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A Honda executive said today that the Japanese automaker is interested developing  electric-car batteries in China to tap the country's technology and vast resources, adding that a breakthrough was needed to bring the zero-emissions cars into the mainstream, according to Reuters.

"If there is a suitable chance, we hope to work with China to (develop) batteries," Honda CEO Takanobu Ito (pictured) told reporters in southern China, where he announced a plan to boost annual production capacity by a third to 480,000 batteries at a Chinese joint venture, Guangqi Honda.

Honda has been among the least enthusiastic among Japan's automakers towards electric cars, and runs the risk of falling further behind domestic rivals Toyota and Nissan, after the former tied up last week with Silicon Valley-based electric-carmaker Tesla Motors Inc.

"There needs to be a major breakthrough in battery technology," Ito said, predicting it would take 10 to 20 years before battery-run electric cars became mainstream. Japan's No. 2 automaker would instead focus on hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles for the near term, he said.

Honda is considering bringing electric cars in limited numbers to the U.S., Europe and Japan, but unlike many rivals has no strategic partner with which it has committed to developing batteries for the vehicles.

Honda has a joint venture with Japan's GS Yuasa Corp to collaborate on lithium-ion batteries specifically for hybrid cars, and has said the two could work together on electric-car batteries too, if the need arose.

GS Yuasa already develops and produces electric-car batteries in a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Having surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market last year, China has become an increasingly important battleground for global automakers, which are keenly awaiting Beijing's policy on the promotion of greener cars.

Volkswagen AG, China's top foreign brand, said last month Chinese consumers' reaction to its electric cars would determine the fate of its plans to lead the industry in battery-powered vehicles by 2018.

Electric cars may well get the boost they need from China. The Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday that the government was set to announce by the end of this month plans to subsidize buyers of pure electric vehicles by up to $8,787 each and only $440 for hybrid cars.

German luxury car maker Daimler and Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, are mulling joint development of fuel cells for electric vehicles, the Financial Times Deutschland reported today.

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Toyota has developed fuel-cell SUVs that can go 500 miles on a tank of hydrogen.
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"There is strong interest in sharing development costs" via a joint venture, the newspaper reported, citing a source close to Daimler.

It would be the first major cooperative project for the two automakers.

Daimler has already invested more than $1.23 billion dollars in fuel-cell technology since 1994, two years after Toyota began exploring it.

Toyota said last week that it expects its per-vehicle cost of a hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle has dropped about 90 percent in the past five years and will fall another 50 percent or so when the automaker plans to make its first FCEVs available to the public in 2015.

The company, which in 2002 was the first automaker to lease out a fuel-cell vehicle, has Highlander SUV fuel-cell vehicles in development that can travel as many as 500 miles on a full tank of hydrogen.

Also last week, Toyota and Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Motors announced that Toyota would join Daimler in investing in Tesla.

Fuel cells use a reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity in a process that does not emit greenhouse gasses, which contribute to climate change.

Production of the hydrogen needed for the fuel cells can result in the production of such gasses however.

CODA, a California-based electric-car and battery company, announced today its plans to build a manufacturing plant for automotive-grade lithium-ion-battery systems in Ohio.
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Sales of CODA's battery-electric sedan are slated to start later this year.
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CODA said in a statement it is considering several sites within Ohio for the facility, which could employ more than 1,000 skilled manufacturing workers initially.

Construction of the facility is contingent upon finalizing an incentive package with the state of Ohio and the approval of an application for a Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan "to be submitted soon," the company said.

Lio Energy Systems, a joint venture between CODA and Lishen Power Battery, would operate the facility. Lio Energy Systems currently operates a one-million-square-foot facility in Tianjin, China with the production capacity to produce more than 20,000 battery packs per year. The proposed facility in Ohio would replace that facility.

Electric drive for intra-city mass transit makes sense. The vehicles, typically buses or trolleys, don't travel all that many miles in a day and don't need to strain battery capacity by flying down the freeways at 80 mph.
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Montreal will begin testing electric buses next year. This model, from Colorado's Proterra, is using a prototype fast charger to top up its batteries.
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Electric transit buses also don't emit noxious soot and gases and they don't cause noise pollution.

Quite a few cities are testing the waters with a bus or two, but the Canadian city of Montreal has decided to try full immersion.

An article in the Montreal Gazette (brought to our attention by our friends at AutoblogGreen) reports that the city's transit operator - Societe de Transport de Montreal, or STM - has announced thatit intends to replace almost all of its 1,300 buses with electric models by 2025.

