An upcoming new way to use less oil....
Today's post: Wednesday, 9-22-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post: An upcoming new way to use less oil
Electric cars are coming soon. Soon there will be both all electric cars and plug-in hybrids available for sale.
That will be quite soon for the Nissan Leaf and GM’s Chevy Volt.
But if you can wait a couple of years or so, or if you only need a two-seater now and can afford to spend more on a car, Tesla Motors may be your best bet.
Their model S will be about as upscale a sedan as an Acura or a Lexus or car from Mercedes Benz.
And, it will get up to 300 miles on a charge. It looks great and will perform better than most upscale sedans that use tons of gas to perform well.
See www.teslamotors.com . Their two seat, tiny roadster will go up to about 200 miles on a charge and gets almost unbelievable performance. That only takes a bit over $100,000 a few months to get.
The model S will cost closer to $60,000 which is close to what comparable gasoline powered cars cost.
Driving these cars using electric power cuts oil use in many ways.
Electricity will increasingly be generated with solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, and even nuclear power. None of these sources use fossil fuels, let alone oil.
Electricity is already generated by natural gas. With Bloom Energy’s fuel cell technology, that will become even more efficient and create far less air pollution. And, the existing natural gas generation already uses no oil.
Coal is now used to generate electricity, particularly in the Eastern United States. Despite the air pollution and CO2 release problems with that, it uses no oil and thereby driving cars powered electricity from this source uses less oil than driving gasoline powered cars and increases the national security of the United States. Further, when coal is turned directly into natural gas and then fed to a Bloom Energy fuel cell to generate electricity and the CO2 resulting is fed to algae to make biofuels, this will be far cleaner and less polluting and generate less net CO2 than it does now.
So, in every case, driving on electricity, uses no oil and is more desirable than using gasoline.
But, that’s not all!
Electric cars use less energy per mile or per time you accelerate your car than is the case with gasoline or diesel powered cars.
That even means that driving an electric car powered by burning coal now, you cause less CO2 release than you would doing the same driving with a comparable car directly powered by gasoline or diesel.
Electric cars are far from perfect in any way and the technology is a bit new yet; but they will help us use far less oil and release far less CO2 by doing so.
Showing posts with label Tesla Motors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesla Motors. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Electric Transport is beginning to happen....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-21-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Electric transport is beginning to happen.
1. Tesla is beginning to look like it will successfully become an established car company making upscale electric cars similar to what Audi or Acura or BMW does now for gasoline powered cars. They also have technology they will share with larger car companies.
2. Within five years it looks as if all the following major car companies will make all electric or plug-in hybrid cars that run over 90 % of the time as electric cars.:
Toyota; Honda; Nissan; and Mitsubishi from Japan.
Ford and Chevrolet in the United States.
And, just yesterday, I found out the Volkswagen is making a serious effort to become a leading manufacturer of electric cars.
3. And, if you didn’t see it, this was in our post 3 weeks ago:
And, that’s not all. Coulomb Technologies is developing multiple ways to support building networks of charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrids. They have a large deal with Ford and also are ready to support the Nissan Leaf and are working with Siemens to support an EV (electric vehicle) Siemens is developing.
A company called Better Place is setting up a combination of fast charging stations and electric cars that work with them in several places.
And, Amprius in the Silicon Valley says they have a technology to increase the charge lithium batteries can take and deliver by 40%. If they do and get it into production, that will either increase the range cars can drive using only electricity or lower the cost and weight of their battery packs or both.
And there are also many new advanced technology battery companies as well. These include A123 Systems and Boston Power both in Boston plus the high technology battery companies in China that venture capitalist, John Doerr says are doing well despite very little coverage here.
There’s good news and bad news in this.
The best news is that this will dramatically cut our dependence on and use of fuels from petroleum. It will lower the maintenance cost of transport and driving because electric cars are simpler and far less complex than internal combustion engines.
Since peak oil and price run ups in fuels from petroleum look likely within that same timeframe or soon after it, this transition will really help our economy.
The bad news is that it may make our transport systems vulnerable to solar electromagnetic storms which have melted telegraph wires in the past.
But the likely bad news is that it will put a lot of pressure on the utility companies to generate and deliver more electricity. Some powering of electric cars can be done with existing generation facilities at night when the demand for electricity for lighting, business, and air conditioning is far less.
But it also means that more natural gas and coal will be burned to generate electricity.
All of this makes development of clean energy sources of electricity such as photovoltaic solar, thermal solar, and wind –and -- cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity from natural gas and coal even more important than they are now. And, it will increase the demands to build more nuclear plants to generate electricity.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-21-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Electric transport is beginning to happen.
1. Tesla is beginning to look like it will successfully become an established car company making upscale electric cars similar to what Audi or Acura or BMW does now for gasoline powered cars. They also have technology they will share with larger car companies.
2. Within five years it looks as if all the following major car companies will make all electric or plug-in hybrid cars that run over 90 % of the time as electric cars.:
Toyota; Honda; Nissan; and Mitsubishi from Japan.
Ford and Chevrolet in the United States.
And, just yesterday, I found out the Volkswagen is making a serious effort to become a leading manufacturer of electric cars.
3. And, if you didn’t see it, this was in our post 3 weeks ago:
And, that’s not all. Coulomb Technologies is developing multiple ways to support building networks of charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrids. They have a large deal with Ford and also are ready to support the Nissan Leaf and are working with Siemens to support an EV (electric vehicle) Siemens is developing.
A company called Better Place is setting up a combination of fast charging stations and electric cars that work with them in several places.
And, Amprius in the Silicon Valley says they have a technology to increase the charge lithium batteries can take and deliver by 40%. If they do and get it into production, that will either increase the range cars can drive using only electricity or lower the cost and weight of their battery packs or both.
And there are also many new advanced technology battery companies as well. These include A123 Systems and Boston Power both in Boston plus the high technology battery companies in China that venture capitalist, John Doerr says are doing well despite very little coverage here.
There’s good news and bad news in this.
The best news is that this will dramatically cut our dependence on and use of fuels from petroleum. It will lower the maintenance cost of transport and driving because electric cars are simpler and far less complex than internal combustion engines.
Since peak oil and price run ups in fuels from petroleum look likely within that same timeframe or soon after it, this transition will really help our economy.
The bad news is that it may make our transport systems vulnerable to solar electromagnetic storms which have melted telegraph wires in the past.
