The trial has been ongoing since the first car was delivered in May of this year. Richard Steinberg of BMW group presented the company’s current progress and learnings from the program. You can view the whole sideshow here.

It was noted that 1800 applications were received and from that group 250 cars were placed in Southern California, and 200 in New York and New Jersey.

Steinberg noted that although public infrastructure is needed to limit range anxiety, this program focused only on consumer home charging infrastructure.  He said this program “placed us in
the infrastructure business.”

It was found that the wallbox installation process was more tedious and time consuming than expected leading to customer frustrations, and that post-installation servicing is a murky area as to who performs it and who pays for it. In the future he reported BMW will focus more on public infrastructure development and pay attention to vehicle to grid and load leveling solutions.

He reported that the purpose of the field trial was to evaluate BEVs in real world conditions and to determine the effect of temperature, weather, and driving behavior on range, reliability and charging status. Also what consumers perceptions of living with an EV was assessed.

It was noted that the MINI E driver community was “borderline evangelical” though there was an “extremely critical vocal minority.” Also noted was that many feedback opportunities evolved including a facebook group and over 30 driver blogs.

In conclusion, the following key leanings have been determined:
1) EV drivers are passionate and look forward to next generation vehicles
2) There is significant need to adopt a common charging port architecture (J1772) and to encourage and develop public charging infrastructure
3) Range anxiety remains a hurdle to be cleared. Options to do so, they say include either developing PHEVs (like the Volt) or expanding public charging infrastructure

Source (BMW) via (Wired)

The Nissan LEAF offers up to 100 miles of electric range and will go on sale in selected US markets late next year.  According to Nissan executives the car will priced so that monthly cost of operation is equivalent to that of a fully-loaded Civic (including fuel). Nissan still hasn’t decided whether to lease the battery separately or sell it with the car.

The LEAF began a four day display in Los Angeles marking its first stop on a national viewing tour that ends in New York City next February.  It is a non-functioning car.  A Nissan Versa outfitted with the LEAF powertrain will be around for VIP and media test drives, public drives will not be permitted.

On the same day the LEAF tour began GM decided to put out a viral video.

This short and simple cartoon attempts to illustrate why EVs are cool, EREV’s are cooler and can be seen below.

If you forget to plug in your EV and it’s the only car you got, not cool.  If you have a Volt it won’t matter.

Of course, forgetting to plug one’s car in may not happen very often but needing to drive continuously beyond its electric range will.

May the best car win.

At the time we speculated that the program had likely been abandoned, and a new plan (if any) would likely present itself when Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne debuted his “5-year plan” for Chrysler this past past Wednesday.

That GM-Volt article got picked up around the ‘interwebs,’ and was met with some healthy skepticism. Our friends over at Autoblog went as far as to call us out on it, suggesting that no news, was good news… even contacting Chrysler for confirmation of the programs non-death. It never came. Autoblog did logically offer the fact that because ENVI president Lou Rhodes had not been ‘let go’ and was still being paid to manage the program, that was proof enough of its continued existence.

Well…not so much it turns out.

Indeed, shortly after Chrysler showcased its version of what the future would bring (along with a new corporate logo to lead the charge), new boss Marchionne offered some very un-optimistic thoughts on the electrification of the automobile, saying “I think electric vehicles are going to struggle,” and that perhaps they would only account for “1 to 2 percent” of Chrysler’s business by the middle of the next decade.

Not exactly how the ENVI program was represented to the US government when Chrysler went looking for aid to avoid liquidation.

In a not unrelated matter, Chrysler is also still holding onto the theory that hybrids won’t catch on either. They are the only major automaker not currently offering such technology in their vehicle lineup. Chrysler hope is that new small 4 cylinder engines brought in from Fiat will satisfy the public’s demand for fuel efficiency over introducing hybrid tech.

Despite the negative outlook for EVs at the press conference, no definitive word or specifics on the ENVI program presented themselves, that is until this past Friday when Reuters announced that Chrysler had disbanded and reassigned the ENVI team.

Nick Cappa, Chrysler spokesperson, who had previously given out such chestnuts to GM-Volt.com readers as, “stay tuned…lots of activity,” and to Autoblog, on their suggestion that work was progressing quietly, as “quietly is a good way to put it,” now has this one-liner to offer on the current happenings, “Envi is (being) absorbed into the normal vehicle development program”

Dead is another way to put it.

