NEWS - EUROPE
European car wash market
to grow says new report
A new report on the European car wash sector
shows that since the 2007 European recession,
wash costs have become increasingly
important to motorists as they use low
to medium cost jet and rollover wash types
more frequently. Over the last five years
wash operators have slowly increased wash
prices to boost wash revenues. In 2016 the
majority of wash operators across Europe
raised their wash prices to make up for
shortfalls in forecourt revenues as fuel revenues
declined between 2014 and 2016. Automated
car wash installations are becoming
increasingly popular across Europe at
unmanned service stations as fuel retailers
attempt to maximise revenues. Automated
rollover and tunnel wash installations allow
motorists to pay for their car wash either at
an attached pay station or via a payment
app which provides the motorist with a code
which activates the wash. The European
Car Wash Market report 2017 provides the
analysis of the commercial car wash market
across 19 European countries.
Ionity unveil new design
for eV charging network
Ionity, the new ‘ultra-fast’ joint electric car
charging network by BMW, Mercedes, Ford
and VW, is arguably the biggest development
in electric car charging infrastructure
since Tesla’s Supercharger network and
their new look network design concept has
been described as the ‘shape of things to
come.’ The new design features crisp, simple
structures and surfaces, smart interfaces
and a mixture of robust lightweight materials
which merge together into a seamless
‘charging experience’. In keeping with the
Ionity logo, the colours represent the flow of
energy during the charging process. Ionity
COO Dr. Marcus Groll, said: “Our charging
station design concept is a clear signal to
our shareholders, partners and customers
alike that this is the shape of things to
come.” IONITY are planning 400 stations
with a capacity of up to 350 kW across Europe
by 2020. The company started work on
the first 20 stations last year and plan to begin
work on a further 100 stations this year.
first of 9 CNG stations in romania gets go ahead
A building permit for the construction of Romania’s
first CNG (compressed natural gas)
public transport station has been issued.
It is the first of nine to be built under the
CNG Romania project with non-repayable
funding from the European Commission’s
Innovation and Networks Executive Agency
(INEA). The station will be located in the
Kika Militari area near the Piteşti - Bucharest
part of the A1 Motorway with easy access
from both directions of the Capital and A1
Motorway, as well as from the exit direction
from Bucharest. The location of the station is
in line with the project strategy to serve transit
on the main TEN-T network but also to the
adjacent urban agglomerations. The project
implemented by Denisson Energy and the
NGVA Romania (Natural Gas for Vehicles
Association), within the Connection Europe
Facility (CEF), aims to implement the first
network of filling stations for compressed
natural gas vehicles in Romania along the
pan-European corridors. The EUR 5.2 million
project benefits from an EU co-financing
of 85% and aims, among other things, to decarbonise
and improve mobility in Europe.
UK’s proposed 2040 diesel ban ‘lacks ambition’ say MPs
The ban on the sale of new conventional
diesel and petrol cars from 2040 “lacks sufficient
ambition” and should be brought forward,
UK MPs have said. A joint committee
report urged the Government to determine
the earliest date that manufacturers must
only sell alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs)
in the UK. It also called for the automotive
industry to contribute to a new clean air
fund. The unprecedented joint inquiry was
launched amid concerns over the Government’s
air quality plans, which have repeatedly
been successfully challenged in the
courts by environmental groups. Air pollution
causes an estimated 40,000 premature
deaths a year in the UK. Concerns over nitrogen
dioxide emissions have grown since
Volkswagen was found in September 2015
to have cheated air pollution tests for 11 million
diesel vehicles worldwide. Just 37.8%
of new cars bought in the UK last year were
diesels, compared with 47% in 2016. Petrol
held a market share of 56.6%, while 5.6%
were AFVs. Automotive industry leaders
have accused ministers of having an anti
diesel agenda, which they claim is leading
to motorists delaying the replacement
of their older and more polluting cars with
modern and cleaner models. The Government
announced in July last year that new
conventional diesel and petrol cars and vans
will be banned from 2040 as part of efforts
to tackle air pollution. But the Commons’ Environment
Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental
Audit, Health and Social Care, and
Transport Committees warned in the report
that this did not do enough to address the issue:
“There is insufficient urgency in current
policies to accelerate vehicle fleet renewal.
Whilst we welcome the Government’s commitment
to end the sale of new petrol and
diesel cars by 2040, this target lacks sufficient
ambition. It is too distant to produce
a step-change in industry and local government
planning, and falls far behind similar
commitments from other countries.” The
committees urged the Government to force
the automotive industry to put money into a
new fund to improve air quality.They also
called for a Clean Air Act to “enshrine the
right to clean air in UK law” and a national
air quality support programme for councils.
Energy summit pits US against Europe on climate issues
The US energy secretary, speaking at the
CERAWeek conference this month, blasted
renewable fuels champions while the
head of Royal Dutch Shell Plc urged the
energy sector to focus on global efforts to
cut carbon emissions, reflecting a yawning
trans-Atlantic gap on climate issues. Speaking
at the conference in Houston, Shell CEO
Ben van Beurden outlined an ambitious plan
to reduce the Anglo-Dutch company’s carbon
footprint and expand in renewables,
and called on others to follow.“The energy
landscape is changing fast. So we must
change, where change is what the world
needs,” van Beurden said. Shell and European
peers including BP Plc, France’s Total
SA and Norway’s Statoil are becoming
increasingly active in low-carbon energy
and are vocal supporters of the 2015 Paris
Climate Agreement. Until recently, climate
has been less prominent in strategy presentations
from U.S. rivals Exxon Mobil Corp
and Chevron Corp. US energy secretary
Rick Perry struck a starkly different tone,
blasting the 2015 agreement to limit global
warming. Perry said it was “immoral” to say
people should live without fossil fuels. “We
are passionate about renewable energy.
But the world, especially developing economies,
will continue to need fossil fuels, as
over a billion people on the planet live without
access to electricity,” Perry said.
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