This week in sustainable mobility

North Rhine-Westphalia: Europe's model region for electric mobility

Earlier, we wrote about Dutch ambitions to lead the way when it comes to introducing electric vehicles. In that article, we also mentioned British and German ambitions to lead the pack. Within Germany, the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has - as we already very well knew - international ambitions. Now the left pedal goes to the floor and NRW aims to become 'Europe's model region number 1 for electric mobility'. This writes the North Rhine-Westphalian Energy Agency on its website. By 2020, around 250,000 EVs should be cruising NRW's streets and its automotive industry should be extended, according to the federal state's Minister of Economic Affairs, Christa Thoben.

Rabobank involved in fast charging EV corridor in California

According to one of our favourite green automotive websites, Green Car Congress, "SolarCity and Rabobank, N.A. are partnering

to create a solar-power enhanced, EV fast-charge corridor along Highway 101 in California. When complete, the corridor will include four Tesla fast chargers located at Rabobank locations between San Francisco and Los Angeles (Salinas, Atascadero, Santa Maria and Goleta). A fifth in San Luis Obispo is in a public parking garage owned by the city and will be maintained by the city. The Santa Maria charger is powered by a 30 kW solar array at the bank." According to some of the readers' comments, the solar panels are a nifty gimmick and just for marketing purposes.

"Scrapping premium" for bicycles in Vienna

This one you must love. After a lot of controversy surrounding scrapping schemes for old vehicles, the city of Vienna has decided to motivate people to buy new bicycles through offering a EUR 70,- reward for the first 500 of its city dwellers if they buy a new bike and hand in their old one. And the old ones don't even get scrapped! This writes ELTIS: "Contrary to the well known one that supports the car industry this one doesn't focus on the "scrapping" of the old bicycles. The delivered bikes will be repaired and used again within a social project. This program which is more a kind of Eco-premium than a scrapping premium is limited to 500 bicycles in a first phase but will surely be extended." You bet that on my next overnight train trip from Utrecht to Vienna my old scrap bike will pay for half of the ticket...