Extract from the EV World Insider Commentary (21 Jan 2008): We Won! Game over.
The struggle to convince a skeptical industry... and world... that electric
drive vehicles are not only technologically viable, but the planet's only hope
in the face to rising oil demand, static petroleum production and concerns over
the environmental impact of rising CO2 levels... officially ended on January 13,
2008.
It happened in Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit when the Co-Chairman and CEO of
General Motors announced to a stunned media that the world cannot produce enough
oil to meet rising demand -- a phenomenon known as "peak oil". [See relevant
excerpts from Rick Wagoner's speech below].
The impact of Wagoner's remarks at the opening of the 2008 North American
International Auto Show (NAIAS) carried around the planet. Down in Australia,
the Sydney Morning Herald carried the following headline on
January 15, 2008: "Time's up for petrol cars, says GM chief."
The article opens with, "The world's biggest car maker, General Motors,
believes global oil supply has peaked and a switch to electric cars is
inevitable."
That statement got my attention... in a hurry, especially after I got a call
from a Sydney radio station who wanted to talk to me about Wagoner's remarks.
More on that call later.
The Speech That Shook the World
For GM, the answer to this converging crisis is two-fold: more and better
electric-drive vehicles from two-mode hybrids to plug-ins to E-Flex extended
range electric cars, and greater reliance on ethanol. The company announced it
will offer 8 hybrid models in 2008 and many more in succeeding years. It also
announced an investment in a new bio-waste ethanol process with an energy ratio
of 1:7 That means that for every unit of energy input, the process produces 7
additional units.
Here are the EV world-relevant parts of Wagoner's landmark address...
Good morning. . . welcome to the start of the 2008 auto show season.
You know, similar to our opening act this morning, the auto industry has a
lot of balls in the air right now when it comes to the future of automotive
propulsion, and for very good reason. Earlier this month, the price of oil hit a
hundred-dollars-a-barrel, as demand for energy around the world is growing
faster than supply.
And that's not just a cyclical phenomenon. . . it's structural, given the
growth in emerging economies, which we fully expect to continue.
Here's an amazing statistic: on a global basis, to satisfy all energy needs,
we're consuming roughly 1,000 barrels of oil every single second. . . and the
rate of consumption continues to grow. In fact, according to the U.S. Department
of Energy, the world will need about 70 percent more energy in 2030 than it did
in 2004.
Now, when you consider these facts in light of the world's heavy reliance on
oil for automotive transportation. . . in the U.S. , for example, 96 percent
reliance on oil. . . we have to ask ourselves. . . what does all this mean for
the global auto industry? For us at GM, the answer is perfectly clear. As a
business necessity, and an obligation to society. . . we need to develop
alternative sources of propulsion. . . based on diverse sources of energy. . .
to meet the world's growing demand for our products.
[EDITED]
So, are electrically driven vehicles the answer for the mid- and long-term?
Yes, for sure.
Wagoner then talks about the need for political action to speed the
deployment of ethanol pumps across America to fuel the millions of flexible fuel
vehicles GM and other carmakers have already built. He stated that GM plans to
launch 25 flexible fuel models around the world in the near future. After
announcing the investment in Coskata, and introducing the new Saab 9.4x BioPower
crossover, he went on to emphasize...
Just to be perfectly clear. . . GM will continue to drive the
development of electrically driven vehicles, our E-Flex propulsion system,
plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell technology with all the speed we can muster. They
uniquely have the potential to remove the automobile from the environmental
equation.
CSIRO UltraBattery
On the battery development front, there is good
news out of Australia. CSIRO's "UltraBattery", which combines the virtues of
ultracapacitors and an energy battery, has just competed 100,000 miles (160,000
km) of vehicle testing in the UK. The ITwire news release
indicated that hybrid vehicles using the battery could be in dealers' showrooms
"within two years."
The story suggests how the technology works:
...there are cost, space and weight penalties from using both
technologies and complex electronics needed to manage the flow of electrical
energy into and out of supercapacitor and the battery add considerably to the
cost.
The UltraBattery eliminates the need for all the control electronics required
to manage electrical energy flows in a dual capacitor/battery system because
energy flows are determined at a 'chemical' level by the internal construction
of the unit.
It is as though the positive plate as been split into two: one half lead [the
battery] and one half carbon [the capacitor]
If any of our
readers in Australia would be interested in helping EV World learn more about
this technology, please let me know at editor@evworld.com. I'd love to have some
'Down Under" talk to CSIRO and its spin-off company about this program. ...
Until next time, stay plugged into EVWorld...
--------------------
Electric cars face battery of hurdles
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
In the rush to deliver an electric car to the masses, General Motors
Corp. is finding that the all-important battery might not be the only
major hurdle.
The heating and cooling systems, for example, are
a challenge because they typically are built to run off a traditional
fuel combustion engine. That means new types of air conditioning and
heating systems must be built.
GM, in a high-stakes race with
Toyota Motor Corp. to turn out an affordable, effective battery-powered
car, has found that while the lithium-ion batteries themselves are
hitting all the marks on early road tests, a host of other issues are
beginning to crop up.
"People tend to believe that if the battery question is solved,
everything is solved and the vehicle will work," said Frank Weber, GM's
vehicle line executive in charge of the electric car program. "But
beyond the battery, the electric vehicle presents challenges that are
significant."
A typical modern stereo system, for example,
drains too much juice from the battery life. At the same time, there
still isn't a supplier base to provide parts for the mass production of
electric vehicles.
The quandaries underscore the complexity of
what GM and other automakers are trying to achieve in creating an
electric car, a feat that involves far more than simply swapping an
engine for a high-powered battery cell.
GM executives say,
despite the challenges, they still hope to meet a 2010 production goal
for their first battery-powered offering: the much-hyped Chevrolet
Volt.
The Volt is a variation of a plug-in hybrid vehicle,
which Toyota also is racing to bring to market. Nissan Motor Co. and
Ford Motor Co., too, are working on developing lithium-ion batteries
that are more powerful and durable yet smaller than the nickel-metal
hydride batteries in current hybrids...
Read more: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
