The recall is for a potentially weakened mounting bracket for the left hand latch of the second row seat, and concerns are that if a crash occurred, the left-hand rear seat may not be properly retained.

This news was delivered by Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO in a blog post, and he explained the seat’s striker bracket is welded and bonded to doubly reinforce the attachment. Either one would be ordinarily strong enough by itself, he said, and he added that the Model S was designed with safety as a top priority.

Cars affected by the recall however may have had the bonds and welds compromised following side alignment adjustments during manufacture.

Musk emphasized that “undue alarm” is not warranted, and pointed out the following:

• The weld has not actually detached on any car
• There have been no customer complaints
• We are not aware of any injuries or near injuries
• No regulatory agency brought this to our attention

“However, given the paramount importance of safety, we would like to reinforce the left striker bracket on cars produced during this period,” Musk wrote. “This work has already been performed on cars that were in the factory, so the recall applies only to cars delivered in mid to late May and early June.”

The fix will be a reinforcement procedure performed by Tesla regional service centers with blitzkrieg-like efficiency to minimize down time. Owners of affected cars will be contacted and arrangements will be made to pick up their Model S at a convenient location, and if needed, a Model S loaner will be provided.

Musk said owners need not drop off their cars at the service centers, and the nearly seamless transaction will involve return of the car within a few hours.

This fast turn around is reminiscent of recalls made by start-up Fisker Automotive which moved with great speed and in cases, extra cost to itself, in order to expedite repairs – and do PR damage control – with adopters of the new technology.

The hasty and minimally invasive recall campaign also fits the general operating ethic of Tesla which strives to maximize customer satisfaction and deliver a pinnacle among ownership “experience” for those who’ve paid for what it describes as the best cars in the world.

The post Tesla Issues Partial Model S Recall appeared first on HybridCars.com.

The Model S is the car, and Tesla’s LA Design studio at 7:30 p.m. PST is the place. The Model S was designed to accept a mechanically replaced battery with technology reminiscent of recently failed Israel-based start-up, Better Place, and now Tesla plans to disclose how it will awaken this technology that has been right under Model S owners’ noses, as CEO Elon Musk has phrased it.

In short, the prospect of exchanging the power source in less time than it takes to refill a fuel tank is expected to offer buyers additional options for electric cars Tesla has been taking substantial steps to prove are viable now.

Unknown is what kind of machinery will be used to swap the up-to 1,200-pound 85-kwh battery from underneath a Model S’ skateboard chassis. Also to be seen is how this plan will interact with buyers’ options for free access to a nationwide network of around 200 Supercharger stations – recently announced to become doubly quick.

And beyond these questions, many others would need to be answered as to how Tesla plans to beat the odds that brought down Better Place.

The Israeli company went through $850 million in capital as it attempted to roll out a network of swapping stations.

Its car, a Renault Fluence Z.E. was not perceived to be nearly as desirable as the Model S, and Better Place also did not have a growing network of quick chargers as Tesla is now in process of providing.

Critics of the battery swap model pointed out that if a car owner did not own the battery, the possibility of exchanging a newer one for one more used was a distinct possibility.

Lithium-ion batteries do after time lose their charge holding capacity, so how this potential objection will be overcome remains to be seen.

Tesla however has been bent on proving its dynamic business model is smarter than average, and in other announcements, Tesla has guaranteed the resale value of its cars to meet or exceed that of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Musk himself said he would dip into his own funds to back this buyback guarantee if Tesla actually failed.

The company is thus making big promises to reduce the potential concerns some might have in taking a chance in buying its new product.

Last quarter, Tesla made its first profit of around $11 million, in part based on green car credits it sold to other automakers.

Tesla owners have been given an invite to the announcement. Rumors have been swirling the past week as to what it meant before Elon’s Tweet gave the answer.

Its announcement of the accelerated roll out of its “200-ish” Supercharger stations – each one estimated by Musk to cost around $150,000 without solar canopies, or $300,000 each with solar canopies means Tesla has committed to a free charging station network that should cost $30-$60 million to roll out in the next two years or so. This cost estimate could end up being higher if plans for on-site grid storage at respective Supercharger locations come along, nor does it account for cost of maintenance, upgrades, operational costs, let alone the value of the energy given away.

With all the hopeful news, Tesla’s stock price has also climbed markedly, and largely because of that, Tesla was able to pay off its $465 million Energy Department loans with interest early.

