Green Options

Leo Motors, a parts supply company with its roots in Korea, has an outspoken CEO with an interesting eye for the future and a grasp of where we’ve come from. For instance, after speaking with him it became apparent that Dr. Robert Kang has come to the conclusion that most of the electric vehicle technology we see today is based on technology developed for electric toys combining a simple motor, battery and ampere controller.

I don’t know if this is a fully accurate representation of electric car design, but it’s certainly true that electric cars are relatively simple systems.

Canadian province Ontario is to introduce green-coloured licence plates, available only to drivers of plug-in hybrids and battery-powered electric vehicles.

Sounds like another gimmick? Well, here’s the deal - vehicles sporting the new green plates will be able to drive in the province’s dedicated carpool lanes until 2015, even if only one person is in the vehicle.

Speaking about the initiative, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said, “The McGuinty government’s plan is to have one out of every 20 passenger vehicles on Ontario’s roads an electric vehicle by 2020.”

A US-built Tesla Roadster has broken the world record for the distance travelled by an electric production car on a single charge.

While competing in the Global Green Challenge, Australian Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas drove an incredible 313 miles before the batteries finally died in their Roadster.

Until now, the record has been held by another Tesla Roadster, after completing a 241 mile road rally on one charge.

The Salamander of myth and legend: a creature which lives in water but renews its life in fire. It’s rubbish, Bunkum, steaming horse manure…  a bit like an electric car with neither plug nor solar panels.

Except no one’s told those clever boffins over at Advanced Power and Energy Sources Transportation (APET) in Hong Kong. According to them, the Salamander and the cordless EV are about to step out of myth and into reality.

APET’s revolution centres upon how zinc air batteries can power EVs. The technology is proven on the small scale: hearing aid battery adverts dominate any Google search for “zinc air battery”.

Furthermore, as zinc air batteries need only zinc, air and water to produce electricity they are likely the most environmentally friendly ones around.

However, upscaling the technology from a hearing aid to a car has always been a problem.

Until now.

Last night kicked off a three-day conference in Detroit on plug-in electric vehicles (which Gas 2.0 is attending). Today we’ll be hosting a live chat from the event with Britta Gross, GM director of Global Energy Systems, Infrastructure and Commercialization, and Mark Duvall, executive director of the Electric Propulsion Research Institute (EPRI).

Legendary Italian carmaker, Pininfarina, may yet have some surprises up its sleeves. Even with recent financial difficulties, Pininfarina’s CEO, Silvio Pietro Angori, told Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24, that the company’s Bluecar electric car venture with french investor Vincent Bollore is not simply a concept car and still on track for a 2011 market debut.

While Electric Vehicles (EVs) gear up to hit Main Street next year, EVs are already rolling through Wall Street.

An example is the recent (and successful) initial public offering (IPO) by the American battery maker A123 (AONE). A123 provides lithium-based batteries for EVs, and through its IPO, has now provided the finance community with one of the first mainstream opportunities to invest in a pure EV play. The overwhelming response from the “Street” reflects tremendous market confidence in the future of the EV business.

As many car makers are coming out with electric and hybrid vehicle options that appeal to the average driver, there’s hope that more of these alternative fuel options will be seen on the streets of North America and worldwide. However, with so many service vehicles on the street still contributing to carbon emissions, the impact of regular drivers making the change to electric vehicles just might not be as beneficial to the carbon footprint if these fleet vehicles do not get on board. Stepping up to the plate and the challenge, and pledging to plug into the electric alternative are the government and other private businesses who have voiced intent to purchase electric vehicles my makers like Ford over the next few years.

Last week, France unveiled plans to go electric, making it both possible and convenient for commuters in the nation to purchase and engage in the regular use of hybrid vehicles. To date, the lack of charging stations in France has made it difficult for drivers to adopt the more eco-friendly method of transportation, and France is ready to change that, in turn reducing their carbon footprint.

The process of turning California’s Highway 101 into an electric roadway is beginning, and for a short period of time the charging stations that will be installed can be used for free. Beginning in October, Solarcity will be installing vehicle charging stations alogn Highway 101 between San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to reward those who have already made a move to adopt a cleaner lifestyle with clean technology in their vehicles.

VW premiered its spanking new EV concept, the E-Up!, at the Frankfurt Auto Show yesterday, and gave the strongest hint yet that the car will be very close to the production model available from 2013.

The E-Up! boasts acceleration to 62 mph in a fairly zippy 11.3 seconds and tops out at 84 mph, whilst its 18 kWh integrated lithium-ion batteries will enable a range of over 80 miles (see picture gallery after the jump).