Electric Mini Cooper - MINI E

MINI E: All-Electric Plug-In MINI Cooper with 204HP Revealed!

Over the next year or so, BMW will produce around 500 units which will be leased to selected private and corporate customers in the U.S. states of California, New York and New Jersey, giving the Bavarian automaker the chance to evaluate the viability of a full-scale production EV. MINI said that it also considering the possibility of leasing the vehicle in Europe.

The battery can be fully charged through a standard outlet in about eight hours. However, MINI will offer each buyer a wall-box with higher amperage that will be installed in the customer's garage enabling a full recharge in just 2 1/2 hours. The MINI E also features a brake regeneration system that transforms kinetic energy to electricity replenishing the battery. According to BMW Group officials, the lithium battery offers the MINI E a driving range of more than 240km or 150 miles. Read more

What should you expect when driving a Hybrid Car

When the vehicle is moving off from a stationary position, and when travelling at low to moderate speeds, the main electric motor/generator drives the vehicle. At these speeds the internal combustion engine operation is less efficient and is normally used only to charge the battery.



During normal driving, the combustion engine starts and drives the generator & the power divider. Power from the generator is used to drive the electric motor. The motor control unit controls the power divider so the drive remains at its most efficient.



When accelerating, as well as using power from the combustion engine, the control unit draws power from the battery and directs it to the electric motor/generator, providing more power to the wheels than the combustion engine could supply on its own.



During deceleration and braking the combustion engine is <  Read More >

Beijing's real goal in promoting electric vehicles

This may sound odd, but Beijing's newly announced pilot program to subsidize the sale of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in five cities has little to do with the country's serious air pollution.



The central government's real goal is to help key domestic automakers leapfrog their foreign competitors in the race to develop advanced powertrains.



If you doubt this, you might ask why Beijing – one of the world's most polluted cities – is not on the list of five cities that will subsidize the sale of EVs and plug-ins.



That list, by the way, is a handy guide to Beijing's list of winners and losers – that is, the domestic automakers that the government is prepared to support.



Before we name those winners and losers, here's a summary of the pilot program. Purchasers of plug-in hybrids will receive up to 50,000 yuan ($7,321), while buyers of pure electric vehicles will receive up to 60,000 yuan ($8,785).



The five participating cities are required to set up battery recharging stations and recycle used-up batteries.



Those cities also are likely to offer additional subsidies. Shenzhen, for example, already has announced that it will offer an additional 20,000 yuan ($2,928) to each purchaser of an electric vehicle or plug-in.



Add it all up, and you can see that selected domestic automakers will enjoy big competitive advantages over their rivals. And who are those winners? Let's start with that list of cities.



Winners and losers



Participants in the pilot program are the cities of Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei. Those locales happen to be the corporate homes of six domestic automakers.



Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. is based in Shanghai; FAW Group is in Changchun; BYD Auto Co. is in Shenzhen; Chery Automobile Co. is in Wuhu, near Hefei; and both Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Zoyte Holding Group are in Hangzhou.



Each of these automakers has displayed plug-in vehicles and electric cars at China's auto shows, and each has obtained licenses from the central government to build them.



Moreover, these automakers enjoy close ties to their local city governments. For example, BYD recently announced plans to deliver hundreds of e6 electric cars to Shenzhen's taxi fleets. Over the next few years, we can expect similar fleet sales in other cities.



Who are the losers? Two major automakers were left off the list: Changan Automobile Group, based in Chongqing; and Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.



Changan has invested in all kinds of technologies, including conventional hybrids, plug-ins, EVs and fuel cells. But Changan hasn't made as much progress in plug-ins and EVs as the six automakers included in the pilot subsidy program.



Likewise, Beijing Auto displayed electric vehicles at the Beijing auto show in April, but it hasn't made much progress either.



No more infighting



There is another aspect to this pilot program worth noting: The domestic automakers now know which technologies to invest in, and that may be worth as much as the actual subsidies.



Previously, it wasn't clear whether the central government favored research on fuel cells, plug-ins or "pure" electrics. Now Beijing's mandate is clear: fuel cells are on the back burner.



