Recent Comments:
Hawaii Governor reports talks with Better Place {Autoblog Green}
Jul 1st 2008 5:27PM Maybe Hawaii could go with 100% cellulosic ethanol filling stations too. They would only need to buy maybe 3 or 4 tanks of cellulosic ethanol a year if most of the people bought Chevy Volts. Hawaii could be the first state that goes 100% gasoline free by 2015 or something ... except for the trucks and heavy equipment that still have to run on diesel.
Cellulosic ethanol is much better for the environment you know. It could be a selling point for more tourism. Hawaii ... super green island paradise. :)
Hawaii gets $$ to study electric cars {Autoblog Green}
Jul 1st 2008 5:17PM I think it is a good idea to make Hawaii the first state with mostly electric cars. I bet they'll buy the Chevy Volt bigtime once it comes on the market. Hawaii could be a very good "pilot project state" to show the rest of the country that BEVs and ER-EVs are viable and a good idea. Hawaiian drivers don't need much range you know. Their gas prices are one of the highest in the US. It's logical for Hawaiians to buy a lot of them in the next few years.
Maybe if GM sells their new Opel Flexstreme ER-EV vehicle over there they'll sell even more of them. Hawaiians need to be able to fit their surfboards into their vehicles.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_446/car_photo_223127_7.jpg
A123: History and Progress {Autoblog Green}
May 1st 2008 9:50AM Good article by MIT’s Technology Review about A123. These new lithium ion battery companies like A123 and LGChem have a darn good chance of becoming the Intel and AMD of the automobile business.
Since electricity will become the primary fuel for cars … GM, Toyota, Ford, Mercedes and the rest of the auto companies are going to start looking more like computer companies … OEMs like Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple, IBM, etc. They better learn to innovate and get products out the door at a quicker pace. That’s how it is in the computer business. Lots of races going on.
The automotive battery business could get VERY large … maybe tens or hundreds of billions in revenues. That scientist at MIT (Yet-Ming Chiang) is helping to get a HUGE industry up and running. He might someday be considered one of the “founding fathers” of the electric car business if A123 batteries do well … like Gordon Moore is with Intel.
I’m hoping a bunch of geniuses emerge in the automotive battery business in the next 10 years. The world NEEDS them to help us kick our addiction to oil and keep us from screwing up the environment. Maybe that one Stanford professor Dr. Cui will be one of them with his silicon nanowire lithium ion battery. These guys could be like the new Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of the next 40 years.
The Chevy Volt can't get here fast enough. It is going to be AWESOME. It's going to be a bigtime "tipping point" kind of car. The electrification of the automobile will take off bigtime once it comes out. It's an idea who's time has come. Thank you A123 and LG Chem for working your butts off and bringing these awesome new batteries to the world.
SAE Congress '08: the problems of fuel cell commercialization {Autoblog Green}
Apr 20th 2008 1:13PM If the fuel cell industry can ever make the fuel cells CHEAP enough maybe they could build small trailers (as someone above mentioned) with the fuel cell in it that BEV (or even E-REV) owners could RENT for long trips ... like at Avis, Hertz, etc.
They could have these rental centers all over the place. The rental centers could make the hydrogen on site ... inexpensively maybe ... from water preferably instead of natural gas. Maybe the solar technology will be good enough soon so that cracking hydrogen from water will get cheap. I hear there are several new ways to get the hydrogen actually. Solid hydrides, using bacteria that make it, etc. Who knows which method will be ideal. Whichever one is cheapest will probably be used.
I bet hydrogen fuel cells start being used first in truck and car FLEETS. Companies like Wal Mart, UPS, Fedex and those guys might be the first ones to get fuel cells .... that is, IF the fuel cell industry can make their stuff cheap enough. They could have their own networks of hydrogen pumping stations with other companies. A lot of utility trucks go on very regular routes so it probably wouldn't be a big deal for them to only have a dozen or so hydrogen pumps in each city at first.
They could build "recharging trucks" (or "hydrogen refueling trucks" if that is safe) to help with the people who run out of hydrogen if they get stuck in traffic or something. They should make hydrogen fuel cell trucks and cars have PLUG-IN capability like the Volt. A recharging truck could juice them up quick (or pump a little hydrogen) to get them to the nearest hydrogen pump.
I think it's a good idea for fuel cells to be rolled out first with the company fleets to prove to the general public that hydrogen vehicles will be safe and reliable enough. Even though they are expensive now, I would like them to at least TRY to make hydrogen fuel cells work. We won't know what's possible until we do a bunch of "pilot tests" to find out.
I think E-REVs (series hybrids) like the Volt are going to dominate for the next 10+ years. If the fuel cells, the hydrogen itself and infrastructure gets in place, it would probably be pretty easy for GM to simply yank out the IC engine in the Volt and drop in a fuel cell. Maybe GM will design the Volt to be so modular that this is a very easy to do.
Drive your Volt til 2020 and then it's "out with the old, in with the new" time ... with a shiny, new fuel cell. Then you REALLY have "street cred" with the environmental folks. More bragging rights. Just water vapor coming out of your car then. Hot looking environmentalist chicks at Earth Day might even give you a big hug for it. :)
Who knows what could happen by 2020 with the battery technology though. We might not even need fuel cells at all if some company comes up with a SUPER energy concentrated, lightweight battery that is quick charging and goes 300+ miles. That would THE ideal thing to happen. That would change everything. No doubt.
Detroit News columnist Rex Roy: "Irrational greenies, hands off my V-8" {Autoblog Green}
Mar 27th 2008 6:50PM I think GM ought to highly consider bringing this car to America .... the 2008 Holden 60 Coupe. All I could say is .... wow, this is like the perfect exterior design for the Volt. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could.
http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/269977,15074,0,0/2008_Holden_Coupe_60_Concept_Photo.aspx
http://www.holden.com.au
Holden is a GM subsidiary from Australia. Put the E-Flex powertrain in it. Somehow price it around $35,000 (after good government incentives) and I guarantee you that GM would have a hard time keeping up with demand for it.
Put series hybrid (Volt) technology under the skin of a nice looking car like this and it could be a phenomenon .... the biggest car in GM history maybe. It would be like the Tesla Roadster and get a lot of good publicity and reviews. A real attention getter. It would probably help make all the new hybrid electric cars be in high demand and really get the electrification of the automobile going.
If GM wants to have a really good "halo car" to be the flagship for GM technological leadership this would be it. :)
