Hybrids. The Now And Future

Prius Tops Auto Sales Ranking For 15th Month

2010-09-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 6, 2010

TOKYO (NQN)--Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid topped the domestic car sales ranking for the 15th straight month in August, according to data an industry group released Monday.

Prius sales rose 2.7% year on year to 22,263 units. Since releasing its newest model in May 2009, the Prius has seen double-digit growth for many months. Although the pace of expansion slowed last month, sales remained at high levels.

Honda Motor Co.'s Fit subcompact came in second, with sales jumping 57.8% to 17,258 units.

Sales of hybrid cars and energy-efficient smaller models were strong. Consumers rushed to buy such cars before the September expiration of subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles.

Four of the top ten cars are minivehicles.

Daihatsu Motor Co.'s Tanto minivehicle came in third, followed by Suzuki Motor Corp.'s WagonR minivehicle.

From: nikkei.com

A 1931 Detroit Electric Car Heads To The Auction Block

2010-09-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

When the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt go on sale in December, they should give a spark of recognition to their forebears -- cars like this 1931 Detroit Electric Model 97 Brougham.

Old Sparky is going on the auction block this weekend in Auburn, Ind.
By 1931, it was pretty clear that gasoline was going to kill electric power. But Detroit Electric would live on for eight more years:

Detroit Electric produced its first electric car in 1907, a time when it was entirely unclear whether electricity or gasoline -- or both -- would become the fuel of choice for a fast-growing motoring America. Well, we all know how that turned out. One huge advantage for electric power: It was clean and there was no crank starter like on gas models.

The Detroit Electric name has been resurrected today for one of the new breed of electric cars that will taking to America's streets in the next couple of years.

RM Auctions, which is putting the 1931 model on the block this weekend through its Auctions America by RM subsidiary, says as few as 110 Detroit Electric cars and one truck remain today. "This fascinating example from 1931 is nicely restored and features wooden artillery wheels with whitewall tires, tiller steering, gray upholstery and a swiveling passenger seat," the auction house says.

Wooden wheels? Tiller steering? Sounds pretty primitive even for 1931.

From USA Today

Honda's 2011 CR-Z Hybrid Shines In Its Drivability

2010-08-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

By Ted Laturnus August 16, 2010

EDMONTON—Manufacturers don’t normally include track time when they introduce a new hybrid model to the media. Hybrid cars are, after all, primarily concerned with fuel economy, not tearing around a racecourse and seeing how fast you can get from a standing start to freeway speed.

Yet that’s exactly what Honda did when it introduced the 2011 CR-Z hybrid earlier this month in Edmonton. In fact, besides offering assembled journos ample seat time at the Stratotech racetrack facility—located just outside Fort Saskatchewan—the launch coincided with the Edmonton Indy, which is cosponsored by Honda. That should tell you something about the character and intent of this particular hybrid car.

The fact that it also bears a passing resemblance to one of Honda’s most beloved models, the CRX, is no coincidence. This pintsize, Civic-derived hatchback was and still is a favourite with tuners and enthusiasts, and many lament its passing in the early 1990s. Although clearly a gas-sipper and aimed at drivers who value fuel economy over just about everything else, the CR-Z should also appeal to those who enjoy driving. “We expect the enthusiasts to be all over this,” Honda Canada’s production planner, Peter Gagyor, said at the Edmonton launch. Either way, the big market for the CR-Z, as Honda sees it, is drivers aged 35 and under, with sports car buffs being the primary target and hybrid buyers the secondary one.

Power is supplied by a 1.5-litre four-cylinder gas engine supplemented by Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist electric motor to produce a total of 122 horsepower and 128 foot-pounds of torque. The IMA unit has been used elsewhere in Honda’s lineup, including the Insight hybrid, and the internal combustion engine is similar to that found in the Fit subcompact. Together, they work seamlessly and give the CR-Z lively but not noteworthy performance. Torque is a little hard to find at low rpms, and if you really want to get the CR-Z moving, you have to wring its neck. But that’s to be expected—it’s a hybrid, after all. Transmission choices are a CVT automatic or a six-speed manual. This latter gearbox is the first of its kind to be fitted to a hybrid vehicle, and it has a hill-start-assist feature that prevents it from rolling backward when stopped on a hill. Curiously, it delivers slightly inferior fuel economy compared to the CVT automatic.

Behind the wheel, you can choose from three different driving modes: Sport, Normal, and Economy. If you really want to squeeze every drop of mileage from the CR-Z, you’ll opt for the Economy mode: the performance difference between it and the Sport setting is dramatic. Just hit one of the dash-mounted buttons to the left of the steering wheel, and you’ll feel the difference instantly. Honda predicts that most buyers will choose the manual transmission model; besides being $800 cheaper than its automatic stablemate, it delivers 6.5 litres per 100 kilometres in town and a thrifty 5.3 on the highway. These are among the best numbers in the industry, though not quite as low as those of the Honda Insight or Toyota Prius, for example. Among other things, the gas engine in the CR-Z has Honda’s i-VTEC variable valve technology, which shuts down one valve per cylinder during low rpms. This, along with an air-conditioning reduction feature and the electric motor, helps the CR-Z achieve its impressive fuel economy—and emission—levels. Still, it’s one of the least thrifty compact hybrids on the market, behind the Prius, the Insight, and the Ford Fusion when it comes to combined fuel economy.

But where the CR-Z really shines is in its drivability. It’s an enjoyable vehicle to spend time in, and what it may lack in performance punch, it more than makes up for in road-holding ability and handling. During our time at Stratotech, we had a chance to run the CR-Z as hard as we could around a track that’s normally home to high-performance motorcycles, and the CR-Z impressed everyone with its ability to go where it’s pointed and keep its composure during the tightest high-speed turns. That isn’t to say this is a pavement-searing hot rod by any stretch of the imagination, but in terms of holding its own through corners, it goes above and beyond the call for hybrids. You can thank a low centre of gravity and a comparatively wide road stance for this.

There will be but one model of CR-Z available when the car hits show rooms—right about now, incidentally. Standard equipment includes things like a climate-control system, hands-free Bluetooth capability, power windows and door locks, keyless entry, and a 360-watt stereo system. Three colour choices will be offered initially—blue, white, or silver—and although there might be room for an illicit passenger or two in the back, there’s officially only seating for two, just like the CRX.

The Lowdown
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder with 10-kilowatt DC electric motor
Transmission: Six-speed manual or CVT automatic
Drive: Front-wheel drive
Horsepower: 122 horsepower at 6,000 rpm
Torque: 128 foot-pounds at 1,000 to 1,750 rpm
Base Price: $23,490 or $24,290
Fuel Economy:6.5 litres per 100 kilometres city, 5.3 litres per 100 kilometres highway (six-speed manual)
Recommended Fuel: Regular
Alternatives: Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, Mini Cooper, Toyota Scion IQ, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Nissan Versa, Ford Fiesta, Mazda2
Positives: Outstanding fuel economy, high drivability, reasonable price tag
Negatives: Only seats two, could use more power

From straight.com

'Human-Electric' Hybrid Car Goes 30 MPH Uphill

2010-08-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Analysis by Alyssa Danigelis Sat Aug 14, 2010 08:03 PM ET

Fred Flintstone could only dream of such a car. The HumanCar Imagine PS, a four-seater vehicle that uses hand cranks, can take on hills at 30 miles per hour, exceed 60 mph on flat terrain and is expected to hit the market next year.

HumanCar is the self-funded brainchild of Charles Samuel Greenwood, an engineer who has been working on developing the perfect human-powered vehicle since the late 1960s. Now, it looks like his car is actually getting somewhere. According to Autoblog Green, the lightweight Imagine PS is street legal and, if four people are cranking inside, can run on human power alone. "PS" stands for "power station," naturally. Based in Eugene, Ore., HumanCar Inc. is preparing to start producing the car.

The vehicle has electric plug-in capabilities, so it can still run if only one person is operating the hand-crank in a rowing-like motion (see the video showing the action, below). When four people are all rowing, it can run on human power alone. This thing is truly a "human-electric" hybrid. The chassis is adaptable, and can work with different kinds of batteries and technology in the future without requiring an entirely new vehicle.

Getting it going looks a little bit like those wind-up toys: a few front-to-back pulls on the two-hand crank and it's ready to take off. Despite the physical requirement, the company says online that a senior citizen in decent shape could handle it and paraplegics have made suggestions on adaptability. The sleek vehicle could use a larger windshield, although there is apparently an all-weather shell available. Airbags are on the list to be included in future models. In the meantime, I'd probably wear a helmet while driving it.

Others have been hard at work on human powered cars, too. The American Society ASME runs an annual international Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, where students build aerodynamic vehicles. Next month teams will compete in Venezuela. Based on speed-endurance events that took place this year, the vehicles' top speeds are closing in on 20 miles per hour.

Higher speeds make the Imagine PS impressive. I can hardly get any miles per hour going uphill on a bike. Zooming uphill using my own energy looks so much more enjoyable. The car will cost $15,500 when it goes on sale next year, according to the HumanCar site. Potential owners can put down a refundable $50 placeholder for when the vehicles become available. So far, the company says it has 100 pre-orders and that production will begin when they reach 800.

I like that getting somewhere in a car could require more physical activity, as well as encourage teamwork and carpooling. Maybe these kinds of vehicles are the answer to both our energy and our health problems. At the very least, the car seems like more fun than those circular contraptions that tourists pedal through Times Square.

In addition, seeing that range anxiety remains an issue with pure-electric vehicles, I think major automakers should consider adding a backup human power mechanism. Then if the juice runs out far from a plug, the vehicle could be cranked back into action. Kind of like the early days of the automobile.

The video below, which probably wasn't intended to be as funny as I found it, shows Greenwood operating a test version of his vehicle on the road. Now that's what I call a muscle car.

From Discovery News

California Will Set The Tone On Electric Cars For The Nation

2010-08-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

Submitted by SHNS on Wed, 08/11/2010
By MARK GLOVER, Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The electric car future that seemed so exotic and so distant just a few years ago is here, and California will again set the tone for the industry and the rest of the nation.

Long the nation's top auto market -- 10 percent to 12 percent of new-car sales nationwide are made in California -- the state is even more of a leader in environmentally friendly vehicles.

"In California, you have the sheer numbers, but much beyond that is the high concentration of early adopters in terms of technology and environmentally friendly (auto) purchasers," said Jesse Toprak, analyst for Santa Monica-based TrueCar.com.

Better than one of every five Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid sedans sold in the United States is bought in California. From the vehicle's 2000 introduction through July, that's 231,399 and counting.

Electric autos are the next step in the evolutionary chain. Before the end of this year, two of the most promising will be in Golden State showrooms -- the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf.

