The future, it's electric!

There has been a lot in the UK news about electric vehicles this week. Motorists are to be given grants to trade in their existing vehicles for greener models. £5000 will offered to people buying electric or hybrid vehicles.

However, there is a worry that not enough is being done to build infrastructure for motorists to recharge their vehicles away from home.

BBC - Plan to boost electric car sales

BBC - The future of electric motoring

BBC - Hoon's Electric Vision: How Green?

Guardian - Motorists to receive government grants for electric cars

Guardian - Labour's £5,000 sweetener to launch electric car revolution

Guardian - Tesla's Elon Musk: the democratisation of electric cars is speeding up

100,000 electric cars for London

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, has announced that electric cars are to be a priority for London's streets. Plans include 25,000 charging points with all new buildings and 20% of all parking spaces to have charging points.

Guardian - London mayor – 100,000 electric cars for capital

Tesla unveils the Model S family car

Tesla Motors is now attempting to enter the mainstream motor industry with its Model S, a four-door family vehicle with capacity for seven people.

The vehicle will have a range of 300 miles (483km) on a single charge and is expected to sell for $50,000 after a $7500 government rebate for those who buy electric vehicles.

Charging the 8000 cell power pack takes four hours and costs $5 at today's utility prices. Owners can expect to save $15,000 in petrol/gasoline prices over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Within a week of the announcement, Tesla had received over 500 advance orders despite not having yet received government assistance to build the factory that will manufacture the vehicle. The vehicle will reach the streets in 2011.

Website - Tesla Motors

Tata Nano

The world's cheapest car, the Nano, has been unveiled. Priced at 100,000 rupees (£1350), the Nano is now being eyed by cost conscious westerners. In two years Tata Motors hopes to be selling in the west. However, the car will have to be modified for overseas sales as the model for sale in India has no air bags.

The car is also billed as being green with a 624cc rear engine at the rear, delivering 23.6 km/l, 67 mpg (UK) or 56 mpg (US), and has a CO2 emissions rating of 101 g/km (grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven).

New electric car goes like the wind

A team of ex-motor industry employees have banded together and built an electric car from an old Lotus Exige that will run solely on wind power.

Guardian - Britain's pioneering electric supercar: powered by wind

Fuel from seaweed

Before the global economic slowdown caused a collapse in the price of oil there was much consternation over the effect bio-fuels were having on the price of food. With oil at a record high, many farmers were cashing in with fuel crops. This led to less food for human consumption and food price inflation.

Eventually, the recession will end and demand for oil will increase. The price of oil will rise and farmers will start growing bio-fuel crops again.

Now, scientists in Scotland and Ireland have won funding for a project to create "mari-fuels" from seaweed. This will mean there is no pressure on farmland and there will be food price stability. Seaweed is fast growing and carbon neutral.

Guardian - Kelp-fuel cars on the horizon in Scotland

San Francisco to be electric car capital

Ambitious plans in San Francisco set to make the city the electric car capital of the world. The Bay Area will be the first region in California to make a concerted change from fossil to renewable energy fuels for its transport systems.

In California, vehicles account for 40% of carbon emissions so the attempt to wean the state's transportation off fossil fuels will make a huge difference for the health of the state.

$1 billion will be invested to set up roadside recharging points across the Bay Area to accommodate the rise in electric vehicle ownership.

Guardian - San Francisco Bay to be electric car capital

Guardian - California switches on to an electric future