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If I could sum up last week’s conference on electric vehicles in a single sentence, it would be this: I’m now certain that my kids will grow up driving electric cars.

Advocates have been saying it for a while, but now all sides of the debate—including automakers, utilities, venture capitalists, and policymakers—are saying it too: electric-powered automobiles are the real deal, and we’re on the cusp of the biggest transformation in automotive history since the invention of the internal combustion engine.

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If you live in Colorado and own a Prius, here’s a New Year’s Day gift for you: $6,000 off a plug-in hybrid conversion.

Earlier this year, Colorado passed House Bill 1331, “Incentives for Efficient Motor Vehicles,” which creates new tax credits of up to $6,000 for the purchase of, or conversion to, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

Background: plug-in hybrid and electric car retrofits.

The new credit will be a substantial discount off the average price of a plug-in conversion, which generally run around $10-14,000. On top of the Federal Tax Credit of 10% (up to $4,000), plug-in retrofits could start to make a lot of sense for some car owners.

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More: Toyota to Launch Overpriced Plug-in Prius in 2012: $48,000 for a Minor Upgrade

Cartoon by Jerry King.

Editor’s Note: This is a 4-part series covering my trip to Michigan to test-drive the Chevy Volt. See also: 1. LiveBlogging from the opening of GM’s New Battery Lab, 2. Chevy Volt Test Drive: How GM’s Electric Car Works 3. Tour of GM’s New Battery Lab. Disclaimer: GM flew me out for this event.

“Remarkably Unremarkable” has been the phrase of choice when describing how the Chevy Volt prototype drives.

And that’s really a compliment, since the car was engineered for consumers who won’t accept compromise, even for a an electric car.

I got a chance to drive the Chevy Volt prototype on June 8th, and although the test model was still housed under a Chevrolet Cruze skin, it gave me a good feeling for what the final version will be like.

Chevy Volt Test Drive

The interior of the Cruze doesn’t do the car justice, at least in terms of space and aesthetics. The center divider seemed poorly fitted for the Volt’s T-shaped battery pack that runs the length of the car (which also precludes a 5th seat in the prototype and final versions). Frank Weber, who accompanied me on the the 45-minute drive, said that everything about the interior would change for production.

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SAN FRANCISCO - Yesterday, Gas 2.0 (gas2.org) launched ElectricCarRace.org, a site challenging cities across the nation to be first to develop city-wide electric vehicle infrastructure. A two-minute video featuring the Mayors of Portland and San Francisco kicked off the competition, along with posts written by Mayor Newsom, Portland General Electric, and the CEO of Coulomb Technologies Richard Lowenthal.

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Over the holiday weekend, Japanese news daily Nikkei reported that Toyota will start mass producing plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2012.

The plug-in Prius will have a reported all-electric range of 12.4-18.6 miles after a full charge, and will cost $48,000—roughly twice the price of the regular gasoline-hybrid Prius.

Considering that a used Prius can be converted into a plug-in hybrid today for less than $15,000—giving the car the same or better statistics and driving range—I’d have to ask: what the hell is Toyota thinking?

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Editor’s Note: This is a 4-part series covering my trip to Michigan to test-drive the Chevy Volt. See post 1. LiveBlogging from the opening of GM’s New Battery Lab, and 2. Chevy Volt Test Drive: How GM’s Electric Car Works. Disclaimer: GM flew me out for this event. This post is in no way affiliated with the GM ads that appear at the margins.

The real reason we were in Warren, MI wasn’t to test-drive the Volt, but to be on hand for the grand opening of GM’s new battery testing facility. The $25 million Global Battery Systems lab is now the largest battery testing facility in the United States, and is four times larger than the company’s old lab.

GM made a strategic decision to keep battery development in-house, because it will likely be a key competitive advantage in the race to commercialize electric vehicles. The lab already employs 1,000 engineers who work on advanced battery systems like the one found the the Chevy Volt.

