Archive for July, 2009

London July 28th 2009
The definitive list is here from Plug-In America, of the good, the bad and the ugly, coming to a road near you, soon, later and never.
Now, can you figure out which ones will still be in production in 5 years?
Give your brain a workout and let us know who you feel is relevant, on the right track or just “smoking their own cables”. Click on Source link below for the list.
Source: Plug-In America

They weren’t made in Kansas City, but the first six battery-powered commercial vehicles from locally based Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. were presented to the company’s first buyers Tuesday in Washington.

During ceremonies at the National Mall, the vehicles were presented to four Fortune 500 companies — The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS), Frito-Lay and AT&T (NYSE: ATT) — and utilities Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Kansas City Power & Light Co., a subsidiary of Kansas City-based Great Plains Energy Inc. (NYSE: GXP).

The Smith Newton all-electric vehicles were assembled in the United Kingdom, where Smith Electric Vehicles UK has been producing electric vehicles since the 1920s. SEV UK’s parent, The Tanfield Group Plc., owns 49 percent of Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., which announced plans in March for an assembly plant and headquarters at Kansas City International Airport.

Later this quarter, Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. is expected to begin producing the Smith Newton locally, and starting next year, it is scheduled to begin assembling a battery-electric version of the new Transit Connect light-duty vehicle made by Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).

In the meantime, the startup company is hoping to get market traction through its initial high-profile buyers, which are piloting the Smith Newtons as part of their plans to move to cleaner, energy-saving fleets.

Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. is responding to America’s challenge in the battle to wean itself from foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said in a release.

“And so, too, are the companies here today who are switching from gas to electric-powered vehicles,” said Bond, who hosted Tuesday’s ceremonies. “I am particularly proud of the role my home state of Missouri is playing in this vision for a clean energy future.”

The event also was attended by Carol Browner, assistant to President Obama for energy and climate change, and representatives of the initial vehicle buyers.

Bill Herdegen, vice president of transmission and distribution for KCP&L, said it would buy three Smith Newtons this year. The final two are expected to be the first to roll off the new Kansas City assembly line.

KCP&L already has acquired about 100 alternative-fuel and hybrid gas-electric vehicles and has begun mixing diesel and biodiesel fuel in a fleet of about 400 trucks, Herdegen said. The utility has been able to displace 20 percent of its gasoline and diesel use, he added, and officials hope that the Smith Newton will enable even better performance.

Herdegen said KCP&L’s first Smith Newton will be converted into a bucket truck by Altec Industries Inc., based in Birmingham, Ala., which has teamed with Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. to produce all-electric trucks with aerial devices.

Future Smith Newtons will be converted into either bucket trucks or vehicles used by cable splicers, Herdegen said.

The Smith Newton is a zero-emission vehicle that stores energy during stops through a process called regenerative braking. It has a top speed of 50 mph, a 16,000-pound payload capacity and a range of about 100 miles per battery charge.

Because of the limited range achievable through current battery technology, Smith Electric Vehicles officials decided that fixed-route, depot-based delivery fleets would be the best customers to target initially.

Tom Goff, a senior vice president of Compass Group North America in Charlotte, N.C., recently said a subsidiary, Canteen Vending Services, would buy about 30 Smith Newtons in the next year and convert its entire 10,000-truck fleet to battery power if the pilot test proves successful.

The Smith Newtons will cost about $140,000 each, about $100,000 more than their combustion-engine counterparts, Goff said. But he said part of the cost increment for early purchases could be covered by federal stimulus grants offered for that purpose by some states.

“As more depot-based truck fleet operators come on board and adopt all-electric vehicles, battery technology will advance, and manufacturing costs will be driven down,” Bryan Hansel, CEO of Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., added in a release.

