NYPD to Get 50 Chevy Volt Police Cars

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today unveiled the first of what will be a fleet of 50 Chevrolet Volt NYPD police cruisers, which will hit the treacherous and busy streets of Manhattan this year.

“This is the latest and largest-ever addition of electric vehicles to the City’s fleet, which is already the largest municipal clean-air vehicle fleet in the nation,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We will continue to lead by example, but we also must provide New Yorkers with tools to make environmentally friendly choices in their own lives.

“When provided with the facts, people become far more likely to choose an electric vehicle. Our job is to ensure the public has the facts, ensure they can make their own decisions and ensure that if they want to drive an electric vehicle, we are providing the infrastructure needed. It’s all part of our PlaNYC agenda to create a greener, greater New York City.”

The Volt is the first fully-electric car to join the NYPD’s ranks. In addition, the New York City Police Department will add 10 Ford Transit Connect electric vehicles and 10 Navi-Star trucks to its fleet.

EVs are 1/10th the Cost to 'Fuel' Compared With ICE Vehicles

Under current utility electric vehicle (EV) tariffs, it is always cheaper to recharge an EV than to fuel a conventional gas-powered vehicle, according to a new study released today by Northeast Group, LLC. The study benchmarked and analyzed the first wave of EV-specific tariffs launched by electric utilities across the United States.

"In all scenarios we studied, the costs to recharge an electric vehicle were cheaper than fueling a gasoline-powered car. In the most likely EV charging scenarios, costs were approximately one-tenth to half the costs of fueling a conventional vehicle with gasoline," according to Northeast Group, LLC. The cost analysis looked specifically at "fueling" expenses, and did not consider other operating costs of vehicles.

"Electric utilities in the US are encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles by rolling out EV-specific tariffs to their customers. These tariffs take different forms, ranging from time-of-use (TOU) tariffs to flat rate tariffs. With the TOU tariffs, customers receive cheaper rates when they charge during off-peak times (typically nights and weekends). With the flat rate tariffs – e.g. $40 per month – all charging is typically covered. Utilities are now studying which tariffs will best accommodate the increasing number of electric vehicles on US roads," according to Northeast Group, LLC.

The study, "United States Smart Grid: Utility Electric Vehicle Tariffs," includes a benchmark of the EV tariffs of ten different utilities in six different US states (California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Texas). It provides a description of the different EV tariff structures offered across the country, a list of utilities and their specific EV tariffs, and a comparison and analysis of these tariffs. For example, the study includes an analysis of how different tariffs' costs vary for EV owners depending on distance driven and the time of day an EV is recharged.

Shai Agassi "This is the Internet with another Zero." [video]

ABC TV in Australia has produced a few great videos promoting the ideas about Peak Oil and Electric Cars this year.

Shai Agassi: "It is the biggest financial opportunity the world has ever seen...This is the Internet with another Zero."

As debate rages in Australia over how best to reduce carbon emissions & our dependency on oil, the question still remains as to what to do about our addiction to gas guzzling cars. An Israeli man thinks he has the solution; an ambitious global plan to drive the electric car further than it's ever gone before.

ABC TV Catalyst Peak Oil Report [video]

ABC Catalyst travels from Paris, to London, to the outer space like world that is deep sea drilling, to find out where we stand with our oil supply.

Kirk Sorensen explains Energy from Thorium @ TEDxYYC [video]

Kirk Sorensen is chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama and is an advocate for nuclear energy based on thorium and liquid-fluoride fuels.

For five years he has authored the blog "Energy from Thorium" and helped grow an online community of thousands who support a renewed effort to develop thorium as an energy source. He is a 1999 graduate of Georgia Tech in aerospace engineering and is also a graduate student in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee.

He has spoken publicly on thorium at the Manchester International Forum in 2009, at NASA's Green Energy Forum in 2008, and in several TechTalks at Google. He has been featured in Wired magazine, Machine Design magazine, the Economist, the UK Guardian and Telegraph newspapers, and on Russia Today.

He also taught nuclear engineering at Tennessee Technological University as a guest lecturer. He is active in nonprofit advocacy organizations such as the Thorium Energy Alliance and the International Thorium Energy Organization. He is married and has four small children.

