It may look like a British milk truck but it's really a lithium ion battery powered vehicle concept from Nissan that might be a Scion xB alternative. Brian Cooley gives us a first look at the 2008 New York International auto show.
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Nissan showed off its electric-powered concept vehicle at the 2008 New York auto show. Based on Nissan's existing Cube small car, currently sold in Japan, the Denki Cube concept uses an electric powertrain with lithium ion batteries.
There are a lot of people who are convinced that established automakers and oil companies, along with some support from dealers, conspired together to kill electric cars back in the '90s.
One of the most repeated points they try to make is that General Motors only leased its EV1 electric car to consumers. The theory is that the lease existed so that GM could pull them back, in case people really liked the cars.
Ironically, two electric car start-ups are also going to put out their cars under leasing plans. Shai Agassi, a former SAP executive, has finally released some details. Under his plan, consumers will buy the car without a battery and then pay a monthly fee to lease batteries. Conceivably, car owners will pull up to a service station to get a battery swap. Some electric municipal buses already use swap-in batteries. (On a related note, including Shai's company, there are over 17 electric car companies, not including the motorcycle guys or established companies.)
Similarly, Think in Norway is going to try to come out with some cars this year in Norway and England. Consumers will buy the car but pay a monthly fee for the battery. The estimates are that the battery lease will come to around $100 to $150 a month.
Are these companies engaged in a conspiracy? If you are into grassy knoll thinking, this is really an inconvenient, unavoidable proposition. But the truth is, they face the same problems GM did. And the problem is this: batteries cost a lot. Adding batteries to a Prius to convert it to a plug-in hybrid runs about $10,000 to $15,000. At that rate, consumers will likely not regain the money they spend on the conversion in better mileage, Felix Kramer of CalCars, among others, have said. Tesla Motors is coming out with a $98,000 sports car, and a big part of the price is the battery pack.
A lot of companies are looking at coming out with electric sedans, but they will cost $50,000 to $80,000 and go about 150 miles before needing a charge. So twice as much as a Honda Accord, but not as flexible. Electric car and battery executives have pointed out that the cost-performance dilemma has been one of the major stumbling blocks to electric cars.
Don't get me wrong. Electrics and plug-ins will come to market and find willing customers. But consumers are going to have to think of their cars in different ways and learn to live with some trade-offs. Nissan, which wants to come out with electric cars in 2012, has said education is going to be a key part in pulling this off.
Subaru, one of the more popular car companies with the green set, is going to show off an electric car prototype at the Tokyo Auto Show later this month in what could be a prelude to coming out with a car commercially.
The G4e concept is a triangular-shaped thing, but it has four wheels (unlike the triangular three-wheeled Xebra from Zap.) The G4e will accommodate five passengers, and the batteries will be stored in the floor.
Subaru's G4e concept car.
(Credit: Subaru)The lithium-ion batteries in the car will carry it for 200 kilometers, or 125 miles. That puts it in the same sort of range as cars coming from Think, Miles Automotive and some of the other electric car start-ups.
Subaru has not said whether it will come out with the car or not. Rival Nissan, however, has said it wants to start mass producing electric cars in 2011 or 2012. Like Subaru, Nissan is looking at economy cars, rather than sports cars, when it comes to electrics.
No one knows yet whether consumers will go for cars that go under 200 miles on a charge. In fact, getting consumers to understand, and act on, the town car concept is going to take a lot of marketing and work, Minoru Shinohara, senior vice president and general manager of the Technology Development Division at Nissan, told CNET News.com during a meeting last week.
Electric cars "are not a replacement of traditional vehicles," he said.
Still, the bad news for Think, Miles, Zap, and even companies noodling toward sedans like Tesla, is that the big manufacturers are interested. There's more to making electric cars than designing batteries. It also involves building huge, expensive factories, setting up a dealer network, and getting volume discounts on things like plastic electric window switches. These are the kinds of logistical problems that big manufacturers have down cold--and that start-ups will have trouble matching.
