Hybrid News

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily

There’s an interesting line in a recent TIME magazine piece about a guy who’s enjoying his new Vectrix scooter. Here it is:

Once you start looking, you find plugs everywhere,” says [James] Morrison, who charges his two-wheeler at parking garages, outside Starbucks stores and even in gas-station parking lots.

Even though utilities are doing a lot of work on the smart grid, it′ll take years, and this presents quite a window for people with plug in vehicles. If you’ve got the money for an EV today, you can afford the juice to move it, but that line made me think of a few questions for our readers:

Will property owners need to start locking up their plugs to stop EV leeches? Do you think businesses might start advertising “free electricity while you shop″ offers to EV drivers? Would you plug your EV into any outlet you could find, just to drive for free or would you talk to the shop owner about paying a few bucks to plug in for an hour or three?

[Source: TIME]

Once you can charge up your ride anywhere, what happens? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Saturn

The other day we mentioned that it looked like the plug-in hybrid version of the Saturn Vue had been delayed as result of GM’s current financial calamity. GM spokesman Brian Corbett gave ABG the following update about the status of the PHEV Vue program. “Our original statement said that production would begin ‘as soon as 2010′ because we did not want to create artificial deadlines. We have dedicated significant resources to the program and it is progressing rapidly. Now that we are further along in the development process, we can now give a more up-to-date projection.” While Corbett did not officially confirm a delay, stories from the original announcement at the 2006 LA Auto Show indicate that GM never actually announced a 2009 date. From what we’re hearing from sources at GM, the PHEV is still moving ahead and will go into production and it will likely debut sometime in 2011. Given the importance of the Volt to GM and the limited resources it has at the moment, it makes sense for them to focus on the ER-EV first. Work is proceeding on the VUE and knowledge learned about lithium batteries and controls is being applied to the PHEV.

[Source: General Motors]

More on the delay of the plug-in Saturn Vue hybrid originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Saturn

During the General Motors third quarter earnings (or lack thereof) conference call on Friday, company executives discussed the vehicle introduction schedule for 2009 and 2010. Several cars that had been expected to debut during 2009 have been pushed back to the following year, including the Saab 9-4X and Cadillac CTS Coupe. GM declined to discuss any vehicles beyond the 2010 calendar year. One vehicle that notable by its absence in the list of vehicle launches is the Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid. The two-mode hybrid version of the Vue is launching production right about now and the first drives are due in about a month. The plug-in variant that was expected to launch late in 2009, although GM has never given an official date, only approximate targets. A late 2009 production launch would have made the Vue among the first, if not the first production PHEVs on market. During the call, GM president Fritz Henderson explained that the list was not exhaustive. At this point we’re still waiting to hear more from GM on the fate of the PHEV Vue.

[Source: CNN Money]

Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid delayed to 2011 originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Toyota, Green Daily

Want a 2009 Prius with a plug? It’s available now, to the lucky winner of this auction on eBay. This particular vehicle was modded by the Green Car Company out in Bellevue, Washington and features A123’s Hymotion plug-in hybrid kit already installed. That kit doesn’t come cheap and this price of this PHEV Prius reflects that. The current bid is $42,100 but the reserve has not yet been met. The price isn’t holding people back, though, as the auction started out at $25,000 and that 46 bids have already been placed. The good news for plug-in fans is that all of the profits from the sale will go to the advocacy group Plug In America, so any excessive bidding could be seen as just a friendly donation to PIA. There are more details on the car here and if the Prius is too pricey for you, Green Car Co. is also selling one of those Vectrix Scooters. Current price: $5,200. Thanks to Anthony C. for the tip.

