May 12, 2010
Volkswagen Group will spend $508 million to start producing fuel-efficient dual-clutch transmissions in China as part of a plan to reduce emissions of its locally built cars, Reuters news service reported today.
This is the very same transmission VW put in its New Compact Coupe that made its world debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January. That vehicle, which borrows much of its styling from the VW Scirocco, gets a claimed 45 miles per gallon.
VW set a target three years ago to reduce fleet consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions in China by 20 percent by 2010.
The carmaker plans to build the seven-speed Direct Shift Gearbox transmission at its Dalian powertrain site, where initially some 300,000 units will be produced before the capacity could be eventually doubled over time.
At the end of April, Volkswagen announced its two joint ventures in China were boosting their investment program through 2012 by $2.03 billion to $7.6 billion altogether. This will be financed directly through the cash flow of the two JVs.
Next to Kassel in Germany, Dalian will be only the second Volkswagen plant that will assemble VW's dual-clutch transmissions, which improve fuel efficiency compared with manual transmissions because power flow from the engine to the transmission is not interrupted.
Interestingly, the dual-clutch transmission was invented by Frenchman Adolphe Kegresse just prior to World War II, but he never developed a working model. The first working dual-clutch transmissions were developed by Porsche for its racing cars in the 1980s. VW Group has since become the largest manufacturer of the transmissions.
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- Scott Doggett May 12, 2010, 8:58 AM
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May 11, 2010
Pushed Into China by Financial Backers, Company Surrendered a Proprietary Edge
Now Taxpayers Helping it Regain Manufacturing Footing in U.S.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
There's a sad subtext about the downfall of America's manufacturing base in a very readable profile of advanced battery pioneer A123 Systems that ran in Sunday's Los Angeles Times.
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Domestic sources of advanced batteries would seem to be critical to the electric-drive cars we're looking at to help reduce dependence on foreign oil, but venture capital sources push battery making offshore as well.
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The company, as have many before it - and, likely, will many after - went to China a few years ago to build its first battery plant.
It wasn't, though, because A123 was looking to make money through cheap labor and building costs to get the company's breakthrough lithium-nanophosphate batteries into production.
There are problems in building any kind of factory in modern America - labor's too expensive, land's not cheap, environmental rules are expensive to comply with, taxes hurt, and the list goes on.
None of that mattered, though.
Both CEO Davd Vieau and company founder Yet-Ming Chang told Times reporter Don Lee that they much rather would have, in Chang's words, "done it all in the U.S. ...I'm an American citizen. We're an American company,. It's an American technology."
Their world view was changed, however, when they went searching for funding from the venture capitalists of the Silicon Valley and the Route 128 tech hub outside of Boston.
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- John O'Dell May 11, 2010, 6:35 PM
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- Batteries
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May 11, 2010
Plug-in hybrids are all the rage in the passenger car world right now, but they can pull a significant loan in the commercial world as well.
Massachusetts-based A123 Systems, the lithium-ion battery maker whose cells and packs are used in a number of aftermarket PHEV conversion systems and by automakers BMW, Daimler, Fisker Automotive and the Shanghai Automotive industry Corp., has been selected to provide the battery system for a Ford F550-based plug-in hybrid powertrain being developed by Eaton Corp.
The battery-dependent powertrain is to be used by utility companies on so-called "trouble trucks" that carry workers and gear to inspect, maintain and repair transmission lines.
A123 said the trucks typically travel thousands of miles a year and spend hundreds of hours idling, often in residential neighborhoods, spewing diesel fumes and wasting fuel.
A rechargeable hybrid system would give the trucks the ability to provide power for utility workers' equipment from the batteries for 5-6 hours while the diesel engine was shut down, as well as to augment the diesel engine with up to 10 miles of all-electric range at low speed. Fuel savngs of as much as 63 percent are expected, according to A123 and Eaton
The project is being funded in part with a $45 million grant from the federal Energy Department.
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- John O'Dell May 11, 2010, 4:50 PM
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May 11, 2010
Just because Jaguar Land Rover has been late to the hybrid game doesn't mean owners of its future plug-in hybrids will have to lose time charging them up.
Jaguar Land Rover, which said late last year that it would develop a plug-in diesel-electric hybrid version of its popular Range Rover Sport, is testing five prototypes in Great Britain in conjunction with power provider E.On that can be almost completely recharged from an E.On fast-charge point in about 20 minutes, according to subscription-only Just-Auto.com.
Using a slower-charger, the test cars, which cost about 2 million British pounds ($3 million) each to build, according to the U.K.-based automotive research firm, can be 80 percent recharged in about four hours.
