Toyota is investing $50 million to produce Tesla’s Electric Vehicles creating more than 1,000 green jobs in California.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently made the announcement together with the President and Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation Akio Toyota, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Motors Elon Musk and Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. (more…)
As the electric car market continues to grow the number of new electric cars available in 2010 will far outweigh any previous years. Competition and demand in the electric car market has increased over recent years, leading to major improvements in the technology associated with these relatively new vehicles. Consumers are now actively awaiting the introduction of new electric cars to the marketplace and they can expect a bumper crop in 2010!
So what vehicles will hit the headlines in the electric car market in 2010?
We will attempt to cover some of the more eagerly awaited electric cars expected in 2010 although in reality this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Tesla Roadster
The Tesla motor company is one of the most successful electric car manufacturers in the world at this moment in time. This is a company which is relatively new but has literally hit the ground running with the Tesla Roadster grabbing many headlines and catching the eye of many consumers around the world. Despite the fact that the first Tesla Roadster was introduced back in 2006, and delivered to the marketplace in 2008, the company has continued to develop and improve this very impressive vehicle.
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Anatoly Chubais, RUSNANO CEO and Shaoping Lu, Managing Director of Thunder Sky Group Limited of China recently signed an agreement in Beijing establishing the first Russian production of an ultra-capacity lithium-ion battery for Electric Vehicles.
The RUSNANO Supervisory Council approved the Corporation’s participation in the project last year and since then, the two companies started preparing all the necessary documentation to establish the joint Russian-Chinese venture that led to the signing of the contract between the companies.
Thunder Sky Battery Limited is the first company in the world that successfully replaced “PVDF solvent” with solvent binder producing a rechargeable lithium-ion battery high capacity.
The agreement includes an establishment of a joint holdings company based in Russia to start the Lithium-Ion Technology production in the country. They estimate that the total investment for the project at would reach about13.580 billion rubles or more than 400 million dollars.
RUSNANO Managing Director Sergey Polikarpov said that, “This is a remarkable example of cooperation between Russia and China in the science and technology field. The project will help transfer and develop the world’s latest technology in Russia.”
The two companies expect the sales of the project’s production to reach 13.1 billion rubles by 2015.
They would establish the High-End Lithium-Ion Battery production plant in Novosibirsk in Russia. The factory will have four fully automated and environmentally friendly production lines that the Thunder Sky group would install, creating more than 500 jobs in the region. A sales and marketing division will also be established to promote the Thunder Sky technology on Russian and East European markets.
RUSNANO said that the plant would roll out from its production lines batteries that are primarily used for electric buses and minibuses. The batteries are also used in uninterrupted power supply units for IT, telecommunications and renewable energy systems, the Company added. Production will be launched next year with an estimated annual production reaching 400 million ampere-hours by 2012, enough to power 12,000 electric vehicles a year, according to RUSNANO.
The guaranteed demand for major part of batteries produced in first four years is ensured by the Thunder Sky contracts for the Chinese production of electric vehicles. The Russian market sales are expected to grow along with the demand generated by the production of new and re-equipment of existing model such as GAZelle mini-trucks.
The Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant will also supply the cathode material and lithium compounds for the batteries production. Other imported ingredients will be gradually replaced by domestic production, giving an impetus for the emergence of new cluster of high technology industries in Russia.
The project’s Science and Technology center will adapt the nano-technology developments of Russian scientists and will considerably improve characteristics of the Thunder Sky batteries to create new market niches for their application. The Russian production unit will ensure faster commercialization and implementation of the scientific developments. The Russian company added they could easily reconfigure the flexible modular production process depending on the customer’s demand and the new technology emergence.
According to the McKinsey 2009 forecast, about 10 percent of all cars on the roads will be battery-electric or plug-in vehicles or running solely on electric power. That would create the demand for batteries growing up to $60 billion a year. Europe, USA and China are projected to be the largest markets for electric vehicle batteries.
Over the last 20 years there has been a major push towards improving the efficiency of traditional vehicles around the world and of late there have been increasing concerns regarding the damage which some fuels are doing to the environment. As a consequence, the so-called hybrid electric car industry has developed and hybrid electric cars are now more popular and more commonplace today than ever before. But what exactly is a hybrid electric car and what does it do?
What is a hybrid electric vehicle?
In simple terms a hybrid electric vehicle is one which offers a combination of the traditional internal combustion engine together with electric propulsion. The degree to which the power of the vehicle comes from the traditional internal combustion engine or the electric power can vary across the board but ultimately it is a means of increasing the fuel efficiency of the vehicle and also reducing the damage done to the environment. Even though electric hybrid car are the more popular variation of hybrid electric vehicles available at the moment there are hybrid electric trucks, hybrid electric tractors and hybrid electric pickups.
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China is emerging as a global power in the development of Electric Vehicles (EV).
A joint venture between BYD Company Limited of China and Daimler AG amounting to some $ 88 million was recently signed in Beijing. The agreement would allow the two companies to conduct technological research and development to produce a new electric vehicle for China.
The new EV would incorporate Daimler’s technological expertise on vehicle safety and architecture utilizing the Chinese advanced battery technology and e-drive systems. (more…)
Over the last 20 years there has been a major increase in the number of electric vehicles on the roads and a significant increase in the number of electric car manufacturers around the world. While many of these companies have relationships with traditional vehicle manufacturers there are number of standalone operations which are making a name for themselves in this new up-and-coming sector.
We will now attempt to highlight the major players in the world might electric vehicle market and give some background to these companies and the services which they offer.
For many people Tesla Motors is perhaps the epitome of the electric vehicle market with a company that has literally grown from nothing to become one of the best-known electric car manufacturers in the world. Such is the technology which Tesla incorporates into its vehicles that for many people the performance of a Tesla electric car is indistinguishable from that of a more traditional petrol powered vehicle.
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Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of car giant Chrysler which is regarded as the world leader in low speed neighbourhood electric vehicles. Despite the fact that a number of the larger car manufacturers in the world were slow to respond to the electric vehicle market it would seem that Chrysler was quicker than many to stake a claim in this potentially enormous investment arena.
The history of GEM
Initially GEM (formerly known as Trans2) was set up by a team of ex-General Motors engineers who obviously spotted the potential for battery-powered electric vehicles in and around neighbourhoods. The operation went public in 1992 in Michigan although it was not until 1998 that the company’s first vehicle hit the marketplace and the success story which is GEM began to fall into place.
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Hydro-Quebec, a leading Canadian power utility provider, has joined CHAdeMO Association, an organization that counts among its members the leaders in the power industry and some of the world’s biggest automakers in Japan to do research and development for the next generation electric vehicles.
Ms. Marie-Jose Nadeau, Executive Vice President, Corporate affairs and Secretary General of Hydro-Quebec, and Mr. Tsunehisa Katsumata, the Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company who at the same time chairs the CHAdeMO Association, made the announcement during the e8 Summit recently. (more…)
Britain’s bid to crack the world record in Electric Vehicle long distance driving was given another boost when students driving an electric super car became the first to drive twice around M25 in a single charge battery.
The record drive was a lead up to the team’s upcoming attempt to cross the Americas scheduled for July this year to try and establish a new world record for electric vehicle long distance driving.
EVO Electric Ltd. is launching the new generation Axial Flux motor and generator technology that could lower the cost and enhance the performance and efficiency of hybrid and electric vehicle power trains.
The applications can be used in units such as hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles, range extenders, auxiliary power units (APU) and integrated starter-generator (ISG) systems. (more…)
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