The U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center has released a report that evaluates value-added propositions for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that might help overcome the initial price premium related to comparable internal combustion engine and hybrid electric vehicles. The report also assesses other non-monetary benefits and barriers related to an emerging PHEV fleet, including environmental, societal, and electric grid impacts.

Image Courtesy: Dept of Energy - Click image to access the entire report



Here is a quick peek into the study’s background, objectives, results and conclusions as shown in the fact sheet:

Results:

Study results indicate that a single PHEV-30 on the road in 2030 will:

• Consume 65% and 75% less gasoline than a comparable HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and ICE (Internal Combustion Engine),  respectively.
• Displace 7.25 and 4.25 barrels of imported oil each year if substituted for equivalent ICEs and HEVs, respectively, assuming 60% of the nation’s oil consumed is imported.
• Reduce net ownership cost over 10 years by 8-10% relative to a comparable ICE and be highly cost competitive with a comparable HEV.
• Use 18-22% less total W2W energy than a comparable ICE, but 8-13% more than a comparable HEV (assuming a 70/30 split of E10 and E85 use in 2030).
• Emit 10% less Well to Wheel (W2W) CO2 than equivalent ICEs in southern California and emits 13% more W2W CO2 than equivalent ICEs in the ECAR region. This also assumes a 70/30 split of E10 and E85 (ethanol blends) use in 2030.

Image Courtesy: Dept of Energy - Click image to access the entire report

Conclusions:

PHEVs and other plug-in vehicles on the road in 2030 may offer many valuable benefits to utilities, business owners, individual consumers, and society as a whole by:

• Promoting national energy security by displacing large volumes of imported oil.
• Supporting a secure economy through the expansion of domestic vehicle and component manufacturing.
• Offsetting the vehicle’s initial price premium with lifetime operating cost savings (e.g., lower fuel and maintenance costs).
• Supporting the use of off-peak renewable energy through smart charging practices. However, smart grid technology is not a prerequisite for realizing the benefits of PHEVs.
• Potentially using its bidirectional electricity flow capability to aid in emergency situations or to help better manage a building’s or entire grid’s load.

PHEVs and other plug-in vehicles still face barriers to commercial acceptance:

• In the near term, the cost of energy storage, charging equipment, and PE&EM components must continue to descend to competitive levels, such as the ones assumed in this study. Industry trends imply that these cost reductions are on track to reach competitive price levels.
• PHEVs’ inability to reduce carbon emissions relative to ICEs unless they are powered primarily by non-carbon energy sources. A grid-connected vehicle’s high dependence on its region’s generation mix is very evident in this study’s findings. Operating in regions with a high percentage of non- or low-carbon energy sources (e.g., renewable, nuclear, and natural gas) would ultimately help improve the long-term environmental impacts of PHEVs.

Note: The Acronym PHEV-30 stands for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle with an All Electric Range (AER) equivalent of 30 miles.

Click here to download/access the entire report (PDF – 218 pages long).

Related articles

• Study Finds Public Policies Needed to Boost EV Fleet Purchases (environmentalleader.com)
• Electric Vehicle Sales in Asia Pacific to Total 1.4 Million by 2015, Forecasts Pike Research (eon.businesswire.com)
• Electrification Coalition Releases Plan for 16M Electric Fleet Vehicles (solarfeeds.com)
• “Plug-in Prius is NOT a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle!” and related posts (hybridcarblog.com)
• Pike survey finds unproven technology and reliability concerns may hinder consumer demand for plug-in electric vehicle, although about 44% of respondents are interested in purchasing one (greencarcongress.com)
• Reportlinker Adds Hybrid Electric Vehicles for Fleet Markets (prnewswire.com)
• 3.2 Million Plug-in Electric Vehicles to be Sold Worldwide by 2015, Forecasts Pike Research (eon.businesswire.com)
• Electrification Coalition releases Fleet Electrification Roadmap; suggests fleet adoption could put a cumulative 200,000 PHEVs and EVs on the road by 2015 (greencarcongress.com)
• Pike forecasts Asia-Pacific to be largest PEV market, with more than 1.2M units by 2015; China to represent 53% of total sales (greencarcongress.com)
• Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts plug-in electric vehicles could account for up to 9% of US auto sales in 2020 and 22% in 2030 (greencarcongress.com)
• J.D. Power forecasts hybrid- and battery-electric vehicles will represent 7.3% of global auto sales in 2020 (greencarcongress.com)
• Hybrid Fleet Vehicle Sales to Surpass 740,000 Units per Year in 2015, According to Pike Research (eon.businesswire.com)
• Plug-In EV Market to Sell 3.2M Units by 2015 (environmentalleader.com)
• BeFrugal.com Proposes Cost Equivalent MPG Calculation for Electric Vehicles (prnewswire.com)