General Motors just announced that its Volt plug-in electric hybrid sedan will be available in November, priced at $41,000.

California is ground zero in the Volt rollout. Motor Trend magazine calls the Volt "the most significant new Chevy ever" -- remarkable for a nameplate that birthed the Corvette, the Camaro and the Impala.

"It's not only important by itself, it's important for what that technology might mean to GM in the future," Toprak said.

"If GM can replicate the (Volt) technology into different categories of vehicles, including SUVs and trucks, that will be a game-changer."

An on-board 110-volt charger allows the Volt to be recharged externally from standard household power in about 12 to 14 hours. With a 240-volt charger, it will take four hours.

With a fully charged lithium-ion battery, the Volt can go 40 miles on electric power alone. Theoretically, if you have a 30-mile daily commute and recharge the Volt nightly, you won't use a drop of gasoline.

In a major advance from previous electric car technology, the Volt also goes long distance. When its battery runs low, a gas-fueled engine/generator extends driving range an additional 300 miles. The gas engine does not drive the wheels; it replenishes the battery.

The Volt also will have early debuts in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Michigan and Texas.

But the automaker considers the California introduction most critical.

Here's why: Rival Toyota's Prius had a whopping 54.9 percent share of sales in the state's hybrid segment in 2009, according to Lexington, Ky.-based Cross-Sell, which tracks the U.S. car market.

By comparison, GM's top vehicle in the segment, the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid SUV, had a 0.7 percent share.

Toyota also leads GM in overall car sales in California.

In 2009, out of slightly more than 1 million new-car title registrations statewide, including fleet sales, Toyota's market share was 24.5 percent. GM's share was 11.6 percent.

Simply put, GM is getting thrashed by Toyota in the nation's No. 1 car market. It's hoping to change that with the Volt.

The Volt, however, will not have a clear run of the field. The new Nissan Leaf five-door hatchback electric will roll into California within weeks of the Volt, probably in December.

The Leaf can be recharged only from an external power source, such as the 240-volt system, and it will have a range of up to 100 miles. At that point, you have to recharge it.

Starting at $32,780, a federal tax credit of $7,500 would drop the Leaf's price to $25,280. The same credit on a $41,000 Volt translates to $33,500. The Leaf's price could be further reduced by a $5,000 tax credit the state offers on all-electric vehicles. The Volt does not qualify due to its small gas engine.

GM has been slammed by some for pricing the Volt too high. Some auto analysts agree, but others say the Volt is fairly priced, given the time and technology invested by GM.

John O'Dell, senior editor of GreenCarAdvisor.com called GM's price "a bold one that will reward the company if it works, because it means the Volt likely will be sold for something close to what it costs to build and won't be straining GM's red-ink supply."

Beyond price, GM and Nissan are matching each other deal for deal: GM is offering a $350-a-month, 36-month Volt lease with $2,500 down. Nissan's Leaf lease offer is $349 a month over 36 months with $1,995 down.

Both automakers are offering eight-year, 100,000-mile battery warranties.

Must credit Sacramento Bee

From scrippsnews

AT&T Switching To Hybrids, Alternative-Fuel Vehicles

2010-08-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 8/10/2010 7:30 PM
Last Modified: 8/10/2010 7:30 PM

AT&T Inc. has begun retiring gasoline-powered vehicles in its corporate fleet in a 10-year, $565 million program aimed at replacing 15,000 vehicles with alternative fuel models.

Six new 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid cars have been delivered to AT&T offices in Tulsa, and they are among 16 hybrid cars joining AT&T’s fleet across Oklahoma in recent weeks, said executives of the nation’s largest telecommunications company.

In 2009, AT&T Oklahoma announced the delivery of 30 compressed natural gas vans to its fleet in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The CNG initiative was encouraged by tax incentives for alternative fuel vehicles developed by the Legislature, officials said.

AT&T announced earlier this year the deployment of the 2,000th alternative fuel vehicle and 1,500th CNG vehicle in its corporate fleet, making the AT&T CNG fleet one of the nation’s largest.

“Since last year, AT&T has been replacing its older-model vehicles with new hybrid cars and service vans powered by compressed natural gas,” said Mike Cooper, area manager of external affairs. “We’re excited about the opportunities this initiative provides to reduce our carbon emissions and lower our company’s overall fuel costs.”

Alternative fuel vehicles comprise a small fraction of the U.S. vehicle fleet. In 2008, the latest year for which there are complete statistics, there were 255.9 million registered vehicles in the United States, said the Department of Transportation.

Of the total U.S. vehicle fleet, fewer than 800,000 were alternative fuel vehicles, said the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative
Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center.

Richard Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America in Washington, D.C., said AT&T’s move to compressed natural gas vans makes sense economically, environmentally and from a national security perspective.

“We produce 85 percent of the natural gas we use, and most of the rest we get from Canada,” Kolodziej said. “In 2030, the Energy Information Administration says we will be producing 98 percent of the natural gas we use. We will be, basically, energy independent with respect to natural gas.”

A website, CNGPrices.com, reports CNG prices at $1.24 a gallon at Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Muskogee, Bartlesville, Ponca City and Miami, Okla.

With 180,000 gasoline stations nationwide but only about 1,500 CNG stations, there isn’t the infrastructure in place to support widespread public use of CNG vehicles, industry officials said.

“But if you concentrate on return-to-home vehicles … point-to-point vehicles, and put a station on either end and service that fleet, you don’t need a national network,” Kolodziej said. “It may cost you a third more for natural gas trucks. If you’re saving $1 per gallon, you can pay for it in 2?½ years.”

AT&T estimates purchasing about 8,000 CNG vehicles over a five-year period at a projected cost of $350 million. The company expects to pay an additional $215 million through 2018 to replace 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative fuel models.

The Center for Automotive Research estimates AT&T’s alternative fuel vehicle initiative will save 49 million gallons of gasoline over 10 years while reducing carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons. The carbon emission reduction is equivalent to removing 147,929 passenger vehicles from the nation’s highways for a year, the center said.

“The deployment of our 2,000th alternative fuel vehicle is a significant milestone in an ongoing effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Jerome Webber, AT&T’s vice president of fleet operations. “To continue making progress, we are working with our suppliers and local municipalities to encourage the expansion of support infrastructure, which would allow the introduction of more fuel efficient vehicles in communities around the U.S.”

Kolodziej, the natural gas vehicle organization executive, said alternative fuel vehicles’ advantages will grow with time.

“All the forecasters say that when the recession is over, gas prices are going to skyrocket,” Kolodziej said. “Meanwhile, natural gas prices will remain relatively flat because of its availability.”

From Tulsa World

Meet Bio-Bug – The Car That Runs On Poo

2010-08-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

Meet Bio-Bug – The Car That Runs On Poo
August 9, 2010
by Dave Parrack

Forget your hybrid vehicles which run on a mixture of gasoline and electric. The future could be hybrid vehicles which run on a mixture of gasoline and human waste. Move over Prius, make way for the Bio-Bug.

Despite significant improvements in green technology and significant improvements in how we as the human race view view and treat the natural world, there is still a long way to go before we stop taking more from the planet than we’re putting back into it.

One of the biggest problems we still haven’t figured out how to solve is the over-reliance on fossil fuels. In terms of transport, various different methods have been proposed and tested, all of which are designed to eventually replace gasoline (or petrol).

The current front-runner is electricity, with hybrid cars offering a middle-ground alternative to get us used to the idea. They’re not perfect, however, and they’re not really taking off in as big a way as they probably should do.

As reported by BBC News, British engineers have designed an alternative which is a gasoline-biogas hybrid. The Bio-Bug (so called because it’s a converted VW Beetle) runs on the methane gas produced from human waste. In layman’s terms it’s powered by the gas released by poo, crap, or feces depending on your term of choice.

The good news is that the gas doesn’t smell, because if it did being a pedestrian with roads full of these cars would be an absolute nightmare. The better news is that biogas can power a two-liter car up to speeds of 114mph. The even better news is that it’s cheap, efficient, and sustainable. All the while people are emptying their bowels, these cars will have fuel.

What gets flushed down the toilets of around 70 homes annually can power the Bio-Bug for 10,000 miles, which is an average year’s motoring in the U.K. In time I’m sure this could be improved upon so that every family could potentially power its own vehicle purely from its own waste. Which is surely an ecologist’s dream scenario.

From Tech.Blorge

Honda Hybrid To Be Cheapest On Market

2010-08-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010

Honda Hybrid To Be Cheapest On Market
Kyodo News

Honda Motor Co. will market its new hybrid car for around ¥1.59 million, which will be the lowest sticker price for a gasoline-electric vehicle sold in Japan, company sources said Saturday.

Scheduled for release in September, the new Fit compact can travel 30 km on a liter of gasoline, the sources said.

The lowest-priced hybrid at the moment is Honda's Insight, whose cheapest version goes for ¥1.89 million.

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to release a hybrid version of its popular Vitz compact as early as next year, possibly priced around ¥1.5 million. With a targeted fuel efficiency of over 40 km per liter, the competition between Toyota and Honda in the hybrid vehicle market is likely to intensify.

Honda is trying to boost sales of the new hybrid because it expects an overall fall in domestic auto sales following the October termination of government subsidies for fuel-efficient cars.

The price of the Fit's current nonhybrid version, which can travel 24 km on a liter of gas, starts at ¥1.2 million.

About 26,000 Insights were sold from January through July, lagging far behind Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius, which sold 204,882 units during the same period.

Prius from Thailand JIJI Toyota Motor Corp. will start producing its Prius gasoline-electric hybrid in Thailand at the end of this year at the earliest, company officials said.

The automaker plans to export its hybrid system that includes the power train and batteries from Japan and produce thousands of units of the vehicle annually in the Southeast Asian country, the officials said.

At the Gateway assembly plant in Chachoengsao Province, Toyota will manufacture a new Prius model launched in Japan in May last year. The plant is producing models such as the Camry Hybrid sedan.

Toyota is considering making Thailand a hub to export the Prius to nearby countries. It aims to promote eco-friendly vehicles in China, which has become the world's largest auto market, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, including Thailand and Indonesia.

In December 2005, Toyota started its first overseas production of the Prius in China, but the company has halted production there due to sluggish sales.

Also, the company dropped its plan to make the Prius at a new U.S. plant in Mississippi, in the wake of the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in autumn 2008.
Tacoma in Texas

NEW YORK (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. held a ceremony at its San Antonio plant Thursday to mark the start of production of the Tacoma pickup truck there.

The Tacoma's production was moved to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc. from NUMMI, or New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a California-based 50-50 joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Co. that closed in April.

Tacoma production at the San Antonio plant began in July, with the output shift bringing $100 million in investment and 1,000 new jobs there.

