Electric car co. lacks funds to cover full cost of Casa Grande plant

The big announcement by the governor's office this week that a California firm will invest $700 million to build an auto manufacturing plant in Casa Grande left out one important fact: The company doesn't have anywhere near that much.

In fact, a spokesman for Lucid Motors put the company's bank account in the range of "a few hundred million" even after several rounds of fundraising. Much of that cash has come from Chinese investors and even a Chinese state-owned company.

But David Salguero said the company is sure it can raise the rest of the money by 2022 to turn out at least 130,000 all-electric vehicles a year with price tags north of $100,000 from a plant Lucid says will hire 2,000.

He said Lucid is courting new investors. And Salguero said the company is counting on profits from the first vehicles, which are scheduled to roll off the assembly line in late 2018 — years before the company will have the cash to finish the plant.

That lack of cash has not dimmed the views of the projects by Gov. Doug Ducey who engineered the Tuesday press conference, complete with two prototypes of the car Lucid hopes eventually to build.

The Arizona Commerce Authority already has promised a $5 million grant. ACA spokeswoman Susan Marie said the company also wants $1.5 million for job training. And she said it could theoretically qualify for up to $40 million if it actually creates all 2,000 jobs.

But Marie said there is no risk to Arizona taxpayers, with all that contingent on Lucid actually building the plant and hiring the workers.

"Should it for some reason not move forward, the state will not have spent any money," she said.

But the situation is a bit different in Pinal County which has agreed to buy the 493 acres Lucid wants for the plant.

Tim Kanavel, the county's program manager for economic development, said that land purchase will go ahead once Lucid signs a development agreement. At that point the plan is to lease the property to Lucid, with the company purchasing it outright at the end of five years.

"There's always risk involved," he said. But Kanavel said the county has done what it can to limit its financial exposure.

"If for some reason this company, between now and when they purchase the property, say 'We don't want it,' well then we own 493 acres of prime industrial real estate," he said.

"And we can always sell that," he continued. "So we feel that the risk is very minimized on that."

He said the price of the parcels the county will buy is still being worked out but put it as "way less than $100 million." And the price Lucid will pay also remains subject to negotiation.

Kanavel said, though, he is "absolutely" confident that Lucid will be able to complete the deal despite the fact it does not yet have the money. That's also the view of the Arizona Commerce Authority.

"It is no secret that Lucid is a startup company," said Marie. "Startup companies raise money in rounds and based on milestones as they commercialize their products."

But it may be something of a misnomer to call Lucid a startup.

It's true the company did not exist prior to October. But that's only because that's when Lucid jettisoned the name it started with nine years ago: Atieva.

Still, state officials believe the company has a future.

Ducey press aide Daniel Scarpinato said his boss toured the plant and met multiple times with company officials.

"And I think the fact that I think 60 different locations across the country were competing for this manufacturing center speaks to the very fact that this is a company that's seen as on the rise … and that this is a recruitment that many states and cities across the country felt was very attractive to get," he said. "And Arizona got it."

Marie said the company has raised cash in prior fundraising operations from "reputable venture investors" like Venrock Capital and Mitsui Inc.

There also is a lot of Chinese money involved. That includes BAIC Automotive Group, the state-owned holding company of several car manufacturing firms, and Jia Yueting who is CEO of LeEco, a Chinese consumer electronics company.

Salguero acknowledged that some of these investors, like Yueting, are no longer interested in putting additional funds into Lucid. In fact, Yueting has moved on, with LeEco unveiling its own LeSee prototype last month in San Francisco.

But Salguero said there are other options.

"We will be going out for another round of funding," Salguero said. "There will be more."

Marie said ACA officials are not concerned that the company does not expect to have all the money before 2022.

"The ACA is comfortable that Lucid Motors currently has sufficient funding for the initial phase of the project," she said. She said that $700 million is the price tag to have a full-blown manufacturing plant capable of turning out 130,000 vehicles a year.

Marie also defended the incentives being offered to Lucid. She said even if the company qualifies for the entire $46.5 million in assistance it "pales in comparison to the $1.3 billion package for Tesla (Motors) and the $335 million package for Faraday Future that Nevada did." Tesla already is producing vehicles; Faraday is still in the development stage.

Salguero said it's not surprising that people are generally unaware of Lucid Motors — and not just because the name did not exist before October.

"There's not much that we've been saying about our car until very recently," he said.

"As a marketing manager, my approach to marketing is you don't say things unless you can really do them," Salguero explained. "It's why we didn't start talking about our car until we actually had a prototype running and the final design locked in."

Source: Electric car co. lacks funds to cover full cost of Casa Grande plant

California electric car company to build $700M plant in Casa Grande

PHOENIX — A California startup company will build a $700 million plant in Casa Grande to manufacture luxury electric vehicles.

The plan by Lucid Motors, announced Tuesday, eventually will involve hiring 2,000 workers for what would be the state's only car manufacturing operation. The first hires will take place next year, with training of local workers for the jobs through the community and technical colleges in Pinal and Maricopa counties.

Plans are to have the first vehicles ready for sale by 2018 with the goal of producing 8,000 to 10,000 built the first year. The goal is full-scale production of more than 50,000 a year by 2022

Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich was part of Tuesday's announcement. That is because the plan involves having at least some of the parts built in Mexico and shipped to Arizona for final construction.

"This announcement proves without a doubt how bilateral relations can bring prosperity for our citizens when we work for a common goal," she said during the event in front of the old state Capitol. "Our two states together as a mega-region are a more attractive place for creating new business."

Brian Barron, the company's director of global manufacturing, called Arizona the "perfect place" for his company to set up production operations.

"Here, our team has access to an excellent workforce, forward-thinking institutions and a strong regional supply chain that certainly includes the state of Sonora," he said.

"Readiness was a key focus in the site-selection process," Barron said, with the area coming out on top of 60 sites in 13 states that Lucid reviewed.

"This site is truly ready to go with the required infrastructure and solid attributes," he said. Barron also said Casa Grande is a short flight from the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.

"And it also has good proximity to rail, major interstates, ports, training facilities, utility providers and more," he said.

At this point, though, the vehicle is little more than an "alpha prototype" for what Peter Rawlinson, the company's chief technology officer, said will get 400 miles on a single charge. He said it is now ready for beta testing; it will take until late 2018 for actual production to occur.

One big issue to be resolved is getting suitable batteries "that will maximize the energy density within a pack." That, Rawlinson said, will be paired with Lucid technology to create the most efficient use of the energy.

All this won't be cheap: Rawlinson told Capitol Media Services the first vehicles to come off the assembly line with be "north of $100,000." He said that puts it "right in the middle of the luxury sector with Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

"That's a huge world market," Rawlinson said.

But less expensive versions are likely to follow.

"We will be able to reduce that price considerably as we introduce models that are more within reach as our production continues," he said.

How quickly Lucid can get to 50,000 vehicles a year, Rawlinson said, will depend on how the research and development go.

"Quality constraints will determine the volume that we put out," he said. "We only want to build top-quality cars."

Rawlinson brushed aside the idea that Lucid should focus initially on producing something that would be more affordable for most Arizonans and Americans. He said it's a question how consumers see the company and its vehicles.

"I think that it's very important … to create a premium brand and image," he said.

In some ways what Lucid proposes to build will compete with what Tesla Motors already is producing.

It's Model X has a price range from $75,200 to $136,600.

The Model S is somewhat less expensive, with Tesla now touting its Model 3 with a $35,000 price tag.

But Rawlinson said that does not dampen what he said will be the market for what his company plans to sell.

"The world market for luxury products is vast," he said, saying Lucid sees Mercedes-Benz and BMW as its competitors, not Tesla.

"I really believe there's sufficient room in that marketplace for more than one electric vehicle manufacturer," Rawlinson said.

The 500-acre site is in an industrial area near Interstates 10 and 8. While most of the property already is within Casa Grande, some will need to be annexed.

Pinal County Supervisor Peter Rios said the deal involves the county purchasing the land that the company eventually will buy. He did not know the price but estimated it could be in the $250 million range.

Sandra Watson, president of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said her agency will be providing $5 million in grants. But she said this is not a giveaway but instead based on the company creating the jobs it promised.

Ducey said landing Lucid Motors is more than about the jobs that will be created and the capital investment. He said it sends an important message about the state.

