A key player in the creation of London’s electric recharging network is “disappointed” with the 2012 Olympic organising committee’s decision not to substantially promote the use of electric vehicles at the games.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) told Autocar last week that it doubted the capital would have a suitable electric infrastructure in place in time for the games.
Elektromotive, the British-based firm behind the installation of all of London’s more than 100 recharging points, has confirmed was involved in discussions with Renault-Nissan about creating a network in time for 2012.
It planned to install scores of recharging points in three key locations in London – one in central London and two near the Olympic village in the east end. The points were going to be used to recharge around 2000 Nissan Leaf electric cars, which were going to be part of the Alliance’s proposed Olympic fleet.
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“It’s a great shame,” Elektromotive’s UK managing director Calvey Taylor-Haw told Autocar. “It would have kickstarted the electric car market in the UK.”
Taylor-Haw believes BMW will deliver an incident-free games on the automotive front, but he questioned some of LOCOG’s comments regarding the feasibility of setting up an electric network.
“It would have been perfectly feasible to do that project by 2012,” he said. “Nissan were going to put an awful lot of cars into that project and they could have coped with the daily grind of the charging.”
Taylor-Haw now feels the take-up and acceptance of electric cars in the UK will take longer.
“It will take longer now,” he said. “It could have been a really good legacy for making London a world leader in the field.”
Mark Tisshaw
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Re: Nissan's Olympic bid 'was feasible'
I'm guilty of switching sides here.
I originally thought it a shame that the UK were to miss out on this opportunity, however Teg's thoughtful comments have changed my mind.
Capslock has a rose-tinted view of future houses however. As nice as it would be for homes to generate power back into the grid, I suspect this won't happen on a scale anywhere near large enough for many years to come.
If we're looking for a more viable way forward, even for the short term, I'll go with Teg's view which BMW and their ED are perhaps more closely aligned with.
Re: Nissan's Olympic bid 'was feasible'
CHP = Combined Heat and Power - a.k.a. cogeneration.
It is widely used around the world as an energy efficient way of using fuels to generate heat and power in. for example, district heating systems that generate electricity as well.
On a smaller scale we have Micro-CHPs - basically a Stirling engine stuck on top of a central heating boiler which can generate electricity using the heat from the boiler's flue gases.
Re: Nissan's Olympic bid 'was feasible'
Capslock,
I work as a technical engineer for one of the leading CHP (do you know what that is i wonder) manufactures in the UK, i am full aware of the costs of moving different fuels around. i could chuck the same question back at you how exactly do you think the fuels for the coal or gas fired power stations get there, magic?
My analogy is correct, they olympics may not be about turning a profit, but they still have to raise the budget in the first instance, from what i recall £550m of that has to come from sponcers, ie they still have a target they must hit.
Make the UK a world leader in a field that has no garentee what-so-ever of being the right field? Complete electric cars a too compromised to ever be considered as anything other than a city car, and for 99% of people this is not appropriate! If all you need is a car for use in the city, go by public transport or buy a scooter!
I am sorry Capslock, but i find your methods very very poor. Posting on this website "lord coe must go" over and over again is getting increadibly tiresome. Pehaps it is you that should go?