In a speech at the ceremony, Atsushi Niimi, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corp., called the massive recalls of Toyota vehicles and subsequent congressional hearings and intense media coverage "one of Toyota's biggest learning experiences."

From The Japan Times

Unplugged! Why Electric Cars Are the Next Big Thing And They Always Will Be

2010-08-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

Parts of this article I liked. That is why I am posting it here. Electric cars will be the next big thing. Technology is advancing at a pace that will allow it to happen.

From Energy Tribune

Unplugged! Why Electric Cars Are the Next Big Thing And They Always Will Be

Imagine this scenario: Politicians at the state and federal levels begin handing out billions of dollars is subsidies so that over the next decade America’s wealthiest people – those with household incomes of $200,000 or more – will be encouraged to buy more vacation homes. Oh, and those homes should be concentrated in the areas around Los Angeles and San Diego.

The outrage at such an eventuality would be obvious and immediate. The Democratic Party and the party’s union-based supporters would, no doubt, be particularly vociferous in their objections. They would waste no time in pointing out that such subsidies are ignoring the needs of working-class voters, particularly at a time when the US economy continues to be in recession, unemployment rates are near 10%, and chronic joblessness could continue for years to come. Or given the California-centric bias of the subsidies, imagine the reaction from a conservative Congressman hailing from Alabama, Mississippi, or Arkansas.

Now toss aside that scenario and consider the real-life subsidies being lavished on the electric car, a vehicle which, if it ever gains traction in the market place -- and there’s no indication that it will, given the sector’s century-long history of failure tailgating failure – will largely serve as driveway jewelry for the wealthy.

In March, Der Spiegel estimated that over the next five years, the US will provide about $27 billion in subsidies for electric car development and production. Meanwhile, France will spend $2.7 billion and Germany $720 million.

There’s no outrage at those massive subsidies even though the Americans who are most likely to buy electric cars are -- according to a July study done by Deloitte Consulting -- those with household incomes “in excess of $200,000” and “who already own one or more vehicles.” Furthermore, Deloitte expects those buyers to be “concentrated around southern California where weather and infrastructure allow for ease of EV ownership.”

Deloitte concluded that the US now has about 1.3 million consumers who “fit the demographic and psychographic profiles” of expected EV buyers. It went on saying that mass adoption of the EV “will be gradual” and that by 2020, perhaps 3% of the US car market could be amenable to EVs. The firm goes on saying that the keys to “mass adoption are 1) a reduction in price; and 2) a driving experience in which the EV is equivalent to the internal combustion engine.”

Think about those numbers. Out of 300 million Americans, perhaps 1.3 million are likely to buy an electric vehicle, and yet, all we hear lately is that electric cars are the way of the future. Indeed, over the past few weeks, we’ve been carpet-bombed with happy talk about the electric car.

In late July, the New York Times published a long profile of Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla Motors, the startup that has produced about 1,000 electric sports cars. A few days after that, the news was dominated by the announcement of the sticker price ($41,000) of the new Chevrolet Volt. About that same time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a scaled-back energy bill that promises some $400 million in new subsidies for the electric-car business. The key photo op for the electric car came on July 30, when President Barack Obama visited a GM plant that will assemble the Volt. Obama reportedly pronounced the car as “pretty smooth.”

But amid all of the hype, the essential question is obvious: Why is the government throwing so much money at a technology that shows so little promise?

Ever since we moved from horse-drawn power to automobiles, the electric-car industry has been promising that it was just on the cusp of viability. Today is no different. We are being told that this time things are different, that the technologies are better, the batteries are better, and that consumers are ready to adopt electrics like never before. Perhaps that’s true. But consider this declaration: The electric car “has long been recognized as the ideal solution” because it “is cleaner and quieter” and “much more economical.”

That story was published by The New York Times on November 12, 1911.

Or given that the new Chevy Volt costs as much as a new Mercedes-Benz C350, consider this assessment by a believing reporter: “Prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they are within reach of the average family.”

That line appeared in The Washington Post on Halloween 1915.

And since the Volt is being built by GM, this news item says that the giant carmaker has found “a breakthrough in batteries” that “now makes electric cars commercially practical.” The new zinc-nickel oxide batteries will provide the “100-mile range that General Motors executives believe is necessary to successfully sell electric vehicles to the public.”

That story was published in The Washington Post on September 26, 1979.

Now fast-forward to July 2008, when Thomas Friedman of The New York Times declared that Shai Agassi—the founder of an electric-car company called Better Place—was “the Jewish Henry Ford.” Friedman went on to claim that Agassi was launching “an energy revolution” that would end the world’s “oil addiction.” Never mind that when Friedman wrote his story Agassi’s fleet of electric cars consisted of exactly one prototype.

The media’s coverage of the electric-car sector demonstrates more than 100 years of gullibility. The gee-whiz factor of electric cars with their big batteries, small motors, and whisper-quiet locomotion appears to be so dazzling that reporters willingly give up their skepticism like star-struck groupies surrendering their panties.

That same lack of skepticism may explain why the Senate wants to throw hundreds of millions of additional dollars at electric cars without braking to consider the problems of physics and consumer demand. And those two factors are undoubtedly the biggest problems for the future of the electric-vehicle market. On a gravimetric basis, gasoline has 80 times the energy density of the best lithium-ion batteries. Of course, electric-car supporters will immediately retort that electric motors are about four times more efficient than internal combustion engines. Fine. Even with that four-fold advantage in efficiency, gasoline still has 20 times the energy density of batteries. And that is an essential advantage when it comes to automobiles, where weight, storage space, and of course, range, are critical considerations.

Numerous studies have found that electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are simply not ready for prime time. Perhaps the most damning report was published by the Department of Energy’s Office of Vehicle Technologies in January 2009. The report concludes that despite the enormous investments being made in plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, four key barriers stand in the way of their commercialization: cost, performance, abuse tolerance, and life. The key problem, according the DOE analysts, was—predictably—the battery system. The report concludes that lithium-based batteries, which it calls “the most promising chemistry,” are three to five times too expensive, are lacking in energy density, and are “not intrinsically tolerant to abusive conditions.”

As for consumer choice, a May survey by Harris Interactive found that 75 percent of potential new car buyers said they were “not at all likely” to buy an electric vehicle and 70 percent said they were “not at all likely” to buy a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

Those findings are remarkable given that the new Senate energy bill is designed to facilitate the growth of both electric and plug-in electric hybrids. The same Harris Interactive survey found that consumers were far more likely to purchase vehicles that use diesel or compressed natural gas. They were also more amenable to conventional hybrids, like the Toyota Prius. But remember, the Prius, perhaps the most iconic “green” automobile in the world, did not steal, and has not stolen, the overall vehicle market. It took Toyota about a decade to sell 1 million copies of the Prius. That sounds like a lot of cars until you remember that the U.S. automotive fleet has about 250 million vehicles and the global fleet about 1 billion vehicles.

Automakers understand that consumers are wary of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles. Bill Reinert, the manager of Toyota’s advanced technology group (he was also one of the lead designers of the Prius), told me last month that the market for electrics and plug-in hybrids remains a “niche of a niche.” Reinert says potential buyers for those vehicles are a small subset of those who are inclined to buy a Prius. Reinert said that hybrid vehicles now account for about 3 percent of total car sales in the U.S. (Read my February 2009 interview in ET with Reinert here.)

Other auto industry officials see it the same way. Last September, Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, was particulary blunt when asked about the prospects for the Chevrolet Volt. His memorable quote: “There are not enough idiots who will buy it.” Of course, since then, Audi has announced that it, too, would begin building an all-electric vehicle. Which leads to another obvious question: Why are so many companies rushing to build electric cars? The answer: fat government subsidies.

Last September, Fisker Automotive, a startup that plans to start selling a plug-in hybrid (sticker price $87,900) this year, received a $529 million loan from the U.S. government. (One of Fisker’s main financial backers is the venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.) Meanwhile, Nissan got a $1.6 billion federal loan and Tesla Motors got a $465 million loan for their electric-car projects. Two Phoenix-based companies, Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., and ECOtality, were given $99.8 million in federal stimulus money to help roll out an electric-vehicle pilot program in several U.S. cities. Johnson Controls, one of America’s biggest battery makers, got a federal grant for $299.2 million to help it build batteries for electric and hybrid cars. General Motors got $105.9 million to help it produce battery packs for the Chevy Volt. In all, about 50 different entities were given federal grants (all provided by the stimulus package passed by Congress) that totaled some $2.4 billion as part of an “electric drive vehicle battery and component manufacturing initiative.”

The Obama administration and Congress have given voters many justifications for these lavish subsidies, including stimulus, job creation, technology incubation, reduced oil consumption, etc. But by throwing billions of dollars at the electric-car sector, Congress is picking a technology winner and it is doing so in one of the world’s most fiercely competitive markets. For that reason alone, taxpayers have plenty of reason to be concerned.

For the past two decades, Congress has been picking a technology winner in the automotive fuels sector by providing lavish subsidies for the corn ethanol scam. And yet despite decades of subsidies and mandates, the corn ethanol industry still cannot survive without subsidies. In fact, those very same subsidies have led to a situation where the ethanol industry has too much capacity and the only solution for that problem: even greater subsidies from taxpayers.

There is no doubt that electric cars are sexy. But no matter how much money the government throws at the electric-car business, it will remain a tiny fraction of the overall car market for years, or more likely, decades, to come. Why? For all the reasons stated above. Add the myriad problems posed by our inadequate electric grid and the long charging times needed to refuel electric vehicles and the challenges become yet more obvious. Sure, electric cars will improve dramatically in the years ahead. But so will conventionally fueled vehicles like the Honda Fit, which costs about one-third as much as the new Volt.

Indeed, when looking at the long history of the electric-car industry—and in particular the myriad problems posed by finicky batteries—one conclusion seems painfully obvious: All-electric cars are the Next Big Thing. And they always will be.

GM Invests In Electric Car Startup

2010-08-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

From Financial Post

GM Invests In Electric Car Startup

Soyoung Kim, Ben Klayman, Reuters · Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010

DETROIT -- General Motors’ venture capital unit is buying a minority stake in electric car startup Bright Automotive to advance the development of fuel-efficient vehicle technologies.

GM and Indiana-based Bright Automotive said on Tuesday they have agreed to pursue a strategic partnership under which GM will invest US$5-million to help accelerate Bright’s production of its IDEA plug-in hybrid commercial vehicle.

GM is also launching this year its highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt electric car for the consumer market, a program it started four years ago in part to shake an association with gas-guzzling trucks and to show it could compete with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp on hybrid technology.

