Styling innovations like this glass roof available for Ford Motor's 2009 V-6 and GT Mustang may not be the focus in coming years as automakers look to provide energy efficiency not looks, according to one survey.
(Credit: Ford)Biodiesel technology is low on the list of priorities for auto industry research, according to a global survey of 200 senior auto executives conducted by KPMG that was released Thursday.
When asked to rate which were the most important alternative fuel technologies to the auto industry over the next five years, hybrid systems were ranked first followed by battery electric power, fuel cell electric power, and biodiesel, respectively.
Fuel efficiency was ranked as the feature auto executives believed makes the biggest impact on customers' purchasing decisions, while "environmental friendliness" was second followed by safety innovation in third.
A car's style and looks came in last on the list of factors auto executives thought customers looked at these days when deciding which car to buy. They're likely right. The information follows news that Ford Motor announced in December it saw record sales for its hybrid cars in 2009 compared to hybrid car sales in other years.
"Automotive manufacturers are in the challenging position of being asked to compete on both technology and cost. With global consumers still feeling the pinch of the recession, those OEMs who can deliver on this equation will be in the driver's seat," Gary Silberg, national automotive industry leader for KPMG, said in a statement.
The survey was conducted September through November 2009.
Tesla's Roadster could soon be sporting a Panasonic battery.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)It seems that when Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in December that his company would invest $1 billion in green technologies for the home, he may already have had a deal in the works for the garage.
Panasonic will be collaborating with Tesla Motors to develop next-generation nickel-based lithium ion battery cells for electric vehicles, both companies announced Thursday.
"Combining Tesla's rigorous cell testing and understanding of EV requirements with Panasonic's cutting-edge battery technology will result in custom cells optimized for use in EVs," JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technology officer, said in a statement.
The deal should not be much of a surprise to those who follow these two companies.
While Panasonic is probably most famous for its TVs, the company is also a leading manufacturer of battery cells for electronics. In his December conversation with Bloomberg, Ohtsubo said that Panasonic planned to expand its interests in lithium ion batteries for cars, as well as solar panels, smart appliances, and home energy monitoring systems.
As for Tesla, it's long maintained that it would like to supply its battery packs to other automakers, and last January made a deal to provide Daimler with batteries for its Electric Smart EV.
Panasonic also announced Thursday that it's halfway through a 3-year project to overhaul its lithium-ion battery cell research and production facilities companywide, including a completely new plant scheduled to open in Suminoe, Japan, in April. The company said the entire overhaul represents about a $1 billion investment.
While Panasonic seems proud of its new turn into green tech, Tesla seems eager to assure existing partners they still have a place as the company expands. Tesla specifically announced that it will continue to source cells for its battery packs from multiple suppliers, and that the new Panasonic cell will be compatible with other cells and components.
Greenpeace is using its latest green-ratings guide to press consumer electronics companies to do more than just clean up their own act.
The 14th quarterly "Guide to Greener Electronics," (PDF) which rates hardware makers on chemical waste, e-waste, and recycling efforts, now assesses each company's public efforts on environmental issues.
The report, issued Thursday, considers whether a company actively lobbies for industrywide laws that would prevent other companies from using environmentally damaging materials, as part of their corporate sustainability obligations.
(Credit:
Greepeace)
Specifically, Greenpeace said companies should support a new version of the European Union's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electronics). The update would ban brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated flame retardants (CFRs), and PVC vinyl plastic from being used in the manufacturing of electronics. (The regulation already restricts how much lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants can be used.)
As far as who's the greenest, Nokia still ranks at No. 1, but Greenpeace reduced the company's overall score by one point for "failing to do proactive lobbying" for the RoHS revisions.
The strategy brings an interesting idea to the forefront. With the new criteria, Greenpeace is essentially attempting to harness consumer buying-power to press private industry to pressure politicians.
But does this strategy really work? When picking out a new cell phone or computer, does the average consumer's thought process include a rundown of whether a company has stopped using BFRs in their products and has lobbied to prevent other companies from using them too.
Still, if no one can use a cheap-but-polluting manufacturing material, the playing field is leveled. Lobbying for a revised RoHS could be a win-win for companies that would like to eliminate the use of certain substances but fear creating an advantage for their competition.
Greenpeace asserts there's good reason for the change.
"The use of harmful chemicals in electronic products prevents their safe recycling once the products are discarded. Given the increasing evidence of climate change and the urgency of addressing this issue, Greenpeace has added new energy criteria to encourage electronics companies to improve their corporate policies and practices," Greenpeace said in a statement.
... Read MoreGoogle took a step toward entering the energy business with the creation of a subsidiary called Google Energy and a request with a federal agency to buy and sell electricity on the wholesale market.
The search giant formed a Delaware-based company called Google Energy on December 16 of last year, according to Delaware state records. The Federal Register on Tuesday referenced Google Energy's request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency with oversight over the power grid.
Rather than represent a shift beyond Google's core search business, though, the moves are meant to give Google flexibility in pursuing its corporate goal of carbon neutrality, according to a Google representative.
"Right now, we can't buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets," said Google representative Niki Fenwick. "We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits."