[Source: eBay]

eBay Find of the Day: plug-in Prius with ﹣ Hymotion kit installed charity auction originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Toyota

At least a few dozen people around the country have now done one-off conversions of hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape to transform them into plug-in vehicles. For those who may not have the hardware hacker gene in their DNA, the first commercially available plug-in conversion kit is now on the market from A123 Systems subsidiary HyMotion. Popular Mechanics Detroit Editor Larry Webster recently had the chance to sample a converted Prius with the HyMotion kit for a couple of days. The kit consists of a 5 kWh lithium ion battery and associated electronics that are claimed to give the Prius a 30-mile electric range. As Larry found out this isn’t exactly true. The pack will give the Prius up to 30 miles of driving before the battery is depleted. However, the Prius is not designed as an electric vehicle and the 67 hp electric motor is insufficient to let it operate on electrons alone at all speeds. With a very light foot on the gas pedal you can get up up to about 35 mph without the engine. Even at higher speeds, Larry found the engine would occasionally shutoff allowing the car to run on batteries. At lower speeds however, the engine will occasionally start up depending on the driving condition so that 30-mile range is really mixed mode driving. During Larry’s time with the Prius he got about 24-25 miles before the lithium battery was depleted. Given the $10,000 price tag of the kit, this looks likes its strictly for the environmentally-minded rather than those trying to save money.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

Popular Mechanics tries out the A123/Hymotion PHEV Prius originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Austin Alt Car Expo

If you want to get an answer to the question of whether or not consumers will flock to plug-in vehicles, Southern California Edison’s Ed Kjaer and Better Place’s Sven Thesen would be great people to get to put up some answers. That’s exactly what happened at the Austin Alt Car expo last weekend, where they presented an optimistic yet realistic assessment of what PHEVs might bring to the auto industry. The real question, Kjaer said, isn′t “Will Consumers Buy In?” but will the OEMs build PHEVs in volume? And that is not a given, not by a long shot. Kjaer didn′t dodge the original question, just posited that the answer is a pretty obvious “yes.” Whether or not we get the chance is the issue. Follow us after the jump for all the details.

Continue reading Austin Alt Car: Will Consumers Buy In? Duh.

Austin Alt Car: Will Consumers Buy In? Duh. originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Toyota

Ever since the debut of the Chevy Volt concept in January 2007, some people have been wondering about Toyota’s attitude toward plug-in vehicles. This situation was not helped by some negative comments by Toyota executives in fall 2007 denigrating the concept of a extended range EV. Toyota has since shown some prototype plug-in hybrid Priuses and committed to offering a plug-in version of the next gen Prius starting in late 2009. Nonetheless, Toyota has also said repeatedly that the company doesn′t feel that lithium batteries are ready yet for prime time in the mass market. On the company’s Open Road blog today, VP Communications, Irv Miller reiterates Toyota’s commitment to building plug-in hybrids. Toyota will start regular assembly line production of lithium ion batteries at its Panasonic EV joint venture later in 2009 to supply the initial volumes PHEV Priuses. Miller makes clear that Toyota is going slow with initial production in order to ensure the reliability of the packs, something which remains a big question mark for automotive applications. Companies like GM are moving aggressively to do accelerated testing of lithium batteries, but until significant quantities are being used in real world applications, there is no way to know for sure if the testing is accurate. The other issue as Miller describes it, is understanding how drivers will use PHEVs in the real world. This is necessary to make sure that they build the right kind of car with the right capabilities.

[Source: Toyota]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Volkswagen

Volkswagen recently built twenty prototype diesel plug-in hybrid Golf prototypes for a field test of the technology. AutoExpress magazine in the UK recently had an opportunity to try out the so-called Twin-Drive Golf. The Twin-Drive combines a 1.5L diesel with electric drive and lithium ion batteries with plug-in capability. A pair of wheel motors turn the back wheels providing all wheel drive capability while a third motor and generator are combined with the diesel engine at the front axle. With a very light foot on the go pedal, the Twin-Drive can go to 31 mph on electricity alone. It can reportedly go 30 miles on a charge of its Sanyo battery pack. The plug-in hybrid hardware adds 550 lb of mass to the Golf but it yields up to 94.1 mpg (U.S.), according to VW. AutoExpress says the even distribution of the new mass keeps things balanced but the car does feel heavier than a standard Golf. It’s unlikely we’ll see a production VW with this configuration anytime soon though. The cost would simply be prohibitive.