That's a setback of sorts for SAIC, which had invested in fuel cells along with hybrids and EVs.



Last week's announcement was jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission, which is China's highest economic planning agency.



This indicates that government bureaucrats have reached a consensus, said Duan Chenwu, auto technology analyst with IHS Global Insight in Shanghai.



"The most significant thing about the pilot subsidy program is that the government has made it clear which direction domestic automakers should follow," he said. "At this stage, that means more for the domestics than the subsidies."

Nissan says cheaper U.S. Leaf price due to tax, incentive gaps

Nissan Motor Co., aiming to be the biggest seller of electric cars, said a lower U.S. price for its Leaf hatchback compared with Japan and Europe reflects differences in local taxes and incentives and that the vehicle will eventually make money in all markets.



Nissan said this week its battery-powered Leaf will cost about $37,000 in Europe after incentives. That compares with $32,780 in the U.S. before incentives and a base price in Japan of more than $40,000. Variations in import fees, taxes and incentives account for the disparities, said Tom Smith, Nissan's chief marketing manager for European electric auto sales.



“If you just translate the U.S. price into euros, you seem to get a significant difference,” Smith said in a phone interview from Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Excluding Europe's higher tax on the vehicle and an import duty that's four times that in the U.S., “we are priced at exactly the same level in both markets,” he said.



The Leaf, powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, will go on sale in Japan and the U.S. this year and in Europe next year. Nissan's CEOCarlos Ghosn has set a goal of leading sales of rechargeable vehicles, which he estimates may make up 10 percent of global auto demand by 2020.



While competitors Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are preparing to sell battery-powered and plug-in hybrid models, none has announced plans matching Nissan's goal of being able to sell as many as 500,000 electric cars by 2012.



Too low?



Nissan aims for the Leaf to compete in price with Toyota's gasoline-electric Prius and Honda Motor Co.'s Civic Hybrid in the U.S. The vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit and may get an added $5,000 rebate in California, where large automakers are required to sell electric vehicles.



Based on cost estimates for Leaf's battery pack, electronic components and production, the U.S. price seems too low, at least initially, said John Kluza, a battery analyst at Lux Research in Boston.



The current cost of the 24-kilowatt-hour battery pack, capable of propelling the Leaf as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers), may be about $20,000, Kluza said. Nissan has declined to provide cost details.



“It seems the goal was to price Leaf to get sales volume even if there's some initial loss,” Kluza said. “In the first year or so, perhaps they'll take a hit of $2,000 on each car, maybe more. Over time, as battery production scales up, that price will start to look more appropriate.”



‘All the information'



The U.S. price excludes local sales taxes, which vary across the country, and a destination and handling charge of about $800, according to Jung.



Takeshi Miyao, a Tokyo-based analyst for consulting company Carnorama, estimates battery-pack and component costs for the Leaf are about 2.45 million yen ($26,900), excluding labor and other expenses.



Analysts such as Kluza and Miyao “don't have all the information,” said Nissan's Trisha Jung, chief marketing manager for U.S. electric vehicle sales, who oversaw local pricing for the model. “We are the first affordable, mass- market electric vehicle. We're pricing appropriately to ensure that.”



Nissan is factoring into the price the longer-term impact of state and U.S. federal incentives it won to produce the Leaf at its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant and build a lithium-ion battery factory next to it, said KG Duleep, who researches advanced auto technologies for consultant ICF International. Those incentives included a $1.6 billion low-cost federal loan won in 2009.



Advance orders



“When automakers price, they build in all aspects of capital costs over a multi-year period, and Nissan is getting a substantial amount of assistance,” said Duleep, who is based in Washington. “There's probably some loss on the first few thousand cars, but perhaps by 2013 or so their costs might be at or below $30,000 a vehicle.”



It took Toyota at least 10 years to make a profit on its Prius, which was introduced in 1997, when research, development and capital costs are included, said Koji Endo, managing director at Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo. It may take Nissan about the same amount of time, he estimated.