Combine this with the raw appeal of its technology and promises for more affordable cars by 2016, and Tesla has thus far ridden a wave of positive news conspired to keep its order pipeline full, and profits rolling even as it bets much money to keep the synergy flowing.

We’ll have more for you on the battery swap announcement as soon as we know more.

The post Tesla Will Reveal Model S Battery Swapping This Thursday appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Stories of close-but-not-quite-ready battery chemistry promising to one day multiply electric car range and vault EVs into the mainstream have been fairly common. But while more has yet to happen with this story, and the ORNL didn’t at this early stage discuss automotive applications, researchers have applied for a patent for what they say is a solution that’s safer and cheaper than lithium-ion.

“Our approach is a complete change from the current battery concept of two electrodes joined by a liquid electrolyte, which has been used over the last 150 to 200 years,” said Chengdu Liang, lead author on the ORNL study published this month in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

The ORNL researchers say that their new ionically-conductive cathode enabled their Li-S battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).

This eclipses a traditional lithium-ion battery cathode which has an average capacity between 140-170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of lithium-ion versions, Liang said this eight-fold capacity increase in the ORNL battery cathode translates to four times the gravimetric energy density of lithium-ion technologies.

Despite rhetoric from various critics to the effect that the federal government never created anything but a boondoggle, and future growth belongs to private industry, it appears at this point that taxpayer dollars may have actually struck pay dirt.

Or so would go the implications of the synthesis and characterization of the new battery that was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at ORNL. This in turn was done under research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office.

The discovery was described as bypassing a “catch-22” that had baffled researchers for decades. In previous attempts to develop lithium-sulfur batteries, liquid electrolyte was shown to help conduct ions through the battery by allowing lithium polysulfide compounds to dissolve. This was never commercially viable however because the same dissolution process caused the battery to prematurely break down.

“This project represents a synergy between basic science and applied research,” Liang said. “We used fundamental research to understand a scientific phenomenon, identified the problem and then created the right material to solve that problem, which led to the success of a device with real-world applications.”

How did they get the “device with real world applications?” The ORNL researchers said they first synthesized a new class of sulfur-rich materials that conduct ions as well as the lithium metal oxides conventionally used in the battery’s cathode.

They then combined the new sulfur-rich cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material that they also developed and created the energy-dense, all-solid battery.

“This game-changing shift from liquid to solid electrolytes eliminates the problem of sulfur dissolution and enables us to deliver on the promise of lithium-sulfur batteries,” Liang said. “Our battery design has real potential to reduce cost, increase energy density and improve safety compared with existing lithium-ion technologies.”

It’s probably too early to get over-excited over this promising news. No word was given in an initial ORNL press announcement on specific automotive possibilities. We’ll keep you posted whether this actually translates to the advent of Nissan Leafs that one day go 300 miles on a charge.

What’s more, Liang told Gizmag that the new lithium-sulfur batteries are stable.

“We did not observe self-discharge. A charged cell was put on shelf for over a week, and it still delivered the same capacity. The essence of our all-solid battery design is to eliminate the self-discharge through the all-solid configuration,” Liang said.

“This battery charges slower than Li-ion battery at the current status for a simple reason; the ionic conductivity of both the solid electrolyte and cathode are not high energy to have high current density. Much better performance at elevated temperatures such as 60 degrees C or higher,” he added.

At the same time, the ORNL researchers say they enhanced safety and cut costs because their chemistry relies on sulfur – a compound presently considered a waste byproduct of petroleum processing.

Could it be an ironic twist that a solution toward overcoming the “addiction to oil” was discovered within petroleum itself?

This does remain to be seen, but the researchers’ all-solid battery design also eliminates flammable liquid electrolytes that can react with lithium metal, thus it’s more fire resistant, and, as mentioned, it’s also low cost.

“Sulfur is practically free,” Liang said of the byproduct of petroleum processing. “Not only does sulfur store much more energy than the transition metal compounds used in lithium-ion battery cathodes, but a lithium-sulfur device could help recycle a waste product into a useful technology.”

The investigation of the ionic conductivity of the new compounds was supported by the Energy Department’s Office of Science. The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences is one of the five Energy Department Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) supported by Energy Department’s Office of Science national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale.

