Harley Davidson Vented Gas Cap on 2040-parts.com

UK Government to add electric cars to its fleet – but don’t think the PM will be driving a Tesla Model S

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – the sort of car the Government will acquire The roll-out of electric cars has not been an exactly overwhelming success, with even the Government’s £5,000 bribe to get you to go electric failing to kick start electric car sales in a meaningful way. So the Lib Dem bit of the coalition has decided that the Government should lead by example and have declared that the Government Car Service – which supplies cars for ministers and ‘government’ use – will start to acquire electric cars from this Autumn and, as part of the £5 million scheme, the wider public sector will be involved with council, police and NHS fleets looking seriously at EVs. But this scheme is aimed at the sorts of government cars that do the daily grind; ferrying junior ministers, getting staff to meetings and making deliveries in commercial vehicles.

Saab 9-3 ePower electric car at 2010 Paris show

Saab will showcase its electric car ambitions at the 2010 Paris motor show with the new 9-3 ePower. Look out for this badge on future Saabs – it’s the next step from the existing E85 biofueled BioPower models. The 9-3 ePower is a technical testbed vehicle rather than anything you can go and buy, but the Swedes aim to have an electric car to market in the next few years.

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.