Honda: 12 more years of no choice for consumers

There's really only one way to read the Kyodo News (Japan) report that Honda President Takeo Fukui said in an interview that Honda thinks it will be able to mass produce fuel-cell vehicles for the general market by 2018. For you and me that means gasoline-only Hondas (along with a few NGV Civics for die-hards) for at least another decade. Not surprising from this quintessential internal combusion engine company.

Honda previously announced plans to offer a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle based on its FCX Concept in Japan and the United States. At the Santa Monica AltFuel Expo in early December, I asked Steven Ellis, Honda AFV Chief, about the FCX. He said Honda would begin selling the car in 2008. I asked if he meant "selling" the car. Yes, he said. So I repeated, with emphasis, "selling?" And he confessed it would be, like the short-lived all-electric EV+, lease only. Press reports had already made clear it was to be lease-only, but seems the big auto guys can't help themselves. Reminiscent of GM referring to EV1 drivers as "owners," despite their unwillingness to actually sell the car. I also tried to find out the size of the battery pack in this battery/fuel cell hybrid car. "It's Lithium," he said proudly as he refused to divulge its kWh rating.

By evolving a next model based on this, I think the level of
technology will become very close to that of mass-produced ordinary
vehicles within 10 years or so. In 2018, I believe the development
[of a fuel-cell car] will have been very advanced. It will become a
real possibility to a large degree.
—Takeo Fukui

Fukui told Kyodo that there will be many customers who want to buy a Honda fuel-cell car if it goes on sale for ¥10 million (US$84,000) in the general market. Of course, the current cost of fuel cell cars is estimated at more than 10 times that figure.

Challenges that still need to be overcome before mass production is possible for Honda include reducing the amount of metals used for fuel cells, improving hydrogen storage and lower-cost production of hydrogen, according to Fukui. Is that all?

I suspect the battery we'll see in the FCX will be big enough to for a great plug-in hybrid. Honda could still sell it's engines with each car, but such a product would be marketable before the end of this decade. Not, I'm afraid, in Honda's plans. Yet.

MIT Year End Energy Review touts PHEVs

The MIT Technology Review reports plug-in hybrids a big 2006 energy story:

"The plug-in hybrid-vehicle era begins.
For years, hobbyists and a few companies have been adding bigger battery packs to hybrid vehicles, which have both battery power and an internal combustion engine, and plugging them into electrical outlets. This allows the cars, which typically rely on the electric power only for short bursts or to assist the onboard gasoline engine, to run on electricity alone for short trips. The idea of the "plug-in hybrid" has now caught the attention of government officials and researchers, who note that gas consumption would plummet if drivers could rely almost exclusively on electricity for average daily driving of about 33 miles. The gasoline engine would be available to boost performance and make it possible to use the car for long trips. Now the major car companies are taking notice and are finally developing plug-in hybrids. (See "GM's Plug-In Hybrid.") Meanwhile, researchers are beginning to anticipate benefits from plug-ins beyond gasoline conservation: millions of plug-in vehicles could serve as massive energy storage to stabilize the electric grid and make renewable energy sources more feasible. (See "How Plug-In Hybrids Will Save the Grid.") Battery costs still need to drop before such cars will approach the price of conventional hybrids or gas-only vehicles. But better batteries are already becoming available.

The Beast in the Rumble Seat

There is more to Dan Neil's recent LA Times column than a favorable review of yet another gasoline-only hybrid. He likes the Nissan Altima Hybrid well enough. Calls it a "Camry hybrid in tight jeans." More important, Neil says, is that it comes from an automaker that had scoffed at "hybridization." In December, Nissan announced its "Green Program 2010," projecting a line of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars utilizing lithium-ion batteries of its own manufacture. We are at a tipping point according to Neil:

"Let's bookmark this moment in the history of cars, because what is emerging is something like consensus. Hybrid doubters — who once railed that the batteries were sketchy, the costs of the so-called hybrid premium unrecoverable, the mileage gains overstated, and so on — are beginning to look like the Flat Earth Society. As underscored last month when GM announced it would build a plug-in hybrid version of its Saturn Vue, the logic of electric propulsion is compelling. Electric motors are clean, lightweight, maintenance-free and powerful. The latest lithium-ion batteries are energy-dense, durable, compact and recyclable. Putting these components together opens a world of oil- and carbon-saving possibilities."

The automakers have been engaged in a snail's pace race toward greater efficiency and lower emissions. The Europeans have placed their bet on the more efficient diesel engine, achieving mpg ratings in excess of the Prius without the complication and expense of hybridization. Essentially, the Europeans believe cars will be all petroleum all the time for the forseeable future.

Toyota had a different take. Integrating highly efficient electric drive componentry into a gasoline-dependent internal combustion (ICE) vehicle results in desired greater mpg, but also provides a pathway to a better place, should the market or the government demand it. For the time being, the gasoline-only hybrids on offer are ICE preservers not ICE breakers. But add more batteries and an electrical plug to the design, and they've got instant access to power that radically changes the efficiency and emissions equation. Of course Toyota has little incentive to let the electrical genie too far out of the bottle. They've got their own profit-maximizing timeline. Hence, CalCars, EDrive, Hymotion and Hybrids Plus aren't waiting for the OEMs. They are putting plugs on hybrids today.

