Death of the Electric Car | Hybrid Vehicle

Bloom Box

2010-02-22T17:15:00.001-08:00

Fuel-Cell Powered 'Bloom box'

The 'Bloom box' from Bloom Energy promises to provide clean energy for offices, as well as homes.

K.R. Sridhar has an energy plan anyone could get behind - electricity in a box.

That's the promise of the "Bloom box," the fuel-cell-powered invention coming from the Silicon Valley, start up, Bloom Energy.

"In five to ten years, we would like to be in every home," Sridhar told Leslie Stahl on "60 Minutes" Sunday night.

The "box" generates its power wirelessly through a combination of oxygen and a fossil fuel - natural gas, bio-gas, etc. It is presently being tested by companies such as Google, WalMart, FedEx and eBay, who have shelled out hundreds of thousands for the "green" machines, the CBS News program reported.

Smaller versions could be used to power individual homes, and would be environmentally friendly.
Sridhar initially developed the idea while working with NASA, as a means of producing oxygen for astronauts landing on Mars. However, when that mission was scrapped, he altered the device to produce energy instead.

"It sounds awfully dazzling," Stahl told the Indian-born scientist.

"It is real," he said. "It works."

Not everyone is buying into Bloom Energy's boasts for its product, which it plans to unveil to the world in less than two days, according to its presently-sparse www.bloomenergy.com Web site.

"I'm hopeful, but I'm skeptical," Michael Kanellos, editor-in-chief of GreenTech Media, told "60 Minutes." "People have tried fuel cells since the 1830s."

Bloom's efforts have been touted by the likes of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Vice President Al Gore. It also received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from John Doerr's capital firm, Kleiner Perkins. The firm developed Netscape, Amazon and Google, but also backed the less-impressive Segway personal two-wheeled transportation vehicle.

"That's my job," Doerr said on "60 Minutes." "To find entrepreneurs who are going to change the world and then help them."

Cash Cow

2010-02-20T17:34:00.001-08:00

US project seeks to make the family car a cash cow

AFP/Karras Photography-HO – US researchers unveiled this converted Toyota Scion xB, seen here at the annual meeting of the American …

by Karin Zeitvogel – Fri Feb 19, 9:15 am ET

SAN DIEGO, California (AFP) – US researchers unveiled a vehicle Thursday that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs.

The converted Toyota Scion xB, shown at the annual meeting of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science here, is the firstelectric car to be linked to a power grid and serve as a cash cow.

"This is the first vehicle that's ever been paid to participate in the grid -- the first proof of concept vehicle," Ken Huber, who overseestechnological development at wholesale electricity coordinator PJM Interconnection, told AFP.

The presentation of the box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers' way of introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept as it begins to gain momentum in the United States and around the world.

V2G projects with hybrid cars that use electricity and gas to store energy in their batteries and feed it back into the power grid are up and running in the United States, and the drive now is to produce all electric vehicles to plug into the power grid.

"This makes the car useful not only when it's being driven, but also when it's parked, as long as you remember to plug it in," said Willett Kempton, who is leading a V2G project at the University of Delaware.

A V2G car is connected via an Internet-over-powerline connection that sends a signal from inside the car's computer to an aggregator's server.

The aggregator acts as the middleman between the car owner and power grid management companies, which are constantly trying to keep electricity output at a constant level.

When the grid needs more power due to a surge in demand, power companies usually draw from traditional power plants, which in the United States are often coal-fired and leave a large carbon footprint.

When V2G becomes more widespread, the power could be drawn from millions of vehicles plugged into sockets in home garages or from commercial fleets, such as the US Postal Service's vans, for a much smaller footprint than that of the power plants.

Grid management companies like PJM Interconnection currently pay around 30 dollars an hour when taking power from a car.

V2G is still a new concept, but it is gaining ground in the United States and Europe.

"Ten years ago, this was just a plan. Today, it's a real project and in 10 years, we'll be producing tens of megawatts of power this way," said Kempton, adding that V2G will readily find applications in countries that are rapidly ramping up reliance on wind and solar energy, such as Denmark and Britain.

Huber said he will be meeting in the coming weeks in Paris with heads of European grid management companies about V2G.

"We're going to try to determine how we can work together on this. It's a technology that is very good at meeting a need we have, and there's growing interest among auto companies to develop V2G vehicles," he added.

AC Propulsion of California has designed an electric drive system for V2G, and car manufacturers including Renault/Nissan, Mitsubishi and BMW are producing all-electric vehicles with an eye on the V2G market.

Wheat Straw

2010-02-09T09:30:00.001-08:00

Reducing Petroleum Use by Using Wheat

November 12, 2009

Small changes can make huge difference. Consider a plastic storage bin. By using wheat straw-reinforced plastic rather than 100-percent traditional petroleum products, it is estimated that petroleum use will be reduced by approximately 20,000 and CO2 emissions will be reduced by approximately 30,000 pounds per year.

The first application of the natural fiber-based plastic that contains 20-percent wheat straw bio-filler is on the 2010 Ford Flex's third-row interior storage bins. Ford is already considering using the environmentally-friendly technology in the construction of center-console bins and trays, interior air registers, door trim panel components and armrest liners.

Ford's sustainable materials portfolio also includes soy-based polyurethane seat cushions, seatbacks and headliners; post-industrial recycled yarns for seat fabrics; and post-consumer recycled resins for underbody systems, such as the new engine cam cover on the 2010 Ford "Ford continues to explore and open doors for greener materials that positively impact the environment and work well for customers," said Patrick Berryman, a Ford engineering manager who develops interior trim. "We seized the opportunity to add wheat straw-reinforced plastic as our next sustainable material on the production line, and the storage bin for the Flex was the ideal first application."

Collaborative effort

Ford researchers were approached with the wheat straw-based plastics formulation by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, as part of the Ontario BioCar Initiative – a multi-university effort between Waterloo, the University of Guelph, University of Toronto and University of Windsor. Ford works closely with the Ontario government-funded project, which is seeking to advance the use of more plant-based materials in the auto and agricultural industries.

The University of Waterloo already had been working with plastics supplier A. Schulman of Akron, Ohio, to perfect the lab formula for use in auto parts, ensuring the material is not only odorless, but also meets industry standards for thermal expansion and degradation, rigidity, moisture absorption and fogging. Less than 18 months after the initial presentation was made to Ford's Biomaterials Group, the wheat straw-reinforced plastic was refined and approved for Flex, which is produced at Ford's Oakville (Ontario) Assembly Complex.

The wheat straw-reinforced resin is the BioCar Initiative's first production-ready application. It demonstrates better dimensional integrity than a non-reinforced plastic and weighs up to 10 percent less than a plastic reinforced with talc or glass.

"Without Ford's driving force and contribution, we would have never been able to move from academia to industry in such lightning speed," said Leonardo Simon, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo. "Seeing this go into production on the Ford Flex is a major accomplishment for the University of Waterloo and the BioCar Initiative."

An interior storage bin may seem like a small start, but it opens the door for more applications, said Dr. Ellen Lee, technical expert, Ford's Plastics Research.

"We see a great deal of potential for other applications since wheat straw has good mechanical properties, can meet our performance and durability specifications, and can further reduce our carbon footprint – all without compromise to the customer."

Abundant waste material put to good use

The case for using wheat straw to reinforce plastics in higher-volume, higher-content applications is strong across many industries. In Ontario alone, where Flex is built, more than 28,000 farmers grow wheat, along with corn and soybeans. Typically, wheat straw, the byproduct of growing and processing wheat, is discarded. Ontario, for example, has some 30 million metric tons of available wheat straw waste at any given time.

"Wheat is everywhere and the straw is in excess," said Lee. "We have found a practical automotive usage for a renewable resource that helps reduce our dependence on petroleum, uses less energy to manufacture, and reduces our carbon footprint. More importantly, it doesn't jeopardize an essential food source."

To date, Ford and its suppliers are working with four southern Ontario farmers for the wheat straw needed to mold the Flex's two interior storage bins.

History in the making

Ford's interest in wheat dates back to the 1920s, when company founder Henry Ford developed a product called Fordite – a mixture of wheat straw, rubber, sulphur, silica and other ingredients – that was used to make steering wheels for Ford cars and trucks. Much of the straw used to produce Fordite came from Henry Ford's Dearborn-area farm.

The company's new-age application for wheat straw joins other bio-based, reclaimed and recycled materials that are in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles today, including:

Soy-based polyurethane foams on the seat cushions and seatbacks, now in production on the Ford Mustang, Expedition, F-150, Focus, Escape, Escape Hybrid, Mercury Mariner and Lincoln Navigator and Lincoln MKS. More than 1.5 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles on the road today have soy-foam seats, which equates to a reduction in petroleum oil usage of approximately 1.5 million pounds. This year, Ford has expanded its soy-foam portfolio to include the industry's first application of a soy-foam headliner on the 2010 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner for a 25 percent weight savings over a traditional glass-mat headliner.

Underbody systems, such as aerodynamic shields, splash shields and radiator air deflector shields, made from post-consumer recycled resins such as detergent bottles, tires and battery casings, diverting between 25 and 30 million pounds of plastic from landfills. The newest addition is the engine cam cover on the 3.0-liter V-6 2010 Ford Escape.

100 percent post-industrial recycled yarns in seat fabrics on vehicles such as the Ford Escape. The 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids feature 85 percent post-industrial yarns and 15 percent solution-dyed yarns. The 100 percent usage represents a 64 percent reduction in energy consumption and a 60 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.

Repurposed nylon carpeting made into nylon resin and molded into cylinder head covers for Ford's 3.0L Duratec engine. The industry's first eco-friendly cylinder head cover is currently found in the 2010 Ford Fusion and Escape vehicles.

About the Ontario Bio-Car Initiative

The Ontario Bio-Car Initiative represents a partnership between the automotive industry and the public sector, aimed at accelerating the use of biomass in automotive materials.

Electric Cars Charging Ahead

2010-02-06T10:10:00.001-08:00

For further proof that electric cars are charging ahead, take the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

For the past three years, e-cars have been relegated to the cellar of downtown Detroit's sprawling Cobo Center convention hall, where few of the more than 650,000 visitors to North America's largest auto showcase ever go.

But this year, these emerging vehicles get main-floor real estate. They get to preen in a 37,000-square-foot Electric Avenue. Sponsored by Dow Chemical, this is a first for the huge show, which opened for press events Monday and runs through Jan. 24.

Electric Avenue houses 20 electric-car makers ranging from Chevrolet, with its Volt, and Mitsubishi, with its MiEV (Innovative Electric Vehicle), to a collection of small outfits that for now are operating on batteries, a wing and a prayer.

"The Tango is the only car here that can really change the world," said Rick Woodbury, president of Spokane, Wash.-based, Tango Commuter Cars. The Tango is a 39-inch-wide two-seater that Woodbury says can go 135 mph and is narrow enough to share a lane with a motorcycle or another Tango, if that were legal. (In most of the U.S., it is not.)

Woodbury's company has built just a few Tangos, one of which he sold for $150,000 to actor George Clooney.

Woodbury bought the car back from Clooney after Clooney purchased a sporty Tesla electric car. The Tango's second seat is behind, not beside, the driver's seat. "Clooney's girlfriend wouldn't ride there," Woodbury said.

Like many entrepreneurs in the e-car field, Woodbury pines for investors. If he could latch onto, say, $150 million, he says he could build the cars for $29,000 in volume -- and business would get in gear.

"Investors," he lamented, "just don't understand."

Next door on Electric Avenue is the Triac, a three-wheeler built by Green Vehicles Inc.

Company President Mike Ryan says the Triac, which can seat four, is really a motorcycle and can be licensed as such. It sells for $25,000 before U.S. government energy rebates of up to $7,500. It can go 80 mph and has a 100-mile range. It has a warning system when you're running low. To recharge e-cars, you simply plug them into an electric outlet. But a recharge can take hours.

With a Triac "you aren't going to be a speed demon, but you won't hold up traffic," Ryan said.

He says his company has sold 40 of the vehicles. Ryan hopes to expand into full-scale manufacturing by October.

CT&T United focuses on making commercial e-vehicles such as delivery trucks, police cars and even a line of food trucks, which it calls City Cafeteria. The City Cafeteria comes complete with an awning, refrigeration and a grill, and costs $20,000, says Joseph White, chief operating officer of the Korean-based company.

Basic CTC vehicles start at about $7,000, before rebates, with larger and more feature-laden vehicles averaging $13,000. They can reach 35 mph and can go up to 80 miles on a single charge of their lithium polymer batteries.

CT&T, which was started in 2002, has manufacturing facilities in South Korea and China. Starting this year, the company plans to build components in Korea and ship them to assembly plants it plans to establish in Atlanta and California. White says CT&T hopes to employ 2,600 people in the U.S. within five years.

Over on the north end of Electric Avenue, David Patterson, Mitsubishi North America's chief engineer for advanced technology, sounds confident when he talks about the MiEV. It's been available for about a month, but for now only in Japan. Mitsubishi says it has sold 1,400 already.

In Japan, the cars sell for $45,000, but Patterson says buyers can get $20,000 worth of incentives, bringing their cost down to $25,000.

While most of the big automakers have some presence on Electric Avenue, Mitsubishi is by far the biggest of the big companies looking to make a splash at the auto show's new feature.

And at 1,400 sales, it's already the block's big seller. Mitsubishi plans to start selling its MiEV in the U.S. in 2011. Unlike most of the cars on Electric Avenue, MiEV looks like a conventional gas-powered vehicle.

"The only way electric vehicles are going to be successful is by being ordinary vehicles," Patterson said.

Mitsubishi has concentrated on making the cars familiar before they hit the market. It has leased a small fleet of them to Best Buy to transport its Geek Squad. Similar deals are on deck, Patterson says.

In Japan, Lawson, that nation's second-largest chain of convenience stores, has added MiEV charging stations to all its outlets. The company is looking for U.S. recharging station partners.

The MiEV runs on lithium ion batteries. It has a 75-mile range and can go 85 mph on a charge.

Patterson says the company hasn't determined prices for the U.S. market. Whatever the price, he says the U.S. market will get a proven vehicle. "What we bring to the party is experience," he said.

Lithium-ion

2010-02-06T09:58:00.001-08:00

Is lithium-ion the ideal battery?

For many years, nickel-cadmium had been the only suitable battery for portable equipment from wireless communications to mobile computing. Nickel-metal-hydride and lithium-ion emerged in the early 1990s, fighting nose-to-nose to gain customer's acceptance. Today, lithium-ion is the fastest growing and most promising battery chemistry.

The lithium-ion battery

Pioneer work with the lithium battery began in 1912 under G.N. Lewis but it was not until the early 1970s when the first non-rechargeable lithium batteries became commercially available. Lithium is the lightest of all metals, has the greatest electrochemical potential and provides the largest energy density for weight.

Attempts to develop rechargeable lithium batteries failed due to safety problems. Because of the inherent instability of lithium metal, especially during charging, research shifted to a non-metallic lithium battery using lithium ions. Although slightly lower in energy density than lithium metal, lithium-ion is safe, provided certain precautions are met when charging and discharging. In 1991, the Sony Corporation commercialized the first lithium-ion battery. Other manufacturers followed suit.

The energy density of lithium-ion is typically twice that of the standard nickel-cadmium. There is potential for higher energy densities. The load characteristics are reasonably good and behave similarly to nickel-cadmium in terms of discharge. The high cell voltage of 3.6 volts allows battery pack designs with only one cell. Most of today's mobile phones run on a single cell. A nickel-based pack would require three 1.2-volt cells connected in series.

Lithium-ion is a low maintenance battery, an advantage that most other chemistries cannot claim. There is no memory and no scheduled cycling is required to prolong the battery's life. In addition, the self-discharge is less than half compared to nickel-cadmium, making lithium-ion well suited for modern fuel gauge applications. Lithium-ion cells cause little harm when disposed.

Despite its overall advantages, lithium-ion has its drawbacks. It is fragile and requires a protection circuit to maintain safe operation. Built into each pack, the protection circuit limits the peak voltage of each cell during charge and prevents the cell voltage from dropping too low on discharge. In addition, the cell temperature is monitored to prevent temperature extremes. The maximum charge and discharge current on most packs are is limited to between 1C and 2C. With these precautions in place, the possibility of metallic lithium plating occurring due to overcharge is virtually eliminated.

Aging is a concern with most lithium-ion batteries and many manufacturers remain silent about this issue. Some capacity deterioration is noticeable after one year, whether the battery is in use or not. The battery frequently fails after two or three years. It should be noted that other chemistries also have age-related degenerative effects. This is especially true for nickel-metal-hydride if exposed to high ambient temperatures. At the same time, lithium-ion packs are known to have served for five years in some applications.

Manufacturers are constantly improving lithium-ion. New and enhanced chemical combinations are introduced every six months or so. With such rapid progress, it is difficult to assess how well the revised battery will age.

Storage in a cool place slows the aging process of lithium-ion (and other chemistries). Manufacturers recommend storage temperatures of 15°C (59°F). In addition, the battery should be partially charged during storage. The manufacturer recommends a 40% charge.

The most economical lithium-ion battery in terms of cost-to-energy ratio is the cylindrical 18650 (18 is the diameter and 650 the length in mm). This cell is used for mobile computing and other applications that do not demand ultra-thin geometry. If a slim pack is required, the prismatic lithium-ion cell is the best choice. These cells come at a higher cost in terms of stored energy.

Advantages

High energy density - potential for yet higher capacities.
Does not need prolonged priming when new. One regular charge is all that's needed.
Relatively low self-discharge - self-discharge is less than half that of nickel-based batteries.
Low Maintenance - no periodic discharge is needed; there is no memory.
Specialty cells can provide very high current to applications such as power tools.

Limitations

Requires protection circuit to maintain voltage and current within safe limits.
Subject to aging, even if not in use - storage in a cool place at 40% charge reduces the aging effect.
Transportation restrictions - shipment of larger quantities may be subject to regulatory control. This restriction does not apply to personal carry-on batteries. (See last section)
Expensive to manufacture - about 40 percent higher in cost than nickel-cadmium.
Not fully mature - metals and chemicals are changing on a continuing basis.

The lithium Polymer battery

The lithium-polymer differentiates itself from conventional battery systems in the type of electrolyte used. The original design, dating back to the 1970s, uses a dry solid polymer electrolyte. This electrolyte resembles a plastic-like film that does not conduct electricity but allows ions exchange (electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms). The polymer electrolyte replaces the traditional porous separator, which is soaked with electrolyte.

The dry polymer design offers simplifications with respect to fabrication, ruggedness, safety and thin-profile geometry. With a cell thickness measuring as little as one millimeter (0.039 inches), equipment designers are left to their own imagination in terms of form, shape and size.

Unfortunately, the dry lithium-polymer suffers from poor conductivity. The internal resistance is too high and cannot deliver the current bursts needed to power modern communication devices and spin up the hard drives of mobile computing equipment. If you heating the cell, to 60°C (140°F) or higher it increases the conductivity. This is a requirement that is unsuitable for portable applications.

To compromise, some gelled electrolyte has been added. The commercial cells use a separator/ electrolyte membrane prepared from the same traditional porous polyethylene or polypropylene separator filled with a polymer, which gels upon filling with the liquid electrolyte. Thus the commercial lithium-ion polymer cells are very similar in chemistry and materials to their liquid electrolyte counter parts.

Lithium-ion-polymer has not caught on as quickly as some analysts had expected. Its superiority to other systems and low manufacturing costs has not been realized. No improvements in capacity gains are achieved - in fact, the capacity is slightly less than that of the standard lithium-ion battery. Lithium-ion-polymer finds its market niche in wafer-thin geometries, such as batteries for credit cards and other such applications.

Advantages

Very low profile - batteries resembling the profile of a credit card are feasible.
Flexible form factor - manufacturers are not bound by standard cell formats. With high volume, any reasonable size can be produced economically.
Lightweight - gelled electrolytes enable simplified packaging by eliminating the metal shell.
Improved safety - more resistant to overcharge; less chance for electrolyte leakage.

Limitations

Lower energy density and decreased cycle count compared to lithium-ion.
Expensive to manufacture.
No standard sizes. Most cells are produced for high volume consumer markets.
Higher cost-to-energy ratio than lithium-ion

Restrictions on lithium content for air travel

Air travelers ask the question, "How much lithium in a battery am I allowed to bring on board?" We differentiate between two battery types: Lithium metal and lithium-ion.
Most lithium metal batteries are non-rechargeable and are used in film cameras. Lithium-ion packs are rechargeable and power laptops, cellular phones and camcorders. Both battery types, including spare packs, are allowed as carry-on but cannot exceed the following lithium content:
- 2 grams for lithium metal or lithium alloy batteries
- 8 grams for lithium-ion batteries

Lithium-ion batteries exceeding 8 grams but no more than 25 grams may be carried in carry-on baggage if individually protected to prevent short circuits and are limited to two spare batteries per person.

How do I know the lithium content of a lithium-ion battery? From a theoretical perspective, there is no metallic lithium in a typical lithium-ion battery. There is, however, equivalent lithium content that must be considered. For a lithium-ion cell, this is calculated at 0.3 times the rated capacity (in ampere-hours).

Example: A 2Ah 18650 Li-ion cell has 0.6 grams of lithium content. On a typical 60 Wh laptop battery with 8 cells (4 in series and 2 in parallel), this adds up to 4.8g. To stay under the 8-gram UN limit, the largest battery you can bring is 96 Wh. This pack could include 2.2Ah cells in a 12 cells arrangement (4s3p). If the 2.4Ah cell were used instead, the pack would need to be limited to 9 cells (3s3p).

Restrictions on shipment of lithium-ion batteries

Anyone shipping lithium-ion batteries in bulk is responsible to meet transportation regulations. This applies to domestic and international shipments by land, sea and air.
Lithium-ion cells whose equivalent lithium content exceeds 1.5 grams or 8 grams per battery pack must be shipped as "Class 9 miscellaneous hazardous material." Cell capacity and the number of cells in a pack determine the lithium content.
Exception is given to packs that contain less than 8 grams of lithium content. If, however, a shipment contains more than 24 lithium cells or 12 lithium-ion battery packs, special markings and shipping documents will be required. Each package must be marked that it contains lithium batteries.
All lithium-ion batteries must be tested in accordance with specifications detailed in UN 3090 regardless of lithium content (UN manual of Tests and Criteria, Part III, subsection 38.3). This precaution safeguards against the shipment of flawed batteries.
Cells & batteries must be separated to prevent short-circuiting and packaged in strong boxes.

