clean fuel connection news

Los Angeles Electric Vehicle Charging Opportunities

CFC — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:30:58 +0000

By Sam Schrader

Los Angeles, due to its profound lack of public transportation, is a car culture. You absolutely need a car to get from here to there, and LA drivers are of the “been here, done that” school of driving, traffic patience and vehicle maintenance. However, it turns out LA drivers are also different in how they drive their electric cars.

As reported in the LA Times, LA EV drivers behave in a very different manner than other EV drivers around the country. According to an Ecotality-sponsored report, LA EV drivers tend travel further in their cars, but they also charge their vehicles more often at public locations and are far more likely to charge at night to obtain less expensive electricity rates.

Ecotality (NASDAQ:ECTY) is the company that’s overseeing a $230 million EV charging infrastructure project that is funded in part by the DOE. In addition to overhauling the charging infrastructure, it analyzes EV driving data from dozens of cities around the country.

Since 2010, Ecotality has installed 4,600 of 8,300 planned residential chargers and 1,600 of 5,000 public chargers. About 10% of the EV Project’s residential participants are located in LA and many are contributing their driving data to the company, including 422 Nissan Leaf owners.

Based on first quarter data, LA Leaf drivers charge away from home 24% of the time versus 19% nationally. LA drivers drive 28.1 miles between charges versus 27.4 nationally. According to Ecotality spokesman Steve Schey, this indicates a “greater confidence in their cars’ range and in finding charging locations away from their homes.”

AEP adding a Coda to its fleet of electric vehicles

CFC — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:20:32 +0000

By Dan Gearino

The electric-car company that recently withdrew a proposal to build a factory in central Ohio is announcing that American Electric Power is the first company in the world to buy one of the cars for its corporate fleet.

Coda Automotive’s debut sedan will be part of an AEP fleet that now includes 18 plug-in vehicles, the Columbus-based utility said yesterday.

AEP is using the all-electric vehicle to help understand how the use of such vehicles will affect the electricity system, said Karen Sloneker of AEP Ohio.

“This is an evolving technology that we would like to get some early experience with so we can more-effectively plan for the future,” she said.

AEP is adding one of the Coda vehicles to the fleet that has vehicles from several manufacturers. The decision to buy the vehicle was not directly related to Coda’s plan to locate in Ohio, although AEP might have been more familiar with Coda because of it, Sloneker said.

In March, Coda said it had withdrawn an application for a federal loan that would help build a battery plant in Columbus. The U.S. Department of Energy had been reviewing the proposal since the summer of 2010.

Central Ohio companies, including AEP, were part of the region’s attempt to attract the company.

Coda, based in Los Angeles, began selling its vehicle in California this year, following several delays. The battery and several major components are made in China. As production ramped up, Coda had hoped to have a battery plant in the United States.

Chevy Volt Pep Rally Masquerades as Electric Vehicle Symposium

CFC — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:10:35 +0000

by Mark Modica

The Department of Transportation and NHTSA have announced that a ”technical symposium” will be held on May 18^th ”to discuss safety considerations for electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries.” In addition to NHTSA’s presentations, the Department of Energy, automotive manufacturers and battery makers will participate. Given the bias of the participants, the symposium sounds like it is going to be less informational and more infomercial.

The press release for the gathering states, “Electric vehicles show great promise as an innovative and fuel-efficient option for American drivers. Significant research and other activities related to the safety of these vehicles are ongoing by NHTSA, the Department of Energy (DOE), vehicle and battery manufacturers, standards organizations, and others.” I think that gives a hint as to where this is going. Add to this the fact that the Obama Administration agencies involved have all celebrated the rollout of the Chevy Volt and have been proponents of a costly green energy policy. And does anyone think that the manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries and EVs will give anything but a positive view of the safety of the products they are selling?

NHTSA’s bias is obvious as evidenced by its statements when it was discovered that Chevy Volts that were crash-tested burst into flames weeks after the tests. They stated, “NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles have incredible potential to save consumers money at the pump, help protect the environment, create jobs and strengthen national security by reducing our dependence on oil.” They also prematurely concluded, “Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.”

The Volt fires, a recent explosion of a lithium-ion battery that injured workers at a General Motors test lab and the Fisker Karma fire that burned down a home all give cause for concern regarding the safety of volatile lithium-ion battery powered vehicles. Politics should not trump public safety as President Obama campaigns on his green energy agenda and the perceived success of the Chevy Volt.

Ribbon Cut on First AMP Electric Vehicles Dealership

CFC — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:43:54 +0000

AMP Electric Vehicles the electric motorvehicle manufacturer located in Cincinnati, OH, held a Press Conference dedicating the first flagship AMP dealership, AMP OF CINCINNATI, located in the factory’s hometown of Cincinnati.

