Chevrolet Volt to be Sold in Eight Chinese Cities

The Chevrolet Volt electric car will go on sale at 13 Shanghai GM Chevrolet dealerships in eight Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan. It will be priced at RMB 498,000 ($75,533).

The announcement was made Monday as part of General Motors’ participation in Auto Guangzhou 2011. Two of GM’s joint ventures, Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, are displaying more than 30 vehicles from the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Baojun brands.

China will be among the first global markets to offer the Volt, which provides up to 80 kilometers of pure electric driving. With its onboard engine-generator, it has a total driving range of 570 kilometers in extended-range mode. It produces peak torque of 370 Nm and maximum power of 111 kW and has a 0-100 km/h time of about nine seconds along with a top speed of 160 km/h.

The Volt earned a five-star safety rating from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Its battery carries a warranty of six years/150,000 kilometers. The Volt’s introduction is part of Shanghai GM’s Drive to Green strategy, which is focused on delivering products that offer higher fuel economy and lower emissions.

Tech transfer not required to build, sell EVs in China

China will not require US and other foreign automakers to share proprietary electric vehicle technology to sell or build those vehicles in China, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Monday.

"I am pleased that China specifically confirmed it would not force US auto manufacturers to transfer electric vehicle technology to Chinese partners," Kirk said.

Although China said it does not currently require tech transfer as a condition of selling or manufacturing EVs there, US companies have frequently announced joint ventures with Chinese counterparts that included extensive technology sharing as part of their bid to enter the Chinese market.

In September, GM announced it would enter a joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp., a Chinese automaker, to develop an EV for the Chinese market, shortly before it announced it would begin selling its plug-in electric Volt in China, although GM said the two announcements were not connected.

The US-China Business Council, which represents US companies doing business in China, called the announcement good news, but USCBC President John Frisbie said he will be waiting on the details of the agreement.

"As we have stated repeatedly, American companies face real challenges when doing business in China and have significant concerns about their ability to compete on a level playing field," Frisbie said in a statement. "More details will be needed in the coming days, but today's announcements are a positive step forward for US-China commercial relations."

The business council's member survey this year found that energy and transportation companies were most likely to be pressured to transfer technology to Chinese companies as a condition of doing business in China. About 18% of all US companies in China reported being pressured.

On Monday, China also agreed to grant the same tax credits for buying electric vehicles made by foreign-owned companies that it currently only awards to Chinese-manufactured EVs, USTR said, following a meeting between top US and Chinese officials in Chengdu, China. Those tax credits total about $19,000 to buyers of plug-in electric cars, Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news service, reported in October.

USTR also said China plans to manufacture 1 million alternatively fueled vehicles annually by 2015 and 5 million annually by 2020.

At the same meeting with US officials Monday, Chinese officials confirmed that the nation plans to spend $1.5 trillion over the next five years to support "strategic industries," which include alternative energy, new energy vehicles and energy-saving technologies.

A spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers declined to comment on the announcement and the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents Chrysler, Ford and GM, did not respond to questions.

New Battery Electrode is World's Lightest Material

Researchers have announced they have developed the world’s lightest material with a density of 0.9 mg/cc, approximately one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam™.

This new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. Using an innovative fabrication process developed by HRL senior scientist Dr. Alan Jacobsen, the team was able to make a material that consists of 99.99% open volume by designing the 0.01% solid at the nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler.

In addition to its ultra-low density, the material’s cellular architecture gives rise to unprecedented mechanical behavior for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50% strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption. Developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the novel material could be used for battery electrodes, catalyst supports, and acoustic, vibration or shock energy damping.

Dr. Bill Carter, manager of the Architected Materials Group at HRL, lays out the vision for these micro-lattice materials by drawing parallels to large structures: “Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architectures. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the materials level and designing their architectures at the nano and micro scales.”

Rimac Automobili Concept One Test Drive [video]

The Concept_One is a supercar with a curb weight of 1650 kg, and 1088 HP, the Concept_One can reach 100 km/h from a standstill in 2.8 seconds and continue to accelerate to the limit of 305 km/h. 92kWh of energy in the Battery Modules delivers enough juice"for up to 600 km of range.

Toyota Awaits Prius Bounce as Inventory Recovers, Oil Rises

Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest seller of gasoline-electric cars, said U.S. sales of Prius will revive with increased inventory and rising oil prices.

