Posted: August 4th, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: BEV, Cars, Chevy Volt, EV, evatran, inductive charging, nissan, nissan leaf, plug-in 2010, plugless power, Tom Hough, Transportation | View Comments
Besides the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt, charging infrastructure and charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles, were the hot product announcements at last week’s Plug-In 2010 Conference. One of the most interesting of these was the the unveiling of Plugless Power, “the worlds first hands-free, proximity charging system” by Evatran.
The two-part system, based upon the principle of inductive charging, works without any operator involvement. A driver can park his vehicle in a Plugless Power equipped parking space and walk away, as the system automatically begins charging the vehicle.
Posted: August 3rd, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: BEV, Cars, EV, Leaf, nissan, nissan leaf, Transportation | View Comments
Earlier this week, I wrote about the launch of Nissan’s first fully-electric vehicle, the LEAF, and General Motors’ “parallel-hybrid” EV, the Chevy Volt. To briefly recap, the LEAF will have an MSRP of $32,780, leaving it close to $22,000 after Federal and State rebates. It has a range of 100 miles on a full charge, comes with an 8-year/100K mile battery warranty, and will be available for delivery to select cities starting in December.
I got a chance to test drive the LEAF, and, while I expected it to be a good car (Nissan quality, fully-electric drive), I hadn’t realized just how much I would like it. It’s fun to drive, and appears to deliver the experience that most small-car buyers expect and the range that they need, without sacrificing much. Perhaps the EV transition won’t be that difficult after all!
Posted: August 3rd, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars, Technology | Tags: brt, busbrt, Cars, china, future, interstate, Technology | View Comments
A bus straddling the road, with cars driving underit sounds crazy, at first, but actually looks like a pretty reasonable idea.
As a matter of fact, it’s very easy to see how you could use several of these, in tandem to quickly implement a high-capacity rapid-bus system nationwide, on our existing interstate highway system.
This actually makes sense, because most of the Interstate system is build to the same specifications, as to road and lane width, overpass height, etc.
Posted: January 4th, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: Business, Cars, cleantech, Cleanteh Open, EV, EVIN, PHEV, SABA, tesla, Transportation | View Comments
While Tesla Motors and other EV manufacturers have had recent successes and grabbed quite a few headlines, they still face a major hurdle: charging infrastructure. Without a fast and reliable way to re-fuel their vehicles, EV customers will be limited to those who drive less than 200 miles per day or those who can afford to keep the vehicle as a novelty. According to investment website the Motley Fool, 220-volt charging times are the Achilles heel of EVs, with the Tesla Roadsters’ current 200-volt unit taking approximately 4 hours to fully charge.
Automotive industry analyst Jim Motavalli (bnet.com) writes about Tesla’s dilemma in the context of the company’s rumored IPO, first reported by Reuters but denied by Tesla management. Motavalli points to one solution to the charging infrastructure, proposed by The Car Charging Group, Inc. (CCGI):
According to CEO Andy Kinard, Florida-based CCGI will not build its own charging technology, but will distribute chargers built by established player Coulomb. Its business model…is to sign contracts with businesses…that operate parking lots. The contract spells out revenue sharing between the parties, so parking slots will gain free EV infrastructure and lot managers will get cash from charging.
The article also goes on to say that CCGI will standardize on “J1772 charging hardware” and will go from 0 to 1,000 units by the end of 2010. While this would certainly be good news for Tesla, it is not entirely clear just how reliable CCGI’s predictions are.
However, what the article does not mention is that this is not the whole story for electric vehicle infrastructure. Some startups are focusing on an entirely different strategy. One such company is the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Network (EVIN), and its business model circumvents the “chicken-and-egg” problem altogether.
Posted: December 31st, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: Cars, cleantech, electric, linkedin, Transportation | View Comments
Earth2Tech has posted an interesting article which takes a look at some of the predictions made for green transportation at the beginning of the decade, and how close those predictions were to reality. While the decade started out with a lot of promise, corporate interests and politics slowed that down, only to see green vehicles come back strong as the economy weakened:
We entered the 2000’s with rules in California requiring automakers to offer EVs, but by 2003, state regulators changed the rules and many automakers dropped EV initiativesand focused on gas guzzlers. But here we are nearing the end of 2009, and automakers are now investing heavily in electric vehicles, natural gas cars are gaining traction in high places, and hydrogen cars are about as far off as ever.
The verdict? Despite some movement, Natural Gas Vehicle adoption and High-Speed Rail are still a long way off, while the Hydrogen Economy is nowhere to be seen. Electric Vehicle adoption also has many more obstacles to overcome than originally predicted. Just about the only thing that the pundits got right was that Hybrid Vehicle technology would be a bridge to EV adoption.