It will start testing buses next year, initially using trolleys that pull power from overhead lines but switching as the technology advances to so-called fast-charge buses with battery packs that can be recharged in as little as 20 minutes.

The idea, STM operations chief Carl Desrosiers told the newspaper, is to put a fast charge station at each end of a bus line.  "When the bus arrives its recharges for 10 t 15 minutes and it's good for another 20 kilometers...That's the future," Desrosiers said.

We think so, and we applaud Montreal for becoming what appears to be the first major North American city to commit to a fully electric bus system.

STM used almost 12 million gallons of fuel for its buses last year, Desrosiers said. "My dream is that in 2025 we will use zero."

A question that's been lingering since Tesla Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. announced a stunning new partnership that will see the former New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. auto assembly plant in Norhern California used to produce Tesla- and Toyota-branded electric vehicles is what happens to the 4,700 employees let go when the plant was closed last month?

Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO (left), answered the question during the taping Monday afternoon of a Southern California public radio program, 'Which Way L.A.?" that aired at 7 p.m. - Pacific Daylight Time - Monday.

"It is always easier to hire from the neighborhood" than to recruit workers from out of the area, he said. And when the plant starts hiring, Musk added, "hiring former NUMMI workers is a priority for us."

Tesla -which is headquartered in San Carlos, Calif., just a few miles from the former NUMMI plant - already has hired a number of people who had worked at the factory when it was jointly operated by Toyota and General Motors Corp. (GM gave up its role in the plant when it filed for bankruptcy last year).

Musk said that he anticipates employment of about 1,000 people at the sprawling plant for the next few years, while the Tesla Model S electric sedan is being built, and that employment then should ratchet up to nearly 5,000 when both Tesla and Toyota begin making smaller, less expensive EVs there.

A question that's been lingering since Tesla Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. announced a stunning new partnership that will see the former New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. auto assembly plant in Norhern California used to produce Tesla- and Toyota-branded electric vehicles is what happens to the 4,700 employees let go when the plant was closed last month?

Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO (left), answered the question during the taping today of a Southern California public radio program, 'Which Way L.A.?" that's scheduled to air at 7 p.m. tonight (for our Southern California audience, that's FM 89.9).

"It is always easier to hire from the neighborhood" than to recruit workers from out of the area, he said. And when the plant starts hiring, Musk added, "hiring former NUMMI workers is a priority for us."

Tesla -which is headquartered in San Carlos, Calif., just a few miles from the former NUMMI plant - already has hired a number of people who had worked at the factory when it was jointly operated by Toyota and General Motors Corp. (GM gave up its role in the plant when it filed for bankruptcy last year).

Musk said that he anticipates employment of about 1,000 people at the sprawling plant for the next few years, while the Tesla Model S electric sedan is being built, and that employment then should ratchet up to nearly 5,000 when both Tesla and Toyota begin making smaller, less expensive EVs there.

Honeywell, the New Jersey-based conglomerate whose businesses include aerospace, home-security and car-engine products, received a $27.3 million grant from the U.S. Energy Dept. to develop domestic production of a key element used in lithium-ion batteries, whose demand is expect to surge as automakers produce more plug-in hybrids and battery-electric cars.

The grant will help the company become the first U.S. supplier of high-purity lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), a conductive salt used in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The funding is part of that authorized in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the development of alternative-fuel vehicles.

Lithium-ion battery sales are expected to surge as cars such as the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in electric vehicle and the Nissan Leaf battery electric car are introduced to the market later this year and as Toyota debuts a plug-in version of its Prius as early as next year.

Additionally, more automakers are expected to switch to lithium-ion from the nickel-metal hydride batteries that are currently being used in conventional hybrids.

Global lithium-ion battery sales will increase more than 40 percent to $10.1 billion in 2015 from $7.2 billion this year, Honeywell said, citing research firm Avicenne.

Ford Motor Co. said it will invest $135 million to upgrade two of its Michigan plants so that more of its hybrid-electric vehicle components can be built domestically as the U.S. automaker looks to expand its fleet of hybrid-electric and battery-electric vehicles over the next few years to meet more stringent U.S. fuel-economy standards.
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Ford will use factories in Michigan to build components for electric-drive vehicles suhc as the new Focus EV coming next year.
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Ford's investment will add 170 new jobs at the plants and enable its to assembly hybrid battery packs at its Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti - they're currently assembled in Mexico - by 2012, said Sherif Marakby, Ford's director of electrification programs and engineering. Additionally, by 2012, Ford's Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling will be able to make electric-drive transaxles that are now produced in Japan, Marakby said.