Deal for first 100 government EVs almost done

The Obama administration is putting the finishing touches on its purchase of the federal government’s first 100 electric vehicles, a U.S. Department of Energy official said today.

Patrick Davis, a program director at the department’s vehicle technologies program, told a Senate panel: “The administration shares your commitment to upgrading the federal fleet and is finalizing the procurement of 100 electric vehicles.”

Last fall the General Services Administration asked automakers to bid on supplying the first 100 EVs for federal purchase.

GSA spokeswoman Sara Merriam declined today to say when the purchases would be announced, which models and makes are involved, when the vehicles would be delivered or which federal agencies would get them.

The Nissan Leaf EV and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid are the only current offerings by major automakers, but several more models will arrive from a number of companies in the next 18 months.Davis testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as it considered legislation to provide grants to communities to install charging infrastructure.

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers spokesman Wade Newton said: "We’re supportive of governments leading by example when it comes to new technologies."

GSA doubled the federal hybrid fleet over the past year as part of an administration effort to cut the government fleet’s petroleum use 30 percent by 2020, Merriam said. Of the 600,000 vehicles GSA operates, fewer than 2 percent are hybrids.

In fiscal 2009, which includes most of President Obama’s first year in office, the government purchased 4,888 hybrids, up from 618 bought in fiscal 2008, Merriam said.

The figure rose to 7,022 hybrids in fiscal 2010, she said.

Obama has said that starting in 2015, every car the government purchases for its fleet will have alternative-fuel technology.

Obama administration wants rebate on electric cars

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a group of Nissan executives and workers on Tuesday that the Obama administration wants consumers to be able to get a tax rebate at dealerships when they buy electric cars.

The federal government currently offers a $7,500 tax credit on the purchase of electric vehicles, but that can't be taken until buyers file their income taxes.

LaHood said he expects the change to be a part of any tax bill that is passed in the next year and a half.

He made the remarks during a tour of Nissan North America Inc.'s lithium-ion battery plant in Smyrna. When the plant is complete in late 2012 it will be the largest of its type in the nation, able to produce 200,000 batteries a year for the all-electric Nissan Leaf, which will be built next door.

The Leaf carries a manufacturer's suggested retail price in the U.S. of $32,780, much higher than most similar-sized, gas-powered cars. With the tax credit, the price is more like $25,000.
"We'd like for people to get a $7,500 rebate on the day they buy the Leaf," LaHood said, comparing it to the way the popular Cash for Clunkers program worked. Combined with state incentives, the rebate will allow people "to own a Leaf for what most average people can afford," he said.

He said the incentives could be in place "for as long as it takes to really motivate people to do this."

The idea could face opposition from the dealers, however. Bailey Wood, a spokesman with the National Automobile Dealers Association, said tax credits are a great way to incentivize sales, but the administration's proposal, which essentially seeks to transfer the tax credit to the dealer, would complicate the sales process. He said dealers might have to try to determine whether a buyer qualified for the credit, something that could be difficult.

LaHood also said the administration is committed to investing in charging stations so that the infrastructure is in place to make owning an electric vehicle as convenient as possible. The Leaf, the first mass-market all-electric car, can run for about 100 miles before the battery needs to be recharged. On a 220/240-volt outlet, it takes about eight hours to go from zero to fully charged, but a quick charge port allows the battery to charge to 80 percent in about a half hour.

When Bill Krueger, senior vice president for manufacturing, purchasing, supply chain management and total customer satisfaction for Nissan Americas, told LaHood that many of the first buyers of the Leaf are more concerned about the environment than saving money on gas, the secretary seemed surprised and intrigued.

"I believe the model they're using here is something I hadn't even thought about," he said. ..."They base the idea not just on $4.00 a gallon gas. They do want a cleaner environment, to clean the air up."

Germany Doubles Electric Vehicle Research and Development Aid

The German government announced an additional 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in research and development aid for electric vehicles, doubling its budget by 2013 in a bid to position itself at the technology’s vanguard.

Tax rebates, dedicated parking spots and measures aimed at promoting government use of electric cars are among the other incentives to be adopted as Germany strives to meet a target of 1 million such vehicles on the streets by 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin today.

