Another European "success story": Eight Italians bought an electric car in February

Europeans give thumbs down to these.

In spite of all the environmental hype and subsidies, European car buyers continue to give the thumbs down to electric cars and hybrids. These are the latest sales figures from February:

• 8 Italians (out of a population of 60 million) bought an electric car in February.
• 0 Not one electric car was sold in Greece 
• 505 electric cars were sold in Germany (population 82 million)
• 648 electric cars were bought in France (population 65,6 million)

The market share for electric cars and hybrids in western Europe is a whopping 0,25%!

With this kind of sales, the German government's goal of having one million will of course never be reached. German car manufacturers are now crying for more subsidies:

“To support the development of alternative engines, we need positive conditions,” Zetsche, who is also the head of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), told business daily Handelsblatt. “At the same time it’s necessary to build the appropriate infrastructure.”Establishing new technology is unavoidably expensive, a cycle “we can only break if Europe supports the purchase of electric autos for a limited time,” he told the paper, adding that unified rules for the region would be ideal. 

Joke of the year: All-electric Tesla S named "Car of the Year"

In case you didn’t know, with electric cars, the battery is everything. Yet despite all the money spent and 100-plus years of research under scientists’ collective belt, there has been no significant technological advancement with regard to batteries’ cost, range, and efficiency, in terms for American usefulness for today’s electric vehicles. 
(image wikipedia)

Motor Trend magazine has chosen a car, which uses a more than a hundred years old failed technology as its "Car of the Year":

Motor Trend magazine has named the Tesla Model S its Car of the Year. The magazine's staff selected the all-electric plug-in luxury car out of a field of 11 finalists that included models such as the Ford Fusion, Porsche 911 and Hyundai Azera.

It is the first time the magazine's Car of the Year award has ever gone to an all-electric car.

Did the editors of Motor Trend forget to mention that the award was given in the "Joke of the year" competition?

Goodbye electric cars! - Welcome to natural gas powered vehicles!

“The electric technology just isn’t advanced, it’s not there, and there’s so much innovation that’s required to make it viable”
Peter Grady 
Vice President, Chrysler

"The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge,"  
Takeshi Uchiyamada 
Vice chairman, Toyota

"The U.S. now has a 100-year supply of natural gas. I'd make a bet it's the next big transportation fuel. The price is so much lower than gasoline - people will find a way to use it."
Mustafa Mohatarem
Chief economist, General Motors


It is time to say goodbye to one of the favorites of the greenies - the uneconomical and expensive electric car. Instead there is every reason to welcome a new phase of the American led shale gas revolution - vehicles  powered by natural gas. As Mustafa Mohatarem, Chief economist at General Motors says, natural gas is "the next big transportation fuel". 

First, the critical infrastructure component is grinding forward. According to the industry group Natural Gas Vehicle Association (NGVAmerica), more than 1,000 CNG/LNG fueling stations currently operate in the U.S. — and that number is growing. Royal Dutch Shell has partnered with TravelCenters of America 
to sell LNG at 100 sites in the U.S. Shell has ambitious plans to build out LNG fueling infrastructure in Canada as well.

At the same time, T. Boone Pickens-sponsored Clean Energy Fuels has formed an alliance with Pilot-Flying J — the nation’s largest truck-stop operator — to bring CNG to its 550 locations. While this is hardly registers among the estimated 145,000 gas stations across the nation, it’s a positive development. Analysts estimate that by 2019, more than 2,000 stations will offer CNG/LNG.

Secondly, CNG/LNG vehicle adoption is growing as well. About 40% of garbage trucks sold in the U.S. last year were natural gas-powered, according to NGVAmerica. More recently, a coalition of 22 U.S. governors announced that their respective states will buy at least 10,000 CNG cars and trucks annually.

The hope is that their collective buying power and giving the automotive industry a guaranteed market will cause the cost of CNG vehicles to drop. Currently, CNG vehicles can cost up to $10,000 more than their gasoline-powered counterparts. That higher cost is attributed to internal combustion retrofits. However, if those vehicles came off the assembly line set up for natural gas, the cost would drop considerably.

Cleantech analytics firm Pike Research expects natural gas-fueled trucks to see 10% compound annual growth in between 2012 and 2019, based on lower purchasing costs. That translates from roughly 3,250 natural gas trucks expected to sell this year to almost double that by 2019.

