This is what we call bringing electric cars to the masses. In a city like Amsterdam, which has virtually no parking whatsoever in the town centre, residents buying an electric car get a free parking space and a recharge station to go with it. The European car initiative started back in 2009 but has really gained ground only recently, having reached its target of 200 recharge stations by 2012, a year earlier than expected.

In the future the plan will probably provide some logistical problems as the city finds extra space for these free spots (near where the resident who bought the electric car lives), but the plan is to add another 1,000 recharge spaces in the next few years. By 2015, Amsterdam city wants five percent of its cars to be electric, which would be a total figure of about 10,000 vehicles.

The free parking initiative runs through 2012 and could be extended if the success continues. It’s a significant investment for the city which is spending €5 million on recharge stations and another €3 million on assisting companies build up fleets of electric vehicles. The initiative was part of the attractiveness of Amsterdam for Nissan, who chose the city as its official launch location for the Leaf on the European car market.

Continue reading: Electric cars in Amsterdam get free parking space

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If you live on the continent, driving in Europe will eventually be easier if you have a European driver’s license. So after discovering that you can’t convert your native license into a European one, you’ll have to sign up to a driving school.

While it involves more money, it will be quicker and easier to pass your European driving exams and become a freshly anointed driver once again. When you sign up to the school you will have to:

• Tell your life story. They will want to know why you’ve come from the other side of the world to learn to drive.
• Pretend you know nothing about driving and have never sat in a driver’s seat before. After all, no-one likes a know-it-all, although some European driving incidents may have you wondering why you’re bothering to do things properly.

Continue reading: Getting a European driver's license: part two

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What’s it all about?

I am a hapless non-European now living in Europe and made the discovery recently that my native country driver’s licence can’t be converted into a European one. So my adopted country is requiring me to gain a new licence, from step one.

The fact that my adopted country is Italy makes the process all the more interesting. So how do you go about gaining your licence?

Step One: the medical check

After finding out the ‘go to whoa’ steps involved (including hopeful final result of gaining a licence), the first stop is the medical check. After booking an appointment at the local medical centre, you must understand that queuing is involved particularly as you wait for the local health authority lady to get off her mobile phone and give you the forms you need to fill out. More after the jump.

Continue reading: Getting a European driver's license: part one

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I recently had one of my first experiences driving in a near snow storm and it’s not pleasant - a couple of hours of fierce concentration, slow driving in not much more than third gear and the traction control system on the car actually creating some minor problems when some wheel spin would have come in handy, can all make for a tough winter evening trying to get back home. But this video really takes the cake for recent European snow driving as cars and snow plows alike get into trouble. The video after the jump recently showed on television in Europe as purportedly a bendy bus going crazy on ice in Moscow. Check it out and remember that snow tyres aren’t the answer to everything.

Continue reading: Funny car videos: driving on snow

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