_________________________

Green Careers

2010-02-05T12:01:00.001-08:00

From solar panels to wind turbines...green careers are here.

By Lawrence Ross

Green jobs used to be a topic that only intrigued the Berkeley types eating granola bars.

Not anymore.

Today, economists trumpet the greening of the economy as a savior of American industry, as scientists and engineers are creating dynamic new ways to go green.

That all sounds well and good, but what exactly is a green job?

It has to pay decent wages and benefits that can support a family. It has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility, said Phil Angelides, chair of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of business, labor, and environmental groups championing green employment. "And it needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment."

Green jobs can range from installing solar panels and wind turbines, to hybrid car production and green facilities management, not to mention the greening of existing occupations.

Did you know that U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said that if the United States painted 63 percent of the roofs white, the energy savings would be like taking every car off the road for 10 years?

Residential and commercial construction is another big area that will see job growth.

The Center for American Progress estimates that if the country commits to retrofitting 40 percent of all commercial and residential buildings (approximately 50 million buildings) in ten years, 625,000 permanent jobs will be created.

Domestically, the green collar job movement is benefiting from the fact that the U.S. renewable energy industry was growing three times faster than the economy overall prior to the recession's onset at the end of 2007, according to a study for the Energy Department by Management Information Services Inc. (MISI) of Oakton, Va.

That kind of aggressive growth was echoed by a new study from the Pew Charitable Trust, which says the number of green jobs in the United States grew 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, about two-and-a-half times faster than job creation in the economy as a whole.

Here are some of the fastest growing green jobs:

Farmer

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, says there's a need for tens of millions of small farmers who use local, organic, and green methods, rather than the dangerous fertilizers and pesticides used by many corporate farms. And according to The New York Times, Jessica Durham, a partner with D&L Urban Farms, makes $35 per hour tending small urban farms for others.

Forester

With the move from cutting and culling forests to growing higher-value timber for medicine and fruit, forests are a major area for green jobs. The U.S. Forest Service recently received $1.15 billion from the federal government for jobs.

Solar Panel Installer

A study by the Apollo Alliance recommends an $89.9 billion investment in green buildings which would create 827,260 jobs - an initiative supported by the Obama stimulus package. According to The Wall Street Journal, a solar panel installer can make between $15 and $30 per hour.

Wind Turbine Fabricators

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry currently employs some 50,000 Americans and added another 10,000 new jobs in 2007. This is an area that Fast Company says is a great place for auto workers to repurpose their skills.

HVAC

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is a great source for green jobs, because for many businesses and governments, it's a field where retrofitting to more green, energy efficient units creates instant savings. An HVAC tech can expect to make about $38,360 per year, according to the Department of Energy.

The bottom line: Going green no longer is outside the mainstream. It is the mainstream. And with the right training, you'll find that saving the environment is a good way to make a living.

Evolution of Car Manufacturers

2010-01-31T13:17:00.001-08:00

Manufacturers Popularity and Decline

There were over 300 companies building electric cars at the turn of the 20th century. At that time the United States had over 30,000 electric cars on the road. The Electric Vehicle Association of America (EVAA) was founded by Boston Edison in 1909. Electric cars were clean and quiet, and did not require manual starting by physically cranking the motor by hand. The biggest demographic customer base for these cars was women. Even Henry Ford's wife drove an electric car.

In 1913 Cadillac invented the electric starter; this was a huge advance, truly a milestone in automotive technology for internal combustion cars. The internal combustion assembly lines of Henry Ford, active since 1908, caused a further decline in the use of electric cars. Ford's assembly line made cars inexpensive and it helped make them more uniform. Parts were not custom made for each vehicle, this made repairs and replacements easier and more economic. At the time, electrics were still popular for some non-road applications, such as service vehicles like carts and forklifts.

Infrastructure

With more cars of all types being produced the transportation infrastructure began to improve dramatically. We began building more paved roads. This also made internal combustion cars more desirable because of their greater range. Even Thomas Edison preferred gasoline to electric. As gasoline vehicles became more popular we began building more service and support for them. Garages and gas stations began to appear in more locations, making it easier to own and operate a gas vehicle.

Today's Hybrids and Electrics

Hybrid vehicles became popular at the turn of the 21st century. Fuel prices reached record levels, quickly going from two dollars to three dollars, and eventually to over four dollars per gallon. One of the first vehicles to reach critical success in the consumer marketplace was the hybrid Toyota Prius. This vehicle is affordable, efficient and advanced, its hybrid technology blurring the lines between the performance of electric and internal combustion vehicles. Hybrids' have two drive trains that work with each other to provide the work to drive the vehicle. Development of the Hybrid has produced new technology which combines the drive trains at a price people are willing to pay. A side benefit of their development has been to show that electric technology works effectively. Some Hybrid owners have done conversions allowing for their vehicles to be charged by directly plugging in, these are known as plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicles (PHEV).

The history of electric cars and trucks is filled with both facts and politics. Arguably, the best electric vehicles (EVs) are the one produced by the major auto manufacturers. The major manufacturers produced both "ground-up", or original EVs, and conversions of existing vehicles. Most of these vehicles are no longer in existence due to the auto makers' claims that there is not enough consumer demand. Economics have come into question at various times, as the major vehicle makers have a vested stake in their existing internal combustion engine (ICE) technology.

Smaller manufacturers have attempted to build electric cars and trucks with varying degrees of success. Some of the vehicles produced by these companies look similar to the internal combustion cars and trucks we drive, and others appear much more exotic. Size is important in order to maximize range, so some vehicles are extremely light, almost like bicycles. Others have been built with three wheels to qualify for motor vehicle licensing in the motorcycle category. Cars have been produced with direct drive motors, chain drive, belt drive, hub motors.

Several smaller "boutique", or specialty manufacturers still convert vehicles today. The degree of their quality and performance varies dramatically. Some companies offer parts that are kitted into standardized assemblies, others simply provide general instructions and ideas, often with a loose recipe of parts and where to find them.

Many hobbyists are drawn to conversions because of the design and creativity necessary to convert one existing design into another. Because of this freedom, many strange and unique features have come from individual projects. This experimentation has included charging trailers that are towed behind the with a gas generator (the first "hybrids"); regenerative braking that puts energy back into the battery pack by temporarily making the motor into a charger; even exploring with solar or motion generators attached to the EV.

The moderate or limited success of these early inventors has both helped and hurt the EV industry. The best outcome has been that they have proven the concept. EVs are possible, the technology is here and can be assembled by almost anyone. The negative side is that some of the early vehicles produced were unappealing to consumers. The main buyers of these concept cars were early adopters who were willing to try out new technology. Many people believe that a car or truck is not really viable unless it is made by a major car manufacturer.

Your project is the combination of a "major manufacturer" and a "boutique" shop. The S-10 was manufactured by General Motors, and the conversion kit was made by Electric Auto Shop. Putting them together into the electric drive truck will use another boutique shop, you and your school.

Today's Fuel Cell Vehicles

Using fuel cells in vehicles may be new technology, but fuel cells were introduced over 100 years ago. In this technology, fuel material is converted into electricity. The fuel material can be a stream of hydrogen gas. Like a lead acid battery, there is action between the cathode and anode which produces work to the wheels to drive the vehicle. One drawback is that the fuel cell vehicle is expensive and needs a lot of space for the fuel cell to complete its conversion process.

Tesla Motors

2010-01-29T17:19:00.001-08:00

Tesla Motors files for IPO, seeking $100 million

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- High-end electric-car company Tesla Motors filed for an initial public offering Friday, seeking $100 million in the public-financing arena as conventional auto makers are reeling from anemic sales and product recalls.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but did not indicate in the filing when those shares would be sold on the public markets, nor what the initial price would be. Company executives could not be immediately reached for comment.

If successful, the IPO could help usher in a new era for the auto industry, which is steadily moving toward cleaner-burning engines.

Toyota's recall debacle

Japanese auto-maker Toyota may have to recall 8 million vehicles world-wide over safety fears that some analysts blame on cost-cutting measures.

The IPO is expected to be one of the most high-profile offerings in some time, and is the first by a U.S. automaker since Ford Motor Co. (entered the public markets in 1956.)

Whether Tesla can take advantage and shift public tastes more toward zero-emission cars is unclear. But the timing of the IPO could prove to be shrewd.

"We believe incumbent automobile manufacturers are at a crossroads and face significant industry-wide challenges," Tesla said in its filing, adding that "the legacy investments made by incumbent automobile manufacturers in manufacturing and technology related to the internal combustion engine have to date inhibited rapid innovation in alternative-fuel powertrain technologies."

While Ford has been prospering of late, rivals General Motors and Chrysler have been suffering from downtrodden sales, and were taken over by the federal government last year. Meanwhile, top foreign producer Toyota Motor Corp. is having to recall millions of its automobiles around the globe due to a problem with sticking accelerator pedals.

The Tesla Model S.

Tesla first started selling its $100,000 all-electric sports car, the Roadster, in 2008 and followed that up last year with the Roadster 2. The company claims in its IPO filing that the car has a range of 236 miles on a single charge, and says it has sold 937 of the vehicles in 18 countries.

It is designing a sedan designed for family use, the Model S, which would run for $49,900 after a $7,500 federal tax credit, the company's IPO said. The sedan would have a range of 160 to 300 miles on a single charge. In addition, Tesla is negotiating with Daimler AG to provide its electric powertrain and battery technology for Daimler's Smart fortwo car. One thousand Tesla battery packs and chargers are being used in a trial with Smart fortwo cars in five European cities.

Tesla said it has taken out a $465 million long-term loan with the Energy Department under its advanced-vehicles manufacturing program to build a facility that will manufacture the Model S. The company added that it has been given up to $31 million under similar California state programs.

In the filing, Tesla indicated its revenue will decrease substantially before the Model S is rolled out -- expected to be sometime in 2012. That is because Tesla will cease selling its roadsters in 2011 and won't resume production on a new model until at least 2013.

Toyota Electric

2010-01-27T10:58:00.001-08:00

Toyota to Build All-Electric Car by 2012

Toyota promises to have a compact "Urban Commuter" car that runs entirely on electricity for sale by 2012. The automaker will also speed up the rollout of plug-in electric Prius models powered by lithium-ion batteries, and build a Lexus hybrid.

Toyota, the leader in hybrid car sales, plans to have a Battery Power compact car called the FT-EV on the market by 2012 – a lightweight four seat, model on its gasoline-powered IQ, that will have an all-electric range of 50 miles.

Toyota's move toward an all-electric car follows those by companies like Nissan, Mitsubishi, Think and several others aiming for the commuter market, where the shorter ranges of battery-powered vehicles are seen as less of a drawback.

As for its hybrid plans, Toyota said it will begin delivering Prius hybrids that can be plugged in to recharge their batteries in 2009, slightly earlier than a previously announced 2010 rollout date. About 500 of the plug-in hybrids will be used for market and engineering analysis by lease fleet customers.

Those plug-in Priuses will be powered by lithium-ion batteries built at a plant owned by Toyota and Panasonic EV Energy Co., the company announced. Current Prius models use nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Toyota showed off test models of the FT-EV and new versions of the hybrid third-generation Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this weekend. Startups Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, as well as financially troubled automaker Chrysler, are introducing all-electric sports cars at the show.

The push for more fuel-efficient vehicles comes amid a dire economic climate, with sales of new cars plummeting and American automakers General Motors and Chrysler tapping up to $17.4 billion in federal bailout funds to avoid bankruptcy.

General Motors plans to have its plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt on sale in 2010. Ford said it plans to be building an all-electric commercial van by 2010, an all-electric passenger car by 2011, and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2012.

The economic downturn and falling oil prices have hurt sales of hybrids along with broader auto sales. Toyota's hybrid car sales in the United States fell 53 percent in November from a year ago, and the company expects to post its first operating loss in 70 years for the fiscal year ending in March.

But Toyota's push toward electric and plug-in hybrid cars is part of the company's recognition that, despite currently falling oil and gasoline prices, "the inevitability of peak oil," or the coming peak and decline of production from the world's oil fields, will force automakers to make more fuel-efficient cars. Other automakers have also reported steeply declining sales. The poor economic climate has led seven automakers to scale down or cut their presence at the auto show, including Nissan, Mitsubishi, Rolls-Royce and Land Rover.

Best Hybrid

2010-01-25T12:27:00.001-08:00

Test Drive: 2010 Ford Fusion is best gas-electric hybrid yet

OK, let's just get it out there: The 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid is the best gasoline-electric hybrid yet.
What makes it best is a top-drawer blend of an already very good midsize sedan with the industry's smoothest, best-integrated gas-electric power system. It's so well-done that you have to look to the $107,000 Lexus LS 600h hybrid to come close.

Fusion's $28,000 starting price is more or less in reach, the driving feel is good, and the interior has a premium look and feel.

There are three facets to consider in evaluating a gasoline-electric hybrid: the underlying vehicle itself, the hybrid system and the mileage.

Assuming the preproduction Fusion hybrid test car was representative — Ford says it was — the Fusion's scores in those three categories are good, great and adequate, but potentially, very good.

The Toyota Prius crowd will protest. Prius is lower-priced, has about the same room inside, has a handy hatchback configuration, gets better mileage — and most of those attributes could improve when the 2010 Prius goes on sale in a few months — so how could Fusion be the best hybrid?

Simple. Fusion drives better. A car is, after all, a driving machine. Brownie points for saving somewhat more fuel or offering a cargo-friendly hatchback, but driving feel is most important.

And there, Fusion is without equal among hybrids.

Here's a look:

•The car. A slick machine, regardless of power-plant. Smooth looks. Good manners. Adequate space. Comfortable accommodations. Above-average ambience.

Ford launched Fusion as a gasoline-only car in 2005 as a 2006 model.

It's getting a mid-cycle update for 2010, including a hybrid version for the first time, which will begin arriving at dealers mid-March.

The hood has a wide, demi-dome bulge, and the grille and rump are tweaked a bit.

The grille now looks as if it was done that way on purpose.

A commendable change: The turning circle is 2 feet narrower. No more back-and-forth getting into or out of a tight parking spot at the shopping mall. The change makes the car feel more nimble overall, not just when docking in a narrow slot.

•Hybrid system. The basic four-cylinder gasoline engine is a 2.5-liter, up from a 2.3-liter in previous Fusions. A little more oomph is the welcome result. The aural signature could be better — it comes down on the coarse side when spurred hard — but isn't a deal-breaker. The electric motor delivers more crank than you get from the gas engines in most small cars.

And the miracle is how Ford blends the two. There was no — none, nada, zip — vibration or shimmying in the test car when the gasoline kicked in to help the electric. No other hybrid — not even that $107,000 Lexus — can make that claim 100% of the time.

Fusion's main rivals, Camry and Nissan Altima hybrids, shake a lot when their gasoline engines join the party, Altima especially.

And no, it's not worth accepting the lack of refinement as a price for saving fuel. It'll make you bitter and crazy after a while, wincing in advance knowing that shudder is due any second.

One Ford trick: using the engine's electronic controls to halt the gasoline engine just at the point in the crankshaft rotation where a cylinder is ready to fire again.

There was a distant shudder when the Fusion's gasoline engine restarted after stopping at a red light, as all hybrids do to save fuel. But it was milder than in any other hybrid tested, so minor as to be inconsequential.

The other great thing about the Fusion hybrid is information delivery. You can pick how much hybrid-related data you want on the instrument panel. Regardless of how much you ask for, Fusion delivers it informatively, no scolding or overwhelming you, as other hybrids do.

Yes, there's the "atta way" pictograph of leaves growing into a wreath if you drive just so. But you can shut that off.

• Mileage. Mediocre for a hybrid in the test, but the mileage numbers were continuing to climb even as the test ended. And the car registered 40-plus miles per gallon in a couple of short trips that usually return crummy, not outstanding, mileage.

Best guess: Moderate, but not mileage-obsessed, drivers could get 35 mpg or so in suburban settings. Not the 41 government rating, but impressive for a 3,720-pound midsizer.

Fusion's city mileage rating is better than Camry's 33 mpg, but does it get more in real life? Probably depends more on the driver than the car.

Even if the Fusion gets lower real-world results, it's still much smoother and a whole lot nicer to drive.

More about the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid

What? Gasoline-electric hybrid version of midsize, four-door, front-drive Fusion that's been updated for 2010 model year. Ford's Mercury brand sells the nearly identical Milan.

When? Hybrid and gasoline versions begin arriving at dealers in March.

Where? Made at Hermosillo, Mexico.

Why? Pirate some sales from Toyota's Camry hybrid. And burnish Ford's "green" credentials.

How much? Starts at $27,995 ($3,295 more than most similar gas model). With all factory options: $32,435. Midlevel test car: $29,590 (no leather or navigation system). Gasoline model starts at $19,995.

How many? About 20,000 a year, including a few Milans; more if Mikey likes it.

How powerful? Modestly — punch not being the key issue in a hybrid: 2.5-liter gasoline engine rated 156 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, 136 pounds-feet of torque at 2,250 rpm. Electric motor: 106 hp at 6,500 rpm, 166 lbs.-ft. the moment it begins to turn (an appealing attribute of electric motors). Ford says net combined hp is 191, but declines (like most hybrid makers) to specify net combined torque.

Continuously variable automatic transmission blends power from the gas, electric powerplants.

How fancy? Lots standard, including expected bags, belts, stability and traction controls and power accessories, plus the unexpected: Free six-month satellite radio service (Sirius), 110-volt outlet, six-CD stereo (instead of the typical single setup), dual-zone climate control, auto on-off headlights, auto-dimming mirror, backup alarm. In other words, you actually could abide the base Fusion hybrid.

How big? On the small end of the midsize scale. Fractionally bigger outside than Toyota Camry hybrid, slightly smaller inside, but has a bigger trunk.

Fusion hybrid is 190.6 inches long, 72.2 in. wide, 56.9 in. tall on a 107.4-in. wheelbase.

Passenger space is listed as 99.8 cubic feet, trunk as 11.8 cu. ft. Weight listed as 3,720 lbs. Turning diameter is 37.5 ft.

How thirsty? Rated 41 miles per gallon in town, 36 on the highway, 39 in combined driving.

Test car trip computer showed 27.2 mpg (but was continuing to climb when test period ended) in 300 miles of suburban driving. Registered a remarkable 41.4 mpg in one 5.1-mile suburban trip, 44 mpg in a 3.1-mile hop, driven normally, no nursing.

Tank holds 17 gallons. Regular (87 octane) gasoline is specified.

Overall: Best hybrid.

Gas Electric Hybrid

2010-01-24T10:15:00.001-08:00

Fisker Preps Its Production Car

The Karma will cost $87,900, a little more than expected, but the gas-electric hybrid is coming next November, the company says.

Fisker Automotive says it will be ready to deliver cars to customers this coming November, and will show off its production models to the public this January.
The startup, which has designed an upscale series hybrid car called the Karma, plans to show off the production version of its car at the North American International Auto Show, which starts Jan. 11 in Detroit.

The production model largely resembles the prototype that Fisker showed off at the show last year and at subsequent events. The company, though, has begun to refine the details on the price and performance of its car. As with Tesla Motors, the big question is whether Fisker can market and mass produce what will essentially be an electric car for a price that will appeal to customers and let the company also make money. The automotive world is a harsh place. You have to go back to the 1910s and 1920s to find the last time that there were successful crops of startup automakers.

The Karma will be released at a base price of $87,900, which is nearly 10 percent higher than the $80,000 price estimate given by the company earlier. The four-door car will be powered by a lithium-ion battery from an unnamed vendor and the Q-Drive power-train initially conceived by Quantum Technologies, which has worked with General Motors on a number of projects. The car will be delivered in November, a refinement from the "fourth quarter" statements earlier.

The car is a series hybrid like the Chevy Volt, which has been delayed until 2010. This type of hybrid, the car drives on an electric motor powered by batteries. When the batteries are about to give out, the gas generator fires up, and charges the batteries. The gas engine can also propel the car. The Karma itself will drive 50 miles on electricity and then drive on a combination of gas and electric power. This gives the car an estimated mileage of 100 miles per gallon, according to the company.

The car can hit a top speed of 125 miles per hour and Fisker says it can go from zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds. It also has different driving modes-Stealth, Sport, HEV and Fuel Economy, giving drivers different degrees of fuel economy and power.

Fisker and Tesla in many ways have similar strategies. Both will enter the market with high-end cars and then try to trickle into the mainstream with sedans as the underlying technology in their vehicles becomes cheaper. (CORRECTION: Tesla has already produced and sold "nearly 100" cars according to a spokeswoman. Fisker won't start until November.) The main difference is the gas generator. Fisker makes hybrids. Tesla earlier had planned to make a series hybrid but now says it will make only all-electric cars. All-electrics can cost more than regular cars because of the inordinate expense of batteries.

On the other hand, the series hybrid concept hasn't been tried in mass production cars yet. Some, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and UC Davis Professor Andy Frank, claim that the concept is tougher to pull off than it sounds. Toyota's Prius and the other hybrids on the road are parallel hybrids. In these, the gas motor propels the car and doesn't exist to charge the battery.

As previously stated, the Karma will be assembled by Valmet Automotive, which also produces the Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman. The Yearly volume is anticipated to reach 15,000 cars per year.

A total of 40 retailers for the U.S. market will be established by October 2009. Fisker Automotive will announce 20 of its Retailers in January 2009. European pricing will be announced at the International Geneva Motor Show in March.

Hybrid Chevy Volt

2010-01-24T10:05:00.001-08:00

GM's Chevy Volt: A Work in Progress

Chevy Volt co-creator Jon Lauckner says that GM's first plug-in hybrid won't have swappable or leasable batteries, but he passes on saying how much it might cost.

Fresh out of bankruptcy, General Motors promises its plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, will go on sale in late 2010. What else does GM want to tell the world about it?
Jon Lauckner, Volt co-creator and GM's vice president of global program management, didn't offer too many hard answers to the dozens of questions he fielded in an online question and answer session Wednesday. But he did clarify some roads the Volt wasn't planning to travel down.

For example, GM doesn't plan to lease the Volt's batteries to customers. That's a business model being considered by some, including battery charging and swapping station, startup Better Place, since batteries can make up a significant portion of the cost of plug-in hybrid or pure electric vehicle.

