This will allow the company to combine the activities of several previous groups of A123 Systems under one division.

This new division, headquartered in Westborough Massachusetts, will continue to design, develop, and manufacture lithium-ion energy storage systems ranging from small industrial batteries to multi-megawatt grid-scale energy storage systems.

A123 Energy Solutions said it will also continue to support its network of value-add channel partners, distributors and resellers for A123 Systems’ Nanophosphate cell products.

“A123 Energy Solutions has always been focused on high performance, safe and reliable battery systems and will continue to develop new energy storage products under this new brand, which helps to distinguish our activities from the transportation division in Livonia and the technologies division in Waltham,” said Bud Collins, President of A123 Energy Solutions.

A123 Energy Solutions unveiled its new brand at the AWEA Windpower 2013 conference, held in Chicago.

A123 Systems, LLC is the part of A123 that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanxiang Group.

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On Thursday and Friday, State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary, Anna Caballero, will participate as co-chair of the 7^th annual Green California Summit and Exposition at Sacramento’s Convention Center.

Caballero oversees the Building Standards Commission and Department of General Services, two departments heavily involved in green building codes and technology innovation.

“California’s environmental policies and programs are setting the pace for efforts around the U.S. and the world,” said State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary, Anna Caballero. “If you want to know what’s new, what’s working, and what’s coming, you can’t miss the Green California Summit.”

The organizers said this year’s summit expo features a number of green products and services. The public can get a hands-on look at the latest hybrid or zero-emission vehicles, new building materials, energy efficient lighting, and technologies for onsite power generation.

In addition, for the first time this year, the public can also test drive the latest electric vehicles.

Keynote speakers Jane Long, chair of the California Council on Science and Technology’s “California’s Energy Future” project and Greg Kats, an internationally recognized innovator in energy efficiency, renewable energy, green buildings and the transition to a low-carbon economy, will demonstrate how sustainability and green technology can go hand in hand with human and economic prosperity.

According to the organizers, California continues to set the pace for green policy, practice, and economic opportunity. In 2011 California set aggressive renewable energy goals requiring that one third of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources. In addition, the state has implemented the first ever carbon-credit auction, and mandated for 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on its roadways by 2025.

The Green California Summit and Expo, held at the Sacramento Convention Centre is open to the public and is held this week, Thursday April 18^th and Friday April 19^th.

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Echo Automotive, Inc. announced April 11 the execution of a voluntary Exchange Agreement with Advanced Technical Asset Holdings (“ATAH”) through issuance and filing of a form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regarding this major event.

Echo describes itself as a developer of technologies enabling the cost effective conversion of existing fleet vehicles into fuel efficient hybrids and plug in hybrids.

The voluntary exchange between the two companies transfers to Echo the ATAH assets and intellectual property which were acquired by ATAH from Bright Automotive.

“We are very pleased to complete this transaction,” stated Dan Kennedy’s, Echo’s CEO. “This gives Echo a broad suite of technologies, intellectual property, and patents that significantly expands Echo’s capabilities and portfolio. In addition, this acquisition opens up new product opportunities for Echo and will allow Echo to better serve the increasing demand for OEMs in need of real-world experience, technologies and IP.”

The Company further stated that the acquisition of the assets, IP and multiple patents significantly strengthens the Company’s overall market segment positioning.

The Company acquired Bright Automotive R&D which Echo estimates to be tens of thousands of hours at a cost in the tens-of-millions of dollars. Echo additionally disclosed that the IP and assets contained with this transaction are inclusive of several fully developed prototype vehicles, including the Bright IDEA vehicle, and other IP and engineering data.

“We are excited to incorporate these technologies into our near and long term strategies,” added Jason Plotke, Echo President and Co-Founder. “Our EchoDrive technology was validated by winning the Most Innovative Product award at NTEA earlier this year, and our engineers and developers are looking forward to applying our expertise to the technology we acquired as part of the this transaction in order to meet the increasing demand and opportunities in the sector.”

The Company said it has filed an 8K Form disclosing the voluntary exchange between Echo and ATAH and containing the details of the transaction with the SEC. The exchange terms include the issuance by Echo of six million (6,000,000) shares of its common stock to ATAH for the ATAH assets and intellectual property, all of the outstanding ATAH member units, and $500,000 of cash from ATAH.