"Everyone looking to grow or start a new business should know: Regardless of what business you're in, your ingenuity and creativity have the opportunity to flourish in Arizona," the governor said. "As this announcement shows, we can stand toe-to-toe in attracting the kind of good-paying manufacturing jobs that every state in the nation is hungry for."

Source: California electric car company to build $700M plant in Casa Grande

More charge points needed urgently for switch to electric cars

A Nissan Leaf electric car, similar to that driven by our reader Clive Wilkinson, on show in Detroit in 2012. Photograph: Mike Cassese/Reuters

I am delighted to learn that the UK government is to encourage the production of electric cars (Report, 26 November). But there is only a very brief mention of the need for the adequate provision of charge points. My wife and I took delivery of our first electric car, a Nissan Leaf, six months ago. It is our only car. We live in a rural area. We can manage round trips of up to 100 miles easily, relying solely on our domestic charge point for topping up at night.

For longer trips, however, we need to know that there are properly functioning charge points available to enable quick recharges to get us safely home without the anxiety of possibly being stranded on the way back. Unfortunately we regularly find charge points out of order, even in major centres such as Newcastle. On a recent trip to Durham, right on the far edge of our range, we found that the only rapid charge point at an out-of-town park-and-ride centre had been out of order for a long time. If the use of electric cars is to be seriously encouraged, the provision of a good network of readily accessible and reliable charge points has to be given absolute priority.Clive WilkinsonRothbury, Northumberland

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Source: More charge points needed urgently for switch to electric cars

Redesigned BMW i3 Electric Vehicle With Longer Range Tipped For 2017

BMW is reportedly cooking up a new i3 electric vehicle for 2017, increasing the car's range and updating its design. Electric vehicles continue to gain momentum, but BMW hasn't been very successful in this segment of the auto market so far. While the automaker has been offering i3 electric vehicles for a few years now, it hasn't seen stellar demand. Nevertheless, a neat redesign and a longer range could give the small electric vehicle just the boost it needs to become more successful.

BMW i3 Makeover

German publication Welt am Sonntag reports (via Reuters) that the BMW i3 model planned for next year will have both its front and rear ends redesigned. No images leaked just yet to offer a glimpse of the makeover, so it remains unclear for now just how the next BMW i3 will look like.

Increased Range

The publication further reveals that BMW will pack new battery technology into its next-generation i3, enabling the electric vehicle to have a longer range. The current BMW i3 can go for 114 miles on a full charge, but the range can be increased up to 180 miles via a "Range Extender."

Welt am Sonntag doesn't specify how long the new range will be, but it does note that it would be an increase of less than 50 percent. This means that the BMW i3 coming next year will still offer a mile range below 200 miles.

That's well below the range of other electric vehicles such as Tesla's Model S, but BMW's electric vehicles are more affordable than Tesla's. The Tesla Model S with a P100D battery, for instance, can run up to 300 miles on a single charge, but it costs roughly $68,000 (including $1,200 for the destination and documentation fee). The current BMW i3 with Range Extender, meanwhile, costs $47,450 (not including destination and other fees).

BMW Autonomous Vehicle Plans

The German publication also asked Klaus Fröhlich, BMW's head of Research & Development (R&D), about the automaker's plans for self-driving vehicles. Fröhlich said that BMW wanted to see a common standard for autonomous vehicles across the auto industry so that it could use the same systems and number of sensors.

As a reminder, BMW already teamed up with Intel and Mobileye earlier this year to create an open platform for autonomous vehicles by 2021. Mobileye also worked with Tesla on the carmaker's Autopilot system, but the two companies parted ways back in September.

It remains to be seen what BMW will offer next, but it may also look to score more partnerships to expand its offers. Fiat, for instance, partnered with Amazon to sell cars online, albeit the option is available only in Italy for now. Source: techtimes

Source: Redesigned BMW i3 Electric Vehicle With Longer Range Tipped For 2017

Toyota Working On Advanced Electric Car Battery That Could Improve Range By 15%

The performance of lithium-ion battery technology has constrained the growth and development of electric vehicles because of its restricted characteristics. However, taking that challenge head on, Toyota recently announced it aspires to develop a greater electric-car battery that will allow its vehicles to offer up to 15 per cent greater range and battery life than they do currently.

Hisao Yamashige, a battery technology researcher at Toyota, said, "Lithium-ion battery is a key technology for electrifying cars, and there is a clear need, going forward, for improving this technology and its performance even more."

The Japanese carmaker that lay the groundwork for hybrid technology has collaborated with a Japanese publicly-financed laboratory and four universities in Japan as it braces to roll out an all-electric battery car by about 2020. In fact, Toyota engineers recently had a breakthrough - they were able to better see in "real time" how lithium ions moved inside electrodes.

Yamashige explained this should lead to new designs that prevent lithium ions from moving unevenly and bunching up in the electrodes, a phenomenon that currently limits the life of lithium-ion batteries and vehicle range. It can also be a factor in causing overheating, he said.

Source: Toyota Working On Advanced Electric Car Battery That Could Improve Range By 15%

New electric vehicle noise requirements cheered by advocates for the blind

Are hybrid vehicles doing their job a little too well? Safety regulators seem to think so.

On Thursday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a final ruling that will require automobile manufacturers to install devices in their electric and hybrid vehicles that make the cars produce more noise, in response to concerns over pedestrian safety.

"The full implementation of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 will protect all pedestrians, especially the blind, as well as cyclists. This regulation will ensure that blind Americans can continue to travel safely and independently as we work, learn, shop, and engage in all facets of community life," said Mark A. Riccobono, president of the National Federation of the Blind.

The NHTSA predicts that the addition of the noise making device will see around 2400 fewer accidents between cyclists/pedestrians and smart/hybrid cars. Devices must be implemented on all new vehicles by no later than September 1, 2019. The Ruling says only vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds will have to produce more noise, and only produce noise when vehicles are traveling in forward or reverse speeds less than 30 Km/h and not over due to the noise that tires and wind produce.

The move comes as the percentage of non-combustion engine vehicles seems set to rise sharply. Recent research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that by the year 2040, electric vehicles (EVs) will count for 35% of total global car sales, and due to the quick advancements in battery technology they will become cheaper than conventional vehicles by the year 2025. If proven to be true, this will mean that 13 million less barrels of crude oil will be used per day, but will increase daily electricity use by 2,700TWh (that's 2,700,000,000,000,000) which is just over 10% of the global demand in 2015.

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Canadians have been concerned with the dangers associated with EVs being nearly silent for since as early as July of 2008. When fully electric vehicles were first being legalized for road use in the quiet municipality of Oak Bay B.C., some were thrilled because of the steps being take to help the environment, while others were worried about the distinct and possible threat to their blind community members.

Instead of proposing to ban these vehicles the Canadian Federation of the Blind worked hand in hand with its American counter part to have the vehicles be made noisier whilst idling, accelerating, and slowing down.

"If they are so quiet we can't hear them, then no sane blind person is going to want to be out on the street alone. And that would make us virtual prisoners in our own homes," said Canadian Federation of the Blind vice president Mary Ellen Gabias, to CBC News in 2008. She also went on to say that this change will not only benefit those who are visually impaired "A couple of months ago, an eight-year-old was hit by a Prius, He didn't hear it coming,"

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Source: New electric vehicle noise requirements cheered by advocates for the blind

Hotels offering electric vehicle charging to tap affluent customers

The sale of electric cars in the United States soared nearly 50 percent in July, but worldwide they still account for less than 1 percent of all car sales. The hotel industry is taking note of this growing and more affluent segment.

CCTV America's Roza Kazan reports from Chicago.Follow Roza Kazan on Twitter @rozakazancctv

Last June, Donna Hastings, a 72- year-old retired accountant, bought her first electric vehicle — a Tesla Model S.

"The idea of not having to stop at a gas station, not to have to worry about when it has to go in for the next servicing, it fit my lifestyle. It was just perfect," Hastings said.

Hastings usually drives short distances. But when she had to come to Chicago for a boat race, she looked for a hotel with an EV (electric vehicle) charger.

The Guesthouse Hotel had it available. The installed it as part of their membership in Select Registry, a portfolio of upscale inns and boutique hotels.

"They were offering Select Registry Members charging stations through Tesla and we jumped right on it. Just thought it was a no brainer for us and it's been a great success ever since," Guesthouse Hotel General Manager Rick Verkler, General Manager said.

