Electric SUV for the outdoor Enthusiast?

I know what you are thinking… Aren’t big gas guzzling Sport Utility Vehicles (imagine the Hummer) the worst offenders in terms of carbon emissions. Well yes they are.  Consequently, the logical question would be why in the world would we want an Electric SUV?

Before we begin, I think we have to understand that ultimately, driving a car whether zero emissions or some form of other commuting medium is a compromise.  Unless you are walking to work or riding a bike any other form of mechanical motor transportation will emit some form of carbon emissions.  More over, as the title of this post suggests…for outdoor enthusiasts, there really isn’t a rugged electric solution yet (outside of hybrid ford escapes).  So we have to make a sacrifice and balance our lifestyle goals with our environmental responsibility (I.E. Compromise).  In this world of immediate gratification, everyone wants a solution that will allow them to get to work on time, get their kids to school and back, get groceries from your local market, get all the camping gear loaded, get all the furniture stowed and finally get me to my mountain getaway.

In an effort to make all this happen, auto manufacturers are trying to squeeze a bunch of batteries and an engine into a vehicle that is both aerodynamic and practical.  The challenge has always been, the more range you want, the more batteries you need.  Conversely the more batteries you need, the more space you have to sacrifice in the car…compromise. So you have the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsu I-Miev, both great electric cars with a fair amount of space and a respectable amount of range but not exactly the kind of vehicle I’d like to take into the great outdoors.

Wouldn’t it be great if Nissan could extend the electric technology into the Xterra for us outdoor enthusiasts?  The vehicle is bigger so it can carry more batteries.  If we really wanted 4wd, perhaps you could put one motor for the front wheels and 1 for the back.  I’m no engineer, however I did see Michelin (the tire company) come up with an idea where they have 4 separate motors, one per each wheel, so it is possible. In essense, 4wd.  Or, what about adobting the Voltec system in the Chevy Volt.  For the daily commute (in your SUV) you drive by electric battery and when you need more range the gas engine kicks in to provide the range)

Now I do know that there are a couple of companies that are providing conversion kits which are turning hybrid Ford Escapes into Battery electric SUV’s.  The challenge is that the cost for the conversion is approximately $40K-$55K in addition to the price for the vehicle.  So if you bought a Escape for $35K, your total bill could balloon to $80K.  That’s a lot of green to save some green.  This model really makes a bunch of sense for fleet vehicles which look at 10-12 year amortization of vehicles and their respective TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)  for servicing the fleet.  However, the price is pretty steep for the individual outdoor enthusiast.

 

Audi E-Tron, sign of things to come or just a beautiful pipe dream?

You have probably seen this lolly pop red premium BEV from Audi.  The E-tron is quite possibly one of the most eye catching electric cars that I have seen that is actually expected to go into production.  Now I know that at this point it is only set to be a limited production run of only 1000 cars, but imagine if they migrated the system down to cars like the A3 or even the A1.

A logical comparison would be to compare the Audi E-Tron  to the Tesla roadster, if we assume that the price difference is nominal (very big assumption given its premium priced platform sister the R8 is already quite exclusively priced) we can then consider the two most important questions that people would ask.

Question # 1, what is the range?  According to Motortrend magazine which did a limited write up, the E-tron gets 154 miles per charge while the Tesla gets 200 miles per charge.

Question # 2, how long will it take to recharge?  This is a bigger animal to tackle and can’t be answered without thoughts on your garage plug.  Just like any BEV or plug-in electric hybrid system, the time to charge depends on your charger capacity, the wiring infrastructure in place at your home and whether the transformer from your utility can handle the additional load drawn from your charger.  For example Audi suggests a 2.5 hr charge time if you use a 400 volt charger.  You may want to notify your utility or else they will think you have a grow-op in your garage.

The really interesting technological interpretation of electric drive is derived from the four electric motors used.  They will supposed slip torque 30/70 front to back respectively.  I wonder if  each one will individually motivate a different wheel.  Can you say electric powered Quattro.  Its a pretty cool approach that lines up quite nicely with the all wheel drive based performance philosophy at Audi.  Lets see if this makes it to North America.

 

Nissan Leaf EV vs. GM Chevy Volt Hybrid – Marketing Titans show-down

With the much anticipated launch next year of quite possibly the two most important cars of our time, is it a wonder that people are confused with all the marketing hype and noise out there.  We’ve got color naming contests,  22 city road shows, gauntlet face slapping T.V. commercials, blog sites with daily content and even show and tell with middle school kids.  Is it really that hard to believe that people might be getting confused about which car does what, who has the best MPG, EV vs. Hybrid and why choose one over the other?

Talk about building up the hype, GM has announced the three finalist for their color naming contest.  “EV-ergreen”, “Veridian joule” and “EnviroMint”.  All fun and quirky names that conjure up thoughts of eco-warrior meets metrosexual chic.  Couple this with the constant “May the Best Car Win” TV ads and one might think that the Volt would be the hands down favorite in terms of mindshare.  But don’t count out that little company from Japan.  They have a few tricks up their sleeve too!!!

