May 12, 2009
YOKOHAMA, Japan - We're in Japan for a few days this week to take a look at the city's electric vehicle test project, more specifically to witness the first demonstration of the battery exchange technology that Better Place founder Shai Agassi has been talking about for more than a year now.
Better Place, the Silicon Valley-based company that wants to lead the way into vehicle electrification by providing a global network of battery charging and exchange systems (working country by country, not all at once) is part of a consortium working with officials in Yokohama to establish a real-world center for assessing EV operation.
Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru are providing the cars, Tokyo Electric Power is supplying the juice, and Better Place is providing the means for getting it into the cars.
A temporary exhibit aimed at educating Japan's decision-makers, auto industry leaders and common citizens about electric cars, car charging and other issues is being inaugurated later today and a Better Place battery station will be part of it.
The company's buisness plan envisions some EV owners using on-street charging stations to "top up" the vehicles' batteries for a little extra range during the day when making short trips but exchanging entire depleted battery packs for fresh new ones in automated "battery swap" centers - think of them as full-service gas stations for EVs - when trips are longer and a single charged pack won't do.
Better Place intends to sell prepaid charging and battery swap plans, much the way cell phone companies sell minutes of air time in a variety of packages.
In addition to seeing how it works, we'll be asking Agassi how he plans to field the technology - which depends on a uniform battery mounting system - in markets like the U.S. where fiercdely competitive automakers rarely agree on anything,
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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- John O'Dell May 12, 2009, 6:53 AM
- Categories:
- Batteries, Japan, Mitsubishi, Phoenix Motorcars, Plug-ins and Electric, Subaru, Yamaha
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- Better Place
, EV Battery Exchange Station, Shai Agassi, Yokohama Electric Vehicle Test
January 9, 2009
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Word that ailing South Korean SUV manufacturer SsangYong Motor has filed for bankruptcy protection in a Seoul court got us wondering how that might affect SsangYong's biggest U.S. customer, electric vehicle maker Phoenix Motorcars.
Phoenix buys its rolling stock - sporty pickups (right) and sport utility vehicles (below) - from SaangYong and then adds the electric drive systems when the vehicles arrive at Phoenix' assembly plant in Southern California..
If the South Korean company stopped making vehicles, it would be bad news for Phoenix.
But the SsangYong bankkruptcy filling sought protection from creditors, not liquidation of the company, and Dan Elliott, Phoenix' chief executive, says that as far as he knows, it will be business as usual.
Phoenix imported 200 SsangYong trucks in the fourth quarter last year and Elliott said he expects the level of business with SsangYong to remain about the same in the first quarter this year.
(EV sales to the public utilities and government agencies required to add alternative technology vehicles to their fleets are a major source of business for Phoneix and aren't affected much by the economic crisis that has made the retail car sales market so ugly.)
Phoenix isn't out of the woods, though.
Continue reading...
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- John O'Dell January 9, 2009, 3:48 PM
- Categories:
- Alternative Fuels, Phoenix Motorcars, Plug-ins and Electric
- Technorati Tags:
- EV
, Phoenix Motorcars, SAIC, SsangYong Automotive
December 11, 2008
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, who only last week unveiled a plan to create an alternative transportation system for the islands based on plug-in electric vehicles, announced this week that a partnership exists between Maui Electric and Phoenix Motorcars to bring electric sport utility trucks and an EV infrastructure to Maui early next year.
Phoenix Motorcars of Ontario, California, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the utility for a test program using five to 30 of the EV-maker's four-door electric SUTs (identical to the one pictured here) in the utility's fleet.
But there's a twist to this test: In addition to evaluating how well the plug-in EVs perform when they are dependent on electricity generated by renewable resources during off-peak hours, Maui Electric wants to see how helpful the trucks could be in supplying the utility with electricity.
As Ed Reinhardt, president of Maui Electric, explained it, the company wants to determine whether electric vehicles -- any EVs in general, but these in particular -- can efficiently store power and return it to the grid during peak demand.
Which begs the question: What kind of battery is Phoenix Motorcars putting in its SUTs?
The answer's a good one: It's a 35-kilowatt lithium-titanate battery, which probable supplier Altair Nanotechnologies believes may well prove to be the superior lithium chemistry.
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- Scott Doggett December 11, 2008, 4:01 AM
- Categories:
- Batteries, Emissions, Energy Companies, Fuel Economy, Phoenix Motorcars, Plug-ins and Electric
- Technorati Tags:
- Electric Vehicle
, EV, Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, Maui Electric, Phoenix Motorcars, Plug-In Electric, SUT, Zero-Emission