Questions Remain

But what does this “game-changing” technology mean for the electric car? Anything? Or does it only mean cell phones will get longer talk time, and laptops will go day and night? We are eager to find out, and have put in inquiries for further information. The following is what ORNL initially said upon publicizing the discovery:

“Although the team’s new battery is still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications,” the lab offered in a statement. “A patent on the team’s design is pending.”

We will let you know more when we learn more.

The post Patent-Applied-For Lithium-Sulfur Battery Promises Low Cost, Safety, Quadruple Energy Density appeared first on HybridCars.com.

The synergistic get-together of EDTA’s 110 members is a who’s-who list of key players pushing forward the electrification of transportation, and it is an eye opener.

Here one gets to interact with various stakeholders from industry, government, and other organizations from around the country, and around the world – many of whom are working on technological advancements we at the consumer level only see after they’ve done their job in dreaming ideas up, developing them, and bringing them forth.

And if anyone had any doubt, progress is definitely happening. While critics may be quick to pan stories such as “only” 100,000 plug-in cars have now been sold in America and other efforts to end the national “addiction to oil,” the show-and-tell writ large in the capitol city proved the electrified cat is nonetheless out of the bag.

We missed last year’s EDTA Conference, but had been there in 2011. For 2013, more production or near-production plug-in cars were on hand from makers including Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi, and Honda. Also on display were all sorts of ancillary technologies like home and commercial charging systems, innovative motors, other components, as well as vehicles from start-ups like KLD Energy Technologies, and Green Tech Automotive – which has famously seen much help from Democrat, Terry McAuliffe.

Not too surprisingly, Tesla Motors’ Model S was fashionably absent. The too-cool-for-school Fremont, Calif.-based start-up is probably too busy building and selling its electric cars, and apparently decided it does not need the exposure EDTA’s conference might have afforded. Everyone at EDTA knows well who Tesla is though, that you can be sure of.

In fact, given this was a gathering of engineers, executives, advocates, and otherwise insiders, there was no worry that if you mentioned some topic that might be arcane to the average person, that they would not likely know more about it than you do.

These people eat, sleep and breath all the subjects that green car publications usually only talk about at a general level. Terms such as “energy density” or “battery management system” or “SAE J1772” or “V2G” or what have you are as familiar to EDTA conference goers as “home run” is to fans at a baseball game.

Value To The Industry

If you are one who’d like to see the shift toward more ecologically friendly electrified cars and trucks – from mild hybrid to all-electric – you should probably be glad EDTA exists.

It’s been at it since 1989, and its mission is to smooth the way in the face of an entrenched culture and technology. It works on creating cooperation between groups, and helps grease the tracks in so many words. Its tact is not adversarial but rather collaborative, and one of its accomplishments has been at the policy and lobbying level.

The $7,500 plug-in car tax credit was something it was behind from the beginning, and it helped to establish this financial incentive to give EVs a fighting chance in the uphill battle they yet face.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to attend all the plenary sessions in which industry experts were invited to sit on panel, and offer information from their perspective and knowledge base.

Meetings were staggered three per time slot, so it was sort of a crap shoot. For example, from 3:45-5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, we had to decide what would be more interesting – an expert panel on the subject of “Accelerating the Adoption of Electric Vehicles” or “Fuel Cells” or “Training Tomorrow’s Innovators?”

As were all other sessions we sat in on, no doubt they were all good, and possibly revelatory, but we sat in on the last 30 minutes of fuel cells in this case. We missed most of it spending time in an even more valuable way interviewing EDTA President, Brian Wynne at the beginning of the time slot (we’ll have that for you soon).

You can peruse the list of topics and speakers here, but EDTA does not video record these meetings, in part to preserve intellectual property, so one has to take what one can get. The conference thus offers more value than anyone can take in, and what one can learn is still worth the trip, as are contacts that are made, and friendships formed along the way.

Facilitating a Paradigm Shift

The conference also offers an all-important ride, drive, and charge event. Getting people inside of these new plug-in cars who’ve never done so is half the battle to forming new opinions.

And shifting priorities is why EDTA exists. It hits all the angles, and enjoys bipartisan support, being that this is about the future of America and the rest of the world too.

EDTA is thus in the trenches on all fronts. It has info and answers for consumers, facilitates issues important to policymakers, fleet managers, utilities, and suppliers as well as the automakers themselves.

Officially, EDTA says of itself:

The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) is the preeminent US industry association dedicated to the promotion of electric drive as the best means to achieve the highly efficient and clean use of secure energy in the transportation sector.