The stylish and Volt-like C200 concept that Chrysler showed in early 2009 (see below), and the company’s pledge to bring one of four electric cars to production in 2010 gone along with it.

One more reason to be grateful the resilient Chevy Volt has weathered GM’s financial apocalypse and remains only a year away from production.

Source: [Reuters]

Chrysler C200 EV

Chrysler had promised to bring at least one of these models to market in 2010, and three more models before the end of 2012. However by May of this year, the Pentastar found itself in bankruptcy protection, and control was shifted away from the existing Chrysler executive to Italian automobile maker Fiat.

Since then it is fair to say that information and updates have been very un-GM like from Chrysler, as in, non-existent. Checking out Chrysler’s ENVI blog (at time of press), you will find the last entry dated May 7th, 2009, around the same time it when into Chapter 11.

This seemingly ‘all-stop’ directive did not hinder Chrysler from still going forward with applying to the Department of Energy for a $448 million dollar grant.

That grant was to produce 365 test fleet vehicles, and would provide seed money to establish a new technology and manufacturing center in Michigan, which would amongst other things develop, test and manufacture EV components and serve as a base for final assembly of ENVI products. It was said at the time, that the facility would produce 20,000 vehicles a year and would be operating in 2010.

Similar to GM’s also still outstanding applications to the DoE, the Chrysler’s application has not yet been approved.

GM-Volt got in contact with Chrysler spokesperson (and Technology PR guy) Nick Cappa about the DoE loan proposal and status, and he offer the following, “We continue to work closely with the DOE on the review process for our loan proposal. We are making progress.” Not a terribly informative update to be sure…but on the bright side, the inquiry did not incur any long distance telephones charges to GM-Volt.com.

Unlike GM’s well documented, and ever accelerating ramp to production with the Volt, it appears that Chrysler’s progress had been tied directly to achieving government support.

So, has ENVI been scrapped, or put on long-term hiatus? Certainly no one at Chrysler is talking. However, after a half a year of darkness, the tumbleweeds will likely be cleared away and that question answered on November 4th. That is when Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne introduces the world to the Chrysler Group’s new “5 year plan” at a epically long SIX HOUR media fiesta. (Hopefully they provide dinner on that flight)

It is a good bet to assume that the ‘new’ to US, 2011 Fiat 500 mini-car, which is to be built at a Chrysler plant in Mexico will also underpin a re-engineered/re-badged electric offering for Chrysler. But what of the ENVI program? With Chrysler under new management, we may find that only survivor from the ‘old’ Chrysler EV program will be the Dodge Circuit, as it is much further down the developmental road than its peers.

When asked if there had been any new developments and/or why there had not been any news of late, Mr. Kappa alluded to forthcoming news, “Nothing about our EV programs to announce today, but stay tuned. Lots of activity here.”

/and so we wait

Two examples that seem particularly important are entries from Mitsubishi and Honda.

Mitsubishi is unveiling what it calls the PX-MiEV. This crossover seems to be a conglomerate of all things; its is a plugin hybrid, a parallel hybrid, a series hybrid, and an EV.

The front and rear wheels are powered by two electric motors that total 60 kw, and there is a 1.6 L gas engine that can both power the front wheels and act as a generator. All of the driving configurations are managed by a power control unit and software called the “MiEV OS.”

EV mode can be automatically switched between front wheel drive or 4 wheel rive depending on road conditions. When the battery is depleted to a certain level, the vehicle transforms into Volt-like series hybrid operation where the generator simply provides energy for the electric motors. However unlike the Volt, when power demands become high, the engine can also turn the wheels supplementing the electric motors as a parallel hybrid configuration.

The EV mode range is 31 miles from a full charge, and the car seats 4.

Mitsubishi claims the vehicle will achieve about 117 MPG overall.

Also Honda has finally taken its first baby step into the electric car arena and is unveiling its pure BEV concept called the EV-N. This is a retro styled 4 seat mini car that Honda says is purely a design study and that there are no plans for production.

They are also revealing the CR-Z sports hybrid which is similar to the Insight in mild hybrid engineering only does 0 to 60 in 9 seconds instead of the Insight’s 11 seconds. It will go into production in 2010.