But the likely bad news is that it will put a lot of pressure on the utility companies to generate and deliver more electricity. Some powering of electric cars can be done with existing generation facilities at night when the demand for electricity for lighting, business, and air conditioning is far less.
But it also means that more natural gas and coal will be burned to generate electricity.
All of this makes development of clean energy sources of electricity such as photovoltaic solar, thermal solar, and wind –and -- cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity from natural gas and coal even more important than they are now. And, it will increase the demands to build more nuclear plants to generate electricity.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Energy entrepreneurs doing better than politicians....
Today's post: Wednesday, 11-11-2009
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.
And, of those the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.
While there ARE some pieces of good news in posts I did two, three, & four weeks ago that show that some political leaders are beginning to take some decent first steps towards building the energy policy we ideally should have had 40 years ago, it’s mostly too little too late.
However, given the tiny bit of help from those political leaders, there are multiple examples of energy entrepreneurs who have already begun to create our new energy economy.
Those efforts are beginning to look more and more promising.
For example, since electricity can be generated by virtually all the renewable energy sources and by nuclear reactors and by burning the more clean burning than coal natural gas, NONE of which use petroleum, it clearly would help to run our transport systems more and more on electricity rather than by burning petroleum products such as diesel fuel and gasoline.
Not only that, even if you generate electricity by burning natural gas or coal, apparently electric vehicles, that incorporate regenerative electricity generation instead of using brakes to slow down and are more efficient in other ways, actually cause less CO2 to be released than comparable vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel fuel for the same mileage driven.
So while the politicians both in the United States are mostly playing roadblock instead of making workable compromises that move in the right direction and saying we’ll only do the harder stuff if everyone else does it first and few do very much, the progress towards well done all electric cars is breathtaking and the progress on plug in hybrids that use far less petroleum is getting there.
For example, as of today, you can go to: http://www.teslamotors.com/blogs.php & see the story of a man who bought one of the Tesla Motors Roadsters.
Of course, they are priced for multi-millionaires & for the people almost that fortunate market now, a bit over $100,000.
But Tesla Motors will soon sell their model S sedan that will sell for about half that, comparable to what other more affordable and existing high end cars sell for.
And, the comments by Eric Brechner who tells about his experience with the Tesla Roadster he bought while he and his wife waited to get their model S are very promising.
In software, even from well thought of major companies, it’s not uncommon for the first version of a new release to need multiple fixes before it really becomes a decent product.
So, since the Tesla Roadster was Tesla Motors initial product, he had expected comparable glitches. Instead he found it more user-friendly and reliable and easy to maintain than the best gasoline powered car he could have found to buy.
Further, due to the simplicity of the design, that advantage in maintenance will last the life of the car when compared to the complexity of a gasoline powered car.
(He also notes that their Roadster is so much fun to drive, when the model S is available, his wife will get one and they’ll use it when they need the added passenger seats as a family car; but he will keep the Roadster to keep driving himself instead of his original plan to sell it to buy himself a second model S.)
As more and more communities have electricity provided by solar and wind and geothermal and nuclear sources and more and more people drive all electric cars and trucks and mostly electric plug-in hybrids, we will begin to use far less petroleum even without the policies to revoke the multiple incentives the oil companies now have or the added taxes and regulations on CO2 release that the politicians may not be able to pass.
So, while the progress on energy by the politicians is still too little too late, the energy entrepreneurs are beginning to solve the problem.
So, although I still hope to influence the politicians to do the right things, as in my post last week, I’m placing my hopes and expectations for success mostly with the energy entrepreneurs.
Today's post: Wednesday, 11-11-2009
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.
And, of those the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.
While there ARE some pieces of good news in posts I did two, three, & four weeks ago that show that some political leaders are beginning to take some decent first steps towards building the energy policy we ideally should have had 40 years ago, it’s mostly too little too late.
However, given the tiny bit of help from those political leaders, there are multiple examples of energy entrepreneurs who have already begun to create our new energy economy.
Those efforts are beginning to look more and more promising.
For example, since electricity can be generated by virtually all the renewable energy sources and by nuclear reactors and by burning the more clean burning than coal natural gas, NONE of which use petroleum, it clearly would help to run our transport systems more and more on electricity rather than by burning petroleum products such as diesel fuel and gasoline.
Not only that, even if you generate electricity by burning natural gas or coal, apparently electric vehicles, that incorporate regenerative electricity generation instead of using brakes to slow down and are more efficient in other ways, actually cause less CO2 to be released than comparable vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel fuel for the same mileage driven.
So while the politicians both in the United States are mostly playing roadblock instead of making workable compromises that move in the right direction and saying we’ll only do the harder stuff if everyone else does it first and few do very much, the progress towards well done all electric cars is breathtaking and the progress on plug in hybrids that use far less petroleum is getting there.
For example, as of today, you can go to: http://www.teslamotors.com/blogs.php & see the story of a man who bought one of the Tesla Motors Roadsters.
Of course, they are priced for multi-millionaires & for the people almost that fortunate market now, a bit over $100,000.
But Tesla Motors will soon sell their model S sedan that will sell for about half that, comparable to what other more affordable and existing high end cars sell for.
And, the comments by Eric Brechner who tells about his experience with the Tesla Roadster he bought while he and his wife waited to get their model S are very promising.
In software, even from well thought of major companies, it’s not uncommon for the first version of a new release to need multiple fixes before it really becomes a decent product.
So, since the Tesla Roadster was Tesla Motors initial product, he had expected comparable glitches. Instead he found it more user-friendly and reliable and easy to maintain than the best gasoline powered car he could have found to buy.
Further, due to the simplicity of the design, that advantage in maintenance will last the life of the car when compared to the complexity of a gasoline powered car.
(He also notes that their Roadster is so much fun to drive, when the model S is available, his wife will get one and they’ll use it when they need the added passenger seats as a family car; but he will keep the Roadster to keep driving himself instead of his original plan to sell it to buy himself a second model S.)
As more and more communities have electricity provided by solar and wind and geothermal and nuclear sources and more and more people drive all electric cars and trucks and mostly electric plug-in hybrids, we will begin to use far less petroleum even without the policies to revoke the multiple incentives the oil companies now have or the added taxes and regulations on CO2 release that the politicians may not be able to pass.
So, while the progress on energy by the politicians is still too little too late, the energy entrepreneurs are beginning to solve the problem.
