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This is the Kodak Moment for the Auto Industry

Plug-In Drivers Not Missin' the Piston Electric vehicles are here to stay. Their market acceptance is currently small but growing...

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dude! Where Are All of GE's Electric Cars? - DailyFinance

Dude! Where Are All of GE's Electric Cars? - DailyFinance: "GE noted that its commitment to purchase 25,000 electric cars -- that's what it worked out to -- was "the largest single EV commitment ever.""

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car · Oregon Public Broadcasting · EarthFix

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car · Oregon Public Broadcasting · EarthFix:
"A123 now supplies the luxury electric carmaker Fisker Automotive and the manufacturers of electric delivery trucks used by FedEx and Frito-Lay.

“Quite simply, if we didn’t get that grant, we wouldn’t have built [the factory] in the U.S.,” A123 spokesman Dan Borgasano said.

The battery grants have created and saved more than 1,800 jobs for assembly workers, toolmakers and engineers, according to a ProPublica analysis of stimulus project reports filed by the companies. That number doesn’t include the workers who constructed the plants or those hired by the matching private investment the companies had to make to get the grants."

Monday, January 30, 2012

Well-to-Wheel


How much pollution an electric car produces per mile – accounting for all emissions, starting from the gas or oil well where the source fuel is extracted, all the way to the final consumption of electricity by the car’s motor. When we work through the numbers, we find that the electric car is significantly more efficient and pollutes less than all alternatives.

Which Are Better: Electric Cars or Natural Gas Vehicles? - Forbes

Which Are Better: Electric Cars or Natural Gas Vehicles? - Forbes: "1,000 cubic feet (cf) of natural gas, converted to electricity, yields 457 miles in an EV. This same 1,000 cf in an NGV would only have a range of around 224 miles."

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

DEPLOYMENT ROLLOUT ESTIMATE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES 2011-2015 BY CENTER FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

http://www.cargroup.org/pdfs/deployment.pdf

Trying to forecast EV sales? Good luck with that | Green Tech - CNET News

Trying to forecast EV sales? Good luck with that | Green Tech - CNET News: "Research company IDC Energy Insights this week predicted that there will 120,000 plug-in electric vehicles sold in North America next year"

Volt as Political Pawn

There are congressional hearings tomorrow, Wednesday (1/25/2012), about the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt was recently cleared of its fire issue by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That doesn’t mean General Motors’ problems with the US government are over.

Congressman Darryl Issa, R-California, is contending that the NHTSA tried to cover up the fire. The same fire that has miles and miles of press written about it.

When waste and government spending are being harshly scrutinized, this is not the time to be playing election year partisan politics and wasting taxpayer dollars. If there had been Volt fires on the road, if people had been killed, injured, or harmed in any way, I would support a full investigation. Instead these were “lab events”. There are over 200,000 gasoline fires each year, these are far more worthy of congressional investigation.

Further pursuit of them is a waste of time and (my) tax payer money. Issa has been a sharp critic of GM. His facebook page recently posted a New York Post article titled “GM’s flop in green” that called the Volt “one part lemon, one part taxpayer albatross”.

I encourage you to make your opinions known by contacting him and your local Congress person.

Issa's Office:


Here are some statements that have been left on his site:
The Chevy Volt is an investment in the energy and economic security of our country. Every electric mile driven in America equates to less government money wasted on oil subsidies and imports. We need to encourage automakers to continue the tradition of American innovation for the future of our country. The Volt drivers of America encourage you to drop the Volt investigation today. We encourage you to be a leader for American innovation and prosperity.
What on earth can anyone gain by flogging a manufacturer over a media conflagration that was obviously overblown at the outset? The NHTSA was only able to destroy two batteries, after several attempts, enough to cause a fire days or weeks later. A gas vehicle would explode instantly in the same circumstance. Once the test established that any surviving passengers could be extracted before a fire or explosion I would say any remaining investigation is only allegory. We have over 200,000 car fires each year that kill hundreds of victims. I want my kids to drive a car that gives them a better chance to live through an accident. Don't you?
Let your voice be heard.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Energy and Debt

Clean energy is an investment in our future. Every dollar invested in clean energy leads to savings for American families, savings in fuel costs and health care costs. Whereas, every dollar spent on oil subsidies leaves our country and fills the pocketbooks of oil companies. In 2010, the world's governments, including the U.S., spent over $500 billion in oil subsidies, compared to only 1/10th of that amount in investments in clean energy. We need to end oil subsidies and we need invest in technologies that boost the economy and health of our communities.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Go EV!


