Good & bad news on electric cars....

Today’s post: Weds, 4-16-2008

I very much approve of Tesla Motors & the rationale on their website that guides their car designs. (See http://www.teslamotors.com/ .)

They understand why electric cars are important for advancing renewable energy & turning off our reliance on oil. And, they realize that electric cars will only succeed in the marketplace if people want to drive them.

I’d love it if they start selling truckloads of their cars & would like that to be soon.

However, they have not yet gone into full production on their first car, the sports roadster, & have not yet begun making their second car that will have a larger market since it is an upscale sedan.

So when I read earlier today that another company, Fisker Coach Build of Irvine in California was developing a good looking plug-in hybrid & that the two companies are suing each other, I was both delighted to see more electric cars that people would want to drive enter the market & sad that the management time of these two companies was going to these legal hassles. Unfortunately, it may add delays to their cars getting into full production as soon as I’d like for both companies.

That said, unlike Tesla, Fisker cars are not yet at all well known.

So, here’s what I’ve found out about the Fisker cars.:

I did read that they will have up to a 40 mile all electric range. That would make them effectively all electric for many people. And it would make them all electric for morning commutes for almost everyone who drives them. Driving one would slash gasoline use in virtually every case. This is not quite as good as the Tesla or Miles cars but is very close.

The company is called Fisker Automotive. I didn’t enter their website as it requires one to install flash which I detest.

But I found this: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=122489

"Fisker Automotive: New Plug-in Hybrid Maker
Date posted: 09-05-2007 IRVINE, Calif. - Betting that they can beat bureaucracy-burdened major automakers to market with today's hottest new green-car technology, a pair of Southern California automotive firms will announce plans today for a new, American-made plug-in hybrid car to go on sale by 2010.

The companies, Fisker Coachbuild LLC and Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, both located in Irvine, will form a joint venture to design, build and market the car, said spokeswoman Cristina Cheever. The new company will be called Fisker Automotive.

Its plug-in hybrid will team an internal combustion engine and a battery-based electric drive system that can be recharged from the commercial grid via common 110-volt household current.

Details and performance figures, including range on all-electric drive, are being kept under wraps, but Cheever said the new vehicles would handily outperform the 8-mile all-electric range Toyota is promising for its next-generation Prius plug-in hybrid, a 2009 model.

General Motors has said it will bring an extended-range Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, with 40 miles of all-electric range, to market by 2010 and will sell it for under $30,000. Ford also has shown a concept plug-in hybrid but has not said when, or whether, it will build the vehicle.

Design and technology development for the Fisker plug-in are underway and a working preproduction prototype will be unveiled in January at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Cheever said.

The car, to be designed by Fisker Coachbuild, would sell for under $100,000 and plans call for initial annual production of 15,000 vehicles, Cheever said.

Fisker Automotive will contract with an existing private manufacturer to build its cars, she said.

Henrik Fisker, the former BMW and Aston Martin designer and chairman of Fisker Coachbuild, will head Fisker Automotive's management team.

Privately owned Fisker Coachbuild designs and installs new coachwork and interiors for high-end BMW and Mercedes-Benz models, creating rebodied exotics in the manner of the custom coachbuilders of the early 1900s who created new sheet metal for all types of luxury cars including Bugattis, Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces. The company won't release sales data but says it has delivered 13 of its Tramonto convertibles and Latigo coupes (based, respectively, on the Mercedes-Benz SL and BMW 6 Series.)

Quantum, which owns several chassis-building companies and specializes in clean propulsion and fuel and energy storage technologies, is developing the plug-in power plant and drive system for the Fisker. The company has built plug-in hybrid conversions of the Ford Escape Hybrid for the Southern California Air Quality Management District.

What this means to you: If you've got the bucks, you could be zooming by decade's end in an earth-friendly exotic car with substantial all-electric range while your neighbor is still putting along in a Prius."

(The article in today’s paper said their car will sell for about $80,000.)

& I found this on Wikipedia:

“Fisker Automotive From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fisker Automotive is a joint venture between Fisker Coachbuild and Quantum Technologies.

All models will feature a cutting-edge plug-in hybrid technology named "Quantum Drive", developed by Quantum Technologies exclusively for Fisker Automotive. This all-new plug–in Quantum Drive chassis layout will allow Fisker to design innovative luxury cars with uncompromised proportions.

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid electric sportscar shown at the North American International Auto Show in January 2008.”

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I wish both companies the best & hope they both sell a lot of cars.

In addition, I hope their electric car & plug-in hybrid car technologies make their way quickly into less expensive, even more widely sold cars.

This may happen through licensing by larger car companies or by those companies rapidly rolling out their own versions. It might even happen by these two companies doing it themselves if they do well enough.

It will definitely open the marketplace to truly green cars that can run all or mostly on renewable energy & begin to help us get off of using oil to power our driving.