2012 Nissan Versa S on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Recharge Wrap-up: video touts Volvo electric buses, Nissan and BMW build EV chargers in S. Africa

Volvo is touting the advantages of electric buses in a new video. The short film, called Route 55, promotes the ElectriCity Project for public transport, and, more specifically, the new electric bus route in Gothenburg, Sweden. The new route debuts June 15 using Volvo electric and hybrid buses. In the video, two teenagers are seen waiting for the bus. As one boards, the other asks her out from the sidewalk, but she can't hear him over the noise of the diesel bus, which then closes its doors and drives away. The film asks, "What if this bus had been silent?" See the video above, and read more in the press release below. BMW and Nissan will build an EV charging network across South Africa. Through 2017, the two automakers will build fast-charging and AC stations around the country in order to encourage the adoption of EVs. Nissan has been selling the Leaf in South Africa since 2013, and BMW introduced the i3 and i8 in March. "In order for the introduction and expansion of electric vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to be successful in this market, we need to work together," says BMW South Africa Managing Director Tim Abbott. Read more at Automotive News Europe. The Renault-Nissan Alliance will provide the United Nations with 200 electric vehicles for the COP21 climate conference in Paris. The fleet of vehicles includes the Nissan Leaf and e-NV200, as well as the Renault ZOE, Kangoo ZE and Fluence ZE. The entire passenger car shuttle fleet will use all-electric vehicles as some 20,000 UN attendees descend upon Paris from November 30 to December 11. "Thanks to the Alliance's fleet of 100-percent electric vehicles, it will contribute to our goal of achieving a carbon neutral event," says French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development and COP21 President Laurent Fabius. "The technology of electric vehicles helps reduce greenhouse gases in the transportation sector efficiently." Read more from Renault. Visa will be the official title sponsor of the Formula E London ePrix. Officially called the "2015 FIA Formula E Visa London ePrix," the races on June 27 and 28 will be the last of the electric racing series's inaugural season. Visa Europe will award the Visa Fastest Lap trophy after the each round, and will have interactive activities at the race's eVillage.

Recharge Wrap-up: Telsa seeks to open new Texas Gallery, Gigafactory boosting NV real estate

Tesla's Gigafactory battery production facility is helping to create a real estate boom near its building site outside of Reno, NV. Land that stood vacant for years is being snatched up by developers eager to make a buck in what is appearing to become a new hub of high-tech industry. Much of the money influx seems to be coming from investors outside of the area. New apartment complexes are going up, and the usual six months of real estate inventory has been shrunken to about 2.6 months. Read more at Teslarati. Tesla is seeking approval for a limited-service showroom - or "Gallery" - in San Antonio, TX. The area's News 4 discovered the proposal in a schedule for the San Antonia planning commission. Texas laws don't allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers, so the gallery would offer the public a chance to see the car in person, but not take a test drive or get pricing information. The Tesla Gallery could be a foothold for Tesla in the San Antonio area, which, according to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, would be a positive addition to the city and its future. Judge Wolff says that Tesla moving in "shows that San Antonio is up with technology, blends with other efforts that we're doing with solar power." Read more at ValueWalk. Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L) will install over 1,000 ChargePoint EV charging stations in the greater Kansas City area. This will be the largest charging installation by a utility company in America. Drivers will be able to use these stations, which will be built by the end of this summer, for free for the first two years. The first 15 stations will be fast chargers provided by Nissan. KCP&L expects the charging network to help drive down electricity costs for customers in general. "People generally charge their cars at non-peak periods when KCP&L's electrical grid is being underutilized," says Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Energy Economist Ashok Gupta. "By stimulating electric vehicle adoption with their Clean Charge Network, what KCP&L is doing is encouraging people to use the electrical grid more efficiently and drive down the cost of electricity for everyone." Read more in the press release below. KCP&L BECOMES ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE LEADER WITH GROUNDBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT KCP&L's Clean Charge Network will be the largest utility electric vehicle charging station installation in the country KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan.

Nissan working on unspecified improvements to Carwings in Leaf EV

Fly a little higher, Carwings. Nissan has been using the communication system as a way for drivers of the battery-electric Leaf to do things like use a smartphone start the charging process remotely, check the charging status or find nearby charging stations. The service was one of the tools Nissan was offering to newbie drivers of the first US mass-produced electric vehicle to better familiarize themselves with ideas like recharging your car from miles away. Now, three-plus years into the model's lifetime, Nissan is looking to get more out of Carwings, Wards Auto says, citing Nissan North America executive Robyn Williams. Specifically, Nissan is hoping Carwings will eventually be able to communicate information about the battery's health, or lack thereof (i.e. degradation) to the driver. That issue was made clear a couple of years ago when Leaf drivers in hot-weather locales such as Arizona said their batteries were losing capacity at a faster rate than advertised. Nissan North America spokesman Brian Brockman, in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen, would only say that the automaker "is always working to determine ways to offer more value to customers via telematics systems like Carwings," but declined to be more specific about any particular technological advancements. Nissan debuted Carwings in late 2010, and, among other things, the concept was novel because it let Leaf drivers compare driving efficiency with other Leaf drivers (think of it as a real silent hypermiling contest). The feature had been used as a telecommunications system on a number of Nissan models in Japan for years before being introduced on the Leaf.