Driving electric is smart and patriotic: 

  • Each day we burn roughly 8.5 million barrels of oil in our passenger cars and trucks. To feed our oil addiction, we send nearly $1 billion overseas each day, often to governments unfriendly to US policies.
  • A switch to EVs will make for a more stable and secure United States. Oil payments to foreign nations contribute to half of our trade deficit. US armed forces spend up to $83 billion annually protecting vulnerable infrastructure and patrolling oil transit routes.
  • Even taking into account the emissions from the electricity produced to charge EVs, these vehicles on average emit *at least* 30% less CO2 than gas vehicles. And that’s today; as we clean up the electricity grid, EVs get even cleaner. Of course, charging EVs based on electricity that comes from solar and wind power is the cleanest way to power the vehicles.
  • Fuel and maintenance for EVs are significantly lower than gasoline vehicles. Fueling your car with electricity is about 5 times cheaper than fueling with gasoline. Pure EVs require no oil changes and have one tenth the number of moving parts than a gas car. There's no engine, transmission, spark plugs, valves, fuel tank, tailpipe, distributor, starter, clutch, muffler, or catalytic converter.
  • When Toyota first started selling the Prius in 2000, it sold only 5,800 of these new hybrids, and now more than a million have been sold. It is exciting, groundbreaking, and encouraging that GM and Nissan sold more than 17,000 vehicles in 2011, with tens of thousands of additional sales expected this year and from a growing number of manufacturers.
  • More than 20 different electric drive vehicles will be on the market within the next three years from virtually every major and several new car manufacturers – with plug-in vehicles and components being built in at least 20 states, creating thousands of new domestic jobs.
  • Plug-in vehicles are "fueled" by locally generated electrons. This means the money you spend on electricity stays in your community. This helps employ your neighbors, who then in turn spend more money in your community. Money spent locally circulates an average of 5 to 6 times before leaving the community. Whereas less than ~20 cents of each dollar spent on gasoline returns to the local community. 


Study: Most Gen Y drivers want to own hybrid cars

Study: Most Gen Y drivers want to own hybrid cars: "Gen Y's strong affinity for hybrid vehicles could make it the "generation that leads us away from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles," reports Craig Giffi, vice chairman"

Solid-State Batteries - Technology Review

Solid-State Batteries - Technology Review: "All this adds bulk and cost. So Sastry wondered if she could make a battery that simply didn't need this much management.

Sastry's solid-state batteries are still based on lithium-ion technology, but they replace the liquid electrolyte with a thin layer of material that's not flammable. Solid-state batteries are also resilient: some prototypes demonstrated by other groups can survive thousands of charge-discharge cycles. And they can withstand high temperatures, which will make it possible to use materials that can double or triple a battery's energy density (the amount of energy stored in a given volume) but that are too dangerous or unreliable for use in a conventional lithium-ion battery."

Monday, January 9, 2012

West Coast Electric Highway

My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Portland Oregon Group: "West Coast Green Highway is the I-5 project from Canada to Mexico and is being put together via the various transportation departments of Washington, Oregon, and California. The second project is The EV Project, which will be installing DC Quick Charge stations in metro areas. The third project is one just by the Oregon Department of Transportation's Office of Innovative Partnerships and will be installing DC Quick Charge stations along Oregon's various highways.
"

'via Blog this'

Saturday, January 7, 2012

2012 Could Have Record High Gas Prices

Did you spend more on gas in 2011? There were no record breaking gas prices at the pump. In 2008, we saw $4 a gallon prices here in the US. However, if you felt like you spent more on gasoline last year, it is probably because you did.

In 2011, gas prices did not follow their traditional seasonal price fluctuations. This means that you didn't get the budget relief in the fall that we normally see.
US Average Gas Price from Gas Buddy.com
Looking at 2008 in the chart above, you can see that prices spiked in June and July; however, they dropped sharply in September. By November 2008, you could buy gas for less than $2 per gallon in many parts of the country. In contrast, during 2011 gas averaged over $3 per gallon for the entire year, while peaking at $3.96 in May.

Given this, 2011 has the (dis)honor of being the year with the highest annual fuel cost that we have ever had in the US. Welcome to a glimpse of the prices that the rest of the world has been paying for some time now.

Historically, January is one of the cheapest months of the year for gas prices. Given at we are starting this year with an average price of $3.25, 2012 could easily have $4 prices this summer, causing you to put more money in your tank, leaving less for a new phone, savings, and the rest of your budget.

video:

Friday, January 6, 2012

Oregon Codes Simplify EV Charging Station Installs


Oregon's Building Codes Division (BCD) is helping to ready the state for plug-in vehicles by providing information on home charging to electric vehicle buyers with the recently published Oregon Smart Guide on Electric Vehicle Charging at Home. BCD also has taken action to make it easy for electricians to obtain permits for installing charging stations, by expanding the state’s minor label program and simplifying the permit process.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Revving Up: Electric Vehicles In 2012 And Beyond - Forbes

Revving Up: Electric Vehicles In 2012 And Beyond - Forbes: "An electric vehicle is a lot more like an iPad than it is like a fossil-fuel driven car. It is a lot about electronics, hardware and software"