Two Cents per Mile

Back in 1969 I had a Dodge Dart that got 16 miles per gallon.  Back then gas cost about 32 cents per gallon, so it cost me 2 cents per mile to drive (32 cents/16 miles).  Pretty cheap, even in those days.

Today our Chevy Volt gets 3.3 miles per kilowatt hour.  PG&E charges us about 6 cents per kilowatt hour for charging midnight to seven AM (including fixed charges to connect to the grid and to read the meter).  So that is 6 cents per kwh divided by 3.3 miles per kwh = 1.8 cents per mile!  Just to keep it simple, I just say that it costs 2 cents per mile to drive.  Really cheap, much cheaper than 1969 when you include inflation!

seriously, now. . .

In my last blog I pointed out that the chances that global warming is NOT real are less than 1 in 200 billion.

Now you could say, "See, there IS a chance that the hot weather in the past two decades is purely coincidental", and do nothing about it.  Unfortunately, the consequences of doing nothing are quite a bit greater than arguing about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. 

  

The international scientific consensus, ratified in Copenhagen in December, 2009, is that temperatures must not be allowed to rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (about 3 1/2  degrees F) to “stave off the worst effects of climate change.” (Source:  press release from the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen: )  These "worst effects" are truly horrible--droughts across much of the world, floods, storms, heat waves, millions if not billions of deaths.  I think it is no exaggeration to say that failure to take action to stop global warming is suicidal. 

So that got me to thinking about the tragedy of hundreds of people who have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to commit suicide.  Now, as fate would have it, according to Yahoo Answers, about 2% of these people live to tell about it.  So the chances of surviving a leap off the Golden Gate Bridge are a billion times higher than the chance that global warming is not real. 

Now, putting these thoughts together, I would argue that the politicians who are denying global warming are essentially asking us all to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge.  That includes Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, and the whole Tea Party. 

And given the direction of the thermometer, we could easily be at 2 degrees by 2050, so we are talking about this happening during our own lifetimes for most of us, let alone our children and grandchildren.

Seriously, we need a plan and a commitment to convert to renewable energy and electric cars as quickly as humanly possible!

Good News

I read today in the Oakland Tribune that SunPower, Silcon Valley's largest solar manufacturer, has teamed up with Ford to offer a special price for installing solar for people who buy the Ford Focus, due out later this year.



They are offering a 2.5 kilowatt rooftop system for under $10,000, after tax credits, or about $14,000 before credit. What I like about this is that it simplifies the process--buy a car and get the solar all as a package deal. One of the things I have to admit about our installation last year is that I would not have had the time to deal with it when I was working (I'm retired)--getting bids, trying to select a contractor, reading up on Yelp to see who I liked, etc. Of course, our job was complicated by the need to replace our roof and upgrade our electrical system at the same time as we got the solar system. I'm not sure if SunPower will handle all of that as well for people who need it., but that would be nice.



Just to run the numbers a bit more: The Tribune article states that the Ford Focus can travel about 1,000 miles per month on the 2.5 kw system. Now our 3.2 kw system generates about 4200 kwh per year. So, by proportion, a 2.5 kw system would generate (2.5/3.2) x 4200 = 3281 kwh per year, or 273 per month. That means that Ford is expecting the Focus to go 1000/273 = 3,7 miles per kwh. By comparison our Volt is getting about 3.3 miles per kwh.



What the article doesn't explain, but what is very important for solar power and electric cars, is that the PG&E E9 rates are much cheaper for charging at night compared to what the solar power is paid for during the day. So the 3,281 kwh of solar power are worth $0.28 per kwh in peak summer hours during the week, $0.10 in the partial peaks and in the winter, and $0.04 for most of the weekend, so we earn about 13 cents per kwh for our solar.



Meanwhile the 3,281 kwh that the car needs can all be generated at the off peak rate of $0.04, if you have a 220 volt charger that can charge the car in 4 hours. If you charge the car with 110 volts, it will take more like 11 hours to charge so the cost will be around 6 cents per kwh combining off-peak and partial peak charges.