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The goal is to cease the need to import foreign oil within the next 10 years. To jump start the initiative, the president called for a 75-percent increase in the Energy Department’s vehicle research budget.

“We’ll continue our march towards energy independence,” said Obama.

If approved, the Energy Department’s vehicle research budget would be increased to $575 million, and $2 billion more would be earmarked for the 10-year goal of energy independence.

EV Everywhere Initiative

Along with weaning off of oil, the White House’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge – first announced by Obama in March – would like to foster electric cars becoming as affordable as conventional cars within the next decade.

“The EV Everywhere Grand Challenge focuses on the U.S. becoming the first nation in the world to produce plug-in electric vehicles that are as affordable for the average American family as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years,” says its promoters.

The call being repeated is to increase the federal tax credit to $10,000, and Obama has called for expanding it from solely EVs and plug-in hybrids to other advanced vehicles also.

The plan would allow dealers to take the credit themselves as long as they explained to the consumer, and passed along the credit as a point-of-sale rebate.

The multifaceted plan to make EVs affordable includes accelerating research and development on battery tech and manufacturing and paving the way also for faster charging.

Proposed are a limited number of advanced vehicle deployment communities to test in a microcosm government-backed technologies that could be scaled up once proven. These have been approved by Congress, and would be selected through competition.

Other backed technologies include cellulosic ethanol and biofuels, including algae-derived, for which Obama proposes $282 million be spent to develop and demonstrate conversion technologies.

A host of other fees and spending to make the goal for energy security work were included in the extensive budget proposal.

The president has not talked so much about his proposed 1 million EVs and PHEVs on the road by 2015 – a goal he promoted while on the campaign trail in 2008 – but he is still working the same plan.

Regarding the proposal, critics have already begun to pounce, and opposition will be determined.

Objections include those to government involvement in private industry – even at the research level, and that the country is running a major budget deficit, and fears are this is money the taxpayers should not be asked to be on the hook for.

Energy Department Press Release, Detroit News

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Honda said that so far, it has been extracting an oxide containing rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries at the plant of Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., Ltd. (JMC).

Now, by applying molten salt electrolysis to this oxide, Honda has succeeded in extracting metallized rare earth that can be used directly as negative-electrode materials for nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Honda said that the rare earth metals extracted in this process has a purity of more than 99 percent, which is as high as that of ordinary traded, newly mined rare earth metals.

In addition, the new process enables the extraction of as much as above 80 percent of rare earth metals contained in nickel-metal hydride battery.

Under the newly established process, the extracted rare earth metals will be supplied from JMC to a battery manufacturer in early March, which will reuse them as negative-electrode materials for nickel-metal hydride batteries for hybrid vehicles.

This time, the rare earth metals were extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from 386 Honda hybrid vehicles that were stored prior to being on sale but became unusable by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Further, as soon as a sufficient volume is secured, Honda said it will begin applying the same process and recycle rare earth metals extracted from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected by Honda dealers through battery replacement.

Honda said it strives to extract rare earth metals not only from nickel-metal hydride batteries but also from various used parts to achieve the further recycling of limited and precious resources.

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According to Renault-Nissan, 2012 global sales of all zero-emission vehicles across the Alliance were 43,829 units. This is up 83.8 percent from 2011 as Nissan Leaf sales increased worldwide and Renault launched two more EVs.

Moreover, the Alliance said its worldwide zero-emission market share stood at 64 percent, excluding the Twizy, which is Renault’s two-seater urban commuter.

Since sales began in December 2010 to the end of 2012, the Alliance sold a total 67,723 zero-emission vehicles globally.

In 2012, Nissan sold 26,976 units globally of the Nissan Leaf, an increase of 22 percent from 2011.

Cumulative sales of Nissan Leaf reached 49,117 units since its launch in December 2010.

In 2012, Renault sold 16,853 zero-emission vehicles. Since the debut of the Kangoo Z.E. small van in October 2011, Renault has sold a total of 18,606 zero-emission vehicles.

In addition to the Kangoo Z.E. and the Twizy, Renault also sells the Fluence Z.E., an all-electric sedan, based on the conventional Fluence sedan, and the subcompact zero-emission ZOE.

