Archive for the 'PHEV' Category
Does Honda Lack “Clarity” on Their Thoughts About Plug-in Vehicles?
We have previously reported how Honda CEO Takeo Fukui did not believe the idea of a rage-extended electric car made sense.
Now, according to the AFP, he has gone so far as to say that he “saw no value in developing plug-in hybrid vehicles”.
It seems Honda is interested in petroleum displacement as they have begun leasing [...]
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Audio Interview: Donald Hillebrand, Director of Center For Transportation Research, Argonne National Lab, Part I
Dr. Donald Hillebrand is the director for transportation research at the Argonne National Lab, a pivotal government organization involved in testing and deployment of plug-in cars. He is also a very intelligent and highly insightful man. We had an extensive and interesting discussion which can be heard in the player below the post. [...]
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“Project Better Place” Electric Car Charging Company Launches with $200 Million in Funding
A new start-up company announced its launch yesterday. This company is called “Project Better Place. Their idea is to create a subscription-based charging system for plug-in electric cars. This system would operate like a cell phone network, driver’s could roam anywhere, plug-in and charge their cars where it is convenient. They [...]
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Honda Says Chevy Volt Makes No Sense
Hot on the heels of Toyota’s negative comments about the Volt which we reported in our last post, Honda has taken it one step further, and right from the top.
Honda’s CEO Takeo Fukui told the Wall Street Journal that when lithium-ion batteries become available for them, a pure electric car would be the way to [...]
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Toyota Hybrid Manager Says Even His Wife Wouldn’t Plug-in Her Car
Toyota continues to expose its weaknesses whenever their hybrid program is compared to GM’s E-Flex effort.
In today’s report by Joe White in the Wall Street Journal, Toyota was portrayed as taking a more “cautious” approach into hybrid development than GM. They continue to describe lithium-ion batteries as still not being ready for them.
Toyota hybrid [...]
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Plug-in Saturn VUE to Get 25 All-Electric Miles?
A post appeared yesterday on TheCarConnection in which the author was primarily describing the new 2008 mild hybrid Saturn VUE (see our previous post).
As most articles do when this car is mentioned, it goes on to describe GM’s plans to eventually make a 2-mode VUE and in 2009 a plug-in VUE with a lithium-ion pack [...]
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EnerDel HEV Battery Pack Specs
Tuesday’s announcement by EnerDel of a market-ready production lithium-ion battery pack for hybrid electric cars (HEV) was missing some important information, the specs.
Mr. Charles Gassenheimer, Ener1’s Vice-Chairman was kind enough to provide us with those all-important details:
1 pack:
600 watt hours
120 volts
$1500 per pack
There you have it.
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What’s All this Tom Friedman, Automakers, and CAFE Fuss?
Anyone who reads auto blogs and newspapers by now has heard a lot about Tom Friedmans Op-ed in the New York Times yesterday. In it he bashed Toyota for joining with the Big 3 automakers in encouraging the defeat of a Senate bill to move CAFE gas mileage standards to a corporate average of [...]
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Congressional Hearing on Lithium-Ion Battery: GMs Denise Gray, and Johnsons Mary Ann Wright Testify
Yesterday we discussed that Japan was funding lithium-ion research 10-fold more than what the U.S. government was. Our reader NeutronFlux promptly pointed out that at that very moment, the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment was holding a hearing about Energy Storage Technology, including vehicular applications.
Unfortunately, folks, we cannot [...]
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Does the Volt Have Another Competitor? Enter Aptera.
You may have heard about a new plug-in electric vehicle called the Aptera. The company has begun taking orders for a $500 deposit on its website (Aptera.com).
The vehicle is a 3-wheeler that seats 2 in front and 1 in back. It is capable of highway speeds and can do 0 to 60 in [...]
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EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Charles Gassenheimer, Vice-Chair of Ener1, EnerDel Lithium-Ion Battery Parent Company
As we have previously discussed, the U.S. government awarded research grants to 5 U.S. top lithium-ion battery producers for developing plug-in electric car battery packs. We have had previous discussions with executives from A123 as well as Compact Power Inc., the two companies with Chevy Volt contracts.
Now, I had the chance to chat with [...]
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GM-Volt EXCLUSIVE Interview: Tom Schneider, Chair IEEE-USA Plug-in Vehicle Task Force
The IEEE-USA is the predominant U.S. organizing body of practicing electrical engineers. IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Their membership includes over 50% of all practicing electrical engineers in the U.S., which amounts to 215,000 individuals. They are responsible for publishing ~25% of the nations technical literature, and focus on [...]
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