Experts hail 2011 as 'breakthrough' year for electric cars as mass-market manufacturers roll out new models
• Adam Vaughan testdrives the Nissan Leaf
Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 January 2011 06.00 GMT
Electric cars are set to experience a breakthrough in 2011 fdue to a £5,000 car grant introduced by the government today, experts predict.
Motorists will have a choice of just one subsidised car to buy outright as the project is launched – the Mitsubishi i-MiEV – but should have a choice of nine or 10 fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars by 2012.
Among the first available to buy will be the Nissan Leaf in March, which is billed as the first mass-market electric car. It is currently being made in Japan and will be made in Sunderland from 2013 onwards.
It will join several models only available to lease from January, including the Peugot iOn, Citroen CZero and an electric version of the Smart fortwo.
"This is a breakthrough year," said Chris Paine, director of the cult documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? "In the first time in 90 years, people will actually have a chance to buy electric cars from major carmakers. Tesla, Nissan and GM are first out of the gate and almost every other car company has announced plans to join the race in 2012 and beyond. That's what makes the next few years so exciting."
Paine has a new documentary out later this year, Revenge of the Electric Car, telling the story of the competition between the three rivals.
The plug-in car grant was conceived as a £230m incentive by the Labour government to cut the upfront cost of electric vehicles, which typically cost at least a third more than rival, conventional combustion engine cars. The subsidy survived the coalition's cuts with the proviso that it will be reviewed in 2012 – only the first year of funding, £43m or 8,600 cars, is guaranteed.
Although more expensive to buy, electric cars are cheaper to run than conventional ones. Edmund King, the AA's president, said a car such as the Leaf would cost 2p per mile to charge and run, compared to around 14p per mile for a similar-sized petrol or diesel car. They also pay no vehicle excise duty, have cheaper insurance premiums, are exempt from London's Congestion Charge and can be charged for free at some public car parks.
Other countries are offering or planning electric car grants, hoping to attract car manufacturers and supply chains to create green jobs. The US gives motorists a $7,300 (£4,708) tax credit for cars such as the Volt and Leaf, China offers electric car-makers £4,721 per car and France has a €5,000 (£4,240) grant scheme.
The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, said: "A few years ago, ultra-low emission cars with mass-market appeal appeared just a pipe dream. Now they are a reality and we can have all the convenience of the car without all the carbon that normally goes with it. Government action to support affordable vehicles and more local charging points means we are on the threshold of an exciting green revolution – 2011 could be remembered as the year the electric car took off."
"Global car-makers are now entering the fray," said Keith Johnston, who launched the pioneering G-Wiz electric car in the UK in 2005 and runs electric car consultancy connEVted, "which means some early electric car companies will fall by the wayside, but prices should also drop, which is good for consumers. I've seen a lot of headlines saying '2011 will be the year of the electric car'. Well, I think it could be."
Electric cars are seen as a means to cutting carbon emissions by 40% or more, improving air quality in cities and – in the case of US motoring giant GM, with its just-launched Chevy Volt – reviving car-markers' fortunes.
While just 55 electric cars were sold in the UK in 2009, with buyers holding off until today's grants took effect, the government's climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, says the country needs 1.7m of them by 2020 to help meet the country's tough carbon targets.
But analysts caution that electric cars' breakthrough in 2011 may be more symbolic than substantial. "It might be the first year people notice electric cars driving around – normal people rather than G-Wiz owners," said Andrew Close, European manager for powertrain forecasts at IHS Global Insight. "But 2011 will not see any breakthrough in volume [of cars on the road], though it will be a considerable jump from before. 2011 is way too early, £5,000 or not - the vehicles are expensive, constrained in supply and there are still too many good [conventional car] alternatives."
Close added that it is highly unlikely the first year of the grant fund will be fully spent, and that "optimistically" only around 4,300 will be sold before the scheme is reviewed next year. The climate committee's call for 1.7m electric cars in the UK by 2020 was extremely optimistic, he said, and would require batteries to become much cheaper and conventional cars far more expensive through taxation and fuel prices. A more realistic figure would be 0.8-1m cars by 2020. Nissan has received 350 pre-orders for the Leaf so far, part of a total of 27,000 pre-orders worldwide.