As it stands now, Toyota can incrementally improve their gasoline-only hybrids, staying out front in the mpg wars. No real motivation to plug in. Desperation, however, is a great motivator. Ford and GM, it would seem, need to throw a Hail Mary pass to get back in the game. Dan Neil suggests the ball is already in the air.

"Run this through your wetware: What about a car that uses a powerful electric motor to drive the wheels, that you would charge overnight like a cordless phone, that would deliver per-mile costs at a fraction of gasoline? And if the car should need to exceed its all-electric range, a small, hyper-clean gas-powered generator would be aboard to charge the battery. Such a widget, known as a serial hybrid, could get over 100 miles per gallon. Fantasy? Let's talk after next month's Detroit auto show."

As the price of gasoline returns to its pre-election season highs, the plug is looking mighty attractive and close at hand. Let's hope Detroit is taking another look. With a push from Bush such as Thomas Friedman recently fantasized, instead of another greenwashing concept car for the forever-future, Neil's serial plug-in could hit showrooms in eighteen months. Perhaps, at long last, truly what's good for GM might be good for America.

Auto Lobby Deals a New Card

Changing of the guard at the auto makers' industry group the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM). Former Democratic Congressman Dave McCurdy takes his lobbying skills from Electronics to Autos. As reported at the Washington Note, just seeing a Democrat in this top spot once held by Andy Card, who went on to become Bush's Chief of Staff, is a positive sign of the times. Still, this is the industry group (and its predecessor) that has opposed every attempt at auto sanity passed by the people's representatives - from seat belts to the ZEV Mandate to the California Greenhouse Gas bill. No reason to believe that stance will change.

But with change in personnel comes change in personal networks. As Steven Clemons points out in his report, McCurdy and Clinton's CIA chief Jim Woolsey, two guys from Oklahoma, go way back. Woolsey is one of the higher profile advocates for plug-in cars. Woolsey's gasoline-only Prius has a "Bin Laden Hates My Car" sticker, but he knows the only way to cut the cord in the near term is cars with an electrical plug. (Woolsey, pictured right, holding the plug for Felix Kramer's Plug-in Prius.) See his presentation at the Santa Monica AltFuel Auto Show below this post.

Here's to hoping Woolsey and McCurdy sit down for a nice lunch real soon. Perhaps their relationship can help break down the wall the auto industry has constructed to postpone the inevitable, electric future for cars.

Shill for a Withering Lie

No, I'm not referring to John McCain or the other remaining defenders of the Iraq adventure, predicated on so many lies. I'm speaking about Mark Phelan, columnist for the Detroit Free Press. You see Phelan was in North Carolina recently to test drive the new Toyota Tundra. one of the ever-larger vehicles that has catapulted Toyota's profitability. 15 miles per gallon, thank you very much. As Toyota planned it, we see Prius, they sell Tundra. But that's another story.

As Phelan tells this tale, (registration required) midway through their Tundra talk, Ernest Bastien, Toyota Motor Sales vice president for vehicle operations, surprisingly rose to defend GM. '"The movie 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' was terribly one-sided," he said intensely.' Phelan assures us this is conventional wisdom at dinner parties in Detroit, but this "completely unexpected" aside from Toyota surprised him.

Then comes the real shocker. "If it's not surprising enough to hear Toyota defending GM, try this on for size: The film's director pretty much agrees." As Jon Stewart would say: Whaaaa? Phelan quotes Chris Paine: "'We let Toyota off the hook for how they subverted the program' to sell electric cars because GM had a higher profile." See? The director concedes the film is unfair. Of course Paine was saying Toyota was just as actively involved in the killing, supplying more not less ammunition for the film's thesis. But he had to tell the story in 90 minutes. Just as in a newspaper column, you make a comprehensible narrative, hopefully based on a truthful "facts," giving competing viewpoints voice, to convey the larger story. That's what Paine did, giving auto guys plenty of screen time.

That's not what Phelan did. The conventional wisdom about the electric car is under attack. From the film to the agreements reached between Toyota and Ford with Plug In America to keep electric cars on the road to automakers own statements of late about plug-in hybrids and the "electrification of the automobile," the notion that the electric car failed due to its own shortcomings is slowly coming undone. None of this is reflected in the column, despite the author's having contacted and spoken with a representative of Plug In America in preparation for the column.

Phelan uses the conceit of automaker and filmmaker agreement on the unfairness of the film to shlepp out the same tired lies about what brought the electric car programs of the majors to an end. Just as Dave Hermance's final appearance at CARB in September mystifyingly rehashed the tired, inaccurate justifications offered up three years earlier, Phelan ignores the facts on the ground. PIA member Mike Kane's point by point response to Hermance's presentation provides an explanation of how the RAV4 EV Retail Program actually went down.

Toyota's motivation is understandable. As it is with all the majors, they perceive the postponement of the inevitable grid-connected car to be job one. No company wants to be first, to open the door to a future that portends a radical reshaping of the industry. Better to squeeze every last dollar out of the unchallenged, petroleum-swallowing internal combusion engine.

But what motivation Mr. Phelan? Why did an aside about one-sidedness turn into a one-sided column airing the automakers preferred narrative with no rebuttal other than the director's (who already "admitted" the film is unfair)? Phelan is a long-standing defender of the automakers views on the subject, and perhaps he takes the industry at its word. "Ernest Bastien deserves credit for sticking up for the truth," his column concludes. Whose truth?