[Source: AutoExpress]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, Austin Alt Car Expo

U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) was present at the Alt Car Expo in Austin, Texas yesterday. This is quite the reasonable place for him to be, not just because he’s the Representative from this area but because he’s been a long-time promoter of more government support for plug-in vehicles.

Doggett said he came to the Plug-in movement through the recently-ended Plug-in Partners campaign, which started in Austin. He helped get plug-in tax credit legislation passed in the House six times, but he did not vote in favor of the final bill (the seventh passing) because it was part of the the huge bank bailout bill we heard so much about a few weeks ago. He’s like that.

We spoke to Doggett about the bill and his efforts on behalf of PHEVs. He said the final version provides about half as much support for PHEVs as he originally intended three quarters of a billion dollars instead of $1.5 billion. The provisions were also - unfortunately, in Doggett’s mind - changed from individual manufacturer cap to an overall cap. There is an industry-wide cap of 250,000 tax credits for consumers between now and 2014. “This was done perhaps with the idea in mind that General Motors would have the Volt out there and be ready to try and claim as many credits as possible against its competitors.”

It’s a long way from Austin to Detroit.

Listen here (6 min):

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, China

Not long ago we spoke about Chinese manufacturer BYD putting hybrid and electric cars on sale. The chosen model was the F6 but things have changed. According to China Car Times, the new chosen model is the smaller F3 - and it will go on sale earlier than expected. Therefore, the F3DM (Dual Mode) plug-in hybrid is expected to be on sale before the end of this year. The F3DM uses proprietary batteries which use iron instead than lithium. According to the manufacturer, these batteries offer a lifespan of 10 years or 600,000 km. BYD is also claiming the F3DM can run up to 100 km (62 miles) on batteries alone. BYD also announced a very interesting feature: the F3DM’s batteries can be recharged up to 50 percent in 10 minutes with a special charger. You can get a full charge at home in 7 hours.

[Source: China Car Times]

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Original post by Xavier Navarro

Filed under: Diesel, Hybrid, Volvo

Volvo has major plans for fuel-saving technology. The Swedish automaker will begin fitting its bricks shapely little sedans and coupes with stop/start in the next few months and plans to move the technology up through its entire line shortly thereafter. Of course, the automaker offers diesel engines in Europe and is strongly considering bringing them Stateside as well. What’s most exciting, though, is news that the automaker will combine its diesel engines with an advanced hybrid system by 2012. The Volvo system will be a full hybrid with either oil-burning or electric power driving the vehicle without assistance from the other, or the two can be combined. Front wheels would be motivated by the traditional diesel engine while the rear wheels would be motivated by electricity.

Following the diesel hybrid would be a plug-in version of a large car or crossover. Once that’s ready, the automaker will begin phasing the hybrid technology downward to its smaller cars.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA

When the U.S. Congress passed H.R. 1424 and President Bush signed it into law today, not everyone was paying attention to the part about plug-in vehicles. Sure, this got a little play - and green car sites like ours were on it - but what’s a few $7,500 tax credits in a $700 billion bill? Still, there are a lot of parts to the bill (read one take here) to digest and we’re happy to explore the green car-related details a bit.

If you want to read the language in the bill yourself, you can find the full text here (do a text search for “plug” to find the applicable PHEV part of the law, Section 205). As meme noted earlier today, the language now refers to “plug-in electric drive motor vehicle″ instead of the “passenger automobiles,” which might help companies like Aptera. We know that Chrysler yesterday gave its support for the legislation and today the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) gave strong vocal support to the bill’s passage. You can read both of the official statements after the jump.

When you read the bill, don’t miss Section 306 (regarding smart meters) and Section 103 (extension of solar and fuel cell tax credits). I’m quite interested in how the AutoblogGreen community feels about this bill.

View Poll

[Source: EDTA, Chrysler, Govtrack]

Continue reading Auto industry responses to the bailout bill what do you think?

