Nissan released an image yesterday of a light commercial electric vehicle concept. It’s just a sketch, but the drawing signals that Nissan is moving forward with plans to build an entire electric vehicle program—rather than focusing on a single vehicle.
The first hybrid gas-electric car in the United States, the original Honda Insight, reported its first 17 sales in December 1999. One decade and 1.5 million hybrids later, the auto industry is ready to embrace hybrids and other green cars like never before. What are the major trends we expect as hybrid cars boldly move into the first year of their second decade? Plug-ins, new models, a growing market, and an evolving Prius. Prepare for the green car movement to shift into warp speed.
The race to provide the world with affordable plug-in cars has a wild card: China’s BYD, the car and battery company backed by investment guru Warren Buffet. A combination of powerful forces—an enormous burgeoning domestic market, battery expertise, and low cost production—gives credence to the company’s plans to sell millions of hybrid and electric cars within just a few years. That’s if BYD can overcome its current quality challenges and technical hurdles. And that’s a big If.
Vice President Joe Biden will announce tomorrow that Fisker Automotive will build plug-in hybrid cars at a Delaware plant formerly run by General Motors. The use of the GM plant by Fisker, an unproven California-based start-up, is an ironic symbol of the new era of competition for next-generation green cars—pitting small innovative companies against the world’s largest carmakers.
With oil prices reaching record levels for the year—and potentially heading higher—the prospects for electricity-powered cars is also on the rise. Deutsche Bank said prices could surge to $100 a barrel in the next two quarters if the US dollar continues to weaken. Rising oil prices alone are not enough to ensure the future of electric cars—but there are clear signs of a massive transition to plug-in hybrids and electric cars.
When will we ever get a hybrid gas-electric minivan? That’s been the most frequent question over the years from hopeful (but frustrated) hybrid shoppers. After all, they say, Japan has had hybrid minivans for about a decade. The explanation that Japan’s minivans are much smaller than US models—and therefore better suited for gas-electric drivetrains—offers little solace. But help might be on the way, in the form of pint-sized three-row family haulers coming to America, maybe even with plug-in capability.
The first mainstream cars that plug into the electric grid are not expected for another year—but the battle to provide charging and battery services to those early adopters is already heating up. The tension between two companies—General Motors and Better Place—which might provide those services was palpable on Monday during a panel discussion in Palo Alto, Calif., entitled “Electric Cars: Transformational Change or Niche Trend?”
To get a better understanding of electric car adoption across the pond, the automotive group at global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan interviewed nearly 2,000 consumers in the UK, France, Germany, and Italy—mostly in London, Berlin, Paris and Milan. "Consumers see major barriers to adoption with factors such as infrastructure and range,” said Frost and Sullivan auto industry manager Catherine Butterworth. Adopters of electric cars are likely to be from France or the UK, aged 26-35 or older than 55, male, and have high disposable income.
There was a long parade of plug-in cars at last month’s Frankfurt Auto Show. This month, it’s Japan’s turn to unveil a new crop of plug-in hybrids at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public on Oct. 24. Mitsubishi and Suzuki are the first two companies to announce plans to unveil plug-in hybrids.
According to Fox News, the US Department of Energy threw away nearly $1 billion in loans to Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors—two Calif.-based auto startups trying to produce the next generation of American-made energy-efficient cars. On several of its shows, including America's Newsroom and Your World, Fox News criticized the loans because Fisker and Tesla currently produce expensive cars that are made in Europe.
