OEMs – Page 4757 – I wish I had more to offer

“Ambition2039”: Our path to sustainable mobility

Over the next 20 years, Mercedes-Benz Cars aims to have a carbon-neutral new passenger car fleet and aims to have plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles to make up more than 50% of its car sales by 2030. Focus on the customer: The electric offensive offers customers attractive products and access to convenient, user-friendly services. Important… Continue reading “Ambition2039”: Our path to sustainable mobility

Audi on demand in Mallorca: mobility service expands in Spain

Just in time for the start of the summer season, the premium mobility service Audi on demand has also been relaunched on the popular vacation island of Mallorca. A selection of exclusive, sporty R and RS models is available for users of the service. Audi Center Palma functions as the business partner. With this, Audi… Continue reading Audi on demand in Mallorca: mobility service expands in Spain

Nissan: Nissan Group reports April 2019 U.S. sales

April 2019 April 2018 % chg Nissan Group Total sales (units) 95,698 87,764 +9.0 Nissan Division sales 87,207 78,804 +10.7 INFINITI sales* 8,491 8,960 -5.2 NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nissan Group announced total U.S. sales for April 2019 of 95,698 units, an increase of 9 percent compared to the prior year.Nissan highlights: Nissan Altima sales grew… Continue reading Nissan: Nissan Group reports April 2019 U.S. sales

All Charged Up: Opel Grandland X All-Wheel Drive Plug-In Hybrid

300hp and AWD: New Grandland X Hybrid4 version tops Opel’s SUV family Four driving modes: Fully electric, hybrid, AWD and sport Convenient: Lithium ion battery fully charged in as little as one hour 50 minutes Efficient: Regenerative braking converts deceleration to electrical energy Opel goes electric: Entire product portfolio electrified by 2024 Rüsselsheim. Opel goes… Continue reading All Charged Up: Opel Grandland X All-Wheel Drive Plug-In Hybrid

Why the Germans do not like e-cars

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Do You Want EVs To Succeed? Spread The Word!

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Published on May 12th, 2019 |

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Do You Want EVs To Succeed? Spread The Word!

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May 12th, 2019 by Sponsored Content

By Benoît Michel

Everyone of sound mind supports actions to limit the impact of climate change. There are lots of practices we can do to improve our climate: sort our trash, cut down on our use of plastic, install photovoltaic panels, drive electric cars… and what else?

As electric vehicle owners, fans, and devotees, you can do something very simple that, frankly, is not done enough: you can spread the word. Taking action to convince your neighbors to switch from economy class to the cockpit and take the controls to give Planet Earth 2019 a better chance of avoiding turbulence. As CleanTechnica has repeated countless times, everything on earth should be converted to electricity, and electricity has to be generated from renewable sources and fed into a globally interconnected “super grid.” The ambitious goal of making power generation 100% carbon-free by 2050 is within reach and converting the global automobile fleet to electricity is an important part of the solution. You can help.

History of an EV Enthusiast
The electric car’s ease of use and lack of polluting exhaust originally encouraged my interest in EVs in the 1970s, when nobody was worrying about the climate. I was an automotive engineering student when I first caught the EV bug. In those days without Internet and smartphones, the only way you could drive an electric car was to build one yourself. So I did!

The author‘s home-made EV, from the author’s archive

The lack of components made the project fun as well as complicated. Having to use a forklift motor and lead batteries did not make things too exciting. However, given the rarity of electric cars in the 20th century, I managed to show mine to a large audience and may even have convinced some of the “innovators-” those who populate the lower left-hand corner of the EV adoption S-curve – seen below.

The EV adoption S-Curve, from author’s site)

John Goodenough invented the lithium-ion battery in 1980, but it took another twenty years for its price to fall to the point where it could be used in small appliances such as cell phones, and thirty years to become cheap enough to make it the energy storage solution of choice for cars. So, after my initial experiments, I had to wait decades to be able to buy an electric car worthy of the name. With all the EV owners currently scattered across the planet, we have gotten the S-curve to lift off – I would suggest that we’re now in the “early adopters” phase!

As we have long been convinced that EVs are part of the climate change, how can we help boost the curve’s slope and enter the “early majority” phase? A simple method within everyone’s reach exists – again, we need to continually spread the word.

Seize every Opportunity for EV Awareness
Family gatherings, school parties, concerts, exhibitions, and football and basketball matches offer tons of opportunities to discuss the pros and cons of electric vehicles. The first step is to correct the most widespread misconceptions. So, more than a third of the population doesn’t know that an EV has no gearbox and recharges its batteries when the brakes are applied or it goes downhill!

And roughly one out of two people doesn’t know that you charge the batteries at home at night, using a simple outlet (for more on this, see Carolyn Fortuna’s writings. Yet CleanTechnica’s readers know that this last advantage is actually one of the brightest sides of EV ownership. Morever, people seem confused when it comes to car manufacturers, the models, and the cost of current and future EVs.

I think the best way to win over the skeptics is to discuss the advantages of living with an electric car: silence and simplicity, instant acceleration, low cost of ownership, no more filling up at the pump, and so much more. And that you will not die of carbon monoxide inhalation should you leave the garage door shut.

If you’re talking to a car buff, garage mechanic, or engineer, you can talk about how there’s no clutch, gearbox, oil, or muffler. The electric car is so simple that servicing boils down to changing the tires and topping up the windshield wash. Even better, the EV’s lifespan is at least twice that of an ICE car.