Neither does GM intend to make the Volt's batteries easily removed and exchanged, Lauckner wrote. That means the Volt will not be a candidate for Better Place's switch-the-battery business model – not surprising, since Better Place is aiming more at serving all-electric vehicles.

The Volt's battery pack – being designed by GM with battery cells from a consortium headed by LG Chem. is expected to retain enough of a charge to deliver 40 miles of electric-powered range over 10 years and 150,000 miles of service, Lauckner wrote. GM will guarantee that performance and repair or replace batteries that don't meet it.

Afterwards, the battery packs should have enough energy storage capacity for stationary applications. The semi-depleted car batteries will find second homes storing energy at homes or businesses, or utility substations.

GM still isn't talking about a price for the Volt, and likely won't until three to six months before it will start production, Lauckner wrote.

The European version of the Volt, the Ampera, is still on track for a 2011 launch, but GM will also sell the regular Volt in Europe, Lauckner wrote. That was in response to a question about the future of Opel, GM's troubled European division.

And GM doesn't see much point in putting solar panels on the roof of the Volt, Lauckner wrote – unlike Toyota, which will offer buyers of the new Prius hybrid the option of rooftop solar panels made by Kyocera.

"The amount of solar energy you can get by covering the Volt's roof with solar cells is only enough to run a small fan motor," he wrote. "You aren't going to recharge the battery on solar power in a reasonable amount of time."

Toyota expects to start mass-producing a plug-in version of the Prius in 2012.

New Breed of Hybrid Cars

2010-01-23T22:01:00.001-08:00

About Hybrid Cars

The New Breed of Hybrid Cars - Hybrid SUV

Toyota Prius Hybrid

2010-01-23T11:16:00.001-08:00

For 2010, Toyota has brought out an all-new version of its Prius hybrid. Like the old Prius, the new Prius is designed to deliver maximum MPG with family-car practicality. But within those parameters, Toyota has made a lot of changes: Sleeker styling, redesigned cabin, and an improved hybrid drive train that gives the driver greater control over the Prius' behavior. The old Prius did the job as well as can be expected -- so has Toyota made any meaningful improvements? Read on. $23,510 base price, $31,430 as tested, EPA fuel economy estimates 51 MPG city/48 MPG highway.

First Glance: I love you just the way you are

When I heard that Toyota was redesigning the Prius for 2010, my first thought was "Why?" Few cars carry out their intended mission better than the Prius. I bet Toyota could build it as-is for ten years and sales would still remain strong. But that's not the way things go in the auto business, and so change it they have: The Prius is all-new for 2010, for better or for worse. And while there is definitely some better, there is also a fair bit of worse.

Let's start with the styling. There's really not a whole lot the stylists can do with the Prius; the old model was designed to cheat the wind rather than please the eye, which pretty much dictates the shape. (That's why Honda came up with a similar profile for their own four-door dedicated hybrid, the Insight.) As a result, the new Prius looks a lot like the old Prius, at least at first glance. Look closer and you'll see a more Toyotaes-que face up front, a more pronounced wedge profile from the side, and a racy little spoiler out back. I was indifferent to the new shape at first, but the more new Priuses I see on the road -- here in Los Angeles, the Prius is as common as tall mocha lattes and silicon boobs -- the more I like the new shape. It makes the old Prius look frumpy by comparison. Overall, I'd say the new shape goes in the For Better category.

In the Driver's Seat: What were they thinking?

The Prius' cabin definitely has some For Better changes: A roomier back seat and a bigger trunk. Unfortunately, that's about all of the For Better, and there's a whole lot of For Worse.
Example numero uno is the center councel that divides the front seats. This is one design choice that has me scratching my head. Buying a Prius is all about being a good citizen of the planet -- so why design an interior that isolates the driver in his or her own little pod? The center console provides a more conventional location for the shift lever, though why anyone would possibly care is beyond me. It's an automatic, for cryin' out loud! Aside from that, the console just gets in the way. There's a storage area underneath which pretty much useless; anything you put there is going to a) block the seat heater controls -- which, by the way, are so inconveniently located that I can't believe Toyota came up with them -- and b) fall out on turns.

Example numero dos is the new instrument layout. The old Prius had a simple center-mounted digital gauge cluster. If you wanted more geeky information, like how power was flowing through the hybrid system or what sort of fuel economy you were achieving in five-minute increments, it was available on the same LCD screen that served the climate, stereo and navigation systems. The 2010 Prius still has the LCD screen, but Toyota designed a new geek-o-meter into the dashboard next to the speedometer. Problem is, they used a cheap Red and Blue LDC display, which looks cheesy and decidedly low-tech.

On the Road: Better where it counts

In terms of the mechanicals, it's all For Better. Toyota designed the new Prius to provide more power and get better fuel economy. The engine size is up from 1.5 to 1.8 liters, and there are now three driver-select power train modes: Normal, Sport and Eco. In Normal mode, the Prius drive, well, normally -- just like an old-shape Prius. Sport mode -- an odd choice of names, since there's nothing sporty about the Prius -- changes the accelerator pedal response so you get more power with less movement of the pedal. It doesn't actually make the car faster, but it does provide quicker access to what power the Prius does have.

Eco mode tunes the accelerator response to help you get maximum MPG by accelerating from a stop more gingerly and responding slowly to sudden movements of the accelerator pedal, basically automating a method used by experienced hype-rmilers to get maximum MPG. Like the old Prius, the new Prius can run on pure battery power and low speeds, and there's now an EV button that forces electric-only mode, which is useful for moving the car from one parking spot to another, but not much else.

I spent most of my time in Eco mode, figuring that most Prius owners would do the same. It worked: I averaged 48.9 MPG, a significant improvement over the 45 or so I averaged in all the second-generation Priuses I tested. I also noticed that the new Prius grips the curves better than the old Prius, although it's fun-to-drive factor is still almost nil.

Journey's End: Should be a slam dunk, but...

The 2010 Prius has a couple of other cool gizmos, like a button on the key fob that lets you run the A/C remotely and a solar-powered ventilator fan that is supposed to keep the interior cool when the car is off (a neat idea, but it was no match for the hot Southern California sun).
But at the end of the day, the Prius is all about fuel economy, and the fact is that the 2010 Toyota Prius not only gets better gas mileage than the old Prius (as well as every other new car on the market), but it makes it easier to hit those stellar numbers. So it should be a slam dunk for the Prius... except it isn't.

Try as I might, I just can't get over the interior, with that intrusive center console and hideous dash display. I prefer the simplicity of the old Prius, even if that means getting 4 fewer miles per gallon (which, at 12,000 miles per year, only saves about 22 gallons).

Bottom line: For better or for worse, the Prius is still the best hybrid on the market. I just wish Toyota hadn't changed it quite so much.

Hybrid Electric & Fuel Cell Vehicles

2010-01-23T10:11:00.001-08:00

Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Both technologies come together in hybrid electric vehicles, also known as HEVs or hybrids. Present-day hybrids are equipped with ICEs and electric motors. A hybrid's ICE engine, as in any ICE-powered car, produces power through continuous, controlled explosions that push down pistons connected to a rotating crankshaft. That rotating force (torque) is ultimately transmitted to the vehicle's wheels.

A hybrid's electric motor is energized by a battery, which produces power through a chemical reaction. The battery is continuously recharged by a generator that—like the alternator of a conventional car—is driven by the ICE.

Hybrids can have a parallel design, a series design, or a combination of both:

In a parallel design, the energy conversion unit and electric propulsion system are connected directly to the vehicle's wheels. The primary engine is used for highway driving; the electric motor provides added power during hill climbs, acceleration, and other periods of high demand.
Series design, the primary engine is connected to a generator that produces electricity. The electricity charges the batteries, which drive an electric motor that powers the wheels. HEVs can also be built to use the series configuration at low speeds and the parallel configuration for highway driving and acceleration.

Hybrid passenger cars arrived in the United States in model year 2000, following their introduction in Japan a few years earlier. First came the two-seat Honda Insight, followed by the Toyota Prius in model year 2001. Honda then introduced a hybrid version of its Civic sedan, and Toyota offered a second-generation Prius. Ford plans to introduce its first hybrid, a version of the Escape sport utility vehicle, in model year 2005. Several other major automakers now either offer HEVs or plan to do so in the near future.

Hybrid systems have also proved effective in buses and heavy trucks. For example, Oshkosh Truck Corporation has demonstrated a diesel-electric system that may significantly improve the fuel economy and driving range of military vehicles. As a bonus, hybrids can be devised to generate alternating current electricity for other applications such as plug-in power tools. General Motors, through its Allison Transmission Division, produces a diesel-electric hybrid drivetrain for transit buses.

How Hybrid Electrics Work

2010-01-22T16:22:00.001-08:00

Hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) combine the benefits of gasoline engines and electric motors and can be configured to obtain different objectives, such as improved fuel economy, increased power, or additional auxiliary power for electronic devices and power tools.

OVERVIEW

Hybrid-electric vehicles combine the benefits of gasoline engines and electric motors to provide improved fuel economy.

The engine provides most of the vehicle's power, and the electric motor provides additional power when needed, such as for accelerating and passing. This allows a smaller, more-efficient engine to be used.

The electric power for the motor is generated from regenerative braking and from the gasoline engine, so hybrids don't have to be "plugged in" to an electrical outlet to recharge.

Some of the advanced technologies typically used by hybrids include:

Regenerative Braking.The electric motor applies resistance to the drivetrain causing the wheels to slow down. In return, the energy from the wheels turns the motor, which functions as a generator, converting energy normally wasted during coasting and braking into electricity, which is stored in a battery until needed by the electric motor.

Electric Motor Drive/Assist. The electric motor provides additional power to assist the engine in accelerating, passing, or hill climbing. This allows a smaller, more efficient engine to be used. In some vehicles, the motor alone provides power for low-speed driving conditions where internal combustion engines are least efficient.

Automatic Start/Shutoff. Automatically shuts off the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop and restarts it when the accelerator is pressed. This prevents wasted energy from idling.

Hybrid Electric Car Technology

2010-01-22T14:25:00.001-08:00

2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid Electric Car Technology Exposed

Yountville, Calif. The eagerly awaited details of the 2010 Toyota Pruis are slowly emerging. We already provided an overview of the car after it was revealed at the Detroit Auto Show. Last week, we were in Napa Valley, where Toyota released technical details what will make this vehicle hum (but not too loudly). –Larry Webster
The Engine

Mechanically, the biggest changes for the most popular hybrid electric on the market are in the engine room. The 1.5-liter gas engine is out in favor of a 1.8-liter unit. This larger engine still operates with the late-intake-valve-closing Atkinson cycle, and it produces more lower-end torque. This engine also operates at lower speeds, a fuel-saving move that offsets the larger displacement. There is an electrically operated water pump, which allowed engineers to remove the drive belt and the accompanying parasitic loss from the motor. As before, the crankshaft is offset in relation to the cylinders to reduce friction.

Engine coolant circulates to a heat exchanger that encircles the exhaust just downstream of the catalytic converter. This feature heats the engine up sooner, so it can be warmed up and turned off promptly. Also, it provides quick cabin heat. An aggressive exhaust-gas recirculation system employs cooled exhaust gas that's pumped into the cylinders. The inert gas replaces the intake charge, reducing exhaust-gas temperature and pumping losses.

The Transmission

The Hybrid Synergy drive system uses the same planetary Continuously Variable Transmission as before, but with a new twist. The main electric motor drive, called MG2, was downsized and produces less torque (153 lb-ft versus 295). But a reduction gear-set that connects it to the gearbox allows the MG2 to spin to 13,500 rpm, 7100 higher than before. Consequently, it makes 80 peak horsepower, 13 greater than before. The smaller, lighter MG2 and other refinements in the drive system yielded a 66-pound weight saving.

The Battery

A nickel-metal-hydride battery pack returns. It's been shrunk slightly, but a more effective cooling system allowed a peak output rise from 25 kilowatts to 27 (battery voltage remains at 201.6 volts). The inverter converter has been improved—it's slightly smaller—and provides up to 600 volts of AC current, a 100-volt jump. Toyota has also added a feature many Prius buyers have been waiting for—an electric-only button. Pressing this button on the dash prevents the gas engine from starting until the battery is depleted. Electric-only mileage, however, is slight—on average, a mile. For longer battery-powered runs, we'll have to wait for the rumored plug-in version; it should appear within two years.

Horsepower and Fuel Economy

The total maximum output of the engine and electric motor is 134 hp, 20 higher than before. That should drop the 0-to-60-mph sprint by about a second to 9.5 seconds. Despite the increased pace, the fuel economy has been improved, jumping from 48/45 city/highway to 50/49.

That fuel economy increase is all the more incredible considering that the new car weighs about 110 pounds more, a consequence of meeting tougher crash regulations. For sure, the car's aerodynamics play a role in increasing the on-road efficiency. Airflow around the Prius is carefully managed with flat underside panels, bumper-mounted air deflectors, and that gently sloping rear hatch. The drag coefficient has been reduced to only 0.25.

High-Tech Extras

Toyota left some of the most high-tech stuff outside of the mechanicals. Buyers can opt for the Lane Keep Assist system that detects when the car goes out of a lane and automatically nudges the steering wheel to stay on course. A pre-collision system works in conjunction with radar cruise control to avoid an impending collision by applying the brakes. An optional roof-mounted solar panel powers the fan and keeps a parked Prius cool, reducing the draw on the air conditioning. The new Prius can even Parallel Park itself with the Intelligent Parking Assist. There are also items we're not used to seeing in hybrids, such as leather, power and heated seats, voice-activated navigation and Bluetooth connectivity.

Prices have not yet been released, but expect the base Prius to start around $24,500. Fully loaded, we wouldn't be surprised to see the Prius clear 30 grand.

Electric Revolution

2010-01-22T13:32:00.001-08:00

Electric Car Revolution Will Soon Take to the Streets

For years, the promise and hype surrounding electric cars failed to materialize. But as this year's Detroit auto show demonstrated, major car companies and well-funded startups — fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries — are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.

Media gather around the new Tesla Model S all-electric sedan car, at the car's unveiling in Hawthorne, California on 26 March 2009. Musk said the state-of-the-art, five-seat sedan will be the world's first mass-produced, highway-capable electric car. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Electric cars are a green movement that is finally moving. Shunted to the side as the public indulged its love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel-drive trucks, history has finally caught up with the plug-in vehicle.

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is the domestic auto industry's biggest annual showcase, and the new models have traditionally been brought out in a son et lumière of dancing girls, deafening music, and dry ice smoke. The few green cars that made it this far were usually for display only — very few actually made it to showrooms.

But not this year. It's become a race to market for green cars, and soon you'll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. The auto show featured one hybrid and battery electric car introduction after another. Although the only truly road-worthy, plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City.

Indeed, the entire auto industry — from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive — has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles.

There's a reason the automakers in Detroit are finally plugging in as something more than a greenwashing exercise. Spurring them forward is a historic confluence of events. Chief among them are Obama administration green initiatives, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. (Much of that money is going to Michigan, which despite record unemployment is emerging as something of a green jobs center.)

Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries.

Even without federal largesse, some companies are moving aggressively into the electric vehicle market. A prime example: Coda Automotive, a southern California start-up, has raised an impressive $74 million in three rounds of private funding. CEO and President Kevin Czinger is a former Goldman Sachs executive, as is co-chairman Steven Heller. Among the company's investors are Henry M. Paulson, who was Goldman Sachs' chairman and Treasury Secretary under the second President Bush. Clearly, these former investment bankers see electric cars as a good bet.

A key factor in making today's electric vehicles possible is the rapid development of the energy-dense lithium-ion battery. William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chairman of the company that bears his name, told me in Detroit, "Five years ago, battery development had hit a wall, and we were pushing hydrogen hard. But now so much money and brainpower has been thrown at electrification that we're starting to see significant improvements in batteries in a way we hadn't anticipated. Now we have the confidence that the customer can have a good experience with batteries."

Drawing a huge crowd, Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk showed off his company's 1,000th electric Roadster at the auto show. "For a little company, it's a huge milestone," he told me. "A year ago, we had built only 150 cars. We had two stores then, and now it's a dozen."

For a major automaker, 1,000 cars would not be much to show for a year, but electric vehicles are still in their infancy. And since the electric car's first swan song in the 1920s — when the widespread availability of petroleum ushered in the era of the gasoline-powered car — very few start-up companies have reached the milestone of making green vehicles, especially battery-powered ones.

Here's a look at some of the prime contenders bringing battery cars and plug-in hybrids to market:

* Renault-Nissan Alliance. This is the one automaker with a truly global plug-in strategy and the means to carry it out. Under the Nissan banner, the company will deploy the Leaf battery sedan, with 100-mile, all-electric range. Nissan isn't just dumping its sleek entry into the market — it's also building a home charger with new partner AeroVironment and partnering with local, state and federal governments — both in the U.S. and abroad — on public charging stations. In partnership with Better Place, the company will deploy a second Renault electric vehicle as part of its plan to wire up Israel with charging stations for electric cars. Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn predicts that electric vehicles could constitute 10 percent of world car sales by 2020.

* Ford Motor Company. Ford's green strategy includes a plug-in version of the new Focus for 2011 and a "next-generation" hybrid — based on its global compact-car platform, or C-platform — in 2012. The company announced in Detroit that it would invest $450 million in Michigan as part of its electrification strategy. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm told me at the auto show that until recently the state "wasn't sure it had a viable auto industry." Today, she said, the state is enjoying $1 billion in new auto-related investment, much of it jump-started by a combination of federal funding and state tax credits.

* General Motors. GM's big news is the Chevrolet Volt, which has definitely helped the company's image. The Volt, which uses a small gas engine to generate electricity for its electric motor, is a lot of fun to drive if the version I drove recently in Michigan is any indication. Until now, GM has stumbled in its hybrid strategy, and it really needs this car — which will go on sale at the end of the year for a hefty $40,000 — to be a hit. But success may be more a matter of perception than actual sales. "In terms of numbers, the Volt will be pretty small for the first couple of years," says product chief Bob Lutz. A Cadillac version of the Volt is also a possibility.

* Tesla Motors. This California start-up launched at the top of the market with its $109,000 Roadster, which combines sexy looks with supercar performance (zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds). The company is on something of a roll, having sold 10 percent of itself to Daimler for $50 million, and landed $465 million in DOE funding for its forthcoming Model S sedan — a Maserati-like, more practical version of the Roadster. Tesla's Musk says that the company's strategy has always been to use its sale of performance cars to finance its third vehicle, a mass-market electric vehicle. The company is currently looking at California locations for a Model S factory.

* Fisker Automotive. Perhaps Tesla's closest competitor when it comes to glamour electric vehicles, Fisker – whose CEO is Danish-born automotive designer Henrik Fisker — is preparing to debut a high-performance plug-in hybrid (zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds, with 67 mpg fuel efficiency) known as the Karma at the end of the year. Al Gore is on the waiting list. Fisker also has a lower-cost car in the wings, called Project Nina. Fisker won $528 million from the DOE to build the Nina in a former GM factory in Delaware.

* Coda Automotive. This start-up will deliver, in late 2010, a small battery-powered sedan with batteries from its own joint venture in China. The car is based on the Saibao, a Chinese car, but Coda has put a host of western companies to work honing an electric drivetrain for it. "A large part of our mission is to accelerate adoption of all-electric vehicles," Coda CEO Kevin Czinger told me. "We have put together a core group of auto and battery engineers, and are leveraging specialty automotive firms that we think can get us to the right price point." Coda will launch with an Internet marketing strategy in California only, but it will have the capacity to produce 20,000 cars a year.

* Think Global. Think is a survivor, with perhaps the longest and most colorful history among green automakers. It is a Norwegian company that attracted Ford Motor Company investment in the late 1990s with its plastic-bodied City commuter car. Ford sold the company in 2003 and it went through bankruptcy proceedings in late 2008. It has since emerged under the partial ownership of U.S. battery company Ener1, which snagged $118 million in DOE funding to expand its battery production in Indiana. Think electric vehicles will also be built there starting in 2011, in hard-hit Elkhart — once proudly known as the "RV Capital of the World" — and now suffering the effects of the recession. The two-seat Think City (with approximately 100-mile range on lithium-ion batteries) will sell for less than $20,000 in the U.S., but that price does not include the leased battery pack and includes the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.

The list of players in the electric vehicle race goes on. Toyota is building plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles, and showed off a small cousin of the Prius in Detroit. Chrysler has an ambitious electric vehicle rollout that's been stalled by the company's bankruptcy and merger with Fiat. Honda continues to deploy clever hybrid cars, including the upcoming two-seat CR-Z it showed in Detroit. BMW has electrified the Mini for a test program, and has similar intentions for the Concept ActiveE, a plug-in version of the Series 1 BMW coupe. And Audi has shown sudden interest in this segment, debuting the second of its electric e-tron vehicles.

By this time next year, electric cars will no longer be just on auto show stands, but will have arrived in showrooms at last.

Air Power

2010-01-22T13:18:00.001-08:00

Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-MileRange

The CityCAT, already being developed in India , will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it's the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world's first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI's two-seater One CAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat Mini CAT (like a Smart For Two without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI's City CAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

We'll believe that when we drive it, but MDI's new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car's range and speed.

"I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we'll know soon more precisely from our engineers," ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, "but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or bio-fuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles."

Those figures would make the Air Car, along with Aptera's Typ-1 and Tesla's Roadster, a favorite among early entrants for the Automotive X Prize, for which MDI and ZPM have already signed up. But with the family-size, four-door City CAT undergoing standard safety tests in Europe, then side-impact tests once it arrives in the States, could it be the first 100-mpg, nonelectric car you can actually buy?

World's First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer
India's largest automaker is set to start producing the world's first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine's pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.

Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car's carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car's built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.

Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction. But that doesn't mean the major automakers can write it off as a bizarre Indian experiment — MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

Hydrogen Safety Part IV

2010-01-22T12:17:00.001-08:00

The Hindenburg

The fire that destroyed the Hindenburg in 1937 gave hydrogen a

misleading reputation. Hydrogen was used to keep the airship

buoyant and was initially blamed for the disaster. An investigation

by Addison Bain in the 1990s provided evidence that the airship's

fabric envelope was coated with reactive chemicals, similar to

solid rocket fuel, and was easily ignitable by an electrical

discharge. The Zeppelin Company, builder of the Hindenburg,

has since confirmed that the flammable, doped outer cover is to

be blamed for the fire.