There are several potential roadblocks to electrifying Britain's fleet of 31m cars. Johnston warned of the uncertainty and "hiatus" that would occur if the government fails to continue the grant after its first year. "There was a government grant of £1,000 when we launched the G-Wiz [in 2005]. Two weeks later it disappeared, which killed the market," he said.
Paine said: "It's critical that government grants and incentives continue. Oil has been subsidised for years and that's allowed it a strangehold on the economy. For electric cars to really compete it needs help in the first years to get into truly mass production."
Public charging points to top up the cars are also in short supply, with just a few hundred in the UK, mostly in London.
The government does not even know exactly how many points currently exist, though it is putting £20m towards regional partnerships to install 4,000 points by 2015. Most of the new generation of electric cars have a maximum range of 100 miles.
And there are still some doubts over motorists' appetite to get behind the wheel. In Spain, which offered a grant up to €6,000 per car, a target of selling 2,000 electric cars last year was missed by a wide margin – just 16 had been registered by August.
Electric dreams
• Mitsubishi i-MiEV – to buy from January 2011. £28,990
• smart fortwo electric drive – on lease in January 2011 (but you won't be able to buy it until 2012. Lease and on-sale price yet to be agreed.
• Peugeot iOn – to lease from January 2011. £415 per month.
• Nissan Leaf – to buy from March 2011. £28,350.
• Tata Vista – to buy from "early summer" 2011. Price not yet agreed.
• Citroen CZero – lease from early 2011. £415 per month
• Vauxhall Ampera – to buy from early 2012. £33,995
• Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid – to buy from early 2012. No price yet, but latest Prius is £21,929, so expect around the £27,000 mark
• Chevrolet Volt – to buy from early 2012. Price not yet set.
• Tesla Roadster – available to buy now for £87,945. Technically eligible for grant, but has not completed registration process yet.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Chris Huhne promises Britain will speed up switch to green energy
• Oil price reaches $92 a barrel – highest since October 2008
• UK energy target of getting 15% from renewables by 2020
Tim Webb guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 January 2011 17.47 GMT
Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary, has accused Labour of leaving a "pretty damn poor" legacy on renewables, as oil prices hit their highest for more than two years.
Labour were in power for 13 years but had "only began to change right at the end", Huhne told the Guardian in an interview.
But he promised that over the next decade Britain would increase the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources more quickly than any other state in the European Union.
According to the latest official figures, in 2008 the UK ranked third from bottom on renewable energy in the EU ahead of only Luxembourg and Malta.
"We are exceeded in our paucity of delivery only by Malta and Luxembourg. This is the legacy we have inherited. The essential legacy is pretty damn poor. We have got massive catch up. We will be the fastest improving country on renewables in the EU between now and 2020. I'm absolutely determined about that and it will happen."
The UK has been sluggish in getting its renewable industry off the ground, but investment has started to pick up dramatically in the last few years, particularly in offshore wind farms.
A recent report carried out by Bloomberg Energy Finance for Pew Charitable Trusts forecast that, based on current policies, $114bn (£73bn) would be invested in renewable energy in Britain between 2010 and 2020, the fourth highest amount in the world. Germany will spend more, but its rate of investment will fall, according to the report. Huhne's comments will reassure environmentalists that David Cameron's post-election pledge to be the "greenest government ever" remains a priority.
The government consulted its advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), on whether to increase Britain's existing challenging target to derive 15% of energy from renewables by 2020, which Tony Blair had signed up to. Chairman Lord Turner advised against it. Huhne explains: "The CCC said 'nice try you are going to have enough difficulty meeting that one [the existing target], don't get too ambitious, learn to walk before you can run'. They put it more politely but that's what they told me."
But he argues that oil would still need to be produced from environmentally sensitive deepwater areas such as the Shetland Islands, despite the risks evidenced by BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster last April.
"Although I am a great believer in much of what Greenpeace argues and I hear what they say about leaving oil in the ground West of Shetland, the reality is that we have a transition to a low carbon economy. It's like turning an oil tanker around. This is not a dinghy it's very, very big – probably an eco-tanker. It will take a lot of time and energy to turn it round."