I don't mean to pick on Phelan. Really. But his latest column is all too reflective of journalists lack of fair reporting on the electric car story, when they have bothered to cover it at all. As Paine himself has said, he made the film because he got tired of waiting for the media to pick up the story.

Paine deserves our thanks. His film shone a spotlight on a great underreported story, and industry has had to respond, even if in disingenous asides "defending" the competition to friendly columnists.

Wind Beneath his Wings: How Green Power and Plug-in Cars Can Save Bush's Legacy

Thomas Friedman of the NY Times has been on his geo-green kick for a while now, merging his eco-consciousness with his hawkish neo-liberalism. Going green is necessary, and it can get the US out of the pickle of the Mid East. Agreed. Ending our dependence on foreign oil is essential if we are to eliminate its perverting influence on our foreign policy.

Not content to offer an overarching theory to save America's environment and democratic internationalism, Friedman today ambitiously suggests a way to achieve the impossible - save George Bush's ass, I mean legacy. All I can say is "From your lips to God's, I mean Karl Rove's ear."

Given the stink of political corruption in Texas, one can be forgiven for thinking only foul winds blow. But whatever their source, the wind really blows in Texas. Thanks in part to Bush's support of a nascent wind industry during his tenure in Austin, much of that wind is being turned into electricity. Renewable energy is hot. Everyone save Dick Cheney thinks it's a darn good idea. Since Bush already seems to consider plugging in a car to be a no-brainer, plugging it in to renewable, nighttime Texas wind should be doubly appealing. If Bush grabs Friedman's concept, he's got a positive agenda to focus on during his final two years.

I can't say I expect Bush to be the leader to bring the good news of renewable electricity and plug-in cars to the masses. After all, what would his pals in the oil and gas industry say? But the politics of plug-ins makes strange bedfellows. Bring it on!

Congressional Letter for Plug-ins

Felix Kramer of CalCars reports that this week, in the first letter of its kind, 17 Senators and 21 Representatives from both sides of the aisle wrote to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Office of Management and Budget Director Robert Portman, urging that the Fiscal Year 2008 budget request include at least $90M in funding for Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs). (See full text & signatories below.)

In the Senate, support extends from the far-right (Brownback) to the moderate-left Barack Obama. In the House, we see Southern Republican Conservatives, Democratic hawks and progressives lining up in an unusual alliance. As Sherry Boschert concludes in the final chapter of her new must-read book, plug-in cars have a role to play in "Bridging a Divided America."

Did your Congressional representatives sign the letter? If so, send them a letter of support for this action. If not, write to inform them about it and ask for their support for plug-in hybrids.

Dear Secretary Bodman and Director Portman

As you prepare the President's Fiscal Year 2008 budget request, we urge you to include adequate funding for Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). Specifically we hope the President will request at least $90 million of funding for PHEVs including $45 million for advanced batteries, $20 million in PHEV analysis, system modeling and component study, $20 milliion in support of a pending executive order for demonstration vehicles (light- and medium-duty), and $5 million under the joint flex-fuel/hybrid vehicle commercialization initiative(section 706 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005).

As you know, PHEVs promise to significantly reduce our nation's dependence on oil while saving consumers hundreds of dollars at the pump each year and greatly reducing vehicular pollution and greenhouse gasses. The 2005 Energy Policy Act laid the framework for beginning to reduce oil dependence through a next generation of vehicles. A financial commitment from the federal government is vital if we are to see PEHVs on the road over the next few years.

Thanks for your consideration

Senators Evan Bayh, Sam Brownback, Joe Lieberman, Norm Coleman, Ken Salazar, Richard G. Lugar, Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch, Debbie Stabenow, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Maria Cantwell, Herb Kohl, Dianne Feinstein, Christopher Dodd, Carl Levin, Olympia Snowe

Representatives Eliot L. Engel, Jack Kingston, Bart Stupak, Lee Terry, Jay Inslee, Roscoe G. Bartlett, Bobby L. Rush, John Campbell, Tammy Baldwin, Judy Biggert, Tom Lantos, Mike Ross, Maurice D. Hinchey, Peter A. DeFazio, Howard L. Berman, Linda Sanchez, Lloyd Doggett, Rahm Emanuel, Sandy M. Levin, Allyson Y Schwartz, Doris O. Matsui

Dazed and Confused in Santa Monica?

Santa Monica AltFuel Expo was by all standard measure an overwhelming success. Thousands packed the hangar to meander through exhibits by companies large and small, trade groups, government agencies and advocacy organizations. Under one roof, all the alt fuels were represented, from hydrogen to biofuels and electricity to (using less) gasoline.

Panels and keynote addresses were well attended. Each alternative put its best face forward. Not all speakers adhered to the organizers call not to bash the other alternatives. Rock 'n roller and ex-CIA chief Jim Woolsey led the renegades. His presentation on the national security need to promote biofuels and plug-ins did not pull any punches on the problems and expense of the hydrogen project. He waved one of Felix Kramer of CalCars' simple $10 110 volt dongles to demonstrate the infrastructure required for plug-ins. Hydrogen booster Edwin Black reportedly walked out. [CORRECTION 12/15/06 Seems I was wrong about that. As the next batter up, Mr. Black was simply getting into the on deck circle.)

