China To Best U.S. in EVs But Not Hybrids

The Chinese government announced it will spend $14.7 billion through 2020 on alternative drivetrain vehicles, with the bulk of the money going towards all-electric vehicles, according to news reports quoted by Edmunds.com's Green Car Advisor.

That's a greater outlay in consumer subsidies, industry incentives and spending on charging infrastructure than in the U.S. which (for now) boasts a much larger economy. The Chinese government would like 5 million alternative-fuel vehicles to be on the roads by 2020.

The U.S. government has committed more than $2.5 billion in incentives for battery makers, consumer purchases, and for charging infrastructure, but won't come close to the Chinese commitment in future years. Not all of that money is bearing fruit. The DOE gave A123 Systems a $249 million grant last year to manufacture lithium ion batteries in Michigan, ostensibly for electric vehicles under contract to Chrysler. Last week A123 Systems ended its work with Chrysler and is now focusing more on batteries that provide energy storage for the grid.

Pike Research projects that between 2010 and 2015 China will have 1.85 million hybrids and EVs sold , with slightly more EVs (1 million) on the road. In the U.S. more than 2.3 million hybrids will be sold during that time, and 840,000 plug-in and all- electric vehicles.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/222#222

Tata Motors to Debut Two Electric Vehicles in Europe by Next Year

Tata Motors is a lot of things--India's largest car manufacturer, producer of the $2,000 car (the Nano), and designer of the world's cheapest high-rise apartments. Now it appears that Tata can add another title to its ever-growing list: mainstream manufacturer of electric vehicles. Edmunds reports that Tata is planning to launch two electric vehicles in Europe by March of 2011.

The vehicles, set to launch first in the U.K. and Scandinavia, will reportedly include a variation of the Indica Electric as well as the Ace commercial mini-truck. The lithium-ion battery-equipped vehicles boast ranges of 120 miles and 110 miles per charge, respectively. 

Read full news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/212#212

Around the World in 80 Days in Electric Vehicles

A group of environmentalists set off from Geneva, Switzerland, traveling in electric vehicles for an "Around the World in 80 Days" trip Monday, CRI reports.

The global tour, named "Zero Race," aims to promote emissions-free transportation and November's world climate conference.

It was organized by Swiss schoolteacher Louis Palmer and won support from the United Nations Environment Program.

Four teams from Switzerland, Germany, Australia and South Korea will join the 30,000-meter excursion, which will take them to 16 countries and 150 cities in the world.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/214#214

Mahindra FirstChoice inaugurates 2 new SuperStores in Hyderabad; launches first 2S showroom in India

Mahindra First Choice Wheels, India’s leading multi-brand pre-owned car company, today expanded its Southern footprint with the launch of two new SuperStores in Hyderabad. The company also inaugurated the very first 2S showroom in India. All three outlets were inaugurated by Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President (HR, After-Market & Corporate Services) and Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

“We are delighted to add two new SuperStores to our existing network in Hyderabad. SR Wheels and Mint Motors are noted names in the automobile industry in Andhra Pradesh and will help expand our business in the region.

As the leaders in the pre-owned car business in India, we are constantly endeavouring to provide our customers with new services which will provide them with greater value and convenience. Naidu Motors is a 2S showroom which implies that it will function as a one stop shop for all those who not only wish to buy or sell a car but also want to get their vehicles serviced / repaired. This is part of our strategy to leverage synergies between our three divisions - Sales, Service and Spares - which will create a robust eco-system for the pre-owned car market,” said Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President (HR, After-Market & Corporate Services) and Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

“Our SuperStore, including the parking area, is spread over 18000 sq foot and will display a wide variety of cars, catering to a range of budgets. Services offered at SR Wheels will include purchase and sale of pre-owned cars, car finance and insurance, a commitment card which will cover both 24X7 roadside assistance across the country, as well as a conditional warranty on pre-owned cars, accessories and RTO transfer.” said Mr. Rajkumar T., SR Wheels.

“We are delighted to partner with Mahindra FirstChoice and provide customers in and around Hyderabad with a wide variety of options through our superstore. The SuperStore format has found favour with consumers in several cities across India, including Mumbai and Pune and we aim to replicate this success in Hyderabad,” said Mr. Veera Reddy, Mint Motors.


Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/217#217

Is It Time for a Vehicle Diet?

When thinking about electric vehicles, the first barrier that comes to mind is driving range. Unfortunately, when addressing this problem, we focus on improving and expanding battery technology at all cost, without questioning the underlying cause of the problem.

