11-13-2010 Li-ion battery news

Nissan Recalls More Than 600,000 Vehicles

Associated Press
DETROIT—Nissan Motor Co. is recalling more than 600,000 vehicles in North and South America and Africa due to steering or battery cable problems.
The Japanese auto maker said Thursday that the steering recall affects 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks and 283,000 Xterra sport utility vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Nissan said a corrosion problem with the lower steering column joint and shaft can limit steering movement, making the vehicles difficult to steer. In some cases the corrosion can cause the joint to crack.
Nissan also is recalling 18,500 Sentra sedans because of a battery cable terminal connector problem that can make the cars difficult to start or stall at low speeds.
The company says no injuries or accidents have been reported because of either issue.
The Frontiers covered by the recall are from the 2002 through 2004 model years and were made from July 9, 2001, to Oct. 20, 2004, in Smyrna, Tenn., for the North American market, Nissan said in a statement. Frontiers made from Nov. 30, 2001, to June 26, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are in the recall.
The 2002-2004 North American Xterras in the recall were made from July 9, 2001, to Jan. 6, 2005, also at the Smyrna plant.
Xterras made from Feb. 17, 2003, to June 13, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are affected.
Nissan also said it will replace the positive battery cable terminal on affected Sentras. The vehicles were built at the Aguascalientes, Mexico, plant from May 22, 2010 to July 8, 2010.
The auto maker said it will notify owners in early December when parts are available, and dealers will fix the problem at no cost to the owners.
Nissan said the steering problem was discovered from cases in Brazil and Canada, and there have been no field reports in the U.S.
"The isolated field reports from Brazil and Canada are likely related to some unique environmental conditions not commonly present in other areas, combined with a greater percentage of off-pavement usage," Nissan spokesman Colin Price said in an e-mail. "Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided that field action is appropriate in all the potentially affected markets."
About 240,000 Frontiers, 261,000 Xterras and 14,000 Sentras are affected in the U.S.

