From the pricey ads in national magazines devoting serious space to the Volt to today's announcement about the plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue, GM is compelling me to take their expressed interest in plug-in cars seriously. As announced in Frankfort and reported in Detroit, GM hopes for a 2009 release of the first Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid SUV. Leaving wiggle room, "2009-ish" brand general manager Jill Lajdziak said Thursday.
While GM is looking to achieve 40 miles all electric range with the Volt toward the end of 2010, the Vue is meant to have 10 miles all electric range. Seems piddling, but if it goes on sale in less than 2 years it will be an historical turning point.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Worst Cars Ever: TIME and Dan Neil Trash EV1
Along with a host of the filthy, the ugly and the dangerous, Time and Dan Neil declare the EV1 one of the 50 worst cars ever. Had they wanted to include a crappy electric car, they had plenty to choose from. But no, they picked what might have been the best electric car ever, and said even it sucked.
Dan Neil, the LA Times writer who naively blames consumers for the lack of electric cars in the market in the film Who Killed the Electric Car?, knows better now. He knows we need to move toward plug-in cars, and he knows the "perfect" electric car won't drop down from heaven one day. Had the EV1s been sold to consumers rather than leased, confiscated, and destroyed, they'd be very in demand.
If we are very lucky, some company will come out with a car with the decade-old EV1 specs considered unmarketable in this peculiar smackdown - 140 mile range without gasoline, miata-sized, fast. Does anyone out there truly believe this car couldn't sell for $50,000 or more now?
Dan Neil, the LA Times writer who naively blames consumers for the lack of electric cars in the market in the film Who Killed the Electric Car?, knows better now. He knows we need to move toward plug-in cars, and he knows the "perfect" electric car won't drop down from heaven one day. Had the EV1s been sold to consumers rather than leased, confiscated, and destroyed, they'd be very in demand.
If we are very lucky, some company will come out with a car with the decade-old EV1 specs considered unmarketable in this peculiar smackdown - 140 mile range without gasoline, miata-sized, fast. Does anyone out there truly believe this car couldn't sell for $50,000 or more now?
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Coal Into Cars: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
The Ugly
Coal sucks, there's really no two ways about it. Extracting it is ruinous of the landscape and burning it has disastrous environmental consequences. It should be perhaps our last fuel of choice regardless of how it's used. But not all use of coal is alike.
The Good
About half our electricity comes from coal, and that will change, at best, slowly as we move to renewables. But we need to keep in mind that when we're talking about cars, even coal-generated electricity results in lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum. The EPRI-NRDC Plug-in Hybrid Study makes clear that under every scenario studied, every region will yield reductions in greenhouse gases as we increase the number of plug-in cars. That includes the worst, most coal dependent areas. Of course as our efforts to green the grid take effect, and that's happening already, plug-in cars yield even greater reductions in GHGs. And ultimately, you can get no cleaner car than an electric car using wind or solar generated electricity.
The Bad
There is a major push at the federal level to subsidize the coal industry to produce liquid coal as a replacement for petroleum. It is touted as part of a move toward independence from foreign oil. Support knows no party. Like subsidies for ethanol, it's a regional matter. As a replacement for gasoline, there is probably no worse choice than coal-generated liquid fuel. As the Scientific American editorial "Worse Than Gasoline" states:
There's a lesson here we can apply to our choices regarding biofuels, too. The energy required to make biological matter into liquid fuel certainly tips the balance against ethanol, just as it does with liquid coal. However, as the Environmental Entrepreneurs report on Costa Rica recommends, biomass crops into electricity is a beneficial strategy.
We can make electricity many ways, some better than others. But in the end, there is no further pollution using the electricity, whether in iPods, toasters, light rail, or cars. If we must use coal, make electricity, don't turn it into a liquid fuel we still have to burn. If we find it advantageous to use biomass or even corn for energy, make electricity with it.
It bears repeating again and again - the worst electricity is better than petroleum. And only electricity offers us the possibility of truly zero emission transport.
It's the plug, stupid.
Coal sucks, there's really no two ways about it. Extracting it is ruinous of the landscape and burning it has disastrous environmental consequences. It should be perhaps our last fuel of choice regardless of how it's used. But not all use of coal is alike.
The Good
About half our electricity comes from coal, and that will change, at best, slowly as we move to renewables. But we need to keep in mind that when we're talking about cars, even coal-generated electricity results in lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum. The EPRI-NRDC Plug-in Hybrid Study makes clear that under every scenario studied, every region will yield reductions in greenhouse gases as we increase the number of plug-in cars. That includes the worst, most coal dependent areas. Of course as our efforts to green the grid take effect, and that's happening already, plug-in cars yield even greater reductions in GHGs. And ultimately, you can get no cleaner car than an electric car using wind or solar generated electricity.
The Bad
There is a major push at the federal level to subsidize the coal industry to produce liquid coal as a replacement for petroleum. It is touted as part of a move toward independence from foreign oil. Support knows no party. Like subsidies for ethanol, it's a regional matter. As a replacement for gasoline, there is probably no worse choice than coal-generated liquid fuel. As the Scientific American editorial "Worse Than Gasoline" states:
"...the polluting properties of coal - starting with mining and lasting long after burning - and the large amounts of energy required to liquefy it mean that liquid coal produces more than twice the global warming emissions as regular gasoline.....driving a Prius on liquid coal makes it as dirty as a Hummer on regular gasoline."Lessons
There's a lesson here we can apply to our choices regarding biofuels, too. The energy required to make biological matter into liquid fuel certainly tips the balance against ethanol, just as it does with liquid coal. However, as the Environmental Entrepreneurs report on Costa Rica recommends, biomass crops into electricity is a beneficial strategy.