Black's presentation later was an amusing and rousing call for radical changes to move away from petroleum, calling consumers to task for continuing to buy gasoline cars. He remained "fuel-neutral," supporting electrics as part of the solution, but his focus is elsewhere. He repeatedly praised Honda's "vision," a pathway via CNG (Civic GX) to hydrogen (FCV). Why he should take seriously the utopian "Home Energy Station" given Honda dribbling out a few thousand Civic GXs and the slow to market PHIL home unit is beyond me.

But what did the show mean to the thousands looking for some direction and options? Did John and Jane Q Public leave the hanger more or less confused? If the guy in this LA Times story who left believing he'd be converting his truck to hydrogen power is any indication, bamboozlement continues apace.

I can't help feel the event should have held a debate. How would ethanol answer the assault on corn, hydrogen on its inefficiency and expense, electric on the grid and recharge times, etc. The gloves need to come off in a public context.

Santa Monica AltFuel Expo Sets up

Spent the day at the press event and setup for the Santa Monica AltFuel Expo, being held in conjunction with the LA Auto Show. One can be quite encouraged by the 30 odd alternative fuel cars of all shapes and sizes. I should feel heartened that battery electrics predominated, if you include NEVs and bikes.

I drove the AC Propulsion eBox (thank you, Tom), my first time behind the wheel of the ACP system. No real opportunity to let it rip in our pokey NEV-dominated parade on city streets, but as impressive as everyone says. A real car, by any measure. Phoenix Motors AltairNano powered SUV was the other full BEV. I hope to find out more tomorrow.

The production of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and electric bicycles is picking up. ZENNs and Miles Motors and scaled down pickups and jeeps from companies I'd never heard of. But this is unlikely to have a large impact on the availability of full BEVs.

A few bio-cars were there. Honda with the remaining CNG vehicle from a major and two hydrogen fuel cell cars. Daimler Chrysler's FCV made an appearance.

And everyone was well behaved, as requested by the organizers. No internecine altfuel warfare. Ed Begley is representing Phoenix's BEV, but spoke optimistically of a clean hydrogen future. An actress was introduced and praised for her altfuel vehicle, which she said was a Lexus Hybrid SUV. Grumbling about her gasoline-powered altfuel car remained unspoken.

It remains to be seen how such fuel ecumenicism actually advances alt fuels into the real world marketplace. Lots of good words about fighting global warming and ending petroleum dependence. Yet each makes its most minimal contribution as all are essentially relegated to the future (or past) equally.

Hertsgaard: It's Worse Than You Think

Environmental author Mark Hertsgaard spoke at the San Francisco Department of Environment today. He has come to believe we are so far down the global warming road and its consequences that the time has come to move beyond mitigation to focus on adaptation. Of course, he said, every effort must continue to move toward a zero-carbon economy, but we need to get our collective head around the idea that our carbon emissions have warmed up the earth, and it's going to get even warmer. We can still make it worse, but we can't make it stop. More Katrina's. Summers hotter than the killer of 50,000 in Europe a few years ago.

Hertsgaard says environmental leaders shudder at the poltical consequences of such knowledge. Will everyone stop replacing their lightbulbs and stop buying hybrids if the next generations are screwed regardless?

I think the question enviros face isn't what doomsday timeline will optimally motivate policy-makers, industry or everyday people. Excepting our disgraced President, it is now conventional wisdom that global warming is real. When Shell Oil's CEO finally believes it's real, as he apparently does, the debate is over, Hertsgaard said,

The question is what are the best policies to support. And this is where we are being let down by environmental leadership, at least as regards transportation. The young man who rang my doorbell for Environment California this evening should have been more than a naive enthusiast for wind and solar and more efficient cars. He could have been an advocate for creating that renewable power and putting it into cars. Killing two birds with one stone, pardon the murderous cliche.

The end game is the cleanest, most renewable power possible for everything. Realistically, the only way we get renewable power into millions of cars is with grid electricity. GM has just given environmentalists a opening with its plug-in hybrid announcement.

GM is rumored to have yet another announcement regarding what Waggoner called "the electrification of the automobile" at the Detroit Auto Show in January. Will Toyota let GM be first to market with a plug-in?

Der Spiegel Catalogs Hydrogen ICE Green Myths

Titled "Not as Green as it Seems," Spiegel Online takes direct aim not only at BMW's vision of the future, but the entire hydrogen enterprise.

According to this review, "BMW has created an energy-guzzling engine that only seems to be environmentally friendly -- a farcical ecomobile whose only true merit is that of illustrating the cardinal dilemma of a possible hydrogen-based economy."

The article dissects the myth of clean, renewable hydrogen, and vividly explains the difficulty of storage.

"Advertizing images display the Hydrogen 7 against a backdrop of wind turbines and solar panels. But the image is one of deceit. Because the hydrogen dispensed at the new filling station is generated primarily from petroleum and natural gas, the new car puts about as much strain on the environment as a heavy truck with a diesel engine."

