Infinite Unknown

- Hank Paulson Burned As Another Electric Car Maker Goes Up In Flames (ZeroHedge, Mai 1, 2013):

It would appear that (apart from Tesla, for now) that any thing related to electric cars is going up in flames. From Fisker’s fubar (and blowing all that hard-earned government funding) and Chevy’s Volt dysphoria to A-123 Systems (the Lithium-Ion battery-maker) and now Coda – which Yahoo Finance notes was among an emerging crop of California startups seeking to build emission-free electric cars three years ago. After selling just 100 of its $37,250 five-passenger vehicles, Coda filed Chapter 11 today taking a few well-known investors with it. On the bright side, the government was not involved (from what we can tell), but on the even brighter side, none other than former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was among those burned by the company going up in flames (as was Harbinger’s Phil Falcone).Despite the $300 million the company managed to raise, that quickly went and unable to raise an additional $150 million in new funding (we suspect blaming ‘market conditions’ for its mere $22million raise), Coda had no choice (and Fortress was more than happy to scoop it up and provide the DIP – the cars will make for fancy paperweights in a collateral liquidation). ‘Green’ is the new ‘red’ as it seems when it comes to electric cars, regardless of funding source – private or public – it goes up in flames.

Via Reuters,

Green car startup Coda Holdings Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after selling just 100 of its all-electric sedans, another example of battery-powered vehicles’ failure to break into the mass market.

… exit the auto sector and refocus on energy storage, a far less capital-intensive business. Continue reading »

Tags: Bankruptcy, Cars, Economy, Electric Car, Global News, Henry Paulson

From the article:

As the New York Times reported September 5, “For General Motors and the Obama administration, the new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid represents the automotive future, the culmination of decades of high-tech research financed partly with federal dollars.”

Flashback (A MUST-SEE!!!):

- Who Killed The Electric Car? (Documentary)

- Man Builds Electric Car for $4750, Costs $7 For Every 300 Miles (Video)

Related info:

- Electric Vehicle Called ‘Schluckspecht’ (‘Boozer’) Sets New 1,013.8 Miles Record On Single Battery Charge

- Green Car Made From Hemp And Powered By An Electric Motor

- EU Rules: Silent Electric Cars Must Make Noise!

- New Nanoscale Material Developed For Electric Cars

- Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu Throws $1.4 Billion Loan To Nissan Leaf

- World’s first electric car built by Victorian inventor in 1884

… and General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called the Chevy Volt “not a step forward, but a leap forward” ???

Just more BS they want us to believe in!

- 115-year-old electric car gets same 40 miles to the charge as Chevy Volt (Daily Caller, Oct. 14, 2011):

Meet the Roberts electric car. Built in 1896, it gets a solid 40 miles to the charge — exactly the mileage Chevrolet advertises for the Volt, the highly touted $31,645 electric car General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.”

The executives at Chevrolet can rest easy for now. Since the Roberts was constructed in an age before Henry Ford’s mass production, the 115-year-old electric car is one of a kind.

But don’t let the car’s advanced age let you think it isn’t tough: Its present-day owner, who prefers not to be named, told The Daily Caller it still runs like a charm, and has even completed the roughly 60-mile London to Brighton Vintage Car Race.

If you didn’t know there are electric cars as old as the Roberts, you aren’t alone. Prior to today’s electric v. gas skirmishes, there was another battle: electric v. gas v. steam. This contest was fought in the market place, and history shows gas gave electric and steam an even more thorough whooping than Coca-Cola gave Moxie.

But while the Roberts electric car clearly lacked GPS, power steering and, yes, air bags, the distance it could achieve on a charge, when compared with its modern equivalent, provides a telling example of the slow pace of the electric car.

Driven by a tiller instead of a wheel, the Roberts car was built seven years before the Wright brothers’ first flight, 12 years before the Ford Model T, 16 years before Chevrolet was founded and 114 years before the first Chevy Volt was delivered to a customer.