So, although I still hope to influence the politicians to do the right things, as in my post last week, I’m placing my hopes and expectations for success mostly with the energy entrepreneurs.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Renewable energy & electric transport....
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-12-2009
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
Electricity generated by solar or wind power or by using heat from geothermal energy to generate electricity AND electricity generated by nuclear power all avoid releasing CO2 and using oil.
(If coal to generate electricity can be burned in a way that allows the CO2 to be sequestered or converted to biofuel that also would replace oil and allow for more electric transport. Very soon electricity generated from coal and nuclear will cost more than from solar and wind. But now it may cost slightly less; and clean coal and nuclear will need less new transmission lines as they are or can be located next to existing transmission lines.)
That puts a very high premium on electric and/or plug-in hybrid cars and trucks and on electrically powered mass transit and trains.
And to build such cars and trucks and to allow electricity needed but not currently being generated by wind or solar or to allow excess electricity generated by wind or solar at other times to be stored all require reliable, fast charging, batteries that tend not to wear out or to require replacement only after extended use.
Also, for transport, having light and compact batteries is very important.
From large companies such as SONY to smaller startups such as Tesla and Imara Corporation in the Silicon Valley and in other parts of the world, many companies are working on such improved battery technology. (Mobile electronic devices share similar battery needs with the battery needs of electric transport. So battery advances for either use may well be used by the other use as well.) We may also see the use of combinations of capacitors that can be very rapidly charged and discharged with relatively faster discharging and charging batteries that are changed more often with batteries that discharge and charge more slowly but last far longer.
In addition, the electricity for this transport will begin to need more electricity generation which increases the need for a massive increase in solar and wind and new smart grid transmission lines to connect these new sources to users. In the earlier stages this need will fortunately be less acute since car batteries in electric cars and plug in hybrids can be charged at hours of the day other uses tend to be at their lowest so existing generation capacity can be used.
Tesla, with its good looking model S all electric sedan and GM with its plug in hybrid Volt are pioneering this market. But in the same way most car companies now make hybrid cars, soon most car companies will make all electric cars or plug-in hybrids or both.
So, it looks like the market for batteries to go in these cars looks like it will be very, very big within 2 to 5 years and then grow even more.
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-12-2009
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
Electricity generated by solar or wind power or by using heat from geothermal energy to generate electricity AND electricity generated by nuclear power all avoid releasing CO2 and using oil.
(If coal to generate electricity can be burned in a way that allows the CO2 to be sequestered or converted to biofuel that also would replace oil and allow for more electric transport. Very soon electricity generated from coal and nuclear will cost more than from solar and wind. But now it may cost slightly less; and clean coal and nuclear will need less new transmission lines as they are or can be located next to existing transmission lines.)
That puts a very high premium on electric and/or plug-in hybrid cars and trucks and on electrically powered mass transit and trains.
And to build such cars and trucks and to allow electricity needed but not currently being generated by wind or solar or to allow excess electricity generated by wind or solar at other times to be stored all require reliable, fast charging, batteries that tend not to wear out or to require replacement only after extended use.
Also, for transport, having light and compact batteries is very important.
From large companies such as SONY to smaller startups such as Tesla and Imara Corporation in the Silicon Valley and in other parts of the world, many companies are working on such improved battery technology. (Mobile electronic devices share similar battery needs with the battery needs of electric transport. So battery advances for either use may well be used by the other use as well.) We may also see the use of combinations of capacitors that can be very rapidly charged and discharged with relatively faster discharging and charging batteries that are changed more often with batteries that discharge and charge more slowly but last far longer.
In addition, the electricity for this transport will begin to need more electricity generation which increases the need for a massive increase in solar and wind and new smart grid transmission lines to connect these new sources to users. In the earlier stages this need will fortunately be less acute since car batteries in electric cars and plug in hybrids can be charged at hours of the day other uses tend to be at their lowest so existing generation capacity can be used.
Tesla, with its good looking model S all electric sedan and GM with its plug in hybrid Volt are pioneering this market. But in the same way most car companies now make hybrid cars, soon most car companies will make all electric cars or plug-in hybrids or both.
So, it looks like the market for batteries to go in these cars looks like it will be very, very big within 2 to 5 years and then grow even more.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tesla, an important renewable energy company...
Today’s post: Wednesday, 11-12-2008
Why all electric cars are now so incredibly important:
1. Electricity can be generated by solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, wind, (& nuclear power to some extent, albeit with serious safety concerns.) None of these ways to generate electricity burn fossil fuels or release carbon dioxide or directly produce other air pollution while in normal operation. None of them burn petroleum, coal, or natural gas.
2. Even with today’s technology which itself is rapidly being improved, we can harvest more power for transport per unit area with photovoltaics than we can by growing biofuels.
(Source, http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/
Going All-Electric August 7, 2008 By Martin Roscheisen, CEO
The following is one of my favorite charts: How far a car can drive based on either of the following forms of energy, each produced from 100m x 100m (2.5 acres) of land:
No biofuel listed was at or over 100,000 km in that chart. Photovoltaics plus a plug-in hybrid was 3,250,000 km. So, even if that 3,250,000 km is overstated by ten to one, photovoltaics can drive cars more than three times, or closer to five times farther per unit area of land used than biofuels. And, if it’s NOT ten to one overstated, that’s about 30 to 50 times farther using photovoltaics.)
3. So, if most cars and a majority of trucks soon become all electric or plug-in hybrids, we can begin to come close to running all our transport on electricity from renewable sources and sources that produce no CO2 or other air pollution. This will drive DOWN the cost of the remaining fossil liquid fuels still in use and delay the day we run out of petroleum entirely. It will also reduce the amount of vehicles running on liquid fuels enough to make switching them to mostly liquid biofuels much more doable because the size of the job will get much smaller. (We will likely need some kind of carbon tax and relatively long term subsidy for biofuels due to the dropping cost of gasoline and diesel from petroleum that will also cut the price the biofuels will be able to charge.)
Since our economy and our life support system on earth will collapse unless we do these things according to the information I’ve seen, I think we will wake up and do just that.
(Lack of breathable air may take a good bit longer.
But part of our current economic problems was already caused by the big jumps in fuel prices for transport.
And, if we run out of enough fuel to run our economy; make our weather enough nastier we have to pay extra for extra damage repair; it becomes three times less productive to grow food; and we submerge some of our most productive and most populated coastal cities all over the world – and all of these events happen at the same time – which we are currently headed towards, economic collapse is certain.)