That will spur new growth in the commercial electric vehicle industry, creating new high-tech jobs, he said. Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. has announced plans to create 120 high-paying jobs in Kansas City by the end of the year.
Source: Bizjournals.com
rroberts@bizjournals.com | 816-777-2242

By Chuck Squatriglia
July 27, 2009
Categories: EVs and Hybrids
Nissan showed off its latest EV prototype today, a slick four-door, five-passenger hatchback that’s good for 100 miles and tells you when and where to charge up.
For full Wired Magazine article and pictures of the vehicle, click here

Although it’s just a mule wearing a Tiida body, the car provides the best glimpse yet of the production EV we’ll see for the first time Sunday. Nissan plans to offer an all-electric vehicle in Japan and the United States next year, then roll it out globally in 2012.

“Nissan will be a leader in zero-emission vehicles,” Toshiyuki Shiga said in Tokyo, according to Canadian Press. “EV is the answer.”

Although most of the major automakers have promised to put EVs on the road within the next few years, Japan’s No. 3 automaker is placing the biggest bet on the technology. CEO Carlos Ghosn has made it clear he believes cars with cords are the future, and he has made developing such vehicles a top priority both within Nissan and Renault, its parent company. The company reportedly plans to build 100,000 EVs within the next two years. The Department of Energy recently loaned Nissan $1.6 billion to retool its factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, to produce electric cars and the batteries to power them.

The EV we’ll see Sunday will be built in Japan, and it will feature the drivetrain propelling the prototype Nissan showed off today.

nissan_ev_prototype02Nissan put the 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery under the floor to maximize interior space. The pack powers a Nissan-designed and built electric motor that produces 80 kilowatts (107 horsepower) and 206 pound-feet of torque. Top speed is 140 kilometers per hour (about 87 mph). Nissan’s EV shares its battery with the electric car Renault is working on, but it doesn’t sound like Nissan is following Renault down the swappable-battery road.

Nissan didn’t say anything about the recharge time for the pack. But when we drove the first-generation Nissan EV prototype in April, Mark Perry, director of product planning, told us the pack recharges in four hours at 220 volts. Plug it into a 110 and you’re looking at 14 hours. If you’ve got a 440 volt line — and Perry says many businesses do — you can get an 80 percent charge in just 26 minutes.

Range anxiety — the fear of being stranded by a dead battery — remains one impediment to the mass adoption of electric cars, and Nissan hopes to alleviate such worries with a car that tells you when and where to charge up. Nissan calls it “EV-IT” and says it will work with the car’s navigation system to:

* Show the driving radius within range under the current state of charge.
* Calculate whether the vehicle is within range of a pre-set destination like your home or office.
* Provide information about available charging stations within the current driving range and provide info about those stations

Drivers also can monitor the state of charge of their vehicle online and by cell phone. For example, when your battery is fully charged, you can get a text message.

Cost is another major impediment to widespread adoption of EVs, and there’s still no word on what Nissan’s electric will cost. Perry told us in April it will be comparable to Nissan’s family sedans. The Altima starts at about $20,000 and the Maxima starts at $30,000. The EV will qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit. Perry said it won’t carry the price premium often found on hybrids because Nissan wants to make it as affordable as possible.

Speaking of hybrids, Nissan isn’t abandoning that technology. The company is developing a gas-electric drivetrain that can power a small car. Executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita told Reuters that Nissan considers hybrid a stop-gap until EV technology catches on.

“The best option of course would be for zero-emission electric vehicles to cover all needs, but that’s going to take a while,” Yamashita said.

Photos: Nissan
Source: Wired Magazine

24 June 2009 | Source: just-auto.com editorial team

Ford battery electric vehicle (BEV) demonstrators are included in a British project that is part of the UK government’s ultra-low carbon vehicle fleet announced this week.

With support from utility company Scottish and Southern Energy, a fleet of zero emissions prototype Focus BEVs will be used by both the energy company and a number of evaluation drivers based in Hillingdon, Middlesex, on the western outskirts of London.

The Transit Connect Van

A consortium of Ford, Scottish and Southern Energy and Strathclyde University will provide the prototype vehicles and a charging infrastructure in and around Hillingdon from early 2010.

