Organised for the second consecutive year, the Renewable Energies and Electric Vehicles Show in Saint-Tropez exhibits a whole range of clean means of urban transport.La Tribune Auto takes this opportunity to identify the electric models that are now available in France: as well as the electric Tesla roadster, already on the market, six more multipurpose and financially accessible models should arrive over the coming months: the Bolloré Blue Car, the Citroën C-Zéro, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Nissan Leaf, the Peugeot iOn and the Renault Fluence. Also to come, different models from the following manufacturers: Audi, Fiat, Ford, Mini, Smart, Toyota and Volkswagen.

The manufacturer BMW will not be left behind: it’s forecasting that 10% of its sales will be electric vehicles by 2020. Moreover, according to What Car it has just announced that its first 100%-electric car, the Megacity, will come out in 2013. At the moment, there are no indications as to what it will look like, adds Turbo, but the marque apparently intends for a branch office to be responsible for the vehicle’s commercialisation.

And what if utility trucks represented the future of electro-mobility? This is the original hypothesis set out by a recent report from Pike Research, an institute specialised in clean energy. According to Electric Vehicle News, the study predicts that the world market for hybrid trucks (medium and heavy-duty models) and buses will go from 9,000 vehicles in 2010 to more than 100,000 by 2015.

The sports car is going electric. In fact, Japanese producer Sanyo wants to fit out the Yokohama electric sports vehicle which should be taking part in the Pikes Peak 2010, a 20km-hill race. Nihon Car tells us that the Japanese driver Tajima-San, at the wheel of a Suzuki SX4, has won the last four editions of the race.

Another innovation, one that is design related this time. The Mooovie concept car has just won the gold medal at an international design competition. According to ChinITech, it’s a 3-wheel adjustable electric vehicle, which can be driven in vertical mode, with the driver being seated, or in horizontal mode (like on a motorbike) with the driver lying down.

Rapidly charging one’s electric car? Here’s news to reassure those consumers that are reticent to go 100% electric. According to Automobile propre, Epyon, a Dutch company, recently demonstrated a rapid charging terminal in Amsterdam. It’s capable of charging electric batteries to 80% capacity in a few minutes. A single 50 kW rapid charge station should be able to provide electricity to several users simultaneously, in order to avoid queues. One to watch!

Finally, Caradisiac is wondering how emergency services will intervene in the case of an accident at the wheel of an electric vehicle. Answer: the American manufacturer General Motors is organising training sessions to teach the fire services, emergency services and the police force how to intervene in case of an electric car accident. For example, the emergency services, adds the website, learn about how the automatic or manual power cuts work.

China has decided to incentivise its motorists to buy hybrid or electric vehicles, through the use of subsidies. Autonews explains that, in practical terms, each manufacturer with a hybrid or electric vehicle in its range will receive a subsidy of at least 50,000 Renminbi (around €6,000 - £4,955) for a hybrid car and up to 60,000 Renminbi (€7,200 - £5,950) for an electric car. Amounts that will be directly deducted from the vehicle’s initial price and thus passed on to the buyer.

Brazil is also adopting a green incentive policy, by testing out the Think City electric city car. According to Green Car Advisor, the Brazilian electricity supplier CPFL Energia SA has already bought three of the cars and is going to integrate them into its electric vehicle fleet in order to test them under real conditions.

Car sharing is slowly but surely entering the mainstream. The evidence is here: Quebec has just announced a partnership between Communauto, Hydro-Québec and Nissan. Auto Electrique explains that Communauto, the first car sharing service in Quebec, is intending to integrate over fifty Nissan Leaf cars into its hire-car fleet by next year. The electricity distributor Hydro-Québec will be responsible for developing the charging terminal network.

The city of Tsukuba, in Japan, has also decided to adventure into the world of car sharing; however, it’s going even further, since it will be using solar electric vehicles. The vehicle being tested will be a Mazda2 Demio, converted into a fully electric model thanks to the Norwegian manufacturer Think. The choice of Tsukuba as the test community is no accident, according to Dynamique Co-voiturage. Because of its architecture and population, the town will in fact be an ideal “laboratory” to test out the concepts of sustainability in the real world.