Deliveries of the Prius, the top-selling hybrid since 1997, declined 9.4 percent through October from a year ago. Competitors also stumbled. Honda Motor Co.’s Insight fell 21 percent and Ford Motor Co.’s Fusion Hybrid sedan slid 48 percent in the same period, according to Autodata Corp.

“When Toyota is 70 percent of the market and we had to stop Prius production for almost 90 days, it should be no big shock to anybody that the overall hybrid sales volume dropped this year,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said in an interview. “It wasn’t due to lack of demand. It was lack of supply.”

Toyota is counting on gasoline-electric vehicles, led by an expanded Prius lineup, to aid its U.S. sales recovery in 2012 and to meet stricter fuel-economy rules. Sales of the fuel- saving vehicles have fluctuated with gasoline prices. Demand surged when the average U.S. regular unleaded gasoline price reached a record $4.114 a gallon on July 17, 2008.

Industrywide sales of hybrids and electric-drive autos fell 6.1 percent through October to about 211,000 units from a year ago, accounting for 2 percent of new vehicle sales, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. The segment peaked at 355,766 hybrids in 2007, led by a record 181,221 Prius deliveries.

‘An Aberration’

Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March reduced supplies of automotive components. Before that, Toyota had sought a Prius sales record in 2011 with increased supply and more Prius-based models.

“This year was an aberration,” Alan Baum, an industry consultant at Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Michigan, said in a phone interview. “We’re going to see hybrids grow next year, assuming we don’t have another tsunami, given a better economy, better availability and a lot more models, and not just from Toyota.”

U.S. hybrid sales this year will be just over 250,000 vehicles, down from about 275,000 in 2010, Baum said. Deliveries should rise 20 percent next year to about 300,000 hybrids, he said.

The current average regular unleaded gasoline price is $3.38 a gallon, 17 percent more expensive than a year ago, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. It’s likely to rise further going into 2012, Lentz said.

“First quarter of next year I think we’re going to see oil prices rise again, possibly a substantial increase,” he said. “I think the Prius family is going to be in the right place at the right time.”

New Hybrid Models

Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel yesterday, heading for the first weekly drop in seven weeks, on concern Europe’s debt crisis will reduce demand. Crude for December delivery slid $1.41, or 1.4 percent, to $97.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Toyota last month began U.S. sales of its Prius v, a wagon version larger than the main hatchback model. In early 2012, the Toyota City, Japan-based company adds the Prius c, a subcompact version, and a plug-in model that goes about 15 miles per charge solely on electricity and operates like a standard Prius after that. Toyota said earlier this year it expects to sell at least 16,000 of the plug-in model in 2012.

Sales of Prius models are “going to be much better in November and beyond,” Lentz said. Increased advertising and promotion of the Prius line will drive more buyers to Toyota dealers, resulting in higher sales, he said.

“People can talk about performance cars outpacing hybrids all they want,” Lentz said. “It’s not going to happen. We will see once again, very soon, when fuel prices rise, that hybrids will once again take off in the marketplace.”

Volkswagen eT! EV Van Concept

For over 60 years now, commercial vehicles from Volkswagen have maintained a visual presence on the world’s streets. They are helpers in everyday life, which bring us people goods, services, postal deliveries and occasionally emergency assistance as well. Volkswagen Group Research, which is responsible for the world of tomorrow, together with the German Post Office (‘Deutsche Post AG’), which is one of the largest customers of lightweight commercial vehicles – as well as the University of Art at Braunschweig – formed a think tank on future transport and mobility issues. Finally, these research activities led to a completely new vehicle concept for the delivery and logistics field: eT!

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Leohold, Director of Volkswagen Group Research: “We analyzed process flows and customer needs in detail, and from these analyses we derived ideas on how the segment of delivery and courier vehicles could be further developed over the long term. In this context, we focused on zero-emissions driving and available space in urban areas, semi-automatic driving functions that offer relevant support and simplify work processes and the integration of new communication technologies. On top of that, we also set out to design a very emotionally appealing commercial vehicle. To attain these goals, our teams not only looked towards the future from the past, but also worked from a future perspective to implement an advanced development concept based on technologies available today.”