Jaguar Land Rover, which India-based Tata Motors Ltd. bought from Ford Motor Co. in 2008 for about $2.3 billion, said in December that it would develop a diesel-electric hybrid version of the Range Rover Sport for a 2012 debut.
Improved fuel economy would mean that the hybrid SUV would emit a scant 100g/km of CO2, or about a third less than the competing Lexus RX450h, the company said.
Early road testing of the Range Rover Sport prototypes, which have a top speed of about 120 mph, shows, however, that they actually emitting just 70g/km of CO2, Just-Auto reported.
The vehicles can run in electric-only mode for as far as 20 miles.
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- John O'Dell May 11, 2010, 4:02 PM
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May 11, 2010
By Danny King, Contributor
General Motors, which operates the world's largest fleet of demonstration hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles, will launch a pilot program for new hydrogen fueling stations in Hawaii, marking both the state's abundant access to hydrogen and what appears to be the state's lead role in alternative-fuel-vehicle adoption.
GM and The Gas Co., Hawaii's largest energy provider, will open fueling stations by tapping into TGC's 1,000-mile utility pipeline at certain locations and separate out the hydrogen in order to feed hydrogen fuel pumps that may be able to sell hydrogen for less than the cost of gasoline, the companies said today. TGC's utility gas stream consists of more than 5 percent hydrogen.
The agreement pairs an automaker that's looking to start selling its fuel-cell vehicles to the public by 2015 with an island state looking to cut petroleum use by 70 percent over the next two decades by using more renewable-energy resources. Last week, Nissan said Hawaii, which has some of the highest gas prices in the U.S., will be one first markets the Japanese automaker will use to launch its all-electric Leaf vehicle when it starts selling the five-seat hatchback EV on the islands early next year.
Hawaii, which accounts for less than half of one percent of U.S. registered vehicles, has just one of the 56 hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Department. Still, in addition to having plenty of sun and water needed to make renewable hydrogen from solar energy, Hawaii's small size makes range anxiety far less of an issue than for residents of larger states on the mainland.
"Having an island state that is bounded by water is a very good solution for putting in a hydrogen infrastructure because you don't have to worry about vehicles driving out of the state and being stranded," said Charles Freese, executive director of GM global fuel cell activities, on a conference call today.
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- Scott Doggett May 11, 2010, 11:00 AM
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- Chevrolet, Emissions, Fuel Cell, General Motors, Hydrogen
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- Chevrolet Equinox, Chevy Equinox, FCEV, Fuel Cell Electic Vehicles, Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles, Hawaii, The Gas Co.
May 11, 2010
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
LAS VEGAS -- Robert Bosch GmbH is a 124-year-old German technology-based corporation and the world's largest supplier of automobile components. It has business relationships with virtually every automobile company in the world.
Bosch and Korean tech firm Samsung SDI recently broke ground on an enormous lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant, and the two have plans to jointly start producing hybrid vehicles in 2011 and battery-electric vehicles the following year.
In other words, Bosch is making significant investments in electric-drive vehicles. Those vehicles are, in the company's view, the future for passenger cars and trucks of all kinds. Well, most trucks anyway.
But standing before a packed room at the 2010 Alternative Fuels & Vehicles Conference here Monday, Bosch's leading representative to the nation's largest alt-fuels confab did not stress the importance electric-drive vehicles in curbing greenhouse-gas emissions.
No, Dr. Johannes-Joerg Rueger was here to talk about diesels. And that's not simply because he is Bosch's senior vice president of diesel engineering. Rather, for the near-term, electric vehicles make no sense, he said. Diesels, however, do.
While acknowledging that everyone has their own crystal ball, Rueger said Bosch predicts that only 3 percent of vehicles worldwide by 2020 will be electric-drive.
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Click on slide to enlarge.
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"That's probably more or less common sense of all people who have a reasonable view of the development," he elaborated in an interview with
Green Car Advisor following his well-received speech.
"Three percent is not going to make a big difference," he said. "It makes much more sense to improve the remaining 97 percent, because they are polluting right now. If we improve those 97 percent we can do much more for the environment than we can do with the 3 percent of electric vehicles."
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- Scott Doggett May 11, 2010, 12:00 AM
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- Alternative Fuels, Batteries, Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Plug-ins and Electric
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- 2010 Alternate Fuels & Vehicles, Battery, Carbon Dioxide, CO2, Emissions, EV, Greenhouse Gas
May 10, 2010
Norwegian electric-vehicle maker Think, which was on the brink of going belly-up not that long ago, says it's raised another $40 million to support further product development and planned expansion into North American markets.