We can make electricity many ways, some better than others. But in the end, there is no further pollution using the electricity, whether in iPods, toasters, light rail, or cars. If we must use coal, make electricity, don't turn it into a liquid fuel we still have to burn. If we find it advantageous to use biomass or even corn for energy, make electricity with it.
It bears repeating again and again - the worst electricity is better than petroleum. And only electricity offers us the possibility of truly zero emission transport.
It's the plug, stupid.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
EV Briefs, and Black Rock City & EVs
A few items before I head out to Black Rock City for two weeks. Out in the desert as part of Burning Man, our encampment, Snow Koan Solar, is setting up a solar photovoltaic EV Charging Station (at 7:30 and Desert) for electric scooters, golf carts, sofas and barstools. We'll also be taking Burning Man art projects off petroleum generators by switching them to solar electricity.
Although Black Rock City probably has the worst air in the west during its brief annual existence, it is where I had my first electric transport epiphany. The electric sofas and scooters were so much cooler - and quieter - than the gasoline powered stinkers that predominate. As Burning Man attempts to go green, here's to hoping they become the first American City to ban the internal combustion engine within its borders. We may need ICE vehicles to get there (gas cars will serve for long distance travel even as EVs come to market, I believe) but they should be parked and forgotten. Feet, pedals and electric motors only will make for a much more pleasant and greener event. Back after Labor Day.
Google Guys Th!nk it Over
Recently I posted about how Google.org gets it. Their Rechargeit.org campaign really makes the connections between renewable power and plug-in cars. The founders of Google have made personal investments in Tesla as befits dotcom billionaires, and they're converting Priuses to plug-in hybrids for the company fleet with battery maker A123. Now the relationship with EVs may be going further still. A number of websites (webpronews.com, pandia.com) are reporting that Google may be getting more involved with Th!nk Global, the reinvigorated Norwegian electric car maker. Google founder Sergey Brin drove one of the 2001 Th!nk City cars when Ford brought them to California to meet its ZEV Mandate obligation. I did, too, until Ford confiscated the cars and sold the company.
I believe Google would find Th!nk City electric cars a great fit with Google.org’s intentions. The plug-in Priuses are almost doubling the fuel efficiency of Google standard Prius fleet, getting 74 MPG rather than 41 MPG. That's great, but because most driving down Silicon Valley way is on the freeway for rather short distances, the plug-ins don’t do much all-electric driving and the MPG isn't approaching the much touted 100MPG. The Th!nk City could do the 20 – 50 mile round-trips without petroleum, using only the power from Google’s solar array. I hope Google is realizing that their plug-in hybrid fleet could probably mostly be all-electric cars. And with Google's clout, they could make the cars a reality
GM Getting Lots of PHEV Ink; Rolls Out 100 H2 FCVs – Huh?
GM has been getting a lot of attention with its plug-in intentions. Contracts for lithium batteries for the plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue and the Chevrolet Volt have received much press. Still no truly firm date for either car, but GM has been stoking the expectation fire.
At the same time, they are looking for 100 consumers to take on a $1 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. They will join the one Honda Fuel Cell car currently in private hands in Southern California. The participants in Project Driveway will have to be located in Westchester, NY, Washington DC or Orange County, CA, places with hydrogen fueling stations. If drivers have to pay for fuel, this may become Project Permanently Parked in the Driveway, as the price of H2 is about four times that of gasoline.
If GM truly believes what it’s saying about the electrification of cars and the future of plug-in technology, it ought to announce the shelving of its fuel cell program for the time being. GM hasn’t got the resources or good will banked to do both plug-in and fuel cell roll-outs, and it knows only one of those has a near term prospect for success. We’ve all got electricity at home and work right now, and we’d like to use it for our cars.
Toyota’s first Plug-in Prius to Use NiMH
Toyota is postponing its Lithium Priuses and rolling out a few NiMH plug-in Priuses for testing purposes. Hard to say what the Lithium issues are, as GM and A123 are reporting Lithium batteries all but ready to go. Perhaps Toyota’s battery division is having problems. Perhaps Toyota, as hybrid leader, doesn’t want to get too far out front. It’s hard to believe Toyota will allow GM to be the plug-in leader. Of course, the Volt remains a desire at this point, not yet a reality. I hope to drive the Toyota built plug-in Prius coming to nearby UC Berkeley, and will give a full report. But let's be clear: Toyota could have NiMH plug-in cars on the road in large numbers already - both all-electric and plug-in hybrid - but has chosen not to. My RAV4 EV with NiMH batteries is going strong after more than 5 years and over 50,000 miles. Hundreds of thousands of Priuses with NiMH batteries are on the road without battery issues.