The president of the new AMP of Cincinnati dealership is Dana Hackney, a multi-line dealer, who also owns both Mercedes-Benz and Jeep dealerships in the Greater Cincinnati and Lexington markets. Present at the dealership dedication event were several hundred, including media journalists and invited guests.

“We are very excited and proud to share this important moment,” said Dana Hackney at the dedication event. “To many people, the EVs that are on the market today are small. AMP all-electric SUVs offer a unique full-size EV experience. The wait is over. People wanting a full-size EV can now order an AMP.”

Unveiling and Test Drives of All-Wheel Drive AMP MLe:

Premiering at the dealership opening event was the AMP MLe, based on the Mercedes ML350, the only production All-Wheel drive electric SUV available today. A second AMP SUV was also on-hand, the production AMP GCE, based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Both vehicles can travel up to 125 miles on a single battery charge. Many of the invited press and guests took the opportunity to take bothproduction vehicles out on the road for test drives. Buyers of the AMP EVs will receive the $7,500 IRS Federal Tax Credit tax credit for plug-in electric drive motorvehicles. Special event pricing and the federal tax credit, will bring ownership of an AMP all-electric SUV to under $50,000. AMP was recently awarded IRS credits for both models.

AMP OF CINCINNATI starting at the Event and forward, began taking reservations for both All-Electric SUVs buyers put their name on list with a fully-refundable deposit of $5,000 to reserve their place in line to have their AMP all-electric vehicle made First deliveries will take place before the end of 2012.

“These new AMP SUV EVs offer it all: All-Wheel Drive, safety, in a 100% electric full-size vehicle,” said Steve Burns, President & Founder, AMP Electric Vehicles Manufacturing.

“To be the first to offer a full-sized AMP electric SUV is very exciting for city of Cincinnati,”continued Hackney. “We encourage everyone to come by and drive this amazing vehicle.”

Are electric cars about to take off?

CFC — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:49:04 +0000

By Charley Cooper

Last year, riding high on a promise to be the greenest government ever, the UK department of transport hailed 2011 as the “year of the electric car”. Subsidies were offered and councils were told to plan for an electric future. The long-promised revolution in the way we drive was finally here, it seemed.

British drivers had other ideas. The notion that electric vehicles are slow, impractical and even unsafe persisted, and only 1000 were sold.

But now there is a spark of hope.

On Tuesday more than 60 charging points went live in Oxford, making the city the “electric vehicle capital of Europe” with one charging point for every 2400 people – the best ratio in Europe.

The company behind the new network, Chargemaster, hopes that Oxford will set the pace for other cities preparing for a new generation of electric and hybrid cars coming on the market in the next two years. British cities dominate the top 10 list of electric-friendly locations. London has 654 charging points, the most in Europe.

David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster, said: “Not only do electric vehicles have obvious environmental benefits, they also make the most financial sense.”

“They have never been more convenient to charge and maintain.”

The new stations will be able to charge a car’s battery in half the eight hours older charging points can take. A further 50 charging points planned for Oxford and the surrounding area in the coming year could cut charging times to just 20 minutes.

In the next 18 months, 29 new models of electric or hybrid car will come on the market. BMW is launching its first “all-electric” cars, the i3 and the i8. Ford will launch the Focus Electric, while Opel has just released what it claims is “the first electric vehicle suitable for everyday use”, the Ampera, which has a range of 570km thanks to a small petrol-fuelled generator that supplies electricity to the wheels after the battery has run out. Most entirely electric cars have a range of 160km.

Combined with the growing network of charging points, it means the department of transport hopes that, if not 2011 or even 2012, then maybe 2013 might be the electric car’s year.

Transport minister, Philip Baker said: “One of the biggest barriers to the take-up of electric cars has been drivers’ concerns about finding somewhere to charge them.

“Drivers are used to having a filling station within easy reach.”

“They want reassurance that vehicles using alternative technologies will also be easy to refuel or recharge. This barrier has been well and truly smashed in Oxford.”

Although electric cars don’t come cheap – the Ampera costs the equivalent of R375 000 – the Government pays £5000 (R62 600) toward any purchase and, with the price of petrol ever-increasing, the running costs are much lower.

Professor Allan Hutchinson, head of the Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre at Oxford Brookes University, believes the new generation of vehicles will be taken more seriously by drivers.

In the future, recharging could be even easier thanks to wireless technology that is being developed. Charging “pads” could be installed in front of traffic lights or in car parks, he says, allowing cars to charge up on the move. New roads could have charging pads built in. Professor Hutchinson predicts that by 2020, five percent of vehicles could be electric.

BMW Sees Potential Korean Electric-Car Market

CFC — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:40:32 +0000

By Kyong-Ae Choi

While South Korea’s auto market is dominated by local players, particularly Hyundai Motor Group, Germany’s BMW has seen a healthy jump in its share of the imported passenger car market to 26% last year from 18% three years earlier.

