US Plug-in Vehicle Sales Zooms Past 150,000

Plug-in vehicle (PEV) sales in the US have passed the 150,000 mark according to Plug In America’s sales counter.

It was just in May of this year when we passed the 100,000 milestone. The lucky owner of that vehicle was a Mitsubishi i-MiEV driver in Alabama.

Now (just 6 months later) the 150,000th car with a cord has hit the roads. There is no word on who bought the 150,000th car or what or which model was.

2013 is likely to double the number of PEVs on the road. This continued rapid growth in sales and available vehicle models looks to be a tipping point for plug-in vehicles. This rapid growth will soon accelerate them from niche vehicles to significant market share.

In 2014, new plug-in vehicles models are coming from BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo and others. These vehicles will make more people aware of plug-in vehicles and the exponential growth of sales will likely continue after we ring in the new year.

Range Extender Coming for Nissan Leaf?

I love driving my Nissan Leaf. It is my goto vehicle for commuting, errands, and other around town trips. Using the West Coast Electric Highway, I have even made 200 mile roundtrips in it. Yet, it is not the only car that I drive. Occasionally, I need to travel a long distance and it doesn't happen to be on a "wired highway". For these rare holiday trips, it would be nice to be able to take my Leaf.

The ‘EP Tender’ would allow me to do just that. It is a small generator and fuel tank mounted on a trailer. It is made by a French company and available for rent when needed.

The range extender allows an EV such as the Renault Zoe or Nissan Leaf to drive for an additional 300 miles and to fill-up at any gas station. The trailer contains a two cylinder engine that runs an efficient turbine that creates enough power to keep the car humming along.

A remote control allows you to selectively enable the generator, so you can either use it when the car's battery is nearly depleted, or you can start the generator immediately and arrive with a full battery pack to use at your destination. And because you rent the trailer, they handle all of the maintenance associated with internal combustion engines that electric car drivers obviously don't want to be bothered with.

I hope these are available in the US soon. And hey, EP Tender, if you are looking a beta tester, drop me a line.

http://www.eptender.com/

Carl Pope: Breaking Oil's Monopoly: Easier Done than Said

Carl Pope: Breaking Oil's Monopoly: Easier Done than Said: "Global oil demand is 90 mbd. Of that, 80 mbd is cheap -- $30 or less - conventional oil, mostly from OPEC. About 5 mbd is moderately priced unconventional oil - shallow off-shore, light-tight US oil like the Bakken, or secondary recovery from depleted fields. This unconventional oil costs between $30-$60/bbl.

The final 5 mbd of demand breaks the bank. To supply it, the oil industry taps extreme oil fields in the remote Arctic, the ultra-deep ocean, or heavy tar sands in Canada"

The Latest News From The Disneyland Resort

The Latest News From The Disneyland Resort: "AUTOPIA
If you have not heard, the Chevron sponsorship of Autopia has officially ended.  But instead of renewing, Disney let the agreement go.  Why?  We will get to that in a minute.  But here are shots from the ride, Chevron-less."

Charge Ahead California Launches Million Electric Vehicle Campaign

Charge Ahead California Launches Million Electric Vehicle Campaign:

"Shifting to electric vehicles will also keep more transportation dollars in-state, boosting the economy and creating new jobs."

“Driving on electricity significantly reduces emissions and is equivalent to paying only one dollar-per-gallon in a gasoline vehicle. Bolstering our electric vehicle industry also means good-paying jobs in manufacturing and related fields that communities of color so urgently need.”

"A recent MIT study found that traffic pollution causes almost 6,000 premature mortalities annually in California, almost twice the number killed in traffic accidents."

"Over-reliance on fossil fuel is threatening the health of our families and communities,” said Bill Gallegos, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment. “By expanding the market for zero emission technologies and green infrastructure for transportation, charging and manufacturing, we can make significant improvements to our air quality as well as provide sustainable job opportunities..."

"Californians spend $70 billion on gasoline and diesel annually, $40 billion of which leaves the state in payments to oil companies and foreign oil producing countries. The use of electricity as a transportation fuel can help keep those dollars in the state, stimulating the economy, and insulating family budgets from gas price spikes. Filling California’s cars, trucks and buses with electricity instead of oil would help grow the state’s economy, creating up to 100,000 additional jobs by 2030."

