Environmental News For The Week Ending 09 May 2019
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at
GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
Major coronavirus metrics continue to head lower in the US, and now also globally. New cases in the US during the week ending May 8th were down 18.6% from new cases during the week ending May 1st, and are now down 83.3% from the January peak; this week also saw fewer new cases than any week since September. This week s US deaths attributed to Covid were 6.8% lower than the prior week s, and down 80.5% from the January high; US Covid deaths are now at the lowest rate since since the second week of July.
“Sustainability,” in case you haven’t noticed, has become the automotive
buzzword du jour. Like politicians obliged to (liberally) sprinkle “inclusiveness” into their every public pronouncement, automotive CEOs not including “sustainability” in their company’s public-facing messaging risk serious backlash.
But what is sustainable mobility? Is it really as simple as committing to a battery-powered lineup? Jaguar, Volvo and General Motors certainly think so, all three Jaguar by 2025, Volvo by 2030 and the General in 2035 promising to end the production of “infernal”-combustion engines in the near future. And while there is a smack of desperation in Jaguar’s announcement to go full BEV the company is facing an existential crisis of ennui amongst luxury car buyers General Motors stock has almost doubled since CEO Mary Barra promised to “put everyone into an EV” last October.
California PHEV Owners Return to Gas Power
According to the researchers, dissatisfaction with charging convenience, and not having level two, 240-volt charging at home, were the primary reasons.
The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) funded the analysis. The US Department of Transportation supported the University Transportation Centers program. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) paid for the questionnaire portion. They are one and the same agency that sniffs tailpipes for excess emissions.
Researchers Scott Hardman and Gil Tal had a premise: In order for EVs to be successful, it meant buyers needed to repurchase EVs. Abandoning the technology would prevent EVs from reaching 100 percent market share. They methodically surveyed California households who had purchased PEVs between 2012=2018. EVs’ success relied on adopters continuing to purchase EVs. 18 percent of EV owners and 20 percent of PHEVs were dissatisfied enough to return to gas-powered vehicles
With many automobile manufacturers making the shift to electrifying their entire line up, the industry is betting big on an all-EV future. But a survey of Californians showed that some 18% of EV owners switched back to gas-powered vehicles, while 20% of PHEV owners returned to fossil-fuel-only combustion.
The survey was carried out by Scott Hardman and Gil Tal of the University of California as they decided to examine how local residents perceive electric vehicle ownership. The test was conducted with the participation of 4167 households who completed the survey. However, only 1,842 respondents made a decision as to whether they would keep their EV.