The Bright deal marks the first investment by General Motors Ventures LLC, a US$100-million venture capital arm set up by the U.S. automaker in June with the aim of investing in auto and transportation start-ups in areas such as lightweight materials, clean engine technology and on-board electronics.

“Funding early-stage start-up companies is a new way of doing business at GM to accelerate the introduction of innovative technology to support our core automotive business and give us a competitive advantage,” said Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures.

“In this case, our funding of Bright Automotive will accelerate the introduction of advanced propulsion and lightweight technologies in the commercial vehicle market,” he added.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in July. GM Ventures provided funding to Bright this week, and the companies intend to complete the formal agreements later this year.

Upon completion of the agreements and other terms, GM Ventures will have a minority stake in Bright, and Bright will have access to GM technologies, and advanced engine and transmission systems, for its vehicle. The size of the stake was not disclosed.

“With this deal, Bright gets financial support that puts us on the fast-track toward mass production of the IDEA,” said Reuben Munger, Bright chairman and chief executive.

Bright said the investment by GM Ventures will allow Bright to begin ramping up the development of the production program for the IDEA in the current quarter. The IDEA can operate on electric power for 40 miles before switching to hybrid mode where it would get an estimated 36 miles per gallon.

Last month, GM said it would offer the Volt starting at US$41,000 before federal tax credits. It is designed to be recharged overnight for about 40 miles of electric driving and will also include a small gas engine expected to give the vehicle a total range of about 340 miles.

The U.S. automaker expects to produce 10,000 Volts for the 2011 model year and about 30,000 for 2012.

Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley start-up that went public in June, has the only highway-ready electric car now on U.S. roads with the US$109,000 Roadster. It also formed an alliance to develop electric vehicles with Toyota, which is planning to bring a plug-in hybrid to market in 2011.

Nissan Motor Co’s battery-powered Leaf claims a driving range of 100 miles and has a U.S. retail price of US$32,780, while Honda Motor Co has said it plans to launch a plug-in hybrid and battery electric model in 2012.

Reuters

Coulomb Technologies Unveils First ChargePoint America Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in San Jose, Calif.

2010-08-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

From EC&M

Coulomb Technologies Unveils First ChargePoint America Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in San Jose, Calif.

Aug 2, 2010 12:44 PM

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies recently announced the installation of its first networked charging station for electric vehicles (EVs) in San Jose, Calif., from its $37-million ChargePoint America program. ChargePoint America will offer hundreds of free stations for public and home charging to individuals and businesses throughout the Bay Area for use by individual vehicle owners and by fleets. Coulomb is working with Ford, Chevrolet, and smart USA, all of whom have announced plans to introduce EVs in the Bay Area in the coming months. The first two ChargePoint America stations are now installed at the McEnery Convention Center Parking Center.

"The installation of San Jose's first ChargePoint America station is an important step forward in our efforts to make the Bay Area the EV capital of America," says Mayor Chuck Reed. "Our partnership with Coulomb Technologies is the perfect example of how Silicon Valley can lead the world in clean tech innovation and create new green jobs in our community."

"Coulomb's first customer was the City of San Jose, and we’re pleased to be back, both to welcome the EV transformation to Silicon Valley and also to bring jobs to install and maintain electric vehicle infrastructure," says Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. "Thanks to our ChargePoint America program, San Jose will be one of the first cities in the nation to enable its residents to buy vehicles that don’t pollute and don’t depend on oil."

Coulomb's ChargePoint America program will provide nearly 5,000 charging stations to program participants in nine regions in the United States: Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond, Wash., and Washington D.C., and is a strategic partnership between Coulomb and three leading automobile makers: Ford, Chevrolet, and Smart USA. Coulomb currently has the largest established base of networked charging stations worldwide with more than 700 units shipped to more than 130 customers. Installation of the ChargePoint charging stations is underway now in all nine regions.

ChargePoint America will offer both public and home charging stations to individuals and businesses. Businesses in and around the Bay Area interested in receiving free public charging stations should visit the ChargePoint America website to sign up by completing the application form. Individuals interested in purchasing an EV should sign up to receive more information about qualifying to receive a home charging station. Additionally, the ChargePoint America website provides a way for drivers to suggest public locations for charging stations.

Merging Onto Electric Avenue

2010-07-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

From CTV

Merging onto electric avenue

Simon Houpt and Joanna Slater

If you ask Peder Norby what he thinks of Al Gore, he’ll chuckle and use the phrase “snake-oil salesman.” He refers to “quote unquote global warming.” He’s a self-described conservative Republican, calls himself a boring person, and has never been on the cutting edge of anything. And yet Mr. Norby, a 47-year-old planning commissioner with the County of San Diego, may just be an unlikely poster boy for one of the most momentous movements now under way, a worldwide revolution that its most ardent advocates say has the potential to pre-empt wars and save the planet.

And it all begins with the adorable little car sitting in the driveway of Mr. Norby’s southern California home, the one with the license plate that reads “SUNGAS.”

Just over a year ago, Mr. Norby took possession of a Mini E, a two-seat version of BMW’s sporty Mini Cooper runabout equipped with an engine powered entirely by a 260-kilogram lithium-ion battery. At the time, he was one of only a few hundred North Americans driving an electric car. But now, with the announcement this week by General Motors that it will start selling its long-awaited electric and gas-powered Chevrolet Volt for $41,000 (U.S.) in November, and Nissan Motor Co.’s promise of an eight-year warranty on the battery of its Leaf, U.S. and Canadian roads may soon be experiencing a charge of the electric brigade.

Still, with even Toyota’s Prius remaining something of a cult favourite, is there a big enough market for any of the manufacturers to make a profit on the new vehicles?

The skeptics are already pouncing. In a New York Times op-ed, a leading automotive editor called the Volt “G.M.’s Electric Lemon.” Polls on auto websites resounded with sticker shock (even though the approximate Volt price had been known for more than a year). Rush Limbaugh mocked the car as the province of elites and said the various government subsidies (in the United States, a $7,500 U.S. tax rebate; in Ontario, a $10,000 tax rebate) proved that “nobody wants this.”

But Mr. Norby, for one, points out that many sectors (see: the oil industry, the gas car industry) receive vastly greater sums from the government. He recalls the grim, grey days of the 1970s, an era of gas pump oil shocks and putrid brown skies above Los Angeles before car companies were forced by new environmental laws to install catalytic converters. And despite his political leanings, he’s grateful for government involvement in helping industries adapt. A few years ago, he took advantage of government subsidies to convert his home entirely to solar power (which means charging his Mini is 100 per cent emissions-free).

The first year of his Mini lease cost $850 a month; that has now been cut to $600 a month, meaning it now costs him less to run than a similar gas-powered vehicle. Maintenance costs are almost non-existent.

And, he adds, there’s a patriotic reason to drive an electric car. “With the founding of this country, we did not want to be dependent on any foreign government or kings. We wanted to be an independent nation,” he said. “I don’t believe we’re independent today. I believe we’re dependent on foreign governments and kings, some friendly and some unfriendly, and I don’t like it.” (And yes, while he recognizes Canada isn’t a Middle Eastern kingdom, he’d rather the U.S. buy oil from us by choice rather than by necessity.) If Mr. Norby is not your typical environmental foot soldier, that may be because this revolution is drafting people with a wide range of motivations: the potential market for electric vehicles may not yet be deep, but it is unexpectedly broad.

“The early market is driven by enthusiasts who have very strong feelings about technology,” says Tom Turrentine, the director of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California, Davis. “A lot of the buyers are like people who buy iPads,” But research by his institute shows the next wave of buyers ranges from casual and hard-core classic environmentalists to people worried about air quality, from peak oil advocates to citizens concerned about the military and economic security of the United States. At this point, he says, a lack of knowledge about electric vehicles may be the greatest roadblock to their success.

A few hours up the road from Mr. Norby – further than you could get on a single 100-mile charge of the Mini, that is – Peter Trepp is doing his part to spread the word. The first person to take delivery on a Mini E last year, he regularly blogs about the experience and is writing a book, a primer for the electrically curious.

“If I pull into a Starbucks parking lot or something, at least once a week I have a 10-minute conversation about the car,” says Mr. Trepp, the CFO of the enterprise software firm ServiceMesh. “Somebody sees it, wants to know what it is – ‘It’s a hybrid, right?’ ‘No, it’s all-electric.’ ‘How can it be all-electric?’ You launch into a conversation.” In fact, Mr. Trepp carries around cards in his Mini that he hands out as a follow-up, pointing people to his blog if they’re interested in more information. His wife uses them too when she’s driving and finds herself buttonholed by bypassers. “She’s less interested in engaging people in these long and relatively nerdy conversations,” he explains.

While Mr. Trepp took the lease because he’s a technology fan, the last few months have added an urgent undertone to the conversations. “I’m a born-and-raised Republican, but things like the B.P. oil spill, if that doesn’t underscore our need to start thinking in this direction, I don’t know what would,” he says, adding that he endorses President Barack Obama’s heavy support of new energy initiatives.

Which is part of what’s now helping to motivate the auto makers. Toyota has enjoyed a halo effect for years because it was the first prominent manufacturer of a commercially available hybrid. G.M., looking to reposition after bankruptcy, could use some of that magic. “It certainly won’t hurt,” says Mr. Turrentine, who notes that G.M.’s former Hummer brand became, “a symbol of a misguided industry, so certainly they’re looking for a symbol to show they’re not misguided.”

But how good are the economics? The Volt “is a great idea and it’s going to do very well eventually,” says John Roy, an alternative energy analyst at investment firm Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. “Kudos to GM for doing the right thing, but don’t expect to sell 2 million of these,” he says. (On Friday, G.M. announced it was increasing its production capacity for 2012 by 50 per cent, to 45,000.) Mr. Roy notes that electric cars still have huge hurdles to climb in the U.S., including “range anxiety,” or concerns about how far a charge will carry a vehicle, the poor performance of the batteries in cold weather, and the fact that the models run small for American tastes.

As someone who evaluates the market for its investment potential, he worries that the hype has run ahead of the reality. “I want this stuff to work but it’s got issues,” he says, which may be solved with time and new technologies. “In 20 years, we’ll have 200-mile [electric] cars and plenty of charging stations.”

But other analysts counter that the future will arrive far sooner than that, prodded by massive government assistance. They note that four-fifths of American drivers commute less than 40 miles each day, which is exactly the Volt’s range.

In one sign of changing times, earlier this month, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg inaugurated the city’s first electric-vehicle charging station at a parking garage in midtown Manhattan. The company behind it, Coulomb Technologies, hopes to have 5,000 such stations installed by October 2011.

While it will be a long time before electric cars take over the road, the rollout of such vehicles is accelerating. Every major car maker either has an electric car on the road or is developing one. In the coming months, Nissan will launch the Leaf, an all-electric car, and Ford is entering the scene with its Transit Connect EV, a small van.

