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GE To Buy 25,000 EVs, Starting With the Chevy Volt
DeviceGuru writes "In what's claimed as the largest-ever single electric vehicle commitment, GE plans to acquire 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015. The buying spree will initially involve 12,000 GM vehicles, beginning with GM's Chevy Volt in 2011. By converting most of its own 30,000-strong global fleet, and promoting EV adoption among its 65,000 global fleet customers, GE hopes to be in a strong position to help deploy the vehicles' supporting infrastructure, including charging stations, circuit protection equipment, and transformers. In contrast to the all-electric Nissan Leaf, the Volt implements a small gas engine, which can recharge the vehicle's battery to extend its range beyond the 100 mile limit of all-electric cars like the Leaf, leading some to question the Volt's EV credentials."
GE plans to acquire 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015.
Do corporations get the same tax break as consumers do for electric vehicles?
If so, then GE could get a $187,500,000 tax credit (25,000 * $7,500) in the process.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
The new Tesla Roadster claims that it can do 245 miles on a single charge ... and it's a hell of a lot cooler than a volt! 100 miles on a charge, pfft! :)
I was wondering for a long time why fleet vehicles that stop and start every couple blocks were not electric since it seems like electricity would work best in well managed systems more than for consumers. But instead it's the personal vehicle that is the first to do this at scale. I suspect the answer to my query is pretty basic: namely delivery vehicles have to travel more miles on one route than electric storage can sustain. Or does someone have a better explanation of this hole.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It wouldn't need thousands of dollars per car in subsidies to get people or companies to buy it - from a company that was nationalized and is now owned by that very government.
Yay for statist government-imposed crony-capitalism "solutions".
Depends on where you are. In the Scandinavian regions, there is a huge tax break for electric vehicles. However, a Chevy Volt would not count as an electric vehicle there because it has an ICE that comes on automatically as part of normal operation. However, if they make a variant that forces the driver to manually turn on the ICE, then they will count it as an electric vehicle with a backup generator. There's one problem with the Volt though. The engine directly generates torque for the wheels. I will be very curious to find out if that will prevent it from being classified as an EV.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
It means the ICE does not run at a fixed rpm. This pretty much kills the whole point of a series hybrid.
You are also now going to have parasitic drag from that coupling or whatever you use to disconnect it at all times. The real losses is going ICE->Batts-> Elec motor-> drive train -> wheels.
A transmission in an Elec car seems pretty ass backwards.
And with a top speed of ~70MPH. The gearing means the electric motor hits top RPM right around there, and without another source of power you're not going any faster.
Ignoring the fact that you'll need a "kit" to convert the Volt as well, the Prius can (and does) run just fine in all-electric mode. Basically the procedure is the same for both vehicles: remove the ICE and lock the shaft it used to be connected to. Presto, both are now pure EVs.
The only difference is the Prius uses an electrically assisted ICE, and the Volt uses an ICE assisted electric motor. It is also not possible to use the Volt's engine as a generator without the vehicle moving, which I'm not sure counts as a good thing or not.
=Smidge=
I can see a family with two cars getting one all-electric vehicle. Probably 90% of the driving my family does is within the round-trip range of an EV. But right now I'm not seeing a really mass-market EV. An EV should be cheaper to manufacture than a gasoline powered car if you compare the complexities of the drive systems. EV: Battery, electric motor, differential and final drive system. Gasoline engine: Battery, ignition system, fuel tank, fuel pumps, fuel injectors, air intake, air filter, intake manifold, pistons, crankshaft, valves, cam shaft, coolant pumps, radiator, coolant thermometer, exhaust pipes, EGR valves, muffler, catalytic converter, flywheel, clutch, transmission, differential and final drives. The number of moving parts in a gasoline engine that need lubrication is huge. In an electric motor there is one. Lithium batteries are somewhat exotic and expensive but so are the precious metals they put in your catalytic converter.
I think the manufacturers are happier selling you a hybrid vehicle with two engine systems and charging you more than a gasoline powered car instead of selling you an all electric vehicle and charging less. Or they'd rather make a pure EV that is so exotic they can charge Porsche prices for it, like the Tesla. The only possible exception coming soon is the Nissan Leaf. It'll be interesting to see how Nissan does with it.
Solar + EV = win. A neighbor of mine did this and his average bill is negative $2/month. Having an EV car shortens the solar panel system installation ROI period considerably.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Yes, there is. The last link in the summary even goes to a page with a diagram of the central planetary gear set. The engine can, and does, drive the wheels directly under certain conditions.
To quote said article:
"Once the Volt’s battery is depleted, the engine fires up and clutches to the generator to produce the power required to drive the car. Above 70 mph, when the generator couples to the ring gear, the engine gets a more efficient direct mechanical connection to the wheels."
=Smidge=
Diesel is way to expensive to run even a decent size business generator on much less a power plant.
Just slightly more expensive. Where I work is 100% diesel generator power, has been for the last 15 years, with several hundred employees running computers, welders, air conditioning, etc. The cost has worked out to about $.26 /kwHr. My last home bill worked out to be $.24 / Kwhr when I divide the final bill by the electric used. Because my company also builds generators it does give a opportunity to test their generators. The previous job I had in the same area had much less reliable power from the grid, so overall Diesel generator is more expensive, not sure it qualifies as way more. Definitely not too expensive.
Problem is, you 'second' car will usually have to be an SUV or something like it to fit all your family. And likely it'll be still used daily.
So it's quite often more efficient to have two mid-range cars with good fuel efficiency then an SUV and an electric car.
That's where Chevy Volt shines - it can replace both of these mid-range cars, cutting you average fuel use almost to zero while allowing you to have unlimited range if it's required.
Here's a cite for you: The island I live on has (almost) all of it's power provided by RECO, using Wärtsilä generators (disregarding the very low adoption of PV and wind, and the couple of gas stations that run their own generators).
According to the first link, RECO burns 15,000 gallons of diesel a day providing the power for this island, according to the second, it's one of 1550 such power plants around the world (specificly using Wärtsilä generators.).
Now, as you pointed out, this is a rather expensive way to go for power generation, but it's certainly done. Of course, the reason this makes any sense if because this is a relatively small island 50 miles off the coast of Honduras, we can't afford the infrastructure needed for a more efficient means of power generation.
Finally, in the interests of full disclosure, I will note that RECO was recently (3 or 4 years ago) bought out by an investor who has been investing massive amounts of money into it, and once he's done bringing the distribution infrastructure up to snuff, he's announced plans to change over to biomass generation.
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
Yes, it's absolutely possible to do better, however I would point out that there are a few key differences between Samsø and Roatán.
First, Samsø has a population of 4,300 according to wikipedia, whereas Roatán has a popultation of 30,000 according to wikipedia, and depending on who you talk to around here, the estimates go as high as 90,000 (The concept of a census is only loosely applied here.)
Second, the PPP GDP of Denmark is ~200B (Per capita ~31K), while the GDP of Honduras is ~15B, (Per capita ~3K).
Finally the conversion to wind power of Samsø was (as I understand it), largely funded by grants from the Danish Government, while for various lingering political reasons Roatán (and the bay islands in general) are the red headed step-children of Honduras.
So, to summarize, Samsø has at most 1/6th of the people to provide power to, has per capita income approximately 10x greater, and the government was actually willing to spend some of that money on the island.
This is more apples to oranges than apples to apples.
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.