Electric cars thread, page-215

You are very brave riding a bike to work in London. I tried a short trip on a Boris Bike last year but the traffic intimidated me. As far as the up take of EV's, Australia is way behind the 8 ball probably because we are such a small market. I have orders in for a Tesla 3 and the new Nissan Leaf and will take whatever comes first to Aus but no-one can tell me when that will be and all indications are that it will be several years. On the other hand there are some world leading things happening in grid renewables and battery storage. The Tesla big battery in South Australia has out performed all technical and economic expectations and its success is a big boost for grid battery storage for numerous scenarios around the planet. Our inept federal government appears to be actively hindering the uptake of renewables, storage and EV's however despite this the private sector has charged ahead with new grid connected renewables and storage because of its attractive economics. So far the auto industry has not followed the lead of the power generators and there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for EV's in the trade. It would be great if the Aus government followed the lead of the Chinese as per the article below. 32 degrees and the beaches are packed in Perth yesterday. Bloody odd autumn weather but it does have its advantages. Some nasty extremes elsewhere.
China Electric Vehicle Sales On Pace To Hit This Milestone



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• APARNA NARAYANAN
• 5/11/2018

China is on pace to hit 1 million in annual electric vehicle sales for the first time, with demand surging so far this year. That acceleration comes as the Beijing government pushes hard to drive up electric car sales while the Trump administration looks to roll back fuel efficiency standards in the U.S.
China's electric vehicle sales reached 225,310 in the January-to-April period, up 149% vs. the year-ago period. Overall Chinese sales over the period, totaling 9.5 million vehicles, rose roughly 5%.
Sales ramped up as China's government targets 2 million in electric vehicle sales in 2020, pushing incentives and clamping down on traditional cars. China accounted for roughly half of all global EV sales in the first quarter of 2018.
Volkswagen, the top car brand in China so far this year, is targeting 3 million EV sales worldwide by 2025. Other Western automakers such as General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), Toyota Motor (TM) and Tesla (TSLA) also have set bold EV targets, foreseeing strong Chinese demand.