Tesla, Volvo, BMW — all join in: Is this eventually the dawn of the electrical car era?
Aaron Saltzman CBC News
Last Updated:Jul 07, two thousand seventeen 9:07 AM ET
Tesla Model X holder John Dixon, seen here at his Haliburton, Ont., area cottage, has two Tesla Model 3s on order. John Dixon
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The very very first Tesla Model Trio, the electrified car maker’s much-hyped, long awaited mass-market vehicle, rolls off the assembly line today capping what might one day prove to be a monumental week in the evolution of the electrified vehicle.
“We believe with everything happening that it’s no longer an ‘if’ it’s a ‘when,'” says Cara Clairman,
president and CEO of Cork’n Drive, a non-profit electrified vehicle (EV) advocacy organisation.
“[It’s] not the death of the internal combustion engine but certainly we’ll see an terrific budge to electrical vehicles over time and it’s just a matter of how long that takes.”
That timeline emerges to be accelerating.
In addition to the very first Tesla Model three hitting the road, Volvo this week announced all of its car models launched after two thousand nineteen will either be electrified or hybrid. It’s the very first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
“We launched our fresh XC90 two years ago and twenty per cent — one of every five XC90s — we delivered over the last year and a half were plug-in hybrids,” says Alexander Lvovich, Managing Director of Volvo Car Canada. “So based on our own practice, our consumers, they embraced the technology.”
Earlier this week, France went even further announcing it will end the sale of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles by two thousand forty in a bid to become carbon neutral by 2050.
BMW also has plans to electrify each and every one of its makes and models by 2020, while Volkswagen says it will spend $Two billion in the United States on electrified vehicle infrastructure which includes the installation of more than five hundred charging stations across America.
The question is: Does all of this ultimately mark a tipping point in the adoption of the electrical car?
You can count Canadian Tesla Model three buyers among those who reaction: Yes.
“What we’re observing now is every major vehicle manufacturer has an electrification program well underway and I truly believe it’s all because of Tesla’s [leadership],” says John Dixon, president of the Tesla Owners Club of Ontario.
Dixon, who claims he was one of the very first people to own a Tesla in Canada back in 2012, wields a Model X and has two Model 3s on order.
“Don’t ask me what I’m doing with them, they’ll be a 2nd car in my family or for an employee or my son or something,” he says.
He’s able to do that in part because of Tesla’s entry-level price.
Official prices haven’t been released but Tesla says the Model three will cost about $35,000 US. On a straight conversion basis, that works out to harshly $45,000 Cnd, but with government rebates — Ontario offers up to $14,000— the cost will be much less.
“When you factor in the gasoline savings and now the rebates from the Ontario government it makes the car very, very affordable,” Dixon says.
Tesla says the Model three will be able to drive as far as three hundred forty five kilometres on a single charge, a much longer range than most electrified vehicles, particularly in its price range.
Boosters call it a game changer for the electrical car segment.
“I do believe that this is indeed an iPhone moment for the EV industry as a entire,” says Trevor Page, who lined up at one of Tesla’s Toronto stores at four a.m. to sign up for a Model three the day the waiting list opened.
“It’s not the very first long-range mass market EV available — that’s the Chevy Bolt — however the Tesla [Model Three] represents a vehicle that is much more compelling because of technologies like Autopilot,” says Page. “[There are] more options like a larger battery pack, better aerodynamics, [and] there’s a sexiness factor with the vehicle.”
He’s still waiting to buy his very first Tesla despite having founded the Tesla Model three Owners club, an online forum for fans of the vehicle.
Dozens of people waited for days outside Tesla Motors on Robson Street in Vancouver to put down a deposit on the Model three when orders were very first opened. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
According to FleetCarma, a clean tech company based in Waterloo, Ont., there were a record-setting total of 11,000 electrified vehicles sold in Canada last year. That’s up fifty six per cent from 2015. But that still only brings the total number of EVs in this country to just 30,000. While growing swift, EVs are still a little fraction of the cars on the road considering there were almost two million vehicles sold in Canada in 2016.
And not everyone is buying the idea that developments this week are a landmark moment for the EV industry.
“There are a number of [automakers] coming out with all electrical cars,” says Kenneth Elias, an analyst with Connecticut-based Maryann Keller and Associates, an automotive strategy consulting service.
“I’m not wooed it’s as big a deal for the U.S. market as it is may be elsewhere where gasoline could be more expensive or less available.”