In a recent article, Michael Potts, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), highlighted that very problem:

"Between 75 and 90 percent of the energy we consume is wasted due to bad design and poor choices. We live in a world where energy has been so cheap for so long that very few people have paid attention to it, and most of our energy services are delivered in a sloppy, inefficient manner."

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/215#215

16 Chinese central companies form Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance

The Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance, which consists of 16 Chinese central companies and is led by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), was founded in Beijing on August 18.

The alliance's short-term goal is to promote the unification of electric car-related technologies, and its medium and long-term goal is to master the core technology for electric vehicles and build internationally competitive Chinese electric car brands, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

Analysts believe that compared to the Union of Electric Vehicle Manufacturers, which is made up of the top 10 Chinese automakers and led by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance, an official organization launched by the SASAC, will play a greater role in promoting collaboration among different companies and integrating the resources of the electric car industry.

The alliance members include automakers China FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Chang'an Automobile Group and 13 central companies, such as Dongfang Electric Corporation, China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, State Grid Corporation of China, China Petrochemical Corporation and China Southern Power Grid Company.

Read this article @ http://www.evhub.in/news/216#216

Spain fails to take on electric charge

Spanish motorists have bought just 15 electric cars this year, but Irish electric car firms say they are not worried, writes PADDY COMYN 

PROMOTERS OF electric cars in Ireland say they don’t believe they’ll face a tough sell to Irish consumers, despite news that there has been a very poor reaction to electric cars in Spain.

Just 15 plug-in electric cars have been sold this year in Spain, a long way short of the target of 2,000 set by the industry ministry for the year. In April, Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced that his government would invest €590 million promoting and developing electric cars over the next two years.

It was hoped that 20,000 electric and hybrid vehicles would be sold by 2011 – including the 2,000 all-electric cars – with a long-term objective of having 250,000 electric and hybrid vehicles in circulation by 2014.

A subsidy scheme of €80 million is already in place to encourage sales, with the government funding 20 per cent of purchases, up to €6,000 per electric car.

In May 2009 it had been announced that 550 of the Norwegian-built Think electric vehicles were to be delivered to Spain in early 2010 as part of a memorandum of understanding it had signed with its Spanish partner Going Green.

Over a year later, just 15 have been sold, delivered for a car-sharing program in Atuan, Spain. The government-backed REVE electric car and wind power project said on its website that it expects the situation to improve quickly: “The figures are similar to what happened in the beginning with personal computers or mobile phones. The first models are expensive and with few options and initial sales were low.”

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/213#213

Electric vehicles aim for 'longest and greenest' world tour

GENEVA — Electric vehicles from Australia, Germany and Switzerland set off Monday on the "longest and greenest" round-the-world drive to promote emissions free transport and November's world climate conference.

The UN-backed "Zero Race" is organised by Swiss schoolteacher Louis Palmer, who made headlines with his 18-month pioneering world tour in a solar-powered "taxi" two years ago, picking up celebrities on the way.

"With this race we want to show that seven billion people on this planet need renewable energy and clean mobility," said Palmer.

"Petrol is running out and the climate crisis is coming, and we are all running against time."

A South Korean vehicle failed to reach the start line at the United Nations in Geneva in time after it broke down with "a minor battery problem" some 60 kilometres (37.3 miles) up the road, Palmer said.

It was due to join the other three teams later in the day.

The Zero Race is planning to stop off at the World Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico, after touring through Europe, Russia, China, Canada and the United States before heading back to Geneva in January 2011.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/211#211

U.S. Navy Gets Solar Power for Slow Moving Electric Vehicles

The vehicles included in the Slow Moving Vehicles (SMV) group will run at a top speed of 25 mph and will be used within its premises at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida. The initiative is an outcome of a Navy instruction to make 50% reduction in petroleum use.

Southeast Command rated as one of the biggest fleets in the US Navy has the largest convoy of SMVs that are electric powered and it was looking for renewable source of energy to balance the ever increasing electric power demand of its vehicles. Out of its total number of 314 SMVs only 23 of them are solar powered. The command is planning to increase the strength of the SMVs to 412 by the year 2012 and to have 121 of them solar powered.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/210#210

Electric cars will overtake hybrid in 2020, forecast shows

Electric cars will not overtake hybrid technology until 2020, a new report has predicted.

GlassGuide.co.uk's Alternative Powertrain Vehicles in Europe report forecasts that by the end of the decade, the two systems will represent 21 per cent of the total UK vehicle market share.

