Plug-in Vehicles

KBB picks: Honda Insight, Ford Escape hybrid and Chevy Volt

Cheapest to own hybrid after 5 year according to KBB

Best hybrid and plug-in deals after 5 years of ownership

Kipplingers, Forbes, Intellichoice, Consumer Reports, US News & World Reports, etc. have all offered up best and most cost-effective vehicle lists in recent months, and it’s sometimes a little surprising the lack of consensus. Consequently, I’ve often wondered if there isn’t some sort of advertising-related objective.

Regardless, these lists are still interesting and usually useful for buyers, and the latest one comes from Kelly Blue Book. Read more…

Is $1 billion for a 100 mpg gasoline sedan an evil Republican plot?

Are we closer to 100 mpg gasoline cars than we think?

Couldn’t it also be a hybrid?

The other day I read a piece on AutoWeek slamming an idea from a Republican Congressman that I’ve never heard of that is apparently part of an evil plan by the entire Republican Party — even those few that actually helped make plug-in tax credits a reality — to crush the whole idea of increased fuel economy. $1 billion for an automaker to develop a 100 mpg gasoline sedan.

“It’s all pretend,” claimed author Davey G. Johnson.

Davey, Davey, Davey. So why then does Utah Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dan Adams disagree? Read more…

Hybrid and electric car buyers are just better

Go ahead and hate me for being intelligent and responsible

What’s the cost of not taking action?

Sure, the buyers of hybrid and electric cars don’t always make the most cost-effective choices, but many times their choices are best, even financially. For example, many hybrid cars make the best city cars and they can be far more cost-effective than non-hybrids. But even if hybrids and plug-ins are not always cost-effective, at least hybrid and plug-in buyers are taking action, at least they’re taking responsibility.

The rest of America just talks about taking action. Blah, blah, blah. Some day I’m gonna go on a diet, stop smoking, start investing, be a better person — starting tomorrow. Always tomorrow. Sure, we can all talk a big game, but few of us even show up on game day. Thus, despite some arrogance and elitism, maybe even some ignorance, hybrid and electric car buyers are still better than most other Americans. Read more…

Lutz: Peak oil, global warming myths; electrification real

Is fracking inherently so much more dangerous than foreign oil dependence?

The new world order of energy?

If you attended the recent Deloitte & Touche oil and gas conference in Houston, you were left with one realization, according to Bob Lutz of BMW, Chrysler, Ford, and GM fame: US energy independence is now a potential reality. Thanks to an oil and natural gas boom, something even Lutz didn’t believe in until listening to the experts at the conference, OPEC independence could be achieved “in a period of a few years”.

Similarly, Lutz still believes man-caused global warming is just as much a myth as peak oil has become.

Nevertheless, despite a lack of CO2 or peak oil worries, Lutz still believes electrification is inevitable, and it won’t need to be supported by the government, at least not long term. Read more…

Lithium revolution dependent upon Toyota and hybrid cars

Plug-in Prius too rationale for electrification hype

OPUD: Over-promising and under-delivering the battery-powered future

I find it terribly unsettling how often fans of electrification ridicule Toyota. They don’t even use lithium in their conventional hybrid cars, they claim. As if all the lithium powered mild hybrids, full hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars on the market today are dwarfing Toyota’s NiMH-powered sale’s advantage. In fact, if not for Toyota’s NiMH hybrids, there would have been far less cause for other automakers to try to leapfrog Toyota’s Prius with plug-ins like the Volt or the Leaf — which are more halo than sale’s products today.

Likewise, it is often claimed that Toyota’s upcoming plug-in hybrids don’t offer enough electric range, even though it’s beyond obvious that the key to plug-in success isn’t really about range today, it’s about cost.

Even more ironic, it seems quite obvious that the lithium revolution in the automotive space itself has become dependent upon Toyota, at least if it’s going to happen anytime soon. Read more…

Chevy Volt 2.0: How would you change GM’s plug-in?

Volt 2.0: How would you re-Volt GM's key plug-in?

Built for change, but how much change?

Early in Chevy Volt production, many things were possible. For instance, GM suggested a non-plug-in Volt, a Volt that utilized super-capacitors rather than batteries, as well as a Volt that replaced its electric range extending engine with a range extending fuel cell. Likewise, different amounts of electric range have also been contemplated.

And according to recent outside analysis of the Volt, much room for change was intentionally built into the Volt platform, such as room for new advanced electronics — possibly a path to increased electric range for less money.

So, how would you change Volt 2.0? Read more…

China might have already won the plug-in vehicle revolution

2020: More e-bikes in China than cars in US

100 million electric vehicles strong and growing fast

Back as the Internet bubble was beginning to froth, I remember some very smart people making the argument that no one was ever going to challenge Microsoft without government intervention. The government didn’t need to create competition, I argued, the marketplace would take care of the problem and the Internet would lead the way.

Like the Internet, electrification is also an inevitable game changer, but just as Microsoft misjudged the Internet revolution, so too might major automakers and the government miscalculate the plug-in revolution.

In fact, China might have already biked its way into total plug-in domination. Read more…

Is the Chevy Volt sale’s crash just about bad, unfounded PR?

The Volt is better than just 600 sales in January.

Or was the Volt simply over-hyped

Just hours after the debut of the Chevy Volt concept car at the Detroit Auto Show — almost a lifetime ago it seems already — Bob Lutz sat down with a small group of bloggers to discuss this revolutionary concept. I was one of those wide-eyed bloggers, and when Lutz suggested the Volt would probably cost only a few thousand dollars more than a Toyota Prius, I was instantly a Volt evangelist.

But over the months and years, as the Volt moved from concept to reality and the price nearly doubled, I lost much of my faith.

Today, I still like the Volt. It’s a fascinating concept, but it’s simply far too expensive to lead an automotive revolution, and the chances of that changing this decade, for instance, are slim to none. Nevertheless, the Volt should do far better than a paltry 600 sales last month. Read more…

Model X teased: What I wish it revealed about Tesla, plug-ins

The X plug-in SUV makes sense, but I'd like something more daring

Could a higher plug-in standard be set?

If you believe in the trickle down theory of technology, the Tesla Model X — teased today by Tesla — makes a lot of sense. A luxury electric SUV compliments Tesla’s Model S, creating greater scale, while enabling the company to better leverage the technologies it is outsourcing to the likes of Chrysler and Toyota, such as for the RAV4 EV.

But I think that as visionary as Tesla has been this early in the plug-in game, they’ve missed a big opportunity. Read more…

CARB’s BEVx to automakers: You don’t understand plug-in cars

The wrong kind of range extended plug-in through 2025?

Leaf, Plug-in Prius, and Volt all bad by design?

Not surprisingly the California Air Resources Board unanimously passed its Advanced Clean Cars (ACC) program for the technological requirements to meet emission requirements from 2015 – 2025. Under the plan, for instance, 1 out of 7 cars, or 15 percent of car sales, must be zero emission vehicles by 2025.

While the aggressive goals are an interesting conversation in and of themselves, what’s perhaps even more interesting is the new kind of plug-in that CARB is now expecting automakers to develop, the BEVx. Apparently, as far as CARB is concerned, technologies such as the Nissan Leaf, the Toyota Prius plug-in, and the Chevy Volt, just aren’t good enough. Read more…