In the very first twenty four hours that order banks were open, Tesla said it had more than 115,000 reservations for the lower priced fresh Model Trio. (Justin Prichard/AP)
Elias says most Volvo customers buying a fresh vehicle after two thousand nineteen will very likely buy a mild hybrid — a car where the gas engine is assisted by a puny electrified motor. It’s a system that is more fuel efficient than gas alone but not as clean as a plug-in hybrid or an all electrified vehicle.
He says Volvo’s decision was made with an eye towards China, Volvo’s largest market and among the fastest growing markets for electrified vehicles in the world. Bloomberg reports Chinese consumers bought more than 300,000 EVs last year, and more than five million are expected to be on the road by 2020.
Is electrified indeed cleaner?
China has been criticised for its coal-fired power plants and lax environmental laws, leading some to suggest switching to electrified powered vehicles is simply exchanging one form of pollution for another.
But Clairman believes electrical vehicles are still cleaner than the alternative.
“Even with coal-based tens unit, the efficiency of a big coal plant is always better than the efficiency of an [internal combustion] car engine.” she says.
Clairman says there are still a few barriers to widespread adoption of EVs including people fearful of being incapable to charge up on longer trips away from urban centres.
“For the longer trips we do need more DC chargers on the highway. Ontario, Quebec, and BC are all making good strides on that, we’ve got to pack in, but it’s getting lighter and lighter.”
CBC News – Tesla, Volvo, BMW – all join in: Is this eventually the dawn of the electrified car era?
Tesla, Volvo, BMW — all join in: Is this ultimately the dawn of the electrified car era?
Aaron Saltzman CBC News
Last Updated:Jul 07, two thousand seventeen 9:07 AM ET
Tesla Model X holder John Dixon, seen here at his Haliburton, Ont., area cottage, has two Tesla Model 3s on order. John Dixon
Related
Related Stories
The very very first Tesla Model Trio, the electrical car maker’s much-hyped, long awaited mass-market vehicle, rolls off the assembly line today capping what might one day prove to be a monumental week in the evolution of the electrical vehicle.
“We believe with everything happening that it’s no longer an ‘if’ it’s a ‘when,'” says Cara Clairman,
president and CEO of Ass-plug’n Drive, a non-profit electrified vehicle (EV) advocacy organisation.
“[It’s] not the death of the internal combustion engine but certainly we’ll see an tremendous stir to electrified vehicles over time and it’s just a matter of how long that takes.”
That timeline emerges to be accelerating.
In addition to the very first Tesla Model three hitting the road, Volvo this week announced all of its car models launched after two thousand nineteen will either be electrified or hybrid. It’s the very first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
“We launched our fresh XC90 two years ago and twenty per cent — one of every five XC90s — we delivered over the last year and a half were plug-in hybrids,” says Alexander Lvovich, Managing Director of Volvo Car Canada. “So based on our own practice, our consumers, they embraced the technology.”
Earlier this week, France went even further announcing it will end the sale of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles by two thousand forty in a bid to become carbon neutral by 2050.
BMW also has plans to electrify each and every one of its makes and models by 2020, while Volkswagen says it will spend $Two billion in the United States on electrical vehicle infrastructure which includes the installation of more than five hundred charging stations across America.
The question is: Does all of this ultimately mark a tipping point in the adoption of the electrical car?
You can count Canadian Tesla Model three buyers among those who reaction: Yes.
“What we’re witnessing now is every major vehicle manufacturer has an electrification program well underway and I truly believe it’s all because of Tesla’s [leadership],” says John Dixon, president of the Tesla Owners Club of Ontario.
Dixon, who claims he was one of the very first people to own a Tesla in Canada back in 2012, possesses a Model X and has two Model 3s on order.
“Don’t ask me what I’m doing with them, they’ll be a 2nd car in my family or for an employee or my son or something,” he says.
He’s able to do that in part because of Tesla’s entry-level price.
Official prices haven’t been released but Tesla says the Model three will cost about $35,000 US. On a straight conversion basis, that works out to toughly $45,000 Cnd, but with government rebates — Ontario offers up to $14,000— the cost will be much less.
“When you factor in the gasoline savings and now the rebates from the Ontario government it makes the car very, very affordable,” Dixon says.
Tesla says the Model three will be able to drive as far as three hundred forty five kilometres on a single charge, a much longer range than most electrical vehicles, particularly in its price range.
Boosters call it a game changer for the electrical car segment.
