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Archive for the ‘green cars’ Category

Mass market electric cars: It’s all about the software

Posted in Better Place, electric cars, green cars, tagged , , , on September 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

switch station location

photo: Better Place

In today’s New York Times, I write about Better Place’s unveiling of its software platform for managing tens of thousands of electric cars on the road and the grid. Software as much as hardware will be key to making electric cars a mass market phenomenon:

Electric cars may be all about hardware – batteries, drivetrains, charging stations — but companies like Better Place are depending on software to give a niche product mass-market appeal.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday, Better Place, which builds electric vehicle charging networks, is expected to take the wraps off a software platform that tells drivers when and where to charge their batteries, while giving utilities the ability to manage the impact of tens of thousands of vehicles tapping into the power grid.

The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has signed deals to roll out networks of charging spots and battery switching stations in Australia, Denmark, California, Canada and Hawaii and Israel.

Better Place will own the car batteries and drivers will buy “miles” (or kilometers) on a subscription plan much like they purchase mobile phone minutes. That means Better Place must track the location and capacity of thousands of batteries at any given moment to properly bill customers and ensure that fresh batteries and charging posts are available when needed.

You can read the rest of the story here.

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The Whip comes down: Wheego joins electric car race

Posted in electric cars, green cars, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

IMG_1598

Photo: Todd Woody

In my Green State column for Grist on Thursday, I write about Wheego, an Atlanta startup that will soon begin selling an electric microcar called the Whip.

I took the Whip for a spin around San Francisco with Wheego chief executive Mike McQuary riding shotgun but what really grabbed my attention was the fact that the chassis and body are made in China. While U.S. automakers take halting steps toward weaning themselves from the internal combustion engine, the Chinese are positioning themselves to make the great leap forward into the electric age. As I write on Grist:

A traffic jam is developing on the electric highway.

A decade after General Motors killed the electric car, big automakers and startups are revving up to put battery-powered vehicles on the road over the next couple of years. One of the latest entrants is Wheego, an Atlanta company that is about to launch the Whip—a tiny low-speed “neighborhood electric vehicle” that will be upgraded in 2010 to a full-speed, highway-ready car.

Wheego chief executive Mike McQuary brought a Whip to San Francisco last week, and I took the car for a spin around the city. (More on that in a bit.)

You see quite a few neighborhood electrics across the Bay in Berkeley where I live. Their top speed is around 25 miles per hour and many look like glorified golf carts or cast-offs from an East Bloc auto factory, circa 1984. And at the risk of stereotyping, most seem to be driven by the proverbial little old leftist lady in tennis shoes who glides down the hill for the weekly nuclear disarmament rally outside the Cal campus (circa 1984).

The Wheego Whip, on the other hand, looks like a “real” car (PDF brochure). Somewhat similar in appearance to the Smart fortwo or Think City EV, it’s a two-seater microcar sporting all the mod cons—power windows, Bluetooth stereo, iPod/iPhone jack, air conditioning.

Like Coda Automotive’s forthcoming electric sedan, the Whip’s body and chassis are Chinese made—another sign that China is emerging as a player in the nascent electric car industry—while the battery comes from Canada and the motor from Wisconsin (U-S-A! U-S-A!). The Whip will be assembled in California in the Los Angeles exurb of Ontario. Other electric startups are following a similar business plan, making the old Detroit automotive model increasingly look as viable as a Hummer.

You can read the rest of the column here.

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Norway’s Think is back in business — in Finland

Posted in electric cars, environment, green cars, Think, Think Global, tagged , , , on August 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

think-city-8_imagelarge

photo: Think

Norwegian electric car maker Think has exited bankruptcy protection and brought on board new investors. As I write in the New York Times Green Inc. blog today:

Norwegian electric car maker Th!nk is back on the road.

The company on Thursday said it has exited bankruptcy protection and secured $47 million in new funding to restart production of the Think City, a highway-capable urban runabout with a range of about 112 miles.

Think had shut down its assembly line outside of Oslo late last year when the global financial crisis cut off access to new capital.

But is Think still a Norwegian automaker? The company did get some local street cred Thursday: Among its new shareholders is Investinor, an investment fund backed by the Norwegian government.

