Previously the company has projected it will become “China’s No. 1 automaker by 2015 and the world’s leading car maker by 2025,” but not wanting to bite off more than it can chew, it has scaled back its ambitious a few notches.

The automaker now wants to become a world-class fish in Hong Kong’s taxi pond. At present, BYD has only six electric e6 taxis running in Hong Kong, across the border from its Shenzhen, China, headquarters, but plans are to multiply this 833 times over in a short span of time.

“We expect to increase the number of e6 taxis in Hong Kong to 5,000 in three years,” Liu Xueliang, said general manager of BYD Asia Pacific sales, in an interview with Reuters.

Hong Kong Taxi & Public Light Bus Association said it is renting from BYD an initial fleet of 45 taxis for around $1,000 (USD) each per month.

In China, BYD sold about 1,700 e6 vehicles last year. They go for around $60,000 and are bought mainly by local governments and taxi companies wanting to engance their green credentials.

Hong Kong’s taxi fleet consists mostly of often LPG-powered Toyota Crowns. Last year, BYD announced plans to export 50 e6 taxis to London.

Reuters

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The drive of the Tesla-supplied 85-kwh model ended on a flatbed truck with a Model S that had run out of juice and Elon Musk was none too pleased.

“NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn’t actually charge to max & took a long detour,” Musk tweeted, and the Tweet was re-tweeted more than a thousand times.

New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Reuters that the article about Broder’s test drive “was completely factual, describing the trip in detail exactly as it occurred. Any suggestion that the account was ‘fake’ is, of course, flatly untrue.”

The report, which is required reading for both EV lovers and haters, is big on suspense. After an uneventful drive from Washington D C, it gets interesting after a 49 minute stop at the first Supercharger. Only after turning the heat to low, and later to off, Broder limps into the next Supercharger station with “Recharge Now” flashing in red.

Broder is going north, and it is getting cold. The Model S does not like it. After a night parked in Connecticut, two thirds of the available range is gone. Even after an emergency charge on the way, the battery is exhausted and the car shuts down. A tow truck is called. There are problems getting the car on the flatbed because an “electrically actuated parking brake would not release without battery power.”

Broder documents everything in great detail, along with many calls to Tesla, all the way up to Tesla’s chief technology officer, J.B. Straubel.

The New York Times spokeswoman said Broder “followed the instructions he was given in multiple conversations with Tesla personnel,” and “there was no unreported detour,” as Musk asserts.

The post Elon Musk Asserts NY Times’ Model S Failure Was ‘A Fake’ appeared first on HybridCars.com.

From the sidelines of Nissan showing its new day care center at its Yokohama headquarters to reporters, Nissan’s made a comment that should resonate well with American customers:

“Fuel-cell technology is suited for use in large vehicles and long-distance driving,” Shiga said, in answer to a reporter who asked whether Nissan’s new collaboration would eat into Leaf sales. EVs are small vehicles and given present limitations, are positioned best for for short range driving.

On the other hand, Hydrogen-powered vehicles – which are essentially EVs with a hydrogen-charged battery – can already last longer on a single tank than most gasoline-powered cars. They also can be filled-up just as fast as a gasoline-powered car. Limited range and charge times of many hours will keep BEVs in the small niche they are unless someone comes up with a new battery technology.

I went to Yokohama to take pictures of Shiga with cute Japanese babies on both arms. There were none, the kindergarten won’t open for business until April. It shall be ignored until Nissan offers me a photo op for cute baby pictures.

The post Nissan: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles Are EVs Ideal For The Open Roads appeared first on HybridCars.com.

So much money is made to convert crude oil in to motor fuels, that power and industry can’t afford it, making power and industry switch to other fuels, mostly gas. Motor fuels however is a low growth industry. What’s more, it could also easily switch to natural gas. The effect is an oil glut.