The switch to renewable sources of electricity and to all electric cars and plug-in hybrids will be constrained somewhat in the short term by the need to provide liquid fossil fuels and liquid biofuels to existing cars and trucks. And, it will be constrained long term by the need to use liquid fuels in some applications and the dollar costs for all those batteries and solar collectors.
But it seems clear to me that our economy is and should be rapidly evolving towards a transport system world wide based mostly on renewable sources of electricity and all electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
So, that means that a competent maker of all electric cars is now an extremely important company.
And, with the car companies that make the cars that still run on gasoline all currently running virtually out of money, for smaller companies that are decently well financed that also make all electric cars, that goes at least double.
(The car companies that make the cars that still run on gasoline are finally beginning to build hybrids and will soon build plug-in hybrids. But most people could easily do half or more of their driving in an all electric car.)
This is where Tesla comes in.
People who like good performance or who simply need cars that will go fast enough to drive safely on the freeway or local highway, will NOT voluntarily buy cars that are modified electric golf carts, have marginally responsive controls, are ugly, and won’t go over 30 or 40 miles an hour.
Tesla’s first car, the Roadster, is a sports car and costs about $100,000. But it will accelerate to 60 miles an hour in under 4 seconds -- and likely, though I’ve not seen the test numbers, will accelerate to 100 miles an hour at times competitive, as it’s zero to 60 times are, with the other expensive sports cars that cost that much and more such as the newest, fastest Corvette or a Lamborghini.
So, that makes a high end all electric 4 door sedan made by Tesla doubly desirable. First, it will be an all electric car you can actually do normal driving in. And, it will be a car you’ll be proud to own similar to a Lexus or Mercedes.
Even though the recent credit crunch has slowed their plans to build their sedan, Tesla has recently raised $40 million; got its manufacturing plant approved in San Jose, California in the Silicon Valley near its initial location just North of there; and will get a large infusion of low cost Federal financing in about 8 to 10 months. In addition, it’s taking steps to control its costs and make its other sales profitable to ensure it can proceed with its plans to make the sedan.
Tesla was scheduled to begin production in of the sedan in its new manufacturing plant in 2010; and that’s been pushed back at least 6 months. So it sounds like it may be 2011 before you can drive one. But as 2008 only has a few more weeks to go, 2011 is only a bit two over two years away, or by perhaps three years from today, Tesla will be delivering its sedan to buyers.
Meanwhile, if you can afford an inexpensive to run, high performance sports car for about $100,000, you can get a Tesla now!
Today’s post: Wednesday, 11-12-2008
Why all electric cars are now so incredibly important:
1. Electricity can be generated by solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, wind, (& nuclear power to some extent, albeit with serious safety concerns.) None of these ways to generate electricity burn fossil fuels or release carbon dioxide or directly produce other air pollution while in normal operation. None of them burn petroleum, coal, or natural gas.
2. Even with today’s technology which itself is rapidly being improved, we can harvest more power for transport per unit area with photovoltaics than we can by growing biofuels.
(Source, http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/
Going All-Electric August 7, 2008 By Martin Roscheisen, CEO
The following is one of my favorite charts: How far a car can drive based on either of the following forms of energy, each produced from 100m x 100m (2.5 acres) of land:
No biofuel listed was at or over 100,000 km in that chart. Photovoltaics plus a plug-in hybrid was 3,250,000 km. So, even if that 3,250,000 km is overstated by ten to one, photovoltaics can drive cars more than three times, or closer to five times farther per unit area of land used than biofuels. And, if it’s NOT ten to one overstated, that’s about 30 to 50 times farther using photovoltaics.)
3. So, if most cars and a majority of trucks soon become all electric or plug-in hybrids, we can begin to come close to running all our transport on electricity from renewable sources and sources that produce no CO2 or other air pollution. This will drive DOWN the cost of the remaining fossil liquid fuels still in use and delay the day we run out of petroleum entirely. It will also reduce the amount of vehicles running on liquid fuels enough to make switching them to mostly liquid biofuels much more doable because the size of the job will get much smaller. (We will likely need some kind of carbon tax and relatively long term subsidy for biofuels due to the dropping cost of gasoline and diesel from petroleum that will also cut the price the biofuels will be able to charge.)
Since our economy and our life support system on earth will collapse unless we do these things according to the information I’ve seen, I think we will wake up and do just that.
(Lack of breathable air may take a good bit longer.
But part of our current economic problems was already caused by the big jumps in fuel prices for transport.
And, if we run out of enough fuel to run our economy; make our weather enough nastier we have to pay extra for extra damage repair; it becomes three times less productive to grow food; and we submerge some of our most productive and most populated coastal cities all over the world – and all of these events happen at the same time – which we are currently headed towards, economic collapse is certain.)
The switch to renewable sources of electricity and to all electric cars and plug-in hybrids will be constrained somewhat in the short term by the need to provide liquid fossil fuels and liquid biofuels to existing cars and trucks. And, it will be constrained long term by the need to use liquid fuels in some applications and the dollar costs for all those batteries and solar collectors.
But it seems clear to me that our economy is and should be rapidly evolving towards a transport system world wide based mostly on renewable sources of electricity and all electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
So, that means that a competent maker of all electric cars is now an extremely important company.
And, with the car companies that make the cars that still run on gasoline all currently running virtually out of money, for smaller companies that are decently well financed that also make all electric cars, that goes at least double.
(The car companies that make the cars that still run on gasoline are finally beginning to build hybrids and will soon build plug-in hybrids. But most people could easily do half or more of their driving in an all electric car.)
This is where Tesla comes in.
People who like good performance or who simply need cars that will go fast enough to drive safely on the freeway or local highway, will NOT voluntarily buy cars that are modified electric golf carts, have marginally responsive controls, are ugly, and won’t go over 30 or 40 miles an hour.
Tesla’s first car, the Roadster, is a sports car and costs about $100,000. But it will accelerate to 60 miles an hour in under 4 seconds -- and likely, though I’ve not seen the test numbers, will accelerate to 100 miles an hour at times competitive, as it’s zero to 60 times are, with the other expensive sports cars that cost that much and more such as the newest, fastest Corvette or a Lamborghini.
So, that makes a high end all electric 4 door sedan made by Tesla doubly desirable. First, it will be an all electric car you can actually do normal driving in. And, it will be a car you’ll be proud to own similar to a Lexus or Mercedes.