“We’re going to see these vehicles come in very quickly,” though “the really broad market debut will still take a couple of years,” Merkel said. “I’m certain that German producers will be in the fray at the right time.”

Germany is banking on electric vehicles as it seeks to ensure the future dominance of carmakers including Volkswagen AG (VOW), Daimler AG (DAI) and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. (BMW) Merkel’s Cabinet will back a progress report on measures to speed the development of electric cars when it meets in Berlin tomorrow, she said.

Merkel, in a weekly podcast posted on her website two days ago, said that the construction of batteries and the necessary infrastructure to enable them to be charged were the two biggest challenges to the development of electric vehicles.

Electric cars take off in Norway

They speed past gas guzzlers in traffic, ignore congestion charges and get city centre parking for free. In a country whose wealth is fuelled by oil, Oslo has become the world capital of the electric car.

"There are more electric cars per capita here than in any other capital of the world," said Rune Haaland, the head of the electric car users association Norstart, standing in a city centre car park forbidden to other car users.

Almost 4,000 of the small, clean and silent vehicles are on the roads of Norway, although they are found mainly in the cities, and the number is climbing as new models come onto the market.

From the tiny, locally-made Buddy, to the sporty Tesla, which can accelerate from zero to 100 kilometres (62 miles) in less than four seconds, all sorts of electric cars have taken to the roads of the Norwegian capital.

Norway may be one of the world's top fossil fuel exporters, but it has set ambitious climate policy objectives, aiming to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

"The electric car is a very important tool for that, knowing that 40 percent of our emissions come from the transport sector and 60 percent of those come from road transport," Transport Minister Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa told AFP.

According to some estimates, the country's 3,891 electric cars allow it to save over 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

To persuade drivers to switch to electric cars, Norway has introduced a string of incentive measures.

Electric cars can use bus lanes and thus bypass traffic jams, they don't have to shell out congestion charges and can park for free on municipal car parks.

New father Christian Blakseth traded his bicycle for an electric car.

"It's very advantageous to be able to park for free downtown and to escape traffic jams," the young train conductor said.

"And you don't get drowned in day-to-day spending: it's a car that is expensive to buy but cheap to use," he said.

Charging an electric car's batteries at home costs about two euros ($2.90). Norwegian petrol prices are among the highest in Europe.

With growing demand, carmakers are rushing to put out new models.

And consumers are responding with just as much enthusiasm: in the first quarter this year, an electric car, Mitsubishi's i-MiEV, topped small model car sales in Norway, ahead of all time favorites.

"We were planning to sell 400 units (cars) in Norway this year, and we are already at 700. We think we will ultimately reach 1,000," the head of Mitsubishi Norway Bernt Jessen said.

Norway has decided to put in place a national network of charging stands across the country allowing drivers to "fill up" their cars in about 20 minutes, just long enough to enjoy a roadside cup of coffee, compared to the seven or eight hours normally needed.

The mountain cottage, sacrosanct for Norwegians, could soon be only a few kilowatts away.

Increase proposed to $9,500 Electric Car Tax Credit

Not content with the current pace of electric vehicle sales despite existing federal subsidies of $7,500 and, in many cases, state incentives as well, four House members have proposed a new bill that would aim to jolt EV car sales a bit more.

While the market isn’t quite ready to totally switch to electric cars on its own, or even with a $7,500 federal subsidy, that isn’t stopping three Democrats and a Republican in the House from co-authoring a bill that would not only boost the federal incentive to $9,500 for 500,000 people, but would also pump as much as $300,000,000 to each of 10 cities in order to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure, according to a Detroit News report.

The bill, known as the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act, would guarantee that the first 50,000 consumers to purchase an electric vehicle in one of the 10 cities that would ultimately be chosen through a competitive bid process would be given “at least” $2,000 above the $7,500 federal tax credit already in place. The bill would also extend the 2014 federal tax credit of up to $2,000 for the purchase and installation of electric vehicle charging stations for individuals, or up to $50,000 for businesses.