EDTA conducts public policy advocacy, education, industry networking, and international conferences. Our membership includes vehicle and equipment manufacturers, energy companies, technology developers, component suppliers, government agencies and others.

 
Its general goals toward electrification, while substantial, are not set in stone, but EDTA is working with flexibility within the confines of reality – and push-back – of facilitating choices beyond petroleum.

The organization was started just before the Toyota Prius was launched in the U.S. primarily helping pave the way for hybrids, and is still not exclusively all about EVs. As you might have gathered, it’s also open to enabling fuel cell electric vehicles come into their own, and is taking everything one day at a time.

EDTA also happens to use info from HybridCars.com’s Dashboard month after month as a means of tracking sales figures and keeping its members informed.

For more details, its Web site is a good resource and has plenty of links for anyone who wants to know more about the electrification of transportation.

The post 2013 EDTA Conference: An Electrifying Meeting of the Minds appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Looking at the decade and a half between 2010 and 2025, Ford says it expects to whittle back CO2 by an additional 30 percent.

These results followed the company’s 14th annual Sustainability Report that evaluates its corporate citizenship as a producer of cars and trucks, and as a manager of resources and thousands of employees in its global facilities and working environments.

The voluntary report also examined Ford’s ability to reduce water use and energy consumption, as well as progress in cutting the amount of waste-to-landfill at Ford facilities around the world.

Ford also didn’t miss the opportunity to plug its newest line of electrified cars: Fusion Hybrid, C-MAX Hybrid and Lincoln MKZ Hybrid; Fusion Energi and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrids; and Focus Electric.

These were not around in the earlier years of the study’s time span examined, but are expected to contribute to gains made going forward. Ford says average vehicle tailpipe emissions on a per vehicle basis have dropped 16 percent since 2007.

To date, Ford says globally its facilities cut CO2 by 4.65 million metric tons, or 47 percent since 2000. As part of an Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers program, Ford says it also met its commitment to reduce U.S. facility emissions by 10 percent per vehicle produced between 2002 and 2012.

“In the more than 30 years I have been with the company, I have seen genuine transformation as Ford has integrated sustainability into its business plan, products, operations and relationships with stakeholders,” said Robert Brown, vice president, sustainability, environment and safety engineering. “Water and energy use, waste-to-landfill, Ford’s role in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases like CO2 in our atmosphere – these are just a few of the top sustainability-related priorities considered in every decision.”

Other key points or achievements Ford reported upon include:

• Trained 325 suppliers in sustainability management in 2012 as part of Ford’s Code of Human Rights, Basic Working Conditions and Corporate Responsibility; nearly 2,100 suppliers have been trained through the program
• Reduced waste-to-landfill by 19 percent per vehicle between 2011 and 2012, part of a plan to cut the amount of waste-to-landfill 40 percent per vehicle by 2016 (baseline is 2011)
• Reduced global water use by 1.95 million cubic meters from 2011 to 2012. Based on regional water cost estimates, this yielded more than $3 million in cost savings
• Cut global use of water per vehicle produced to 4.3 cubic meters (one cubic meter equals 264 gallons) in 2012 – down from 4.7 cubic meters in 2011 and 5.1 cubic meters in 2010. The company targets a 2 percent reduction in 2013 and continues working toward cutting water use 30 percent per vehicle by 2015 (2009 baseline)
• Reduced global water use by 62 percent between 2000 and 2012 – equal to about 10 billion gallons
• Established a five-year objective to improve operational energy use per vehicle globally by 25 percent by the end of 2016 (2011 baseline)
• Improved global energy efficiency by 6.4 percent against a 2011 year baseline normalized for weather and production levels

The post Ford Cut CO2 By 37 Percent Since 2000; Aiming For 30-Percent Less By 2025 appeared first on HybridCars.com.

This we learned from KLD’s business development manager Ian Stonington yesterday when inquiring about the funky VW-inspired Kombi mini truck to be made this year in the by U.S. by Cenntro, and that’s capable of 25 mph with a payload of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).

As would be expected, while Stonington was willing to tip his hand a little bit on what the Austin, Texas-based start-up hopes to write a full press release on later this year, it’s still a little early to name names of specific automakers it’s dealing with, or otherwise spill the beans overly much.

