Although I have not owned an automobile since I moved to New York City several years ago (where cars are an unnecessary nuisance), I'm still enamored by cool cars, especially high-concept futuristic vehicles.
I've also got a soft spot for electric cars, and now comes news about a promising new vehicle being introduced this year:
Classified as a Sport Utility Truck, this vehicle "can cruise on the freeway at up to 95 m.p.h. while carrying five passengers and a full payload."
The Phoenix* Motorcars SUV will be introduced in late 2007, having a range of 130 miles, and can be recharged in less than 10 minutes with an off-board charging unit or trickle-charged overnight when plugged into a 220V power source. The estimated cost to recharge the battery pack is a small fraction of equivalent gasoline costs. Phoenix is currently working on an expanded battery pack that will allow a 250 mile range, still permitting a 10 minute charge and available in late 2007.* No connection to CRN's Chris Phoenix.
These new vehicles use "rapid charge, high power NanoSafe™ battery packs" developed by Altair Nanotechnologies.
We're not, of course, issuing any kind of an endorsement of these products or companies, but we do like to recognize technology innovations, especially when they are bright green.
(Tip of the hat to TechEBlog, by way of Our Technological Future.)
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog
It's not really green before the power with which the car is charged is also green, is it? An electric car, powered by energy made from fossil or nuclear fuel just shifts the emission/environmental problems from car to power plant. A power plant may be made more efficient than an ICE, but there may also be higher losses due to transportation of the energy. So is the green balance really in favor of the electric car if it is charged through conventional means, i.e. the plug in the wall?
Posted by: Matt | January 23, 2007 at 02:59 AM
You're right, Matt, that an electric car is not necessarily green. But it does allow for the possibility of using power -- i.e., wind or solar -- not generated by burning fossil fuels.
Posted by: Mike Treder, CRN | January 23, 2007 at 06:46 AM
Even without an "efficient storage medium economy" (hydrogen, super dooper Li-ion), 10% generation by wind and 50% by solar seems reasonable in the not too distant future. So 2/3's green IMO.
Posted by: Phillip Huggan | January 23, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Don't forget the energy cost of making the car.
If I drive a 35 MPG sedan 150,000 miles, it'll use 5,000 gallons of gas, costing perhaps $15,000. The car probably cost more than that new.
And some large fraction of the car's cost can be billed to energy usage, to power the car's manufacture.
A hybrid might save ~1500 gallons, but since it might cost ~$3000 more, some of that driving energy savings is eaten up by manufacturing energy.
A plain-gas car manufactured using 50% green energy might be greener than a hybrid made using brown energy.
An all-electric vehicle probably costs more than a hybrid. It is greener to burn fuel in a power plant than in your car, because car engines are horribly inefficient--a lot worse than the power grid. But again, you have to look at manufacturing energy as well as driving energy.
Chris
Posted by: Chris Phoenix, CRN | January 24, 2007 at 06:55 AM
The hope with the hybrid is that revenues generated by buying overpriced cars will be used to R + D successively less overpriced cars until the hybrid industry can afford its own industry lobby groups.
If hybrids were forever doomed to be much more expensive than ICE, they'd be useless. Lots of solid state battery advances and PEM membrane advances in them thar nanotech hills.
Posted by: Phillip Huggan | January 24, 2007 at 09:49 AM
90% of lifetime energy consumption is fuel, according to Google Answers, quoting GreenCar.com. (But the car will still probably cost more than the gas.)
Posted by: Tom Craver | January 24, 2007 at 12:51 PM
True, the emissions problem is shifted back to the power plant, but these also have the ability to green up just a bit. In general, it think electric transportation is quite valuable, and there are other ways to charge a battery. Sun or wind to start with.
Posted by: Joseph Beck | April 22, 2007 at 08:25 PM
Thanks for that nice calculation....
Posted by: Juno888 | June 19, 2007 at 11:37 PM