Ford of Europe is developing the prototype BEVs to both participate in the scheme and test the technology’s suitability for potential future application in the European passenger car range, the automaker said.

The BEV demonstrator fleet is being developed partly with public funding from the government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB), which promotes innovative industry-led projects that reduce CO2 while benefiting the UK’s transport system.

Ford of Britain chairman Joe Greenwell said in a statement: “Battery electric vehicles represent an important step in Ford’s pursuit of delivering more efficient and sustainable mobility solutions. [We are] looking forward to working with project partners on developing a viable market for electric vehicles both in the UK and Europe.”

London mayor Boris Johnson, said: “I want to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe and these trials will provide us with valuable information on what is needed to ensure they can become an everyday choice.”

Ford Europe’s work on the electric Focus prototypes complements development previoulsy undertaken for the Tourneo Connect BEV Concept unveiled at this year’s Geneva motor show.

The Tourneo is a passenger variant of the Turkish-built Transit Connect small van which Ford is launching in the US this summer. A battery electric version will follow next year.

Electric vehicles would account for a “major portion” of Ford’s US model line, chief executive Alan Mulally said last March.

Pickup trucks and SUVs currently account for about 60% of the automaker’s US sales but the company has been offering hybrids in the US since 2004. As well as the planned electric Transit Connect, Ford is preparing to launch a battery electric car in 2011 while a ‘range extender’ competitor for GM’s Chevrolet Volt will follow within two years.

“In 10 years, 12 years, you are going to see a major portion of our portfolio move to electric vehicles,” Mulally said at a conference in the US.

Ford of Europe’s BEV programmes are led by its 3,000-employee UK research and development centre at Dunton in Essex.

Dunton develops powertrains for all of the automaker’s vehicles sold in Europe, plus light commercial vehicles including the two Transit lines.

The BEV powertrain for the Tourneo Connect concept was developed with Smith Electric Vehicles, a UK specialist converter of commercial vehicles to electric power.

Smith is part of a separate consortium that has also secured UK government funding to further develop the concept.

Smith currently converts Ford’s larger Transit LCV line to full electric power for sale in the UK and Europe - branding it the Smith Edison.

It also plans to sell the electric Transit Connect van destined for the US in Europe as the Smith Ampere from 2010. It will convert the electric Transit Connect models for sale in North America, also from 2010.

The Tourneo Connect BEV concept has a 21kWh lithium ion phosphate battery pack powering a 50kW permanent magnet motor, with drive transmitted through a single-speed transmission.

This allows a range of up to 100 miles (160km) and a top speed of 80mph (120km/h).

The onboard battery charger can be plugged directly into a standard mains socket, and a full battery charge takes six to eight hours.

The Focus BEV vehicles for the UK trial will use prototype technology announced by Ford at the 2009 Detroit motor show last January and planned for introduction in North America in 2011.

“The development of this fleet is an ideal way to evaluate the potential for this technology in the UK and broader European markets,” added Greenwell.

“By gaining real world experience with a number of prototypes we can look at the practical and business potential for us to develop battery electric cars for the European market.”

Ford noted that London mayor Johnson had been an active participant in its bid with Scottish and Southern Energy.

“The bids were required to show the support of a local government partner to be successful. The mayor has developed ambitious plans to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe by pledging to deliver 25,000 charging points to form an integrated network across London by 2015, adding 1,000 electric vehicles to the GLA fleet and guaranteeing to retain the congestion charge exemption,” the automaker said.

Nissan has announced that its Wearside factory will start producing batteries for electric cars, which is expected to create 350 new jobs.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Nissan’s £200m investment “was great news for the local economy”.

The plant, near Sunderland, has beaten off competition from other Nissan factories in Europe for the investment.

The move could pave the way for the production of electric vehicles at the North East plant in the near future.

“Sunderland could now be a strong contender to produce electric vehicles for Nissan in Europe, and we will continue to work with Nissan to ensure this happens,” the prime minister said.

Mr Brown visited the Sunderland factory along with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson.

