Electric vehicles

"Research from a recent study shows the important role that e-bikes can play in reducing carbon emissions in cities... the study says that carbon emissions could be reduced by 12 percent if just 15 percent of urban transportation miles traveled were instead made by e-bike... The researchers chose to focus specifically on e-bikes instead of regular bikes because “e-bikes encourage users to cycle farther and more often than conventional bicycles.” Any carbon emissions related to e-bikes themselves, like the electricity that’s required to charge them, were accounted for in this recent study. It’s also noted that emission differences in how that electricity is produced is pretty negligible."

"With interest in and sales of pedal-assisted electric bikes surging during the pandemic, those questions share a growing urgency. Two timely and soothing new studies of e-bike riders’ exertions and injuries suggest that the answer to both questions can be a qualified yes, though anyone riding an e-bike needs to remain aware that the experience is certainly cycling with a kick to it. As most of us are likely aware, cycling has become extremely popular and aspirational this year, since so many of us are otherwise housebound. Cycling gets us outside, active and heading somewhere — anywhere — else. But it also involves distance, hills, wind and sometimes leaden legs, which can be daunting. Enter e-bikes. Short for electric bikes, these are road or mountain bikes with an added battery-powered motor that gooses our pedaling power... You’ll just feel as if you have superhero legs."

"Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion energy plan Tuesday with a heavy focus on the Green New Deal agenda... Biden promised a “clean energy revolution,” which he said would deliver millions of jobs... Biden detailed what he called a pro-union platform that would replace the US government’s car fleet with American-made electric vehicles...The former veep on Tuesday promised to “create millions of high-paying union jobs by building a modern infrastructure and a clean energy future” and described his vision of a US covered in 500,000 electric car charging stations and thriving factories producing green products."

"Around the country, bars, restaurants, and other public spaces are closed or have limited service. Public transportation is becoming a more iffy proposition, and cities are closing streets to give pedestrians more room to move around near their homes. Enter: the electric bike. You don't need to be physically fit to ride one. It gets you outside, reduces fossil fuels, reduces congestion, and it's fun. Over the past few years, we’ve tried almost every kind of ebike there is, from heavy-duty cargo bikes to high-end mountain bikes. Whether you're tooling around your neighborhood buying wood chips from the hardware store or trying to trim a few miles off the ride for a socially distanced visit, we have the best ebike for you."

"Late last year, Formula E officials announced the specs for the third generation of all-electric race cars that will debut on the motorway in 2022. The new Formula E cars will be the first to use extremely fast charging stations that pack enough power to fully charge a Tesla Model S battery in about 10 minutes. Although the racers will only use the charging stations for brief pit stops, they’ll provide a glimpse of the future beyond the racetrack: EV batteries that charge in the same amount of time it takes to fill a gas tank. To be sure, fast EV chargers already exist. Tesla and Porsche have both recently deployed 250-kilowatt public charging stations, which can bring some EV battery packs close to full charge in around 40 minutes."

"The one factor that you can’t find on a spreadsheet is the willingness of the people in government to lead change, And in Denmark every single one of them is engaged and willing to do whatever it takes to get Denmark to be a leader in electric vehicles."

"As new-car sales in America are expected to fall to ten million this year, down from sixteen million in recent years, and as Chrysler and G.M. struggle after sojourns in bankruptcy, the big automakers are, often reluctantly, developing E.V.s of their own. Ford plans to release the electric Focus in 2011, and Chrysler says it will have five hundred thousand electric cars on the road by 2013, under its new ENVI brand, aimed at “consumers who care about the planet’s future.” (For everyone else, there’s the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.) Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi are soon to release electric models, and the Chinese government, in a bid for its manufacturers to dominate the market, is setting up battery-charging stations in some of its largest cities and offering fleet owners who buy E.V.s and hybrids subsidies of up to eighty-eight hundred dollars."

"Last fall (2008), Tesla began making the only highway-capable E.V. now available: the Roadster, a $109,000 sports car that goes from zero to sixty in less than four seconds and has a range of two hundred and forty-four miles. Powered by a lithium-ion battery—the kind used in laptops and cell phones—the Roadster was designed to prove that E.V.s can not just compete but excel. (Lithium is lighter than lead and releases a lot more energy.) Having gained “first-mover advantage”—which is particularly prized in Silicon Valley—Musk plans to cut the price for each of Tesla’s succeeding models more or less in half and seize the market from the top down."

"Bob Lutz, the vice-chairman of G.M. and the champion of its electric Chevy Volt, which will début next year, told me, “All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is ten years away, and Toyota agrees with us—and, boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, ‘How come some teeny little California start-up run by guys who know nothing about the car business can do this, and we can’t?’ That was the crowbar that helped break up the logjam.”"

"Silicon Valley’s E.V. entrepreneurs portray their technology as a fundamental discontinuity, a break from Detroit’s hidebound traditions. Yet, at the turn of the twentieth century, electric vehicles outsold all other types of cars. “Electric Road Wagons” and “Electrobats” were popular with women, because, unlike gas-powered vehicles, they required no strenuous cranking to start."

"The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like nothing I've ever seen in my life."