“Will we see them in mass this year? No,” says Michael Lew, an energy analyst at Needham & Co. LLC, a New York investment firm. But he expects them to gain traction. By 2015, he predicts they’ll make up nearly 5 per cent of global car sales, or more than 3 million units.

Lyle Dennis, a New Jersey neurologist who just turned in his Mini E after a one-year lease, in anticipation of buying a Volt, says driving an electric car is simply fun. “Every time I got in the car I was happy about it, because you sort of get this inner thrill that you’re driving around without oil.”

Porsche Greenlights 918 Hybrid Supercar

2010-07-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

I found this to be very interesting. I would like to see more super-car manufactures jump on board and produce a hybrid super car. If more super-car manufactures jump on board then I would say hybrids will be seen by more car buyers as something cool to own and drive. One can hope.

From wired.com

Porsche Greenlights 918 Hybrid Supercar

By Chuck Squatriglia July 28, 2010 5:36 pm

It’s official: Porsche will build the 918 hybrid supercar.

The company’s board approved the project earlier today based upon “overwhelming response from the public and customers.” Those same customers must have very deep pockets, because the last we heard the Porsche 918 will cost something north of $600,000.

Be that as it may, it promises to be a sweet car.

The concept that Porsche unveiled earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show raised a whole lotta eyebrows, and why wouldn’t it? Porsche promises exceptional performance along with stellar fuel economy and emissions.

We say “promises” because the car’s performance specs come from Porsche and, so far as we know, haven’t been independently verified. Porsche says the 918 will do zero to 100 km/hr in less than 3.2 seconds and hit a top speed of 198 mph. All that while emitting just 70 g/km of CO2 and consuming 3.0 liters per 100 kilometers. That works out to 78.4 mpg if our math is correct.

Porsche hasn’t said how it arrived at those emissions or fuel economy figures, but we’re betting that achieving them will require the very lightest touch on the accelerator and maximum electrical assistance.

The mid-engined roadster features a 500-horsepower V8 based upon the 3.4-liter mill found in the Porsche RS Spyder race cars. It’s also got a pair of electric motors; together they put down 218 horsepower. The car has four modes that range from full electric to “race,” which throws efficiency to the wind and uses the electric motors as a push-to-pass feature. (You can get more on the tech in this post.)

Porsche’s supervisory board directed its minions to “develop a production model based on the car already presented,” so the car we’ll see will bear at least some resemblance to what we saw in Geneva. It almost certainly will be a super limited edition model like the Carerra GT.

Still, there are at least 1,000 people out there interested in buying one, because that’s how many “hand-raisers” Porsche said it wanted to see before deciding whether to build the car.

For Hybrid Cars, a Hybrid Invention

2010-07-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

From The New York Times

July 26, 2010, 7:45 am

For Hybrid Cars, a Hybrid Invention
By MATTHEW L. WALD

A company with a different approach to the electric car battery problem got a small boost recently when the Patent Office said it would issue a patent on its concept: using a storage device called a capacitor in conjunction with a traditional battery.

The company, AFS Trinity, plans an announcement on Monday.

Capacitors store only small amounts of electricity, but they can accept it or deliver it very quickly without damaging themselves. By contrast, lithium ion batteries, the kind now favored for cars, can store large amounts but have trouble delivering it fast enough to allow good acceleration. What is more, they don’t capture energy very well, a problem in electric cars. Electric cars are designed so that when a driver hits the brake pedal, the electric motors switch functions and become generators, converting momentum back into current. But the current flows very fast.

Engineers refer to these two qualities – the ability to store energy, and the ability to deliver it quickly, as energy and power. Lithium ion has good energy storage but poor power; capacitors are the opposite.

So AFS Trinity marries lithium ion and capacitors.

The result is that the demand for current from the lithium ion battery rises and falls more gently; the big jolts in or out are handled by the capacitors. As I wrote in late 2008, the company has been demonstrating the technology with a Saturn Vue Green Line, a small hybrid sport utility vehicle that it converted.

Saturn production was halted by G.M. as part of its reorganization last year, but the technology would fit well in a Ford Explorer or other midsize S.U.V., the company says.

Edward W. Furia, chief executive, said his company filed for the patent in 2006 and that it can now be licensed to automakers, just as “Dolby licensed its noise reduction technology to every company in the audio business.” But none have signed up yet.

Mr. Furia says that his technology could allow a plug-in hybrid or an electric car to get by on a smaller battery pack. Some of those vehicles are designed now with huge battery packs so that they can draw enough energy out of each battery to get sufficient acceleration; with a capacitor to help out in high-demand times, they could do with fewer batteries. Carrying a lot of batteries means greater weight and costs, plus beefier brakes and suspension.

He said the zippy performance of a car with capacitors offered “fun without guilt” because it did not burn gasoline and did not damage the batteries.

But the part of the tax code written to promote pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids favors extra batteries, the executive said, providing a $2,500 credit if the vehicle has at least five kilowatt-hours and another $417 for each additional kilowatt-hour. The maximum credit is $7,500, which works out to 16 kilowatt-hours. Perhaps not coincidentally, that is what the Chevy Volt, due out this fall, will carry.

“It was written for the Volt,” contends Mr. Furia, who would like the law amended to reflect not just energy, which the batteries provide, but power, which his capacitors provide.

Affluent Likely To Lead Charge For Electric Vehicles

2010-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

From chron.com

Affluent likely to lead charge for electric vehicles

By ANDY STEINHUBL and JORGE LEIS
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 24, 2010, 4:01PM

Suddenly, America's shift to electric vehicles is in top gear. A recent Senate bill proposes switching half of America's cars and trucks to electric power by 2030. Cities across the U.S. are actively promoting the adoption of electric vehicles. Even the hometown of big oil and gas is aggressively chasing a new title: the nation's electric-car capital. Houston created a fleet of electric-powered vehicles and partnered with Nissan and Reliant Energy to establish a network of electric charging stations. But while federal, state and city governments push the new technology, the question now is: How many U.S. drivers truly want to drive electric vehicles? And, what exactly are these customers looking for?

The first question is a challenge due to the higher cost of electric vehicles, which depend on batteries that are still expensive. Bain & Company's customer research shows that if the total cost of electric vehicles (vehicle price plus fuel and maintenance charges) is comparable with conventional cars, current global sales of electric vehicles would be as much as 1.5 million units annually — with more than 500,000 units sold in the United States.

Figuring out who will buy electric cars now - when there's still a cost disadvantage - is complex. According to Bain's recent market research, potential demand for electric vehicles will come from four distinct customer segments with varying degrees of interest. These are: the eco-friendly "green innovators;" the budget-conscious "cost-shoppers;" the risk-averse "laggards;" and finally the eco-prestige, high-end customers. We call this last influential group "Premium 2.0," because the needs and the purchase preferences of these demanding electric-vehicle customers will redefine the high-end auto market.

Our research shows that in the U.S., it's the up-market Premium 2.0 customers who will lead the adoption of the new technology. This group is willing to put up with technology glitches, a low vehicle range and other performance issues as long as they are the first to drive the innovative and cool new electric cars. In fact, Bain's research has identified a potential market of about 350,000 such premium customers worldwide - up to half of them in the U.S. - who would be ready to buy an electric vehicle today, even if it's priced at about $12,000 above a comparable conventional car.

That brings us to the sell side. The emergence of the Premium 2.0 shopper as the first sizeable customer segment - as opposed to green innovators - will have huge implications for how car manufacturers design, market and package electric cars in the United States. Just as iPhone customers pride themselves on being distinct from other mobile-phone users, these prestige customers seek cachet for the extra cash they're willing to spend for the first generation of electric cars.

The nascent market for electric vehicles could be a disruptive force that challenges the dominance of leading car makers. Potential Premium 2.0 customers in the U.S. currently drive a mix of conventional premium German, U.S. and Japanese brands. When asked which car manufacturer they would buy an electric vehicle from, many listed both Japanese and German brands, with U.S. brands trailing behind.

While Premium 2.0 customers will lead the charge for electric vehicles, other consumers will soon follow. According to Bain analysis, as usage and volumes increase and technology improves, battery prices could fall by 60 percent by 2020. That would further accelerate consumers towards a new energy future - one that relies less on oil and generates fewer carbon emissions. With Texas increasingly generating power from renewable wind energy and Houston steadily installing charging infrastructure, the future for electric vehicles, at least in this corner of the U.S., seems bright.

Living For A Week With An Electric Car

2010-07-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

From THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Published: July 23, 2010
Updated: 5:52 p.m.

Living for a week with an electric car

By MATT DEGEN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

This past week I had the chance to drive the way a growing number of us will in the not-too-distant future. That is, I had the chance to be propelled around Orange County via electricity, not petroleum.

Doing the propelling was Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, a tiny four-door, four-passenger car that has been on sale for a year in Mitsubishi’s home country of Japan, but doesn’t hit U.S. shores until fall of 2011.

Mitsubishi, whose North American division is based in Cypress, lent me a Japanese-spec version of the car not so much for a formal review of its driving merits, but to get a taste of what it’s like living with and using a micro car propelled entirely by electrons.

When the i-MiEV does arrive in the U.S., it will likely be a bit bigger than my version, whose overall length was 133.7 inches, about two feet longer than a Smart car. The U.S. model likely will be powered by the same mid-chassis electric drive-train that puts out 63 horsepower and 133 lb.-ft. of torque to the rear wheels, and will have better crash protection for passengers. And the steering wheel will be on the left, not the right.

More broadly, though, the U.S. version of the i-MiEV will be one of several cars relying on electricity stored in batteries that in turn operate an electric motor to ultimately spin the wheels.

Others include the all-electric Nissan Leaf, electrified versions of Ford’s Focus and Transit Connect, and plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt (on the lower end of the spectrum) and the Fisker Karma (think around $90,000) on the higher end, with those latter two employing a small, supplementary gasoline engine that can generate extra power once the batteries are drained, thus extending their range to hundreds of miles.

Of course, electricity stored in lithium-ion batteries is just one form of alternative fuel out there for an industry and public still debating how best to power the cars of tomorrow.

Hydrogen, natural gas and even diesel fuel – another petroleum derivative – are among other options on the table as automakers strive to meet higher mileage mandates and drivers the world over grapple with unstable gasoline prices. (I’ll leave any references to peak oil to those who relish debating such polarizing topics.)

One of the biggest concerns with purely electric vehicles is “range anxiety,” a term meant to portray drivers’ fear of running out of electricity and becoming stranded in their cars.