As the New York Times reported September 5, “For General Motors and the Obama administration, the new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid represents the automotive future, the culmination of decades of high-tech research financed partly with federal dollars.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Volt, Economy, Electric Car, Global News, Government, Politics, Technology, U.S.

- ‘Boozer’ EV sets 1,000 miles-plus record on single charge (PhysOrg, August 17, 2011):

An experimental electric vehicle called “Schluckspecht” (“boozer,” or “tippler” in German) has set the record for achieving the longest drive in a battery-powered vehicle on a single battery charge. Its record-breaking distance was 1,013.8 miles (1,631.5 km). The trip lasted 36 hours and 12 minutes. The Schluckspecht E, as the winning machine is called, was developed at Germany’s University of Applied Sciences, Offenburg, in collaboration with other academic groups. The test drive took place in Boxberg at the Bosch corporate test track, where a team of four drivers made the trip, as they took turns navigating over the long stretch of hours.

While nothing beats a world record, this is not the first time Team Schluckspecht has made the EV design scene sit up and take notice. They also won attention at the South African Solar Challenge last year, driving 389 miles on a single charge.

Continue reading »

Tags: Electric Car, Energy, Germany, Global News, Schluckspecht, Science, Technology

Calgary’s Motive Industries announced it will introduce an electric car whose bio-composite body is made from cannabis.
Photograph by: Handout, Motive Industries

Nathan Armstrong envisions a day when drivers will be rolling up to the curb in a car powered by an electric motor and covered with a body made from hemp.

The green vehicle’s design will be unveiled next month at the Electric Mobility trade show in Vancouver, but the Kestrel is part of a bigger plan by a Canadian consortium — including Armstrong’s Calgary-based Motive Industries — to build an environmentally friendly car in this country.

“It’s a design program that will put all the good eggs we’ve been thinking about into one basket,” said Armstrong, Motive’s president.

Project Eve, as the currently nameless group is called, isn’t starting from scratch.

Motive had been working on an entry for the Progressive Automotive X Prize competition, which will pit vehicles that get mileage of 2.4 L/100 km or better against each other in a race.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Electric Car, Hemp, Technology

EU rules may mean silent electric cars must make Star Wars noises

Battery cars such as the G-Wiz may be too quiet for cyclists and the blind to hear

The vision of tranquil modern cities, with inhabitants gliding by silently in electric cars, may be shattered by European plans to introduce artificial warning sounds to the new generation of zero-emission vehicles.

Each manufacturer may be permitted to provide its own “signature tune”, with the regulation simply setting a minimum volume to prevent pedestrians, cyclists and especially blind people from stepping into the path of battery-powered cars.

Some manufacturers are likely to opt for an engine noise while others are considering adopting the noises of spacecraft from science fiction films, such as the podracers from Star Wars.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Electric Car, Environment, EU, Law, Politics, Star Wars

Electric Cars: Put A Battery In Your Roof

Lithium-ion batteries used in the current generation of plug-in vehicles depend on dwindling supplies of lithium

PARIS — A nanoscale material developed in Britain could one day yield wafer-thin cellphones and light-weight, long-range electric cars powered by the roof, boot and doors, researchers have reported.

For now, the new technology — a patented mix of carbon fibre and polymer resin that can charge and release electricity just like a regular battery — has not gone beyond a successful laboratory experiment.

But if scaled-up, it could hold several advantages over existing energy sources for hybrid and electric cars, according to the scientists at Imperial College London who developed it.

Lithium-ion batteries used in the current generation of plug-in vehicles are not only heavy, which adds to energy consumption, but also depend on dwindling supplies of the metal lithium, whose prices have risen steadily.

The new material — while expensive to make — is entirely synthetic, which means production would not be limited by availability of natural resources.

Another plus: conventional batteries need chemical reactions to generate juice, a process which causes them to degrade over time and gradually lose the capacity to hold a charge.

The carbon-polymer composite does not depend on chemistry, which not only means a longer life but a quicker charge as well.

