BMW, the owner of the Mini Cooper brand, just announced an all-electric Mini Cooper that would have been utterly amazing in 2013 or so. Today, in 2020, it is still a very interesting car, but is found lacking in one key measure – driving range. Its very affordable price will…
In the North America Tesla cars use a proprietary charging cord, therefore to fast charge a Tesla car in North America requires using the proprietary charging cord. This morning friends in a local Electric Auto Association chapter (GGEVA) noticed that an eVgo charging station in San Francisco had support for…
Deutsche Post DHL Group is bringing its StreetScooter electric delivery vehicle to two US markets by Spring 2020. The company did not say which markets the Work L delivery van would come to, just that they’ll use one market on “each coast” (presumably meaning the West Coast and East Coast).…
It’s the campaign season for the 2020 USA Presidential election, and of course there are some crazy things happening. Recently an issue arose over Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s work for McKinsey and Associates, and are there any skeletons in his closet because of that. Buttigieg managed to get McKinsey to release…
Obviously my opinion about the Tesla Cybertruck is missing something that a lot of people are seeing. I think the Cybertruck is a stupid design that will not appeal to the people we need to switch from gasoline and diesel pickup trucks. But the level of excitement over the Cybertruck…
Major cities like San Francisco often have traffic congestion problems. During heavy traffic times, cars are typically gridlocked with slowly moving traffic, and the number of vehicles means a concentration of toxic exhaust fumes. Many cities around the world have implemented congestion pricing to limit the number of vehicles and…
Another front of the battle between California and the Trump Administration is the lowly light bulb. Incandescent and Halogen bulbs cannot meet a standard laid out in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), and under that law if the Federal Government fails to take action by January 1, 2020, then…
As we’ve been covering for awhile, the US Environmental Protection Agency has been threatening to yank California’s ability to set its own emissions standards. California and many other states have a long-standing precedent to set emissions standards and other environmental regulations. Under the Trump Administration everything that threatens the fossil…
A couple weeks ago the Salt River Project in Arizona announced a plan to replace a 2.25 GW Coal plant, the Navajo Generating Station, with a facility involving a large solar array (250 MW) and a large battery-based energy storage system. The storage system is sized at 1 GW and…
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Ford Motors is complementing the heck out of Tesla with the Mustang Mach-E. Ford has announced what some might have thought would never exist – the development of an all-electric Ford Mustang. Going by the specifications this could be an amazing car,…
A few weeks ago Northern California was rocked by huge power outages which PG&E hoped would prevent wildfires ignited by tree limbs falling on power lines. At the time weather conditions included heavy wind storms, drying out an already extremely dry landscape, raising the fire danger high enough to make…
I want the electric motorcycle industry to succeed if only because of the need to electrify every type of vehicle. My work has circled around the electric motorcycle industry for some time, and as a result I’ve met most of the movers in this industry. Having talked with Richard Hatfield,…
I appreciate that Rivian carries with it an appreciation for the wild areas, the natural world, and going out into the mountains to enjoy life. I appreciate that Rivian’s staff goes to these places, and has their own ah-hah moment that their work in developing an electric pickup truck could…
In China, Tesla built the Gigafactory 3 in 10 months, which may cause some in the USA to slam policies here about environmental reviews and the like. Be that as it may, the Tesla Model 3 is now manufactured in China, fulfilling a long-term goal of Tesla to have a…
Some of us want to take road trips with electric cars. Thanks to ever-more-powerful fast charging systems and ever-larger battery packs electric car road trips are increasingly possible. A year ago a friend in Romania informed me he would not consider an electric car until it could go 1200 kilometers…
