Are electric cars too quiet for pedestrians & bicyclists to hear them?

Even as the Department of Energy lends more than $500 million to Fisker Automotive Inc. to develop a pair of plug-in hybrids and $465 million to Tesla, another federal agency ponders a more pressing question: What kind of sound should electric cars make?

"Some automakers are seeking to address concerns in the United States and Japan that the nearly noiseless vehicles may be so quiet that they pose a threat to pedestrians," the Washington Post reports today.

An ongoing study by the University of California-Riverside has found that hybrids needed to be 74 percent closer than a combustion-engine car before test subjects could hear from which direction the cars approached. The study's sponsor, the National Federation of the Blind, has been pushing Congress for a law requiring hybrids and EVs to add some sort of warning noise to the noiseless cars.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been meeting with Nissan to pick a good warning sound, says the Post. So far the company's experts have presented a chime, a melody and what the paper calls "a futuristic whir" that's apparently based on the sound made by the flying cars in the movie "Blade Runner." A similar discussion is going on in Japan.

In what may be the weirdest solution, Lotus has been experimenting with putting a speaker under the hood to play a recording that sounds like a regular combustion engine:

The irony of the problem is not lost on the carmakers."Frankly, we've been working for 30 years to make cars quiet -- never thinking they could become too quiet," said Robert Strassburger, vice president for vehicle safety at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

--Craig Pittman

IBM studying "lithium-air" batteries

IBM is looking into a future generation of energy efficient ''lithium-air" batteries which have much larger potential storage capacity, The New York Times reports.

Lithium-ion batteries have the potential to deliver about 585 watt-hours of electricity per kilogram, while lithium-air batteries might reach targets well above 5,000 watt-hours, the paper reports. They are also much lighter, an important factor for hybrid and all-electric cars.

The technology is still a long way off and there are the usual cost and safety issues that have to be overcome. Here's more about the technology from MIT's Technology Review.

- David Adams, Times staff writer.

Hybrid trucks, not cars, the focus of bill that passed House

"The House on Wednesday passed a bill to encourage research and production of hybrid-powered commercial vehicles," according to Congressional Quarterly. Yep, we're talking trucks here -- panel vans, semis, you name it.

Right now the Energy Department is focused exclusively on development hybrid and electric cars for personal use. It isn't offering any competitive grants for developing hybrid trucks. Heavy-duty trucks typically rely on diesel or gasoline engines for power, and thus "have lower fuel economy and higher emissions than cars or SUVs because of their size and weight," notes CQ.

The bill, which last year passed the House but not the Senate, "would create two phases of the research program for grant recipients, who would be eligible to receive $3 million annually for three years to complete both phases. ... To be eligible, recipients would have to produce trucks with a gross weight between 14,000 and 33,000 pounds."

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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Electric car charging system expanding in time for launch of Leaf

An Arizona company has vaulted to the front rank of racing to build networks of electric vehicle charge stations in major metropolitan markets before the launch of the Nissan Leaf, the New York Times reports today.

Ecotality secured almost $108 million in federal and state grants this summer, enabling it to deploy its charging stations around San Diego -- one of five designated test regions, which also include Nashville, Phoenix/Tucson, Portland and Seattle. 

The company has a strong motive to move quickly. In 2010 Ecotality is supposed to market 5,000 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles and install 12,750 charge stations in urban areas and at strategic highway locations, the NYT says.

“This is the largest deployment of EV chargers and vehicles ever,” said Colin Read, the firm’s vice president of corporate development. “The success of this program will help dictate the future of EV transportation in the United States.”

If they need an ad for the product, here's a catchy new children's song by They Might Be Giants (from their new CD Here Comes Science) that might fill the bill:

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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Ford's Mulally on future of the company and new alternative energy vehicles

Ford CEO Alan Mulally was on NPR's Morning Show today talking about his company's future. Ford is still losing $1 billion per month, but Mulally says its car sales (especially the Ford Focus compact) have picked up and the company hopes to be making money by the year 2011.
He also says the company restructuring with the main car workers union, UAW, means it will be able to continue making cars profitably in the United States.