The eT! research vehicle could someday actually revolutionise the world of lightweight commercial vehicles. Completely reconceptualised, driven with zero emissions, thought through to the last detail and driving semi-automatically if necessary! Just how wide-ranging the significance of this research project could be for sustainability in the transportation field is underscored by the support for the eT! project by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. “The eT! research vehicle,” explains Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, spokesperson for the Board of Management of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, “unifies a whole gamut of innovative functions, which will gain in future importance, specifically for logistics businesses. In particular, the possibility of driving the car semi-automatically – and electrically – in downtown areas unifies economical and environmental aspects more systematically than ever. As a vision of the future, the eT! is showcasing what is the maximum feasible technology for electric vehicles in the commercial market today with a special design that systematically addresses future customer needs.”

“eT! is a pure electrically powered transporter that systematically transfers E-mobility to the area of commercial use,” says Dr. Rudolf Krebs, Group Manager for Electric Traction at Volkswagen AG. And continues: “As a transport specialist, the eT! is advancing to become the automotive building block for an innovative, future-oriented logistics concept, which not only drives with zero emissions in urban areas – thanks to its electric wheel hub motors – but also offers maximum freedom in manoeuvering and turning as well as optimal utilisation of the vehicle’s interior space. If ‘refuelled’ with electricity generated from renewable energy sources, the eT! can indeed be operated with zero emissions. Naturally, the eT! is not a vehicle which – unlike the Golf or up! with an electric motor – could become available very soon. But we must make plans today for what the world of lightweight commercial vehicles might look like starting in the second half of this decade, including with regard to electrical drives.”

To make the working world of mail delivery personnel and courier drivers simpler and safer, to optimise the logistics of delivery and to shorten delivery times, eT! can be operated semi-automatically in certain situations. The car can follow the delivery person from house to house (“Follow me”), or the car can return to the delivery person on command (“Come to me”) – driverless! As an alternative, the driver can direct the car’s movements via a ‘drive stick’ from the passenger’s side that also offers a standing seat and quick access to the vehicle. On the passenger’s side – the side that faces the sidewalk and therefore the working area of the delivery person – there is therefore an electrically opening sliding door that opens to 2 different stages; this enables extremely quick entry into the vehicle as well as quick access to the mail parcels. This makes unnecessary walking movements around the vehicle a thing of the past.

Variants of this lightweight transport vehicle could be implemented for all conceivable business uses. And these derived concepts are also the focus of research activities. Meanwhile, the eT! concept shown in a world premiere at the Design Centre of Potsdam was specially designed for delivery of mail shipments of all types. The research vehicle will now be integrated in a driving test study and further analysed.

Honda select Toshiba's SCiB Battery for Fit EV

Toshiba Corporation today announced that its innovative SCiB rechargeable battery has been selected by Honda Motor Co., Ltd. to power its new electric car, the Fit EV. Toshiba will supply battery modules for the new car, which Honda will launch in summer 2012 in Japan and the U.S.A.

The SCiB module for the FIT EV was developed with Honda. The module was supplied to Honda in December 2010 for evaluation in real-world verification testing of next-generation personal mobility products that the company conducted with Saitama and Kumamoto prefectures. Honda selected the SCiB module for the FIT EV after a comprehensive evaluation program that tested the battery's performance under diverse and demanding conditions.

The SCiB has features that make it highly suited for automotive applications. Lithium titanate oxide in the battery anode achieves rapid charge times and a long battery life, and the SCiB is also capable of rapid charge and stable power discharge in a wide range of environments. In extremely cold conditions as low as minus 30oC the SCiB is less likely to experience lithium metal deposition, which enhances the risk of internal short circuiting and battery degradation, and at high temperature, even above 40oC, the impact on battery degradation is lower than in conventional lithium-ion batteries.

The characteristics of the SCiB battery cell allow electric vehicles to achieve longer driving distances. The SCiB is able to use a wider range its charge than a conventional lithium-ion battery, and the SCiB also achieves highly efficient regenerative charging (using kinetic energy from braking and slowing down to charge the battery) that adds to performance.

The SCiB charges in about half the time of a typical Li-ion battery. An SCiB 20Ah cell charged with an 80Ah current will reach 80% of capacity in 15 minutes and 95% in only an additional 3 minutes. The SCiB generates little heat even during this fast recharging, eliminating the need for power to cool the battery module. Moreover, the full charge-discharge cycle for SCiB is 4,000 times, over 2.5 times that of other Li-ion batteries. This long life is realizing the potential for reuse of the battery.

Toshiba will take full advantage of Honda's selection of the SCiB to promote its further application in electric vehicles. The company will also promote use of the battery in other areas, including as a stationary power storage device in smart grids.