Read the entire article here

Natural gas is strongly on its way also to cars and other privately used vehicles. Chrysler is to be congratulated for offering a new natural gas-powered pick up:

Chrysler Group LLC, the automaker controlled by is making its natural gas-powered Ram pickup available for sale to retail buyers, according to the head of the company’s dealership network.

Chrysler began allowing all dealers to order the Ram 2500 Heavy Duty CNG pickup in September, Peter Grady, vice president of network development and fleet, said in an interview. Chrysler, which initially made the truck available only to fleet buyers, joins Honda Motor Co. as the only automakers selling compressed natural gas vehicles to U.S. retail consumers.

“The dealers have been asking for it, they’ve been clamoring, particularly in the natural gas states and in some of these places where you’re starting to get infrastructure,” Grady said in an interview at his office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where Chrysler is based. States where the fuel and infrastructure are most available include California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he said.

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of Chrysler and Turin, Italy-based Fiat, has argued that natural gas engines are cheaper and more viable than plug-in hybrid and electric cars.
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Under U.S. fuel-economy standards released Aug. 28, natural gas-powered vehicles were made eligible for credits aimed at reducing emissions. Chrysler testified to the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee in July and advocated for parity between natural gas-powered cars and trucks and other alternative-fuel vehicles.

Read the entire article here 

New study: Electric cars are toxic

A toxic mix

A new Norwegian study confirms that electric cars - the darlings of all "progressive" greenies - are not very green at all:

Questioning thoughts arise from a bracing study from Norway. The electric car might be a trade-in of an old set of pollution problems for a new set. Thanks but no thanks to a misguided cadre selling on the green revolution. Electric cars will eventually be one more pollutant source to campaign over. The study, "Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles," appears in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology declared in the study that "EVs exhibit the potential for significant increases in human toxicity, freshwater eco-toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, and metal depletion impacts, largely emanating from the vehicle supply chain."
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Earlier this year, reports of a study of vehicle types in China concluded that electric cars have an overall impact on pollution that could be more harmful to health than conventional vehicles. The researchers in that study examined pollution in 34 Chinese cities and they found that the electricity generated by power stations to drive electric vehicles led to more fine particle emissions than petrol-powered transport. They analyzed five vehicle types—gasoline and diesel cars, diesel buses, e-bikes and e-cars.

Read the entire article here

Toyota scraps all-electric cars

Japan´s Toyota has learnt the lesson: There is no room for all-electric cars in the foreseeable future: 

Toyota Motor Corp has scrapped plans for widespread sales of a new all-electric minicar, saying it had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.

Toyota, which had already taken a more conservative view of the market for battery-powered cars than rivals General Motors Co and Nissan Motor Co, said it would only sell about 100 battery-powered eQ vehicles in the United States and Japan in an extremely limited release.

The automaker had announced plans to sell several thousand of the vehicles per year when it unveiled the eQ as an pure-electric variant of its iQ minicar in 2010.

"Two years later, there are many difficulties," Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's vice chairman and the engineer who oversees vehicle development, told reporters on Monday.

By dropping plans for a second electric vehicle in its line-up, Toyota cast more doubt on an alternative to the combustion engine that has been both lauded for its oil-saving potential and criticized for its heavy reliance on government subsidies in key markets like the United States.

"The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge," said, Uchiyamada, who spearheaded Toyota's development of the Prius hybrid in the 1990s.

Read the entire article here

The sooner "Government Motors" (GM) learns the same lesson, the better. Instead both GM, Toyota and other manufacturers should concentrate on developing the only realistic option - cars running on natural gas. 

Cars running on natural gas - not electric hybrids - are the future

A Honda Civic running on natural gas

Natural gas vehicles are the future for the auto industry, not the much hyped electric hybrids. The U.S. has more than enough of shale gas for at least 100 years, and there is plenty of it elsewhere in the world, too. The good news is that the gas can also be used as a cheap transportation fuel: 

As America finds more reserves of natural gas, the auto industry is sure to take notice.

Natural gas got a strong vote of confidence as a future vehicle fuel at the Society of Automotive Analysts Strategic Planning Summit in Southfield, Mich. last week.

New methods of extracting the gas are one of the biggest changes affecting the auto industry in years, General Motors chief economist Mustafa Mohatarem said.

"The U. S. now has a 100-year supply of natural gas," he said. "I'd make a bet it's the next big transportation fuel. The price is so much lower than gasoline -- people will find a way to use it."

The idea got a second from John Casesa, senior managing director of investment banking at Guggenheim Partners. "We're also very high on natural gas," he said. "It's a massive change for the United States, and probably a big deal for the motor industry."

