regular cars (ex: Roewe 550 PHEV) are still random. Tesla's numbers are also hard to find and numbers for imported EV's are simply non-existent;

Japan

Data is available on some models, but lacking regular data on others, like the Nissan e-NV200, Prius Plug-In imports, etc, which prevents us from getting a full picture of the EV Scene;

UK

One of EV Sales "Moby Dick's", there's regular data on global volumes from SMMT, but data from individual models is sparse and comes with several months delay, with this market growing by the day (It was the 6th largest this January), it becomes more and more important to know what is going on here.

Latvia

With reports saying that the EV Share is above 1%, there isn't a single clue on which cars are the best sellers here, please contact me as this can be one of those countries where things can really interesting for plug-ins really fast.

India

There is some data regarding the Mahindra Reva E2O performance here, but it is not a regular source and it misses the rest of the electric market, now that the Indian market is seriously considering EV's, it would be great if we could start following this market.

South Korea

There isn't a regular source for data regarding this market, which is a shame considering there are several models selling there (Kia Soul EV, Samsung SM3 ZE, Chevrolet Spark EV, etc) and this is a market with great growth potential. If anyone has access to regular detailed data for South Korea, could you please contact me.

Australia

Another market with tremendous growth potential where numbers still come randomly, which is a shame, now that sales are tripling, this should be one of the markets to follow more closely.

Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland

There's only monthly data by dedicated models, if anyone has access to the full data, including ICE-based plug-ins, please contact me;


Markets that require data source:

Luxembourg, Monaco (My guess is that the Porsche 918 is #3, Twizy #2 and Tesla #1), Romania, South Africa, Bulgaria, Brazil, Turkey, Costa Rica and Mexico

Life On Cars has been facelifted!

EAGLE-EYED readers - yes, both of them - will have already spotted that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a facelift.

The blog's had a great year, including being honoured as one of only two motoring blogs to win in the Automotive category of the inaugural UK Blog Awards back in April.

In the aftermath of the awards I got a lot of great feedback about Life On Cars and how to tweak the blog. In particular, the authors of Creditplus - another nominee in the UK Blog Awards - made quite a few useful observations.

Creditplus writer James Dwyer wrote back in September: "Two things immediately stand out. One, David is an authority on his chosen subject (classic cars), and two, the blogpost is written in a personal and friendly style that gives the reader an insight into David’s character.

"The posts are long and detailed, covering a variety of topics within David’s area of expertise. The website isn’t that flashy, but it's the high quality content that appeals."

I couldn't agree more - a motoring hack I might be, but a web design guru I'm emphatically not. That's why I've entrusted fellow blogger Natalie Bassling to give the site a complete refresh, meaning I can concentrate on bringing you more motoring tales - even ones which involve looking a bit silly while standing next to a Corvette - without getting bogged down in how Life On Cars looks and works.

Personally, I think it looks great, but I'd be keen to know what you think. Feel free to get in touch with your motoring stories and details of shows!

Champion columnist scoops top award

Originally printed in the 7 May, 2014 edition of The Champion newspaper. For an online version of the article click here.

Life On Cars wins national award!

Life On Cars has tonight won a national award celebrating blogging, it has been announced.

The organisers of the UK Blog Awards, held tonight at The Grange Hotel in St Pauls, Central London, confirmed that Life On Cars had beaten off stiff competition to win the Individual Automotive category, which celebrates motoring writing.

Originally launched by David Simister while working for The Champion newspaper in Southport, Life On Cars has featured hundreds of motoring articles, and has continued throughout his time at national title Classic Car Weekly.

The blog features comment pieces on hundreds of different motoring topics, road tests, show reports and news items, and is accompanied each week by a column in The Champion.

Sadly, David couldn't be in London to collect the prestigious award due to an assignment earlier today with Classic Car Weekly. Sadly, Life On Cars can't reveal too much, other than to say it involves some stunning roads, a pork pie shop and a broken Austin Montego.

All will be revealed soon!

David Simister is news editor of Classic Car Weekly and regularly contributes to The Champion as its motoring correspondent

Life On Cars shortlisted for national award

LIFE ON CARS has been shortlisted for a national award celebrating blogging, it has been confirmed this week.

Originally created by motoring journalist David Simister in July 2009, the blog is one of just eight from across the UK which have been shortlisted for the Automotive category of the UK Blog Awards 2014, with the winner due to be announced at a ceremony in London on 25 April.

The blog, which is accompanied by a sister column in The Champion newspaper in Southport, focuses on a wide range of motoring topics with more than 750 articles since its launch, including many of the misadventures David has encountered in his own cars!

David is the news editor of Classic Car Weekly, and regularly contributes to The Champion as the motoring correspondent for the series of weekly newspapers.

EV Sales on Facebook

In a way to improve feedback from our viewers, EV Sales is now on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EV-Sales/349586295168620

This page for now is just an alert to new articles published on EV Sales, but in the future it might have exclusive content, so stay tuned.

Finally, I want to thank your visits and feedback given, I  hope you will keep enjoying EV Sales as much as I enjoy updating it!

