Gas 2.0

KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., has announced that they will be providing the option to homebuyers to pre-wire their new construction homes so that they are ready for the high voltage, high amperage electrical lines required to charge electric cars quickly and properly.

The company views this new option as an extension of their already existing “My Home. My Earth.” campaign to make their homes more energy efficient and load them with features and equipment that both save money and have a lowered environmental impact.

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“Range anxiety” — the worry that your EV will run out juice before you get to where you’re going — is a term that has been bandied about a lot recently… almost annoyingly so. From a common sense standpoint, it seems only logical that range anxiety is a real phenomenon. But since we have so few EVs on the roads right now, the fact of the matter is that range anxiety is, at this point, a made up concept based on what we can logically expect.

And it’s this expectation that is spurring a huge amount of both private and public investment in nationwide charging networks for EVs — the assumption being that the only way EVs will ever become mass-accepted is to eliminate range anxiety.

But will those public charging stations that we’re dumping money into go unused because we have an expectation for a phenomenon that turns out to not really be an issue?

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Last summer Chicago upped the ante on next generation EV charging stations with the nation’s first solar powered one, and now they’ve done it again, but this time with wind. For a town known as the windy city, it only seems to make sense, but how they decided to go after solar before wind is beyond me.

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Right now, refilling your electric vehicle is quite a timely process. Even the best EV charging systems can take several hours to fully charge a depleted battery, and while this might be fine and dandy for commuter cars, it makes living with an electric car as a daily driver a bit more difficult.

But fast charging stations are coming, and could be a real game changer. Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade are teaming up their technologies to bring a “Level III” charging stations to the world later this year. These stations could charge an electric car in as little as 15 minutes. Now that’s impressive.

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A study came out today saying that electric cars–both battery electric and plug-in hybrids–would make up as much as 16-percent of new car sales in New York City come 2015. That’s roughly 70,000 vehicles.

But what’s driving these EV sales? Governments are expected to impose higher restrictions on CO2 emissions, for one. Plus, subsidies and tax benefits for EVs are expected to increase. Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured above is a solar charging station under development by Toyota. The company has plans to open the first of 21 in the Spring of 2010, signaling a move by Toyota to become a vertically integrated company. First, make the plug-in car. Then, build the charging station that it plugs in to. It’s comparable to the same company both digging up the oil, and building the car that runs on the oil. But better.

In many ways this is an understandable move. Toyota has held a leadership position in the hybrid market, and, as such, the company has long resisted any mention of a future move to plug-in vehicles. Why cut sales short, with all the expense that that entails: retooling assembly lines and so on – when yours is the market leader?
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Sven Holthusen runs the EDISON project at Siemens’ Energy Sector in the Denmark branch of the international engineering giant. The EDISON project is working on raising charging power to as much as 300 kW so that batteries can be recharged on the go, in as little as six minutes.

The idea is to replicate the familiar: filling up at a gas station in 6 minutes or so, not in order to replace long slow overnight charges in home garages but to have an alternative to meet the needs of those apartment-dwellers who don’t have garages (and those who do, but who don’t sleep at least 6 hours at night) by making on-the-go-charges as available and as quick as filling up at a gas station.
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In October 2007, the City of San Jose, the 10th largest city in the US, launched a Green Vision program. The program set out a plan to carry out 10 green goals, one of which is to have 100 percent of the city’s public vehicles running on alternative fuels. Ultimately, the city has set its sights on becoming the greenest city in the nation.

Many have taken notice of their efforts and city officials have been invited to participate in the Sustainable Transportation Conference in Sweden this week. United States representatives Hans Larsen, who is the Acting Director for the San Jose Department of Transportation, will be sharing the city’s perspectives on Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). Larsen will be joined by delegates from New York and Los Angeles where ultimately 200 stakeholders are expected to participate. Read the rest of this entry »

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that Nissan would be bringing its all-electric LEAF, to the Bay Area market in 2010. Speaking on behalf of the Bay Area Electric Vehicle (EV) Corridor program, Newsom said Nissan will work with San Francisco and the Bay Area to promote and build-out an EV charging infrastructure, including development of a streamlined process for customer installation of charging equipment in their homes.

“Nissan is committed to the San Francisco market and is looking forward to working with the city and others in the partnership to make zero emissions a reality throughout the Bay Area,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Nissan North America. Piquing the interest of anyone in the Bay Area who is a little EV-curious, Carolin added: “In one year, Nissan LEAF zero-emission vehicles will be driving on the streets of San Francisco.” Read the rest of this entry »

While many are suffering burnout from the overwhelming amount of EV discussion as of late, the conference hosted by Portland State University and Portland General Electric last month was different.

Called “EV Road Map: Preparing Oregon for the Introduction of Electric Vehicles,” the event was one of the first to set the stage for real rollout and testing of citywide electric vehicle adoption.

The conference brought together many of the area’s electric vehicle stakeholders to discuss and begin planning for EVs in the region. These stakeholders included OEMs such as Nissan, Toyota, and smart USA, as well as Portland General Electric, local business associations, the local university, many city and county leaders including the Mayor of Corvallis, OR, charging station providers, and fleet managers.

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Most of us have been in this situation before; you’re up late cranking away at some work project or homework assignment as thunder and lightning dance outside your window, shaking the whole house. Then the power goes out. All your work is gone, as is your time, and you’re left with frustration and darkness until the power goes back on.

Yet imagine if power outages were a thing of the past? Electric cars could provide the answer, as well as a boost to the U.S. power grid. The U.S. Department of Energy is lending funds to several automakers, including Detroit Electric and Chrysler, in a bid to promote these technologies.

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Computer technology is always about being one step ahead of competitors. Information technology moves faster than light it seems, and by the time your new computer arrives at your doorstep, it is already out of date. Dell, whose computers can be found in most offices, homes, and campuses across the country, has been doing its best to stay ahead of the curve.

Proving it is both environmentally friendly and hip to the trends of popular culture, Dell has just finished installing a grove of solar trees at its Corporate headquarters in Round Rock, Texas.

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At this point, most of us have heard of Better Place and their battery swap station idea, but they aren’t the only ones who’ve though of such a thing. NuTech, a company I recently discovered at the Alt Car Expo in Santa Monica, CA, has developed their own take on the concept of drive-thru battery swap stations… only theirs is portable.

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A German supplier of electronics and powertrain design to most of the major automakers for the last 25 years has just secured a patent that could be a game changer for electric vehicle adoption. Their technology would allow electric vehicles to be charged as they drive over any road embedded with a recessed wireless recharging strip, using electromagnetic induction.

Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV) says the technology will be available commercially within 3 years, is insensitive to weather conditions, and is not susceptible to mechanical wear.

As Wilfried Nitschke from IAV says, “The road is then the range extender.”
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Better Place, based in Palo Alto, California, has gotten the green light from the Japanese government to move forward on installing its battery swap stations for use by Tokyo’s taxi fleet. The company said it has received an undisclosed financial investment from the Japanese government for its “Tokyo pilot project,” which is intended to validate the feasibility of the battery swap stations by installing switchable batteries into the world’s first four completely electric taxis.

According to the company, they will partner with Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, for the project that was commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency. The project is slated to begin in January 2010 and is a direct result of the successful battery switch demonstration earlier this year in Yokohama. Read the rest of this entry »