While automakers incorporating gasoline engines and batteries in their hybrid cars – think Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, Chevy Volt – give consumers the ability to travel hundreds of miles before plugging into either an electrical outlet or gasoline pump, cars using solely battery power at the present time are limited to maybe 100 miles at best before they must be recharged. Thus, these cars are not meant to long hauls just yet.

“We don’t position this as a replacement for your gasoline vehicle,” Mitsubishi product spokesman Moe Durand said of the i-MiEV. “As this technology evolves, it will be a one-to-one replacement."

So you only get 100 miles at best in these things and have to remember to plug them in regularly if you want to drive them the next day. Does that mean an electric car like the i-MiEV will only beckon a small niche of today’s drivers willing to put for the extra effort? Not necessarily.

In fact, after driving this car for a week, I became convinced that electric vehicles could have a sizable place even in today’s market, and could appeal to those early adopters willing to spend the money and energy (energy, get it?) required to own one of these cars. How much money and energy is that?

Those are among the questions I was asked as I drove this funky, right-hand drive car around O.C. Below are some answers to the most burning questions I was asked.

Q: How do you charge this thing?

A: One of the best things about the i-MiEV is that along with a 220-volt input, it also can be charged via ordinary 110. It will take about 12 hours to charge a completely drained battery that way, but the great thing is, anywhere there’s an outlet, it’s like having your personal refueling station. The vehicle will also have the ability to accept high-voltage input at special charging stations that can bring it to 80 percent charge in around 20 minutes.

Q: How long will it go?

A: Mitsubishi rates the range of the i-MiEV “concept” – the one likely to show up on U.S. shores — as 80 to 100 miles.

Q: How fast will it go?

A: I got it up to 130 the other day. Of course, that was kilometers per hour. Converted to mph, that would equal Mitsubishi’s stated top speed of about 81 mph for this vehicle. In a very informal count from 0-60 mph, I ticked off around 9 or 10 seconds, not exactly brisk, but not terrible, either.Q: How much does it cost?

A: Mitsubishi has not made it official, but Durand tells me it will be “under $30,000” when the car arrives in the U.S. And keep in mind, there will likely be tax incentives to bring down that end cost.

Q: Do you feel safe in it?A: Not any more or less than I do my Miata.

Q: How do you change the oil?

A: You don’t, because there isn’t any to change. One of the benefits of an electric car such as this is the lack of moving parts and lack of fluids. This translates to less maintenance down the road on traditional services such as oil changes, timing belt replacement, etc.

Q: Does it make any noise?

A: Not much. One of the first things you notice about the i-MiEV is actually it’s lack of noise at any speed. Aside from the beeping when it backs up an a tendency to whine at high speeds under acceleration, the ride is surprisingly quiet.

Q: What happens if you run out of electricity?

A: You call a friend or taxi for a lift, or push the thing to the nearest electrical outlet. When driving an electric car such as this, it’s vital have a plan of where you’re going and to keep an eye on how much remaining power you have. If you use the air conditioning or, even more so, the heater, expect power to be drained even more quickly. It’s also vital to just get into the habit of plugging the thing in when you’re not driving it.

Q: What do you think of it overall?

A: I think it’s a hoot to have and drive around town, kind of like a street legal, freeway capable golf cart that can also accommodate four adults. I wouldn’t care to drive extensively at high speeds until the U.S.-spec version arrives with better capabilities for that. But for people who have a routine route under 50 miles a day and hope to shave both fuel costs and emit zero emissions, an all-electric car like the i-MiEV could be a welcome second vehicle for tooling around town.

Honda Puts Fun Into Owning A Hybrid

2010-07-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

From Burnaby NewsLeader

TEST DRIVE: Honda puts fun into owning a hybrid

By Jim Robinson - Burnaby NewsLeader
Published: July 22, 2010 12:00 PM
Updated: July 22, 2010 12:11 PM

Can you have fun and drive a hybrid?

Honda thinks they have the answer to that in the 2011 CR-Z.

For those who go back a bit, the CR-X, made from 1983-1991, was one of the most endearing cars Honda ever made. It was a small sporty coupe based on the Civic that had basically two seats with pert, chopped off tail. It didn’t have a lot of power but the CR-X more than made up for that with nimble handing, frugal operation, affordable pricing and a whole lot of character.

That Honda chose the name CR-Z was not lost on journalists attending the press launch in Toronto although Honda claims it’s just a coincidence. Right.

Nonetheless, the CR-Z is also a two-seat sporty coupe with a pert, chopped off tail and styling that screams, this car is a blast.

And while the old CR-X was great on gas, the new car goes a big one better; it’s a hybrid.

The CR-Z starts with a 1.5-litre, SOHC four-cylinder gasoline engine based on the unit used in the Fit. By itself, the engine produces 113 hp and 107 lb/ft of torque. It is then hooked up to a new, thinner, lighter electric motor which is part of Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) approach to hybrid cars.

Unlike Toyota, where the engine augments the battery, Honda uses the lithium-ion rechargeable battery to give the engine an extra shot of acceleration and torque, kind of like an electric supercharger.

The motor gives 13 more horsepower, but more importantly, 58 lb/ft of torque. When they are combined, the CR-V gives a rated 122 hp and 128 lb/ft of torque. You may notice that 107 and 58 lb/ft of torque don’t add up to 128 lb/ft. That’s because the two power plants make peak torque at quite different RPMs. The 128 lb/ft therefore is a rating of what torque is produced in real world conditions.

FYI, estimated fuel consumption is 6.5/5.3/6.0L/100 km city/highway/combined with the standard six-speed manual transmission and 5.6/5.0/5.5L/100 km city/highway/combined for the optional Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT).

When it comes to the fun part, there are actually several ways to do it.

We’ll get to the ride and handling in a bit, but first is the 3-Mode Drive System. To the left of the instrument panel are three buttons marked Sport, Normal and Econ.

Normal is the standard setting for engine response, steering, IMA and air conditioning. The engine always defaults to Normal at startup. Econ optimizes the system so IMA uses less power for better fuel consumption along with cutting back the power draw of the air conditioning. Power gives IMA priority toward performance by increasing throttle and electric steering response.

Similar to the Honda Insight Hybrid, you can turn watching your fuel consumption into a game.

The main instrument ahead of the driver is a very large tachometre in the centre of which is a round gauge giving a digital display for speed and other driver info. But around the edge of this gauge is a coloured ring that ranges from green for good mileage, to blue for not the best mileage to red for being fuel naughty.

When you’re in Sport, the ring stays red all the time, almost glaring at you. In Normal, the ring transitions from green to blue to the point it is a like a video game where bring green means you’re good. Soon you find yourself feathering the throttle and braking hard to increase regenerative power to the battery in order to be as green as possible.

Econ mode means green almost all of the time. But there’s a catch.

Econ retards the IMA and engine to the point that the car is very sluggish off the line. You’d think this would be great in the city, but with all manner of high-powered cars and trucks behind you, operating in Sport is almost mandatory.

Surprisingly to me, Econ worked best on suburban streets on the outskirts of the big city where the pace is more relaxed and civilized.

Hit Sport when you’re in Normal and you’ll feel the surge of power come in. Go from Econ to Sport and the CR-Z vaults ahead. Go from Sport to Econ on the highway and it’s like you popped a parachute.

At a stop, the engine shuts off and turns off the air to cut fuel consumption.

Press in the clutch and the IMA starts the engine and off you go.

Out on the road, the handling was like a small sportscar, precise and with great feedback.

At a closed course slalom, people were throwing the CR-Z around with great abandon with one journalist delighting in the low-end torque and the fact he could get the tail to hang out on hairpin turns.

On a highway north of Toronto, I drove the car mostly in Normal and my co-driver mostly in Sport. The sports tuned suspension is already pretty good, but it’s even better in Sport allowing you to enjoy the car and stay under the posted speed limit all at the same time.

We also got a lot of looks in the CR-Z, mostly from kids but also from a lot of Honda driver/owners.

At a stop for coffee a woman pulled up beside me in a Honda Insight Hybrid and exclaimed how she and like-minded hybrid owners are changing the world as she lit up a cigarette—go figure.

One thing you will have to get used to is the view through the rear window panel. Like the Insight Hybrid the liftgate is chopped off at the back with a vertical window.

The problem is there is a thick seam where the liftgate window meets the back window that is directly in the line of sight, partially blocking the view of cars behind.

There is cargo space for up to 711 litres. The CR-Z comes with a rear cargo cover that can be fitted at three different levels. In addition, there is a rear cargo console behind the front seats providing a hidden storage area complete with two-zone tray.

I said there are several ways to have fun in this car and another is cost.

If you were expecting to pay $30,000 or more, forget it.

The 2011 CR-Z Hybrid with standard six airbags, electronic stability control, Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights, 16-inch alloy wheels, four-wheel disc brakes with traction control, tire pressure monitoring system, Bluetooth hands-free phone link and 360-watt premium sound system with seven speakers is $23,490 for the manual and $24,290 for the CVT.

That means, along with the Civic Hybrid and the Insight, Honda offers the three lowest priced hybrids on the market.

And how much fun is that?

Honda To Bring Plug-In Electric Cars To U.S.

2010-07-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

From CNET News

Honda to bring plug-in electric cars to U.S.

By Martin LaMonica
July 20, 2010 1:37 PM PDT

Once considered a step behind in hybrids and electric vehicles, Honda on Tuesday outlined plans to introduce a range of plug-in electric vehicles to the U.S. and Japan.

Honda said it will introduce both a battery-electric and a plug-in hybrid to the U.S. in 2012. It also said that it plans to use lithium-ion battery technology in the next-generation hybrid Civic, which will be introduced in 2011.

Among the planned models are an all-electric, or battery-electric, "commuter vehicle" and a plug-in hybrid system for mid-size and larger vehicles, both of which will be introduced to the U.S. in 2012.

Honda plans to deliver all-electric cars for demonstration programs with Stanford University, Google, and the City of Torrance, Calif., where Honda's U.S. operation is based.

The move sharpens the competition in the plug-in electric-vehicle category, where all the major automakers and start-ups, such as Tesla Motors, plan to bring out electric or hybrid cars in the next two years.

In addition to the new models, Honda expects to introduce more hybrids which use its existing hybrid platform, now used on the Insight and CR-Z. The first model will be a hybrid version of the Fit compact available in Japan this fall, said Honda CEO Takanobu Ito at an event in Japan on Tuesday.

Honda will also boost investment to make its gasoline and diesel engines more efficient, starting with revamped designs in 2012, he said. The company will continue development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which it considers the best long-term clean transportation technology.

Although it does already offer hybrids, Honda executives have been unenthusiastic about plug-in vehicles. In 2007, then-CEO Takeo Fukui said that plug-in hybrids offer too few environmental benefits while tacking on significant costs.

