Green Options

Last week, Volkswagen debuted it’s E-Up! electric vehicle during the Frankfurt motor show. VW has already coined its new car “The Beetle for the 21st Century.” And now, according to VW, this city-sized electric vehicle concept will be Americanized and super-sized (okay, super-sized may be a slight exaggeration) for its American debut shortly after its launch in Europe in 2013.

In an article published by autoweek.com, the board member in charge of product development at Volkswagen AC, Ulrich Hackenberg, summed up in one sentence why they are developing an electric car. “The reason we are working on an electric vehicle is the American market.”

Better Place, based in Palo Alto, California, has gotten the green light from the Japanese government to move forward on installing its battery swap stations for use by Tokyo’s taxi fleet. The company said it has received an undisclosed financial investment from the Japanese government for its “Tokyo pilot project,” which is intended to validate the feasibility of the battery swap stations by installing switchable batteries into the world’s first four completely electric taxis.

According to the company, they will partner with Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, for the project that was commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency. The project is slated to begin in January 2010 and is a direct result of the successful battery switch demonstration earlier this year in Yokohama.

After several set backs last week, yesterday the British Steam Car Team unofficially broke the 103 year-old world steam-powered land speed record. The speed record has been held for more than a century by American Fred Marriott, who in 1906, drove a “Stanley Steamer” car 127 miles per hour (mph). The teams own calibrated equipment measured the two way average of 137.14 mph and a 48 min, 52 second turn-around.

At the wheel will be tri-national Charles Burnett III, a multimillionaire born in England to a Canadian mother and American father. The car, which looks like an over sized rocket on wheels, is nicknamed the “fastest kettle in the world”.

Today, Rentech, Inc. announced that it will be supplying renewable synthetic fuels to eight airlines for ground service equipment operations at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

This multi-year agreement will supply the airlines with up to 1.5 million gallons per year of renewable RenDiesel. The airline purchasers under the agreement with Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG) include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS Airlines and U.S. Airways. The airlines will begin using the RenDiesel in 2012, when the plant that will produce the fuel is scheduled to go into service.

“This commercial purchase contract among Rentech, ASIG and the airlines validates the growing demand for synthetic fuels produced by the Rentech Process,” said D. Hunt Ramsbottom, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rentech. “The low-emissions profile and near-zero carbon footprint of our renewable RenDiesel will guarantee that LAX ground service vehicles using this fuel will be among the cleanest and greenest of their kind.”

A few weeks ago I met Todd Mouw with Roush Manufacturing (many of you may know the company from its work in motorsports) who was displaying a Ford F250 converted to run on propane. I talked him into letting me take it for a spin through Ft. Worth, Texas.

From there, I convinced him to let me take a liquid propane injection (LPJ) F150, model year 2007, across the country (I’m technically on vacation). I know that propane is not a new technology -it’s been used as a fuel since the 1930s- but in America, it is rarely used in vehicles outside of fleets, but is gaining momentum and can now be used in applications such as lawn mowers.

Now here are the selling points from companies such as Roush that are producing LPJ vehicles:

97 percent of propane is produced in North America
Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 18 percent
No loss of horsepower, torque or towing capacity
Up to $5,000 federal tax credit available
Tax credit of 50 cents per gallon (not always passed to the consumer)
Significantly reduces operating costs

British Manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs), Modec, has announced a joint venture with U.S. based Navistar International Corporation, a $15 billion per year truck manufacturer. The announcement comes at an ideal time as earlier this month, President Barack Obama announced the largest grant ever to develop and bring to market electric vehicles. Obama made the announcement at the Navistar premises in Elkhart County, Indiana. As part of this funding, Navistar was awarded a grant of $39 million, which will be used to accelerate EV production.

“The all-electric delivery vehicle is a concrete example of what business and government can do when we work together,” said Daniel C. Ustian, Navistar Chairman, President and CEO. “The future is now with this electric vehicle. In fact, we already have interested customers, including some of the most respected names in the industry.”

There has been one benefit to having the American auto companies bankrupt, and that is that many companies and ideas for cars that would have otherwise never had a chance now do. One such idea is from CT&T United, newly based in the United States. The company has announced plans for a proprietary manufacturing, sales and service model called RASS or Regional Assembly and Sales System. This system will help to support the companies U.S. market launch of their all-electric vehicles and each RASS will cost between $8-$10 million to build.

“Just as just-in-time parts delivery from Toyota revolutionized the auto industry, we believe the RASS system from CT&T has the potential to do the same by regionalizing manufacturing and sales and allowing us to offer EVs at an incredibly reasonable price point,” said Young Gi Lee, Chairman and company founder. “RASS will also speed up our national rollout so that we an stay on the leading edge of the EV market.”

Three weeks ago, I wrote a story about the upcoming public debut of the Fisker Karma Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). Well, it’s official. The Karma PHEV made its public driving debut over the weekend, just 19 months after being introduced as a concept car. Behind the wheel was Bernhard Koehler, co-founder and COO of Fisker Automotive. Fisker Automotive is just one of several companies, such as Bright Automotive, that have brought concept cars to market in less than two years - a feat I don’t believe any major automotive company in the states has ever accomplished.

“This demonstration represents a significant milestone for Fisker Automotive and PHEV technology,” said Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker. “The future of clean cars is bright.”

Aptera Motors publicly debuted it Aptera 2e during TED 2009 this past February, but the company has announced that it will modify the interior of its Aptera 2e in its production models. According to the company’s newsletter, they did extensive consumer testing of the car and discovered some elements that would turn off consumers including cabin space, cargo space and well, space. So they fixed them.

The first major issue found was that there wasn’t enough space for men or women. I remember this being an issue in the first version of the Honda Insight as well. Very tall people couldn’t fit into the car. Like Honda, Aptera has gone about to fix this and using their Aptera formula - safety, then aerodynamics, then lightweight - they have increased the interior cabin by 10 percent.

Despite government rebates for hybrids offered to consumers in U.S. and Canada, the programs are failing to produce environmental benefits, yet the programs continue to cost consumers. This according to a new study, “Green Drivers or Free Riders? An Analysis of Tax Rebates for Hybrid Vehicles,” from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

The study finds that hybrid sales have not replaced gas guzzling SUVS, but rather have replaced small, relatively fuel-efficient, conventional cars. Too bad considering SUVS, trucks and vans produce substantially greater carbon emissions.