Similar to GM's plans for its hydrogen fuel cell Chevrolet, BMW plans to roll out 100 cars, lease only (sound familiar?), to get some real road experience. I took this car on a little drive in Sacramento in September at the CARB ZEVTech. Driving on hydrogen, the car is quite sluggish, at least on city streets. There is a noticeable delay, not unlike a slipping clutch, as you drive off. My RAV4 EV would beat it off the line!

Source:

www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448648,00.html

How Big Oil Stays on Top

Almost every American who drives (and for better or worse that's most of us), must pay oil companies for the privilege. And they make a good profit. But it's not enough to sell a product and make the biggest profits in the history of the world.

Today's NYTimes has a big story about one way oil and gas companies continue to steal from us. They drill on public lands and are meant to pay US royalties. One of the Interior Department's auditors, Bobby Maxwell, had been doing his job well for 22 years, recovering hundreds of millions in underreported royalties. A self-described conservative, Maxwell found that agressive pursuit of industry for fair payment didn't fit with the new Bush administration's approach. They refused to pursue his case against Kerr-McGee Corporation. Maxwell was soon "reorganized" out of his job. Fortunately for us, he didn't stop doing his work just because he was forced into retirement. He continutes to pursue Kerr-McGee, now part of Anadarko, as a private citizen. All the major oil companies have joined Kerr-McGee to try and derail Maxwell's suit, but it remains scheduled for January.

Kerr-McGee/Anadarko may be saving up for the possible $50 million judgement in Maxwell's case. It is one oil company absent from the list of contributors to the successful No on 87 campaign in California. The oil and gas companies spent liberally to protect their profits from the California proposal. $3,000,000 from BP (Beyond Petroleum?) on Nov. 1. $2,000,000 from Chevron on October 17. And another $4 million on Halloween. Scary enough? I stopped counting Chevron's contributions not halfway through the report and the total was $19 million. AERA ENERGY LLP, a company I've never heard of, invested over $17 million between Oct 4 and October 27. I guess they decided they were being cheap, so they ponied up another $2.5 million on the 30th. Occidental Petroleum, at least 4.8 million. ConocoPhillips donated at least $3 million. No big surprise, they got the result they paid for.

These mega-corporations, it is not controversial to say, have too much power. As long as we have no choice but to buy their product, their power only increases. To our detriment, as consumers and citizens.

Sources:
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/business/yourmoney/03whistle.html?ref=business

cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1282414&session=2005

Is GM's Plug-in Hybrid for Real? What Say Big Enviro?

Lots of ink on GM's plug-in hybrid announcement. With headlines like "GM Promises Plug-in Hybrid," Waggoner's statement in LA moves plug-in cars back into the public discussion of petroleum alternatives. "Environmentalists" generally were credited with pressuring GM toward green technologies, and Roland Hwang of NRDC rightly questions whether GM's plans are mere "smoke and mirrors." While espousing the "electrification of the automobile," Waggoner made no firm committment.

Unfortunately, our major environmental organizations have made no firm committment, either. The environmental Big Three - Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists - remain on the sidelines of the plug-in discussion. Jason Mark of UCS responded to Waggoner's speech in the LA Times and Scientific American by ignoring the challenge and benefits of plug-in cars. He derides automakers for not focusing on more efficient internal combution engines. "They should be combining existing technologies to give us 5- and 10-mile-per-gallon improvements." Could there be a more pathetic response?

These organizations continue to call for a focus on more efficient gasoline cars, a policy with two decades of failure and no hope of actually solving the problems of petroleum dependence and global warming.

Irony abounds. George Bush, oilman, seems to understand the commonsense benefits of plug-in hybrids. And now Rick Waggoner of GM, creator and killer of the EV1, has again breached the industry taboo on connecting to the cleaner, cheaper, ubiquitous electric grid. Speaking at an energy alternatives forum recently, Ex-CIA Director and neo-con "[James] Woolsey advocated moving away from cars that run on petroleum..... and [Sierra Club Global Warming Director Dan] Becker argued for making cars that go further on a tank of gas."

We'd be a lot further along if professional environmentalists heeded logic and science and advocated for plug-in cars. Roland: When will that long-promised plug-in study appear?



Sources:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901343.html

www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gm30nov30,1,4421824.story?coll=la-headlines-business

www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa001&articleID=19781CFBCF60D73CB688A6C6CA5E55FF

www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/i/091120061

Jumpstart Ford Startles Waggoner, Escorted Out

Bloomberg News reports: "At the conclusion of Wagoner's speech today, two activists with the environmental group Jumpstart Ford, which lobbies automakers to boost fuel-efficiency, surprised the chief executive on stage by asking him to sign a pledge committing GM to become the most fuel-efficient automaker by 2010. Wagoner declined, saying ``I'll let my speech speak for me.'' The two men were escorted out of the hall..."

Technorati Profile

GM's CEO Waggoner Announces Saturn Plug-in Hybrid; Bio-fuel Hummer

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- General Motors Corp. (GM) Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to reduce dependence on foreign energy and insisted the No. 1 auto maker is accelerating its efforts to meet the challenge by being the first to offer a plug-in hybrid and by expanding its production of biofuel vehicles.
Wagoner said GM is using the Saturn Vue hybrid sport utility vehicle to develop a plug-in hybrid, which can be re-charged from a standard electrical outlet, and will offer biofuel-capable Hummer SUVs. He said "energy and environmental leadership" is a key part of GM's ongoing turnaround plan.
...
He didn't give a time frame for the plug-in, but said it will take "several years" to bring one to market. Wagoner said GM's prior work on its now-defunct EV1 electric car gives it a good base for the battery technology needed.

for complete story:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/gm-ceo-says-company-developing/story.aspx?guid=%7B3BB0CF2F-DAFA-4DC8-B8AE-DF472BA8689C%7D

California’s Proposition 87 - What went wrong?

