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Honda Motor Co plans to launch a plug-in hybrid and battery electric model in 2012 as part of its strategy to push to the front of a race by global automakers to develop more fuel-efficient cars.
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President Obama defended his bailout of the auto industry on Friday by taking a tour of two Detroit factories in a media event. The Chrysler and General Motors factories are of the two domestic auto companies that Obama controls. As a shining example of the success of a government and private industry “cooperation;” Mr. Obama took a ride in Chevy’s newest vehicle the “Volt.” This car is the first of a new breed of hybrid that can deliver up to 40 mpg. Instead of the traditional hybrid design that uses a driveline of both electric and gas power, the Volt uses only electric motors to power its front wheels. There is an onboard gas engine that acts as a generator to constantly replenish a battery pack . The Volt reportedly can travel the first 40 miles solely on electric power derived from its batteries. After that the gas generator will kick in when the battery storage capacity is down to 30 percent. The result is a combined estimated fuel economy of 50 mpg.
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May 14 (Bloomberg) — Nissan Motor Co., which will start selling its Leaf electric car this year, aims to cut the cost of the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery pack to less than $370 per kilowatt-hour to make a profit from the model.
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Daimler AG Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche says the German company will become a leading manufacturer of electric-car batteries. Trouble is, his new business partner Renault SA CEO Carlos Ghosn has the same idea.
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Nissan broke ground on a new battery plant in Smyrna, Tennessee yesterday (figuratively, anyway, the actual bulldozing doesn’t start for a few weeks). For now, we will call this the U.S. Leaf battery plant, but it’s really part of Nissan’s strategy to electrify more and more of its vehicles. As we mentioned yesterday, once it is up and running at the end of 2012, the plant will have the capacity to make 200,000 battery packs a year. The nearby vehicle assembly facility where the U.S.-built Leafs will come to life will have a maximum capacity to make 150,000 Leafs a year alongside other Nissan vehicles like the Altima and Pathfinder. The extra capacity, if used, could be sold to other automakers or go into non-Leaf Nissan products.
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President Barack Obama, in the heart of the U.S. auto industry, told a crowd of workers that the government bailouts of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC are giving taxpayers a return on their investment.
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About 600 charging points for electric cars could be installed in the East of England after the government short-listed the £5.6m scheme.
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DETROIT, Mich. – General Motors today said that thanks to strong public interest in the Chevrolet Volt, the 340-mile extended range electric vehicle, it will increase U.S. production capacity of the groundbreaking new car by 50 percent, from 30,000 units to 45,000 units, in 2012.
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Cutting-edge technology never comes cheaply. Automakers routinely subsidize it in new cars in new markets to gain a foothold, or even a competitive advantage–and still can lose money on innovation.Does Nissan plan to lose money with its upcoming electric car, the 2011 Leaf?
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Polluted Gulf of Mexico has long been ‘the nation’s sacrifice zone’
Sewage, chemical weapons among pollutants blamed for lifeless area the size of Lake OntarioVideo
Despite second oil leak, industry says Gulf wells safe .Map
Gulf oil spill trajectory .Advertisement | ad info
. Mark Ralston / AFP – Getty Images file
“This has been the nation’s sacrifice zone, and has been for 50-plus years,” an environmental group’s director says. “What we’re seeing right now with BP’s crude is just a very photogenic representation of that.”by Campbell Robertson [...]
Four months ago the state of California announced a $4.1 million $3.7ish million dollar program to stimulate the electric vehicle economy. The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, through CARB, and administered by CCSE (California Center for Sustainable Energy), basically gives $5,000 to each purchaser of a EV (or EV-like approved vehicle) until the funds dry up. [...]
With visions of any portion of the $10 million prize slipping away from all but a few, the Progressive Automotive X Prize competitors turned their attention to the commercial future of their cars during Tuesday’s leadership conference at Michigan International Speedway. [...]