Google already has a very large, 1.6-megawatt solar installation at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. But having the ability to buy and sell electricity the way utilities do gives Google the flexibility to use much larger amounts of renewable energy to offset the energy consumption of its operations.
"We don't have any concrete plans. We want the ability to buy and sell electricity in case it becomes part of our portfolio," Fenwick said.
Google is seeking to become a carbon-neutral company by improving the efficiency of its operations, including its energy-hungry data centers. It also has a program of purchasing "high-quality" carbon offsets and it has invested in a renewable energy companies through its philanthropic arm, Google.org.
Google.org has funded technology start-ups in solar, enhanced geothermal, and wind. It also developed PowerMeter, a Web-based home electricity monitoring application offered primarily through utilities.
Outside of those efforts, Google employees are active in exploring the intersection of IT and energy, such as ways to use a network of electric car batteries to stabilize grid frequency. Google also created a partnership with General Electric to lobby for policies to promote clean energy.
At an event to discuss U.S. energy policy last November, Google's director of energy and climate initiatives, Dan Reicher, also indicated that Google could get involved in financing large-scale renewable energy projects, according to reports.
Over the past two years, Google has been active in pushing clean energy and efficiency in a variety of ways without becoming directly involved in the business the way a utility is. Making a request with FERC to buy and sell energy for a company outside the utility business is a highly unusual move, experts told Energy & Environment Daily, which reported on Google Energy on Wednesday.
"It's interesting that they'd want to take on the burdens of being a FERC-regulated public utility," John Decker, a partner in the energy regulation practice at Washington, D.C.'s Vinson & Elkins, told Energy & Environment Daily. But, Decker said, "there's no substitute for actually being in the industry if you want to learn about it."
Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle, the first Chinese automaker to break into the United States, hopes to significantly boost sales of its self-developed electric models in the world's second-largest market this year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
State-backed Qingyuan is among a growing army of Chinese automakers, including BYD, partly-owned by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, eager to tap the fledgling green car sector in mature markets.
Qingyuan hopes to sell 3,000 self-made electric vehicles mostly in the United States in 2010, 50 percent more than what it shipped there in the past five years, the source told Reuters.
It is also seeking opportunities to sell electric vehicles in Europe where regulators have been tightening up emission rules to tackle environmental issues, the source said.
BYD's e6, the high-end all-electric car it plans to bring to the U.S. in small numbers this year.
(Credit: BYD)"Qingyuan is rather positive on the outlook of its export business as market potential for green cars in the U.S. and Europe is huge," said the source.
Qingyuan declined to comment.
Other Chinese automakers are also stepping up investment in the green car sector which is poised to take off.
BYD (which is 10 percent controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway) has sold several hundred of its plug-in hybrid, F3DM, unveiled in December 2008. It also plans to export its first electric car, the e6, to the United States this year.
Chery Automobile, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, and SAIC Motor, among others have unveiled their electric or hybrid models.
Home market
Beijing said in December it would expand its pilot scheme to subsidize the purchase of clean-energy vehicles for public transport fleets in 13 to 20 cities.
It would also subsidize the purchase of "environmentally friendly" vehicles in five cities selected for a pilot program to private car buyers for the first time.
The move presents new growth opportunities for Qingyuan, which has been seeking to cooperate with domestic and foreign car ventures in China in the green vehicle segment.
A source told Reuters in September that Qingyuan was in talks with Daimler to develop an electric version of a van made at the German automaker's joint venture in southeast China.
Chery Auto, Beijing Hyundai, Hyundai Motor's car venture with Beijing Automotive, are also among its potential clients, the source said.
Qingyuan, based in the municipality of Tianjin near Beijing, is capable of producing 5,000 to 6,000 electric vehicles per annum.
Its near-term goal is to raise its production level for key components of electric cars, including motor and driving systems.
To fund expansion, Qingyuan is in talks with several potential foreign and domestic investors, said the source, without elaborating.
It may consider listing on China's Nasdaq-style second board, CHinNext, eventually. The four-month-old board is already home to 36 start-up firms, including movie maker H.Brothers and Aier Eye Hospital Group.
Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Additional stories from Reuters
The majority of water used in wineries goes toward rinsing barrels, tanks, and equipment.
(Credit: Kendall-Jackson)Jackson Family Wines, known for its Kendall-Jackson label, has developed a process to reduce winery water usage by 70 percent.
The majority of water consumed in wineries typically goes toward rinsing wine barrels, tanks, and equipment.
A new system developed by Jackson Family Wines recycles and filters the hot water used for rinsing, losing only about 10 percent of that water in the process, the company said Tuesday. The system also retains 75 percent of the water's heat. As a result, the process also saves energy.
The company developed and tested the process in conjunction with the University of California at Davis, winery waste-water specialist Heritage Systems, and civil engineering firm Riechers Spence and Associates.
After a year-long pilot program, Jackson Family Wines has decided to implement the process in its Kendall-Jackson winery in Sonoma County, California. The process is expected to save the winery up to 6 million gallons of water, 133,000 kWh of electricity, and 73,000 therms of natural gas each year, according to company estimates.
