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Competition increases in electric car market

admin
February 9th, 2009


This article is more than 15 years old.

Chinese auto-company BYD has chosen Denmark as its first European test market for electric cars

 

The electric car market is expanding in Denmark as Chinese manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dream) has chosen Denmark as its first European market for electric cars, due to be on the streets by 2011.

Sales manager for BYD, Henry Z. Li told Børsen financial daily that Denmark was chosen as the first European test market because it ‘has the best tax policy among EU countries in relation to electric cars.’

BYD intends to launch its own 3F DM hybrid car and the E6 electric cars on the Danish market, together with a network of car charging stations.

Li also said the company plans to have 40 to 50 car models in Copenhagen for a demonstration during the UN Climate Conference at the end of this year.

Electric car researcher Morten Rask, from the University of Aarhus, said that the news from the Chinese auto-company will create healthy competition in the market.

‘It shows that Denmark is becoming a global hotspot for electric cars of the future. There seems to be an exciting competitiveness between the very different business concepts,’ said Rask.

The other main player in bringing electric cars to Denmark is the Israeli-American venture capital project Better Place. In cooperation with DONG Energy, Better Place plans to create a national infrastructure network of 50,000 battery charging spots to establish Denmark as a viable country for mass-market electric cars by 2011.

DONG Energy will be able to store the unstable excess output of its wind turbines into the electric recharge grid, allowing the zero-emission cars to have a reliable source of renewable power. The Better Place consortium plans to introduce Renault-Nissan electric cars to Danish roads as part of its efforts.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”