EPRI-NRDC Study Out; Electricity Better, If You Want It To Be
The oft-postponed EPRI-NRDC plug-in hybrid study was unambiguous – moving to electricity for cars would yield a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. And in most places other toxic emissions would be lower as well. But the study managed to find a few places were a few people might be exposed to slightly higher levels of one toxin or another, and thus refused to make the bold statement required to help move environmentalists toward a sane position on plug-in cars. See for yourself at www.epri-reports.org/
Vectrix - Awesome ZEV Maxi-Scooter Available Now
The Vectrix made its debut in San Francsico. Using NiMH batteries, it provides the range and the zip missing from most electric scooters. At a price, of course, but a state rebate of $2000 for Zero Emission Vehicles will apply.
Although Black Rock City probably has the worst air in the west during its brief annual existence, it is where I had my first electric transport epiphany. The electric sofas and scooters were so much cooler - and quieter - than the gasoline powered stinkers that predominate. As Burning Man attempts to go green, here's to hoping they become the first American City to ban the internal combustion engine within its borders. We may need ICE vehicles to get there (gas cars will serve for long distance travel even as EVs come to market, I believe) but they should be parked and forgotten. Feet, pedals and electric motors only will make for a much more pleasant and greener event. Back after Labor Day.
Google Guys Th!nk it Over
Recently I posted about how Google.org gets it. Their Rechargeit.org campaign really makes the connections between renewable power and plug-in cars. The founders of Google have made personal investments in Tesla as befits dotcom billionaires, and they're converting Priuses to plug-in hybrids for the company fleet with battery maker A123. Now the relationship with EVs may be going further still. A number of websites (webpronews.com, pandia.com) are reporting that Google may be getting more involved with Th!nk Global, the reinvigorated Norwegian electric car maker. Google founder Sergey Brin drove one of the 2001 Th!nk City cars when Ford brought them to California to meet its ZEV Mandate obligation. I did, too, until Ford confiscated the cars and sold the company.
I believe Google would find Th!nk City electric cars a great fit with Google.org’s intentions. The plug-in Priuses are almost doubling the fuel efficiency of Google standard Prius fleet, getting 74 MPG rather than 41 MPG. That's great, but because most driving down Silicon Valley way is on the freeway for rather short distances, the plug-ins don’t do much all-electric driving and the MPG isn't approaching the much touted 100MPG. The Th!nk City could do the 20 – 50 mile round-trips without petroleum, using only the power from Google’s solar array. I hope Google is realizing that their plug-in hybrid fleet could probably mostly be all-electric cars. And with Google's clout, they could make the cars a reality
GM Getting Lots of PHEV Ink; Rolls Out 100 H2 FCVs – Huh?
GM has been getting a lot of attention with its plug-in intentions. Contracts for lithium batteries for the plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue and the Chevrolet Volt have received much press. Still no truly firm date for either car, but GM has been stoking the expectation fire.
At the same time, they are looking for 100 consumers to take on a $1 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. They will join the one Honda Fuel Cell car currently in private hands in Southern California. The participants in Project Driveway will have to be located in Westchester, NY, Washington DC or Orange County, CA, places with hydrogen fueling stations. If drivers have to pay for fuel, this may become Project Permanently Parked in the Driveway, as the price of H2 is about four times that of gasoline.
If GM truly believes what it’s saying about the electrification of cars and the future of plug-in technology, it ought to announce the shelving of its fuel cell program for the time being. GM hasn’t got the resources or good will banked to do both plug-in and fuel cell roll-outs, and it knows only one of those has a near term prospect for success. We’ve all got electricity at home and work right now, and we’d like to use it for our cars.
Toyota’s first Plug-in Prius to Use NiMH
Toyota is postponing its Lithium Priuses and rolling out a few NiMH plug-in Priuses for testing purposes. Hard to say what the Lithium issues are, as GM and A123 are reporting Lithium batteries all but ready to go. Perhaps Toyota’s battery division is having problems. Perhaps Toyota, as hybrid leader, doesn’t want to get too far out front. It’s hard to believe Toyota will allow GM to be the plug-in leader. Of course, the Volt remains a desire at this point, not yet a reality. I hope to drive the Toyota built plug-in Prius coming to nearby UC Berkeley, and will give a full report. But let's be clear: Toyota could have NiMH plug-in cars on the road in large numbers already - both all-electric and plug-in hybrid - but has chosen not to. My RAV4 EV with NiMH batteries is going strong after more than 5 years and over 50,000 miles. Hundreds of thousands of Priuses with NiMH batteries are on the road without battery issues.
EPRI-NRDC Study Out; Electricity Better, If You Want It To Be
The oft-postponed EPRI-NRDC plug-in hybrid study was unambiguous – moving to electricity for cars would yield a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. And in most places other toxic emissions would be lower as well. But the study managed to find a few places were a few people might be exposed to slightly higher levels of one toxin or another, and thus refused to make the bold statement required to help move environmentalists toward a sane position on plug-in cars. See for yourself at www.epri-reports.org/
Vectrix - Awesome ZEV Maxi-Scooter Available Now
The Vectrix made its debut in San Francsico. Using NiMH batteries, it provides the range and the zip missing from most electric scooters. At a price, of course, but a state rebate of $2000 for Zero Emission Vehicles will apply.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Imagine the Volt
Seventeen years ago GM could imagine, and then produce, an electric car. Check out this 13 minute GM video on the car that became the EV1. Commenting on its technological achievements, John Zwerner, GM Advanced Product Engineering, says "we wanted to drive a stake in the ground....as to what a contemporary produceable electric vehicle would look like and how it would perform if we were to build such a vehicle." Instead, as we know, GM drove a stake in its heart. Literally. Right through the controller after they confiscated each EV1 from consumers. The video makes quite plain the societal and personal benefits of electric cars, and how GM actually met the challenge. GM hasn't got another 17 years to make this real.
