Who wants a Th!nk City?

Automakers the world over, large and small, are in the crapper. The financial crisis has hurt those that sell gas guzzlers and electric cars. Electricaid.org in Norway is trying to support its native EV company, Th!nk, and the efforts to offer the Th!nk City in the U.S. as soon as possible with its "Get Me A Th!nk" campaign. My first electric car was a Th!nk City so I'm biased. That little car made me an EV advocate. If you are interested in buying a Th!nk City, sign up by clicking here.

Saab Story

Unlike other countries, including the US, the conservative government in Sweden is opting to let Saab sink or swim without government aid. GM took the distinctive Swedish brand into the toilet, and is now preparing to cut it loose. The people of Trollhatten are now surprised to find their main source of employment abandoned by both its corporate parent and national representatives. Read Sweden Says No to Saving Saab in the NY Times.

This does make me wonder about the suggestions Sweden might be more hospitable to Th!nk.

Tata says Norway first; Th!nk says tata to Norway?

Tata says Norway first for electric Indica, later this year, as Th!nk ponders leaving Norway for lack of gov't support. What's up with that?

$49,900 after tax credit

Elon Musk has disclosed the intended price of Model S, even if the car itself must spend another week under wraps. And another two years before production cars begin to roll off an assembly line. According to the Tesla newsletter "the Model S will have an anticipated base price of $57,400. After a federal tax credit of $7,500, the effective price will be $49,900."

If you live in a state that adds further incentives for plug-ins, such as Texas or California, you're looking at perhaps $45,000. Not bad.

Think Again

It's on. The press release announces "...a team of Think personnel are meeting with representatives from the state of Michigan and seven other states to discuss options to bring electric vehicle manufacturing jobs to the U.S." tomorrow. According to the communication "U.S. sales of the TH!NK city will commence in mid-2010."

Gen. Wes Clark lobbies for ethanol

Wesley Clark, retired general and one-time presidential candidate, once headed Wavecrest, a company that produced an awesome electric bike. Now he heads the ethanol industry trade group Growth Energy. The ethanol industry is struggling. Plants are shuttering and plans for more put on hold. The debate on the relative value of corn ethanol and its environmental impact continues unabated. But the lobbying must go on, as reported in the NY Times blog Green Inc.

Today retired General Wesley Clark, a onetime presidential candidate who now is the co-chairman of an ethanol industry group, asked the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the limit on how much ethanol can be blended into gasoline. The limit is 10 percent; General Clark and his group, Growth Energy, want the amount raised as high as 15 percent.

On Thursday CARB logically indicated that "lifecycle emissions" need be calculated in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, potentially disadvantaging ethanol. I expect Gen. Clark will be seen in Sacramento shortly.

Think recalls announcement

ASG Renaissance, the firm that sent out the notice regarding Think's plans, has sent out another message recalling the previous message.

Who knows.

Think announces US plan

Think of Norway is set to announce plans for US manufacture and sales. Think personel will be meeting with representatives of Michigan and seven states on March 12th to discuss options for manufacturing. According to the media advisory U.S. sales of the TH!NK city will commence in mid-2010. The Think City will have a range of 112 miles and a top speed of 62mph.

Mitsubishi PHEV concept to be unveiled

Mitsubishi plans to show a concept plug-in hybrid at the Tokyo Auto Show. Larger and more upmarket than the all-electric iMiev scheduled to be sold in Japan shortly, there no information yet on what flavor hybrid Mitsubishi will employ. Production is at least three years away.

[Source: autocar.co.uk]

Auto sales continue slide

Reuters reports:

U.S. auto sales dropped by more than 41 percent in February to the lowest level in almost three decades as deepening economic uncertainty drove Americans away from big purchases and new debt despite aggressive discounts from major automakers.

General Motors Corp, which is racing to complete a restructuring plan this month to keep it from bankruptcy, led the sinking industry lower with a 53 percent drop in sales.

The results mark the 16th consecutive monthly drop in auto sales...

Ford down 48%.
Chrysler down 44%.
Toyota down 37%.
Honda down 38%.
Nissan down 38%.

Have no fear American oil is here

photo credit and thanks to Stefano Paris

Fisker hits the tube

Thanks Stefano for the heads up.

Renault Swears off Hybrids and Hydrogen

Chief operating officer Patrick Pelata has confirmed Renault is diverting all research and development money away from hybrid and hydrogen technologies toward electric cars, according to Autocar.co.uk.

Pelata's vision is that a third of Renault's line-up will be electric within a decade. He has also promised that it will have three battery-powered models on sale by 2011: an electric Kangoo van, a Clio-sized five-seat hatch and a larger saloon designed primarily for Israel but which would also be sold across Europe.
All three new models will use NEC lithion-ion batteries, jointly developed with Nissan, and have a range of at least 100 miles.

Fuel cell merry-go-round

Because there are are so few of them, to keep the dream alive fuel cell vehicles need to be schlepped around. CARB and the automakers need a "travel provision" that gives California ZEV credits to fuel cell vehicles even when they have relocated to other states.

Now that Volkswagen's 16 FCVs have done their required duty at the Beijing Olympics, they have moved on to Sacramento. The VW press release boasts that along with the eight FCVs already housed at the California Fuel Cell Partnership, "these 24 vehicles create the largest fleet of fuel cell cars from a single manufacturer at one location anywhere in the world." Awesome or pathetic?