Nissan is on a “pilgrimage to mecha-annical” glory.  They have reached out to all the stakeholders and media alike and asked them to attend 1 of 22 different roadshows.  At the event, we get a chance to feast our excited eyes  on the Leaf, network with other EV enthusiasts and take turns driving a prototype around a little track at low speed.  A few of the people who have taken this opportunity to test drive the Leaf-like car use words like “seamless power delivery”, “smooth” and my favorite ” noticeably quite”.  All very positive endorsements.

The next and probably most aggressive attempt at winning the hearts of families is now being launched by GM.  Get ready for the biggest “show and tell” school event ever.  GM is inviting 800 middle school kids in LA. plus any other kid who wants to attend online to participate in a huge school yard education session.  Though the kids are probably not the ones who will buy the car next year, they will be the future purchasers of both Hybrids and EV’s and it makes sense to reach out to them now.

So who is the ultimate winner of the hype?  Hopefully it will be all of us in the end.

 

 

Is the Smart Grid a topic for National Security?

The smart grid allows for the transmission of electricity consumption, availability, peak vs. cheap cost information (to name a few) between the consumers and the utility over an Internet protocol infrastructure.  Consequently, this means that if our nation were to one day become highly reliant on the communication of this information, terrorists might want to hack into the grid to create havoc. Matt Hamblen (writer for ComputerWorld) discusses this topic in detail from an IT Security practice perspective. In my opinion, I’m more afraid of my neighbor hoping over my fence to steal power from my outside house plug to save money when charging his/her electric car.

You and I might giggle a bit about that last comment, but would it surprise you to know that this very topic, of electricity theft and/or homeowner fraud are real considerations that our utility company needs to take into consideration when deciding on how to provide us with energy and charge for it? Remember that although fueling your vehicle with electricity is cheaper than filling it up with gas…there is still a cost to do it.  Is it really a stretch to imagine scenario’s where unscrupulous people attempt different forms of energy theft or fraud to save a nickel?

The ability for the smart metering technology to identify consumers at the plug (and lockout unauthorized access) and report back to the utility for payment processing will be critical from a business standpoint.  Moreover, what if you have a friend visiting you from another province or (for the sake of argument) from California and they need to plug in?  How will the utility identify these people and provide them with energy.  Again, the quality of the infrastructure at the point of plug-in will need to address this.

ComputerWorld Article:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141103/Verizon_launches_electric_grid_reliability_consulting?taxonomyId=17

 

Jay Leno Show’s Green Car Challenge: Helping or Hindering the EV?

Since the start of new JAY LENO SHOW on NBC at prime time, the TV sitcom has included a “Top Gear-like” feature known as the Green Car Challenge.  In it, celebrities are given the chance to drive around a small 11,000 sq ft race course in a prototype Ford Focus Electric Vehicle.  This Candy Orange, European sport variant of the American compact car can be seen racing through a tight course with funny obstacles and hilarious shenanigans included throughout the race to keep the humor quotient high.  So is this funny feature helping to change opinions of the mainstream driver and is it helping with the mass adoption of future EV’s or is the humour missing the mark and actually hurting the cause?

The Argument for the Green Car Challenge

The show is watched by millions of viewers every night and it not only provides a platform for people to see just how ready the technology is for today’s roads but also is providing a key North American automaker the opportunity to promote its EV. Moreover, it is widely known that product advocates with major influence such as Movie Star endorsements, often help said products to gain traction in new and emerging markets.  For example, Leonardo Dicaprio- loves his prius and I bet his endorsement of the car helps with building Toyota’s green brand.  Consequently, Jay Leno’s reputation for loving all things automotive coupled with his huge star power should help promote the electric car.

The Argument against the Green Car Challenge

Promoting the vehicle in a humorous format where blowup dolls of Al Gore and Ed Begley Jr. are used as obstacles might actually be counter productive.  Is it possible that the TV Audience might view these funny obstacles as nothing more that jokes and think the same thing about the car? How often do you drive down the street and be shot at with party pops and streamers?

Only time will tell whether the promotion of the Ford Focus EV on the Jay Leno show is helpful or not.  The ultimate indicator will be car sales.

 

The EV Battery Upsell….

I guess it was only a matter of time, but there is an interesting article written by Steve Diehlman on Automobile Magazine about a possible solution to the limited range of EV’s associated with the Battery.  The suggestion is that Nissan is toying with the idea of offering battery options in the future.  For example, today you can buy a Nissan pick up truck with a V6 engine or a V8 for more money.  Steve is suggesting that Nissan may offer a similar price strategy related to the battery.  If you want a standard battery providing 160KM approx range, you get the standard price.  If you want greater range, you buy the bigger battery or more powerful (which every makes sense at the manufacturing level) and pay a premium for the battery.

I’m not sure how I feel about this idea given the existing challenges of mass EV adoption related to price.  Will a premium price for a bigger battery or premium battery help with mass adoption or will it turn people off?  The answer may depend on the actual pricing strategy that has yet to be publicly announced.  If Nissan follows through with their plan of selling the car separate from the battery (which they would lease), then the total payment or monthly payment will be the deciding factor to consider.

