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Norway about to run out of EV incentives; plan to be reviewed

As electric vehicle advocates in Norway may ready to celebrate, executives over at Tesla Motors and Nissan may be preparing for a healthy bawl. That's because Norway, whose financial support of plug-in vehicle use have pushed the country to the forefront of plug-in vehicle adoption, is about to reach its government-imposed threshold for electric vehicle and plug-in vehicle incentives, Hybrid Cars says. Two years early, in fact. Norway's perks for EVs and PHEVs include free access to bus lanes, highway tolls, ferries and parking, not to mention a big tax rebate. As a result, the country is less than 250 units away from hitting its 50,000-vehicle limit for those perks, which were initially estimated to expire in 2017. In fact, last month, more than 25 percent of the four new cars sold in Norway were plug-in vehicles. The government is now saying it will review the incentives and put forward a new plan in the next budget, which is due in May. Late last year, Nissan put out a video saying that electric vehicles had about a 15-percent new-vehicle market share in Norway, and that the Japanese automaker had sold more than 15,000 all-electric Leaf vehicles in the country since starting sales there in 2011. Last spring, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Tesla Model S broke Norway's all-time monthly sales record for a single model in March 2014, with almost 1,500 Model S vehicles sold. This is for a country whose population is less than that of Colorado. Whether those days will soon be gone remains in question. Advocates will push for some sort of extension on the perks, but opponents in government say the incentives have cost the country as much as $500 million a year in tax revenue. News Source: Hybrid CarsImage Credit: Elbilforeningen/Flickr Government/Legal Green Nissan Tesla Electric incentives government incentives

Honda, Acura EVs will adopt Tesla's NACS charging port

CARMEL, Calif. — As more and more automakers pledge to install TeslaÂ’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports on their electric vehicles, Honda says that it, too, will hop on the bandwagon. Future EVs from Honda – as well as its luxury division, Acura – will have NACS charging setups, giving these cars access to TeslaÂ’s huge network of Supercharger stations. "It is quite important," American Honda Motor Co. President and CEO Noriya Kaihara said in an interview Friday. "We also have to push NACS, as well. It is clear." As for when this will happen, Honda is currently at the mercy of General Motors. The Japanese automakerÂ’s next two EVs – the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX – use shared architecture with GM, leveraging The GeneralÂ’s excellent Ultium battery technology. The ZDX will launch first, and have the traditional CCS port that isnÂ’t compatible with TeslaÂ’s chargers, but it will switch to the NACS design in 2025 or 2026. "We clearly depend on GM," Shinji Aoyama, Executive Vice President of Honda Motor Co., said during Friday's interview. "Once they [switch to NACS], this will follow for ZDX, as well." Looking to the future, Honda is part of a joint venture with seven other global automakers that will see the installation of more than 30,000 EV fast-charging stations across the United States and Canada. The chargers are still in development, but Honda says the companies are all aligned on the core values that are needed to make this charging network successful.  "The software needs to be really reliable and really open infrastructure so it communicates with every OEM's software," Jay Joseph, American Honda's Vice President of Sustainability and Business Development, said in Friday's interview. "The hardware needs to be capable of the highest levels of charging. It needs to be secure, it needs to be reliable, it needs to be accessible." Joseph said the current public charging companies know and understand the shortcomings with their systems, and that TeslaÂ’s Superchargers set an example of how to do chargers right. "If you look at what's so great about the Tesla Supercharger network, it's the maintenance," Joseph said. "They stay on top of it, they've got someone onsite monitoring the equipment, they're monitoring it electronically and remotely, and they fix it – fast. That's probably the most important thing." All the more reason for Honda – and other automakers – to switch to the NACS charging setup as quickly as possible.

Elon Musk goes deep, says 'Nobody should be CEO forever'

When someone achieves as much as Elon Musk has, it's easy to become fascinated not just with what the person is doing, but who that person is on a personal level. Sure, many of us are curious about what the future of Tesla or SpaceX looks like from inside the mind of its CEO, but some of us are also curious what he eats for breakfast. In a recent interview with Auto Bild, the German interviewers do a great job of getting Musk to open up about his business plans, his daily habits and even some of his deeper, more meaningful musings. "Nobody should be CEO forever." – Elon Musk Musk says he would likely remain CEO of Tesla Motors for three or four more years, at least long enough to see volume production of the upcoming Model III and building of the Gigafactory (for which Musk was able to command enormous incentives from the state of Nevada). "I will never leave Tesla forever, but I may not be CEO forever," Musk said. "Nobody should be CEO forever." When hiring, Musk looks for "evidence of exceptional ability" and "a track record of exceptional achievement." That does not necessarily include a college degree. "If you look at, say, people like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, these guys didn't graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them, of course that would be a good idea." At an interesting point in the conversation, the interviewers ask Musk to describe himself. He says that he has an innate sense of drive and that he seeks the truth, but it's interesting to watch him dig deep to come up with an answer. "All these introspective questions are interesting," he said. "I don't get asked these very often." Musk goes on to talk about how he originally expected both SpaceX and Tesla to fail, how he lived on borrowed money to keep his companies afloat and even how he'd like to die on the planet Mars. While we didn't get to hear any more about the demon that is artificial intelligence, the video is an interesting journey through the life and mind of an exceptional person. Watch the whole thing below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.