Project Better Place Buys 100k Renaults
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 16, 2009
Better Place founder Shai Agassi brags that his firm’s purchase of 100,000 Electric Renault Meganes is the first such mega-buy since the Ford Model T. Better Place’s cell phone-inspired battery leasing infrastructure hits Israel and Denmark next year, and Agassi insists that “real customers will be driving real cars” by the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Electric Vehicles | News Blog | 5 comments 
Tazzari Zero: Can an Urban EV Be Sexy?
By Martin SchwoererJuly 28, 2009
Even frugal cars need to be desirable. Most electric vehicles are anything but. Right now, EVs are slow, ugly, cheap, and not good to drive. In contrast, the Tazzari Zero from Imola, Italy, wants to be a “wanna have”: great to drive, good to sit in and easy on the eyes. Here’s the data: cast-aluminum, glued frame, central motor, RWD, low center of gravity, Li-Ion Fe batteries. A two-seater that is a bit longer, but lower than a Smart. Weighing just 545 kg (1202 lb), 150 N·m of torque and 15 kW engine power would seem to go a long way. The top speed is 56 mph and it has a range of 88 miles. Gorgeous looks (if you ask me), with a dose of NSU TT attain the right balance of aggressive and cute.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Electric Vehicles | Green | News Blog | 15 comments
China’s E-Cars: Big Plans, Big Hassle
By Bertel SchmittJuly 14, 2009
China has become the biggest producer, consumer and exporter of electric vehicles in the world. But China’s people are facing huge problems buying and driving them.
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Posted in Alternative Energy | China | Media | News Blog | no comments
Riversimple: Leave It To A Piëch . . .
By Martin SchwoererJune 24, 2009
Hydrogen-fueled propulsion has been the Next Big Thing since the 1970s. Recently, it has also been assigned to the past, at least by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who said, “We’re going to be moving away from hydrogen-fuel cells for vehicles.” Thus, hydrogen propulsion seems to be one of those things that are everywhere in the time-space continuum except in the present. Some hydrofans are refusing to give up, though. VW’s evil genius boss of bosses, Ferdinand Piëch, has a nephew, Sebastian Piëch, who is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. Seb seems to be a smart, rich guy who speaks four languages, has an engineering and marketing background and lives in Shanghai and Tokyo. He’s a big name among big names at Riversimple, an alternative-car company which recently presented its first car in London. If Piëch had a monkey-man slogan, it’d be “ideas, ideas, ideas.”
Posted in Alternative Energy | Europe | Future Vehicles | News Blog | 9 comments
Is CAFE Good for Detroit?
By Edward NiedermeyerJune 22, 2009
The Detroit News covers the report by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (because TRI texts are behind a password lock). Authors Walter McManus and Ron Kleinbaum write,
Story after story frames the issue of a struggling industry that will not survive tough fuel economy standards. However, there is substantial evidence that the domestic auto industry has ignored customers’ demands for fuel economy, and has consistently undervalued the impact of fuel economy on their profit potential.
Plus,
Our view is that GM is still not prepared to change enough, fast enough to achieve the transformation it needs to make.
Go on . . .
Posted in Alternative Energy | Fuel Economy | Green | News Blog | 56 comments
MINI E Charging Fiasco: 23 Hours for 150 Miles
By Edward NiedermeyerJune 5, 2009
Let’s be clear: TTAC is not in the business of bashing EVs just for the hell of it; there are good reasons why battery-power is the gas foe’s great white hope. But this story is just too crazy. In BMW’s rush to launch its 450-unit MINI E test lease program, it has failed to secure Underwriter’s Laboratory approval for its high-voltage charging cord. As many as 300 of the 450 customers who’ll be getting Mini Es many not get their high-voltage charging cables for a month or so and will have to use sloooooowwwwww 110-volt trickle charging to replenish their car’s power pack when the battery runs down,” according to Edmunds. Which means instead of taking 4 hours to recharge the MINI E’s 150-mile-range batteries, users will have to wait 23 hours to fill up through a 110V cable. At an $850/month lease rate, that makes the MINI E the mother of all EV debacles. Approval for the charger will happen “within weeks,” say BMW. But as professional EV booster Chelsea Sexton puts it, “they are guaranteeing virgin customers a poor experience.” And ain’t that just the way it tends to go for virgins.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Electric Vehicles | News Blog | 51 comments
Compressed Air Headed For America. Still.
By Edward NiedermeyerMay 26, 2009
No, we’re not anticipating more congressional hearings. The AP (Breitbart) reports that inappropriately named Zero Pollution Motors is trying to bring MDI’s compressed-air technology to America. Again. Still. There’s only one problem. “Air compressors are one of the least efficient machines to convert electricity to work,” says Harold Kung, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University. “Why not use the electricity directly, as in electric cars? From an energy utilization point of view, the compressed (air) car does not make sense.” What the professor appears to be missing is that the firm is called Zero Pollution Motors. Put that in your chemical engineering bong and and give it a toke.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Green | News Blog | 37 comments
Obama Cuts Hydrogen Research Funds
By Edward NiedermeyerMay 11, 2009
President Bush’s imaginatively-named “Freedom Fuel Initiative” has been slashed by President Obama, cutting $100 million per year from hydrogen research funding according to DailyTech. Government spending on hydrogen fuel cell technology will drop from about $169 million per year to about $69 million, as a natural and healthy skepticism grows about hydrogen’s short-term potential. “The probability of deploying hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years is low,” say Department of Energy spokesfolks, taking an early lead for understatement of the week.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Green | News Blog | 24 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Resurrection
By Edward NiedermeyerMay 7, 2009
President Obama gave the dying ethanol industry a huge shot in the arm Tuesday when he announced that over $780 million of stimulus money will be spent on biofuel “research and commercialization,” guided by an all-new Biofuels Interagency Working Group. Think of a giant, government-funded R&D/marketing department for the ethanol industry, and you’ll have some idea of what we’re looking at. “We need to work in concert with the industry to figure out how to do a better job to create a market for biofuels, how to increase the use of flex-fuel vehicles, how we can assist those who market, and to coordinate the infrastructure, and do all this in a sustainable way,” says Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack. Unfortunately “creating a market” isn’t easy. The US already spends more on ethanol subsidies than any other renewable energy source, and has been rewarded only with crashing ethanol demand and rampant refinery bankruptcies. Good thing hope springs eternal in the breast of K Street.
Posted in Alternative Energy | E85 | News Blog | 9 comments
Fiat’s Gassy Secret
By Edward NiedermeyerApril 29, 2009
Ok, it’s not really a secret. But I sure wasn’t aware that the Italian automaker is “the biggest player in the market for natural gas engines,” selling 68k natural gas-powered rides last year and aiming for 120k unit sales this year. Thanks for the heads-up, NY Times! In yet more evidence of Fiat’s politically-savvy strategy, Italy’s scrappage scheme currently doubles the rebate for paisans who junk their clunker for a natural gas hoopty. Naturally though, one government incentive isn’t enough: “Fiat is collaborating with fuel companies and the Italian government to provide more than 1,000 stations where motorists can fill their tanks with natural gas.” Though most NG Fiats are “dual-fuel,” US infrastructure will have to be significantly upgraded (with help from taxpayers) to cash in on NG’s green promise stateside. Nonetheless Fiat’s natural gas technology is raising hopes for Chrysler’s future, if a deal is done, if infrastructure is upgraded, and if US consumers spring for the emerging fuel. But a word of warning: eco-tech enticement sent several billion GM bucks down the Fiat rabbit hole in search of competitive diesel technology not that long ago. And we all know how that turned out.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Green | News Blog | 21 comments
POWERED