(Source: Free Insurance Quotes.org)

Can the U.S. replace 100 percent of its gas consumption with electricity? By this math, yes, we can:

Image Courtesy: FreeInsurancequotes.org

(Source: via Transportation Research Board Weekly E-Newsletter)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a report that explores the components of plug-in electric vehicle infrastructure, challenges and opportunities related to the design and deployment of the infrastructure, and the potential benefits.

Early Registration deadline extended to April 30!

This conference brings together more than a dozen TRB Energy and Environmental committees meeting jointly with the AASHTO Standing Committee on the Environment and serves as a platform to develop better transportation solutions through the integration of diverse environmental (human and natural) and transportation perspectives.

Join nationally recognized experts in transportation along with forward-thinking professionals in environmental, planning, community and economic analysis, environmental justice, land use, sustainability, climate change, and transportation fields in a frank and open discussion aimed at sharing experiences, examining the realities of major complex issues, and developing common sense approaches to environmental and transportation challenges.

A preconference workshop on Sunday, June 6, will provide participants with the opportunity to identify critical environmental research needs.

The Conference will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center, a beautiful new facility, centrally located in downtown Raleigh, NC.

Registration

• Early Registration has been extended!
• The conference registration fee of $350 will be in effect until April 30.
• After April 30, the fee will increase to $425.  Conference Participants should register now to save!

Conference Hotel

• A block of rooms will be reserved at the new Raleigh Marriott Hotel City-Center adjacent to the convention center. A conference rate of $92/night plus tax has been established but you must reserve your room by May 8, 2010.

Be a Sponsor

• Overall conference sponsorship provides significant opportunities for relationship building among agency, university, corporate, and non-governmental professionals. Let participants know who you are by getting your information prominently displayed. Find out how you can be a sponsor!

Click here to access the event website for preliminary program and other event related details.

(Sources: Green Car Congress, Red Orbit, & Reuters)

Jean-Louis Borloo, France’s Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea, presented a national 14-point plan designed to accelerate the development and subsequent commercialization of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in France.

France will invest 2.5 billion euros ($3.6 billion) over 10 years in research, subsidies and infrastructure development for electric cars as automakers race to get the vehicles on the road, its energy minister said.  Speaking at a presentation of the government’s plans for electric vehicles on Thursday, minister Borloo said the investment would be split between pilot projects, battery production and bonuses for carmakers building green cars.

The investment would also cover the biggest cost, namely adapting the electricity grid to allow for the creation of a million charging points by 2015 and over 4 million by 2020.  Borloo said around half the charging points would be in private homes, with almost as many in offices, as well as 75,000 “back-up” charging points in streets and car parks.

