Electric Car Blogging

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, GM, Saturn

During the recent Plug-in conference in San Jose CA, Matt Kelly of GMNext talked with Larry Nitz about the new PHEV version of the Saturn Vue. The PHEV Vue is still at least a year away and is based on the Two-Mode Vue that comes out late this year. The nickel metal hydride battery is replaced with a lithium ion unit and a plug-in charger is added. According to Nitz, who is the executive director of hybrid powertrain engineering at GM, the PHEV Vue will average about the twice the fuel efficiency of the regular two-mode Vue for the first 20 miles. GM isn’t talking about the electric only range, because the ability to actually operate on electricity alone is limited by the motor power. As what’s called a conversion PHEV, the motor is not sized for a significant electric only operational window. The Vue will go up to about 35 mph at light acceleration on electricity. Beyond that the engine starts. Even in around town driving the engine will start with anything other a very light throttle foot. Nonetheless, the plug-in Vue will likely achieve somewhere between 50-60 mpg for the first 20 miles. If you can drive lightly enough to keep the engine off, you should be able to get around 10 miles on the battery. Check out the video after the jump.

[Source: GMNext]

Continue reading VIDEO: Larry Nitz talks about the plug-in Saturn Vue hybrid

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, USA

Just the other day we were asking ourselves if the price of the most expensive component of electric cars, the lithium ion batteries, will ever come down. As if to answer our query Charles Gassenheimer, Chief Executive over at battery maker Ener1, has come back with the answer we hoped to hear. Yes! And we’re not talking about a small fraction of a reduction but rather a full 50 percent. Of course this kind of sea change in price will require a huge increase in volume. Gassenheimer says they will need to have volumes in the hundreds of thousands to achieve this price drop but silver-lines that cloud by saying, “But the important point of this here is the demand side of this equation doesn’t seem to be the problem.” He says demand is “off the charts in Europe and Asia” and expects American demand to keep increasing as well.

Ener1, who already make batteries for plug-in Priuses and have a million supply deal with Th!nk, are pressing to reach this kind of output and are chatting up 24 (!) different auto makers. Of these, two may soon ink development contracts which could, because of the size of these companies, lead to Ener1 actually becoming cash flow positive in 2010. If they can achieve their cost-reduction goals, the pay-back period for all-electric cars may be reached in as little as two years instead of the current 7 or 8 if the price of oil stays around 0 a barrel.

[Source: Reuters]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Zap

We remember when Zap revived the name Detroit Electric, a classic, last year but the details haven’t been coming very fast and furious since then. Zap announced late last week that the U.S.-Chinese partnership (with China Youngman Automobile Group) is now headed over the Atlantic to find both money and tech help. In a statement, Detroit Electric CEO Albert Lam said that partners in Europe (unnamed) would help with the electric drive system, capital financing and vehicle distribution. More details - like the names of those partners - will be announced in the future. Zap and China Youngman will give up their ownership interest in Detroit Electric, but both will remain involved in the future of Detroit Electric: Zap with North American sales and distribution, China Youngman by providing “vehicle platforms to Detroit Electric for pure electric transit buses and coaches.” Zap also got 0,000 U.S. for giving up its ownership interest.

[Source: Detroit Electric]

Continue reading Detroit Electric turns to Europe for investment, technology

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors, European Union

Click on the Tesla Roadster for a high-res gallery

OK, so if you were wondering what could be gained by schlepping a batch of Tesla Roadsters across the pond, I have your answer: convincing European automotive journalists that EVs are wicked cool.

Take, for example, the feelings of Guido Reinking, the editor of Automobilwoche. Before feeling what it’s like to be behind the wheel of a Roadster recently, he thought that EVs offered a pathetic future and that electric-powered vehicles were more suited for public transportation than cars. Of EVs, he said, “Aren’t they completely sterile, bereft of any emotion, just another appliance?”