PITTSBURGH, Jul 26, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation announced its collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for a prototype integrated solar-assisted electric vehicle charging station to be erected at EPRI’s research laboratory in Knoxville, Tenn. Additional stations are planned for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Nashville, Chattanooga and another site in Knoxville. [...]
The Nissan Leaf, the company’s forthcoming all-electric sedan, can travel around 100 miles on a single charge. Whether that range is big enough for the American motorist is known as the “range problem.”
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Everyone is talking about electric vehicles. With all the major manufacturers releasing models, smart grid companies and utilities looking seriously at integration, and the U.S. Congress potentially putting $4 billion toward EV research, this year has been dubbed as “The Year of the Electric Car.” [...]
The FINANCIAL — SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO), one of the world leaders of rechargeable battery technologies, is pleased to announce the completion of SANYO ‘s new factory for the lithium-ion batteries for eco-friendly vehicles in its Kasai Plant (Kasai city, Hyogo prefecture, Japan.) [...]
The U.S. version of the Mitsubishi i-Miev electric car won’t be here until next year, but we got to spend a week with the Japanese version to test out the power train and find out what life will be like with an electric car.
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Hawaiian Electric Co. is proposing a plan to make it cheaper for early adopters of electric vehicles to charge up. [...]
SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 30, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ECOtality, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!ecty/quotes/nls/ecty (ECTY 4.65, -0.18, -3.73%) , a leader in clean electric transportation storage technologies, has expressed its support for a decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) determining that companies which sell electric vehicle charging services to the public will not be regulated as public utilities. [...]
Companies, people and events to watch
4EVRiders.org JulY 2010 Newsletter: Issue No. 0002 [...]
Supply agreement builds on earlier development deal [...]
Officials in Michigan urged residents living near the Kalamazoo River oil spill to evacuate the area Thursday because of health concerns. [...]
The home and commercial EV charging market has gotten quite a bit bigger after a slew of charging announcements at the Plugin 2010 conference. ECOtality, an established electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) provider and manager of the EV Project, took the opportunity to unveil a family of stylishly industrial-looking home and residential charge station solutions.
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The PluginCars.com crew just returned from a one-hour drive through San Francisco in the Nissan LEAF. I had the geeky thrill of driving down Lombard Street—the city’s famed winding street—in the LEAF. But the biggest eye-opener was what we saw on the screen in terms of driving range, as well as what Nissan’s Mark Perry told us about the LEAF’s battery capabilities. Here are the highlights:
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Press Release
Press Contact:
Schneider Electric
Elizabeth deCastro
Phone: 1-800-788-1704 x2957
elizabeth.decastro@schneiderelectric.
com
Press Contact:
Text 100 for Schneider Electric
Morgan Mathis
Phone: 415-593-8436
morgan.mathis@text100.com
Schneider Electric Announces Plans for Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions
Global energy management leader introduces strategy and product roadmap for electric vehicle market at Plug-In 2010
Palatine, Ill. – July 27, 2010 – Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, today announced plans for delivering a comprehensive portfolio of electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions. Schneider Electric will offer a complete spectrum of EV charging infrastructure, smart-grid integration, services and management in one complete solution to help speed adoption of EVs globally. These charging solutions address the needs of all EV stakeholders, including automotive manufacturers, municipalities, utilities, commercial and government entities as well as consumers. [...]
Taking another step in building out its electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the state of Tennessee is now home to the first of several solar-powered EV-charging stations. Collaborating with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) ,’ the U.S. electrical products firm Eaton developed a ‘solar-assisted electric vehicle charging station (not pictured).
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And then there were nine. What began in April as a field of 136 experimental cars and 111 teams with their eyes on the $10 million Automotive X Prize has been winnowed to just nine cars and seven teams. Track testing was completed Tuesday at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI.
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This unique and powerful 185 page report provides information, projections, insight and strategic thinking on the development of the electric car market in Europe, together with the battery and infrastructure developments essential to its growth. [...]
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