Last time I checked the wires, Congress was still deciding terms and conditions for a prospective $15 billion rescue plan to supply emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler. The funds are supposed to keep them from running out of money before the year ends, and it's anybody's guess if we're about to throw good money after bad.
GM: Waiting for the Volt
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)I'll leave that debate to the economists and auto experts. But one aspect of the bailout intrigued me: the concept of a so-called car czar appointed by the president to oversee the bailout and set guidelines. This is the direct antithesis of the capitalist credo. One of the complaints that I've read drew a parallel with the guided capitalism practiced by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
But MITI's involvement in Japan's domestic auto market has also forced carmakers to work on developing next-generation automobiles and fuels far earlier than their U.S. counterparts. Now it's that country's Ministry of Environment getting involved in a feasibility study to test a network of electric charging stations, some supplied by Better Place, the auto start-up run by SAP's former No. 2, Shai Agassi.
As my colleague Martin LaMonica explained:
The electric vehicle feasibility study will give local governments access to 50 electric cars for several months. Cars included are Mitsubishi Motors' iMieve, the Plug-in Stella from Subaru, the Honda Clarify fuel-cell vehicle, and the Erezo electric motorbike under development.
Better Place will install battery exchange stations in the trial. The deal in Japan is similar to those made recently with several countries, the city of San Francisco, and the state of Hawaii that have signed on with Better Place, which has developed a system to accelerate electric car use through battery leasing and automated swapping.
The trial is part of Japan's national goal of having electric cars make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2020. The program will also include a facility for rapid car battery charging.
It's too early to tell whether Better Place has the right idea, but it's worth a close look. Crude oil prices have come down in the last half year, but don't bet on that for the long term.
Agassi's start-up offers an intriguing use of technology to try to solve a pressing transportation problem, and Japan's car companies are taking notice--even if it came with a big nudge from the government. With Detroit's car companies so close to bankruptcy, pay attention to that example--especially since we seem to be on the verge of the partial nationalization of our domestic auto industry.
So much has been written about Tesla Motors and its Roadster electric sports car that I fully expected a letdown.
Tell you the truth, if I were personally shelling out $109,000 for one of these babies, I might be pickier about leg room or noise levels or any of the other myriad questions that go through a potential car buyer's mind before signing on the line which is dotted.
But at the risk of gushing, I'm back to report that the Tesla Roadster is a pure adrenaline thrill.
The specs say that the vehicle accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds. It sure felt that way. As I tentatively pushed the pedal toward the floor, the Roadster attained speeds that I've never attempted in my 1997 Civic, and I had the oddest sensation. It just did not feel as if the car was moving that fast. (OK, nobody's going to mistake me for Mario Andretti. But it's not as if I've never gunned a vehicle.) It felt like driving a big slot car. Had I not glanced at the speedometer, no way could I have known the vehicle was busting past 90 without a murmur of protest.
The only tip-off that something unusual was going on was the motor's high-pitched whine. Other than that, no vibrations, no buzzing, no shaking, rattling, or rolling.
Kudos to the design team for figuring out how to put amazing thrust at a driver's command without paying a penalty in turbo lag or gear changing. The only thing that takes time getting used to is the car's deceleration when you remove your foot from the pedal. No big deal. After five minutes, that is not an issue. (Check out this brief overview I received from the company's PR director, Rachel Konrad.)
For some reason, the local traffic police were out in force as I tooled around, and so I resisted the invitation to push the envelope (much to the frustration of my Tesla handler who wanted me to approach Warp Factor 9). In a straight mano-a-mano test, there's no way the cops would be able to keep up--although I'm sure that's not one of the arguments Tesla's marketing mavens will play up in any upcoming advertising campaign. (My CNET partner in crime, Brian Cooley, took out another Roadster for a ride. Here's his report.)
As a technology story, Tesla stands in contrast to the dreary innovation record turned in by Detroit's automakers the last several years. Unlike the software business, where so many start-ups have been bootstrapped since the Internet bubble burst, when was the last time you heard of a new auto company emerging on the scene? The Roadster clocks in faster than a Porsche 911 and has a driving range of 244 miles on a single charge. But the company's fate likely will be decided by other factors.
Tesla's troubles have been well chronicled. The company was late getting to market, over budget, and recently let go of 20 percent of its staff. But that's old history. The more immediate question now is how much longer CEO Elon Musk will want to fight it out. So far he's had the stomach for the battle--even as the economy deteriorated from bad to worse. The calendar may be in his favor as Tesla is coming to market at an opportune transition time with the incoming Obama administration saying that it wants to foster alternative energy technologies. Now everyone is waiting to see the fine print.
The second point to consider is that Tesla faces a chicken-and-egg situation. While the Roadster remains a specialty item geared at luxury buyers, Tesla is not a volume assembly line operation that can easily force down supplier prices. So far, about 1,200 cars are on order. Before it can it hope to bring its own price tag down to more competitive levels, the company will need to generate more business. A lot more business.
That answer may well determine whether Musk goes down as the next Henry Ford or the second coming of Preston Tucker.
Mayors representing the Bay Area's three largest cities pledged Thursday they would work together to transform the region into the country's "electric vehicle capital."
At the same time,the global electric transportation company headed by Shai Agassi, Better Place, Announced plans to enter the U.S. market, beginning here.
The news warms this die-hard greenie's ecologically correct cockles. But can we dispense already with the pipe dream that the electric revolution will be brought to a filling station near you, courtesy of the far-sighted policies of local leadership?
That's not to say that government intervention can't help kick start industries in need with the right dose of economic stimulus. But for better or for worse, it's up to the auto industry--or what soon may be left of it--to bring the idea to life. (I'm assuming that Uncle Sam is not going to nationalize Detroit's car makers. Then again, there are any number of things I never expected this government to do. So who knows?)
If you want to see the glass as half full, there is encouraging news to report. At the LA Auto Show this week in Los Angeles, BMW, Mitsubishi, and Chrysler all demoed electric cars. Meanwhile, General Motors says that its Chevy Volt is still on track for 2011, assuming GM doesn't run out of money first. Elsewhere, Nissan-Renault, working with the state and the utilities company, Portland General Electric, hopes to have an electric car in the Oregon market within the next couple of years. The company's CEO predicts Nissan will have a mass market version ready by 2012. Cool.
But in the absence of a big hand from the federal government, all these vehicles will depend upon a patchwork system built by cities and towns. Can it get built that way? Maybe over decades, though fits and starts.
VentureBeat's Chris Morrison noted that Thursday's press conference suggested a new level of seriousness about electric cars.
"That might seem to have been the case before, but it's worth remembering that California was the backdrop for previous failures to commercialize electric cars, providing inspiration for the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? And the California Air Resources Board has repeatedly relaxed requirements for automakers throughout its lifetime, providing loopholes to escape switching off the combustion engine."
All true. The announcement shows good intentions, but knowing human nature it's only reasonable to believe people will continue to behave as they always have. Seems to me that the magnitude of the challenge is beyond the capacity of any municipality, alone or in coordination with its neighbors--assuming we want to do it right.
In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the federal act that authorized the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which proved so crucial in the development of the country in the decades since. Any reason why that same sort of leadership today couldn't pave the way for a nationwide grid of electric-based transport?
After January 20, when the new administration takes power, maybe we'll find out.
- prev
- 1
- next