The 14 elements of the plan are:

1. ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) will launch in early 2010 a new call for projects on infrastructure costs, to support plug-in demonstrators and trials combining infrastructure, applications and target territories, and to validate the functioning of the ecosystem of rechargeable vehicles. Budget: €70 million (US$102 million).
2. ADEME will establish early in 2010 a roadmap for specific new mobility solutions, dealing with developments in transportation of people or goods, based both on technology (new vehicles, dissemination of renewable energy, electric traction, etc.) and service (Vélib, Carsharing, Carpool, etc.) ADEME will then launch a new call for projects, with a budget of €25 million (US$36 million).
3. Renault will establish a Li-ion battery factory in Flins, in partnership with CEA (France’s Atomic Energy Commission), at an investment of €625 million. This site may produce more than 100,000 batteries per year. Bolloré, Dassault and Saft are also conducting parallel projects.
4. A group of large companies and associations of local and state officials are committing to purchase electric vehicles with a range of at least 150 km. The public tenders and private joint purchasing will target a market fleet of 100,000 vehicles by 2015. The first 50,000 are already identified. Led by La Poste, the group includes EPA, Air France, Areva, Bouygues, Darty, EDF, Eiffage, France Telecom, GDF SUEZ, SNCF, SPIE, UGAP, Veolia, Vinci, associations and communities represented by Association of Urban Communities of France and the Association of Regions of France.
5. A €5,000 grant for the purchase of vehicles with CO₂ emissions less than or equal to 60 g/km until 2012. Hybrids with CO₂ emissions are less than or equal to 135 g may receive a bonus of €2,000, as will LPG or natural gas vehicles.
6. Availability of a standard outlet to charge the cars outside of the home. Specifically, no charge should be needed at home.
7. By 2012 the construction of buildings (offices and homes) with compulsory integration of charging systems.
8. Supporting the installation of charging systems in condominiums.
9. Compulsory charge points in parking for office buildings by 2015.
10. Agreement on common European charging standards.
11. Municipalities to receive support to deploy the public recharging infrastructure.
12. Organize the operational deployment of the network. €1.5 billion for public infrastructure.
13. Maximize the use of low-carbon or renewable electricity for recharging vehicles.
14. Giving batteries and battery materials a second life after their vehicular applications, either through reuse (in grid storage, for example), or recycling.

The unveiling of the so-called “battle of the electric cars” plan follows hard on the heels of another scheme announced just two weeks ago that the French government would invest some seven billion euros ($10 billion USD) in the development of a modern freight-transporting railway system in an effort to reduce congestion on the nation’s roads and highways.

French President Sarkozy also announced his plans for a new carbon tax on businesses and private households that is set to go into effect next year. All three interventions are critical elements of Sarkozy’s “green plan” with which he hopes to drive down France’s dependence on carbon-based fuel and lower its emission of greenhouse gases.

Borloo says that nearly two thirds of the 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion USD) needed to fund the program will be procured through state loans set be started next year.

Included in the electric car plan is the construction of roughly a million battery-charging facilities by 2015, some 90 percent of which will be in private homes, while the other ten percent will be installed in car parks and at roadside stations.

Additionally, beginning in 2012, all new apartment buildings with parking lots will come equipped with battery-charging stations. By 2020, the plan’s architects say they hope to have some four million charging points throughout the country—or nearly two per electric car.

The ecology ministry stated in the meeting that the emissions-free sector of the French automobile industry should be worth a whopping 15 billion euros ($21 billion USD) by the year 2030 and constitute an estimated 27 percent of the total market for vehicles.

Click here to read the entire article.

Note: A big heartfelt thanks to our friends at Green Car Congress who made a concerted effort to provide the readers with an English Translation of this 14 point plan.  For those who wonder, this plan and every other material on the Ministry’s website is only available in French.  What’s up with a Government website only published in French? What were these egalitarian and patriotic Frenchies thinking about non-French speakers when they made the decision that things will get published only in French?  Damn, these folks are very biased in that aspect compared to the Americans.  BTW, I wonder what would Glenn Beck say about the French plan if he found out that Sarkozy is spending more money than Obama on improving/modernizing his  country’s transportation infrastructure?

(Source: Green Car Congress & NGVA Europe)

Image via Apture

The monthly sales rate of natural gas vehicles in Sweden has increased from about 150 to more than 700 units,according to NGVA Europe. The results are largely driven by the new Volkswagen TSI Passat EcoFuel (earlier post) (60% of sales) and the Mercedes B 170 NGT (earlier post) (24% of sales).

