Classic Auto Express

According to Scientific American, most electric vehicle drivers plug into a normal 110 volt outlet to recharge their vehicles, and some consumers are concerned that trickle charging isn’t fast enough to meet the demands that they place on their vehicles. Enclosed auto transport companies have been shipping a lot of new electric vehicles lately and the trend to buy them is only going up, which means that a new, faster charging station needs to be developed.

Well welcome to the future.

Oak Ridge National Lab has created a prototype drive system that has the same components used in traditional electric vehicles which could provide a much faster charge than typical outlets that people find in their homes. The new onboard battery charger costs about $300 for a slow charge rate of two kilowatts, but the technology could replace faster 20 KW chargers, which can cost several thousand dollars. It will also enable electric vehicles to hold electrical energy in the battery when the power grid has surplus power (primarily in off-peak hours), meaning that power trickle problems could be a thing of the past.

At any rate, it means that your vehicle can charge faster and hold a charge longer if this pans out. Cool, huh?

And here I thought that Ford had everything figured out.

I guess that’s a bit unfair, though – Ford has been doing a lot of things right, I’ll give them that, but this just kind of stuck with me. Ford bought the Volvo brand for $6 billion back in 199, and Ford shareholders thought that it was going to be a great way to break into the Swedish car market. But now that money’s tight, Ford has to sell the Volvo name, and it’s asking price is only $1.8 billion, which – you guessed it – means Ford is losing a lot of money on the deal.

But it’s not just a straight up loss; rather, Ford is going to be losing a lot more revenue because, believe it or not, the Volvo brand made some money, just not enough for Ford to keep it alive. They’re selling it to a major automobile manufacturer in China, where the auto industry is booming, to say the least. But Ford has seen rapid declines in cities like Los Angeles, where small hybrid cars are fast becoming the norm, and their only choice was to sell. The sale is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, and Ford will own zero percent of Volvo once the transaction is complete.

The GS Yuasa Corporation is planning on boosting their annual production of lithium-ion batteries ten fold over the next two years to meet the demand for their product. The plan is to produce enough batteries to equip 9,000 electric vehicles through March 2011 and will raise production to over 20,000 in 2012, according to a statement by GS Yuasa’s president. The company has already partnered with Honda and Mitsubishi to make the power cells for electric and hybrid vehicles and is getting strong order signals from other car makers as well.

The plan is to add more production lines and improve efficiency in order to meet the demand – they’ll also be extending their operating hours at existing plants, and new plants may be on the way. Nationwide vehicle transport companies have seen vehicles with the company’s lithium-ion fuel cells ship like hotcakes, and that’s just the top of the iceberg. However, the Toyota recall has hurt the company slightly as Toyota was a major buyer, but they are expecting demand to continue to increase through 2012 and even further.

Here’s an odd thing – Nissan was pretty quiet about the new Leaf, it’s full-electric vehicle that’s expected to hit dealership showrooms by 2011, at the most recent NADA conference in Orlando. No questions were asked about the Leaf despite no one knowing anything on how Nissan is planning on marketing it, what sort of dealer training will need to take place, the challenges and opportunities that the vehicle presents, or anything else. What about the chargers for the vehicle? These are questions that should have been answered well before the NADA conference, but so far no details have yet been shown regarding the Leaf aside from what it looks like.

The Leaf is expected to launch in the third quarter of 2010 in limited markets in the United States, and some dealers have already received them. Companies who deal with auto transport for dealers have reported that Leaf models have landed in dealer store rooms, but none are currently on sale as of yet. But here’s something to think about: maybe the Nissan dealers already know the ins and outs of the vehicle, and Nissan is just sitting on the information…it could be. Or it could be that Nissan has found a problem that they have yet to fix and don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.

I’m just speculating here – it could be all of the above or none of the above. But either way, Nissan took a “ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies” policy at the NADA conference, it seems. Only time will tell how well the Leaf will sell in the coming months.

Fuel cells are fast becoming the rage – ask any nationwide vehicle transport companies who have been following the news closely for the past ten years. Fuel cell light vehicles are expected to be commercially available worldwide by 2014, and by 2020 sales are expected to reach over 670,000. The United States will still be the largest market for commercial and personal fuel cell vehicles, with expected number over 134,000; this is closely followed by China and Germany.

Pike Research ran the numbers, and the numbers are looking pretty good. Alternative energies currently account for just a fraction of the vehicles sold – I myself don’t own one, but that could change in the next ten years. Just think: over the past ten years, we’ve gone from thinking that Willie Nelson was a crackpot for powering his tour bus with fry grease from McDonalds to actually thinking that’s a good idea. It just goes to show you what the human race is capable of when we’re pushed to the limits.