By the way, that's Alec Brooks in the still of the video. He's now working at Tesla.
Tip of the Hat to Stefano Paris
By the way, that's Alec Brooks in the still of the video. He's now working at Tesla.
Tip of the Hat to Stefano Paris
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Is GM Playing Games with the Volt?
As I've blogged previously, I want to believe as much as the next guy that the Volt - GM's announced plug-in hybrid - is real. I believe enviros have spent way too much time pushing for higher CAFE standards and ignored alternative methods of getting clean cars on the road. The enviros gave up on electric cars, let the automakers and California off the hook just as the cars were proving themselves viable and popular. Sierra Club, UCS and NRDC should have been indicted along with CARB and Big Oil in the film Who Killed the Electric Car? The ZEV mandate offered a way to get plug-in cars - zero-emission, zero-petroleum, zero-carbon producing cars - on the road outside the CAFE protocol.
Now the shoe is on the other foot. GM wants us to believe they are serious about the Volt, but continue to fight over CAFE. They tell us they will produce the Volt in serious volume. Serious volume is enough to significantly effect their fleet average. If they are serious about the Volt, they've got no reason to fight efforts to raise CAFE. Edmunds Inside Line reports Chevrolet Volt Goes to Washington To Underline GM's Anti-CAFE-Increase Argument.
Joe Romm asks the question on Grist Is the Chevy Volt just more GM greenwashing?.
I'd like to see enviros point out that CAFE can be achieved with plug-in cars.
Now the shoe is on the other foot. GM wants us to believe they are serious about the Volt, but continue to fight over CAFE. They tell us they will produce the Volt in serious volume. Serious volume is enough to significantly effect their fleet average. If they are serious about the Volt, they've got no reason to fight efforts to raise CAFE. Edmunds Inside Line reports Chevrolet Volt Goes to Washington To Underline GM's Anti-CAFE-Increase Argument.
Joe Romm asks the question on Grist Is the Chevy Volt just more GM greenwashing?.
I'd like to see enviros point out that CAFE can be achieved with plug-in cars.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Top Climate Scientist on Lessons Not Learned from Electric Car Debacle
Dr James Hansen is perhaps the top climate scientist in the country. From his post at NASA he warned Congress and us what's up with global warming long ago. There are some lessons we need to learn as we are inundated with adverts about "clean coal," if we are not to get snookered as enviros did over the electric car.
California had a regulation that would have required automobile manufacturers to produce a small percentage of cars without emissions by such-and-such date, and a larger percentage later. Automakers despised this rule, and decided that they had enough clout to ignore it, arguing that it was impractical. Environmentalists seemed to conclude that they were overmatched. Rather than go to the mat, they decided to play ball with the automakers, to try to work with them, accepting promises that the automakers would do everything that they could to improve vehicle efficiencies and reduce emissions. [emphasis added]Read the full email at Joe Romm's blog Climate Progress.
The glee with which the automakers tracked down the trial electric cars that they had produced, and crushed the cars into small cubes, must have been palpable. Profit margins on large SUVs were much bigger. Automakers soon forgot their promises about better gas mileage, instead using technical efficiency improvements to make vehicles bigger and accelerate faster.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Let My People Convert! - The A123 Challenge
Les Goldman wants you to convert (your hybrid.) Easy as 123. So he proposed at the California Air Resources Board ZEV workshop on Tuesday.
An ARB ZEV meeting is ordinarily a predictable affair. What began as a simple program requiring an ever increasing percentage of Zero Emission vehicles (read electric cars), has become mired in cumbersome bureaucratic complications. Acronymphia is not a sexual disease. (Look it up.) ZEV, SULEV, PZEV, ATPZEV, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Type I, II, III, and on and on. Tuesday's workshop was not so different. They are contemplating Silver+ and Type IV ZEVs. Uggh.
Unfortunately, everyone recognizes that there is no coming down from this byzantine construction. Simplify is the mantra, but unachievable. Now, to add some further complication, everyone's got religion on plug-in hybrids. Many, including electric advocates, some enviros and ARB staff, (even some cars makers, it would seem) want to figure new ways to use the regs to bring plug-in hybrids to market quickly due to their near term benefits, commercialisability and pathways plug-ins offer to true ZEV. (Add more batteries as they become cheaper and more energy-dense, dump the engine; or, for the more fantasy-minded and those receiving compensation, add hydrogen fuel cell and drop the engine.)
But PHEVs are inherently the most complicated of all options. A plug-in hybrid, one could say, simply integrates electric drive into a car with internal combustion. However, there are innumerable ways to do it. Parallel, serial, blended, just for starters. Even the Prius and Civic Hybrid are quite different. ARB could spend a year in conversation with stakeholders to figure out regs and credits for new OEM plug-in hybrid cars.