Hydrogen Codes and Standards

Codes and standards help dictate safe building and installation

practices. Today, hydrogen components must follow strict guidelines

and undergo third party testing for safety and structural integrity.

Summary

Industry has developed new safety designs and equipment because

hydrogen's properties and behavior are different than the fuels we

use now. Hydrogen will make us re-think operating practices already

in place for gaseous and liquid fuels. Education of those differences

is the key enabler to making hydrogen a consumer-handled fuel

that we use safely and responsibly.

Hydrogen Safety Part III

2010-01-22T12:03:00.001-08:00

Explosion

An explosion cannot occur in a tank or any contained location that contains only hydrogen. An oxidizer, such as oxygen must be present in a concentration of at least 10% pure oxygen or 41% air. Hydrogen can be explosive at concentrations of 18.3-59% and although the range is wide, it is important to remember that gasoline can present a more dangerous potential than hydrogen since the potential for explosion occurs with gasoline at much lower concentrations, 1.1-3.3%.

Furthermore, there is very little likelihood that hydrogen will explode in open air, due to its tendency to rise quickly. This is the opposite of what we find for heavier gases such as propane or gasoline fumes, which hover near the ground, creating a greater danger for explosion.

Asphyxiation

With the exception of oxygen, any gas can cause asphyxiation. In most scenarios, hydrogen's buoyancy and diffusivity make hydrogen unlikely to be confined where asphyxiation might occur.

Toxicity/poison

Hydrogen is non-toxic and non-poisonous. It will not contaminate groundwater (it's a gas under normal atmospheric conditions), nor will a release of hydrogen contribute to atmospheric pollution Hydrogen does not create "fumes."

Cryogenic burns

Any cryogenic liquid (hydrogen becomes a liquid below -423°F) can cause severe freeze burns if the liquid comes into contact with the skin. However, to keep hydrogen ultra-cold today, liquid hydrogen containers are double walled, vacuum-jacketed, super insulated containers that are designed to vent hydrogen safely in gaseous form if a breach of either the outer or inner wall is detected. The robust construction and redundant safety features dramatically reduce the likelihood for human contact.

Hydrogen Safety Part II

2010-01-22T11:40:00.001-08:00

Hydrogen is odorless, colorless and tasteless, so most human senses won't help to detect a leak. For these and other reasons, industry often uses hydrogen sensors to help detect hydrogen leaks and has maintained a high safety record using them for decades. By comparison, natural gas is also odorless, colorless and tasteless, but industry adds a sulfur-containing odorant, called mercaptan, to make it detectable by people.

Currently, all known odorants contaminate fuel cells (a popular application for hydrogen) and create complications for food applications, like hydrogenating oils. However, given hydrogen's tendency to rise quickly, a leak would most likely rise above where any human nose might smell it, collecting briefly on the ceiling and then moving towards the corners. Today, researchers are investigating other methods that might be used for hydrogen detection like tracers and advanced sensors.

Hydrogen flames have low radiant heat.

Hydrogen combustion primarily produces heat and water. Due to the absence of carbon and the presence of heat absorbing water vapor created when hydrogen burns, a hydrogen fire has significantly less radiant heat compared to a hydrocarbon fire. Since the flame emits low levels of heat near the flame (the flame itself is just as hot), the risk of secondary fires is lower. This fact has a significant impact for the public and rescue workers.

Combustion

Like any flammable fuel, hydrogen can combust. But hydrogen's buoyancy, diffusivity and small molecular size make it difficult to containand create a combustible situation. In order for a hydrogen fire to occur, an adequate concentration of hydrogen, the presence of an ignition source and the right amount of oxidizer (like oxygen) must be present at the same time.

Hydrogen has a wide flammability range (4- 74% in air) and the energy required to ignite hydrogen (0.02mJ) can be very low. However, at low concentrations (below 10%) the energy required to ignite hydrogen is higher-- similar to the energy required to ignite natural gas and gasoline in their respective flammability ranges--making hydrogen realistically more difficult to ignite near the lower flammability limit. On the other hand, if conditions exist where the hydrogen concentration increases toward the stoichiometric(most easily ignited) mixture of 29% hydrogen (in air), the ignition energy drops to about one fifteenth of that required to ignite natural gas (or one tenth for gasoline).

Hydrogen Safety Part I

2010-01-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

Hydrogen: Similar but Different

For over 40 years, industry has used hydrogen in vast quantities as an industrial chemical and fuel for space exploration. During that time, industry has developed an infrastructure to produce, store, transport and utilize hydrogen safely. Hydrogen is no more or less dangerous than other flammable fuels, including gasoline and natural gas. In fact, some of hydrogen's differences actually provide safety benefits compared to gasoline or other fuels.

However, all flammable fuels must be handled responsibly. Like gasoline and natural gas, hydrogen is flammable and can behave dangerously under specific conditions. Hydrogen can be handled safely when guidelines are observed and the user has an understanding of its behavior.

The following lists some of the most notable differences between gaseous hydrogen and other common fuels:

Hydrogen is lighter than air and diffuses rapidly.

Hydrogen has a rapid diffusivity (3.8 times faster than natural gas), which means that when released, it dilutes quickly into a non-flammable concentration. Hydrogen rises 2 times faster than helium and 6 times faster than natural gas at a speed of almost 45 mph (20m/s). Therefore, unless a roof, a poorly ventilated room or some other structure contains the rising gas, the laws of physics prevent hydrogen from lingering near a leak (or near
people using hydrogen-fueled equipment). As the lightest element in the universe, confining hydrogen is very difficult. Industry takes these properties into account when designing structures where hydrogen will be used. The designs help hydrogen escape up and away from the user in case of an unexpected release.

The Hydrogen Economy Part III

2010-01-22T09:17:00.001-08:00

Hydrogen Utilization

The fuel cell is one of several conversion technologies that can be fueled by hydrogen. Basically, hydrogen fuel cells operate like electrolysis in reverse: Hydrogen gas and oxygen from the air combine in a catalyzed electrochemical reaction to produce an electric current, heat and water, pure enough to drink. Aside from being pollution-free, fuel cells are quiet, and can achieve efficiencies that are two- to three-times greater than internal combustion engines. The scalability of fuel cells makes them ideal for a wide variety of applications – including laptops (50- 100 Watts) and central power generation (1-200 MW).

Although fuel cells have the potential to serve all sectors of the economy, today they are relatively expensive to build compared to our internal combustion engines. They will need further development to increase durability and bring down cost so they can compete economically.

We can use hydrogen in internal combustion engines (ICEs) , similar to the engines we have in our cars today, with slight modifications. Hydrogen burns much cleaner and more efficiently than gasoline which makes hydrogen ICEs a realistic near-term transition technology. However, fuel cells, with higher efficiencies and zero emissions will likely be a more popular utilization technology in the longer term. Reciprocating engines and combustion turbines are also under development to combust hydrogen in place of traditional fuels to efficiently generate electricity and thermal power with zero emissions. Once mature, these technologies can also find use for onsite power applications in homes, offices and industrial facilities.

Carbon Sequestration

The use of fossil resources (natural gas, coal, petroleum) to produce hydrogen emits some carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. Technologies to capture and sequester (store) CO2 are under development.

We will need these technologies before large-scale hydrogen production from fossil resources contributes to the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy.

The Hydrogen Economy Part II

2010-01-21T11:36:00.001-08:00

The Next Energy Transition

Right now we may be standing on the brink of the next big energy transition, or diversification. The international community recognizes hydrogen as a key component to a clean, sustainable energy system. This future hydrogen economy features hydrogen as an energy carrier in the stationary power, transportation, industrial, residential and commercial sectors.

As technology matures, hydrogen will be produced mainly using clean technologies like electrolysis from renewables and nuclear, or reformation of fossil feedstocks with carbon sequestration. It may be stored, transported by truck or pipeline, and used in a fuel cell, turbine or engine to generate an electric current with water as the principal by-product.

To reach that point, hydrogen will be introduced into small market segments as these technologies become market-ready. The chemical and refining industries have safely produced, stored and transported hydrogen for industrial purposes for decades. The technologies used by those industries to produce hydrogen are a logical starting point to catalyze more widespread use of hydrogen as an energy carrier,

The Hydrogen Economy Part I

2010-01-21T11:21:00.001-08:00

Energy Transformations: A Look Back

The transition to a hydrogen economy - though it may sound implausible - isn't unprecedented. Up until the last half of the 19th century, the United States had an energy system based on animals for transportation and wood for heating and cooking. Today, energy in the form of transportation fuels and electricity has become so ubiquitous it is difficult to separate it from the function of modern society.

In the span of less than 150 years, the U.S. and much of the developed world, has successfully transitioned from wood to coal, to increasing contributions from natural gas, petroleum, hydro, nuclear energy and, most recently, renewables.

The later transitions are more reflective of a diversification of energy resources than actual transitions. The entry of new energy resources has been driven in large part by environmental concerns, technological advances, demand and economic forces.

Until the end of the 20th century, the U.S. produced nearly all of the energy it needed. In the 1980's consumption of natural gas began to outpace domestic production so the U.S. turned to Canadian imports to make up the difference. Starting in 1994, the U.S. imported more petroleum than it produced, mostly to meet transportation demands. For electricity generation, abundant coal remains the dominant, domestic primary energy resource.

Access to energy has had unparalleled consequences socially, economically and environmentally. The industrial revolution and indeed the technological revolution would not have been possible without a reliable energy supply. But the principal energy resources of the fossil fuel economy are finite, and they produce emissions that are harmful to the environment when we use these resources to provide lighting, cooking, heating and mobility. These factors will likely be among the main drivers to bring about the next energy transition.

Toyota Electric

2010-01-21T10:57:00.001-08:00

Bill Reinert, the head of Toyota's advanced powertrain research, stated that his company does not forsee the electric vehicle becoming the standard in the industry in the short-term future.

The man who spearheaded the successful Prius project believes that the market for electric vehicles in the United States is not large enough to justify a major developmental project for electric vehicles, or a transformation within the company towards electric production. He says that the current ranges - around 100 miles - promised by automakers such as Nissan and Ford are unrealistic and do not take into account highway driving, traffic conditions, or air conditioners and heaters draining the battery.

The impracticability of electric vehicles is, he believes, the key reason why Toyota is not actively pursuing them. According to Reinert, "A car that has a 100 mile range and needs to be recharged for eight hours after that, that's not flexible enough for the modern family."

A spokesman for Nissan disagreed, stating that Reinert and Toyota were making such claims because they were biased towards hybrids. The Toyota Prius is the leading hybrid in the market, but Reinert claims that hybrids demonstrate why electric vehicles are not currently feasible for mass production.

""We've had the Prius on sale for 10 years now," says Reinert, "and it asks nothing of the customer."

Even though the Prius is simple to operate and drive, hybrids only make up less than 2% of the American passenger vehicle market. Presumably, electric vehicles that require frequent recharging, battery swapping, and other routine maintenance concerns specific to electric vehicles would make these cars even less attractive.

Reinert did praise General Motors for giving the Chevrolet Volt a 4-cylinder engine that runs on gas in addition to its primary electric powertrain, stating that the company is heading "in the right direction" with the move.

Toyota is developing a fleet of plug-in electric FT-EV II short-range cars that are due out in 2012 for rental, presumably for urban driving, but are not for sale.

Toyota Hybrid Output

2010-01-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

Toyota to double hybrid output in 2011: report

Taiga Uranaka

TOKYO

Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:57am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp aims to double its global output of gas-electric hybrid cars to 1 million units in 2011, as it fights to stay in the lead in the growing market for low-emission cars, the Nikkei business reported on Monday.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, had said it aimed to sell 1 million models annually worldwide soon after 2010 and has been ramping up its push on hybrids, introducing the Sai sedan in Japan recently, the brand's second hybrid-only model.

Low emission hybrids have enjoyed strong sales thanks to generous subsidies and tax breaks. The Prius, Toyota's flagship hybrid, became Japan's best-selling car in 2009.

"For the foreseeable future, the focus of Toyota's (low-emission car) strategy will be on hybrids, not electric or fuel-cell cars," said Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Kazaka Securities, adding the production volume reported by the Nikkei was in line with his expectations.

"Except for Honda, Toyota is facing little competition in hybrids and is set to put distance between itself and other automakers."

Honda Motors produces a rival hybrid, the Insight, whose popularity has so far trailed behind that of the Prius.

Toyota plans to add about 10 new hybrid models in the next few years to its existing lineup and to increase the number of sites where it can assemble hybrid models, the Nikkei said without citing sources.

Toyota's global production of hybrid cars is likely to have been 500,000 units in 2009, accounting for about 8 percent of its overall production, the paper said.

Toyota has already expanded its hybrid production sites beyond Japan to include China, the United States, Thailand and Australia, typically receiving some form of state-backed incentives to build the fuel-efficient vehicles locally.

Shares of Toyota were down 1 percent at 4,160 yen as of 0200 GMT (9 p.m. on Sunday), compared with a 1.2 percent decline in the Topix index.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by David Dolan)

Liquid Electricity

2010-01-20T14:05:00.001-08:00

What is Blue Fuel?

Dimethyl ether is the simplest ether, with a chemical formula of CH3-O-CH3 and a molecular formula C2-H6-O (which it shares with ethanol. A synthetic compound, the physical properties of dimethyl ether are similar to those of liquefied petroleum gases (i.e., propane and butane). Dimethyl ether burns with a visible blue flame and is non- peroxide forming in the pure state or in aerosol formulations.

Unlike methane, dimethyl ether does not require an odorant because it has a sweet ether-like odor. Gaseous in ambient conditions Blue Fuel™ becomes a liquid when cooled to -25C or pressurized to about six atmospheres. Until recent years it was primarily used as an ozone-friendly aerosol propellant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in hair sprays, for example, and in the production of ultra-pure glass because it burns without forming soot. Blue Fuel is hydrogen rich and contains no direct carbon bonds or sulfur.

Why Blue Fuel™?

Four compelling reasons:

1. Blue Fuel™ lowers the carbon content of the atmosphere. Blue Fuel™ can be produced in carbon-neutral fashion, so replacing fossil fuels with Blue Fuel™ can help us get back to the safe upper limit of 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon dioxide, improving our chances of preventing catastrophic global warming. Beyond 350 ppm we are pushing our luck. And pushing our luck is what we are doing because we are now close to 400 ppm and are on course for even more alarming concentrations.

2. Blue Fuel™ provides energy security. Despite the apparent abundance of oil in the global marketplace at present (early 2009), the world may soon start running short of it. If this happens and a substitute(s) for petroleum-based fuels are not in place, economic and political chaos could ensue. Though electric vehicles and natural gas-powered vehicles may play significant roles in the transportation sector, they have limitations that require the adoption of other solutions as well. With electric vehicles, for example, there are the issues of grid and vehicle size and range constraints.
And though natural gas has environmental benefits that diesel and gasoline do not, it is still a fossil fuel that will add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Blue Fuel™ is liquid electricity™, a fuel that will buy time as the grid is expanded; it is also a non-fossil fuel that can be burned in the most efficient internal combustion engines ever devised—the diesel. Further, Blue Fuel™ can be produced from multiple, abundant, readily available feedstocks — the foundation of energy security.

3. Blue Fuel™ improves the quality of the air we breathe. Blue Fuel™ delivers sootless combustion with no SOx, low CO2 and 90% less NOx emissions than standard automotive fuels. This translates to clean air—and better health. Better health, of course, not only enhances quality of life, it also has economic benefits. People made ill by air pollution are less or non-productive and require medical treatment. Countries around the world spend vast sums of money on hospital visits as a result of air pollution, a significant portion of which can be attributed to the combustion of fossil fuels.

4. Blue Fuel™ saves petroleum for future generations. Do we really have the right to burn almost all the oil that has taken millions of years to form on our planet—within less than 200 years? Should we not be leaving generous reserves for future generations to use for higher-level applications than power generation, transportation, and heating? Petroleum is an extremely valuable feedstock for the production of innumerable products fundamental to our daily lives, including, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, plastics, paints, synthetic rubber, lubricants...

Blue Fuel™ has attributes that are fundamental to its capacity to mitigate global warming, provide energy security, and improve air quality.

Toyota Lithium

2010-01-20T11:48:00.001-08:00

Toyota in Lithium deal for Electric & Hybrid Cars

Jan 20, 2010 8:50 AM | By Reuters

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's biggest carmaker, secured a new lithium supply deal to fuel its expansion of hybrid car production, a move that boosted shares in sister firm Toyota Tsusho Corp.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid car "Prius" Custom Concept Plus.
Photograph by: Itsuo Inouye
Credit: AP

Shares in Toyota Tsusho, owned 21,8% by Toyota, jumped about 10% after the sister firm announced a deal to jointly develop a new lithium project in Argentina with the project's owner and operator, Australian-listed Orocobre Ltd.

Lithium is used to make batteries and is expected to be in increasing demand as car-makers such as Toyota and Honda Motors ramp up production of fuel-electric hybrid vehicles.

"As environmentally friendly electric car demand continues to grow, Toyota Motor Corp will have the opportunity to become a cornerstone offtake customer," Orocobre said in a statement.

The Salar de Olaroz project is estimated to cost around $80- $100 million, with the final figure to be determined after a feasibility study, Orocobre spokesman Paul Ryan said, adding the study should be complete by end-September.

"In addition, Toyota Tsusho will also have the opportunity to negotiate a lithium chemicals off-take agreement with Orocobre as part of the joint venture," Orocobre Managing Director Richard Seville said in a press release.

Toyota aims to double its global output of gas-electric hybrid cars to 1 million units in 2011, as it fights to stay in the lead in the growing market for low-emission cars, the Nikkei business reported this month.

Subject to the finalisation of the terms, Toyota Tsusho will acquire a 25% equity interest in the joint venture while Orocobre will continue to own the remaining 75% of the project and will operate the venture.

Nano Car

2010-01-19T18:30:00.001-08:00

World's Smallest Hot Rod Made Using Nanotechnology

Tue Jan 19, 9:30 am ET

Researchers have built a new super-small "Nano-dragster" that improves on prior Nano-car designs and could speed up efforts to craft molecular machines.

"We made a new version of a Nano-car that looks like a dragster," said James Tour, a chemist at Rice University who was involved in the research. "It has smaller front wheels on a shorter axle and bigger back wheels on a longer axle."

The super small car is about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and is pushed along by heat or an electric field.

Spherical molecules called bucky-balls made of 60 carbon atoms each serve as the big rear wheels. Due to chemical attractions, these wheels nicely grip the "drag-strip," which is made of a superfine layer of gold rather than pavement. For the front wheels, the scientists opted for a less sticky compound called p-carborane.

Tour's group built nano-cars before with bucky-balls as all four wheels, but these autos hug the road too tightly and require temperatures around 400 degrees Fahrenheit to get rolling. Nano-cars with all p-carbonane wheels, on the other hand, slip and slide as if on ice, said Tours, making them difficult to image and study.

By incorporating both wheel types, the nano-dragster can cruise at lower temperatures with greater agility and range of motion.

Microscopic auto-body shop

To make the new nano-dragster, Tour's team started with a previously built, off-the-shelf short axle and front wheel unit in their lab, which is sort of a nano-Monster Garage. They then chemically hooked this up to a pair of aligned hydrocarbon molecules called phenylene-ethynylene-the vehicle's chassis. The rear axle came next and finally the bucky-ball wheels went on.

Once the new nanocar gets rolling, it can reach speeds of up to nine nano-miles, or 0.014 (.0005 inches), per hour, which is relatively fast for their size, said Tour.

The tiny hot rods can also do tricks. "Because the front wheels don't stick to the surface as strongly, they're more prone to lift up, so [the nano-dragster] does seem to pop a wheelie at times," Tour told Top Ten REVIEWS.

By learning how to drive nano-vehicles, Tour hopes to pave the way for small but technologically useful structures, such as electronics, that could be built atom by atom.

Sugar Hydrogen

2010-01-19T09:28:00.001-08:00

Sugar Power: Most Efficient Method To Produce Hydrogen

Science Daily — Chemists are describing development of a "revolutionary" process for converting plant sugars into hydrogen, which could be used to cheaply and efficiently power vehicles equipped with hydrogen fuel cells without producing any pollutants.

The process involves combining plant sugars, water, and a cocktail of powerful enzymes to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide under mild reaction conditions. They reported on the system, described as the world's most efficient method for producing hydrogen, at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The new system helps solve the three major technical barriers to the so-called "hydrogen economy," researchers said. Those roadblocks involve how to produce low-cost sustainable hydrogen, how to store hydrogen, and how to distribute it efficiently, the researchers say.

"This is revolutionary work," says lead researcher Y.-H. Percival Zhang, Ph.D., a biochemical engineer at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. "This has opened up a whole new direction in hydrogen research. With technology improvement, sugar-powered vehicles could come true eventually."

While recognized a clean, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, hydrogen production is expensive and inefficient. Most traditional commercial production methods rely on fossil fuels, such as natural gas, while innovations like microbial fuel cells still yield low levels of hydrogen. Researchers worldwide thus are urgently looking for better way to produce the gas from renewable resources.

Zhang and colleagues believe they have found the most promising hydrogen-producing system to date from plant biomass. The researchers also believe they can produce hydrogen from cellulose, which has a similar chemical formula to starch but is far more difficult to break down.

In laboratory studies, the scientists collected 13 different, well-known enzymes and combined them with water and starches. Inside a specially designed reactor and under mild conditions (approximately 86 degrees Fahrenheit), the resulting broth reacted to produce only carbon dioxide and hydrogen with no leftover pollutants.

The method, called "in vitro synthetic biology," produced three times more hydrogen than the theoretical yield of anaerobic fermentation methods. However, the amount of hydrogen produced was still too low for commercial use and the speed of the reactions isn't optimal, Zhang notes.

The researchers are now working on making the system faster and more efficient. One approach includes looking for enzymes that work at higher temperatures, which would speed hydrogen production rates. The researchers also hope to produce hydrogen from cellulose, which has similar chemical formula to starch, by replacing several enzymes in the enzyme cocktail.

Zhang envisions that one day people will be able to go to their local grocery store and buy packets of solid starch or cellulose and pack it into the gas tank of their fuel-cell car. Then it's a pollution-free drive to their destination -- cheaper, cleaner, and more efficiently than even the most fuel-stingy gasoline-based car. And unlike cars that burn fossil fuel, the new system would not produce any odors, he says. Also, such a system will be safe because the hydrogen produced is consumed immediately, the researcher notes.