"This is the first time that the wine industry has seen a water filtration system that is so efficient and cost effective. We expect this to have a major beneficial impact on water and energy use not only in the wine industry, but in many industries throughout the state," Jess Jackson, founder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, said in a statement.
If 35 percent of California wineries adopt the process, it will save the state 1 billion gallons of water annually, according to Jackson Family Wines, which is seeking grant money to help other wineries implement the system.
If ever there was a business that needed a dash of flash from the world of consumer electronics, it's energy.
At the 2010 International CES this week, companies from different corners of industry will be showing off gadgets and services they hope will make home energy management more attractive. The idea is that providing consumers and small businesses with detailed usage information and easy-to-use tools, they will be able to reduce energy consumption on the order of 10 percent to 20 percent.
Among the companies introducing home energy management systems are Whirlpool and energy retailer Direct Energy, which will do a trial run of a system in Houston that uses a touch-screen console from OpenPeak and installation services from Best Buy's Geek Squad.
There will also be a number of in-home energy displays, dedicated devices that use a home network to give people a real-time view of how much electricity they are using, along with options for lowering their bills. Consumers ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
GM Engineering Group Manager Bill Wallace at GM's battery lab in October with prototype of the Chevy Volt battery pack the new plant will assemble.
(Credit: Steve Fecht for General Motors)General Motors' assembly plant for its Chevy Volt battery is set to begin production on Thursday.
The company claims it will be "the first lithium ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker."
To be more precise, the 160,000 square-foot plant will be run by GM's wholly-owned subsidiary GM Subsystem Manufacturing. And the GM Brownstown Assembly Plant is just that: an assembly plant.
The Chevy Volt battery packs assembled at the plant in Brownstown Township, Mich.--about 20 miles south of Detroit--will consist of batteries manufactured by South Korea's LG Chem with cells from LG Chem subsidiary Compact Power.
Each Chevy Volt battery pack will have about 220 cells and cost about $8,000, as previously announced by GM.
If attendees are any indication, GM seems to be using Thursday's kick-off event to showcase its latest technology and to rally consumer and employee confidence in the U.S. auto industry. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and GM CEO Ed Whitacre will attend the ceremonial start-up of the plant's operation.
The news also confirms analyst predictions about up-and-coming players in the battery industry. In August, Lux Research predicted that batteries and the energy storage market in general will become a $60 billion industry by 2013, with Compact Power becoming a leading developer in lithium ion batteries for electric hybrid cars. A September report from Lux on electric vehicles also predicted that lithium-ion batteries for electric and plug-in hybrid cars alone could become a $510 million market by 2020.
Update at 8:40 a.m. PST January 7: The information on Lux's predictions has been expanded.
A group of companies at the Consumer Electronics Show plan to show off a networked home energy management system for reducing consumer energy bills.
The demonstration will include network-aware appliances from Whirlpool, a two-way thermostat from Lennox, and a touch-screen central control point made by OpenPeak.
Energy retailer Direct Energy plans to test out the combination with about 40 homes in the Houston area in an effort to entice consumers to use tools to ratchet down their home energy use. Best Buy's Geek Squad will do installation of the home network system.
The Direct Energy home energy management pilot will use OpenPeak's OpenFrame touch-screen display as a central control point and real-time energy use display.
(Credit: Open Peak)Adjusting how appliances are run can save $30 to $50 per year per appliance, according to Warwick Stirling, Whirlpool's global director of energy and sustainability. Jobs can be programmed to run at night, or multiple heavy loads, such as charging an electric car and running a dishwasher, can be prioritized to take advantage ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
The Think City: coming to America.
(Credit: Think Global)Correction to release time of car made on January 6 at 3:50 a.m. PT.
Carmaker Think plans to manufacture its highway-capable electric car in Indiana and and make it available in the U.S. next year, the company said on Tuesday.
The Norway-based company is scheduled to hold a press conference in Elkhart, Indiana, where it intends to make the small car. CEO Richard Canny and Indiana governor Mitch Daniels will attend.
The Think City is an all-electric car that can go about 60 miles per hour and has a driving range of about 100 miles. It runs from lithium ion batteries supplied by EnerDel, which is based in Indiana.
Think began delivering the City to European customers in December, a year after it halted operations because it had run out of money. The company, which has its roots at Ford, had to restructure and raise more money.
The move to produce cars in the U.S., which was expected, is a welcome sign for the U.S. auto industry which has been hit hard by falling car sales and, in some cases, strategic missteps.
In a press advisory on Tuesday, Think did not indicate what sort of financial incentives the state offered. But many policymakers are eager to attract companies with advanced auto technologies, such as plug-in electric vehicles. The Obama administration last year dedicated $2.4 billion to promote domestic car battery manufacturing.
It's expected that Think will market the two-seat City to American consumers as a car suitable for daily errands or commuting. In many cases, it could be second car with a household's primary gas car able to take longer trips.
Pricing for the car is not yet available. In general, automakers say that the cost per mile of electric cars, which charge their batteries from a home outlet, will be cheaper than gasoline cars.