• BP predicts a worldwide oil demand growth of just 0.8 percent a year up to 2030 – slower than for any other energy type and only half the projected total energy demand growth rate over the same period.
• Transport is slow growing as cars are getting more efficient. BP’s Outlook 2030 study shows the fuel economy of new cars in the United States and China falling well below 5 liters per 100 kilometer by 2030 from between 7 and 8 now.
• In OECD countries, transport fuel demand is set to actually fall as weak economies, a shift to smaller cars, and a move onto public transport in congested urban areas take a further toll.
• Worldwide, gas, biofuels and other alternatives are expected to steal almost a third of what growth there might be.

Gas is already approaching a similar overall market share to oil in the world’s energy mix. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) already is a viable transport fuel, and oil executives are starting to see a point at which familiarity and availability could tip the balance away from diesel and gasoline.  Big oil players are already heavily invested in LNG.

LNG is expected to replace diesel in trucks and buses, ships, even airplanes first, before it makes a difference in private cars some decades away.

LNG-powered ships are already a reality. The first commercial gas-powered civil aircraft flight left Doha for London on Jan. 9 this year, fueled by jet fuel made from gas.

The post Could Natural Gas Cause a Gasoline Glut? appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Uchiyamada used to be Toyota’s R&D Chief, and is celebrated as the “father of the Prius.” He was made Vice Chairman last year. If confirmed, he would replace the 75-year-old Fujio Cho. A Chairman at Toyota has more of an oversight role. The executive power rests at President and CEO Akio Toyoda.

With Uchiyamada, another manager with a long and strong technical background will be at the levers of the company. With Uchiyamada also comes an outspoken critic of too much exuberance about electrification of the automobile. Last year in Tokyo, Uchiyamada said:

“The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society’s needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge.”

With Uchiyamada as the chairman, expect Toyota to increase its research into hybrids, in order to make them smaller, easier to package, and less expensive to sell. Hybrids still have three-percent market share in the U.S. and play a negligible role in Europe. In the U.S., their tipping point will be reached when the price premium narrows. In Europe, hybrids would have to displace diesels. After diesels reached a similar tipping point in Europe, they now have around 50-percent market share.

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Yesterday, Shigeki Terashi, head of Toyota Motor North America Inc. came as close as possible to announcing that Toyota plans to produce the Prius in North America. He didn’t actually say it, and you needed to be Japanese to hear it.

After the Nikkei [sub] asked Terashi whether he would move Prius production to N.A., he answered that Toyota intends to “make cars where they are popular.” The Nikkei takes this to mean that the “comment suggests the firm is looking to gain a cost edge over rivals.”

The case for American Prius production has long been strong. Toyota sold 236,659 Prii among the various “family” members in the U.S. in 2012 alone, all of them imported from high-yen Japan. This is a major drag on the car’s profitability not to mention an environmental drag from the transport ships used to get them here.

Beyond this, long import routes are a hindrance, offshore production also tends to impact the granularity of options and trims.

Terashi’s statement however leaves room for speculation until a clear word is given. His veiled comment could suggest only U.S. assembly of Prii, with the powertrain coming from Japan, however, “the North American unit will also consider locally manufacturing key components for hybrids, such as batteries and motors,” Terashi told The Nikkei.

Some have taken this as an all but an unequivocal yet unofficial confirmation of domestic Prius production, so we shall see.

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While Chrysler has a few plug-in vehicle experiments ongoing, it is not particularly known to be strong in the electrified sector, and now its CEO has come out in favor of CNG as an effective end for America’s reliance on foreign oil.

Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said that it is “most shocking” that the U.S. auto industry is not throwing its might behind natural gas, which has been found in abundance in the United States.

“A rapid adoption of CNG as a fuel source for automotive applications would almost instantly kill the reliance on foreign oil, and it would bring about a substantial reduction in emissions,” said Marchionne. “Those are opportunities that need to be grabbed and they need to be industrialized. Especially with large vehicles like pickups and large SUVs, we could probably accommodate the installation of CNG tanks within the next 24 to 36 months.”