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Legislation and Policy

When Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson first proposed last week that Congress should give him $700 billion to do with as he pleased in an attempt to save Wall St, the plan ran a staggering two and a half pages. That’s because the plan essentially consisted of “Give Hank the money, and then go away and he′ll take care of everything without supervision.” Congress, of course, was going to have none of that and set about writing a bill in more typical congressional fashion. That means lots of extra stuff added, bringing the bill that passed in the Senate the other day to a more Congressional 451 pages. All the extra stuff, including pet projects, got added on, for example a reported $150 billion in extra spending.

One particular $1 billion chunk of that extra money has been earmarked to provide cash back to American drivers who opt to buy plug-in vehicles. Tax credits starting at $4,168 (there’s a nice round number for you) will go to people to buy a vehicle with a battery pack that has at least 4 kWh of capacity. From there the credits ramp up to $7,500 for vehicles with a 16 kWh pack. For those that haven’t been paying attention, that just happens to be the size of the pack in the Chevy Volt. Medium and heavy duty trucks with plug-in capability are also eligible for credits of $10-15,000.

[Source: Detroit News]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Volkswagen

Volkswagen is currently running a twenty strong test fleet of Twin-Drive Golfs in and around Berlin Germany and the results of this work are expected to hit the retail market around 2011. The current test models are using diesel engines but the production versions are likely to switch to gasoline when their 30-mile electric range has been expended. With coming EURO VI emissions standards that approach the U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 standards, a diesel hybrid would simply be too expensive to be commercially viable. The drivetrain layout of the Twin-Drive is different from the approach being used by current parallel hybrids or extended range EVs like the Volt. While the Volt ER-EV is a series hybrid setup where only the electric motor is mechanically coupled to the wheels, the Golf is a parallel system but without a transmission. The single reduction gear ratio is comparable to a normal high gear and the torque of the electric motor is used to provide the equivalent of the torque multiplication that is normally achieved with a lower gears. The absence of a conventional gearbox compensates for some of the added weight of the battery and motor. A 12 kWh Sanyo lithium ion battery pack provides 30 miles of driving range and energy storage from the regenerative braking.

[Source: Motor Trend]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, Green Daily

The headline above is what we call a “bait &amp switch,” and it recreates the feeling I got when I approached the AMPLE Motion booth at the AltCar Expo. AMPLE, a new company incorporated on Earth Day this year, is trying an unusual strategy to get the word out about its plug-in hybrid vehicles that are scheduled to arrive in 2010: super deep pre-order discounts. While the company’s 2010 R300 plug-in truck will normally cost $75,000, the first thirty people to pre-order will be on the hook for only $29,999. A similar deal was available to visitors at the Santa Monica AltCar Expo for the E600 PHEV sedan. Original MSRP is $99,000, but the pre-order price is $47,999. While the banners at the AMPLE booth say the special offers are limited to the first 30 pre-oders, sheets that AMPLE had available at the show made it seem like only people at the show could take advantage of the deal. So, if you’re interested, contact AMPLE for more information.

But what are these vehicles with the unexciting names? We spoke with AMPLE’s Ted Flittner about the the company’s line-up, discount and referral system (yes, if you get your friends to buy an AMPLE car, you get a referral fee) and more. You can listen to Flittner here (7 min):

Here are the preliminary details on the three plug-in hybrid vehicles AMPLE is offering:

• For all three: 100 miles per gallon equivalent, or better. 600+ mile range with full charge and tank. Use EDI‘s mechanically continuously variable transmission. Lithium-ion battery pack. ABS brakes and SRS airbags standard. Recharging from a standard household outlet.

• E600: “Epipany” class. Four-door sedan. 60-mile all-electric range (AER). 38 mpg highway. $99,000.
• E300: Mid-size sedan. 40-mile AER. 45 mpg highway. No price sheet available.
• R300: “Robust″ class. Compact pick-up truck (similar to a Chevy Colorado or Ford Ranger). 1,420 pounds payload. 3,150 pounds towing capability. $75,000.

All of these models will be brand-new vehicles to the customer, but will be made from existing vehicle designs that AMPLE will be licensing from other automakers. More details will be coming in April or May 2009.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco