Matthew Klippenstein, Contributor
Articles
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, January 2016: New Year, Old Models, New Records Matthew Klippenstein
Like an exhausted Times Square reveler, the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market tends to start the New Year slowly, and this past January was no exception.
Chevy sold 94 Volts, down more than...
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When Electric-Car Incentives Return: British Columbia Case Study
Christmas came in April last year for plug-in electric vehicle proponents in British Columbia, Canada, when the provincial government reinstated its Clean Energy Vehicle purchase-incentive program. Purchase rebates for B.C. buyers of plug-in electric vehicles had ended in February 2014, when the...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, December 2015: Tesla Model S-Capades
Tesla's dominance in Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales in December seems all but assured, given that its sales in the quarters ending in March, June and September were 250, 242, and 255 respectively. Those are the three highest single-month sales totals for any plug-in electric vehicle in...
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Tesla Freakonomics: Why Fans Should Hope Early Drivetrain Data Was Correct
Our recent article on the reliability implications of a Plug-In America survey of early Tesla Model S owners was met with skepticism from the company's supporters, and support from its skeptics. But in a counter-intuitive Freakonomics-style twist, it's the firm's fans who should hope the results...
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Two-Thirds of Earliest Tesla Drivetrains To Need Replacement In 60,000 Miles, Owner Data Suggests
With almost 100,000 on the world's roads, the Tesla Model S electric car is a remarkable achievement. It remains the longest-range electric car in volume production more than three years after it launched. But reliability issues with electric traction motors in early cars--those from the 2012 and...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, November 2015: Autumn Reign For Volt
The second-generation Chevy Volt followed up its 203 October sales with 178 units in November, likely leading the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle pack. Though it will end December with slightly lower year-over-year volumes, the positive early reception suggests the 2016 Volts have the potential...
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Canadian electric vehicle advocates can look at the election of Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party with cautious optimism, and not just for the party's promise to install charging stations at government...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, October 2015: The Wallet Ballot
During the same month in which a second-generation Trudeau won the Canadian election, the second-generation Chevy Volt took the plug-in electric vehicle sales crown. The new model helped Chevrolet sell 203 Volts in Canada in October, well above the 126 sold in September and good enough for its...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales In Canada, September 2015: Triple-Triple
With a "double-double" being Canadian shorthand for a coffee with two creams and two sugars, we might call September a "triple-triple": Three plug-in electric car models hit the 100-sales mark last month. Chevy sold 126 first-generation Volts in Canada in September, down slightly from August's 167...
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Electric-Car Range: The More You Have, The More You Use, Canadian Data Shows
With the recent announcement by the City of Los Angeles that it would lease 288 plug-in electric vehicles, now is a good time to look at a new study from Canada on how electric cars can be integrated into large fleets. It's important because it explicitly quantifies the range anxiety that...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, August 2015: Still Chasing Chevy
The first-generation Chevy Volt notched 167 new Canadian customers in August, building on its sector-leading 150 July plug-in electric vehicle sales north of the 49th parallel. Though this represents a slight year-over-year drop from last August's 186 Volts, it's encouraging that sales have...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, July 2015: Volt Vaults To Top?
The Chevrolet Volt sold 150 units in Canada in July, by far its best showing this year. Volume was up both from June's 120 sales, and year-over-year from last July's 132 customers. With Tesla sales historically slower in the first month of a quarter, the Volt may have ended the Model S's...
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Canadian Plug-in Electric Vehicle Study: 1 Percent To 30 Percent Is The Challenge Matthew Klippenstein
Even two years ago, about a third of Canadian car buyers were open to buying a plug-in electric car--but they need a lot more practical and real-world information about the options than they're...
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Plug-In Electric Cars & Politics In Canada: Taking The Pulse
Factoring in likely June sales volume from Tesla and others, it's likely that about 2,500 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in Canada in the first half of 2015. This implies sales are running about level with the roughly 5,000 plug-ins sold in the country last year. With incentives in British...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales In Canada, June 2015: Dial 'S' For Summer (UPDATED)
On July 1, Canadians celebrated the country's founding on the three principles of Peace, Order, and Good Government. The same day, electric-car advocates took heart from the announcement of a pro-plug-in policy by one of the front-runners in the country's federal election this fall. But given that...
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Seven Barriers To Alt-Fuel Vehicles: Can Hydrogen Fuel Cells Overcome Them?
Among owners and advocates of zero-emission vehicles, few topics generate as much back-and-forth debate (to put it politely) as those cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Discussions of wells-to-wheels carbon footprint, the presently nonexistent hydrogen fueling infrastructure, and their purported...
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Toyota Fuel-Cell 'Megafactory' Matches Tesla Gigafactory In Impact
As shown by its roughly half-million references in Google, Tesla’s lithium-ion cell and battery Gigafactory is a big deal. And deservedly so. Producing the same volume of lithium-ion cells in one building in 2020 as were produced by the whole industry during 2013 should allow substantial...
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High-Volume Chevy Volt Dealer: How To Sell Successfully, Lessons Learned
Plug-in electric vehicle pioneers perennially proclaim that the electric driving experience is as pleasant as the dealership experience isn't. (Tesla stores excepted, of course.) Recently the organizers of the EV2015VE electric vehicle conference in Canada invited Quebec-based Bourgeois Chevrolet...
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Last month, we assumed that Nissan would edge Tesla during April in Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales.
Wow, were we wrong! Fully 167 Tesla Model S electric luxury sedans were registered in...
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E-Mazing Race III: Electric Cars Compete On Recharging In Multiple Locations
American Pharaoh may have won the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, but the winners of another race remains to be determined. That would be the third running of the E-Mazing Race, a competition across Canada for plug-in electric vehicles. The Derby may be "the fastest two...
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Canadian Electric-Car Dealership Awards Honor Sales Success Stories
With car dealers often viewed as an impediment to successful sales of plug-in electric cars, recognizing dealerships that embrace and promote plug-in cars is crucial to changing hearts and minds. Earlier this week, the winners of Canada's second-annual Electric Vehicle Dealership Awards were...
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Tokyo's Toyota Mirai Dealer & Hydrogen Fueling Site: Photo Gallery
The 2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan will go on sale in limited regions of California later this year, but it's already available in Japan. On a recent trip to Japan, your correspondent had a chance to head to downtown Tokyo to take a look at the combination of a dedicated Mirai showroom...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada, Apr 2015: Leaf Likely Leads After Tesla March Madness
The Tesla Model S now owns the record for the most electric car sales in Canada in a single month To borrow from the popular song, Canada's plug-in electric vehicle market in March was "all about that S". Based on registration data, which lags by a month, Tesla sold a whopping 250 Model Ses in...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales In Canada, Mar 2015: Tesla On Top Again (Most Likely)
As expected, the Tesla Model S was a “three-peat” plug-in electric vehicle sales champion in Canada back in February, with its 48 sales comfortably exceeding those of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf at 38 apiece. With the electric flagships at Chevy and Nissan again limited to double...
Matthew Klippenstein