“If we’re ever to break our addiction to expensive foreign oil, we’re going to have to give a jump-start to sound alternatives. Consumers want to enjoy a cheaper, gas-free commute, but they need to have confidence in their access to things like charging stations,” said Judy Biggert, Republican House member from Illinois.

Other aspects of the bill would include incentives for domestic production of electric vehicle technology and components, with a 30 percent budget increase for research and development of electric vehicles, as well as a new Energy Innovation Hub that would be devoted to developing battery technology.

The bill places the Energy Department in charge of many aspects of the funding distribution, including choosing the 10 cities that would each be given as much as $300 million, for a total of up to $3 billion in federal funds going to 10 U.S. cities to jump start electric vehicle adoption.

Last month, electric car sales in the U.S. were far less than a single percent of new car sales, with the combined total of electric and hybrid car sales coming in at just 2.6 percent.

Exxon make $5M/hr profit yet still qualify for US Gov subsidies [video]

Rachel Maddow Wants You To Know Just How Profitable Oil Is

Age of cheap fuel is over: IEA

One major indicator of inflation is the price of petrol and the latest information from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows it will only get more expensive.

Oil is deeply embedded in the economy, with the cost reflected not only at the petrol bowser but in food and clothing products.

The IEA is an independent, multi-government agency formed out of the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. It forecasts oil production, monitors the international oil market and other energy sectors.

Only five years ago it confidently stated that oil production was set to rise to 120 million barrels a day by 2030.

But IEA chief economist Fatih Birol says the world's crude oil production peaked in 2006.

He says oil prices are likely to rise 30 per cent over the next three years.

"The existing fields are declining so sharply that in order to stay where we are in terms of production levels in the next 25 years, we have to find and develop four new Saudi Arabias," he said.

"It is a huge, huge challenge that we continue to underline."

Dr Birol says although peak crude oil production is already behind us, liquid natural gases may provide a viable alternative.

But he says one of the conclusions the IEA has come to is that the age of cheap oil is over. At the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, oil spiked to $148 a barrel.

Dr Birol says the impact of both a financial crisis in Europe and global instability in oil-rich regions means crude oil will only get more expensive.

"The amount of increase in the oil input bill in Europe is equal to the government budget deficit of Greece plus Portugal put together," he said.

"It is only the increase value of $90. If it increases further ... we believe [it] will increase at least 20, 30 per cent higher in the next few years to come and this would mean additional pressure on the financing of many governments who are the oil importers."

Dr Birol says the oil reserves might be there but the access is not.

He also says it could be in the best interest of producers if crude oil is not always flooding the market.

"The producers, intentionally or unintentionally, may not bring the oil under the reserves to the markets," he said.

"For some producers, it is better that oil doesn't come to market so they would like to see perhaps higher prices as a result of tightness in the markets."

The IEA says governments around the world need to rethink their reliance on oil.

Most U.S. Consumers Want to Buy an Electric Vehicle

Plug-in electric vehicles may just be entering the market, but most U.S. consumers are ready to buy them. E Source recently analyzed data from the Nielsen Energy Survey and found that 85 percent of U.S. consumers say they would purchase a battery-driven car either right away (3 percent), when their current car needed replacement (57 percent), or when the technology is proven and it becomes more mainstream (25 percent). The caveat is that consumers strongly prefer (58 percent) plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) versions such as the Chevrolet Volt.

PHEVs have greater range than electric-only cars like the Nissan Leaf and only 8 percent of consumers prefer them. "We are seeing a substantial willingness for drivers to move to plug-in electric vehicles, but only if the manufacturers can provide the easy extended range of travel that Americans are used to," says Bill LeBlanc, senior advisor at E Source.

E Source also reports that younger drivers are more willing than older drivers to purchase the electric-only cars, and people who describe themselves as liberals are similarly more inclined to desire the all-electric cars than those classified as conservatives. "We see that all ages and all political mindsets like the plug-in hybrid vehicles equally," says LeBlanc. "But when it comes to the all-electric car, it appears to be seen as more of a 'green' purchase, rather than as a practical upgrade to a more-efficient vehicle."

