Posts Tagged by Honda
The Auto Industry Embraces Electric Vehicles – Kicking and Screaming
| January 24, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
If you’re looking for evidence that the auto companies are resisting the migration to EVs, here’s news from sunny California. It appears that Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota have successfully lobbied the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and members of the California State Legislature to open a gaping loophole in the new zero-emission vehicle mandate. Now, automakers that ‘overcomply’ with the new Federal greenhouse gas (GHG) standards can get away with producing fewer EVs. This sweetheart deal allows an automaker to cut the number of pure electric-drive vehicles by as much as 50% over the 2018 to 2021 timeframe in exchange for just 2 grams per mile GHG overcompliance during that time.
Jay Friedland of Plug-In America, whom I interviewed for my first book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies) sums it up: This is a bad deal for California and for the United States.
Related posts:
A Collaboration on Fuel Cell Vehicles — But Exactly Whose Interests Are At Stake? Not Yours.
| December 18, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s an article that describes a collaboration between GM and BMW on fuel cell vehicles.
Wow, that’s remarkable. Just when I had started to trust the car companies based on the sincerity of Nissan/Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn and his people who build and promote the LEAF, I see this. A few basic points:
• The oil companies are the main supporters of the hydrogen economy. They see hydrogen as a mechanism for them to continue to retain a service station which will continue to provide the consumer with something they can pump. Electricity, on the other hand, is ubiquitous.
• Creating hydrogen suffers a 4:1 efficiency issue. I.e., generating hydrogen in a renewable way requires four times the number of solar panels that would be needed to make the electricity to put into my battery. Read More
Related posts:
Honda Announces Plug-in Hybrid and EV Commuter for 2012
| November 5, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Am I the only one who was a bit stunned at Honda’s announcement today? CEO Takanobu Ito outlined the company’s plans to introduce both a mid-size plug-in hybrid and an electric commuter vehicle in the U.S. and Japan by the end of 2012. He told Reuters, “It’s starting to look like there will be a market for electric vehicles. We can’t keep shooting down their potential, and we can’t say there’s no business case for it.”
So what so weird about this?
In the first place, Honda’s longstanding commitment to its current alternate fuel vehicle, the hydrogen fuel cell F6 Clarity, which, of course, is an electric vehicle; batteries and fuel cells are simply two different ways of providing portable electrical energy. Perhaps Ito simply misspoke, but that strikes me as a mistake that the CEO of Honda would be most unlikely to make. Read More
Related posts:
Honda's Steve Ellis on Hydrogen Fuel Cells
| August 18, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I spoke with Honda’s Steve Ellis yesterday about the position I took in my book re: hydrogen fuel-cell-based cars. Steve is a vocal proponent for this controversial technology, and his job, I’ve come to learn, involves busily correcting misinformation on the subject – of which there is plenty.
His position is that all technologies that have the potential to help move us toward clean energy and transportation should be on the table for discussion, and that the advocates of batteries should be as supportive of hydrogen as the hydrogen people are of batteries. As I knew he would, he took exception to my position I took in my book (and that of the spokesperson for EPRI) that hydrogen as a fuel source is inherently inefficient, and that the infrastructure by which fuel would be delivered lags too far behind electricity.
Steve points out that the four-to-one advantage of fuel energy to kinetic energy in battery-electrics vs. fuel-cells applies only in the very worst case scenario – one that no one is seriously suggesting. He also notes that Honda would not make a bet like this if they didn’t think they were going to win.
I can see these points, but I don’t know, Steve. You’re obviously a dedicated, knowledgeable and honest professional. But, as I’ve often said, I hope you’re paid well; you certainly deserve to be given the size of the task you so energetically take on.
Related posts:
Japan’s Nikkei Newspaper Provides Toyota and Honda with an Obvious Suggestion – Electric Vehicles
| July 27, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
A recent article in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper urges the country’s automakers to head directly to battery EVs, rather than further protracting the lives of hybrids. The piece suggests that both Toyota and Honda must shift towards EVs, or risk having the nation of Japan fall behind the competition:
…both Toyota and Honda had until recently thought that the era of hybrids would continue for a while before electric vehicles began to gain popularity. But the automakers are now accelerating their efforts to develop electric cars, and there are two main reasons for this. One is the tough new fuel economy rules the US administration of President Barack Obama will introduce in 2012…The second reason for the heightened focus on electric cars is China’s move to promote them.
This advice, which is what millions of other people and I have been saying for years, is so obvious that it’s really rather ridiculous. Both Toyota and Honda, with their huge balance sheets and engineering staffs, could have done this in a heartbeat anytime they wanted over the past decade. Why didn’t they? I can think of only one reason – that they were already perceived as green – and saw no reason (other than decency) in offering a product that would bring an end to an existing profit stream.
Now, their backs are up against the wall, forced to move fast to avoid being marginalized in a world that’s running 100 MPH towards EVs. I hate to sound like a Monday-morning quarterback, but couldn’t someone somewhere have seen this coming?