Read the entire article here

Natural gas is already a big thing in the commercial truck market. Firms operating big fleets are switching to natural gas vehicles in order to save fuel costs. When car manufacturers are able to offer decently priced passenger cars running on natural gas, they will find buyers, who appreciate the low fuel costs: 

Honda used the cleaner-emissions pitch when its Civic GX came on the U.S. market in 1998, says Brad Johnson, corporate fleet director with Pacific Honda in San Diego. Now, he says, buyers seem more interested in saving at the pump and using a fuel produced in the U.S. Honda is also promoting the fact that CNG vehicles can drive in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes on California freeways.

Even though consumers are slow to adopt natural-gas passenger vehicles, at least a few gas retailers are optimistic that if they build it, drivers will come.

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, of Oklahoma City, plans to open 10 retail outlets with CNG pumps this summer, thanks to a partnership with Chesapeake Energy.

And Kwik Trip Inc., an operator of gas stations and convenience stores, opened its first CNG station aimed at passenger-car drivers in La Crosse, Wis., this spring, with plans for several more.

"It's attractive to customers because it's a domestic product, there's a steady supply, and the price is right," says John McHugh, Kwik Trip's communications manager. "If we can offer the consumer a value, we know people will jump on the bandwagon."

Read the entire article here

Jerry Brown celebrates new electric car which is neither clean nor green

The loss making electric car maker Tesla has been rolling out its first "mass-market sedan" in California. The base model, which sells for $49,900 after a federal tax credit, can go 160 miles on one charge: 

A crowd estimated to be in the thousands, including Tesla employees, their relatives, and a host of local politicians, cheered for the lineup of speakers that included California Gov. Jerry Brown. They roared when the first cars left the building.

“This is another example of California on the move,” Brown told the crowd. “This is a great car. You’re a bunch of great workers.”

Exactly why Brown and the others were roaring is difficult to understand:

Hybrid and electric cars are neither clean nor green according to a new environmental book, Green Illusions (June 2012, University of Nebraska Press), written by University of California - Berkeley visiting scholar Ozzie Zehner. Green Illusions exposes numerous hidden side effects of new hybrid and electric cars, such as the Tesla, Leaf, Fisker Karma, and Prius. The analysis considers mining impacts, toxins, energy use, suburban sprawl and carbon footprints of production. From an environmental perspective, Zehner argues that hybrids and electric cars are no better than gasoline vehicles, a conclusion backed by a National Academy of Sciences report.

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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/11/4553011/electric-cars-merely-a-green-illusion.html#storylink=cpy

Read the entire article here

PS


Electric cars are definitively not to the future neither in the US, nor elsewhere. However, natural gas - of which there is an abundance in the US thanks to the shale gas revolution - is another matter, according to a newly published Brookings Institution discussion paper, written by MIT professor Christopher R. Knittel:



Technological advances in horizontal drilling deep underground have led to large-scale discoveries of natural gas reserves that are now economical to access. This, along with increases in oil prices, has fundamentally changed the relative price of oil and natural gas in the United States. As of December 2011, oil was trading at a 500 percent premium over natural gas. This ratio has increased over the past few months. The discovery of large, economically accessible natural gas reserves has the potential to aid in a number of policy goals related to energy. Natural gas can replace oil in transportation through a number of channels. However, the field between natural gas as a transportation fuel and petroleum-based fuels is not level. Given this uneven playing field, left to its own devices, the market is unlikely to lead to an efficient mix of petroleum- and natural gas-based fuels. This paper presents a pair of policy proposals designed to increase the nation’s energy security, decrease the susceptibility of the U.S. economy to recessions caused by oil-price shocks, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. First, I propose improving the 
natural gas fueling infrastructure in homes, at local distribution companies, and along long-haul trucking routes. Second, I offer steps to promote the use of natural gas vehicles and fuels.

French Renault introduces a new electric "car"

Would you like to pay 10,000 USD for this doorless "car" without heating ?  And, yes,  the battery  is not included, either. The Twizy is supposed to be a 2-seater - Where the second seat is located, is a mystery. 

French Renault thinks that this new new electric "car" - without doors,ventilation and heating - is going to be a great success. Based on a calculated 10 year life span, the car will cost more than an ordinary compact car.

Good luck, Renault!