Because the material is composed of elements measured in billionths of a metre, “you don’t compromise the mechanical properties of the fibers,” explained Emile Greenhalgh, an engineer at Imperial College and one of the inventors.

As hard a steel, it could in theory double as the body of the vehicle, cutting the weight by up to a third.

The Tesla Roadster, a luxury electric car made in the United States, for example, weighs about 1,200 kilos (2,650 pounds), more than a third of which is accounted for by batteries, which turn the scales at a hefty 450 kilos (990 pounds). The vehicle has a range of about 300 kilometers (185 miles) before a recharge is needed.

“With our material, we would ultimately lose that 450 kilos (990 pounds),” Greenhalgh said in an interview. “That car would be faster and travel further.” Continue reading »

Tags: Electric Car, Science, Technology

Photo: Nissan

At today’s press conference at The Washington Auto Show, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu had something to say about electric vehicles, and how the U.S. government would approach aiding EV manufacturers. Although it was originally thought that announcement would concern the loans that Tesla, Fisker et al have received, the surprise announcement concerned Nissan’s Leaf all electric car.

The Leaf, which Nissan says should get 100 miles to a charge, cost around $25,000 to $30,000 and should be in showrooms soon, will be receiving $1.4 billion from the American government to upgrade the company’s manufacturing plant located in Smyrna, Tennessee.

At the D.C. Auto Show Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy had closed a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan to support the modification of the company’s Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing plant to produce both the Nissan LEAF as well as the lithium-ion battery packs that will power them.

The $1.4 billion is part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, a $25 billion program that was authorized by Congress in 2007, according to Clean Skies. The Japanese automaker says the loan will allow them to generate up to 1,300 jobs when the Tennessee plants are working at full volume. The factory modifications will begin later in 2010 and include the new battery plant as well as changes to the existing structure for electric-vehicle assembly.

Eventually the plants will construct up to 150,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars a year and as many as 200,000 batteries. Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Department of Energy, Electric Car, Politics, Technology, U.S.

Daimler’s investment in Tesla Motors provides both companies with something they desperately need and could be the first step down the aisle toward marriage.

The world’s oldest automaker hitched its electric wagon to Tesla on Tuesday when it bought nearly 10 percent of the company and a seat on its board. Neither side is discussing specifics of the deal, reportedly worth $50 million, but both sides walk away winners.

Tesla gets a much-needed infusion of cash and help building the gorgeous Model S sedan. More importantly, Tesla gains legitimacy as it continues raising funds. Having the company that invented the automobile as a partner makes you much more attractive to investors.

Daimler’s investment buys it a whole lot of battery know-how, something German automakers are short of. And a seat on the board gives Daimler gets a close look at Tesla’s business plan and financials so it can decide if it wants a bigger piece of the action.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Daimler, Electric Car, Mercedes, Stock Market, Tesla Motors

This picture shows what may be the world’s first electric car – built by a Victorian inventor in 1884.

Thomas Parker: He is in the light suit in the front of the car.

Sitting aboard is Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite.

Last week the government announced it wanted to create a mass market in electric cars in order to cut down carbon emissions.

Continue reading »

Tags: Electric Car, Science, Technology

WASHINGTON: The future of the American auto industry is getting off to a slow start.

The U.S. Energy Department has $25 billion to make loans to hasten the arrival of the next generation of automotive technology – electric-powered cars. But no money has been allocated so far, even though the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program, established in 2007, has received applications from 75 companies, including start-ups as well as the three Detroit automakers.

With General Motors and Chrysler making repeat visits to Washington to ask for bailout money to stave off insolvency, some members of Congress are starting to ask why the Energy Department money is not yet flowing. The loans also are intended to help fulfill President Barack Obama’s campaign promise of putting one million electric cars on American roads by 2015.

“Politicians are breaking down the door asking why the money isn’t being sent out,” said Michael Carr, counsel to the Senate Energy Committee, which oversees the Energy Department.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cars, Electric Car, Government, Politics, U.S.