Will people choose to buy new vehicle technologies?

Last year we started to take a look at an emerging technology that some claim will revolutionise urban transport – driverless cars. My view is that they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be – if we wanted to, we could easily get the purported benefits by investing in existing, proven technology: While driverless cars (or hoverboards for that matter) sound exciting, we can’t afford to pin all of our hopes on them.…
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Electric Buses

Buses are often the quiet workhorse of many PT systems running all sorts of routes from high capacity busway systems down to local services that connect suburbs to shops or train stations. Yet for many, buses have anything but a quiet image, add in emissions and they are often thought of as noisy and smelly beasts.…
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Electric vehicles (part 3)

So, electric vehicles (EVs) were looking pretty good in part 2. They’re much more energy efficient than regular cars, at least on a “tank-to-wheels” basis. Today, I’ll talk about their greenhouse gas emissions, starting with a quote from my thesis: Advanced vehicles could make a sizeable contribution to emissions reduction in New Zealand.…
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Electric vehicles (part 2)

In part 1 of this series, I introduced the two main types of electric vehicles: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Today, I want to talk about their energy efficiency. Electric motors – such as those used in a PHEV or BEV – are around three times more efficient than internal combustion engines.…
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