VW Deisel

RobertRyan wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
True on the tow thing. I actually can.t remember seein anything like a pick up there...all the caravans were being towed by cars. They are also big time into motor homes.

Having said that at least some country's will be approaching 50 percent of sales as electric in the next few years. In Norway they are using promises of free gas for a year just to keep gas sales up. Gas companies idea. What a surprise.

What is range threat?

Looks like Norway has the EV thing in Europe

Norway has long been pretty out front when it comes to addressing private transportation. The government offers hefty incentives for electric vehicles, making Norway a veritable piggy bank for companies like electric-vehicle maker Tesla. In fact, the country was so aggressive with plug-in vehicle incentives that the 50,000-vehicle threshold for plug-in incentives was reached this year, two years ahead of schedule. The perks included tax exemptions, extra parking, and bus-lane use, and were designed to capitalize on Norway's glut of hydroelectric power. As a result, there were several months where either the Tesla or the all-electric Nissan Leaf was the country's best-selling vehicle, which is something that'd be totally unheard of here in the States.

There are a half dozen others although not quite as aggresive with the conversion process are well on their way. There is some interesting reading on the mindset behind switching from a fossil fuel based economy to a renewable one. The numbers are similar on each side as far as fossil fuel subsidies vice alternate energy. Both seem to need about the same amount of subsidies and both generate about the same amount of jobs. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over there. The challenges for transportation are different on this side of the pond, longer distances etc. Generally not considered a long term obstacle but they have some R and D challenges in front of them yet. Funny to see how many players that were going to stay out of the EV race are quickly changing their mind as the European and Asian markets take off. Should be an interesting decade.

Saw a BMW i3 yesterday. Parked beside it. Didn't like it. Boxy and goofy looking, also way to big for us. Still waiting to see the new 453 smart electric and the 2017 leaf.