Proposition 87, the much ballyhooed California Initiative to levy a new oil extraction tax and use the revenue to support alternative fuels, went down to defeat in the recent election. One can’t overstate the impact of the $100 million oil-fueled campaign by opponents. “Higher gas prices. More foreign oil.” The refrain still rings in my ears. Oil companies made a smart investment to keep $4 billion for themselves.

But the Yes on 87 campaign squandered a great opportunity. The campaign spent $10s of millions in pursuit of the worthy goal of promoting alternatives to petroleum. Unfortunately the ads focused on promoting ethanol with a disconnected nod to solar and wind. The campaign, I would argue, that could have won, and would have educated even in losing, would have made clear the connection between popular renewables (solar and wind-generated electricity) and plug-in cars. If interest in the EAA PHEV project is any indication, current hybrid owners are ready to plug in. The moment was ripe to make the PV/EV connection big time.

Unfortunately for the campaign, doubts about biofuels have bubbled into the mainstream through publications such as Consumer Reports ( ). Ethanol has always had the sniff of corporate scam, and the involvement of venture capitalists as major promoters of Prop 87 only tainted the initiative.

The effort failed after early polling had it ahead, and public understanding of the choices we face to reduce petroleum usage remains unchanged. An electorate inclined to support environmental issues voted down a tax on the most polluting and richest corporations in the world.

The public understandably remains confused about clean cars. Gov. Schwarzenegger was still touting last year’s fashion, hydrogen, in his ads. Democrats seemed to pivot to ethanol. Who Killed the Electric Car? suggested plug-in cars are still viable. Car companies tout new gasoline cars as nearly zero emissions but the air is still unhealthy where most people live. And environmental leaders continue to express a preference for no preference. Sprinkle one part hydrogen, one part ethanol, one part clean diesel, one part bio diesel, and one part gasoline generated electricity into a mug of CAFE, stir and hope we end up with something better.

Prop 87 failed because political and environmental leadership has failed to heed the science and promote plug-in cars. The continued unwillingness of auto makers to create product to connect to the ubiquitous electric infrastructure is no excuse for keeping the public misinformed. Had the initiative’s promoters’ given equal billing to plug-ins and still lost, we would have gained considerable ground. If there’s a next time, let’s hope they take our advice.

RAVs to Keep Rolling in LA

The efforts of LA EV activists to keep the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s fleet of RAV4 EVs on the road appears to have been a success. Nate Vandershaaf, who arrived at one meeting with a bank-certified offer to purchase all 74 RAVs for $1.85 million, caught the attention of the Board of Commissioners. As did a letter of support from Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. Activists from PIA including Doug Korthof, Linda Nicholes, and a stream of EAA and PIA activists convinced one of the nation’s largest public power agencies to reconsider its decision to dump its electric cars. After open, public discussions at consecutive meetings of the Board, Commissioners overruled the staff recommendation to purchase Priuses rather than continue to lease the RAVs. In addition, LADWP consequently is negotiating a lease purchase option on some of the fleet-leased RAV4 EVs. There’s a lesson here for us all. By inserting ourselves as EV activists in the public process we can achieve results. There are numerous municipalities with leased Toyota RAV4 EVs. Now, we have precedent. Public pressure can convince lessees to persuade Toyota to allow the cars to be purchased. Let us know if your city or town has RAV4 EVs ripe for saving.

GM Series Plug-in Hybrid?

In early November, an LA Times story heralding GM’s resurrection of the plug-in car was carried by newspapers worldwide. GM announced it will show some sort of plug-in car at the Detroit Auto Show in January. Speculation has focused on the possibility of a serial plug-in hybrid. GM made a prototype plug-in hybrid EV1 during the 90s.

Rumors had already begun about GM’s electric intentions. In September, Chairman Lutz said that his worst decision was killing the EV1. In July Saab (owned by GM) displayed a reputedly plug-in hybrid bio-diesel convertible in Stockholm, but only after gluing shut access to the plug mentioned in a quickly withdrawn press release. Sherry Boschert, San Francisco chapter President and author of the newly published Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, captured the original press release. I’ll report on any GM announcements or rumors that come out of the LA Auto Show in early December in my next PIA report.

October '06 - CARB Takes Testimony on Electrics; LA Takes Action on RAV4 EVs

Evidence for Electrics Piles Up at ZEVTech

Plug In America and the Electric Auto Association were well represented and well received at the California Air Resources Board Zero Emission Vehicle Technical Review in Sacramento. This three day event was convened to present information to CARB staff as it considers options for the ZEV mandate in 2007.

Presenters included automakers; battery, hydrogen and fuel cell companies; electric utilities; and energy and emissions analysts. What seems indisputable after three days is that hydrogen and fuel cells remain far from ready for prime time.