Toyota had also been very cautious about pursuing plug-in electric vehicles, but last week the company announced a plan to bring all-electric RAV4 SUVs to the U.S. through a partnership with Tesla in 2012.

Honda's current CEO, Ito, said on Tuesday that the company is investing in environmental technologies to spur growth. "'With low CO2 emissions'" represents our conviction based on the strong sense of crisis that, as a manufacturer of personal mobility, Honda will have no future unless we achieve a significant reduction of CO2 emissions," Ito said in a statement.

Fisker Closes Takeover Of Former GM Plant To Build Hybrids

2010-07-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

From usatoday.com

Fisker closes takeover of former GM plant to build hybrids

Fisker Automotive closed its purchase of the former GM Boxwood plant near Wilmington. Del., where it plans to build plug-in hybrids. The privately held California company paid $20 million to Old GM (the entity left in bankruptcy court to sell unwanted assets) for the 3.2 million sq. ft. factory. It opened in 1947 and turned out about 8.5 million vehicles before GM shut it down last year.

Fisker used money from the $528.7 million Department of Energy loan it recently got to develop two lines of plug-in hybrids. But the Wilmington plant won't be used until CEO Henrik Fisker's second, cheaper line of plug-ins is ready. Fisker's first car -- the $88,000 Karma sedan -- is to be built in Finland. The company has said it will be out later this, though much of its development has been kept behind closed doors.

The Wilmington plant would build vehicles for the U.S. and export, Fisker says, and could employ up to 2,000.

Worlds Fastest Electric Car

2010-07-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

From Winnipeg Free Press

World's fastest electric car makes Vancouver pit stop on 26,000-km journey

By: The Canadian Press
16/07/2010 6:18 PM

VANCOUVER - The bugs are "disgusting" and the police have been pesky, but overall a team of students from Imperial College London are having the adventure of a lifetime showing off one of the world's fastest electric cars.

The Racing Green Endurance team left Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on July 4 bound for Argentina on a 26,000-kilometre trip to generate some excitement about electric cars.

The sleek, low-slung vehicle looks better suited to a race track than the bumpy highway between Alaska and British Columbia. There's no top or windshield, leaving only a helmet between the driver and the bugs.

Andy Hadland, the team's public relations director, said he was thankful for the head gear after his first turn behind the wheel.

"After every trip you're wiping off the helmet. It's kind of red, yellow, brown, it's a little disgusting actually."

The team has also been pulled over several times by police officers who were both curious and suspicious.

"What makes you think you can drive a car like this legally in Canada?" Hadland said, dropping his British accent to imitate the officers who have pulled them over.

He said once they satisfy the officers' curiosity and show them the car is insured for the road, they've been allowed to move on.

Other than being surrounded by a herd of bison early one morning and one blown fuse in the vehicle, the trip has been uneventful, Hadland said during a short pit stop in Vancouver on Friday.

Yet, to his surprise, the journey has been tiring.

"I knew it would be hard work, but it's not as much of a holiday as I expected," he said, still smiling.

The 400-horsepower vehicle can reach speeds of up to 200 km/h and will go more than 400 kilometres on one charge, but takes eight hours to recharge from completely empty.

Its two electric motors in the rear of the car are powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries that account for almost half of the total 1,180 kilograms of the fibreglass vehicle.

The goal is to drive 26,000 kilometres, through 14 countries in 84 days with the hope of convincing the public that electric vehicles aren't the highway pariahs they once were.

"Part of what they want do is change this perception of electric cars as being slow kind of grandma's car," said Lorne Burns, of KPMG, the company sponsoring the team's journey. "This is anything but Grandma's car. This thing's fast, it's cool."

Even though Hadland, who isn't overly tall, has to fold himself into the vehicle's tiny interior when it's his turn to drive, he said there are few drawbacks to the vehicle.

It's fun to drive, cheap to run, there are no emissions, and the air is cleaner, he said.

"You've got 100 per cent torque, 100 per cent of the time. That means you've always got full power whenever you want to put your foot down," he said.

The Flying Prius

2010-07-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

From newsweek.com

The Flying Prius

The future of the passenger jet may look surprisingly like a larger version of the hybrid automobile.

The future of aviation that engineers dreamed about 70 years ago didn’t look much like the present. But it did look a lot like the future of aviation they’re still dreaming of today.

Back in 1938, for instance, Popular Mechanics magazine ran a cover story on “The Flying Wing of the Future,” an amazing machine in which the fuselage was almost indistinguishable from the wide V of the wings. In May of this year, NASA presented the latest thinking from Boeing, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, and MIT about the “down to earth” shape of planes to come in the next 20 to 30 years, with companion studies by Boeing and Lockheed Martin about supersonic transport. Sure enough, one of the MIT proposals is for the Hybrid Wing Body H-Series, an enormous flying wing, and NASA actually has been test-flying a model of something similar, the X-48B, since 2006. At first glance they look like they’re straight out of 1938.

But the operative phrase here is “at first glance.” Basic principles of lift and propulsion are immutable, so certain design features keep coming back. What’s really new is just about everything else that’s likely to go into making the next generation—indeed, the next several generations—of planes: the composites for the bodies; the engines that propel them; the computers that steer them; and, most important, the new economic, environmental, and political imperatives of the 21st century. Manufacturers really have little choice but to produce quieter, safer, more fuel-efficient, and greener machines than ever before—if only they can figure out how.
Click here to find out more!

As almost 1,400 exhibitors gather at the Farnborough Air Show in Britain this week, the usual razzle-dazzle of military hardware, the thunderous fly-overs, and the glitzy presentations of airline luxury won’t be able to obscure the enormous challenges that loom on the horizon. The skies already are saturated with planes and passengers, but traffic is expected to double or even triple by 2050. The stunning disruptions caused by a single volcano in Iceland last spring showed just how delicately balanced, and vulnerable, the whole system has become. Meanwhile, the cost of aviation fuel has quadrupled since the mid-1990s and if, as many predict, the global oil supply continues to grow tighter, those prices could go through the stratosphere.

“In the future, environmental concern will be a really huge issue,” says Jaiwon Shin, head of aeronautics research at NASA. “We are seeing that in other industries. I think aviation will not be an exception.” Add the traditionally low profit margins on which the airline industry operates, and “the trend is fairly predictable,” Shin says. “It’s got to be fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly, so any concept that meets these two criteria will win out.” The recent studies commissioned by NASA are for planes that burn 70 percent less fuel than today and fly 71 decibels quieter than a 737. “NASA’s goal,” says spokeswoman Beth Dickey, “is to bring these technologies to a point where they are ready for prime time. Then it is up to the industry to put them on their airplanes.”

What’s new about such projects is not the expression of concern about the environment but the sense of urgency about addressing it. For years, airlines and airplane manufacturers tended to treat climate change as if it were largely a public-relations problem. Their carbon footprint in the sky, after all, was only about 2 to 3 percent of the global total. International air traffic wasn’t even mentioned in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on the environment. But according to the most recent studies, aviation’s share of greenhouse gases could increase dramatically to about three times current levels by midcentury, with technical improvements being offset by the expected increase in traffic in and among developing countries. In the meantime, the European Union, with some of the most crowded skies in the world already, is trying to force airlines to join its existing carbon-trading scheme. And carbon isn’t the only problem. High-altitude nitrogen-oxide emissions from commercial jets may be destabilizing the ozone layer, while on the ground people are ever less patient with deafening noise around airports. “People will not be as tolerant as we were 30 years ago when 707s were flying like jet fighters overhead,” says Shin.

It’s tempting to think that some truly radical new approach can change all this for the better. “I think we will come to the point in the next 30 to 40 years where we will say, now we have to make a break and go for rather radical designs, which is maybe a completely different design of an aircraft—a completely different type of engine, a completely different type of fuel,” says a European Commission source who asked not to be cited by name because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. “At a certain stage that break will come, don’t ask me when.”

The European Commission sponsored a much-talked-about “Out of the Box” study looking at the future of aviation in 2006, a brainstorm exercise that entertained such whimsical notions as the invisible airplane and a flying boat. This week the commission will call for a raft of new proposals that will actually get funding for further research. That’s the crucial step in any of these efforts to turn designer dreams into soaring realities. Under consideration are nuclear engines, plasma jets, biofuels, and green fuels along with innovative configurations of the fuselage and engines. Some funding targets will have pilots, and some could be computer-controlled from takeoff to landing. But even when the research is well funded, such concepts are mostly geared toward that moment when, or if, the possibilities of somewhat more conventional approaches really have been exhausted. That’s not likely until the middle of the century at the earliest.

The NASA program, meanwhile, is looking toward what it hopes are more-feasible projects for planes that could be in the air two or three decades from now. One that has created a lot of buzz in aviation blogs is being called “the double bubble,” a design proposal that might just as easily be dubbed “the double-wide in the sky”: two tubular fuselages crunched together side by side and held aloft by what seem like impossibly thin wings.

More interesting still is one of the designs that Boeing came up with for NASA: the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research, or SUGAR Volt. This plane looks a little like a World War II glider with long tapered wings held in place by trusses. But like a Prius or other hybrid cars, you don’t really get an idea how revolutionary it might be until you look under the hood.

The engines that drive modern commercial planes have undergone a quiet revolution—or a massive evolution, if you will—over the last 30 to 40 years. Old jets combined air and kerosene in an explosive mix that blasted out the back to provide rocketlike thrust. They were powerful, loud, and sucked up fuel like nobody’s business. Some jet fighters still do this. But the engines of today’s commercial airliners combine the hot air from a jet at their core with cooler air pushed around it by fans and compressors. The system allows them to be much quieter and more fuel-efficient than earlier engines, and a great deal of R&D these days is focused on making turbines better still by increasing the amount of cold air in the mix—the bypass ratio, as it’s called—to give extra thrust with minimal extra noise and fuel consumption. Common bypass ratios today are about 5 to 1, some are greater than 10, and researchers are shooting for 20 or more. There is also growing interest in what are called “open rotors,” which look like updated versions of propeller engines, but with more blades.

Boeing’s SUGAR Volt proposes to use a hybrid propulsion system that, in broad outlines, really is reminiscent of a Prius: the cool-air fans and compressors would be powered part of the time by electric motors that would be charged by the combustion engine.

Some green aviation projects, meanwhile, are developing independently of aerospace giants and big government programs. One of the most intriguing is the spindly SolarImpulse, funded by Omega watches and other corporate sponsors. It may bear a striking resemblance to those rubber-band airplanes you flew in the backyard as a kid, but with its wings soaking up solar energy it proved in Switzerland earlier this month that it can run both day and night on nothing but the power of the sun. Its builders aim to fly it around the world in 2013.