The 550 MPGe Eclimo electric scooter with KLD propulsion system is sold in Malaysia and China. Its maker is seeking U.S. homologation, and Zero Motorcycles’ former Director of Mechanical Engineering, and now KLD engineering chief, John Bautista is helping it along. Bautista has experience with these issues, having worked for Zero from 2008 – 2010 and he developed Zero’s MX, S and DS model lines.

The short story however is KLD – which in 2012 stood alongside established companies like Caterpillar and GE in winning an Edison Award – is discussing a potential city car with several OEMs, including U.S.-based ones, that would prefer to give business to a fellow U.S. based supplier like KLD.

The plug-in series hybrid with KLD propulsion system could get somewhere around 125 MPGe, Stonington said. This is probably not an overstatement given Cenntro’s little pre-production 1,764-pound truck powered by KLD components gets 255 MPGe (108 km/l or 13.2 kwh/100 miles) with a range of 45 miles at 25 mph.

KLD also supplies Eclimo, a Malaysian maker of a 550-MPGe electric scooter with its proprietary matched-component powertrain consisting of Samsung SDI lithium-ion battery, in-house built battery management system and motor. The scooter goes 50 mph, and at 45 mph, boasts a range of 53 miles.

Sustainable Mission

KLD Energy Technologies’ forward-looking vision is to improve transportation of all sorts, and it’s actually gaining traction in the U.S. now with the Cenntro contract for the off-highway market. Its next move will likely be in the neighborhood electric vehicle market, while being open to more.

The Cenntro will cost about $15,000, about $5,000 more than a golf cart, and will be potentially more utilitarian for farmers, small businesses, factories, and others who can make good use of it.

Its OneDrive system is touted for its high-torque, low rpm system with low driveline losses which it says is “the most efficient drive system in its class today.”

The modular system can be applied to a wide range of applications which KLD says leads to simplicity and performance up to a high level. KLD further says its system is cost-effective, upgradable and serviceable.

The company recently joined the Electric Drive Transportation Association, and company CEO Christian Okonsky was a speaker on one of the expert panels for which HybridCars.com was in attendance to report.

Okonsky self-deprecatingly told the audience of peers he is “not that smart” and when he needed a name in 2007 for his new company, he took the first initial from each of his three oldest sons, Kyle, Luke and Dean.

The Cenntro truck on display this week in Washington, D.C., is pre-production. A U.S. assembly location has not been settled, but is expected to be operational by fourth quarter, this year. It uses the KLD OneDrive components, has seat belts, a steel sub-frame and will incorporate rollover protection.

His understatement of his credentials belies the fact that in prior endeavors Okonsky engineered Dell’s first notebook computer and developed a stealth technology F22 launcher for EDO corporation, among other achievements.

Together with a number of other talented engineers and executives, the small company has high hopes as a new American company to keep innovating environmentally responsible solutions.

Stonington said he would like to think of recent recognition for KLD as “an overnight success story that was five years in the making.”

In any case, KLD is playing for the future. Its technology is also adaptable to non-motor-vehicular applications including wind turbines, elevators, and more. Its focus is on safety and sustainability, and we may hear more from KLD on the automotive front in months to come.

The post KLD’s OneDrive System Is Gaining Traction appeared first on HybridCars.com.

In other quarters, there has been much talk of automakers needing to develop electrified cars to help meet 2017-2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules. These are part of federal regulations that stipulate fleet-wide automaker averages of “54.5 mpg” (about low 40s on the sticker) and greenhouse gas (tailpipe) emissions, but today it was said only a small portion of super-efficient, fleet-average-boosting cars will need to be all-electric.

According to David Strickland, administrator for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) speaking at a Consumer Reports-sponsored panel in Yonkers, N.Y., CAFE policies would necessitate electric cars comprise a mere 1 to 3 percent of all vehicles offered for sale in the U.S. 12 years from now.

“Our analysis at NHTSA projects that the automakers can meet these standards largely through advantages in internal combustion engines,” said Strickland alluding to a mixed bag of technological tricks to reduce gas and diesel engine fuel consumption and to clean up emissions. “We project that the automakers will only need to produce about 1 to 3 percent of electric vehicles from plug-ins to meet the 2025 standards.”

Pending BMW i3.

To people following these issues, including PlugInAmerica’s Legislative Director, Jay Friedland, this percentage sounds quite low and led him to question whether Strickland actually meant what he said. We have it from an off-the-record source in Washington that indeed, Strickland did mean only 1-3 percent of new vehicles available for sale will need to be of the all-electric variety in 2025.

