A Different Breed of Electric Vehicle for North American Cities | This Big City There is no denying that the car has revolutionized the way we get around. But with more than 2 billion cars expected to be on roads within the next 20 years, there’s also no denying the toll that this form of transportation takes on our cities, our climate and our environment. Furthermore, with gas prices in the United States hovering just below $4 a gallon and with some in Europe paying twice that, the need for alternative ways to get you from A to B isn’t just a strong suggestion: it’s becoming a necessity. Enter the electric vehicle. Nissan and Chevrolet were early leaders in the current electric car movement with the Leaf and Volt, respectively, but the electric vehicle is more than just a full-size car with a $30,000 price tag. Smaller options exist (both in size and price!) that could be well suited to urban lifestyles. Low-speed electric vehicles, like golf carts or utility vehicles, are street legal on North-American roads under 35mph, don’t pollute the environment, and can even be fitted with solar panels to further reduce electricity use. And they are already in use – government agencies or college campuses often use low-speed electric utility vehicles to keep emissions costs low in urban areas that are already teetering on the too-much pollution line. Low-speed electric vehicles are well-suited to urban areas, where public transportation is aplenty and full-sized cars are superfluous. While you can typically get most anywhere in cities by walking or cycling, what happens if you have some extra baggage to carry? It’s a lot easier to toss those groceries or shopping bags in your vehicle than it is to lug them 5 miles home, especially when temperatures are creeping to the 90-plus degree range. Plus, how often do trips add up to more than 25 miles? Chances are those are few and far between. In fact, the average length of a car trip was just more than 10 miles in 2009, while the average distance traveled to work was about 12.5 miles, according to the most recent National Household Travel Survey. When you’re only going a short distance, low-speed electric vehicles make more sense than driving an SUV. In addition to economic and environmental savings, they’re easier to maneuver around tight city streets.

A Different Breed of Electric Vehicle for North American Cities | This Big City

There is no denying that the car has revolutionized the way we get around. But with more than 2 billion cars expected to be on roads within the next 20 years, there’s also no denying the toll that this form of transportation takes on our cities, our climate and our environment. Furthermore, with gas prices in the United States hovering just below $4 a gallon and with some in Europe paying twice that, the need for alternative ways to get you from A to B isn’t just a strong suggestion: it’s becoming a necessity. Enter the electric vehicle.

Nissan and Chevrolet were early leaders in the current electric car movement with the Leaf and Volt, respectively, but the electric vehicle is more than just a full-size car with a $30,000 price tag. Smaller options exist (both in size and price!) that could be well suited to urban lifestyles. Low-speed electric vehicles, like golf carts or utility vehicles, are street legal on North-American roads under 35mph, don’t pollute the environment, and can even be fitted with solar panels to further reduce electricity use. And they are already in use – government agencies or college campuses often use low-speed electric utility vehicles to keep emissions costs low in urban areas that are already teetering on the too-much pollution line.

Low-speed electric vehicles are well-suited to urban areas, where public transportation is aplenty and full-sized cars are superfluous. While you can typically get most anywhere in cities by walking or cycling, what happens if you have some extra baggage to carry? It’s a lot easier to toss those groceries or shopping bags in your vehicle than it is to lug them 5 miles home, especially when temperatures are creeping to the 90-plus degree range.

Plus, how often do trips add up to more than 25 miles? Chances are those are few and far between. In fact, the average length of a car trip was just more than 10 miles in 2009, while the average distance traveled to work was about 12.5 miles, according to the most recent National Household Travel Survey. When you’re only going a short distance, low-speed electric vehicles make more sense than driving an SUV. In addition to economic and environmental savings, they’re easier to maneuver around tight city streets.

