Toyota and Mazda join coerces on electrical vehicles

Toyota and Mazda join compels on electrified vehicles. Is this the end of the road for gas cars?

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An electrified car recharges at the University of Maryland at College Park. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

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European moves to mark the end of the road for diesel and gas-powered cars are putting pressure on carmakers to not get left behind in the shift towards electrical vehicles, analysts said.

In a further sign of those pressures, Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp on Friday announced they would join coerces to develop electrified vehicle technologies and build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in the U.S.

The U.S. plant will have a capacity to produce 300,000 cars a year and provide jobs for about Four,000 people, according to Reuters. It will begin operations in 2021.

But analysts told Reuters the alliance would also help Mazda keep up in the race to develop electrified vehicles. “Mazda needs electrification technology. In the past they’ve pooh-poohed EVs, they’ve felt that they can make internal combustion engines more efficient, but the bottom line is that globally you need to have this technology,” said Janet Lewis, head of Asia transportation research at Macquarie Securities.

Toyota has said it wants to produce all zero-emissions vehicles by 2050. Volvo, founded in Sweden but now under Chinese ownership, has said that from two thousand nineteen all fresh models would be tooled with an electrified engine.

European governments are also promoting the shift away from the internal combustion engine to electrical vehicles.

The U.K. last month followed France in committing to end the sale of fresh gas and diesel cars from 2040.

Britain set the deadline as part of a broader plan to achieve a zero-emissions vehicle fleet by 2050. The government will spend about $Three.Five billion on plug-in charging infrastructure and other clean air initiatives.

Earlier, France reported it was planning a “veritable revolution,” ending the sale of fresh petrol and diesel vehicles by two thousand forty and suggesting financial help to low-income citizens to make the transit to electrified cars.

“Our [car] makers know how to nurture and bring about this promise,” Nicolas Hulot, the French ecology minister, said in a news conference.

Norway has set an even more ambitious aim of phasing out gas and diesel cars by 2025.

“There is an agreement on a target of zero fresh fossil-fuel cars sold as from 2025,” said Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment, in a tweet. “No outright ban, but strong deeds required.”

Clean air advocates and analysts said the moves in Europe give a much-needed shove to the global electrified car industry.

“There are cleaner-car alternatives than they used to be and companies and countries are beginning to realize that hybrids and electrical vehicles make a lot more sense now,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, an advocacy group that concentrates on automobile fuel efficiency.

Electrified carmaker Tesla claimed with the release of its Model three to have produced the world’s very first mass market electrical car.

But the moves by the car industry and some European governments contrast with President Trump’s policies. Trump has proposed weakening Obama-era fuel regulations, which would liquidate one of the incentives for electrical cars.

Instead, analysts say the United States should consider taking steps toward encouraging electrified vehicle usage and production, to not miss out on business opportunities on the global market.

“One relevant question is: What should the U.S. be doing so that its own homegrown companies could rival and stay at the forefront of these switching markets?” said Jessika Trancik, associate professor of energy studies at MIT. “I don’t think we are capturing the chance right now with the uncertainty in policy on climate switch and the unpredictability there.”

Trancik predicted the moves will help increase global electrified car sales.

“This is going to put pressure and incentivize car manufacturers to go in that direction and once they’ve done that there will be more models of electrical vehicles and hybrids for people to buy, so the effects can go beyond the UK and France’s borders,” Trancik said.

Electrified cars already account for about twenty nine percent of fresh vehicle sales in Norway, thanks in part to tax exemptions and other perks such as free parking catches sight of.

And there is public support to accelerate the shift toward electrified vehicles. Last year, Netherlands voted to end fresh sales of gas and diesel cars by 2035. But the proposal still has to be approved by the cabinet. Mayors of Paris, Madrid, Oslo and Athens have said they plan to ban diesel vehicles from their city centers by 2025.

Even Germany — Europe’s fattest automaker — is feeling the pressure not to be left behind. The German Association of the Automotive Industry this week agreed to retrofit about five million cars with equipment that will emit twenty five to thirty percent less nitrogen oxide.

Analysts said the accord reflects an aim to upgrade and preserve internal-combustion vehicles, rather than accelerate the transition to electrified vehicle technology — and warned that could eventually hurt German automakers.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an experienced on the automotive industry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said the deal reached at the automakers’ summit was aimed largely at persuading cities not to adopt wholesale bans on diesel, which has powered European engines for decades. Pressure from German courts to get pollution under control has joined repeated warnings from the European Commission about unlawful levels of nitrogen oxide.

