Volvo has major plans for fuel-saving technology. The Swedish automaker will begin fitting its bricks shapely little sedans and coupes with stop/start in the next few months and plans to move the technology up through its entire line shortly thereafter. Of course, the automaker offers diesel engines in Europe and is strongly considering bringing them Stateside as well. What's most exciting, though, is news that the automaker will combine its diesel engines with an advanced hybrid system by 2012. The Volvo system will be a full hybrid with either oil-burning or electric power driving the vehicle without assistance from the other, or the two can be combined. Front wheels would be motivated by the traditional diesel engine while the rear wheels would be motivated by electricity.

Following the diesel hybrid would be a plug-in version of a large car or crossover. Once that's ready, the automaker will begin phasing the hybrid technology downward to its smaller cars.


[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

When Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson first proposed last week that Congress should give him $700 billion to do with as he pleased in an attempt to save Wall St, the plan ran a staggering two and a half pages. That's because the plan essentially consisted of "Give Hank the money, and then go away and he'll take care of everything without supervision." Congress, of course, was going to have none of that and set about writing a bill in more typical congressional fashion. That means lots of extra stuff added, bringing the bill that passed in the Senate the other day to a more Congressional 451 pages. All the extra stuff, including pet projects, got added on, for example a reported $150 billion in extra spending.

One particular $1 billion chunk of that extra money has been earmarked to provide cash back to American drivers who opt to buy plug-in vehicles. Tax credits starting at $4,168 (there's a nice round number for you) will go to people to buy a vehicle with a battery pack that has at least 4 kWh of capacity. From there the credits ramp up to $7,500 for vehicles with a 16 kWh pack. For those that haven't been paying attention, that just happens to be the size of the pack in the Chevy Volt. Medium and heavy duty trucks with plug-in capability are also eligible for credits of $10-15,000.

[Source: Detroit News]

Volkswagen is currently running a twenty strong test fleet of Twin-Drive Golfs in and around Berlin Germany and the results of this work are expected to hit the retail market around 2011. The current test models are using diesel engines but the production versions are likely to switch to gasoline when their 30-mile electric range has been expended. With coming EURO VI emissions standards that approach the U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 standards, a diesel hybrid would simply be too expensive to be commercially viable. The drivetrain layout of the Twin-Drive is different from the approach being used by current parallel hybrids or extended range EVs like the Volt. While the Volt ER-EV is a series hybrid setup where only the electric motor is mechanically coupled to the wheels, the Golf is a parallel system but without a transmission. The single reduction gear ratio is comparable to a normal high gear and the torque of the electric motor is used to provide the equivalent of the torque multiplication that is normally achieved with a lower gears. The absence of a conventional gearbox compensates for some of the added weight of the battery and motor. A 12 kWh Sanyo lithium ion battery pack provides 30 miles of driving range and energy storage from the regenerative braking.

[Source: Motor Trend]

The headline above is what we call a "bait & switch," and it recreates the feeling I got when I approached the AMPLE Motion booth at the AltCar Expo. AMPLE, a new company incorporated on Earth Day this year, is trying an unusual strategy to get the word out about its plug-in hybrid vehicles that are scheduled to arrive in 2010: super deep pre-order discounts. While the company's 2010 R300 plug-in truck will normally cost $75,000, the first thirty people to pre-order will be on the hook for only $29,999. A similar deal was available to visitors at the Santa Monica AltCar Expo for the E600 PHEV sedan. Original MSRP is $99,000, but the pre-order price is $47,999. While the banners at the AMPLE booth say the special offers are limited to the first 30 pre-oders, sheets that AMPLE had available at the show made it seem like only people at the show could take advantage of the deal. So, if you're interested, contact AMPLE for more information.

But what are these vehicles with the unexciting names? We spoke with AMPLE's Ted Flittner about the the company's line-up, discount and referral system (yes, if you get your friends to buy an AMPLE car, you get a referral fee) and more. You can listen to Flittner here (7 min):



Here are the preliminary details on the three plug-in hybrid vehicles AMPLE is offering:

• For all three: 100 miles per gallon equivalent, or better. 600+ mile range with full charge and tank. Use EDI's mechanically continuously variable transmission. Lithium-ion battery pack. ABS brakes and SRS airbags standard. Recharging from a standard household outlet.