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 The Electric Vehicle Acceptance Tipping Point: $5-A-Gallon Gas It would be a disaster economically, upsetting family budgets and making the transporting of goods potentially next to impossible. But according to a new survey by Deloitte, it could take something as extreme as $5-per-gallon of gas to persuade most U.S. citizens to abandon gas stations and SUVs and buy electric vehicles. Do we have to destroy this village in order to save it? For most of the last month, the national average gas price in the U.S. has nudged upwards every single day—it’s now at around $3.83 per gallon. In six states, including New York, the average price is above $4, with Hawaii topping the list at $4.48 per gallon. And there are reports that a few stations have already hit the $5 mark. It’s all thanks to a gradual but continuous rise in the price of oil on global markets—up 48% since last Labor Day. This upward creep is driven by many things, including market fluctuations, decisions about production made by OPEC, and the rise of civil unrest in the Middle East (especially in Libya, which has ceased its oil exports during the civil war). And yet, despite these growing costs, and the fact we know for sure that every mile we drive in a car that eats gas or diesel, we’re actively contributing to global warming, many of us continue to drive cars. What will it take to change the situation, pushing most Americans to ditch their SUV and buy an eco-friendly electric car? An arbitrary price limit, that’s what—the point at which gas hits $5 per gallon. That’s what Deloitte found after interviewing 12,000 people worldwide, with more than 1,000 respondents in the U.S. The main conclusion of the survey is that the higher gas prices go, the more consumers favor the notion of electric vehicles. That seems like a no-brainer (even someone poor at math can imagine the increased cost of running a car as gas prices rise), but it’s still an important conclusion given that gas prices are definitely increasing and unlikely to drop any time soon. Source: Fast Company

 The Electric Vehicle Acceptance Tipping Point: $5-A-Gallon Gas

It would be a disaster economically, upsetting family budgets and making the transporting of goods potentially next to impossible. But according to a new survey by Deloitte, it could take something as extreme as $5-per-gallon of gas to persuade most U.S. citizens to abandon gas stations and SUVs and buy electric vehicles. Do we have to destroy this village in order to save it?

For most of the last month, the national average gas price in the U.S. has nudged upwards every single day—it’s now at around $3.83 per gallon. In six states, including New York, the average price is above $4, with Hawaii topping the list at $4.48 per gallon. And there are reports that a few stations have already hit the $5 mark. It’s all thanks to a gradual but continuous rise in the price of oil on global markets—up 48% since last Labor Day. This upward creep is driven by many things, including market fluctuations, decisions about production made by OPEC, and the rise of civil unrest in the Middle East (especially in Libya, which has ceased its oil exports during the civil war). And yet, despite these growing costs, and the fact we know for sure that every mile we drive in a car that eats gas or diesel, we’re actively contributing to global warming, many of us continue to drive cars.

What will it take to change the situation, pushing most Americans to ditch their SUV and buy an eco-friendly electric car? An arbitrary price limit, that’s what—the point at which gas hits $5 per gallon.

That’s what Deloitte found after interviewing 12,000 people worldwide, with more than 1,000 respondents in the U.S. The main conclusion of the survey is that the higher gas prices go, the more consumers favor the notion of electric vehicles. That seems like a no-brainer (even someone poor at math can imagine the increased cost of running a car as gas prices rise), but it’s still an important conclusion given that gas prices are definitely increasing and unlikely to drop any time soon.

Source: Fast Company

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Car Sharing Goes All-Electric in Brussels Source: Fast Company Zen Car will be offering an alternative approach to transportation in the coming months. They are establishing a 29 EV-car sharing company with fifteen charging stations around Brussels. It will cost 40 euro’s to join plus a 6 euro monthly subscription. Zen Car hopes to launch in Paris by next year as well. 

Car Sharing Goes All-Electric in Brussels

Source: Fast Company

Zen Car will be offering an alternative approach to transportation in the coming months. They are establishing a 29 EV-car sharing company with fifteen charging stations around Brussels. It will cost 40 euro’s to join plus a 6 euro monthly subscription. Zen Car hopes to launch in Paris by next year as well. 