He says that banning drilling off the Shetlands, as Greenpeace has argued, would not stop drilling in countries which have lax safety standards.
"It [the alternative] wouldn't be no deepwater drilling, it would be that it would be going on in places which are much less capable than we are of insisting on high environmental standards."
Today crude oil prices hit their highest level since October 2008, at just over $92 a barrel in New York.
Analysts polled by news service Bloomberg forecast an average price of $87 in 2011, the second highest average ever, and compared to an average of just below $80 for 2010.
The average price rose by 15% last year compared to 2009, following a 78% annual surge in 2009 as the global economy recovered from the downturn.
• UK energy target of getting 15% from renewables by 2020
Tim Webb guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 January 2011 17.47 GMT
Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary, has accused Labour of leaving a "pretty damn poor" legacy on renewables, as oil prices hit their highest for more than two years.
Labour were in power for 13 years but had "only began to change right at the end", Huhne told the Guardian in an interview.
But he promised that over the next decade Britain would increase the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources more quickly than any other state in the European Union.
According to the latest official figures, in 2008 the UK ranked third from bottom on renewable energy in the EU ahead of only Luxembourg and Malta.
"We are exceeded in our paucity of delivery only by Malta and Luxembourg. This is the legacy we have inherited. The essential legacy is pretty damn poor. We have got massive catch up. We will be the fastest improving country on renewables in the EU between now and 2020. I'm absolutely determined about that and it will happen."
The UK has been sluggish in getting its renewable industry off the ground, but investment has started to pick up dramatically in the last few years, particularly in offshore wind farms.
A recent report carried out by Bloomberg Energy Finance for Pew Charitable Trusts forecast that, based on current policies, $114bn (£73bn) would be invested in renewable energy in Britain between 2010 and 2020, the fourth highest amount in the world. Germany will spend more, but its rate of investment will fall, according to the report. Huhne's comments will reassure environmentalists that David Cameron's post-election pledge to be the "greenest government ever" remains a priority.
The government consulted its advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), on whether to increase Britain's existing challenging target to derive 15% of energy from renewables by 2020, which Tony Blair had signed up to. Chairman Lord Turner advised against it. Huhne explains: "The CCC said 'nice try you are going to have enough difficulty meeting that one [the existing target], don't get too ambitious, learn to walk before you can run'. They put it more politely but that's what they told me."
But he argues that oil would still need to be produced from environmentally sensitive deepwater areas such as the Shetland Islands, despite the risks evidenced by BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster last April.
"Although I am a great believer in much of what Greenpeace argues and I hear what they say about leaving oil in the ground West of Shetland, the reality is that we have a transition to a low carbon economy. It's like turning an oil tanker around. This is not a dinghy it's very, very big – probably an eco-tanker. It will take a lot of time and energy to turn it round."
He says that banning drilling off the Shetlands, as Greenpeace has argued, would not stop drilling in countries which have lax safety standards.
"It [the alternative] wouldn't be no deepwater drilling, it would be that it would be going on in places which are much less capable than we are of insisting on high environmental standards."
Today crude oil prices hit their highest level since October 2008, at just over $92 a barrel in New York.
Analysts polled by news service Bloomberg forecast an average price of $87 in 2011, the second highest average ever, and compared to an average of just below $80 for 2010.
The average price rose by 15% last year compared to 2009, following a 78% annual surge in 2009 as the global economy recovered from the downturn.
China claims new nuclear technology
China state media claims scientists have mastered a key technique to reprocess spent uranium
Jonathan Watts in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 January 2011 18.31 GMT
China's ambitions to lead the world in nuclear power were boosted today by reports that its scientists had mastered a key technique in the reprocessing of spent uranium.
State media claimed the technology overcame a supply bottleneck and ensured China would have sufficient nuclear fuel for at least 3,000 years.
The breakthrough would be a boon to the domestic industry, which is in the early stages of what looks likely to be the most spectacular burst of reactor-building in world history.
