Techdiplomacy

When the big 3 CEO’s, the head of the UAW, and various invited economic experts appeared before Congress, one key witness was missing, and the success or failure of an American auto industry pivots around its presence. That missing witness is an American advanced automotive battery manufacturing industry. With all the talk on Capitol Hill about Big 3’s plans to introduce advanced, plug-in electric cars, with the CEO’s arriving to testify in conventional hybrids and advanced prototype plug-in models, little if any attention was paid to the fact that America has next to no advanced automotive lithium ion battery production capacity. With the exception of a currently shrinking handful of US-based firms, virtually all advanced nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion) production is done overseas, mainly in China, Japan and Korea.Two Japanese companies: Panasonic and Sanyo produce nearly all of the batteries found in today’s hybrids, including those manufactured by Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Nissan and Ford. And Panasonic, whose hybrid battery production JV is now largely owned by Toyota, is seeking to acquire Sanyo, which would give it nearly monopolistic control of all NiMH battery production for automotive applications.US-based Cobasys, originally founded as joint-venture between Troy, Michigan-based ECD and General Motors to produce NiMH batteries for the now extinct EV1 electric car, produces nickel-based batteries for the troubled giant’s hybrids, but its fate is uncertain. Between legal spats with Daimler and product quality issues with GM, as well as management problems, the joint venture with Chevron-Texaco remains, at best, a small player in a rapidly shifting market. Two other NiMH plays, Colorado-based NiLar and ElectroEnergy, which also produces lithium-based cells, have run into either technical obstacles or financial ones. On the lithium ion battery front, the picture is much the same. The literally thousands of finger-sized cells that power the Tesla Roadster come from Asia. The same goes for the battery cells the Chevy Volt, the extended range electric car on which General Motors is pinning its future. The battery “pack” in the Volt consists of a series of battery modules, each similar to the starter battery on a small car or motorcycle. Inside these modules are individual “cells”, each rated at 2-3 volts. These are connected together to make a module, which is connected to all the other modules to make a single 16 kilowatt hour battery pack, giving the car a range of 40 miles on electric power only. General Motors contracted with two firms to develop the battery pack for the Volt: Michigan-based Compact Power, Inc. (CPI) and Germany’s Continental AG (Conti). CPI gets its cells from its parent, LG Chem, the giant Korean conglomerate. Conti partnered with Massachusetts-based A123 Technologies for their cells, but those cells are manufactured in China.So the lithium battery technology inside the Volt “mule” — a converted Chevy Cruze — in which fired GM CEO Rick Wagner arrived on Capitol Hill for a second round of Congressional hearings, ultimately came from Asian manufacturers, not American ones. There are just a tiny handful of North American lithium cell manufacturers that are actively engaged in producing cells for automotive applications. Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls and French-based Saft have created a joint-venture — JSC — to produce advanced automotive batteries, but at the moment production is in France with product consigned for use in BMW and Mercedes hybrids in Europe.ElectroEnergy, which originally hoped to manufacture a bi-polar NiMH battery, decided to acquire an abandoned lithium ion cell plant in Gainesville, Florida. Originally built by Energizer Holdings in the early 1990s, the plant closed without producing a single 18650 cell — the kind that powers most laptop computers and digital cameras — for commercial sale when cheaper, better Asian cells began to flood the market. It sat idle for a decade until ElectroEnergy acquired it, hoping to tap into the burgeoning market for lithium batteries. During the recent Electric Drive Transportation Association conference in Washington, D.C., the company president, Michael Reed announced that having run out of operating cash and potential investors, he was within days of going out of business, this despite having some $7 million dollars in orders.Another US-based, advanced battery manufacturer, Altair Nanotechnologies, produced a small number of its advanced lithium ion batteries — the cells themselves originally sourced from a Chinese partner — for Phoenix Motorcars, which was using them for its electric truck conversion project. While initially showing very promising results in terms of fast charge capability and battery longevity, the company’s automotive battery venture has yet to emerge from the custom prototype pack stage. Phoenix has had to turn to other potential suppliers. One of those suppliers is Toronto-based Electrovaya, whose Superpolymertm chemistry was initially developed for laptop computers. Efforts by the State of New York to woo the company into a building a plant in its economically depressed Upstate region have made little headway as Electrovaya increasingly turns it attention to India and Europe. It is collaborating with Indian industrial giant Tata and a Norwegian company to build an all-electric car in Scandinavia. It is also studying building a battery plant in India, the home of its co-founder, Dr. Sankar DasGupta. The advanced lithium ion batteries in the Segway scooter — and now the Brammo electric motorcycle — come from Austin, Texas-based Valence. However, actual cell production is, again, in China. The one bright spot at the moment in all-American advanced automotive battery manufacturing is EnerDel and its Ener1 battery production unit. The Indianapolis-based manufacturer is developing packs to power the Th!nk City electric car in Norway, which is slated for a US introduction sometime around 2010. According to EnerDel Chairman Charles Gassenheimer, the company is also in discussions with at least two other OEMs. The firm’s Indianapolis facilities produce both lithium ion cells and finished battery packs; and it recently acquired the third largest lithium cell manufacturer in Korea, obviously anticipating future growth.

This is not a problem, this is an opportunity. This is America and we are known for our ability to solve our problems with new and innovative ideas. We will solve the battery shortage issue. Of that there can be no doubt. We will not let this battery issue become an insurmountable problem. Any thoughts? Add your comments to this discussion. See you around the galaxy…

This is the first electric car

I know that everyone has seen or at least heard of, some version of an electric car. However did you know that they (electric cars) were first seen in the 1890′ s, with the advent of an electric vehicle invented by William Morrison.