Posted: December 7th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: Cars, cleantech, fisker, SABA, tesla, Transportation, x-prize | View Comments
In years to come, we may look back on 2009 as the year that electric vehicles became mainstream, at least as far the media is concerned. The past few weeks have been no different as a number of organizations from all over the automotive industry made EV-related announcements. One of these organizations, the Cleantech Group, seems to be bucking the trend with its prediction that so-called Smart Mobility will overtake EVs in 2010, although AutoBlogGreen’s Sebastian Blanco disagrees, and argues that, as far as the media is concerned, 2010 will be even bigger for EV news.
Fueling the Imagination
F
or example, just hearing the words “X-Prize” is bound to conjure up images of maverick entrepreneurs competing for millions of dollars of prize money to achieve new milestones in air and space flight. That’s exactly what the founders of the X-Prize Foundation want you to think about when you hear about the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, a new competition which focuses on environmentally-friendly automobiles instead of airplanes and rockets. As we reported in a previous article, the competition awards a $10 million dollar prize to the car that, in addition to being the winner in a series of speed and endurance trials, must achieve an effective 100 miles per gallon, have a 200 mile range, and adhere to a large number of very stringent design and safety criteria.
According to the New York Times, the new X-Prize is receiving a boost from the Federal government in the form of $5.5 million of stimulus money from the Department of Energy. This support of competition seems like a good way to promote fairness and innovation, especially since the DOE has been previously accused of stifling innovation in the automotive sector with its Advanced Technology Manufacturing Loan program.
Posted: November 20th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars, Sustainability, Technology | Tags: Cars, cleantech, electric, linkedin, SABA, startup, Sustainability, Technology, tesla, Transportation, video | View Comments
Ever since I was a kid, when my father used give me Matchbox cars he bought on his way home from work, I’ve been crazy about cars. So I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to speak with Simon Saba of Saba Motors, whose EV vision is something any gearhead can get jazzed about: to deliver an exotic electric sports car with a price tag of under $40,000, that will have the looks and performance of cars costing 10 times as much and is environmentally friendly to boot!
I had the pleasure to speak with the animated Mr. Saba and his charming wife at the Fast Lane to CleanTech Incubator Mixer, held at Club Autosport in San Jose. Club Autosport is the current home of Saba Motors, and hosts it and a number of other cleantech companies at its “car-condominium” facility, as part of the Electronic Transportation Development Center (ETDC), a San Jose Redevelopment Agency initiative to incubate and support startups dedicated to clean automotive technologies, including battery infrastructure startup EVIN, the very unusual compressed air powered Magnetic Air Cars, and over 30 others.
Posted: October 28th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Business, Cars, Peak Oil, Sustainability | Tags: BEV, biodiesel, biofuel, Business, Cars, corporations, efficiency, electric, Energy, Ford, linkedin, Peak Oil, PHEV, Sustainability, Transparency, Transportation | View Comments
Ford Motor Company may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about large corporations that are committed to sustainability. After all, the company is one of the oldest and largest industrial corporations around, and produces many of the large SUVs and trucks that are at the center of the current climate controversy. So it may be surprising for some to learn that the company actually has a very extensive sustainability strategy in the works.
Posted: May 14th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: Business, Cars, linkedin | View Comments
Ford Motor Company
announced that it is investing $550 million to transform its Michigan Assembly Plant into a lean, green and flexible manufacturing complex that will build Ford’s next-generation
Focus global small car along with a new battery-electric version of the Focus for the North American market. The plant, formerly the production site for Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigators SUVs, is one of three North American light truck plants Ford is retooling to build fuel-efficient small cars in the coming years.
This transformation will not only be a shift in the plant’s focus from large SUVs to small cars, it will also include more efficient assembly methods, more ergonomic design to improve working conditions, and an
agreement with the United Auto Workers that implements new operating practices to improve quality and efficiency based on joint problem solving and continuous improvement .
Posted: April 10th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars | Tags: biodiesel, biofuel, Cars, racing | View Comments
Question: What has a steering wheel is made from carrots, has a body made from potatoes, is powered by waste chocolate and vegetable oil, and it goes 125 mph around corners?
1. Bugs Bunny’s carrot mobile
2. Mr. Potato Head’s Funny-Face Car
3. GM’s latest prototype
4. A Formula-3 race car
The answer, of course, is #4, and it’s the Environ-MENTAL, the first Formula 3 race car designed and made from sustainable and renewable materials, and, according to its designers, “putting the world first by effectively managing the planet’s resources.”
The Environ-MENTAL is the vehicle of choice for the WorldFirst Racing Team, a project of the University of Warwick’s U.K.-based Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (WIMRC). The team’s goal is to prove to the automotive industry that it is possible to build a competitive race car using environmentally sustainable components. Much like electric-car manufacturer Tesla, the team seeks to change the common perception that environmentally-friendly means boring. They want to prove that sustainability can be exciting.
WorldFirst has set out to design not just a racing car, but an entire sustainable racing system: “If you are going to wholeheartedly embrace the ‘green is great’ ethos and do more than merely posture, you have to broaden your vision. This must encompass a strategy that stretches throughout the chain from the raw materials to the final disposal of the car. The project clearly demonstrates that automotive environmentalism can and should be about the whole package.”
