The Truth About Cars » Electric vehicles

Deutsche Auto Elektrifizierung: Gotta Pay To Play

Cammy Corrigan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:50:03 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, TTAC reported how Dieter Zetsche was re-elected as CEO of Daimler for another 3 years. In that article we mentioned the many challenges that face him. Mainly, how to make Daimler sustainably profitable. Size matters in the auto business. An unattached Daimler has a hard time achieving the economies of scale [...]

Feature: Arcimoto Pulse EV Launch

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:01:52 +0000

Geography aside, Eugene, Oregon, is about as far away from Detroit as you can get. The biggest industry in that sleepy town on the banks of the Willamette is education, not auto manufacturing. You’re more likely to see dreadlocks at a typical Eugene business than a hard hat. In fact, perhaps the only thing Eugene [...]

Editorial: Volt Syndrome Strikes In China

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:23:13 +0000

A few weeks of vacation from the blogosphere's non-stop news cycle can leave a blogger feeling a bit behind the times. Two weeks is an eternity in internet time, but stepping away from the barrage of news, spin, hype and hysteria is good for the sense of perspective. Especially if the down time is spent exploring countries on the local typical family vehicle, complete with two wheels, four speeds and about 100ccs of thundering power. Beyond the sheer novelty of seeing entire families commuting on a moped ("Daddy, Nguyen isn't staying on his side of the pillion seat"), travel in the developing world shows how insulated America is from the transportation realities of the rest of the world. If the $1,000 entry to the world of moped ownership is a major (if attainable) hurdle for workaday Vietnamese, even sub-$10k vehicles face what a GM sales release might call "a challenging sales environment." Try to explain the "green premium" for hybrids and plug-in vehicles to an auto-aspirational third-worlder, and watch as the idea of paying more for less room and power draws only puzzled bemusement. Hair shirts, it appears, are strictly a fad for the western and wealthy. Case in point: the world's first plug-in hybrid, the Chinese BYD F3DM.

Editorial: Who Needs an Electric Car?

Robert Farago — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:28:54 +0000

OK, yes. All you folks who believe that we must free the country from its dependence on foreign oil and stop the planet from over-heating need an electric vehicle (EV). Well, you want one. I mean, it's not like you're walking at the moment is it? And if you are, chances are you can't afford or don't want a car, whether it sucks oil from the desert or burns coal through a cord. The problem-- for me-- is the link between "we" and "need." Whenever people start telling me what I need, I get the sneaking suspicion that I'm about to lose something I'd like to keep. I reckon most people who drive gas-powered cars are just as skeptical of EVs as I am of demagoguery. Question: does that matter?

Editorial: Between The Lines: GM’s Volt Development Spin Cycle

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:41:13 +0000

As rumors filter in about GM's Volt battery program, the faithful must be experiencing a certain amount of restless discomfort. After all, it's not like this couldn't be seen coming. Let's just say that when I asked the guys from A123 systems (then bidding on the project) about the Volt battery development program at SEMA last October, they took full advantage of the fact that SEC silent periods don't forbid eye-rolling. Though non-verbal communication can (and in this case, did) speak volumes, we like to get our facts in writing. Which, thanks to the truth-proof wall surrounding the Volt's development, usually means going through GM's PR-exercise interviews with reliable Volt boosters and mining them for some kind of meaning. And hey, there's an interview at Volt cheerleader HQ gm-volt.com which suggests that the Volt's battery development is being rushed. And engineers are complaining to blogs? Fancy that!

Editorial: Killer Aptera?

Michael Martineck — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:49:19 +0000

Aptera Motors has pushed its first street-ready prototype out of the cradle. Yes, it's a tricycle, with a drive train a la Fisher Price PowerWheels, and a name that sounds like a one-year-old pointing out the cruise director on Love Boat, but the 2e might prove to be the car the Chevy electric- gas plug-in hybrid Volt and lithium-ion-powered Tesla long to be: the future.

Editorial: Pass the Lithium

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:12:21 +0000

Lithium-ion batteries are not yet a major source of automotive propulsion. Excluding the li-ion cells lingering within the $100k+ Tesla Roadster, not a single volume vehicle depends on the technology. Toyota has adopted a "go slow" policy on li-on cells re: their gas - electric Synergy Drive (most famously found inside the Prius). Sure, li-ion batteries will power Chevrolet's electric - gas hybrid Volt. Eventually. And that's no small point. At the moment, with gas prices at historic low levels, hybrids simply aren't selling. Of course, nothing's really selling. Except the idea that we need lots and lots of hybrids and that those hybrids will need lithium ion batteries and we better make sure we have enough lithium otherwise the vision of clean, gas-free personal transportation will disappear. And the New York Times can't have that, now can it?

Does Better Place Have A Better Plan?

