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DJAus
Athlor
When you take into account that these filling stations won't be used nearly as ...
Video: Tesla, Coda race to electric sedans
Rick Merritt
4/22/2011 2:56 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Electric vehicle makers Tesla Motors and Coda Automotive are racing to deliver five-passenger sedans sometime in the next several months. Executives from the two companies talked about their efforts at the GreenNet Conference here Thursday (April 21).
The Tesla Model S uses an all aluminum body to lower weight and a new battery pack mounted near the rear axle for stability, said Jerome Guillen, program manager for the car in a video. The car will be available early next year and includes a 17-inch display as part of its infotainment system, he said.
Coda (Santa Monica, Calif.) is both making its own sedan available before the end of the year and selling its battery pack design to other electric car makers. The car will get up to 120 miles on a charge and uses a custom-designed lithium ion cell, said Chris Paulson, vice president of corporate strategy and business development for Coda in another video.
Coda has a partnership with a battery maker in China expected to deliver as many as 100,000 car-sized packs a year. It also has submitted a request for a U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) loan to set up a battery plant in Ohio that would make an additional 20,000 packs/year.
Coda has raised $200 million in capital to date and plans to raise another $50 million, said Paulson. Coda's battery partner in China is Lishen Power Battery and its China car assembly partner is ChangAn Hafei.
OnStar has a lab dedicated to the Chevy Volt where it has developed smartphone apps that can remotely activate a charger already plugged into the car or remind a customer to plug in a car if the battery is low. OnStar is also working with Google and the DoE to provide in-vehicle maps of EV charging stations.
Eventually both OnStar and Ford said they will open up their platforms to third party developers, but both expressed caution in doing so given traditional concerns about car safety.
"We will see all kinds of innovation in this space," said Nick Pudar, vice president of planning and business development at OnStar. "One of areas will be to pull detailed diagnostic and energy-consumption information from the car to educate customers on their use," he said.
A Ford executive said the company has extended its partnership with Microsoft on its in-car Synch infotainment system to cover development of software to make EV charging features easier for customers to use.
Tesla showed its Roadster at GreenTech.
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selinz
4/22/2011 8:07 PM EDT
Well, I don't know how practical this car is but it sure meets my "oh that's cool" requirements!
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DrQuine
4/22/2011 10:26 PM EDT
I'm intrigued by the comment about a 17" infotainment display. That sounds like a significant portion of the driver's windshield view. Is it going to serve as a tempting alternative to watching the road while driving? I'm also wondering about the charger connectors. I recall reading a Volt review that mentioned the charging stations offered by the EV maps used the wrong plug. Are the plug standards getting sorted out or can they provide multiple plug configurations at the chargers to support all vehicles?
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elctrnx_lyf
4/24/2011 9:49 AM EDT
The display size sounds so big for a driver dashboard applications. Isn't such a huge display is a disturbance to the driver. Otherwise the car looks cool and I wish the EV becomes more matured in the next three years to provide high efficient and economic cars.
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elctrnx_lyf
4/24/2011 9:51 AM EDT
Is any of these cars actually employ the innovation of using different motors for individual wheels. I remember a company from china is actually developing this technology to actually make high efficient cars with respect to the battery consumption. Is it tesla or some other company?
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Brad Pierce
4/24/2011 12:59 PM EDT
Like the Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner_Porsche .
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agk
4/24/2011 11:09 AM EDT
The author of this article says many innovations will come in this sector.But the important genuine innovation will be the one who ever gives lower cost and higher running miles.
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Hunter Hu
4/25/2011 4:20 AM EDT
Personally I think the biggest barrier for widespread of electric caar is the charging period of the car-size pack battery. I can't endure around 1 hour battery charging before driving.
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rick.merritt
4/25/2011 11:03 AM EDT
@Hunter: I agree. Even the future goal of fast (partial) charging publoic stations require a 15 minute stop, very different behavior from today's gas station stop--and it could take years to get wide availability of such stations.
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crwilliams
4/25/2011 5:24 PM EDT
On the other hand, if you look at people driving mostly on superhighways then when they stop for gas the often also eat/drink/visit bathroom. This typically takes anywhere from 30m to 1h, and is the vehicle could be 'plugged in' all this time then making that small change in behavior (from the gas-up last of all paradigm) might make charging workable.
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Duane Benson
4/25/2011 5:48 PM EDT
15 minutes for charging is bad enough in today's overly rushed environment. But it's not just the wait time per car. It's also an increase in the number of connections per "filling station." If you have the same number of customers and each takes three or more times longer to service, you'll have to have three or more times the number of charge connections.
Either that or price your electricity high enough to make up for the limited car through-put.
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Athlor
4/26/2011 12:45 AM EDT
When you take into account that these filling stations won't be used nearly as often, I think the system will work. Most people will do just fine charging at home overnight and only using the filling stations on rare occasions like going on a trip.
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DJAus
4/27/2011 3:25 AM EDT
Back to the future!
Henry Ford's wife drove an electric car!
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