15 Aug 2008:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/motoring/2008114751_hybridbatteries15.html
As Detroit's automakers rush to develop electric cars, they find themselves reliant on foreign sources for advanced batteries. While much of the science was developed in U.S. labs, Asian companies have a two-decade head start on actually making rechargeable batteries.
That gap concerns U.S. automakers, which often have to shop Asian manufacturers for the most expensive parts of hybrids and their first generation of plug-in vehicles. The batteries for GM's Chevrolet Volt will be made in South Korea or China and likely will cost more than $10,000 per car.
"One of the reasons for having hybrids is to reduce dependence on foreign oil," said Sherif Marakby, Ford's chief engineer of hybrid core engineering. "You don't want to substitute dependence on foreign oil with dependence on foreign materials for lithium-ion batteries."
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15 Aug 2008: Electric bicycles more popular.
Excerpts: Most models can go at least 20 miles before plugging in to recharge.
Although regulations vary by state, federal law classifies electric bikes as bicycles, and no license or registration is required as long as they don’t go faster than 20 mph and their power doesn’t exceed 750 watts.
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13 Aug 2008 update:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=782647
“There is a sort of strange flaw in the thinking at the federal level that encourages development but not U.S. production of these technologies,” said K.G. Duleep, managing director of Arlington, Va.-based Energy and Environmental Analysis, a research group that consults automakers and the government on advanced vehicle technologies. “The feds haven’t paid attention to the manufacturing side.”
The department is seeking $52.9 million to support development and commercialization of plug-in hybrids and advanced lithium-ion batteries in fiscal 2009, up from $41.2 million in fiscal 2008 and just $1.4 million in fiscal 2006, spokeswoman Jennifer Scoggins said.
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With much consumer credit ruined, GM wants US Congress to make buying a plug-in possible for more US consumers:
http://subscribers.wardsauto.com/ar/gm_consumer_credit_080812/
Both houses of Congress are pondering versions of consumer credits for plug-in electric vehicles, Lowery says, but Americans need the most robust ..
The auto maker also would like Washington to establish clear, attainable regulations and one set of federal requirements in addition to tax credits to reward U.S. investments.
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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D92HH8HO0.htm
The study predicts that all-electric, plug-in vehicles will be a reality by 2020, and that the battery technology for electric cars could also change the way vehicles are financed. Executives anticipated that batteries will cost up to 15 percent of the total cost of vehicles in some segments, making those vehicles significantly more expensive than those with traditional engines.
The life of an automotive battery is estimated at 10 years, but those batteries can be used beyond that in nonautomotive applications, such as in power grids. That leads some executives to suggest that consumers should be able to separate payments on the vehicle and the battery, drawing out the battery payments over a longer period so they would be more affordable.
The study wasn't optimistic about hydrogen fuel-cell technology, saying only a tiny fraction of vehicles might be using that technology by 2020. Making liquefied hydrogen remains an expensive process, and it will also be difficult to build a new infrastructure to distribute it.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iFHOu2alXYE7teF1NAFYU6FiLw8QD92HJS8G0
High gas prices already have forced a major lifestyle changes in the U.S., with people taking fewer vacations or weekend trips. Americans drove 53.2 billion fewer miles as gas prices climbed from November through June than they did over the same eight-month period a year earlier, the Federal Highway Administration said Wednesday.
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10 Aug 2008: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/07/25/20080725earthtalk0725.html
Excerpt: U.S. automakers are also jumping onto the plug-in bandwagon. General Motors says that it will have mass-market plug-in hybrids - modifications of its Saturn Vue and Chevrolet Volt - on the road by 2010. Ford has also developed a small fleet of plug-ins but is not yet ready to offer them to the public. Fisker, a U.S. startup focusing on the creation of high-performance, energy-efficient vehicles, plans to sell an $80,000 plug-in hybrid sports car by late 2009. Chrysler's Sprinter van was the first plug-in from a major U.S. manufacturer, but it is available to only a limited number of institutions as a fleet vehicle.
Plug-ins have also caught on elsewhere. Chinese carmaker BYD plans to sell a plug-in hybrid sedan in the U.S. within five years. Volkswagen hopes to have a plug-in hybrid Golf ready to roll by 2010.