But without more far-reaching switches, Dudenhöffer warned Germany is endangering its position in a market it once predominated.

“The summit tells the public that we in Germany are at a dead end,” he said. “What we need is a U-turn to go in the exact opposite direction.”

Dudenhöffer said Tesla, the largest American manufacturer of electrical vehicles, poses a formidable challenge. “To have invented the technology means you’re Apple. Everyone else catching up is Samsung,” he said.

Germany’s response cannot be to “clean up a 20th-century technology,” said Greg Archer, director of clean vehicles at the Brussels-based advocacy organization, Transport & Environment. The aim instead, he said, should be to shift to “zero-emission vehicles.”

“France and the U.K. are paving the way on that, and Germany along with its carmakers seem to be lagging behind,” Archer said. “The danger for Germany is that it proceeds producing cars that the rest of the world no longer wants. Just five percent of the fresh cars sold outside Europe are diesels.”

However, national pledges for a stir toward all electrified vehicle fleets have also met with criticism.

And Guenther Oettinger, the European Union budget commissioner, has suggested it would be “significantly premature” to set a uniform E.U. date to abandon gas and diesel cars, according to the Associated Press.

It’s also unclear how countries will meet the enlargened request for electro-therapy to power the electrical vehicles.

The European Environment Agency projects electrical vehicles will account for 9.Five percent of electric current consumption in 2050, from 0.03 percent in 2014.

“If in some other countries they don’t have access to renewable electrical play, the extra electrical play might come from fossil fuel and some emissions might increase,” Alfredo Sánchez Vicente, Project Manager for Transport at the European Environment Agency , said in an interview.

Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed extra reporting from Berlin.

Toyota and Mazda join compels on electrified vehicles

Toyota and Mazda join compels on electrified vehicles. Is this the end of the road for gas cars?

The inwards track on Washington politics.

*Invalid email address

An electrified car recharges at the University of Maryland at College Park. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

This post has been updated

European moves to mark the end of the road for diesel and gas-powered cars are putting pressure on carmakers to not get left behind in the shift towards electrical vehicles, analysts said.

In a further sign of those pressures, Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp on Friday announced they would join compels to develop electrical vehicle technologies and build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in the U.S.

The U.S. plant will have a capacity to produce 300,000 cars a year and provide jobs for about Four,000 people, according to Reuters. It will begin operations in 2021.

But analysts told Reuters the alliance would also help Mazda keep up in the race to develop electrical vehicles. “Mazda needs electrification technology. In the past they’ve pooh-poohed EVs, they’ve felt that they can make internal combustion engines more efficient, but the bottom line is that globally you need to have this technology,” said Janet Lewis, head of Asia transportation research at Macquarie Securities.

European governments are also promoting the shift away from the internal combustion engine to electrical vehicles.

The U.K. last month followed France in committing to end the sale of fresh gas and diesel cars from 2040.

“Our [car] makers know how to nurture and bring about this promise,” Nicolas Hulot, the French ecology minister, said in a news conference.

Norway has set an even more ambitious objective of phasing out gas and diesel cars by 2025.

Clean air advocates and analysts said the moves in Europe give a much-needed thrust to the global electrical car industry.

Electrical carmaker Tesla claimed with the release of its Model three to have produced the world’s very first mass market electrical car.

Instead, analysts say the United States should consider taking steps toward encouraging electrical vehicle usage and production, to not miss out on business opportunities on the global market.

“One relevant question is: What should the U.S. be doing so that its own homegrown companies could challenge and stay at the forefront of these switching markets?” said Jessika Trancik, associate professor of energy studies at MIT. “I don’t think we are capturing the chance right now with the uncertainty in policy on climate switch and the unpredictability there.”

Trancik predicted the moves will help increase global electrified car sales.

“This is going to put pressure and incentivize car manufacturers to go in that direction and once they’ve done that there will be more models of electrified vehicles and hybrids for people to buy, so the effects can go beyond the UK and France’s borders,” Trancik said.

Electrified cars already account for about twenty nine percent of fresh vehicle sales in Norway, thanks in part to tax exemptions and other perks such as free parking catches sight of.

And there is public support to accelerate the shift toward electrical vehicles. Last year, Netherlands voted to end fresh sales of gas and diesel cars by 2035. But the proposal still has to be approved by the cabinet. Mayors of Paris, Madrid, Oslo and Athens have said they plan to ban diesel vehicles from their city centers by 2025.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an pro on the automotive industry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said the deal reached at the automakers’ summit was aimed largely at coaxing cities not to adopt wholesale bans on diesel, which has powered European engines for decades. Pressure from German courts to get pollution under control has joined repeated warnings from the European Commission about unlawful levels of nitrogen oxide.

