Gas 2.0

OK. I admit it. I am writing this article from a Summit about cow poop. No, this isn’t a joke to get 8-year olds rolling on the floor with laughter. This is serious.

I am reporting from the inaugural National Biomethane Summit, in Sacramento, California, where over 300 attendees including elected officials, government agencies, farmers, ranchers, landfill owners, facility owners and operators, technology leaders, researchers, regional planners, and carbon trading experts.

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There’s an electric car revolution underway in sleepy Browntown, Wisconsin, population 252.

More than six Sebring-Vanguard CitiCars, many zipping down the country roads in southwestern Wisconsin, are registered to owners in this small town – most to Phil Welty and one to myself.  They come in red, yellow and several other colors and look like a wedge of cheese, but they’re all completely powered by electric motors.  It’s estimated that as few as 600 CitiCars are still on the road in the U.S. with less than 3,000 manufactured by Sebring-Vanguard between 1974 and 1976 during the last energy crisis.

“When I first saw the CitiCars back in the 1970s, it was the only all-electric car on the market,” recalls Phil Welty,  “The same problem exists today as in the 1970s, like high fuel prices and our marriage to foreign oil.  I’ve always wanted to bring one back from the junkyard and restore it to fully operable condition.”  Not content with just one, he has two CitiCars on the road, using his other cars for parts.

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Late Friday, the House passed the first legislation solely dedicated to reversing global warming. Now the fate of the Climate Change Bill is in the hands of the Senate, and political pundits are predicting the bill won’t pass. This exact bill might not pass but sooner than later one will and until then they will have several things in common. A climate bill will change how we produce and use electricity. It will change how you travel from point A to point B. It will change how every business operates and how every American lives. Our lives will never be the same. Dramatic? Yes. True. Yes.

The passage of this bill will change your life in three ways:

1. It would affect what type of car you can drive - smaller.
2. It would affect how much you pay for energy - more.
3. It would affect what type of job you have - green job.

Energy affects every facet of our lives. When energy prices go up, food prices go up, clothing prices go up..the price for everything we buy gets more expensive. Why? Because our society is intricately intertwined with energy, and energy is intertwined with our economy.

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It appears that companies are realizing that zero emission electric vehicles should not just be for the “rich”. In May, Nissan announced that it would begin electric cars in the U.S. to be available in 2010. This week, they announced they would mass produce a zero-emissions electric car by 2012 that would be affordable. However, during a Nissan shareholder’s call Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn refused to speculate on the sticker price.

According to an Associated Press article, Ghosn said, “If it’s not affordable, it’s not gonna work. We are not going to come with a very high price. We are gonna come with a reasonable price,” he said. “We are here to mass market them.”

What I want to know is what the company will consider affordable now that America’s economic turmoil continues to spiral downward. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living without a primary car.

Zipcar will be selecting 30 participants in each Zipcar metro to take part in the 2009 Low-Car Diet. Zipcar and its partners are committed to providing all participants with the necessary tools for creating transportation nirvana, including:

• Bike rentals
• Transit passes
• Complimentary meals at participating restaurants
• Discounts at local retailers
• And, of course, a 1-year Zipcar membership with some driving credit to get started

There will be a number of applicants for only 30 spaces, and Zipcar would like to make sure they’re the best. If you think you’d like to try an unconventional diet just fill out this short survey.

*Zipcar cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

Photo Courtesy tvol via Flickr under Creative Commons license.

While the MDI AIRpod is hardly “new news”, nary an auto journalist has managed to get behind the joystick (no steering wheel here) to test the viability of this odd-yet-innovative vehicle. In case you haven’t heard, the MDI AIRpod is a concept vehicle designed to run solely on compressed air as means of transportation, though no working models had been released to the press. But as the AIRpod nears actual production, MDI has begun inviting journalists to take a whirl in a prototype model, and Edmunds Inside Line was first in the queae it seems.

The AIRpod they drove was only a prototype, so you can take from their impressions what you will. But, just having the AIRpod on the road is a major first step towards actual commercialization of what was once just a wacky concept.

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There has been a recent influx of electric-powered motorcycles, with brands the world over throwing their hat into the ring. The sucess of electric TTXGP earlier this month has drawn even more attention to electric motorbikes, and the FIM (Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme) has announced that a new series exclusively for electric motorbikes will begin in the 2010 season.

The series is being spearheaded by Azhar Hussein, a British entrepreneur who wants to provide low emission bikes with a racing series that will promote clean, fun, and fast technology.

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“To my knowledge, at this point, ExxonMobil has no interest in putting charging stations at retailer locations,” said Pat Brant, Chief Polymer Scientist with ExxonMobil Chemical Company. I just had to ascertain if ExxonMobil was really in the car business after they announced their partnership in launching the Maya 300 and it appears that the answer is no. However, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil that was built from scratch 18 years ago, is is in the business of developing technologies to improve technologies with battery applications.

So here is how the partnership works. ExxonMobil Chemical Company developed the pioneering lithium ion battery separation technology. They then partnered with Electrovaya, to integrate the technology into their batteries and then manufacture the batteries. The batteries are then given to Electrovaya subsidiary Maya, who then manufactures the Maya 300. So there, ExxonMobil is not in the car business.

Speaking of the car business, one of the burning questions is how is the Maya 300 different than other electric vehicles. There are three main reasons.

1. The Maya 300 is powered by a Lithium-Ion SuperPolymer® battery (made by Electrovaya). The lithium-ion polymer technology platform enables lithium to be moved faster and more efficiently, allowing more energy to be stored in a smaller space. Most other hybrid and electric vehicles are using nickel-metal-hybrid batteries that take up more space and are heavier.
2. Smaller battery. Smaller space. A conventional lead acid battery pack on average takes over five times the space and weight of the Electrovaya battery pack.
3. Style. The Maya 300 looks like a traditional four-door car with a hatchback. On the road, aesthetically speaking, you’d be hard pressed to tell it was an electric vehicle.

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Today, the oil industry has become a player in the auto industry. ExxonMobil is launching the Maya 300, a lithium-ion battery powered car that can drive up to 120 miles on one charge yet has the look and feel of a gasoline-powered car.

This announcement comes on the heels of a whirlwind of investments by the oil industry to help position them as players in the biofuels industry. Many oil companies have either purchased ethanol or biodiesel plants and/or made investments in cellulosic technology and development companies. Does this announcement set the stage for the rise of other players to take over the helm of U.S. auto industry?

The Maya 300 was developed in conjunction with Electrovaya, a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of Lithium Ion SuperPolymer battery systems. The two companies have worked together to, “develop the innovative urban vehicle that will be a ‘game changer’ in advancing transportation alternatives.” ExxonMobil actually developed the lithium-ion battery separator film and was the first company to introduce the lithium-ion battery in 1991. Read the rest of this entry »

Steven Chu this morning finally puts the nail in the coffin of the congressional No We Can’t contingent’s stance.  For the last 8 years they’ve been saying that “government can’t pick winners and losers”, by which they simply meant keep all the current lavish oil subsidies in place and don’t make any changes in energy policy that might develop a competitor. Read the rest of this entry »