Still, in another sign of the globalization of the nascent electric car industry, the Think City will now be made in Finland at the plant of one of its new investors, Valmet Automotive. (Valmet assembles the Porsche Boxster and Cayman and will begin producing the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric sports sedan.)

You can read the rest of the story here.

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Think to sell electric drive trains

Posted in electric cars, green cars, Think, Think Global, tagged , , , on July 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

TH!NK-city-Michigan-USA_imagelarge

photo: Think

Norwegian electric carmaker Think is going into the drive-train businesses with battery maker EnerDel and their first big customer is the Japanese postal service.

Think makes the City, a two-seater urban runabout currently sold in Europe. EnerDel supplies (ENER1) lithium-ion batteries for the car and will be the provider of batteries for Think’s new electric drive-train business.

“We have seen increased interest in Think’s proprietary EV drive system from a variety of third parties, which represents a significant and exciting new business line and revenue opportunity for the company,” said Think CEO Richard Canny in a statement.

The company is selling the drive trains to Zero Sports, a Japanese company that converts cars to battery power and which is working with the Japanese postal service to electrify its 22,000-vehicle fleet.

Think, previously owned by Ford (F), was forced to halt production of the City late last year as the global financial crisis cut off access to capital. The company subsequently obtained new funding and has announced plans to build a factory in the United States.

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IBM charges into the battery business

Posted in alternative energy, corporate green, corporate sustainability, electric cars, energy, energy efficiency, environment, green buildings, green cars, green computing, IBM, water tech, tagged , , , on June 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

ibm-smarter-planet

While the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday issued nearly $8 billion in loans to Ford (F), Nissan and Tesla Motors to manufacture electric cars and batteries, IBM unveiled an initiative to develop a next-generation battery technology that would allow those vehicles to travel 400 miles or more on a charge.

Big Blue will investigate the potential of lithium air technology to replace current state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries. Lithium air potentially could pack 10 times the energy density of lithium ion storage devices by drawing oxygen into the batteries to use as a reactant. As a result lithium air batteries would weigh less than lithium ion batteries, C. Spike Narayan, manager of science and technology at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, told Green Wombat.

So besides powering cars, lithium air batteries could store electricity generated from solar power plants and wind farms, turning them into 24/7 energy sources.

But don’t expect to see the super-charged batteries anytime soon.”This is a five-to-10-year project,” says Narayan. “The first phase is to go after the big science problems. Then we’re ready to engage with automotive companies and battery manufacturers.”

The technological hurdles are high and even IBM (IBM), with its expertise in nanotechnology, green chemistry and supercomputing, won’t try to go it alone. It’s seeking partners at research universities and government laboratories to crack the tech challenges, which include developing a membrane that will strip water out of the air before it enters the battery and the development of nano materials to prevent layers of lithium oxide from interfering with chemical reactions.

IBM intends to limit its role in the battery business to R&D. “We have no desire to make batteries,” says Rich Lechner, IBM’s vice president for energy and the environment. “We will license the IP.”

In another sign that climate change and the imminent imposition of carbon caps are creating opportunities for Big Business and rearranging the competitive landscape, IBM also announced “Green Sigma,” an alliance of erstwhile competitors that will offer solutions to companies seeking to shrink their carbon footprint.

Green Sigma includes business software giant SAP (SAP), Cisco (CSCO), Johnson Controls (JCI) and Honeywell (HON). Dave Lebowe, an IBM executive with the Green Sigma program, acknowledged the potential for conflicts of interests among these frenemies but said such problems were outweighed by the upside of bringing together a broad range of expertise to help customers cut their CO2 emissions and save money.

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The new electric car model: Designed in California, made in China

Posted in electric cars, green cars, green startups, tagged , , on June 5, 2009| 3 Comments »

CODA Front_hires

photo: Coda Automotive

A new electric car company, Coda Automotive, emerged from stealth mode this week and unveiled a $45,000 sedan that it says will hit the streets in 2010.

The Santa Monica, Calif., startup is an offshoot of Miles Electric Vehicles, a maker of low-speed neighborhood runabouts. The CEO is Kevin Czinger, a veteran of Goldman Sachs (GS), Fortress Investment Group and dot-com era online grocer WebVan. Goldman Sachs’ Mac Heller serves as co-chairman and the board includes John Bryson, past chairman and chief executive of Edison International (EIX). Coda has raised $40 million from the Angeleno Group and other investors.