So you earn 13 cents per kwh, but you only pay 4-6 cents to charge the car--i.e. a net profit of at least 7 cents per kwh. Take that times 3,281 and you have a savings of $230 per year on your electrical bill. Now the cost to finance the solar panels with a 30 year loan at todays rate of 4.4% would be $600 per year, with a lock against increasing costs of energy over the years. That $230 should be added to the savings on gasoline that you get with an electric car--less than 2 cents per mile for an electric car vs. 10 - 20 cents per gallon for gasoline depending on your mileage and the constantly changing price of gas.



Of course I would urge people to go ahead and buy a big enough system to zero out their PG&E electrical bill (except for fixed charges). The more solar the merrier! For the 300 kwh per month that our house uses, plus the 250 kwh that the Volt uses, a 3.2 kw rooftop system does the job.

What happened?

The April, 2001 issue of Time magazine focussed on global warming (see front cover below).  The coverage was uncompromising: 

• "the trend toward a warmer world has unquestionably begun"


• "scientists no longer doubt that global warming is happening, and almost nobody questions the fact that humans are at least partly responsible"


• "the increase in temperatures is happening at a pace that outstrips anything the earth has seen in the past 100 million years."

Time's 2001 report points out that:

• "the 1990s were the hottest decade on record",


• "glaciers . . . are disappearing"


• "coral reefs are dying off"


• "the Arctic permafrost is starting to melt"


• "migration patterns. . . are being disrupted"


• "drought is the norm in parts of Asia and Africa"

Now after 10 years of all these trends intensifying, and even hotter weather, more extreme storms, and many disasters, you would think that the press would be howling for change.  But no.  Floods, hurricanes, droughts, wild fires, Snowmageddon last winter, and record heatwaves this summer are all just part of the "crazy weather" we've been having lately.

What happened??!!

IMHO, Time had not really thought through the consequences of their coverage.  If fossil fuels are causing all this destruction, the solution has to be to virtually eliminate fossil fuels.  Perhaps Time  thought that a modest reduction, such as proposed at Kyoto, would be enough to stave off global warming.  But that's not the case.  We need to reduce CO2 from 20 tons per person per year in the U.S. to 1 ton per person to really stop global warming.  And that's a problem.  The oil, gas, and coal companies are the most powerful companies in the world.  And in a society where dollars buy votes, and also where dollars buy advertising in media, it is no surprise that elected officials and media depending on advertising are not willing to call for the elimination of the companies that feed them.  So what was obvious in 2001, and is even more obvious today--namely that global warming is real, and is a terrible threat to humanity--is just not a proper subject for the media to dwell on or for Congress to take action on.

Now I may be a bit too harsh.  California's Democratic controlled legislature found the courage to pass some pretty good laws.  And many cities around the country are taking actions to build a sustainable future.  But the U.S. government is completely stymied by Koch Industries funded deniers, and the media is still pretending that there is an honest debate about global warming being real and being caused by CO2.

The good news is that the cost of wind and solar and batteries for electric cars have all plumeted in the past decade, so the alternatives to fossil fuels are much more affordable than they were in 2001.  Of course, it would have been nice if government had really promoted these technologies during that time instead of continuing subsidies to fossil fuels, but the time we have lost only makes our present efforts all the more urgent.

6 Cool European Electric Cars Never Coming to the US

The European tradition of coachbuilding—the manufacturing of carriages—dates back to the 1700s. These days, it refers to the high-end auto design firms, such as Rolls Royce and Ferrari, which build custom-designed specialty vehicles.

Like nearly every automaker in the world, coachbuilders are going green, by designing and building all-electric vehicles. Their electric cars are well suited to the congested streets of Rome or Paris, but don’t hold your breath for these cool electricity-powered rides to make it across the pond. By nature, the coachbuilders produce vehicles in limited runs intended for local markets.

The cars in the list are:

Pininfarina B0 ("B Zero")
UK Lightning
Heuliez Friendly
Heuliez Pondicherry
Karmann Quicc DiVa
Ford F-150 Ha-Pa



Keep reading here

Think Electric Car

From Norway, comes the Th!nk City, the new compact electric car coming from Europe.