Strickland’s statement also seems to fly in the face of implied and stated assertions made while the now-settled CAFE rules were being promoted in 2011.

Policymakers for NHTSA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others have previously touted the addition of electrified vehicles to respective automakers product offerings. Of course “electrified” also includes hybrids, and an automaker’s average may be pulled up by any combination of vehicles from fuel-efficient conventional cars, to mild hybrids to full hybrids to plug-in hybrids to all-electric.

Tesla Model S.

As is widely known, benefits of purely electric-motor-driven vehicles are that they produce zero emissions – not just reduced emissions – and they burn no fuel – not just less fuel. For these reasons, improving electric vehicle (EV) technology and bringing them mainstream has been seen as a far better end goal than merely incremental efficiency gains by fuel miser petrol burners, including hybrids, no matter how great the gains may be.

In previous reports, the CAFE standards have been viewed as a major driver for the advancement of plug-in cars in addition to other advocacy and lobbying efforts as well as consumer-level preferences, and natural market forces at work.

However, if anyone thought that CAFE was a proverbial coffin nail in the legacy of petroleum-based engines, that would appear to be open to debate.

This is despite the significant scrubbing the nation’s cars and trucks will need to undergo to meet CAFE standards which Strickland otherwise said are reason for “celebration of one of the greatest accomplishments in transportation that we’ve seen” in close to four decades.

By 2025, the average fuel consumption by EPA reckoning for all passenger vehicles for sale in the U.S. must be 54.5 mpg (the low 40 mpg range on the window sticker is because of calculations by a different formula).

Compared to new vehicles sold in 2011, the federal government estimates by 2025 consumers will have saved $1.7 trillion in gasoline expenditures and greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by nearly 2 billion metric tons.

Strickland said presently U.S. vehicles account for 60 percent of all petroleum consumption, thus it was deemed more than justifiable to look to greater austerity in mandates meant to trim back consumption.

The CAFE rules were actually a collaborative effort and a compromise from an initial 62 mpg average proposed for vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2025.

2014 Chevy Spark EV.

Automakers and other industry stakeholders have generally agreed to the need, but numerous concerns have been raised to the effect that mandating an extremely high bar would have negative unintended consequences. Included are fears of a resultant chilling effect on the market as automakers passed on extra costs to consumers.

This may in part be why the emphasis by Strickland on new vehicles available and to come was overwhelmingly consumer-positive. His statements to this effect were actually first made by Consumer Reports President and CEO Jim Guest who said consumers will have reason to rejoice in that fuel economy is no longer fraught with compromises including acceptance of small, less safe vehicles lacking luxury and amenities.

Advances in technology have seen – and will see – more and more choices with all the “wow” factor anyone would want that nonetheless are more efficient than previous generation vehicles, Guest said.

Electric Car Future Discussed

Cuing in on the tone set by keynote speaker Strickland, and subsequent speaker EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck, members of Consumer Reports’ panel of industry experts broached the topic of electric vehicle viability.

Opening the discussion was Stephen Crolius, Vice President, Alliance Consulting Group, who spoke poignantly in favor of the notion that electric vehicles are indeed ready for prime time.

“This isn’t castor oil here,” said Crolius referring to unsavory medicine that must be swallowed as a metaphor for the prospect of accepting electric cars.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

Instead, he added, the electric car could well be viewed as “the lowest hanging fruit” to meeting and exceeding CAFE goals of reducing petroleum consumption and cutting pollution.

“I think we can all agree the electric car is not something that will not come into its own by 2025,” said Crolius.

Indeed, he said, the time for electric cars and trucks “is now,” despite the fact that CAFE can be met largely without them.

Following Crolius’ opening remarks, a familiar topic of the merits of electric cars like Nissan’s Leaf ensued over the usual talking points: issues of range anxiety, consumer needs versus wants; what it will take to make them mainstream, and so forth.

Consumer Reports’ director of testing, Jake Fisher – who’s also a part-time auto racer who did the drift scenes with a Tesla Model S in a recent video – went on to discuss the Model S as a great car with negligible range anxiety, comparing favorably to a Porsche Panamera, but priced out of reach for many who’d like the Tesla’s gas-car-beating attributes in an electric car they could afford.

Source: HybridCars.com May 2013 Dashboard.

