EV Drivers Prefer SUVs New Study Shows

The world has gone mad for sport utility vehicles. Say what you will about fuel economy, safety, or saving the planet, what car buyers want more than anything (except perhaps a Ford F350 Super Duper Duty) is an SUV. For those like Tesla Motors and regulators like the California Air Resources Board who want to lead the world into a bright, fossil fuel free future, the SUV craze threatens to undo all their carefully laid plans.

A new study by Edmunds.com finds only 27.5% of all hybrid and electric vehicle owners who traded in their cars in the first quarter of 2016 bought another hybrid or electric vehicle. That’s down from 38.5% in the first quarter of 2015. Wait. Don’t EV advocates say that those who drive an electric car will never want a car with an internal combustion engine again? What’s going on here?

What’s going on is that people prefer SUVs. Manufacturers can’t build enough of them. Sales of sedans are way down. Coupes and two seater sales are falling. Only SUV and truck sales are up. In fact, manufacturers are adding new shifts at their SUV and truck factories to keep up with demand. Saving the planet may be a worthy goal, but for now, large, multipurpose vehicles are what sell.

“The overwhelming popularity of SUVs trumps just about any other trend in today’s market,” says Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell. “SUV sales are up 22 percent in the last five years, and almost every other segment has suffered as a result. It’s especially true for hybrids and EVs, which generally don’t offer the size that today’s shoppers crave.”

“This trend is not an indictment of the quality of these cars — hybrid and electric vehicles tend to be equipped with some of the most sought-after technology on the market today,” Caldwell says “This is an economics trend, since today’s low cost of gas no longer makes it worth paying the price premium of hybrids and EVs.

“And there are so many fuel efficient vehicles on the market today that environmental concerns weigh less than they might have in years past. When you’re buying a vehicle that can get over 30 mpg, you can still say you’re doing your part to help the environment.”

Would it make a difference if there was a large selection of plug-in hybrid and electric SUVs to choose from? That’s an important question. Every manufacturer in the world is pushing as hard as it can to get such vehicles into production. But will anyone buy them once they go on sale? The message from the Edmunds.com study is that people are not going to voluntarily shell out an extra $10,000 or more for a plug-in hybrid or electric SUV.

Is there a solution? Of course. Make the cost of fossil fuels equal their true cost to society. Eliminate the $5 trillion in direct and indirect subsidies the IMF says fossil fuel companies receive every year. But with 60% of Americans represented in Congress by people who are in the pocket of wealthy fossil fuel interests, such measures stand little chance of becoming law.

Is there anything that can be done? Yes. Move away from the coast and invest in real estate that is located on higher ground. Then you can watch as the seas swallow all those SUVs that have “acceptable” fuel economy.

Isetta Reborn As An Electric Car. Still Retains Original Design Cues

Isetta,the iconic bubble car penned in 1952 by Ermenegildo Preti and Pierluigi Raggi for Renzo Rivolta, has been reborn as an electric car. At the time, Rivolta’s company, Iso, was making refrigerators, motor scooters and small three wheel trucks. He wanted to manufacture a small car that could be mass produced. The Isetta was the result. The name in Italian is a diminutive of Iso.

Diminutive is an apt description for the Isetta. The tiny vehicle was powered by an equally tiny 200 cc single cylinder engine. The 1955 BMW Isetta became the first production car to use less than 3 liters of gasoline to go 100 kilometers, an achievement that cars of today are only now able to duplicate. To get into the car, the entire front panel swung up and out of the way, taking the steering wheel with it. Crash resistance was something people didn’t think about then, which was probably a good thing, since the Isetta had none.

Now, according to Technologic Vehicles, Micro, the Swiss electric scooter manufacturer, has decided to re-introduce the Isetta as a contemporary electric car called the Microlino. Almost a carbon copy of the original, it features the same side hinged front door and slide away steering column. It is powered by a 12 kW electric motor driving the rear wheel. Top speed is  54 mph and the car has a range of about 80 miles. Best of all, it sells for just a whisker over $10,000.

There are lots of electric vehicles on the market that sell for more and offer less, especially when it comes to protection from the elements. The Microlino weighs about 900 lbs without the battery. Best of all, you can add an eMicro One electric kickboard to take you that last mile after you park you Microlino. Micro showed the car publicly for the first time in Geneva earlier this month. It says it already has 340 reservations for its all electric way back machine.

Don’t expect any to reach America. The idea of this car undergoing modern crash testing is too scary to even think about. That doesn’t mean the original was not as cute as can be!

Photo by the author.

BMW i8 Production Increased To Lower Wait Times

Demand for the BMW i8 is so strong, the company has decided to increase production so customers won’t have to wait too long to get their cars. In fact, they are doubling production to 20 cars a day. That should reduce the wait time from 4 months or more, as it is now, to a more manageable 2 months or less, reports Automotive News.

You wouldn’t think there would be that much demand for a car selling for $135,000, but that’s what being named Top Gear’s Car of the Year can do for sales. 555 i8’s were delivered worldwide in 2014 after it went on sale in September. So far in 2015, almost 200 more have found homes. There is even talk of a more potent version of the i8 appearing in a year or so.

