Sunday December 29, 2019 – Miami Trip – Over Christmas I had to be in Miami for a family gathering.  It is the first time I have flown anywhere in at least 10 years and I have blown my carbon budget for the year.  Still, it was good getting out of California for a change and it gave me a chance to see somewhere that has not adopted the California emissions rules.

Flying came as something of a shock after so many years.  It certainly hasn't become more comfortable and now you have to pay for checked baggage.  On the fight out there was no meal service and on the flight back to LA we had to buy a sandwich.  Passing through security at the airport is also much harder than it used to be although I have to say that the guys at the security checkpoint, especially at LAX, were moving things along pretty quickly. 

Flying is pretty essential if you want to travel long distances and it is one of the last things that need to be addressed to go fully carbon neutral.  I know we have electric planes under development but I suspect they will only be good for short haul flights initially.  For longer haul flights we are probably going to need to rely on biofuels or hydrogen produced using renewable energy for the immediate future.

One of the things that I noticed about Miami is that there seemed to be very few electric cars on the road.  Tesla appeared to dominate and I probably saw 3 to 5 of them each day, perhaps a few more than that on one of the days we were there.  I also saw a BMW i3 and two BMW i8s.  I would see more in a 10 minute walk in downtown Beverly Hills.

What really shocked me is that in the five days I was in Miami I didn't see one Chevy Volt, Chevy Bolt, or Nissan Leaf.  I didn't even see common plug-in hybrids like the Prius Prime, Fusion Energi and Cmax Energi.  Even conventional hybrids appeared to be in short supply though I did see a few Prius and at least one Fusion hybrid. 

I checked on plug-share and there did appear to be a pretty good supply of chargers, even a couple at the local Whole Foods, but I didn't take the time to go there and see if they were being utilized.  One thing I did notice was that there were a few chargers being show at apartment buildings and condominium units which is a good sign.

I also expected to see a lot of NEVs on the road as they are quite popular in Florida, but I only saw a few GEMS mostly in Fort Lauderdale where they were being used as shuttles.  I also saw some NEVs called ICON on Key Biscayne.  They looked more like golf carts that NEVs but they did have seat belts and license plates so I assume they are street legal, at least in Florida.

Another shock was to observe just how low lying this area of Florida is.  It appeared that many buildings were built right on the water so sunny day flooding should be no surprise.  A drive down US 1 through the Keys also illustrated just how low lying these islands are.  I could see massive destruction from the storm surge if a category 5 hurricane should hit this area.

Sea level rise may also be an issue.  The highest point on Key West is 18 feet above see level and the average for the Keys is six feet above sea level.  There has already been some high tide flooding in one Key Largo neighborhood and there is talk about raising the level of some roads.  However, if we don't stop the melting of ice in Greenland and the Antarctic then the Keys are basically going to be toast as is large areas of southern Florida.

It appears to me that we need to see a lot more EVs rolled out in Florida and I assume many other states that do not follow California emission rules.  This means that the car makers need to get a lot more serious about rolling out cars across all fifty states instead of concentrating on the ZEV mandate states.  Florida would also be a good area for Solar so they should be doing more to move in that direction.

Sunday December 22, 2019 – Charging Infrastructure Struggle - One of the biggest concerns about switching to an electric vehicle is the long charge times.  When electric vehicles were short range commuter cars there was no real problem, you just plugged in overnight and had a "full tank" in the morning.  Things are changing though.

The current batch of electric cars now have the range to use them as long range drivers.  With the range of some Tesla cars now have a range of over 300 miles so it is quite feasible to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco with only one refueling stop.  Since the electric car often becomes the car of choice for families this is happening much more often.

Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest travel times here in the US and this year we got to hear about some Tesla supercharger locations that had very long lines leading to people having to wait hours to get a charge.  It has been reported that the line at the supercharger site in Kettleman City, about half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco, was over a quarter of a mile long at one point on black Friday.

Now Tesla has been a leader in rolling out Fast Chargers and its supercharger network will allow owners to drive almost anywhere in the country.  The Kettleman supercharger site for example has 40 chargers but as Tesla continues to sell large numbers of EVs the site can no longer handle peak demand leading to excessive waits.  I'm sure Tesla is already planning to add capacity to relieve this situation but the situation really illustrates the difficulty of keeping pace with the rapid deployment of plug-in cars.

Remember the VW diesel cheating scandal?  Part of the settlement was that VW nvest $2 billion to expand EV charging.  To accomplish this VW created Electrify America in late 2016.  They started installing chargers in 2018 with a plan to roll out a network of changers that will allow travel across America.  They primarily support DC fast charging with speeds from 150KW to 350KW.

They are now in Phase 2 of this rollout and have coverage now along most major highway corridors.  The chargers support the CCS and CHADeMO standards.  Since Tesla drivers have the option to charge using a CHADeMO adapter the Electrify America chargers can be used by everyone unlike the Tesla Superchargers that are Tesla specific.  I hear that Electrify America are also considering adding Tesla connectors.  Unlike the other charger networks such as Chargepoint, you do not need to be a member to use the Electrify America chargers, you can access them using a credit card.

Recently Electrify America has partnered with Bank of America to install DC fast chargers at come of their financial centers across the country.  These chargers will allow an EV driver to add as much as 150 miles of range while conducting business at the financial center.

Electrify America has also rolled out a small number of level 2 chargers.  These have been targeted at workplaces and multi-family dwellings in low income neighborhoods.  Now that there are plenty of relatively low cost used EVs on the market this will help lower income families make the switch to plug-in cars.

Recently I wrote about Volta who are beginning to add DC fast chargers at some retail locations.  EVGo is another company that is rolling out DC fast chargers at shopping centers and supermarkets like those at Carlsbad Premium Outlets in Carlsbad, CA or in supermarkets like the one at Bristol Farms in West Hollywood.

It seems to me that having a level 2 charger in a supermarket is actually of less use as people only spend around 20 minutes shopping there.  Level 2 makes more sense in Malls where the object will be to keep people there as long as possible.  DC fast chargers are great for supermarket locations and they are needed at places like rest stops on the freeway where people can add quite a bit of range while taking a bathroom break and perhaps having a coffee.

The roll-out of chargers, be it DC fast chargers and even level 2 chargers, has struggled to keep up with the pace at which EVs are being adopted.  It would be a shame if a few stories about long lines at chargers put people off moving to plug-in car since charging at home is going to be the dominant form of charging in the future. 

Let's face it, the only real advantages for the ICE vehicle is a lower up-front cost and the ability to fill it with gas quickly.  The up-front cost part of the equation is beginning to erode as battery costs fall, and charge times are getting shorter as improvements in batteries mean faster charging.  With lots of new models coming on the market over the next few years, we are probably going to see the charger industry continue to struggle to keep up with demand but I think they are making good progress and we will continue to see robust growth in the number of Plug-in cars on the road.

Sunday September 20, 2019 – Madrid Talks Fizzle – For the last two weeks UN climate negotiations have been going on in Madrid to try and create more ambitious targets for reducing CO2 emissions.  After negotiations extended into Sunday the talks closed accomplishing essentially nothing.

This set of negotiations was hosted by Chile who dubbed it "Time for Action".  Unfortunately violent anti government protests erupted in Chile and the conference had to be moved to Madrid at the last minute.

With global greenhouse gas emissions setting a new record high this year the hope was that there would be concrete moves toward reducing emissions but what we ended up with was a statement to set more ambitious targets with nothing concrete on how this was supposed to be accomplished.  They also agreed on the need to help poorer countries mitigate the effects of global warming but did not come up with any additional funds to do this. 

It didn't help that the USA are pulling out of the Paris accord and only sent a low level delegation.  They were still instrumental in getting a decision on funding, to help those poorer countries impacted by natural disasters, differed until next year's meeting in Glasgow. 

The biggest failure was the attempt to set up a process for the regulation on carbon markets.  This would be a major step forward in reducing carbon emissions but unfortunately we once again saw countries put short term gains ahead of the long term health of this planet.

Many placed the blame on the weak draft agreement prepared by the host, Chile.  These provisions were opposed by some of the major fossil fuel producers such Saudi Arabia and Russia, but were also opposed by other nations including Brazil and Australia.  Brazil for example insisted that carbon sinks like the Amazon rain forest be included in their carbon cutting targets.

We are currently on track for an increase of 3 - 4 degrees centigrade by the end of the century and scientists are telling us that we need to cap warming at 1.5 - 2 degrees centigrade to avoid the worst impacts of increased global temperature.  The results of this years climate conference have made it just that much harder to be able to meet the caps to prevent global catastrophe.  To give an idea of the possible impact consider that the global temperature difference between the last ice age and the present was just 5 degrees centigrade.

Sunday December 1, 2019 – Mustang Mach-e - On March 9, 1964 the first Mustang rolled off the line at the Ford assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan and into History. Now known as the 1964 1/2, it was the concept of Lee Iacocca, vice president and general manager of Ford Division, and is often credited with saving Ford.

The car was an instant success selling 22,000 on its first day in dealerships, and going on to sell 418,812 cars during the first year of production. Now Ford has just announced the Mustang Mach-e; an all electric crossover based on the Mustang. The question is will it be a success.

The Mach-e is very different from any of its predecessors. While it is based on the Mustang it is not the sporty coupe that we are used to. There is not going to be the throaty roar of a V8 Engine and it will be the first Mustang SUV, so is it going to be a real mustang?

I showed a picture of the Mach-e to my wife, who is a big Ford fan and a former Mustang driver.  AT first glance she said "Mustang".  Somehow the designers at Ford have managed to capture the style of the Mustang in a crossover body.

I can predict with certainty that the first year of sales on the Mach-e won't come close to the sales of the original. Ford have said that they will produce 50,000 in the first year, limited mostly by battery supply constraints from supplier LG Chem.  Approximately 25,000 will be routed to the US market with the rest going to overseas sales. Reservations are now being taken at the Ford website.

Ford plan to release a "First Edition" Mustang Mach-e with a price of around $61,000 in late 2020 as a 2021 model. This model will come pretty loaded with a 332hp AWD configuration and the extended range battery pack. It is expected to offer a range of 270 miles on a charge and to hit 60mph from a standstill in about 5.5 seconds. Ford has not announced how many of these limited edition vehicles will be produced but has said that the First Edition vehicles are sold out.

The First Edition model will be followed by the Premium trim model which will start at $51,700. Following in early 2021 will be the Select model which will be offered in RWD and AWD configuration with a range per charge estimated at 230 miles. Price for the Select model starts at $43,895.

These will be followed in the Spring by the California Route 1 model starting at 52,400 with a 300 mile range but with a slower 0-60 time of about 6.5 seconds, and the GT with a range of 250 miles and a target 0-60 mph of 3.5 seconds.

The Mustang Mach-e is not going to please the Mustang purists but this is a car that has the potential to pull people into electric cars. Ford say that this is not a compliance car but with planned sales in the US of just over 2,000 per month it seems like a compliance car even if it will be available in all 50 States. As usual, I expect more than half of these vehicles will be sold in California, and I know that this car will be on my list of my possible next vehicle.

Sunday November 24, 2019 – 2019 LA Auto Show – This year the LA Auto Show was a little bit smaller than in previous years.  America has regressed into driving SUVs and this resulted in a show that is very SUV-centric.  The good news though is that there are plenty of Plug-in vehicles to see even if some of them are hidden in the back behind huge trucks.

This year the press conferences were compressed into one day instead of being spread over the two days as it was in past years.  That made things very hectic on Wednesday, to the point where I just didn't have time to make the ride and drive.  This also left Thursday very quiet and I was able to wonder around the displays to take photos.  The biggest disappointment was that the Garage, where third party vendors display their wares, was not open during media days so I didn't get to check that out this year.

The day kicked off with breakfast and the announcement of the finalists for various car of the year awards in the Technology Pavilion.  I did note than none of these finalists came with a plug. 

This was followed by a speech from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti who talked about making Los Angeles a leader in Green Technology.  Mayor Garcetti can speak from experience.  He was one of the original drivers of the EV1.  After GM took the EV1 away he moved to a RAV4-EV and currently drives a Chevy Volt.  He is also Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.  He talked about how Los Angeles had already created a large number of jobs in the Green Tech sector and has now introduced the Urban Movement Labs which is to act as an incubator to improve way that Angelenos get around. 

The first press conference of the day was at BMW.  They talked about electrifying there line-up by 2025 but the cars they were showing were conventional ICE vehicles and one very retro looking motorcycle.  They did have their Vision Next concept on display and, while this vehicle didn't look at all production ready, they did say that there would be an all electric derivative available in 2022. 

The story was a little different for Mini which this year was included with BMW instead of doing a separate conference.  They announced the production version of the electric Mini, the Cooper SE.  This car will have a rather disappointing 110 miles of range but they managed to do this without eliminating the rear seats and they did with the original electric Mini.  The car has a base MSRP of $29,900 plus an $850 destination charge.  After incentives this could cost as little as $20,400 plus destination charges here in California.  The range is plenty for a commuter vehicle but I'm not sure if the low price will be enough to attract buyers.

Next it was over to Hyundai where they announced the RM19 concept which is basically a race car.  They did say that they are working with Rimac to develop high-performance fuel cell and electric prototypes.  More interesting to me was the announcement that they are increasing the all electric range on the Ioniq Electric to 170 miles.  This compares favorable with the base version of the Nissan Leaf and could meet the needs of many drivers.  Now all they have to do is to get the cars into dealerships in large enough volumes to make a difference.

Next up was Mercedes-Benz and they too were mostly about performance cars not electric.  I was hoping they would show off and give us more information about their upcoming EQC but they didn't say anything about it.  I found nothing in their presentation of any real interest.  Next up was Porsche and I knew they were going to show the Taycan electric car, but I also new that Porsche would be so crowded I probably wouldn't be able to see anything anyway so I decided to get coffee instead.  I was right, when I got near Porsche, which always displays in a small area with only room for them, there were crowds outside who couldn't get in.

I went over to the Kia press conference in the West Hall next.  It was already standing room only but I managed to find a spot where I could see quite well.  Unfortunately they announced two new SUVs, the Gas powered Seltos and a conventional hybrid version of the Niro.

After Kia finished I hurried back to the South Hall in time for the start of the Toyota press conference.  Toyota had an SUV to announce also but in this case it was the RAV-4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid version of their popular RAV-4.  The RAV-4 Prime will have a 2.5-liter gas engine coupled with electric motors driven by a battery pack which Toyota claims will provide 40 miles of EV only range.  I suspect this will fall a little when we get the official EPA numbers but it should still give a pretty decent electric range.  I don't know what the pricing is but if it is priced in the same way as the Prius Prime it should sell very well.

Toyota also showed off their next generation Mirai FCEV.  The presentation made it very clear that Toyota is still squarely in the FCEV camp.  The next generation Mirai, which should be available in 2022, has been given additional hydrogen storage capacity to up the range to about 500 mile according to Toyota.  The best thing I can say about this car is that it is not as ugly as the current generation vehicle.

After Toyota were done I hoped across the South Hall to VW.  I was lucky enough to snag a seat mostly because they had roped off the area while they did some clean-up and then gave access to the seating area for Media only.  True to form VW did present it's next concept in the Vision series with the ID Space Vision which is basically an all electric station wagon.  VW has shown EV Concepts over the years but so far has only sold the e-Golf here in the USA.  It is possible that VW will start producing the ID 3 here in the US later this year so hopefully we will begin to see form models from VW in the future.

The rest of the show was pretty much a bust with manufacturers showing one gas powered SUV after another.  That's what people are buying now so the push is on to meet demand.  Lots of manufacturers talked about electrifying their range but in many cases they are just producing conventional hybrids or mild hybrids not plug-in vehicles.

I returned to the LA Convention Center on Thursday even though there was very little happening in terms of press conferences.  The only one on the schedule was the Green Car of the Year awards presented by Green Car Journal.  This year they were presenting the awards for Green Car of the year and Green SUV of the year.  This year, of the 10 vehicles under consideration for the two awards, only one, the Subaru Crosstrek PHEV, came with a plug.  I knew we were in trouble when they handed me a copy of Green Car Journal which I open to an article titled "Long-live Internal Combustion".

