Electric Vehicles
If you are interested in the new Hyundai Kona, this Clean Technica review suggests you might want to ‘get one quick’. The demand for the new Kona with its 64 kWh battery and EPA projected 250-mile range may be higher than the low production numbers Hyundai is planning.
Another vehicle that might peak some interest is the Nissan e-NV200 Van. The all-electric camper (currently being tested in Spain) may not have the range for most camping trips in the US, however, it would make an awesome tailgate vehicle!
Infrastructure
Con Edison and National Grid Want to Help You Buy an Electric Car. New York utility Consolidated Edison and National Grid have both created an online marketplace to make it easier for customers to purchase electric cars by comparing fuel costs to create a “clear cost to own”. In many cases, like the example comparing a Tesla X to a Lincoln Navigator, the EV is cheaper!
The North Carolina Zoo located in Asheboro, NC has installed free charging stations! This week, the stations were officially dedicated with a ribbon cutting. They are being billed as “a great way to blend education, fun and saving the planet.”
Policy
The South Carolina Department of Insurance has released the ‘Second Draft of the Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP)’ required under the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust. The BMP assigns proposed spending (in percentages) to nine eligible mitigation action categories. Unfortunately, the second BMP has reduced the allocation to the electric vehicle service equipment category from 15% to a range of 0%-10%. The release of the draft also started the clock on a 30-day public comment period. Click here to find out how to submit written comments, which are due by 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, August 24, 2018.
In an interesting policy development, ExxonMobil has pulled its membership from the Koch brothers-backed, anti-climate-change lobbying group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ConocoPhillips, BP and Occidental Petroleum have also left the organization in recent years. According to the article, ExxonMobil Leaves Conservative Anti-Climate Lobbying Group, “Silicon Valley giants Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Yelp all left the organization in 2014 in protest over its climate-change denial policies.”
The article How Electric Vehicles Reduce the Cost of Doing Business points out the efficiency that electric vehicles provide for businesses because they are cheaper to maintain and operate than those fueled by gasoline. More companies are electrifying their buses, cars, delivery vans and trucks to save money and reduce maintenance and GHG emissions.