Most of the company cars are medium sized sedans or wagons. Cars like the new Volkswagen Passat TSI EcoFuel, and the Mercedes B 170 NGT (see picture on the right while refuelling at a NG/biomethane filling station of Fordonsgas), belong in this category, and explain the strong growth this year of the Swedish NGV sales. More than 50 % of all new cars sold in the Swedish market are company cars supplied to employees and used both for company and private purposes.

The employee pays income tax based on the assessed value of the car and the value of any fuel paid for by the company. For hybrids and for NGVs the value of the car is reduced by 40 % and for flex fuel cars by 20 %, to stimulate the use of environmentally superior technologies. The 40 % reduction is limited to maximum 16.000 SEK annually which, with a marginal tax rate of 50 %, means a net tax saving of 8.000 SEK (some 800 EUR) annually. The lower fuelling costs also mean a corresponding reduction of tax on the value of fuel paid for by the company. A reduction of the annual fuel costs by say 600 EUR thus normally means a 300 EUR tax saving.

Sweden at the end of 2008 had just under 17.000 NGVs and the Swedish NGV sales in June ran at an annual rate of 8.700 vehicles. Sales of new NGVs are now accelerating and may soon reach about 800 units monthly, corresponding with an annual sales rate of close to 10.000 vehicles. The graph shown below clearly illustrates the importance of the now available new models in the company cars segment (also well suited for the Swedish taxi cab segment).

In June 2.9 % of all new passenger cars sold in Sweden were NGVs!

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: GreenBiz via Reuters)

The Obama administration established a Biofuels Interagency Working Group this week in a move that carries implications for the industry on several fronts, including regulatory and research and development. 
 
The Biofuels Interagency Working Group, comprised of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy (DOE)  and Department of Agriculture, will develop a biofuel market development program, coordinate biofuel infrastructure policies, study biofuel lifecycle and help existing biofuel producers secure credit and refinancing.

Meanwhile, the DOE will spend $786.5 million in stimulus funds on demonstration projects and research to accelerate the adoption of next-generation biofuels. 

For example, the agency will dole out $480 million on 10 to 20 pilot-scale and demonstration-scale projects, with a ceiling of $25 million and $50 million, respectively. Another $176.5 million shall be used to increase funding for two or more commercial-scale biorefinery projects that previously received government assistance.

The DOE biomass program also will dedicate $130 million toward research into ethanol, algal biofuels and biofuel sustainability research.

The proposal breaks down renewable fuels into four categories: cellulosic biofuels, biomass-derived diesel, advanced biofuels, and total renewable fuel. The fuels must produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels, but there is great debate within the biofuel industry about how these lifecycle assessments should be calculated.

$480 million solicitation for integrated pilot- and demonstration-scale biorefineries

Projects selected under this Funding Opportunity Announcement will work to validate integrated biorefinery technologies that produce advanced biofuels, bioproducts, and heat and power in an integrated system, thus enabling private financing of commercial-scale replications.

DOE anticipates making 10 to 20 awards for refineries at various scales and designs, all to be operational in the next three years.  The DOE funding ceiling is $25 million for pilot-scale projects and $50 million for demonstration scale projects.

These integrated biorefineries will reduce dependence on petroleum-based transportation fuels and chemicals. They will also facilitate the development of an “advanced biofuels” industry to meet the federal Renewable Fuel Standards.

(Source: Good Magazine)

Amidst the clutter of alternative vehicles that are already in the market and the ones just arriving in the market, how would one decide on the “right” vehicle?  Our savvy folks at Good magazine have published an excellent resource that makes this decision-making process less-complicated and easy to navigate.

Whatever happened to hydrogen?

The idea is great: Take the most abundant element in the universe, turn it silently into electricity, and the only byproduct is a wisp of steam. To its fans, the hydrogen fuel cell is a transportation miracle that will cork our carbon output and curb our addiction to foreign oil. To its critics, it’s vaporware.