Chelsea Sexton and Paul Scott presented for Plug In America, making the case that plug-in cars are reliable and ready. Ron Freund revealed the results of the RAV4 EV Driver Survey, and Tim Hastrup gave a portrait of one family’s decade with electric cars.

Toyota made clear they want out from under the requirement to start producing FCVs in large numbers. Dave Hermance said producing more than 30 FCVs per generation is a waste of money and resources. Because he also dusted off Toyota’s disingenuous presentation about the effort made to sell RAV4 EVs from the infamous ZEV Meeting in 2003, he seems to be suggesting Toyota wants to take neither path offered by CARB to meet true Zero Emission Vehicle requirements.

Honda’s Ben Knight said the Japanese carmaker will enter the market with its FCV in 2015, long after current project managers are gone. GM announced its intention to “place” 100 FCVs with fleets and consumers over the next few years. They forsee no market until well into the next decade. Ford didn’t even show up.

Lithium batteries and the possibilities of Vehicle-to-Grid technology provided the real buzz at ZEVTech. Utilities were well-represented with presentations touting the benefits grid-connected cars offer in reduced emissions, lower cost and load leveling.

Check out these presentations, and many others, at the CARB website: http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/symposium/presentations/presentations.htm

LADWP RAV4 EVs Win Reprieve

In Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power, one of the nation’s largest public power agencies, is reconsidering its decision to return its fleet of RAV4 EVs. As was the case with the unsuccessful attempt to save Pasadena’s Nissan HyperMinis, resident EV advocates have joined with DWP staff supportive of the electric vehicles to bring the issue to the attention of the Board. The return to Toyota of the EV fleet is on hold for the moment.

Holiday EVangelism - Book and Movie Stocking-Stuffers


November will see the publication of “Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America” by San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association president Sherry Boschert. She will be traveling to promote the book beginning in November. If your chapter can arrange an event with Sherry, you’ll have a very informative meeting. Advance orders and contact information at www.sherryboschert.com.

The DVD of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” will also become available in November, in time for holiday gift-giving.

Plug In America and the EAA will have both products available shortly. Check our websites, www.pluginamerica.com and www.eaaev.org, for details.

September '06 - Tesla Roadster Unveiled, Electric Cars NOT DEAD YET!

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Since my last report, the success of the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” set the stage for the dramatic unveiling of the Tesla Motors Roadster in Santa Monica on July 19th.

By mid August, the film had grossed over $1 million in its theatrical release, thanks in no small part to the great promotional efforts by members of the Electric Auto Association. From Oregon to Florida, members continues to promote the film and promote the idea of electric cars at screenings. In numerous cities, members have been out with their cars and literature to answer the many questions audience members have after viewing the film. The result has been not only greater visibility for our cause but also increased membership for both the EAA and Plug In America. The movie is entering its seventh week at some theaters, and is opening in more venues every week.

Tesla Unveiled

Riding this wave of publicity, with movie reviews across the nation asking the question “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” Tesla Motors provided one convincing answer in the business pages. “Not Dead Yet” indeed. While priced dearly at $100,000 for the first 100 vehicles, the car’s specs are so impressive and the company so well capitalized that it received prominent coverage across the nation, including the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The countdown to delivery begins.

Certainly, events in the world have conspired to drive attention to the film and the Tesla. Oil prices peaked once again at over $75 a barrel. The shutdown by BP of its Prudhoe Bay drilling operation and the Alaska pipeline due to years of neglect threatened to reduce our domestic supply of gasoline. The war between Israel and Hizbollah has brought massive petroleum spills to Beirut’s beaches as a result of the bombing of an oil-burning electricity generation plant.

Can We Save Pasadena's Electric Cars?



And then on August 8, amid all this bad news, a ray of sunshine. On that day, employees of the City of Pasadena acted decisively to protect their electric Nissan HyperMinis from being taken to the crusher by Nissan car carrier trucks. Working with Southern California members of Plug In America, they used other electric vehicles to physically block Nissan from being able to take the cars. This virtual municipal revolt against the car companies' confiscation of electric cars has revived the campaign to stop the crushing. The Pasadena Star News covered the story as it developed, culminating in a strong editorial supporting the city’s efforts to keep the non-polluting cars on the road. The Mayor of Pasadena expressed his support for the city employees who prevented the Nissan car carriers from leaving with the electric cars Pasadena would like to purchase.

Plug In America is working to support the efforts of Pasadena. We need your help to spread this effort nationwide. Call Nissan at (800) NISSAN-1 or (800-647-7261) and tell them to let Pasadena buy their electric HyperMinis. Make sure your municipal fleets with electric cars do everything in their power to keep their cars! If you find out what’s up with EVs in local fleets, let us know. And in our next report we’ll let you know about progress made to save the Pasadena HyperMinis.

July/August '06 - Activists Promote the Film, Ford Retreats on Hybrids

Who Killed the Electric Car opens across America
EAA chapters turn out for openings

Summer 2006 has been all about “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Reviews of the movie by the score have been fueled by $75 per barrel oil and the fear of $4 per gallon gas.

Chris Paine, the director, and Chelsea Sexton, ex-EV1 specialist and a central character in the film, tirelessly criss-crossed the country speaking to the press. Opening box office has been respectable, but certainly not gangbusters. Audiences across the country have remained in their seats slackjawed at the tragedy portrayed for Q & A sessions with the filmmakers and electric car activists. The audiences universally want to know what they can do, given the unavailablility of plug-in cars on the market.