 This year the Green Car of the year award went to the Toyota Corolla and the Green SUV of the year went to the Honda CRV.  The idea is that these cars are more fuel efficient than their peers and will sell a large volume of cars which means they will save a lot of pollution.  While this is true it is an argument that sustains business as usual.  It makes people feel good about buying say the standard Honda CRV while they would be much greener buying a Subaru Crosstrek and driving it mostly electric.

After the Green car of the year awards have been given out I went up to the West Hall and began to walk around.  First up was the Nissan Leaf which has had another battery option which will provide a range of 226 miles on a charge.

After Nissan I walked over to Ford where they had what was, for me, the highlight of the show, the Mach-e.  The Mach-e was revealed earlier in the week before the traditional press conferences.  In this case though I think Ford has a winner.  When I first showed pictures of the Mach-e to my wife she immediately said "Mustang" so its heritage shows through even though it is in the guise of a crossover.

There will be several options for the Mach-e starting with a base model that is expected to get 230 miles of range and have a base price of $43,895 plus destination charges before the $7,500 Federal tax incentive.  There will also be 300 mile range versions starting at $50,600 plus destination charges before the $7,500 Federal tax incentive.  These all come in RWD or an optional AWD options.  Deliveries are set for late 2020 and you can already go online at the Ford website to make a reservation. 

I left the West Hall and went to Petree Hall to get my first look at the Taycan.  The car comes in three models, the 4S, Turbo, and Turbo S.  When I saw Turbo I immediately thought perhaps they had gas versions or plug-in hybrid versions, but they are all actually BEVs.  While these cars are 4-door they do manage to retain that Porsche look and performance.  With a price starting at $103,800 the Taycan is not cheap but for those that like plenty of muscle it offers 0-60 in 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 155mph. 

The Turbo comes from Turbo Charging which allows DC fast charging at up to 270KW which will allow the batteries to charge to 80% pretty quickly.  We don't have an EPA rage just yet but the range on the European WLTP test cycle is 252 miles for the smaller battery option and 288 miles for the larger battery option.  I expect the EPA range will be around 220 and 250 miles.  I don't have a delivery date on this yet but Porsche says it will be available in the USA in 2020.

I went over to the Mercedes-Benz stand for a look around and found an EQC tucked away in the back.  The EQC 400 4Matic is a 100% Electric crossover.  I don't have range figures for this car yet but it does sport an 80 KWh battery pack which should pus the range up to around 240 miles.  The car should begin showing up at dealerships in the US in early 2020 and will be offered at a base price of $67,900 plus destination charges.

My final stop of the day  was to visit Audi in the South Hall.  Here the came across the Q5 PHEV.  The Q5 is the most popular crossover in Audi's line-up so a plug-in version is expected to sell well.  The only down side is that the all electric range is quoted as 25 miles on the WLTP cycle which means about 20 miles on the EPA cycle.  On the plus side, Bengt Halvorson reported getting 27 miles of all electric range when he tested this car for Green Car Reports.  Pricing and availability are still to be announced.

While I was surprised to find the Q5 PHEV while I was looking for the new Audi e-tron Sportsback, I had a further surprise when I found out that it was all electric.  Unlike the A3 e-tron Sportsback which was a Plug-in hybrid sedan, this one is described and an SUV Coupe.  The WLTP range is given as 277 miles which means about 240 miles on the more realistic EPA test cycle.  It is said to reach 60mph in 5.7 seconds.  It is set to go on sale in the US in Mid 2020 and pricing will be announced closer to launch date.

This year the LA Auto Show had a large number of electric vehicles.  The sad thing is that with the exception of Ford the US manufacturers did not have any new plug-in vehicles to show.  New plug-in vehicles came mainly from the German car makers who seem to be diving into electrification much quicker than the US carmakers.  Hopefully this will turn around in 2020 especially if the Mach-e becomes a hit.

Sunday November 16, 2019 – Changes Coming to CA Rebate – One of the biggest criticisms of subsidies for electric cars has been that they tend to favor the rich.  California made a change to their rebate program in July 2015 to limit rebates to those making less than $250,000 a year.  With almost half of all EV sales in the US happening in California budgets are still stretched so further changes are going into affect on December 3.

From that date rebates will only be given to vehicles with an MSRP of $60,000 or less.  This will shut out a lot of the high end EVs like the Jaguar i-Pace, Audi e-Tron,  Karma Revero, Tesla Model S, and Tesla Model X.  It may also hit high end versions of the Tesla Model 3 and the upcoming Tesla Model Y and Truck.

In addition rebates for plug-in hybrids will only be given to those with an all electric range of at least 35 miles on the EPA Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS).  The UDDS is not as strict as the EPA range tests so some longer range PHEVs may qualify but many will be shut out.  The good news is that the more popular PHEV offerings, the Honda Clarity PHEV, Hyundai Ioniq PHEV, and Prius Prime will still be eligible. 

The price cap for electric vehicles apparently does not extend to Fuel Cell vehicles which continue to be eligible for the rebate.  Fuel Cell vehicles will be eligible for a $4,500 rebate.

There are also changes to the EV rebate amount.  The normal rebates have dropped by $500 so a BEV now gets $2,000, a PHEV get $1,000 and and electric motorcycles, including the Electra Maccanica Solo, get $750.  The changes also have increased incentives for low to moderate income families remain unchanged at $7,000 for Fuel cell vehicles, $4,500 for a BEV, $3,500 for a PHEV, and $750 for a zero emission motorcycles.

Finally, the total number of rebates that can be claimed by an individual or entity will be reduced from 2 to 1.  This will not be retroactive so if you have already received a single rebate prior to December 3, 2019 you will still be eligible for one more rebate.

These changes are targeted at helping lower income families to be able to move to electric vehicles and to help California extend rebates to more people.  It is also hoped that these rebates will stimulate companies to produce more affordable EVs and longer all electric range PHEVs in the future.

 – One of the biggest criticisms of subsidies for electric cars has been that they tend to favor the rich.  California made a change to their rebate program in July 2015 to limit rebates to those making less than $250,000 a year.  With almost half of all EV sales in the US happening in California budgets are still stretched so further changes are going into affect on December 3.

From that date rebates will only be given to vehicles with an MSRP of $60,000 or less.  This will shut out a lot of the high end EVs like the Jaguar i-Pace, Audi e-Tron,  Karma Revero, Tesla Model S, and Tesla Model X.  It may also hit high end versions of the Tesla Model 3 and the upcoming Tesla Model Y and Truck.

In addition rebates for plug-in hybrids will only be given to those with an all electric range of at least 35 miles on the EPA Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS).  The UDDS is not as strict as the EPA range tests so some longer range PHEVs may qualify but many will be shut out.  The good news is that the more popular PHEV offerings, the Honda Clarity PHEV, Hyundai Ioniq PHEV, and Prius Prime will still be eligible. 

The price cap for electric vehicles apparently does not extend to Fuel Cell vehicles which continue to be eligible for the rebate.  Fuel Cell vehicles will be eligible for a $4,500 rebate.

There are also changes to the EV rebate amount.  The normal rebates have dropped by $500 so a BEV now gets $2,000, a PHEV get $1,000 and and electric motorcycles, including the Electra Maccanica Solo, get $750.  The changes also have increased incentives for low to moderate income families remain unchanged at $7,000 for Fuel cell vehicles, $4,500 for a BEV, $3,500 for a PHEV, and $750 for a zero emission motorcycles.

Finally, the total number of rebates that can be claimed by an individual or entity will be reduced from 2 to 1.  This will not be retroactive so if you have already received a single rebate prior to December 3, 2019 you will still be eligible for one more rebate.

These changes are targeted at helping lower income families to be able to move to electric vehicles and to help California extend rebates to more people.  It is also hoped that these rebates will stimulate companies to produce more affordable EVs and longer all electric range PHEVs in the future.

Sunday October 27, 2019 – Tesla 2019 Q3 Update - This week Tesla released its 3rd quarter results and it came as quite a surprise to many.  It did contain some exciting new information about future products so I thought I would share some of that information here.

The biggest news, which sent stock prices souring, is that while revenue was down slightly Tesla made a profit of $1.91 per share for the quarter while analysts were projecting a 46 cents per share loss.  Revenue did fall a little short of analyst's expectations at $6.45 billion v an expectation of $6.6 billion.  It appears that revenue was lower because of a shift to leasing rather than buying, and also a shift to selling more of the lower cost base version of the Model 3.

In all Tesla delivered a total of 97,000 vehicles during the 3rd quarter of 2019.

In other news, Tesla has begun limited production of the Model 3 in their new Gigafactory in China.  This is ahead of schedule, something that is unusual for Tesla.  Apparently Tesla plans on selling this early limited production to workers at the Gigafactory.  Elon Musk has stated that it was physically impossible to produce more Model 3 cars during the quarter because of battery constraints.  It appears that Panasonic has not set up the same production deal for batteries that it has in the Nevada Gigafactory so there is still an open question of who is going to supply the batteries for the Chinese produced cars.

In what is perhaps the biggest piece of news from the 3rd quarter results call was that Tesla indicated that the Model Y is now ahead of schedule with production expected to begin in the summer of 2020 instead of the fall.  There have been many spy shots of the Tesla Model Y out on the streets undergoing testing so it would not be surprising that they hit this new production date.  The Model Y is going to be produced in the US, China, and Europe.  Tesla has said that it will announce the location where it plans to build the European Gigafactory shortly.

It also looks like the Tesla Semi will be going into limited production in 2020.  Tesla has been operating these trucks successfully for a while now and word is that they have been exceeding the initial range estimates.  They also have a lot of orders for the semi and it will be good to start and see them on the road.  They didn't give much info on the upcoming pickup truck just to say that the design will not be traditional so it may not be for everyone. 

One of the most significant challenges that Tesla still has to face is service.  Electric Vehicles, of course, have significantly less service requirements than ICE vehicles.  There are no oil changes that need to be done on a regular basis, they don't require tune-ups, and regenerative braking means that brake maintenance is required much less frequently.  Still, mechanical failures do occur, and this requires service.  In Q3 Tesla added 11 new service centers and expanded their fleet of Mobile Service vehicles with 68 additional vehicles.  Still service at Tesla can take a long time which means that customers get loaner vehicles, rental cars, or credits they can use for rideshare services.  This has to be a significant cost to Tesla.

Tesla has shown that it is a true car company and is still selling well even after their new vehicle tax credit has all but gone.  They have already acquired a couple of battery manufacturers and it will be interesting to see if they can get enough batteries to continue to grow production, especially once the Model Y, expected to be a big seller, goes into production next year.  It will also be interesting to see if Tesla can expand its service network to keep up with the number of new vehicles being produced, especially as the fleet begins to age.

Sunday September 20, 2019 – Greenhouse Gas Timeline – Last week I read a very interesting article in the Guardian that went over the timeline where the fossil fuel industry knew about the possible problems with greenhouse gas emissions. The article covered the period from 1959 until the present.  I thought it might be interesting to summarize their findings and add some historical data.

It all started in the 1820's when French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier noticed that the earth was actually warmer that it should be if the suns energy was the only source of heat.  He worked out that CO2 and water absorbed heat acting like a blanket keeping the planet warm. 

Fourier's theory was confirmed by John Tyndale in 1862.  In 1895 the Swedish Physical Chemist Svante Arrhenius was the first to estimate the extent to which Increases in atmospheric CO2 would impact global temperature.  The first person to liken this effect to a greenhouse was Swedish Meteorologist Nils Ekhom in a paper published in 1901. 

Nobody really thought much about the greenhouse effect and people continued to burn fossil fuels and pump CO2 into the atmosphere.  Then in 1959, at a symposium organized by the American Petroleum Institute and the Columbia Graduate School of Business, Theoretical physicist Edward Teller told the audience that a 10% increase in atmospheric CO2 would be enough to melt the ice caps and submerge New York City.

In the 1970s the fossil fuel industry began to seriously study the impact that increases in atmospheric CO2 would have on global temperature.  It has been alleged that in 1977 Exxon scientists warned that there was an overwhelming consensus that fossil fuels were responsible for increases in atmospheric CO2.

In 1998 NASA climate scientist James Hansen testified before Congress that, “the greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now”. 

Instead of shifting their business to more climate friendly products, in 1990 Exxon funded Dr. Fred Seitz and Dr. Fred Singer who dispute the consensus on climate science.  Since then the fossil fuel industry has continued to fund climate deniers.  In 2009 Senator Jim Inhofe, who received large donations from the fossil fuel industry, lead the "Climategate" attacks on scientists who were wrongly accused of falsifying data to make it appear that the world was warming.  In 2017 Exxon, Chevron and BP each donate at least $500,000 for the inauguration of Donald Trump, a well known climate denier, as president.

We have known for over 100 years that carbon dioxide creates a greenhouse effect and that increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause the Earth to warm up.  The evidence is now quite clear and if predictions are anywhere near correct we need to do something about it before we trigger a new mass extinction.  In the US the first step would be to get rid of politicians that still deny that global warming is occurring or that it is bad for the planet.  The failure to do this could be catastrophic for life on earth.

Sunday July 28, 2019 – Volta Goes DC – Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Volta.  The company provides free charging at places like Malls and similar locations.  To fund the cost their chargers feature advertising which hopefully generates enough income to cover the cost of the charger, installation, and electricity.  Now, Volta is venturing into the world of DC Fast Charging. 

Like their level 2 option the DC fast chargers will be installed at locations similar to those now serviced by their Level 2 network.  The chargers will come in either 50KW or 100KW configurations.  Unlike the level 2 chargers users will be required to use the Volta Ap to activate the station and only the first 30 minutes will be free.  This should give a driver up to 175 miles of range using the 100KW charger.  After the 30 minutes is up the driver will be given the option to stay at the station and pay a fee or to move their car.  Volta estimates that the average driver using their stations exclusively could see savings of as much as $1175 per year.

There are three different charging systems for DC fast chargers and the Volta press release does not say which type of system is going to be supported.  I reached out to Volta and Larissa Bundziak informed me that they are going to support CCS only.  She added, "Volta believes that there should be one open DC fast charging standard and we are building the network that we believe will best meet the needs of the electric vehicle population over a longer time horizon".

Applying a time limit on free charging may help get over the current problem with Volta chargers; charger hogs.  Most companies that have Volta chargers installed have time limits on how long someone can stay at a site but this is rarely enforced.  As a result people often leave their cars parked at the chargers for long periods of time making it harder to find an available charging station.  Charging by the half hour after a free 30 minute charge may be an incentive for people to move their cars.  Unfortunately it might also be an incentive for people to leave the premises.  The Free DC fast charging will probably work well at grocery stores and here in the LA basin many Whole Foods stored provide Volta chargers.  I find that 20 minutes is adequate for grocery shopping so the DC charger may keep people in the store for an extra 10 minutes and that is likely to mean they spend more.   

For Shopping Malls just 30 minute of free charge may mean that customers leave the Mall earlier than they would have and this could actually mean lost revenue for the Mall so I think Volta will need to be selective in where they place these chargers.  The initial locations will be targeted at bringing in affluent EV drivers to local businesses like grocery stores and coffee houses.  Their first DC Fast charger will be up and running in Norwalk, CT later this month after which they will be rolled out in large metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC. 

Volta plans on installing about 150 fast charging stations over the next year. 

I like to use Volta chargers and try to support businesses that have these chargers installed.  I've always thought that DC fast chargers would be the best option for grocery store locations so I will be watching closely to see where they are installed once they come to the Los Angeles area.  I hope that Volta continues to have success with their business model.

Sunday September 15, 2019 – Subaru Crosstrek PHEV – Now that the California Air Resources Board has extended the ZEV mandate to include medium sized manufacturers we have been seeing a scramble to get plug-in cars on the road.  One of the latest of these is Subaru who started selling a plug-in version of the Crosstrek in February.  Like Chrysler Subaru has chosen to call this the Crosstrek Hybrid with no reference to it being a plug-in in the name.

