Green Transportation

By Rob Lever | – Washington (AFP) – Tesla chief executive Elon Musk disclosed Monday that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors to take the electric automaker private. The revelation came after Musk claimed in an August 7 Twitter post that financing for a deal to take Tesla […]

Featured

Will the Price of Oil Collapse within a Decade, Driven off Cliff by Electric Vehicles?

Juan Cole

One of the reasons that Saudi Arabia’s plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on its ARAMCO oil have not actually materialized is that investors are not dummies. Saudi Arabia’s oil is an asset with no future value, and the future in which its price collapses is nearer than the oil companies think. (I would […]

Green Transportation

Game Over: Even Oil Giant BP is betting on Electric Car Boom

Roland Jackson

London (AFP) – British energy major BP on Thursday bought the nation’s largest electric vehicle charging firm, as it bets on booming demand in the coming decades. The announcement mirrors similar moves by Anglo-Dutch rival Shell and France’s Total to expand into the charging of electric vehicles (EVs) which experts forecast will surge in popularity. […]

Green Transportation

Return of the Tall Ships: Sailing for Zero-Carbon Shipping

Christiaan De Beukelaer

Melbourne (The Conversation) – On May 10, the 43.5-metre schooner Avontuur arrived in the port of Hamburg. This traditional sailing vessel, built in 1920, transported some 70 tonnes of coffee, cacao and rum across the Atlantic. The shipping company Timbercoast, which owns and operates Avontuur, says it aims to prove that sailing ships can offer […]

Featured

Could Saudi Plans for $100/ Barrel Oil Hugely Expand Electric Car Market and Save Tesla?

Juan Cole

Nick Cunningham at Oilprice.com points to the dilemmas implicit in the rumored Saudi plan to engineer a return to $100 a barrel oil. That price level translates into an average gasoline price in the US of $3.57, though in California, with a population of about 40 million. that price would be over $4.00 per gallon […]

Denialism

How Trump’s Gutting of Tailpipe Standards will make China Auto Leader Worldwide

contributors

By Greg Dotson | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration on Monday, April 2, took steps to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, the move could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the […]

Green Transportation

Total cost of Owning an Electric Vehicle falling below Gasoline Dinosaurs

contributors

Asit K. Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada | (The Conversation) | – – Global interest in climate change – its effects on the environment and society more broadly – is probably at an all time high. Countries around the world, with the glaring exception of the US under President Donald Trump, are increasingly acknowledging the shift […]

Featured

Why Electric SUVs will save the American Car Companies, not China Tariffs

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Joann Muller at Forbes, in a piece on Ford Motor Company’s plans vastly to expand its electric and hybrid offerings, puts her finger on something absolutely crucial. Ford and other American car companies really, really need electric sport utility vehicles in order to get through the […]

Environmentalism

Top 4 myths about Electric Cars & why they should not Discourage You

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – China produced 680,000 electric vehicles last year, as much as the rest of the world combined. But by 2020 the Chinese hope to make and sell 2 million EV’s a year, and to go on up from there. The Chinese Communist Party is determined to reduce […]