Banking on Batteries | Green Energy News

December 4, 2008 – Vol.13 No.37

BANKING ON BATTERIES.

Detroit’s Three have published their survival plans. Their top execs have driven their company’s hybrids all the way from Michigan to Capitol Hill to present their plans in person.

The plans are what you’d expect. Plant closings. Model line consolidations. The sale or closing of whole divisions. Wage and salary cuts. The closing of dealers. Concessions from unions. Efforts to build more fuel efficient cars and trucks. The sale of corporate jets. (Did the bankers get to keep theirs?) Altogether some fairly drastic changes.

But there’s real change in the air too from the automakers: And it comes from under the hood. All Three say they’ll be a offering a selection of vehicles driven by electric motors in various configurations ranging from pure battery electric vehicles to plug-in hybrids to extended-range hybrids that incorporate a little gas-fueled (or biofueled) generator to keep batteries charged.

--- GM will go ahead with its Chevy Volt which it scheduled for production in 2010. The company is planning other vehicles using Volt’s extended-range electric drive train. Summed up, fifteen hybrid models will be available by 2012.

--- Ford is planning an accelerated vehicle electrification plan for a family of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles. The plan includes a full battery electric van-type vehicle for commercial fleet use in 2010. A battery-electric sedan would follow in 2011. The electric van could very well be the same Ford Transit Connect van Smith Electric Vehicles of the UK is converting to electric drive.

--- Chrysler is planning its ENVI line of vehicles. The Dodge EV is a two-passenger rear-wheel-drive battery-electric sports car, not unlike the Tesla Roadster. The Jeep EV is an extended-range electric four-door SUV with a gasoline generator in pretty much the same layout as the Chevy Volt. The Chrysler EV is another extended-range electric vehicle disguised as a Chrysler Town & Country minivan. 2010 is the launch year for the first of the ENVI vehicles.

Together the move to electric drive is a sea change for the Three. It was just a few years ago that the companies were so adamant against California’s drive for electric drive that they repeatedly fought the state in court. The car makers won the legal battle, for the most part, which led to the crushing of GMs fleet of EV1s which led to the popular movie “Who Killed the Electric Car.”

Had GM not been so narrow-minded the EV1 would today be a very slick car and in its second or third generation. Other car companies, too, would probably have battery electric vehicles in their model lineup and the Detroit Three companies might not be carrying a Big Tin Cup around the halls of Congress. But who’s to speculate?

As exciting as a shift to electric drive may be it also carries considerable risk. That risk so great that it could derail the Three’s electric drive ambitions and quite possibly their put a damper on their own recovery: The Three are relying on batteries that may be up to snuff technologically but are still frightfully expensive.

In a nutshell, the companies are banking part of their future on lithium ion batteries and it’s not clear what happens to their electric drive ambitions if those batteries don’t work out.

By one estimate using cost per watt, lithium-ion batteries are 4 times more expensive than nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries like those used in the current Prius and, to put things in perspective, 25 times pricier than the lead acid batteries used in the first generation EV1. (At the time those batteries were considered expensive.) Simply put, if the cost lithium batteries the Three want to use to achieve adequate all-electric drive range doesn’t approach NiMH prices, then the vehicles they are developing would likely end up in the expensive niche bin. In the short term niche cars might be good for imagine but not for the bottom line.

Still, the risk might be one worth making, perhaps even worth the entire $34 billion bailout itself. The Three now want to go electric. Other manufacturers around the globe, large and small, are coming up a variety of electric vehicle offerings. Governments, too, are willing to embrace electric drive and companies already are lining up to build the infrastructure. If the world goes down the electric path the globe’s addiction to oil will eventually be broken while a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions will be made.

And those ever-so crucial batteries? As high tech, state-of-the-art as they may seem today in 10, 20, or 30 years they might be considered crude by comparison.

Links:

GM media
http://media.gm.com

Ford
http://www.ford.com

Chrysler
http://www.chrysler.com

Smith Electric Vehicles
http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com

--- Electric Drive to Revive Detroit?

--- Looks Like a Ford, Acts Like a Smith Electric Vehicle.