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Recharge Wrap-up: Toyota i-Road and COMS in France, Tesla tours Northeast, EV attitudes in UK

Toyota's i-ROAD and COMS teeny, tiny, city EVs are joining the Citelib carsharing fleet in Grenoble, France. The ultra-compact EVs, which will become available in October, are meant to supplement the Grenoble metropolitan area's existing public transit infrastructure, which includes trams, buses and trains. Toyota's i-ROAD and COMS will be connected to the transit systems IT infrastructure, allowing users to visualize their route on their smartphone or computer, and reserve and pay for their car before they get dropped off near the charging station (or the other way around). Then, the user finishes (or begins) their trip with one of the EVs. Surveys show that use of public transport is increasing in Europe, but most users still have to walk 15 minutes or so to reach their destination. Adding the i-ROAD and COMS carsharing service to their commute makes the trip into the city center quicker and more flexible, while keeping the air clean. See more below. Toyota is providing 70 vehicles to the Citelib program as part of a three-year test, while French energy company EDF is contributing 30 charging stations to the project. The i-ROAD is a three-wheeled EV that seats two people, and it features Active Lean technology for stability and comfort in the corners. Its footprint is about one-fourth that of a regular car. The four-wheeled COMS EV seats one, but also features a small storage compartment in the rear. The Tesla Model S is going on tour throughout the Northeastern US to give test drives to the public. Beginning July 4 in Montauk, NY, and ending August 30 in Vergennes, VT, people will get the chance to take a 15-minute spin in what many consider to be the best electric car available as part of Tesla's Fully Charged tour. If you live in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire or Vermont, the Model S may be coming to a town near you (check the schedule here) and you'll get the chance to drive the car with a product specialist in the passenger seat to answer your questions. You can even bring up to three guests in the back seat. So if you live in one of the states where Tesla can't sell cars or doesn't have a store, this is your chance to get to know the vehicle and decide if you want to buy one. Or you can just see what it feels like to silently go from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds (hint: it's pretty cool). A UK Survey shows five percent of people there are considering buying an electric vehicle.

Recharge Wrap-up: Infiniti considers EV for China, NextEV hires former Tesla, Apple engineer

NextEV has hired Tesla Autopilot and Apple veteran Jamie Carlson as Senior Director of Advanced Technologies. The seasoned autonomous driving engineer joins fellow former Autopilot engineer Kurt Thywissen, who is now NextEV Senior Director of Human-Machine Interaction. NextEV, which is working on an all-electric supercar before focusing on mainstream EVs, recently obtained a self-driving car permit from California and opened its North American headquarters in San Jose. Read more at Electrek. Infiniti is considering launching its first EV in China. "When I think about EV, we design it for China definitely, even as the first market to launch," says Infiniti President Roland Krueger. "We are discussing this internally constantly what is the right timing for Infiniti to have such vehicles." Infiniti has held back on launching an EV, focusing instead on hybrids, but says it could be "very fast" in deploying an EV once it decides to do so. Having Nissan and Renault backing Infiniti, the luxury brand is confident about its access to proven EV technology. Read more at Automotive News Europe. Thrifty car rental has added a Tesla Model S to its fleet in Canberra, Australia. Available at the Canberra Airport, it's the first luxury EV offered for rent from a mainstream rental company in Australia. Australia's capital offers a small registration discount and no stamp duty for EVs, making it a cheaper and more practical place to locate the country's first rental Tesla. Thrifty's parent company, NRMA, is calling on Australia's other states and territories to remove financial and regulatory barriers to EV technology. Read more at The Motor Report.

Sun and wind could power Tesla Gigafactory for EV batteries in Nevada

Next week is Tesla Gigafactory week. The California automaker has a major announcement planned, and it's all about its intention to build a battery factory so large, the company is pulling out the giga prefix. At some point in the next seven days, we expect to hear where Tesla will build the plant, who it will partner with, how it will pay for it and lots of other details. The production volume is expected to be at least 30 gigawatt-hours-worth per year. The Gigafactory will take in the raw materials for lithium batteries and put out finished packs, not only for the electric vehicles made by Tesla and its automotive customers, but also for massive amounts of renewable energy storage – that's a niche the company plans to begin to occupy sometime early next year with residential-sized products. The production volume is expected to be at least 30 gigawatt-hours-worth per year. That's more storage than all the lithium battery factories in the world combined produce now. Color us impressed. Now, you might be thinking, "Is it really necessary to go that big at this point in time?" In a word: yes. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said its upcoming, more-affordable vehicle – widely expected to be called the Model E – will wear a $35,000 price tag and boast a battery big enough to take it 200 miles on a charge. To achieve this, the cost of the cells needs to come down dramatically, and so it's no coincidence that the time frame for the new facility will parallel that of this car. According to Musk, the benefits from the economies of scale will see a cost drop between 30 and 40 percent. Of course, historically high prices are one of the main reasons why battery storage has not been widely used in the renewable energy sector, so this development could help drive more demand for cleaner, affordable energy, which, in turn, will drive demand for more storage. That's the kind of vicious cycle we like to see. Musk said the Gigafactory will be "heavily powered" by wind and solar energy. Speaking of renewables, that is where the Gigafactory will get much of its needed energy. During the call with financial analysts that accompanied the release of its 2013 fourth quarter earnings report, Musk mentioned that the new plant will be "heavily powered" by wind and solar energy, and will also use older Tesla packs for storage. These will help deflect the traditional arguments against wind and solar, that the sun doesn't shine at night and the wind doesn't always blow.