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The article was spurred by comments done by industry insiders and by the 2012 hard sales data released during January.

The authors are wondering – given that automotive executives across the world are seriously considering hydrogen-powered vehicles – whether this indirectly points to an abandonment of electric cars.

Not helping the cause of the electric car is the lack of interest shown sales-wise by the general public toward this technology.

The recent move by Nissan-Renault’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, towards hybrid-electric vehicles does reinforce some minds towards the conception that pure electric vehicles may not be ready for prime time. Ghosn was, up until his December shift towards hybrids, a fierce defender of the pure electric vehicle.

Not helping the cause, the father of the Prius, Toyota’s Vice Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, has said numerous times that he believes fuel-cell vehicles hold far more promise than battery electric cars.

Commenting on the sales of the Nissan Leaf, Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan executive vice president and head of research and development said that “when new technologies are launched, sales do not grow as quickly as everyone expects. But with EV technologies continuously improving and with prices falling, there is a possibility that sales could explode.”

While everyone is on the lookout for when said sales could explode, both Toyota and Nissan have forged alliances to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars; Toyota has done so with BMW; and last week Nissan announced a deal with Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co.

Reuters ended its article by quoting Yamashita on electric vehicles: “We don’t regret it yet. We might in a few years. No, we probably won’t.”

Curiously, what the article does not mention or quote is representatives from other manufacturers, like General Motors, who are launching electric vehicles in the near future.

Reuters’ full article can be found here.

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Most noteworthy perhaps, is from 2011 to 2012 a 64-percent spike in U.S. consumer sales of hybrids took place with sales, according to Ward’s data, of 427,605 units last year compared to 261,507 in 2011. (Actually, the HybridCars.com Dashboard according to numbers supplied by AutoData and Baum & Associates says 268,807 in calendar year 2011 and 434,498 in 2012, but we digress …)

However you slice it, the alternative-tech market has been slowly advancing upwards for some time – and with these vehicles now at around 3.3-percent share of the total U.S. market as Wards counts it, this means it still has a long way to go, but the pace of progress is picking up. Wards noted for the decade of 1999-2009, alternative-fueled vehicles as a segment grew to 2.8 percent, then spiked to the 3.3 they are at now.

As a segment furthermore, Wards observes hybrids sold better than “all but a handful” of vehicle segments and this includes three SUV categories, small cross/utility vehicles and midsize luxury cars.

At this point, it seems like every global manufacturer is jumping into the hybrid and alternative energy pool, and this includes Europeans and Americans not to mention he Japanese and Koreans making alternative vehicles in all categories.

Some are mildly sprinkling in electrified or otherwise advanced-tech offerings to whittle down their average fleet economy numbers, others are showing they are more committed, and others, like Toyota and Infiniti, are aiming to have a hybrid variant of every model offered.

Terms like “fun to drive” and “high performance” are also being used to describe some alternative-fueled vehicles whose primary mission remains saving fuel and reducing emissions.

Given that electric motors can do for a gas or diesel engine what a turbo or supercharger can do – add speed – this is not so surprising. In the all-electric category, while most of the yet-few EVs are still just so-so speed-wise, Tesla is pushing the bounds, and has just set a record for production EVs in the quarter mile.

Beyond powertrain engineering, the chassis engineers and designers are also adding to the total package so mid-grade alternative-tech vehicles are offering far more satisfying driver experiences. Cars like the Camry Hybrid, or VW Jetta Hybrid demand no compromises in driver expectations just so they can be green.

And beyond hybrids, also adding to the growing alternative category are diesels. While the U.S. is far behind Europe in adopting them, they are coming along, which Autoblog also observed countering some of Ward’s analysis.

Autoblog noted of Ward’s observation of 2.8 to 3.3 percent growth of “alternative fuel” vehicles that within this count were over 100,000 diesels sold by Audi and Volkswagen, and over 11,000 all-electric car sales.

This may be so, but we’re not quite so sure we can agree with Autoblog when it says “All of that means that true hybrid market share was less than three percent for 2012 – and closer to the 2009 levels – despite having a much improved total volume in a much improved car market.”

Not to quibble, but we’ll just read the numbers from our our monthly Dashboard. It clearly says hybrids in calendar year 2012 accounted for 3.01 percent of all North American auto sales.