Even though the recent credit crunch has slowed their plans to build their sedan, Tesla has recently raised $40 million; got its manufacturing plant approved in San Jose, California in the Silicon Valley near its initial location just North of there; and will get a large infusion of low cost Federal financing in about 8 to 10 months. In addition, it’s taking steps to control its costs and make its other sales profitable to ensure it can proceed with its plans to make the sedan.
Tesla was scheduled to begin production in of the sedan in its new manufacturing plant in 2010; and that’s been pushed back at least 6 months. So it sounds like it may be 2011 before you can drive one. But as 2008 only has a few more weeks to go, 2011 is only a bit two over two years away, or by perhaps three years from today, Tesla will be delivering its sedan to buyers.
Meanwhile, if you can afford an inexpensive to run, high performance sports car for about $100,000, you can get a Tesla now!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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.”
X* X* X* X*
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.
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.”
X* X* X* X*
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.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Forward to the Future – of cars....
Today’s post: Weds, 4-2-2008
As I see it, cars will gradually evolve to be more energy efficient & the kinds that will increasingly be our transportation will be hybrids, all electric cars, plug-in hybrids, --
& possibly fuel cell cars run on hydrogen – IF the technology for safe storage advances & if they can be fueled by using renewable or possibly nuclear power to liberate the hydrogen from water or methane.
The cars look set to appear in our marketplace in large numbers in about that order. Hybrids are here now & more will be arriving soon. Two or three all electric car models will arrive within a few more months from Tesla Motors & Miles Electric Vehicles. And, plug-in hybrids now in development will arrive soon after that.
In addition, cars will be more comfortable & safer to drive and, for energy efficiency, will tend to get lighter, more aerodynamically streamlined, -- & somewhat smaller, perhaps.
To see all of the above, but in a car a bit extreme appearance-wise, go to www.aptera.com -- This is the website of Aptera Motors.
They do not yet make a car that most people would buy or one large enough for some family’s needs.
(It is a 3 wheeled car that looks like a tiny airplane with no wings & reminds me a bit of R2D2 of StarWars with its back leaning look. And, it only holds two people. It’s well engineered NOT to be fragile in a crash but looks like it is. My personal preference is for a larger more normal looking car with 4 wheels. I prefer the look of the Honda Civic Hybrid over the Prius for example.
Some early adapters & some younger buyers WILL buy their limited production cars now. But they don’t yet have a design ready for prime time, large sales to the general public in my view.)
However, their design innovations are extremely impressive. I hope designers & executives from GM, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Chrysler, & the other, still large, car makers adapt many of them.
The bad news is the larger companies will lose market share if they don’t as the newer car companies will do so I think.
On Aptera’s website I found an article from TreeHugger, www.treehugger.com
This key paragraph describes two of the most useful & desirable innovations that any car maker could add to its cars.:
“You'll get some pretty slick features, including solar cells embedded under the roof operate an always-on climate control system, ensuring the interior never gets too hot or too cold, and a computer-controlled “Eyes Forward” vision system. By replacing the side mirrors with embedded cameras that display a 180-degree rear view in the front of the instrument panel, Eyes Forward "gives the driver complete situational awareness without taking their eyes off of the road."
These two innovations are extremely desirable features I wish our car we currently drive had now.
In addition to the added comfort of not having to get into a horribly hot car on a hot, sunny day, this system eliminates or sharply reduces the outside power needed to run the air conditioning on such days by using the available solar energy. This is something I’d like to see on all cars soon.
Secondly, highway patrol officers & car safety instructors teach to check your rear view mirrors often as you drive. Even good drivers, probably including most of the officers & instructors, have trouble remembering to do this often. And, if you do it at just the wrong time so taking your eyes away from looking forward causes you to miss a sudden threat in front of you, it can even be a bad idea sometimes.
This eyes forward TV display of what is behind you & what is in your blind spots, is a brilliant idea which solves both these problems at the same time. Good job.
It will be interesting to see how cars develop from here given all these innovations.
The good news is that a lot of these things will happen within 10 years; & most of them will happen, I think, within 30 years.
Today’s post: Weds, 4-2-2008
As I see it, cars will gradually evolve to be more energy efficient & the kinds that will increasingly be our transportation will be hybrids, all electric cars, plug-in hybrids, --
& possibly fuel cell cars run on hydrogen – IF the technology for safe storage advances & if they can be fueled by using renewable or possibly nuclear power to liberate the hydrogen from water or methane.
The cars look set to appear in our marketplace in large numbers in about that order. Hybrids are here now & more will be arriving soon. Two or three all electric car models will arrive within a few more months from Tesla Motors & Miles Electric Vehicles. And, plug-in hybrids now in development will arrive soon after that.
In addition, cars will be more comfortable & safer to drive and, for energy efficiency, will tend to get lighter, more aerodynamically streamlined, -- & somewhat smaller, perhaps.
To see all of the above, but in a car a bit extreme appearance-wise, go to www.aptera.com -- This is the website of Aptera Motors.
They do not yet make a car that most people would buy or one large enough for some family’s needs.
(It is a 3 wheeled car that looks like a tiny airplane with no wings & reminds me a bit of R2D2 of StarWars with its back leaning look. And, it only holds two people. It’s well engineered NOT to be fragile in a crash but looks like it is. My personal preference is for a larger more normal looking car with 4 wheels. I prefer the look of the Honda Civic Hybrid over the Prius for example.
Some early adapters & some younger buyers WILL buy their limited production cars now. But they don’t yet have a design ready for prime time, large sales to the general public in my view.)
However, their design innovations are extremely impressive. I hope designers & executives from GM, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Chrysler, & the other, still large, car makers adapt many of them.
The bad news is the larger companies will lose market share if they don’t as the newer car companies will do so I think.
On Aptera’s website I found an article from TreeHugger, www.treehugger.com
This key paragraph describes two of the most useful & desirable innovations that any car maker could add to its cars.:
“You'll get some pretty slick features, including solar cells embedded under the roof operate an always-on climate control system, ensuring the interior never gets too hot or too cold, and a computer-controlled “Eyes Forward” vision system. By replacing the side mirrors with embedded cameras that display a 180-degree rear view in the front of the instrument panel, Eyes Forward "gives the driver complete situational awareness without taking their eyes off of the road."
These two innovations are extremely desirable features I wish our car we currently drive had now.