As we see also, on Monday Chrysler’s Ram brand has just launched a bi-fuel, CNG-capable light-duty production truck.

Marchionne gave his views of CNG on the sidelines of an industry convention in Shanghai, China, over the weekend, but for the most part it was not reported. Instead reporters chased down answers to politicized questions as to whether Jeep production would be outsourced to China.

Concerns by reporters focused on whether production priorities would cost jobs in the U.S., or Italy. Both of which Marchionne answered for the umpteenth time with a no.

Poor reporting by unscrupulous bloggers has been partially blamed for the rumor that Jeep production would be outsourced from Toledo, Ohio, to China. Actually an original story on Oct. 22 by Bloomberg had the facts straight, but others overstated the purported sell-out to the Chinese story to the point that even Mitt Romney got it wrong.

This in turn was a setback for Romney as he used the incorrect info in an Ohio ad to strike at Obama for selling Chrysler to the Italians who planned to move Jeep production to China. That miscue led to him being quickly censured in the media, including by Bill Clinton who has been quoted as saying Romney’s assertion is “the biggest load of bull in the world.”

But while reporters were chasing the seeds of that false Jeep-to-China report with Marchionne in Shanghai, they missed a true story on his considered views on how to cure U.S. dependence on foreign oil and to curb global warming.

And while he is at it, Marchionne says he doesn’t think ethanol has much future in the U.S. He said alcohol works as a fuel for Brazil where, “from a global standpoint, producing ethanol probably is the most efficient use of their sugarcane.” It was tried in Africa, and it failed. And, said Marchionne, he is “making no comments on the U.S. side of ethanol production which relies on grains.” We take it, Sergio doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

Asked to explain the cause for why alternative fuels aren’t adopted in wholesale fashion the world over, Marchionne started to say “the dominance of oil …” Then he checked himself, took a big breath, and said “I am not pointing fingers on big oil being responsible for anything.”

Instead, he continued on more benignly, saying the existence of oil production as a big business with established refinery capacity in most developed countries is a force to be reckoned with.

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Since launching its Model S June 22 with much fanfare, and then quietly saying in a blog post this month around 50 cars have thus far been made, Tesla has been able to say it lacks cars to give the press for a customary evaluation.

This has not stopped several major car publications from writing brief overviews based on extremely short – as short as 10-minute – stints behind the wheel with Tesla personnel near at hand. Not surprisingly, some have criticized the startup for this which has generally bucked other industry practices as well, seeking to show it has a better way to do things than major automakers following what they say is tried and true industry practice.

In any event, we think more than a 10-minute test drive would be necessary to evaluate the battery range, if not the car. After all, why couldn’t they manage to set aside a couple cars to let testers have one for the day? A weekend? This would give a tester time to find out when the battery runs out.

As it is, we know an inferential statistician who is questioning the 300 mile all-electric range Tesla says is do-able. The EPA says it is good for 265 miles. But how much lower than this might the car go if pushed some, say with extra calls for precious electric energy during spirited driving or less than a hyper-miler’s finesse?

This gentleman’s name, for the sake of discussion, we’ll call “Joe.” He has two Masters of Science degrees from two different graduate schools, and worked as an engineer at a major component maker. For a number of reasons, he does not want his actual name to be known.

Joe, who calls himself “a believer in the promise of electric vehicles” does not distrust Tesla. He consulted the tables and graphs on the Tesla Web site and attempted to project measurements taken under ideal conditions into the real world, an art and science any automaker should be able to master.

Tesla says it tested its cars on level terrain, no wind, no AC/heat, windows rolled up, constant speed, 300 pounds aboard. Good. What happens if you turn the A/C on? What happens at differing speeds? What happens in real life?

After crunching the numbers, Joe expects that a Tesla Model S with 85-kwh battery driven at 80 mph and with A/C on, assuming less than idea driving conditions, will get about 150 miles. Then, there better be one of those Tesla Superchargers close. Even if there is, it will be an exercise in patience.