Ford is looking to meet more stringent fuel-economy standards both domestically and abroad by expanding its hybrid-electric vehicle sales. The company is planning to debut two new hybrids, a plug-in hybrid and two battery-electric vehicles - a Transit Connect commercial van and a Focus sedan - in North America within the next two years.

"We do all the integration meaning -- the software, the controls, how these parts all work together -- we do that right here in Michigan, and by having the components or the parts, all developed in house, it makes it that much easier to integrate and get more fuel economy out of it," Marakby said.

Ford debuted a hybrid version of its Ford Escape SUV in 2004 and won the 2010 Detroit Auto Show's North American Car of the Year award with its Ford Fusion Hybrid. The company's U.S. hybrid-vehicle sales for the first four months of the year jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to more than 9,700 vehicles. Ford, which has sold about 130,000 hybrid vehicles in the past six years, will add the Lincoln MKZ hybrid this fall.

Overseas, Ford will have five battery-electric or hybrid-electric vehicles ready for the European public by 2013. The company next year will start selling a battery-electric version of its Transit Connect van in Europe, while a Ford Focus EV will debut in Europe the following year. Ford will also introduce an additional hybrid-electric model in Europe by 2013, but hasn't disclosed details.


Danny King, Contributor

Nissan Motor Co. says it will be selling its own quick charging stations in Japan in advance of the December introduction there of the Nissan Leaf EV.
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Prototype Nissan EV uses rapid charger at company's test center outside of Yokohama.
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The company said it will install the 49-kilowatt, 200-volt three-phase chargers - which also can be used with EVs made by Subaru and Mitsubishi - at 200 select dealerships in Japan - sufficient to space them about 40 kilometers (25 miles) apart throughout the country.

Nissan also is expected to sell the chargers to Japanese retailers, government agencies, utilities and other entities that want - and have the electrical service to support - a high-power rapid charger.

A Nissan spokesman in the U.S. said he wasn't aware of plans for the automaker to market the chargers here. Nissan already has announced plans to work with Arizona-based eTec to deplay chargers for the Leaf.

Nissan designed the system using a connector standards form the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and a car-to-charger communications protocol, called CHAdeMO, that Japanese automakers and utility companies have agreed to use in common and are hoping to persuade automakers and utilities throughout the world to adopt as the global standard for Level III chargers.

Several U.S. companies, including Eaton Corp. and Aker Wade, are making Level III chargers that use the CHAdeMo communications standard and the TEPCO connector.

Nissan's chargers, which will step-up the output to as high as 500 volts and 125 amps, depending on the vehicle's demand - will be priced at 1.47 million yen ($16,300) for the base version. The company also will offer a cooling system-equipped hot-climate model priced at 1.73 million yen ($19,250) and a heated cold-climate version at 1.54 million yen ($17,150).

Nissan said it also plans to install conventional 200-volt Level II chargers at all 2,200 Nissan dealerships in Japan by December.

The quick charger will take a depleted 24-kilowatt Leaf battery pack to an 80 percent charge in less than 30 minutes, versus several hours for the standard 200-volt system.

Is the Car More Important Than the Technology it Will Showcase?

We've not been bashful in our assessment of General Motors Corp.'s E-Flex extended-range plug-in hybrid technology, going so far as to call its use in the upcoming Chevrolet Volt - the first car that will feature the system - a game changer that has the ability to set the U.S. auto industry on a new course.

But will the fate of this one model decide the fate of General Motors Corp?

A news piece published Sunday by the Associated Press says yes.

Upon the Volt, writes AP National Writer Sharon Cohen, hangs "the fate of GM and its workers. The future of a beleaguered state. And, maybe, in some larger sense, the image of all U.S. autoworkers, eager to prove they have what it takes to compete on the global stage."

The piece underscores its message with a quote from GM worker Steve Prucnell, a member of the Volt test-model manufacturing team:

"If this doesn't fly, what's left for GM? Wall Street is going to say, 'We knew they couldn't dig themselves out of the hole.'"

We certainly hope the Volt is successful, but we think the AP might be saddling the Volt with a bit too much responsibility.

By Danny King, Contributor

The spotless, 31,000-square-foot air-conditioned garage was supposed to  shield them from an unrelenting desert near Yuma, Ariz., where daytime heat can reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

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It isn't what you'd expect to see on a showroom floor, but in Year Two of the three-year EcoCar Challenge, student teams are simply trying to make their alternative fuel conversions - like this battery-electric system by a team from Canada's University of Ontario- work efficiently in the Saturn Vue crossovers donated by General Motors Corp.