VW also brags "These vehicles logged nearly 50,000 miles in Beijing - with zero harmful emissions." That's about 3000 miles each. I log that amount every two months or so on my electric car. SCE could log 50,000 miles every week or so with its Toyota RAV4 EV fleet.

Mary Nichols recently decried the ideological/theological debate between battery and H2/FCV advocates saying "from the point of view of a regulator, this is madness. We know that we need both." But the truth is we don't know that. We can't know that yet. But we know plug-in cars are in the pipeline. They're coming. We know that electric vehicles can do today much of what needs to be done with all the benefits fuel cell cars can only, less efficiently, promise. We know that without plug-in vehicles California can not achieve its GHG reduction goals. And we know that consumers are anxious for plug-in cars. The only madness here is a regulator digging in its heels against all evidence.

Volt guy drives a Tesla

He has even come to be a citizen-envoy to GM.

Just Business

Harper's Magazine has a profile of an oil fixer, the sort of middleman without whom we don't get our daily dose. It's not a pretty picture, but it's how the oil business works. The profiled fixer, Ely Calil, is a well-connected businessman. While he continues to be an operator in oil, he sees an new opportunity to make money on his connections to potentates and oil executives.

"One of his most promising investments is a company called Green Holdings, which is in the emerging field of carbon trading: buying rights to pollute from cleaner businesses and selling them to dirtier ones. The firm has struck deals in China and India, and Calil has traveled regularly to both nations on the company's behalf, hoping to establish business ties and build political support. It is an ironic turn indeed that Ely Calil, who grew so rich off the excesses of the carbon era, should now stand to profit still more from the long struggle to clean them up."

The story is available as a pdf here.

Nissan EV in Fall, 2010

Nissan is telling Tennesseans that their state will be included in a Fall, 2010 launch of an electric car. The Chatanoogan.com reports on a luncheon at which Mark Perry, director of product planning and strategy for Nissan Americas, discussed the automaker's intentions. His inclusion of fast charging as well as California's existing EV Charging infrastructure, suggest Nissan has learned some lessons from the ZEV mandate days. Nothing he says sounds utopian or implausible, which is a good start.

Mr. Perry said there will be some expense in outfitting garages to power the electric vehicles. He said that could range from a couple hundred dollars to up to $2,000 depending on the arrangement and current capacity of the garage.

He said plans are underway for adding charging stations along major highways and at malls and other public places. He said California already has 660 electric vehicle charging stations.

A fast charge takes 26 minutes, he said. He said merchants may want to supply charging stations so they will have the occupants of the vehicle as potential customers for those 26 minutes.

The "grand and lovely futility" of Honda's FCX Clarity

Dan Neil has another must read article in today's LA Times. He heaps praise and digs the grave of Honda's fuel cell marvel. I'd really like to hear what the other Dan, CARB Board Member and hydrogen fuel cell stalwart Dan Sperling, thinks upon reading it.

It is the most expensive car he's ever driven; he figures about $2 million. It is limo-spacious and drives electric-smooth. It is extremely well-appointed down to the walnut wainscoting and eco-friendly plush fabrics.

The 200 Angelenos who get to lease Honda's limited-production show dog will be impressed. Honda will be pleased, as it gets greater CARB ZEV credits.

But Dan, uniquely among auto journalists, is not taken in by the elegant and sophisticated trappings.

Hydrogen fuel-cell technology won't work in cars. It's a tragic cul-de-sac in the search for sustainable mobility, being used to game the California Air Resources Board's rules requiring carmakers to build zero-emission vehicles. Any way you look at it, hydrogen is a lousy way to move cars.

He runs through the numbers and shows the lousy efficiency of hydrogen compared to electricity. And challenges hydrogen advocates to a duel: "I'll meet you on the field on honor. Calculators at dawn."

But this is no wasted effort on Honda's part. When battery electric cars appear in the competitions' showrooms, Honda will take out the fuel cell and H2 tank and greatly increase the battery storage already in the vehicle. Honda will be ready to go electric. Of course consumers are ready today. As Dan concludes his piece: "Just bring me one that I can plug in."

Full article available here.

Ethanol blues

NY Times reports:

As recently as last summer, plants that make ethanol from corn were sprouting across the Midwest. But now, with motorists driving less in the economic downturn, the industry is burdened with excess capacity, and plants are shutting down virtually every week.

...In the meantime, plans are lagging for a new generation of factories that were supposed to produce ethanol from substances like wood chips and crop waste, overcoming the drawbacks of corn ethanol. That nascent branch of the industry concedes it has virtually no chance of meeting Congressional production mandates that kick in next year....

...Carlos A. Riva, president and chief executive of Verenium, a company working to produce ethanol from sugar cane waste, said that solving the technological hurdles for this type of fuel was “not a slam dunk.”

...“Cellulosic ethanol is something that is always five years away and five years later you get to the point where it’s still five years away,” said Aaron Brady, an energy expert at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm.

Nissan, Tesla, expect govt loans for EVs

Nissan and Tesla are both well on the way to receive loans from the federal government to support their electric car manufacturing plans. Nissan applied for a loan to upgrade its Smyrna, Tennessee plant to assemble electric cars and build a new facility for battery production, according to an Automotive News report appearing in Autobloggreen.

Yahoo Finance reports that Tesla is expecting a $350 million DOE loan to set up a factory to build their as yet unseen Model S 4-door sedan. The big reveal is scheduled for March 26.