Syria's Electricity Network Down Across The Entire Country; BMW's Electrifying EV Sales -- March 3, 2016

Updates

On the Syrian electricity outage:

• Worker at Syrian Ministry of Electricity on nationwide blackout: 'This is a just technical issue that happens in many countries
• Syrian government expects power to be fully restored in next 12 hours after nationwide blackout, says cause not known 

Original Post

Tweeting now: Syria's electricity network down across the whole country for unknown reason, state media reports - Reuters. This will put a damper on recharging EVs in Syria.

*******************************

February, 2015, EV Sales

All EV makes/models have reported.

Month-over-month, total vehicles, includes hybrids:

• January, 2016: 6,291 
• February, 2016: 7,881 (+25%)

Impressive:

• BMW X5, 181 to 345 (+91%)  
• Ford Fusion Energi, from 581 to 932 (+60%)
• Chevrolet, 139 to 216 (+55%)
• BWM i3, 182 to 248 (+36%) 
• Nissan Leaf, 755 to 930 (+23%)

Not impressive:

• Volvo: a decrease -- from 226 to 176
• Fiat: a decrease -- from 275 to 210
• VW e-Golf: a decrease -- from 328 to 198
• Audi AE: a decrease -- from 327 to 248

The data above supports the Bloomberg observation that Tesla is getting more competition due to the VW scandal. People turning from diesels to EVs. Interesting.

Automakers from mass-market PSA Peugeot Citroen to upscale Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz promised to challenge Tesla Motors Inc. with electric cars that have longer ranges and more affordable prices.

After largely sidelining the technology in recent years amid sluggish demand, the revived interest in battery-powered cars is necessary for automakers to meet tighter European Union regulations for carbon-dioxide emissions starting in 2020.

Again, almost all electricity comes from coal or natural gas around the world.

Don notes:

• there are 26 different models; a dozen or so manufacturers
• a total of 7,881 EVs (and hybrids) sold in 29 days (February, leap year), in the USA
• compare: Ford sold 7,489 units/day
• except for a few Ford EV sales, all Ford sales were sold without federal government or state government subsidies or other incentives