Another factor that E Source looked at was how far people drive each day and how that affects their desire for a plug-in electric vehicle. Daily driving habits don't seem to affect desire for the all-electric vehicle; however, desire for the PHEV grows as people spend more time in their cars. "Overall, the survey supports the existence of a huge untapped market for electric vehicles that can be charged at night at home. People seem very ready to move to the next generation of cars and dramatically decrease the frequency of their visits to the gas station," reports LeBlanc.

The E Source study examined other variables, including home ownership, type of home, household size, annual income, gender, age, marital status, and ethnicity. More information about the study can be found:

Source: E Source

Texas to get electric car fast charging networks

The oil state better known for Chevy Suburbans will soon have a network of 70 electric vehicle charging stations installed in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and another 50 in the Houston area by the end of next year.

NRG Energy Inc said in a statement Friday that half of the privately funded charging stations should be in place by Labor Day. NRG planned to unveil the first of the charging stations later in the day at a Walgreen's Drug Store in Dallas.

NRG also plans to install stations along the Interstate 45 corridor in Texas next year.

The first "Freedom Station" recharger will have a 480-volt direct current fast charger that can add 30 miles of range to an electric car in as little as 10 minutes, and a 240-volt charger that can add up to 25 miles in an hour, the company said in a statement. Freedom Stations will be available 24 hours a day and include a tower with a camera that gives users access to customer service.

The network also will include "Convenience Stations" that have 240-volt chargers that will be available during the host retail business' operating hours, NRG said.

NRG said it will charge users a flat monthly fee for charging plans. The company's complete plan costs $89 per month and covers the home charger, unlimited access to the charging network for free, and the cost of electricity to charge the car at home during off-peak hours. It also will offer a 240-volt home charger for $49 per month.

"Inaugurating the first Freedom Station in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is a critical first step toward making electric vehicles the smart and convenient choice for Texans who want to reduce their cost of driving while contributing to cleaner air and America's energy independence," NRG President and CEO David Crane said in a statement.

Crane said the company was taking a page from Southwest Airlines when it started 40 years ago linking the major metro areas in Texas. Eventually electric car drivers will be able to use the system to drive through the region with confidence that they won't run out of electricity, the company said.

Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy owns and develops power plants to sell electricity in the wholesale market.

Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. recently have rolled out rechargeable battery-powered cars in the U.S., with several other automakers scheduled to bring out models this year. Through the end of March, GM sold 1,210 Chevrolet Volts, while Nissan sold 452 Leaf electric cars.

EU wide eMotion initiative to pave way for EVs

The European Commission has kicked off a 4-year cross-European initiative to promote electromobility. The 42 partners in the initiative comprising industrial companies, automobile manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, universities, and technology and research institutions will input, exchange and expand their know-how and experience related to electric vehicles in selected regions within Europe. "Electromobility will make an important contribution toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Green eMotion is intended to ensure the fast-track success of electric vehicles," said Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission, and Commissioner responsible for Transport. The project volume has been budgeted at EUR 42 million, of which the EU will contribute as much as EUR 24 million.

The partners in the initiative are to accumulate experience with electromobility in existing and new test regions within Europe and refine the technology. Key issue is the development of European processes, standards and IT solutions that allow customers of electric vehicles easy and seamless access to charging infrastructure and related services throughout the European Union. Standardization is also the key factor for a fast and cost-efficient European rollout of electromobility. The total number of charging spots within the existing pilot regions will total more than 10,000, with nearly 1,000 to be installed in Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga, about 400 in Rome and Pisa, 3,600 in Berlin and 100 in Strasbourg. In Denmark, the country with the world's largest share of wind-based power generation, between 2,500 and 3,500 electric cars are to be put on the road over the course of this year with as many as 4,500 charging stations to be installed in Copenhagen and Bornholm. Furthermore, some 2,000 electric vehicles and approximately 3,500 charging stations are part of a nationwide rollout in Ireland.

"The local concepts applied to date, in which experience was accumulated in specific test regions, will now be bundled in cross-European trials. The aim is to pave the way for electromobility throughout Europe. This will require standards for infrastructure, networking and IT," said Heike Barlag from Siemens, who coordinates the Green eMotion project. "By bundling individual activities in a major partner initiative we're gaining momentum and transparency, and ensuring the coordinated development of electromobility." Experience with cars, buses and two-wheelers with pure electric drive systems and hybrid vehicles will be gathered in the Green eMotion project. Special aspects in some of the test regions include battery swapping and DC charging, as well as smart grid integration, cross-border traffic, different payment systems and the testing of alternative business models.