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IBM Study: Electric Cars Stir Interest But Face Obstacles Nearly one-fifth of drivers are likely to consider an electric vehicle  Drivers reluctant to bear the cost of home charging Many automobile industry executives believe that sales of traditional vehicles will peak before 2020 and are looking to electric-only vehicles (EVs) as one of the next hot products, but they will first have to address stringent consumer requirements about EV performance, recharging, and convenience, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) survey of consumer attitudes and a recent study of auto industry executives. Taken together, the two studies uncover significant differences between the automobile industry executives IBM spoke to and consumers on the factors motivating consumers to purchase electric vehicles, with auto execs placing greater emphasis than consumers on government incentives and oil prices. The executives were also skeptical of consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for green vehicles. 

IBM Study: Electric Cars Stir Interest But Face Obstacles

  • Nearly one-fifth of drivers are likely to consider an electric vehicle 
  • Drivers reluctant to bear the cost of home charging

Many automobile industry executives believe that sales of traditional vehicles will peak before 2020 and are looking to electric-only vehicles (EVs) as one of the next hot products, but they will first have to address stringent consumer requirements about EV performance, recharging, and convenience, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) survey of consumer attitudes and a recent study of auto industry executives.

Taken together, the two studies uncover significant differences between the automobile industry executives IBM spoke to and consumers on the factors motivating consumers to purchase electric vehicles, with auto execs placing greater emphasis than consumers on government incentives and oil prices. The executives were also skeptical of consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for green vehicles. 

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 A Way to Make the Smart Grid Smarter - Technology Review Smart Transformer: A prototype of a smart solid-state transformer from the Electric Power Research Institute. It’s smaller and more versatile than today’s transformers. The module on the left converts high-voltage alternating current from the grid to direct current. On the right is an inverter that converts that power to the 120-volt AC that comes out of standard wall outlets. To the right of the outlets are two more power interfaces, one for 240-volt AC power and one for 400-volt DC. Credit: EPRI New semiconductor-based devices for managing power on the grid could make the “smart grid” even smarter. They would allow electric vehicles to be charged fast and let utilities incorporate large amounts of solar and wind power without blackouts or power surges. These devices are being developed by a number of groups, including those that recently received funding from the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) and the National Science Foundation.

 A Way to Make the Smart Grid Smarter - Technology Review

Smart Transformer: A prototype of a smart solid-state transformer from the Electric Power Research Institute. It’s smaller and more versatile than today’s transformers. The module on the left converts high-voltage alternating current from the grid to direct current. On the right is an inverter that converts that power to the 120-volt AC that comes out of standard wall outlets. To the right of the outlets are two more power interfaces, one for 240-volt AC power and one for 400-volt DC. 
Credit: EPRI

New semiconductor-based devices for managing power on the grid could make the “smart grid” even smarter. They would allow electric vehicles to be charged fast and let utilities incorporate large amounts of solar and wind power without blackouts or power surges. These devices are being developed by a number of groups, including those that recently received funding from the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) and the National Science Foundation.

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electricpower: South Korea rolls out first commercial electric bus service, we are green with envy The Seoul Metropolitan Government has just rolled out a world first by instating commercial, all electric bus service in the city. We’ve previously seen pilot programs and trials, but actual working commercial service has never been previously implemented. The program, developed in agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber, and the buses themselves can run up to about 52 miles on a single charge (which takes about 30 minutes), and have a maximum speed of about 62 miles per hour. Though several other cities have small fleets of electric public transportation, Seoul has announced that half of its massive fleet of buses will be electric by 2020. Engadget

electricpower:

South Korea rolls out first commercial electric bus service, we are green with envy

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has just rolled out a world first by instating commercial, all electric bus service in the city. We’ve previously seen pilot programs and trials, but actual working commercial service has never been previously implemented. The program, developed in agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber, and the buses themselves can run up to about 52 miles on a single charge (which takes about 30 minutes), and have a maximum speed of about 62 miles per hour. Though several other cities have small fleets of electric public transportation, Seoul has announced that half of its massive fleet of buses will be electric by 2020.