Alternatively, the new plant-based technology could even be used to develop an infrastructure of hydrogen-filling stations or even home-based filling stations, Zhang says. But consumers probably won't be able to take advantage of this automotive technology any time soon: He estimates that it may take as many as 8 to 10 years to optimize the efficiency of the system so that it is suitable for use in vehicles.

A scaled-down version of the same technology could conceivably be used to create more powerful, longer lasting sugar batteries for portable music players, laptops, and cell phones, Zhang says. That advance could take place in as few as 3 to 5 years, the researcher estimates.

The study, which is funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science of Virginia Tech, is a collaborative project between Va. Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

Production Technologies of Hydrogen

2010-01-18T16:52:00.001-08:00

Current LWR technology can make electricity to produce hydrogen through electrolysis at an overall efficiency of about 25%. However, proposed advanced HTGRs operate at higher temperatures, producing electricity and hydrogen much more efficiently (up to 50%). These advanced reactors potentially have many advantages over the current LWRs used in the U.S. today.

There are two main categories of hydrogen production technologies using HTGRs:
• Thermochemical water-splitting cycles
• High-temperature electrolysis
Like conventional electrolysis, both technologies separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Both technologies also use high temperature heat for economical, emission-free hydrogen.

Thermochemical (TC) Water-splitting Cycles
Thermochemical production of hydrogen involves the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen through chemical reactions at high temperatures (450-1000 °C). A TC water-splitting cycle involves a series of chemical reactions, some at higher temperatures than others. Engineers carefully choose chemicals to create a closed loop system that reacts with water to release oxygen and hydrogen gases. All reactants and compounds are regenerated and and recycled. Studies conducted through the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative have identified more than 100 different TC water-splitting cycles. A few of the most promising cycles have been selected for further research and development based on the simplicity of the cycle, the efficiency of the process and the ability to separate a pure hydrogen product. The biggest challenge with TC processes today is corrosion of process reactors and system materials.

Of the identified processes, the sulfur family, including the sulfuriodine (S-I) cycle and the Hybrid Sulfur (HyS) cycle, has shown the most promise for hydrogen production The S-I cycle uses iodine (I2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) as chemical reactants to split water. First, water reacts with I2 and SO2 to form hydrogen iodide (HI) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The HI and H2SO4 are separated from each other. H2SO4 and HI are decomposed in separate thermal decomposition steps into SO2 and O2 , and I2 and hydrogen (H2) respectively. The SO2 and I2 are recycled and used again and again. The H2 and O2 gases are available as products. The reaction that requires the greatest heat input is the thermal decomposition of H2SO4, typically at temperatures in the range of 800°C. Higher temperatures tend to favor greater efficiency.

The Hybrid Cycle uses the same high temperature decomposition of H2SO4 into SO2 and O2, but substitutes electrolysis of SO2 and H2O into H2SO4 and H2, for the HI reaction and decomposition step. This avoids the use of iodine and potentially simplifies the process.

High-temperature Electrolysis (HTE)

HTE, or steam electrolysis, involves the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis at high temperatures (up to 1100°C). Conceptually, HTE is the same as conventional low-temperature (<100°C) electrolysis. However, HTE uses heat from the reactor to replace some of the premium electricity required in conventional low temperature electrolysis. How much extra heat is needed? To produce 1 kilogram of hydrogen at 100°C, the system needs about 350 megajoules of heat energy. At 850°C, only about 225 megajoules are needed—a potential savings of more than 35% at the higher temperature.

Summary
Nuclear energy can help provide the hydrogen needed for a Hydrogen Economy. Today's LWRs produce hydrogen by conventional low temperature electrolysis, while advanced reactors can potentially improve electricity production, economically producing emissions-free hydrogen. Together with fossil and renewable resources, nuclear energy and its companion technologies can produce hydrogen for our portable, stationary and transportation needs.

Hydrogen From Nuclear Energy

2010-01-18T16:06:00.001-08:00

Hydrogen offers great promise for future domestic energy use. It can be produced using a variety of resources and technologies. One group of production technologies uses nuclear energy. Nuclear energy can produce high quality hydrogen in large quantities at a relatively low cost without any air emissions. Currently, the most viable hydrogen production technology utilizing nuclear energy is conventional electrolysis, which uses electric energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Light Water Reactors (LWRs), the most common type of reactor used today, can produce hydrogen, electricity or both. As the cost of electrolysis comes down and the cost of fossil fuels rise, nuclear production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water using nuclear produced electricity is increasingly attractive. However, in the longer term (after about 2020), the most promising nuclear hydrogen production technologies will likely use the high temperatures generated in advanced, high temperature gas reactors (HGTRs). These advanced reactors are more efficient and will be able to provide more economical, large-scale hydrogen production with less nuclear waste and energy use overall.

First, the Basics

Today, there are approximately 437 nuclear power reactors operating in over 25 countries around the world with a total output of some 350,000 megawatts. An additional 28 reactors (27,000 MWe) are currently under construction in 10 countries. Today, the U.S. has 103 LWRs on 64 sites in 31 states. U.S. nuclear reactors supply approximately 20 percent of the country's electricity needs, or 780.2 billion kWh a year. Uranium is the main fuel for nuclear reactors, and is readily available.

Today, 16 countries account for over 99 percent of global uranium production, about 90 million pounds per year.

Major suppliers exist in the U.S., Canada and Australia, with Canadian and Australian uranium mines today supplying over 50 percent of the world's uranium. Compared to natural gas or coal, uranium is low in cost, and the cost of nuclear electricity is less sensitive to its price fluctuations. One uranium fuel pellet, about the size of the tip of your little finger, has the equivalent energy potential of 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal, or 149 gallons of oil. Nuclear reactors emit no air emissions; however, spent fuel must be disposed of properly.

Today's coal fired power plants producing the same amount of electricity as the current U.S. nuclear plants would produce 630 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 2.6 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 5.6 million tons of (sulfur dioxide) SO2 annually. Nuclear reactors use a controlled nuclear fission reaction to release large amounts of heat to make steam that drives a turbine to create electricity.

The core of a 1,000 megawatt LWR contains about 75 tons of enriched uranium. A coolant, water in today's reactors, is pumped through the reactor to carry away the heat produced from the nuclear fission reaction. The resulting steam drives a steam turbine electric generator, which produces about 7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year—enough to power about 500,000 to 700,000 homes. Every 18 to 24 months,about one-third of the spent fuel is removed and replaced with fresh fuel.

Hydrogen Challenges

2010-01-18T09:52:00.001-08:00

Challenges

Technology validation addresses the following key challenges to pave the way for commercialization of fuel cell and hydrogen infrastructure technologies:

Fuel Cell Cost and Durability. Statistical data for fuel cell vehicles that are operated under controlled, real-world conditions are very limited and often proprietary. Vehicle drivability, operation, and survivability in extreme climates and emissions (hydrogen ICE) have not been proven yet. Development and testing of complete integrated fuel cell power systems is required to benchmark and validate for optimal component development.
Hydrogen Storage. Statistical cost, durability, fast-fill, discharge performance, and structural integrity data of hydrogen storage systems will be needed to proceed with technology commercialization. Current technology does not provide reasonable cost and volume for transportation or stationary applications. An understanding of composite tank operating cycle life and failure due to accident or neglect is lacking. Cycle life of hydride storage systems need to be evaluated in real-world circumstances.
Hydrogen Production and Delivery. The high cost of hydrogen production, low availability of the hydrogen production systems, and the challenge of providing safe production and delivery systems are all early penetration barriers. There are few data on the cost, efficiencies, and availabilities of integrated coal-to-hydrogen/power plants with sequestration options. Data on the high-temperature production of hydrogen from nuclear power are limited. Likewise, there is little operational, durability, and efficiency information for renewable hydrogen production systems. Hydrogen delivery options need to be determined and assessed as part of system demonstrations for every potential production technology. Validation of integrated systems is required to optimize component development.
Public Acceptance. The hydrogen economy will be a revolutionary change from the world we know today. Education of the general public, training personnel in the handling and maintenance of hydrogen system components, adoption of codes and standards, and development of certified procedures and training manuals for fuel cells and safety will foster hydrogen's acceptance as a fuel.

NY Getting Greener

2010-01-17T14:26:00.001-08:00

New Hydrogen Refueling Station in the Bronx
Source : nydailynews.com

Simmons/News
Chris Dinapoli and Greg Bufano hang out near the new – and green – hydrogen-fueling station in the Bronx. They have taken another bold step into a greener future with the opening of the first hydrogen-fueling station by a city agency. As part of the process of shifting from polluting gasoline and diesel to alternative fuels, the city Department of Sanitation unveiled the fueling point Thursday at its facility at 1635 E. 233rd St. in Eastchester. The move is part of a program by Shell Hydrogen and General Motors to build a national network of hydrogen stations.

"The development of hydrogen-fueling stations and fuel-cell vehicles will bring our nation one step closer toward a sustainable and energy-independent future," said Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty. The new Bronx facility joins similar fueling points recently built in White Plains and at Kennedy Airport. Along with the hydrogen-fueling station, the Sanitation Department gets the use of a Chevy Equinox fuel-cell vehicle as part of GM's Driveway program, a field-testing initiative to gather detailed data on the vehicles in daily use.

Doherty said the electric SUV will be used by a Department of Sanitation supervisor in the Community Board 12 area of the northeast Bronx. The Sanitation Department already has a large and growing fleet of hybrid collection trucks and street sweepers, and many vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, but none as green as a fuel-cell vehicle. Fuel-cell cars are powered by electricity generated through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen taken from the air, with the only waste product being water. The hydrogen-fueling point looks and functions much like a regular gasoline pump, but it fills the car's tank with compressed hydrogen instead.

Gary Stottler, manager of field service for GM's fuel-cell test fleet, said GM currently has more than 25 fuel-cell vehicles in the metro area. Many are being used by government agencies evaluating the technology for possible fleet purchases, but a significant number are with individual consumers and commuters.

"We're trying to get as many potential users familiar with the technology as possible," he said. Currently GM's Driveway program is limited to the Chevy Equinox, but future plans could include hydrogen-powered delivery vehicles, Stottler said, since fuel-cell technology "is very easy to scale up." Shifting a portion of the giant fleet of delivery trucks in the city to a zero-emissions fuel would vastly improve air quality in the asthma-ridden Bronx because the majority of truck traffic entering Manhattan passes through the borough.

Canada Road Tests

2010-01-17T13:48:00.001-08:00

Road test set for all-electric cars in Quebec

Mitsubishi's i-Miev all-electric car
(Credit: CNET)

Quebec's power utility is teaming up with Mitsubishi Motors to road-test the performance of up to 50 all-electric vehicles against the rigors of the Canadian climate and measure their infrastructure needs.

The $4.4 million project, which organizers say will be Canada's biggest trial yet of all-electric vehicles, is planned for this autumn near the Boucherville research facility of Hydro-Quebec, the provincial government-owned electricity utility.

"It will allow us to advance our knowledge of the technology and its integration into our grid, which in turn, will help us plan the necessary charging infrastructure for homes, offices and public places," said Thierry Vandal, Hydro-Quebec's chief executive.

Organizers said the road test is the first to include a car manufacturer, public utility, municipality and local businesses, which will integrate Mitsubishi i-Mievs into existing fleets.

Mitsubishi says its Innovative Electric Vehicle, or i-Miev, is an all-electric, highway-capable, charge-at-home commuter car.

Quebec was Canada's first province to adopt California's strict auto emission standards. The new rules went into effect Thursday and impose increasingly stringent limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks.

Hydrogen Infrastructure

2010-01-17T09:42:00.001-08:00

Infrastructure

The development of a national hydrogen production infrastructure to support a hydrogen economy could evolve along one or more pathways using, for example, a distributed production infrastructure located at the point of use, or a centralized production infrastructure at large industrial production sites. While distributed hydrogen production requires smaller capital investments and a minimal transport and delivery infrastructure, centralized production achieves the economic benefits of mass production.

Power parks, which produce electricity and hydrogen, typically produce hydrogen during off-peak hours so they can provide electricity during high grid loads or blackouts. Power parks are another production pathway for providing transportation fuel.

Role in the Transition to a Hydrogen Economy

A new hydrogen economy requires cost-effective hydrogen production and expanded hydrogen infrastructure to ensure that end-users have convenient access to hydrogen energy. Like many technologies, research, development and demonstration must continue to lower cost, increase efficiency and address emissions issues associated with some hydrogen production technologies. The transition to a hydrogen economy features a variety of processes from a diverse resource base. At this point, the U.S. transition will likely build on the existing infrastructure and begin with a fossil fuel-dominant mix in the near-term, followed by an increasing presence of renewables and possibly nuclear energy.

Major Hydrogen Production Processes

DISTRIBUTED PRODUCTION – Located at the point of use; scalable. Often produces smaller quantities of hydrogen (To refuel about 50-300 vehicles per day).

CENTRALIZED PRODUCTION – Central production stations would feature pipelines or other transport infrastructures to deliver the hydrogen to points of use. (To refuel about 50,000 vehicles per day.)

Hydrogen Sources

2010-01-17T09:04:00.001-08:00

Sources of Hydrogen
Hydrogen does not exist alone in nature. Natural gas contains hydrogen (about 95% of natural gas is methane, CH4), as does biomass (cellulose) and hydrocarbons, like coal.

An equally diverse array of primary energy sources, such as wind,solar, geothermal, nuclear and hydropower, can be used to extract hydrogen from water. It's this diversity of options that enables hydrogen
production almost anywhere in the world.

PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCES
Primary energy sources are found or stored in nature. They include biomass, coal, oil, natural gas, sunlight, wind, water, nuclear power, geothermal power and potential energy from the Earth's gravity.

ENERGY CARRIERS & FEEDSTOCKS
Energy carriers are not energy sources. We produce them from primary energy sources using technology. These include the electricity produced from coal or photovoltaics, and ethanol produced from corn. In the latter example, the resource (corn) from which the energy carrier (ethanol) is extracted, is called a feedstock. Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks.

The future hydrogen economy will feature hydrogen as an energy carrier in a reliable and sustainable energy supply system. In today's system, electricity serves as an energy carrier. Electricity made by the conversion of primary energy sources is easily transported and delivered to end-users. Building an infrastructure that allows for easy and cost-effective transportation and delivery of hydrogen energy is a critical step toward a future hydrogen economy.

Home Hydrogen Refueling Station

2010-01-16T19:08:00.001-08:00

Honda about to try out new Home Hydrogen Refueling Station
Honda is working on a next-generation hydrogen refueling station aimed at showing American homeowners how they could run their cars on hydrogen made out of sunshine and water. It's supposed to be unveiled in about a month.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito said the unit will use the energy from sunlight, as collected on solar panels, to split hydrogen from oxygen molecules in water (H2O, remember?), providing hydrogen gas to power for the car.

The solar panels are being made in Japan and Ito says the system might work better on American houses than those back home. Why? Because American houses are bigger,providing more roof area for the solar arrays.

The goal was to create panels that are better and cheaper. The system will be installed at Honda's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb. There's a solar hydrogen system there now, but it's takes up a lot of space. Honda uses hydrogen to fuel its FCX Clarity hydrogen fleet.

Hydrogen Production

2010-01-16T10:00:00.001-08:00

All hydrogen production processes are based on the separation of

hydrogen from hydrogen-containing feedstocks. The feedstock

dictates the selection of the separation method. Today, we use two

primary methods to separate hydrogen: thermal and chemical. A third

method, biological, is in the exploratory research and development

phase.

Today, 95% of the hydrogen produced in the U.S., roughly 9 million

tons per year, uses a thermal process with natural gas as the

feedstock. This process, called steam methane reformation (SMR),

consists of two steps: 1) reformation of the feedstock with high

temperature steam supplied by burning natural gas to obtain a

synthesis gas, and 2) using a water-gas shift reaction to form hydrogen

and carbon dioxide from the carbon monoxide produced in the first step.

STEAM METHANE REFORMATION
Step 1: CH4 +H20 => CO + 3 H2
Step 2: CO + H2O => CO2 + H2

To a lesser degree, the U.S. also produces hydrogen electro-chemically

from water when higher purity hydrogen is needed. The

process, called electrolysis, passes electricity through water in an ionic

transfer device to separate water into its hydrogen and oxygen parts.

Renewable technologies, such as wind turbines, can generate

electricity to produce hydrogen from electrolysis with zero greenhouse

gas emissions. In France, an abundance of nuclear power makes

electrolysis a logical, and their most common, method for producing

hydrogen.

ELECTROLYSIS
electricity + 2H2O => O2 + 2H2

All production technologies have a variety of costs and

benefits with regard to the environment, economics, security and other concerns.

Radio Waves and Hydrogen

2010-01-16T09:01:00.001-08:00

In 2005 there was an Inventor. His name is John S. Kanzius. John was an inventor, Radio TV engineer, ham radio operator. John ended up with cancer, and was looking for a way to treat his cancer. The treatment is an experimental cancer treatment where gold or nanoparticles and radio waves heat the cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. John Built himself one of the radio prototype devices to test some of his ideas and to take his treatments.

In testing this device he found out by accident that radio waves will weaken the bond of Oxygen and Hydrogen in water. He found that as long as the radio wave machine was on he could burn salt water. The discovery was made accidentally while he was researching the use of radio waves for desalination. Kanzius said that "In this case we weren't looking for energy. We were looking for something that might do desalinization. The more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced, until we got fire".

Kanzius admitted that this process could not be considered an energy source, as more energy is used to produce the RF signal than can be obtained from the burning gas and stated in July 2007 that he never claimed his discovery would replace oil, asserting only that his discovery was "thought provoking."

The details of the process are still unreleased pending the issuance of a patent. Kanzius proposed that the flame is produced by burning of hydrogen and oxygen, released from the water by radio waves "forcing together" the "normally separated" hydrogen and oxygen in the water, a process he calls "reunification". In water (H2O), hydrogen is covalently bonded to oxygen, and thus the process must "reunite" pairs of hydrogen atoms and pairs of oxygen atoms, releasing dihydrogen (H2) and dioxygen (O2). The energy from the radio waves is absorbed by the water and splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen which then react together to reform the water and re-release the energy and form a flame
.
In other words, the process turns radio energy into chemical energy, which then turns to heat and light energy, but does not "take energy from water". Rather, energy is put into the water in order to break it up into its components, which now may combust. The water torch, a form of oxyhydrogen torch, is an earlier example of the process of breaking down water and then recombining oxygen and hydrogen to release heat and light energy.[citation needed]

Nevertheless, this discovery may be a clean way to break down water into its elements and perhaps a cheaper way than electrolysis which in most forms produces toxic output from chemical reactions with the electrodes, or otherwise is produced with platinum electrodes, which are very expensive. It is difficult to compare the processes, when no chemical, physical or numeric details are actually known, except the claims that RF heats up the water, breaks it down into its elements and that it then combusts.[citation needed]

Kanzius' experiment has been confirmed by Rustum Roy, a materials scientist at Pennsylvania State University, in a demonstration before the Material Science faculty, using Kanzius' RF transceiver, which Kanzius had brought to the lab for the day. On his website, Roy writes: "It is clear that Mr. Kanzius has demonstrated the ability to dissociate aqueous solutions of sodium chloride at normal sea water concentrations into hydrogen and oxygen."

According to Roy, "The salt water isn't burning per se, despite appearances. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies." The temperature and flame color varies with water solutions and concentrations.

Death
John Kanzius died from pneumonia on February 18, 2009, aged 64, at a hospital near Sanibel, Florida, where he had a winter home. The pneumonia developed as complication after two recent rounds of chemotherapy

What makes this exciting is the use of batteries to produce radio waves. This could be used on cars that are on the road today. We would have to install batteries to run the radio wave machine and then it could produce hydrogen to be used in the car. It burns clean, and has an octane of 130. Compared to gasoline of 87 to a high of 92 octane it will perform better in our cars, it is in a vapor form so it will burn easily. No waste, only water will come out of the tail pipe.

Auto Shows

2010-01-15T09:08:00.001-08:00

Electric Dreams

Automakers draw on current to power their future.

Provided by Road & Track

By Matt DeLorenzo | Photos by John Lamm and Marc Urbano

2011 Honda CR-Z
In assessing the kinds of cars we will be driving in the future, only one word is needed to describe this changing automotive landscape—electricity. By the looks of cars ready for production and futuristic prototypes, battery power will play an increasingly important role. It will be used to boost the power and range of conventional powerplants, plus be used as the sole source of motivation in other applications.

Ready for production is the 2011 Honda CR-Z, a fun, 2-seat sporty hatchback that incorporates the company's electric engine assist, which is already seen in the Insight and Civic hybrids. The CR-Z harkens back to a time when Honda offered a similar car called the CRX. In addition to its smart-looking wedge shape, the Honda CR-Z is the first hybrid to offer a 6-speed manual transmission as standard equipment. With that gearbox, it is capable of returning 31 mpg city/37 mph highway, while the optional CVT transmission delivers an even better 36 city/38 highway. The CR-Z goes on sale this fall.

Building on experience gained by the Mini E, German automaker BMW showcased an advanced electric car based on its 1 Series. Called the BMW ActiveE, this 4-passenger coupe will go into limited production and be leased to consumers on a test basis. In keeping with the company's theme of spirited driving, the ActiveE promises 0 to 60 mph acceleration of 8.5 seconds. Its lithium-ion battery back can be recharged in about 3 hours and will deliver a range of about 100 miles, along with a top speed of 90 mph. The electric motor in the BMW ActiveE is rated at 170 horsepower.

2011 Volvo C30 Electric
Similar in range and performance to the BMW ActiveE is the Volvo C30 Electric, which will also see limited production and testing. Based on the Swedish company's C30 hatchback, the 4-passenger electric has a 111-horsepower electric motor. Range and performance estimates are slightly more modest, with a 94-mile range and a top speed of 80 mph. This pure electric Volvo is designed primarily to test the durability and practicality of electric power in everyday driving.