The Crosstrek plug-in was developed jointly with Toyota and makes extensive use of the Prius Prime hybrid drive system but borrows the 2 motor drive system from the Camry Hybrid.  The powertrain is based around Subaru's Boxer 2 liter flat four engine tuned to allow the electric motors to do the heavy lifting at lower speeds.  This couples to wheels though the Camry 2 electric motor transmission which can also be driven by the Prius Prime EV components.

The electrical side is powered by an 8.8 KWh battery pack that is capable of propelling the Subaru Crosstrek for an EPA rated 17 miles on a charge.  The batteries take about 5 hours to charge with the supplied 110V charging cable but can charge in about 2 hours at a level 2 charger.  Like all Subaru the Crosstrek PHEV is four-wheel drive and this prevents the battery pack from being placed under the rear seat as it is in the Prius Prime.  Instead the pack is in the floor of the hatch reducing overall cargo space by quite a bit. 

The SUV is rated at a combined fuel economy of 35 mpg when running in hybrid mode.  Since this is a plug-in Hybrid it is also rated at 90 mgpe by the EPA.  The car is capable of running in all electric mode up to 65mph although the motor will kick in under heavy acceleration.  The 13.2 gallon fuel tank provides a range of 480 miles.

The Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid offers 15.9 cubic feet of cargo space which boosts up to 43.1 cubic feet when the rear seats are folded down.  While this is less than the cargo capacity of the standard Crosstrek it should still provide adequate room for most people.

The Crosstrek Hybrid starts at a base price of $34,995.  For those who can make use of it there is a Federal tax credit of $4,500 and there may also be state credits too.  For example California offers a rebate of $1,500.  Subaru will stock Crosstrek Hybrids in states that have adopted California's ZEV Mandate: Californai, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.  A search of local Subaru dealers around LA showed that they had cars on their lot.  The 4 dealers I checked each had at least 7 cars in their inventory.

Subaru fans now have a plug-in option while keeping in the Subaru family ove vehicles.  It offers full four wheel drive, all the safety features that people have come to expect from Subaru, and true off-road capability.  With just 17 miles of all electric range this car is a little bit behind the competition.  I expect that Subaru will only stock these SUVs in volumes that are required to meet the ZEV mandate so sales will be quite low. 

Sunday August 25, 2019 – Fleet Sales to Drive EV Growth – Back in 2006 there wasn't much available on the EV Market.  The EV1, RAV4-EV and EV+ were gone and the Tesla Roadster was still a couple of years away from production.  That was the year that ZAP introduced the Xebra.  Shortly after the launch of the Xebra, I met with ZAP CEO Gary Star at their headquarters in Santa Rosa, CA.  Gary said something to me that day which really struck in my mind.

"The best way that local governments can help the EV industry is to go out and buy electric vehicles for their Fleets".

During the earlier push for EV Sales this had helped boost sales to some extent.  Sales of course were very limited as supply was almost non-existent and some vehicles, most notably the RAV4-EV and Nissan Altra, were sold only to fleets for most of their life.  The RAV4-EV was eventually sold to the public in 2002-2003 at the very end of the car's production run.  Cities like Beverly Hills and Newport Beach each had 10 electric vehicles in their fleet while Santa Monica and Los Angeles had quite a few more.  The other big buyer of electric cars was the Utilities like LADWP, Southern California Edison, SMUD in Sacramento and SDGE in San Diego. 

After these cars were dropped from sale many of these cars, which were pretty much all leased, were returned to the manufacture and often sent to the crusher.  Both Honda and Toyota allowed lessees to renew the lease on the cars for a time and many of the cities and utilities did that for a while, but eventually they were returned to the manufacturer who either disposed of the vehicles or used them for parts.

Now many of the cities have a very limited number of EVs in their fleet.  For example I thing Beverly Hills has one or two NEVs in their fleet but no other plug-in cars.  Even though they have some Ford C-Max vehicles in the fleet they are the regular hybrid not the Energi plug-in Version.  Santa Monica is doing much better.  According to an article in the Santa Monica Daily Press the city has 120 EVs in their fleet which represents about 15% of their vehicles.

Santa Monica joined a group of other cities last year to form the Climate Mayors EV Purchasing Collaborative.  The object of this collaborative is to get together to create discounts for large group purchases.  The original 21 cities agreed to purchase a total of 376 vehicles for their fleets over the first year.  Other cities have joined this group which now numbers 142 cities nationwide with a total commitment to purchase 2,139 plug-in vehicles.  Beverly Hills is one of the cities that recently signed into the agreement so maybe we will start to see plug-in cars enhancing their fleet.

By moving their fleets to electric vehicles these cities are helping fight global warming while improving air quality.  To get an understanding of how much impact this can have the Federal and Local government fleets add up to about 890,000 vehicles with another 177,000 vehicles owned and operated by the US Military.  

It's still a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately 269 million vehicles in the US but when you consider that only 361,307 plug-in cars were sold in the US last year it is clear that by adding plug-in cars to their fleet city and state governments can make a significant impact on the number of electric vehicles being currently being sold by the automobile manufacturers.

Fleet sales can have a big impact on the number of vehicles that are being sold each month.  I applaud the cities who  have already signed on to the Climate Mayors EV Purchasing Collaborative and hope that we see many more cities sign on in the near future. 

Sunday August 11, 2019 – CO2 Emissions from Jet Fuel - There has been much in the press recently about the Google Camp event held in Sicily at the end of July which, this year, was addressing Climate Change.  The big issue that was being banded about was that many of the politicians and celebrities attending the meeting flew there on private jets or arrived aboard luxury Yachts, and were chauffeured around town in Maserati SUVs making their carbon footprint huge.

The articles have a point although in all the articles I read on this nobody bothered to ask any of the attendees if they had done anything to offset their carbon usage.  Leonardo DiCaprio, who is often a whipping boy for the people labeling advocates for combating global warming as hypocrites, plants trees to offset the carbon pollution he generates..  Over its life a tree will sequester about 10 tons of CO2, more than enough to offset the trip to Google Camp.

Most people express the idea that travel by plane is very bad for global warming and while flying alone in a private jet is likely to generate large amounts of carbon dioxide,  I thought I would try and get an idea of just how bad it was to fly rather than drive.  I have to admit that this is not a rigorous scientific study so I might have this all wrong but I think this will give me a pretty good idea of the difference between the two forms of travel.

To figure this out I used the average car in the US which gets around 30mpg.  I then compared it to the most popular commercial jet on the market, the Boeing 737 while traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  The assumptions are that burning a gallon of gas generates 19.64 lbs of CO2 while burning a gallon of jet fuel generates 21.1 lbs of CO2.  The road trip from  Los Angeles to San Francisco is 400 miles so a car doing 30 mpg will burn 13.3 gallons of gas for the trip.  This will generate 261.2 lbs of CO2.  A bit of research told me that the Boeing 737 burns 750 Gallons per hour.  Assuming a 1 hour flight time to San Francisco (it's actually a little less) then the trip would create 15,825 lbs of CO2.  Clearly the jet creates a lot more CO2 than the car.

But wait, the jet also carries more passengers than the car.  A Boeing 737 carries between about 130 and 140 passengers depending on seat configuration.  If I assume that the plane carries 130 passengers and there are 10 unfilled seats then the CO2 per passenger is 131.9 lbs per passenger.  That's actually quite a bit less per passenger than the 30mpg car with just the driver.  It actually is pretty close to the amount of CO2 produced per passenger if the car has 2 passengers.

Based on that analysis, if you  are going to travel from LA to San Francisco and you are driving a 30 mpg car alone, from a CO2 perspective you are probably better to fly rather than drive as long as the plane has at least 60 passengers. 

Of course this is just one case and if you travel by private jet in a Boeing 747 then you are going to produce a hell of a lot more CO2 than if you drove.  The actual amount of CO2 you will use will also vary.  The fuel consumption of the jet will be affected by things like how many passengers and how much  baggage they have, as will the mpg of the car.  Both might also be effected by delays.  For example the airplane sitting on the tarmac waiting for a takeoff spot while the engines are running, or the car getting stuck in stop and go traffic for an hour or being diverted because of road repair.

There are some things that can help this along.  If you are driving and electric car like a Tesla then the amount of CO2 generated will depend on the energy mix and here in California we are now getting to have almost no coal generation and lots of renewables. In the air, United Airlines now uses a blend of 30% biofuel in the jets used for the LA to San Francisco run which reduces the net CO2 produced by about one third.

So, how bad is it really to fly as opposed to travelling in alternative ways.  It will always be a lower carbon footprint not to travel, but in general, it is better to use public transportation where possible.  Even flying might prove to be a better choice if you  are travelling alone.

Sunday August 4, 2019 – Earth Overshoot Day – July 29 has been declared Earth Overshoot Day by the Global Footprint Network.  It represents the day when the people of Earth have consumed a year's worth of resources.  It is used to illustrate that the world is still burning resources faster than they can be renewed meaning that if we continue down this path we will eventually run out of natural resources.

Like everything else environmental not everyone agrees with the idea that we have overshot our annual allowance of resources.  In 2013 Michael Shellenberger produced an article in the journal PLOS Biology that was intended to debunk the whole thing.  In a recent article in Forbes magazine he called the Global Footprint Network report "Pseudoscientific Nonsense". 

Mr. Shellenberger is not a paid hack of the fossil fuel industry, he actually has pretty strong environmental qualifications including being named a "hero of the environment" by Time Magazine and winning the 2008 Green Book Award, so his statement does carry  some weight.  Having said that unlike most environmentalists he is squarely in the "we need nuclear energy to save us" camp. 

Personally, while setting World Overshoot Day as a specific date seems like a bit of a stretch, I think that we are definitely using resources faster than we should be.  The obvious one if Fossil fuels which we are using in huge quantities that will take many many thousand of years to replace.  Food is a different question, we keep producing enough food to more or less feed the worlds population, and this more or less stays in equilibrium, but to keep this equilibrium we have to cut down more and more forest to make room for a constantly growing need for arable land.  This means we have less forest for wood and as a major CO2 sink.  They we have to worry about fish populations.  We know we have overfished several populations and are now having to find new varieties or move to different sources of protean which again puts pressure on land use.  Water is another thing that we are using up.  We have massive supplies of water in the ocean but it isn't drinkable.  Meanwhile water tables are falling all over the world putting pressure on other sources of clean water..

The truth of the matter here is that the world population is just getting too big for the planet.  We are gradually displacing other species but we can only grow our population so much before we totally overstretch our resources.  In the end we have to look at reducing birth rates and we have found that as prosperity increases birth rates fall. For example, according to the 2019 World Population Review, the US has a birth rate of 1.776 children per woman while our neighbor to the south, Mexico, has a birth rate of 2.14 children per woman.  Basically the poorest countries, especially those from Africa, have much higher birth rates than the developed nations.  Improving living standards among these countries would greatly help in keeping the world's population in check.  Spending tax dollars to improve the living conditions in these countries would be a much better solution to the current immigration situation in the USA that using the dollars to build a wall.

There is another issue with population though.  The Capitalist system that covers much of the worlds population relies on growth.  Growth requires an ever enlarging population pool to add customers needed to keep companies growing year over year.  This too is not sustainable as we will eventually run out of planet. 

Energy, of course, is at the heart of building wealth in a country.  A lot of the very poor nations actually have abundant sunshine but lack fossil fuels.  Expanding energy availability using renewable energy sources like Wind, solar, hydro, and geo-thermal energy could easily be used to get energy poor nations to be energy rich nations.  We should then see growing opportunities in these countries and a decline in birth rates bringing rapid population growth to a crawl.  Nuclear energy sounds like a good replacement for fossil fuels to many as it produces no CO2.  The bit problem is that what it does produce is waste products that will be radioactive for thousands of years and need  to  be disposed of very carefully.  It is inevitable that we will eventually have an accident trying to dispose of this toxic waste which will be very detrimental to our environment.

It is clear to me that we are outgrowing Planet Earth.  We either have to find a way to stop squandering precious resources or we have to find a new planet to colonize.  Planetary colonization on the required scale is well beyond our current technology so we need to find a way to live with what we have and that means making better use of the resources we have available.

Sunday July 28, 2019 – 2019 Independence Day EV Count – This year for Independence day Plug-in America set a challenge to go out and do a count of Plug-in Vehicles around your neighborhood.  The results were submitted to the Plug-in America web site and then tallied to try and get an estimate of the percentage of vehicles that were plug-in by state.. 

This was not, of course, a scientific study and Plug-in America said so up front.  The idea was to create a fun thing to do on Independence day.  The process they suggested was to go out and count 100 cars noting which of these were ICE cars, which were BEV, and which were plug-in hybrid.  It was OK to count more or less cars than 100 but Plug-in America only used those counts that had 100 or more cars in their tabulation.

In total 13,750 cars were counted of which 569 were electric.  If these numbers were scientifically accurate then 4.14% of cars in the US would be electric right now with 2.45% of these being BEV and the other 1.69% being Plug-in Hybrid.  When broken down by state the one with the highest percentage of electric cars was, not surprisingly, California.  California was found to have 8.16% of cars on the road being electric..   

Living in California I thought I would put this to the test so I took a walk around the parking lot at work and counted 100 cars.  I found 90 ICE vehicles, 1 Fuel Cell vehicle (Toyota Mirai), 8 BEVs (1 Focus EV, 1 Leaf, 1 Tesla Model X, 1 Tesla Model S, and 5 Tesla Model 3), and 1 Plug-in Hybrid (Clarity PHEV).  For fairness I didn't count my own Prius Plug-in.  That gives me 9% of cars are Plug-in which is pretty closely with the results Plug-in America got.

Plug-in America has said that this isn't a scientific study although I do seem to have confirmed the results.  Here is what makes it less than scientific.  First the samples are not random as they are taken by followers of Plug-in America who are more likely to live in locations where Plug-in cars are popular.  The results of the study showed counts for only 19 states out of 50 which is not very representational of the US as a whole.  People also may not have used the same method to count cars.  For example it would be more difficult to spot some plug-in hybrids and BEVs if you stood on a street corner and watched cars go by instead of walking around the neighborhood or, like I did, a parking lot.  For example it is very difficult to spot the difference between the Honda Clarity PHEV, Electric, or Fuel Cell versions unless you can read the tiny sticker on the rear..

I did come across some interesting things with the count. 

Three ZEV states, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont were not included in the survey.  This means that either nobody sent in entries from these three states, or the entries that they  sent in included less than 100 cars. Plug-in America only included counts that had at least 100 cars.

The second highest percentage of cars counted was in Illinois which came in with 7.5% of the count being Plug-in cars.  While Illinois is not a ZEV state several models that are not available in all states have  recently become available in Illinois.  That includes the Toyota Prius Prime and the Honda Clarity PHEV.  Some BEVs like the Fiat 500e and Honda Clarity Electric are not available there, and electrics from both Kia and Hyundai need to be special ordered.

Two ZEV states, Massachusetts, and Maine, along with Delaware, had only BEV counted, and showed no plug-in hybrids.  I'm not sure if this is related to the difficulty of identifying some plug-in hybrids, or that they are just not selling them in numbers in these states.  I suspect that both the Volt and the BMW i3 REx have been counted as BEV in some cases.  The i3 REx is also a car that is difficult to distinguish from the BEV version unless you note the gas filler at on the front driver's side fender.  People also have a tendency to call the Volt an EV even though it is actually a PHEV.

Plug-in America plans to run the Plug-in count annually on the 4th of July and I hope we can get more participation, especially from states not covered in this year's survey.  While it will never be a scientific survey, the more participants they get and the larger the coverage area, the closer it will approximate to the real world.  If you didn't participate this year, think about joining next year, it's actually fun to do.

Sunday July 21, 2019 – Envision Solar Update – Back in 2015 I wrote about a San Diego company called Envision Solar that was making a stand alone solar powered EV charger that could be installed in minutes.  I am happy to report that the company is doing well and has been installing solar powered chargers across the nation.

Long time EV enthusiasts, like the ones who originally formed Plug-in America, have been talking about the benefits of PV plus EV for as long as the EV movement has been around.  Since the average car can't carry enough solar panels for more that about 5 miles per day and those prototypes that can are usually designed to be so light that they can't meet the stringent crash test requirements here in the USA.  The solution has always been to put solar panels on the roof of your house and charge the car overnight using energy previously stored in the grid.