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Editor’s Note: This is a 4-part series covering my trip to Michigan to test-drive the Chevy Volt. See also: 1. LiveBlogging from the opening of GM’s New Battery Lab and 3. Tour of GM’s New Battery Lab, 4. Video: Driving GM’s Electric Car. Disclaimer: GM flew me out for this event.

June 8, 2009- It was pouring rain when I arrived at GM’s Testing facility in Warren, Michigan. A crowd had already gathered inside the Alternative Energy Center which, among other things, is home to GM’s first electric car—the original model EV1 (#1).

The ghost of the EV1—a car designed and built 13 years ago—still haunts GM, though it’s both a symbol of lost opportunity and tangible proof that the company could pull off the same kind of engineering feat again. The billion-dollar Volt project is a major component of the company’s reinvention strategy, and it’s clear they aren’t pulling any punches this time.

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Today at Noon, a Shell service station in Ottawa, Ontario will quietly begin selling cellulosic ethanol blended into regular gasoline. The biofuel is made locally from wheat straw, and as far as we know is the first time cellulosic ethanol has been made publicly available.

The new fuel will only be available for one month, starting on June 10th, but it’s a major step forward for the production of advanced biofuels. All gasoline purchased at the Ottawa station will be a blend of 10% cellulosic ethanol and 90% gasoline (CE10).

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Note: see more updates on the author’s Twitter feed.

Just a few days before GM declared bankruptcy, I was surprised to receive an email from the company asking if I’d be interested in test-driving the Chevy Volt.

The offer to test-drive the product of a $1 billion development program (as well as one of the most anticipated cars of my lifetime) isn’t something that comes along every day, and I’m excited to say that tomorrow I’ll be test-driving the Volt as well as liveblogging from GM’s Tech center in Warren, Michigan.

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At noon today, nascent auto-maker CODA announced a new electric car available in California in fall 2010. The fully electric sedan will have a range of 90-100 miles on a fully-charged battery.

Speaking during a webinar, the company also formally announced a global joint venture between CODA and battery manufacturer Lishen Battery Co., located in Tianjin, China. Lishen is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lithium-ion cells for companies like Apple, Motorola, Samsung, and Vodafone. CODA will maintain a 40% stake in the partnership.

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[UPDATE]: Video of the switching station in action and photos added below.

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN- Last night at approximately 10:30 PM PST (1:30 AM EST), electric vehicle services provider Better Place will demonstrate key elements of their battery switching station technology. This is the first public exhibition of a battery switching station—which Better Place lauds as the final piece of a “total electric vehicle solution.” The company was invited by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to set up an exhibit in Yokohama.

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

“Range anxiety,” as it’s called, describes the most fundamental fear expressed by would-be adopters of electric vehicles. It’s no different than the fear of driving through sparsley inhabited parts of the United States, where it’s important to know your car’s mileage and the distance to the next gas station.

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More Media:

• David Letterman Slams Chevy Volt, Tesla CEO Agrees
• Realizing the Dream of a Luxury Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Henrik Fisker (interview)
• Better Place: Shai Agassi on Gavin Newsom’s Radio Show

Are you considering to license the battery technology to other companies?

The first step is to commercialize the batteries in the cars. The real limit is ramping up on production of batteries, which will also limit the avialability of vehicles. It could be a few years out before these batteries are licensed or sold to OEMs.

How many vehicles are now available in the US?

There are about 10 vehicles in the US, 20 vehicles worldwide currently being tested.

Where do you estimate you are in the crash certification process?

The CODA sedan has already been through the front-end crash testing (40mph, 40% offset test) and other 35mph full frontal impact tests. Based on that, which is over a year of testing, CODA says the car will achieve a minimum NCAP 4-star rating, but believes it will receive will get 5-star rating. The primary factor there is going to be the advanced airbags they’ve been developing for the last year.

How unique is the chassis?