AT&T is fast moving toward its goal of a fleet of 15,000 fuel-efficient vehicles after adding its record-setting 1,000^th alternative energy vehicle. This currently accounts for 1.2% of their entire fleet of 77,000 vehicles (hey, I didn’t have to do the math this time!), and the company is spending another $565 million on its plan to add even more fuel-efficient vehicles by 2018. Their new fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles, which includes vehicles powered by electricity, biofuel and natural gas, will save 49 million gallons of gas over ten years and will reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons.

The company is also stating that it will replace 7,100 passenger vehicles with alternative energy models by 2019, which is great news for any companies that do auto transport for dealers as they will need to ship those vehicles. Other companies are also getting into the whole alternative-energy thing, with UPS saying that it has almost 2,000 alternative energy vehicles, and the United States Postal Service has also made strides by signing contracts with both Bright and ZAP to convert their fleet into electric vehicles.

Alternative energy is the way of the future, friends – come find it!

Remember how we said that Bright had a contract with the United States Postal Service a while back? Well, ZAP does too – they’re going to be designing, developing and implementing a series of electric postal trucks. ZAP will be converting current gasoline trucks to run on electricity for initial use in the Santa Rosa, California facilities, and then the converted vehicles will undergo field trials in Washington, D.C. later this year.

We spoke about this before with Bright, who is doing the same thing. It looks like the two companies, while not working together, per se, will be working in tandem as each will take a different section of the fleet’s field operations and converting the trucks. Currently the USPS consumers 444 million of gallons of fuel per year, which costs roughly $1.1 billion; the plan to convert the vehicles will definitely help lower the bottom line for the USPS. And nationwide vehicle transport companies – some of which ship USPS vehicles via government contracts – are excited about the new conversions, especially since a ton of vehicles are going to have to go to D.C. for field trials.

Could be. If you don’t know what “range anxiety” is, don’t fear – I didn’t either until I stumbled upon this news article from MSNBC. Range anxiety is the idea that people will get anxious of a full electric vehicle’s range and get stranded in the middle of nowhere without a power station in sight. But experts are saying that range anxiety could be a thing of the past, as new studies of drivers who have electric cars have shown that they prefer the convenience of charging at home, despite the limited range of many electric vehicles.

Nationwide auto transport companies have noticed a shift in the vehicle paradigm in the United States. More and more electric vehicles are making their way into the driveways of American buyers, especially in larger cities such as New York and Los Angeles. The 100 mile range, which is fast becoming the industry standard, was enough to satisfy all 150 drivers of the new BMW MiniE electric prototype, and most found that the range stated was actually…well, accurate. This is another great thing for the electric car industry and could be a statement of things to come in the future.

The new 2011 Ford Mustang isn’t your typical muscle car – it doesn’t eat gas, for one, and for another it’s actually a pretty rad car. According to the EPA, the new V6 Mustang gets 305 horsepower and 31 miles per gallon on the highway – this is the first car in history to provide more than 300 horsepower while returning more than 30 miles per gallon. Ford dealers already have some in stock and companies who offer auto transport for dealers have seen these moving quite fast – well, the 2010 models anyway.

The coolest thing about the new Mustang is the fact that its 3.7L V6 engine is made of aluminum to reduce weight, which helps keep the fuel economy of the vehicle so high. It also features a cold-air induction system as well as variable cam timing to optimize efficiency in the long term. Ford has also tweaked the vehicle’s gear ratios and shift program in the transmission to maximize fuel economy. This could rekindle the famous muscle car war between Ford, Dodge, Pontiac and Chevy, which was quite famous in the 1960’s and 70’s, and could bring Detroit back to the forefront of many car enthusiasts’ minds.

So right on Ford. Another notch in their belt.

Rolling chassis are not uncommon – makers such as Rolls Royce and Cadillac have previously offered rolling chassis options for specialty coachbuilders to add custom bodies and the like. However, the idea has died out in recent years, due mainly to cost and the fact that the average consumer doesn’t care a whole lot about adding a different body to a chassis when they could buy the entire car for a modest price. Trexa, however, plans to change that.

They’re now planning to offer a versatile electric vehicle platform in 2011 for just $16,000 – the platform uses welded and bonded aluminum as well as carbon steel tubing covered by a fiber-reinforced thermoplastics shell, making the platform both modular and scalable. It will also offer a recyclable lithium-ion phosphate battery pack with an advanced battery management system. Enclosed auto transport companies have long been looking for something like this for their fleets – this new idea would allow for more customization in the long run and would be best suited for people looking for a new look, perhaps. Distances that the vehicles can travel range from a small, 25 mile battery to a 125 mile battery (this is single charge, of course). But we’ll just wait and watch for now – Trexa has its mind set on this, and we’re hoping they deliver.