With a fantastic acceleration, considering the size of the car, with the following stats:

Top speed 100km/h
Acceleration 0-50km/h 6.5 seconds
Acceleration 0-80km/h 16.0 seconds
Typical charge time – standard electric socket:
0-100% SOC (state of charge) approx. 13 hours, 230VAC / 14A
0-80% SOC (state of charge) approx. 9,5 hours, 230VAC / 14A
Range IEC* 170km (summer tires, heater off)
Range FUDS** 180km (summer tires, heater off)
Range EU UDC*** 203km

With the city range around 200km(125Miles), the Th!nk City has the most attractive mileage in the Electric Car market, using the electric motor only.

Pre-launch activities of the TH!NK city have started in selected European markets like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and now recently Spain. TH!NK city vehicles are in this pre-launch phase primarily being sold to municipal fleet, government and utility partners for early adoption EV pilot and demonstration fleets, supported by government incentives to help reduce the initial high cost of the batteries.

It might take some time before this car enters the open market in Europe and even longer in the US.

Electric Car Th!nk's Official site: www.think.no

GM fuels electric car hype wars

Hyping Volt's claim of 100 km/litre...

The company that gave the world the monster-sized Hummer now claims it will deliver a plug-in vehicle next year so fuel efficient it will take you several times across the city on a single litre of gasoline.

General Motors Co., eager to shift attention from its near-collapse and racing to dump its image as a maker of petrol-sucking trucks and SUVs, stoked international debate yesterday by saying it expects its upcoming Volt to get an unprecedented fuel economy rating of 230 miles per gallon (nearly 100 kilometres per litre) in city driving. That's four times better than the gas mileage of Toyota Motor Corp.'s bestselling Prius.

"Is it hooey? Probably not," said Paul Lacy, a specialist in vehicle power components with consultancy IHS Global Insight in Detroit.

http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1883012

Nissan Displaying Electric Car

Some news regarding Nissan's new electric car Leaf:

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third- largest automaker, rose to the highest in 10 months after displaying its first electric car, aimed at a market it anticipates will be larger than hybrids.

Nissan gained 5.4 percent to 726 yen, the highest since Sep. 29., at the close of Tokyo Stock Exchange trading.

Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said yesterday electric cars may account for at least 10 percent of global vehicle sales by 2020. Nissan has failed to match the popularity of Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid and Honda Motor Co.’s Insight, and is betting demand for emission-free cars will offset the restrictions of limited range.

“Investors are jumping to Nissan after it actually unveiled the much-awaited car,” said Koichi Nishi, an equity strategist at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “Products that fulfill the promise of environmental-friendliness are encouraging.”

The company plans to sell its electric car, the Leaf, in the U.S., Japan and Europe next year. Nissan’s new electric car can travel 100 miles on a full charge and can seat as many as five people. The car’s lithium-ion battery pack can be fully recharged at a 200-volt outlet in eight hours, or in less than 30 minutes from a so-called fast-charge station, according to Nissan. In contrast, hybrids can refuel at conventional gasoline stations.

Ford Fusion Hybrid 2010

After Ford Fusion was introduced in 2006, a new design model was introduced along with the hybrid version in 2009. Starting at $27,270, priced a little above Toyota Camry Hybrid, but with a much better gas mileage.

The Fusion Hybrid uses an evolution of the powertrain in the Escape Hybrid, with promises to be the most fuel-efficient mid-size hybrid sedan, besting the hybrid versions of the Chevy Malibu, Saturn Aura, Nissan Altima, and Toyota Camry, while falling short of smaller hybrids like the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius.

Final EPA comparison MPG numbers (city/highway): (ordered by highest)

Toyota Prius 48/45
Honda Civic 40/45
Ford Fusion 41/36
Toyota Camry 33/34
Nissan Altima 35/33
Chevrolet Malibu 26/34
Saturn Aura 26/34


Ford is now saying you can get 1,000 miles out of a single tank of 87-octane with its new 2010 Fusion Hybrid but to meet this rather impressive goal, reaching 57 miles per gallon, an attainable figure since Ford's preliminary testing indicates the Fusion Hybrid can manage up to 70 mpg, but only on special driving conditions.