• E600: "Epipany" class. Four-door sedan. 60-mile all-electric range (AER). 38 mpg highway. $99,000.
• E300: Mid-size sedan. 40-mile AER. 45 mpg highway. No price sheet available.
  
• R300: "Robust" class. Compact pick-up truck (similar to a Chevy Colorado or Ford Ranger). 1,420 pounds payload. 3,150 pounds towing capability. $75,000.

All of these models will be brand-new vehicles to the customer, but will be made from existing vehicle designs that AMPLE will be licensing from other automakers. More details will be coming in April or May 2009.

The same week that General Motors unveiled the production version of its Volt extended range EV, Honda R&D president Masaaki Kato downplayed the importance of plug-in hybrids, at least in the short term. While GM and Toyota are both developing hybrid vehicles with plug-in capability and a wide array of manufacturers are planning full battery electric vehicles, Honda doesn't believe that battery technology is where it needs to be for plug-in vehicles to be commercially viable. The company believes the latest lithium ion batteries are still too costly, heavy and low in energy density to meet consumer demands. For the time being, Honda will focus on its upcoming new hybrid models as well as developing fuel cell technology. Honda's FCX Clarity already has a range of 280 miles on 4 kg of hydrogen and the company believes it can make more improvements more easily there than with batteries. Honda doesn't rule out a plug-in at some point, but whenever we've talked to them over the last two years they've given no indication of when.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Senator Lamar Alexander has put his money where his energy policy mouth is and shelled out the $10,000 it costs to have a Prius converted by A123 Systems to a plug-in type hybrid. The senator says he gets 30 miles out of the lithium ion battery before the engine is called upon to do some work. Having only a 5 or 6 mile daily commute, Alexander has burned about half a tank a gas since sometime last July which is just a bit less than his former vehicle, a leased Nissan Maxima, would have burned. Of course, his motivation for the innovative installation was not to save money but to illustrate what is possible.

Having worked with the TVA for many years, Alexander is well aware that the rather large Tennessee Valley region has an unused nighttime electricity capacity that is equal to the output of six or seven nuclear plants. He hopes that a lot of that energy can go to power transportation vehicles in the future and help offset imported oil. Although he believes this goal will take 15 to 20 years to achieve, he calculates that if half of our current fleet of cars and trucks had similar capabilities as his shiny black Prius, we could cut our oil imports by 4 to 5 million barrels a day - just about half. This, of course, would be great but we hope it happens a lot sooner than 2028.

[Source: US News and World Report]

Chrysler's co-president continued to talk up his employer's plans for electrically-driven vehicles this week at a media luncheon in California. Press told the gathering that he had driven three different producible prototypes of plug-in hybrid vehicles recently. The vehicles have been developed by the new ENVI unit that was established in late 2007 specifically to work on electric vehicles. According to Press, the vehicles can accelerate from 0-60 mph in four seconds and have a range of over 300 miles. Press hasn't said when these vehicles would be built, but earlier this summer, company officials indicated a 3-5 year timeline to produce such vehicles. If so that would put the company at least 1-2 years behind the expected launch of the Chevrolet Volt and a potential plug-in version of the Toyota Prius. For production, it's likely that the performance of the cars would be dialed back significantly in order to increase electric range although a higher-performance Dodge vehicle is not out of the question.