Plug In America has put together a list of actions we can take. (see www.pluginamerica.com)
1. Use all means short of hostage-taking to get friends and family to see the movie in the theater. 
2. Tell your local dealer you’ll buy a hyrid with a plug. And not until then!
3. Sign the Plug-in Partners petition. (www.pluginpartners.org)
4. Tell CARB you want plug-in vehicles in the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. 

Nothing engages viewers of the film like an interaction with an EV driver and an electric car. EAA chapters across the country continue to organize events at showings of the movie, including Q&A sessions after the film, leafletting with cards and flyers with information about electric cars, the Electric Auto Association, and Plug In America. (Material available from marc@pluginamerica.com)

In some locales, theaters have been extremely cooperative, at others less so. (Watch the story on the Raging Grannies in San Jose.)



Ford about-face on hybrids a slap in the face to Big Enviro

While consumers may be awakening to the need for plug-in cars and government conferences on the subject multiply, the automakers continue to send very mixed signals. A year ago Ford nabbed a significant endorsement from the Sierra Club for its limited edition Mercury Mariner hybrid (29/35 mpg - gasoline only) and a promise of 250,000 hybrids by 2010. Ford has now done an abrupt about face. Ethanol is the alternative fuels flavor of the month, and Ford jumped on GM’s yellow bandwagon. Anything, it would seem, to forestall the inevitable plug.

Stirring some confusion as to its intentions, Ford mentioned its “continued interest in plug-in hybrids” in its press announcement. At the same time, rumors swirl around GM and plug-in hybrids. And Toyota continues to dangle hybrid efficiency advances that would seem unattainable without the plug.

Ford’s reneging on its committment to hybrids ought to lead the major environmental organizations to do some serious soul searching on the question of automobiles and emissions. Their members and policy makers turn to them to understand what can and should be done. The quarter century old strategy of pursuing increased gasoline efficiency (higher CAFE standards) and ignoring the commercially viable alternatives to petroleum has failed. Cars have gotten cleaner, but there are more of them. And over time, even the cleanest hybrid gets dirtier. It’s time our environmental leadership face the facts.  If you are a member of the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, or the Union of Concerned Scientists, let them know you want them to support efforts to bring plug-in cars to market.  

June '06 - The Film Opens, CARB Ducks, PHEV Debut in DC

Who Killed the Electric Car Opens Across the Nation

Who Killed the Electric Car?, director Chris Paine’s long-awaited documentary, begins a nationwide theatrical release on June 28 in Los Angeles and New York. In July it will open in every major American market. Plug In America and other Electric Auto Association chapters have been actively promoting the film with a guerilla marketing campaign aimed at raising awareness. PIA created a webad and bumperstickers connecting rising gas prices and the electric car. $3...$4...$5.../gallon. Who Killed the Electric Car? (Webad available for free download at www.pluginamerica.com/downloads.html. Bumpersticker available for purchase at www.cafepress.com/pluginamerica).

Global warming is taking center stage with the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which is preceded by a trailer for the electric car documentary. (See the trailer at www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com) Gore compellingly describes the problem. Paine’s movie offers up a solution.

EAA chapters are organizing to ensure large audiences for the movie. Mill Valley and San Francisco are planning electric car parades, EV shuttles and parties surrounding the movie’s release, and to bring it to the attention of elected officials. It is critical that we generate interest in the film, one of the best opportunities afforded us in a long time to promote electric cars.

CARB Ducks H2 Controversy

For over six months, Plug In America has been in communication with The California Air Resources Board to obtain a response to Alec Brook’s analysis of Hydrogen vs Electricity for cars. Brooks shows that the use of renewable electricity to generate the hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles is four times less efficient than using that same electricity to power a battery Electric Vehicle. Brooks presented an earlier version of this paper in a December 2002 CARB workshop on the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate which was ignored. Subsequent to that hearing, CARB pulled the plug on battery EVs and put its effort behind hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Now, three years later, after over 4,000 EVs have been destroyed by the carmakers, less than 100 fuel cell vehicles have been built and the infrastructure to refuel them is virtually non-existent. In light of this lack of progress, PIA feels CARB cannot justify its move toward hydrogen technology and away from EVs. CARB has repeatedly promised PIA a written response to Brooks' paper, yet they continue to stonewall. PIA will continue to pressure CARB for its official response to Alec Brooks’ analysis. (see http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=750)

Plug-in Prius Makes Capitol Debut

Plug In America is an active participant in many efforts to promote plug-in hybrids. We work closely with Calcars, the non-profit organization responsible for the first Plug-in Prius. We worked on the Maker Faire plug-in project, and supported the effort that brought the CalCars Edrive Lithium Plug-in Prius to Washington DC in May. Dozens of Senators and Congressional representatives from both parties had the opportunity to drive the car. Photos of smiling Senators waving the infrastructure requirement for PHEVs, an extension cord, can be seen at: http://www.setamericafree.org/plugdcmay06.htm. Legislation moving ahead in congress, HR. 4409 the Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which will include funding for plug-ins, is garnering support, and was much aided by the presence of the car.