Now Autobloggreen has a report out of China involving BYD. I recalled hearing in 2005 that BYD acquired a license from Ovonics to manufacture NiMH batteries. But I was disappointed if not surprised when it was stated clearly in the press that they were acquiring "the nonexclusive right to manufacture, use and sell Ovonic Battery's proprietary NiMH technology-based batteries for nonpropulsion applications."
Now, using Lithium (a Chinese product without lead!), we get a name, F6E, and a photo. Unfortunately the article suggest the car will be solely for the domestic Chinese market. Seems to me the Chinese ought to capture the American market for electric cars before the majors get off the dime.
27 comments:
Thee IS no American market for electric cars. Forplug-ins, yes, all-electrics, no. And the VOLT is launching in 2010. It will destroy any EV-1 type flop, having learned how NOT to build an electric car from that experience. The Chinese are naiive if they think an electric can sell in this coubrty with batteries as primitive as those. It'll be the EV-1 all over again.
this car is based on a new battery technology called "Iron" battery, initial speculation is that it is just LiFePO, the same as valence and A123, as more information come out, it seems it is not, but some completely new chmistry, now people speculate it is Super-Iron, i doubt.
anyway, BYD claimed this "Iron" battery has about same energy density as Li-Ion, higher power density, more re-charge cycle, abuse tolerant, and much cheaper.
sound too good to be true. the only reason i somewhat believe them is becase BYD is the largest cell phone battery maker in the world, ahead of Sony of Japan.
It will be sold in US, BYD will join 2008 Detroit Auto Show.
there are two version of the car:
F6E, pure electric, F6DM, "dual mode" is a plugin with 100km pure electric range(very similar to Chvy Volt) F6 is a mid size family sedan, same size as Camery or Accord.
Every EV1 that was made available for lease was leased...not exactly a flop by any objective standards. Any normal company would have expanded production onto an assembly line to make more money, rather than constructing the vehicles by hand to only comply with a government mandate.
Per Dictionary.com:
flop - to be a complete failure; fail.
I would like to know where this "anonymous" person gets his notion that pure EVs are not viable in the market. Anyone with actual knowledge of the technology and the sizeable group who have used, and continue to use, these vehicles will confirm that there is a very large market in the US for BEVs with a range starting at 100 miles. Even city cars with a lesser range will sell fast in today's market.
Annonymous' ill informed comments seem to come from a disgruntled mind with an agenda to push petroleum.
I agree 100% with Paul Scott. Thanks to motor and battery technology, longer ranged electric cars are now becoming common place. I also agree that 100 mile range plus seems to be the "threshold" that starts to really get people's attention.
True that to get both good performance and longer ranges still equate to pricey cars, but looking at all other gadgets and devices that today we take for granted sometimes (calculators, video players, digital watches, etc.), the costs will drop like a brick in a vacuum once mass production takes over. The vehicles will also get better with each new iteration.
I understand everyone has the right to their opinion but it gets down right tiring to read the comments left by negative, and ignorant naysayers who can't seem to visualize a better world. It does make one wonder what is the personal agenda of these people.
Some of us are too hooked and addicted to GAS that we can't let go as the above anonymous commenter has demonstrated. There are a lot of work surfacing and all if not 99% of them are following the footsteps of EV1 is to make their own EV without GM's help. That way you can actually sell them! LOL. The EV are even better. I have to agree with Paul Scott. Tesla can beat a Ferrari and Porsche and it costs at least a third less and little maintenance. -sa
There are just too many bone headed gas whores in the US swallowing up every drop of come juice spewing out of the big oils. Spread them wide baby, here comes that Techron spiked jism ready to shoot.
I disagree strongly with respect to their not being a market for electric vehicles.
I'd love one, I work out of my home and rarely do I make trips that exceed 20 miles. It happens but not frequently, so given a choice I'd have an electric as my primary and keep the gas hog for those rare excursions.
However, battery technology is a large concern. Lead-acid only returns about 50% of the energy put into charging and has poor energy density. Most lithium-ion batteries lose 50% of their capacity in 300 charge cycles. There are newer lithium-ion batteries using nano-particle suspension that can withstand 10,000 charge cycles with very little loss but they're not in volume production yet.