“My guesstimate would be that somewhere around an hour and twenty minutes would be required for a full recharge,” says Joe, “which includes the time required to get to and from the station from the Interstate, and also assumes no one is ahead of you at the recharge station.”

When the car is four-and-a-half years old, that 150 mile range will drop to 139 miles, says Joe while still relying on Tesla-provided data.

On the probably more common 60-kwh version of the Model S yet to be released to the public, the expected range under the less than ideal conditions drops to 114 miles, Joe deduces from Tesla data. And then you have the 40-kwh base model which could very well be in Nissan Leaf range …

Tables for the expected Model S driving range can be downloaded here. Joe also provides estimated fuel cost tables, which we did not cover here. Let’s just say that he does not buy into the 2 cents per mile claim.

Here are Joe’s research notes, in case you need his rationale behind his projections.

All of this of course will be moot once real life driving tests are available that last longer than around 10 minutes. Until then, we we don’t know if Joe’s estimate is not the more realistic picture of what to expect.

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As a yet-tiny market of electric cars is ramping up surely but slower than initially hoped for, there are those who say compressed natural gas (CNG) is also a viable alternative for U.S. transportation.

Among them are a coalition of close to half of the U.S. state governments that have told American carmakers to make natural gas-powered vehicles, saying their agencies will buy them for state fleets.

The thrust was poignantly outlined on Wednesday this week, when Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin met with automobile manufacturers and dealers, and purchasing officials from more than a dozen states in Oklahoma City, Bloomberg reports. As the governor for one of the most ready to go CNG states, she was joined by 22 states collectively grouped to solicit bids for the purchase of natural gas-powered vehicles for state fleets.

“We’re serious. We’re ready to buy natural gas vehicles now,” said the Oklahoma governor. “We all know that natural gas is a cleaner form of energy. It’s an abundant form of energy. It’s a less expensive and cheaper form of energy, one that will not only create American-made jobs, it will be good for our national security and economic security.”

The thrust for more natural gas vehicles available for purchase by states has been led by Fallin as well as Colorado Gov. John Hickenhoper. Their goal is to promote the natural gas industry and among the states that have joined them are natural gas producing states including Texas, Wyoming, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Strengthening the natural gas industry, Fallin said, “will help provide our states with money back into our local economies, money back into our state budgets, which will be beneficial for those governors who are participating in this.”

The states have joined to issue a Request For Proposal. Responses from auto manufacturers and dealers are due Sept. 7, and purchasing officials expect award a contract by Oct. 5. The contract calls for 60 compact sedans, 850 mid- to full-size sedans, 400 half-ton trucks and 480 three-quarter ton trucks, all natural gas powered.

Bloomberg

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For two years, the world was worried about a possible rare earth shock triggered by the crafty Chinese. Since they are withholding the dirt that’s essential for magnets, motors, and generators, an electrified world will be on its knees – or so the theory went.

The opposite happened. Right when everybody was ready to blame the high prices of EVs and hybrids on the Chinese, prices of rare earths crashed. Small miners went belly-up. And now, shockers of shockers, The Nikkei [sub] says that Japan found 200 years’ worth of rare earth near an island. Even bigger shocker:

The island is not on the China side of Japan, it’s in the Pacific.

About 300km (186 miles) off the coast of Minamitori Island, high concentrations of rare earths were found, including dysprosium, used to enhance the performance of motor magnets. Two small problems: The rare earth is at a depth of 5,600 meters (18,400 feet). The island itself is more than 1,000 miles away from Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. However, the island and all the islands of the chain are Japanese, as a matter of fact, the islands count as a part of Tokyo. Minamitori itself is the size of a small airport, actually, that’s all it is.

Last year, rare-earth deposits were discovered in international waters. This is the first time a possible deposit has been found in Japanese waters, and it is in waters the Chinese don’t claim as their own. After WWII, the island was under U.S. control until 1968, when it reverted back to Japan.

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