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HenryTo
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 Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject: Battery Technology |
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Nissan to (finally) spend funds on battery technology and hybrids - starting with the following joint venture with NEC:
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Nissan-NEC to make lithium-ion batteries
Sunday May 18, 11:09 pm ET
By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Nissan-NEC joint venture to invest US$115 million to mass produce lithium-ion batteries
TOKYO (AP) -- Nissan's joint venture with electronics maker NEC Corp. will invest 12 billion yen (US$115 million; euro74 million) to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries -- a technology widely viewed as key for next-generation green cars.
Nissan Motor Co. Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares told reporters Monday the Japanese automaker wants to be a global leader in "zero-emission vehicles."
Lithium-ion batteries are now more common in laptops and other gadgets, although all the world's automakers are working on applying the batteries for their cars.
Nissan's joint venture called Automotive Energy Supply Corp. plans to make advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells -- all important technology to reduce pollution as well as global warming gases.
"Nissan firmly believes the ultimate solution for sustainable mobility lies in zero-emission vehicles," Tavares said at a Tokyo hotel.
A plant for the batteries, set to be running by 2009, will have annual production capacity of 65,000, and starting capacity of 13,000, Nissan said. The investment will cover three years, it said.
Tokyo-based Nissan has been sometimes criticized as falling behind Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in ecological technology.
Toyota has a big hit with its gas-electric hybrid, Prius, which has already crossed the 1 million sales mark worldwide. Honda also has its own hybrid and fuel-cell models.
Nissan has said it will introduce an electric vehicle in the U.S. and Japan, as well as its own hybrid, in 2010.
By 2012, Nissan plans to mass-market electric vehicles to consumers globally. It is also planning to make available on a wide scale zero-emission vehicles in Israel and Denmark in 2011.
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:15 am Post subject: |
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As to be expected the secret of the technology itself depends on something outside the technology--in this case the least likely buyers of batteries, electric utilities. The buyin scale these large scale spenders can bring could tilt the auto driveline towards the consumer in a way unthinkable looking at autos alone. Indeed, battery logistics threaten to explode our entire utility "building for peak" dogma, "enabling" alternative wind and solar industries just the same. And it's not really new, so perhaps the time is nigh:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/business/11battery.html
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HenryTo
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:57 am Post subject: |
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Nissan finally unveils its all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, to be released in the US, Europe, and Japan next year:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLC7FCSbP09U
| Quote: | Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said yesterday electric cars may account for at least 10 percent of global vehicle sales by 2020. Nissan has failed to match the popularity of Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid and Honda Motor Co.’s Insight, and is betting demand for emission-free cars will offset the restrictions of limited range.
“Investors are jumping to Nissan after it actually unveiled the much-awaited car,” said Koichi Nishi, an equity strategist at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “Products that fulfill the promise of environmental-friendliness are encouraging.”
The company plans to sell its electric car, the Leaf, in the U.S., Japan and Europe next year. Nissan’s new electric car can travel 100 miles on a full charge and can seat as many as five people. The car’s lithium-ion battery pack can be fully recharged at a 200-volt outlet in eight hours, or in less than 30 minutes from a so-called fast-charge station, according to Nissan. In contrast, hybrids can refuel at conventional gasoline stations. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hummer gives Prius a run for its money in "dust to dust" energy footprint.
http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/
The "catch"? Life expectancy.
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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The state of the auto battery technology industry, courtesy of the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/science/28batt.html?em
| Quote: | In 1991 the Advanced Battery Consortium was founded and set a near-term target for developing a battery that would cost $150 per kilowatt-hour of storage. (A kilowatt-hour sells for about a dime and will move a car three or four miles.)
Eighteen years later, prices are in the range of $750 to $1,000. By comparison, a lead-acid battery in a conventional car costs less than $100 for that much capacity, although it is much too heavy to build an electric car around and not durable enough.
Now the Energy Department has a new goal: $500 by 2012.
“We think we can make that,” said Patrick Davis, the program manager at the Energy Department’s vehicle technologies program.
One reason for the optimism is the infusion of money that Washington is preparing to get the job done. The $2 billion in new grants planned this summer includes $1.2 billion for companies manufacturing battery cells and complete battery packs, $350 million for electric drive component manufacturing and $25 million for battery recycling. The cell and battery- pack companies could get up to $150 million each. Companies have already applied for more than $6 billion in grants.
The Obama administration is also hoping to drum up market demand. In March, President Obama, visiting a testing center for electric vehicles run by Southern California Edison in Pomona, announced tax credits of up to $7,500 for consumers who buy plug-in hybrid vehicles. Such models get some of their energy from the power grid and some from gasoline.