A123 has an idea to cut through the difficulty of getting OEMs to make cars. Les Goldman, A123's lobbyist, presented the outline of a proposal that could be a win-win-win and get cars on the road quickly. They've been converting some cars back east, working out the kinks. Lately Goldman has been driving one around DC, meeting with policy makers and pushing for consumer incentives for hybrid conversions. (See my 7/12 post Plug-in Hybrid Bills in Congress Scare Auto Makers) With the addition of the A123 battery module, a Prius gets between 125 and 175 mpg. They are beginning to do crash testing, and will meet emission requirements, in pursuit of a fully legal, compliant vehicle. Throw the ZEV mandate into the mix, and maybe we've got something.
An ARB ZEV meeting is ordinarily a predictable affair. What began as a simple program requiring an ever increasing percentage of Zero Emission vehicles (read electric cars), has become mired in cumbersome bureaucratic complications. Acronymphia is not a sexual disease. (Look it up.) ZEV, SULEV, PZEV, ATPZEV, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Type I, II, III, and on and on. Tuesday's workshop was not so different. They are contemplating Silver+ and Type IV ZEVs. Uggh.Unfortunately, everyone recognizes that there is no coming down from this byzantine construction. Simplify is the mantra, but unachievable. Now, to add some further complication, everyone's got religion on plug-in hybrids. Many, including electric advocates, some enviros and ARB staff, (even some cars makers, it would seem) want to figure new ways to use the regs to bring plug-in hybrids to market quickly due to their near term benefits, commercialisability and pathways plug-ins offer to true ZEV. (Add more batteries as they become cheaper and more energy-dense, dump the engine; or, for the more fantasy-minded and those receiving compensation, add hydrogen fuel cell and drop the engine.)
But PHEVs are inherently the most complicated of all options. A plug-in hybrid, one could say, simply integrates electric drive into a car with internal combustion. However, there are innumerable ways to do it. Parallel, serial, blended, just for starters. Even the Prius and Civic Hybrid are quite different. ARB could spend a year in conversation with stakeholders to figure out regs and credits for new OEM plug-in hybrid cars.
A123 has an idea to cut through the difficulty of getting OEMs to make cars. Les Goldman, A123's lobbyist, presented the outline of a proposal that could be a win-win-win and get cars on the road quickly. They've been converting some cars back east, working out the kinks. Lately Goldman has been driving one around DC, meeting with policy makers and pushing for consumer incentives for hybrid conversions. (See my 7/12 post Plug-in Hybrid Bills in Congress Scare Auto Makers) With the addition of the A123 battery module, a Prius gets between 125 and 175 mpg. They are beginning to do crash testing, and will meet emission requirements, in pursuit of a fully legal, compliant vehicle. Throw the ZEV mandate into the mix, and maybe we've got something.
- Use the existing and growing base of hybrids, offer kits to authorized installers, and give ZEV credit to the original manufacturer in exchange for not killing the car's warranty.
- Hybrid drivers in California could finally actually get their hybrid converted.
- ARB could finally take some credit for cars with true ZEV miles once again on the road without depending on the ever-resistant, crusher-happy automakers.
- A123 gets to sell a lot of batteries without having to wait for the automakers to place orders of the magnitude they promise "once the batteries are ready."
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Toyota's Plug-in Prius: Out of the Pod, Into the Podcast
Toyota's plug-in Prius comes out of the closet. No translation needed. Take a look.
http://toyota.pod.tv/jp/tech/environment/phv/conference/driving_300.wmv
Main Specifications of Toyota Plug-in HV
Vehicle Name TOYOTA Plug-in HV
Length / Width / Height 4,445 / 1,725 / 1,490mm
Weight 1,360kg
Seating capacity 5 persons
Performance in
electric vehicle mode Cruising range 13km in the 10-15 Japanese test cycle
Maximum vehicle speed 100km/h
Engine Displacement 1,496cc
Maximum output 56kW(76PS) / 5,000rpm
Maximum torque 110N-m (11.2kg-m) / 4,000rpm
Motor Type AC synchronous motor
Maximum output 50kW(68PS) / 1,200 — 1,540rpm
Maximum torque 400N-m(40.8kg-m) / 0 — 1,200rpm
Secondary battery Type Nickel-metal hydride
Capacity 13Ah (6.5Ah x 2)
Rated voltage 202V
Overall system Maximum output* 100kW (136PS)
Voltage 202 — 500V
Battery charging Power source Household electrical power
Charging time 1 — 1.5hrs (200V), 3 — 4hrs (100V)
*Based on TMC calculations; output that the system can achieve using engine power and electric motor power (electric motor power is dependent on battery power)
http://toyota.pod.tv/jp/tech/environment/phv/conference/driving_300.wmv
Main Specifications of Toyota Plug-in HV
Vehicle Name TOYOTA Plug-in HV
Length / Width / Height 4,445 / 1,725 / 1,490mm
Weight 1,360kg
Seating capacity 5 persons
Performance in
electric vehicle mode Cruising range 13km in the 10-15 Japanese test cycle
Maximum vehicle speed 100km/h
Engine Displacement 1,496cc
Maximum output 56kW(76PS) / 5,000rpm
Maximum torque 110N-m (11.2kg-m) / 4,000rpm
Motor Type AC synchronous motor
Maximum output 50kW(68PS) / 1,200 — 1,540rpm
Maximum torque 400N-m(40.8kg-m) / 0 — 1,200rpm
Secondary battery Type Nickel-metal hydride
Capacity 13Ah (6.5Ah x 2)
Rated voltage 202V
Overall system Maximum output* 100kW (136PS)
Voltage 202 — 500V
Battery charging Power source Household electrical power
Charging time 1 — 1.5hrs (200V), 3 — 4hrs (100V)
*Based on TMC calculations; output that the system can achieve using engine power and electric motor power (electric motor power is dependent on battery power)
Ford in the PHEV Race, too?