For public charging infrastructure the solution has always been to put solar panels on the roof of the parking structure.  I just charged on one such facility today in Santa Monica.  This works well but is also grid tied.  The EV ARC from Envision Solar gets around this by adding a battery backup which allows the module to function off-grid. 

Regular readers of my blog will also note that I am a big fan of the Volta model which provided free charging funded by advertising revenue generated by a charger unit that acts like a billboard. Envision Solar has now made this an option on the EV ARC too although  it is accomplished by having a digital video screen as part of the charging station set-up.  This could be used in shopping centers to advertise the various businesses that make up the mall, or at sports stadiums to promote the local team or advertise team merchandise.

The stations themselves carry enough solar panels to generate a maximum of 4.3 KW and with battery backup it can support as much as 225 miles of EV range per day.  The stations have a system that tracks the sun to get maximum power generation.

There is a downside to this though, the system only charges at a maximum of 4.2 KW and is more likely to be charging at 3.3 to 3.8 KW.  This is fine if you want to charge a Volt which typically has a 3.3 KW charger, or my Prius Plug-in which only charges at a maximum of 2.3 KW.  For someone with a Chevy Bolt, which charges at a maximum of 7.2KW, charging at one of these stations would be half speed.

The upside of course is that these chargers can be installed relatively cheaply since they are not grid connected so there is no need for trenching and cabling to bring power to the chargers.  That also means they can be installed in minutes and cost very little to run after the station has been purchased.  There is also no need to site these near existing power lines, they can be dumped in the far corner of the parking lot where the likelihood of them being iced is less.  Envision Solar has already installed units in two remote rest areas here in California.  Lastly these stations are not going to impact the maximum power usage of the location as a grid connected entry might.  That has a direct impact on power costs as most power companies set power factors based on maximum usage.  Since commercial electricity rates are based on maximum power consumption the installation of grid connected chargers can actually cause rates to increase but this is avoided with the EV ARC charging stations.   

One of these units was recently installed at Santa Monica Airport and more are on their way so I am looking forward to checking these out to see how well they really work. 

Sunday Jun 14, 2019– 2019 Q2 Sales Overview – The second quarter of 2019 showed a marked increase in plug-in car sales over the second quarter of 2018.  June ranked as the forth highest month of all time for electric vehicles, led once again by Tesla.

The second quarter of 2019 saw total sales of 87,441 vehicles which was considerably better than the 68,959 sold in the Second quarter of the previous year.  Once again the big seller was the Tesla Model 3, selling45,225 cars, which made up over half of all plug-in car sales for the quarter. Tesla also sold 3,600 Model S and 2,725 Model X for a total of 51,550 cars or just short of 60% of all plug-in car sales.

Sales showed month over month improvements over the same month in 2018 for every month in the quarter but this was mostly driven by Tesla plus a larger selection of models from other manufacturers that are beginning to appear in dealerships. 

Plug-in hybrid sales appear to be loosing ground a little as long range BEVs become more available.  Only the longer range Plug-in hybrids continue to sell well with both the Prius Prime and Honda Clarity PHEV leading the way.  The Prius Prime outsold the Clarity  PHEV in the quarter due to  a sales surge in March, after narrowly loosing the first two months.  Toyota Sold 4,457 plug-in hybrids in the quarter verses 2,827 Clarity PHEVs.  The Clarity PHEV sales were down about 800 from the previous quarter.  Sales of the Kia Niro PHEV and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV were flat as was sales of the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV.  All other PHEV models are selling in relatively small numbers now.

The new crop of 200 mile plus range EVs does not seem to have impacted Tesla.  With the availability of the longer range version of the Nissan Leaf sales appear to have picked up, with 3,323 cars sold during the quarter.  Sales of the Chevy Bolt also did well with 3,965 cars sold or the quarter.  The Audi e-Tron just went on sale this quarter and notched-up an impressive 1,835 cars for the period.  This was surprisingly better than the Jaguar i-Pace who's sales remained flat at around 230 cars per month..

Despite being out of production Chevy Dealers managed to find 1,146 Volts to sell.  Inventory now looks to be getting pretty slim on the ground so anyone who wants a Chevy Volt should grab one while they can.  The only alternative with close to the Chevy Volt's range is the Honda Clarity PHEV with 46 miles of all electric range.

Besides the Volt, there are several other cars that have been discontinued recently and sales of the Ford C-Max Energi and Ford Focus EV have both disappeared this year. It also looks like the A4 e-Tron and the Cadillac CT6 PHEV, with quarterly sales of just 7 and 4 cars respectively, are at the end of their life cycle.  

Sales of Fuel Cell Vehicles improved a little during the second quarter with Toyota selling 606 Mirai, Honda selling just 28 Clarity FCEVs, and Hyundai selling 60 Nexo FCEV.

Sales of electric vehicles seem to be growing slowly and appear to be constrained mostly by a shortfall in supply.  Tesla continues to dominate the market and I expect that domination to expand once the Mode Y becomes available. Sales of the other long range EVs has continued to improve but still need a real kick to get close to Tesla car sales.

Sunday Jun 30, 2019 – Toyota Accelerates EV Strategy - Earlier this month Shigeki Terashi, Executive VP at Toyota gave a presentation called "Aiming to Popularize BEVs" where he showed images of electric vehicles concepts and said that Toyota was accelerating their electric vehicle plans by 5 years.

Toyota has been the leader in hybrid vehicles and have proved, with cars like the original RAV4-EV, that they can make excellent BEVs, but, apart from a brief spell selling a Tesla powered version of their current RAV4 model, they have been stuck making low volume plug-in hybrid versions of the Prius.  The Prius Prime has proved to be one of the most popular plug-in hybrids since its release even though Toyota has only sold it in the handful of states that follow the California ZEV mandate.

In fact Toyota has been openly hostile to pure electric vehicles, putting their money into Fuel Cell vehicle development.  A few years ago they received a lot of flack for advertisements for the Lexus Hybrids that emphasized that you never needed to plug them in.  Recent ads for the new Corolla hybrid have also been hyping the rather miss-leading claim that they charge themselves.  So what brought about this switch.

Well, there really hasn't been a switch.  In his talk Mr. Terashi said, "We haven’t changed our policy towards battery EVs. We are not shifting our focus to prioritize battery EVs, nor are we abandoning our FCV strategy."  So even though he said that he expects half of Toyota's global sales to be Electrified Vehicles by 2025 the implication is that regular hybrids and fuel cell vehicles will make up a good portion of this 50%.

Some of the good news is that Toyota will be working with Subaru to develop an all electric SUV using a common platform that will be sold by both companies.  Toyota also  plans to launch a small BEV in Japan next year but this will probably be a limited speed limited range BEV and will not make it to the USA.

It also seems that Toyota is building new relationships with battery manufacturers, including China's BYD, to increase battery supply.  This is also good news as it may mean additional BEVs becoming available going forward. 

So what triggered this move to accelerate electric vehicle production?  I think one issue was the recent explosion at a hydrogen fueling station in Norway which caused Toyota to stop sales of fuel cell vehicles in that country.  Another hint came from Mr. Terashi's talk where he announced that Toyota would be revealing a solid state battery some time next year.  Solid state batteries are considered to be the next big step in battery technology and several companies, including Fisker and Tesla (the reason they bought Maxwell Technologies) are working on this type of battery.  If Toyota can get ahead of the crowd with solid state batteries they could become a leading supplies of fully electric vehicles.  Another reason is that as fuel standards become tighter in both Europe and China, Toyota needs more electrification to compete in these markets, and Fuel Cell Vehicles are just not going to cut it right now.

It still remains to be seen how committed Toyota is to producing BEVs but the market is pushing them in that direction and they will either have to come up with competitive electric cars or continue to loose market share.  It should be noted that Toyota is loosing hybrid drivers who are moving from the Prius to Tesla's fully electric vehicles.  We know Toyota has the technology to  produce excellent electric cars and I hope that they will step up and start producing them.

Sunday June 16, 2019 – Charging Speed – One question that I get asked all the time is about how long it takes to charge an EV.  There appears to be a lot of confusion around this issue and I have found that giving some examples can give people a pretty good idea of how much time they would need to spend at a charger to complete their trip.

Back in 2012 when the Tesla model S was first starting to ship I talked to a doctor who had just placed his order.  He was quite happy because the car could charge in about 40 minutes.  The problem is he thought that it could do that with the supplied 110V charger, but this sort of speed requires a visit to a Tesla supercharger, and even then you would drive away at only  an 80% charge. 

There are three levels of chargers known as L1, L2 and L3.  Technically these are not chargers but Electric Vehicle Servicing Equipment (EVSE), the actual charger is installed in the car.  The EVSE is there to provide the correct level of current to the onboard charger in a safe manner. 

L1 is the slowest charge level and is accomplished by using a standard 110V outlet.  All plug-in cars currently sold in the US come with a 110V charger as standard.  L2 is the next quickest charger and this uses a 220V supply to provide charging power up to  around 7.2 KW.  The actual amount that an L2 charger can provide varies depending on the manufacturer so they may not be able to charge at full rate the car's charger can accommodate.  L3 charging is also sometimes known as DC fast charging.  In this case the charger supplies DC current to the car at various rates.  The higher the current the faster the car will charge.

For some people L1 charging is quite adequate for their daily needs.  A 110V outlet is capable of providing up to 1.65 KW of power but that means running the charger at maximum current which, over a long period of time may lead to a tripped breaker.  Typically the EVSE is going to limit current to about 12 amps which will provide about 1.3KW of power.  Let's say you plug in a car at 10pm and leave it charging until 7am, that's 9 hours of charging each night which will give you 11.7 KWh of power into the battery.  There will be some losses in the system so lets say we get 11KWh of actually charge into the battery.  Depending on the driver, a car will typically get between 3 and 4 miles per KWh.  As they say on the EPA sticker your mileage may vary.  At the low end the car will get 33 miles of range from this charge and at the high end it will get 44 miles of range. 

If you have a typical 32 mile round trip commute you can just make it with a 9 hour charge but if you are only getting 3 miles of range per KWh then you are going to be cutting it very fine.  You could easily build a safety margin by plugging in earlier.  Plugging in at 8pm would add another 2.6KW to the battery which would be good for about 8 more miles of range.  If you get closer to 4 miles per KWh then you could easily manage the 32 mile round trip. 

Level 2 charging is a bit more complicated since different EVs offer different charging speeds and some EVSEs do not pass the maximum current that the internal charger on some cars can take.  Level 2 chargers will typically supply either 32 amps of 40 amps although some of the cheaper chargers are limited to 16 amps.  A 16 amp charge can only provide about 3.5 KW of power.  This is good for most plug-in hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt, that have an internal charger that runs at 3.3 KW.  At this rate the car can get about 29 KWh into the battery in 9 hours.  This is more than enough to top up any plug-in hybrid and should offer between 87 and 116 miles of range in something like a Chevy Bolt.  Most public charging stations offer 6.6 KW of charge capacity, but keep in mind that something like a Chevy Volt with a 3.3 KW charger is still only going to charge at 3.3 KW.  Some newer chargers are now able to charge at up to 7.2 KW and more recent EVs such as the Chevy Bolt and Honda Clarity are able to support this rate of charging.  At 7.2 KW a Chevy Bolt will fully charge in 9.3 hours and offers an EPA estimated range of 238 miles on a charge. 

Level 3 charging, also known as DC fast charging is usually offered as an option on most fully electic cars but is usually not available on Plug-in Hybrids.  DC fast charging is best used for longer trips that go beyond the range of the car.  For example if you want to drive the 400 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles you would not be able to do that on a single charge in any car currently on the market.  While L1 and L2 charging are compatible for all manufacturers except Tesla, following the SAE J1772 standard, there are 3 different standards for L3 charging.

The Japanese manufacturers use the CHAdeMO standard that requires a separate charge port to be installed in the car.  Most European and American manufacturers use the SAE J1772 standard which does not require a separate charge port but it should be noted that the port which supports both L2 and L3 charging is different from the one that supports just L2 charging.  Korean manufactures originally supported the CHAdeMO standard but have recently moved to the SAE J1772 standard.  As with L1  and L3 charging Tesla has a proprietary system know as the supercharger.

The purpose of the charger in the car is to take AC current at a given voltage and turn it into DC current which is required to charge the batteries.  With L2 charging the car is supplied with high current DC which can be applied directly to the batteries allowing them to charge much quicker than with an AC feed.  The amount of current supplied by the DC fast charger is dependent on the specific equipment and can have a good deal of variation.  Typically DC fast charging is aimed at charging the car to about 80% of capacity in 40 minutes to 1 hour.  The current rate of DC fast charging varies depending on the state of charge of the batteries and once the battery gets above 80% the last 20% of charge is typically about the same as it would take on an L3 charger.  Fast chargers are useful if you are on a road trip as you can get pretty good range in the time it takes to get a meal and take a bathroom break.   DC Fast Charging is rough on the batteries so it is not recommended for daily charging.

Here is something else to remember, most charge times given by the manufacturer are when charging from 0 to full.  If you manage the EV correctly you will never be charging from empty.  Overnight charging means that you will have sufficient charge the following day to do your daily driving, and have some left over at the end of the day.  With modern Lithium-ion batteries you don't need to charge the battery to 100% every time you charge and you don't need to wait until the battery is empty to start charging.  It's not a bad idea to fully charge the batteries once in a while as the finish charge is needed to keep the batteries at around the same voltage, known as leveling, but it is actually a bad idea to fully discharge the batteries.

Selecting the correct charging level for your needs is key to successful adoption of an EV into your family fleet.  Once you have become familiar with  how long it takes to charge and how many miles you get per KWh you will find that the EV becomes the car of choice within the fleet for any trip that the EV will accommodate.  Range anxiety becomes a thing of the past and you will really enjoy driving electric.

Sunday Jun 9, 2019 – Workplace Charging Means More EVs – It has been suggested that the availability of workplace charging is a big driver for the adoption of electric vehicles.  This has been proven out over the years and it has also been shown that the availability of workplace charging is also effective in staff retention. 

In 2016 Southern California Edison began a pilot program called Charge Ready which provided incentives to install EV charging infrastructure.  This pilot program has installed over 1,000 chargers in workplaces, multi-unit dwellings, fleet locations, and other destinations where people tend to stay for an extended period of time.  The program has been geared toward disadvantaged communities and even in these location they have seen a rise in the number of electric vehicles being used by employees as a direct result of having charging available at work.

Although it is mostly something for the history books these days, range anxiety is still something that worries prospective first time EV buyers.  It's not until they start to use an EV, or have friends who use an EV, that they realize that an electric vehicle can work for them.  Having a place to charge at work is a big help, particularly for those who live in multi-unit apartments or condos and may not have access to overnight charging.  Having a charger at work that they can rely on means that range anxiety is totally banished.   

For the employer making EV charging available at work not only extends their green image, it also helps to retain staff.  If you are relying on workplace charging then you are less likely to want to move especially if the prospective new employer does not have charging at their site.

The question then becomes how much do you charge to charge.  During the early adopter phase it was common for charging to be free.  This was a great incentive to get people into an electric car.  There are a couple of issues that have surfaced with free EV charging.  The first is that it tends to shift charging from overnight to in the middle of the day, especially in the morning hours.  The second is that free charging tends to mean that the chargers get overused and people who may need to charge cannot find available charging stations because other drivers are opportunity charging (charging when they don't need to because it is free).

I really think that the first problem is a transitory.  The grid is moving from fossil fuels, which basically waste electricity produced overnight if there is not enough demand, to renewable energy which may be more available in midday than at night especially if there is a high level of solar involved.  Feeding the EV charger from solar panels more or less eliminates this issue.

Plug-in America recommends that a business charges a little over local home rates.  For example if the local rate is 15 cents per KWh then charge 20 cents per KWh which allows those that need it to get fuel at a lower cost than gas but still makes it cheaper for people to charge overnight at home.