[Source: Los Angeles Times]
Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

During the recent Plug-in conference in San Jose CA, Matt Kelly of GMNext talked with Larry Nitz about the new PHEV version of the Saturn Vue. The PHEV Vue is still at least a year away and is based on the Two-Mode Vue that comes out late this year. The nickel metal hydride battery is replaced with a lithium ion unit and a plug-in charger is added. According to Nitz, who is the executive director of hybrid powertrain engineering at GM, the PHEV Vue will average about the twice the fuel efficiency of the regular two-mode Vue for the first 20 miles. GM isn't talking about the electric only range, because the ability to actually operate on electricity alone is limited by the motor power. As what's called a conversion PHEV, the motor is not sized for a significant electric only operational window. The Vue will go up to about 35 mph at light acceleration on electricity. Beyond that the engine starts. Even in around town driving the engine will start with anything other a very light throttle foot. Nonetheless, the plug-in Vue will likely achieve somewhere between 50-60 mpg for the first 20 miles. If you can drive lightly enough to keep the engine off, you should be able to get around 10 miles on the battery. Check out the video after the jump.

[Source: GMNext]

Toyota President, Katsuaki Watanabe this week announced that the start of fleet testing for plug-in capable Priuses had been moved up by a year. At this year's Detroit Auto Show, Watanabe announced that several hundred Priuses with the ability to be plugged in would be delivered to government and commercial fleets in 2010 for field testing. That schedule has been adjusted so that the PHEVs would now be introduced in early 2009 with several hundred on the road by the end of the year. Over on the Toyota Open Road Blog, communications VP Irv Miller makes it clear though that no timetable has been set for retail sales of these cars and that it won't happen until Toyota is well and truly confident that the lithium ion batteries are safe, reliable and affordable. He also calls out a Palo Alto, CA Toyota dealer for beginning to take deposits on the cars. While applauding the dealership's initiative he stresses that no one knows when a PHEV Prius will actually be available to the public, including Toyota's dealer network.

[Source: Toyota]

Speaking at this week's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI, Toyota advanced powertrain program manager Justin Ward reiterated the company's plans to offer hybrid drive systems in every one of its model lines by the end of the next decade. Toyota already has more vehicles with hybrid systems than anyone else, but will need next-generation systems to support larger vehicles like the Tundra pickup, assuming it is still building full-size trucks in 2020. On the subject of fuel cell systems, Ward described the progress the company has made on efficiency (and hence range) as well as performance and durability. However, cost and durability issues still have a way to go and there is the whole issue of hydrogen production and distribution.

On the topic of plug-in vehicles, Ward showed a healthy dose of skepticism. According to Ward, in spite of studies showing that 70 percent of commutes are less than 40 miles per day, having plug-ins with a range of only 40 miles would only cover about 35 percent of total miles traveled. The energy required to charge plug-in vehicles also poses problems. Plug-in proponents point to most vehicles being plugged in at night and taking advantage of off-peak generation and lower costs. Ward told his audience that a study of night time generation indicates that the vast majority of it comes from coal fired power plants. Until carbon sequestration becomes mainstream at power plants the use of coal generated electricity, regardless of time of day won't have as much impact on CO₂ as plug-in advocates would like.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

Listen in to a fascinating conversation that took place yesterday on green car politics, featured on the radio show, "Your Call." (KALW, 91.7 FM, San Francisco, CA). The show gave me a chance to discuss some of my research on "The Clean Car Movement," and also featured Meghan Sinott (Organizer for the Car Free Cities Conference in Portland, OR), Michou Olivera (Co-Owner of Luscious Garage, San Francisco), and Russ Heimerich (Spokesman for California Bureau of Automotive Affairs Drive Healthy Campaign).

Some of the topics we discussed include whether green cars obscure public transportation alternatives, who defines what a "green" car is, and what alternatives exist today for consumers looking for the greenest possible options. Near the end of the show, Michou Olivera, who also repairs muscle cars on the weekends, gives a strong defense for the continued use of the internal combustion engine. I guess she never drove a Tesla....

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has proposed a new ten-year $150 billion energy plan today in Michigan. A large part of the plan centers around transportation -- both the use of petroleum and the types of cars we are to drive in the future. For automakers, $4 billion in loans and loan guarantees would be made available for PHEV development, with one-million of the vehicles to be ready for sale by 2015. For consumers, a $7,000 tax credit would be offered for their purchase of said vehicle. Also, in a more short-term effort, Obama proposes that the U.S. sells some seventy-million barrels of oil from America's strategic petroleum reserve.

