Electric Car Blogging

Toyota test drivers smugly avoid London’s congestion fees as they test a fleet of plug-in Prius hybrids.

The current credit crisis—with or without a 0 billion bailout—has already spread from Wall Street to commercial banks, and from the financial sector to other parts of the economy, including to the auto industry. Here’s how the credit crisis is impacting key players in the hybrid vehicle market.

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Back in early 2006, when Toyota took the wraps of its new bigger, badder, and more powerful Tundra pickup, the company was clearly taking aim at Detroit’s last stronghold: the full-size pickup truck. At that time, company executives hinted at a hybrid version, but Toyota was going for Detroit’s juggler vein—so a gas-electric drivetrain on the 5.7-liter V8 he-man Tundra made little sense.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, Green Daily

The headline above is what we call a “bait & switch,” and it recreates the feeling I got when I approached the AMPLE Motion booth at the AltCar Expo. AMPLE, a new company incorporated on Earth Day this year, is trying an unusual strategy to get the word out about its plug-in hybrid vehicles that are scheduled to arrive in 2010: super deep pre-order discounts. While the company’s 2010 R300 plug-in truck will normally cost ,000, the first thirty people to pre-order will be on the hook for only ,999. A similar deal was available to visitors at the Santa Monica AltCar Expo for the E600 PHEV sedan. Original MSRP is ,000, but the pre-order price is ,999. While the banners at the AMPLE booth say the special offers are limited to the first 30 pre-oders, sheets that AMPLE had available at the show made it seem like only people at the show could take advantage of the deal. So, if you’re interested, contact AMPLE for more information.

But what are these vehicles with the unexciting names? We spoke with AMPLE’s Ted Flittner about the the company’s line-up, discount and referral system (yes, if you get your friends to buy an AMPLE car, you get a referral fee) and more. You can listen to Flittner here (7 min):

Here are the preliminary details on the three plug-in hybrid vehicles AMPLE is offering:

• For all three: 100 miles per gallon equivalent, or better. 600+ mile range with full charge and tank. Use EDI’s mechanically continuously variable transmission. Lithium-ion battery pack. ABS brakes and SRS airbags standard. Recharging from a standard household outlet.

• E600: “Epipany” class. Four-door sedan. 60-mile all-electric range (AER). 38 mpg highway. ,000.
• E300: Mid-size sedan. 40-mile AER. 45 mpg highway. No price sheet available.
• R300: “Robust” class. Compact pick-up truck (similar to a Chevy Colorado or Ford Ranger). 1,420 pounds payload. 3,150 pounds towing capability. ,000.

All of these models will be brand-new vehicles to the customer, but will be made from existing vehicle designs that AMPLE will be licensing from other automakers. More details will be coming in April or May 2009.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo

We heard about the Triac back in April and got more details in May. When we saw the prototype sitting on the floor of the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo floor over the weekend, we knew we needed to stop in and say hello. Ehab Youssef was there to give a rundown of the Triac, an all-electric tadpole-style three-wheeler that can go 80 mph and has a 100-mile range. The Triac uses a 20 kW AC motor and a 160 amp hour lithium battery pack and features full regen braking. The intellectual property - lithium batteries, battery management system, etc. - is engineered in the U.S. and final assembly is in San Jose, but some of the other components come from overseas.

One of the things that Youssef is quick to point out, though, is the Triac’s safety features (this is a “motorcycle” in the eyes of the feds, after all, and so escapes a lot of expensive testing). “Safety is one of the primary concerns of any vehicle, and so we went well beyond the Federal motor vehicle safety standards for motorcycles,” he said, “and put in all of the safety features that are possible.” Some of those features are disc brakes, structural steel cage, side impact bracing.

So far, Youssef said, “several vehicles” have been reserved and Youssef’s company, Green Vehicles, will start delivering the Triac to customers in December (a little later than expected). Youssef explained that the base price of ,000 is the lowest you can find today for a highway-speed electric vehicle, and many customers are choosing to go with some of the many upgrades.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, GEM, USA

We’ve taken a good look at each of the three electric vehicle concepts that Chrysler took the wraps off of last week, plus one extra for good measure. For various reasons, none of these vehicles really seems quite ready for prime time - one is based on a Lotus sportscar chassis, two require huge battery packs and the last is limited to 25 miles per hour. Tough bring those to market. Still, Chrysler says it plans to launch one of them by 2010 in the U.S. with European delivery scheduled a bit later. We’ll see. If that does happen, Chrysler’s EV would join the Chevy Volt as the first mainstream(-ish) cars in the States not powered by gasoline in a very, very long time.

If Chrysler’s predictions are accurate, though, don’t expect the market to stay petroleum-dependent for long. In fact, Chrysler’s executive vice president of product development, Frank Klegon, has said that half the cars sold here in 2020 will feature electric power. That’s a long way to go in just a decade. In any case, the future promises lots of interesting things for the domestic auto market.

[Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req'd]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, GM, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, Green Daily

For me, the highlight of the weekend’s panel discussions at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo was two guys just sitting around and chatting. The reason the hour-long freeflowing discussion between the men was so good was that they - Dan Neil (left in the picture above) and Ken Bensinger, both writers at the Los Angeles Times - were smart, funny and unafraid. Basically, it’s what you want in a discussion of where things stand today in the automotive industry: two people calling it like they see it.

Introduced by LA City Councilmember Wendy Greuel, the panelists covered everything from the cars on the expo floor - Bensinger called them the Model Ts of the new generation - the just how great gas is - Neil made the very reasonable point that, from an energy perspective, “liquid petroleum kicks ass.” Details on what else made up the discussion are available after the jump.

Continue reading AltCar 2008: LA Times panel hates/loves GM, and more

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

Warren Buffett is renowned for making money buy investing in companies that he thinks have a some inherent value and holding the stock. So when he or his flagship company Berkshire Hathaway put money down, it’s worth taking note. MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has just bought a 10 percent stake in BYD, a Chinese purveyor of cars and batteries. So far, BYD has been best known for a for several cars that draw strong styling “influence” from cars produced by other non-Chinese companies. Lately, the company has been showing several electric and hybrid cars, some of which were on hand at this year’s Detroit Auto Show. That move into the electric drive field and development of lithium ion batteries is evidently what attracted MidAmerican. Recently, BYD has been trying to break into the Israeli market to compete with Project Better Place.

[Source: MidAmerican Energy Holdings]

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