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http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080608/opi_314081049.shtml
GM and the Electric Power Research Institute received a $10 million grant from the federal government to create a plug-in demonstration project using the Saturn Vue, reported a Detroit News story online.
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Plug-in cars next big thing, 9 Aug 2008, By STAN FREEMAN
excerpt: "We calculate they will draw power at the equivalent rate of four plasma TVs," and that it would take 4.5 to 6 hours to fully recharge a depleted battery, said Clay C. Perry, a spokesman for the Electric Power Research Institute, which is the research arm of the electricity utility industry.
"The expectation is that people will be using these vehicles during the day and then charging them at night. And at night there is a lot of excess capacity and electricity prices are far less expensive than during peak daylight hours. So utilities have plenty of capacity to meet the demand," he said.
The Volt should require about 8 kilowatt-hours of electricity to recharge the battery. The Western Massachusetts Electric Co. current rate for residential customers is about 17.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. So $1.40 should get you 40 miles of travel using the battery alone. The average American drives 29 miles per day.
However, Karen E. Samide, a spokeswoman for the utility, said that rates might be tailored to the time of day the electricity is drawn, with cheaper rates after midnight when power demand is down. [snip]
In California, where electric power is at a premium, Pacific Gas & Electric charges nearly 30 cents per kilowatt-hour during daytime peak hours, but only 5 cents from midnight to 7 a.m.
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Aug 8, 2008: Convert your Prius into a plug-in for less than $10 grand:
http://gas2.org/2008/08/08/plug-in-hybrid-drivers-are-charged-up/
A123 Hymotion is establishing certified conversion centers throughout the nation so that people can convert their Toyota Priuses to plug-in hybrids for $9,995 per car. The conversion kit includes interfacing to the Prius computer that controls hybrid operation, interfacing with existing Prius NiMH battery, and includes a 5kWh A123 lithium battery.
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Experts doubt claims about air car, 8 Aug 2008
"No one's really proven a six-seater passenger car [can get] any better than 75 miles to the gallon. So this would represent a big step forward," Callister said. "They would have to prove that before they can throw rocks at the Prius."
Another expert expressed concern about the amount of energy it would take to generate the required air pressure: 4,500 pounds per square inch, or more than 120 times the pressure inside the tires of a typical four-door sedan.
"That is above what you normally find even in an industrial setting," said William Bulpitt, senior research engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Strategic Energy Institute.
"That takes quite a compressor to do. ... It takes horsepower to compress the air up to that pressure." If you count that energy, it's hard to believe the car would be that much more efficient than an electric vehicle, Callister said.
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http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38786/117/
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General Motors R&D Chief Larry Burns Sees 'Electric Drive' across Product Line
GM's Larry Burns is in the hot seat to develop vehicles that run on renewable energy
John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief -- Design News, August 4, 2008
excerpts: He strongly suggests GM will warrant the Volt's battery to 150,000 miles or 10 years
With 650 engineers and designers on the project, would it be fair to characterize the Volt as GM's Manhattan Project?
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GM to Test Lithium-Ion Batteries for Chevy Volt
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Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- A Michigan lawmaker is asking the U.S. to speed rules that would free up $25 billion in government loans to convert General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC factories to build alternative-fuel vehicles.
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Should the U.S. proceed farther down the road with compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, policymakers could learn a few things from Canada. We attempted to build just such an industry back in the ’80s, and largely failed.
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Aug 8 2008: New US energy bill would fund the transformation of vehicles from gas to plug-in:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-04-03.asp
Excerpts: At a news conference on Capitol Hill Friday, the self-styled "Gang of 10" unveiled an $84 billion measure they call the "New Era," more formally entitled the New Energy Reform Act of 2008.
...the New Energy Reform Act would fund the transformation of cars and trucks so that 85 percent of new vehicles on the road would be powered by fuels other than gasoline and petroleum diesel within 20 years.
The bill provides consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle to motivate Americans to purchase advanced alternative fuel vehicles and up to $2,500 to retrofit existing vehicles with advanced alternative fuel engines.
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5 Aug 2008: Charging a plug-in vehicle requires the equivalent power of operating a hair drier or toaster for 8-10 hours straight. A report out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently estimated that, assuming by 2030 plug-in vehicles reach 25 percent market penetration, if all those vehicles were charged at 5 p.m., up to 160 new power plants would be needed to accommodate the additional load. On the other hand, if the vehicles were charged at night, little or no new power generation would be required.