The benchmark hybrid is clearly the Toyota Prius, and the Japanese automaker is looking to build on its reputation by offering a wider range of these gasoline/electric vehicles. The Toyota FT-CH is proof of this, a plug-in hybrid that can be operated in pure electric mode for 40 to 50 miles. If the small 4-passenger hatchback looks familiar, it's because it follows the same design theme as the Lexus LF-CH that made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Further out in the future is the Hyundai Blue-Will concept, a hybrid that capitalizes on the range and torque of a diesel powerplant. Equipped with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder oil-burner, the Blue-Will puts out a combined 152 horsepower when the 100-kw electric motor is employed. Like the Toyota FT-CH, the Blue-Will is a plug-in hybrid (using a technology similar to that which will appear later this year in the Chevy Volt) that can be driven up to 40 miles on electricity alone, with no help from the diesel engine. The Blue-Will's futuristic shape hints at a more fluid design theme being developed for Hyundai.

Strong Demand for Electric Cars

2010-01-14T15:11:00.001-08:00

January 14, 2010 11:57 AM PST
Survey hints at strong demand for electric cars
by Martin LaMonica

Plug-in electric cars have technology geeks and the well-heeled excited, but how will they play in Peoria?

Electric cars and concepts at the 2010 Detroit auto show (photos)

Ernst & Young on Thursday released results from a survey of 1,000 licensed U.S. drivers that found 10 percent of drivers would consider purchasing a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle. That represents about 20 million American drivers, enough demand to sell out 2010 and 2011 electric vehicles.

Automakers are betting the electrification of power trains is the future of the auto business, as was clear from this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But even as automakers prepare to produce tens of thousands of these cars, big questions remain over how strong the demand will be.

Some argue that there will be rapid uptake in certain regions, much the way the well known Toyota Prius hybrid has been adopted. The Boston Consulting Group forecasts that 25 percent of new auto sales in 2020 will be hybrids or electrics, with the bulk being conventional hybrids.

Yet there are still clear barriers to consumer adoption, including range, cost, and availability of charging stations at home or public places.

Ernst & Young found that 34 percent of respondents were willing to subsidize local charging stations. At the same time, their top reason for considering buying an electric or plug-in hybrid is to save money on fuel.

Wheels

2010-01-14T14:23:00.001-08:00

Detroit Auto Show: Chrysler's Electric Star, the Gem

By PAUL STENQUIST

Paul Stenquist for The New York Times Chrysler's Gem is a neighborhood vehicle, with a top speed of about 25 miles per hour.

It's not easy to find Chrysler's world-beater plug-in electric vehicle at the Detroit auto show. You have to work your way past the Ferraris, Fiat 500s, Dodges, Chryslers and Jeeps. There, tucked in a corner, you'll find Chrysler's green transportation star: the Gem. Chrysler has sold more than 40,000 Gems since 1999 and reportedly owns about 70 percent of the neighborhood electric vehicle market.

Some might tell you that the Gem is no more than a golf cart, albeit a golf cart that's available in six different configurations. But consider that the little Gem sprints to 25 miles per hour rather promptly, thanks to the torque of its electric motor. Zero to 60 comes at, well, infinity, and its top speed is right around 25 miles an hour. That means it's awesome power can be unleashed on roads with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less in more than 40 states. Rechargeable on standard 110-volt household current, Gem has a range of about 50 miles on a single charge. With safety glass, three-point seat belts, turn signals, headlamps, brake lights and more, it meets federal safety standards for low-speed vehicles.

Despite the fact that the Gem's performance is somewhat limited in comparison to, say, a Tesla plug-in electric, the Gem's build quality is comparable to, well, a golf cart. The doors shut with a pronounced shudder. High-gloss plastic is applied abundantly inside and out, and the dash features a rough-textured material that looks like the underside of a fiberglass body panel.

Nevertheless, Gem is a regular means of transportation in warm-climate beach communities and suburban neighborhoods. Because it's apparently a money-maker for Chrysler, we have to wonder if it will soon be rebadged as a Fiat and sold in Italy.

Smart Charging

2010-01-14T10:21:00.001-08:00

Google Working on "Smart Charging" Software for Electric Cars

The Internet giant's geniuses are working on software that'll help get electric cars juiced without stressing out the electrical grid.

By Mike Spinelli

Google Working on "Smart Charging" Software for Electric Cars Google says "smart charging" software could be the answer to getting millions of plug-in electric cars to work on an overtaxed electrical grid. Such software would, for example, automatically turn off EV charging during times of peak grid demand, among other functions. Google

Imagine millions of plug-in vehicle owners returning home from work on a hot summer day, plugging in their cars at the same time, and melting down an overtaxed, outdated, and otherwise atrophied electrical grid. But the geniuses at Google say averting a disaster scenario could be as simple as a few lines of code (well, a few more than just a few). Working with a test fleet of a plug-in vehicles, part of a project the company initiated two years ago, Google came up with new "smart charging" software that can manage the charging needs of EVs based on real-time signal data from a grid operator. For example, automatically turning off EV charging during times of peak grid demand.

The software is in its early stages, but since 2007, when the RechargeIT plug-in hybrid fleet program began at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters the company has pursued a number of solutions, like plugging vehicles in when parked to give the grid a series of battery backups and reduce strain.

The company's director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives (yes, that's a real title) says the possibility of a large number of plug-in vehicles hooked to the grid presents an opportunity to introduce a megawatt-scale storage technology in the grid for the first time.

[Reuters via Gizmag]

The Old Timer

2010-01-13T15:00:00.001-08:00

Jan 12, 2010

Electric cars hardly new, as 1922 model proves at Detroit auto show

Pick your cliche: Everything old is new again. What goes 'round comes 'round. Nothing new under the sun. They all apply to electric cars. Around the turn of the century -- the nineteenth into the twentieth -- electrics outsold gasoline and steam-power cars combined.

As gasoline cars grew in popularity, electric makers pitched theirs to women, who sometimes had trouble with, or balked at the crude nature of, crank-starting gas engines. Then the electric stater was invented for gasoline engines and the electric car business evaporated as fast as dry ice at room temperature.

This 1922 Detroit Electric, parked in the lobby of Cobo Center, home to the annual Detroit auto show, was priced equivalent to about $38,000 in today's money, according to info provided by the Henry Ford Museum. And it went an estimated 60 miles on the batteries -- a longer range than some of the electrics that today's automakers are boasting for their new electrics, coming in a year or two.

-- James R. Healey/Test Drive

Chinese Electric

2010-01-13T11:20:00.001-08:00

BYD Hopes to Offer Electric Car in U.S. This Year

January 13, 2010, 4:54 am

After a disastrous year for the auto industry, carmakers are working hard to exude optimism and confidence at this year's auto show.

On that score alone, the winner may be the Chinese company BYD Auto, which counts Warren E. Buffett among its investors, BYD created a stir on Tuesday by announcing that it plans to start selling an electric car in California by the end of this year, a move that would make BYD the first company to sell Chinese-made vehicles in the United States, The New York Times's Nick Bunkley reported.

It also would require the company to overcome numerous hurdles, including crash and emissions testing that can sometimes take years, not to mention arranging a network of dealers.

But BYD, which was founded just seven years ago, is fond of setting ambitious goals. An introductory video played before the company made its announcement said, almost as a side note, that BYD intends to be the largest automaker in the world by 2025.

"We've been talking for years about the imminent arrival of the Chinese, and it still seems to be imminent," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of Edmunds.com, a Web site that gives car-buying advice to consumers. "It always seems to be 'later this year.' "

But Mr. Anwyl said BYD and other Chinese carmakers were making rapid progress, to the point that the quality and styling of their vehicles were less problematic than the difficulty of breaking into a large, mature market like the United States.

"They've got a long-term view, and they've certainly got the will," he said. "When they do come, it's going to almost be as disruptive as when the Japanese came."

The rest of the auto industry is closely watching China. Many carmakers already have become familiar with BYD and other Chinese manufacturers by competing against them in that country, which overtook the United States as the world's largest automobile market last year with sales of 13.6 million vehicles.

General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and others know it is only a matter of time before those companies begin challenging them in the United States, too. Later this year, China's biggest automaker, Geely, expects to close a deal to buy the Volvo brand from Ford, and G.M. could conclude a sale of its Hummer brand to a Chinese industrial equipment maker.

"China's going to be a force going forward," Ford's chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said at the Automotive News World Congress, a conference being held near the auto show on Tuesday.

BYD executives said the first vehicle they wanted to sell in the United States was a battery-powered, five-passenger crossover vehicle called the e6. The company claims it would have a 205-mile range, and drivers would charge the vehicle's battery by plugging it into an outlet at home or at fast-charging stations, which do not exist yet.

The e6 costs about $40,000 to make, so government incentives would be important to making it affordable at first, said Henry Li, the general manager of BYD's auto export trade division. American consumers would buy the vehicle at stand-alone BYD dealerships, which have not been established, Mr. Li said.

Under repeated questioning by skeptical reporters, Mr. Li said that none of the obstacles would be insurmountable for BYD.

"I think the market now is looking for electric cars," he said. But he cautioned, "We don't expect high volumes."

Mr. Li said that the e6 complied with all Chinese vehicle standards and that executives were confident it would ultimately meet far more stringent United States regulations.

"In the design, we already considered these requirements," he said.

This is BYD's third consecutive trip to the Detroit auto show. A year ago, the company listed 2011 as its target for selling the e6 in the United States, and it listed a higher range, acceleration and top speed for the vehicle.

Other Chinese automakers have visited Detroit in the past, only to find that their vehicles — like the rhombus-shaped sedan with wheels on three axles and a bamboo interior in 2007 — were not were not taken seriously, and they have not returned.

Many of the Chinese contenders seemed to market themselves on the idea that they could undercut competitors on price, regardless of quality or design.

That is not the strategy at BYD, which already makes many of the batteries used in mobile phones and other electronics.

"The product," Mr. Li said, "has to be good."

New York Times

Voltswagen

2010-01-13T10:05:00.001-08:00

BRUSSELS SHOW: Citroen unveils its Mitsubishi-built voltswagen

13 January 2010 | Source: just-auto.com editorial team

Citroën took the wraps off its new Citroen and Peugeot. Parent Group announced last September that Mitsubishi would supply the EVs, beginning production in October. MMC also builds variants of its Outlander crossover for the two French brands.

Mitsubishi-built all-electric four-seater C-Zero city car at the 88th European Motor Show in Brussels, Belgium, today (13 January). The car is a re-brand of the Japanese automaker's i-MiEV, supplied on an OEM basis from Japan. A Peugeot iOn-branded model is also due out soon.

"Zero fuel consumption, zero CO2 emissions and zero engine noise - the aptly named C-Zero is Citroën's 100% electric solution to meet the demands of modern day urban driving," the automaker claimed (without once mentioning Mitsubishi), adding its compact dimensions, rapid charge and generous (80 miles) make it the "perfect city companion".

The car has a permanent magnet synchronous motor powered by a lithium-ion battery. Maximum power of 47kW or 64bhp is delivered from 3,000 to 6,000rpm and maximum torque of 180Nm from 0 to 2,000rpm. The batteries can be charged by either by a 220 volt domestic socket or a high speed 400-volt supply which gives an 80% charge in 30 minutes.

The car is 3.48m long, said to have "four real seats" and a 166 litre boot (trunk). Top speed is 80mph (120km/h) and acceleration from 0-62mph (100km/h) takes 15 seconds. The turning circle is a nimble 9m.

The C-Zero goes on sale in the last quarter of 2010.

The Future of Energy – Part II

2010-01-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

Switched-On Highways

NEWSWEEK

With oil under $50 a barrel, does your business plan still make sense?
The cost of the battery [averaged out over its lifetime] roughly translates to about four to six cents per mile. The cost of clean electricity translates to about one to two cents per mile. So [our costs are] somewhere between six and eight cents per mile. If you look at the average miles per gallon a car gets in the U.S., [those costs are in line with oil at] $25 a barrel.

SUBSCRIBE sp_inline_article_subscriptionClick Here to subscribe to NEWSWEEK and save up to 88% »

Denmark and Israel are small, densely populated countries. How do you make this work in the sprawling American Midwest?

If you look at the North American continent, you actually have about 50 urban centers, which are, on the East Coast, so dense that at least half of them overlap another center. If you look at California, the California area is actually covered with four of these dense circles. Imagine a hundred-mile circle around San Francisco, and another hundred-mile circle around Sacramento, and again the same thing in Los Angeles and San Diego. In between those you have three freeways connecting [northern and southern California]. On these freeways, if you put switch stations at a distance of about 30 miles from one another, you would have full coverage across the entire state, which is effectively the most prolific car state in the nation.
We still don't seem to be where we need to be in terms of battery technology. Is it improving?

The Moore's curve for batteries is about 8 percent to 10 percent improvement per year. Do we need to wait for the best battery? We didn't wait for the best chip technology to start the PC revolution, and we didn't wait for the best communications chip to start the cell-phone revolution.

But you're saying the car is viable with current batteries? Many have said that they're too expensive or too heavy right now.

We have a battery in the car today that weighs 550 pounds and takes you 155 miles without air conditioning. It gives you a car that weighs less than any hybrid in the market today, costs less than any hybrid today, and actually drives faster than any hybrid today. What we were missing was a business model. Once we put in place the infrastructure and the business model, batteries beat fuel on efficiency, affordability and convenience. Nobody will send you a Chevron truck to fill your car at night, every night. I can fill your car at night, every night.
We don't produce batteries in the United States. With your plan, instead of sending money to OPEC, aren't we just sending it to battery-producing countries?

[That statement] is painfully right. The U.S. is in a very, very dire situation vis-à-vis battery manufacturing. The government should come up and say, "We're building a battery reserve, much like the national oil reserve, and to build that battery reserve we're willing to take the risk of a loan guarantee to manufacturers."

So in this you do see a role for government?
This doesn't happen without government. This is Silicon Valley meets Michigan meets Washington, D.C.

The Future of Energy - Part I

2010-01-12T12:02:00.001-08:00

Switched-On Highways

Electric cars are cheaper and faster than any hybrid on the market, says Shai Agassi.
By Fareed Zakaria | Newsweek

The all-electric automobile is not a new idea: in 1900, a quarter of the cars produced in the United States ran on batteries alone. But when Henry Ford debuted his cheap, gas-powered Model T in 1908, oil quickly became the industry standard. Shai Agassi, 40, a former president at software giant SAP, thinks the electric car deserves to be salvaged from history's dustbin. With his new venture, Better Place, he plans to jump-start the fledgling electric-auto industry by building an entire infrastructure—cars, recharge stations and more—from scratch. Governments in Israel, Denmark, northern California and elsewhere have signed on.

NEWSWEEK'S Fareed Zakaria spoke to him about the company. Excerpts:
SUBSCRIBE sp_inline_article_subscriptionClick Here to subscribe to NEWSWEEK and save up to 88% »

ZAKARIA: What's the idea Switched-On Highways
of Better Place?

AGASSI: We looked at the problem of transport from a very different perspective than the automotive sector has in the past. They've all looked at it from the perspective of how to build the car. We looked at it from the perspective of how to run an entire country without oil. You've got to put the infrastructure ahead of the cars. In our case, the infrastructure is a combination of a massive amount of charge spots and the ability to switch batteries in less time than it takes you to fill up with gasoline.

But by building the infrastructure before you have electric cars on the road, aren't you putting the cart before the horse?

We wouldn't build the infrastructure if we didn't have a massive carmaker to build cars. Renault-Nissan is the first to build the cars for this infrastructure, and we've coordinated so our infrastructure will be in place when their cars hit the market.

How else have you altered the old transportation model?

The second [change we decided on] is that the car and the battery, ownership wise, have to be separated.

Why is that?

You never want to be the guy who bought the previous [year's] battery. We say, you never buy the battery. What you buy is the car. The third change is in the business model. You buy the commute by miles, and commute miles include the battery, the electricity, access to the network and battery-switching. You [sign up for] a contract on a per-mile basis, and you get a rebate based on the length of your contract. That makes the electric car cheaper to acquire than the gasoline counterpart.

Does government have any role in this?

Our model is not predicated on government subsidies. What governments can do is they can accelerate adoption. Every government creates a different policy. Israel, our first site, created a tax differential of 60 percent between buying a gasoline car and an electric car. Denmark went up to a 180 percent difference—180 percent tax on gas engines, zero tax on electric.

This all sounds very complicated. What's the status report from Israel and Denmark?

Our goal for Israel and Denmark is mass-market access by 2011. In 2010, we have a systems-wide test where we have about 100,000 [recharge] spots already installed, a few thousand cars, a few switch stations already in location, the software's already in place, people are driving on customer contracts and are paying. In 2009, we have a smaller systems test with about 50 cars going around Israel and about 50 cars going around Denmark.

Fuel Cell Technology

2010-01-12T10:39:00.001-08:00

What Is a Fuel Cell?

Fuel cells are self-contained, power-generation devices that are able to produce reliable electricity for residential, commercial, industrial and transportation applications. A fuel cell can convert hydrogen directly into electricity that can be used to power an electric car, for example, or a home.

What Are the Benefits?

In fuel cells, the use of hydrogen produces fewer greenhouse gases than does burning fossil fuels. Fuel cells convert energy efficiently, which helps conserve energy resources, and a byproduct of this electro-chemical process is pure water — a clear benefit for the environment.

However, hydrogen — a tasteless, odorless, colorless gas — is not found freely in nature. It must be extracted from other substances. Before fuel cells can achieve widespread use in vehicle or stationary-power markets, hydrogen as a fuel will have to be readily available. None of this will happen overnight. Hydrogen will become part of the world's energy supply step by step as technical challenges are overcome and market forces create new opportunities. This could take decades.

What Is Being Done

In San Ramon, California, the first commercially operating stationary fuel cell power plant in the San Francisco Bay Area. The plant turns hydrogen and oxygen into electricity and provides 200 kilowatts of electricity to power a portion of our corporate data center. The fuel cell power plant separates hydrogen (supplied by natural gas, a hydrocarbon fuel) into its basic elements and combines it with oxygen from the air, creating electricity, clean water and usable heat.

The onsite fuel cell has a number of benefits that include:

Providing a clean, quiet and reliable independent power source for critical electric loads.
Demonstrating an efficient technology that involves no combustion, recovers heat and clean water for multiple uses, and reduces demand on the local electricity grid.
Allowing us to monitor and analyze fuel cell performance relative to conventional power technologies in a commercial application.

The fuel cell application is designed to support computer servers that must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the event of a disruption on local utility lines, which also deliver power to the data center, special switching equipment ensures the fuel cell will continue to provide electricity to these servers without interruption. The first megawatt-class fuel cell in California at Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail, the third-largest county detention facility in the state and the fifth-largest in the nation. The fuel cell provides continuous high-quality power 24 hours a day, and the exhaust heat byproduct can be used for combined heat and power for the buildings.

Detroit Auto Show

2010-01-11T16:02:00.001-08:00

Honda aims to add flair to hybrid market with CR-Z

AP – Executive Vice President of American Honda Motor Co. John Mendel, introduces the 2011 Honda CR-Z

1 hr 45 mins ago

DETROIT – Honda Motor Co. showed off the production model of the 2011 CR-Z, a sporty two-seater hybrid that will go on sale late summer in the U.S. at the Detroit auto show Monday.

The CR-Z hatchback is Honda's attempt to bring a bit of flair to the hybrid segment, whose design has long dominated by the boxy lines and sloping roofs of four-door sedans like the Toyota Prius. The two-door CR-Z, by contrast, features a compact profile and roadster look. It also comes with multiple drive modes that allow cycling between sportier or more fuel-efficient drive settings.

"CR-Z is a look into the future of sporty and personal driving," said John Mendel, executive vice president of sales for American Honda.

The new CR-Z will get 36 city miles per gallon and 38 highway mpg, according to Honda's preliminary estimates. That's below the fuel economy of its flagship hybrid, the Insight. It's also less efficient the2010 Prius, which gets 51 city/48 highway mpg, according to the EPA.

Unlike other hybrids, CR-Z drivers will be able to cycle between three drive modes: sport, normal and economy. Sport mode enhances the car's performance, while economy mode maximizes fuel economy. The 1.5-liter, 4-cylinder engine will be available in 6-speed manual transmission or with a continuously variable transmission and boasts 122 horsepower.

Pricing will be announced at a late date, Honda said.

Honda Chief Executive Takanobu Ito said during the unveiling in Detroit that the company plans to add hybrid models to its Acura luxury brand. And in an interview earlier in the day, he said Honda remains focused on hybrids and wants to eventually be able to exceed the Prius in fuel economy.

The CR-Z is Honda's third entry in the gas-electric hybrid market, after the Civic hybrid and the Insight. The Insight, a four-door sedan that went on sale in the U.S. last year, was designed to be a cheaper competitor to the market-leading Prius.

While the Insight has sold well in Japan — where it is the No. 2 hybrid and the fifth-best selling vehicle overall — sales in the U.S. have been disappointing and reviews among critics have been mixed. Honda projected it would sell more than 40,000 Insights in 2009, but sold a little more than half that number.

Mendel said the Insight faced a difficult market. The economy disproportionately affected the young buyers Honda was targeting, he said. At the same time, gas prices fell, so consumers were less interested in hybrids.

"Insight is the right car. The timing could have been better," Mendel told The Associated Press in an interview.

In December, Honda sold 1,639 Insights in the U.S. In contrast, Toyota sold nearly 12,000 Priuses.

Detroit Auto Show

2010-01-11T15:29:00.001-08:00

Toyota unveils pint-sized hybrid concept car

AP – Toyota FT-CH compact hybrid concept car is shown at the North American International Auto Show Monday, …

Mon Jan 11, 2:47 pm ET

DETROIT – Toyota unveiled a new hybrid concept car that is smaller than the Prius and geared toward younger buyers, part of the company's hybrid and alternative-fuel lineup, which it is expanding over the next several years.

The Japanese automaker showed off the FT-CH compact at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, and it confirmed it plans to expand the Prius brand from a single vehicle to a family of hybrids.

The FT-CH could be sold under the Prius name, Toyota said.

The plan to broaden the Prius brand is a sign of its success and loyalty among buyers. The Prius, which launched in the U.S. in 2000, has long been the nation's top-selling hybrid and was the best-selling vehicle overall in Japan last year.

"The strategy is still taking shape and obviously it will require additional models to qualify as a family," said Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, a division of Toyota Motor Corp.

Hybrids run on batteries and gasoline.

Toyota said the two-door FT-CH, 22 inches shorter than the Prius, is lighter and more fuel efficient and its styling, inspired by 8-bit video games popular during the 1980s, is intended to appeal to younger buyers.

The FT-CH, as a concept vehicle, has no official sales or production schedule.

Toyota said it plans to sell 1 million hybrids worldwide each year by launching eight new models over the next few years.