Carlos Tavares is Nissan’s chairman for the Americas. He revealed that Nissan plans on taking pre-orders for the vehilce beginning in Spring 2010. Presumably pricing will be set as that time as well.

Taveres said “we are confident we will have 20,000 reservations for the Leaf by the time it goes on sale.”

Nissan has already announced it will be launching  the car in five markets in the US and plans to sell 1000 cars in each to start.  Driving behavior and the role of charging infrastructure in each of these regions will be studied in a $99 million DOE-funded study with infrastructure partner eTec.

Initial LEAFs will be built in and imported from Japan, but Nissan has announced it eventually plans to build the car in Smyrna Tennessee at a plant that they also received a $2 billion DOE loan to re-tool.  By 2012 they expect to be able to produce 150,000 cars and 200,000 batteries per year there.

After nearly three years since it was first unveiled, GM has not agreed to the idea of taking pre-orders, and are only reportedly planning to build around 10,000 Volts in the 2011 calender year.  They have also not yet officially announced any definite launch locations.

As we know the GM-Volt.com list shows more than 50,000 people want to buy a VOlt, and even GM vice chairman Bob Lutz cited this strong demand.

Why are there such significant differences between the two company’s plans?  Will this announcement lead GM to shift strategy?

Source (Automotive News, sub reqd.)

The money is coming from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan program. In the first stage, Fisker will use $169.3 million for engineering integration costs as it works with US suppliers to complete and launch its first electric car, the luxurious Karma.

The next $359.36 million tranche will be used to design, develop, and assemble Fisker’s next generation car. This smaller more affordable plug-in hybrid will come forth from what is called project NINA. The goal price for the car is $39,000 after the $7500 tax credit.

Fisker estimates it will be able to sell from 75,000 to 100,000 plug-in vehicles per year beginning in late 2012. They also claim 5000 US jobs will be created and 821 million gallons of gas and 80 million tons of CO2 will be offset by these cars through 2016.

“This conditional loan represents a significant step in America’s future,” Henrik Fisker, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “With it, Fisker Automotive can rapidly develop affordable, clean cars that satisfy our passion for driving and help restore the U.S. as an auto industry leader.”

“This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future,” said US Energy Secretary Chu. “Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could revolutionize personal transportation and cut our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention give us cleaner air and less carbon pollution.”

The Fisker Karma is set to launch in May 2010, and is a 4 seat 4 door extended range electric car that delivers 50 all electric miles, and has a 300 mile cruising range using its gas range extender.  It does 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds, and the gas engine is being sourced from General Motors.

Source (Automotive News)

Of course this dream car is out of the range for most folks, especially considering how many even think the Volt’s $40,000 price tag is too steep.

However, just as Tesla has announced a more “affordable” $57,000 S sedan, Fisker too appears to be planning a lower cost model.

Reports indicate that Ray Lane from the Kleiner Perkins investment firm, that invests in Fisker, let slip a rumor that company is set to unveil a new $39,000 model.  Indeed company founder and CEO Henrik Fisker has previously gone on record stating it was his plan to eventually develop and sell  a $40,000 plug-in car.

Fisker is also known to have applied for DOE funding to help it refurbish a US assembly plant from which to manufacture low cost cars.  No announcement has yet been made indicating they have been approved for funding, but Fisker has stated if it gets the loan it could being producing cars in as few as 26 months.

I attempted to find out directly from the source if this low cost rumor is true and whether it would be a plug in hybrid or pure electric.

Mr. Fisker responded to my questions with the following statement:  “We will get back to you next week.”

Looks like some news is coming folks.

This extremely blissful absence of gasoline exploding violently in steel chambers is a fringe benefit of EVs.  I can say as a daily EV driver it is indeed a pleasure.

There has long been consideration though to give EVs artificial sounds, primarily for the purpose of notifying the visual impaired, elderly, and children that a car is approaching.  An increase in pedestrian accidents coming from EV mass adoption is the concern.

GM has given this issue some thought too and as per Volt executive Frank Weber,  the Volt will be equipped with a pedestrian alert that is driver-activated.  It will emit pleasant warning sound when a lever is pulled.

Nissan, however, appears to be taking a different path.

According to a report, Nissan sound engineer Toshiyuki Tabata who used to work on making gas-powered cars quieter, is now working on sound effects for his company’s upcoming pure electric 100 mile range LEAF.

