Cars
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What Happened to Low Energy Cars?
In December 2010, the first few GM Volts and Nissan Leafs were delivered in the U.S. Sales grew rapidly from 17,813 units in 2011, the first full year of sales, to 118,682 units in 2014, the maximum sales year for plug-ins. For hybrids the maximum sales year was 2013, with 495,685 units shipped that year. Hybrid sales declined in 2014 and declined again in 2015 to 384,404 units sold. What happened? Did plug-ins take the …
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U.S. Plug-In Sales Falter
The nation’s current plug-in car program has been underway for more than a decade. Certain events date its beginning, such as the formation of Tesla Motor Company in 2003 and the delivery of the Tesla Roadster in 2008; or the introduction of GM’s Volt Concept car in early 2007. The first production Chevrolet Volt was shipped in December 2010, the same month that the first Nissan Leaf was shipped. Today there are approximately 27 plug-in …
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Part 1: Introduction to Plug-In Folly – The Misrepresentation of the Electric Car
The vision of non-polluting electric cars has been pursued in the US since 1990 – for 25 years. There were two efforts to develop and market electric cars; the first began in 1990 and the second in 2005. During the same time period, Japanese carmakers focused on the development of conventional hybrid technology, producing the first generation Toyota Prius and Honda Insight This presentation provides both a development history and a review of performance measurements …
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Part 2: The Battery Electric Car
The Birth of the Modern Electric Car, often called an EV or a plug-in began 25 years ago.
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Part 3: A Look at MPGe Metrics
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) use different methods of computing and displaying Miles Per Gallon equivalent (MPGe). Despite the high plugin MPGe numbers, CO2 emissions from the most popular electric cars are about the same as those from a Prius.
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Part 4: The Plug-In Hybrid Car
The first plug-in hybrid car in the US was shipped in December 2010. Because this new type of car used both gas and electricity, both needed to be included in MPG and CO2 Emissions calculations.
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Part 5: Conclusion
A 2012 Congressional Budget Office report on plug-ins says that the lifetime costs to consumers of an electric vehicle are generally higher than those of a hybrid vehicle of similar size and performance.
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Will US Plug-In Cars “Peak” in 2015?
2014 marks the fourth full year of plug-in cars sales. “Plug-ins” include battery electric cars (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). The period of plug-in-hybrid cars could be said to have begun when the Chevrolet Volt concept car debuted at the January 2007 North American Auto Show. The first production unit was shipped in December 2010, the same month the BEV Leaf was shipped.
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Requiem for Plug-In Cars
Electrification of modern transportation is not totally new to the US – from 1997 through 2003, almost 6,000 electric cars were produced, mostly for the state of California, under the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate established in 1990 by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). In 2003, CARB drastically scaled back the ZEV mandate and the auto companies withdrew their ZEV offerings. In the same year the Tesla Motor Company was formed with the goal of …
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The Second Death of the Electric Car
Electrification of transportation has been a national goal in recent years. Electric cars were common in the early days of the automobile; however, the internal combustion engine eventually became the dominant power train. Streetcars and trolleys were the mainstay of early intra-city travel but over time were replaced by buses. “Light rail” continues to be a goal of some cities but implementation has lagged. High-speed electric trains are more common in Europe, Japan, and now …
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