BMW Group Korea attributes some of that surge to the effect of South Korea’s free-trade agreement with the European Union, which took effect last year and lowered tariffs on imports from the EU. BMW’s vehicle sales rose 19% to 11,032 units in the January-April period from a year earlier.

The German luxury car maker is hoping to replicate that success in the nascent electric car market with the introduction of two pure electric models – the i3 and the i8 – in 2014 following their global launch in 2013.

BMW will be entering the local electric car market around the same time as Hyundai, which plans to sell an Elantra-sized compact electric car from 2014. Kia Motors aims to introduce an electric version of its Ray mini car in 2013, depending on Korea’s progress in building charging stations for electric vehicles.

That’s the make-or-break issue for car makers looking to release all-electric cars in Korea. Only a small number of charging stations currently exist and are used for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles used by the Korean government. The government has said it will build 150,000 charging stations across the country by 2016 to help boost sales of environment-friendly vehicles.

“The biggest hurdle is lack of the charging infrastructure for electric cars, so we will continue to ask the government to make charging stations ready as announced,” a BMW Korea spokesman told Korea Real Time.

Other local car makers are taking a wait-and-see stance. GM Korea will produce the electric version of Chevrolet Spark mini car next year for export to the U.S. but has no plans to sell it in the domestic market. Renault Samsung Motors will supply its Fluence Z.E. electric car early next year to government organizations but doesn’t plan to sell it car at dealerships for now.

Meanwhile, Japanese car makers, which have led the way in the development of all-electric vehicles, don’t have any plans to sell all-electric cars in Korea. Toyota recently developed an electric version of its popular RAV4 SUV in a joint project with Tesla in the U.S. and Nissan’s Leaf has been available in global markets such as Japan, the U.S. and Europe since 2011.

Read More / Source : Wall Street Journal

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Porsche 918: the car is out there

CFC — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:54:22 +0000

The Porsche 918 Spyder is on the road. The first street-legal prototypes, dressed in camouflage bodies reminiscent of the iconic 917 endurance racers of the 1970s, have begun testing and development on the roads around Stuttgart.

The 918 will go into production at the end of September 2013 as planned, with the first customers receiving their vehicles before the end of the year 2013 is out.

The focus of road testing is on the interplay between the individual drive components; the combination of a big combustion engine and two independent electric motors – one on the front axle and one in the drivetrain, acting on the rear wheels – poses completely new demands on both mechanical and electronic control systems.

BIG NUMBERS

The car’s hybrid powertrain – a 419kW 4.6-litre V8 engine, an 80kW electric motor on the front axle and a 90 kW electric motor on the rear axle – represents a new set of engineering challenges.

The prototypes have a combined output of more than 566kW, taking them from 0-100 km/h in less than three seconds and and on to more than 325km/h flat out. Using a 6.8 kWh lithium-ion battery, the 918 can travel more than 25km on electricity alone at up to 150km/h.

Porsche board member for research and development Wolfgang Hatz explained: “The control systems are a critical component of this car, requiring all our expertise in development.”

‘FUN TO DRIVE’

“These control systems and the development of the software to go with them will have a major influence on the feel of the car – that elusive ‘fun-to-drive’ factor which, for me, is not negotiable.”

“They will also have to deliver a combination of minimal fuel consumption and maximum performance that is the reason for the car’s existence.”

The 918 has been designed as a plug-in hybrid vehicle combining a high-performance combustion engine with cutting-edge electric motors for supercar performance: on the one hand, the dynamics of a 566kW racing machine; on the other, fuel consumption in the region of three litres per 100 kilometres.

Ford Is Finally Putting A Focus On Electric Cars

CFC — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:47:14 +0000

By David Kaplan

After test-driving the soon-to-go-on-sale Ford Focus Electric at a promotional event downtown on Thursday, Matt Hrna was impressed with its quick acceleration. It has more pickup than the four-cylinder gasoline-powered car he now owns.

Hrna could see himself owning an all-electric car someday, but he still plans to wait until such a vehicle has greater driving range than the Focus Electric’s 70 to 100 miles.

He probably won’t be one of the first to plunk down $39,200 for one of the Focus Electrics when they make their debut locally several weeks, or perhaps several months, from now.

Indeed, many consumers seem to be in a wait-and-see mode when it comes to moving away from gasoline engines. But companies such as Ford see electrification as a big part of their car-making future.

“It’s going to take time for people to take hold of electric cars,” said Donna Bell, Ford’s electric vehicle infrastructure manager, who attended Thursday’s event near City Hall. “But we believe it’s the right thing do for the environment and to help the country move from its dependence on fossil fuels.”

Bell noted that people who buy Focus Electrics also qualify for a substantial federal tax credit.