Again, this is a small market, and splitting hairs is not the aim here. The real take-away message is that consumer choice combined with broader selection by automakers, pushed also by looming government-imposed efficiency mandates is broadening the alternative energy transportation market.

We expect to see more growth, probably at a faster rate in coming years.

True, the respective “alternative” segments yet represent a small minority. But they’ve paid a lot of dues, having been critically panned in cases as boring, frumpy, slow, quirky, and fraught with compromise. Many hybrids and alternative vehicles yet eek out miniscule numbers month after month, with the lion’s share of the sales volume being taken by other more standout performers.

While criticisms have had some merit, and as Autoblog observes, the market is “still struggling” in a sense, that picture is changing, and alternative energy transportation is advancing.

It’s been a long enough wind-up period, but the underlying reasons remain as to why development of these alternative technologies were first embarked upon, including concerns over waning petroleum supplies, rising fuel prices, potential geopolitical instability, need for energy security, desire for reduction of greenhouse gases, and more.

So, despite the inertia still relegating alternative-tech to fringe status, and with more challenges yet to overcome, they appear to be on the rise with no slowing of the pace in sight.

Wards Auto, Autoblog

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In a recent opinion piece for Forbes, former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says yes, things are slow, but he’s not surprised.

Often good for colorful commentary, Lutz’s write-up published last week cited corporate and governmental expressions of “breathless hype surrounding the imminent triumph of electric vehicles.” These, said Lutz who’s been called the father of the Volt, were soon extinguished by “the facts of low fuel prices, abundant oil supply, high EV prices.” And following in the wake of the wake up call, Lutz says, is an injured reserve list of EV market players including A123 Systems, with Fisker and Coda in “dire straights,” not to mention others that have fallen or may yet.

What gives? Are the critics right? Is electrification an idea whose time has not come? Are wheels of “hyped” progress coming to a halt?

No, says Lutz. Instead, he essentially says, irrational exuberance and intoxication over the thought of the pending dawn of a new EV day is giving way to reality of a distant – but just as real – horizon.

“The electric vehicle market is moving exactly as I have consistently predicted,” said the purveyor of extended-range GM light duty VIA Motors trucks. “I have always maintained that pure EVs will have a limited future until there are cars selling for $30,000 with a reliable 300-mile range. Extended-range EVs (E-REVs), like the Chevrolet Volt, overcome the range problem, but at a steep price premium.”

Lutz says the only segment that will see fast adoption of extended-range EVs is the type he happens to be a paid consultant to promote for VIA Motors. These would range-extended full-size pickups, sports utilities and SUVs like VIA is slated to continue showcasing this month, “because their gasoline counterparts use so much fuel that the owner of an E-REV version will actually save money almost from day one,” he says.

So while these light-duty trucks aimed primarily at fleets may cost upwards of $70,000, they get up to 100 MPGe, and stand to see faster adoption than passenger vehicles, Lutz says. Whether this proves to be the case, it is at least a fact that saving substantial fuel in a gas guzzler nets a larger dollar savings than for a higher efficiency car.

Other Lutz predictions are that by 2020, E-REVs and strong hybrids might be selling at about 1.5 million units annually, with a 10-percent market share in the U.S.

And “ultimately, of course” the EV will supplant all petrol power and cars that run on dino juice will go the way of the dinosaur.

The problem now is the public is like a kid saying, “when are we going to get there?!”

Or, as Lutz phrases it, “Trouble is, nobody quite seems to hear ‘ultimately,’ or can’t or won’t understand it.”

Lutz says the harsh reality has tempered the hypesters and Pollyanna dreamers and he describes an “EV bubble” that’s a lot like the dot-com bubble.

But the good news is nothing is wrong, and his first vision remains untarnished. EVs will happen, Lutz says, and everyone has to just be patient if that’s possible given “we never seem to learn.”

As for the bubble bursting only to be replaced by slow progress for the next decade or two or more, we’d just as soon peer into a crystal ball and prophesy that one as we’d discern the glint of a transient bubble.

Anything could happen including Mr. Lutz could be presciently correct. And for all we know he has fair odds that he will be. After all, as he points out, he has been right since the beginning.

Forbes

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