Powering up electric vehicles: benefits and pitfalls

The coming wave of battery-powered vehicles is good news -- a step toward addressing concerns about climate change and oil dependence. But electric vehicles also present new challenges for electricity providers, utility companies, smart grid and charging startups and traditional oil companies.
Converging factors, such as radical cost reductions in lithium-ion batteries, are pushing us toward an "electrification tipping point" when electric vehicles will become economically viable for the masses. By 2020 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids could account for nearly 10 per cent of new vehicle sales globally. By 2030 this figure could accelerate to about 30 per cent, with an additional 20 per cent of hybrid vehicles using batteries.
The market is still young, but automakers are committing to electric vehicle technology. Several electric vehicles will be introduced in the coming year, including Nissan's Leaf and the Chevy Volt.
Electric-powered vehicles will create significant growth across the entire transportation value chain, expected to reach nearly $300 billion by 2020, according to global management consultant firm PRTM (my employer). This rapidly growing market will drive a shift in revenue pools from natural resources like oil toward high-tech components like the battery.

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China to Subsidize Alternative Energy Car Purchases

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- China is subsidizing alternative- energy cars in five cities to increase their attractiveness for buyers to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and improve air quality.

The government will provide as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,320) for purchases of plug-in hybrid models, which run partly on gasoline, and as much as 60,000 yuan for cars powered only by batteries, a statement on the Ministry of Finance’s website said today. Car buyers in Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei are eligible for the subsidies on a trial basis.

China, which became the world’s biggest car market last year, aims to increase the annual production capacity of alternative-energy vehicles to half a million units by 2011 as part of efforts to cut oil imports and rein in pollution.

“Government funding is a very strong factor in helping alternative energy car market growth, but this is only the first step in getting there,” Jacob George, China managing director at JD Power & Associates, the marketing information company, said in an interview today. “It’s also the investment in infrastructure to increase the receptivity of consumers.”

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GM to launch electric vehicles on its own

After passing on the official word that the Indian subsidiary of the American automaker General Motors will be ending its tie-up with Reva, the company further said that it will be developing the electric vehicles on its own at its Headquarters at Detroit.
The announcement came after the electric car company; Reva sold its majority stake to the Indian conglomerate, Mahindra & Mahindra. The India head of the GM’s operations, Karl Slym has recently said that the company does not see any value now in its agreement with Reva and would like to go alone in the electric car market.

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Electric vehicles “only as green as electricity powering them”

The Royal Academy of Engineering has published a report identifying that if the UK is to meet its renewable energy targets and ensure a greener power supply to electric cars, a range of new low-carbon energy sources will be needed.
These include wind farms, tidal barrages and new nuclear power stations, claims the ‘Electric Vehicles: charged with potential' report, published last week (May 25).
The study investigates the implications of large-scale adoption of electric cars in Britain and looks at the challenge of ensuring that the electricity supply system can cope with charging "ten of millions" of vehicles while still reducing carbon emissions from power generation.

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