N
ext year the German capital of Berlin
will be ‘supercharged’ with 500
T
electric points where the owners of Mercedes
ourism and tr
and Smart cars will be able to recharge
their vehicles.
The result of a collaboration between
car maker Daimler and the German power
utility RWE, the e-mobility scheme will be
complete by the end of 2009. About 100
vehicles will use the power points dotted
around Berlin to ‘fi ll-up’. Of course, those
100 vehicles are just a tiny proportion of
the cars, bus, coaches and lorries passing
through and around the city but it is an
example of the initiatives being tested
around the world.
ansport
London has a limited number of recharging
points – about 40 – for electric vehicles but
this is set to increase dramatically following
another collaboration, this time between
Toyota and EDF Energy.
Earlier this year the two companies
launched trials of the UK’s fi rst plug-in
hybrid car, which the Japanese carmaker is
already testing in France and California. EDF
last year said it was working with Toyota
to test plug-in cars and build charging
points in France and other countries. The
two have now brought their partnership to
the UK, testing a single car – part of EDF’s
company fl eet – due to be trialled by about
50 staff members. EDF aims to install 250
charging points in the UK, mostly in London,
by the end of the year.
The alternatives
These are just two initiatives among many
to develop vehicles not dependent on the
conventional technology of the internal
combustion engine. Nearly all the major car
Electric vehicles still
makers are in varying stages of producing have a long way
electric cars or hybrid cars which use a
to go to match the
combination of conventional and electric
popularity of petrol
and diesel cars.
I
K
engine power. Toyota’s Prius has been in
S
R
E production for two years now and in the
M
Z »Nearly all the major car makers are producing
C
E
United States, home of the traditional gas

K
N
E
guzzling vehicle, Chrysler is due to start
electric cars or hybrid cars which use a combination
R
A
production of its Volt hybrid car in 2010.
;

K
of conventional and electric engine power.
M
O
There’s still some scepticism about the
.
C
T
O
electric car. Battery technology has its its hydrogen fuel-cell car, the FCX Clarity, that carbon dioxide emissions are 30%
O
P
H
enduring limitations, hence the need at which it launched last year. The carmaker lower than using commercial power and
K
C
T
O present for a massive network of charging operates an experimental ‘home energy heat and a conventional engine.
/

I
S
points and standardisation for which no station’ in California, that uses natural gas. Other manufacturers are pinning their
M
O
agreement, so far, has been reached among It provides home heating and electricity, but hopes on retaining the internal combustion
F
.
C
R
3
2
manufacturers and power providers. also produces hydrogen to power the fuel- engine but using renewable bio-fuels. The

1
© Honda, for example, is experimenting with cell car in the garage. The company claims trouble here is that the so-called fi rst
www.yearofplanetearth.org PLANET EARTH 113
PE26.Transport.rky.vp.indd 113 16/2/09 12:09:51 pm
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