The EV charging stations can now be found in parking lots of shopping centers and even grocery stores.

And in the hotel industry, they're fast becoming the new must-have amenity, both for large chains like the Marriott and small boutique inns.

Hospitality experts believe that makes sense.

"It will allow them to market their hotel in a new way. Perhaps previously they focused on talking about how great their restaurant is or how centrally they're located. This gives a new angle for the hotels to perhaps reach a new audience that is environmentally conscientious," Senior Vice President of JLL, Hotels & Hospitality Group Lauro Ferroni said.

The audience is environmentally-conscious and also more affluent.

One study found the average Tesla owner makes over $270,000 a year and is between the ages of 35-50.

"And if you have those individuals booking at the hotel directly, that's typically someone who's going to spend more money on property, perhaps in the food and beverage outlets, or on other amenities such as the spa," Ferroni said.

That upper-income customer segment looks set to grow.

In the first quarter of this year, global EV sales grew more than 40 percent year over year. China's EV sales grew faster than anywhere else-soaring over 100 percent in the same time period.

For Hastings, it's all about convenience.

"It's really much more free, there is a lot of freedom with this car," she said.

Hotels say it's a wise investment.

"Do it, absolutely do it. It's a technology that's going to move forward. Like gas stations have been, we are going to have EV chargers all over the place soon," Verkler of Guesthouse Hotel said.

Source: Hotels offering electric vehicle charging to tap affluent customers

Glow-in-the-Dark Dye Could Boost Electric Car Batteries

If the world one day sees a boom in electric cars and renewable energy, people will need more efficient batteries than are currently available. Now, researchers say a glow-in-the-dark dye used to track chemicals in cells could offer a solution.

The chemical is boron-dipyrromethene, otherwise known as BODIPY, and it consists of a set of carbon rings linked to a boron atom and two fluorine atoms. BODIPY glows under "black" light. Chemistry researchers use it as a marker to see reactions or identify where biological systems take up other substances, such as cadmium.

In the new study, a team of chemists at the University at Buffalo tested BODIPY's power-generating abilities with a special type of battery called a reduction-oxidation battery (or redox). The researchers found that small amounts of the dye added to a solution of acetonitrile could make a battery that can be charged and recharged 100 times without losing its ability to store energy efficiently.

In an ordinary rechargeable battery, like the lithium-ion ones used in computers and phones, the changes in the battery chemistry are in a solid state, and it's harder for electrical charges to flow. Lithium-ion batteries use lithium as the charge carrier; lithium gives up electrons and moves from the negative to positive electrode.

Usually a battery has carbon and lithium oxide in it, and both are solids (hence the term "solid state"), so the substance of the battery has to be porous enough for the lithium ions to get through easily. Between the lithium and carbon layer is a liquid electrolyte to carry the charges (it typically isn't water, and the chemical varies among different manufacturers). The problem is that after repeated charge cycles, the electrodes inside the battery can degrade, because they are reacting with the other chemicals in the battery.

Building a Better Battery

Tim Cook, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo and lead author of the new study, told Live Science that his team combined two different approaches. The first one involved using a redox battery, (redox is short for reduction-oxidation) which consists of two chambers of liquid kept separate by a membrane. In this system, the liquids are the electrolytes surrounding the positive and negative terminals, and with that setup, it's necessary only to find something that will dissolve in the liquid and release electrons.

WATCH VIDEO: Why Does Your Phone Battery Suck?

"If the charge carrier is in solution, it doesn't have the problem other batteries have when [the electrode] crystallizes," which happens with some lithium-ion batteries, Cook said.

The second step was finding a substance that could dissolve in liquid and carry electrons. The researchers found that BODIPY was a very effective electron carrier; it both gives up and takes in electrons easily, Cook said. This means the glow-in-the-dark substance is more efficient at delivering energy.

This redox battery may be a safer option than lithium ion batteries, which sometimes catch fire. This happens because the lithium in them is ionized, meaning it has given up an electron. That makes the element very reactive with the oxygen in water, including the moisture in the air, forming lithium oxide and releasing hydrogen.

"What you're left with is two ionized hydrogens that were attached to water, and we have two lithiums that gave up electrons to join with the water, and that reaction is kicking off a lot of heat too," Cook said.

The hydrogen that can burn if a spark hits it, or the chemicals used for the electrolyte, can react with air. (Lithium itself is so reactive that a popular demonstration in chemistry classes is dropping lithium in water to watch it bubble and generate hydrogen.)

RELATED: Top 10 Fastest Electric Vehicles (For Now): Photos

When lithium ion batteries catch fire it's usually because the casing of the battery cracks, exposing the insides to the air, or because the membranes that separate the chemical species inside the battery get damaged, allowing reactions to occur inside the battery. Those reactions generate gases, heat, and sometimes fire.

"A [lithium]-based battery has a lot of energy, and if there are mechanical failures, like the membrane separator is ruptured, the battery will discharge all at once, creating a tremendous amount of heat," Cook said.

Recently, Samsung issued a recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones because of faulty batteries that, in some cases, were exploding or catching fire. These battery problems could potentially happen in any lithium-ion-dependent battery system, the researchers said.

The liquid in a redox battery is instead stored in tanks, and can be recycled through the volume of the battery. Eventually, even redox batteries degrade, but a fresh liquid supply can allow them to be used again, according to the study.

Here on Earth

Cook said the technology was originally developed at NASA for space probes, but the agency eventually found better battery solutions for spacecraft. However, redox batteries could be useful for more Earthbound applications, the researchers said. And while redox batteries' liquid can oxidize, the acetonitrile that Cook's team used won't burn, the scientists said.

RELATED: Neighborhood Batteries Get a Boost With Tesla-SolarCity Merger

Cook added that it's important to note that his battery tests were done only on tabletop systems, producing just a few volts. But it took only small concentrations of BODIPY to get results, he said. The downside is that redox batteries usually have to be larger because their energy density is smaller, so odds are they will be more useful for storing large amounts of power in homes and cars rather than phones, Cook said.

About 1,320 gallons (5,000 liters) using Cook's current chemical mixture could power a house. That would mean a battery the size of a septic tank for a four-bedroom house. Cook thinks with some work on the concentration of BODIPY, he can get the volume needed down to about 175 gallons (660 liters), about the size of a refrigerator or large fish tank, he said.

Meanwhile the need for efficient batteries in homes may not be so far in the future, if renewable energy keeps making gains. "We didn't really need medium- to large-scale energy storage before," Cook said. "Now, in the last decade, flow batteries [are] becoming [a] popular field of study."

The research was published Nov. 16 issue in the journal ChemSusChem.

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Original story on Live Science

Source: Glow-in-the-Dark Dye Could Boost Electric Car Batteries

In shift away from diesel, Volkswagen embraces electric

Volkswagen plans to bet big on electric vehicles as part of a multi-stage program to turn around declining sales following its diesel-emissions cheating scandal.

The Volkswagen Group announced Tuesday that by 2025 it plans to sell a million electric vehicles worldwide each year.

VW previously announced its intentions to focus more on battery-electric vehicles . But the German automaker's admission earlier this year that it rigged diesel-emissions tests could be a blessing in disguise for the electric vehicle market, as Volkswagen, the largest seller of diesel-powered cars (about 50 percent of the US market before the scandal ), embraces electric instead.

"It's interesting that the problems Volkswagen has had with its diesel issues has catapulted the manufacturing into this decision," Thomas Turrentine, the director of the California Energy Commission's Plug-in Hybrid Electric and Vehicle Research Center at the University of California, Davis, tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview. "To take this risk – and there's risk – it's not playing safe. It's decided to compete at a very high level with anyone else who is trying to do this around electric."

To boost its electric sales, Volkswagen plans to expand EV production to North America , the automaker announced in a press release.

This includes "considerable investments in electric infrastructure" in North America and "local production" of electric vehicles there starting in 2021, Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess said in the statement on Tuesday.

"Our future electric cars will be the new trademark of Volkswagen," said Mr. Diess.

VW currently sells just one type of electric vehicle in parts of the US, the e-Golf, which it manufacturers at its Wolfsburg, Germany headquarters . 