The partners in the Green eMotion Initiative include industrial companies Alstom, Better Place, Bosch, IBM, SAP and Siemens, the utilities Danish Energy Association, EDF, Endesa, Enel, ESB, Eurelectric, Iberdrola, RWE and PPC, the automobile manufacturers BMW, Daimler, Micro-Vett, Nissan and Renault, the municipalities Barcelona, Berlin, Bornholm, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Malaga, Malmo and Rome, the universities and research institutions Cartif, Cidaut, DTU, ECN, ERSE, Imperial, IREC, TCD and TECNALIA, and the technology institutions DTI, fka and TÜV Nord.

EU ask FIA to set up F1-style electric car championship

Formula One's governing body has been asked by the European Commission to set up a racing championship series for electric cars.

FIA president Jean Todt said the governing body was working towards the creation of new electric car, go-kart and single-seater racing categories.

The developments could mean an F1-style electric car championship taking place on Grand Prix circuits.

'We want as soon as possible to have new categories with new energy,' Todt told the Financial Times.

Todt said that a first season for electric car racing could come as early as 2013, and added: 'As much as we can do it all over the world, we will do it.'

The new idea has been discussed by Todt and Antonio Tajani, the European Union’s industry commissioner, who wants EU member countries to increase public adoption of electric cars.
The project fits into Todt’s strategy for F1 teams and other motorsport series to embrace hybrid and electronic technology.

It is believed that he is meeting resistance from the sport's supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Over 6m electric vehicles needed in UK by 2030

More than six million electric vehicles will be needed on the UK's roads by 2030 if CO2 reduction targets are to be met, according to WWF.

The organisation has published new results showing a minimum of one in seven vehicles must be powered by electric within the next decade, which equates to 1.7 million, to reach climate changes goals. This figure increases to one in six by 2030.

It estimates that under a high-uptake scenario, foreign oil imports to the value of £5 billion each year could be avoided.

"Road transport accounts for 40 percent of petroleum products consumed in the UK, so a switch from conventional cars powered by petrol or diesel to EVs would have a much needed impact on reducing fuel demand," Dave Norman, director of campaigns at WWF-UK, said.

However, government subsidies were said to be needed to help Brits get over their worries relating to range anxiety, the lack of charging infrastructure and high prices.

Previous analysis conducted by Lex Autolease, however, found current low-carbon vehicle ranges do not have sufficiently low emissions to meet 2020 targets.

Arrest in Renault spy fiasco

A further arrest has been made in a spying scandal that has seriously damaged the reputation of Renault.

The move comes after an investigation by French police concluded that three of Renault’s top executives, fired in January after being accused of selling information on the brand’s electric car programme, are completely innocent.

Private investigator Michel Luc has been charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy. According to the police he received more than €300,000 from Renault’s own security unit for information showing that the three executives had been paid to sell secret information about the electric car programme.

Police have concluded that the information was falsified. Earlier this month Renault’s own security agent Dominique Gevrey was charged with fraud, police saying he had taken money intended for the informant and put it in a Swiss bank account.

Renault has fully accepted that its three executives are innocent. They have all been offered their jobs back and the manufacturer is trying to organise compensation.

At one point during the scandal there were suggestions that the information was being passed to China. The clearing of the three executives led to a national outcry particularly amongst the French Government, Renault’s biggest shareholder.

Some have called for Renault head Carlos Ghosn and his deputy Patrick Pelata to go – Pelata offered his resignation but Ghosn refused to accept it.

Both have turned down bonuses due to them, but only last week French ministers were still calling for heads to roll. “We cannot just let this pass – There will have to be consequences for the incredible amateurism,” said Budget Minister Francois Baroin.

Obama boosts Hybrid and EV sales with federal auto fleet, oil strategy

President Barack Obama announced today that the U.S. government will buy only advanced technology vehicles — such as hybrids and electric plug-ins — by 2015.