At the same time, the company’s i3 is enjoying strong sales, with over 20,000 cars delivered — one third of them to US customers. Despite spending a lot of money developing the electric powertrain and carbon fiber technology for its small sedan, an analysis by engineering firm Munro & Associates found the car will become profitable for the company once 20,000 examples are sold. In other words, BMW has already passed that point. At a time when many companies are losing money on battery electric cars, BMW has shown it knows how to make a ground breaking car that also makes money.

How America can use 'half the oil' by 2035

It's going to take a concerted effort to make a big dent in the oil use in the U.S. Everyone's pretty much in agreement about that. But how big and how do we get there? The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has an idea on how to make the dent as big as half of all the oil we use. It'll take a while, but it's a target to shoot for.

Called "Half The Oil: A realistic plan to cut the United States' projected oil use in half over 20 years" (PDF), the UCS says there is a way to save a total of nearly eight million barrels per day by 2035 using efficiency strategies and another four million through innovation. In this situation, efficiency means things like doubling cars' fuel economy (saving four million barrels a day) and retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient (2 mbd). Innovation means getting serious about "the full potential of electric vehicles" (1.5 mbd) and making better biofuels (1.5 mbd). You can see a breakdown of these numbers below, even if the plan doesn't offer a lot of really specific projections for how to achieve the targets it calls for.

Oil Savings Strategies	Oil Savings (millions of barrels per day) in 2035*
Double the fuel efficiency of new cars and light trucks by 2025.	4 mbd
Double the fuel efficiency of most commercial vehicles (delivery trucks, buses, and big rigs) by 2030	1 mbd
Make planes, trains, and ships more fuel-efficient.	0.5 mbd
Retrofit buildings to use less energy, make boilers more efficient, and adopt substitutes for oil to heat our homes and manufacture goods.	2 mbd

Oil Savings Strategies	Oil Savings (millions of barrels per day) in 2035*
Unleash the full potential of electric vehicles so that more than 40 percent of new vehicles sold by 2035 run on electricity instead of oil.	1.5 mbd
Produce 40 billion gallons of better biofuels from non-food sources like perennial grasses and waste products.	1.5 mbd
Expand transportation options.	1.5 mbd

Daimler and Bosch to establish joint venture for electric motors

PRESS RELEASE

• Development, production, and sales of electric motors for all-electric vehicles
• Production start-up planned for 2012
• Locations in Hildesheim and Stuttgart

Stuttgart – Daimler AG and Robert Bosch GmbH plan to expand their long-standing partnership and cooperate in the development and production of electric motors for all-electric vehicles in Europe. The companies have signed a letter of intent and begun negotiations to establish a 50:50 joint venture that should be concluded in the first half of 2011.

Both companies aim, by bundling their competencies, to accelerate development advances in electric motors as well as to make accordant synergies accessible. According to their letter of intent, joint production should start in 2012. It is envisioned that the electric motors developed will be used in Mercedes-Benz and smart electric vehicles from 2012. Subsequent sales to other automakers are to be handled by Bosch. The joint activites will be located in the greater Stuttgart area and in Hildesheim.

The Bosch Group is a leading supplier of technology and services to the automotive sector. It has a high level of competence in developing and producing electric motors, which it is already manufacturing in series in Hildesheim.

The automotive manufacturer Daimler has built up 20 years of experience in the area of electric vehicles as well as their key components electric motor and battery, giving it a comprehensive understanding of how results can be best achieved in this field.

GM Developing All-Electric Vehicle - Urban or City Use

General Motors Co. is developing an all-electric vehicle for the U.S. market, as it seeks to expand its lineup of battery-powered vehicles beyond the extended-range Chevrolet Volt that went on sale in December.

At the North American International Auto Show on Monday, GM CEO Daniel Akerson said an all-electric car would fill a niche separate from the Volt, which is an electric car with a back-up gasoline engine.

The all-electric car, he said, will be aimed primarily at drivers in big cities.

"It's more of a metro car or an urban car, where the extended-range electric vehicle, the Volt technology," offers much more flexibility, Akerson said.

The Detroit-based automaker debuted its 2012 Sonic subcompact Monday, as well as the new Buick compact called the Verano — two vehicles GM believes will better position the automaker to take on the challenges of rising gas prices and tougher federal fuel economy standards.

GM's North American president, Mark Reuss, made it clear what's driving the move.

"Forget about gas prices. The regulatory environment through 2016 is going to dictate what we do," he said.

"You got to plan your portfolio to be there from a CO2 greenhouse gas standpoint."

The Verano, the smallest car in Buick's line, gets about 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway. GM has yet to release gas mileage figures for the Sonic, but GM officials say they expect it to achieve more than 40 mpg.

The Sonic, along with the Verano, start production later this year at Orion Assembly, and will go on sale shortly after.

Reuss touted the Sonic as the only small car built in the United States.

"Ford, Toyota and all the others build their small cars somewhere else," he said.

As GM seeks to improve fuel efficiency at home, it also is working to expand its electric car selection globally.

