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James Dyson, the Brexit-backing billionaire behind the vacuum cleaners that bear his name, is establishing a new UK research hub as he shifts up a gear in his drive into electric cars.

Dyson, speaking to AFP as his company published soaring profits on booming Asian sales, outlined plans to open a second research and development centre in a former Royal Air Force airfield in Hullavington, southwest England.

The company will shift its 400-strong automotive engineering team to the sprawling Hullavington facility in May, alongside workers from other divisions.

The first vehicle — as yet unnamed — will be available for orders from 2020.

“We will be taking orders. You can order one now, if you like,” he joked in a telephone interview with AFP from nearby Malmesbury, where the group has its main base.

The exact manufacturing location is “still under discussion”, he added, but indicated that it would either be in Britain or Asia.

A five-year investment programme ending in 2021 will see the bulk of £2.5 billion ($3.5 billion, 2.8 billion euros) pumped into Dyson’s automotive unit.

Electric vehicles are increasing in popularity as governments worldwide drive forward plans to gradually phase out polluting petrol and diesel cars.

In Britain, new car sales fell for the first time in six years during 2017, largely on plummeting demand for diesel-powered vehicles, industry data showed.

Total sales dropped 5.7 percent to 2.54 million vehicles, the first annual drop since 2011, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. And Brexit-fuelled inflation caused by a weaker pound has also hit demand, it said.

– Dyson on Brexit –

Turning to Brexit, Dyson — a vocal Leave supporter in the run-up to Britain’s shock EU exit referendum in 2016 — expressed hope that London would reach a free trade deal with Brussels.

Without an accord, bilateral trade would likely be subject to higher World Trade Organization (WTO) tariffs.

“I hope that (Britain) can come to an agreement… but we are already operating quite successfully without an agreement,” he told AFP.

Dyson explained that because his company makes goods in Asia, it already has to pay WTO duties to Brussels for items heading to Europe.

He added: “But I think it would be very sensible for Europe to come to an agreement on free trade with Britain. I think it would be hurtful to both sides not to do that.”

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union in March 2019.

Dyson Group said that 2017 operating profit surged by almost one third to around £800 million, aided by fast growth in China, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Revenues leaped 40 percent to £3.5 billion.

Now a new startup says that it’s time for snowmobiles, which are surprisingly polluting and therefore, an important segment to electrify.

In 2015, the company spun out of McGill’s racing team where the three co-founders, Paul Achard, Gabriel Bernatchez, and Sam Bruneau, worked on electric powertrains during their engineering studies at the university.

During a presentation at the unveiled (embedded further down), Bruneau said that the team was inspired by Tesla to forget any preconceived idea of what a snowmobile should be and instead design an electric snowmobile from scratch.

That approach turned out to be crucial to the development of the vehicle since simply converting an existing snowmobile by replacing its engine with an electric powertrain would have resulted in a much heavier machine which is a dealbreaker for a snowmobile.

The team says that they managed to keep the weight “under 500 lbs fully loaded,” which is competitive with current options on the market, but while being equipped with a significant 15 kWh battery pack.

That battery pack powers a PMAC motor with 250 N.m. of torque and about 80 kW of power output, which is a lot of power for a machine that weighs less than 500 lbs.

It’s why they can achieve a scary 0 to 60 mph acceleration in just 3 seconds.

Now I’ve driven a lot of quick electric vehicles with a similar acceleration, but it’s simply not the same when you are not inside a passenger cabin and on the snow.

We went to a deserted airport to do some test runs. I don’t say that often, but unfortunately, the snow started to melt here in Quebec and therefore, we were riding on compacted snow, which is less than ideal.

I don’t think we managed to achieve that 3-second 0 to 60 mph acceleration in those conditions, but we nonetheless had some fun and could definitely feel the power of the TS2.

Here’s some footage of the test ride:

The prototype had its issues. The team had some problems with the steering system before the test rides and it definitely felt stiff at times, but they thought the overall machine was good enough to demo instead of waiting another year for the next winter season.

In my opinion, they were right.

It’s quite impressive that a team of about 17 people put together a working electric snowmobile built mostly from scratch in 3 years and it’s arguably not only competitive with current snowmobiles on the market made by giants like BRP and Artic Cat, but also significantly better in many aspects.

Of course, the two main advantages are zero-emission and significantly less noise pollution.

With little to no standards and many two-stroke engines, current gas-powered snowmobiles are generally incredibly polluting – sometimes 50 times more polluting than an average car. People operate those machines to experience the great outdoors and it’s a shame to have to pollute your environment to do it.

Electric snowmobiles are going to fix that.

Then there’s the noise aspect. You can hear a gas-powered snowmobile coming from miles away, which is again not what you want to hear in nature.

Taiga’s TS2 is extremely quiet aside of course from the noise of snow being pushed underneath the vehicle, but that’s inevitable and only audible from a relatively short distance.

