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EDITION: 8.39 | 22 Sep 2008 |
In This Edition:
Chrysler Laces Up Its EV Running Shoes
Talk about whiplash.
Here I am at 6:50 in the morning at Gate E3 at Portland's airport getting ready to finish up this edition of Insider while I wait for the plane to start boarding, and courtesy of PDX's free Internet I discover - via CNBC video - that Chrysler has just upstaged both GM and Toyota by showing four (count 'em), four electric drive vehicles: a Lotus-based "Dodge EV" sports car, a plug-in hybrid Minivan and Jeep Wrangler, as well as the GEM Peapod pictured above.
Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli claims they can have early versions of the cars in test fleets by 2009 and possibly in production as early as 2010. Interestingly, Chrysler is planning to fit the Minivan with electric hub motors. Electric power will come from lithium ion batteries and a 1-liter flex-fuel engine. Of course, the question is, can they pull off such an ambitious agenda or is this all part of a concerted effort to convince Congress that Chrysler LLC deserves some of that $25 billion in loan guarantees?
They're calling my plane, so I'll wrap this up for now, but leave you with this parting thought: I think I am safe in saying that ever major auto manufacturer now has at least one electric-drive vehicle program in the works. As CNBC's Phil LeBeau noted, there is now a real race on to bring electric cars to market...
Gentlemen, warm up your batteries!
Rollout the Volt
NOTE: This was supposed to be the start of this week's Insider, but Chrysler's news this morning moved it down a notch.
The anticipation is over. We now know what the Chevy Volt looks like; and if you monitor the news reports, blogs and reader comments, you'll get a wide range of reactions. Some are effervescent with praise, others offer tepid reviews, while some sarcastically compare the Volt to a Prius or the Civic Hybrid. It bears little resemblance to either vehicle, but neither is it a copy of the original concept version, for good reasons it turns out. As muscular as the concept Volt was, it simply wasn't a practical car. The chopped roof line reduced visibility from inside the vehicle and its body styling had the drag coefficient of a brick, as Bob Lutz explains in this video
What I think the rollout demonstrates is a clear commitment on General Motor's part to move the goal post. Of course, it's a risky -- and yes, gutsy -- strategy on their part, but they have little choice in the matter. They have to reinvent themselves for the new century and the Volt is a great beginning, though Mr. Lutz's appearance on Comedy Central's Colbert Report didn't do a lot to polish the name plate. Still, a lot of twenty-to-thirty somethings -- and even a few of us aging progressives who are fans of the likes of John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher -- may have gotten their first inkling of this groundbreaking vehicle.
GM's next move is to produce a handful of prototypes that can put out into the field for extensive testing, starting with the gazillion journalists who want to put this car through its paces. I'll make sure that EV World is on that list somewhere.
No Dang Fer 'en Cars Allowed
While I appreciate the sincerity of the gesture, I had to laugh when I read that the Obama for Change campaign organized a Hybrids and Harley's for Obama rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan to underscore the importance of buying America-made vehicles to the Michigan economy. Only domestically-manufactured hybrids were permitted to participate in the event, which meant that owners of the most popular hybrid in the world, the Toyota Prius, weren't allowed in. Instead, leading the procession was a Chevy Malibu hybrid. Presumably Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner Hybrids were also welcome, as should have been the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which is, in fact, built in Kentucky.
While it is true that the Prius is currently manufactured in Japan -- as well as a limited number in China -- Toyota has announced that it will begin building the 2011 Prius at its plant in Mississippi, so when the next U.S. presidential election cycle rolls around -- oh joy! -- the Prius will also be "American-made."
Toyota Tidbits
I am writing this edition of Insider from Portland, Oregon, where I just flew in at the invitation of Toyota, for a briefing on sustainable transportation. It will be something of a repeat of the Meeting of the Minds conference here last July, the one that turned out -- from my perspective -- to be an A/V disaster with bad audio and even worse video, a couple presentations of which I shared with you on the web site, the rest of which I have pretty well left on the virtual cutting room floor.
Fortunately, I've been given a reprieve, and to make sure I get it right this time, I've got a different camera with lower light tolerance. I should also have better audio, but I am still keeping my fingers crossed. Here's a peak at the agenda for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23rd.
- Peak Liquids: Dr. Peter Wells, Neftex Petroleum Consultants
- Future of Water: Dr. Tim Barnett, Scripps Institute
- Nexus of Water and Energy: Dr. John Merson, Sandia National Laboratories
- Fuels Life Cycle Assessment: Dr. Jan Krieder, University of Colorado
- Urban Design: Gordon Feller, Urban Age Institute
- Sustainable Mobility Strategy: Bill Reinert, Toyota
- Q: When will the new, 2011 Prius go on sale?
A: Middle of next summer is current target, but it depends on the availability of batteries. - Q: What improvements have been made to the Synergy Drive system, if any?
A: The car has been improved across the board, including fuel economy. - Q: Care to comment on the spy photo-based illustration of the Prius, how close it might be to the real thing?
A: I've let some editors know if artist who did the illustration they send me is crazy or not. - Q: What are your thoughts on the bills in Congress to provide incentives for plug-in hybrids?
A: We think we've now gotten language in the Senate bill that would now include the Prius (operating in "blended mode").
Electric Car Round-Up
I apparently missed this on -- or it's just old age creeping in -- but I just learned over dinner last night (it is now very early Thursday morning) here in Portland that Toyota is planning to produce "in the 2010s" an all-electric commuter car. The news came as part of an announcement that the company -- in cooperation with Portland State University and the University of California Irvine -- will be launching a station car program in Portland with four refurbished, 2002 model RAV4 EVs.