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The AC wasn't enough, though and temperatures still occasionally rose as teams from 16 North American colleges competing in the EcoCAR Challenge alternative-fuel car-building contest worked on their vehicles last week, racing against time to get their cars road-ready for the judging of stage two of this three-year event co-sponsored by General Motors and U.S. Energy Dept.

Winners of the Year Two segment will be decided in ocean-cooled San Diego this Thursday.

"Any team has its arguments, and things can get heated," said Virginia Tech graduate student and team leader Lynn Gantt, whose team is converting a conventional Saturn Vue crossover into an extended-range hybrid vehicle that will have a 40-mile electric-only cruising range and will be able to use E85 fuel in its combustion engine.

"But when we get the vehicle running, we're buddies again."

Larger U.S. and Canadian schools such as Ohio State and the University of Victoria are competing against smaller institutions such as Indiana's Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

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Mississippi State's extended-range plug-on hybrid entry on the asphalt at GM hot weather test facility near Yuma, Arizona.-----------

They are vying for a share in the $100,000 Year Two prize money pool  - not to mention bragging rights - to be awarded to the teams that rebuild their donated Saturn Vues to combine increased fuel economy and reduced emissions with elements such as safety, on-road performance and drive quality.

In Year One, the teams developed their plans and strategies and designed the cars and the electronic control systems they'd need to make them work.

The Ohio State University team won that stage and $16,000 of the $50,000 in prize money that was awarded.

For Year Two, the contest and its sponsors will award almost $100,000 in cash prizes, including first- through third-place awards for the top all-around teams and individual prizes for the team cars with the lowest fuel consumption, least well-to-wheel greenhouse-gas emissions, lowest tailpipe emissions, best technical report and best driving quality.

When talk turns to energy independence, someone always raises the specter of the U.S. having to import most of its oil, and much of that from countries that don't like us all that much.

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Open pit oil sands mining in Canada.

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Indeed, we do get a lot of oil from places where American policies - and sometimes Americans in general  - aren't much liked. But the biggest enabler of our dependence on imported oil is right next door and a close ally: Canada.

For the first two months this year, according to the latest data from the federal Energy Department, we received 1.9 million barrels of crude oil a day from Canada - about 10 percent of our daily consumption.

Mexico was the next biggest supplier, at 1.15 million barrels a day, followed by Nigeria, 948,000 barrels a day; Saudi Arabia (a reluctant ally) at 922,000 barrels a day and Venezuela (whose head of state certainly doesn't have any love for the U.S.) at 868,000 barrels daily.

These five nations accounted for 64 percent of the oil imported into the U.S. in January and February and they are typically our top 5 suppliers - although the bottom of the order often changes places.

But getting lots of oil from Canada isn't necessarily a great thing.

Much of the Canadian oil comes from the country's oil sands, and it is high-carbon and highly messy stuff with a pretty negative environmental impact.

American consumers opted for four-cylinder engines in 49 percent of the new cars and light-duty trucks they purchased last month in response to buyer's concerns over fuel costs, according to J.D. Power and Associates' Power Information Network.
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A four-cylinder Toyota Camry engine.
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Four-cylinder engines were in 46.5 percent of new vehicles purchased during the first quarter of this year, Power said. That's up from 41.9 percent in the first quarter a year earlier, when gasoline was averaging about $2.31 a gallon versus $2.86 now, according to AAA's daily nationwide average calculations.

Granted, buyers often don't have engine choices. Across the board, the numbers of V-8s and V-6s available as a percentage are falling while the percentage of four-cylinder engines in new vehicles is rising.

That's because automakers are under pressure to meet tightening fuel-economy standards, and smaller engines help them do that. Also, as we've often reported, automakers are doing a good job squeezing the same amount of horsepower and torque out of four-cylinder engines as had only been found in V-6s until recently.

J.D. Power forecasts that four-bangers will account for 51 percent of vehicles produced in North America in 2012, up from 48 percent that Power forecast a year ago. V-8s are expected to account for just 17 percent of North American production in 2012.

Bearing in mind that electric vehicles are only as clean as their sources of electricity, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today the department's first conditional commitment for a front-end nuclear facility.

The $2 billion loan guarantee will support AREVA's Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho, which will supply uranium enrichment services for the U.S. nuclear power industry.

"Increasing uranium enrichment in the United States is critical to the nation's energy and national security," Chu said. "Existing reactors will need additional sources of enriched uranium soon. New nuclear plants that could start to come on line as early as 2016 will also need a steady, reliable source of uranium enrichment services. AREVA's project will help to meet that demand."