While those PHEVs are being developed, Obama's plan would increase fuel economy standards 4-percent per year. What's more, Obama would mandate at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2030 while requiring that fuel producers reduce their fuel's carbon emissions by 5 percent within 5 years and 10 percent within 10 years. To make those biofuels have as large an impact as possible, all new vehicles would be required to have flex-fuel capability within four years.

Lastly, the entire White House fleet will be converted to plug‐ins within one year (does this include the new presidential limo that will debut in January?) and half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug‐in hybrids or all‐electric by 2012. See the entire plan in .pdf form at this link.

[Source: Barack Obama - .pdf]

Ford has been pretty consistent in saying that it doesn't expect plug-in vehicles to reach mass-market volumes until at least 2012-13. That doesn't necessarily mean they won't have any plug-in vehicles until then. It only means that they don't expect batteries to reach a price and durability level that will allow them to be sold in large volumes until then. While companies like Mitsubishi, GM, Nissan and Toyota are all expected to have plug-in vehicles on the road by the end of this decade, all them including the Chevy Volt will b sold in comparatively small volumes. if GM hits its targets for the Volt, even that one is only expected to hit about 10,000 units in the first couple of years. Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs told an interviewer this week that for plug-in vehicles to reach mass market penetration, the batteries have to be able to last a decade and 150,000 miles. The concern is that if the batteries only last five years and the replacement cost exceeds the residual value of the car, either manufacturers will face huge warranty losses or customers will rebel. Either way, the durability and cost of lithium batteries has to be improved in order to get profitable mass market acceptance of plug-in vehicles.

[Source: Reuters]

Plug-In Supply has just released its new $4995 kit which converts your 2004-2008 Prius into a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV). Because the system is based on the Cal Cars reference design and uses lead-acid batteries as opposed to the more expensive lithium or nickel-based batteries, this new kit is cheaper than many other PHEV conversion options. According to Plug-In Supply, the kit will allow your Prius to operate in electric-only mode for up to fifteen miles and at speeds of up to fifty-two miles per hour. Getting 15 miles out of a lead acid pack will be a real stretch given that Toyota is only getting eight with a NiMH pack in its prototype PHEV Priuses. Getting a Prius up to 52 mph on batteries will also take a long time with the size of the electric motor used and all of this will absolutely, possitively void any warranty you may have left. The lead-acid batteries which help make this new kit relatively affordable aren't likely to last the life of the vehicle. Therefore, the pack has been designed to be upgradeable to lithium batteries in the future. Due to the 360-pound weight of the included battery pack, heavy-duty springs have also been made available for the rear of the Prius.

While it still may not make sound economic sense, this kit proves that the costs associated with creating PHEVs is going down. Those living in California, though, might be hard-pressed to purchase a kit such as this if CARB passes its new regulations, as kits using lead-acid batteries may find it rather difficult to meet some of the proposed requirements.

[Source: Plug-In Supply]

If the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passes the legislation that it is currently considering, getting your hands on a PHEV conversion, like the one recently created by Hymotion, might be a bit more difficult. Whether or not this is a bad thing depends on your point of view. Those looking to add a plug-in module to their Prius in order to use as little gas as possible might be paying a few more bucks for the conversion, as the pending legislation would force the manufacturer to go through the same rigorous certification process that new cars must pass. Of course, this could be an expensive proposition and could keep some contenders completely out of the market. The benefit, as some see it, would be that owners would be sure that their newly-converted plug-ins would meet all current emissions standards, something which may not necessarily be the case otherwise. Added peace-of-mind would come from forcing the manufacturers to offer a standard , something the legislation would also require. Another requirement which has seen some opposition is the mandate of a maximum four-hour charge time and a specific branded charger.

Those with an interest in following the legislation can click here. CARB is currently accepting comments from the public regarding the pending legislation. If you feel strongly about the subject, you can make your voice heard by clicking here for CARB's contact information.

[Source: Greentech Media]