This will represent the same level in France and Italy, although the UK will remain behind Germany, which is predicted to have a 26 per cent market share of all new car sales.

Individually, 274,000 units of electric vehicles will be sold, while 235,000 hybrid units will be bought, the report found.

Andy Carroll, managing director at Glass's, commented: "One of the central issues for the vehicle manufacturers is encouraging consumer adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles, including plug-in hybrids."

The report indicates to a positive uptake of cleaner cars in the UK's future transport technology.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/208#208

Dealers gear up for electric cars

Ray Burke will be making room at his auto dealership in Cape May Court House for what could be the car of the future: an electric vehicle. But the future will come at a cost to consumers and car dealers alike.

The Chevrolet Volt will be mass-marketed first in six states, including New Jersey, and could reportedly debut in November in some areas. The car, which runs on electricity but also has a backup gas engine, will cost about $41,000. It is a steeper price compared to new hybrid cars, such as the 2010 Toyota Prius, with a suggested retail price of $22,160, and the 2011 Ford Fusion, priced at about $28,825, according to Kelley Blue Book.

"There have been a lot of inquiries and people asking how the Volt works," said Burke, whose Burke Motor Group will be one of seven General Motors dealerships in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties authorized to sell the 2011 Volt. "With the Volt, you can drive it like a regular car. You don't have to worry about whether you'll break down somewhere. (In southern New Jersey), people drive long distances to commute."

Burke doesn't expect to receive his first Chevy Volt until March, and may get about one per month since the initial run is just 10,000 cars nationwide. But he already is scheduling classes for his technicians so they will know how to handle the vehicles, he said.

David Perry, of Perry-Egan Chevrolet in Ocean City, said he might get just a couple of cars during the first run. Citing growing interest, GM said last month it will increase production by 50 percent to 45,000 vehicles in 2012.

Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers in Trenton, said dealerships will see a cost burden because they'll have to get workers trained in maintaining the cars and buy the related equipment and materials to service electric vehicles.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/209#209

Japan Post Service to buy 1,030 electric cars from start-up firm

Japan Post Service Co. plans to purchase 1,030 electric vehicles from Zerosports Co., a start-up firm based in Gifu Prefecture, for collection and delivery of mail, sources familiar with the matter said Monday. Under the plan, the mail delivery service arm of Japan Post Holdings Co. will order 30 vehicles in fiscal 2010 through March and 1,000 more in fiscal 2011, they said. The plan follows Japan Post Service's experimental use of some Zerosports electric cars in which it rated their performance highly. Zerosports, which entered the electric car business in 1998, says its electric vehicles loaded with mail can travel for around 100 kilometers on an eight-hour charge.


Read this news and more @ http://www.evhub.in/news/207#207

Lotus gets ready for multi-model launch

Lotus is pretty tight-lipped about what its plans are these days, though it is clear its ambitions are great.

"There's going to be a lot happening at Paris," Mr Doyle says - though exactly what it will unveil at the biennial motor show in October remains secret.

But one thing is clear.

"We're going to expand the model range quite significantly," Mr Doyle says.

The car world is awash with rumours about what Lotus will do and if expectations are met it will certainly create waves.

Lotus is expected to unveil four new concept cars, a notable number given that nothing significantly new has come from the company in more than a decade, with the obvious exception of the recently launched four-seater Evora.

'Old' and 'New' Lotus:

The concepts expected to be on display at the Paris motor show are said to be a mixture of "Old Lotus" and "New Lotus".

"Old Lotus" models might include an updated and perhaps more comfortable version of the Lotus Seven, which was built between 1957 and 1972, as well as a new version of the Esprit supercar, which was built between 1976 and 2004.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/206#206

Electric cars are cleaner, even when the power comes from coal

While I am not a fan of General Motors and their horrible past scandals with the electric car or their current federal financial bailout, I am surprised by the falsehoods that writers use to describe the Chevy Volt. The Aug. 10 column by Jonah Goldberg, a conservative commentator, has the facts just plain wrong.

Goldberg does not seem to understand some basic energy principles. Even with the source of electricity coming from the most polluting methods of production, in this case, coal, electric vehicles will produce significantly less CO2 and other toxic pollutants into the atmosphere than produced by gasoline engines.
This is because the efficiencies of electric motors are far greater than their gasoline counterparts. Gas engines produce lots of heat (thus are about 25 percent efficient), while electric motors produce little heat and thus can be up to 95 percent efficient.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/205#205

Hybrid revolution builds momentum

Could one American automaker's plan to sell a hybrid automobile for the same price as its gas-powered counterpart lead to more drivers enjoying a greener ride?