But it would be best just to stick to the reliable EPA numbers.

Official Site

How GM's failure will affect the Volt?

After General Motors Failure, will Volt still be released as predicted, delayed or simply be abandoned?

GM's bankruptcy and control by the US government will be decisive in keeping the Volt up float. Only time will tell if GM's failure will affect Chevy Volt, and while it might not be commercially viable in the short-term, any Research & Development of Electric cars is a long to very long-term investment that will inevitably produce good results, since the whole industry will eventually move to Hybrid and pure electric vehicles in the next decades.

The government might even try to sell the Volt to other interested parties, but I believe the end result will be the same, the Volt will come out to the public, even if delayed, with different looks or even another company using the Volt brand.

Electric car battery manufacturing to the U.S.

Boston Power plans battery plant for cars, laptops

Battery company Boston Power thinks it can bring electric car battery manufacturing to the U.S. with some help from government stimulus funds.
The Westborough, Mass.-based company on Monday is scheduled to hold a press event in nearby Auburn where it plans to build a factory to make lithium-ion batteries for laptops and electric vehicles.
Construction of the facility, which used to be a distribution center for a clothing retailer, is contingent on a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's advanced battery and cell manufacturing grant program.

CNET green tech

Mitsubishi i-MiEV launching in November 2009, with a $31,000 and $37,000 price range

Mitsubishi i-MiEV will be one of the first 'pure' electric cars being available in the UK.

It is a 4-door 5-seater than can travel 100 miles, or 160 Km, on a single charge.

It was just announced that the cars will become available for purchase in England beginning in November 2009. At first there will only be 50 vehicles made available, with another 150 arriving in 2010. Mitsubishi hopes to eventually sell 40,000 iMiEvs per year.

The price is being quoted as between £20,000 and £25,000 ($30,844-$37,800 USD).

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV will also abe vailable in a sports version, pictured below:

Toyota to launch pure electric car in U.S. by 2012

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said it would launch an all-electric car for city commuting by 2012 in the United States as part of its plan to speed up the introduction of green cars as its global sales falter. The FT-EV concept made its debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Sunday, where the world's top automaker is also unveiling two new gasoline-electric hybrid cars.

You can see here some photos of the Toyota FT-EV Concept:
Toyota FT-EV

Local authorities get in on push for electric cars

As automakers amp up plans for electric vehicles, more local and state governments are trying to plug themselves into the movement.
Nissan Motor just announced alliances with Sonoma County, Calif., and the state of Oregon. And the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose have a nine-step program aimed at making the Bay Area the "electric vehicle capital of the U.S."

...

About 7 million vehicles, 10% of the world's total annual vehicle sales, will be powered entirely by electricity by 2020, predicted Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn in a speech at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-11-27-electric-powered-cars_N.htm

Mini E

The BMW's Mini E made it's world debut at the LA Auto Show.

Hybridcars.com source:

The Mini E made its world debut amidst a crush of reporters and TV cameras. The car offers BMW a way to gather information on how drivers actually use electric vehicles, which it badly needs. The maker of ultimate driving machines has to come up to speed on EVs fast, as other automakers work toward rolling out electric-drive cars to meet increasingly stringent emissions laws in most major markets.

Some 500 Mini Es will be offered to carefully chosen consumers in California, New York, and New Jersey; more than 10,000 drivers have already applied to lease the cars, at $850 a month. The battery pack that replaces the rear seat links together 5,088 small lithium ion batteries (an approach similar to that used for the all-electric Tesla Roadster) for a total capacity of 35 kilowatt-hours. BMW quotes a range of more than 150 miles for the car, and 0-62-mph acceleration times of 8.5 seconds. A 150-kilowatt electric motor drives the front wheels through a single-speed gearbox, replacing the standard Mini’s engine and transmission. Each Mini E is supplied with a 240-Volt charger developed by long-time electric-drive pioneer AC Propulsion.