It also plans to offer plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars starting in model-year 2012 and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in 2015.

Toyota recently launched a global demonstration program of its plug-in hybrid technology. Starting early this year, Toyota is sending 150 plug-in Priuses with lithium-ion batteries — less bulky than the nickel-metal hydride batteries that currently power hybrids — to the U.S. for testing.

The automaker also said Monday it will send more than 100 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to universities, companies and government agencies in California and New York to publicize hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

Ford Fusion Hybrid is North American Car of the Year

2010-01-11T08:59:00.001-08:00

Ford Sweeps Honors as Transit Connect is Named N.A. Truck of the Year

#NAIAS - Capping a sweet introductory year, the commercially well-received Ford Fusion Hybrid won top critical honors this morning as it was named the North American Car of the Year by a jury of 49 automotive journalists.

Ford's mid-sized hybrid sedan, which helped boosts Ford's overall sale performance in an otherwise dismal 2009, has been praised for its smooth operation, fuel economy, looks and interactive information system that helps drivers modify their behind-the-wheel behavior to increase fuel economy.

Ford dealers sold 15,554 Fusion Hybrids last year, making it the third best-selling gas-electric model in the market behind the industry's perennial leader, Toyota's Prius, the the new and lower-priced compact Honda Insight hybrid.

The North American Car of the Year Award is considered meaningful because it does not represent the judgment of a single publication or media outlet but is bestowed by an independent panel of journalists, including freelance writers and editors and those representing a wide variety newspapers, magazines and on-line publications.

The 17-year-old award recognizes what the judges feel are the most significant vehicles of the year in terms of technical innovation, design, user friendliness, safety, handling and value.

This year's award marks the fourth time - and the second time for Ford - that a hybrid has won since the first gas-electric car was sold in North American in 1999. The Ford Escape Hybrid was named truck of the year by the panel in 2005.

Edmunds is represented on the panel by editors from Inside Line, Auto Observer and Edmunds.com.

Judges also selected Ford's Transit Connect commercial van, introduced in the u.s. last year after several years of success in the European market, as the North American Truck of the Year.

This marks only the third time the same automaker captured both car and truck award in the same year. Honda was the first to do so, in 2006, followed by General Motors in 2007.

Posted by John O'Dell January 11, 2010, 7:32 AM

2010 Detroit Auto Show

2010-01-11T08:19:00.001-08:00

#NAIAS - Hoping to overshadow a recent spate of bad publicity about vehicle quality and safety recalls by focusing on things to come, Toyota announced a U.S. test of its fuel-cell electric vehicle, showed a new dedicated compact hybrid and called for a national effort to develop an alternative fueling infrastructure - all before lunch as the 2010 North American International Auto Show's press preview days got underway this morning.

----------
Toyota's FT-EV concept will become a production electric car in 2012.
----------

The company said its call to provide public chargers for battery-electric vehicles and hydrogen stations for fuel-cell cars is based on its belief that consumers will demand more than home-based refueling systems for advanced technology vehicles and want electrically driven cars to offer the same coast-to-coast mobility their gasoline and diesel cars and trucks now provide.
Toyota Motor Sales USA President Jim Lentz also restated the company's intent to to begin a number of other advanced technology vehicle programs including:

plans to introduce eight new, dedicated hybrids - either all-new models or hybrid versions of existing gasoline-only models;
introduction of its first lithium-ion battery in a plug-in Prius hybrid (right), to be launched this year for fleet testing in the U.S.;
retail sales of plug-in hybrids by 2012;
launch of a battery-electric city car as a 2012 model, also using lithium-ion batteries;
a 100-vehicle test in the U.S. of its hydrogen fuel cell technology;
global retail sales of fuel-cell vehicles in 2015.

Posted by John O'Dell January 11, 2010, 7:50 AM

Detroit Auto Show

2010-01-10T17:01:00.001-08:00

Smaller, electric cars reign at Detroit auto show

AP – FILE - This file image provided by General Motors Friday Jan. 8, 2010 shows the 2011 Chevrolet Aveo RS …

Related Quotes
Symbol	Price	Change
F	11.69	+0.03
HMC	34.34	+0.77
MTLQQ	0.00	0.00

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer – 2 hrs 1 min ago

DETROIT – Electric, hybrid and small cars will grab center stage at the Detroit auto show this week, as the industry adapts to a world reshaped by the Great Recession and environmental worries.

The event will demonstrate just how automakers are responding to this new reality. Ford wants to build on its success in midsize sedans and re-ignite its small car sales, while Hyundai aims to extend last year's triumph in budget-conscious models. GM and Chrysler will start fresh with electric vehicles but also try to boost their small-car credibility. Toyota hopes to solidify its dominance in hybrids.

The new crop of models must be successful if automakers are to reverse last year's 21 percent sales plunge. Mounting job losses, GM and Chrysler's bankruptcy filings and the death of several iconic brands sent sales skidding to their lowest level since 1982.

Americans feel less wealthy — and more certain that the trend toward higher fuel prices remains a threat. It's a change U.S. automakers were slow to embrace — and it cost them the last two years as gas prices surged and consumers stopped spending. Most Japanese and European car makers were also caught in the sales downdraft, even though they depended less on pickup trucks.

In 2010, with frugality embedded in drivers' minds, automakers want to show off new versions of smaller, less expensive cars, many of which get 40 mpg on highways. That also appeals to motorists concerned about climate change.

The show isn't exclusively about small cars. Detroit automakers also will try to revive 1960s-style car passion with muscle cars, a niche that's doing well.

Compared with last year's stripped-down down affair, the show will offer more glitter. GM will have an elevated floor for new cars, a change from 2009's carpet-over-concrete that was just about everywhere.

One big display is a 37,000-square-foot "Electric Avenue" on the main floor, featuring 20 vehicles that run on kilowatts instead of gasoline. Electrics were shown last year, but shared the spotlight with cars powered by conventional engines.

"Last year we had that 'sky-is-falling' mentality, and everybody was running for cover," says Doug Fox, an Ann Arbor, Mich., car dealer and chairman of this year's show, officially called the North American International Auto Show. "We are seeing a little more investment made in the actual exhibits than last year."

Although auto sales improved at the end of 2009, the 41 new vehicles to be unveiled at this year's show will be down from last year's 50, Fox says.

That's because Chrysler LLC, which normally shows five or six new vehicles, has no debuts, and GM has fewer new vehicles because it is shedding the Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn and Saab brands, Fox says.

Here are some key trends to watch at this year's Detroit auto show:

SMALL IS BIG

Small cars and smaller SUVs — called crossovers — made up only 21 percent of U.S. sales in 2003. But last year, they rose to 32 percent and are expected to grow to 36 percent in 2013. Buyers will see that trend reflected at the show.

General Motors Co. will show off the new Chevrolet Aveo subcompact. The Aveo has been given a more powerful engine, and a lower grille and 19-inch tires for a tougher appearance. The four-door Aveo, along with Ford Motor Co.'s new Focus and Chevrolet Spark minicar, will be part of a small-car blitz. All three will get near 40 mpg on the highway.

"The new paradigm of the American passenger car is no longer great, big rear-wheel-drive luxobarges," says Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst for the consulting firm IHS Global Insight in Troy, Mich. "It's small, efficient and upscale."

ELECTRIC BUZZ GETS LOUDER

Much of the show's buzz is expected to come from electric vehicles, which have jumped off the drawing board and onto the convention floor. Several big automakers plan to sell them in late 2010, giving the broader public its first chance to buy cars that rely more on electrical outlets than gas pumps.

The big draw is the chance to stop burning gas and drive a more environmentally friendly car, but the cars are expensive.

Nissan Motor Co.'s rechargeable Leaf, due in showrooms late this year, will make its first appearance inside a U.S. auto show. The Leaf is purely electric, using just a rechargeable battery for power. But its expected cost is about $30,000. Chevrolet's Volt, unveiled three years ago and for sale this fall, will make a reappearance at the show. It costs about $40,000, although there are up to $7,500 in tax credits available.

China's BYD Co. LTD, which has the backing of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, plans to show the F3DM plug-in hybrid compact sedan and the new e6 that could come to the U.S. late this year.

Among the Europeans, BMW AG will unveil an electric concept car.

Toyota, whose Prius has dominated gas-electric hybrid sales across the globe, plans to show a new hybrid car.

Unlike the last few years, Chinese automakers largely will skip the show, perhaps because they're focusing on their own country's explosive sales growth. Still, any car maker that wants to grow must focus on the U.S., where Asian manufacturers collectively grabbed a bigger chunk of the market than Detroit manufacturers for the first time last year.

One floor below the main level, people can ride with a professional driver in electric cars on a tree-lined course, another sign of the dramatic transition from internal combustion engines to electric.

SWING BACK TO 60s MUSCLE

Muscle cars, while a small part of the market, sold relatively well last year with the Mustang outdueling the Camaro for the top sales spot. Each automaker sold more than 60,000 of the cars.

Ford will put a bigger, more powerful V-8 into the Mustang, while GM plans to show a Chevrolet Camaro convertible muscle car and a sporty GS version of the Buick Regal midsize sedan.

New designs for both small and performance cars generally are following trends toward smaller windows and higher door lines that rise from the hood to rear. Side and hood creases in the sheet metal are designed to make cars appear as they are moving even while still.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Beijing contributed to this report.

Woot!

2010-01-10T16:08:00.001-08:00

AFS Trinity, a small company headquartered in Bellevue Washington has developed a system that can turn a production hybrid SUV, strait off the showroom floor, into a 150 MPG Plug-In Hybrid SUV! The Extreme Hybrid (XH ^TM) is a system that can be adapted to an existing vehicle. Its uses technology we have today so there's no need to wait for fuel cells or pure electric cars to mature. We could all be driving at 150 MPG today.

78% of Americans drive less than 40 miles per day. For these drivers this system may never fire up its gasoline or flex-fuel motor. Instead the batteries and electric motor will power the car from the charge it received at home. When the batteries run low the efficient combustion motor kicks in to charge the batteries and drive the car. In a just few years the system pays for itself in gas not burned.
Ideally main stream automakers take notice of this and all the other technologies popping up this week as a result of the North American Internal Auto Show in Detroit. Hopefully main stream auto makers will jump on board and begin implementing these simple innovative ideas in their own cars. This system for example could easily be licensed by big automakers and installed in cars now.

You can make a significant difference by waiting to buy your next car until a super efficient Plug-In Hybrid is available. When you choose spend your money only on the best technology and you show that you're willing to wait for it, auto makers will take notice and make the right decision. Choose to wait. Choose to buy a 100+ MPG vehicle as your next new car. Vote with your wallet!

Why Hydrogen is a Bad Idea

2010-01-10T15:20:00.001-08:00

#1 Commercial hydrogen usually comes from natural gas.
The vast majority of commercial hydrogen comes from processing natural gas. This is because it's cheaper and easier to extract hydrogen from natural gas than through the electrolysis of water.
But let's say for a minute that we were going to get our hydrogen from water. Why would we use that electricity to extract hydrogen? Why not just use it to charge up the electric car? Oh right… Energy company profits would be at risk.

#2 A new national hydrogen infrastructure would be needed.
To build a national infrastructure of commercial hydrogen filling stations would take decades and would probably rely on the current natural gas pipelines like Honda's Home Energy Station. Why not stop using fossil fuels and stick solar panels on out homes instead? Oh right… Energy company profits would be at risk.
In Honda's defense they have also been testing a solar powered system to make hydrogen from the electrolysis of water. Honda seems to be way ahead of the curve and have their irons in many fires. Smart people at Honda.

#3 The largest proven natural gas reserves are in Russia and Persian Gulf.
The largest natural reserves of natural gas in the world are located in Iran and Russia.Why the heck would we want to choose to experience, peak oil, peak coal, and then peak natural gas. Why not start building the world's largest renewable energy system right here in our own backyard? Oh right… Energy company profits would be at risk.

Conclusion
I'm really happy that Obama has assembled the team of smart people he has. Decisions like the DOE cutting way back on Hydrogen is incredibly smart.Hydrogen fuel cells are sexy sounding technology for a fossil fuel sourced fuel. Eventually when it's possible to make vast quantities of hydrogen from the electrolysis of seawater and the electricity used to make it comes from renewable sources (solar, wind, wave, hydroelectric) then the real green promise of Hydrogen might be realized. But this would take decades so it makes a lot more sense to stop throwing tax dollars away on it.

If the energy companies are so hot to see hydrogen happen let them pay for it. Haven't we let them raid public funds long enough with their pocket presidents and oil wars?
Electric cars, while not super sexy today, are a better long term solution and plug-in hybrid technology is here RIGHT NOW! Plug-in hybrids are the best transition technology because for local trips they never have to fire up their gasoline engines. Who knows maybe someone will figure out a flex-fuel plug-in hybrid too… now that would be cool. Battery and charging technology is also advancing very quickly making quick-charge electric cars a more likely near-term possibility.

I'm not on anyone's payroll and I write what I think. What you see here are my humble opinions. If you take a little time and do the research yourself you'll see I'm right. In the end we can make it all happen by simply voting with our dollars. Choose to buy a new car when they deliver a car worth buying. I'm holding out for at least 100MPG.

Green Technology

2010-01-09T16:41:00.001-08:00

Technology Articles

2015 is New Magic Date for Fuel Cell Vehicles

provided by HybridCars.com

Wishing upon a star or throwing a coin in a well might make dreams come true, but when it comes to fuel cell vehicles, auto industry executives are hoping that chanting in unison will turn hopes into reality. The mantra from execs: "Fuel cell cars for sale by 2015."

Honda FCX Clarity

In the past few weeks, Ford, Toyota and Daimler have expressed and reiterated their commitment to bringing hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to market in six years, with Honda pushing its target date to 2018.

The US Department of Energy announced that it will be pulling the plug on fuel cell research and development—and California is threatening to slash its spending on building a hydrogen refueling infrastructure—but automakers are holding firm to their new timeline for hydrogen.

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told Speigel Magazine in March that annual production of fuel cell cars will need to reach 100,000 units to be considered commercially viable, and that vehicle prices could be comparable to "premium" gasoline cars by around 2015.

Toyota.s spokesperson John Hanson said in June, "Toyota is planning to go ahead with its program in certain world markets by 2015, if not sooner."

Speaking in June at the Edison Electric Institute conference, Ford CEO Alan Mulally saw 2015 as the date that fuel cell cars would go on sale. Mulally hedged when reminded of the US government.s cut in fuel cell research funding. "That pushes out the timeframe for commercialization," he said.

At a recent fuel cell conference, GM.s Larry Burns also agreed with the 2015 dates, commenting: "General Motors is committed to developing a hydrogen fuel cell car despite its bankruptcy and a huge cut in (federal) research dollars for the zero-emission (hydrogen) vehicle." Dave Barthmuss, GM's West Coast regional PR manager, said last week, "We don't need any more breakthroughs to bring the [fuel cell] cars into the commercial market by 2015."

Honda's Steve Ellis, manager of fuel cell vehicle sales and marketing, told an audience at a National Hydrogen Association webinar in June that Honda is looking at 2018 as its magic date, but is already producing the FCX Clarity on a regular production line.

Waiting for a Miracle?

Despite repeated statements pinpointing 2015 for delivering fuel cell cars, automakers acknowledge two major hurdles in reaching that goal: high costs and lack of infrastructure. As Andreas Truckenbrodt, chief executive of the Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation—a Daimler-Ford venture to advance fuel cells for vehicles—said, "Fuel cells work fine. The number one focus is now on cost reductions, and we know how to get there. Do you really think we would be spending billions if we were waiting for a miracle?"

But a miracle might be required for producing and selling fuel cell cars in any significant numbers by 2015. The hydrogen-refueling infrastructure remains a distant, and extremely expensive, dream. The federal government and the State of California are both wavering on previous commitments to spend the required large sums of money on building hydrogen stations—begging the question of who will buy fuel cell cars without knowing where they will find fuel. If the US commitment to this technology wavers, auto companies may shift their focus to more markets, such as Japan and Germany.

Most industry analysts do not expect commercialization of fuel cell cars until 2020, at the earliest. As the move to plug-in cars—plug-in hybrids and electric cars—builds momentum, carmakers that have heavily invested in fuel cell technologies will feel increased pressure to justify the expense and convince their stakeholders that fuel cells are coming sooner than expected.

Moving On

2010-01-09T10:36:00.001-08:00

Electric Car Maker Moving to Indiana

Friday, January 08, 2010 Associated Press

An electric car maker plans to open a factory in a northern Indiana plant that once made parts for recreational vehicles.

State and local officials planned to join executives from Think North America for an official announcement Tuesday. The plant in Elkhart will be Think North America's first in the U.S. and provide much-needed jobs in a city that has been struggling since the RV industry collapsed during the recession.

Think North America, a subsidiary of Norwegian-based Think Global, projects its new factory could have 415 full-time jobs by 2013. Think Global currently makes its compact, two-door electric passenger cars at a plant in Finland.

The company began looking in Elkhart after negotiations broke down last week with the owner of a property in the nearby town of Middlebury, said Tom Kemeny, Think North America's chief financial officer.

The Elkhart City Council gave initial approval Monday night to a 10-year tax abatement plan for the company.

Gov. Mitch Daniels was to take part in the formal announcement Tuesday afternoon at the former facility for Philips Products, which made doors and windows for the RV industry. That plant, which had about 250 workers, closed last summer.

Barkley Garrett, the city's economic development director, said city officials worked through the weekend to complete the deal with the company after it ended talks for the Middlebury site.

"We're not poaching other communities' projects," Garrett said. "We knew our site was a backup site. We were not involved in negotiations until they contacted us."

Two other companies are working on plans to make electric vehicles in nearby Wakarusa.

Navistar International Corp. plans to build all-electric delivery trucks this year with a $39 million federal grant. Startup Electric Motors Corp. intends to make electric-hybrid drive trains to be installed in various vehicles, starting with a joint venture with Gulf Stream that would make light-duty electric trucks.

Elkhart County's unemployment rate peaked in March at 18.9 percent but has fallen steadily since, hitting 14.5 percent in November.

"I don't think it makes any difference who gets this company or where they go as long as they go in Elkhart County," County Council President John Leatherman said. "What we're trying to build here is an electric car cluster, which is really a new diversification for this economy."

Need to Control a Car? There's an App for that!

2010-01-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Jan. 7, 2010 Drivers of the new Chevy Volt will be able to control some of the car's functions through an OnStar mobile-phone application. Gary Gastelu has more in the Fox Car Report.

Car Buying Do's & Don't's

2010-01-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

Whether it’s your first time or you’re a seasoned pro, you should never buy a car on impulse. The buying process takes time, research, careful thought and even some strategy.

Truth be told, it can be overwhelming. In addition to finding the best car for the right price, you have to navigate through confusing payment options and deal with salespeople. One mistake -- no matter how small -- can cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Under such pressure, it’s easy to understand why so many car shoppers get in over their heads. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. By learning from past mistakes, you can find the right car and get a good deal too. Take a look at eight of the most common car buying mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Confusing Wants with Needs
Convertible two-seaters are really cool. But if you’re lugging a load of hockey equipment every day, chances are you’d do better with a Honda Fit than a Mazda Miata. Unfortunately, car shoppers often make the mistake of confusing their wants with their needs. After all, who wouldn’t want a car that’s faster, sexier or more luxurious? However, such choices aren’t always practical…or even affordable.
Avoid making the same mistake by putting together a list of regular activities that would require using your car. When car shopping, reference the list to make sure that the car you’re considering will serve those functions well.

2. Test-Driving the Wrong Trim
You know those weird letter-number combinations that follow your car’s badge -- LS, GLS, LX, LP560-4? In most cases, they denote significant performance, interior and even exterior differences between trims of the same model. The Dodge Challenger SRT8, for example, performs like a true American muscle car. The Challenger SE? Not so much.
Be wary of dealers who give you the highest trim level of a car to test drive and then proceed to sell you a trim that better fits your budget. Car shoppers who fall for this trick usually end up sorely disappointed with the car's performance and features. To avoid making this mistake, test drive the exact trim you plan to buy before signing any papers.

3. Sacrificing Reliability for Appeal
Don’t let a car's curb appeal or features sway you. Buying a pretty car with funky features and a poor history of reliability can prove to be a major drain on your wallet. Just ask anyone who has purchased a Volkswagen Jetta. Shoppers love the Jetta for its small size, cute design and sprightly performance. However, the vehicle has a so-so record of dependability -- receiving a J.D. Power rating of only 2.5 out of five power circles for predicted reliability.
Before you allow a car’s emotional statement to overpower your ability to think rationally, research its reliability. J.D. Power and Associates is a good source for determining whether your car is doomed to be a lemon. If you’re buying a used car, hire a mechanic to conduct a pre-purchase inspection.

4. Not Knowing What Others Paid
Saving $500 on the sticker price of a 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser is great, but not if the average buyer is saving thousands more. In the past, it was almost impossible to know whether the price you negotiated at the dealership was a good one. However, with the dawn of the internet, that information is now readily available. The Land Cruiser, for instance, has an MSRP of $65,970, but the average price paid is only $63,645.

5. Underestimating the Value of Your Trade-In
A smart way to save money on the price of a new car is to trade in your old one. But a dumb way to miss out on potential savings is by taking the dealer’s word for how much your car is worth or announcing that you intend to trade in your ride too early in the game. After all, a dealer’s primary job is to maximize his profits -- not your savings. By failing to prepare or showing your cards too early, you could be making a costly mistake.
Before stepping foot on a dealer lot, consult Kelley Blue Book or NADA Guides to determine your car’s trade-in value. At the dealership, use that knowledge to negotiate a fair price. However, don’t mention anything about wanting to trade in your car until you’ve already negotiated a suitable deal on a new one. Waiting until the very end to mention your trade-in will ensure that its value gets factored into the final price. Also, remember that you can negotiate the value of your trade-in. If you don't like what the dealer is offering for your trade, find a dealership that will give you what your car is worth.

6. Buying Options You Don’t Need
If you’re shopping for a 2010 Lexus IS, an optional navigation system is going to run you an additional $2,465. It’s a great system that features the latest in voice command and Bluetooth technology. But if you don’t need all those bells and whistles, you can buy a TomTom portable GPS for only $150 and still get where you need to go. Shoppers who make the mistake of opting for unnecessary extras will quickly inflate the price of their new cars.
Avoid wasting money on optional features that you don’t need by researching their prices first. Most manufacturers will list the price of individual and package options right on their websites. If you come across a feature that you really want, try to find an aftermarket store that sells a comparable version for less. You’ll be surprised at how much you can save.