In addition to the added comfort of not having to get into a horribly hot car on a hot, sunny day, this system eliminates or sharply reduces the outside power needed to run the air conditioning on such days by using the available solar energy. This is something I’d like to see on all cars soon.
Secondly, highway patrol officers & car safety instructors teach to check your rear view mirrors often as you drive. Even good drivers, probably including most of the officers & instructors, have trouble remembering to do this often. And, if you do it at just the wrong time so taking your eyes away from looking forward causes you to miss a sudden threat in front of you, it can even be a bad idea sometimes.
This eyes forward TV display of what is behind you & what is in your blind spots, is a brilliant idea which solves both these problems at the same time. Good job.
It will be interesting to see how cars develop from here given all these innovations.
The good news is that a lot of these things will happen within 10 years; & most of them will happen, I think, within 30 years.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Progress on electric cars....
Today’s post: Weds, 3-19-2008
Fossil fuel for cars & trucks is now one of our biggest uses. It definitely is the most visible one to the average person.
Biofuels are one way to power cars & trucks that will help replace fossil fuels. But initially they will be in limited supply. And, they still produce some air pollution in the cities where they are used. Using current technology, they are also mixed with fossil fuels NOT as total replacements.
Since most of the use of electricity is during the day for businesses & for air conditioning & for lighting at night before 11:30 pm & some after 4:30 am with light use from 10:30 am to 5:30 am,
there is existing electric generation capacity not now being used between about 10 PM & 6 AM, particularly between midnight & 4 am.
And, we can both use renewable sources to generate electricity and get increasingly better control of pollution generated by other, centralized sources than we can individual cars & trucks that burn fossil fuels. (As we will cover in next week’s post, some nuclear power as a transition use may also work.)
That means that a major shift to electric cars & plug-in hybrids can help free our cities of air pollution & be a major step to weaning our economy away from fossil fuels.
So drivable, acceptable, cars & trucks that run on electricity or as plug-in hybrids are an important piece of our switching to an economy that runs on renewable energy.
Plug in hybrids are coming. But real electric cars as opposed to slightly supersized golf carts may be available first.
Tesla Motors is close to production on its electric sports car. And, has plans for a sedan within a few years.
This has gotten car enthusiasts’ attention in part because the Tesla Roadster gets good enough acceleration to be very competitive with the best street racers & muscle cars.
It definitely appeals to people who want both performance and to support renewable energy & energy independence at the same time.
What may be less well known is that most electric cars will have better acceleration available at the driver’s demand than most gasoline powered cars – not just the electric sports cars.
Here are two articles relating to this theme.
The first one is about one of the more significant companies that will compete with Tesla Motors.
( I added some paragraphing to the article to emphasize some key points that I think deserve it that were made by the CEO, Jeff Boyd, who was interviewed.)
The second is about a minivan like electric car conversion.
( This article was in an online source called VentureBeat )
“Q&A with Jeff Boyd, CEO of Miles Electric Vehicle
Chris Morrison March 5th, 2008
Everyone knows the name Tesla Motors. High-profile VC fundings, a high-performance sports car and its layoffs have gotten the company endless coverage. However, there’s also a slew of lesser-known electric car companies. One of the handful with real potential (and real funding) is Miles Electric Vehicle, a Santa Monica, Calif. company with plans to release a highway-speed electric car, the XS500, in 2009.
Miles already sells a few low-speed models, but the XS500 will be the most acceptable to Americans — with a top speed of over 80mph, a range of over 120 miles, and the looks and features of a normal car, unlike some all-electric designs that many people find downright bizarre (see some examples here). The planned price is in the $35,000 to $40,000 range, cheaper than Tesla’s Whitestar, which is aiming for $50,000. The company caught my attention with a recent $15 million financing, so I called up CEO Jeff Boyd for a quick interview.
Do you think you’ll get competition from bigger companies?
We hope that there is a lot of competition. A decade ago, the all-electric car failed, for a variety of reasons.
But at this point, we’ve got the catalysts: The homeland security issue, the emissions issue — this is no longer a fad, a niche market or a matter of curiosity. We think it’s a revolution, and we hope manufacturers all over the world are working in the area.
It’s going to take a lot of work and money to make the dream come to fruition. There’s plenty of market to go after, and we anticipate being one of many.
Will you be competitive with larger automakers?
From a technology standpoint, we feel that we can compete. As far as branding and distribution, the traditional automakers are very advanced and mature. But there’s plenty of room in the market when there’s an emerging business. If you look at the US selling 16 million new cars a year, Europe doing a similar number and about 50 million total around the world, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have enough sales to make a business. We welcome competition, we want everyone to jump in so we can reduce our reliance on foreign oil and change how we handle transportation.
Tesla has taken a lot of money — nearly $150 million to date, with more than twice that planned in the future. Will you need to take less money than Tesla has to commercialize?
We don’t anticipate needing anywhere near that amount of money. Our original private funding and the first round of our equity financing looks like enough to continue research on the XS500 and expand our distribution model.
Where does design come in?
There are three keys to our business model. First and foremost, we want to be all-electric. Second, we want to be completely safe and meet all the regulations. And third, we want to be low-cost. In order to be low cost, we’ve adapted chassis that have already been manufactured. Rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper and coming out with a completely new chassis design for our low or high-speed vehicles, this is allowing us to keep our costs down. If we’re going to bring a car out that will really change our reliance on oil, it needs to be cheap. [ed. note: It’s also worth noting that Miles manufactures its vehicles on cheap production lines in China. Tesla also used a pre-existing chassis for the Roadster, but it was a very expensive model from Lotus.]
The cost is still high for the XS500 — will prices come down?
The cost of lithium ion [batteries], which is right now still a fairly expensive technology, will come down over time. We also have a five year development plan with a variety of models in it. The next model after the XS500 is a small cross-over unit that will be priced lower. Whether we can reduce the price on the XS500, we’re not sure. But even if we don’t, we’ll be bringing out lower-cost models over the next two to three years that will expand the market for all electric vehicles.”
….
“Will electric cars be competitive with plug-in hybrids?
I’m not aware of any [plug-in] hybrids that are very close to production. We’re a little over a year away, so we think we’re maybe two or three years ahead of most plug-in hybrid vehicles. We applaud the efforts of the ethanol, hybrid, hydrogen, fuel cell communities, but fundamentally, we think those are transitional technologies toward all-electric. In effect they [all-electric cars] have zero emissions.
About half of our electricity is from coal, but the technology exists to change that. It’s within our grasp to generate electricity without any emissions.