The BBC’s Fiona Trott said that it was not clear whether the deal secured the jobs of the 4,000 people employed at the existing Nissan plant. She said 1,200 jobs had been cut earlier this year.

Mr Mandelson said a “low-carbon economic area” would be established in the North East.

As part of the project, 750 charging points would be installed across the region and a training centre specialising in the manufacture and maintenance of low-carbon vehicles would be set up.

Nissan’s £200m investment will be spread over five years and the new plant, which will make lithium-ion batteries, will also create and secure additional jobs in the related supply chain.

Nissan also announced it was setting up another battery manufacturing plant in Portugal.

The announcement has allayed the fears of some of the workers here.

But there is also a lot of ambiguity too because the company has talked about creating 350 brand new jobs, but it hasn’t been able to say whether or not the existing jobs here have been secured.

Remember that 1,200 jobs were cut at the factory here in January.

But when you speak to the staff most of them say they think that it is good news.

They say that at least people have been coming here and talking about the long-term future of Nissan and news like that is better than no news at all.

Michael Steventon, head of automotive research at consultants KPMG, said that the announcement was a vote of confidence in the Nissan workforce in Sunderland.

“Batteries are only part of a vehicle but they are an expensive, logistically significant part,” he said.

“It does mean that Nissan is more likely to manufacture electric vehicles in the UK than elsewhere in Europe,” he added.

However, he said that if the UK wanted to really capitalise on the move toward hybrid vehicles, more investment in research and development was needed.

Assistance

The government said it was working with Nissan on supporting the investment by offering grants and loan guarantees, including support through its Automotive Assistance Programme.

Earlier this year, the government set aside £2.3bn to support the UK’s ailing car industry - but nothing has yet been paid out.

“The North East has distinguished itself as the first specialised region for ultra-low-carbon vehicles,” Lord Mandelson said.

“This is good news not just for the North East, but for the whole of the UK, helping to attract foreign investment and securing UK’s place as a global leader in hi-tech manufacturing and automotive industries,” he added.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “This is an excellent initiative. It combines active industrial policy and environmental transformation, pointing the way to the kind of economy we will need to build after the recession.”

The announcement from Nissan comes only days after its Japanese rival Toyota said it would start manufacturing the new Auris hybrid petrol-electric vehicle at its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire from mid-2010.

Click here for Video
Source: BBC News UK

By Alan Ohnsman and Kiyori Ueno

July 21 (Bloomberg) — Nissan Motor Co., aiming to be the top seller of electric vehicles in the U.S., is hedging its bets.

Nissan will use a $1.6 billion U.S. loan to retool a Tennessee factory so battery-powered cars can be made on the same line that currently produces hybrids and other models to keep from wasting capacity. Electric-vehicle assembly will be phased in “to avoid under-utilizing the plant while the market is developing,” said Senior Vice President Andy Palmer.

Carmakers are readying electric vehicles in response to higher oil prices, demand for more fuel-efficiency and concerns over climate change tied to carbon exhaust. Even with U.S. aid to build and buy them, the higher cost and shorter driving range of electric vehicles may hold the total market to less than the 150,000 vehicles Nissan will be able to build at the factory.

“There is a risk that the plant may struggle to reach full capacity quickly,” said Ashvin Chotai, managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia Ltd. in London. “A lot will depend on the price and affordability of the car and experience of initial users.”

Current costs for lithium-ion battery packs that can propel a car 100 miles (160 kilometers) are as much as $30,000, and may fall to about $15,000 by 2015 as production techniques improve, said Menahem Anderman, president of Advanced Automotive Batteries, a consulting firm in Oregon House, California.

Initial U.S. demand will be at least a total of 7,500 electric vehicles, or EVs, sold in model years 2011 through 2013, along with about 60,000 plug-in hybrid cars, due to requirements in California under its so-called zero-emission vehicle program.

Basically California

“I would suggest that the EV market in the U.S. will basically be the California regulatory requirement, plus perhaps 20,000 units,” Anderman said. “As long as the gasoline price is under $5 a gallon, there’s no real market for EVs.”