“I do believe that this is truly an iPhone moment for the EV industry as a entire,” says Trevor Page, who lined up at one of Tesla’s Toronto stores at four a.m. to sign up for a Model three the day the waiting list opened.
“It’s not the very first long-range mass market EV available — that’s the Chevy Bolt — however the Tesla [Model Three] represents a vehicle that is much more compelling because of technologies like Autopilot,” says Page. “[There are] more options like a larger battery pack, better aerodynamics, [and] there’s a sexiness factor with the vehicle.”
He’s still waiting to buy his very first Tesla despite having founded the Tesla Model three Owners club, an online forum for fans of the vehicle.
Dozens of people waited for days outside Tesla Motors on Robson Street in Vancouver to put down a deposit on the Model three when orders were very first opened. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
According to FleetCarma, a clean tech company based in Waterloo, Ont., there were a record-setting total of 11,000 electrical vehicles sold in Canada last year. That’s up fifty six per cent from 2015. But that still only brings the total number of EVs in this country to just 30,000. While growing quick, EVs are still a lil’ fraction of the cars on the road considering there were almost two million vehicles sold in Canada in 2016.
And not everyone is buying the idea that developments this week are a landmark moment for the EV industry.
“There are a number of [automakers] coming out with all electrical cars,” says Kenneth Elias, an analyst with Connecticut-based Maryann Keller and Associates, an automotive strategy consulting service.
“I’m not persuaded it’s as big a deal for the U.S. market as it is may be elsewhere where gasoline could be more expensive or less available.”
In the very first twenty four hours that order banks were open, Tesla said it had more than 115,000 reservations for the lower priced fresh Model Three. (Justin Prichard/AP)
Elias says most Volvo customers buying a fresh vehicle after two thousand nineteen will most likely buy a mild hybrid — a car where the gas engine is assisted by a puny electrified motor. It’s a system that is more fuel efficient than gas alone but not as clean as a plug-in hybrid or an all electrical vehicle.
He says Volvo’s decision was made with an eye towards China, Volvo’s largest market and among the fastest growing markets for electrified vehicles in the world. Bloomberg reports Chinese consumers bought more than 300,000 EVs last year, and more than five million are expected to be on the road by 2020.
Is electrified indeed cleaner?
China has been criticised for its coal-fired power plants and lax environmental laws, leading some to suggest switching to electrical powered vehicles is simply exchanging one form of pollution for another.
But Clairman believes electrical vehicles are still cleaner than the alternative.
“Even with coal-based electrical play, the efficiency of a big coal plant is always better than the efficiency of an [internal combustion] car engine.” she says.
Clairman says there are still a few barriers to widespread adoption of EVs including people fearful of being incapable to charge up on longer trips away from urban centres.
“For the longer trips we do need more DC chargers on the highway. Ontario, Quebec, and BC are all making good strides on that, we’ve got to pack in, but it’s getting lighter and lighter.”
CBC News – Tesla, Volvo, BMW – all join in: Is this eventually the dawn of the electrical car era?
Tesla, Volvo, BMW — all join in: Is this eventually the dawn of the electrified car era?
Aaron Saltzman CBC News
Last Updated:Jul 07, two thousand seventeen 9:07 AM ET
Tesla Model X holder John Dixon, seen here at his Haliburton, Ont., area cottage, has two Tesla Model 3s on order. John Dixon
Related
Related Stories
The very very first Tesla Model Three, the electrical car maker’s much-hyped, long awaited mass-market vehicle, rolls off the assembly line today capping what might one day prove to be a monumental week in the evolution of the electrical vehicle.
“We believe with everything happening that it’s no longer an ‘if’ it’s a ‘when,'” says Cara Clairman,
president and CEO of Ass-plug’n Drive, a non-profit electrical vehicle (EV) advocacy organisation.
“[It’s] not the death of the internal combustion engine but certainly we’ll see an breathtaking stir to electrical vehicles over time and it’s just a matter of how long that takes.”
That timeline emerges to be accelerating.
In addition to the very first Tesla Model three hitting the road, Volvo this week announced all of its car models launched after two thousand nineteen will either be electrified or hybrid. It’s the very first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
“We launched our fresh XC90 two years ago and twenty per cent — one of every five XC90s — we delivered over the last year and a half were plug-in hybrids,” says Alexander Lvovich, Managing Director of Volvo Car Canada. “So based on our own practice, our consumers, they embraced the technology.”