We also like all-electric because the US electric utility grid is capable of handling the charging requirements of a lot of vehicles without expanding greatly.
You took funding from a private equity firm, Angeleno Group, rather than a venture capital group. Why?
The principals [directors] of Angeleno Group have been associated with Miles Rubin [the company’s founder] for many years, so it was natural as we developed for them to reach out to us. We weren’t seeking investors, but upon engaging we were impressed with their true commitment to alternative energy. When you enter a partnership like that, it’s helpful if it goes beyond the cash infusion. If they can help with planning and business development, it can really be meaningful.
What sort of future do you envision? Acquisition, IPO, staying private?
We really don’t have any plans to do any more than continue on the path we’re on, as a private company.”
I found this info online looking for electric cars on Yahoo. I had also heard that there were Scion conversions. So far the progress has been on the boxy minivan model not the more car like Scion model. And, the conversions are a bit pricey. But it IS progress.
And, it shows what some of the potentials are for electric cars when cheaper lithium ion batteries are installed into cars as they are manufactured & the companies realize economies of scale to bring the cost down.
“Scion Electric Car Conversions”
"AC Propulsion, a California-based company that just debuted its eBox, a converted Toyota Scion xB with an electric engine. After you bring your own Scion, AC Propulsion will do the deed for $55,000. So what're the specs on the eBox? We're glad you asked: 180 mile range, top speed of 95 mph, and you can get a full charge in five hours right from your garage's wall outlet. Sure, that sounds like a lot for a car that's ordinarily pretty freakin' cheap (~ $18,000), but when you think that you'll never have to buy gas again over the life of the car, it just might be worth it."
"Sure, a few companies have recently introduced plans for two-seat electric sports cars in the $70,000-$100,000+ price range, but the eBox offers similar performance on a platform that can carry five adults. And the eBox is currently taking orders for delivery in 2007. It is true that I cannot afford $70,000 for a car right now, but if I could, I would insist on buying one that could haul my whole family of four. The eBox fits that bill without any struggle. The fact that it can blow away a Mustang GT is only icing on the cake. "
1. www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=152318 eBox Scion XB conversion
2. AC Propulsion's Scion xB electric car conversion keeps getting better ...
www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page=article&storyid=1172
3. AC Propulsion converts stock Scion xB into fully electric "eBox" car ...
... AcPropulsion, ebox, electric car, Electric Car, toyota scion xb, Toyota Scion Xb ... gas costs $4 per gallon, that the Scion normally gets 30 MPG, and that you drive ...
engadget.com/2006/12/11/ac-propulsion-converts-stock-scion-xb-into-fully-electric
4. Play Video YouTube - My Scion xA EV Electric car conversion project
We're converting a Scion xA from a gas car to a fully battery electric vehicle! ... ZAP Xebra and GEM Electric Car Race. 00:58 From: Xebranut. Views: 8,477 ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdmM4iO4W9c - 113k –
X * X* X* X* X*
As more electricity becomes available from renewable sources & the costs of electric cars & plug-in hybrids come down, we will make substantial progress to transport that is NOT dependent on fossil fuels. And even in the nearer future while some of our electricity comes from sequestered coal fired plants & nuclear, electric cars & plug-in hybrids will help drop the air pollution in our cities a lot.
So, three cheers from here for electric cars & the people who make them.
X * X* X* X* X*
Brad & I believe the switch from fossil fuels & an energy wasteful economy to an economy that is based almost 100 % on renewable energy that is very efficiently used is the new phase of the "industrial revolution" as much as the development of the internet -- perhaps much more so in fact.
This blog is dedicated to helping speed this conversion.
Today’s post: Weds, 3-19-2008
Fossil fuel for cars & trucks is now one of our biggest uses. It definitely is the most visible one to the average person.
Biofuels are one way to power cars & trucks that will help replace fossil fuels. But initially they will be in limited supply. And, they still produce some air pollution in the cities where they are used. Using current technology, they are also mixed with fossil fuels NOT as total replacements.
Since most of the use of electricity is during the day for businesses & for air conditioning & for lighting at night before 11:30 pm & some after 4:30 am with light use from 10:30 am to 5:30 am,
there is existing electric generation capacity not now being used between about 10 PM & 6 AM, particularly between midnight & 4 am.
And, we can both use renewable sources to generate electricity and get increasingly better control of pollution generated by other, centralized sources than we can individual cars & trucks that burn fossil fuels. (As we will cover in next week’s post, some nuclear power as a transition use may also work.)
That means that a major shift to electric cars & plug-in hybrids can help free our cities of air pollution & be a major step to weaning our economy away from fossil fuels.
So drivable, acceptable, cars & trucks that run on electricity or as plug-in hybrids are an important piece of our switching to an economy that runs on renewable energy.
Plug in hybrids are coming. But real electric cars as opposed to slightly supersized golf carts may be available first.
Tesla Motors is close to production on its electric sports car. And, has plans for a sedan within a few years.
This has gotten car enthusiasts’ attention in part because the Tesla Roadster gets good enough acceleration to be very competitive with the best street racers & muscle cars.
It definitely appeals to people who want both performance and to support renewable energy & energy independence at the same time.
What may be less well known is that most electric cars will have better acceleration available at the driver’s demand than most gasoline powered cars – not just the electric sports cars.
Here are two articles relating to this theme.
The first one is about one of the more significant companies that will compete with Tesla Motors.
( I added some paragraphing to the article to emphasize some key points that I think deserve it that were made by the CEO, Jeff Boyd, who was interviewed.)
The second is about a minivan like electric car conversion.
( This article was in an online source called VentureBeat )
“Q&A with Jeff Boyd, CEO of Miles Electric Vehicle
Chris Morrison March 5th, 2008
Everyone knows the name Tesla Motors. High-profile VC fundings, a high-performance sports car and its layoffs have gotten the company endless coverage. However, there’s also a slew of lesser-known electric car companies. One of the handful with real potential (and real funding) is Miles Electric Vehicle, a Santa Monica, Calif. company with plans to release a highway-speed electric car, the XS500, in 2009.
Miles already sells a few low-speed models, but the XS500 will be the most acceptable to Americans — with a top speed of over 80mph, a range of over 120 miles, and the looks and features of a normal car, unlike some all-electric designs that many people find downright bizarre (see some examples here). The planned price is in the $35,000 to $40,000 range, cheaper than Tesla’s Whitestar, which is aiming for $50,000. The company caught my attention with a recent $15 million financing, so I called up CEO Jeff Boyd for a quick interview.