Engadget

(via smartercities)

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 Hertz To Offer Electric Vehicles By The Hour For what it calls the ConnectByHertz “car sharing” service in Manhattan, the company aims to make 20 electric vehicles (EVs) available by the second quarter of 2011. In total throughout the U.S. next year, Hertz plans to have 500 to 1,000 all-electric cars available. The number of EVs that Hertz purchases for its rent-by-the-hour fleets will depend upon the availability of the cars, many of which have not begun to ship yet the company’s head of communications, Rich Broome, said Sunday. Hertz has committed to purchase: the Nissan Leaf, the Mistubishi i-MiEV, the Chevy Volt, and electric cars from Coda and Smart, Broome verified.

 Hertz To Offer Electric Vehicles By The Hour

For what it calls the ConnectByHertz “car sharing” service in Manhattan, the company aims to make 20 electric vehicles (EVs) available by the second quarter of 2011. In total throughout the U.S. next year, Hertz plans to have 500 to 1,000 all-electric cars available. The number of EVs that Hertz purchases for its rent-by-the-hour fleets will depend upon the availability of the cars, many of which have not begun to ship yet the company’s head of communications, Rich Broome, said Sunday. Hertz has committed to purchase: the Nissan Leaf, the Mistubishi i-MiEV, the Chevy Volt, and electric cars from Coda and Smart, Broome verified.

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Technology Review: Doubling Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Battery startup Amprius says it has developed batteries capable of storing twice as much energy as anything on the market today, thanks to nanostructured silicon electrodes. The company says it is partnering with several as-yet unnamed major consumer electronics manufacturers to bring the batteries to market by early 2012. The batteries will allow portable electronics to run 40 percent longer without a recharge.

Technology Review: Doubling Lithium-Ion Battery Storage

Battery startup Amprius says it has developed batteries capable of storing twice as much energy as anything on the market today, thanks to nanostructured silicon electrodes. The company says it is partnering with several as-yet unnamed major consumer electronics manufacturers to bring the batteries to market by early 2012. The batteries will allow portable electronics to run 40 percent longer without a recharge.

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emergentfutures: First Electric Highway in US to be I-5 from Canada to Oregon Washington state is about to turn a section of Interstate-5 — all the way from Canada to Oregon — into the nation’s first electric highway. Thanks to a $1.32 million federal grant, they’ll be able to install 10 Level-3 electric charging stations along the route. Each station is capable of charging at 400 volts and 30 amps or more and at these stations a typical EV would be 80% charged in just about 30 minutes. Plug in, grab a cup of coffee, chat with fellow travelers, and be on your way. Paul Higgins: Ultimately the charging time for these vehicles is a big draw back - hybrid options or faster charging are needed for people to change over. Of course most people only drive short distances so a combined system of personal electric vehicles and a vehicle sharing system like Flexicar for longer trips could be used.

emergentfutures:

First Electric Highway in US to be I-5 from Canada to Oregon

Washington state is about to turn a section of Interstate-5 — all the way from Canada to Oregon — into the nation’s first electric highway. Thanks to a $1.32 million federal grant, they’ll be able to install 10 Level-3 electric charging stations along the route. Each station is capable of charging at 400 volts and 30 amps or more and at these stations a typical EV would be 80% charged in just about 30 minutes. Plug in, grab a cup of coffee, chat with fellow travelers, and be on your way.

Paul Higgins: Ultimately the charging time for these vehicles is a big draw back - hybrid options or faster charging are needed for people to change over. Of course most people only drive short distances so a combined system of personal electric vehicles and a vehicle sharing system like Flexicar for longer trips could be used.