It’s borrowed from an existing platform that Porsche helped adapt. CODA did this in order to have speed to market, and they wanted to focus on the key enabling technology: the battery technology. They we’re looking for a combination of mass manufacturing plus technology and engineering support. Using the existing mass manufacturing capability enabled a faster market entrance and lower costs overall. The end result is safe car that meets CODA’s vehicle requirements.

How do you address the question of Chinese build quality?

CODA is overseeing the manufacturing of these cars. The first step is to test the chassis and do an audit to match it to all requirements available. Testing is ongoing, and is overseen by qualified engineers. The focus is on quality. Rather than think about where the car is built, look at what processes are being used and who the company teams with.

Do you actually think you will sell 20,000 per year or is that the max capacity?

The company wants to sell 2700 in 2010 in in 2011 will look at other markets. The 20,000 number is the max capacity of manufacturing.

Mascoma says they’ve achieved a 60% reduction in cost for their consolidated bioprocessing technology (CBP).

Mascoma Corp., a well-known firm pursuing the advanced production of cellulosic ethanol, announced today what they’re calling “major scientific advances” that will enable them to produce lower cost, lower carbon fuel from sustainable sources.

This is a true breakthrough that takes us much, much closer to billions of gallons of low cost cellulosic biofuels. Many had thought that CBP was years or even decades away, but the future just arrived. Mascoma has permanently changed the biofuels landscape from here on.

-Dr. Bruce Dale, Scientific Advistory Board of Mascoma

Mascoma’s value-proposition is to elminate as many steps as possible in the processing of non-food cellulosic feedstocks to produce ethanol. The consolidation of the process—which involves enzymatically breaking apart cellulose into sugars, and then fermenting the sugars into alcohol—dramatically reduces overall cost. CBP eliminates the need for added and costly enzymes to process pretreated lignocellulose into ethanol.

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The 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals

One of the world’s most prestigious and established biofuels meetings, the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, is currently underway May 3-6 in San Francisco, with more than 800 scientists expected to attend sessions on topics ranging from commercialization of biofuels and their long-term sustainability to emerging technologies and turning algae into fuel.

We’re liveblogging (on Twitter) from today’s press meeting for the event.

You can also follow the author here, or just search for hashtag #biofuelsymposium.

Are you considering to license the battery technology to other companies?

The first step is to commercialize the batteries in the cars. The real limit is ramping up on production of batteries, which will also limit the avialability of vehicles. It could be a few years out before these batteries are licensed or sold to OEMs.

How many vehicles are now available in the US?

There are about 10 vehicles in the US, 20 vehicles worldwide currently being tested.

Where do you estimate you are in the crash certification process?

The CODA sedan has already been through the front-end crash testing (40mph, 40% offset test) and other 35mph full frontal impact tests. Based on that, which is over a year of testing, CODA says the car will achieve a minimum NCAP 4-star rating, but believes it will receive will get 5-star rating. The primary factor there is going to be the advanced airbags they’ve been developing for the last year.

How unique is the chassis?

It’s borrowed from an existing platform that Porsche helped adapt. CODA did this in order to have speed to market, and they wanted to focus on the key enabling technology: the battery technology. They we’re looking for a combination of mass manufacturing plus technology and engineering support. Using the existing mass manufacturing capability enabled a faster market entrance and lower costs overall. The end result is safe car that meets CODA’s vehicle requirements.

How do you address the question of Chinese build quality?

CODA is overseeing the manufacturing of these cars. The first step is to test the chassis and do an audit to match it to all requirements available. Testing is ongoing, and is overseen by qualified engineers. The focus is on quality. Rather than think about where the car is built, look at what processes are being used and who the company teams with.

Do you actually think you will sell 20,000 per year or is that the max capacity?

The company wants to sell 2700 in 2010 in in 2011 will look at other markets. The 20,000 number is the max capacity of manufacturing.