Do you think you’ll get competition from bigger companies?
We hope that there is a lot of competition. A decade ago, the all-electric car failed, for a variety of reasons.
But at this point, we’ve got the catalysts: The homeland security issue, the emissions issue — this is no longer a fad, a niche market or a matter of curiosity. We think it’s a revolution, and we hope manufacturers all over the world are working in the area.
It’s going to take a lot of work and money to make the dream come to fruition. There’s plenty of market to go after, and we anticipate being one of many.
Will you be competitive with larger automakers?
From a technology standpoint, we feel that we can compete. As far as branding and distribution, the traditional automakers are very advanced and mature. But there’s plenty of room in the market when there’s an emerging business. If you look at the US selling 16 million new cars a year, Europe doing a similar number and about 50 million total around the world, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have enough sales to make a business. We welcome competition, we want everyone to jump in so we can reduce our reliance on foreign oil and change how we handle transportation.
Tesla has taken a lot of money — nearly $150 million to date, with more than twice that planned in the future. Will you need to take less money than Tesla has to commercialize?
We don’t anticipate needing anywhere near that amount of money. Our original private funding and the first round of our equity financing looks like enough to continue research on the XS500 and expand our distribution model.
Where does design come in?
There are three keys to our business model. First and foremost, we want to be all-electric. Second, we want to be completely safe and meet all the regulations. And third, we want to be low-cost. In order to be low cost, we’ve adapted chassis that have already been manufactured. Rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper and coming out with a completely new chassis design for our low or high-speed vehicles, this is allowing us to keep our costs down. If we’re going to bring a car out that will really change our reliance on oil, it needs to be cheap. [ed. note: It’s also worth noting that Miles manufactures its vehicles on cheap production lines in China. Tesla also used a pre-existing chassis for the Roadster, but it was a very expensive model from Lotus.]
The cost is still high for the XS500 — will prices come down?
The cost of lithium ion [batteries], which is right now still a fairly expensive technology, will come down over time. We also have a five year development plan with a variety of models in it. The next model after the XS500 is a small cross-over unit that will be priced lower. Whether we can reduce the price on the XS500, we’re not sure. But even if we don’t, we’ll be bringing out lower-cost models over the next two to three years that will expand the market for all electric vehicles.”
….
“Will electric cars be competitive with plug-in hybrids?
I’m not aware of any [plug-in] hybrids that are very close to production. We’re a little over a year away, so we think we’re maybe two or three years ahead of most plug-in hybrid vehicles. We applaud the efforts of the ethanol, hybrid, hydrogen, fuel cell communities, but fundamentally, we think those are transitional technologies toward all-electric. In effect they [all-electric cars] have zero emissions.
About half of our electricity is from coal, but the technology exists to change that. It’s within our grasp to generate electricity without any emissions.
We also like all-electric because the US electric utility grid is capable of handling the charging requirements of a lot of vehicles without expanding greatly.
You took funding from a private equity firm, Angeleno Group, rather than a venture capital group. Why?
The principals [directors] of Angeleno Group have been associated with Miles Rubin [the company’s founder] for many years, so it was natural as we developed for them to reach out to us. We weren’t seeking investors, but upon engaging we were impressed with their true commitment to alternative energy. When you enter a partnership like that, it’s helpful if it goes beyond the cash infusion. If they can help with planning and business development, it can really be meaningful.
What sort of future do you envision? Acquisition, IPO, staying private?
We really don’t have any plans to do any more than continue on the path we’re on, as a private company.”
I found this info online looking for electric cars on Yahoo. I had also heard that there were Scion conversions. So far the progress has been on the boxy minivan model not the more car like Scion model. And, the conversions are a bit pricey. But it IS progress.
And, it shows what some of the potentials are for electric cars when cheaper lithium ion batteries are installed into cars as they are manufactured & the companies realize economies of scale to bring the cost down.
“Scion Electric Car Conversions”
"AC Propulsion, a California-based company that just debuted its eBox, a converted Toyota Scion xB with an electric engine. After you bring your own Scion, AC Propulsion will do the deed for $55,000. So what're the specs on the eBox? We're glad you asked: 180 mile range, top speed of 95 mph, and you can get a full charge in five hours right from your garage's wall outlet. Sure, that sounds like a lot for a car that's ordinarily pretty freakin' cheap (~ $18,000), but when you think that you'll never have to buy gas again over the life of the car, it just might be worth it."
"Sure, a few companies have recently introduced plans for two-seat electric sports cars in the $70,000-$100,000+ price range, but the eBox offers similar performance on a platform that can carry five adults. And the eBox is currently taking orders for delivery in 2007. It is true that I cannot afford $70,000 for a car right now, but if I could, I would insist on buying one that could haul my whole family of four. The eBox fits that bill without any struggle. The fact that it can blow away a Mustang GT is only icing on the cake. "
1. www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=152318 eBox Scion XB conversion
2. AC Propulsion's Scion xB electric car conversion keeps getting better ...
www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page=article&storyid=1172
3. AC Propulsion converts stock Scion xB into fully electric "eBox" car ...
... AcPropulsion, ebox, electric car, Electric Car, toyota scion xb, Toyota Scion Xb ... gas costs $4 per gallon, that the Scion normally gets 30 MPG, and that you drive ...
engadget.com/2006/12/11/ac-propulsion-converts-stock-scion-xb-into-fully-electric
4. Play Video YouTube - My Scion xA EV Electric car conversion project
We're converting a Scion xA from a gas car to a fully battery electric vehicle! ... ZAP Xebra and GEM Electric Car Race. 00:58 From: Xebranut. Views: 8,477 ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdmM4iO4W9c - 113k –
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As more electricity becomes available from renewable sources & the costs of electric cars & plug-in hybrids come down, we will make substantial progress to transport that is NOT dependent on fossil fuels. And even in the nearer future while some of our electricity comes from sequestered coal fired plants & nuclear, electric cars & plug-in hybrids will help drop the air pollution in our cities a lot.
So, three cheers from here for electric cars & the people who make them.
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Brad & I believe the switch from fossil fuels & an energy wasteful economy to an economy that is based almost 100 % on renewable energy that is very efficiently used is the new phase of the "industrial revolution" as much as the development of the internet -- perhaps much more so in fact.
This blog is dedicated to helping speed this conversion.
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