Germany aims for a million electric vehicles by 2020 while car makers announce production plans
Mon 24 August 2009
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The German Government has announced the intention to have one million electric cars running on German roads by 2020. Germany says it will spend €500 million on the development of battery technology and to build a network of charging infrastructure. In the last month, Nissan of Japan said it plans to build 200,000 electric cars annually from 2012 while its partner, the French car maker Renault also announced its intention to produce 'tens of thousands' of electric cars from 2011.
Specific details are yet to be released about how Germany will incentivise the introduction of electric vehicles, but there is speculation that it may mimic the UK Government's plans to introduce a consumer incentive of up to £5,000 to purchase an ultra-low carbon car. Similar commitments have been made in other EU countries, with Spain also pledging one million electric cars on the roads by 2014 and Portugal working on implementing Europe’s first national charging network for electric vehicles.
In the most ambitious announcement from any car maker so far, Nissan says that it will begin to sell an electric car - to be know as the Leaf - in large quantities worldwide within 3 years. Carlos Ghosn, Head of the Renault-Nissan alliance (quoted by The FT) said that pure electric vehicles could account for 10 per cent of new car purchases globally by 2020. The Leaf is a family hatchback aimed at at mass-market buyers.
Powered by an 80kW electric motor and rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the Leaf will appear in Japan and the US late next year. Nissan says that the Leaf can travel at least 160km on a full charge and can be recharged in eight hours from a standard home wall socket. It may also be charged to 80 per cent capacity in 30 minutes using a high-powered "quick charger" that Nissan is pushing to have installed in petrol stations, car parks and other public facilities. (See Nissan press release.)
Nissan recently announced that it would invest in a £200m battery plant for its cars in Sunderland. (Click here to see related LowCVP news story.)
Nissan's alliance partner, Renault, also announced in the last month that it will mass produce three new electric models as part of its involvement with Better Place. Renault says it will produce tens of thousands vehicles a year from 2011 and will market them alongside Better Place, initially in Denmark and Israel. The models are a saloon, a compact city car and a van.
Jens Moberg, chief executive of Better Place Denmark, the Danish subsidiary of the transport company developing the lithium batteries fitted in the vehicles said (reported in The Guardian): "We expect the production of electric vehicles to be in the tens of thousands per year for the Danish market from 2011".
Better Place says that drivers will be able to recharge the batteries at home, which would take several hours, or switch batteries at a "swap station" in a few minutes – or a similar amount of time it takes to refuel a conventional car. In Denmark, close to 100 battery swap stations will be available around the country, with plans to expand further.
Better Place is reported to be in discussion with a number of European countries, including France, about expanding the scheme further from Israel and Denmark.
In a related announcement, General Motors claims that its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car will be able to boast fuel consumption of 230 miles per gallon in city driving based on draft guidelines being developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The FT reports that GM and other carmakers are in talks with electricity utilities, municipalities and operators of car parks – such as big retail chains – to find ways of giving electric-car owners easy access to battery-charging facilities.
Production of the Chevrolet Volt - to be sold as the Opel Ampera in Europe - will begin in 2012.
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