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Monday January 12, 2009
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Electric cars highlighted the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit with a half-dozen introductions, including the Cadillac Converj concept car, an upscale version of the Chevrolet Volt. For automakers, electric cars are a roll of the dice: They cost a lot more, even more than the $2,000-$3,000 a hybrid commands over a non-hybrid. A hybrid mostly runs on gasoline or diesel; the electrics being shown have much larger battery packs so they can go 30 to 40 miles. Where a laptop battery ($100-$200) has six to nine cells, an electric car might have the equivalent of 5,000. Some of the introductions at NAIAS:
Cadillac Converj. An upscale sibling to volt, it will have a 16-kilowatt-hour battery, of which half will be available for propulsion. Electrics and hybrids only use about half their capacity to avoid wearing out the battery.
Tesla Roadster Sport. Tesla showed off the Roadster Sport version of its already-on-sale Roadster (photo above). The Sport is said to be even quicker (3.7 vs. 3.9 seconds 0-60 mph)
Chevrolet Volt. GM showed off the production-like design of the car that is supposed to go 40 miles on electricity, then up to 500 miles on a tank of gas. "Production-like" means the body is fiberglass for ease of doing a one-off model; the real think, due at the end of 2010, would be traditional steel.
BYD Auto F3DM. The Chinese maker showed a battery-powered sedan it said it could launch in two years.
Toyota FT-EV city car. Toyota said it will sell an all-electric car by 2012.
Ford urban car. Ford will introduce a small electric car in 2011, working with supplier Magna International. It's based on the compact Ford Focus sedan. Target range is 100 miles on a charge. Ford development head Derrick Kuzak targeted sales at 5,000-10,000 a year. Also planned: a battery-powered commercial van based on the Transit van in 2010 and a plug-in hybrid (meaning the battery can be topped off in the garage) passenger car by 2012.
Chrysler. Chrysler showed four electric or range-extending hybrid concept vehicles. The first could arrive next year, the others by 2013. They include the Dodge Circuit EV, all-electric sports car; and the Jeep Patriot, the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited EV, and the Chrysler Town & Country EV range-extending vehicles. They could go up to 40 miles on a battery charge, then keep on cruising with small gasoline engines.
Mercedes-Benz BlueZero E-Cell. This is a battery-only small electric prototype. It also showed sibling cars, the the hybrid BlueZero E-Cell Plus and the hydrogen fuel cell BlueZero F-Cell, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. MB says its first electric would ship in 2010.
Smart Fortwo prototype. The cute two-seater now has an electric version, currently a prototype, but possibly shipping late this year.
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January 13, 2009 3:45 PM
The Saturn EV-1 got me all excited about the potential of electric cars. The current crop of production candidates has me profoundly underwhelmed. I get the feeling the auto companies are deliberately sabotaging electric car designs to avoid killing off their century old internal combustion business - and its lucrative repair maintenance aftermarket.
January 13, 2009 5:43 PM
Living in Michigan with the auto industry meltdown, I just gotta rant about the auto show's U.S. players. They've been promising alternative energy vehicles for years, but they were too busy selling high markup SUV's to get serious about the future. By serious, I mean as if their lives depended on it. GM's fuel cell platform was always somewhere in the future. Their VOLT is an unborn dinosaur. Forty miles on a charge? Pathetic. GM's labs have been more a Potemkin tech village for TV. Now their insular executive class have their beggar's bowl out for a taxpayer bailout, and Congress is still waiting for their business plan. Twenty years ago Brazil got serious about dual-fuel ethanol cars because (1) they grow sugar cane and (2) they can make alcohol relatively cheaper than petroleum. Not particularly sexy, but it worked. Brazilians are driving the cars and they're energy independent. What has our overpaid, insular auto executive class produced? Multi-$ bonuses for themselves and bright shiny "concept" cars for the rest of us. 70% of our oil is used for transportation. The future is now and we've lost decades. I wish them successs because our lives do depend on it, but I'm not holding my breath.
January 13, 2009 11:37 PM
Hybrids and all electric cars ARE the wave of the future, and making their presence today. The Big-3 american car makers need to get on the ball and get a share of the market while they can. If not, they'll be left in the dust. We have to break our dependency on oil, and at least cut the demand drastically. I sincerely hope the american companies call pull it off and take the lead like they should have been already.
January 14, 2009 1:24 AM
The track, which runs through a forest of about 100 Michigan maple, pine and birch trees and around two ponds with waterfalls, will let automakers display cutting-edge electric vehicles and other technology for more than 6,000 journalists signed up to attend the show's press days, said co-chairman Doug Fox, who runs several car dealerships in nearby Ann Arbor.
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January 14, 2009 12:16 PM
I have to agree with Mike. Human nature being what it is, the auto execs have had no incentive to be anything but self serving. They have given us lip service for years all the while racking up millions in profit to pay themselves and their stock holders with. After all, their primary motive is...profit, not a concern for the people that actually buy their products. If it was for the buyers, then cars would last 10 years and rarely break down or need service.
January 15, 2009 9:29 PM
Let's see. The Chevy Volt is projected to cost almost $40 grand. Even allowing for a new model and two years of price increases, a Toyota Prius would probably be almost 10k less than that. Electricity isn't free unless you own a hydroelectric dam or windfarm. At what point and price for petroleum would the Volt save money over a hybrid?? My guess is a couple of hundred thousand miles. Is my math wrong or is this another alternative energy pipedream from GM? (like the hydrogen fuel cell).
January 20, 2009 12:59 PM
I think once the diesels come here from Europe, we will quickly forget all about 40 mile range electric cars, fuel cells, and $40,000 hybrids, and start making fuel out of grass.
April 9, 2009 6:17 AM
We want to upset everything upside down to break away from the current direction, which follows an electric car in our study is far from the front of the drives to those with cars will soon have a web page group Jurgen proposal for automotive companies, within 6 months together we will create an electric car for incredible range or more of our hand, if all we come to an agreement as to the future of this project will be available first, how has run this car will disclose such a device so different from that which we know will be a first step, then everyone will cooperate about the future of this project, we take responsibility for this proposal for the car industry
2009-04-09 12:10:25 Kassel bjpost@web.de group Jurgen