MSNBC and NBC News have report on plug-in hybrids, focusing on the Volt. But there's some news about Ford, too, buried within.
Ford is also in the plug-in game and could get to the finish line first. It is already testing two plug-in hybrids, [Ford's Sue] Cischke told the Chicago Tribune, and it expects to deliver the first road-ready vehicles for testing in California by 2009.Hat tip to Earl Killian
Plug-in Hybrid Race on as Toyota Tests NiMH PHEV; A123 Challenges CARB to Authorize Conversions
From today's NY Times
Toyota to Test Plug-In Hybrid, Rivaling G.M.
Yesterday, in Sacramento A123Systems, the battery manufacturer being used by GM for the Vue and Volt, challenged CARB not to wait for OEM plug-ins. It want CARB to authorize aftermarket conversions of hybrids with its Lithium batteries.
Toyota to Test Plug-In Hybrid, Rivaling G.M.
Toyota said it would provide prototype versions of plug-in hybrid vehicles to researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Berkeley....The prototype plug-in hybrids will be powered by two oversize packs of nickel-metal hydride batteries
Yesterday, in Sacramento A123Systems, the battery manufacturer being used by GM for the Vue and Volt, challenged CARB not to wait for OEM plug-ins. It want CARB to authorize aftermarket conversions of hybrids with its Lithium batteries.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Dodd forsees federal fleet of hybrids and electric cars
YouTube Democratic Debate Mon Night at the Citadel:
QUESTION: Hi, I'm Stephanie. We're in the Bay area, in my bathroom, because this is one of the places where I use compact fluorescent light bulbs. I use these to decrease my personal energy use, and I hear politicians talking about alternative energy to delay -- to decrease our energy impact as a whole.
So my question for you is, how is the United States going to decrease its energy consumption in the first place? In other words, how will your policies influence Americans, rather than just using special light bulbs, to do this?
DODD: Anderson, there are a number of things. The 50-mile-per- gallon standard is something I've advocated by 2017, that I would push hard for. Entire fleet of federal automobiles would be hybrids or electric automobiles, so we reduce even further out consumption.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Toyota Hot and Cold on Plug-in Hybrids
A month or so ago word was Toyota was postponing the new generation Lithium Prius. That seemed to be a hint that Toyota wasn't moving too quickly on plug-ins. As if to confirm that notion, recently a Toyota spokesman in DC was denigrating plug-in hybrids as Hymotion/A123 and Rob Lowe were making a plug-in splash in Congressman Ed Markey's global warming committee. According to Autos Insider of July 12, 2007
Toyota, which has sold 1 million hybrids worldwide, including 750,000 in the United States, over the last decade, said converting a hybrid risks vehicle fires, and actually increases greenhouse gas emissions.Now, however, we continue to see more information on Toyota's own prototype plug-in Lithium Prius. Japan's leading newspaper Asahi Shinbun reports "the company will be the first Japanese carmaker to win approval from the ministry for plug-in hybrid tests." Asahi reports:
"Electric vehicles that run only on electricity are said to be more environmentally friendly than hybrid vehicles because they have no emissions and do not use gasoline.Although it is clear to me there is great value in "short distance" 75 to 150 mile range all-electric cars such as my RAV4 EV, there is no doubt the market for various plug-in hybrid options would be huge. I look forward to seeing advertisements for plug-in hybrids touting the "best of both worlds" meme. Essentially an acknowledgement that a plug-in hybrid is better all around than the gasoline-dependent hybrids that you can't plug in available today. After all, grid electricity is cleaner and cheaper than gasoline. As soon as Toyota puts to bed its disingenous "and you don't have to plug it in" campaign, we'll know they're serious.
However, the cars can run only short distances before they run out of juice.
Toyota says plug-in hybrids offer the best of both kinds of vehicles."
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Huckabee: The electric car of the 2008 race
Election blog 2008central.net points us to an unexpected positive and apt analogy to electric cars by a Republican candidate for President. Mike Huckabee, ex-Governor of Arkansas and longshot contender, said in an interview decrying the wasteful spending of his GOP rivals:
I responded:
“You will not find a more frugal operation than ours and you will also not find a more efficient, better miles per gallon,” said Huckabee, who did not single out any opponents specifically. “If anything, we’ve become the electric car of the 2008 race. We have gotten more for what we have spent.”Although Huckabee gets it right, the blogger gets it all wrong. From his/her suggestion that the film Who Killed the Electric Car? was aimed at liberals to the comment that the electric car was a massive failure.