The bigger problem is the overutilization of chargers.  I've see this first hand on a regular basis.  You just have to visit any site that uses Volta chargers.  You cannot really on these chargers being available.  In some locations, over multiple visits, I have yet to find an available charger.  At other locations I do occasionally find a charger free but it is sheer luck.

I've written many times about the chargers in Beverly Hills.  When they first rolled out the chargers they were free and almost always available.  As the number of Plug-in cars on the road increased it became harder and harder to find available chargers.  That being said, part of the problem was that the excellent rules set up by the City were not being enforced.  I would find situations where stations were blocked because EVs used them as convenient parking spaces, or vehicles would hog the chargers for hours even though they were fully charged.  In the end the City did two things, first it banned PHEVs from charging and second it imposed a fee of 25 cents per KWh and a station charge of $6 an hour after 2 hours.  Utilization dropped to almost nothing.

Eventually then found that the ban on PHEVs was illegal in some situations and allowed them to charge again.  They left the fee structure in place and as this was quite reasonable they now have pretty good utilization but it is not that hard to find an available charging station.  They still have the issue of not enforcing the rules so chargers do get blocked, mostly by EVs parking but not charging, but also with the occasional ICE vehicle.

Once chargers become over-subscribed, workers have to go out and move their cars so that other people can get enough charge for the drive home.  This can cause enough loss of productivity that it will be by far the highest cost for workplace charging.  Plug-in America suggests a solution, 110V (Level 1) charging.  In a typical 9 hour day an EV can get between 35 and 47 miles of range using Level 1 charging which is enough for most people.  110V outlets are relatively cheap to install and typically don't take any management.  A simple flat fee amount per pay check could be made for the use of these outlets.

It is clear to me that we need to move toward electric vehicles for transportation and renewable energy to fuel the grid if we are to stave off the worst effects of climate change.  Workplace charging has been shown to help fuel the growth of electric car adoption and should be aggressively rolled out especially where new offices and factories are being constructed.  Combining this with solar helps even more, especially in places like Southern  California where we have an abundance of sunlight.

Sunday May 26, 2019 – New Idea to Fight Global Warming  – Last Sunday I was at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles standing by the pond and watch methane bubbling to the surface. Methane is a major greenhouse gas and much more potent than carbon dioxide so it was with great interest that I read some articles later in the week which proposed changing methane to carbon dioxide as a way to combat global warming.

The idea of this new paper, published in Nature Sustainability, suggests that since Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps 84 times as much heat as CO2 it might be a good idea to convert the Methane into CO2 rather than let it break down naturally over time.

The problem I see is that Methane only has a life of about 10 years before it breaks down into CO2 anyway so the conversion of atmospheric Methane is probably not going to buy us too much.  A better solution would be to trap the methane at its source and convert it to CO2 by burning it and offsetting the burning of Methane that has been extracted from deep underground. 

Methane is produced from many natural causes not just the gas bubbling up from tar pits like the one in Los Angeles that I visited last week.  One large source of methane is decomposing waste from landfills.  There has been some effort to capture this gas and burn it but it is only a small amount of the gas being produced.  Expanding this effort to landfills worldwide would greatly reduce the amount of methane being pushed into the atmosphere.

According to Southern California Gas, based on a study from 2012, the amount of Methane being released from Landfills amounts to 21% of methane emissions.  Another 4% comes from waste water.  Trapping this gas and using it to offset burning fossil fuels would account for 25% of total methane emissions, not an insignificant amount.

This same study indicates that 9% of emissions come from the production and transportation of fossil fuels.  Given the huge gas leak we recently had at the at the Southern California gas storage facility at Aliso Canyon, CA which dumped a staggering 97,200 tonnes of Methane into the atmosphere the 9% number seems low but sine the study numbers were from before the gas leak I assume that was a rare occurrence and we are mostly OK.   

The fossil fuel industry already gets rid of a lot of the methane by simply burning it off thus turning it into CO2 as the Stamford study recommends.  However, it would be much better to leave it sequestered in the ground rather than flaring it off.

Other sources for methane being leaked into the atmosphere include manure management (28%) and enteric fermentation (31%) or fermentation of plant material in an animals gut, mostly from cows.  Methane from manure management can usually be captured and stored.  Toyota is currently working on ways to convert methane from a sewage plant into Hydrogen to power their Mira fuel cell vehicles.

The biggest advantage I see in converting atmospheric methane to CO2 would be in the case where warming created a massive release of methane from methane hydrate.  It is believed by many scientists that such an event happened at the end of the Permian, leading to the largest mass extinction in geologic time.  Such an event would be catastrophic for the human race but being able to slow down the buildup of methane in the atmosphere might provide enough time for humans to adapt their environment.

The best answer of course is to stop using fossil fuels because even if we implement such things as turning methane into carbon dioxide or seeding the atmosphere with particulates that reflect back sunlight, we are only just extending the inevitable. 

Sunday May 19, 2019 – Maxwell bought by Tesla – On Thursday a press release from Tesla said that it had completed the acquisition of capacitor and battery company Maxwell Technologies.  This acquisition opens up a whole new path for battery improvement for Tesla.

Maxwell has been the industry leader in Ultracapacitors for a long time now and this technology has always promised to greatly improve battery technology.  Maxwell has already developed dry electrode technology that has demonstrated an energy density of 300 Wh/Kg which is much better than the 207 Wh/Kg of the current batteries in the Model 3.  Maxwell has also said that it has identified a path to 500 Wh/Kg and if they can achieve this then BEVs will not only be cheaper to operate but also cheaper to buy than conventional ICE cars. 

There are lots of other benefits from batteries based on dry electrode technology besides being able to store large amounts of energy.  The most important being that it doesn't leak the energy like it would in a conventional capacitor so it can function as a battery for longer term storage.  Another advantage is that these batteries would sustain a much better cycle performance than a conventional lithium ion battery, effectively meaning that the battery would last the life of the car without significant capacity loss.

Batteries such as this would also be capable of taking very high rates of charge without causing serious degradation.  Lithium Ion batteries can be fast charged but at a price.  Batteries that are constantly charged with high speed DC fast charging tend to loose capacity much quicker than those that are charged at level 2 rates.  With the dry electrode it should eventually be possible to charge the battery in 10 minutes without causing significant loss of capacity on the battery over time.  This will eliminate the big advantage that current ICE technology and fuel cell technology have over battery electric. 

The current Model 3 has a 75 KWh battery pack which offers a range of about 270 miles.  Using the new technology Tesla has two options.  The first is to continue to make a 75 KWh battery pack.  This would be about a third lighter than the current pack and this would offer a few more miles of range and would be quite a bit cheaper to manufacture.  The second option would be to keep the battery pack size the same which would boost the capacity to around 110 KWh which in turn would boost range up to around 400 miles with price would remain about the same.

Tesla, with it's current battery partner Panasonic, has been one of the leaders in battery technology over the last 10 years and it already has some of the best battery packs in the industry  The purchase of Maxwell Technologies can only offer a road to further improvement.  The question is how long before they turn this purchase into usable battery packs for the Tesla cars?

Sunday May 4, 2019 – Kia Niro EV - This week, with no fanfare, the all electric version of the Kia Niro began to arrive on dealer lots in Southern California.  The Kia Niro EV adds to the existing line of small SUVs which include an ICE version and a Plug-in Hybrid.  I did a search of inventory here in the LA area and so far I only came up with two cars on dealer lots. When I widened the search  to 50 miles I came up with a total of 14.  All of the ones I saw were the EX trim.

The Niro is a compact SUV that has a total passenger volume of 96.6 cubic feet.  Leg room in the front is 41.7 inches with 36 inches in the rear.  It also offers 18.5 cubic feet of cargo space which expands to 53 cubic feet with the rear seat down.  This should allow reasonably comfortable seating for 5.

Under the hood is a 201hp AC motor powered by a 64 KWh lithium ion battery pack that provides an EP estimated range of 239 miles on a charge.  This is quite a bit less than the Hyundai Kona which uses the same battery pack but weighs around 1,200 lbs. less that the Niro EV's 4,916 lbs. and is also a little smaller.  Performance-wise the Kia Niro EV can go from 0-60 mph in 7.8 seconds.  Top  speed is a surprising 103.8 mph.

The Niro EV can be charged from a 7.2 KWh level 2 charger that will fully charge the car in about 9.4 hours.  Using the level 1 charger that comes with the car requires 59 hours to complete a full charge.  The Niro EV comes with a CCS port that will allow DC fast charging.  On the Kia site there is a disclaimer that seems to indicate that not all cars will be equipped with the CCS port so that is something to check before signing on the dotted line.  DC fast charging should give about 100 miles of range in about 30 minutes and it will reach 80% in about 75 minutes.

Prices for the Niro EV start at $39,630 for the base level EX and $45,995 for the Premium trim level.   

The Kia Niro is quite a good addition to the electric cars that are being sold and it could sell well if Kia stocks the vehicle in quantities.  Unfortunately Kia does not appear to be doing that and so it is likely that sales are going to be slow.  While the car is being stocked in only a very limited number of states technically you can go into any Kia dealership and order one but you will be lucky to find a dealer that is willing to do that.  Hopefully we won't see the big markups that we saw when the Kona EV went on sale at Hyundai dealerships.

Sunday April 21, 2019 – 2019 New York Auto Show – There were plenty of electric vehicles on show at this year's New York Auto Show but that's because most manufacturers have one or more plug-in cars to sell.  There were a few new faces around, mostly concepts, but some that will be showing up  in dealerships in the next few months.

The Audi e-Tron SUV should be arriving in the US this summer but Audi has already been taking orders and will not be stocking the vehicle in dealerships, or even allowing test drives, until the order backlog is met.  It appears to house a battery pack with a usable capacity of around 83 KWh and this will give it an EPA estimated 204 miles on a charge.  The car will allow 150KW DC fast charging which will provide about 54 miles of range on a 10 minute charge.  The SUV has a sprightly 5.5 second 0-60 time and is capable of towing 4,000 lbs. 

Mullen Technologies, who bought out Coda's assets when they went out of business, have done a deal with Chinese carmaker Quiantu to bring their K50 Roadster to the US in the first half of 2020.  The K50 is a Carbon-Fiber bodied roadster that can speed from 0-60 in 4.5.seconds.  Range will only be around 186 miles which is reminiscent or the original Tesla Roadster.  Mullen say the car will be priced between $125,000 and $150,000.  They plan to sell 1,000 in the first year going to 2,500 a year after that.  This might work while there is no other electric roadster in that price range but the 186 mile range is starting to look low for an all electric car.

There is nothing like an electric motor for providing rapid acceleration which is why hypercar manufacturers are incorporation electric motors into their designs.  The latest offering comes from Pininfarina with the all electric Battista.  The car offers an astounding 1900 hp which will rocket it from 0-60 in under 2 seconds with speed topping out at 180 mph. Pininfarina say the car can reach its top speed in less time than it would take an F-16 fighter jet.  Power comes from a 120 KWh battery pack that should give the car a range of 300 miles on a charge.  They plan to build just 150 of these cars with 50 of them heading to the USA some time in 2020.  About half of these cars are already reserved.  The Battista will set you back about $2.5 million.

Also due to hit US showrooms in 2020 is the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400, an all electric SUV which will go head to head with the Jaguar I-Pace and the Audi e-Tron SUV.  The EQC 400 is driven by an 80 KWh battery pack that is expected to provide about 220 miles of range on the EPA test cycle.  0-60 mph time should be around 4.9 seconds.  The car will support 110-KW Fast DC charging with an 80% charge taking approximately 40 minutes. 

VW have been showing concept electric vehicles in the ID family which are based on classic VW designs such  as the VW microbus.  At this year's New York Auto Show they had the North American premier of the ID Buggy.  This is based on the classic VW Beach Buggy which was built on the old VW Beetle platform.  They have retained much of the look and style of the old Beach Buggy.  Unfortunately, unlike most of their other ID concepts they didn't announce any plans to create a production version of this car.  Too bad, it would be great for the beach lifestyle here in Southern California.

Korean luxury car marque Genesis also had an electric concept on display, a tiny two-seat city car called the Mint concept.  The most striking feature of this car is the use of two scissor doors at the rear instead of a conventional hatch.  Details of the cars electric power train were not divulged but they did say that driving range would be about 200 miles on a charge and is compatible with 350KW DC Fast Charging. 

Korean carmaker Kia also had an interesting concept, the Habaniro.  This is a small crossover vehicle that probably give design cues to what the next Niro will be like.  The concept presented at the New York Autoshow was all electric and while details of the powertrain were scanty Kia did say the the car was driven by two electric motors providing full time all-wheel drive.  Range was given at 300 miles.  The car also included many high tech features like heads-up display and full level 5 vehicle autonomy.

Rimac is another company that showed a hypercar concept, called the Concept_Two, at the New York Auto Show.  This car uses four electric motors to put out 1,914 bhp which can launch the car from 0-60 in just 1.85 seconds and has top speed of 258 mph.  the 120 KWh battery pack is said to give the car a range of 403 miles.  Rimac announce that they would be limiting production of this car to 100 units. No pricing was available to they did say it would cost more than the $1 million that they sell the Concept_one for.

Another step forward for electric cars was achieved by the Jaguar i-Pace which was named World Car of the Year.  It's clear that the electric car is starting to take off and manufacturers are starting to move from plug-in hybrids to full electric cars now that battery technology has gotten to the point where cars can have ranges of 200 miles or above.  Like many new innovations things begin to change at the high end of the market then trickle down as technology improvements and volume production bring prices down.

Sunday April 14, 2019 – Laughable Denier Article – I usually keep tabs on the latest research into global warming and in doing so I have to wade through a load of articles from deniers.  These are usually posted in sites like the Daily Caller, Brietbart, and What's Up With That.  This week I came across one headline doing the rounds that read "Scientists Prove Man-Made Global Warming A Hoax" - This I couldn't miss. 

It turns out that the article was interpreting an piece from Think Progress, a site that the article classifies as "Far Left".  It quotes from the article that "Current CO2 levels of 410 parts per million (ppm) were last seen on Earth three million years ago, according to the most detailed reconstruction of the Earth’s climate by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in Science Advances."

What came next was what can only be described as a rant about how Global Warming couldn't be related to the burning of fossil fuels because man wasn't around to burn fossil fuels 3 million years ago.  This is so far off base that it is laughable.   

It's like saying that because the sky was cloudy yesterday it can't be clear today.  It assumes that there is only one cause for Carbon going into the atmosphere even though we are well aware that there are multiple ways for carbon to be released into the air.  We can also determine the source by examining the various levels of isotopes in the atmosphere.  Carbon Dioxide emitted from volcanic action contains a high proportion of Carbon-14.  This is what we see when we look at air bubbles trapped in ice 3 million years ago.  Today what we are seeing is increases in Carbon-13 and Carbon-12 which is what we get when we burn fossil fuels.

The carbon levels in the atmosphere might be the same but the source of that carbon is different.  So what did the report in Science Advances really say? 

"In-depth analysis of plant fossils and sediments reveal that such CO2 levels were last seen in the late Pliocene Epoch, a time when there were no ice sheets covering either Greenland or West Antarctica, and much of the East Antarctic ice sheet was gone. Temperatures were up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer globally, at least double that at the poles, and sea levels were some 20 meters (65 feet) higher." 

The report is telling us to forget about holding the temperature to 1.5 C above re-industrial levels, we will be lucky if we can hold it to 3 C unless we really get our act in order and wean ourselves off fossil fuels quickly.

Sunday April 7, 2019– 2019 Q1 Sales Overview – It should have come as no surprise that the sales results for the first quarter of 2019 were way off from the results of the forth quarter of 2018 as the first quarter has traditionally been the slowest quarter of the year for EV Sales.  2019 was no exception but sales for the quarter were still up by an estimated 5,869 vehicles from the first quarter of 2018.

The first quarter of 2019 saw total sales of 61,166 cars with over one third of those, 22,425, being the Tesla Model 3.  Tesla actually made up a little over half of all electric cars sold in the US this year.  Sales at Tesla so far this year have been impacted by two things.  First they made a huge push to deliver as many vehicles as possible before the end of last year so that buyers would be able to take advantage of the full Federal Tax Credit, the second is that Tesla began delivering significant numbers of vehicles to Europe and China this year.  It is estimated that at the end of March Tesla has about 10,000 cars in transit mostly headed to China.