Gasoline cost an average $2.48 a gallon in the U.S. on July 17, according to the AAA, a drivers’ group. The price peaked at $4.11 a gallon on July 15, 2008.

Electric cars are an “emerging” market, Nissan’s Palmer, head of the company’s electric vehicle program, said via e-mail. The company plans to start making the exhaust-free cars in the U.S. by 2012. The U.S. loan will also fund a lithium-ion battery factory next to the Smyrna plant that will make packs for as many as 200,000 cars a year.

Flexibility to make different types of advanced cars on one line will let demand “drive the optimum production balance between zero-emission and low-emission vehicles,” said Palmer.

Nissan rose 3.7 percent to 590 yen at the close of Tokyo trading. The shares have gained 84 percent so far this year. The automaker’s American depository receipts gained 11 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $12.52 at 1:31 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq trading.

Forecast Range

Industry forecaster CSM Worldwide predicts global electric vehicle output will rise to 132,067 in 2015 from 7,115 units this year, said CSM analyst Yoshiaki Kawano. An economic study from University of California, Berkeley, this month predicted electric vehicles will make up 64 percent of U.S. sales by 2030, assuming prices are held down by letting drivers lease battery packs that can be readily switched.

Competition in the market for low-pollution cars ranges from Toyota Motor Corp., the largest seller of gas-electric hybrids, Honda Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co., to new entries including California’s Tesla Motors Inc. and BYD Co., a Chinese car and battery maker backed by Warren Buffett.

The only electric vehicle sold in the U.S. approved for highway use is Tesla’s $109,000 Roadster. Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s electric i-MiEV minicar, sold in Japan for 4.6 million yen ($49,000), goes on sale in the U.S. next year.

Nissan said yesterday it will invest $700 million to build two plants in the U.K. and Portugal that will also make lithium- ion batteries for electric cars.

Ford, Tesla

Nissan on June 23, along with Ford Motor Co. and Tesla, was among the first companies to benefit from the Energy Department’s program to provide $25 billion in low-cost loans to fund production of highly fuel efficient autos in the U.S.

The aid is part of Congress’s 2007 energy bill to help automakers boost average fuel economy by about 40 percent, to 35.5 miles (56 kilometers) per gallon by 2016. President Barack Obama moved up the fuel-efficiency deadline from 2020. The U.S. also provides a $7,500 tax credit to consumers who buy electric cars.

Smyrna Factory

Nissan said it will use the federal cash refurbish its 26-year-old Smyrna factory. The plant has about 3,900 employees and capacity to make as many as 550,000 cars and light trucks annually, including the hybrid Altima sedan.

A version of the electric car Nissan will eventually build at the Smyrna plant is to be unveiled in Japan next month. Nissan has said the 5-passenger model goes 100 miles solely powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. Limited sales begin in Japan and the U.S. next year.

To make the car more affordable, Nissan has said it may lease the battery pack to customers for about the same amount they’d spend annually on gasoline.

The loan “is specifically dedicated to the investment of EV and battery production in Smyrna,” said Palmer. “We are committed to becoming the leader in zero-emission vehicles.”

To contact the reporters on this story Alan Ohnsman in Tokyo at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Kiyori Ueno in Tokyo at kueno2@bloomberg.net
Source:Bloomberg

The German automaker touts the London test of a fleet of its electric Smart cars and the progress of alternative-fuel technologies under development

By Jack Ewing
Europe

Talk to people in the auto industry, and you’ll hear lots of reasons why electric cars are years away from practicality. But “those are just excuses,” scoffs Tilo Schweers, director of Daimler’s (DAI) electric Smart car test project. A fleet of battery-powered Smarts is already in use in London, he points out, and many of the feared drawbacks haven’t materialized.