“This investment will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it will put Americans back to work,” Mr. Obama said. “It positions American manufacturers on the cutting edge of innovation and solving our energy challenges.”
Some industry experts say that simply getting electric cars to market will touch off a cycle of new research, investment and product improvement.
“If there is a demand for all-electric vehicles, as opposed to small hybrids, you’re going to have a monumental scale-up of the battery industry,” said Kevin Czinger, chief executive of Coda Automotive, which plans to offer a $45,000 four-door all-electric sedan in California next year.
But when it comes to a genuine mass market for an affordable plug-in hybrid or all-battery car, “we don’t quite know how to get there,” said Mr. Miller, of Ford.
Consumer Reports magazine detailed the price problem in its February issue, reviewing an after-market conversion of a Prius to a plug-in. For $10,875 the magazine had a five-kilowatt-hour battery installed by a Toyota dealership in Massachusetts. It got a 67 miles a gallon, a 35 percent improvement over the stock version.
“Our Prius’s conversion to plug-in power cost more than you could ever expect to recoup in gas savings,” the magazine said. Still, “as a sign of things to come, we found it encouraging.”
Carl A. Picconatto, a battery expert at Mitre, a technology consulting firm, and other scientists suggest that materials reduced to the nano scale are a promising avenue. Nano-materials have huge surface areas in small, light packages; batteries work through chemical reactions that unfold on surface structures.
In batteries, charged particles travel through electrolytes. Crawling through an electrolyte consumes energy that does not get delivered to the consumer. But pushing through a nano-material could be like “pushing your hand through sand, versus pushing your hand through a big pile of rocks,” Dr. Picconatto said.
Still, in some applications, nano-materials gum up the works, or break down after a few dozen charges and discharges, experts say. Solving that problem could allow a cheaper, lighter battery pack.
The plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, due out in November 2010, will carry 16 kilowatt-hours and go up to 40 miles on a full charge; if estimates from Mr. Miller hold when it goes into mass production, the battery pack alone would run from $9,600 to $16,000. And that does not count related parts like the system that maintains the temperature of the cells within an acceptable range and manages the charging and discharging.
G.M. would not disclose the price of the battery pack but expressed optimism that it would fall.
“We believe electrification is the future if the industry,” said Bob Kruse, the company’s executive director for global vehicle engineering, hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. |
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rffrydr
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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Someone has got to do it. As Hitachi expands its capacity and production, it will 1) move up the learning curve, and 2) experience economies of scale. This should help lower the price of hybrid and all-electric across the board:
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Hitachi to supply lithium-ion batteries to GM for hybrids, sharply boost output capacity
On Thursday July 2, 2009, 12:26 am EDT
TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. said Thursday it will supply lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles to General Motors Corp. in 2010 and sharply raise production capacity to meet surging demand for gas-electric cars.
Hitachi currently makes 40,000 lithium-ion batteries per month and will lift the capacity to three million units.
"We plan to boost our production capacity for lithium-ion batteries as we expect demand for hybrid vehicles will continue to grow worldwide," said Hitachi spokesman Shinya Yamada. He declined to say when Hitachi would lift the capacity.
The Nikkei business daily said Thursday that Hitachi would invest around 30 billion yen ($311 million) to raise production capacity. But Yamada declined to confirm the report.
Hitachi will also start supplying lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars to GM next year, the company spokesman said without elaborating further.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrids now use nickel-metal hydride batteries. The world's largest automaker said last month it will use for the first time lithium-ion batteries for its plug-in hybrid cars.
Using a lithium-ion battery will produce more energy, allowing hybrid cars to run more as an electric vehicle, but there have been some technological hurdles. |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:49 am Post subject: |
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Where is the smart grid?
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Future for plug-in cars linked to electric utilities
Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:01pm EDT
* Automakers want to reach consumers through utilities
* Two-way grid-and-car communication will solidify bond
By Bernie Woodall
LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Reuters) - Under pressure to deliver sharply higher fuel economy in coming years, U.S. automakers are deepening ties with electric utilities as rechargeable cars move from the drawing board and head toward the dealership.
Both the embattled auto industry and the utilities are retooling and both industries have a stake in the success of the growing effort to deliver electric-powered vehicles to U.S. consumers.
Such plug-in and pure electric vehicles are projected to play a key role in allowing automakers to meet an aggressive U.S. fuel-economy target for 35 miles to the gallon for passenger cars by 2016.