Then there are the crash-testing procedures. There's a lot of expertise in the established manufacturers there. Both Tesla and Phoenix Motorcars have had to delay releases because of testing. When customers walk into a showroom, will they be more comfortable getting behind the wheel of a Subaru, or some car company that just got formed a few years ago? Think about it. These are some of the many reasons you don't see new car companies popping up all the time. Two words: Rosen Motors.
Granted, large manufacturers move slowly and can get tied up in bureaucratic knots. But when it comes to those grubby mundane issues like distribution and cost-cutting, they are going to be tough to beat.
CHIBA, Japan--Nissan is going to come out with more hybrid cars and completely electric vehicles in a few years.
But it's less excited about ethanol and biodiesel.
Nissan's Minoru Shinohara amid the Ceatec crowds.
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)Technically speaking, designing an ethanol or biodiesel car is fairly straightforward, said Minoru Shinohara, senior vice president and general manager of the Technology Development Division at Nissan, during a meeting at the Ceatec show here this week.
The problem is the cost of the fuel. Both biodiesel and ethanol cost more than regular gas, when changes in mileage and other factors are calculated.
"The most important thing is availability of fuel," Shinohara said. In the future, he speculated, biofuel cars could account for 10 percent to 20 percent of all cars sold. It's a large percentage, but nowhere close to a majority.
There are also the political and societal questions, he added. Do you have to use cropland that might be better used in growing food? Do you have to cut down tropical forests?
It's the opposite with cars that run on electricity. The societal questions are easy. The tough part is coming up with a battery that is small enough and cheap enough to put into a car.
Electric cars probably won't be replacements for current petroleum cars. Batteries can't provide a range that gas-powered cars can. Instead, manufacturers will tout them as second cars or town cars designed for ordinary, short commutes. Getting consumers to understand, and act on, the town car concept is going to take a lot of marketing and work, Shinohara said.
"They (electric cars) are not a replacement for traditional vehicles," he said.
Nissan's electric plans are already under way. The company currently sells some hybrid vehicles that rely on components and technology from Toyota. It will come out with cars based on its own hybrid system in 2010. (Nissan got a good share of the buzz at last month's Frankfurt auto show with its electric-powered concept car, the Mixim.)
The first mass-produced electric car from Nissan will then likely follow in 2011 or 2012, Shinohara added. It will likely be a city car. He's a lot less excited about the concept about plug-in hybrids--again, it's the price/benefit equation.
The basis of these future hybrids and electrics will likely come from batteries from a joint venture formed earlier this year between Nissan and NEC.
Hotz drives a bargain
(Credit: CNET Networks)What would you give to get your hands on the world's first unlocked Apple iPhone? How about three more 8GB iPhones plus a Nissan 350Z? That's the price for which overnight teenage tech celebrity George Hotz, who unlocked the iPhone enabling it to work on any network, has agreed to part with his hacked gadget. According to his blog, Hotz accepted the offer on Saturday from Terry Daidone, the founder of cell-phone refurbishing company Certicell. If only Hotz had held out for a BMW or an Audi, he could have used his new ride to play music from one of his new phones. We're pretty confident that the whiz kid might be able to figure out a workaround for his new Nissan, though.
Via Autoblog
Nissan's SULEV concept car
(Credit: Nissan)A new automated emergency-braking feature will be in U.S. Nissan cars by next year, the company said Tuesday.
The feature works in tandem with the gas pedal to help drivers avoid a crash.
When speed and distance sensors on the car detect an imminent crash, the gas pedal lifts slightly to warn the driver. If the driver eases pressure on the gas pedal in response, the car automatically brakes instead of waiting until the driver slams a foot on the brake pedal, according to a report from the Associated Press.
But the driver still has ultimate control over the vehicle at all times, and can choose to keep the gas pedal depressed and maintain speed even after the warning.
Plan on seeing the new safety feature implemented in Nissan cars sold in Japan this year and in cars sold in the U.S. next year.
The news follows Nissan's Monday announcement that it is investing in cleaner diesel engine technology that could meet California's standard for super-ultra-low emission vehicles (SULEVs), as well as new DUI-prevention features.
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