It was at that time that the Toyota eQ, a full electric version of the iQ minicar, was revealed to the world. This was supposed to start a much larger trend toward pure electrics, but “two years later, there are many difficulties,” according to Toyota vice-chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada. “The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society’s needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge.”

Yes, we’ve seen the launch of such vehicles as the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, but Toyota is going to spend more time working on what it already does best: hybrids. The Toyota Prius is the first car that comes to the mind of consumers when it comes to gas-electric hybrid cars and Toyota plans on furthering that established leadership. In fact, they are expecting to have 21 hybrid cars in the lineup by 2015, 14 of which will be all-new. They want to have a hybrid variant of every vehicle they sell.

The plug-in hybrid market hasn’t been very good for Toyota either. They wanted to sell between 35,000 and 40,000 Prius plug-in hybrids in 2012 in Japan, but they have only sold 8,400 to date. It’s no wonder that they really want to focus on their bread and butter of “conventional” gas-electric hybrids.

With the wider rollout of the eQ city car put on hold, Toyota is now left with just one pure electric in the form of the all-electric RAV4, an SUV that it co-developed with Tesla Motors. They’re looking to sell about 2,600 of those in the next three years.

[Source]

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They say that one of the bigger reasons why electric cars haven’t soared in popularity is the lack of infrastructure. When you have a relatively shorter range on a “full tank” of electricity, you need to be sure that there’s somewhere you can charge up along the way. The Government of British Columbia agrees.

In fact, the BC government is partially funding the creation of 454 new electric vehicle charging stations around the province. They’ll be built by businesses, community groups and local governments, giving drivers of cars like the plug-in Prius and the Nissan Leaf somewhere to “top up” while on the go. Not surprisingly, these charging stations will be mostly located in major points of interest like malls, city halls and hotels.

Among the organizations set to install these charging stations are Best Buy (Burnaby), the City of Chilliwack, the City of New Westminster, the District of Tofino, Ridge Meadows Hospital, Metro Vancouver, Thompson Rivers University, Vancity (Coquitlam), Vancouver Airport Authority and WorkSafeBC (Richmond). The 168 government-run ones will be public charging stations, of course, though it’s unclear whether these stations will be completely free for the end consumer. The remaining 286 electric fuelling stations are receiving 75 percent funding.

“We’re providing more accessibility for electric vehicle owners,” said Environment Minister Terry Lake, “so that they can have the convenience of charging up at Brentwood Town Centre here in Burnaby and of course different locations across the province.”

[Source]

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After decades of electric cars being avoided by manufacturers, it seems that recently electric cars are really starting to go somewhere (pardon the awful pun). A combination of improving electric batteries and increasing gas prices have likely lead to this change. Competition is fierce in the automotive industry, Nissan and Ford are both offering vehicles that use electric batteries. And now Honda looks to be joining the electric party with its 2013 Honda Fit EV. The all electric Honda hatchback runs on a 20-kilowatt-hour li-ion battery and high-density 92-kilowatt coaxial electric motor. The coaxial electric motor is actually derived from the motor in the Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle. Onboard a 6.6-kilowatt 32-amp charger allows for convenient recharging. When paired with a 240-volt charging port, the Fit EV can fully recharge in as little as three hours. A full charge can travel about 123 miles, which is higher than both the Nissan Leaf and Ford’s all-electric Focus.

The Fit EV will start rolling out in the summer of 2012 to a limited market in California and Oregon, and will spread out to at least six undisclosed East Coast markets in early 2013. The lease payment will target $399 a month for three years and is based on a $36,625 price point.

The downside to the Honda of course is that they are only targeting 1,100 units over the first three years of production. Also keep in mind that with the Honda Clarity only 50 cars have actually made their way into the hands of leasees even though there was an initial queue of over 80,000 interested customers.

Vehicles aren’t the gas-guzzling machines they used to be as hybrid and even all-electric methods are becoming more commonplace than ever before.