Sales showed month over month improvements over the same month in 2018 for every month in the quarter but this was mostly driven by Tesla plus a larger selection of models from other manufacturers that are beginning to appear in dealerships. 

Plug-in hybrids continue to sell well with both the Prius Prime and Honda Clarity PHEV leading the way.  The Prius Prime outsold the Clarity PHEV in the quarter due to  a sales surge in March, after narrowly loosing the first two months.  Toyota Sold 4,148 plug-in hybrids in the quarter verses 3,716 Clarity PHEVs.  The Kia Niro PHEV and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV also continue to sell well although these both seem to be suffering from constrained inventory.

After a very shaky start to the year, Sales of the Chevy Bolt recovered in March crossing the 2,000 mark for the first time since November 2018.  Sales of the Chevy Volt also did well in March which was unexpected given that the car has been discontinued.  Things didn't go so well for the Nissan Leaf however with just 2,681 cars for the quarter.  It appears that potential Leaf buyers are waiting for the arrival of the longer range Leaf which should be in dealerships this month.  Buyers now appear to be looking for EVs with a range of 200+ miles and the older, shorter range EVs are starting to loose ground.

Besides the Volt, there are several other cars that have been discontinued recently and sales of the Ford C-Max Energi and Ford Focus EV have both disappeared this year.  Ford is now left with only the ford Fusion Energi to sell.  Ford only managed to sell 1,741 for the quarter which was a pretty poor showing.  Ford is expected to begin selling a plug-in hybrid version of its popular escape SUV later this year, with a 25 mile all electric range, which I expect will sell well.   

Sales of Fuel Cell Vehicles were also poor during the first quarter with Toyota selling 297 Mirai and Honda managing to sell just 14 Clarity FCEVs.  Kia never reports on sales of the Tucson FCEV but sales are generally pretty low.

Sales of electric vehicles seem to be growing slowly and appear to be constrained mostly by a shortfall in supply.  Tesla has indicated that it is still having problems filling orders in the US and with the low priced Model 3 now available this situation is likely to get worse.  Still, it is nice to see a larger variety of plug-in cars arriving in dealerships. 

Sunday March 24, 2019 – AI challenges – AI is already part of our present.  Researches are already using Neural Networks, computers that behave like the human brain, to search through vast amounts of data such as the information generated by a run of the large hadron collider.  Other people are working on autonomous driving systems and building robots that can think and operate independently.

Robots have long been depicted in science fiction usually as beneficial to mankind but sometimes, as in the terminator, as a deep threat.  The truth is that as AI and robotics expands it is going to lead to a revolution in the way that we live.  We saw the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution that caused a massive change in how humans live and the AI revolution will do the same.  It will be so disruptive that the old economic models will need to be discarded and we will need to invent a new model for the new reality. 

There has been a couple of TV shows on recently that got me thinking about the rise of AI.  The first is a teen drama that has been run on the teenage oriented TV channel Teen Nick.  I am Frankie, while being aimed at teenagers, has become one of my favorite TV shows.  Frankie might seem like a normal teenage girl but she is actually an android who was sent to high school as part of field testing.  Something happens though and she begins to exhibit true human emotions.  She makes a human best friend and like-likes her brother.  Other androids based on the same programming also begin to show human emotions.

This is taken to it's fullest extreme in another science fiction TV show I like to watch, The Orwell.  The Orwell uses different alien cultures to take a look at contemporary issues.  One of the crew members is an artificial life form (robot) from a planet called Kaylon.  The Kaylons are a race of artificial life forms who consider themselves superior to biological life forms.  Isaac is a delegate from Kaylon who is there to investigate the humans with a view to joining the federation.  It turns out that the Kaylon artificial life forms became self aware and slaughtered their biological creators when they wouldn't except them as equals. 

This type of situation is one that any civilization that creates artificial life forms is likely to encounter if they do not program some sort of check on the way that AI thinks and learns.  Isaac Asimov's rules of robotics should probably be taught as part of robotics 101.

The more looming situation that is just on the horizon is the disruption in society that artificial intelligence is going to cause in the near term, and it is being led by electric cars.  Electric cars are very suitable for autonomous vehicles and at least eighteen  companies are now testing cars that actually drive themselves, some even doing tests on the street.  There was even video on the news of someone fast asleep behind the wheel of a Tesla driving down the freeway who appears to have arrived at his destination without incident.  This is going to be the first big disruption by AI as autonomous vehicles could replace millions of drivers.

Both Uber and Lift are working on self driving cars.  Uber alone employs more than a million drivers so imagine what will happen when these drivers are replaced by autonomous vehicles.  That's a big disruption in employment world wide.  It's not just these drivers either.  It is also taxi drivers, bus drivers, delivery vehicles and long distance truck drivers that will become effected.

Robotics have already had a huge impact on the manufacturing segment of the US economy.  While a lot of manufacturing jobs have been moved to places like China and Mexico where labor is much cheaper, the truth is that more manufacturing jobs have been lost to automation.  Robots can do repetitive tasks without complaint and in the end are much cheaper than paying for human labor.  AI will make robots even more capable of doing jobs that are currently still being handled by humans.  There is also a large segment of jobs in customer service and sales that will eventually be displaced by artificial intelligence.  Right now for most calls to customer service you will be answered by a machine that will gather information about you and in some cases be able to retrieve the information you are looking for.  For most cases you will finally be referred to a human but as AI becomes more developed and machine learning grows, the need for human intervention becomes less and less.

ATMs have already eliminated many teller jobs in the banking industry and word processing software has made the typing pool a thing of the past.  There are even a couple of companies that are working on android hookers.  Androids will more than likely displace domestic servants over the years, doing functions like house cleaning and gardening.  Humans will be free to enjoy them selves more and do creating jobs leaving the humdrum repetitive chores to the robots.

The big problem here is that capitalism, which has stood us in good stead over the years, requires consumers which in turn requires people to have jobs.  In capitalism the person contributes his personal capital and gets a reward.  For some the capital invested is in the form of money but for most of us it is in the form of human capital.  In other words we work for a company and get paid.  We then use this pay to buy stuff which in turn keeps the companies in business.  The problem is that once we disrupt this system by replacing a large number of workers with AI driven devices the whole system breaks down.

We are going to have to build a whole new economic model to replace capitalism and so far we haven't found one that really works.  I'm not sure what this replacement system is going to look like.  Clearly we don't want a system like communism where everything is held by the state and everyone gets to live in a place and a way that is just like everyone else.  I suspect that we will finish up with some variation of the capitalism model where people own a piece of the pie and can use the revenue to live their life the way they wish.  Of course we could leave global warming unchecked and all perish in the next mass extinction in which case the issue becomes moot.

Sunday March 17, 2019 – Tesla Model Y - On Thursday night I watched the live stream of the Tesla Model Y reveal.  The event was much less flashy than earlier Tesla reveals with the rollout of the Model Y seemingly an afterthought to a long ramble by Elon Musk on the history of Tesla.  Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that Tesla is going to have another hit on their hands.

The model Y is classified as a mid-sized SUV although I would call it a crossover myself.  Some journalist described the car as a taller Model 3 and I think that just about sums up the looks.  Those that were expecting something very different in the Model Y were disappointed and Tesla's stock price took a hit because of that.  The fact is that the Model Y is built on the same platform as the Model 3 and will share something like 75% of parts.  This is what large automakers do and it will help Tesla avoid the sort of production hell that they saw with the model 3.

The model Y will come in three trim levels.  The Long Range and Performance trims are scheduled to go on sale in the fall of 2020 and Tesla has now opened its ordering system to allow people to place orders for these two trim levels.  Orders will require a $2,500 deposit.  It should be noted that these are actual orders not reservations like we saw for the Model 3.  The Standard trim level vehicle is not scheduled for production until the spring of 2021.  It should be noted that Tesla has historically missed their delivery targets so these dates are subject to change.

The Long Range Model Y is expected to get 300 miles of range on the EPA estimates.  Unlike most companies Tesla doesn't overhype range so I expect this to be the minimum likely value once the EPA numbers come out. The car will have a top speed of 130mph and will go from 0-60 in 5.5 seconds.  There will also be a dual motor version of the car providing all wheel drive.  This will drop the range down to 280 miles but adds 5 mph to the top speed at 135mph, and reduce 0-60 time to 4.8 seconds.

The Performance version will also take a hit on range coming in at 280 miles on a charge.  Top speed will hit 150 mph and it will be able to go from 0-60 mph in a neck snapping 3.5 seconds.

Prices for the Long Range model start at $47,000 while the Performance model starts at $60,000.  Of course these are the prices for the base models which only come in black paint.  If you want the car in another color then Tesla charges and extra $2,000 to $2,500.  Auto Pilot is a $3,000 option and to get fully autonomous driving, when it becomes available, will add another $5,000 to the price.  One surprise for me was the inclusion of option third row seating.  

The Standard Range trim level, when it becomes available, will start at $39,000.  It will offer a range of 230 miles which puts it right in the same ballpark as the Chevy Bolt and many of the other all electric crossovers currently starting to appear on the market.  It will hit a top speed of 120 mph and will go from 0-60 in 5.9 seconds.  

Tesla says that the Model Y has been designed with safety in mind and they expect that it will get the same five star ratings as the Model 3.  It will come with forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and blind spot warning as standard.

Elon Musk said that he expects Tesla to sell more Model Ys than Model 3 and Model X combined.  This is the type of vehicle that people want to drive today.  The question is can Tesla deliver close to their target date and will they manage to ramp up volume quickly unlike what they did with the Model 3.  I think that they will come through this time as they don't have the huge learning curve with this model that they had with the model 3.

 Despite the naysayers who seem to want to see Tesla fail, I think they have a winner here.  The decision to build off the Model 3 platform was a good one and should allow them to ramp up production much faster this time around.  They have time to take risks with new designs once they have a good solid customer base for the Model Y.  Later this year they are going to launch a pickup truck which may see new design cues as this would be a good time to add more variety into the lineup.

Sunday March 10, 2019 – 2019 Geneva Auto Show – One of the biggest auto shows in the year is currently underway in Geneva and this year Electric Vehicles are pretty much front and center.  The reason is not hard to understand, Europe is tightening emission and fuel economy standards while increasingly banning heavily polluting cars like diesels.  To meet the new standards car manufacturers are turning to electrification.

This year's Geneva Auto Show had a wide bunch of EVs on display ranging from the $2.6 million Pininfarina Battista electric supercar to the funky Citroen Ami one concept that in the US would be released as a NEV.  There were some famous old car names like Hispano Suiza and Lagonda that are being brought back to life, and new marques like Polestar that are hoping to make a splash in a rapidly changing market that is offering opportunities to start-ups. 

Polestar is part of the Volvo group and it's latest concept car, the Polestar 2 is close to production ready.  The car is described as a 4-door fastback.  It will come with a 78 KWh battery pack that is said to give the car a range of 275 miles on a charge.  It's 2 electric motors offer 480-hp which will rocket the car from 0-60 in under 5 seconds.  The car will have a base price of around $40,000 and production is scheduled to begin in China in early 2020.  Polestar have taken a few cues from Tesla and will be selling the more expensive version first then product the cheaper version after about 18-months.  Like Tesla they also plan to sell the car online only. 

Famed Italian car design company Pininfarina showed off their first electric supercar in the form of the Battista.  This car has a 120 KWh battery pack pushing an electric drive train that can kick out 1,900-hp.  The result is a car that can get to 60mph in less than 2 seconds, hit a top speed of 217 mph, and travel as much as 280 miles on a charge.  If you have a spare 2.6 million euros lying around and want to really impress you friends then this may be the car for you, but you need to hurry up as they will only be building 150 of these cars.

Hispano Suiza was a Spanish company famed for its automobiles and aviation engines before the second world war.  After the war the company was acquired by a French company and the car line was dropped in favor of airplane engine manufacture.  They are now planning to go back into the automotive space with  a brand new car electric sports car that is built in an art deco style that is reminiscent of their later cars.  The car's twin electric motors push over 1000-hp to the wheels giving it a 0-60 time of just less than 3 seconds.  The 80 KWh battery pack can push the car to an electronically limited 155 mph.  I haven't seen any range addressed so far but based on th size of the battery expect to see range estimates around 200 miles on a charger.  Production is set to begin in late 2019 but production will be limited to just 19 cars.  Each car will set you back 1.7 million dollars. 

Fiat was founded in July 1899 and to celebrate its first 120 years it is launching a new all electric model based on the Fiat Panda, called the Centoventi which is Italian for 120.  This car is designed to be very cheap but extremely customizable, similar to the concept for the original Smart, where you can buy different bumpers and customize with a variety of wraps and wheel wraps.  The car will be equipped with a small battery pack that will offer about 60 miles of range but up to three additional packs can be snapped into place to extend range.  These packs, which can also be removed and charged separately, could be bought or rented when needed to increase range when needed.  There is no indication of when this car might go on sale..

Spanish automaker Seat also had a new concept vehicle called the Minimo, although it is pretty much indistinguishable from the Renault Twizy.  One key difference is the battery pack.  The pack on the Minimo is designed to be swappable.  The concept of the swappable pack has been floated around for years but nobody has made it work.  Seat may have found a niche where the swappable battery is actually going to work.  The tiny 2 seat Minimo is designed with car sharing serviced in mind.  One of the issues with car sharing services is turn around.  The car is rented out for a while but usually when the car is returned from rental there is not enough time to charge the batteries before you want to get the car available for the next customer.  The swappable battery pack could change all that.

Another car that is meant for urban mobility and car sharing is the Citroen Ami One concept.  This tiny 2 seat car with a top speed of just 28mph would be considered a NEV here in the US.  There was no real information about the power train but Citroen does say that it should have a range of 62mph.  In Europe Citroen is aiming at a market segment where cars can be driven on the roads without a license.  So far there is no indication that the Ami One will go into production.

It is interesting that in Europe, where fuel economy standards are becoming very stringent, the car makers are pushing ahead full speed with electrification.  For example Audi announced at Geneva that they will be making plug-in hybrid versions of most of there models.  In contract, with the Trump administration easing fuel economy standards, US carmakers are dragging their feet when it comes to out new models.  For example Chevy just shut down production of the Volt and have already stopped production of the Cadillac plug-in models.  Ford have stopped making the C-Max Energi and have not replaced it yet. If the US carmakers don't get onboard again they may end up getting left in the dust, Tesla excepted.

Sunday March 3, 2019 – Tesla Base Model 3 Available – When Tesla announced the Model 3 they said that it would have a base model with a starting price around $35,000.  When the Model 3 first launched thy only offered the long range version which was priced considerably higher than $35,000.  Subsequently  they announced a mid range version that was less expensive than the long range version but still quite a bit more than the base price.  Well the good news is that Tesla has now started taking orders for the base model and it can be configured for the $35,000 target price. 

The base model offers a 220 miles of range, a top speed of 130 mph, and can go 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds.  The base price does not include Auto Pilot which adds an additional $3,000, and full autonomous driving capability will be an additional $2,000.  The standard range car does come with all the safety features of the more expensive model making it one of the safest cars you can buy.

In addition to the Standard Range model Tesla also announced the Model 3 Standard Range Plus which starts at $37,000.  For the extra $2,000 you get an additional 20 miles of range per charge (240 miles), the 0-60 time drops to 5.3 seconds, and top speed edges up to 140mph. 

To remain profitable at this price point Tesla is going to be shuttering most of its current stores and switching to on-line ordering only.  This will lead to an approximate reduction of about 7% of Tesla's workforce.  Tesla claims that you can order the car in about one minute online.

Since there will no longer be an opportunity to test drive the car before ordering Tesla is implementing a 7 day 1,000 mile return policy.  If you buy the car and don't like it you can return it any time in the first 7 days as long as the mileage is below 1,000 miles.  There is also word that some current Tesla owners may also be organizing to give test rides.

Tesla will also be investing in their service system with the objective of being able to offer service within an hour with  most service being performed at the owner's home. 

