bmw

A plug for all cars

January 23, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Different brands of electric cars have required different charging connections. There has been no standard connector for charging. But now, as the transition to electric vehicles is accelerating, there is the North American Charging Standard, which within in the next couple of years, will be common to pretty much any new electric vehicle on the road.

There have been several different charging connector systems in use by auto manufacturers and each charging station offered only a particular one of them. The largest charging network in the US has been Tesla’s Supercharger Network, which uses a proprietary standard it put in place in 2012. Tesla offered to open up their charging technology to other cars but auto manufacturers declined to take them up on the offer for a number of years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed in 2021, provided federal subsidies for building out fast charging networks, provided a common charging standard was adopted. That has broken the log-jam.

The Tesla Charging Standard has been renamed the North American Charging Standard and Tesla opened its technology to other manufacturers in November 2022.

Automakers who have signed on to the standard include BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Lucid, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Polestar, Rivian, Subaru, Toyota, and Volvo. In December, the Volkswagen Group – which includes Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi – announced that they are also implementing it for future vehicles in North America, starting in 2025. (The only significant holdout is Stellantis, parent of Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep).

It will be a year or two before cars from all these companies will have the NACS connector and be able to charge at the same stations, but it will happen.

**********

Web Links

Volkswagen, Audi, And Porsche Finally Commit To Using Tesla’s NACS Plug

Photo, posted July 8, 2023, courtesy of Michael Swan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Policy Moves on Electric Cars | Earth Wise

February 26, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent times, there have been several significant events affecting the transition to electric vehicles. The new administration has made aggressive moves toward fighting climate change. Wall Street investors have placed more value on Tesla stock than that of GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Ford combined. China, the world’s largest car market, recently mandated that most new cars must be powered by electricity within 15 years.

Against this background, the CEO of General Motors announced in late January that the company will aim to sell only zero-emission cars and trucks by 2035.

This announcement took the rest of the auto industry by surprise. In the past, the industry tended to present a united message on emissions and other policy issues. This time around, GM has stepped out in front of the issue.

GM has already committed to spending $27 billion to introduce 30 electric vehicle models by 2025 and is building a plant in Ohio to make batteries for those cars and trucks.

A key driver in the GM decision, no doubt, was an executive order signed by President Biden on his first day of office. The order directed the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately begin developing tough new tailpipe pollution regulations, designed to reduce the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Even before the change in administration, five other major automakers – BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and Volvo – had already legally bound themselves to tougher fuel economy standards in a deal with California. Those companies committed to an average fuel economy of 51 miles per gallon in 2026.

While no other large automaker has set a specific target date for selling only electric vehicles, many of them are moving in that direction. The rapid growth of Tesla is an indicator of where the auto industry is heading.

**********

Web Links

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers’ Transition to Electric Cars

Photo, posted July 29, 2017, courtesy of Steve Jurvetson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Cars In Norway

February 18, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Norway has long been a world leader in sales of electric vehicles. The country only has 5.3 million people, so the absolute numbers cannot compete with those of large countries. Despite that, it wasn’t until the first quarter of last year that Germany became the leader in number of electric cars sold in Europe and Germany has 15 times the population of Norway.

In percentage terms, almost one-third of all new cars sold in Norway last year ran on batteries. The country offers generous subsidies for buyers who opt to go electric. The government has set a goal of having all new cars be emission-free by 2025. Last year, three of the top five most popular new car models were electric: the Nissan Leaf, the BMW i3, and the Tesla Model X.

Tesla’s Model 3, which has shattered all records for electric car sales in the United States, has yet to go on sale in Norway. When the car becomes available there in the next few months, it is expected to generate very high sales figures.

The 31% market share for electric cars in Norway far exceeds that of most other countries. In the United States, for example, plug-in cars account for only about 2% of new car sales. Only Hong Kong and Iceland are also currently above 5% electric.

Norway’s role in all of this is rather convoluted. The country has copious hydroelectric power resources that provide virtually all of its electricity. Thus, electric cars in Norway are truly clean, green vehicles. On the other hand, Norway is the 15th largest producer of oil in the world and gets about 17% of its GDP from oil exports. Tackling climate change must ultimately deal with the emissions Norway continues to export.

**********