Tag: Electric Cars

Cities Must Act Now To Clear Up Their Act And Clean Up Our Air

I have spent time in many polluted cities, from Cairo and Beijing, all the way to Rome and London. Yet, nothing really prepared me for the air pollution I experienced in New Delhi recently. It’s gotten so bad that the local government has resorted to using anti-smog water mist cannons in parts of the city to try and blast out air pollutants. Innovative as it may be, it seems to be more of a band-aid solution to a life-threatening problem.

Delhi may not be the most polluted city in the world – I believe that dubious honor goes surprisingly to Zabol, Iran for its high particulate count from dust storms – but it’s certainly up there. And with a population of more than 26million and growing, I fear for the health of India’s citizens and, for that matter, those living in cities the world over.

Cites have long been great melting pots. They are places of ingenuity and innovation, and have allowed economies of scale and resource efficiencies to be achieved. Moreover, cities with strong public health measures and medical systems have prolonged human life and well-being. In fact, people living in cities generally enjoy better health than people in surrounding rural areas because of greater access to medical care. But these achievements are being undermined by air pollution.

Today, cities have become more like stewing pots. The shift from biofuels to fossil fuels – a process that comes with industrialisation – has had a significant impact on pollution and health, not only due to CO2 emissions, but also because of the particulate matter released into the air. Coal, used in electricity generation and large-scale manufacturing, is the most polluting fuel, but vehicle fuels are also highly toxic.

 

It is predicted that over 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050. That doesn’t leave much time

 

Air pollution stands out as the most severe in terms of its impact on health. The World Health Organization reports that more than one billion people are exposed to outdoor air pollution annually, with more than 80% of people living in cities exposed to unhealthy air. In developing countries, 98% of urban areas fail to meet WHO air quality guidelines.

Such exposure has contributed to the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world. According to the 2017 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, diseases caused by pollution were responsible for an estimated nine million premature deaths in 2015, accounting for 16% of all deaths worldwide – three times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence. In the most severely affected countries, pollution-related disease is responsible for more than one death in four.

As urban air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people who live in them. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with better urban planning – that includes energy-efficient buildings, improved public transit, green and open spaces – cities can aspire to much better air quality and dramatically improved human health.

There are already some encouraging signs. The International Energy Agency, for example, says that by 2040, 60% of our electricity is likely to be green, with 715 million electric cars on the road. And according to the Energy Transitions Commission, by 2030 a power system based almost entirely on variable renewable energy generation is likely to be lower cost than a fossil fuel-based system, even without a carbon price. Research by the Coalition for Urban Transitions has also shown that investing in compact, connected and efficient cities could substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 Gt CO2 per year by 2030 and generate savings of as much as US$17 trillion by 2050.

These are just some of the goals and aspirations of the Paris climate agreement and the international sustainable development agenda. The challenge will be to ensure they are adopted at the local level, from city to city. It is predicted that over 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050. That doesn’t leave much time for cities to clean up their act and their air.

Dr. Doaa Abdel-Motaal is the Executive Director of The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Ford Announces Huge $11bn Investment In Electric Cars

The Ford motor company has announced that it will be doubling its current investment into electric vehicles to a whopping $11bn and has promised that it will offer some 40 hybrid and electric cars by 2020.According to Ford it will offer 16 fully-electr…

Elon Musk Has Promised A Tesla Electric Pickup Truck Is On The Way

Elon Musk has promised an electric pickup truck is part of his plans for Tesla.

Musk asked his Twitter followers for suggestions about how the firm could improve its electric vehicles and was promptly asked to create a new model entirely.

Need an electric Pick up truck please.

— Vancouver Seed Bank (@VanSeedBank) December 26, 2017

I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017

Musk added that the truck would be slightly larger than Ford’s F-150 pickup “to account for a really gamechanging (I think) feature I’d like to add”.

But you may have to wait a while to get your hands on one – or indeed to find out what that “gamechanging” feature is – as Musk stated the pickup truck would not be developed until after the Model Y, which he previously told Fortune won’t be ready for a couple more years.

“I think we need to come up with the Model Y sometime in 2020 or, aspirationally, late 2019,” Musk said.

 

This isn’t the first time Musk has broached the topic of pickup trucks. He showed early designs for such a vehicle in November, when Tesla unveiled its Semi truck, (which has, according to Musk, a 500 mile range, can drive itself and comes with a state-of-the-art interior that features two large touchscreen displays).