The new announcement also included something for existing model 3 owners.  A new firmware upgrade will be sent out shortly that will increase the range of the current Model 3 Long Range to 325 miles on a charge.  The Model 3 Performance will get a boost in top speed to 162 mph.  The change will also boost peak power for all existing Model 3s by about 5%. 

The Model 3 has always been a disruptive force in the EV market and now it is even more competition.  The range and perfornace of the Model 3 Standard Range is well in line with the competition at a price that is very competitive.  The big question now is "will Tesla be able to keep up with demand or are they going to be back in production hell?".

Sunday February 24, 2019– Methane and Eating Meat – Whenever I read anything about how to personally cut down on greenhouse emissions one of the first things I see is to "eat less meat".  I have always been confused by this but this week I finally learned a bit about the life cycle of methane in the atmosphere and while I'm not totally convinced that going vegan will help fight global warming, I at least have a better understanding about what is going on.

Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, about 120 times stronger than CO2.  The good news is that Methane does not stick around in the atmosphere for very long.  Estimates vary a little but methane will stick around in the atmosphere for only about 10 years.  The question I had is where does it go?.

The answer is not so simple because there are three different ways, known as sinks, that eliminate methane. 

The first way that methane gets removed is through methanotrophic bacteria in soil.  These bacteria appear to pull methane out of the atmosphere and use it to grow.

The second method is that Methane reacts with hydroxyl radical (OH) in the troposphere. This reaction produces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and  Water Vapor (H2O).  The CO2 of course is going to stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years so even though the Methane is gone there is some CO2 left in the air to act as a greenhouse gas.  Not all methane is destroyed in the Troposphere, some of it manages to make it into the Stratosphere.  This methane is destroyed by the same process as in the Troposphere but at a slower rate and methane that makes it to the Stratosphere can hang around for as long as 120 years before it gets converted to CO2 and Water.

The third method of methane elimination is for it to react with chlorine in the atmosphere.  This will break the methane down to CH3 + HCL.  The hydrochloric acid then contributes to the breakdown of the Ozone layer and the CH3 eventually oxidizes into CO2 and H2O. 

Methane in the atmosphere comes from a variety of sources but one of the biggest sources is from ruminants, especially cattle.  Cattle eat lots of grass or hay and in their digestive process this is fermented to some extent with a byproduct of methane.  It's really popular to equate this expulsion of methane as "cow farts" but actually only about 5% of the methane they emit comes that way, the bulk of the methane emissions comes in the form of eructation better known as belches.

Now here is the part that I haven't quite gotten my head around yet.  I can under that animal husbandry can be very carbon intensive especially if the cows are raised in factory farms, but a cow grazing in a field should be part of a natural cycle.  The cow eats grass.  The grass is then digested by the cows leading to methane emissions via flatulence or eructation.  This methane sticks around in the atmosphere for about 10 years after which it is converted to CO2 and water.  The water forms into clouds and then falls on the fields helping the grass to grow.  The grass uses the CO2 in photosynthesis to grow.  The cows then come along and eat the grass.  Of course as more methane arrives in the atmosphere the number of free hydroxyl radical will slowly reduce over time and this may increase the length of time that methane remains in the atmosphere and therefor its impact as a greenhouse gas.

This is the same sort of natural cycle that leaves us to define biofuels as renewable.  In theory the only net grows in greenhouse gases caused by the cows should be because of growth in the cow population.  Now I don't eat a lot of meat but I'm not sure that I am quite ready to give it up yet.

Sunday February 17, 2019 – Korean EVs Start to Arrive – There are three new electric vehicles that are coming to the US this year, the Hyundai Kona EV, the Kia Niro EV, and an updated Kia Soul EV which will sport a much larger battery pack than the older version.  These three EVs have sparked a lot of excitement in the media, and Dave Vanderwerp writing in Car and Driver even headlined his article with "The 2019 Kia Niro EV Is What Tesla Model 3 Shoppers Should Be Buying".

I haven't had a chance to test drive any of these three models but I have driven the first generation Kia Soul EV and the Kia Niro PHEV which is already on sale here in the US.  They are both capable vehicles and fun to drive and I expect the new offerings to be just as good.  I seriously doubt they will come close to pulling any serious number of people away from Tesla though.  I still don't understand why such journalists continue to knock Tesla, a company born in the USA and building cars right here. 

That being said, the three cars above do have some pretty good stats behind them.

The first Hyundai Kona EV was delivered to Donald Small, Director of Pediatric Oncology at The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, last week.  I took a look around the Hyundai dealerships in the area and only 2 had the Kona EV listed in their new car inventory for a total of 17 cars on the ground.  None had pictures yet so they must really just have arrived.  Prices ranged from around $38,000 to $48,000.  For that price you get a compact crossover with an EP estimated range of 258 miles; the longest range of any EV that is not a Tesla. 

The Kia Niro EV is basically the same car as the Kona EV but the EPA range estimates is only 239 miles.  The Kia Niro is set to go on sale soon but so far I haven't been able to find a date.  I expect that it will be the same as we saw for the Kona EV where the first indication will be a press release that the first delivery has occured.

The upgraded Kia Soul EV was also supposed to be on sale this quarter and Kia has already released an official EPA range estimate of 243 miles on a charge.  This is another surprise as the Soul EV uses the same 64 KWH pack as the Kona EV and Niro EV but is smaller and lighter so I would have expected to see longer range from this car, although the range is a lot better than the 222 mile range that they hinted at during the LA Auto Show.

Now let's get a little dose of reality before everyone starts selling their Tesla shares.  These cars, while being very good in terms of range and are the type of car the is currently in vogue at the moment, are still only compliance cars.  All three cars are only going to go on sale in ZEV states and while technically they can be special ordered at any dealership, it has been reported that people who have tried to order one have been turned away with comments like "we do not sell plug-in cars".

So far Kia has said it will put these cars on sale in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  Since Colorado has recently adopted California's ZEV rules it is quite likely that it will also appear on this list in the not too distant future.  If history serves it is unlikely that we will see these in dealers outside the ZEV state.

I expect sales of these vehicles to be relatively light.  We will probably see a pattern of sales of 300+ units which new cars arrive.  This amount will drop in months where no cars have arrived and dealer inventory becomes low.  I would like to see Kia really get behind these three cars and get them into dealerships but I expect they will prioritize Korea and Europe over the US and Canada and if sales do well in those two markets the US will be left behind.  If Hyundai/Kia manages to keep a reasonable inventory on dealer lots it is far more likely that Chevy Bolt sales will suffer than that Tesla sales will suffer.

The big question is can Hyundai/Kia get a big enough market share not to be hammered when Tesla releases the Model Y.  They still have several years to accomplish this but I remain skeptical that they will truly embrace the US market for plug-in cars and instead will continue to focus on Fuel Cell vehicles.

Sunday February 10, 2019 – EV Range in Cold Weather - I just read an article by Paul A. Eisenstein on the CNBC website talking about the loss in range of battery electric vehicles in cold weather.  There has been a number of such articles over the past couple of weeks as low temperatures across the US have set records.

For those of us who have driven electric for some time this drop in range doesn't surprise us at all.  I will let you in on a little secret, high temperatures affect range too, and both high and low temperatures also impact the range of ICE vehicles.  It becomes more apparent on an Plug-in vehicle because you track range closely most of the time.  On an ICE vehicle you usually look at the fuel gage and see if you need to fill up but on a plug-in you typically what the estimate of range that the car produces.

I drive a plug-in hybrid and if I switch on the A/C I immediately see a drop in range, usually by about 10%.  If I turn off the A/C the range will pop back up again.  That's because the software that estimates the range takes the power draw of the AC into consideration.  On a typical ICE vehicle the fuel gage measures the amount of liquid in the tank so you are totally oblivious to the fact that the A/C being on means you are using more fuel to travel the same distance.

Heat is a little different. The ICE vehicle has an advantage in the heat department.  One of the reasons that ICE vehicles are so inefficient is that the combustion process produces lots and lots of waste heat.  You can tap into that waste heat to warm up your car.  This doesn't come without a penalty.  The more heat you remove from the engine coolant the lower the engine efficiency becomes and again this impacts fuel economy, though much less than using an electric heater does in an EV.  Some Plug-in Hybrids like my Prius Plug-in will turn on the ICE to get heat rather than use a second source of heating.

On older EVs the solution was to install battery warmers so that the batteries were kept warm even as temperatures outside were below freezing.  In some very cold areas a similar thing is done with ICE vehicles where the car can be plugged in overnight so that block heaters can prevent the coolant in the engine from freezing.  Modern EVs like Tesla provide preconditioning.  In cold weather the car can be warmed up using external power if it is connected to external power.  In this case when you get out to your car it is already warmed up and if you have a short commute you might not even need to turn on the heater.

The range of the EV is also impacted by the temperature.  Modern Lithium Ion batteries perform best at temperatures between 70 and 80 Fahrenheit, which is about the same temperature span that humans prefer.  Lower or hotter temperatures reduce the efficiency of the batteries and impacts range.

There are other factors that also impact range including wet weather.  Tires are designed to channel water away so that the rubber meets drier pavement.  This also takes energy as does running lights and windscreen wipers.  These factors also have an impact on the fuel economy of an ICE car.  Even running the radio will create a draw on the batteries but, at least on my car, the difference has been too low for me to measure.

The big question we need to ask is "how does this affect me?"  Obviously if I am driving a PHEV it just means I may burn more gas when it's cold out.  BEV drivers the situation is a bit different depending on if you are driving close to the limits of your battery's range or if you are just driving shorter distances.  Let me give you some examples.

A Nissan Leaf with an 80 mile electric range may only get 72 miles if cold temperatures cause range to drop by 10%.  If a round trip commute is equal to an average US commute of 32 miles then the loss of range is not going to pose any problems.  In fact my range could drop as much as 50% and I could still make my round trip commute..

But lets say my round trip commute is 72 miles.  In this case I would be right at my maximum range and as a safety net I would probably need to take a charge, preferably at work, before returning home.  I may be able to drive slower each way to stretch range but it would be risky.

Lets consider the case where someone drives a Chevy Bolt on a 300 mile road trip in cold weather.  The EPA range on the Bolt is 238 miles but driven aggressively on long freeway runs it is unlikely that you would see that sort of range.  In a test done by the Washington Post they only managed to get 140 miles of range from the car under these conditions.  Journalists usually drive really hard so I am going to assume here that the driver who is going to try and do the 40 mile trip will drive more conservatively and will manage about 165 miles of range.

This would require one stop for charging on the trip but the car would have needed one stop anyway.  The impact of the cold weather is twofold.  First the driver needs to be sure that there is a fast charger very close to half way distance on the trip.  If not the trip will require two stops.  The second impact is that there is a need for a full, or close to full charge at the stop and this means that charge times would be longer, especially since the Bolt charges slower as the batteries reach charge levels above 50%.  If I was doing the trip I would probably plan on two charging stops in really cold weather.

There are lessons to be learned here.  The first one is that if you live in a climate that gets really cold or really hot, you need to make adjustments on what EV you are going to buy.  You have to be aware that the weather can have quite a huge impact on range and plan accordingly.  For a typical commuter vehicle I would recommend a range that is at least high enough to accommodate you commute using no more than 60% charge. 

The second lesson is that in cold or hot weather you may want to slow down.  While the EPA range estimate is a good predictor of how far you can drive on a full charge the local weather and your driving technique, can eat into that range.  When considering an EV you should figure out your driving style and select a car accordingly.  You should also be ready to adjust your driving style to match weather conditions.  If you drive with a lead foot and regularly get well below the EPA mpg values for your car you will probably get the same results in an EV.  The high torque at zero mph can be exhilarating and hard to resist. 

When buying an EV I recommend planning for the worst case rather than blindly using the EPA range numbers.  adjust your range expectations depending on local weather and on your driving style can make sure you make the right choice and avoid all that range anxiety.

Sunday February 3, 2019 – Beverly Hills Charger Update – On April 2, 2018 the City of Beverly Hills modified their charger rules to ban Plug-in Hybrids from charging at the city owned stations and also changed the pricing policy from free to 25 cents per kilowatt hour with a station fee of $6.00 per hour that kicks in after 2 hours.  I recommended at the time that the City dropped the ban on plug-in hybrids but kept the pricing in place.

Starting just before the new year Beverly Hills actually did what I suggested, although I'm sure my blog had no influence on the decision.  What caused the change was California state bill SB 1000.  This bill recognizes that the reason for public charging is to maximize electric vehicle miles driven not to provide a life raft for BEV owners.  What it did was to make it illegal to ban PHEVs from chargers that were funded by public funds. 

Beverly Hills staff did a review and found that about half of their chargers fell under this rule.  The council made a wise decision and opted to allow PHEV charging at all the cities chargers, feeling that it would be too confusing to have some chargers accessible and others not.  While Plug-in hybrids can now charge again at city lots they did say that if too many PHEVs came back to using the chargers then they would adjust the station fees to price them out.

When they first started banning PHEVs charger utilization dropped dramatically.  It wasn't just Plug-in Hybrids that were not using the chargers but the pricing also drove many pure electric cars away also.  This tells me that the people complaining most about not being able to use the chargers probably thought they were more entitled to a free charge than PHEV drivers were.  Since the ban was lifted I haven't seen much of an increase in charger utilization.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to  charge at the Beverly Hills Library while having lunch at Kelly's Coffee which is part of the Library complex.  I like to charge there because the library complex has a large solar array so you are basically charging on solar energy.  When I arrived there was a Porsche Cayenne S e-hybrid charging there.  I plugged in at the other charger and went for lunch.  When I came back the Porsche had gone but this had been replaced by a Pacifica Hybrid and a Fusion Energi charging was also charging there so three of the four connectors (2 per charger) were in use.

That is the busiest I have seen a group of 4 chargers at a Beverly Hills facility since they banned PHEVs back in April.  I hope that if PHEVs do start to make more use of the chargers that the city considers the best benefits to the environment before doing something dumb like pricing out PHEVs from the chargers as this will also discourage many BEV drivers from charging too.  There first step is to give some training to their parking enforcement officers about how to handle the charging spaces.

Before the ban I had complained several times about the rules for the chargers not being enforced and this is still happening.  I often see Plug-in cars, most often Teslas, parked in the charging spots but not connected to the charger.  Since the chargers are not getting used much anymore I am also seeing an increase in the number of times the chargers are ICED.  On at least 2 occasions since the start of the year I have seen traffic enforcement drive past illegally parked cars and not even look to see if they are charging.

I said a long time ago that free charging would eventually go away and I see that this is beginning to happen.  Santa Monica is now considering pricing their chargers but they are also planning on adding a whole lot more chargers around the city.  The addition of charging fees also puts pressure on other sites that still have free parking so sites like those served with Voltec chargers are becoming much more heavily utilized.  It is now quite difficult to drive down to the ones around West LA and find one that is not in use.

The thing about pricing is that it makes the chargers available to those that really need to charge but it becomes counter productive if the cost is too great.  The Beverly Hills chargers work out at the equivalent to me of gas at $2.50 per gallon so it is cheaper to charge than to pump gas.  The chargers at Century City Shopping Center are the equivalent for me to $5.50 per gallon of gas so it is cheaper to fill up the tank.  I'm an outlier as I can only charge at 2.4 KW which makes station charges very expensive, but when setting prices Cities still need to make sure that they don't make them too expensive that everyone continues to use gas.

Sunday January 27, 2018 – Misinformation Campaigns – I just read an interesting article by Graham Readfearn on Desmogblog that warned about underestimating the power of the ongoing misinformation campaign being funded by elements in the fossil fuel industry.  It was based on a paper by Yale University Professors Justin Farrell and Kathryn McConnell, together with Brown University’s Professor Robert Brulle in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

It has long been known that a misinformation campaign has been waged to shed doubt on the idea of global warming by the fossil fuel industry.  The fossil fuel industry itself has mostly now admitted that burning fossil fuels is the major cause of the warming that has been happening since the start of the industrial revolution but they are still funding groups that spread disinformation about global warming.  The reason is not hard to fathom, trillions of dollars worth of assets will have to be left in the ground if we stop burning fossil fuels.

