Canada September 2013

Canada is Volt territory

Nothing New Edition

There were 202 EV's sold in Canada last month, an average performance which put the EV share at 0.187%, slightly above last months performance (0.182%).

Reinforcing the uneventful aspect of the thing, the Chevrolet Volt won another #1, Tesla another #2 and the Leaf...Yep, another #3.

The only news-deserving fact regards the terrible performance of the YTD #4 Prius Plug-in, selling just 7 units, its worst performance ever in Canada.

Pl	Canada	Sept.	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	59	656	29
2	Tesla Model S e)	50	490	22
3	Nissan Leaf	36	382	17
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	7	190	8
5	Mitsubishi I-Miev	20	148	7
6	Ford C-Max Energi e)	10	128	6
7	Smart Fortwo ED	10	102	5
8	Ford Focus Electric e)	5	71	3
9	Ford Fusion Energi e)	5	60	3
10	Fisker Karma		16	1
11	Toyota RAV4 EV		3	0
	TOTAL	202	2.246	100

e) Estimate

Source: greencarreports.com

Read More

Squeezing into a tight spot

Paul Leroux

No doubt about it, autonomous and semi-autonomous cars will present a variety of legal and ethical challenges. But they'll also offer many benefits — some of which will be pleasantly surprising.

Take parking, for example. Cars are getting wider, but parking spaces generally aren't. So how do you squeeze into a tight spot and then step out of your car without slamming your door into the car next to you? Well, what if you didn't have to be in the car? This new video from Ford tells all...



This technology is cool, especially for aging drivers who can't crane their necks as well as they used to. Still, some gotchas come to mind. For instance, other drivers might get peeved if you momentarily leave your car on the road so you can park it remotely. Also, what if you squeeze your car into a tight parking spot just inches away from driver's door of the adjacent car — but that car doesn't support remote-controlled parking? How will the driver get back into his or her vehicle?

That said, these problems can be avoided with a little common sense on the part of the user. And I'll bet you dimes to donuts that this new technology from Ford can negotiate parking spaces more adroitly than most motorists. Which means that, eventually, we'll all have vehicles with fewer bumps, scuffs, and scratches. I could live with that.

Read More