Green Options

Like a rock from a slingshot, the MINI E electric car shoots up the onramp and into the traffic flow. Press the accelerator (don’t call it the gas) and the 150 KW motor delivers its 204 horsepower in a burst.

You’ll hardly need the brakes. The regenerative braking system kicks in like the flaps on a landing 727. It’s like someone dropped the anchor or popped the ‘chutes. It takes some getting used to. Just lift your right foot as you approach a red light and cruise to a stop.

Last week at the Detroit auto show, new, battery-powered, green cars reigned supreme. General Motors announced finalized plans for its Chevrolet Volt, which will be on the market in both fully electric and plug-in hybrid forms by late 2010. LG Chem, a South Korean company, won the much anticipated contract to manufacture the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries, beating out several other contenders, including Massachusetts’s A123Systems and Germany’s Continental AG.

In the 1980s, the United States semiconductor industry was saved from moving completely overseas by the formation of a consortium called Sematech, a coalition of businesses designed to promote research and foster partnerships among the members. In a recent and similar move, the U.S. lithium ion battery industry has formed the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, which they are thankfully just calling the “Alliance” for the sake of brevity, to support the development and manufacture of new [...]

Researchers are reporting they have developed a new material made from three-dimensional, highly porous nano-silicon that could give future lithium ion batteries a ten times higher capacity than they currently have.

The storage capacity of current generation lithium ion batteries remains a bottleneck for the widespread adoption of electric cars due to a perceived limited driving range. Although we could argue whether a 100-130 mile range really is that much of a limitation or not, perhaps the better solution is to be able to ignore that argument altogether by increasing battery capacity.

Ener1, profiled here, develops and manufactures lithium-ion batteries designed for use in next generation hybrid and electric vehicles. In recent news, Ener1 purchased South Korean battery maker Enertech. This purchase will take Ener1 one step closer to its goal of becoming the first company to mass-produce a cost-competitive lithium-ion battery for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Enertech is one of just a handful of companies that specializes in producing large format flat (or “prismatic”) cells, which Ener1 believes offer significant performance and manufacturing advantages over more common cylindrical designs. Enertech operates a 200,000-square-foot plant outside Seoul, South Korea capable of producing cells for 15,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year.

Sally and I bought a car the other day. Yup, that’s it on the left — a mid-sized, four-wheel drive SUV — what every guy who writes for an environmental website should own. As much as we make of buying “green” and polluting less with our vehicles, we’re sometimes left with few options.

What I learned from this transaction, is that the process of buying a used car is changing with the infusion of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) into the marketplace. Let me explain.

Oh, the building in the background? I have a link at the end of the article.

As you know, we’re older. (Well, I’m much older, Sally’s just older.) We have limited income and some physical considerations, so we had to settle for something less than I would like from the standpoint of our carbon footprint. Purchasing a used HEV was out of the question, as much as I would like to have one, but I’ll cover that later.

I did all the “guy” things, you know, kick the tires, check the engine, look at fluid levels and general physical condition. Sally did her part. She looked it over inside and out, got in the passenger seat for the test ride and exclaimed, “I like it, let’s buy it,” and we did.

Later, I got to thinking, what used car will you buy in the next few years? This will undoubtedly be my last car purchase, and it was done in the traditional manner with all the traditional considerations as outlined above. You, on the other hand, may have to think about more than the tires, drive train, engine, brakes and the like.

Editor’s note: Today, we’re pleased to launch a new content partnership with Celsias. To kick this off right, we’re featuring a wonderfully innovative feature from Celsias writer Doug Snodgrass: the JetPack Rating System™. This post was originally published on September 13, 2007.

I once again present the JetPack Rating System™, my weekly effort to help humanity cope with its collective disappointment over the broken promise of personal jetpacks, the Sean Connery-era James Bond standard of

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