Today’s market of all-electric cars can nearly be counted on one hand: You have the Leaf, Mistusbishi i-MiEV and Tesla Model S range as the only EVs sold in all 50 states. Then there are limited-market models – some have called them “compliance cars” – like the Ford Focus Electric, Smart forTwo EV, Honda Fit EV, and pending Chevy Spark EV. Anticipated are more electric cars, including BMW’s i3.

To be sure, the market is just beginning, and even if CAFE mandates could theoretically be met with only 1-3 percent of the nation’s cars being zero-emission EVs, automakers do have the option to more drastically cut fleet fuel consumption and emissions by continuing to develop more.

California Air Resources Board More Influential

PluginAmerica’s Jay Friedland – who said EVs and other eco cars sell better when fuel prices rise, and expressed doubt whether Strickland’s model had accounted for rising fuel prices – also mentioned rules in place that are “not going away” by the California Air Resources Board.

These state-level mandates essentially overlap what ever the federal rules stipulate about tailpipe emissions, and in short, call for one in seven vehicles sold in California to be zero emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2025.

This is 15 percent, and automakers wishing to do business in California will need to make the grade. What’s more, according to CARB’s Air Pollution Specialist Anna Wong, nine states thus far have signed onto California’s ZEV “Clean Car Rules” making them the most potent de facto driver of EVs from a policy standpoint in the United States.

Wong said Strickland’s statement of 1-3 percent EVs needed to meet CAFE was theoretically correct in that existing internal combustion engine technologies and those expected to come online could mean a given automaker could get by with only so few EVs.

Consumer Reports did not take it too easy on its purchased Model S.

But California’s Section 177 law stands, and EVs are here now, with more expected, as CARB Public Information Officer Melanie Turner also offered.

“Our ZEV regulation is designed to help meet California’s specific and unique air quality and climate challenges,” she said of rules in a state that’s actually been looking as far forward as Europe has, to 2050.

Thus CARB – not CAFE – would appear to be the strongest law in the land to give automakers that extra nudge to keep researching, developing, and eventually bringing forth more all-electric passenger vehicles.

The post CAFE Rules: Only 1-3 percent of cars need to be electric by 2025 appeared first on HybridCars.com.

While media are reporting the story with spin in a variety of more or less negative ways, also true is GM is readying the replacement of 2013 model Volts with 2014s – these are due to be announced later this month, and their production at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant may begin not long after.

Official Chevrolet deals include a $4,000 rebate on a cash purchase, another is $3,000 and 0-percent APR for a four year loan, and another is a three-year lease for $269/month and $2,399 down payment. Leftover 2012 model year Volts in limited stock are eligible for $5,000.

Reports have come forth of some buyers netting 2013 Volts – with suggested price of around $40,000 – for as low as $26,000 and possibly less with all spiffs and incentives piled on. All U.S. buyers are potentially eligible for a $7,500 tax credit. Additionally, states may offer up to several thousand dollars, and dealers are free to discount further, if they wish.

The gas-electric Volt has been called a “halo’ car by GM and has been the number one car in owner satisfaction according to Consumer Reports. Nissan however has been coming on strong in the past several months with an all-electric alternative in its Leaf, and Nissan actually reduced suggested retail prices for 2013, which is a step further than GM’s temporary discount.

The irony of GM’s halo having to receive price cuts on top of sizable incentives has not been lost on observers. It’s also worth noting GM had said once upon a time – prior to its late-2010 launch – that it would target the Volt’s price comfortably below $30,000.

That the car is a Chevrolet and instead costs like a Buick or Cadillac – and has been said to get Cadillac or Buick levels of service and offer upscale qualities besides – has left the Volt in an ambiguous spot. Market reception never did take off to the degree that Toyota’s Prius has now come to enjoy, and critics have said it would have been closer to the home run – and the Prius fighter it was intended to be – if GM had started it at somewhere near $30,000 more or less to begin with.

As it is, the market and incentives have reduced the actual selling price closer to the sub-$30,000 ideal that was once considered.

Nissan’s Leaf however starts at just shy of $30,000 for the S trim level and it too is eligible for the $7,500 federal and state by state incentives, so it still costs less. Volt fans would argue it offers less, and while that is debatable, we’re not prepared to go into that point-counterpoint discussion here.

As for points of blame contributing to less-than-overwhelming mainstream plug-in car sales, among them are that fuel prices have descended somewhat or at least not climbed as steeply as some might have predicted, depending on region.