Green Wombat took a spin in the car, called the Coda, earlier this week in Southern California. As I wrote in my Green State column on Grist:

Open one of those minimalist black boxes that contain a shiny new iPod and you’re greeted by five words—“Designed by Apple in California.” In much smaller print would be the phrase “Made in China.”

That, in a nutshell, describes the strategy of the latest entrant in the electric car sweepstakes: Santa Monica-based Coda Automotive. At a defunct Wilshire Boulevard Jaguar dealership on Wednesday, the startup emerged from stealth mode and CEO Kevin Czinger literally pulled the cover off the Coda, a $45,000 battery-powered sedan set to go on sale next year in California. Coda is an offshoot of Miles Electric Vehicles, a maker of low-speed “neighborhood electric” runabouts.

The Coda sedan, which resembles a previous-generation Honda Civic, is a highway-ready, 80 mph five-seater that will travel 90 to 120 miles on a charge, according to the company.

And it is likely to be the first Chinese-made car to hit American roads. The car’s 333-volt lithium ion battery pack comes from the Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co., a huge state-owned corporation that supplies batteries to Apple and other consumer electronics companies.  Coda has established a joint venture with Tianjin Lishen to design and sell batteries for transportation and utility storage. The sedan’s design, brand and intellectual property will be owned by Coda, but it will be manufactured and assembled in China by Hafei, a state-owned automobile and aircraft manufacturer.

Read the rest of the column here.

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Think rolls into Spain

Posted in electric cars, green cars, Think, Think Global, tagged , , on May 6, 2009| 3 Comments »

spanish-decal-car

photo: Think

Norwegian electric automaker Think on Wednesday announced a deal to send 550 of its City urban runabouts to Spain, continuing to seed the European market as governments offer incentives for carbon-free cars.

The deal with Spanish electric car distributor Going Green calls for Think to start delivering the City later this year through early 2010. Spain’s government has launched a €10 million ($13.3 million) program to subsidize electric cars and an electric car charging network. Going Green will sell the Think City to private customers as well as to companies and municipalities.

“Spain is an important and large market for us, and the Spanish government’s decisive action to move to electric vehicles will enable Think to continue to take advantage of our first-mover position in the European EV market,” Think CEO Richard Canny said in a statement.

Think has done similar-sized deals in the Netherlands and Austria while it conducts a bake-off in the U.S. among eight states that want to host the company’s North American assembly plant. While Think continues to do deals, its factory outside Oslo remains idle as it attempts to secure funding to restart operations after the credit crunch forced layoffs late last year.

Ironically, one country not providing incentives to Think is Norway. The Norwegian government has rejected Think’s plea for a loan guarantee to help it raise capital. That had Think investor Wilber James, a venture capitalist with Rockport Capital Partners, fuming when Green Wombat ran into him at Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm Green conference two weeks ago.

“The Norwegian government has made trillions from North Sea oil, and they can’t give Think $10 million!” said James, whose firm invested in Think last year and formed Think North America with Silicon Valley VC Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He noted that three U.S. states, meanwhile, are offering tax breaks and cash in a bid to become the site of Think North America’s first U.S. factory. Oregon was one of the states, James said; he would not say what the other two were.

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Chinese electric carmaker eyes U.S.

Posted in electric cars, green cars, tagged , , , , on April 22, 2009| 17 Comments »

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — Chinese electric carmaker BYD will put an electric car on the road this year that goes 250 miles on a charge and intends to bring the vehicle to the United States, a key investor in the company said Tuesday.

“We want to introduce the car in the U.S., ” said Li Lu, founder of LL Investment Partners at Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm Green conference in Southern California.

His Pasadena, Calif.-based firm owns 2.5% of BYD and was instrumental in getting Warren Buffett to invest in the electric car company, according to Fortune contributing editor Mark Gunther. (Read Gunther’s recent Fortune cover story on BYD here.)