A focus on electric vehicles is expected to be the second stage of the automaker's efforts to reemerge as a player on the North American market. The diesel scandal – in which VW admitted it equipped 11 million vehicles with software to cheat emissions tests – dealt a blow to its sales. Prior to the scandal, VW was the largest seller of diesel-powered cars. But US sales of all VW brand vehicles through the first 10 months of 2016 were down 13.1% from a year earlier to 256,047 units, according to Autodata, as USA Today reported. Overall, VW is a relatively small player in the US with 3.2 percent market share in 2016, according to Good Car Bad Car .

The first stage of VW's recovery plan is to increase its gas-powered sport-utility vehicle (SUV) and limousine sales.

"We will be significantly stepping up our activities in the USA," Diess, the brand chief, said in the statement. "In those segments, we will be strongly expanding our range."

A focus on SUVs is a safe bet. With oil prices down, SUV and pickup truck sales drove up total car sales in North America in 2015. But the shift to EVs in the next decade is not, analysts say, leaving the success of VW's move dependent on a number of unknowns.

For one, Americans have to buy more electric vehicles, says Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at Autotrader.com.

"The consumers make the decisions," Ms. Krebs tells the Monitor in a phone interview on Tuesday. "What's the price? Does it work in my life?"

Electric vehicle and hybrid sales remained relatively stagnant in 2013 and 2014  at under 4 percent of the market, according to The Wall Street Journal. They then fell in the first half of 2015 , in part because of low gas prices and increased sales in SUVs and crossovers, according to the Detroit News. While the US Energy Department predicts 200-mile-per- charge electric vehicle sales will jump to 1.18 million per year by 2025 , Krebs says there could be a technological breakthrough that could reduce the price of EVs or increase their mileage on a single charge.

"A lot of things can happen between now and then," she says.

Turrentine adds that Volkswagen's expansion of its EV line will require the automaker to make major investments in the manufacturing of these vehicles. At present, VW sells about 10 million vehicles worldwide per year , according to Statista. The production of 1 million EVs every year would be 10 percent of the company's current total vehicle production. This, Turrentine notes, would require the automaker to overhaul its supply chain.  

"There are going to have to supply a million batteries a year," says Turrentine. "It has to be built, and it has to be developed. No car company has that capacity right now – not even Tesla."

But VW will join state and federal agencies in offering another incentive to American consumers: they plan to expand the nation's charging-station infrastructure. One often-cited fear about electric vehicles is the lack of charging station in the US. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced plans to expand this network , establishing 48 national electric vehicle charging corridors. This network is intended to cover 25,000 miles of highway in 35 states. 

So what does all of this add up to?

"At least with electrification, we've reached a point where manufacturers are feeling confidence in this technology. Consumers are going to also feel confidant, and regulators, in general, seem to be very confident," says Turrentine. "A whole bunch of goals are coming together."

Source: In shift away from diesel, Volkswagen embraces electric

Is Toyota Rethinking Its Pro-Fuel Cell / Anti-Battery Electric Car Stance?

Reports in recent weeks have indicated Toyota may be revising its stance against battery electric vehicles as it prepares for "mass producing" it first long-range EV by the end of this decade.

Word of that 186-plus mile range electric car in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was reported Nov. 7 by Japan's Nikkei newspaper, which described "a full-scale entry into the electric vehicle market."

On Nov. 17, Toyota corporate followed up with announcement of an in-house venture company for EV development.

Like pieces of a puzzle filling an incomplete picture, these and other news tidbits have led EV fans to hope it is only a matter of time before the company that gave the world the Prius reverses a position of being pro-fuel cell while resisting battery electric technology.

"Better late than never," said more than one of numerous commenters interpreting the winds ahead.

Tone Deaf To Market and Technology?

Last decade as Toyota basked in a green halo with its globally dominant hybrid technology, it did show a FT-EV battery electric concept in 2009 based on the Scion iQ, but disappointment overtook battery electric advocates when it killed that project in 2012.

Despite rival Nissan charging ahead with battery electrics, in September 2012 no less than the "father of the Prius," Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's vice chairman and the engineer said battery electric vehicles were not ready for prime time.

Toyota FT-EV II.

He told reporters Toyota "had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands."

"The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge," said Uchiyamada.

Instead – to the dismay of those who admire what Nissan is doing, not to mention Tesla, and others – Toyota said it would pioneer fuel cell vehicles as these it saw as having better long-term potential, while admitting it could be 10-15 years before they reached market maturity.

Mirai FCV.

From the carrier of the torch for cars that use batteries and motors, this was a huge letdown, and some EV fans have gone so far in chastising Toyota as to say they won't buy its products any more for missing a pivotal time in the EV's development.

But as can be the case for public images which are tarnished, then revived, news this month of EV development has given cautious optimism that Toyota is indeed ready to scrap the FCV plan.

Never Said Never to EVs

Despite the news du jour of pending EVs, Toyota has never said it would never build EVs, and we've reported for three years this was the case.

It has alternately hinted, while EVs are on the backburner, it is working on advanced beyond-lithium-ion technology, including solid state batteries, and in January 2013 it deepened ties with BMW to co-develop lithium air batteries along with fuel cell tech.

RAV4 EV – powered by Tesla – $49,800. Only 2,600 were produced.

The implication was ultimately the option was still there if at some time in the future the market and technology for battery electric and plug-in hybrids met Toyota's criteria.

Toyota also hinted earlier this decade it did not want to chase such a small market as other companies were pioneering.

The company has also cited safety concerns with batteries, but now – like everyone else – is yielding to realities and intending to use now lower cost lithium-ion batteries, in this case from Panasonic, which also supplies Tesla.

The automaker has also reportedly considered building its own batteries for what may be a product assortment next decade that includes a few small cars with range over 215 miles and built on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform used by the 2016 Prius.

As for the safety concern, Koji Toyoshima, chief engineer for the Prius, told Reuters in late October the automaker has made strides with tech in its just-launching Prius Prime plug-in hybrid and lessons learned there can apply to pure EVs.

For all the credit Nissan gets for the Leaf, it is yet a big fish in a small pond. Its volumes and profitability have made Toyota sit back, and let it and others toil ahead in developing the EV market.

"It's a tall order to develop a lithium-ion car battery which can perform reliably and safely for 10 years, or over hundreds of thousands of kilometers," he said "We have double braced and triple braced our battery pack to make sure they're fail-safe … It's all about safety, safety, safety."

Being a conservative company that likes to develop reliable tech, then reap the rewards over a long period of time, the company indicates it's feeling better about software managing li-ion batteries.

"Our control system can identify even slight signs of a potential short-circuit in individual cells, and will either prevent it from spreading or shut down the entire battery," said Hiroaki Takeuchi, a senior Toyota engineer involved in the Prime's development.

Ready To Abandon FCV Plans?

So Has Toyota changed its stance on EVs? And, is it ready to admit it was wrong about fuel cell vehicles?

It says no.

Just a day after the Nikkei's report set hopeful ripples through the green car world, Toyota's Executive Vice President Takahiko Ijichi echoed what other top execs have said in setting the record straight.

"If you ask the question — What is the ultimate environmentally friendly vehicle? — we'll say it will be fuel cell vehicles. And our idea has not changed," Ijichi said.

So why is it gearing up for EVs?

As we have also reported, Toyota is, like every other legacy car maker turning to EVs, ultimately being compelled by regulatory realities. Even though it has said it sees limits relegating EVs as best for around-town uses, and not as versatile as hybrids and FCVs – assuming eventual fueling infrastructure – it's now adding EVs to its product assortment.

Ijichi said as a full-line automaker, Toyota must develop all alternative drivetrains, including battery-powered electric vehicles, and the world's largest EV market is influencing its decision.

Earlier this year, on the eve of the Beijing auto show, head of Toyota's China operations, Hiroji Onishi, had said China's regulations will make it harder for Toyota to reach a sales goal of 2 million vehicles in China by around 2025.

A statement issued by Toyota last week reiterated this view.

"Differing energy and infrastructure issues around the world and the rapid strengthening of regulations aimed at increasing the use of zero-emission vehicles have heightened the need for product lineups that can respond to various situations," Toyota said.

So, as Toyota looks to develop plug-in cars also for Japan and California, it is saying this is business as usual as it flexes a bit away from its predetermined course to prove FCVs are the future.

