Posts Tagged by Electric Vehicles
May’s Webinar: Electric Trucks
| May 23, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Sorry for the last-minute notice, but if you’re available tomorrow at 1 PM EDT (10 AM PDT), and you’re looking for some insight into the electric vehicle market (electric trucks in particular), please join Dr. Brooks Agnew, CEO of Vision Motor Cars, and me for our monthly webinar.
In contrast to most entrepreneurs in this space, Brooks comes from the auto manufacturing world; he’s been at the helm of the launches of a great number of the “Big Three’s” best-loved models over the years. I’ve known him for a few years now — even took a test drive in an early prototype. Personally, I think he’s a good bet to repeat his success here in electric transportation – but I’ll let you come to your own conclusion on that one.
Hope you can join us. Here’s the sign-up sheet:
Purveyors of Electric Vehicles Need To Offer a Reasonable Business Proposition
| May 15, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a press release (dressed as a news article) from Aerovironment, a company with a division that makes electric vehicle chargers. And here’s a line from it that reminds me of the adage: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”:
The consumer is just looking for something that works and allows them to charge fast.
Wrong.
The consumer is looking for a reasonable business proposition in terms of price and range. He won’t pay twice as much for a car, only to be limited, inconvenienced, and fearful that he’s investing in a dead-end technology.
Prospective Electric Vehicle Owners Analyze Break-Even Point on Fuel Costs
| May 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Cameron Atwood writes:
I recall seeing figures indicating the $45k Volt pays off the difference in savings on gas over electric cost over its ICE (internal combustion engine) brethren in six years. That’s not especially dismal.
It depends on how far you drive, and, in the case of a plug-in hybrid like the Volt, how you drive, i.e., how seldom you exceed the battery-only range (about 35 miles) and start to use gasoline. The analysis is easier with a battery electric like the LEAF. Let’s say: Read More
Hoopla Aside, Auto Manufacturers Not Anxious To Roll Out EVs
| May 8, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
A quick note from the electric vehicle show in Los Angeles this week:
It’s true that most of the credible car-makers have EV products scheduled for delivery in the not-too-distant future. But they’re obviously hedging their bets, delaying their market entrance as long as possible, so as to maximize the penetration of their pipeline of gasoline powered vehicles.
It’s pretty clear that their hearts are not in this. And why should this be otherwise? If you’re an auto OEM, you see nothing but an ocean of downside: billions of dollars of R&D, tons of a dozen different kinds of risk including exposure to tort attorneys from hell, diminution of sales revenues, huge costs of customer support and education (that will STILL wind them up with upset customers), the expense of supporting multiple platforms, shotgun weddings with charger suppliers and standards, etc. Read More
Where We’re Going In Clean Energy
| May 2, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Photo-voltaics |
Here’s an article that gets to a couple of important points that are illustrative of where we are and where we’re going in clean energy.
• Financing solar photovoltaics. There is no doubt that homeowners would be more likely to invest in solar if the PV on their roofs could be integrated in their mortgage, just like their plumbing, HVAC, or electrical system.
• Integrating electric vehicles. My friend Paul Scott has enough PV on his roof that his Nissan LEAF very rarely has to plug in to the grid; thus the carbon footprint of his transportation is limited to the manufacturing of the vehicle (and the PV) itself. Not bad! Obviously, he’s an early adopter, but this concept is likely to go mainstream over the coming years.
Clean Car Calculator
| April 30, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s a “clean car calculator” in which users can plug in certain values and receive an instant assessment of the eco-impact of their vehicle. I’ll point out (before skeptics like reader Glenn Doty have the chance) that the methodology is subject to question; it uses the average cleanliness of the electric power in the user’s state, which differs from the overall impact of adding load anywhere on the grid in most of the US.
What’s the Plan For Phasing Out Fossil Fuels? Which Do You Want To Hear First? The Good News or the Bad News?
| April 29, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Germany has installed enough photovoltaics that, at this point, coal-fired power plants are beginning to become unprofitable. This is driven by a combination of factors, e.g., that coal isn’t asked to provide power at the peak of the day, when both the sun and the price of electricity are at their zenith. Of course, most of us cheer when coal runs into trouble, but issues like this raise some fantastically interesting questions about the future of power generation – and transportation – as we migrate from fossil fuels into more sustainable modalities. Read More
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. :)
