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Established in 1576, the French post office is the oldest mail delivery system in the world and one of the largest employers in France. Now, it's going green. La Poste has made sustainability a major goal for the next several years, with its sights set on serious carbon output reduction. To make it happen, the organization is developing a fleet of electric vehicles adapted to the varying needs of urban, suburban and rural mail delivery. The goal? Have 10,000 of them in use by 2011.

greennumbers France french post office post la poste electric vehicle

U.S. consumers looking to get Nissan's all-electric Leaf will have to wait another year, after dealers sold this year's entire shipment before the zippy sedan even hit showrooms, the Japanese automaker said Monday.
Nissan dealers have collected more than 20,000 orders for the Leaf, and the bulk are wealthy "early adapters" on the West Coast of the United States, said Carlos Tavares, chair of Nissan's management committee for the Americas.

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It is not an easy task to compare the environmental effects of battery powered cars to those caused by conventionally fuelled automobiles. The degree to which manufacture, usage and disposal of the batteries used to store the necessary electrical energy are detrimental to the environment is not exactly known. Now, for the first time, a team of Empa scientists have made a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) or ecobalance of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, in particular the chemically improved (i.e. more environmentally friendly) version of the ones most frequently used in electric vehicles.

The investigation shows that if the power used to charge the battery is not derived from purely hydroelectric sources, then it is primarily the operation of the electric car, which has an environmental impact, exactly as is the case with conventionally fuelled automobiles. The size of the environmental footprint depends on which sources of power are used to "fuel" the e-mobile. The Li-ion battery itself has, in contrast, a limited effect on the LCA of the electric vehicle. This is contrary to initial expectations that the manufacture of the batteries could negate the advantages of the electric drive.

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Four out of 10 US adults are keen to test-drive an electric vehicle (EV), a new study has found, suggesting manufacturers in the emerging sector could be pushing against an open door.

The online study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) found 40 per cent of American adults were likely to test-drive an electric vehicle, lured by promises of improved environmental quality and potential cost savings.

ev Electric car electric vehicle Consumer Electronics Association cea

Few people are fooled by Nissan’s claim that the LEAF is a zero emissions vehicle.  Zero tailpipe emissions does not mean zero emissions.  “Electric vehicles just shift emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack,” many critics claim.  Both of these claims oversimplify the issue and do not accurately reflect the potential impact of electric vehicles on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Cenex – the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon vehicle technologies – has announced the results of a six month trial of electric passenger cars, run by Cenex in the North East of England. One of the trial’s key findings was that 72% of the 264 participants stated after the trial that they would be happy to use an electric vehicle as their regular car.  This is one of the most comprehensive trials yet undertaken in the UK on driver attitudes to electric vehicles.

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What Car video review of the all new EV, the Nissan Leaf

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Coulomb Technologies on Wednesday said it will build 4,600 electric vehicle charging stations in nine regions of the U.S., funded by $37 million in grants.
More than half of the charging stations in the program called ChargePoint America will go in public locations, such as overnight parking spaces, offices, or retail locations. About 2,000 going into people's homes as part of the purchase of an electric vehicle.

Coulomb Technologies electric vehicle charging stations electric vehicle charging stations

It's 2020. You drive your plug-in hybrid electric car home at 6 p.m., plug it in, let it charge via the solar panels on your roof or the wind power coming from the grid, and you leave it charging until the morning. Sounds simple enough, right? It's not. Utilities have a long way to go before they're prepared for the impending onslaught of energy-sucking vehicles--and they might not all be ready in time.

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Ireland's first on-street charging points for electric vehicles will be unveiled today by the ESB.

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San Francisco has adopted building codes requiring all new homes and offices to be wired for electric car chargers, in an attempt to position itself as America's green car capital.

The move comes in advance of the release this year of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which promise to deliver driving distances of 40 miles or more on a single battery charge and are being marketed to middle-class families.

electric car electric vehicle san francisco homes offices wired

Think announced today that it has teamed up with AeroVironment, Inc., a leading developer and supplier of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to demo the company’s level III fast-charge system and the Think City electric-car.

The team held a 15-minute news conference at the 2010 Washington Auto Show where they charged a Think City from 0-80% using AV’s fast-charge system in 15 minutes.

think think city AeroVironment greennumbers electric car electric vehicle

Audi unveiled the second iteration of its e-tron electric concept here at the North American International Auto Show. It is sleeker, simpler and less powerful than the concept first seen at the Frankfurt auto show in September and then at the Los Angeles show last month. But it looks less like a concept designed to wow journalists and more like a production car designed to attract buyers

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"THE SURPRISING RESULTS of a TMR poll show that the impending release of electric cars into the Australian market may not meet the buyer resistance some may be expecting."

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The most exciting concept shown at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show is an electric sports car, the Audi e-tron. Borrowing body lines from the Audi R8, it can't help but look good. And boasting specs like 3,319 pound-feet of torque, it can't help but make gearheads drool.

Still, less acceleration, lower top speed and not yet in production, I think Tesla can sleep easy for another while!

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In the race to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, another challenge awaits on the other side of the finish line: recycling all of those batteries.

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The rise of the mobile phone has left the streets of Madrid littered with increasingly redundant telephone booths. But these underused installations are now set to play a key role in Spain's electric car revolution under government plans to make them part of a network of electric charging stations for vehicles.

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While San Francisco and Portland are each publicly claiming they'll have the best electric vehicle networks in place in their cities, San Jose may be have made the most progress.

The city of San Jose has installed 7 charging stations so far, including spots at City Hall and a public parking garage.

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Ford CEO Alan Mulally says the automaker is on track to return to profitability by 2011, despite posting a record $14.7 billion loss in 2008 and a forecast to continue posting losses through the rest of 2009 and 2010. A major portion of Ford's turnaround plan revolves around "more and more electrification, both hybrids and battery electric vehicles

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* Nissan aiming for mass-market lead in electric cars

* First zero emission cars on sale in Japan, U.S. next year

* Tennessee plant seen starting assembly in 2011 or 2012

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