I responded:
First off, the film wasn’t aimed at liberals or conservatives. It was aimed at Americans. And it had many certifiable conservatives speaking about the issue, including Frank Gaffney (from the Reagan administration) and Lieberman Democrat ex-CIA director James Woolsey both supporting electric cars for the national security benefits of switching to electrons from petroleum.
Secondly, as battery electric cars are incontestably the most efficient vehicles on the road, Huckabee’s comparison of his lean campaign to an electric car seems apt.
Is Toyota taking the Plug-in Hybrid plunge?
Green Car Congress reports Toyota to Obtain Permission for Public Road Test for Plug-in Prius in Japan.
Plug-in Hybrid Study: Electricity Better
The basic question addressed, which appears on the study homepage (epri-reports.org) is this: How would air quality and greenhouse gas emissions be affected if significant numbers of Americans drove cars that were fueled by the power grid?
Simply put, the study found what advocates of electric transportation have long held to be true: as regards greenhouse gases and pollution generally speaking, the worst electricity is still better than petroleum. And the grid is getting cleaner and more renewable every year.
A few highlights below, but the significant question that remains is whether this study will make any difference in the public policy advocated by those who shape our understanding of what's possible and most beneficial. Environmental organization and utilities have long known the benefits of electric transportation, but have been cowed by the auto makers' unwillingness to make grid-connected product. You can dig around the websites of NRDC, UCS and the Sierra Club and come to understand that an electric path would be best for all of us, but their advocacy has not reflected the science. UCS advocates relentlessly for cleaner gasoline vehicles and dismisses plug-ins of all sorts, the Sierra Club strikes deals with Ford to promote a few thousand gasoline-dependent hybrids in exchange for advertising dollars, and the NRDC jumped on the biofuels bandwagon just as the cost of corn ethanol became impossible to ignore. I truly hope we have turned a corner.
The EPRI/NRDC study is an exceedingly detailed assessment using modeling analyses of various scenarios to determine the impact of plug-in hybrids. From the two summaries:
Simply put, the study found what advocates of electric transportation have long held to be true: as regards greenhouse gases and pollution generally speaking, the worst electricity is still better than petroleum. And the grid is getting cleaner and more renewable every year.
A few highlights below, but the significant question that remains is whether this study will make any difference in the public policy advocated by those who shape our understanding of what's possible and most beneficial. Environmental organization and utilities have long known the benefits of electric transportation, but have been cowed by the auto makers' unwillingness to make grid-connected product. You can dig around the websites of NRDC, UCS and the Sierra Club and come to understand that an electric path would be best for all of us, but their advocacy has not reflected the science. UCS advocates relentlessly for cleaner gasoline vehicles and dismisses plug-ins of all sorts, the Sierra Club strikes deals with Ford to promote a few thousand gasoline-dependent hybrids in exchange for advertising dollars, and the NRDC jumped on the biofuels bandwagon just as the cost of corn ethanol became impossible to ignore. I truly hope we have turned a corner.
The EPRI/NRDC study is an exceedingly detailed assessment using modeling analyses of various scenarios to determine the impact of plug-in hybrids. From the two summaries:
Greenhouse Gases
Researchers drew the following conclusions from the modeling exercises:
•Annual and cumulative GHG emissions are reduced significantly across each of the nine scenario combinations.
•Annual GHG emissions reductions were significant in every scenario combination of the study, reaching a maximum reduction of 612 million metric tons in 2050 (High PHEV fleet penetration, Low electric sector CO2 intensity case).
•Cumulative GHG emissions reductions from 2010 to 2050 can range from 3.4 to 10.3 billion metric tons.
•Each region of the country will yield reductions in GHG emissions.
....
The use of electricity is an important attribute of PHEVs. Use of electricity reduces both gasoline consumption and emissions—starting emissions, refueling emissions, running emissions and even upstream refinery emissions.
......
PHEVs have lower GHG emissions in all nine cases than either the conventional or the hybridvehicles, ranging from a 40% to 65% improvement over the conventional vehicle to a 7% to 46% improvement over the hybrid electric vehicle.
Air Quality
Because of the significant reduction in emissions from gasoline and diesel fuel use and because caps are in place for some conventional pollutants for the electric power sector, the study finds that in many regions deployment of PHEVs would reduce exposures to ozone and particulate matter, and reduce deposition rates for acids, nutrients, and mercury.
Overall, the air quality benefits from PHEVs are due to a reduction of vehicle emissions below levels required by current regulation (due to their non-emitting operation in all-electric mode), and because most electricity generation emissions are constrained by existing regulatory caps. Any additional increase in the amount of all-electric vehicle miles traveled or further emissions constraints on the electric sector would tend to magnify these benefits.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
EPRI/NRDC Plug-in Hybrid Enviro Assessment to be Released
The long awaited report assessing the environmental impact of plug-in hybrids undertaken by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council will see the light of day on Thursday morning in Washington DC. Roger Duncan from Austin Energy and Plug-in Partners is participating in the press conference, so the results must be positive. Tony Posawatz, the GM vehicle line director for the Chevrolet Volt is on the press conference line-up as well, so perhaps that's a sign GM means business with the serial hybrid announced earlier this year. I'll report on the details soon as they're available.
