Electric vehicles are all the rage right now, and hopes are high that we might finally be able to transition off of oil and on to electric cars…preferably, cars powered by clean renewable electricity and not by coal-fired grid power. But they’re still less than 1% of the new vehicle market, and they still face real challenges in consumer acceptance, a lack of charging infrastructure, and a dearth of options at the dealership. So what should we really expect from EVs in the near- and medium-term, and how realistic are the high hopes for switching a nation like the US, with nearly 260 million conventional light vehicles on the road today, over to EVs? We talk to EV expert Matthew Klippenstein to find out.
Geek rating: 2
Guest: Matthew Klippenstein, an engineer with a renewable energy consultancy, a writer for Green Car Reports and co-host of the EV-centric Cleantech Talk podcast.
On Twitter: @EclecticLip
On the Web:
tinyurl.com/CanadaEVSales
greencarreports.com/writer/10039832_matthew-klippenstein
Recording date: April 1, 2016
Air date: April 20, 2016
Links
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “Ontario, Canada, Boosts Electric-Car Purchase Rebate Amounts” (Feb 23, 2016)
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “Two-Thirds of Earliest Tesla Drivetrains To Need Replacement In 60,000 Miles, Owner Data Suggest” (Dec 9, 2015)
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “Canadian Plug-in Electric Vehicle Study: 1 Percent To 30 Percent Is The Challenge” (Jul 21, 2015)
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “When Electric Car Incentives Expire: A Case Study In Canada” (Sep 2014)
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “One Percent Of Norway’s Cars Are Already Plug-In Electrics” (Apr 8, 2014)
Matthew Klippenstein, Green Car Reports: “Does Toyota’s Hybrid Leadership Blind It To Electric Cars?” (Aug 22, 2013)
Liam Denning, Bloomberg: “Big Hopes Ride on Tesla’s Model 3” (Mar 31, 2016)
Liam Denning, Bloomberg: “If You Liked Palladium, You’ll Love Lithium” (Feb 26, 2016)
Chris Nelder: “Hydrogen Hype” (Jul 27, 2007)
Joseph White, Reuters: “GM buys Cruise Automation to speed self-driving car strategy” (Mar 11, 2016)
Kathy Chen, Retuers: “China pushes for mandatory integration of renewable power” (Mar 28, 2016)
Zachary Davies Boren, Greenpeace: “China to suspend new coal power plant approvals” (Apr 13, 2016)
John Micklethwait, Bloomberg: “Saudi Arabia Plans $2 Trillion Megafund for Post-Oil Era: Deputy Crown Prince” (Apr 1, 2016)
Ivan Penn, LA Times, “‘This is a threat. This is not a report.’ Critics call blackout warnings a scare tactic to keep Aliso Canyon open” (Apr 12, 2016)
Chris Nelder: “Nuclear’s swan SONGS” (Jun 17, 2013)
Photo credit: By Ludhiana E. Moreira Sales and Mario Duran (Mariordo) – This file was derived from Amsterdam 06 2015 1616.JPG:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41278454