Many industry experts remain skeptical about the possibilities for truly revolutionary change. Jean-Marc Thomas, a senior vice president of EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, gently mocks the computer-generated pictures firms provide as “dream images” of a distant future. “The more outlandish a plane looks, the more it gives the impression that it’s terribly modern,” says Thomas. “But things don’t really work that way in the aerospace industry.” Aircraft that are going to carry millions of passengers have to be extremely safe and reliable, which militates against their being extreme in most other ways.

As Thomas points out, the enormous-but-conventional-looking Airbus 380 now in service is the only airliner aloft that uses fewer than three liters of kerosene per passenger per 100 kilometers—mainly because it carries up to 800 people at a time. By comparison, in 1985 the average commercial aircraft consumed about 8 liters per passenger per 100 kilometers. Critics have talked about supersize aircraft as if they’re the Hummers of the sky. But the arithmetic for green aviation is different than it is for cars. Thus the International Air Transport Association says many “modern aircraft” already have gotten to the point where they get 3.5 liters per 100 kilometers per passenger, while one person driving alone in an actual 2010 Prius will burn up 3.8 liters to travel the same distance.

Even proposals for a new generation of supersonic airliners are being presented in a greener context these days. The concepts that Lockheed Martin and Boeing submitted to NASA this year would actually be a little slower than the French-British Concorde, which flew from the 1970s until a disastrous crash brought its service to an end in 2000. The new planes would cruise at about 1.6 to 1.8 times the speed of sound, roughly twice as fast as conventional airliners. The Concorde flew at Mach 2. The new ones would carry about three times as many passengers as the Concorde and their design would radically reduce the explosive-sounding boom made crossing the sound barrier from “a crack to a rumble,” says NASA’s Peter Coen, who is overseeing the project. So the planes would be “greener” than the Concorde, but not as friendly to the environment as subsonic aircraft. They’d be high-end time savers, not fuel savers.

“Supersonic airplanes tend to drive a wedge between naysayers and supporters, because we are really talking about opening up whole new markets,” says Shin. “And our perspective is that in order for supersonic markets even to start there is a huge 800-pound gorilla right in the middle of the room, and that is sonic-boom regulation.” Whether a crack or a rumble, the noise is illegal over the continental United States right now. For the moment, neither politics nor economics are favorable to such projects.

So when it comes to outlandish-looking—but practical—planes, the levelheaded seers of the aviation world keep coming back to the subsonic flying-wing designs being developed in both Europe and the United States. These would most likely be enormous craft capable of carrying as many as 1,000 passengers. The lift characteristics of the fuselage would give them savings of about 40 percent on fuel right away, says Shin. Their advanced engines, with bypass ratios two or three times as high as current jets, would be mounted above the fuselage rather than below the wing, lowering dramatically the amount of noise heard on the ground.

According to Fay Collier, who has overseen NASA’s 80 test flights of the X-48B scale model prototype, most of the problems of low-speed control and the structural issues are on their way to being resolved. If manufacturers and airline companies are receptive, commercial aircraft built along these lines could be rolling out of the factory in 15 to 20 years, conceivably even sooner, if the public wants them. Will passengers be comfortable flying inside such a big enclosed space? Could “virtual windows” supplant real ones? Shin thinks customers will get used to such things. Will airports be ready to accommodate the huge change in shape and the multiple points from which passengers would board and disembark? Many terminals already have adapted to the Airbus 380, which had some of the same issues.

Flying wings—truly the jolly green giants of the sky—may not be ready for prime time in NASA terms, but they’re getting close.

With Juliane Von Reppert-Bismarck in Brussels

Honda to Build Hybrid Plant

2010-07-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

From zacks.com

Honda to Build Hybrid Plant

By: Zacks Equity Research
July 15, 2010 | Comments: 0

Honda Motor Co. (HMC - Analyst Report) plans to resume construction of its hybrid plant in Yorii, Saitama of Japan in order to focus on its green vehicles business. At the same time, Japan’s second largest automaker has scrapped its plan to build a 660cc mini-vehicle factory at its subsidiary Yachiyo Industry Co.

Honda delayed constructing both the plants due to the global financial crisis in 2008. Both were scheduled to start production in 2010.

The automaker has initially planned to manufacture clean-diesel and other fuel-saving vehicles at the Yorii factory. However, with the tightening of environmental regulations around the world and a rebound in demand in Japan and North America, Honda has decided to roll out more hybrid cars in the markets.

The Nikkei business daily has reported that Honda move away from producing mini-vehicles, which has a market limited to its home country. As a result, the automaker has abandoned its ¥50 billion ($565 million) plan to build the mini-vehicle factory. The news agency has also revealed that the Yorii plant will begin production from 2013.

In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, Honda has posted a profit of ¥72.1 billion ($776 million), a stupendous 140% increase from the same period in 2009. This was equivalent to earnings per share of ¥39.78 (43 cents), an increase of ¥138.95 ($1.50) from a loss of ¥99.17 ($1.07) in the corresponding period last year.

Consolidated net sales and other operating revenues in the quarter rose 27.8% to ¥2.3 trillion ($24.5 billion). This was attributable to favorable currency translation effects and increased sales in the automobile business. At constant exchange rates, Honda’s revenues would have increased 25.4%.

Consolidated operating income increased ¥368.2 billion ($3.96 billion) to ¥96 billion ($1.03 billion). This was attributable to increased profits on the back of increased revenue, reduction in vehicle costs and a decline in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenditures.

However, Honda’s results are expected to be adversely affected by unfavorable currency exchange rates, flat-to-lower sales in its key markets and increased competition. These have led us to recommend the shares as Strong Sell (Zacks #5 Rank) in the short term.

2010-07-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

From Bloomberg Businessweek

GM Plans to Offer 8-Year Warranty on Chevrolet Volt’s Battery
July 14, 2010, 7:28 PM EDT

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. is moving to boost the confidence of car buyers in the durability of its new Chevrolet Volt electric car with an eight-year warranty on its battery.

The Detroit automaker made the announcement at the factory in Brownstown Township, Michigan, where the batteries will be built. Next year, GM will build 10,000 of the cars, which run on all-electric drive for 40 miles before a gasoline engine recharges the battery. The Volt will initially be sold in Texas, New York, Michigan, California and Washington, D.C.

GM is seeking to use the Volt to challenge the high-tech image Toyota Motor Corp. won with the success of the Prius hybrid, said Jim Hall, principal of consulting firm 2953 Analytics in Birmingham, Michigan. Doing so will require GM to ensure the car performs and to stand behind it with a strong warranty, he said.

“Toyota defined what a hybrid was with Prius,” Hall said. “GM can define an extended-range electric vehicle, but if the car doesn’t perform well, you have a fiasco.”

While GM hasn’t given a price on the Volt yet, executives have said they want to keep the price below $40,000.

--Editors: Kevin Orland, Jamie Butters.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Welch in Southfield, Michigan, at dwelch12@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net

Tesla Says It Is Testing an Electric Car Prototype for Toyota

2010-07-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

From The New York Times

July 13, 2010, 10:56 am

Tesla Says It Is Testing an Electric Car Prototype for Toyota

By JIM MOTAVALLI

Just a few months after Toyota and Tesla Motors announced a collaboration on an electric car, a Tesla spokeswoman says a prototype has already been built and is undergoing testing.

Toyota and Tesla made a big splash in May, announcing Toyota’s planned $50 million investment in the electric car maker and a Tesla takeover of the Nummi plant in Fremont, Calif. On Monday, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the next steps — to build Toyota electric vehicle prototypes with Tesla power trains — are being undertaken very quickly and quietly.

When reached for details on the Bloomberg report, Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message that the prototype “is undergoing testing. It will be unveiled to the public later this year.” She declined to comment on specifics but wrote that the companies had signed a development agreement to put together “a high-volume Toyota vehicle with a Tesla electric power train.”

Ms. Brooklyn also passed along a comment from JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technology officer. “Since our announcement in May, Toyota and Tesla engineering teams have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and it is exciting to start seeing some initial results,” he said.

Mira Sleilati, a spokeswoman for Toyota Motor North America, also said the company couldn’t confirm the details of the Bloomberg report. “The two companies have teams studying where we might be working together,” she said. “We have not confirmed any particular model. But as we said at the announcement, we have a wide-open view of our possible collaboration in E.V. development and production engineering. ”

According to Bloomberg, Tesla is building electric test versions of the RAV4 and Lexus RX S.U.V.’s, and Toyota will receive them this month. It also said that the goal of the joint development project was an E.V. with a 150-mile range that could be sold for $40,000.

Toyota and Tesla said last spring that they would cooperate on E.V.’s, parts, production systems and engineering support. Tesla will produce its Model S sedan at Nummi, but the large plant could also accommodate a jointly developed Toyota-Tesla vehicle.

Quebec To House World's Largest Lithium Phosphate Plant

2010-07-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

From Financial Post

Quebec to house world's largest lithium phosphate plant

Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post · Monday, Jul. 12, 2010

Montreal – German chemical company Sud-Chemie AG said it will build the world’s largest plant for the production of lithium iron phosphate in Candiac on Montreal’s south shore, further cementing the province’s status as a hot bed for electric vehicle development and testing.

Publicly traded Sud-Chemie said it would invest about 60 million euros ($77.9-million) in the venture, which involves construction of a new production facility in Candiac, the site of its Canadian subsidiary Phostech Lithium Inc. Lithium iron phosphate is an energy storage material used in batteries for electric vehicle drives and other applications.

Commercial production for delivery will start in 2012 and reach a rate of 2,500 tons per year, the Munich-based company said. That’s enough to supply 50,000 all-electric automobiles or up to 500,000 gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

Sud-Chemie already produces lithium iron phosphate used in power tools, vehicle starter batteries and electric scooters in Europe, Asia and North America. The company said it is expanding its production capacity to meet strong demand and supplement the 300-ton annual output capacity of its Moosburg, Germany site.

“This investment is of central strategic importance to Sud-Chemie,” company chairman Gunter von Au said in a statement. “Our [lithium iron phosphate] will establish itself as a storage material for large high-performance batteries, thus enabling electromobility to achieve an overall breakthrough in the automotive industry.”

The company’s announcement adds to the activity taking place in Quebec on electric vehicle technology development, especially as it relates to integration with the power grid.

Hydro-Quebec, Canada’s largest utility, is working with Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada to test the performance of up to 50 all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars starting this fall. The $4.5-million trial is designed to study how the vehicles charge and drive. The utility, one of the world’s major producers of hydro-electric power, spent $200-million from 1993 to 2003 in manufacturing its own electric vehicle drive system, past president André Caillé said.

Sud-Chemie tallied sales of 1.07-billion euros in 2009, mostly outside Germany. At the end of last year, it employed 6,500 people worldwide.

Financial Post