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An electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using electrical energy stored in rechargeable batteries or another energy storage device. Electric motors give electric cars instant torque, creating strong and smooth acceleration. They are also around three times as efficient as cars with an internal combustion engine. The first electric cars were produced in the 1880s. Since 2008, a renaissance in electric vehicle manufacturing has occurred due to advances in batteries and energy management, concerns about increasing oil prices, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Several national and local governments have established tax credits, subsidies, and other incentives to promote the introduction and adoption in the mass market of new electric vehicles depending on battery size and their all-electric range. Electric cars are significantly quieter than conventional internal combustion engine automobiles. They do not emit tailpipe pollutants, giving a large reduction of local air pollution, and, can give a significant reduction in total greenhouse gas and other emissions (dependent on the method used for electricity generation). As of September 2015, there are over 30 models of highway legal all-electric passenger cars and utility vans available for retail sales, mainly in the United States, China, Japan, Western European countries. By mid-September 2015, about 620,000 light-duty electric vehicles have been sold worldwide out of total global sales of one million plug-in electric cars sold since 2008. The world's top selling highway-capable electric car is the Nissan Leaf, released in December 2010 and sold in 46 countries. Global Leaf sales passed the 200,000 unit milestone in December 2015, and the Tesla Model S, released in June 2012, ranks second with over 107,000 units sold worldwide. In this series, we cover stories covering the development of electric vehicles around the world.

Electric Car Series

Why surging sales of large electric vehicles raises environmental red flags

Nov 07, 2023 09:00 am UTC| Business

Electric cars are getting bigger and heavier. In 2019, 30% of the electric vehicle (EV) models available worldwide were sports utility vehicles (SUVs). Fast forward to 2022 and that figure stood at 40% equivalent to...

Electric Car Series

Will drivers who paid Victoria's electric vehicle tax be able to get their money back?

Oct 25, 2023 05:32 am UTC| Business

Electric vehicle owners in Victoria couldnt be blamed for wondering if they might get their money back after the High Court found the states zero and low-emission vehicle road-user charge to be unconstitutional. The...

Electric Car Series

The High Court of Australia's decision on electric vehicles will make charging for road use very difficult

Oct 24, 2023 09:22 am UTC| Law Business

The High Court of Australias decision to invalidate Victorias electric vehicle tax has been widely noted as a major judgement in the history of federal-state taxation powers. In 2021, Victoria introduced a 2.5 cents per...

Electric Car Series

How sodium-ion batteries could make electric cars cheaper

Oct 11, 2023 03:38 am UTC| Technology

Cars that burn petrol and diesel must be replaced with renewable alternatives if the climate crisis is to be overcome. Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely viewed as the best option available. This is because EVs can be...

Electric Car Series

Why delaying the ban on petrol and diesel cars won't slow UK's shift to electric vehicles

Sep 23, 2023 00:49 am UTC| Economy

The UK has delayed its ban on the sale of new cars which burn petrol or diesel in internal combustion engines (ICE) from 2030 to 2035. In some ways, this is no surprise: the original plan was to ban them from 2040, a...

Electric Car Series

The EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles is a risky strategy that may backfire

Sep 21, 2023 01:52 am UTC| Law Business

In her State of the Union address on 13 September, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a new anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles (EVs) from China, claiming that the market is being...

Electric Car Series

How electric vehicle batteries could save the UK auto industry

May 29, 2023 05:31 am UTC| Technology

The UK may have lost Eurovision this year, but it recently beat European rivals for an arguably more valuable prize. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is expected to build a multi-billion-pound electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in...

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Economy

Texas is suing Planned Parenthood for $1.8B over $10M in allegedly fraudulent services it rendered – a health care economist explains what's going on

Planned Parenthood no longer provides abortions in Texas, Louisiana and the other 10 states that have essentially banned abortion since the Supreme Court handed down its Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June 2022. But the...

African countries lost control to foreign mining companies – the 3 steps that allowed this to happen

Within a few years of independence, African governments asserted sovereignty over their metal and mineral resources. Prior to this, the resources were exploited by European mining corporations. Since the 1990s,...

Canada’s Fall Economic Statement signals the ‘right to repair’ your tech devices

On Nov. 23, the Government of Canada released the 2023 Fall Economic Statement. In a bold move toward empowering consumers, reducing costs and promoting sustainability, the Canadian government has reiterated its commitment...