Earlier this week, France went even further announcing it will end the sale of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles by two thousand forty in a bid to become carbon neutral by 2050.
BMW also has plans to electrify each and every one of its makes and models by 2020, while Volkswagen says it will spend $Two billion in the United States on electrified vehicle infrastructure which includes the installation of more than five hundred charging stations across America.
The question is: Does all of this ultimately mark a tipping point in the adoption of the electrified car?
You can count Canadian Tesla Model three buyers among those who reaction: Yes.
“What we’re watching now is every major vehicle manufacturer has an electrification program well underway and I truly believe it’s all because of Tesla’s [leadership],” says John Dixon, president of the Tesla Owners Club of Ontario.
Dixon, who claims he was one of the very first people to own a Tesla in Canada back in 2012, possesses a Model X and has two Model 3s on order.
“Don’t ask me what I’m doing with them, they’ll be a 2nd car in my family or for an employee or my son or something,” he says.
He’s able to do that in part because of Tesla’s entry-level price.
Official prices haven’t been released but Tesla says the Model three will cost about $35,000 US. On a straight conversion basis, that works out to toughly $45,000 Cnd, but with government rebates — Ontario offers up to $14,000— the cost will be much less.
“When you factor in the gasoline savings and now the rebates from the Ontario government it makes the car very, very affordable,” Dixon says.
Tesla says the Model three will be able to drive as far as three hundred forty five kilometres on a single charge, a much longer range than most electrified vehicles, particularly in its price range.
Boosters call it a game changer for the electrified car segment.
“I do believe that this is indeed an iPhone moment for the EV industry as a entire,” says Trevor Page, who lined up at one of Tesla’s Toronto stores at four a.m. to sign up for a Model three the day the waiting list opened.
“It’s not the very first long-range mass market EV available — that’s the Chevy Bolt — however the Tesla [Model Three] represents a vehicle that is much more compelling because of technologies like Autopilot,” says Page. “[There are] more options like a larger battery pack, better aerodynamics, [and] there’s a sexiness factor with the vehicle.”
He’s still waiting to buy his very first Tesla despite having founded the Tesla Model three Owners club, an online forum for fans of the vehicle.
Dozens of people waited for days outside Tesla Motors on Robson Street in Vancouver to put down a deposit on the Model three when orders were very first opened. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
According to FleetCarma, a clean tech company based in Waterloo, Ont., there were a record-setting total of 11,000 electrical vehicles sold in Canada last year. That’s up fifty six per cent from 2015. But that still only brings the total number of EVs in this country to just 30,000. While growing quick, EVs are still a lil’ fraction of the cars on the road considering there were almost two million vehicles sold in Canada in 2016.
And not everyone is buying the idea that developments this week are a landmark moment for the EV industry.
“There are a number of [automakers] coming out with all electrified cars,” says Kenneth Elias, an analyst with Connecticut-based Maryann Keller and Associates, an automotive strategy consulting service.
“I’m not coaxed it’s as big a deal for the U.S. market as it is may be elsewhere where gasoline could be more expensive or less available.”
In the very first twenty four hours that order banks were open, Tesla said it had more than 115,000 reservations for the lower priced fresh Model Three. (Justin Prichard/AP)
Elias says most Volvo customers buying a fresh vehicle after two thousand nineteen will very likely buy a mild hybrid — a car where the gas engine is assisted by a puny electrical motor. It’s a system that is more fuel efficient than gas alone but not as clean as a plug-in hybrid or an all electrified vehicle.
He says Volvo’s decision was made with an eye towards China, Volvo’s thickest market and among the fastest growing markets for electrical vehicles in the world. Bloomberg reports Chinese consumers bought more than 300,000 EVs last year, and more than five million are expected to be on the road by 2020.
Is electrified indeed cleaner?
China has been criticised for its coal-fired power plants and lax environmental laws, leading some to suggest switching to electrified powered vehicles is simply exchanging one form of pollution for another.
But Clairman believes electrical vehicles are still cleaner than the alternative.
“Even with coal-based tens unit, the efficiency of a big coal plant is always better than the efficiency of an [internal combustion] car engine.” she says.
Clairman says there are still a few barriers to widespread adoption of EVs including people fearful of being incapable to charge up on longer trips away from urban centres.
“For the longer trips we do need more DC chargers on the highway. Ontario, Quebec, and BC are all making good strides on that, we’ve got to pack in, but it’s getting lighter and lighter.”