Buyer behavior has demonstrated that when gas prices do surge, so do sales of hybrids and other economical cars. It is reactive – not proactive – behavior, to be sure.

Adding to this, industry observers at this week’s EDTA Conference in Washington, D.C., note some consumers remain unaware of the ins and outs of plug-in cars, or are otherwise holding back, assuming they are aware of their existence at all.

Last month, GM sold 1,607 Volts, well shy of its peak of nearly 3,000 units in a single month and a string of months with over 2,000 units sold last year.

Calendar year to date, the Volt at the end of March had achieved 20.72 percent of the plug-in car market share. This contrasts with 25.79 percent for the Tesla Model S, and 27.57 percent for Nissan’s Leaf

Compared to where sales were in total volume in May 2012, the Volt is up 1.4 percent compared to 7.3-percent for the auto industry as a whole.

Year-over-year figures are not available for the Model S, which began delivery in July 2012.

As of May, the Leaf is anything but wilting: Its sales for last month were up 191.4 percent compared to May 2012.

The post GM Significantly Discounting Chevrolet Volts appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Cool Planet is currently operating a pilot facility in Camarillo, CA.

The company said this next round of funding represents an important next step in commercializing a facility that will enable the Company to deliver on its promise of carbon negative biofuel with industry-leading economics.

“We are very pleased to have completed this early close which includes investments by all of our existing investors along with some high quality new investors. We remain very encouraged by the response to our ongoing fundraising efforts in the U.S. and globally, and fully expect to achieve our goal of raising a minimum of $100 million in this round,” said Barry Rowan, Cool Planet CFO.

Howard Janzen, CEO, added, “With today’s announcement, we continue to lay the foundation to deliver on our objectives of producing renewable transportation fuels, a cleaner environment, and the improvement of agriculture.”

Cool Planet’s patented thermo-mechanical process enables the deployment of small, modular facilities through a distributed model, “taking the plants to the biomass instead of bringing the biomass to the plants.”

It also delivers very compelling economics at small scale as the company expects to produce high octane gasoline for a cost of less than $1.50 per gallon without the need for government subsidies, and can remove carbon from the atmosphere in the process.

A co-product along with the fuel is high surface-area carbon, or biochar, which can be used as a soil enhancement, increasing land fertility while isolating the carbon captured from the atmosphere.

Cool Planet said that when biochar is enriched with proteins and used as a soil enhancement, soil has been found to retain 30 percent more water and crop yields can increase up to 50 percent.

Additionally, biochar has been shown to make otherwise unusable land productive, opening the possibility for arid desert lands to be used for agriculture.

Cool Planet’s technology has attracted a group of marquee strategic investors including General Electric, Google Ventures, BP, ConocoPhillips, NRG and the Constellation Energy division of Exelon.

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About 120 work trucks, to be used by publicly owned utilities and municipal electric companies, will utilize plug-in hybrid power systems by Odyne Systems, LLC, using Johnson Controls’ batteries.

Odyne, in conjunction with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District of California, has been selected to participate in a $45 million dollar DOE grant.

The contract granted to Odyne Systems, LLC by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), directs funding from DOE’s Transportation Electrification initiative, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) of California and other parties in a cost share arrangement with users toward the development and supply of advanced plug-in hybrid and Smart Grid / Smart Charging technology for trucks over 14,000 pounds.

“Johnson Controls Lithium-ion battery technology is helping large fleets reduce fuel consumption, operating costs and emissions,” said David DeGraaf, vice president and general manager, Americas Original Equipment Group, Johnson Controls Power Solutions.

Johnson Controls said that depending on use, Odyne’s hybrid power system can enable large trucks to obtain fuel economy improvements of up to 50 percent compared to traditional diesel or gasoline engines.

Designed to interface with Allison Transmission commercial vehicle transmissions, the Odyne hybrid power system also features a Remy HVH250.

The Lithium-ion batteries for these trucks will be made at Johnson Controls’ manufacturing facility in Holland, Mich. The plant made history as the first in the United States to manufacture Lithium-ion cells and complete hybrid battery systems for automobiles.

“Johnson Controls remains committed to building a domestic industry for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles,” said DeGraaf. “This supply contract is one more step towards accelerating commercialization of these advanced automotive power technologies.”

The post 120 Plug-In Hybrid Work Trucks On Their Way appeared first on HybridCars.com.