US Asks VW For Electric Cars (news.com.au)

US authorities have asked the German carmaker Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the United States as a way of making up for its rigging of emission tests. German newspaper Welt am Sonntag claims the US Environmental Protection Agency is currently in talks with Volkswagen with the aim of agreeing on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up to 40 times legal pollution limits. The paper, which gave no source for its report on Sunday, said the EPA was asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to help build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles in the United States.

Comments

This is good because of network nature

[JoshuaZ]

This is a very good solution. Rather than just try to slap VW with a fine that they'd shrug off, this would use the resources to help push the entire car market into a better environmental situation and one that is less dependent on fossil fuels as a whole. Electric cars are a technology which works better when there are more electric cars and more charging stations. This is essentially a networking effect. So the resulting push by having another major manufacturer make more electric cars will be substantially more positive than simply fining them.

Re:This is good because of network nature

[haruchai]

When you break the law and get caught, the gov't gets to tell you a lot of things you can & can't do.

Re:This is good because of network nature

[frnic]

I am not sure what planet you live on, governments tell companies what they can and can not do all the time, and should. DO you have seat belts, air bags, catalytic convectors? Does your refrigerator not have a locking dock, does your new house have lead based paint, do you kids toys have lead based paint, do you drink clean water? I could go on for hours, but you would simply say they should do any of that stuff, people should take care of painting their own homes and processing their own water...

But, whatever works for you.

Re:This is good because of network nature

[legoleg]

Elon Musk had the same idea:
http://news.slashdot.org/story...

Re: This is good because of network nature

[Christian Smith]

I'm good with VW paying the fine, just as I had to do when I broke the speeding & stop light laws.

... Of course VW could turn this to their advantage and into a win - making me think of how the record companies instance on DRM helped make iTunes a dominant player in the downloadable music market (maybe this is not the right analogy, but this is the thought that pops into my mind).

You must be new here. We explain computer issues with car analogies, not the other way round.

Re:This is good because of network nature

[Smidge204]

Except it wouldn't be a new product.

VW has been teasing an all-electric Golf for a few years now, including auto show appearances, but has been dragging their feet bringing it to market. The 2016 e-Golf is only available at select dealers in a handful of states.

They *have* the product, they just aren't selling it 'cause their bread-n-butter is internal combustion. So the choice is a few billion in fines, or a few billion in getting serious about selling electric cars. ...and the fine won't do anything to offset the environmental damage done, which is what the requirements were for in the first place. It's not only an equitable solution, it's a logical one that actually fulfills the purpose of the law that was broken.
=Smidge=

Re: This is good because of network nature

[Frosty Piss]

I think that's irrelevant. Whatever standards where in place by the Powers That Be here in the US, those are the standards. VW broke the rules in a calculated way. These cars, if not fixed, will have negligible resale value and if fixed, still a lesser resale value. They were sold to customers under dishonest false pretenses (redundant?) and these customers deserve compensation up to and including a full refund.

VW must be punished for this dishonesty in a way that discourages them from ever doing this again (as well as discouraging other from doing this as well), and a fine does not cut it because a fine is simply "the cost of doing business". What the US is asking is something that will not be forgotten by VW.

Only electric in test mode

[dfn5]

As it turns out, the new VW electric cars will only be electric in test mode.

Re:VW asks US to resume rare earth mining

[Firethorn]

That may be true but I suspect the motor uses plenty of rare earth metals. While the GPP may have where those metals end up in the car wrong they do end up in the car somewhere.

Your suspicions are most likely incorrect, unless you count copper as a rare earth metal. Most serious EV vehicles use AC motors. This is explicitly true for Tesla. No rare earths are required for it's motor.

FTA: Unlike the DC brushless rotor, the induction rotor has no magnets – just stacked steel laminations with buried peripheral conductors that form a “shorted structure.”

It's the hybrids that are using DC motors that need magnets, preferably rare earth ones.

An electric motor can certainly be made without rare earth metals but it will be heavier and less efficient.

Not when you want performance, or go over a certain performance level:

Thus, the induction machine when operated with a smart inverter has an advantage over a DC brushless machine – magnetic and conduction losses can be traded such that efficiency is optimized. This advantage becomes increasingly important as performance is increased. With DC brushless, as machine size grows, the magnetic losses increase proportionately and part load efficiency drops. With induction, as machine size grows, losses do not necessarily grow. Thus, induction drives may be the favored approach where high-performance is desired; peak efficiency will be a little less than with DC brushless, but average efficiency may actually be better.

Diesel engines rule the road, rail, and sea.

Speaking of rails... Have you heard of the "Diesel-electric transmission"? They've been in nearly all locomotives for many decades. We've had diesel electric ships since 1903, and their use is becoming more popular.

The concept is simple enough. Rather than having a mechanical gearbox, you hook your diesel engines up to a generator, then run power lines to electric motors that power the wheels. The diesel provides the energy, the motors provide the power for movement.

Well, let me know when electric tractor/trailers are on the market.

Consider yourself informed.

Until we get batteries that can compete with fuel oil and diesel fuel on weight, volume, and cost we will continue to see electric vehicles as novelties and penis size compensators.

Not really, the weight and energy density of diesel is not necessary for all applications, and batteries have (recently) become cheap enough that electric is finally cheaper than diesel - at least in the applications most suited for them. Tesla is looking to cut costs in half again for their batteries, allowing them to break into the market a step down from the luxury section.

Saying that electric won't be suitable for semi-tractor trailers anytime soon is like saying that jet engines aren't suited for use because they can't reach the moon. Long haul tractor trailers are the most demanding common application I can think of, the most suited for diesel. Long before they go electric, it will be highly practical and economical for 99% of consumer automobiles to be electric. Including trucks such as UPS delivery vehicles.