It plans to put pure-electric cars on the market in China, through its Chinese partner, SAIC, over the next two years -- a move spurred by the Chinese government's strong support for battery-powered vehicles, said Tim Lee, GM's president of international operations.

Those electric cars — subcompacts or smaller — eventually could come to the United States, he added.

The automaker also plans to export the Volt to China next year, Lee said.

Source: Detroit News

Update on Driving the Mini E After 3000 Miles

The All-Electric Mini E


Lyle Dennis gives us his thoughts and observations after logging 3000 miles in his leased Mini E all-electric vehicle. Lyle obviously does not like the range limitations of this car but freely admits that it meets his daily commuting needs, which is what it is all about in our book.

Eventually, the battery manufacturers are going to give us 200 to 300 mile range batteries and the ability to recharge them in a matter of hours. At that point, there should not be any more range anxiety as one could drive 300 miles, stop for the evening and then recharge overnight. Or, one could drive for 300 miles, stop for a two hour dinner while recharging, and then take off again. The Tesla Roadster is an example of an all-electric car with a 250 mile so we know that these cars can be built and it is simply a matter of time before production quantities can bring down the cost of the battery pack.

From GM-Volt.com:

I am one of the 100 people in New York who have leased a MINI E pure electric car. Since I can’t get a Volt yet, I figured this was the next best thing for now. I have just passed 3000 miles in over two months of driving it.

The car is a 2 seat prototype, or electric powertrain-converted standard MINI Cooper. It has a 35 kwh lithium-ion battery pack (28 kwh usable), 205 hp motor, a 100 mile range, top speed in excess of 100 mph, and 8.5 second 0 to 60 time.

When I last wrote here about it I was still waiting for installation of a 240 V home charger and was getting by on a 120 V portable unit which took about 33 hours to charge the car.

I now have the 240 V, 32 amp wall charger in my garage and the UL certified proprietary charging coupler cord (see above).

Having this unit has made a tremendous difference for me. When I arrive home at about 25% state of charge, it only takes about 2-1/2 hours to recharge. I still charge at work on the 120 V unit anyway.

The car continues to perform well. It is fast, crisp and quiet. There are minor fan noises and an occasional odd smell when first turned on, but it is a very capable car, jumps briskly when called upon and handles quite well. Interior creature comforts are a bit spartan.

I can say I very much enjoy doing most of my daily driving without the use of gasoline. It does get weird sometimes. Still when I pass my usual gas stations I am compelled to think about pulling in to refill, but smile from ear to ear when I realize I don’t have to. Its kind of like waking up from a bad dream.

In practice, I have found with my usual high speed air-conditioned and almost all highway driving style, effective range is from 75 to 85 miles, not quite the 100 that is claimed. There is little doubt though that with lower speed conservative driving 100 miles of range is doable, and indeed there are reports of some MINI E drivers getting more than 100 miles.

I took the car on a 12 mile course that I use to test hybrids with hypermiling techniques. On that course I’ve achieved 82 MPG with the 3rd generation Prius, 62 MPG with the 2010 Honda Insight, and 57 MPG with the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid. With the MINI E, using those same methods, the projected effective range based on my energy use over that distance was an unimpressive 92 miles.

An important observation about range though is that I suspect people will never fully utilize it, even if it was 100 miles. This is because there is clearly a psychological concern about needing some kind of safety buffer for returning home which seems to be at least 10 miles for me. No one wants to get caught out with a dead battery.

In fact, I think this factor will be a significant limit for BEVs in general and something that the Volt will not have. There will never be a worry about squeezing out those last couple of EV miles in the Volt because if you misjudge, the gas engine will just go on.

The MINI E has two annoying quirks. One is a built-in 1 or 2 second delay or lag that occurs when one first steps hard on the accelerator from a stop. The other, which is downright dangerous, is that the car will pop into neutral with a loud bang if the accelerator is suddenly floored while at cruising or highway speed.

I have come to believe that these flaws were purposely built in. They are in effect punishment to the driver who tries to punish the battery. The initial lag is common and even GM put it into the Volt mules that were test driven. It is to prevent screeching the wheels with torque by the overzealous driver (journalist).

BMW has not admitted they cooked-in the neutral pop, but haven’t responded to my emails about it. There are multiple reports about it by other MINI E drivers. After a few experiences with it, due to simple negative reinforcement-type Pavlovian conditioning I (the driver) never floor it anymore. This was the result I think BMW wanted as it is less abusive to the battery.

Production cars will not have such harsh tactics.

A major problem with the pure EV is the 100 mile limit. I am able to use the car for essentially all of my daily 56 mile commutes. It becomes a 3500 pound garage ornament, however, when I need to take longer trips. At least once a month or more I have to go to an airport, a distant concert, beach trip, or some event that goes beyond 100 miles. People often say, just rent a car for those occasions, but let’s face it, that is extremely inconvenient especially after one has paid a significant amount of money for their car. This is another area I believe the Volt will strongly outmarket the pure EV competition.

In the end, the MINI E is a rough-around-the-edges but highly capable fun car. Driving electrically is thrilling and very rewarding. Being able to charge quickly is important. Pure EV limitations are significant.