Memory Lane - Introduction

This new section doesn't want to give a History Lesson about Electric Cars, for that we have Wikipedia, but it's made just to complete with some figures and pictures, the electric car sales preceding the period recorded by EV Sales. This post relates to the first Two Ages of the Electric Car and in the following days i'll post some more regarding the Third Age, the one we now live.


First Age of the Electric Car (1890's - 1920's)

Detroit Electric car, during its lifespan (1907-39), this manufacturer sold 13.000 electric cars

Unlike what many people might think, electric cars are not a novelty, in fact in the end of the 19th century, electric power was competing with gasoline and steam (!) as the preferential source of power for cars, with electric cars in their heyday reaching some 30% share in some markets, being recognized as easier to use, cleaner, quieter and much more economical than their competitors.

The decline began with the mass production of Ford Model T and the subsequential lowering costs of gasoline-powered cars, transforming electric ones in niche cars and then the 1929 economic crisis ended with most electric car manufacturers.


Second Age of the Electric Car (1990's - 2003)

In the beginning of the 1990's, government-led initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic, like the now famous California Air Resources Board (CARB), began a push for more ecological vehicles and several carmakers  developed electric cars as way to respond to that push, here are pictures from some of the most famous models of this Age.

With the end of government support and/or other causes, the beginning of the new century saw the end of those projects and by 2004 only the toy-like REVA G-Wiz was on sale.

Peugeot 106 Electrique - Believe it or not, this was the best selling car of this Age, total production was 6.400 units during its eight year lifespan (1995 - 2003). Its cousin, the Citröen Saxo Electrique sold another 2.500 units, performing a total of 8.900 units for PSA.

Toyota RAV4 EV (1st Generation) - Proof that electric cars are reliable, many of these vehicles are still on the roads today, despite having been produced just 1.484 units between 1997 and 2003.

GM EV1 - Like the Dodo, this car had more fame when it ceased to exist, featuring even in a starring role on a movie around the End of the Second Age. 1.117 units were produced between 1996 and 1999 and in 2002, (in)famously, all were recalled by GM to be scrapped.

Canada May 2013

Editor's note: I'm back online and to start recovering for the lost time, i'm posting today the american markets data and the rest will follow in the coming days.

New month, new theme: After white, now the theme is black painted EV's

Volt(age) Edition

With the canadian Tesla sales now accounted, the EV market registered 167 new cars in May, an average month that kept the EV share at 0,12%, just 0,01% above last year share.

In the ranking, the Volt is now well ahead of the competition, followed by a surprisingly discrete Nissan Leaf and tied in third comes the Prius Plug-In and the Mitsubishi I-Miev.

Finally, in fifth there's Tesla's Model S, far from delivering here the kind of performance that it has in Uncle Sam's country.

Pl	Canada	May	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Chevrolet Volt	77	318	38	1
2	Nissan Leaf	31	235	28	2
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In	22	130	16	4
4	Mitsubishi I-Miev	22	81	10	3
5	Tesla Model S	15	62	8	N/A
TOTAL		167	826	100

Source: Good Car Bad Car

USA All Time Top 5

Editor's Note: I'll be offline for a few days, but to keep feeding the EV Sales weblog, i've decided to post a series of All-Time rankings of the seven largest EV Markets, that allows the analysis of long-term trends of each market.

Here's the first of those posts, dedicated to the US market:

NYPD Volt

The Chevrolet Volt rules here thanks to a great 2012, where it sold twice as much as the second place, the Prius Plug-In, also doing well that year.

Tesla's Model S has an eye in the third place and although the distance is still big, it wouldn't be surprising to see it get there this year.

Pl	Model	Sales (1)
1	Chevrolet Volt	37.008
2	Nissan Leaf	24.988
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In	15.702
4	Tesla Model S	9.603
5	Ford C.Max Energi	3.951

(1) - Updated until April 30th, 2013

Best-Selling models by year:
2010 - Tesla Roadster (+\- 600)
2011 - Nissan Leaf (9.674)
2012 - Chevrolet Volt (23.461)
2013(1) - Tesla Model S (7.050)

First post

Tesla Model S

Hello, my name is Jose Pontes and i'm a what you can call a car geek, with a particular interest in the green side of the auto landscape.

One thing i realized in the past few months is that there's scarce information about electric vehicles (ev's) sales, so to satisfy my natural curiosity, i started to compile a database with countries where ev's are sold in relevant numbers, divided by models and manufacturers.

After some research (BSCB, BSC, ABG and others), this database started to gain reliable numbers and right now is covering some 25 markets where ev's are sold, from the tiniest (Hong Kong, Monaco) to the largest (USA, China).

The idea for this blog came from the notion that apart from the US market, there's no specific sales information about this segment of the auto market, which is one of the most innovative and exciting areas of the automotive industry.

The reliability of these information varies, mostly because some countries don't have organized sales data, but also because some manufacturers (Please stand up, Fisker and Tesla) don't give accurate data, so if some of this rankings are incomplete, don't be surprised. 

Also, if you have information that completes these rankings, or if you have comments, disagreements, or criticisms, please do so, because i'd like to know your feedback about EV Sales blog.

In the next weeks i'm going to put online posts with data of these 25 markets with a small analysis of each one, along with the global numbers of the EV market.

But before that, in the next days, i'm posting my forecasts for the 2013 EV market.

Stay tuned!