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Dr. Andy Frank Speech at Plug-In 2008 - VIDEO
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Artificial sound for quiet hybrids so the blind, especially, can hear cars.
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Difference between hybrid and plug-in car:
Gasoline-electric hybrids now, like Toyota’s Prius, don’t need to plug in – you just fill their tanks with gas and the battery is charged by the internal combustion engine and by energy recaptured when braking. The battery runs the electric motor when idling, backing up, crawling in gridlock, maintaining speed while cruising, and for extra uphill power. The electric motor is a back-up; the hybrid relies mainly on the gas engine.-----------Plug-in hybrids let owners plug their cars into a standard electrical outlet to recharge. The vehicles will go 40 or 50 miles on a charge, ideal for commuters who drive short distances to work and back. Those drivers may be able to rely solely on electric power. The gasoline engine then becomes the supplemental one for when the car needs to go farther than the electric motor can take it.
Update 31 Jul 2008: A Texas company is doing R&D on a capacitor that is lighter and cheaper than Lithium-Ion batteries, and stories more energy:
Clifford is already taking the road less travelled. Zenn has invested $2.5m (£1.2m) in eeStor, a Texas-based ultracapacitor group. Ultracapacitors are storage devices traditionally used for delivering large kicks of power, but they have little long-term energy capacity. eeStor promises to deliver one that stores as much energy as a lithium battery at less than half the weight - and with a charging time of under 10 minutes. Lockheed Martin has already signed an exclusive licence to use it in military applications.-----------------
Update 27 Jul 2008: GM's Euro version of the plug-in Chevy Volt is called Flextreme. GM promised PM Brown that GM would make Flextreme in the UK if the UK installed a network of pay-at-the-pump type outlets around the UK:
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/GWiz--there39s-nowhere-to.4328866.jp
Last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown signalled his government's intention to encourage the take-up of electric cars by entering talks with US car giant General Motors, owners of Vauxhall. At the Motor Show in London, GM revealed that it was considering manufacturing its new Flextreme hybrid car in the UK if the Government agreed to set up a national network of publicly available plug-in points. The only public plug-in point in Scotland is at the Braehead shopping centre, west of Glasgow, part of a national trial scheme.
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What's the "range" on a plug-in car exactly? That's the number of miles the car can go before expending the entire battery charge and a full tank of gas. The gas tank runs the engine that recharges the battery when no electrical outlet is available. The Chevy Volt has a range of 600 miles. Of course, as soon as one fills it up with gasoline again, and recharges the battery, it can go another 600 miles. There's no need to give the car or battery a rest between trips.
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Power industry can cope with plug-in vehicles just like they coped with plasma TVs:
Plug-in demand 4 times as much electricity as plasma TVs:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geFmxG7iQ8A4-nsVxN5Z8y2luO-QD923CF180
Comparison of power usage of plasma TVs with other home appliances:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10040
http://www.projo.com/home/content/lh_tvenergyuse_12-16-07_H288VKA_v6.65fb31.html
But the real beast is the plasma set. A 42-inch model often sucks up 200 to 500 watts, and a 60-plus-inch plasma screen can consume 500 to 600 watts, depending on the model and programming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Intel exec wants 4 million SUVs transformed into plug-in vehicles within next four years:
http://gigaom.com/2008/07/23/andy-grove-calls-for-10-million-plug-in-vehicles-in-4-years/
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Coulomb Tech sells plug-in car charging systems. Use it just as you would a
pay-at-the-pump gas pump using your debit/credit card:
http://www.coulombtech.com/products.php
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Plug-in hybrids reduce oil use by half compared to regular hybrids:
http://earth2tech.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/googleplugins.jpg
http://earth2tech.com/2008/07/23/googles-plug-in-study-finds-as-high-as-93-mpg/
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Chevy Volt is GM's second try at electric vehicles. Their last project was killed in 2003 after automakers successfully got California's emissions laws changed through threat of lawsuit and lobbying:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1#cite_ref-17
In 2001, the California Air Resources Board modified the ZEV mandate[18] to allow manufacturers to claim partial ZEV credit for hybrid vehicles. General Motors and DaimlerChrysler then sued the state of California and CARB, alleging that the new ZEV rules violated a federal law barring states from regulating fuel economy.[19] In response, CARB removed the requirement for electric vehicles from the ZEV mandate in 2003, and GM - having produced a product for a mandate and market that no longer existed - cancelled the EV1 program soon after.[20]
http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/articles/index.jsp?id=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
No one killed EV1. It was DOA--Dead On Arrival:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080718/LIFE12/80717025/1005/LIFE
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Japan and Korea have govt supported e-car battery development programs already,
but the US has nothing but GM and some upstart companies working on improving the battery:
Japanese firms work under direction of govt to produce batteries/battery standards:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKT26723420080719
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mccain19-2008jul19,0,1393644.story
McCain also said that he favored federal support for the research and development of battery-powered cars and, drawing scowls from some in the crowd, that he backed efforts by states to regulate tailpipe emissions and to reduce global warming.