The Idaho Falls facility will use advanced centrifuge technology instead of the more energy-intensive gaseous diffusion process. Although Eagle Rock will be only the second plant to use this technology in the U.S., it has been employed in Europe for about 30 years to enrich uranium for the commercial power market.

The project's technology uses 95 percent less electricity than the gaseous diffusion technology it replaces, reducing both energy use and environmental effects.

AREVA estimates construction of the Eagle Rock facility will create 1,000 jobs. The total project is expected to cost approximately $3.3 billion.

The light-water reactors that comprise the U.S. fleet are fueled by low-enriched uranium, in which the concentration of the easily-split U-235 isotope is raised from less than one percent found in natural uranium to between three and five percent by weight. (Natural uranium is largely comprised of the U-238 isotope.)

Currently, the U.S. obtains half of its enriched uranium from Russia under the Megatons-to-Megawatts program, in which nuclear materials that were once pointed at the U.S. are converted to civilian nuclear fuel to power America's economy. The program expires in 2013, after which alternate sources of enrichment services will be required to support the continued and expanded use of nuclear power in the U.S.

The project must obtain a Combined Construction and Operating License from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the loan guarantee can be finalized. In addition to the $2 billion in loan guarantee authority under the 2009 Omnibus Bill, the Energy Department has made available an additional $2 billion to support uranium enrichment technology from loan authority provided in 2007.

President Obama announced plans today to extend federal auto fuel economy and emissions rules through 2025 and develop new regulations for large trucks, the Greenwire news service reported today.

The president also called for additional federal support for advanced automobile infrastructure, particularly for electric plug-in vehicles, and for increased regulation of non-greenhouse gas pollutants from motor vehicles.

Speaking in the Rose Garden, Obama touted the effort as an "essential part" of his overall energy and climate strategy and as a way to boost domestic manufacturing.

"The nation that leads in the clean energy economy will lead in the global economy, and I want America to be that nation," Obama said.

While the memorandum the president signed today instructs federal regulators to get down to work on the next round of passenger vehicle standards and the new rules for commercial buses and trucks, the order is short on details.

According to administration officials, the memorandum does not include specific miles-per-gallon targets for either the next round of auto standards or the new truck rules, Greenwire reported.

"We're at the starting gate here," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters. "Stay tuned."

Under the plan, U.S. EPA and the Department of Transportation will start work on rules for passenger cars and light-duty trucks, which would go into effect for model year 2017 and take off where the last set of rules ends.

Ever wonder why cars always seem to cost more in Europe?
 
A Bloomberg report distributed today answers that question with regard to pricing for the upcoming Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (pictured), which we recently reported will vary by more than $10,000 between the U.S. and some European countries.

The answer is that the differences in pricing reflects variations in import fees, taxes and incentives, Tom Smith, Nissan's chief marketing manager for European electric auto sales, told Bloomberg.

"If you just translate the U.S. price into euros, you seem to get a significant difference," Smith said this week in a phone interview from Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Excluding Europe's higher tax on the vehicle and an import duty that's four times that in the U.S., "we are priced at exactly the same level in both markets," he said.

The Leaf, powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, will go on sale in Japan and the U.S. this year and in Europe next year.

Nissan aims for the Leaf to compete in price with Toyota's gasoline-electric Prius and Honda's Civic Hybrid in the U.S. The vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit and may get an added $5,000 rebate in California, where large automakers are required to sell electric vehicles.

The Union of Concerned Scientists reported today that once fuel-economy rules for trucks and buses kick in, they'll prove a net boon to truckers, drivers, and the economy at large.

If medium- and heavy-duty vehicles get 3.7 more miles per gallon, and gas prices stay around $3.50, the economy in 2030 will be $10 billion and 124,000 jobs bigger, according to the report, authored by the UCS and CALSTART.

The report was timed to coincide with the announcement by the White House today unveiling the first-ever fuel economy standard for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. It was originally called for in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The report claimed that these standards would create jobs, on a net basis, as vehicle manufacturers hire engineers and line workers to produce fuel-efficient technology.

Trucking companies would spend less money on fuel, meaning either they or their customers would have spare cash to invest elsewhere in the economy.

The biggest job gains would show up in manufacturing states, such as Ohio, and states that consume a lot of fuel in trucks, such as California and Texas.

Who would lose the most jobs? The mining and oil refining sectors would leak about 15,000 jobs by 2030.