Archive for May, 2010

Point Roberts WA/ Los Angeles CA- May 10, 2010 – www.InvestorIdeas.com reports on publicly traded electric Vehicle ( EV) and natural gas companies that are participating in the greening of the Port of Los Angeles. Players including BYD Auto (BYD Company: HKG: 1211), Balqon Corporation (OTCBB: BLQN), Westport Innovations Inc. (TSX:WPT; NASDAQ:WPRT) and Vision Industries Corp. (OTCBB: VIIC) all have a stake in the future of the Port, but for the companies involved, it represents just a fraction of their vision for a global green automotive market.
On May 4th the Port of Los Angeles announced plans to become the world’s first port to offer a reduced tariff for zero-emission vehicles imported into the United States through the Port. The reduced-fee incentive proposal was announced Friday, April 30, as Chinese manufacturer BYD Auto Company Limited (BYD) said it will locate its North American headquarters in Los Angeles and use the Port of Los Angeles to import its vehicles. BYD has now completed their location to a new Los Angeles H.Q.

BYD Auto is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, established in 2003 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Company, listed on the Hong Kong Exchange (BYD Company: HKG:1211).

Another publicly traded EV company at the Port is Balqon Corporation (OTCBB: BLQN), a company that produces heavy duty electric trucks, tractors and electric drive systems.

As of November, Balqon Corporation (OTCBB: BLQN) had delivered 12 Nautilus E20s to the City of Los Angeles and one Nautilus E20 to the AQMD. All of the Nautilus E20s were delivered during the third quarter of 2009 were equipped with lithium-ion battery packs.
The company anticipates that future sales of the heavy-duty electric vehicles will be made directly to end users, such as large terminal operators, shipping companies and OEMs, rather than directly to governmental agencies such as the AQMD and the City of Los Angeles.

Westport Innovations Inc. (TSX:WPT; NASDAQ:WPRT), a provider of natural gas engines, in its April 2010 investor presentation, updates LNG clean truck program deals with the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. “Despite economic turmoil, over 500 LNG trucks have been deployed to date, the infrastructure is in place and the feedback from the fleets is excellent. “

According to the Port of Los Angeles, since its commencement on October 1, 2008, the Clean Truck Program (CTP) has delivered an estimated more than 70-percent reduction in the rate of truck emissions compared to 2007 average air emissions data.

On April 5th the Port of Los Angeles announced it awarded Vision Industries Corp. (OTCBB: VIIC), producers of the zero emission electric/hydrogen hybrid Tyrano™ truck, a purchase order for a zero emission Class 8 hybrid electric truck. The cost to purchase the zero emission truck will not exceed $280,000 including sales tax.
The Port of Los Angeles and Balqon Corp were showing off their first production XE20 electric, zero-emission yard tractors on Wednesday at an all-day Ride and Drive event at Berth 87. Balqon is getting ready to deliver 20 of the new heavy-duty trucks to a container terminal for a real-world debut.

The port ordered the lithium-ion battery-powered vehicles to be built almost a year ago, along with five XE30 trucks designed for short-haul, on-road drayage. The XE30s will be used to shuttle containers from the port to a near-dock rail yard about five miles north of the harbor.
Source:www.investorideas.com

China’s BYD said on Friday it would put its North American headquarters in Los Angeles and soon begin selling electric cars, like the e6.

China is often regarded as a major threat to the US auto industry for two major reasons. First, as of last year, China surpassed the US to become the biggest auto market in the world and it’s getting bigger. Second, the Chinese government wants to go directly to electric cars and skip past the gasoline internal combustion engine. According to experts on the Chinese electric vehicle market, China is much more likely to be a partner than a competitor in building an electric car future.

Why would China want to work with the US to produce electric vehicles? In simple terms, the country is desperate for rapid change. “The country has big problems and needs big solutions. Their current pathway is not sustainable,” said Roland Hwang, transportation program Manager at the Natural Resource Defense Council. Those problems include dismal air quality and a need to import as much as 80 percent of their oil for its cars by 2030. Hwang and other experts discussed China and electric cars at last week’s Electric Cars 2.0, a Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference, in San Francisco.

China has the need but faces major challenges to achieving its electric car goals. It’s about five to 10 years behind the world in automotive technology, quality and safety. And the average Chinese consumer can’t afford the $5,000 or so price premium for an electric car.

Risks and Rewards

This spells opportunity for US companies. Jit Bhattacharya, CEO of Mission Motors, said his company’s phone rings off the hook with Chinese companies seeking help with anything that runs on electric power, from cars and scooters, to lawn and garden equipment. Mission Motors manufactures a $68,000 150-mile-per-hour electric motorcycle in China, but has shifted much of its business to selling its electric-powertrain technology. “Chinese companies call us, and say we don’t know how we’re going to get on this learning curve fast enough to actually get a vehicle to market in the next three to four years.”

The Mission One Superbike can travel 150 miles-per-hour and 150 miles on a single charge. But the underlying electric-drive technology is what attracts Chinese electric vehicle companies.

Hwang pinned the current Chinese electric vehicle market, mostly electric bicycles, at about 100 million. “Where is the electric car market headed? You can count on China being a big player. I’m convinced that they will be a big part of the market, as consumers, battery manufacturers and suppliers.”

US start-up companies have a huge opportunity to partner with Chinese manufacturers, scale up their businesses, and bring the technology back home. Major US and Japanese carmakers producing electric cars are also eager to break into the Chinese market, while Chinese companies, like BYD and Geely Automotive, are trying to bring their electric vehicles to North American markets. It’s an inter-connected market.

The opportunities for big and small companies alike are not without risks, according to panelist Marc Gottschalk, partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The investment firm has a number of electric car clients, including Mission Motors and Tesla. “There is a struggle. Companies want to take advantage of that huge market in China,” Gottschalk said. “There’s also the feeling that they want to do everything you can possibly do to protect yourself from having the technology stolen and commercialized and used against you in the future.”

Common Goals

According to Hwang, one of the first things that the Obama’s new Energy Department appointees did was to establish a forum for the US and China to discuss their common electric vehicle challenges. “The concept is that China and the US, now the two largest automobile markets in the world, will forge simultaneously with the marketplace for electric vehicles,” Hwang said. “There are lots of synergies, lots of economies of scale, lots of advantages of going down that learning curve together.”

Source: Hybridcars.com