He’s changed his tune. According to his piece in Automotive News Europe, Reinking now says that, “Anyone harboring such misconceptions needs to take a test drive in a Tesla Roadster.” It’s a feeling we know, and know well.

Sure, Reinking noted the Roadster’s problems, as we noted last week, but I thought the change of mind that Reinking had should be brought up on its own. After all, everyone is going to have their first experience with EVs in the coming decade (give or take) and the more positive those can be, the better the chances will be for battery-powered vehicles.

[Source: Automotive News Europe]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Transportation Alternatives, UK

Residents of Radnor Park in Clydebank, Scotland have a new transportation alternative in the form of three new cars to share amongst themselves. And although the car-sharing arrangement does require them to pay a fee of £5 for a day’s worth of car time, they won’t need to worry about paying for petrol or polluting their fair city since the vehicles in question are all-electric Mega Citys. What about the “long tailpipe” that’s potentially leads back to a coal-fired power plant? Not to worry as these vehicles are supplied by excess power from a small plant shared by the seven buildings for heat and electricity.

The program is the first of its kind in Scotland and was funded by a £37,000 Community Scotland grant. The director of the Clydebank Housing Association (CHA), Fiona Webster, says the shared power combined with the shared cas make this Radnor Park one of the most sustainable communities in Britain. The only problem we for see is perhaps the electric cars becoming too popular and being declared a success.

[Source: BBC / CHA]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Nissan, On Two Wheels

Click above for more shots of the Nissan Mori concept scooter

Who cares if Nissan doesn’t make two-wheeled scooters? In the world of concept designs, anything goes. A designer by the name of Shane Crozier has gone ahead and imagined what a scooter by Nissan that was inspired by a chest of drawers would look like. Yes, we did say inspired by a chest of drawers. Anyway, a drawer-like scooter would obviously be square-ish, and this one doesn’t disappoint in that regard. The Nissan Mori scooter also has single-sided front and rear forks with a hub-mounted steering system imagined at the front.

From what we can tell, this scooter was designed for a young (and apparently very well endowed) Japanese girl named Makiko who lives near Tokyo and can’t afford a car. Obviously, this girl still needs some wheels to get around, and an electric scooter seems reasonable for this purpose. Nissan enters the game because Japanese car sales are slowly tanking and the company needs to reach younger buyers. Right… just go with it, and feel free to browse the pictures below.

[Source: Yanko Design]

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Filed under: Etc., EV/Plug-in, NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle)

Click above for more photos of Daniel Deutsch’s landspeeder

If NEVs were this awesome, there’d be one in every garage. Daniel Deutsch is a 20-year veteran builder for the entertainment industry. In addition to a perfect R2-D2, he’s created this full-scale, fully-functional replica of Luke Skywalker’s battered XP-34 landspeeder. Okay — it’s not perfect; Daniel hasn’t invented repulsorlift technology in his garage — yet. As a stopgap measure, Deutsch’s speeder is electric-powered, with a 25 mph top speed and a “several mile” range off a single charge. This? Awesome. Your neighbor’s GEM? Lame.

[Source: Daniel Deutsch via AutoFiends]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Toyota

Toyota President, Katsuaki Watanabe this week announced that the start of fleet testing for plug-in capable Priuses had been moved up by a year. At this year’s Detroit Auto Show, Watanabe announced that several hundred Priuses with the ability to be plugged in would be delivered to government and commercial fleets in 2010 for field testing. That schedule has been adjusted so that the PHEVs would now be introduced in early 2009 with several hundred on the road by the end of the year. Over on the Toyota Open Road Blog, communications VP Irv Miller makes it clear though that no timetable has been set for retail sales of these cars and that it won’t happen until Toyota is well and truly confident that the lithium ion batteries are safe, reliable and affordable. He also calls out a Palo Alto, CA Toyota dealer for beginning to take deposits on the cars. While applauding the dealership’s initiative he stresses that no one knows when a PHEV Prius will actually be available to the public, including Toyota’s dealer network.

[Source: Toyota]

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