"With the new equity, Think is now fully funded and expects to become cash flow positive in 2011," the company said in a statement today.
Think announced in March that it will start selling its City battery-electric car in New York, in addition to a few other U.S. cities, later this year, as the company looks to compete with both established and independent automakers debuting battery-electric cars by the end of this year.
"Our additional investment reflects our confidence in Think as exceptionally well-positioned for success with a proven product and leading technology in electric drive systems," said Wilber James, co-managing general partner of Rockport Capital.
Think also announced two changes to its board of directors. Ener1 Chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer was named chairman, effective immediately. Incumbent Chairman Reidar Langmo was named vice chairman.
Think CEO Richard Canny said that with the closing of the equity funding, Think will now accelerate development of right-hand-drive products for markets such as Japan and the U.K.
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- Scott Doggett May 10, 2010, 6:32 PM
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May 10, 2010
Ford Motor Co. will debut hybrid-electric-vehicle sales for European customers in 2013 when it starts selling conventional- and plug-in hybrid versions of its C-Max compact minivan concept that it will start selling with gas and diesel engines in Europe later this year.
The automaker, which plans to introduce five hybrid-electric and battery-electric vehicles to Europe by 2013, will build the five-seat C-Max hybrids at its Valencia Plant in Spain, Ford said in a statement today.
Ford and the Spanish government will spend as much as $36 million in developing hybrid versions of the C-Max, and almost $410 million developing all C-Max vehicles, which will also include a seven-seat version that will be exported to the U.S. starting next year.
"These new advanced technology models are key to Ford's commitment to delivering a portfolio of alternative powertrain vehicles globally and to European customers in the next few years," Ford of Europe CEO John Fleming said in the statement.
Ford is looking to meet more stringent fuel-economy standards both domestically and abroad by expanding its hybrid-electric vehicle sales.
Ford debuted a hybrid version of its Ford Escape SUV in 2004 and won the 2010 Detroit Auto Show's North American Car of the Year award with its Ford Fusion Hybrid.
The company last week said its U.S. hybrid-vehicle sales for the first four months of the year jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to more than 9,700 vehicles. Ford, which has sold about 130,000 hybrid vehicles in the past six years, will add the Lincoln MKZ hybrid this fall.
Overseas, Ford will have five battery-electric or hybrid-electric vehicles ready for the European public by 2013. The company next year will start selling a battery-electric version of its Transit Connect van in Europe, while a Ford Focus EV will debut in Europe the following year. Ford will also introduce an additional hybrid-electric model in Europe by 2013, but hasn't disclosed details.
Danny King, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett May 10, 2010, 5:34 PM
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May 10, 2010
By Danny King, Contributor
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to ease the process manufacturers need to go through to legally sell conversion systems that allow conventional vehicles to run on compressed natural gas, propane or other types of fuels, as the regulator looks to address foreign-oil dependency while protecting air quality by making it simpler and possibly cheaper to get cars to run on alternative fuels.
The proposed changes, which would move away a "one-size-fits-all" approach towards one in which specific requirements would be determined by engine or vehicle age, would cut the cost associated with getting conversion-system approvals for many manufacturers, the EPA said late last week.
The EPA is looking to clarify what component makers need to do qualify for a so-called "tampering exemption" designed to ensure that vehicle emissions aren't increased when an engine is converted to run on an alternative fuel.
"EPA believes it is reasonable to modify the current certification requirement for clean alternative-fuel converters seeking exemption from the tampering prohibition," the EPA said in a 173-page document published last week.
"The new program would expand compliance options to include less burdensome demonstration requirements that would nonetheless sustain EPA's oversight and longstanding commitment to the environmental integrity of clean alternative fuel conversions."
The EPA is making its proposal as some members of Congress plan to introduce climate and energy legislation that includes subsidies for both natural-gas-powered semi trucks and natural-gas filling stations.
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- Scott Doggett May 10, 2010, 5:18 PM
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- Alternative Fuels, Biofuels, Emissions, Ethanol, Flex-Fuel, Fuel Economy, Isobutanol, LPG, Legislation, Methanol, Natural Gas, Propane
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- Alt Fuel, Alternative Fuel, Alternative-Fuel Vehicles, CNG, Compressed Natural Gas, Conversion Systems, EPA, Flexible-Fuel Vehicles, Legistlation
May 10, 2010
LAS VEGAS -- V-Vehicles, the mysterious company backed by T. Boone Pickens and other billionaires, has plans for a compressed-natural-gas vehicle, the oilman and avid CNG promoter told reporters following a speech at the 2010 Alternative Fuels & Vehicles Conference here Sunday night.