For a new car powered by a conventional gasoline engine, it usually takes about four years to make a profit, he said.



Nissan has a goal of 20,000 advance orders for the Leaf, which is set to begin arriving in the U.S. late this year. The company will mark the start of construction of its U.S. battery plant in Smyrna on May 26. The facility, to open in 2012, will have capacity to make lithium-ion battery packs for as many as 200,000 vehicles annually.

Tesla to make EVs with Toyota, buy NUMMI

Toyota Motor Corp. and Tesla Motors Inc. will become partners to produce electric vehicles at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont, Calif., a plant that Toyota last year ruled too inefficient to keep open.



Tesla will acquire the now-closed NUMMI property and employ 1,000 people building unspecified electric vehicles in a partnership with the world's largest automaker, the companies announced today in Palo Alto, Calif.



Toyota will invest $50 million in the small California-based electric sports maker in exchange for Tesla's common stock when the EV company completes its planned initial public offering.



Speaking at the announcement, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said he admired the entrepreneurial spirit at Tesla and hoped the venture will teach Toyota about quick decision-making and flexibility.



“Decades ago,” Toyoda said, “Toyota was also born as a venture business. By partnering with Tesla, my hope is that all Toyota employees will recall that venture business spirit, and take on the challenges of the future.”



Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company would spend “a couple of hundred million dollars” preparing NUMMI for the project.



NUMMI, a former joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, closed earlier this year amid a storm of criticism from the plant's UAW work force.



Musk said the negotiations to acquire the closed plant concluded yesterday.



He said that Tesla's next model, a Model S that will debut in 2012, will only account for about 20,000 units a year, but said other models will follow off of the Model S platform.



“We're going to be occupying a little corner,” Musk said.



He said that eventually the project would account for 10,000 jobs, including supplier jobs.



Tesla's Model S is being made possible thanks to a $465 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. Until that product appears, Tesla is marketing a two-seat electric sports car that retails for more than $100,000.



Tesla has said that the Model S will sell for closer to $40,000.



Until now, Toyota has expressed little interest in electric cars. The Japanese automaker has staked considerable research and marketing investment on its popular hybrid-drive vehicles, including the Prius and hybrid Camry

Chrysler to launch electric Fiat 500 minicar

Fiat 500 Electric minicar

Chrysler Group said today that it plans to build an electric version of the Fiat 500 minicar for sale in the United States beginning in 2012.



Chrysler said the electric 500 will use an "advanced" lithium ion battery pack but did not give any technical specifications of the car, which will be sold as a Fiat model.



The company said the car's pricing will be announced closer to launch and will be competitive with similar electric vehicles in the market.



At the Detroit auto show in January, where a concept of an electric Fiat 500 was unveiled, Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said the concept would sell for about $32,000 if it went on the market, of which $16,000 covered the cost of the batteries.



Chrysler did not announce a production target for the 500EV. Marchionne said in November that Chrysler plans to produce about 56,000 electric vehicles annually by 2014.



Chrysler said all powertrain engineering and vehicle development for the 500EV will take place at the company headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.



Chrysler is the vehicle electrification center of competence for both Chrysler Group and Fiat Group.



Scott Kunselman, Chrysler's senior vice president of engineering, said the alliance with Fiat presented opportunities to merge Chrysler engineering knowledge with new platforms from Fiat.



“The Fiat 500EV is an outstanding example of our efforts: the Fiat 500 is a small, lightweight platform perfect for integrating electric-vehicle technology,” Kunselman said in a statement.



Chrysler will launch U.S. sales of the Fiat 500 powered by a 1.4-liter gasoline engine in December. The car will be built in Mexico for the North American market. In Europe, Fiat revived the 500, an iconic car of the post-war years, in 2007.



Fiat S.p.A., which owns 20 percent of Chrysler, said, “We are currently evaluating the commercial potential of this electric car for Europe.”



Fiat's rivals in Europe, Peugeot and Citroen, will begin selling electric cars in European markets by the end of the year. Renault will follow in 2011 and Volkswagen in 2013.