Category: Electric Vehicles
Extended Range Electric Vehicles and Plug-in Hybrids
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Frequent commenter MarcoPolo writes:
Craig, EREVs (extended range electric vehicles), are not simply ‘Plug-in hybrids’. The GM Volt is an astonishing example of US engineering, and advanced technology. All Americans should feel proud of the GM Volt.
I have to admit that it’s a cool idea, and I’m glad that GM appears to be onboard with a migration, albeit a slow one, away from oil. But I do believe that the EREV (as they call it) will be a short-lived concept that will have little bearing on the future of transportation.
Btw, the difference between the terms “extended range electric vehicle” (EREV) and “plug-in hybrid” is semantics. In fact, I recall thinking when I saw that GM had coined the phrase EREV in an attempt to differentiate the Volt from the other plug-in hybrids, “Now that’s marketing at its finest.” All such vehicles have batteries that provide a given range, and internal combustion engines (ICEs) that extend that range. Yes, there are variations on the theme as to what precisely the ICE does (charge the battery? power the car? both?) But we’re really talking about a single concept.
Plug-In Hybrids: Now THAT’S Complexity
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a wonderful video that explains the multiple drivetrains at work in the Chevy Volt. A couple of immediate impressions:
1) No wonder the price on this sucker is $41K, with all that going on. The bill of materials (costs of the individual components) must be enough to choke a horse. And the non-recurring engineering costs must have been staggering.
2) This further amplifies my belief that plug-in hybrids really are not the answer to transportation. It’s like using an elephant gun to kill mice. Electric transportation will succeed when we get the price, energy density, and power density of batteries into an acceptable range – and, of course, when we can get enough renewable energy on the grid that we’re not charging them with coal.
So when will this happen? The question is political will. If we rely 100% on market forces, especially while we continue to subsidize fossil fuels, it could be A Long Way to Tipperary.
Coda: the EV with a “Consumer Value Proposition” from Hell
| April 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
EVWorld covered the electric vehicle start-up Coda in its weekly newsletter, pointing out that the car lacks certain features that are standard in other EVs.
The fact that Coda is still around amazes me. Coda offers a “consumer value proposition” from hell (and it’s this concept that I believe to be at the forefront of the entire EV adoption curve). Here, you have an expensive, unattractive, low-quality car sold by a company whose continued existence (required if its warranty is to have any value) is at best questionable.
I simply can’t imagine who’s going to find that appealing.
If that company succeeds, it will show that I really have no idea what I’m talking about in this space, so you’ll want to discount every word I say. :)
Video: Sustainable Transportation
| April 8, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a video in which I introduce a new 2GreenEnergy Associate – Dan Sturges, a senior consultant in sustainable transportation. As we sit here today, there are a few dozen of the world’s great cities that have extremely aggressive goals with respect to transforming the way their citizens move their bodies and their cargo — those who aspire to become beacons of hope and progress in this space.
While most state and local government groups are happy to maintain the status quo for as long as possible, thank goodness, that’s not true of all. And for these few forces of progress, Dan stands ready to help them wrap their wits around all the issues re: electric transportation, mass transit, car-sharing, incentives to encourage for walking, biking, ride-sharing, car-sharing, etc.
A Promising Player in Neighborhood Electric Vehicles
| April 8, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a short video I made recently on a company in Michigan that I believe to be one of the most promising players in neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) aka low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs). These guys have the design, the team, and the background to be quite successful in this space.
The Future of Transportation
| April 4, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a terrific article written by 2GreenEnergy associate Dan Sturges, who specializes in the future of transportation. I’m in the process of lining up consulting projects for Dan with forward-thinking municipalities who may want to be a beacon of leadership in terms of sustainable transportation.
As I told Dan on the phone yesterday, “I’m bullish on this, but I wouldn’t expect dozens of clients. Sadly, most cities don’t think this way. They’re not going to become leaders because they never have been in the past, and there is no reason to think they’re going to change magically in the year 2012. But that doesn’t matter. All the world really needs at this point is a few progressive, visionary mayors to stand up and say, ‘The average car on the road in this city weighs 4000 pounds and has 1.1 passengers in it, and that’s a level of waste we can no longer afford. We’re going to rethink the way we commute to work and the way we deliver packages; we’re going to reinvent every aspect of the way we move our bodies and our goods around.’ Once the world has a few of these in place, the case studies in terms of public health, safety, and happiness will speak for themselves.”
I have to think I’m right here.
Green Auto Market’s Jon LeSage Plugs 2GreenEnergy
| March 19, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a nice excerpt from “Green Auto Market — The Business of Green Cars, Fuels & Technologies,” an e-newsletter that I’m happy to see gaining ground and increasing circulation. It’s written by Jon LeSage, a very savvy guy, located not too far from me here in Southern California:
Craig Shields’ Second Book on Renewable Energy Launched: If you ever get the opportunity, have a conversation with Craig Shields. He’d previously written a great book on renewable energy, and just had his second book released on March 15, Is Renewable Really Doable? Exploring Clean Energy’s Opportunities and Tough Realities. Read More
Are Electric Vehicles Really a Boon to the Environment?
| March 12, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
There are at least two kinds of “EV deniers” (as I call them), i.e., people who doubt that electric vehicles represent an improvement for the environment over gasoline. The first concept is that for the foreseeable future, an increase in the electric load means burning more coal. I.e., coal plants that would otherwise have been tamped down during off peak hours are instead running full-throttle through the night. Frequent commenter Glenn Doty points out that even California and the other states that have no coal buy power when they need it, and this ultimately means that somewhere, more coal is being burned.
Classically, I’ve addressed this by saying that we do indeed face the need to shut down coal plants; this is part of the reason that I favor a significant role of government in support of the migration to renewables and the ancillary areas: smart-grid, efficiency, conservation, energy storage, etc. I’ve also pointed out that the true externalities of fossil fuels are almost completely ignored in most of the arguments. E.g., as bad as coal is, it could be argued that it’s not as bad as oil because of international security issues. The costs (both financial and human) of war, terrorism, and civil unrest and injustice are enormous, and normally totally dismissed. As oil becomes scarcer, these problems will only get worse.
The other major class of objection Read More
Dan Sturges — Changing the Paradigm in Transportation
| March 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I’m very proud of 2GreenEnergy’s dozen or so “associates,” who perform a huge variety of tasks for our clients – everything from raising capital, to performing engineering reviews, to marketing and public relations, social media, project management to IP protection. My aim is simple: When someone asks if we can do something for their clean energy business, I want the answer to always be a resounding Yes.
One of the associations we recently formed is one with Dan Sturges, in which we deliver cutting-edge thinking in transportation for city planners who may be looking for a better way of moving people and goods around a local area. For a century, we operated off a central paradigm in transportation:
Virtually everyone 16 years or older has his own car, a huge piece of steel that weighs Read More
EV Adoption Curve Will Benefit from Critical Mass
| March 8, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
My friend and colleague Tom Konrad does not share my belief that the consumer adoption of EVs is, to some degree, driven by perception of the long-term prognosis for electric transportation.” He writes:
If I’m buying an EV, why should I care if it’s the way of the future or not? My car will work as long as I have electricity and roads, the supply of neither of which is under threat. Owners of natural gas vehicles may need to worry about charging infrastructure, but while a robust charging network for EVs would be nice, it’s not absolutely necessary. If it works today, it will work 10 years from now.
I think, though it’s just a theory, that most people don’t want to own a form a transportation that few other people use — especially in this case. To the degree EVs do not catch on, there will be very little build-out of charging infrastructure, and very low resale value for used cars.