Except for the photo of the headlamp shown here and some fuzzy artist's renderings of a dashboard and a few unrecognizable parts, the wannabe automaker that last June announced it would be coming out with a high-mileage gasoline-powered car hasn't actually let any members of the press or the general public view the thing.
But when asked Sunday if he had seen the vehicle, Pickens said that he had and he said "it looks all right." Not exactly a ringing endorsement. The vehicle, assuming there is one, was designed by Tom Matano, who was lead designer of the original Mazda Miata sports car and it V-Vehicles' design chief.
As to the health of V-Vehicles Co., Boone said: "I don't even keep up with that. Somebody else does."
But he added: "They thought they had the vehicle all ready to go down to Monroe, Louisiana, and, I don't know, something happened to their money in Louisiana and they haven't gotten any money from the Department of Energy."
In addition to Pickens, V-Vehicles is backed by a cadre of high-powered investors, including venture capitalists John Doerr and Ray Lane, of the Silicon Valley-based investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Kleiner Perkins, you might recall, also has pumped money into plug-in hybrid start-up Fisker Automotive and cellulosic ethanol pioneer Mascoma Corp.
V-Vehicles Co. was started in 2006 in San Diego, California, where it will remain based, according to statements made last June in Louisiana.
The car is to be built in a former automotive headlight plant in Monroe that once belonged to General Motors. Is to be built there if it receives a pile of money it's applied for from the Energy Department. That would be the DOE money that Pickens said hasn't come through.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett May 10, 2010, 10:12 AM
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- Emissions, Fuel Economy, Natural Gas, V-Vehicles
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- 2010 Alternative Fuels & Vehicles, CNG, Compressed Natural Gas, T. Boone Pickens, V-Vehicles
May 10, 2010
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
LAS VEGAS -- To hear oil and gas billionaire Boone Pickens tell it, members of the U.S. Congress are as dense as molasses and no quicker than it when it comes to progress, but in coming days two senators are going to finally show some energy smarts and introduce a bill that promotes the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut plan to introduce climate and energy legislation on Wednesday that includes subsidies of $65,000 per vehicle for natural gas-powered 18-wheelers, which can cost about $100,000 apiece, and $100,000 per natural-gas filling station, Pickens said with pleasure.
Yes, this would be the same Kerry that Pickens, an 82-year-old Republican who never served in the military, accused of inflating his war record; Kerry received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in Vietnam. Pickens went so far as to donate $2 million to a group of veterans who sought to discredit Kerry during the senator's failed 2004 presidential bid. That group was later discredited by various investigative journalists.
Seated Sunday evening before a crowd of hundreds at the 2010 Alternative Fuels & Vehicles Conference -- an event sponsored by Clean Energy, a company Pickens controls that would benefit big-time if the U.S. government (American taxpayers, in other words) would subsidize America's natural-gas industry -- Pickens said the United States has more natural gas reserves than any other country in the world.
Just how much? He estimates America is sitting on 4,000 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, or about 200 years' worth.
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- Scott Doggett May 10, 2010, 1:01 AM
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- Alternative Fuels, Energy Companies, Legislation, Natural Gas, Oil
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- 2010 Alternative Fuels & Vehicles Conference, Clean Energy, Climate Bill, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, Natural Gas, T. Boone Pickens
May 7, 2010
Experts say automaker needs only 18 months from site selection to start producing the all-electric sedan.
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
Tesla Motors says plans calling for its Model S battery-electric sedan to enter production in 2012 are on schedule even though its production site has yet to be determined, and experts say the Silicon Valley automaker can begin producing the $57,400 car only 18 months from the time a factory site is selected.
Ricardo Reyes, Tesla's top spokesman, said that a report in the Downey (Calif.) Patriot newspaper misinterpreted a Tesla filing with the city that seemed to say construction at a facility being considered for Model S production in that city would require a year and a half and 100-hour workweeks to prepare.
Specifically, the April 30 report in the Downey paper said converting the property - the former NASA Space Shuttle factory 18 miles southeast of Los Angeles - "to suit Tesla's needs would take 18 months, with construction occurring in two 10-hour shifts five days a week, with weekend shifts added 'during peak periods.' "
The account was based on a confidential draft environmental assessment that Tesla was required to submit to Downey city officials that contains details on portions of the automaker's proposed manufacturing facility.