During a panel discussion on electric car batteries, Lu said BYD could produce a battery that went 300 to 400 miles on a charge. “We can do a 300-mile battery today,” he said. “But it’s really heavy stuff, cuts into the space of the car. It’s a matter of what the consumer really needs.”

If BYD does move into the U.S., it will also build auto factories, Lu noted. “When we come to this country, we will do our manufacturing here.”

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Bill Ford: Gas tax, please.

Posted in electric cars, green cars, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2009| 98 Comments »

DANA POINT, Calif. — Have you driven a gas-guzzling planet-warming SUV lately? If so, it’s probably because gasoline prices have plunged in recent months and you’re more likely to trade up to a truck, Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Monday.

And he’s not happy about that.

“When gasoline went to $3.50 a gallon we saw a sea change in customer behavior,” Ford told Fortune Magazine managing editor Andy Serwer at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Orange County, Calif. “Now people are turning away from more fuel-efficient vehicles and taking the bigger vehicles.”

“I’ve been talking for five years now about the need for a gas tax,” he added. “We have to have some predictability on fuel pricing and that price signal has to be strong enough so customers” will continue buying smaller, fuel-efficient cars.” (Read more on Ford’s talk at Brainstorm Green.)

In other words, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM) and Chrysler won’t be able to kick their addiction to the profit margins that come from selling monster cars until consumers go cold turkey on cheap fuel.

Ford, who said he had been considered “something of a Bolshevik” in the auto industry for his early embrace of electric cars, said Detroit needs a floor under gasoline prices so it can make investments in alternative fuel vehicles.

“The worst thing for us is instability,” he said. “We need a much more stable planning horizon. That’s not just true for gasoline but for any fuel we use.”

Ford noted that when he joined the Ford board two decades ago he was told to stop “consorting” with suspected environmentalists. Times have changed in the car business.

“We haven’t had a lot of revolutions but boy are we now. I love it.”

Follow the Brainstorm: Green conference on Twitter at twitter.com/greenwombat and twitter.com/marcgunther.

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States compete for Think electric car plant

Posted in electric cars, green cars, green collar jobs, Think, Think Global, tagged , , , , , , on April 6, 2009| 3 Comments »

think-city-8_imagelarge

photo: Think

Not too many car factories are getting built in the United States these days, especially in the midst of a global economic meltdown. So the prospect of landing Norwegian electric carmaker Think’s North American plant will have Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and Senator Ron Wyden turning out Tuesday to take a test drive of the Think City in Portland with company CEO Richard Canny.

Oregon is one of eight states Think is considering for the assembly plant. The company has been coy about identifying those states and has only said that Michigan and Oregon are in the running. About Tuesday’s media event, Think said in a statement that “the future of electric car manufacturing in Oregon will be the topic of a news conference.”

When it comes to electric car factories, there’s a certain Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown risk for prospective hosts. Silicon Valley electric car company Tesla Motors, for instance, so far has signed and then canceled agreements to build a factory for its new Model S sports sedan in New Mexico and San Jose. Los Angeles, the latest factory site, hopes the third time’s a charm.

Nothing nefarious at work here, just the tenuous economics of startup electric car companies. Think, for example, is on the hunt for additional capital so it can restart its assembly plant in Norway. It idled the factory and laid off workers late last year when the credit crunch dried up funding. The company has some heavyweight backers, including General Electric (GE), and marquee venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Rockport Capital have invested in its North American operation.

Think says it will  apply for a low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program to help pay for its U.S. factory. Undoubtedly part of the bake-off with the eight states under consideration is to see which can offer the best tax breaks and incentives.

After the first-year startup phase, the U.S. factory will initially employ 300 workers and is projected to produce 16,000 cars annually, according to Think. Capacity would eventually be expanded to 60,000 cars and a workforce of 900. A research and development center will employ about 70 people.

Green Wombat is betting that Think will try to locate the assembly plant on the West Coast. So far Think has targeted densely populated, environmentally friendly cities — London, Amsterdam — to roll out the Think City, a two-seater urban runabout that goes about 112 miles on a charge.  Former CEO Jan-Olaf Willums told Green Wombat last year that the San Francisco Bay Area was a likely gateway market in the U.S. In November, the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland inked a deal with Better Place to build a $1 billion electric car charging network in the Bay Area.

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