Drivers haven’t been left stranded on the streets when their cars run out of juice, he says, nor is the cost out of line. Daimler leases 100 e-Smarts to customers for £400 ($660) a month, which isn’t cheap for a two-seat minicar. But owners don’t need to pay London’s congestion charge, and they save on fuel and maintenance, which brings the cost close to that of a conventional vehicle. Daimler isn’t losing money on the deal either, Schweers says—the leasing payments cover the company’s costs even if there is no profit yet.

Schweers, who’s obviously enthusiastic about his work, explains this as I steer one of the electric Smarts around pylons set up on an unused airport runway outside Stuttgart. Daimler invited journalists to the rural landing strip on July 20 to try out its growing array of electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Many are prototypes, but the Smart I’m driving saw everyday use in London before Daimler shipped it back to Germany. The wear shows in the nicked interior and slightly faded upholstery.
Technology Advances

There are plenty of obstacles to be overcome before the streets are swarming with emissions-free vehicles. And Daimler’s top executives sound more cautious than Schweers when they talk about alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

But this well-broken-in Smart suggests that the day when electric cars are commonplace may not be as far away as some skeptics think. “Electric-vehicle technology has made enormous progress,” Mercedes R&D chief Thomas Weber told reporters.

For now, Daimler is still putting most of its energy into optimizing internal combustion engines. The company’s Mercedes unit is pushing down the fuel consumption of the company’s luxury cars with measures such as turbocharged diesel engines, lightweight materials, and tires with lower rolling resistance. Mercedes has also begun offering hybrids, beginning with the top-of-the-line S-Class, which went on sale in June. Weber promises full-size luxury cars with economy-car fuel consumption within a few years.

But more exotic technologies are further along than many people outside Daimler probably realize. The most advanced on view July 20 was the Mercedes BlueZERO E-Cell prototype, a four-seat electric car with lightweight construction and transparent solar cells on the roof. Because it’s a one-off experimental car, journalists weren’t allowed to drive it. That honor was reserved for R&D chief Weber. “Fascinating, eh?” he exclaimed, as he zoomed around the runway with me in the backseat.
No Performance Trade-Offs

Electric cars don’t have to be compacts. Daimler also displayed a hybrid version of its Sprinter commercial vehicle, which in this case was fitted out as a minibus with seven rear seats. The hybrid Sprinter can run solely on battery power, which could be important in coming years as some European cities impose strict emissions limits on center-city traffic.

Mercedes also showed off a modified B-Class midsize four-seater that runs on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell and emits only water. My short test drive on rural roads made it clear that drivers don’t have to make any performance or comfort trade-offs with such a car. On the contrary, the fuel cell provides snappy acceleration and is much quieter than a conventional diesel- or gasoline-powered power plant. Daimler managed to squeeze all the drive components underneath the floor, so the car has just as much space as the conventional B-Class. Working in combination with a battery—a sort of hydrogen hybrid—a fuel-cell car could have a range of 360 miles (660km), Daimler says.
The problem, of course, is that there aren’t yet many places to tank up with hydrogen. And the environmental benefits are largely canceled out by the lack of an economical and environmentally friendly way to produce hydrogen. (Currently most hydrogen is synthesized from natural gas.)
Electric Cars in the City

Emissions-free vehicles that rival conventional autos in range and cost are, in fact, probably years—even decades—away. But electric cars for city use could come much sooner. Daimler plans to extend the London test to numerous other cities in Europe as well as the U.S. next year. Daimler hasn’t decided which cities will get the e-Smarts, but certainly New York and one of California’s major cities will be included. Project manager Schweers says he has been flooded by requests from cities wanting to be included.

The company says the London experience shows that the 60-mile range is plenty for most users. The cars proved most useful for commercial fleet customers, who could deploy the Smarts for shorter urban trips and conventional vehicles for longer voyages. By the same token, the electric cars worked well as a second vehicle for families. Most people charged the cars at home overnight, which also makes sense from an environmental point of view. Power plants tend to be underutilized in the late evening. As with the other emissions-free vehicles, Daimler managed to fit the components under the floor, so there was no loss of luggage space (which was never very ample in the Smart anyway).