Happy birthday AUD: how our Australian dollar was floated, 40 years ago this week

These days, we take for granted that the value of the Australian dollar fluctuates against other currencies, changing thousands of times a day and at times jumping or falling quite a lot in the space of a week. But for...

Nicola Willis warns of fiscal ‘snakes and snails’ – her first mini-budget will be a test of NZ’s no-surprises finance rules

New finance minister Nicola Willis has claimed she was blindsided by the state of the governments books. Days after stepping into the role, she said: The outgoing government has left us with some nasty surprises....

Politics

Argentina's Brexit: why new president Milei is threatening to pull out of South America's common market

Javier Milei, who was elected as Argentinas new president on November 19, has promised to withdraw from the South American common market, Mercosur. This decision could have significant economic and social repercussions...

Government's preventative detention for ex-detainees who pose serious risks set to pass this week

The government on Wednesday will introduce its legislation to enable preventative detention of former immigration detainees judged to pose a high risk of committing serious violent or sexual crimes. The legislation will...

Silencing Sarah Jama diminishes Canadian democracy

Sarah Jama, the MPP for Hamilton Centre, is suing the Ontario government and Legislative Assembly after being censured in the legislature by members of the Progressive Conservative government. On Oct. 23, the Ontario...

Alleged assassination plots in the U.S. and Canada signal a more assertive Indian foreign policy

A recent indictment from the United States Department of Justice has alleged an Indian security official was involved in attempting to assassinate a U.S. and Canadian citizen in New York. The alleged target, Gurpatwant...

Henry Kissinger was a global – and deeply flawed – foreign policy heavyweight

Declarations of the end of an era are made only in exceptional circumstances. Henry Kissingers death is one of them. Kissinger was born into a Jewish family in Germany, and fled to the US in 1938 after the Nazis seized...

Science

Could you move from your biological body to a computer? An expert explains ‘mind uploading’

Imagine brain scanning technology improves greatly in the coming decades, to the point that we can observe how each individual neuron talks to other neurons. Then, imagine we can record all this information to create a...

COP28 president is wrong – science clearly shows fossil fuels must go (and fast)

According to the president of COP28, the latest round of UN climate negotiations in the United Arab Emirates, there is no science indicating that phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to restrict global heating to...

Why isn't there any sound in space? An astronomer explains why in space no one can hear you scream

In space, no one can hear you scream. You may have heard this saying. Its the tagline from the famous 1979 science fiction movie Alien. Its a scary thought, but is it true? The simple answer is yes, no one can hear you...

Hyped and expensive, hydrogen has a place in Australia’s energy transition, but only with urgent government support

If you listen to the dreamers, hydrogen is the magical fuel of the future that can replace everything from the petrol in your car to the coal in a steelworks. Hype around hydrogen has been building in Australia since at...

Massive planet too big for its own sun pushes astronomers to rethink exoplanet formation

Imagine youre a farmer searching for eggs in the chicken coop but instead of a chicken egg, you find an ostrich egg, much larger than anything a chicken could lay. Thats a little how our team of astronomers felt when...

Technology

AMD’s MI300X AI Chip Gains Meta, Microsoft Support; Challenging Nvidia’s Dominance

AMD has begun selling a product that it thinks could challenge Nvidias domination of the artificial intelligence processor industry, which it estimates will be worth $400 billion by 2027. AMD Introduces A New AI...

NVIDIA Launches China-Exclusive RTX 4090 D GPU, Sans Overclocking

NVIDIA has introduced the GeForce RTX 4090 D Gaming GPU, exclusively for the Chinese market, with some key differences from its original RTX 4090 model. This new variant is designed to comply with the latest U.S....

Alphabet Unveils Gemini AI, Rivaling ChatGPT with Enhanced Video, Audio, Text Processing

Alphabet launched its most advanced artificial intelligence model, Gemini, which can process various forms of information like video, audio, and text. This highly anticipated AI model demonstrates superior reasoning and...

Naver's CHZZK Targets Gaming Streaming Dominance, Twitch Exit Boosts Competition with YouTube, AfreecaTV

Naver Corp. launched its closed beta service for video streaming, CHZZK. With this, the company officially joined the game streaming scene in South Korea. Navers entrance into game streaming is perfect timing as the...

AMD Eyes $45 Billion AI Market, Targets $2B Sales in 2024

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has projected a significant expansion in the market for data center artificial intelligence (AI) processors, estimating the total addressable market at $45 billion for the current year. This...
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