While the arrival of the electric version of the Focus probably won’t have a big effect on car market, it further shows that automakers will continue to give consumers more electric options.

A slow embrace

“Consumers have been relatively slow to embrace electric vehicles. We’ve seen that in the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Automotive. Among the challenges, she said, is that vehicles with internal combustion engines are getting increasingly better mileage.

Consumers also have concerns with electric cars, Lindland said, over issues such as battery life and driving range. Besides, there aren’t many charging stations around.

“And if you don’t have a garage, you may not have a readily available place to plug in the vehicle,” Lindland said.

Ford is working with cities to identify solutions for multifamily complexes, Bell said.

A head start

“The Focus Electric will go head to head with the Leaf and will have an uphill battle, since the Leaf has had a big head start,” said Mike Omotoso, manager of global powertrain at LMC Automotive. The Leaf arrived in the U.S. in late 2010.

The Leaf sells for about $4,000 less than the Focus Electric, he noted.

“The Focus is a good first start for Ford,” Omotoso said, “but they only expect to sell about 5,000 units this year — about half of what Nissan is expecting with the Leaf.”

Another electric option is the Chevy Volt, which provides the benefits of an electric vehicle without the range limitations, Chevrolet spokesman Craig Eppling said. The Volt offers a total driving range of 379 miles.

For the first 35 miles, it can drive gas-free, he said, and when the Volt’s battery runs low, a gasoline-powered engine/generator engages to extend the driving range another 344 miles, Eppling said.

The Volt costs about the same as a Focus Electric.

Later this year, Ford will debut the Ford Fusion Energi and the small SUV Ford C-Max Energi. Both are plug-in hybrids that combine gasoline and electric technology.

Planet Ford in Spring is among the local dealerships that will sell the Focus Electric when it debuts. Shawn Burns, general manager, said Ford required the dealership to install two charging stations. He spent $15,000 on green renovations and plans more, he said.

Tesla will sell swoopy Model S electric sedan sooner

CFC — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:18:33 +0000

By Colin Bird

Tesla Motors has moved up the on-sale date of its 2012 Tesla Model S to June, and the electric-car maker revealed that top-of-the-line Model S trims will have a range of up to 265 miles.

Due to quicker-than-expected approval by government agencies, Tesla expects to deliver its first retail Model S vehicles in June instead of its original July date.

The Model S is now fully certified with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California, according to Tesla. On the company’s blog, the carmaker mentioned that the Model S with the largest battery pack, an 85-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, is EPA-rated as traveling about 265 miles per charge. This exceeds the range of any electric vehicle on the market today.

No word yet on what the 40- and 60-kWh batteries will get, but Tesla originally stated ranges of 160 miles and 230 miles, respectively. The 85-kWh battery was originally estimated to get 300 miles per charge, about 12% higher than the EPA’s number.

And safety?:

Tesla is still awaiting approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but it expects the Model S to receive a five-star safety rating from the agency.

Tesla says it is already producing Model S vehicles and has built about 80 test units to date. The electric-car maker already has more than 10,000 reservations for the Model S and 1,000 reservations for its recently announced Model X crossover.

Qualcomm Shows Halo, Their Wireless Vehicle Charging Technology

CFC — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:12:21 +0000

Qualcomm Halo is one of qualcomms newest technologies that they are working on bringing to the wireless industry. Qualcomm Halo is Qualcomm’s wireless charging technology which they are implementing in vehicles. Currently they are being tested in vehicles ranging from high-end electric sports cars to itty bitty Citroen cars. They even have been tested in some Rolls Royces.

Qualcomm Halo is known as WEVC or Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging and enables your vehicle to wirelessly be charged from the grid without any wires. This by all means is not a new technology, but Qualcomm’s Halo technology is an improvement on that technology in a few ways.The two main factors that set Qualcomm Halo apart from the rest of WEVC is the fact that their technology allows for much more tolerance in the alignment of the wireless elements and the wireless elements do not have to be touching, in fact, they can be up to 200mm apart. This has a lot to do with the way that the wireless elements of the charging system are designed specifically for being far apart and not perfectly aligned. When it comes to their alignment, Qualcomm’s Halo technology has a tolerance of about 6 inches in any direction, depending on the size of the pad installed on the ground.

Qualcomm’s current system for their Halo technology division is to integrate it into their technology portfolio for wireless as many electric cars are already beginning to implement wireless technologies for communication between the car and users. As such, Qualcomm sees this as an opportunity to broaden their wireless IP portfolio and to further facilitate their dominance in the wireless sector. Their revenue model does not involve the direct manufacturing and sale of the WEVC systems but rather the licensing and standardization of the wireless charging technologies to OEMs to sell to consumers. Qualcomm will collect a royalty on every single vehicle sold with their IP and they will use this model to recoup any R&D costs as well as to further the development of Qualcomm Halo.