The car -- the Lincoln MKZ sedan, which debuts this fall -- will run on both gas and electrical power and get more than double the mileage of the traditional version in city driving.

Still, at $35,000, it doesn't come cheap.

The Lexus HS 250h, the MKZ's closest competitor, costs about $2,500 more than the Lexus IS, a similar small, gas-powered sedan. Ford charges $8,840 more for the hybrid version of its Ford Escape SUV.  

Read this news article @http://www.evhub.in/news/204#204

Anti-global warming push also best for the economy

Until just recently the view prevailed that there was a tradeoff relationship between achieving respectable economic growth and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, most of which consist of carbon dioxide. This led to a wide debate on how to achieve both goals.

A major change has occurred, however, since U.S. President Barack Obama initiated his Green New Deal, which has led me to believe that attaining CO2 

reduction targets requires the promotion of environment-friendly products and renewable energy, and that therein lies the driving force for economic growth among industrialized nations.Take, for example, solar cells, which are, at present, installed on the rooftops of only 2 percent of residential houses in Japan. The current cost of installing solar cells is about ¥600,000 per kilowatt of electricity. So, about ¥1.8 million — about the price of an automobile — is needed to equip a house with cells generating 3 kw.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/203#203

New Battery for Cheap Electric Vehicles

A new startup company will attempt to solve the biggest roadblock facing electric vehicles today--the cost of their batteries.

The new company, called 24M, has been spun out of the advanced battery company A123 Systems. It will develop a novel type of battery based on research conducted by Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor of materials science at MIT and founder of A123 Systems. He says the battery design has the potential to cut those costs by 85 percent.
The battery pack alone in many electric cars can cost well over $10,000. Cutting this figure could make electric vehicles competitive with gasoline-fueled cars.
The new company has raised $10 million in venture-capital funding, and about $6 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which will fund collaboration between the company and MIT and Rutgers University. A123 Systems will work closely with the new company, and owns stock in it. The name stands for "24 molar," referring to material concentration levels that Chiang cryptically calls "technically significant" to the company.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/201#201

Emissions Free Electric Vehicle Bus Uses Leo Motors 120kW EV Power Train

PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 14, 2010 – Leo Motors, Inc. (Stock Symbol: LEOM) announced today that it has developed and begun marketing of its 120kW power train, which is equivalent to a 5,000cc Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). See the Leo Motors website (http://www.leomotors.com) for images, EV technical information and more details. 

Power trains of this size are used in the bigger passenger cars, middle-sized buses and t 
rucks. Consisting of a proprietary motor, controller and battery pack, the 120kW power train incorporates Leo’s innovative power management solutions designed to control vehicles better than their ICE counterparts. 

Leo’s 120kW power train was tested in a 24-seat bus for more than six months. Leo converted Hyundai’s County bus and had it run at more than 70 MPH with the power train. According to the test results, the converted bus ran faster and smoother than its ICE counterparts, but without emissions, noise or vibration. 

Leo will market the 120kW power train in two ways: 

1) Leo is primarily going to provide conversion services to clients who need EVs for their vehicle fleet operations. 


Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/200#200

Could Tata's EV beat Nissan to the streets?

Electric vehicles from Indian manufacturer Tata could be on European roads ahead of its high-profile rivals, according to reports earlier this week.

On August 11, Tata vice chairman Ravi Kant told Indian publication The Hindu Business Linethat the company would launch two electric vehicles in the UK and Scandinavia this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2011.

The Indica Vista EV could be launched in the UK as early as September or October, saidBusiness Line.

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/199#199

Companies ready for electric cars

Southern California Edison expects 100,000 electric vehicles in its service area within five years.

“In 10 years, we expect somewhere in the order of 400,000 to 500,000,” said Steve Powell, SoCal Edison's manager of plug-in electric vehicle readiness.
The Southern California utility wants to accommodate and educate prospective electric car buyers after years of anticipation, talk and recent buzz about the eco-friendly vehicles.
The initiative comes as electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt begin to roll onto showroom floors at several Coachella Valley dealerships before the end of the year.
Electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to be among the hottest topics at the 2010 Inland Empire Auto Show on Aug. 27-29 at the Ontario Convention Center. Show goers will get a chance to peruse the latest electric vehicle technology on “EcoStreet.”

Read this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/198#198