“It’s a pickup truck that can carry a pickup truck,” Musk said at the time. “You’ll actually be able to legally drive that with a driver’s license.”

That ‘pickup truck that can haul another pickup truck’ that Tesla showed off looks to me to be a good size of vehicle to use on the surface of Mars pic.twitter.com/pj6EDS6Yn3

— Bradd Libby (@bradd_libby) November 28, 2017

Musk also revealed some of the other improvements Tesla is working on for its vehicles. Here’s a rough timeline of what he has got planned:

:: Make it possible to turn on heated window via the app and to turn on seat and steering wheel heat remotely – in the next update.

:: Major browser upgrades to all cars’ touchscreens – in a few months.

:: Windshield wipers that automatically change speed based on how much rain there is – coming very soon.

:: Vastly better maps/navigation software – coming soon.

Plus…

– Rain sensor (AP2)
– All 8 Cameras as Dashcam!
– Ambientlight settings (brightness, footwell front and rear seats)
– Sign Recognition
– music quieter when opening all doors (with settings)
– Disco Mode (Ambientlight to music beat with on/off and brightness)

— MCFlashTube (@MCFlashTube) December 26, 2017

Was gonna say we’ll do all but the last, but that last one sounds like good, cheesy fun 🙂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017

Toyota Will Make Every Car In Its Range Electric By 2025

Despite being responsible for the most famous hybrid car in history, the Prius, Toyota has been relatively quiet about its plans for going electric.Well now the world’s second-largest car manufacturer has announced that by 2025, every car it make…

Electric Black Cabs Are Available In London From Today

The world’s cleanest and most-advanced taxi has taken to the streets of London today, for the first time, to carry fare-paying passengers.The electric TX, produced by iconic black cab manufacturer LEVC, is now fully certified ahead of TFL’s…

Electric Black Cabs Are Available In London From Today

The world’s cleanest and most-advanced taxi has taken to the streets of London today, for the first time, to carry fare-paying passengers.The electric TX, produced by iconic black cab manufacturer LEVC, is now fully certified ahead of TFL’s…

Elon Musk Teases Idea Of Tesla’s Insane Roadster Becoming A Flying Car

If the Tesla Roadster’s frankly astonishing 0-60mph time of 1.9 seconds didn’t blow you away then this almost certainly will.

Tesla’s founder Elon Musk has revealed on Twitter that the incredible performance figures listed for the Roadster (620-mile range, 0-60mph 1.9 secs and 250+mph top speed) are actually just for the ‘base’ model.

For those of you willing to spend a bit extra the Roadster will in fact come with a “special upgrade” package that as Musk puts it: “Will take it to the next level.”

Should clarify that this is the base model performance. There will be a special option package that takes it to the next level.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2017

Considering 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds is faster than just about any car you think of, it’s hard to imagine what Musk could have in mind when you want to make something like that seem like an entry-level option.

Well the entrepreneur very kindly decided to elaborate on his point a little further and it while he could well be pulling our leg, he’s definitely hinting at the idea of a flying car.

Not saying the next gen Roadster special upgrade package *will* definitely enable it to fly short hops, but maybe …

Certainly possible. Just a question of safety. Rocket tech applied to a car opens up revolutionary possibilities.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2017

That’s right, imagine the Tesla Roadster but with SpaceX’s rocket technology.

It sounds absolutely mad and yet given everything we know about Musk, this is just the kind of idea that he could actually pull off.

The response has been, understandably, pretty positive.

Go for it! ️ pic.twitter.com/R1tWFCgcZp

— Rocket League #RLonSwitch (@RocketLeague) November 19, 2017

Now the reality is probably that Tesla’s Roadster will indeed come with a ‘special upgrade’ package and instead it will simply make the car faster, or give it an even longer range.

Another theory is that it could come with the above and then one of the easter eggs in the car is that it will transform the dashboard into a mock-up of a SpaceX flying car.

Finally there’s the third option which is that Musk wasn’t even remotely joking and Tesla is in fact hard at work on a Tesla flying car that can make short trips using an as-yet unknown SpaceX rocket technology that’s safe, easy to use and reliable.

If we’re being completely honest, all three sound amazing.