David Holzman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:03:17 +0000

If cross-country road trips are the quintessential American journey of the 20th century, I'm a quintessential American. I'd ridden thrice between Seattle and Boston by the time I was eight. At 17, I drove from Boston to Palo Alto, then back a year later, in a beat up ‘62 Falcon. I crossed the US another eight times– including once respectively by train and bicycle– while a student at Berkeley. Three decades later, I'm longing to do it again. Unfortunately, the 20th century is over. Since it began, the US and world populations have quadrupled. We're straining world oil production capacity, and the specter of global heating and acidified seas from CO2 emissions is causing cognitive dissonance in my car-loving head. Driving's future seems uncertain. But a new company, Better Place of Palo Alto, has a plan.

Chevrolet Volt : Home, Home on the Range?

Paul Niedermeyer — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:51:43 +0000

It’s Monday, December 27, 2010. A Chevy customer sits behind the wheel of his brand-new, fully-charged, plug-in hybrid Volt. He’s heading off to the office some fifteen miles away. Three years ago, our early adopter was one the first to put his name on the waiting list at gm-volt.com. Since then, he visited the site religiously for daily updates. And now the Volt looks set to deliver on all of GM Car Czar Bob Lutz’s promises. But… the Volt driver’s journey into the future is about to be a lot shorter than he’d imagined.

I Want My Tesla Roadster!

Robert Farago — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:22:33 +0000

Not for same reasons you do. You want a battery-powered Tesla Roadster because it’s a way cool car boasting bleeding edge technology. Or maybe you just like sexy sports cars. Or perhaps you’re looking for massive eco-auto props. As a free marketeer, I’m good with any of these motivations. As a Porsche Boxster S owner, I’m not bothered (I’ve already found my dream date). But as the publisher of this website, I want a Tesla Roadster BAD. I want to reveal the truth about the EV-- whatever that may be.

Edward Niedermeyer’s EV Roundup

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:55:19 +0000

For nearly a century, powertrains and vehicle design have followed a largely evolutionary development path, slowly improving on one basic concept. But rising fuel prices for our inherited automotive paradigm points to radical changes ahead. Hybrids have already established a beachhead for the coming revolution. Like the dot-com boom just a decade ago, the EV gold rush is on. From pure vaporware to Hail-Mary-mobiles to groundbreaking machines that threaten real world practicality and affordability, there's lots to learn from and laugh at in the post-combustion world.

Zap Electric Vehicles: We Won’t Get Fooled Again

Donal Fagan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:21:58 +0000

Jim McGreen wanted to make some money in a green business. A craftsman-like mechanic, he had success making and selling electric bicycle kits out of his Alameda garage. Like so many others, he thought electric vehicles (EVs) were the obvious answer to pollution and expensive fossil fuels. In 1992, McGreen founded ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) Power Systems. But he needed more capital.

Donal Fagan’s Field Guide to Electric Vehicles

Donal Fagan — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:20:03 +0000

Until GM’s stylish EV-1 came along, electric vehicles (EVs) looked like they were made in shop class. Back then, very few people actually thought about owning an EV. Though many electric dreams have been literally crushed, green-thinking and/or peak oil-aware drivers now look to EVs as the natural successor to traditional fossil-fuel sucking and CO2 spewing motorcars. But are they worthy?

General Motors Death Watch 160: Promises Promises / Volt Birth Watch 24: Fly Me to the Moon

Frank Williams — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:56:19 +0000

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy made a pronouncement that made a lot of people think he'd lost his mind: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade." According to GM's Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, Chevrolet's gas-electric plug-in electric hybrid is GM's moon shot. Wired magazine recently sat down with Bob Lutz and asked the Car Czar what would happen if the Volt doesn't succeed. "What if Kennedy hadn't pulled off the moon shot?" Bob wondered aloud. "If it doesn't work, it's not fatal. But if it does work, it will be sensational and it will have the same sort of symbolism." The U.S. put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, as promised. What are the chances the Volt will appear in a Chevy showroom by 2010?

Chevy Volt: Vega Redux?

Paul Niedermeyer — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:41:11 +0000

The prolonged wait for the Chevrolet Volt reminds me uncomfortably of waiting for the Chevrolet Vega to appear. For GM’s sake, the outcome had better be radically different. Because no one single vehicle did more damage to GM then the highly-hyped Vega.

A Modest Proposal for the Ultimate Alt. Fuel Automobile

Andrew Hellard — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:23:03 +0000

I learned to drive in a 1985 Volvo 240. The Nordic boxcar's 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine deployed one hundred and fourteen horsepower against three thousand pounds of Swedish steel. For reasons best left to Roswell conspiracy theorists, the feds recently re-calculated the 240’s mpg: 19/26 (coincidentally the age of the average 240 driver). That’s not bad for rust, but let’s face it: a used 240 is hardly a Prius driver’s second choice. Even so, the humble Volvo recently inspired an automotive epiphany that could lead to The Mother of All Environmentally Friendly Automobiles.