Watch the full article, and info about Nissan and Renault next electric cars, including an interview with Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning.
http://www.hybridcars.com/news/electric-cars-la-limelight-25287.html

ZAP launches new Xebra model electric car

ZAP introduced its redesigned Xebra electric car for 2009 this past weekend at the Sacramento International Auto Show. ZAP, a pioneer in the field of electric cars, says the 2009 Xebra Hatchback is a five-door model with folding rear seats, a larger rear cargo area (34 cubic feet), and more head and leg room.

Check the original news article here

All-Electric Mini Officially Unveiled!

BMW just officially revealed the new electric Mini, that was already known to exist, with some spy photos posted on this blog way before.

Autopia brings the news story:

BMW's finally pulled the wraps off the 204-horsepower all-electric Mini it is bringing to America and says the car could be here as early as next year, although just 500 people will be lucky enough to get their hands on one.
BMW says it will lease the Mini E two-seater to "select private and corporate customers" in California, New York and New Jersey under what is essentially a big R&D project to develop EVs through its Project i. "Putting some 500 cars on the road under real daily traffic conditions will make it possible to gain widely applicable hands-on experience," BMW says. "Evaluating these findings will generate valuable know-how, which will be factored into the engineering of mass-produced vehicles."

Autopia

BMW's Electric Mini

Autopia just posted more news about to future BMW's Electric Mini, with no Tail Pipe!

Details are scarce, but Autocar says the Mini EV will use a lithium-ion battery, have a range of 100 to 135 miles and a 0-to-60 time of less than 9 seconds.
Last we heard, BMW planned to build just 500 electric Minis and bring them all to California to help meet the Golden State's zero-emissions vehicle mandate that requires automakers to build 7,500 non-polluting cars by 2014.

Autopia: electric Mini Spied!

The Original Poster of this Spy Photo was caranddriver.com here

General Motors - Chevrolet Volt

The Chevrolet Volt is one of the first serious contestants, by General Motors, to be one of the leading electric cars in the world.

The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles (64 km), or about half the range of GM's first electric car, the EV1.
Unlike many other competing cars, the Volt can actually carry 4 people, unlike many other electric cars already in the market, and when the batteries run out a small internal combustion engine starts generating electricity to resupply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 360 miles (579 km) on the highway.



And an improvement over the EV1 with a top speed increased from 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) to 120 miles per hour (190 km/h). The battery pack size has also been reduced between the two, from about 300 L in volume in the EV1, to just 100 L in the Volt.
There might even be an upgrade to the Volt's batteries, making it go 80 miles (128 km) running only on batteries, in a near future.

The Volt is actually ahead of schedule for it's release in 2010 and General Motors will unveil a new photovoltaic roof option at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The roof will be able to charge the battery from 1/4 to 1/3 over 3 hot blazing days of sun, such as in an airport parking lot, and could function keep the A/C on when parked on hot summer days, avoiding battery draw to cool up the car when the driver gets in.

In the United States, the Volt will qualify for $7,500 tax credit. And in Europe it could get a tax cut in many countries, like the Hybrids are, if General Motors releases the Volt outside the US. The predicted cost of this car will be around $35.000

Limited Lithium Supplies Could Restrict Electric Car Growth

If it is undoubtedly premature to say that lithium is the oil of the new century, this raw material is still the subject of sudden interest, shown by the increase in its price from about $350 a tonne in 2003 to nearly $3,000 today.

The explanation is tied to developments in battery technology. For a long time these have functioned with lead: heavy in weight and low in energy. Good at starting engines but not to power them. In the 1980s nickel cadmium batteries reduced the weight but not sufficiently to ensure the success of electric cars, several thousand of which were launched in France. The breakthrough came from batteries using lithium, a very light metal that can hold a lot of energy. In particular, lithium ion batteries “for the same energy occupy half the volume of a nickel cadmium battery”, explains Franck Cecchi, operations director at JC-S, a company that specializes in this technology.

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1544