That era was a time of innovators and people of vision. There were several versions of the electric car introduced in this period and New York City used the vehicles for taxis briefly. I mention these events in a time when we are bailing out our nation’s automakers for a good reason.

No, I didn’t mean that the bailout is a good idea, I meant bringing the history of the electric car into this is a good idea at this time. Maybe these geniuses would not be in the predicament they find themselves in, if they hadn’t discarded the idea of electric power for gas guzzling internal combustion engines. Let me explain, the story starts in the late 1800’s as I stated earlier.

There were around nine electric vehicles at the turn of the last century on the market so to speak.

Despite the notion that electric vehicles represent a new and what seems to be exotic technology, they have been around for a long time. During the early 1900s, cars powered by electricity were the fastest on the road. When the internal combustion engine was invented, electric cars dropped off the face of the planet, I’m sure the oil industry gave it a push. However, due to the many natural resource and environmental problems that we face now, electric cars, are in the mix once again. There are many kinds of electric vehicles. The most recognizable are electric cars, which can be the solution to our dependence on oil, foreign and domestic. Scientists and corporations have developed new technologies and have refined electric car research and manufacturing. There are electric cars that are more efficient and more reliable than conventional cars, that are being developed and sold to the public. There are other kinds of electric vehicles available, such as buses and rail transportation.

This brings us back to the bailout, and the cars American auto manufacturers are producing, in this, their hour of need. There has been an increase in fuel prices over the last few years, everyone knows that this is the case. As a result of this, people have started looking for ways to save money on fuel. There have been various alternatives in recent years. Two of the alternatives are electric cars and hybrids. Electric cars are simply cars that run on electric energy. Hybrid cars are a combination of an electric engine system and a fuel engine system. What are the differences between electric cars and hybrid cars? Aside from how their engine systems work, there are a few notable differences between electric and hybrid cars. Hybrids perform differently on the road, since they have an engine that runs on fuel. They can travel longer distances using their gas components after their electrical charges have been depleted. However, electric cars are environmentally friendly, since they produce no emissions and do not use liquid fuel at all.

The point is, are the hybrids the answer? They use petroleum, only not as much. We as a nation need to learn about sacrifice. Electric cars, while not the perfect solution, yet, could solve that environmental problem once and for all. No emissions at all, ever again. We sacrifice a little to gain the world. It’s a no brainer, our children will thank us. No more petroleum powered cars of any sort. Let’s look at hybrids, since the industry that’s being bailed out has only hybrids to offer.

I know I’m repeating myself, but so there is no misunderstanding. Hybrid electric vehicles are vehicles that combine an internal combustion engine with a battery powered system. They are what you get when you mix a ‘regular’, petroleum fueled car with an electric one, which is why they are called hybrids. While hybrids do not have any advantages in performance that separate them from the rest, they are popular because the industry touts them as an environmentally acceptable alternative to ‘regular’ internal combustion engine powered cars. They are supposedly able to get the best of both electric and fuel powered cars. They are more efficient than fuel powered cars but not as efficient as those relying solely on electric power. Many large automobile manufacturers are offering hybrid versions of their cars. Companies (including the ones desiring bailouts) such as General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, and Honda are some of the car makers that have manufactured hybrid electric cars and trucks in the last few years.

We are at a fork in the road of our existence on this planet. We can transition into a new cleaner and sustainable future. Hybrids are not the answer, we mist go forward with all electric vehicles.

What is it that we will lose if we go with new ideas like the electric car? What is the sacrifice? Let’s see, we’ll need a new grid, however that’s a plus because it will create new jobs. Oh, I know, we’ll have to use electric cars, let’s look at that.

Unlike a hybrid car—which is fueled by gasoline and uses a battery and motor to improve efficiency—an electric car is powered exclusively by electricity. As battery technology improves—simultaneously increasing energy storage and reducing cost—major automakers are introducing a new generation of electric cars. Electric cars produce no tailpipe emissions, reduce our dependency on oil, and are cheaper to operate. Of course, the process of producing the electricity moves the emissions further upstream to the utility company’s smokestack—but even dirty electricity used in electric cars usually reduces our collective carbon footprint. Another factor is convenience: In one trip to the gas station, you can pump 330 kilowatt-hours of energy into a 10-gallon tank. It would take about 9 days to get the same amount of energy from household electric current. Fortunately, it takes hours and not days to recharge an electric car, because it’s much more efficient. Speaking of convenience, let’s not forget two important points: charging up at home means never going to a gas station—and electric cars require almost none of the maintenance, like oil changes and emissions checks, that internal combustion cars require. Electric motors develop their highest torque from zero rpms—meaning fast (and silent) zero-to-60 acceleration times.

The fact is we are in a transitional time with regard to life on this planet. The President of the United States recognizes this fact, and he is taking bold steps in the name of radical change. Citizens of the planet must unite and except this eventuality. Cars that need petroleum are causing great damage to us, and the environment. Manufacturing hybrids is not the answer, and it is an insult to our collective intelligence. They use petroleum and tease us with battery powered engines with very short ranges.

Finally, I would like to say that the answer lies within each of us, we hold the keys. If we want a future that does not allow the greed of the oil companies and the automobile industry to destroy our environment, well then we must draw a line in the sand now. Hybrids use petroleum and we don’t need them. Let’s go with the electric car. We need zero emissions from automobiles and other vehicles now. We simply have done too much damage as it stands to go for anything short of banning CO2 emissions from cars. We could accomplish this in the next 5 to 10 years. We need only look at this as an investment in our future, and not a sacrifice. Finally , I’d like everyone who reads this to comment. Its does not matter if you agree or disagree, give us your opinion on this and we’ll print it, it’s that simple.

See you around the galaxy…