The million plug-ins that the Obama administration wants on the road before those standards take effect could also serve as a reserve source of power to an overstretched electric grid, particularly if owners plug in at night.
Those battery-powered cars are also a potentially new source of electricity demand, and U.S. automakers and utilities are using existing alliances to test new marketing ideas for the technology.
"We cannot do it alone," Ford Motor Co (F.N) Chief Executive Alan Mulally told utility executives last week at a speech in San Francisco.
Ford plans to introduce a battery-powered commercial van in 2010, a battery-powered small car the following year and a plug-in hybrid to challenge General Motors Corp's (GMGMQ.PK) highly touted Volt starting in 2012.
Those plans put utilities and battery companies "at the center of the universe" for automakers, Mulally said.
Ford, the first of the U.S. automakers to roll out a hybrid, has made a renewed commitment to the technology a centerpiece of its turnaround plans.
GM, now operating under a federally funded bankruptcy, has also pledged to have more plug-in hybrids and even pure electric vehicles for city driving in the future.
Within a decade, automakers and utility companies expect to make commonplace two-way communication between vehicles and an interactive utility power grid that will solidify their cooperation.
Utilities are expected to install millions of "smart meters" at homes that would signal the car's computer when the power grid is strained, and power expensive, so charging can be suspended.
For now, the goal is simply to convince motorists to plug in, said Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of hybrid vehicle programs.
Gioia projects that "from 10 to 25 percent" of Ford's production by 2020 will be some type of electrified vehicle.
Britta Gross, GM's director of global energy systems and infrastructure commercialization, would not offer a percentage for plug-ins and other types of electric cars, but said GM would "do the heavy lifting" trying to meet the moonshot-like goal set by President Barack Obama to have 1 million plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads by 2015.
For the automakers, the coordination is much more complex than simply plugging in, said Gioia.
"As soon as consumers say, 'I'm plugging in,' and that recharge of the battery comes from the grid, clearly, we have to understand the utility business," said Gioia. "We are connected to a common customer and a common fuel."
MAKING THE CASE FOR PLUG-INS
Major utilities have established alliances with U.S. and foreign automakers in developing electrified vehicles, but they have less at stake, said Jim Piro, chief executive of investor-owned utility Portland General Electric Co (POR.N), which is working with Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T).
Utilities will need to make major infrastructure changes that tie in to the need for plug-ins to work -- like power grid development -- even if electric cars remain a niche market, executives say.
"It's going to help our load factor, but we are ready, so it's not that much of a challenge," said Piro. "The bigger challenge is for the automotive people to make a business case for customers to adopt these."
Automakers say the fact that utilities reach almost every U.S. household through monthly utility bills offers them a huge chance to convince consumers to buy electric cars.
Consumers can expect announcements along with their monthly bills on how plugging in a rechargeable car at night when the power grid is less stressed will help lower energy expenses and cut carbon emissions, representatives of both industries say. |
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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Kit Car maker Tesla gets a remarkable 450million for its as yet to be seen electric sedan. Nissan and Ford also heavily rewarded under this DOE grant. Policy is proceeding and the auto industry is showing itself to be a family business.
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:56 am Post subject: |
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IBM invests heavily in battery technology:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22780/page1/
| Quote: | IBM Research is beginning an ambitious project that it hopes will lead to the commercialization of batteries that store 10 times as much energy as today's within the next five years. The company will partner with U.S. national labs to develop a promising but controversial technology that uses energy-dense but highly flammable lithium metal to react with oxygen in the air. The payoff, says the company, will be a lightweight, powerful, and rechargeable battery for the electrical grid and the electrification of transportation.
Lithium metal-air batteries can store a tremendous amount of energy--in theory, more than 5,000 watt-hours per kilogram. That's more than ten-times as much as today's high-performance lithium-ion batteries, and more than another class of energy-storage devices: fuel cells. Instead of containing a second reactant inside the cell, these batteries react with oxygen in the air that's pulled in as needed, making them lightweight and compact.
IBM is pursuing the risky technology instead of lithium-ion batteries because it has the potential to reach high enough energy densities to change the transportation system, says Chandrasekhar Narayan, manager of science and technology at IBM's Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, CA. "With all foreseeable developments, lithium-ion batteries are only going to get about two times better than they are today," he says. "To really make an impact on transportation and on the grid, you need higher energy density than that." One of the project's goals, says Narayan, is a lightweight 500-mile battery for a family car. The Chevy Volt can go 40 miles before using the gas tank, and Tesla Motors' Model S line can travel up to 300 miles without a recharge. |
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rffrydr
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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