Plug in Electric Cars

A BEV doesn't have a gas engine on-board and is totally reliant on the batteries. Since BEV's don't have a gasoline engine, it means they have more room for batteries, so their battery-only range is much higher than a PHEV.

Advantages over PHEV:

* No oil money to regimes that want to see the downfall of America

All Plug-Ins

A plug-in doesn't necessarily mean you are becoming less reliant on fossil fuel. If your power grid is heavily reliant on fossil fuel generation (coal/natural gas/oil) you are still powering part of your car with fossil fuel.

Advantages of all cars that get some portion of their power from the electric grid:

* As the power grid cleans up, so does your car's power source
* less oil from countries that wish America didn't exist!
* the potential exists for you to install solar/wind at your home and power your car with that!

The biggest challenges designing cars that use batteries are the cost/weight/power density of the batteries. Luckily battery technology is increasing rapidly. One company that makes batteries for cars, A123 systems recently had an IPO.

Further hurdles facing plug-in vehicles are remote battery charging stations so plug-in owners can charge up away from home (something EV battery charging station builder and service provider Better Place is working on) and regulatory hurdles involved in letting consumers of electric vehicles install vehicle charging stations in their garages. Consumers testing out the BMW Mini-E experienced this first-hand in the Mini-E electric vehicle trials in New Jersey. Plug-ins charge much faster when they are connected to 240 V service , which requires certification to install. Since states will have their own rules on certifying these charging stations, regulations will need to be simplified.

PETALUMA, California -Less than eight months after it began taking reservations for the Leaf, Nissan Motor Co. today delivered the first of what it hopes will be millions of the mass-produced battery-electric model. The keys were handed over to Olivier Chalouhi, a 31-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who until now had been driving a homemade electric bicycle.

Speaking with Inside Line at the Nissan dealership in Petaluma, 30 miles north of San Francisco, Chalouhi said the decision to buy the compact five-door hatchback electric car was an easy one.

"I had very simple needs. I wanted a car that would be highway capable and which could handle two child seats, because I have two kids, and that would be electric. That's the only one on the market and it's going to be like that for some time," he said with a smile and a thick French accent.

Asked if he has any range anxiety - the fear that a vehicle has insufficient driving range to reach a refueling point and would thus strand its occupants - Chalouhi answered with a definitive "No."

He said his commute from his home in Redwood City to his office in San Mateo is 10 miles each way and, adding another five or six miles to drop off and pick up his children, puts his daily driving at less than 30 miles. That's well within the roughly 100-miles-per-charge driving range of the $32,780 Leaf.

Chalouhi must also take comfort in the fact that his family is not dependent on the Leaf and his electric motorcycle. His wife drives a gasoline-powered Honda Fit, he said.

Inside Line says: As the first mass-produced electric car for sale from a major manufacturer, the Leaf is a milestone. Whether it translates into real sales and profits for Nissan is another story. - Scott Doggett, Correspondent, Green Car Advisor

Chevrolet Volt Rollout Speeds Up: Available Nationwide By End of 2011

DETROIT - Chevrolet is stepping up the national rollout of the Volt to match customer interest.

"We're accelerating our launch plan to have Volts in all participating Chevrolet dealerships in every single state in the union by the end of this year," said Rick Scheidt, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet Marketing. "This is the right thing to do for our customers and our dealers who are seeing increased traffic onto their showroom floors."

Chevrolet Volts have been delivered to customers in the Washington D.C. area, as well as California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas. Customer deliveries in Michigan begin this spring.

Customers nationwide will be able to order Volts with participating dealers beginning in the second quarter. Deliveries will begin in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in the third quarter.

During the fourth quarter, Chevrolet expects to deliver Volts in all 50 states.

The decision to accelerate the national rollout was influenced by Chevrolet dealers like Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg, Md., which has seen a surge of consumers interested in the Volt.

"The Volt is clearly bringing new customers to Chevrolet," said Harry E. Criswell III, president and owner of Criswell Chevrolet "We are seeing 10 to 15 customers a week who are seriously considering buying a Volt. Many of them own competitive brands and now have a Chevy on their shopping list because of the Volt."

Some of that consumer interest has been fueled by prestigious industry awards and recognitions for the Volt, including:

* 2011 North American Car of the Year
* Motor Trend 2011 Car of the Year
* Green Car Journal 2011 Green Car of the Year
* Car and Driver 10 Best for 2011
* Ward's AutoWorld 10 Best Engines for 2011
* AUTOMOBILE Magazine 2011 Automobile of the Year
* 2010 Breakthrough Technology, by Popular Mechanics

"Such recognition provides customers with credible, expert endorsement of new models, which is important for vehicles like the Volt that feature significant new technologies," said Scheidt. "Based on the awards the Volt has received, and the number of consumers expressing interest in the technology, we believe the Volt is the right car at the right time."

The Volt is an electric vehicle that offers a total driving range of up to 379 miles, based on EPA estimates. For the first 35 miles, the Volt can drive gas- and tailpipe-emissions-free using a full charge of electricity stored in its 16-kWh lithium-ion battery. When the Volt's battery runs low, a gas-powered engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range another 344 miles on a full tank.

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/01/27/chevy-volt-available-nationwide-2011/

The 2010 Tesla Roadster will turn any driver into an electric car acolyte. The two-seat, soft-top sports car, adapted from certain components of the Lotus Elise, will do 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, besting cars that cost twice its $109,000 sticker price. The recently released Sport Model, at nearly $130,000, shaves another quarter-second or so from the 0 to 60 performance. The Roadster's audacious acceleration comes from a 185-kilowatt (248-horsepower) electric motor powered by a 53-kilowatt-hour battery pack that provides 200 or so miles of range. The Tesla Roadster makes shifting gears, watching a tachometer, and listening to the note of a combustion engine seems tedious and old-fashioned.

Credit to Plugincars.com