There are also other aspects that differentiate Taiga’s electric snowmobile from anything else on the market.

As we previously discussed, they were inspired by Tesla and like the electric automaker, they put a lot of efforts into software in order to make the vehicle fully connected and capable of over-the-air software updates in order to improve over time.

That’s something that has never been done with snowmobiles and Jonah Ryan-Davis, a firmware engineer at Taiga who also previously worked at Tesla, told Electrek that everything is already in place to be able to push new updates.

They are not sure yet what does updates will feature, but they will listen to feedbacks once the TS2 will be in the hands of customers and try to build new features with the help of the community.

As for the range, the TS2 can travel 100 km (62 miles) on a single charge. Charing can be done in about 2 hours through level 2 charging with an onboard charger and the company says that it will also offer a DC fast-charging option for 80% charge in 20 minutes.

While the range might not seem like much, it’s actually quite impressive when you consider that Taiga claims the vehicle will maintain this range even at -30 Celsius.

The company also says that they will offer different versions of the vehicle optimized for different uses: Utility, Touring, Crossover, and Mountain.

Taiga is currently aiming to bring the TS2 to market next year at a starting price of $15,000. They are currently taking reservations with a $500 refundable deposit for people who want to be among the first to go electric for their winter powersports and in order to gauge demand for the vehicle ahead of the start of production.

Here’s Taiga’s unveiling presentation:

Harley-Davidson previously said it is committed to aggressively investing in electric vehicle technology and has announced the planned release of its first electric motorcycle in 2019.

“Earlier this year, as part of our 10-year strategy, we reiterated our commitment to build the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders, in part, by aggressively investing in electric vehicle technology,” said Harley-Davidson President and CEO Matt Levatich in a written statement.

“Alta has demonstrated innovation and expertise in EV and their objectives align closely with ours. We each have strengths and capabilities that will be mutually beneficial as we work together to develop cutting-edge electric motorcycles,” Levatich said.

Since its founding, Alta Motors, headquartered in Brisbane, California, has focused on the development of lightweight electric vehicles.

Harley-Davidson said did not go into specifics about the collaboration on Thursday, saying only that the two companies will collaborate on electric motorcycle technology and new product development.

“Riders are just beginning to understand the combined benefits of EV today, and our technology continues to progress,” said Marc Fenigstein, Alta Motors chief product officer and co-founder, in the same written statement.

“We believe electric motorcycles are the future, and that American companies have an opportunity to lead that future. It’s incredibly exciting that Harley-Davidson, synonymous with motorcycle leadership, shares that vision and we’re thrilled to collaborate with them,” Fenigstein said.

Levatich said Harley-Davidson believes “EV is where global mobility is headed” and that the technology “holds great appeal for existing riders as well as opportunity to bring new riders into the sport.”

“We intend to be the world leader in the electrification of motorcycles and, at the same time, remain true to our gas and oil roots by continuing to produce a broad portfolio of motorcycles that appeal to all types of riders around the world,” he said.

We can barely keep up now. If you haven’t been following, Europe is completely onboard now with the ‘ultra-fast’ 350 kW charging technology even before any electric car can actually take advantage of all that power.

The continent is going for future proof charging infrastructure and now a fifth network is starting to install the new, more powerful stations.

Then there was Ultra-E, which is backed by Allego, Audi, BMW, Magna, Renault, Hubject, and others.

Then, Allego recently launched another bigger network called MEGA-E,which represents a massive effort to deploy over 300 stations.

But that’s not all because last month Renault, who is already involved with one of those 3 networks, decided to back another one in the south of Europe.

Now it’s Fastned’s turn to get on board with 350 kW ultra-fast charging by teaming up with electrification and robotic giant ABB.

The company already operates a network of fast-charging stations in Europe, mainly in the Netherlands, but they have been expanding, as we previously reported.

This week, they opened their first 350 kW station at the ‘De Watering’ service area located on the A8 highway near Amsterdam:

Fastned’s Co-Founder Bart Lubbers commented on the new charging station:

“I am very proud of our new station. María García, our architect, has put a lot of energy into an iconic design that is better in every detail and that’s visible. It’s very important to increase the charging speed, because it makes driving EVs attractive to more people. Because the question that almost every consumer asks is “How long does it take to charge?”.

The company says that they are getting ready for the upcoming next-generation of electric vehicles that will support the higher charge rate, which is why they are adding those new 350 kW chargers to their network.

Fastned currently operates 63 charging stations.

A shipment of one of the world’s most popular electric cars is heading for Bermuda, and the vehicles are expected to go on sale later this month.

The latest version of the Nissan Leaf, which has a range of about 150 miles on a single charge, will be sold by Auto Solutions Limited. The company was visited by representatives of the Japanese carmaker last week.