Check out the article here

http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6606981/green/nissan-to-offer-different-battery-options-for-leaf-ev/index.html

 

Hilarious noise makers to protect pedestrians from quiet EV’s

This was too funny not to write about.  Gas 2.0 blogged about a hilarious proposal by Conservative Lord McCollIn of the British Parliment. In order to tackle the safety risk posed to pedestrians by quiet electric cars he suggested the following proposal: Give them swiss cowbells.

Wow!!!  The suggestion is so mind blowing that I have decided to suggest an alternative list of fun devices that anyone can utilize to tackle this monumental issue.

Snow chains- Especially when there is no snow…they make a huge racket on concrete.

Wind Chimes- They make a really wonderful melody especially if you get a bunch and drive faster

Hip-Hop Sub woffers- now street beats have a humanitarian purpose outside of representin’

Airbags on the outside- At least you’ll hear them pop (deploy) before you get hit

 

Here is the rest of Gas 2.0 ‘s blog article:  http://gas2.org/2009/11/12/put-swiss-cow-bells-on-electric-cars-says-uk-politician/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gas2%2Forg+%28Gas+2.0%29&utm_content=Twitter

 

Here is my list of

 

My thoughts on the “Long Tail pipe” Argument

Bill Moore wrote an interesting article on EV world today titled “Is a Prius really Cleaner than an Electric Car?”.  The article discusses a commonly debated argument suggesting that all vehicles which plug into the grid not only centralizes carbon emissions at the point of energy generation (namely the power plant) but also increases the emissions (from the smoke stack).  In other words, although all the EV’s and Prius cars on the road are emitting less CO2 compared to their gas rivals, aren’t we really just centralizing the emissions problem at the power plant?

The counter point to this argument in my opinion, is that centralization of emissions control from millions of cars (plugging into the grid) to thousands of power plants is not necessarily a bad thing. What???

First, lets look at the numbers.  How many cars are there compared to power plants?  I am not going to run a report to find out concrete numbers however I think we can all agree that there are orders of magnitude more cars on the road compared to power plants.

Second, lets look at the types of plants out there. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, of the energy generated: 73% comes from thermal power generation, while 23% comes from nuclear. The rest is produced by hydropower (1%) and renewables (2%). That 73% comes from burning natural gas (53%), coal (44%) and oil (2%). I’m not suggesting that all these plants are showering us with sunshine and smiles, however I am suggesting that some techniques are cleaner than others.

Third, lets look at solutions at the smoke stack.  Isn’t it easier for industry, government and society to work together to develop additional carbon emissions containment and control measures for the smoke stacks as there are orders of magnitude fewer power plants compared to cars? In other words, centralization of emissions is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, by centralizing the point of CO2 emissions, it might actually make it easier for us to not only develop comprehensive emissions controls techniques but also roll out the technology to fewer emissions culprits.

 

Should ICBC Charge per KM for Insurance?

California’s automotive insurance sector is now looking at per-per-mile insurance.  This is an interesting approach to the carbon emissions dilemma. http://www.treehugger.com/cars_transportation/?dtc=th_nav_cars

In a nutshell, the further you drive, the more you pay for insurance and vice versa, the less you drive the less you pay.  At face value the fee structure would seem to encourage car pooling, mass transit and other commuting alternatives.  I have to admit that for a person like me, who takes the bus five days a week for work and only drives on the weekend, I tend to like the idea.  Having said that, one must really consider whether the alternatives to driving are both readily available and efficient enough to avoid inconvenience.

Could Vancouverites stomach such an approach if ICBC were to adopt the fee model. If you are living in a suburb on the outskirts of transits support network, are you willing to pay more for car insurance to commute to work and would it make sense for you to alternatively take transit into Vancouver?

 

A list of faux-hybrids…making money from the hype

I have written before on this topic, however I decided to make a list of all the “mild Hybrid” cars available today.  That is to say, cars that are capitalizing on the eco-friendly cache, without actually doing much more than being an expensive fuel sipper.  These are cars that take advantage of un-suspecting consumers who want to make a difference for the environment by purchasing a car which emits less, little or no carbon emissions than would otherwise by emitted were they to purchase a similar internal combustion engine vehicle.  These cars with flashy eco badges, tout fuel efficiency and try to link that term with emissions containment.  However, this two topics are not the same even though they both have an important role to play in future vehicle development.  Mild hybrids for the most part do not have a electric only mode, infact what they typcially possess is an oversized starter motor (electric) which acts as a horsepower booster to a gas engine.  In otherwords, the gas engine never stops running.  This i feel was never the intent of hybrid vehicles.  The intention is to ween us of gas engines, whether using a full hybrid that has some electric only capabilities, a plug in hybrid or Electric vehicles.

So here is the list of cars claiming to be hybrids… but in my opinion are only cashing in on eco-chic.

• Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid (electrical energy for accessories not propulsion)
• Saturn Vue Green Line (BAS Hybrid, 2007-2009)
• Saturn Aura Green Line (BAS Hybrid model 2007-2009)
• Chevrolet Malibu (BAS Hybrid model 2008-2009)
• Honda Insight
• Honda Accord Hybrid
• Honda Civic Hybrid
• BMW 1-series hybrid
• Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHYBRID