Tuesday titbits

Think has signed a big distribution deal in France with the Mobivia Group’s new O2City division, which manages all-in fleet contracts for supply,  servicing, maintenance, recharging/refuelling, insurance, finance and aftersales support of eco-friendly vehicles. This puts Think on the radar for large-scale fleet purchases, and the little Norwegian EV-maker has its eye on contracts with the French postal service, car share schemes and local authorities.

• It’s the US automotive industry’s version of carbon trading: ZEV credits. California’s CODA Automotive, about to launch a Chinese-built electric saloon in the States, is the first to announce that it has done a deal with “a major global automotive manufacturer” to sell the credits it gets for selling zero-emissions vehicles. It all brings down the overall emissions, I suppose, and selling credits is going to be a valuable way of helping small-scale start-ups  such as CODA get off the ground, but I can’t help but think that it just allows the big players to buy their way out of meeting the ZEV requirements (offering such vehicles as a percentage of their own line-ups).

• Sixteen Chinese state-owned businesses have formed an Association of the Electric Vehicle Industry. The companies aim to’set unified standards’ in the short term, and longer-term, co-operate on core technologies and promoting their brands in the global marketplace. The companies involved include the China Changan Automobile Group, China Dongfang Electric Corp., Dongfeng Motor Corp., Beijing Nonferrous Metal Research Institute and, oddly for an EV consortium, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

• The building of the ‘mega super cities’ of the future (2020-on) will drive demand – and create the ideal operating conditions – for electric vehicles, according to a report from Frost & Sullivan. The distribution of new suburbs, office districts and shopping areas will mean shorter, more EV-friendly commutes, and demographic factors such as a high proportion of childless single households will make ownership of small vehicles more widespread. More at Green Car Congress.

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