GM: Electric Opel by 2010
Thomson Financial reports in Forbes that General Motors Corp unit Opel plans to bring out an all-electric car at the end of 2010. GM's European chief Carl-Peter Forster is said to mention the EV in an excerpt from tomorrow's Auto Motor Sport magazine. He told the magazines that hybrid technology is too costly to use in small cars, suggesting a city car, perhaps too small to be marketed in the US.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Green Autos in the Times: Hybrid Hype, Hydrogen Hooey and Electric Dreams
A number of articles about "green cars" worth perusing in Saturday's New York Times Automotive section. Usually devoted to crass boosterism of America's largest manufacturing industry, these articles still contain a lot of that.
Especially as displayed in Adam B. Ellick and Don Sherman's moronic and facile hydrogen vehicles video shot in the New Jersey field where the Hindenberg met its firey demise. (The Future of Hydrogen: Once a Pariah, Now an Alternative.) Not a mention of where the hydrogen is meant to come from, nor problems with storage. Just a chicken and egg problem according to the makers of this little vid - not acknowledging the million dollar chicken nor the $10/gallon fossil-fuel-derived eggs. Though they do recognize commercialization is at least decades away.
Toyota comes in for a smackdown by Lawrence Ulrich (Conspicuous Consumption With Green Illusions) on it's high class hybrids. Writing about the $121,000 Lexus LS 600h L:
Electric cars get their own piece by Kevin Cameron, (Electric Cars Nearly Ready, but Batteries Are Less So) as the Tesla can't be ignored at this point. After all, rich dudes that read the Times from CEOs to Arnold himself have plunked down $100K. So it is a photo of the Tesla Roadster that graces this article despite its message that electrics remain not ready for prime time because GM and Toyota say so. Despite the imminent release of the Lithium powered Tesla, you have to read to paragraph #15 to find mention of the car. The first 14 paragraphs spread the confusing tale of battery types and energy densities, never mentioning NiMH 140 mile range EV1s (all crushed) or 120 mile range Toyota RAV4 EVs still on the road after over 100,000 miles. The reader is just meant to be left with the impression that Big Auto is still trying but the dang technology just isn't good enough or safe enough or cheap enough to market. The Volt remains a dream, and a new generation Prius (read plug-in) just have to wait for the perfect Lithium battery. Nickel Metal Hydride which successfully powered the great electrics of the decade past and work fine in every hybrid on the road just won't cut it. Just because they say so.
Especially as displayed in Adam B. Ellick and Don Sherman's moronic and facile hydrogen vehicles video shot in the New Jersey field where the Hindenberg met its firey demise. (The Future of Hydrogen: Once a Pariah, Now an Alternative.) Not a mention of where the hydrogen is meant to come from, nor problems with storage. Just a chicken and egg problem according to the makers of this little vid - not acknowledging the million dollar chicken nor the $10/gallon fossil-fuel-derived eggs. Though they do recognize commercialization is at least decades away.
Toyota comes in for a smackdown by Lawrence Ulrich (Conspicuous Consumption With Green Illusions) on it's high class hybrids. Writing about the $121,000 Lexus LS 600h L:
"th[is] hybrid may have set a new standard for automotive hyperbole. Behind its green Teflon shield, the Lexus proved to be just another overstuffed sedan that can barely top 20 miles a gallon."The meme of the ugly green car gets its own article (Once Frumpy, Green Cars Start Showing Some Flash). Author Phil Patton derides the design of anything "green" that actually hit the market, and suggests beauty in drawing board designs that will never come to showroom. Chris Paine (Who Killed the Electric Car?) is quoted in the leadoff position to suggest even advocates of electric cars understand the product has been too ugly for the masses.
Electric cars get their own piece by Kevin Cameron, (Electric Cars Nearly Ready, but Batteries Are Less So) as the Tesla can't be ignored at this point. After all, rich dudes that read the Times from CEOs to Arnold himself have plunked down $100K. So it is a photo of the Tesla Roadster that graces this article despite its message that electrics remain not ready for prime time because GM and Toyota say so. Despite the imminent release of the Lithium powered Tesla, you have to read to paragraph #15 to find mention of the car. The first 14 paragraphs spread the confusing tale of battery types and energy densities, never mentioning NiMH 140 mile range EV1s (all crushed) or 120 mile range Toyota RAV4 EVs still on the road after over 100,000 miles. The reader is just meant to be left with the impression that Big Auto is still trying but the dang technology just isn't good enough or safe enough or cheap enough to market. The Volt remains a dream, and a new generation Prius (read plug-in) just have to wait for the perfect Lithium battery. Nickel Metal Hydride which successfully powered the great electrics of the decade past and work fine in every hybrid on the road just won't cut it. Just because they say so.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Strange Plug-in Bedfellows Rile Detroit
Big time neo-Con Frank Gaffney and Arnold supporter actor Rob Lowe took their advocacy for plug-in hybrids to Massachusetts liberal Democrat Ed Markey's House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming yesterday. Detroit and it's Congressional defenders are again suggesting that what's good for America will kill Big Auto. It is idiotic if conventional wisdom to suggest anti-corporate crusader Ralph Nader has it in for the automakers, but quite another to label Reaganaut and hardline conservative Gaffney anti-business. The Detroit Free Press story headline tells the tale:
House talk on plug-in cars erupts
Mich. lawmaker warns of demise of U.S. auto industry
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