Hopefully there will be drivers, who enjoy the door- and heatless Twizy when the winter temperature is -20 °C, with driving conditions like this:

Der Spiegel has some more information on the new French beauty:

This vehicle, called the Twizy, is also a two-seater, although its seats are positioned one behind the other. Its wheels are mounted outside the body of the car, making it look a bit like the "Kabinenroller" cars produced by German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt after World War II. On the whole, the Twizy looks as if it could have sprung from the imagination of a comic book artist.


The Twizy comes with a roof and, if desired, doors as well, although without windows. Full weather protection with heating and ventilation would have been prohibitively expensive, the vehicle's designers explain.


Now, Renault needs to succeed in making its pared-down vehicle the latest elite trend -- the Twizy is not a cheap, when measured by its capacity. The base price of €7,690 for the 80-kph version includes neither the half-high doors nor the battery. As with its other models, Renault plans to rent out the Twizy's rechargeable batteries for a monthly fee ranging between €50 and €72, depending on the contract.
Calculated across an assumed lifespan of 10 years, that means the Twizy actually costs more than some full-fledged compact cars.

Leading expert about electric cars: "To me, this electric hype is inexplicable"

This Detroit Electric car appeared over 90 years before the much hyped "stimulus injection" Chevrolet Volt manufactured by Obama´s Government Motors hit the market.


The green lobby, assisted by its numerous supporters in the media, has been busy hyping electric cars for years now. But the there is a huge gap between hype and reality, reports German Der Spiegel:

The Frankfurt Motor Show is devoting an entire exhibition hall to electric mobility this year -- but truly marketable electric vehicles are conspicuous by their absence. The technology is being developed more slowly than expected. It will be a long time before the world can bid farewell to the combustion engine.
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"To me, this electric hype is inexplicable," Fritz Indra, a doyen in vehicle development, recently told the trade magazine Automobil Industrie. The honorary professor at Vienna University of Technology and former head engine developer at Opel and General Motors still sees a good deal of "open questions" -- and no satisfying answers.
The first electric cars that aren't DIY projects and offer acceptable crash protection have arrived in the dealerships. Most of them are no-frills mini-vehicles that cost as much as a mid-sized sedans and can only take you a short distance and back on a single battery charge if you're lucky enough to avoid heavy traffic. Of course, that's not the case in the winter, when energy-sapping interior heating significantly diminishes its range. And if it runs out of juice on the road, no jerry can will help. Your only option is to call a tow truck.
With all the drawbacks of this type of car, you have to be a true believer in electric mobility to imagine that there really are one million people out there who want to have one.
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Krebs believes an electric car will have to be able to reliably travel more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) even under unfavorable conditions, such as rain, cold weather or extreme heat. To do so, it would have to have at least 25 kilowatt hours of power. That would require a battery that weighs somewhere in the range of 250 kilograms and costs €10,000 -- in other words, almost as much as a complete small car with a conventional drive system.
Developers currently predict that, over the next decade, battery capacity will double while production costs will be halved. But, even so, the electric car would be nowhere near as inexpensive and flexible as a conventional car.
"In the foreseeable future," Krebs says, "you can forget about electric drives for long-distance use."
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Indeed, everything seems to suggest that we should still give the electric drive system a few more decades to mature instead of proclaiming a breakthrough that can't come so quickly.

Read the entire article here

PS

It is true that electric cars seem to be slow in coming. Already in 1905 there were 33 different models of electric cars on display at the 5th National Automobile show in New York. If we wait another 100 years, maybe ....

"Battery apathy" - Car buyers do not want ineffecient and expensive electric cars

Car buyers are rational people. That´s why they don´t buy into their governments´ battery car hype. Detroit News columnist Neil Winton explains:

Governments in Washington, Berlin, Brussels and Beijing have decided that battery-only cars are the path to the future, and are using taxpayers' money to make it happen.
The trouble is car buyers aren't cooperating.
Governments see battery-only cars as a way of cutting greenhouse gases, which many think cause global warming, and a route to lessening reliance on foreign oil. Car buyers see vehicles that cost about twice as much as they should, and which go about a quarter of the distance they want.
A recent survey in Germany by technology consultancy Gartner Group showed just how high the barrier manufacturers must climb if consumers are willingly going to buy battery cars.
According to the survey, only 16 percent of Germans would consider buying a battery car, compared with 52 percent who want gasoline power, 43 percent hybrids, 37 percent diesel and 25 percent natural gas motors. Of course, Germans don't necessarily speak for Europeans, but the country is Europe's biggest market, accounting for roughly 25 percent of car sales. There's no reason to think their car preferences will be much different from other Europeans, or Americans for that matter.