Such misinformation campaigns didn't start with the fossil fuel industry.  Back in the 1980s it was becoming very apparent that smoking was a leading cause of cancer and a whole lot of other issues.  The government was moving to stop smoking and that would cause major issues for the tobacco industry.  In 1984 the Heartland Institute was founded and, with major contributions from the tobacco industry, began a campaign to shed doubt on the research that showed a link between smoking and cancer.  This campaign was so successful that millions of Americans still smoke and many younger Americans start smoking each day. 

In the 1990s they started the same sort of disinformation campaign aimed at global warming.  Their stance has varied over time but has generally been that two thirds of global warming was due to natural causes.  They also contended that global warming stopped in 1998 and that the predicted effects are the result of shoddy science.  They had a small group of scientists who would produce reports, give presentations at events hosted by the Hartland Institute, and write op-ed pieces in national newspapers.  Closer inspection usually showed that their conclusions were based on cherry picked data.  Information leaked in 2012 showed that major contributions to the Heartland Institute's funding came from the fossil fuel industry.

Heartland Institute is not alone in using such strategies to try and shed doubt on global warming.  There are many other groups such as the Global Warming Policy Foundation in the UK.  They are often backed by right wing media outlets like the Daily Caller who often publish the misinformation coming from these groups.

The main thrust of the paper being reported on was the ways that this misinformation could be countered.  The article itself had a table at the bottom that listed the facts we know about global warming, the myths used in the disinformation campaign, and the fallacy that this myth represents. 

I have to say that I had a little bit of a problem with some of the facts as they were written.  For example the "Human emissions are responsible for all of the increase in CO2 in the air over the past two centuries."  While this is close to accurate it has to be acknowledged that a small part of the rise can be attributable to volcanic eruptions.  Carbon Isotope analysis does show that most of the increase is caused by burning fossil fuels though.  The disinformation is that volcanoes account for most of the increase in greenhouse gases and in the Fallacy they do say that the amount attributed to volcanoes over the last 200 years "are too small to account for the observed changes". 

The final answer here is not to take one of these articles that attempt to show that global warming is not happening at face value, but to do your own research.  That is especially true when the author is associated with one of the groups like Heartland Institute.  Sites like Desmog Blog and Skeptical Science will often highlight such articles and show where the fallacy or cherry picked data was used

One of the worst things in my opinion is that many of these sites, including Heartland Institute, are set up as non-profits so contributions to them are tax deductible.  Since such groups just push out propaganda, and don't do anything to help the less fortunate, I think that the rules for charitable contributions need to be seriously modified.  To me it is totally unacceptable that my tax dollars are going to people who fund organizations that are not helping anyone except those making the contributions.

The stakes are high here.  We are not talking about a few people who keep smoking because they don't want to believe that it has negative health effects, even though this costs millions of dollars in healthcare costs.  The last time that CO2 levels rose as quickly as they are at the moment led to the End Permian Extinction.  A repeat of this situation would be the end of the human race and most life on this planet.  We can't afford to let that happen.

Sunday January 20, 2019 – NAIAS More Promise Than Product – The 2018 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is currently underway in Detroit but apart from a few plug-in concept cars the emphasis has been on SUVs and Trucks.  Electric Vehicles have been pretty scarce on the ground.

Part of this is because some of the big EV players, especially Audi, and  BMW, that are expected to launch a new EV some time this year, have forgone the NAIAS completely. America's big three and giants like Toyota and Honda did attend but did not present any new electric cars that are likely to make the showrooms this year.

That's not to say that there weren't huge announcements and even a few pure EV concept cars but most of the new entries that are likely to hit the streets were already announced at either the 2018 LA Auto Show or CES.  For example the Nissan Leaf e+, the version of the Leaf that has a 62 KWh battery pack and offers 226 miles on a charge, was first shown at CES. 

One of the most interesting set of concept vehicles came from Chinese car builder GAC.  GAC has been planning on entering the US market by 2020 and have been showing vehicles at NAIAS for several years.  This year they had 2 electric vehicles on display.  One was a full sized SUV concept that doesn't look anywhere close to being production ready, and the second vehicle was a smaller crossover which looks like it would be ready for market and would probably end up with an EPA rating of around 150 miles range on a charge.  Entry into the US market may be delayed by the on-going tariff wars going on currently between the US and China, and it is widely expected that GAC will first enter the market with an ICE powered compact sedan, but with China being a powerhouse in electric vehicles they are a company to watch..

GM announced that Cadillac would be their future brand leader for electric vehicles and showed off an electric crossover concept which is apparently being built on a new platform designed to help GM roll out a number of electric cars over the next 5 years.  Cadillac itself will roll out a new model every 6 months although not all of these will be electric.  The concept car they showed didn't really look like it was production ready so we will need to watch for their first EV which should see the light of day some time in the latter half of this year.

Ford also said that it was going to be increasing spending on electric vehicles and indicated that an electric version of their best selling F-150 Truck was being worked on.  This is no doubt a reaction to the possible arrival of a pickup truck from Tesla and a few other companies, especially Rivian, that are likely to be offering an all electric pickup in the next few years.  Ford also indicated a planned to release and electric version of the Bullet Mustang in about 3 years.  In all they say they will be developing 16 battery powered vehicles over the next 5 years. 

Ford also announced a partnership with VW which may include working together on electric vehicles.  For its part VW announced that they are spending $800 Million on upgrades to their plant in Chattanooga, TN where they will start building electric vehicles in 2022.  This is about par for VW who always seem to be adding electric cars three years in the future.  They already build a number of plug-in cars for sale in Europe but so far the e-Golf is the only one they sell here and they always seems to be in short supply.  To be fair they do have a couple of plug-in models selling in their Porsche division and one for Audi and Mini divisions but they do seem to be lagging the field with pure electrics.

Infiniti also showed an all electric crossover vehicle but this again was not production ready.  In fact it was so not production ready that when they debuted it the car wouldn't start so they ended up having to push it on stage.  Infiniti has a habit of showing off lots of concept cars with very few of them making it to market.  I suspect this is another one that is going to be just a one off show car.

By the end of the press week there was a lot of promises of electric cars but the reality is that the majority of vehicles being announced were bigger and less fuel efficient conventionally powered vehicles.  It's time for the automakers to step up and start working to bring cost down and provide more electric vehicles across the US market.  The Chinese are starting make the electric vehicle space their own and are hungrily eyeing the US market.  Only Tesla has shown any real drive to produce electric vehicles in large numbers.  The other carmakers need to step up and start making electric cars that are sold nationwide and are promoted so they sell well.  If not the Chinese automakers with "eat their lunch".

Sunday January 13, 2019 – The Petroleum Paradox – Back when the EV1 was still on the road there was a lot of discussion about the end of petroleum; the time when petroleum would run out.  EV activist Doug Korthof, who sadly is no longer with  us, always used to say that we would never run out of petroleum.

What he meant by that is that as crude oil became scarce the price would have to rise and this would cause demand to reduce.  At some point crude would become so expensive that nobody would use it anymore.  This is the normal supply and demand that you will learn about in Economics 101 and is normally valid for raw materials. 

Supply and demand works for crude oil too but there is a couple of factors that have been impacting this.  In a normal situation, as price of the raw material falls the cost of making an item falls, and if this is passed along to the consumer it means that people buy more of the article.  In the case of gas it means that it becomes cheaper to travel so people can travel further for the same cost.  However, what tends to happen is that people spend the extra money on buying a bigger vehicle that uses fuel less efficiently so they travel the same distance for the same price.  This has the tendency to push up gas consumption, which increases the amount of crude needed, which tends to send prices back up.

There is another factor at work in the current market.  People are starting to move away from gas engines towards electric cars.  This causes the demand for gas to fall and that pushes the cost down.  This causes people to buy larger ICE vehicles which once again increases consumption.  Even though we have seen a large number of electric cars being sold, at the same time we have also seen an increase in gas consumption.

There is another factor that also impacts crude supply and demand.  The cost to extract crude oil is not constant.  Some oil is close to the service and is very easy and cheap to extract but as this runs out oil companies have had to drill deeper wells, wells must be sighted offshore, and have also had to extract oil from tar sands.  The more oil that is extracted from an oil field the harder it becomes to keep the oil  flowing.  To keep up pressure water, or gases like methane has to be injected into the field to force oil out.  This increases the cost of extracting the crude.

The creates a problem and as the easy fields become worked out the cost of extraction increases.  This means there is a limit to the price that the oil can be sold at.  We have already seen situations where tar sand oil extraction has been stopped because crude oil prices have dropped so low that extraction is no longer economical.

So we have this paradox, alternatives to gas cause prices to fall, which in turn causes less efficient usage, which causes prices to increase, which causes people to start using alternatives to gas.

There is a second paradox here too.  People know that burning fossil fuels in bad for them yet they not only continue to burn fossil fuels but also make the move to less efficient vehicles when the cost of gas falls.

In the end we have to recognize that burning petroleum as a fuel is having a very negative impact on both our health and the health of this planet.  The good news is that as more people make the move to electric vehicles they tend to stay with them rather than move back to gas when prices are low.  Eventually we will hit a trigger point where people will begin to see electric as the desirable option.

Sunday January 6, 2019 – 2018 Q4 Sales Overview - 2018 is now in the history books and it turned out to be the best year for EV sales ever, by quite a lot.  The final quarter of 2018 saw Plug-in sales climb to 126,562 led by a huge push from Tesla.  This lead to total sales for the year estimated at 361,307 cars.

Sales for the the final quarter of 2018 were higher than the the full year sales for all proceeding years except 2016 and 2017 and total year sales for 2018 represented an increase of 81% over 2017.

Tesla model 3 continued to dominate sales with a total estimated sales for the quarter of 61,650 cars and 139,782 cars for the year.  Sales of the model 3 in 2018 exceeded all sales of plug-in cars for year 2015 and earlier years.  Tesla also racked up second and third best sellers with  the Model X selling 8,525 cars for the quarter and the Model S selling 7,350 cars for the quater.

The Toyota Prius Prime was the best selling PHEV for the quarter and the 4th best seller overall with 7.072 cars sold.  Snapping at the heals of the Prius Prime was the Honda Clarity PHEV which sold 6,692 cars over the quarter and 5th place overall.

The Chevy Bolt placed 6th with sales of 6.212 cars followed by the soon to be discontinued Volt with a rather disappointing 5,063 cars.  Now that the Chevy Spark EV and Cadillac ELR have been discontinued the only other plug-in that GM has on sale is the Cadillac CT6 PHEV which managed to sell only 34 copies in the fourth quarter.

This quarter there is a new kid on the block, the Jaguar i-Pace.  The i-Pace went on sale at the start of the forth quarter of 2018 and have grown month over month since then for a total of 393 cars for the year with the bulk of the sales happening in December.  The press made a big deal of the i-Pace outselling all Teslas combined in the Netherlands in December so I thought that I should point out that the Tesla Model 3 outsold all Jaguars combined here in the US in October, November, and December.

While Tesla sales move ahead Ford appears to be winding down plug-in sales.  The C-Max Energi is now gone and the Focus EV sold only 2 copies in the fourth quarter.  That leaves only the Fusion Energi which sold Just 2,374 cars during the quarter.  It appears that the Fusion may also be on the way out so unless Ford has some new plug-in ready to make its debut at CES or the Detroit Auto Show they may well be out of the EV business by the end of 2019.

Most of the other cars on sale are being sold in small volume.  It appears that the low range cars like the Ford Focus EV and the Honda Clarity EV are being shut out by longer range models like the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt.  With more of these coming into dealerships in early 2019 it appears that the shorter range models will begin to disappear from showrooms.  The same appears to be happening in the plug-in hybrid market too.  Short range plug-ins like the offerings from BMW are slowly loosing ground to the longer range vehicles like the Prius Prime and Honda Clarity PHEV.  Toyota could sell many more Prius Prime if the wished, it is still only available in states that follow the CARB emission rules.  The Honda Clarity is likely to pick up  sales that would have gone to the Chevy Volt once that goes out of production..

December also saw the sale of Hyundai's next generation fuel cell vehicle the Nexo.  Hyundai does not normally release sales numbers for its Fuel Cell vehicles but we do not that at least one was delivered to a customer in December.  Honda also doesn't break out sales of fuel cell vehicles but the numbers are expected to be quite low.  During the quarter Toyota delivered 545 Mirai.

Audi showed off their e-tron GT concept. The car is driven by a 90 KWh battery that will give the car a range of 248 miles. 0-6 time is a fast 3.5 seconds and the car can hit a top speed of 149 mph. While this car has nothing like the range of the Tesla Model S 100D it is the first car I have seen so far that looks like it could offer a challenge to the Tesla Sedan. There was no indication if this car would actually be put into production although it did look close to being production ready.

While looking around the Audi stand, I did notice on omission, I couldn’t find an A3 e-Tron Sportsback. What I did find was an all-electric SUV, the e-Tron 55 Quatro. The e-Tron 55 Quatro comes with a 95 KWh battery pack. The EPA range is not yet available for this SUV but it is expected to come in at around 250 miles. It will also include the 800-volt charging option that allows it to charge up to 80% in as little as 20 minutes. The car can go 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds are speed tops out at 124 mph.

The car has a base price of $74,800 and can be ordered through the Audi USA web site with deliveries expected to start in the second quarter

BMW staged the world premier of the BMW Vision i-Next concept vehicle. The i-Next was a crossover type vehicle but apart from it being electric there was very little information about the specifications other than that they were in the process of developing the 5th generation electric drive train. They did mention that it would be fully autonomous.

VW were looking to fill a niche in local deliveries with the new I.D. Buzz Cargo. This is a panel van based on the I.D. Buzz platform. This concept is said to have an all-electric range of up to 340 miles depending on the battery option chosen. It also came with a solar roof and a digital cargo system to manage deliveries.

VW gave no indication of when this vehicle might be placed into production or if it would be offered in the USA.

I was disappointed to find out that Subaru was not having a press conference as they had announced the Crosstrek plug-in hybrid was going to be at the show. I took a walk around there stand and they did have a couple on display.

Outwardly the PHEV is the same as the standard Crosstrek but under the covers the 2.0 liter engine is mated to what is essentially the hybrid power train from the Prius Prime. The car has the same 8.8 KWh lithium Ion battery as the prime and this will offer up about 17 miles of all electric range which I found disappointing. Also like the Prius Prime the battery pack intrudes into the cargo area reducing cargo space.

The CrossTrek PHEV starts at a base price of $35,950 but will be eligible for a $4,500 federal tax credit. There was no indication of when the car would be available in the US but I expect to see it towards the end of the first quarter.

I was also somewhat disappointed with the Mitsubishi press conference. They did have the world premier of their new e-Evolution concept. This is a fully electric car that actually looked a little similar to the BMW Vision i-Next.

Being a concept car there were few details available about the e-Evolution drive train other than to note that it used a 3-motor system to give full four-wheel drive. There is a single motor driving the front wheels with two additional motors to drive the rear wheels.

The concept looked quite interesting but it was just a concept and looked nowhere near being production ready. I was expecting something more from them, perhaps a replacement for the now defunct i-MiEV.

I don't expect January to be a huge month for Plug-in car sales.  Traditionally people have rushed to get cars before the end of the year in order to get the tax credit.  This was particularly true for people buying Teslas as the $7,500 tax credit gets cut in half for sales starting in January 2019.  Tesla appeared to be selling anything that wasn't nailed down.  I walked by their Century City Showroom last week and even their display Model X was gone.  It has been reported that inventory of the Model 3 had dropped to just 3,000 cars by the end of the month.  In January expect sales to switch focus to international sales as they begin model 3 deliveries in Europe in ernest.

We do have some interesting things to look forward to.  First there are some new 200+ mile range EVs doing on sale soon including the 200+ mile range Kia Soul and Kia Niro EV; the 258 mile range Hyundai Kona; and the 200+mile range Audi e-tron Quatro.   We should also see the base model Tesla Model 3 begin production and perhaps the long range versions of the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3.  2019 will be an exciting year for plug-in cars.