Overall, the Fit looks like another interesting electric option. Is the electric car the wave of the future or just a temporary trend that will be replaced by another emerging technology? Only time will tell for sure.

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You might remember my article from a couple years ago when I said that plug-in electric cars are not the future. Even so, there is a big push toward hybrids and electrics these days and it really represents the resurgence of a pre-existing idea. As such, a documentary has been made and it is titled, appropriately enough, Revenge of the Electric Car. A follow up to the 2006 film Who Killed The Electric Car?

Almost taking a Michael Moore-like approach, the new movie talks about how “as many as 5,000 modern electric cars were destroyed by the major car companies that build them” in 2006, but now the electric car is back “with a vengeance.” It features exclusive interviews with people like Bob Lutz of GM, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan-Renault, and Elon Musk of Tesla. Between them, we see cars like the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Roadster.

The documentary opens on October 21 in New York (Landmark Sunshine Cinema) and Los Angeles (Landmark Nuart), with more screens across the country taking on the picture in the days and months to follow. These include Nashville, Portland, Scottsdale, Houston, Detroit (how appropriate!), Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, Honolulu, and more.

Check out the trailer below.

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Nissan messed up. Though naysayers hate on electric vehicles because of low ranges, lack of refueling stations on every corner and expensive batteries, things looked promising for the all-electric Leaf. The EV has won several car awards, including the 2011 European Car of the Year and the 2011 World Car of the Year, and currently ranks as the most efficient EPA certified vehicle for all fuels ever. The EV has received praise from critics and was met with enthusiasm from consumers. But now Nissan has dropped customers from the waiting list for the car and asked them to reapply, if a USA Today report is to be believed. This has angered customers who have been waiting for months for the car and have faced multiple delays.

Customers have described delivery dates being moved back several months, and some fear they might have to wait too long and no longer be able to obtain federal tax credits to make the car more affordable. There were 20,000 pre-orders in the United States for the vehicle’s debut, which led Nissan to stop taking orders until they had shipped out the existing orders. On May 1st, Nissan reopened reservations to US customers in certain states. Folks itching for a Leaf have been waiting for months now, and we’ll see if they’re willing to wait even longer for their zero-emissions car.

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You decided to do your part for the environment and buy a shiny new electrified Nissan Leaf. You’re cruising down the highway, amazed at how quiet the car is, then, something out of the ordinary happens. You run out of juice. Now what do you do without your 200 Amp, 240 Volt charging station near by?

Range anxiety could become more of an issue than many may think, for companies selling the EVs, they believe it is something to take into consideration. This is why the Japan Automobile Federation hopes to eliminate much of those fears that keep many people skeptical and wary of EVs. If my Leaf will only run for 75-130 miles on a charge, what’s going to happen next? We’re used to gas stations being positioned on nearly every street corner, so we can expect our gas to be there. But with EVs under the $50k mark, we’re not going to get the range of say a Tesla Roadster (250 miles). Although most people do not commute more than 33.4 miles a day, on average. So why all the anxiety? Perhaps its those road trips, the off time when we’d like to just take off and go for a while. With that in mind, Nissan is running a trial in Japan where roadside service vehicles carry an EV charger with them. Nissan built the prototype service truck which will charge EV drivers who don’t have enough juice to get home. The trial started in  Kanagawa Prefecture this week, which uses a Nissan Leaf as its governor’s official car. JAF will deploy the roadside service vehicle with the charger from its Kanagawa branch office. In December 2010, JAF conducted roadside assistance training for EVs using a Nissan Leaf at the Nissan Education Center for its staff from throughout Japan. They also initiated practical roadside service training across Japan using other EVs beside the Leaf. Will it come to the US? Only time and stranded EV drivers will tell.

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Couple the price cut with federal tax incentives and GM’s flagship electric car will cost less than $30,000 — ready to compete with not only the $32,780 Nissan Leaf EV, but conventional mid- and high-end cars too.