"Based on its thinking to provide the right vehicle at the right place at the right time, TMC has long taken a multi-angled approach to introducing environment-friendly vehicles and has developed hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), EVs and others," said Toyota in its statement. "It has put special focus on FCVs, which, in terms of cruising range, hydrogen fueling times and other aspects, offer convenience on par with that of current petrol-powered vehicles, making them, in TMC's view, ideal as a form of 'ultimate eco-car.'"

Still Not Saying Never

At this stage, the EVs from 2020 onward are targeted at specific markets and Toyota says they do not represent a policy shift to compete on equal footing with others in all markets.

Toyota is also capitalizing on reduced battery and other component prices – thanks to ground plowed by others – and says it's just for now positioning itself to do more to adjust to market requirements.

The 2017 Chevy Bolt EV – pro EV fans are hoping this will be a tipping point. Green car analyst Alan Baum however does not predict more than 21,000 sales for 2017.

The in-house venture capital company responsible for developing EVs announced last Thursday will initially be a small virtual organization.

Set to launch December 2016, it will consist of four people – one each from Toyota Industries, Aisin Seiki, Denso and TMC – and it will be independent of other internal structural organizations

"In the development of EVs, the venture company will draw on the technological knowledge and resources of the Toyota Group," says the automaker. "Its small organizational structure is meant to enable it to implement unconventional work processes, leading to accelerated project progress and, thus, fast to market products."

Meanwhile others, including rival Volkswagen – which projects 25 percent of its global products will be plug-in by 2025 – are forging ahead.

Other automakers also have fuel cell vehicles in the works, but antithetical to Toyota, they are the backburner products, and battery power is the emphasis now into next decade.

Biggest hopes may be riding on Tesla to provoke the market, and it has around 400,000 pre-orders for the 2018 Model 3.

What Toyota's ultimate product assortment will look like from 2020 and beyond is thus only the object of conjecture at this stage.

EV fans who've felt strongly Toyota was wrong-headed from the start have in cases made a leap that the latest moves are proof its defiant championing of FCVs is weakening and they will be proven right, as Toyota mends the alleged error of its ways.

And, for all anyone knows, that assessment may be right, but more will need to be seen in a market sure to see more unexpected twists and turns in the years ahead.

Source: Is Toyota Rethinking Its Pro-Fuel Cell / Anti-Battery Electric Car Stance?

Search Tracking Program Concludes “Today’s Electric Vehicle Consumer Is Predominantly Affluent, Educated, And Married Without Children”

Tesla Model X

A company called Connexity provides a service called Hitwise that "unlocks the secrets of consumer behavior. Get a birds eye view into your competition." 

Essentially, they track searches for one reason or another. Recently, the company focused on the search terms surrounding "electric car", "electric vehicle", (and various other terms or brands related to the subject). They uncovered some interesting information.

Chevrolet Bolt

Global director of content and insights at Hitwise, Rochelle Bailis, shared:

"Today's electric vehicle consumer is predominantly affluent, educated and married without children. No doubt this is a valuable segment, but it still fails to connect with the majority of the potential market share — specifically middle class families."

"Clearly, there is an interest in electric cars out there, but parents remain skeptical. Due to the compact size of most electric vehicles available on the market, families with young children aren't convinced of their practicality just yet."

"As automakers such as Toyota, Chevy and Nissan continue rolling out improved models, and more charging stations crop up across the country, the prices will inevitably become more accessible. Should electric vehicles nail the affordable family vehicle, expect the market to open up more quickly than it has."

Connexity has the ability to use a service called AudienceView, in order to project the future, based on today's profiling. Below are the takeaways from the analysis gathered from a group of U.S. adults searching online for electric vehicle-related information:

Electric vehicle ownership is dominated by people age 35-44

Electric vehicle leasing is dominated by both Millennials and Gen Xers

Electric vehicles owners and lessees are highly-educated

Tesla owners are likely to have a college degree

Tesla owners are 54.5% male

Tesla owners have a median age of 39

Cost is the top factor inhibiting electric vehicle purchases

Tesla and Tesla Model 3 are the top two electric vehicle-related automotive searches

Prius is the next most common search (falling just outside the top ten in related searches)

Tesla owners have a median income of $422K

Affordable EV owners and lessees (Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt, Nissan LEAF, BMW i3) have a median income between $118K and $184K

Consumers with a median income under $75K are highly unlikely to own an EV

What does this all mean? We think it's pretty obvious that it says that people are interested in electric vehicles, and more specifically, in Tesla. However, Tesla vehicles are too expensive for the masses. Many are taking notice that the Model 3 is on the way and that Tesla is dedicated to offering competitively priced vehicles.

In terms of EVs in general, consumers are primarily still those with higher than average incomes, and kid-free. But, with the increased awareness and education, availability and infrastructure, and more economical and family-friendly offerings, these types of trends make the future of EVs seem remarkably viable.

Source: MediaPost

Source: Search Tracking Program Concludes "Today's Electric Vehicle Consumer Is Predominantly Affluent, Educated, And Married Without Children"

VW cuts 30000 jobs to push into electric cars

Injured Leonard Fournette shoves Florida coach in scuffle, decides to suit upEven including the Alabama game, LSU is playing some of the best football in the nation. "I guess out of fear we fought back". LSU quarterback Danny Etling played 13 games for Purdue during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Saudi-led coalition declares 48-hour ceasefire in YemenKerry spoke a day after meeting Houthi negotiators in Oman, but Hadi's government said it was not aware of any new peace initiative.

McKenzie's 2 TDs lead Georgia past Ragin' Cajuns 35-21Nick Chubb ran for 108 yards and a touchdown and caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Eason in the fourth quarter. Georgia was driving to put the game away, but Sony Michel fumbled to give life back to Louisiana-Lafayette.

Saudi Arabia Optimistic OPEC Will Reach Deal to Cut OutputOpec will likely complete an accord that doesn't include individual supply targets for members, according to a Bloomberg survey. Hope for a final deal have helped to offset price pressure from a third straight weekly increase in crude inventories.

Jimmy Case explains how Southampton should approach their game with LiverpoolKlopp said the Brazilian would not have been risked had he not been 100 percent fit. 'I didn't see all my players until now. Southampton manager Claude Puel says he was delighted with Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool.

Murray survives match point to beat Raonic at ATP finalsWatch every match of the ATP World Tour Finals live on Sky Sports, or follow live on skysports.com/tennis and the Sky Sports app. Andy Murray has no plans to let go of that No.1 ranking. "I was just hanging in there", Djokovic said.

Polling begins for bypolls in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West BengalIn Puducherry's Nellithope congress leader and chief minister V Narayanasamy is up against AIADMK's nominee Om Shakthi Segar. The Lakhimpur seat was vacated by Sarbananda Sonowal after he became the Assam Chief Minister.

Donald Trump outlines healthcare plan including Obamacare repeal and abortionHis transition website says Trump wants a solution that "returns the historic role in regulating health insurance to the states". While waiting for Congress to act on legislation, the new HHS secretary could be reworking Obamacare regulations, Barrasso said.

Jose Mourinho must create joy not fear: PsychologistArsenal are still without defender Hector Bellerin (ankle), midfielder Santi Cazorla (Achilles) and striker Lucas Perez (ankle). I don't think I have especially because my last Premier League title was 18 months ago.

Boston: Officials Seek Advice on Legal Pot IssuesClaire said he worries that the message might get muddled when the rest of society is saying that it's recreational and safe. Currently, the only places outside of private dwellings that allow cannabis consumption are private cannabis clubs.

Assange faces second day of questioningSwedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren arrives for the second day at the Ecuadorian embassy in London , Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Swedish prosecutors dropped part of their investigation a year ago because of a statute of limitations.

Aftershocks Rumbling After Oklahoma EarthquakeMary Fallin says there are no immediate reports of damage at a major oil storage hub following a 5.0 magnitude quake in the area. Cushing Fire Chief Chris Pixler said that the movie house, which has been a downtown fixture for generations, "self-evacuated".

Stadium of Light plunged into darkness during Sunderland winThere were ten minutes yesterday when everything was plunged into darkness at the Stadium of Light and no football was played. Hull City have only caught their opponents offside four times in 11 Premier League games this season; a league-low tally.

Wales to continue freaky team photo tradition says Joe LedleyWilliams has yet to start a game this season after picking up a nasty pre-season injury while playing for Crystal Palace. But they trail Group D leaders Serbia by two points after last month's draws against Austria and Georgia.

