Recent Comments:
CNG-powered Standard Taxi to be built by AM General {Autoblog Green}
Aug 13th 2008 3:19PM There is method to the madness....
They are planning a much needed new design, which should look better.
RWD is very attractive to the taxi companies, it allows the drivers to hit curbs w/o damaging expensive driveshafts.
The flat windows and windshield allow for easy and cheap replacement
BOF is heavier, but more durable and better suited to take abuse, for proof see any fullsize or commercial truck.
Toyota: there is "no way" we can sell more Priuses than last year {Autoblog Green}
Feb 19th 2008 1:19PM Lascelles:
My point is that if the cost of the battery was a small portion of the vehicle in the beginning, its now a huge portion. There is no other single component of the vehicle that even comes close to costing $8,000. The OEMs will kill to save a few pennies, if you are suggesting that Toyota will continue to eat the cost of the battery you are dreaming. There is no way they can absorb these costs forever. They need a solution to the ever rising costs(so does GM)either a different battery chemistry or something else.
Keep in mind that Toyota is being challenged on all fronts like never before. GM is becoming very competitive, so are the Koreans and soon the Chinese. They are taking some profitability hits and need to limit their exposure to risks like rising battery costs in their loss leader products.
Toyota: there is "no way" we can sell more Priuses than last year {Autoblog Green}
Feb 18th 2008 5:41PM Is it that they "can't" make them or is it that the price of the materials in the battery is too high. There are estimates that the price of just the materials in the Nickel Metal hydride battery have risen from $1000 in 1999 to $8000 in 2008. This one of the reasons the OEMs are pushing so hard for a Lithium battery.
Zotye electric SUV: $20,000, highway speed, 100-mile range and just 60 DAYS AWAY! {Autoblog Green}
Feb 5th 2008 11:41AM Zoyte only builds about 20K vehicles a year and most of their vehicles are "licensed" designs of other OEMs.
Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy {Autoblog}
Jan 18th 2008 9:10PM tbss:
A lot of former auto and supplier designers work at Whirlpool, they are located on the west side of the state next to Lake Michigan.
GM's Wagoner says there's no guarantee Volt will start production in 2010 {Autoblog Green}
Jan 4th 2008 5:38PM
Get a grip all you conspiracy theorists. It takes 4 years for an automaker to develop and validate a normal car without a lot of new technology. GM is developing the Volt in 4 years, they announced the Volt in Jan of 2006 and confirmed production shortly after. 2010 would be a tight time line on any production car. Its really tight on one with a totally new battery type that has to be validated and the process for the validation has to be invented. GM is betting hundreds of millions of dollars that they can get the volt into production, they are not playing games for PR purposes. They probably will miss their 2010 deadline but not by much.
Micro-hybrids set to take off in coming years {Autoblog Green}
Dec 18th 2007 2:58PM "If these so-called-hybrids were actually hybrids, this would be an issue. However, they don't use the electric motor to propel the car, so these things are really NOT hybrids."
According to the mild hybrid (Vue) presentations that GM has been giving the auto industry over the last few years, the mild hybrid system does indeed propel the vehicle under electric only power. Due to the limitations of the electric motor and the belt system its only for the first few MPH at initial take off. So by your definition calling these mild hybrid systems would seem to be correct.
Tesla: Roadster production unit #1 completed; future models may use range extender {Autoblog Green}
Dec 13th 2007 11:55AM Wasn't Martin the one who advocated a pure EV only model for Tesla? Reading between the lines, Did Martin got pushed out because he did not or would not support a range extender (like the Volt)? It sounds like the Whitestar will be a series hybrid like the Volt. Tesla has decided that GM is right and the series hybrid is the way to go, at least until battery technology improves.
Lithium-ion Mini Cooper on cover of Sam's Club Christmas catalog {Autoblog Green}
Dec 4th 2007 8:44AM They have been losing money at a pretty good clip. Here's a quote from their 10-k "Our auditors have expressed substantial doubt concerning our ability to continue as a going concern." they lost $13M in 2006 and $11M in 2007. Also from the 10-k "As of July 31, 2007, we had cash on hand of $3,775. Our liabilities at the same date totaled $1,537,496."
That's right they had cash of $3700 and owe $1.5M. Not good.
These guys are running on empty and need some more financing, they just secured a $4M loan from Wyndom Capital and say they need $2M more to launch their products.
Playing Devil's Advocate, Part 2: The Chevy Volt {Autoblog Green}
May 17th 2007 3:18PM Regarding Toyota and the PHEV please see their VP’s comments on May 11, 2007.
Mr. Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president in charge of powertrain development
told reporters that battery technology was still far from capable of supporting the practical application of ‘plug-in’ hybrid systems or pure battery-electric powertrains for cars required to emulate the range of petrol or diesel cars.
All of the OEMs have the same issue, the batteries are not quite ready. GM is publicly betting that they will be by 2010 for the volt. Toyota is not quite ready to go there.
GM is taking a PR risk by announcing that they intend to build the Volt, Toyota is playing it safer and closer to the vest.
Tesla is taking the biggest risk in going with the commodity laptop batteries. But Telsa is not a multi billion dollar worldwide enterprise with a huge reputation at stake. Its backed by a bunch of rich guys who can probably afford to lose their investment.
If the newly announced A123 batteries work out, then we should see the Volt and others on the road in the next few years.
