AeroVironment (AV) – In The News As Always
AeroVironment is one of my favorite companies. Founded about 40 years ago by the late Dr. Paul MacCready, AV still shines on brightly with its many powerful innovations in electronics and flight. Most notably, these people are quite successful; they seem to be on the right side of almost every business decision.
The deal they inked this January to supply the chargers for the Nissan LEAF is a great example. As Kristen Helsel, AV’s Director of EV Solutions told me yesterday during an interview at the 2010 Plug-In show in San Jose, this is a truly major deal for them.
As I’ve mentioned in “Tough Realities” report, to me, the AV approach to charging (just making charging quick, easy, and ubiquitous as possible, growing the infrastructure as the EV base grows) is 100 times more sound than battery swapping, as supported by Better Place. In fact, later in the afternoon, I listened to the battery swap pitch from Jason Wolf, Better Place’s vice president of North America. He’s a very articulate spokesperson for the concept, and as compelling as anyone can be. But it’s just not an appropriate solution for the United States — a landmass of 3.5 million square miles.
Wolf told us that “If EVs are going to enjoy mass adoption, we need to replace not just the car, but the system by which people drive them.” It’s hard to argue against it that, but the real question is this: how exactly will that be achieved? I’m betting on a steady build out of the charging infrastructure – eventually deploying ubiquitous fast-charging. And I’m betting on AV to be there to make that happen.
I spoke with a couple of the people promoting the 2012 release of the Prius plug-in hybrid yesterday at the 2010 Plug-In show. Gosh, this seems like a strange concept. Its all-electric range? 13 miles. The net effect for the typical customer? A bit better gas mileage. “This is what Prius customers want – a more efficient Prius,” one guy told me.
The 2010 Plug-In show, featuring the latest in electric transportation, is now in the books. I spent yesterday at the event, meeting people, interviewing key industry players, and taking in all that the show offered. But while I enjoyed the experience, I was totally unprepared for what I saw.
More people each day are disgusted with the course our civilization is taking. Whether your main concern is social injustice, proliferation of nuclear weapons, environmental ruination, white-collar criminality, the decay of morality, growing rates of addiction to recreational and psychiatric drugs, the decline in educational standards, or the ravages of corporatocracy, one thing’s for sure: you’re one of very few if you believe the human race is on the right track.
I hope the world is paying close attention to the development of molten salt technology to store solar energy as heat, for later conversion to electricty at night and on cloudy days. As reported 