Trump May Offer Secretary of State to Mitt Romney, Former Republican NomineeCNN has reported that former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will be among those to meet with Trump this weekend. Romney in particular chastised Trump for proposing a ban on all foreign Muslims entering the United States.

Source: VW cuts 30000 jobs to push into electric cars

Trump Can't Kill The Electric Car

Come January, President-elect Donald Trump will be ferried around in a very thirsty set of wheels: The Presidential Limousine, nicknamed "The Beast," reportedly gets less than 4 miles to the gallon, on average.

What's more, Trump's fossil-forward energy approach means he should be open to letting us, the little people, tool around in less-efficient vehicles, too. His administration is widely expected to take the pressure off automakers to roughly double the fuel efficiency of their vehicles by 2025, a plan agreed to under President Barack Obama in 2011. Indeed, the nation's biggest auto-trade group has asked that Trump roll back the targets.

Tightening fuel-economy standards forces the likes of General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. to balance out their fleets' fuel economy -- they sell smaller vehicles and electric cars to compensate for gas-guzzling trucks. Easing up on targets would mean selling more SUVs.

Trump's Next Set of Wheels

"The Beast"

But this won't be the end of the electric car. In some ways, selling more of those SUVs could help it. 

Automakers prefer selling bigger vehicles. This isn't just machismo. Trucks and SUVs carry much higher margins than smaller cars, especially as buyers are more likely to opt for souped-up versions. More bells and whistles mean more profits. 

Bigger Sales

The average retail value for SUVs is much higher than cars and they're also more profitable

Source: Edmunds.com

And guess what: 63 percent of U.S. vehicle sales were trucks last month, a higher ratio than ever before, according to Bloomberg Intelligence: 

Keep on Truckin'

Thanks to cheap gas, Americans have been free to buy more trucks as a share of vehicles than ever

Source: Ward's Automotive

The big reason for this is pretty simple: cheap gas. Fuel efficiency tends to follow gas prices -- albeit with a lag and historically requiring a regulatory nudge to make significant gains. Miles per gallon, pretty stagnant through most of the last century, jumped after the oil shocks of the 1970s and enactment of the first federal fuel-economy standards. More recently, fuel economy of new vehicles rose again as gasoline prices surged, but the oil crash has blunted momentum.

Fuel Speed Ahead

Fuel efficiency in U.S. light-duty vehicles jumped after the oil shocks of the 1970s but slackened off after that as gasoline prices stagnated

Sources: Energy.gov (gas prices); Energy Information Administration, Department of Transportation (fuel efficiency)

In the longer term, though, oil prices will likely rise again -- especially if, say, a more-hawkish Trump foreign policy leads to renewed sanctions on Iran and further conflict in the Middle East. Despite the shale boom, the U.S. remains a net importer of oil: 

Nothing But Net

Despite ramping up production, the U.S. is still a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products, meaning our gas prices are still tied to global forces

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Meanwhile, electric vehicle and battery technology continues to evolve, pushing up driving range and reducing prices. The number of electric vehicle models entering the market is forecast to keep rising through the end of this decade.

Power Up

Electric vehicle battery energy density is expected to grow, making them cheaper and more reliable

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

It's Electric

The number of electric vehicle models available globally is set to hit nearly 200 in 2020

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Car companies -- most obviously Tesla Motors Inc., but also incumbents such as GM and BMW AG -- have already invested tons of money, and reputation, into their electric vehicles. GM's Chevy Bolt hasn't even hit the showrooms yet and is winning awards already.

Even if U.S. federal regulations loosen, the country accounts for only a fifth of global vehicle sales. And other regions, especially in fast-growing Asian markets such as China and India, have reasons of their own to demand more efficient vehicles, ranging from heavily polluted cities to national security (why embrace ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil?). Don't forget, also, that roughly one of every eight new U.S. vehicle registrations is in California, which is allowed under the Clean Air Act to set more stringent fuel-efficiency targets than the feds.

The upshot is that, while U.S. momentum on fuel economy may well slow under Trump, any automaker that considers itself a global player won't be able to simply halt work on next-generation vehicles. The added kicker: Selling more SUVs and trucks could generate more R&D dollars to go into that effort -- even if, at first, it bears fruit abroad rather than at home.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the authors of this story: Rani Molla in New York at rmolla2@bloomberg.net Liam Denning in New York at ldenning1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net

Source: Trump Can't Kill The Electric Car

Chevrolet Bolt named Green Car of the Year

Chris Woodyard, USA Today and Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press 6:53 p.m. EST November 17, 2016

Chevrolet Marketing Director Steve Majoros, left, accepts the Green Car of the Year award for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV from Green Car Journal Editor and Publisher Ron Cogan on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, during Automobility LA as part of the Los Angeles Auto Show.(Photo: Steve Fecht for Chevrolet)

Story Highlights

Bolt promises to go 238 miles on a single charge.

Other finalists were Toyota Prius Prime, BMW 330e and Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid.

Motor Trend magazine also named the Bolt car of the year.

The Bolt is a finalist for North American Car of the Year.

LOS ANGELES — General Motors'   long-range 2017 Chevrolet Bolt electric car was named Green Car of the Year Thursday at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The Bolt's 238-mile range on a fully charged battery approaches that of a Tesla. Yet the Bolt, in many cases, is about half the price. It will be priced at $37,495 and is due to go on sale by the end of the year. After tax incentives, Bolt prices will start just under $30,000 out the door.

"There's been a lot of talk about building an affordable electric car with a 200-mile range that brings electric vehicles to the mainstream, but only one manufacturer has done that, and it's us," Chevrolet marketing manager Steve Majoros said.

It's the fourth triumph of the week for the audacious Chevy, which aims to steal the mantle of electric vehicle leadership from Tesla. The Bolt won Motor Trend magazine's car of the year award Monday, was named a finalist for North American Car of the Year Tuesday and made Car and Driver magazine's coveted 10 Best list Wednesday.

►Related: 2017 North American Car, Truck, Utility Vehicle of the Year finalists►Related: Chevrolet Bolt aims to take electric cars mainstream

Green Car of the Year honors the new car deemed most environmentally friendly. Chevrolet's Volt plug-in hybrid won the award last year.

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV (Photo: Jim Haefner, Chevrolet)

"We need to continually reshape people's perception of Chevrolet," Majoros said.  "Everybody knows Chevrolet has historically been strong in trucks, SUVs and performance cars, but winning Green Car of the Year two years in a row says we're not the General Motors and Chevrolet people thought they knew."

►Related: Mazda adds diesel power to restyled CX-5 SUV►Related: Mercedes raises the roof on prices with Maybach S650►Fast, stunning, rebellious: These are the cars at the L.A. Auto Show►Related: Chevrolet Colorado boosts off-road appeal with ZR2►Related: Alfa Romeo reveals Stelvio SUV at LA Auto Show

The Bolt is not to be confused with the Chevrolet Volt, itself a landmark vehicle as one of the first plug-in hybrids. The Volt is a two-time Green Car of the Year winner.

Other than Teslas, which can be bought with batteries good for up to about 300 miles of range, most electric cars have only been able to go about 100 miles or less before they needed to be recharged. That's worked  fine for many commuters who follow the same path every day but was problematic for longer, unexpected trips because batteries generally take so long to charge.

"The new electric Bolt is a breakthrough vehicle," said Ron Cogan, publisher of the Green Car Journal, which offers the award. "I have been covering this for 20 years and 'range anxiety' has always been an issue. Suddenly, the Bolt at 238 miles of all electric driving...this car becomes a game changer."

It marks another victory for GM when it comes to electric power, which it pioneered in the 1990s with the Saturn EV1.

The Bolt beat four other finalists, all of which were plug-in hybrids. They were the Toyota Prius Prime, Kia Optima plug-in, BMW 330e Performance and the plug-in version of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan.

Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com or 313-222-6731. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan.

Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2fAb06R

Source: Chevrolet Bolt named Green Car of the Year

Feds: Electric Cars Must Be Noisier (So You Can Hear Them Coming)

New rules will require electric vehicles to make a certain amount of noise at low speeds.

Electric cars are so quiet that the prospect of hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of them entering US roads in the next few decades has federal officials worried that they'll endanger pedestrian safety.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced this week that starting in 2019, all newly manufactured hybrid and electric cars will need to have noisemakers installed to help others hear them when they're traveling at speeds below 19 miles per hour. Above that speed, noise generated by the wind and the car's tires are deemed loud enough that additional noise isn't required.