When I wrote my book, The Electric Car: Here and Now, I assembled the most frequently asked questions and their answers: “It is too expensive!” “It is not really available.” “The ranges are too limited.” “Charging takes much too long.” “It does nothing to mitigate global warming.” “It’s full of rare earths and expensive metals.” “It relies on outrageous subsidies!” and the popular “Where will all the electricity come from?” I am pretty sure you already have answers ready for most of those arguments, but I included a compilation of these Q&As in the last chapter.

The world will be better after the burial; image from The Electric Car, Here and Now,

Win them over with Experience: Go for a Ride

Talking is great; strutting one’s stuff is even better. Whether your interlocutor is almost convinced or highly skeptical of EVs, suggest taking a little spin in your electric car. Ten minutes will suffice to show her/him everything you’ve explained, and the memory of the experience will never die!

If you belong to a group of EV owners, why not organize mini “Discover Electric Cars” events such as those held by DriveElectricWeek since 2014 – or join me: I am organizing one in September with friends in Belgium.

If we are good at spreading the word, the last laggards may hop on the electric wagon by 2030!

After serving up the same arguments dozens of times during countless discussions, I discovered that a great way to spread the word to lots of people in record time was to put everything in a book. That is why I wrote my book, The Electric Car: Here and Now– now available on Amazon. In clear, everyday language, it sums up all the controversies and pros and cons that are heard most often, and answers some questions that EV owners are always asked:

Life with an EV must be weird, isn’t it?
How does it work?
There’s Tesla and the other brands. Which should I choose?
Should we wait for hydrogen fuel cells?
And what about autonomous cars…? And more!

About the Author: Benoît Michel is an electromechanical engineer. Upon graduating he built an electric car and various electric motor prototypes, and then a low-energy house well before “low energy” was in vogue. He is an expert working for the European Commission and for PILAB (Pixel and Interaction Laboratory) at UCLouvain. He co-founded the ”Vent d’ici” association promoting renewable energies in Belgium. Through his lectures and numerous technical writings, this proponent of popular science shares his passion for new technologies, cars, and energy problems with laypeople the world over on his website and with his new book, available on Amazon. He is organizing a Drive Electric Week event in September 2019 in Belgium.

About the Author

Sponsored Content CleanTechnica and our parent company, Important Media, occasionally choose to work with select clients for paid promotion on our network sites. This is the account for all paid content. For information about paid outreach, please contact our Accounts Manager Andrea Bertoli.

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Kia Motors America posts Best-Ever Monthly Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle Sales Total in Company History

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Kia’s Award-Winning CPO Program Posts 2.5-percent Increase Year-over-Year
Double-digit gains for Forte bolsters Kia’s salesConsumers continue to gravitate toward the brand’s diverse lineup of Certified, Pre-Owned vehiclesKia Motors America announces best-ever Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) monthly sales with 7,698 vehicles sold in March. This achievement reflects Kia’s continued commitment to enhancing the CPO program, including expanding the Quality Assurance inspection to 164 points up from a 150-point inspection. Kia’s popular Forte sedan helped drive the brand’s sales with a 20.2-percent increase.
“Kia’s Certified Pre-Owned program proves to be popular with consumers looking for world-class vehicles,” said Bill Peffer, vice president, sales operations, Kia Motors America. “The recent expansion of the Quality Assurance inspection, incorporating an additional 14 points of review, provides consumers added confidence when buying pre-owned and stren..

Kia Motors posts global sales of 240,028 vehicles in April

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Kia Motors Corporation announced its April 2018 global sales figures for passenger cars, recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles, recording a total of 240,028 units sold, increasing 9.3% from 2017. In April, sales in Korea totaled 50,004 units, representing an increase of 14.9% compared with the same month last year led by strong sales of K3 compact sedan (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) and K900. The all-new K3 with a more sophisticated design and enhanced features has been a leading model for the Kia brand since debuting at the end of February in the Korean market. The company’s overseas sales also grew by 7.9% compared to the previous year, posting 190,024 units with strong sales of Rio (known as ‘Pride’ in Korea). Kia’s best-selling model in the global markets during April 2018 was the Sportage compact SUV with 39,475 units sold. The K3 compact sedan was the second best seller with 33,881 units sold, followed by the Rio with ..

Kia reveals first images of all-electric Niro

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Exclusive first images of Niro electric compact SUV illustrate sporty and versatile design Stylish and modern exterior inspired by ‘Clean and High-tech’ design concept New Kia Niro EV promises class-leading driving range of 380 km Kia has today unveiled its new all-electric version of the Niro at ‘The 5th International Electric Vehicle Expo’ in Jeju, Korea. The sporty and versatile Niro EV combines driving enjoyment with eye-catching design and functionality, and is set to add a new dimension to the eco-friendly compact SUV market. A collaborative effort between Kia’s design centers in California and Namyang, Korea, the Niro EV incorporates the practicality and aesthetic allure of a compact SUV with a sleek, aerodynamic body and subtly sculptured surfaces. Taking inspiration from the Niro EV Concept unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the car features an exclusive radiator grille, futuristic air intake and arrowhead-sh..

Hyundai Motor to upgrade Kona Electric

Hyundai Motor extends its leading position in the future mobility segment Faster three-phase charging offered in many European markets New connectivity features added with Hyundai Blue Link® New optional navigation system with 10.25-inch centre display, standard new eCall safety feature 9 May 2019 – The Hyundai Kona Electric has exceeded customer demand across Europe, thanks… Continue reading Hyundai Motor to upgrade Kona Electric