NiMH would provide adequate range for most of my needs, but many people require a larger range than could be provided by NiMH.
But there is definitely a market, if one were produced that had long battery life, that is to say I don't have to replace the batteries every two years, and was affordable, I'd be on it.
Could each blogger listed as "Anonymous" please stop posting comments long enough to first attend grammar school. Once you have successfully completed grammar school, you may again post comments.
Thank you.
Very informative discussion. Paul!... I am great fan of yours.
More people should learn about this. Electric car technology is really becoming impressive, like the new Zap EV that does 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds (source: zapworld.com) Electric is looking more and more like the way to go.
China already have quite a few electric vehicles around and their battery technology is second to none in the world. Go to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and you will find out. The majors in the USA should take note and try to market some of those vehicles for us.
The Chinese already have several very practical electric vehicles out there . They will be in use in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing--buses, shuttles ,vans and passenger cars power by batteries will be seen in abundance over there.
The Chinese are using nano tech on their batteries-- they have a longer battery life and a faster charging rate. There will be over a 1000 such vehicles in use at the 2008 games. The range for these vehicles are anywhere from 100 miles to 200 miles and will be fully charged in six hours or less.
Many of my colleagues will be out there to test these vehicles first hand. We need those vehicles in this country, the price of gas is going thru the roof.
Electric car improvements are taking leaps and bounds. Read in the news today 6/17-2008 a student have turned his sedan into an electric car with the batteries being charged by solar, mechanical and wind power. It has very good range.
While I agree EV's are a must for the future, don't hang your hopes on anytihng ZAP promises. They have yet to deliver a single high-tech vehicle and due to their financial and SEC problems are unlikely to deliver much beyond their current Xebra offering. They've even had big problems with that car. It is improoving though. The biggest problem EV's in the USA is the 25mph speed limit imposed on all 4 wheeled EV's. When that limit is lifted or at least raised to 35, ideally 45, then and only then EV's will have a real chance at success.
Cheers,
James
Portland, OR
Oops, correction. I ment to say speed limit imposed on all 4 wheeled NEV's....
Money is the mother of all inventions.
with the price of oil and gas going thru the roof. All of a sudden people all over have come up with ideas to extend the mileage in their cars and some all together do away with gas. Water for gas cars, hybrid electric cars, hybrid cars and electric vehicles that can be assisted with human power.
I think the greedy oil people have really driven people to try to do w/o oil in their vehicles. The last six months there are vehicles reporting getting very good mileage with what they are doing and inventive ways to power their cars and use raw materials from their houses to power their cars.
I drove an EV-1 for two years, drove it to work everyday, never had a problem, never a breakdown, no gas to buy, no visits to the mechanic, no stop checks at the garage, no oil changes, no new filter changes, nothing went wrong with it, it was perfect. That's the problem.
That is really cool. What was the range and speed of your ev-1?
As long as we have a $9+ trillion dollar deficit, we will be forced to pay high prices for gasoline because it is the hidden tax to pay off our deficit.
The government will not allow us to avoid paying this tax.Someone has to pay for road upkeep and maintenance.
TV came out in the 60's. The same year that the dollar was taken off the gold standard and valued on the price of a barrel of oil. In 40 years, the price of electronics has plummeted, while the technology has soared.
You will have a hard time convincing me that they couldn't do the same with the energy in a barrel of oil.
This high price has taken a heavy toll on the economy and it is hurting everyone except the elite few.
Hey everybody, I have been seriously considering importing about 10 or 20 small and very affordable electric cars from china to try and sell here in the usa. I have limited experience with these, however, I am experienced in electric bicycles. How much would any of you pay for a 2 or 4 person car capable of 60-80 mile range and top speed of 35 mph? Would you pay $8,000? Would you pay more for a convertible? These batteries do have a limited recharge of about 300 times, however, replacing them would not be that expensive...
-Guy
gkitchell@charter.net
Who is this LL idiot who is incapble of original thought and thinks we can't get enough of his gems of wisdom?
The typical bigoted, uninformed American attitude is alive and well here, I see. Me, me, me, as long as I am not in the slightest inconvenienced I am all for saving the planet. Makes me sick.
All I know is this this car is so popular that it already has over a one year waiting list in China.
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