"Automakers are beginning to bring a diversity of advanced electric drive vehicles to the market, which don’t rely on gasoline and appeal to families across the income spectrum. Most automakers today are either selling or making zero-polluting cars for sale within the next few years."

H2 Energy Outlook: How Many Miracles?

Energy Outlook: How Many Miracles?: "

How Many Miracles?

Over the weekend I was catching up on articles, and one from Technology Review last week caught my attention. It was a brief interview with the new Secretary of Energy, Dr. Chu, covering nuclear power and fuel cells. In the back half, Secretary Chu explained why the DOE has cut funding for hydrogen fuel cell R&D, suggesting that fuel cell cars were always a long shot, because they required "four miracles" to happen. Although I haven't mentioned fuel cells very frequently here in the last few years, I must say it's hard for me to consider the commercialization of something that I've already driven as requiring quite so many miracles as that. At the same time, I don't trivialize the obstacles that explain why fuel cell cars are still not available in large numbers, despite previous expectations--including my own--that they would be by now."

Why the Electric Car is Here to Stay

Why the Electric Car is Here to Stay: "I hear people suggest to me that the electric car is “doomed to fail.”  Their reasons as as varied as they are inventive.  Here’s a list of some of the more popular reasons I hear in no particular order:

Will Too Many Plugged In EVs Crash The Grid In The Future?
Gasoline and diesel engines keep getting more efficient and cleaner, thus cancelling out any need
We will run out of lithium or other rare-earth metals needed to produce them
The power grid won’t be able to handle it
Fuel cells will be out soon and they will take over from electric cars
Electric vehicles just don’t work and consumers will never embrace them
The only people that buy them are environmentalists and eventually they’ll realize they’re being scammed because EVs are dirtier than gasoline cars
They are too expensive and thus not profitable to the manufacturers
People only buy them because they are subsidized, once the tax credits go away, so will the cars."

Alternating current was invented 20 Years before Tesla was Born

Alternating current - Wikipedia: "The first alternator to produce alternating current was a dynamo electric generator based on Michael Faraday's principles constructed by the French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii in 1832."

Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) Vendors/Manufacturers

Plugin...Recharge!: Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) Vendors/Manufacturers: "
ABB
AeroVironment
Aker Wade  (Level 3)
Alpha Energy (Solar Charging Stations For Electric Vehicles)
Andromeda Power (Level 3)
Avcon
Better Place
Blink Network (from ECOtality North America)
ChargeIQ (Aussie)
ChargeMaster (UK)
ChargePoint (Netherlands)
Control Module Industries (EVSE LLC)
Coulomb  (Product Review)
Clipper Creek
DBT USA
Eaton Corporation
ECOtality North America (f.k.a. eTec)
Elektromotive (UK)
Erg-Go
Etrel (Slovenia)
E-Totem (Swiss)
EV Box (Netherlands)
EVCharge America
EVergreen Time to Charge (Danish)
Evoasis
EVoCharge
EVSEUpgrade (Modify Nissan Leaf Portable Chargers to be Level 1 & Level 2)
EyeOnPower  (acquired by ABB)
General Electric 
GRIDbot
Green Charge Networks  (Mobile Level 3)
Green Garage Associates - Juice Bar
GoSmart - ChargeSpot
HaloIPT (Wireless Chargers - NZ - Now owned by Qualcomm)
Lear (OEM for General Motors)
Legrand
Leviton
Liberty PlugIns
Optimization Technologies (OpConnect)
Plugless Power (Evatran Wireless Chargers)
Park and Power (UK)
Parkpod
Pep Stations
Plug Smart (Intelligence for GE Charging Stations)
RWE
Schneider Electric 
SemaConnect
Siemens
Shorepower
SPX Service Solutions
WiTricity (Wireless Chargers)"

MIT: vehicle emissions cause 53,000 extra deaths a year

MIT: vehicle emissions cause 53,000 extra deaths a year: