Electric cars in cities on the rise


[size=85:19gkryp6]One of the first Bulgarian electric cars is already in motion!

Lightweight, economical, environment-friendly, and with compact design – these are the perfect cars for urban environments, or in other words there are electricity-powered vehicles. In some EU countries, electric cars have long made a breakthrough and are now widely used. What is more, a number of benefits have been introduced for their owners such as free parking, low tax rates, and special traffic lanes. “Sofia is also thinking in this direction”, said Martin Zaimov, deputy chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council, during the organized roundtable discussion for promoting the use of electric vehicles in cities. At the meeting, members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Electric Vehicles Industrial Cluster, and the Bulgarian Sustainable Building Council. Several concrete suggestions, projects and ideas for alternative environmental transport were presented at the roundtable. Sofia Municipality has planned to implement concrete measures for encouraging electric transport in Sofia over the next year, Martin Zaimov also said and added:

“We will provide free parking for electric cars in the central part of Sofia. We will cooperate and will be at the disposal of everyone who wants to construct an infrastructure for charging stations. We also intend to equip the municipal administration with electric cars. The transport of goods in the city has a very serious negative effect on traffic and pollution. That is why we will cooperate with transportation companies, encouraging them to replace their trucks with electric vehicles”.

“We will provide free parking for electric cars in the central part of Sofia. We will cooperate and will be at the disposal of everyone who wants to construct an infrastructure for charging stations. We also intend to equip the municipal administration with electric cars. The transport of goods in the city has a very serious negative effect on traffic and pollution. That is why we will cooperate with transportation companies, encouraging them to replace their trucks with electric vehicles”.



The proponents of environment-friendly transport in Bulgaria are still not ready to abandon the diesel and petrol engines because of the lack of charging stations in the country. For this reason, one of the most serious tasks that the Bulgarian Transport Ministry needs to face is the construction of convenient charging stations depending on the number of electric cars in Bulgaria.
“So far, there are some 50 electric cars in Bulgaria”, said Krastyo Morev, expert in electric transport, who has transformed his old petrol car into an electric one. In his opinion, electric cars are the ideal means of transport in larger cities”:

“Present electric cars can travel from 120 to 160 km with one charging. They are equipped with batteries with a capacity of 15 to 20 kWh. This is approximately equal to the capacity of a heater working for 10 hours. An electric car is 30 to 50 per cent more expensive than conventional cars but it repays the costs after only 100,000 km on the road. Batteries that are now used in electric cars provide a minimum of 200,000 km on the road. Unlike internal combustion engines, electric engines accelerate very quickly and reach a very high power when starting”.

Experts say that the construction of a charging station for electric cars costs some EUR 500,000 and the construction of small charging facilities attached to already existing gas stations is estimated at some EUR 25,000 euro. Home chargers cost 2,000 USD and charging usually takes about 8 hours. Once special charging stations are constructed in Bulgaria, the owners of electric cars will be able to charge their cars via an accelerated charging in less than 15 minutes. Given the current price of electricity, the price per kilometer is less than 1 eurocent. Currently, electric cars use mainly lithium-ion batteries (LIB) costing from 7,000 to 10,000 euro. When electric cars become more popular in Bulgaria, the country will face another serious problem - the increased load of the country’s power grid. One possible scenario that is being now discussed is to use part of the generated renewable energy for charging electric cars.

Wouldn't you just love one of these

I can only see a seat for one person, so where does one's partner sit, preferably not on the roof!! They are a good idea but need a few more years work to create a two-seater, after all 140 KM is a lonely drive on your own. Electric bikes in Turkey are a better buy, they seat two people, don't need road tax and no need for insurance either. They are so quite they creep up behind you with out anyone knowing about it, so responsible drivers are needed, but then again I am talking about Turkey, they have to be the worst drivers I have ever seen anywhere in the world.

itchyfeet wrote:

I can only see a seat for one person, so where does one's partner sit, preferably not on the roof!!

Have you seen the bulky thing at the back there is a bar on there the passenger hangs on for dear life!!!

It's awful looks like on of them small roadsweepers things
Oddy

sallyann wrote:

Wouldn't you just love one of these

Yes if they do 200 kph

You never know George some of the Eco cars would surprise all of us at what they are capable of but looking at the one above I would think you would have more luck with a shopping trolley

Well in time this is all that will be on the roads we can't continue for long using the planet the way we do so something must give way

[size=45:b77fbjnq]Sofia echo 23 November 2010

CEZ Power Utility Launches Electric Car Station in Sofia

Bulgaria's capital Sofia will have in the beginning of 2011 a station for recharging electric cars, using renewable energy sources.

The agreement between the Czech-owned electric power utility CEZ, servicing western Bulgaria, and the Industrial Electric Auto mobiles Cluster was finalized by the signing of a memorandum for partnership in the preparation and the realization of a strategy to build and develop an infrastructure of electric vehicles recharging stations.

Other joint projects include stabilizing public transportation, green industry campaigns and encouragement and advertisement of the use of ecologically clean vehicles.

CEZ is to present the know-how of the Czech Republic in the sector and their pilot projects, which are to be in place in the cities of Prague and Ostrava by 2012.

The CEZ company statement points out the memorandum is part of its global corporate green policy.