7. Not Cross-Shopping Car Deals
One of the costliest mistakes car shoppers can make is forgetting to cross-shop car deals just as they would competing vehicles -- though doing so can help save them bundles. Take, for example, the similarly-priced Nissan Versa a Chevrolet Aveo.
Recently, the Aveo was offered with zero-percent financing for up to 72 months. Nissan, on the other hand, was only offering 1.9 percent financing for up to 60 months plus $500 cash on the Versa. At first glance, the Aveo appears to be the better deal. However, a simple crunching of the numbers reveals that the Versa’s monthly payment would actually turn out to be a bit less than the Aveo -- assuming an equal down payment of course.
Don’t let carefully-crafted sales promotions mislead you into thinking that you’re getting the best deal around. Be meticulous in comparing car deals for competing vehicles, and remember that these deals change monthly. U.S. News’ best car deals will keep you in the loop.

8. Only Thinking in Terms of Monthly Payments
For most people, it’s easier to think in terms of affordable monthly payments than a daunting end price. However, such short-sightedness has led many car shoppers to overpay. Sure, a $250 per month car payment is easier to swallow than a $350 payment, but getting that lower price often means taking out a loan over a longer period. In the end, that means paying more interest and fees.To avoid overpaying, don’t just calculate what your monthly payment will be. Add up those payments to determine whether the total price paid still makes economic sense.

The World is getting Hotter

2010-01-08T17:17:00.001-08:00

From the noughties to hot and wild – the world is just getting hotter.

Visit http://www.wasea.com.au for further information

Latest analysis from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology shows Australia has experienced the warmest decade since records started in 1910 reaffirms the solid evidence on climate change and a warming planet.

Submitted on 01/08/10, 02:14 AM

From the noughties to hot and wild – the world is just getting hotter.

The latest analysis from the Bureau of Meteorology, showing Australia has experienced the warmest decade since records started in 1910, reaffirms the solid evidence on climate change and a warming planet, and the political game playing and delays that overshadows the reason for action on climate change needs to stop, says Prof. Ray Wills, Chief Executive of the Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA), and Adjunct Professor with The University of Western Australia.

‘Global temperatures are rising – its been measured, it is a fact. Science has established that the cause of rising global temperatures is human-induced climate change.’

The inconvenient truth is now an undeniable truth.

‘'Strong and immediate action is required to stop the growth in world emissions and rapidly start the process of reducing emissions to a scientifically established level. Science tells us that we must quickly bring atmospheric CO2 concentrations back below 350 ppm if we are to avoid dangerous climate change,’ says Prof Wills.

‘Fixing climate change and acting on greenhouse gas emissions fuelling the increasing pace of global warming is essential for the health of the planet, the welfare of the community, and in the best interests of the world economy,’ says Prof Wills.

‘In other words, climate change is real, the impacts are already proving dire and will only get worse, humans are causing it, and we need to stop,’ says Prof Wills.

WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA) Media Release – 5 January 2010

Automakers Post Second Best Month of 2009

2010-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch

Ford, Asian manufacturers shine while Chrysler, GM post declines

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Automakers slammed the books Tuesday on one of their worst years in decades while eagerly touting December's 15% surge in U.S. car sales as evidence that 2010 is going to be far better.

Ford Motor Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f (F 11.69, +0.03, +0.26%) led the charge, breaking further away from still-struggling Detroit rivals.

George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst, said the double-digit improvement represents the best year-over-over performance for the group since the employee-pricing promotion sent sales soaring back in July 2005.

/quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f
F 11.69, +0.03, +0.26%

151050MMJSNThe closely watched seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales, or SAAR, came to 11.25 million cars and trucks last month, according to Autodata. That tops every month in 2009 except August, which got a huge boost from the U.S. government's cash-for-clunkers rebate program.

Specifically, Ford Motor Co. said its U.S. sales jumped 33%, while rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler, both recovering from stints in bankruptcy, said they sold even fewer cars in December than they did a year ago, when the market appeared to be in freefall.

"Ford's plan is working," said Ken Czubay, the company's head of sales and marketing. "It was a challenging and very volatile year. ... For 2010, I'm leaving my seat belt on, because I think that volatility is still an element of the 'new norm.'"

Ford sales totaled 184,655 cars and trucks, up from 139,067 vehicles a year earlier, easily topping Wall Street's targets for the month.

Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury branded cars rose 42% to 61,195 vehicles. Volvo, which Ford is in the process of selling, registered a 13.8% rise to 5,638 vehicles.

The truck side, boosted by big gains from the top-selling F-Series pickup, jumped 29.4% to 117,822 vehicles.

Ford said it likely garnered about 15% of the market, up 1 percentage point from 2008 -- marking the first year-on-year increase in the company's market share since 1995.

Ford reports a rally in U.S. salesFord ends 2009 with a sales rally, reporting a 33% surge in December.
Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford has benefited from a relatively fresh lineup along with goodwill garnered from avoiding bankruptcy and declining to take money in a federal bailout, unlike Chrysler and GM.

Investors embraced Ford's report, running the company's shares up as high as $11.24 to touch levels not seen since 2005. The stock finished the session up 6.6% at $10.96 and has now added 325% in the past year.

GM, Chrysler slip
GM handed in a 6.1% sales decline to 208,511 from 221,983 a year ago, blaming a drop in sales of rental cars and brands not considered to be part of GM's future.

The company said it expects sales for the industry to tally about 10.6 million vehicles for the entire year, marking the lowest level since 1982.

Hydrogen Fuel

2010-01-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Why is hydrogen used as a fuel?

Hydrogen has the highest energy content per unit weight of any known fuel-52,000 Btu/lb (120.7 kJ/g). It burns cleanly. When hydrogen is burned with oxygen, the only by products are heat and water. When burned with air, which is about 68% nitrogen, some oxides of nitrogen are formed. The process of converting hydrogen to energy using engines or fuel cells is much more efficient than the comparable gasoline counterparts.

How much hydrogen is consumed to produce 1 kWh of electricity using a PEM fuel cell?

In general, to produce 1 kilowatt (kW) of electricity for 1 hour (one kilowatt-hour, kWh) from a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell requires about 25-27 standard cubic feet (scf) of hydrogen. A standard cubic foot (scf) is the amount of hydrogen that occupies one cubic foot of space when it is not pressurized (in other words, at regular atmospheric pressure) and at 60 degrees F (a little cooler than room temperature).

How does hydrogen compare with other fuels like gasoline and diesel?

• Hydrogen can be totally nonpolluting (water is the exhaust).
• Hydrogen can be economically competitive with gasoline or diesel.
• Hydrogen can be as safe as gasoline, diesel, or natural gas.
• Hydrogen can help reduce our dependence on imported fuels.
• Hydrogen can be produced in any country or locale from a variety of energy sources.

What is the octane rating of hydrogen?
Short answer: "130+" according to a study done by the College of the Desert and Sunline Transit Agency

Longer answer: The octane rating of gasoline tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug, it causes "knocking" in the engine. Knocking can damage an engine, so it is not something you want to have happening. Lower-octane gas (like "regular" 87-octane gasoline) can handle the least amount of compression before igniting compared to higher octane grades (like "super" 93-octane gasoline).

The compression ratio of your engine determines the octane rating of the gas you must use in the car. One way to increase the horsepower of an engine of a given displacement is to increase its compression ratio. So a "high-performance engine" has a higher compression ratio and requires higher-octane fuel. The advantage of a high compression ratio is that it gives your engine a higher horsepower rating for a given engine weight -- that is what makes the engine "high performance." The disadvantage is that for gasoline, it costs more.

Hydrogen has an octane rating of 130 because it can be compressed more than gasoline and 100% octane before the fuel automatically ignites in the engine. (Gasoline with 87-octane has 87% octane, a special kind of hydrocarbon that makes up gasoline and other fuels).

Here are some other octane ratings:
• Methane: 125
• Propane: 105
• Octane: 100
• Gasoline: 87
• Diesel: 30

How is hydrogen produced?

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. However it is always bonded with something else like oxygen (to make water) or carbon (to make all plants). Hydrogen is all around us, but to use it, we must first separate the hydrogen from the other things bonded to it. One of hydrogen's advantages is that it can be made from a variety of local resources like water, plants, coal, natural gas and even algae. Although having so many choices sounds complicated, it's a great advantage because no one region or country has to be dependant on one resource. This means you can choose whichever resources make the most sense to make hydrogen, environmentally and economically.

Another choice that you have when making hydrogen is how much you make. When we make most fuels today, it's best to make very large quantities in refineries. However, with hydrogen you can just as easily make very small amounts, enough for one camera or cell phone, or very large amounts that could supply an entire town.

Today, in the U.S., over 95% of the hydrogen is made in very large quantities from natural gas, mostly to make fertilizer and to help make gasoline cleaner by removing impurities like sulphur. As hydrogen moves from these large industrial uses to something that you and I commonly use to fuel our businesses, homes, electronics and vehicles, we expect other resources besides natural gas to be used and that it will be made in a variety of amounts depending on how much is needed.

Plug-in Cars & Trucks Part I

2010-01-07T10:33:00.001-08:00

Cars & Trucks

Make, Model & Type	Features	Status	Views
Audi A1 Sportback PHEV	5 door, 4 passenger, AER 31-62 mi (normal vs efficiency mode), 0-60 mph 8 sec, top speed 120 mph, 20kW electric motor, 1.4L engine. Efficiency mode has slower acceleration and all-electric speed to 62 mph.	Target Intro: 2011 Progress: concept car at Paris Motor Show 2008 source: Audi
Audi e-tron EV	2 door sports car based on the R8, 2 passenger, range 248 km (154 mi), 0-62mph 4.8 sec, top speed 200 km/h (124mph), 42.4 kWh Li-ion battery pack, 4 hub motors with a combined output of 230kW, Audi announced in Nov 2009, plans to build road capable prototype in 2010 followed later by full production.	Target Intro: Not yet announced. Progress: Concept car unveiled at 2009 Franfurt Motor Show source: Audi & Edmunds
BAIC BE701 EV	4-door sedan, range 200km(120mi), 0–100km/h in 15 sec, top speed of 160km/h (100mph), fully self-developed EV by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corporation (BAIC) under subsidiary Beijing New Energy Automotive. BAIC also announced investment plans of $334M for a clean energy vehicle plant and target to build 20,000-40,000 vehicles / year in 2011 .	Target Intro: Not yet announced Progress: Prototype shown in Shanghai Nov 2009 source: China Car Times & Edmunds
BMW MINI E EV	Conversion of MINI 2-door hardtop to 2-seat EV with drivetrain & battery from AC Propulsion, range 150 mi, top speed 95 mph, 35 kWh Li-ion battery back uses 5000+ laptop style batteries, 150kW electric motor, 220Nm torque, 3-4.5 hr recharge on fast charge (240V 48A/32A), 26.5 hr on 120V 12A, wt 3230 lbs	Target Intro: no plan announced for mass production Progress: Trial fleet of 500 cars in US on 1-year leases to general public, first car delivered on lease May 22, 2009 source: BMW
BMW Vision PHEV	Vision EfficientDynamics, all-new design 2-door 4 seater, 31 mi AER, total range 400 mi, 0-60 mph 4.8 sec, top speed 155 mph, recharge 2.5 hr on 240V, 2 electric motors (1 each axle), 356 hp, 560 lb-ft peak, 1.5L 3-cyclinder turbo diesel engine, 3000+ lbs, Cd 0.22	Target Intro: no plan announced for mass production Progress: concept car shown at Frankfurt Auto Show source: BMW
BYD Auto e6 EV	4 door crossover, 5 passenger, range 400 km (249 mi), 0-60mph 8 sec, top speed 100 mph, BYD Li-ion Fe battery, 10 min recharge to 50% SOC, 4 power combinations using front & rear motors on some models: 75kW, 75+40kW, 160kW, 160+40kW	Target Intro:China & US 2010, Europe 2010 Progress: demo units now source: BYD

Plug In America - Plug-in Vehicle Tracker

2010-01-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Plug In America is providing the following for informational purposes only. They do not endorse or recommend any specific vehicle manufacturer or distributor.

http://www.pluginamerica.org/vehicles/

Vehicle Finder: Cars & Trucks
2 & 3 Wheeler Vehicles
Commercial Vehicles

Latest major changes:

Added Ginetta G50 EV, Rolls Royce Electric Phantom, Volvo C30 EV, Mavizen TTX02, Myers Motors Duo, SABA Carbon Zero

Revised Lumeneo SMERA, Tata Indica EV, Tesla Roadster, Arcimoto Pulse, Smith Newton

Key terms: EV: Electric Vehicle, PHEV: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (includes Range Extended Electric Vehicles), AER: All-electric range, AVAILABLE: can be ordered by the general public and units are shipping now, Mule: development vehicle, normally in body of existing vehicle, can be driven to test key components, SOC: state-of-charge

What vehicles get listed? Many companies have announced a vehicle, or have produced artwork or vehicle renderings. To be included on this list, companies must have completed a concept, demonstration, or mule vehicle. They also support safety and have elected to include vehicles which have been safety certified or intend to be certified. They do not include aftermarket conversions which have not been safety certified.

Ford Enters Electric Car Field

2010-01-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ford Motor Co. will start a two-year test program of testing electric cars and vans in Germany starting in January. The cars that Ford is using are the Focus and the Transit van. Ford Motor Company is preparing to introduce battery-powered models as early as next year.

They have picked 25 vehicles to be driven under normal traffic conditions in Cologne, where Ford’s European division is based, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen, which is overseeing the 15 million-euro ($22 million) study.

Ford is going to pick drivers which will include researchers and customers selected by Ford. Data from the models will be monitored on computers so that they can simulate testing of more than 10,000 vehicles.

The 25 vehicles will be driven under normal traffic conditions in Cologne, where Ford’s European division is based, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen, which is overseeing the 15 million-euro ($22 million) study.

Bernd Meier, a spokesman for Ford in Cologne, said the study is Ford Motor Company's first in mainland Europe. The company is already trying out battery-powered vehicles in London, Meier said.

Ford, the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid model, said on Dec. 8 that it may spend $300 million to $500 million on factories in its home state of Michigan to build electric vehicles and batteries. The Dearborn-based company has a target of rolling out an electric-powered version of the Transit Connect commercial van next year, followed by an electric Focus in 2011.

Local utility RheinEnergie AG will supply vehicle-charging stations for the test, which is being financed by the German government’s economic-stimulus package.

Algae Biodiesel

2010-01-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is a really exciting story about the most incredible ENERGY coming on the market, OIL from ALGAE. What makes this so exciting is it is not about a fuel that is five years, or ten years, or even fifteen years down the road. Suneco Energy is presenting their technology and end product Right Now!!!

Algae Power Video!

CHINO, CA - July 29, 2009: J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. and SunEco Energy today announced the signing of a cooperative agreement, which could lead to J.B. Hunt becoming a significant purchaser of biodiesel made from natural algae oil using SunEco Energy's proprietary technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdD5ek22ns

Gary Whicker , Senior Vice President of engineering for J.B.Hunt states: " At this time Transportation fuel is virtually 100% oil-based," "Finding other energy sources to put in our fuel tanks is good business for our company and our nation. SunEco's innovative process to produce renewable fuel supplies from algae grown in American ponds is an intriguing new option. Our initial experience with their algae-based biodiesel is promising, and we are excited about the opportunity to work with SunEco Energy to move towards a lower cost, less carbon intensive, and more secure fuel supply for our business."

Dan Gautschi, Chairman and CEO of SunEco Energy states: “ We are very pleased that J.B. Hunt, a leading transportation company, took the steps to test our fuel in their trucks and are taking further steps to become a leader in the use of renewable fuels, The SunEco technology has been in development for over five years, with an operating pilot facility Over the past two years which has allowed us to continually produce barrels of oil rather than beakers, enabling us to provide oil for tests in a variety of applications."

SunEco's utilizes naturally occurring algae strains in a monitored setting to produce an oil product suitable for making renewable transportation fuels (biodiesel) and other oil-based products. One of the products is a high-quality animal feed supplement. SunEco is currently trying to raise additional funding to enable the large scale deployment of the technology in U.S. and international markets, including a large development in the Imperial Valley region of California.

SunEco's Algae Conversion Video

SunEco Energy is committed to leading the deployment of commercially viable bio-products made from natural algae strains. The Company's primary objective is to deliver reliable clean biodiesel products for transportation fuels and also livestock feeds, thus ending the trade-off between food and or fuel. Soon the company intends to expand its product range to include a full scope of products currently obtained from petroleum, such as, plastics and dyes, and inks as well as nutri-ceuticals.

SunEco’s in-depth understanding of the microalgae organism, and particularly how it behaves under certain conditions, allows the company to utilize naturally occurring algal species, without genetic modification, to produce and retain lipids which are basic building blocks needed to harvested oil. Rather than modify the algae, SunEco is able to modify the algal environment to cause the organism to behave in the desired manner – namely the production and retention of lipids, or fats, used to make oil.

At this time SunEco has a large Advantage, in time and in Scale. SunEco has gone through 18 pilot test harvests. This gave the company time to enhance and improve its process, also unlike other companies who have beakers of biodiesel. SunEco has barrels of the biodiesel, to test in numerous applications including some very successful on-road tests with a large interstate trucking company (J.B.Hunt).

Oil production sets SunEco apart today, and will continue to let SunEco outdistance the competition in the years ahead as they scale up production facilities to produce large quantities of high quality renewable biodiesel. The SunEco process was designed with scale in mind. Using naturally occurring algal strains, SunEco can utilize large open ponds for the growth medium. The SunEco process equipment has been designed to economically handle large volumes of alginated water. The large scale and high productivity of the process allows SunEco to produce at a very competitive unit rate.

SunEco Energy is now fully engaged in a large scale deployment of the technology in the Imperial Valley region of Southern California. The Company has acquired a large fish farm in the region which is being converted to a large algae harvesting and processing facility once all necessary approvals have been obtained. SunEco will undergo a dramatic growth phase as we move to become the leading supplier of renewable and sustainable algae based bioproducts.

Resources

2010-01-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

Largest selection and lowest prices of generator transfer switches. We sell ASCO, GE Zenith, Generator Joe, Generac, Winco, Onan, Reliance Controls, ESCO and others.

New & Used Cars

New and used cars including offers on popular UK vehicle makes such as:
Ford, BMW, Vauxhall, Renault and Peugeot.

Top Electric Cars - Part II

2010-01-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

• Fisker Karma

The Fisker Karma is a sporty looking, car that has the power to back up its looks. The Fisker comes with a Q-drive Technology. It has an innovative gas/ electric motor combination. In a way it is a hybrid, the electric motors (2) are the only mechanical drive to the wheels. The gas motor is mated with a generator that feed the batteries only if the batteries need to be recharged. The batteries have a range of 50 or so miles then the gas motor/generator comes on giving the Fisker a range of 300 miles, At a 100 miles per gallon U.S. The Fisker has a top end speed of 125 miles per hour, zero to 60 in 5.8 sec.. The twin electric motors produce 200+ Horse Power at 960 ft-lbf torque. The model shown at the car show was a convertible, with a folding hard top.

• Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf

The EV-11 (Leaf) uses an all electric drive train, the motor is 110 Horse Power, has a lithium-ion Battery pack. The Leaf has a range of 100 miles in City driving. The Leaf also has Navigation system, remote control from your cell phone and remote monitoring from your cell phone through Nissan secure data center. The expected price of the Leaf, depending on options, will be between $25,000 to $33,000.

Nissan Leaf will employ an advanced IT system. Connected to a global data center, the system provides support, information, and entertainment for drivers 24 hours a day.

The dash-mounted monitor displays the Leaf's remaining power, in addition to showing a selection of nearby charging stations.

User’s mobile phones can be used to turn on air-conditioning, the heater and re-set charging functions even when the vehicle is powered down. An on-board remote-controlled timer can also be pre-programmed to recharge batteries.

• PHOENIX SUT SUV

Production Vehicle Preliminary Specifications

Dimensions & Weights

Overall Length 195.5 inches / 4,965 mm
Overall Width 74.8 inches / 1,900 mm
Overall Height 69 inches / 1,755 mm
Wheelbase 120.5 inches / 3,060 mm

Gross Vehicle Weight 5,820 lbs. / 2,639.9 kg
Curb Vehicle Weight 4,820 lbs. / 2,186.2 kg
Payload 1,000 lbs. / 453.6 kg

Chassis: Front Suspension: Independent torsion bar and double wishbone
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc

Rear Suspension: Rigid axle and 5-link coil springs
Rear Brakes: Disc
Steering: Rack & pinion

Battery Pack: Battery Type (Power Rating): Lithium Titanate Battery (35 kWh)

Performance:

0-60 m.p.h.: Less than 10 seconds
Factory Set Top Speed: 95 m.p.h.
Braking: 60 to 0 m.p.h. in an estimated 150 feet

Range:

Urban (UDDS): 100+ miles per charge
Highway (HFEDS): 100+ miles per charge

Charging Time: On-Board Vehicle 6.6KW Charger: 5 to 6 hours
Off-Board High-Power 250KW Charger: Under 10 min. to 95% SOC

• Chevy Volt

The Chevy Volt is an electric hybrid car. It has an electric drive only, has the range of 40 miles on a full battery charge. When the batteries are discharged, the gas motor drives a generator to supply the electric motor the power needed to keep going, this gives the volt a range of many hundreds of miles. The first year’s volume, by GM’s own calculations, is 10 000 units.

The idea behind the Volt is wonderful. The car doesn’t have to trade off power between motor and engine from second to second according to some exquisitely complicated mechanism or scheme. Instead, the Volt makes electricity the main course. Today’s hybrids put the motor and engine in parallel so that they juggle their power contributions to the wheels according to many different parameters, including speed, battery charge, and the load on the engine. But the Volt links the power plants in series. That way the motor powers the wheels, and the engine merely engages, when needed, to recharge the vehicle’s enormous lithium-ion battery. How enormous? If you drive no more than 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) and have an electric socket handy at both ends of your commute, you won’t burn a drop of gasoline.

One problem I see in the near future is that inexpensive algae fuel will be available and will require no change in car engine design. The algae product will be mixed in with the fuel we pump now, and will eventually replace most of the oil imported from the Middle East.