GM says Chevy Volt will get an electrifying 230 mpg in city

General Motors officials promised Tuesday that their new plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, will get 230 mpg of gas in the city, according to the New York Times.

"That would give the Volt, which is expected to arrive in showrooms late next year, by far the highest fuel efficiency rating of any car now rated by the Environmental Protection Agency," notes the Los Angeles Times. "The current EPA mileage leader is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which is rated at 50 mpg in combined city-highway driving."

The Volt is supposed to go 40 miles on one battery charge before needing to switch over to burning gasoline -- so in city driving a Volt owner would seldom if ever need to burn any gas.

Of course, Nissan last week unveiled its own electric car, the Leaf, which it promises will get more than 300 mpg.

[Chevy Volt]

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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White House announces $2.4 billion stimulus for electric car battery manufacturing

President Obama today announced $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of U.S. batteries and electric vehicles. The announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made, the White House said.

That includes $95-million for Saft Batteries to build a factory in Jacksonville to manufacture lithium-ion batteries for use in Ford vehicles that are then shipped to utilities -- including Progress Energy -- to test-drive and use.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Progress CEO Bill Johnson held a joint press conference in St. Petersburg with U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor this afternoon to announce that particular grant. They were accompanied by officials from Ford.

"The global growth industry of the 21st century is clean energy," Jackson said during the brief news conference. "Today we're firing the starting gun."

Although Castor, D-Tampa, predicted Progress Energy (or "Pioneer" as Jackson called it twice) would put "many of these cars on the road," Johnson said afterward that the actual number would be "in the single digits."

The stimulus funds that include the grant to Saft will go to 48 manufacturers in over 20 states, creating tens of thousands of jobs.

"If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future," Obama said, speaking in Elkhart, Indiana. For a rundown of some of the other big grant recipients, check this Washington Post story.

[Lisa Jackson with President Obama, AP]

- David Adams and Craig Pittman, Times staff writers

Nissan unveils the all-electric Leaf

Nissan has unveiled its first commercial electric vehicle, due to go on sale to the public in 2010.

It's a zero-emission five-door hatchback, named the Leaf, with a range of about 100 miles before recharging and a top speed of 90mph.
Nissan says it expects the car to be competitively priced. However, the lithium-ion battery will only be leased to customers. With a fast charger the Leaf can get back to 80% of its full capacity in just under 30 minutes. But charging at home using a 200 V outlet is estimated to take about eight hours.

Nissan hopes to become the first car firm to mass produce the vehicles. The company says it plans to make 100,000 electric cars a year by 2012.

- David Adams, Times staff writer

Nissan announces plans to go all-electric

Nissan is planning to launch an all-electric car in the United States and Japan next year.

The company is hoping to sell the new car on a "mass market" scale of 100,000 units a year or more. The car is being developed in partnership with Renault of France. It doesn't have a name yet, but  an unveiling is scheduled for early August. (in photo, Nissan Cuba electric prototype)

Nissan says it hopes to keep the price affordable, similar to its current combustion engine models.

This is a big leap for Nissan. It has failed to compete with Toyota and Honda in the hybrid car market. But by going all-electric it may be hoping to for new, low-interest U.S. government loans being offered by the Obama administration for developers of next-generation green cars. The winners of the $25 billion program are expected to be announced today.

David Adams, Times staff writer

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Bankrupt GM sticking with Volt, but selling Hummer to the Chinese

Even as the troubled General Motors Corp. tumbled into bankruptcy court this week, company execs were still vowing to stick to their plan to sell an all-electric vehicle called the Volt starting next year.

"Absolutely, the Volt is still on track to start production in late 2010," a company spokesman told the Saginaw (Mich.) News. "There is no slippage in time as it relates to what's going on with our company. It's still the No. 1 product at GM."

But GM, which which hasn't made a profit since 2004, isn't sticking with the Hummer, that now-unpopular symbol of '90s gas-guzzling excess.

According to the New York Times, GM is selling its Hummer SUV unit to a Chinese company. As the Times notes, this "would mark the first acquisition of a well-known American automotive brand by a Chinese company...Chinese automakers have already purchased the MG and Rover brands, two of the most famous names in British automotive history."

[Chevy Volt image courtesy General Motors]

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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