"We all depend on our senses to alert us to possible danger," US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

The NHTSA estimates that adding noise to hybrid and electric vehicles will prevent about 2,400 pedestrian injuries each year.

The federal mandate follows earlier initiatives from automakers, which have offered manually activated electronic warning sounds in some vehicles for years. The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt are among those that are equipped with the technology in the US.

The rules also follow similar ones enacted in Europe in 2015. Somewhat ironically, the European mandate was pushed through the European Parliament as part of legislation aimed at reducing overall vehicle noise.

Despite the rules, some car companies are reluctant to make their electric vehicles louder. When BMW unveiled its electric i3 model in 2012, for instance, it dismissed the idea of warning noises. "We don't think it makes sense to ring a bell outside the car," a BMW official told Drive at the time. "Can you imagine if you have 30 or 40 of this type of car driving along the road together, what this artificial noise would sound like? This will drive you nuts."

Source: Feds: Electric Cars Must Be Noisier (So You Can Hear Them Coming)

The Engineer Behind Tesla’s Model S Has a New Luxury Electric Car

One of the key engineering minds behind Tesla's groundbreaking electric Model S sedan has a daring new luxury electric car he and his team will officially unveil soon.

One of the last times I spoke with Peter Rawlinson, British auto engineer and the former chief engineer behind Tesla's Model S, he was showing off Tesla's first Model S "alphas," which are the early production-ready prototypes at the carmaker's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. That was over five years ago.

The Model S went on to win awards as the first electric car designed from the ground up, and it has been Tesla's way to achieve a quarterly profit. Rawlinson abruptly left Tesla TSLA a year after that alpha event—he still doesn't want to discuss what happened—and just before the Model S went into production.

But Rawlinson now has a surprisingly bold new act, where he's trying to take his original reinvention of the electric car to the next level.

Picture what an "executive jet would feel like on four wheels," Rawlinson says, speaking from the headquarters of startup Lucid Motors in Menlo Park, Calif., where he serves as chief technology officer.

Last week, Rawlinson showed me around the 9-year-old startup, originally named Atieva, which was founded to make electric car battery technology. The company decided to move into making an electric car itself two years ago, and that's when Rawlinson joined to build a team around his vision.

A few miles away in Fremont, inside the company's research and development garage, Rawlinson shows off one of the company's alpha cars to Fortune, the company's first such preview to any media outlet. The car, which is slated to go on sale in 2018, has an ultra-spacious backseat cabin, unusual new headlight technology inspired by insect eyes, a sweeping glass windshield and roof, and a futuristic front face.

(Courtesy of Lucid Motors)

The company wouldn't allow any photos of its car prototype, even insisting on stickers over my cell phone camera as a precaution. But Lucid Motors plans to officially show off the car and its unusual features later this year.

The team says the company's first vehicle is meant to rethink the experience of its occupants. Rawlinson and his designers and engineers have condensed and spread out the key elements of the electric car tech—the battery pack, the motor, the transmission, and the power electronics—into sections around the front and the back of the car in an entirely new way.

Sitting in the car's rear passenger seats, I ask Rawlinson where the battery pack is. He points both behind me and in front of me. It's "the miniaturization of power technology," much in the same way that computing has rapidly shrunk in size, that has allowed such an innovation to occur, Rawlinson says.

By moving these core tech pieces around, it enables the car to have an almost shocking amount of rear cabin space. Lucid Motors' vice president of design, Derek Jenkins—who formerly headed up design for Mazda—said the car's outer body is comparable to a mid-class car (like an Audi A7 sedan). Internally, however, the car has even more space than that of a full-size car with a long wheel base.

It's "no longer necessary to choose between classes," says Jenkins. "We're repackaging the car like never before."

For more on Tesla's new high-energy battery pack, watch Fortune's video:

In comparison, traditional internal combustion cars have long had a standard layout for key components like the engine and fuel tank, which make for a pretty typical experience for the occupants. Early electric cars and hybrids, like the first Volt and the Prius, took those basic internal combustion car bodies and just added batteries in some pretty awkward places, taking up valuable seat and trunk space.

The idea behind Tesla's Model S, and now Lucid Motors, is to create an entirely new car body architecture around the unique electric car components and technology. The Model S, led by Rawlinson, was designed to have its battery pack lie flat at the bottom of the vehicle, not only meaning that the battery doesn't take up important space, but that also the car has a very low center of gravity.

"Something the world doesn't know is what the Model S looked like before Peter arrived," says Zak Edson, Lucid Motors' director of marketing and communication, who also worked with Rawlinson at Tesla. "It was a very different vehicle before Peter came along… It was a less special vehicle in just about every way."

Rawlinson is cranking up that concept for Lucid's first car.

The car doesn't have a traditional front grill, but it has a unique lighting headlamp array in front, and an unusual front air intake system that guides air flow to cool the radiator. The traditional internal combustion grill and front face "no longer make sense in the electric era," says Jenkins.

Lucid Motors wants to "lead that new aesthetic change," he added.

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Taking that concept even further, Jenkins and Rawlinson have designed an optional rear seat package that features lounging seats that lie way back. Picture a really luxury Uber picking up passengers that want an ultra plush experience on the ride to the airport.

I try out these seats, and it doesn't even feel like a car anymore. My feet are propped up in front of me like I'm in a lounge chair. "This would be impossible in an internal combustion car," says Jenkins.

The company was founded way back in 2007 by former Tesla VP Bernard Tse, who was in charge of Tesla's original "Energy Group," and entrepreneur Sam Weng. Tesla disbanded that energy group early on, but later resurrected it, with a vengeance, to make batteries for the power grid and buildings and work with sister company SolarCity.

After Tesla, Tse started Atieva, raised a small bit of funding, and recruited some other Tesla engineers to join him. At that time, Tse and the team were developing software for monitoring and controlling batteries for electric cars.

Over the years, the company built out substantial electric car tech, and is now a new supplier of battery tech for Formula E, the electric vehicle racing program. The team constructed prototypes of its powertrain and battery tech in a van they call Edna, which can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds.

During my visit to the company last week, Lucid Motors' Edson took me for a zooming ride in Edna around the company's headquarters. It's crazy fast for a huge van.

Over the years, Lucid Motors also raised a big sum of money: hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, including Mitsui & Co, Silicon Valley firm Venrock, Chinese state-owned Beijing Auto, and a subsidiary of Chinese tech firm LeEco. LeEco is also backing electric car startup Faraday Future and also appears to be building its own vehicle.

Yet, with more funding, and more competition, it eventually became clear to the team and investors that Atieva needed to build an actual electric car itself, instead of just the technology for it.

A couple years ago, Atieva execs approached Rawlinson, who was in the U.K. taking care of his mother. He said he could be interested in joining the team, if he was able to build out the electric car he'd been envisioning for years.

That's where the idea of the "executive jet" experience appears to come in. The company won't reveal the cost of such a luxurious car, but it says it's comparable to a luxury car in the same class as models like the Audi A7.

(Courtesy of Lucid Motors)

Despite the team's clear vision, getting the car to market could still be a hard road. Not only is there major new competition from startups, but there's also Tesla and the big automakers rushing ahead to make new cars.

Lucid Motors will also need to raise more funding and build a factory to make its cars, just as Tesla had to do. The company says it will build its factory in the U.S.

In addition, Rawlinson, who is CTO, acknowledges that Lucid is missing a CEO. He says the company will likely bring one on, though doing so at this late stage is always tricky.

Rawlinson knows the perils first hand, but he's also been through it before. "Until Tesla, there was an unwritten rule, and a widely held belief in the motor industry, that it was impossible to start a new car company from scratch. Tesla successfully broke that," he says.

"I think some of the other car companies can follow because they've seen Tesla's success and they realized it's possible to achieve this."

At the same time, he contends: "I think that we should not underestimate the enormity of the task and the depth of expertise needed to execute on any car, let alone a world-class groundbreaking product."

Lucid Motors will be at the LA Auto Show this week, so look out for sneak peeks of its first car, which the company hopes to out-Tesla Tesla.

Updated on November 15, at 6:28 PM PST to reflect that the headline and first line have been changed to convey that many engineers worked on Tesla's Model S.

