Archive for April, 2010

GE (NYSE: GE) and Nissan (NSANF.PK) signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore new technologies for electric vehicle smart-charging infrastructure.

GE and Nissan have outlined two key areas for potential collaborations. The first relates to the integration of electric vehicles with homes and buildings. The second focuses on electric vehicle charging dynamics with the larger electric grid. In coming months, GE and Nissan plan to identify specific projects they can partner on in each of these areas.

Much of the GE work will be conducted at GE’s global research operations located in Niskayuna, New York, where the latest electric transportation research and smart grid technology will facilitate the collaboration. Nissan will participate mainly through it Nissan Technical Center North America, located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, with support by the Nissan Advanced Technology Center in Japan.

Nissan’s all-electric, zero-emission Nissan LEAF is scheduled to launch later this year in Japan, the United States and Europe. Nissan–like Mitsubishi Motors (MMO.F)–has gone “all in” on its electric car initiative, rather than developing its own hybrid or plug-in hybrid technology. But it is yet to be seen, whether consumers will prefer all-electric models or plug-in hybrids, that have the option of burning gasoline for extended driving.

The creation of convenient, reliable charging infrastructures is key to widespread public adoption. Nissan, more than any other car company, is developing collaborative projects to create charging systems. These systems, such as the DOE-funded project led by Ecotality (OTCBB: ETLE), are being designed with open standards, so that any brand of vehicle can be juiced up, but Nissan looks to have the head start on its all-electric competitors.

In January the company closed a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the DOE to retool its manufacturing facility in Smyrna, Tennesse to produce the Nissan Leaf and battery systems.

Website: www.ge.com/research

April 23, 8:38 PMEnergy Policy ExaminerClifford Bryan

Nissan Leaf has gotten close to 25% of the first batch of electric vehicles on customer order.

AP Photo

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California has been selected as one of the states to participate in the DOE sponsored EV Project. With that honor they will get first choice on the Nissan Leaf 100% electric vehicle due out in December. That means zero emissions. The fact that California has a great electric charging infrastructure already in place helped out a lot. States southern states like Louisiana shockingly have zero electric vehicle charging stations. That’s not good if your state plans to get anything out of the green economy. I guess Louisiana’s Republican governor hasn’t learned much from his peer in California.

So what do California Leaf buyers and a few other states get out of this deal with the government. They get some pretty darn good government subsidies to buy an electric vehicle. The Leaf goes for 30k, Nissan Leaf buyers get a $7500 federal tax credit and Californians are eligible for an additional $5,000 rebate through the state Air Resources Board. That brings California buyers to about $20k for a new electric vehicle that costs pennies on the kilowatt to drive. When smart grid technology catches up those savings will get even better.

Nissan has a early order program going on for the Leaf. They’ve already signed up close to 25% of the cars due out in December on the program.

Source: Examiner.com

April 23, 2010, 5:30 pm

The setting was the sun-dappled campus of Columbia University, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that today’s forum on “New York and the Electric Car,” sponsored by the university and General Motors, took on a somewhat elevated tone.

Columbia University A pre-production Chevrolet Volt on display at Columbia University.

Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of how the city’s many apartment-dwelling electric vehicle owners will plug in, the forum celebrated the prospective role of electric cars in changing the world. Several speakers compared the present period to the revolution from horses to horseless carriages more than a century ago.

John Gilbert, executive vice president of the real estate firm Rudin Management, invoked the transforming technology displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. He challenged the audience to think of the modern building as a smart phone that will blossom when applications are created to aid car charging and efficiently manage the flow of electrons.

A highlight of the morning talk was the appearance of Lawrence Burns, the former longtime General Motors vice president, who functioned as the company’s hydrogen fuel-cell champion and big-picture guru of sustainability. Far from retiring, Mr. Burns is a corporate adviser and has academic appointments at both Columbia’s Earth Institute (as director of sustainable mobility) and the University of Michigan.

Mr. Burns said that 29 or 30 green cars of various types, including his former company’s Chevrolet Volt, would be on the market in the next few years. “The new DNA of the automobile is electrically driven,” he said.

