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... private motorists, according to a worldwide survey of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Congress delegates. Private motorists were ranked sixth behind car hire and leasing companies. Delegates to the Congress to be held in Germany next June, also believe the biggest challenge facing the adoption of PHEVs and EVs is developing a robust charging infrastructure.
The next biggest challenges will be educating owners about the total cost of ownership of an EV, with leasing arrangements and electricity charging wrapped into the price.
The EV industry also identified Nissan as being the standout market leader, with almost twice the delegates naming the Japanese company as its colleague Toyota. Third was General Motors, closely followed by Californian sportscar company Tesla. Mitsubishi was fourth with Nissan global partner Renault in fifth and the Renault/Nissan partnership named in seventh behind charging infrastructure provider Better Place.
Nissan Australia spokesman Jeff Gisher is not surprised that his company has been named the EV market leader with the Leaf hitting our markets next year at more than $50,000.
"Nissan is investing billions in EV technology in the expectation that it is one of the key game changers in personal mobility technology," he says. "We still expect 10 per cent of new cars will be EV by 2020 given a competitive price point and a continuously developing infrastructure."
The Nissan Leaf, which is the first electric vehicle to win the European Car of the Year award, will be followed by three more electric vehicles and four EVs from their alliance partner, Renault.
Nissan chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga says the EVs will include a small electric van, a luxury car and the Land Glider single-seater city car.
The Leaf is powered by an 80kW/280Nm electric motor driving the front wheels, with a stack of flat laminated lithium-ion batteries under its floor. Its battery can be charged in about eight hours on 240V or quick-charged to 80 per cent capacity in 30 minutes and has a range of about 160km.
The Congress delegates believe the "next big thing" in the EV industry will be the supply of electricity generated by EVs back to the grid. Another major advancement in the industry will be inductive charging which uses an electromagnetic field to charge the battery.
The next iPhone is expected to have inductive charging which means you don't have to plug it in. Congress delegates also believe EV motorists will use their mobile phone to pay for electricity at charging stations operated by alternative sources such as solar or wind power.