Source: The Engineer Behind Tesla's Model S Has a New Luxury Electric Car

Pump Up The Sound, Regulators Tell Makers Of Electric And Hybrid Cars

One of the benefits for owners of electric and hybrid cars is that they are quiet. While that is attractive for the driver, it poses a danger to pedestrians. But the U.S. government on Monday finalized new rules requiring so-called "quiet cars" to make alert beeps when traveling at low speeds.

The rules apply to hybrid cars and electric cars, trucks, SUVs and buses that weigh less than five tons. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says hybrids and electric vehicles "will be required to make audible noise when traveling in reverse or forward at speeds up to ... about 19 miles per hour."

"We all depend on our senses to alert us to possible danger," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement. "With more, quieter hybrid and electrical cars on the road, the ability for all pedestrians to hear as well as see the cars becomes an important factor of reducing the risk of possible crashes and improving safety."

Article continues after sponsorship Business Detroit Touts Clean, Efficient Diesels, But America Isn't Sold From Our Listeners Quiet No More, Suggestions For Hybrid Car Sounds Include Skateboards, Toddlers

The regulations come as a result of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act signed in 2011. The new feature will cost car companies $39 million annually because compliance requires an external waterproof speaker, according to Reuters, but the benefits of reduced injuries are estimated at $250 million to $320 million annually.

NHTSA projects 2,400 fewer pedestrian injuries once the rules are implemented. The agency says an electric or hybrid vehicle is 1.18 times more likely to be involved in a collision with a pedestrian, and 1.51 times more likely to be involved in a collision with a person on a bike, than is a regular gas-powered vehicle.

This regulation will ensure that blind Americans can continue to travel safely

Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind

The Auto Alliance, an auto industry group, says its members (which include the major car companies) support the safety goal of the law.

"We're still reviewing this final rule, however we already know that it's important that automakers have the flexibility to equip vehicles with sounds that are sufficiently detectable yet pleasant to hear; consumer acceptance is critical and that hinges on sounds not annoying people inside the auto. Additionally, just as current conventionally-powered vehicles sound differently than one another, it's critical that the noise requirements for their electrically powered counterparts are not so rigid they require a single sound signature."

In a statement, the president of the National Federation for the Blind, Mark Riccobono, said, "This regulation will ensure that blind Americans can continue to travel safely and independently as we work, learn, shop, and engage in all facets of community life."

Source: Pump Up The Sound, Regulators Tell Makers Of Electric And Hybrid Cars

Car Makers Gear Up for Electric Push

Updated Nov. 12, 2016 12:56 p.m. ET

The coming weeks offer big new showcases for the humble electric-vehicle.

Auto makers, rushing to meet tightening emissions standards, are unveiling new battery-powered vehicles at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, mirroring last month's flood of such cars by European companies. These curtain-raisers will be followed by first shipments of General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Bolt, a $35,000 Tesla fighter that goes on sale next month.

What's missing are consumers, however. Auto makers are suffering from a glut of U.S. sedan and coupe inventory amid strong demand for light-trucks. The coming addition of electric-vehicle capacity could worsen that oversupply if shoppers continue to prefer pickups and sport-utility vehicles to plug-in cars.

Globally, sales of plug-in electric cars are up in 2016, driven by Chinese customers taking advantage of aggressive tax rebates and other incentives. But total volumes remain less than 1% of the 83 million light-vehicl es likely to be sold this year. Tesla Motors Inc.'s pricey electrics aside, cars like Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and BMW AG's i3 haven't widely caught on, and many auto makers say it is unclear when demand for electric vehicles will blossom.

That is sobering news for executives hoping they will help meet tougher emissions standards. China, Europe and the U.S. have established regulations prodding development of electric cars. Whether tax incentives and extensive efforts to lower battery costs can spur demand in the short term isn't a sure bet.

Moody's Investors Service predicts 19 new electric models will go on sale in the U.S. alone by 2020, potentially tripling what is currently available. Auto makers presenting in California this week, including Tata Motors Ltd.'s Jaguar and Hyundai Motor Co., are expected to give updates on how they will compete in this electrification race, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV will show off a plug-in version of its p opular Pacifica minivan for the first time just before the Los Angeles Auto Show opens.

European auto makers have gotten more optimistic on electrics in the wake of Volkswagen AG's emissions-cheating scandal, which tarnished diesel's image as a green alternative to gasoline. Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, which combined sell 13 million vehicles a year, predict electrics will account for between 15% and 30% of all vehicle sales by 2025.

Not everyone is as bullish.

At the Paris auto show, for instance, BMW AG sales chief Ian Robertson said diesel will remain the preferred energy source in Europe even in the wake of Volkswagen's problems. "We see some gasoline plug-in hybrids replacing diesels, but it's inconclusive," he said. "There doesn't appear to be a tipping point…anytime soon."

Researcher IHS Automotive expects the launch of new EVs to quadruple annual U.S. electric-car sales to around 320,000 by 2020, still less than 2% of the current market. Selling them will require heavy government incentives amid continued cheap gasoline and America's love for SUVs, it believes.

"There really isn't enough of a market to do justice to all of the development and effort being put into EVs," IHS analyst Paul Lacy said.

Toyota Motor Corp., a critic of pure electric vehicles and heavily dependent on sales of light trucks and hybrid vehicles that require gasoline for most travel, said on Tuesday it is reluctantly changing course. "Though electric vehicles have many issues such as its range, and the length of recharging time and battery performance, depending on the energy situation in each country and region, and infrastructure, we would like to get ourselves ready to commercialize them," said Takahiko Ijichi, Toyota's executive vice president.

The International Energy Agency, an energy policy advisory group whose 29 members include the U.S., Germany and Japan, said in i ts 2016 electric vehicle outlook that it "will require substantive policy support to accelerate the momentum" of adoption of electric cars. Highlighting the difficulty of matching ambitious sales goals with real demand, Japan this year slashed its targets for electric vehicles and charging stations in half to one million electric vehicles and more than one million charging stations by 2020.

There are positive developments, including big investments coming in the U.S., China and Europe for charging stations. Costs for lithium-ion batteries have fallen 65% since 2010—to about $350 per kwh in 2015—and are expected to continuing falling, say analysts.

This could lead to a decline in EV development costs even as the cost to create cars with conventional engines rises. "At some point these two curves will cross," Volkswagen Chief Executive Matthias Müller said. "Exactly when that is we can't say,"

Hyundai's vice president of product planning, Mi ke O'Brien, last week said the company isn't looking for governments or oil-price fluctuations to drive change. "The market is going to switch and the dominant player in the marketplace will be millennials," he said. Shifting demographics and urbanization "will by themselves contribute to a significant change of electrified vehicles adoption, separate from fuel price and regulation."

—Adrienne Roberts contributed to this article.

Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com and John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com

Source: Car Makers Gear Up for Electric Push

Mercedes-Benz Releases 360-Degree Video Of Generation EQ Electric SUV

Mercedes-Benz Releases 360-Degree Video Of Generation EQ Electric SUV

12 hours ago by Electric CarsTV

At the recent Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz displayed its first-ever long-range pure electric car.

Called Generation EQ, this vehicle kicks off the start of an electric vehicle revolution over at M-B. The revolution includes construction of a massive battery factory to ready itself for a slew of future electric vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Generation EQ

Following the show, M-B released this nifty 360-degree video of the Generation EQ.

Full details, gallery and videos of the 500 km/310 mile* Generation EQ from its recent launch party in Paris can also be found EV here.

Video description:

"At the Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz showed how electric cars can soon move into the fast lane. The concept vehicle "Generation EQ", with the appearance of a sporty SUV coupé, gives a preview of a new generation of vehicles with battery-electric drives. Read all about the close-to-production concept vehicle "Generation EQ" via: http://mb4.me/Gen-EQ

"The dynamic exterior design with its new electro-look underlines the focus on the powerful electric drive system: Two electric motors, with a system output that can be increased to up to 300 kW thanks to scalable battery components, and permanent all-wheel drive deliver the guarantee of dynamic high-level performance. With a range of up to 500 kilometres and the typical Mercedes strengths of safety, comfort, functionality and connectivity, "Generation EQ" meets every demand in terms of contemporary, sustainable mobility."

Mercedes-Benz says that its first production electric long-range vehicle will enter production by mid-2018.

Tags: generation eq, mercedes, mercedes-benz

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Source: Mercedes-Benz Releases 360-Degree Video Of Generation EQ Electric SUV