Due to surging demand for energy and growing concerns about pollution, China's nuclear-power generating capacity is projected to increase up to tenfold in the next 10 years. By 2030 China could be on course to overtake the US as the world's leading atomic energy producer.
The technology, developed and tested at the number 404 factory of the China National Nuclear Corporation, situated in the Gobi desert, enables recycling of irradiated fuel, according to China Central Television. How this differs from existing reprocessing methods in other countries is unclear, but the state broadcaster said that with this technique a kilo of uranium could produce close to 60 times more power than was now possible in China.
If proven this method would extend the "usage life" of the 171,400 tonnes of the country's known uranium deposits, which previously were forecast to last less than 70 years.
Reprocessing can also provide fissile material for weapons, though details have not yet been disclosed about the potential impact on China's nuclear arsenal.
China first tested an atomic bomb in 1964, but it was slow to adopt nuclear power because of the cheapness and abundance of domestic coal, and the government was reluctant to depend on expensive foreign technology and uranium imports. But in recent years growing wealth and shifting environmental priorities have prompted a change.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China now has 13 operating reactors and 26 more facilities under construction.
China National Nuclear Corporation said last year it planned to invest 800bn yuan (£78bn) in the industry by 2020. China has already been replicating the technology of its foreign suppliers and is moving to design its own reactors and reprocessing plants. The next step is construction and overseas sales.
Jonathan Watts in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 January 2011 18.31 GMT
China's ambitions to lead the world in nuclear power were boosted today by reports that its scientists had mastered a key technique in the reprocessing of spent uranium.
State media claimed the technology overcame a supply bottleneck and ensured China would have sufficient nuclear fuel for at least 3,000 years.
The breakthrough would be a boon to the domestic industry, which is in the early stages of what looks likely to be the most spectacular burst of reactor-building in world history.
Due to surging demand for energy and growing concerns about pollution, China's nuclear-power generating capacity is projected to increase up to tenfold in the next 10 years. By 2030 China could be on course to overtake the US as the world's leading atomic energy producer.
The technology, developed and tested at the number 404 factory of the China National Nuclear Corporation, situated in the Gobi desert, enables recycling of irradiated fuel, according to China Central Television. How this differs from existing reprocessing methods in other countries is unclear, but the state broadcaster said that with this technique a kilo of uranium could produce close to 60 times more power than was now possible in China.
If proven this method would extend the "usage life" of the 171,400 tonnes of the country's known uranium deposits, which previously were forecast to last less than 70 years.
Reprocessing can also provide fissile material for weapons, though details have not yet been disclosed about the potential impact on China's nuclear arsenal.
China first tested an atomic bomb in 1964, but it was slow to adopt nuclear power because of the cheapness and abundance of domestic coal, and the government was reluctant to depend on expensive foreign technology and uranium imports. But in recent years growing wealth and shifting environmental priorities have prompted a change.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China now has 13 operating reactors and 26 more facilities under construction.
China National Nuclear Corporation said last year it planned to invest 800bn yuan (£78bn) in the industry by 2020. China has already been replicating the technology of its foreign suppliers and is moving to design its own reactors and reprocessing plants. The next step is construction and overseas sales.
Rules eased to create more charging points for electric cars
Ministers aim to boost flagging sales of eco-vehicles by ditching planning permission requirement for charging points
Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 2 January 2011
Charging points for electric vehicles will be allowed on streets and in outdoor car parks without the need for planning permission.
Ministers hope that removing the bureaucratic barrier will encourage thousands of charging points to be built across the country, helping the faltering sale of electric cars. The Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, welcomed the move, which is due to be announced tomorrow, but warned that eco-friendly cars are "only as green as the electricity they run on". Lucas said: "Ministers must take action as well to boost the renewable energy industry."
Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 2 January 2011
Charging points for electric vehicles will be allowed on streets and in outdoor car parks without the need for planning permission.
Ministers hope that removing the bureaucratic barrier will encourage thousands of charging points to be built across the country, helping the faltering sale of electric cars. The Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, welcomed the move, which is due to be announced tomorrow, but warned that eco-friendly cars are "only as green as the electricity they run on". Lucas said: "Ministers must take action as well to boost the renewable energy industry."
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