But without more far-reaching switches, Dudenhöffer warned Germany is endangering its position in a market it once predominated.

“The summit tells the public that we in Germany are at a dead end,” he said. “What we need is a U-turn to go in the exact opposite direction.”

“France and the U.K. are paving the way on that, and Germany along with its carmakers seem to be lagging behind,” Archer said. “The danger for Germany is that it resumes producing cars that the rest of the world no longer wants. Just five percent of the fresh cars sold outside Europe are diesels.”

However, national pledges for a budge toward all electrified vehicle fleets have also met with criticism.

It’s also unclear how countries will meet the enlargened request for electro-therapy to power the electrified vehicles.

The European Environment Agency projects electrical vehicles will account for 9.Five percent of violet wand consumption in 2050, from 0.03 percent in 2014.

“If in some other countries they don’t have access to renewable tens unit, the extra electro-therapy might come from fossil fuel and some emissions might increase,” Alfredo Sánchez Vicente, Project Manager for Transport at the European Environment Agency , said in an interview.

Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed extra reporting from Berlin.

Toyota and Mazda join coerces on electrical vehicles

Toyota and Mazda join compels on electrical vehicles. Is this the end of the road for gas cars?

The inwards track on Washington politics.

*Invalid email address

An electrical car recharges at the University of Maryland at College Park. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

This post has been updated

European moves to mark the end of the road for diesel and gas-powered cars are putting pressure on carmakers to not get left behind in the shift towards electrified vehicles, analysts said.

The U.S. plant will have a capacity to produce 300,000 cars a year and provide jobs for about Four,000 people, according to Reuters. It will begin operations in 2021.

European governments are also promoting the shift away from the internal combustion engine to electrical vehicles.

The U.K. last month followed France in committing to end the sale of fresh gas and diesel cars from 2040.

Britain set the deadline as part of a broader plan to achieve a zero-emissions vehicle fleet by 2050. The government will spend about $Trio.Five billion on plug-in charging infrastructure and other clean air initiatives.

“Our [car] makers know how to nurture and bring about this promise,” Nicolas Hulot, the French ecology minister, said in a news conference.

Norway has set an even more ambitious objective of phasing out gas and diesel cars by 2025.

Clean air advocates and analysts said the moves in Europe give a much-needed thrust to the global electrified car industry.

“There are cleaner-car alternatives than they used to be and companies and countries are beginning to realize that hybrids and electrified vehicles make a lot more sense now,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, an advocacy group that concentrates on automobile fuel efficiency.

Electrified carmaker Tesla claimed with the release of its Model three to have produced the world’s very first mass market electrical car.

Instead, analysts say the United States should consider taking steps toward encouraging electrical vehicle usage and production, to not miss out on business opportunities on the global market.

“One relevant question is: What should the U.S. be doing so that its own homegrown companies could contest and stay at the forefront of these switching markets?” said Jessika Trancik, associate professor of energy studies at MIT. “I don’t think we are capturing the chance right now with the uncertainty in policy on climate switch and the unpredictability there.”

Trancik predicted the moves will help increase global electrical car sales.

Electrified cars already account for about twenty nine percent of fresh vehicle sales in Norway, thanks in part to tax exemptions and other perks such as free parking catches sight of.

Even Germany — Europe’s largest automaker — is feeling the pressure not to be left behind. The German Association of the Automotive Industry this week agreed to retrofit about five million cars with equipment that will emit twenty five to thirty percent less nitrogen oxide.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an accomplished on the automotive industry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said the deal reached at the automakers’ summit was aimed largely at persuading cities not to adopt wholesale bans on diesel, which has powered European engines for decades. Pressure from German courts to get pollution under control has joined repeated warnings from the European Commission about unlawful levels of nitrogen oxide.

But without more far-reaching switches, Dudenhöffer warned Germany is endangering its position in a market it once predominated.

“The summit tells the public that we in Germany are at a dead end,” he said. “What we need is a U-turn to go in the exact opposite direction.”

Dudenhöffer said Tesla, the largest American manufacturer of electrified vehicles, poses a formidable challenge. “To have invented the technology means you’re Apple. Everyone else catching up is Samsung,” he said.

However, national pledges for a stir toward all electrified vehicle fleets have also met with criticism.

It’s also unclear how countries will meet the enhanced request for electric current to power the electrical vehicles.

The European Environment Agency projects electrified vehicles will account for 9.Five percent of tens unit consumption in 2050, from 0.03 percent in 2014.