Jumping on the Green Vehicle Bandwagon

May 19, 2007 – Vol.12 No.8

JUMPING ON THE GREEN VEHICLE BANDWAGON.

High gas prices, concern over oil supplies, the mayhem in Iraq that could spread, the growing evidence of global warming all continue to fuel a desire and a need to replace the world’s conventional, petroleum-fueled vehicles with something else, something better, something greener.

The technologies and the willingness to do so are coming from everywhere. The major vehicle manufacturers are contributing to some extent, but the more interesting efforts are coming from outside the mainstream industry. Here’s the latest from outside the box:

--- Lithium is the premier rechargeable battery technology of the day. However did you know that most lithium battery packs are just boxes containers of flashlight battery-sized cells?

Lithium Technology Corporation (LTC) thinks that specially-designed, large format lithium batteries are a better bet than a bunch of little cells for hybrids and all-electric vehicles. Large format batteries can significantly reduce the number of cells while increasing performance capabilities, improving safety monitoring and reducing weight. In a new product line the company is offering its lithium iron phosphate technology (LiFePO4) in cells ranging from 6 Amp/hours to 35.

LTC’ says the new cells can provide 3000 charging cycles which equates to 150,000 miles of service life. In a plug-in hybrid charging from the grid overnight could give a 60 mile (100 km) range in all electric mode.

To prove the new cells’ capabilities, the company will soon unwrap a Toyota Prius retrofitted with its new batteries. The company says the converted Prius is proof that a plug-in hybrid can get the equivalent of 125 miles per gallon. Visit LTC at http://www.lithiumtech.com/

--- Lithium-ion batteries won’t be confined in the future to hybrid passenger cars and light trucks. Within DaimlerChrysler’s Orion bus division the next generation hybrid transit bus will be available with lithium batteries from A123 Systems.

A123 Systems is designing and building turnkey energy storage systems (ESS) specifically for BAE Systems, which builds the hybrid drive system used in the Orion VII hybrid transit bus. BAE Systems HybriDrive (tm) propulsion system is in use in three of the four largest hybrid bus fleets on the planet.

The next-gen hybrid drive, as well as the new Orion hybrid, will be available in 2008. Visit A123 Systems at http://www.a123systems.com/

--- Lithium batteries are generally quick to recharge and when used in electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles regenerative braking is, and will be, employed to recharge the batteries as often as possible.

But in the real world car drivers don’t stomp on the brakes that often and when they do it’s briefly, a few seconds at a time. A few seconds won’t put much juice back in a battery, lithium or any other chemistry.

Enter ultracapacitors. They DO charge and discharge rapidly and may be just the thing to extract better energy economy out of a hybrid or all- electric car or truck.

The ultracapacitor/ lithium-ion battery combination is set to be tested in a collaboration of ultracapacitor maker Maxwell Technologies and the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Lab. Together they’ll build an energy storage system and then test and validate the system during the summer of 2007.

For Maxwell the key to success of ultracapacitors as quick-fill energy storage devices is validation. A thumbs up by a prominent government lab will give the technology a boost, as it were. The company calls its ultracapacitor cells Boostcaps (tm).

For those uninitiated with the technology, capacitors store electricity in an electric field, not in a chemical reaction like a battery. Ultracapacitors just do a better job than capacitors. Visit Maxwell at http://www.maxwell.com/

--- With an interest in saving fuel, a desire to make its delivery operations greener, and tired of waiting for the automakers to produce fuel efficient delivery vans, FedEx Express has hired Azure Dynamics to develop gasoline hybrid-electric vehicles for their delivery fleet.

Under the contract, Azure Dynamics, a Toronto, Ontario-based developer of hybrid and electric vehicles and drive systems, will provide a test vehicle to FedEx Express for its Ford E-450 hybrid commercial delivery van development program. After the development phase FedEx will purchase a minimum of 20 E-450 hybrid electric vans from Azure Dynamics.

FedEx claims to have the largest fleet of hybrid delivery vans in the transportation industry, with 93 operating in North America. Visit Azure Dynamics at http://www.azuredynamics.com/

--- Also taking the unusual step of developing their own hybrid trucks is Wal-Mart. The company has taken delivery of the first Class 8 hybrid truck in the heavy-duty trucking industry.

The Peterbilt Model 386 Hybrid was developed as part of Wal-Mart’s green initiative it calls Sustainability 360 which promotes innovations to increase environmental conscientiousness within the company as well as to vendors and customers.

Wal-Mart is aiming to increase its trucking fleet efficiency by 25 percent over the next few years. The Peterbilt Hybrid, using hybrid technology from Eaton Corporation, achieves a 7-8 percent improvement in fuel economy. In dollars and cents the system will save about $9000 per year per truck in fuel. The large battery pack also provides quiet emission-free power for heating, air conditioning and electrical goodies when the engine is shut down. (Typically truckers run engines continuously to provide power during rest periods.)

The Pete Store of Baltimore, Maryland delivered the truck to Wal-Mart. http://www.thepetestore.com/

--- Pepco Holdings (PHI), the Washington, DC-based parent of a number of mid-Atlantic US power companies, is willing to wait for vehicle manufacturers to offer alternatively fueled and hybrid vehicles. But the company has committed to buying them when available and will convert their entire 2000-vehicle fleet to alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles.

The company already has a hybrid electric bucket truck, a small fleet ot hybrid cars and SUVs and it fuels some of its trucks on B20 biodiesel. The company is in the process of converting all of its fueling facilities to biodiesel blend and will add thirty additional hybrid vehicles this year.

The company, too, will be examining new technologies as they come along, including plug-in hybrids that would recharge from the company’s own grid overnight. Visit PHI at http://www.pepcoholdings.com/

--- Green from assembly line to highway is what new Brazilian car maker Obvio! is trying to accomplish with a new car or two being readied for world introduction in a year or so.

Obvio! plans to power its production line with renewables, will recycle waste and conserve water. Its cars, the 828 and the 012, will be able to run on electricity, or any proportion of ethanol, compressed natural gas or gasoline. As if green production of a green car weren’t enough, the company will be including carbon offsets with each car purchase.

The offsets will be in the form of a social carbon fund that will contribute to environmentally sustainable projects designed to offset carbon emissions associated with Obvio! The projects may be in communities near the factory, along distribution and supply routes, or elsewhere.

The company plans to begin shipping up to 50,000 of the aluminum and composite cars to the US market in 2008 as well as possibly export 100,000 cars to Japan and Europe.

CantorCO2e has been handling the carbon offsets program and other financial work for Obvio!, Lotus has been doing engineering work. And ZAP is the exclusive US distributor. Visit Obvio! at http://www.obviousa.com/ CantorCO2e at http://www.cantorco2e.com/ and ZAP at http://www.zapworld.com/

--- To some human power is the greenest choice for personal transportation. The food you eat is the fuel you need to ride a bike to and fro.

If solitary two-wheeling doesn’t feel right - you’d rather share your ride with others - how about a four-seat, four-person-powered HumanCar?

All on board - two facing front, two seated backward - work in concert to “row’ the vehicle. In the latest version, human/electric hybrid technology is employed as well as a battery-driven assist motor to aid in hill climbing and acceleration.

Designer, engineer, entrepreneur Charles Greenwood developed his first people-propelled car 38 years ago and now, with the completion of his company’s latest prototype, would like to begin production of high tech and low tech versions of the car.

A blow-molded plastic high-tech version with electric assist and other amenities could be sold for about $6500. Another more spartan version - but still with electric generator on board could be developed for sale in third world countries. Greenwood and company is seeking partnerships to create a $10 million plant to mass-produce the car. http://www.humancar.com/