The government already has doubled the number of hybrids in the 600,000-vehicle federal fleet.
At a speech at Georgetown University, Obama unveiled his strategy to cut U.S. oil imports by a third by 2025, by stepping up domestic oil production and requiring a major increase in fuel economy for the 2017-25 model years.

"Here's the bottom line — there are no quick fixes. And we will keep on being a victim to shifts in the oil market until we get serious about a long-term policy for secure, affordable energy," Obama told a crowd of several hundred at McDonough Arena. "We cannot keep going from shock to trance on the issue of energy security, rushing to propose action when gas prices rise, then hitting the snooze button when they fall again."

The reduction would be more than the 11 million barrels of oil a day the United States imported in 2008, the White House said today. Obama noted that the U.S. has just 2 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. The U.S. consumes about a quarter of the oil.

In 2010, the government purchased 23,000 more fuel-efficient vehicles for the federal fleet, including almost 9,000 hybrid-electric cars. This year, the government will buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, including its first 100 plug-in electrics.

Last year, the U.S. imported less than half of the oil it used for the first time in more than a decade.

White House aides said the president's plan to reduce imported oil relies on improving efficiency for half of the anticipated reduction, but they said the government hasn't settled on a proposed increase for the 2017-2025 timeframe.

Report predicts 3.8 million electric cars on the road by 2016

A new report from GTM Research offers some interesting insights into where the electric road might lead. The report, “The Networked EV: The Convergence of Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles,” predicts there will be 3.8 million electric cars on the road worldwide by 2016, with about 1.5 million in the United States, 1.5 million in Europe and 760,000 in Asia.

“It is the hope of this industry that just as cellular phones and laptops before them, EVs will begin as luxury products but will eventually become widely affordable,” wrote David J. Leeds, the report’s author.

Leeds notes that it took a decade and three generations of the Toyota Prius hybrid to capture five percent of the California automotive market. He expects it’ll take a third generation of electric cars, likely to be introduced around 2018-2020, for carbon-free driving to break out of Berkeley, Portland, and other early adopter cities.

It’ll come as no shock that Leeds estimates that 20 percent of electric cars will be sold in California, which currently accounts for 11 percent of total auto sales in the U.S. New York will follow with nine percent of electric car sales with Florida, Texas, and Illinois rounding out the top five.

Predicting such numbers is a guessing game, of course, and electric cars sales will be determined by a multitude of factors, including vehicle cost, advancements in battery technology, gasoline prices, government subsidies, and the fickle tastes of car buyers.

The early adopters of electric cars that will like drive the industry aren’t so much all those Prius owners but corporate accountants looking to keep a lid on the cost of company fleets of cars and trucks.

“Electric vehicles make great sense for fleets due to their highly predictable routes, as well as the fact that these groups tend to excel at logistical operations,” wrote Leeds. “More than any other sources, commercial and government fleet purchases have the power to accelerate the adoption curve of this market.”

He noted that fleets account for 15 percent of miles driven in the U.S. and that many of those vehicles travel fewer than 100 miles a day, the range of many current electric vehicles, and can take advantage of centralized parking and charging stations as well as lower electricity rates negotiated by big corporations.

General Electric, which will buy 25,000 electric vehicles over the next four years, is aggressively promoting EVs among its corporate customers.

“We can’t forgot the importance of scale,” Luis Ramirez, chief executive of GE Industrial Solution, told me earlier this month when he came to San Francisco to promote electric vehicles and GE’s various services for them. “An average delivery truck makes 10 deliveries a day in a city like San Francisco. So when you think of electric vehicles, that creates a whole new blueprint that’s more efficient and uses less energy.”

Clarence Nunn, chief executive of GE Fleet Services, noted that a big cost of operating delivery trucks is the fuel wasted when idling in congested urban areas. Noise ordinances also can restrict delivery times for fossil-fueled powered vehicles. That’s not a problem, of course, for electrics.

The blogosphere had been buzzing over reports of low sales so far of the electric Nissan Leaf and plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt. That, however, may be more of a production than a demand problem. Leeds noted that nearly 250,000 potential Volt buyers had registered on GM’s site.

“We’d like to buy more than they can build,” said Ramirez of the Volt and Leaf.