MONTHLY READER POLLS

Each month EV World.com polls its readers on EV-relevant topics. It takes just a few seconds to participate and your input is important. Look for E-POLL in the right-hand column.

IT TAKES A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS TO REFUEL YOUR CAR

The next time you roll into a gasoline service station or forecourt to refuel the family car, just remember this little act was a 100 million years in the making.
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THE BMW I3 & LIGHT BULBS. A CONNECTION IN WATTS

The bottom line… change the most used incandescent light bulbs in your home and save more than enough energy to power your BMW i3 electric car, forever. That’s a bright idea.
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Bill Lindeke considers the many reasons that conservatives should throw their support behind bicycles and their needed infrastructure.

When BMW's Stephan Augustin chided the bicycle industry for its e-backwardness during a recent industry trade show in Germany, Han Goes couldn't sit back and say nothing. Here's his response.

An electric-assist bicycle is a human-electric hybrid, in many respects not unlike a Toyota Prius, so why hasn't anyone come up with a energy display system that functions like that on a Prius? EV World's ePEDALER project issues a crowd-sourcing challenge.

Beijing Sets 50,000 Electric Car Goal By 2015
30,000 of the EVs will be privately owned electric cars, 10,000 taxis and 8,000 transit buses, with the rest comprised of government and postal vehicles.

German Mail Service Rolls Out First Fleet of Electric Delivery Vehicles
79 Streetscooter-based delivery vehicles are being deployed in Bonn, Germany as part of pilot program to save money and cut CO2 emissions.

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CHARGE: Documentary Captures Tipping Point in Electric Motorcycle Racing
Ewan McGregor narrates this thrilling documentary about the teams that changed forever the face of motorcycle racing on June 12, 2009 on the faraway Isle of Man.

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Tesla Model S: More Philosophy Than Car
Tom Keane finds the Model an 'electrifying ride' and although, like most of us, can afford to buy one, he sees much the way we saw early and very expensive computers, the start of a trend that lead to affordable computers for everyone.

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North Carolina Set to Impose Annual Hybrid, Electric Car Fees
North Carolina budget would impose an annual fee of $100 for electric car owners and $50 for hybrid car owners to compensate shortfalls from lower gas tax revenues.

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Don't Buy A Hybrid, Buy A Bike Instead
Ride a bicycle two days out of the week, instead of driving your car, and you'll be averaging better fuel economy than a Toyota Prius, argues Jonathan Lansey.

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New Jersey Scraps Pay-Per-Mile Fee for Alt-Fuel Cars
Alternative now being proposed would be a flat fee of $50 to cover hybrid and electric car owner's share of funding for road maintenance and repairs.

Electric Cars: Where They're At Right Now
Nearly everything you'd want to know about the status of electric car market in the United States in one infograph.

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Tesla Aims For Early Pay-Off of Federal Loan
$465 million in Energy Department loan would be paid from anticipated $1 billion new stock offering.

Lutz, China Group Said To Be Bidding On Fisker Takeover
Sources report that Bob Lutz's VL Automotive and China's Wanxiang Group made an offer this month to buy Fisker through a prepackaged bankruptcy deal

Wireless Charging Forecast To Be Nearly $10 Billion Market By 2018
Several technologies already make wireless charging of electric vehicles feasible today.

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China to Overtake Japan As Leading Automotive Lithium-Ion Battery Maker
Pike Research forecasts global market for light duty vehicle lithium batteries to grow from $1.6 billion in 2012 to $22 billion by 2020.

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Struggle For a Greener America Has Its Share of Causalities
Nichola Groom considers the 'road kill' of businesses and policies meant to promote greener energy and transportation technologies.

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Japan Prepares for Hydrogen Car Future
Despite costing five times as much as a standard gasoline station, 13 Japanese companies are planning to build out 100 hydrogen fueling stations.

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Toyota Reportedly Increasing Lithium Battery Production Six-Fold
Lighter, smaller lithium batteries will enable Toyota to improve fuel economy of their hybrids what currently use heavier nickel-metal hydride batteries

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Indian Gov't's Subsidy Delay Stalling Electric Car Sales
Subsidy schemes that would help achieve India's National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 of seven million EVs are yet to see the light of the day.

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Graphene-boron Mix Shows Promise in Better Lithium-Ion Batteries
Rice University researchers find that while graphene alone doesn't make for good anodes, mixing it with boron dramatically increases the energy density.

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Tesla May Be Risky Way to Cash In On Electric Car Trend
Globe and Mail reporter Martin Mittelstaedt thinks the safest bet on investing in the growth of electric car market is on the power generation side: electric utilities and merchant power producers.

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Telsa Raises More Than $1 Billion
The success of the new fund-raising, and the company's recent share price explosion, point to strong investor belief in Tesla's long-term prospects.

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Fiat 500e Electric Car to Lease for $199/Month
To be leased and sold only in California, the 500e is priced at $32,500, but with combined federal and state incentives, purchase drops to equivalent of $20,500, one of the lowest priced EV in America.

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Renault, Formula E Team Up on Electric Car Racing
Renault will manufacture the 42 electric Formula E race cars for the 2014 season, which now will include the city of Bangkok, Thailand.

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Creating BMW's i3 Electric Megacity Car
Auto News interviews BMW's Project i chief Ulrich Kranz about the process of designing what would become the company's i3 electric car.

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New York City's Latest Ban on E-Bikes Only Adds Confusion
Drew Grant finds that New York City Council's vote to 'close loopholes' only further confuses the question of what exactly is an electric bicycle.

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Learning On Earth From 'Off-World' Electric Vehicles
All three generations of six-wheeled NASA rovers have used electric power systems of various design and complexity to find their way around the Red Planet.

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Forecast: 10 Million Electric Car Charging Stations Worldwide By 2020
IMS Research sees the current global network of 135,000 charging stations to mushroom into 10.7 million by 2020 with most growth in U.S., China, Japan, and Germany.

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100,000 Electric-Drive Cars Now On American Roads
Plug In America pre-emptively celebrates the sale of the 100,000th electric-drive car sold in the United States on or around May 20, 2013.

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Is BYD Positioning Itself to Replace A123 in Lithium Starter Battery Market?
EV World contributor Juan Carlos Zuleta speculates on why BYD is shifting its battery and EV technology towards 48V microhybrids.

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Electric Car Sales in France Double
Current sales leader is Renault ZOE with 748 units sold, followed by Renault Kangoo Z.E. electric delivery van.

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Hero Eco Relaunches A2B Electric-Assist Bicycle in USA
Indian conglomerate took over A2B in later 2011 and is reintroducing in the USA, starting in San Francisco, California.

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