News: Dublin taxi driver saves €6,500 by going electric

Using an electric taxi has saved taxi driver, Padraig Daly, approximately €6,500 over the last 18 months. The 100% electric Nissan LEAF which has been part of a trial between ESB ecars and National Radio Cabs (NRC) and has clocked up over 55,000km. The trial, to evaluate electric vehicles as part of the taxi industry, has been deemed so successful that it will be extended for another year.

News: Electric SLS swooshes on track

The possible future of high-performance motoring, the all-electric Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell, is seen here on the move for the first time since its Paris Motor Show debut.

Please do not adjust your set; yes we know that you would think there should be a meaty, beefy V8 engine note as the SLS swooshes past the camera on the twisty and fast Ascari race track in Spain, but of course the whole point is that there is no engine – instead the SLS E-Cell gets its 750bhp (!) and 1,000Nm f torque (!!!!) from four electric motors positioned just behind each wheel and fed juice from a stack of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

Price? Don't know yet but it sure won't be cheap. Still though, while normal SLS drivers are queuing up to put another €120 worth of four-star into their tanks, you can charge your E-Cell up for another 100km for about €2 a throw.

And yes, this is serious. Not just a pie-in-the-sky prototype. This is going on sale soon. 

News: german government may subsidise electric cars

 

Angela Merkel's government is considering a dramatic increase in the subsidies for buying an electric car, as German buyers continue to shun plug-in vehicles.

The German car market (although it dipped dramatically in September) was a healthy 2.1-million vehcile sales so far in 2012, but just over 2,000 of these were electric cars – 1 0.1% market share, and this despite Chancellor Merkel's previously stated goal to have one million electric cars on German roads by 2020.

Neighbouring France already gives electric car buyers a €5,000 kickback, and the Merkel government is mulling other options, such as a 10-year exemption from road tax. But recent developments, not only a falling car market and reduced consumer sentiment (which will make buyers more conservative and less likely to spend money on a battery car) but also Toyota's announcement that it's going to shun all-electric vehicles in favour of plugin hybrid development, will not make Frau Merkel's task any easier.

Any subsidy, if decided on, won't kick in until the back end of next year at the earliest, but Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche reckons that without it, the maximum possible market in Germany for electric cars is a mere 600,000 units.