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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketThe role I play as a partner in EVWorld.com enables me to have conversations with people very much at the center of the EV Adoption Curve discussion. I just got off the phone with Joe Delello, currently the man closest to the release of Mitsibishi’s i-MiEV, slated for November 2011 in the US.

I told him what cynics are saying about the sincerity of OEMs in the EV space (as if he needed to hear it from me), i.e., that there is no incentive for the OEMs to move this along as neither they nor their dealers make money. He made some good points, which I’ll share:

Automakers are understandably cautious. They want to see how batteries perform in hot and cold climates, they’re worried about lithium shortages, charging infrastructure – and consumer demand beyond tree-hugger early adopters.

However, he’s honestly optimistic. He points out that Americans have already shown how irritated they are at $4/gallon gasoline, and believes that gas prices are likely to generate demand from people who otherwise would not be interested.

Having said that, there will only be 2000 i-MiEVs sold in the US in the car’s first year –a year in which there will be 20 million cars sold with internal combustion engines.   2000 units?  One out of 10,000?  I should say that’s cautious – to say the least.

For what it’s worth – and I told Joe this – I absolutely adore the I-MiEV. I was lucky enough to test-drive one at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show – it’s a cute little rocket. And it will be priced significantly under $30,000 – much less than the LEAF. I could sell 2000 of them in Bismarck, North Dakota.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzZzqv1zFyo&w=445&h=364]

Here, I interview FunRide’s Pat Mahan on some of the new ideas that are at the forefront of the concept of car sharing. I offer Pat what I thought was a terrific idea: car sharing on college campuses to reduce drunk driving and other uses of cars that really don’t need to happen — not that I had, in my younger days, any personal experience with that. Ahem….

Pat was polite — but more or less immediately changed the subject — as he had yet a better idea.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketI want to call readers’ attention to the discussion on what I think is one of the hottest and most important topics in clean energy: the EV adoption curve and the sincerity of the OEMs in building and selling EVs.

If you Google this topic, you’ll find that most of this conversation concerns the consumer. As my friend Brian Wynne (president of Washington DC advocacy group the Electric Drive Transportation Association) likes to say, “The consumer has a vote in this.”

While Brian’s right on this of course, in the absence of adequate supply, it’s going to be a heck of a long time until that vote means anything. People can want EVs all the want (as people in hell want ice water), but it’s rather moot if those EVs are coming off the assembly line at the rate of a few tens of thousands per year, vs. tens of millions of internal combustion engines per year.

Of course, start-ups will get us there eventually.  But, as I wrote to frequent commenter Richard Marks, president of low-speed EV start-up EcoVElectric (great company, btw), I believe the OEMs have the backs against the wall here, and are finally forced to build EVs whether they want to or not. Sure, they’re at liberty to drag their heels in EV product releases and production quantities, but if they do, they’ll quickly wither and die as their competitors leap ahead.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV4PvVhIgGA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

FunRide‘s Pat Mahan explains that his company represents “car sharing with a twist,” i.e., a fleet of 100% alternative fuel vehicles.

I first came across this company years ago when I first set out to learn something about electric vehicles. I participated in several meetings in which the company’s founder, Mark Shaffer, explained that the thought the presence of AFVs would make a material difference to market demand for the product. Looks like he may be right.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

PhotobucketIn a blog post offering my “Tough Realities for Renewable Businesses” report to readers at Renewable Energy World, Bill Fitch writes a comment befitting of the 4th of July and the patriotic spirit that normally accompanies it.

I’m reminded of a friend’s T-shirt that defines the word patriotism as “not letting our leaders ruin our country by ignoring the principles on which it was founded.”

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGKcJjyK1Js&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

Here, DieselTek president Lance Miller discusses the recent changes in the diesel industry me on the 2GreenEnergy Report. In particular, government bodies are heaping on tight regulations on particulate, NOx and SOx emissions — especially in California.

Yet the trucking industry is no different than any other in that it is deeply concerned about costs, and thus it is critical that any initiative to clean up the industry not increase those costs. Fortunately, DieselTek products represent the ultimate win-win: low costs, better performance, and a cleaner world.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Echelon’s Steve Ngyuen, the fellow I interviewed for my book’s chapter on intelligent building management, spent a few minutes describing “light harvesting” to me — the idea of making use of the sun’s light the way buildings are designed, thus using electric lights mostly at night.  But not until now did I start to understand how much can be done with this.

Any use of daylighting, the practice of using natural light to illuminate building spaces, will reduce the need for electric lighting by bringing in indirect natural light into the building. But it does so much more: creating beautiful, appropriately lit spaces, and connecting people to the outdoors. I urge you to checkout the Daylighting Collaborative, and learn more about how advanced this combination of art and science — of architecture and engineering – can get. I think you’ll be impressed with how much there is to learn: concepts of lighting power density (W/ft2), illuminance levels, contrast ratios, window to wall ratios, ceiling to skylight area percentages, and reduction in glare.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhJgObXAA1Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

Pat Mahan of FunRide discusses the social benefits of car sharing with me on a recent airing of the 2GreenEnergy Report.

In my mind, the degree to which car sharing is successful is an indicator of the degree to which people have divorced themselves of the “I am what I drive” concept — and, in my opinion, that realization that can’t come too soon. When you think about it, car sharing is the ultimate freedom in the auto space; it’s the statement that “Not only do I not identify my level of success with the value of that piece of steel in the driveway — I don’t even own one at all.”

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

PhotobucketThe other day, esteemed physicist and electric vehicle engineer Wally Rippel dropped by the television studio and talked to me about a range of cool issues. 

The type of guy Wally is becomes clear when you understand an experiment he likes to do.  He asks an average American to name a famous living tennis player, a billionaire, a movie star, a basketball star, a criminal, and a musician.  All very easy, right?  Then he asks the name of a famous living inventor.  Practically no one can do that. 

His conclusion?  We simply don’t value inventors and scientists.  He points out that until we create a culture that values innovation, we won’t have innovation.  It’s that simple.

Wally, you’re quite a guy.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketMy friend Paul Scott of Plug-in America has me convinced that the large auto OEMs – the Nissans and GMs of the world – are sincere in their integration of electric vehicles. But watching this process unfold surely does test one’s faith. For instance, take today’s announcement from Chevrolet Volt Marketing Director Tony DiSalle to the effect that GM plans to produce 10,000 Volts by the end of 2011, and an additional 30,000 Volts during 2012 (compared to approximately 7 million vehicles that run on fossil fuels).

Cynic Sam Jaffe, a research manager working on distributed energy strategies at IDC Energy Insights, believes that the extremely high miles per gallon of each Volt will help GM to continue to sell large numbers of gas-guzzlers and still remain within the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations.

Who knows? I suppose this disturbing announcement does require a theory, but I’m not ready to adopt that one – which I would describe as somewhere between bad faith and pure evil.

Having said that, I have to comment again that big business and big government in the US seem to be doing their level best to trail the pack in terms of clean energy and transportation.

But why?

I sure wish I knew.

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