For those who may not recall, Toyota built a small number of electric commuter cars called the e•Com during the California MoU period. The two-seater, not unlike GEM's new Peapod pictured above, was capable of highway travel. Bill Reinert, Toyota's national advanced technology vehicle manager, says he still has one of them, but the fate of the rest is uncertain. A number were used in a shared car program on Toyota's campus in Japan for a number of years. That program, called Crayon, shut down in 2007.
No additional details on the new commuter electric car have been revealed yet, but my guess is that now that Chrysler has upped the ante, that program may find itself on an accelerated development schedule.
Night Lights and Electric Cars
Unless you live in one those few dark corners of the world where once the sun goes down, the night sky glitters with stars -- as seen in this photo taken by Jerry Lodriguss at one of the few dark sky locations alone the U.S. East Coast -- you likely experience the phenomenon of outdoor light pollution. Even on a clear night, only a few of the brightest stars are visible: Vega, Altair, Castor and Pollux. While most people find comfort and a sense of security in these urban night lights, they do represent a significant cost in terms of the energy wasted, not to mention the esthetic loss of the majesty of the night.
Part of reason for the proliferation of outdoor light pollution has to do with finding an outlet for spare overnight electrical generation capacity. Coal-fired and nuclear power plants can't be turned off and on with a switch, they have to run 24/7. That power has to go somewhere and for decades it's been sold for night time advertising and security lighting of businesses, residential streets, parking lots, etc. The problem has grown so acute that most of Europe and the eastern half of the United States and West Coast are blanketed in light, as demonstrated by those famous NASA satellite composite photos. For most of the people in the developed world, the splendor of the night sky is now obscured by artificial illumination.
The rising interest in and support for plug-in hybrids and electric cars poses an interesting question? How many cars like the Volt or the Prius or the Think city or the Smart EV or the Tesla Model S or the new Peapod can be powered by just the wasted electric power lost through superfluous and/or inefficient outdoor lighting?
John Gilkison -- who was instrumental in helping pass model outdoor lighting ordinances for Las Cruses, New Mexico -- came up with some rough numbers. He assumes in his article Night Lights and Chevy Volts a goal of 30% improvement in lighting efficiency through various strategies. If that could be achieved, he calculates that we could power nearly 7 million cars like the Chevy Volt just on the energy saved through those improvements.
Besides putting that wasted energy to a more productive use -- saving an estimated 4 billion gallons of gasoline annually in the process -- it might also allow our children to again come to appreciate the "music of the night."
AFS to Congress: How About the Rest of Us?
Just as I was preparing to my trip to Portland, Ed Furia, the head of AFS Trinity called to ask my help in assembling a list of companies involved over the years in bringing electric-drive technology to fruition. He explained that the individual helping finance their plug-in hybrid energy system -- called Xtreme Hybrid -- 'had his back up' with efforts by the Big 3 to wring hefty loan guarantees out of Congress to help bail them out as they lose market share and try to reinvent themselves as electric-drive car companies.
Ed explained that he'd like two things from me as-soon-as-possible. The first was to provide him with a list of small companies who, over the last decade or more, have kept the flame electric vehicle flame burning. AFS Trinity was planning to run a full page ad in the New York Times and Washington Post exhorting Congress, as well as Senator's Obama and McCain to make sure that if they start handing out money to the auto industry to build high mileage cars, that they make sure that these small companies get the chance to compete for some of the funds.
The second request was to look over the ad layout and copy they had put together and make any suggestions and corrections. If you don't get the Times or the Post, you can download the PDF of the final version that is scheduled to appear on Wednesday.
From the tone of the advertisement and Ed's comments to me, it is obvious that he is frustrated with the lack of interest in his firm's technology by the Big Three. He asserts that AFS Trinity has two working prototypes of plug-in hybrids that can do 40 miles at highway speeds on electric power alone. Using a combination of lithium ion batteries and ultracapacitors, he and his team are confident they have solved the problems of building a practical, durable, affordable electrical energy storage system for automotive applications, but the Chryslers, Fords and General Motors of the world just won't take them seriously. It was his comments that prompted me to write Enough with the 'Not Invented Here' piece. I've heard this lament countless times before and Furia's dilemma served as a catalyst, coming as it did in the wake of my earlier So Detroit, Where's Your Business Plan ? article.
As Ed requested, I hastily whipped together a short list of companies that I've talked to over the years and fired an email off to Furia, but with the caveat that it was by no means a definitive list and that I likely forgot someone; for that I sincerely apologize.
It will be very interesting to see what the response is to the full page advertisements in the Times and Post. The ad certainly sends a very clear message to Congress: appoint a non-partisan entity that does not have a vested political or economic interest to review and apportion any funds the government deems appropriate -- as well as monitor how those funds are utilized -- making sure that some of the "little guys" like AFS Trinity get a chance to vie for funding.
I am reminded of the story of the inventor of the submarine, John Philip Holland, who ended up selling his A-class submarines to other Navy's after the tepid interest of the U.S. Navy for whom he developed the Holland Type VI submarine. The Wright Brothers experienced the same frustration with the U.S. Army, eventually taking their design to Europe. The rest, as they say, is history. Furia told me he is faced with the same dilemma. He's a patriotic American and wants to see our country take advantage of what his team has developed, but he said that he too may be forced to take it overseas to China. If that were to happen, we could someday see that technology return to our shores in a flood the Chinese imports that could seal the fate of the Big Three, regardless of how much money Congress pumps into the industry.
Until next time, stay plugged into EVWorld...
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