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Electric Cars

General Motors Corporation (GM) manufactured the first battery pack for its upcoming extended-range electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt, on January 7, 2010. The advanced lithium-ion battery pack rolled off the line at GM's Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant just five months after GM invested $43 million in the facility to prepare for the manufacturing of the Volt and other electric vehicles with extended-range capabilities. The Volt is designed to drive up to 40 miles on electricity alone, after which a flex-fuel engine-generator kicks in to extend the total driving range to about 300 miles. GM's initial battery production at Brownstown will be used to validate the plant's equipment and processes, and batteries will be sent to GM's Global Battery Systems lab in Warren, Michigan, for testing. Spring, 2010, GM will begin shipping batteries to GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant, the assembly location for the Volt, for use in production validation vehicles. Regular production at Brownstown and Detroit-Hamtramck is set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010. 

Ford Motor Company is also investing heavily in electrified vehicles. The company announced on January 1, 2010,  that it will invest an additional $450 million in Michigan as part of its aggressive electric vehicle plan. Ford intends to build a next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid in Michigan beginning in 2012. The new investment is in addition to a previously announced $550 million investment in the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, in part for the production of an all-electric Ford Focus, starting next year. But first, Ford is collaborating with Azure Dynamics Corporation to produce an all-electric Ford Transit Connect van, which will be sold in the United States and Canada this year. Azure will integrate its battery electric drive train in the Transit Connect van for commercial fleet and retail use. The collaboration with Azure Dynamics for the Transit Connect BEV will build on the existing business relationship between Ford and Azure as well as their shared experience with Johnson Controls-Saft, their battery supplier. Looking towards the future, Ford is even working with the University of Detroit Mercy to retrain automotive engineers to develop electric vehicles instead. 

GM and Ford can expect plenty of competition in the electric vehicle arena. In addition to Toyota's plans to offer an electric vehicle for model year 2012,, the Norwegian company Think (once part of Ford) is investing $43.5 million in a factory in Indiana that will produce the all-electric Think City, a highway-capable urban vehicle. Think says the plant could begin assembling vehicles early 2011. In the truck market, Balqon Corporation introduced a heavy-duty electric truck for short haul applications, the Mule M-150, in late September,  2009, while Smith Electric Vehicles US Corp started assembling electric trucks in Kansas City, Missouri, in October, 2009. 

New vehicles were unveiled on January 11, 2010, at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michigan. 

The Detroit Auto Show of 2010 featured "Electric Avenue," where more than 20 electric vehicles were displayed. Among the green vehicles on display in Detroit, China's BYD Auto exhibited its all-electric five-seat crossover, the e6, which uses the BYD ferrous battery to achieve a 205-mile range. The company expects to begin selling the car in the United States in 2010.. BYD Auto also displayed the newest version of its F3DM plug-in electric sedan, which includes a 1.0-liter gasoline engine as well as a solar panel on its roof. BMW unveiled its Concept ActiveE electric vehicle, based on a 1 Series coupe, which achieves a range of 100 miles using a liquid-cooled, lithium-ion battery pack. General Motors Corporation (GM) revealed its Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, which pairs a 3.6-liter V-6 direct-injection engine to a plug-in hybrid system to achieve 350 horsepower. Volvo Cars unveiled its next-generation all-electric Volvo C30k, slated for real-world trials in 2011, while Volkswagen took the wraps off its New Compact Coupe hybrid concept, which can achieve an estimated combined fuel economy of 45 mpg. Ford claimed the spotlight, too, when its 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid was named North American Car of the Year.

The 2011 Honda CR-Z sport hybrid coupe, set to go on sale in the United States in late summer, is powered by a 1.5-liter, four-cylinder i-VTEC engine paired with a 10-kilowatt motor to deliver up to 122 horsepower. The two-seat car introduces a three-mode drive system that allows the driver to select between sport, economy, and normal driving modes. The coupe comes with a six-speed manual transmission, but a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is also available. Honda expects the CVT-equipped CR-Z to achieve 36 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 38 mpg on the highway, while the fuel economy of the manual transmission model should drop to 31 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway. 

Toyota unveiled the FT-CH, which is 22 inches shorter than the Prius. While the automaker didn't divulge the new model's fuel economy, it noted that the FT-CH would be lighter and even more fuel efficient than Prius, targeting a lower price point than Prius. It said the addition was part of its strategy to offer a wider variety of conventional hybrid choices. The company said it plans to begin introducing plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles in model year 2012, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2015 in global markets. 

Electric Charging 

Organizations are also preparing for the coming electric vehicles, as the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has released a standard for an electric vehicle charging coupler. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Electric Power Research Institute, and DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are also working together to test and deploy solar-assisted electric vehicle charging stations across the state of Tennessee. The prototype charging station will be built in Knoxville in spring, 2011, followed by a second prototype in Oak Ridge, with plans to install additional stations in Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville over the next few years. 

Source: DOE

Contact Terry Jensen at 972 251-1532 or 817 545-0140 for more information.

More news: Solar Energy Poised to Put Americans Back to Work

Contact Terry Jensen at 972 251-1532 or 817 545-0140.

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