The next generation of electric Smarts will have more advanced lithium ion batteries supplied by California’s Tesla, in which Daimler earlier this year bought a 10% stake. If all goes well, Daimler will begin selling the electric Smarts commercially in 2012. Initially, the numbers will be relatively small but still significant—at least 10,000 units. “The age of electric mobility won’t take place all of a sudden,” R&D chief Weber cautions. Already, though, “performance has reached a new dimension.”

Ewing is BusinessWeek’s European regional editor. Source: Business Week

Nissan, GM and Ford are wagering in the high-stakes game of electric driving, but it’s too soon to tell whose hand will be a winner.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer
July 10, 2009: 8:14 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The cars of the future will run on electricity, most major automakers agree on that. What they don’t agree on is how soon drivers will be ready to fully embrace electric power and how aggressively to push electric cars.

Nissan, General Motors and Ford’s electric car strategies show just how differently they view America’s readiness to get behind the wheel of purely electric cars.
Nissan: America is ready now!

Nissan is planning to introduce a purely electric car next year, not bothering with plug-in hybrids or other technologies that merely minimize the use of gasoline.

“We’re going to the end of the spectrum, believing that is the way to go,” said Eric Noziere, Nissan North America’s vice-president for product planning.

Nissan is promising a five seat car that can drive 100 miles on a single charge. Noziere doesn’t think fears about the relatively short driving range of electric cars, known as “range anxiety,” will be a big problem.

After a while, customers will adjust their driving habits, he said. Also, to make driving range less of issue, Nissan is working with governments and energy providers in cities including Seattle, San Diego and Phoenix to install charging stations that will allow drivers to “top off” their batteries while they’re at work or running errands.

The problem with this strategy according to Michael Omotoso, an industry analyst with J.D. Power and Associates, is that Nissan risks sinking a lot of development costs and manufacturing capacity into a vehicle that might not take off. If gas prices stay low, they’ll have a problem, he said.

“Their only customers are going to be government fleets,” Omotoso said.

But Nissan’s approach is probably the best one for a company that, so far, hasn’t invested much in hybrids and plug-in hybrids said Bill Pochiluk, an industry analyst with the consulting group Automotive Compass.

Nissan’s president Carlos Goshn has only recently come around to green technology. He famously said hybrids were a fad and that Nissan would continue to build gasoline engines into the future.

For now, Pochiluk said, Nissan’s competitors are way ahead in those areas and the best Nissan could hope for would be “me too” status. An electric-only vehicle will at least give them a better chance to stand out down the line.
GM: Electric cars are too limited

When it comes to electric-only cars, GM’s attitude is: “Been there, done that, don’t want to do it again now.”
0:00 /2:45Driving the Chevy Volt

While the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” created the impression that GM had ignored a huge market for its EV1 electric car back in the 1990s, that wasn’t the reality, according to GM. California regulations at the time required GM, and other automakers to sell zero-emission cars, so automakers greatly subsidized prices. GM lost money — lots of of money — on each of the roughly 800 customers who leased the car over its four years of availability.

This time out, GM wants a car with real mass appeal: Four seats and no worries about driving range. Its solution is the Chevrolet Volt, a battery-driven car with a gasoline engine to generate more electricity for long-range driving.

While a hundred miles is much longer than most people drive on a typical day, it’s still not long enough for the occasional road trip. So the Volt goes 40 miles on a full battery, a range that more than covers a typical day for most Americans. But when the battery runs low, a gasoline engine starts generating electricity to allow for hundreds of miles more.

GM’s approach is the right one, said Pochiluk. Consumers will need the security of that extended gasoline-powered range before large numbers will invest in an electrically driven vehicle, he said. The biggest risk for GM is that it has so much riding on this one car.

“Every part of this vehicle has to be perfect,” he said, “or the whole world is going to dump on it.”
Ford: We’ll let America tell us

Ford is readying its own all-electric car for launch in early 2011, a version of the next-generation Focus compact car. It will also offer an electric commercial van next year.
0:00 /2:55Ford plugs in electric cars

Ford isn’t betting on huge sales of either vehicle, but sees them as part of a strategy to offer hi-tech vehicles to suit whatever customer appetite arises.

Ford is also working on plug-in hybrid vehicles, as is GM. Plug-in hybrids are different from range-extended electric cars like the Volt. For one thing, they rely more on gasoline power but still use much less fuel than even regular hybrids.

Ford’s approach is probably the smartest, said Michael Omotoso, an industry analyst with J.D. Power and Associates.

“Being in all market segments at different price points, they can see where their sales are the highest,” he said.

Ford’s approach to developing its electric-only vehicles also limits risk, he said.

“They’re in the electric vehicle field,” he said “but they’re sharing the risk with a partner.”

The Focus BEV, for Battery Electric Vehicle, being developed jointly with the Canadian auto parts supplier Magna, which actually started the project on its own before involving Ford. The electric Transit Connect commercial van is also being co-developed with a partner, Smith Electric Vehicles of England.

All of these strategies depend on rising gas prices, though, Pochiluk said.

“We need much higher gas prices or none of this stuff we’re talking about is ever going to work,” said Pochiluk
Source: CNN Money

Taipei, July 9, 2009 (CENS)–Tesla Motors, an electric vehicle maker in the United States, is expected to expand its order-placing to Taiwanese suppliers, according to industry sources.

Tesla Motors has received approval for about US$465 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to accelerate the production of affordable, fuel-efficient electric vehicles. Taiwan`s Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to attract more investments from Tesla to the island.

The American vehicle maker set up an assembly plant in Taoyuan of northern Taiwan two years ago and purchases needed motors and controllers locally. After it won a loan from the U.S. government, Tesla`s increasing production is expected to further raise its parts procurements from the island.

Tesla Motors purchases power controllers from local Delta Electronics, Inc. and Chroma ATE Inc., as well as motors from Gongin Precision Ind. Co., Ltd., Fukuta Elec. & Mach. Co., Ltd. etc.

Tesla Motors` Roadster is a high-end electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. Designed in Silicon Valley and assembled by Lotus in England, the Tesla Roadster is priced around US$100,000, making it the “Porsche in the electric vehicle line.”

(by Quincy Liang)

German auto maker Volkswagen is planning to introduce its first all-electric car in 2013, reports Physorg.com.

VW head Martin Winterkorn said the auto maker wants to offer a large number of all-electric vehicles at affordable prices, and is aiming for 1.0-1.5 percent of the global all-electric vehicle market by 2020, reports Physorg.com. VW

Earlier in the year, Volkswagen AG signed an agreement with Toshiba Corp. to develop an electric car and a high-density battery system for electric vehicles.

In March, two other German car makers announced their foray into the electric-vehicle market. Daimler AG announced a partnership with Aabar Investments PJSC to work on joint projects focused on electric vehicles and the reduction of CO2 emissions, and BMW, announced its first project, the MINI E electric vehicle, which is being tested by 500 customers in California.

German companies until now have mainly focused on diesel engines and, as a result, hybrids represented only 0.2 percent of the market last year, with the sale of 6,500 Toyota, Lexus or Honda models, reports Physorg.com.

Other auto makers moving into the electric-vehicle market include CT&T Co. Ltd., a South Korea-based manufacturer of low-speed electric vehicles. CT&T United, a U.S. subsidiary of CT&T, plans to build electric vehicles in the U.S. beginning with the e-Zone and c-Zone vehicles, reports Green Congress. The company will establish a U.S. headquarters, research & development and manufacturing plants. Potential sites include South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and California, according to Green Congress.

In the Chinese market, ECOtality is establishing a joint venture with Shenzhen Goch International Ltd. to manufacture and distribute electric-vehicle charging systems in China, reports Green Congress. In exchange for exclusive sales and distribution rights for the ECOtality charging system in China, Shenzhen is investing $10 million in the manufacturing joint venture and $5 million into the sales and distribution joint venture, reports the Web site
Source: Environmental Leader