“As with any new technology — from plasma TVs to cell phones — the production costs lower with learnings gained with each generation,” said GM spokesman Robert Peterson. “We expect to see similar cost savings, either through the development or improvement of technologies, or reduced production costs.”

GM sold 647 Volts in the first two months of the car’s release, but hopes to triple the rate of sales between 2012 and 2015 to at least 135,000 units per year. This, they say, will cut electric-drive costs by diluting research and development investments in a larger production volume.

Plans so far are to build 25,000 Volts this year, rising to 120,000 in 2012, but the numbers fall short of the 250,000 names GM collected from those interested in the Volt.

By comparison, Nissan sold only 87 Leafs in the U.S. in January, showing GM has garnered a strong interest for the next era of electric vehicles. I think it’s safe to say we can expect more of this good news in the future.

[Edmunds]

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They’re not exactly forthcoming with all the juicy details, but the yet to be named electric cargo van from Nissan will be similar ot the Ford Transit Connect Electric. You don’t need any gas or diesel, relying instead on a pure electric powertrain.

Since Nissan already has the technology in place with the Leaf subcompact, all they have to do is make a beefier version, shoehorn it into a commercial van frame, strip out some of the creature comforts, and away you go. This sounds like a good idea, but I think it could have one very big hitch.   Delivery vans tend to only drive within a limited area, but they still do a lot of driving each day. If you think about using it as a Fedex delivery truck, for example, that guy probably covers a fair bit of ground over the course of a single shift. Can the all-electric Nissan van have enough range on a single charge to cover the whole shift? How quickly can it recharge? Or will they have a hot-swap battery configuration?  Those are key issues that Nissan will need to address by 2013.

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Regardless, you can expect a good supply of Leafs to come in stateside. Nissan is “still targeting 25000 reservations by December 2010 and will be able deliver most during (the) model year” said Director of Product Planning and Strategy, Mark Perry.  Most of these numbers are based on actual orders and reservations, Nissan will have a “solid forecast” in a few months.

Nissan to Deliver Most Cars From Reservation List in Model Year 2011 [Nissan Leaf Blog]

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Nissan Leaf electric car coming December 2010

The sale of Nissan’s new hatchback electric car, the Leaf (acronym for Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable, Family Car) is set to begin in December 2010.

The four door electric car is powered by a 480 pound lithium ion battery pack. With a range of about 100 miles per fill, and a fill time of between 8 and 16 hours depending on the outlets used, the Leaf is primarily aimed towards city driving.

If the Leaf sounds like the car for you now’s the time to place a pre-order as initial worldwide production targets are not particularly high. So far more than 17,000 pre-orders have been placed in the USA and Japan, a number that should take the first half of 2011 to fill.

Nissan will initially produce the Leaf in a Japanese plant, and is planning on opening additional plants in the USA and England. Once all plants are up and running worldwide production target of about 200,000 a year can be expected.

The Leaf is being marketed as “zero emissions”, though on Nissan’s website there’s a small disclaimer at the bottom of the page adding “at the tail pipe”. The Leaf will create zero emissions at the tail pipe as it doesn’t actually burn fuel, a feature that helps to keep city air smog free. But the Leaf will certainly not be pollution free. In the USA 70% of power plants run on either coal or natural gas, both which produce their fare share of emissions. As lithium ion battery packs begin to lose charge capacity after several months of use, and have a very limited life span, the target production of battery packs will be significantly higher than that of cars.  As sales of electric cars, such as the Leaf, increase we can expect to see hundreds of thousands of battery packs in the land fill or otherwise being disposed of.

The Leaf will be priced at roughly $33,000 US, though many countries and states will be offering zero emissions tax deductions. A federal tax deduction of $7,500 US will lower the American price to around $25,500 per unit, many states such as California will offer further tax deductions helping to make the Leaf an affordable electric car.

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