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New Quick Charger For Electric Cars Is Really Quick | Techcrunch One of the biggest hurdles on the road to make electric vehicles attractive for the mass market is the long time it usually takes to charge batteries. But a Japanese company called JFE Engineering now claims it has found a solution for that problem. According to JFE, even so-called “quick battery chargers” often take 30 minutes to charge a car’s battery to 80% of its capacity.  )

New Quick Charger For Electric Cars Is Really Quick | Techcrunch

One of the biggest hurdles on the road to make electric vehicles attractive for the mass market is the long time it usually takes to charge batteries. But a Japanese company called JFE Engineering now claims it has found a solution for that problem. According to JFE, even so-called “quick battery chargers” often take 30 minutes to charge a car’s battery to 80% of its capacity. 

)

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“Dana Holding Corporation has developed a heat exchanger designed to extend battery life in hybrid and electric vehicles. The technology, the first of its kind, recently debuted on Tesla Motors’ 2010 all-electric Roadster Sport.”

Industry-First Battery Cooling Technology for Electric Vehicles - Green Wheels | Auto123

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IBM Research: Watch the Almaden Institute Live on August 26 Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Live Stream Agenda: 11:00 - 11:10 am ET: Opening Remarks, Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow and Vice President Almaden Research Center 11:10 - 11:30 am ET: Why Energy Storage Matters, Winfried Wilcke, IBM, Conference Chairman 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ET: Surviving Two Billion Cars: The Urgent Need to Transform Vehicles, Fuels, and Mobility around the Globe, Daniel Sperling, Author, Two Billion Cars 1:00 - 1:50 pm ET: Energy, Emissions, and Transportation: A Look into the Future, Burton Richter, Stanford, Nobel Laureate 1:50 - 2:40 pm ET: The Importance of Energy Storage in Automotive Applications, Ted Miller, Sr. Manager, Ford Research Watch it here starting at 11 am ET on Wednesday, August 26:

IBM Research: Watch the Almaden Institute Live on August 26

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Live Stream Agenda:

11:00 - 11:10 am ET: Opening Remarks, Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow and Vice President Almaden Research Center

11:10 - 11:30 am ET: Why Energy Storage Matters, Winfried Wilcke, IBM, Conference Chairman

11:30 am - 12:30 pm ET: Surviving Two Billion Cars: The Urgent Need to Transform Vehicles, Fuels, and Mobility around the Globe, Daniel Sperling, Author, Two Billion Cars

1:00 - 1:50 pm ET: Energy, Emissions, and Transportation: A Look into the Future, Burton Richter, Stanford, Nobel Laureate

1:50 - 2:40 pm ET: The Importance of Energy Storage in Automotive Applications, Ted Miller, Sr. Manager, Ford Research

Watch it here starting at 11 am ET on Wednesday, August 26:

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Nissan’s EVs are coming, but if people are really going to buy them in droves they’re going to need somewhere other than the rusty outlets in their garages to charge them. So, the company has been working like mad forming partnerships with municipalities around the world, from California to China, to get city-wide charging stations installed. The latest is Seattle, a place that gets much of its power through renewable means (hydro dams), thus making the boxy little car even greener. Only two questions remain: will they use a standardized plug that all manufacturers can share, and what will they call all those recharging hotspots? We vote for spark hydrant. (via Seattle is latest lucky winner of an electric car partnership with Nissan)

Nissan’s EVs are coming, but if people are really going to buy them in droves they’re going to need somewhere other than the rusty outlets in their garages to charge them. So, the company has been working like mad forming partnerships with municipalities around the world, from California to China, to get city-wide charging stations installed. The latest is Seattle, a place that gets much of its power through renewable means (hydro dams), thus making the boxy little car even greener. Only two questions remain: will they use a standardized plug that all manufacturers can share, and what will they call all those recharging hotspots? We vote for spark hydrant. (via Seattle is latest lucky winner of an electric car partnership with Nissan)

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The great prize in the battery world has thus been a material that can both store a lot and discharge rapidly, and it is this that Dr Ceder and Mr Kang think they have come up with. (via Better batteries are on their way | Batteries now included | The Economist)

The great prize in the battery world has thus been a material that can both store a lot and discharge rapidly, and it is this that Dr Ceder and Mr Kang think they have come up with. (via Better batteries are on their way | Batteries now included | The Economist)

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