Interest in electric and hybrid vehicles has been increasing in Bermuda, according to Glen Smith, managing director of Auto Solutions.

“The interest is there. We have clients looking for electric vehicles, asking about availability and when they can take one for a test drive,” he said, adding that it is still a case of educating people about the viability and benefits of having an electric vehicle.

A common question is how far will an electric car go before its battery is run down. Mr Smith pointed to the expected single-charge range of the Nissan Leaf, which is 150 miles.

Clients can have charging stations installed at their homes. There are also public charging stations for electric vehicles, with a number at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, and in Pembroke outside Bermuda Electric Light Company on Serpentine Road and at Auto Solutions’ premises on St John’s Road.

Engineers from Nissan Motor Corporation Ltd were on the island to help Auto Solutions and BE Solar prepare for the Bermuda launch of the Nissan Leaf and other electric vehicles. BE Solar is Auto Solutions’ exclusive partner providing electric-vehicle charging stations for customers.

In preparation for the arrival of the cars, a technician at Auto Solutions travelled to Mexico to attend a Nissan training course and become a Nissan Electric Vehicle certified technician. The company intends to send more of its technicians for training overseas.

Shozou Takahira, of Nissan, and Gaurav Pable, of Tata Consultancy Services, conducted an audit of the island’s power quality, grid stability, overall electrical infrastructure and testing of existing electric vehicle public chargers.

Mr Smith said the presence of the engineers was significant. He said: “It was very important. They wanted to make sure that Bermuda has the infrastructure and that BE Solar are qualified to hook-up the chargers.”

Nissan’s on-site audit included team members of Auto Solutions and BE Solar attending intensive EV charger installation training to ensure “the highest level of safety and quality”.

Technicians from Auto Solutions and BE Solar who were involved in the training sessions surpassed Nissan’s strict testing standards.

Mr Smith said: “All current EV chargers and demonstration installations performed by BE Solar and Auto Solutions were approved by Nissan’s engineers. Future installations will be performed by BE Solar and be approved by the Nissan Charger Infrastructure Planning Group team.”

Auto Solutions and BE Solar met with the Department of Planning to learn about the direction Bermuda is going regarding electric vehicles. Auto Solutions and BE Solar said they will ensure electric vehicle charging stations installed for residential and commercial customers comply with Bermuda Government regulations.

Stuart Kriendler, managing director of BE Solar, said: “We will perform charging installations in compliance with Nissan’s mobile installation application, which connects to Nissan’s headquarters. We can also provide solar solutions to our mutual clients to essentially ‘fuel’ the electric vehicles, further reducing their operating costs and carbon footprint.”

Auto Solutions expects the first shipment of new Nissan Leafs this month, after which the cars will be available for sale.

From small, family-run filling stations to sites operated by big businesses such as BP and Shell, owners of gas-guzzling vehicles have an abundance of options when it comes to refueling.

For those who drive electric cars, however, the choice is somewhat more limited.

“The growth of electric mobility is gaining more and more momentum,” Thomas Hering, electric vehicle charging infrastructure area sales manager for German business ABB, told Sustainable Energy.

“Whereas in the beginning of electric mobility we saw only very few electric vehicles on the streets, we now see a rising demand. And we expect a larger number of electric vehicles in the near future to be driving on our streets.”

As more people start to drive electric vehicles over longer distances, the need for a large-scale charging network will become increasingly pressing.

Changes are taking place. In January, for example, BP Ventures invested $5 million in FreeWire Technologies, a U.S. company that specializes in mobile electric vehicle rapid charging systems. BP said it planned to use the units at a selection of BP retail sites in the U.K. and Europe this year.

In Germany, where there is a big drive to boost the number of electric vehicles on roads, efforts are also underway to increase the number of charging points.

“We are planning to install 350 charging stations, especially at public places,” Bernhard Riehle, project manager at Pfalzwerke Netz, told Sustainable Energy.

While the ambitions are grand, there are a number of obstacles when it comes to rolling out new infrastructure. “There… (are) a lot of technical challenges when setting up the infrastructure regarding the grid connection,” Pfalzwerke Netz’s Sebastian Koch said. Costs were another concern, he added.

There are several options when it comes to the model of charging used, including alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). “Looking at AC charging… you need to have an on-board converter in your vehicle which then converts the alternating current into direct current to feed the battery,” ABB’s Hering said.

“This is of course a little bit slower but also cheaper,” he added. “Looking at DC charging, you can recharge at higher powers and thus need to spend less time to recharge your car because the conversion to DC takes place outside of the vehicle.”

Many users of electric vehicles will “charge up” using home-based stations, but this can be time consuming. “People at home are able to charge their vehicles in three, up to four hours, maybe… longer,” Pfalzwerke Netz’s Riehle said. At a “fast-charging” station, however, cars could be charged in 30 to 45 minutes.