In a phone interview with Green Car Advisor this week, Reyes said that long hours might be required to modify existing structures at the former NASA property to suit Tesla's needs but that the environmental report presents a worst-case scenario, not Tesla's actual plan.
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- Scott Doggett May 7, 2010, 12:56 PM
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- Assembly Plant, Battery-Electric Vehicle, BEV, EV, Model S, Plug-in, Tesla Motors, Zero-Emissions Car
May 7, 2010
Hawaii will be one first markets Nissan will use to launch its all-electric Leaf vehicle, illustrating the lead role the state appears to be taking in the U.S. when it comes to battery-electric-vehicle adoption.
The Japanese automaker decided to make its five-seat hatchback Leaf available to the Hawaii public early next year after Hawaiian officials agreed to work with the company on developing and promoting an electric-vehicle network, Nissan said in a statement earlier this week.
Nissan, which earlier this month began accepting U.S. reservations for the $32,780 Leaf, said more than 8,000 people have already signed up for one.
The announcement illustrates that the last state to join the Union appears to be ahead of the game when it comes to adopting electric vehicles. In December, Maui Electric Co. installed the first U.S. ChargePoint EV-charging station made by San Francisco Bay Area-based Coulomb Technologies and powered by wind turbines.
And while Hawaii's approximately 950,000 registered vehicles account for less than half a percent of the U.S. total, according to the U.S. Transportation Department, the state accounts for five of the 150 U.S. ChargePoint stations listed on Coulomb's Website, or about 3 percent.
Overall, the state has vowed to get 70 percent of its power from so-called clean-energy sources by 2030.
Nissan had previously said the first sales of the car, which can travel 100 miles per charge, would be limited to California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Tennessee, all of which have agreed to work with Nissan on developing EV-charging networks.
Danny King, Contributor
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- Scott Doggett May 7, 2010, 12:01 PM
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- Electric Vehicle, EV, Hawaii, Nissan Leaf
May 7, 2010
Detroit's Wayne State University will launch this fall the country's first master's degree program for electric car engineering, according to a report in The Detroit News.
The program, approved Wednesday by the school's board of governors, received $5 million in federal funding and also was part of a larger stimulus package from the U.S. Department of Energy.
While some schools offer courses or concentrations related to the changing automotive field, Wayne State is the only U.S. school to offer a master's program with a major, said Michele Grimm, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering.
"The Department of Energy realized the importance of addressing this emerging need," Grimm said.
A couple hundred students will have access to the program, including those who are employed and looking to transition into the field of electric autos.
An industry advisory group helped create the curriculum for the program, which was developed in conjunction with Macomb Community College and NextEnergy, a nonprofit in Detroit that promotes energy technologies.
Wayne State also will offer a graduate certificate program in electric vehicle engineering and a bachelor's degree in electric transportation.
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- Scott Doggett May 7, 2010, 10:50 AM
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May 7, 2010
At Argonne National Laboratory and elsewhere, researchers are just beginning to crack the basic science behind a promising technology: lithium-air batteries.
If their theories are right, these batteries will have five to 10 times the energy of lithium-ion batteries, the big battery pack that's powering the first wave of electric-drive cars.
"Lithium-air is where we're going," Don Hillebrand, who directs the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne lab, said recently in a report published today by the subscription news service ClimateWire. "You can't foresee the future, but right now, that's the place where I think we see the endpoint, the end solution for ... the battery. The battery everybody's looking for."
But as engineers get closer to perfecting the lithium-ion variety, lithium-air has a long journey to replace the batteries of yesteryear.
"Nickel-metal hydride's an adult. Lithium-ion is a developing adolescent. And lithium-air, we're just looking at the ultrasounds," Hillebrand said.
Some say lithium-air will only carry triple the energy of lithium-ion; others project a hundredfold increase, ClimateWire reported. Regardless of the estimates, all agree that lithium-ion could use a tuneup.
"Let's say we want to electrify the entire fleet of vehicles in the world," said Jeffrey Chamberlain, head of Argonne's Energy Storage Major Initiative and one of the lab's leading battery chemists. "Lithium-ion batteries will get us partway there. But in reality, they're not quite high enough in energy density or quite low enough in cost."
He called lithium-air a "dream-type battery": Look at the periodic table, he told ClimateWire, and the only element that carries more energy than lithium, for its weight, is hydrogen.
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- Scott Doggett May 7, 2010, 10:40 AM
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Volkswagen Group will spend $508 million to start producing fuel-efficient dual-clutch transmissions in China as part of a plan to reduce emissions of its locally built cars, Reuters news service reported today. 
