V is for Vehicles, Virgin, Vietnam, Vestas & the Vihara Project

The big V is for Vehicles which are electric, plug-in hybrid or powered by hydrogen fuel cells. 2014 saw most car manufacturing putting at least one cleaner energy vehicle on the production line. According to Clean Fleet Report “automakers continue to increase our choice of plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars and crossovers and 2014 has turned out to be another banner year for plug-in cars”. HSBC has Virgin Atlantic and LanzaTech have brought HSBC in on the act of developing low-carbon fuel. As Vietnam is endowed with a relatively large amount of renewable energy resources distributed throughout the country, including Biomass, Hydro and Wind, The German organisation GIZ – among others – is working to produce results. A wind power leader Vestas is there too. We report on The Vihar Project of the Vihara Foundation in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. See how vehicles are being employed for the benefit of people and the environment by GoGet in Australia, as Singapore looks into electric cars and car sharing schemes. Read More

Car Sharing with Electric cars in Singapore Plan

Joy Fang for Today (8 December 2014):

SINGAPORE — Authorities here are exploring introducing a new car-sharing model using electric vehicles, which will see the introduction of up to 1,000 electric vehicles as well as charging infrastructure to support their use.

The inter-agency Electro-Mobility Singapore (EMS) taskforce issued a Request for Information (RFI) today (Dec 8), asking for submission of proposals for “a sustainable operational and business model”. The taskforce also aims to explore whether a one way car-sharing model, in which users pick up cars at an origin and return them at a different destination, can be viable.

The taskforce, co-led by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Economic Development Board, said the trial will enable the Government to gain a deeper understanding of the operating models and support required for electric vehicles to succeed on a larger scale here.

This is the second phase towards exploring fleet-based, shared car operations. The first phase, which conducted two market perception surveys and studies on the technical and economic feasibility of electric vehicle deployment in Singapore, concluded last year.

LTA chief executive Chew Men Leong said they are also exploring whether one-way car-sharing “can possibly complement Singapore’s existing public transport system by serving as a first mile/last mile connector to public transport nodes”.

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/lta-and-edb-exploring-electric-vehicle-car-sharing-programme-singapore