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Zenn electric car:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZENN
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Study finds that current power grid could support three-quarters of Americans switching
to plug-in cars, since they only consume as much power as a dishwasher. The current price of
electricity means fuel for the plug-ins is 4 or 5 times as cheap as for gasoline cars:
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/07/18/can-plug-in-hybrids-ride-to-america%E2%80%99s-rescue/
They found that the US power grid could easily handle the load of three-quarters of Americans switching to plug-ins, which require only about 1 to 2 kilowatts – about the energy load of a dishwasher. The cost of that electricity for transportation would end up being about a 75-cents-per-gallon energy equivalent, according to the study.
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Environment_380/Plug-in_Hybrid_Cars.shtml
According to researchers at the University of California Davis, the electricity cost for powering a plug-in hybrid is only about one-quarter of the cost of powering a like-sized gasoline vehicle. Other benefits include far fewer fill-ups at gas stations and the convenience of recharging at home.
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Chevy Volt: 10k units first year 2010-11, 60k after that (post 2011):
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVV3eMUSiMgQ&refer=home
The Volt is scheduled to hit showrooms by November 2010. GM will produce about 10,000 Volts in its first full year and increase production to 60,000 annually after that, Lutz said June 17.
GM and Ford met with US power industry research group over how they can accommodate the Chevy Volt with recharger stations:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUKN1845827620080718?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
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Chevy Cobalt compact car engine (148 hp, 2.2 liter) could end up in Volt, too, as range extender gas engine:
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/07/flint_might_be_key_player_in_p.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cobalt
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Chinese and Japanese plan to sell plug-ins in the US market as early as 2010:
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Environment_380/Plug-in_Hybrid_Cars.shtml
Plug-ins have also caught on elsewhere. Chinese carmaker BYD plans to sell a plug-in hybrid sedan in the U.S. within five years. And Volkswagen hopes to have a plug-in hybrid Golf ready to roll by 2010.
Toyota, currently the world’s largest producer of hybrid vehicles by far thanks to the success of its Prius, announced that it expects to have a commercially viable plug-in hybrid available to consumers as early as 2010 and is now testing prototype versions of plug-in hybrids at two California universities.
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New nano-technology battery that the British are developing will sideline the lithium-ion battery, many think:
Japan kicks off electric car format war, 21 July 2008
An alternative is the new lithium-titanate technology, expected to be used in the all-electric Lightning supercar now being built in the UK. This will be powered by Nanosafe batteries from Altairnano of Nevada, and should be able to charge up from an industrial three-phase outlet in a matter of minutes - not too much slower than a petrol car at a pump. If this technology can perform as its makers say it can, today's Japanese Li-ion moves may come to seem no more than an irrelevance.
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Charge your plug-in car using aesthetic solar panels that blend in seamlessly with with your roof:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,1205726,00.html
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Li-titanate battery so good, electric utilities want it to balance
out electric load--eliminate dips in power. This is necessary because solar and
wind power generation has more dips than non-renewable power sources:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/10/altairnano_grid_power_sale/
http://www.nawindpower.com/naw/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.2509
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Li-titanate battery car can charge up in minutes rather than 4 hours. Since electricity is cheap, this is a real draw. Even truckers might be interested in this since their fuel bill would be much less without much more hassle than diesel. The quick charge would not be available at home though since industrial power is needed:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/22/lightning_fast_charge_supercar/
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1 comments:
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