“We fought for so long to get rid of that noisy engine sound,” said Tabata, “With electric cars, we took a completely different approach and listened to composers talk music theory.”

Apparently the sound Tabata came up with is “beautiful and futuristic,” and resulted from consultations with Japanese composers of film scores.

The resulting sound is reminiscent of the flying cars known as ‘Spinners’ found in the 1982 film Blade Runner, it is a high-pitched metallic whir.

Nissan presented the sound to the NHTSA on September 3rd, and although no federal guidelines yet exist, the automaker may equip the LEAF with the sound when it launches in the US at the end of next year.

The sound would start as soon as the car is turned on and would go off above 12 MPH.

“We don’t want to destroy the brand of the electric car,” said Tabata. “We want to have something that will enhance its image.”

Source (Bloomberg)

You can make out the sound of a Spinner in the video clip below:

This year’s Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany has brought with it several new electric car concepts that demonstrate the range of expression cars that do not run on gas can display.

Audi

At one end of the extreme we have the Audi e-tron.  This is a 2-seat performance car based on the current gas-powered R8.  It uses 4 electric motors, one at each wheel which together develop 313 horsepower and a fearsome 3319 foot-pounds of torque ( compare that to the Volt’s 295 ft-lb).  This configuration allows the car to go from 0 to 60 in 4.8 seconds but also from 37 to 75 mph in 4.1 seconds.

The car has a 52 kwh lithium-ion battery pack of which 42.4 kwh is useable, that will deliver 154 miles of range.  At 230 V, charge time is from 6 to 8 hours.

Audi noted the value of the supercar’s mind boggling torque:

The e-tron is able to freely distribute the powerful torque of its four electric motors to the wheels as required. This so-called torque vectoring allows for dazzling dynamics and an undreamed-of level of agility and precision when cornering.

Audi also makes it clear they do not believe electric cars are ready for prime-time. announcing “there is still a lot of work to do before electric cars are ready for volume production.”

Though the Volt debuted as a show car concept shell without inner workings, apparently this car is the real deal.  According to Audi President Johan de Nysschen, “the show car itself is a running prototype.”

How would you like to test drive that?

At the other end we have two odd little birds that are paired with more mainstream big brothers.

Volkswagen

The Volkswagen L1, as its name implies, is a one-liter hybrid car that uses a 0.8 L 2 cylinder diesel engine mated to a 10 kw electric motor and a lithium ion battery that is not grid-chargeable. It delivers 40 hp and 0 to 60 time is 14.3 seconds.  Torque here is 100 nm.

Of course this concept isn’t new, VW’s first iteration was shown in 2002.  The main goal of the car is extreme fuel economy, and according to Volkswagen, that will be 170 MPG.

Volkswagen also displayed its mainstream upcoming BEV called the E-Up!, that they are calling “the Beetle of the 21st Century”

The E-Up! will not arrive into production until 2013 and then is only intended for use in city environments. Volkswagen thinks vehicular electrification wont fully take hold until 2020.

The car has 3+1 seating and is powered by a 60 kw motor that propels it from 0 to 60 in 11.3 seconds.  The 18 kwh total lithium-ion battery will allow 100 miles of range fully charged, with charging taking up to 5 hours on 230V.

The car also gets a 1.4 square meter solar panel on the roof that will supply electricity to the drivetrain while in operation or turn a cooling fan when parked in the sunlight.

Renault

Finally Renault introduced four new electric car concepts.

One of them is the rather bizarre Twizy ZE which is similar to an enclosed motorcycle with four oddly-shaped wheels that appear square.  It has a 15 kw motor with a top speed of 47 mph and the two occupants sit in tandem. It is said to have the performance characteristics of a 125cc motorbike.

Renault also unveiled the Fluence sedan which will be the electric car that will be used in Israel for Better Place battery swapping.  It is a stylish and reasonable sedan that has a 95 hp (70 kw) motor and a 99 mile range.  Though it can be charged in 5 hours at 230 V, it has the option of a 3-minute “Quickdrop” at a Better Place station.

No matter what your preference, it is clear that electricity is taking the automotive market by storm.  Concepts are taking very wide artistic liberties now as a automakers explore the boundaries of pure electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

There is no stopping it now, gasoline is dying a slow death.