He agreed with Mr. Gilbert that information technology would shape the car of the future, and invoked the “mobility Internet” to imagine a time when cars drive themselves and “don’t crash.”

“Texting won’t be an issue, and driving will be the distraction,” said Mr. Burns. “And because cars won’t crash we’ll be able to reduce their mass significantly.”

Among Mr. Burns’ last endeavors at G.M. was Project P.U.M.A., a collaboration with Segway that posits small pod-like 750-pound city cars that can drive autonomously. A second generation of G.M.’s city vehicles, called EN-V, are being put on display at Expo Shanghai in China.

Jeffrey Sachs, who heads Columbia’s Earth Institute, added a note of impatience to the proceedings. He invoked the specter of global warming and the auto tailpipe’s role in hastening it, and said the electrification of the automobile “will have to happen a lot faster than such a complex process would normally require.” Effective public policy, he said, can help accelerate E.V. adoption.

“We are on the cusp of an historic worldwide transformation in transportation that starts in the world’s biggest cities,” Mr. Sachs said in an interview. “It’s important from a resource point of view and an environmental point of view.”

A pre-production Chevy Volt was parked on College Walk for the event. Tony Posawatz, the Volt’s line director, said the company was “on a very good glide path to deliver the car.” The first retail cars will be delivered in November, he said. The Volt plugs in and will be home charged; Mr. Posawatz said he was looking forward to “having a gas station in my garage.”

So is New York ready to charge E.V.’s? Arthur Kressner, director of power supply research and development at Con Edison, cited the electric delivery trucks that plied the city’s streets 110 years ago and answered in the affirmative. Except for relatively rare peak demand times, he said, “the grid is more than capable of meeting the demands of electric vehicles.”

In an interview after the forum, Mr. Kressner said Con Ed has recently met with several charging companies, including the global player Better Place, and with the owners of city parking garages who are likely to add E.V. charging.

Source: NY Times Wheels Blog

Mercedes, Nissan, Renault to partner on Smartfortwo, Twingo, electric cars and diesels

Daimler

April 7, 3:03 PMGreen Car ExaminerEvelyn Kanter

Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Renault are entering a wide-ranging partnership that includes joint development of vehicles and sharing technology on batteries, electric cars and powertrains.  The joint effort will include small cars such as the Smart developed by Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler, and the Twingo, developed by Renaut.

Nissan and Renault have been teamed successfully for more than a decade.  Mercedes parent Daimler was married briefly to Chrysler, but that didn’t work out.   Now Chrysler is married to Fiat, but that’s another story.

“Even though Daimler’s marriage record isn’t great, automakers must collaborate to meet more stringent emission and fuel economy standards during these tough economic times,” says Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs on AutoObserver.com.   Partnerships are especially important for small cars, where profit margins are smaller than on larger vehicles and luxury vehicles.

The announcement was made in Brussels, Belgium — which is not the headquarters city of Daimler, Nissan or Renault.

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler’s Chairman and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, says the partnership offers  a ”promising foundation for a successful, strategically sound cooperation that is based on a number of very concrete and attractive project cooperations. Our skills complement each other very well.”

Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, says “the Renault-Nissan Alliance knows how to work successfully in collaborative partnerships, and this experience is extremely valuable in today’s and even more tomorrow’s global auto industry.”

The first projects will be the successor to the current Smartfortwo, a new Smart four-seater, and the next-generation Renault Twingo.  These will be engineered on a platform the companies develop together, but each vehicle will retain its own brand identity.  It will not be a Smart Twingo.

The vehicles will be developed both as EV electric models, and as fuel-efficient diesels.   Mercedes already is partnering with Tesla to produce supply the EV electric version of the Smartfortwo.

I predict the  likely, the diesels will be for Europe only, while the EV models will have wider distribution, since there is minimal market in North America for compact diesels, despite the surprising popularity of the 2011 Audi A3 clean diesel.

The partnership is not limited to small cars.  Mercedes will provide engines to Nissan’s luxury Infiniti brand.

Source: Examiner.com