White House Confirms India Deals

Last week India Real Time posted a list of possible deals to be announced during President Barack Obama’s visit to India. An hour ahead of Mr. Obama’s address to CEOs in Mumbai, the White House announced the following deals, saying that they total almost $15 billion and will “support” 53,670 jobs. The following list of deals and details has been quoted verbatim from the official White House statement:
• Heavy Transport Aircraft: The Boeing Company and the Indian Air Force have reached preliminary agreement on the purchase of 10 C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, and are now in the process of finalizing the details of the sale. Once all have been delivered, the Indian Air Force will be the owner and operator of the largest fleet of C-17s outside of the United States. Boeing, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing reports that each C-17 supports 650 suppliers across 44 U.S. states and that this order will support Boeing’s C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year. This transaction is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 22,160 jobs.
• Engine Sale for the Light Combat Aircraft: On October 1, the General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was declared the lowest bidder and selected to negotiate a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the Tejas light combat aircraft. Upon finalizing the contract, General Electric’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and other sites across the United States will be positioned to export almost one billion dollars in high technology aerospace products. This transaction is tentatively valued at approximately $822 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 4,440 jobs.
• Commercial Aircraft Sale: Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and SpiceJet, a leading private airline in India, concluded a definitive agreement for the sale of 30 B737-800 commercial aircraft. SpiceJet currently operates 22 Boeing aircraft and has several 737 deliveries remaining from previous agreements. This new agreement will enable SpiceJet to offer more domestic routes and to begin offering international flights to neighboring countries. This transaction is valued at approximately $2.7 billion, based on catalogue prices, with an estimated $2.4 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 12,970 jobs.
• Gas and Steam Turbine Sale: The General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was selected to supply six advanced class 9FA gas turbines and three steam turbines for the 2,500-megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion to be constructed by Reliance Power Ltd., a division of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. General Electric purchases equipment from 240 suppliers across the United States—an estimated 14 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises—for every 9FA gas-fired turbine, which are assembled in Greenville, South Carolina. The combined equipment and maintenance contracts are valued at approximately $750 million, with an estimated $491 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 2,650 jobs.
• Reliance Power and U.S. Ex-Im Bank Agreement: Reliance Power Ltd., the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU will indicate Ex-Im Bank’s willingness to provide up to $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of U.S. goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 megawatts of gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 megawatts of renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.
• Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Venture: The United States has worldwide leaders in diesel locomotive manufacturing, and the Indian Ministry of Railways announced the prequalification of the sole two bidders—GE Transportation (Erie, Pennsylvania) and Electro-Motive Diesel (LaGrange, Illinois)—for a venture to manufacture and supply of 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years. The estimated U.S. content of this contract is expected to exceed $1B.
• Motorcycle Assembly Plant: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that preparations are underway to open a new plant in India for the assembly of Harley-Davidson motorcycles from U.S.-built “complete knock-down” kits. This investment by the company entails job creation in both the United States and India, and it will allow the company to reduce the tariff burden on its motorcycles for sale in the Indian market, driving sales growth by making its motorcycles more accessible to Indian consumers.
• Sale of U.S. Mining Equipment and Related Support Equipment: On October 21, the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced the approval of more than $900 million in export finance guarantees to Sasan Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd., supporting the sale of U.S. mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and other U.S. vendors, in association with the 3,960-megawatt coal-fired Sasan power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India. This financial commitment supports $641 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 3,460 jobs.
• Tunneling Equipment for Underground Water Channel: On July 22, Robbins Company, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, announced an agreement with UNITY-IVRCL, a large infrastructure engineering and construction conglomerate, to provide tunnel-boring machines, conveyer equipment, and associated technical services for the construction of tunnels to convey water for the city of Mumbai. Separately, through a contract signed in 2008 with Jaiprakash Associates, a large infrastructure conglomerate, the Robbins Company is already supplying high technology tunnel-boring machines and technical assistance to bore some of the longest underground tunnels in the world underneath a protected tiger sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh, which will increase irrigation for the production of cotton and other agricultural products. The Mumbai contract alone is valued at $10 million, with $7 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 35 jobs.
• Maharashtra Homeland Security Pilot Projects: Palantir Technologies, a small Silicon Valley software development firm, announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Maharashtra State Police, a law enforcement agency in India, to conduct a pilot program, whereby Palantir’s end-to-end analytical software platform will be used on a trial basis to identify and alert authorities to security threats in order to help keep the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra safe.
• Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta’s hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services. Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine.
• Long-range Antenna System for Rural Telecommunications: SPX Communication Technology, a division of SPX Corporation operating out of Raymond, Maine, is in the final phase of the pilot deployment of its long-range antenna system with two leading Indian mobile operators. This innovative technology has been shown to offer a significantly greater coverage area. Once implemented, it is expected to create significant economies of scale, thereby improving the economic viability of rural wireless networks and making wireless communications available for people who either could not afford service or who live in areas that lack coverage. The value of the initial trial equipment is expected to generate approximately $1 million, with 100 percent U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 5 jobs.
• Production Equipment for the Manufacture of Pre-fabricated Housing: Spancrete Machinery Corporation, a family-owned business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced the sale of six sets of its hollow core, precast production equipment, including installation, training, and after-sales support, to Hindustan Prefab Limited, a state-owned company within the Indian Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation. The production equipment will be used to manufacture inexpensive, prefabricated housing on a mass scale in India. Spancrete also is working with Somat Engineering, Inc., from Detroit, Michigan, and their affiliate, SP Infrastructure India Ltd., in New Delhi. This transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, all of which is U.S. export content. Based on the company’s estimates, the transaction will support 30 jobs.
• Cell Phone Rollout for Small Indian Businesses: Intuit, a company headquartered in Mountain View, California, which serves millions of small businesses worldwide, will launch a new mobile and web-based marketing service in partnership with Nokia, called “Intuit GoConnect”. This innovative technology will help Indian micro and small businesses grow and thrive by bringing customer management tools to the entrepreneur, improving the way they communicate with their customers in an increasingly mobile world.
• The Unique Identification Project: L-1 Identity Solutions, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and another U.S.-headquartered company, lead two of the three vendor consortia, which have been prequalified by the Unique Identity Authority of India for the first phase of an effort to register Indian residents with a 12-digit unique number using biometric identifiers. Unprecedented in scale, seeking to register 1.2 billion Indian residents, the Unique Identification program aims to enhance delivery of government services in India.
• Sale of Precision Measurement Instruments for Fuel Cell Research: Advanced Materials Corporation (AMC), a small, six-person firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received an order to supply a specially-designed Pressure-Composition Isotherm Measurement Instrument to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India. BHU will utilize AMC’s instrument to test fuel cell applications, as part of an Indian central government research program.
• Trace Explosive Detection Equipment: Implant Sciences, a small company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence in January to supply its Quantum Sniffer H-150, trace detection devices to be used by the Indian Army to detect the presence of explosive, bomb-making materials that could be used in a terrorist attack. The company announced that the equipment will be ready for pre-dispatch inspection and delivery in November. The transaction is valued at approximately $6 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 30 jobs.
• VIP Helicopter Sale: On August 25, Bell Helicopter, based in Hurst, Texas, signed a purchase agreement with Span Air, a private air charter company, for the sale of its first Bell Model 429 corporate VIP helicopter in India. Span Air has a second order slated for delivery in mid-2011. Bell Helicopter recently sold its 100th helicopter in India.
• Sales of Pre-owned Refurbished Healthcare Equipment: Skelley Medical, a rural New Hampshire-based company, sells refurbished medical equipment to Indian hospitals in second and third tier cities through partnerships with various distributors in India. Skelley announced plans to open an after-sales service facility in Mumbai as part of a new venture with Triage Systems, a Mumbai-based Indian medical equipment distributor. This facility will service medical equipment purchased by their Indian hospital customers.
• Monitoring Equipment for Greening Buildings: Noveda Technologies, a small start-up company in Branchburg, New Jersey, is finalizing a new venture with Chennai-based Wysine Technology to jointly develop and market a new solution for web-based, real-time energy monitoring for “greening” buildings.
• Dredges for Maharashtra Maritime Board: Ellicott Dredges, a small company based in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the sale of two cutter suction dredges to the Maharashtra Maritime Board, a Maharashtra government entity. The equipment will be utilized to dredge a fisherman’s port and various tributaries in the state of Maharashtra.

Toyota President: iQ Compact-Based EV Likely For Domestic MarketTOKYO (Dow Jones)

--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) President Akio Toyoda said the compact electric vehicle under development based on Toyota's ultra mini compact iQ could be a fit for the Japanese market.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," he said.
He said it may be an option to set up charging equipment at about 5,000 dealers in Japan to ensure there are sufficient charging locations.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda (left) smiles from the driving seat of a Tesla Motor's Roadster electric car with Tesla Motor Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk in Tokyo November 12.
Toyoda was speaking to reporters after a ceremony in Tokyo, where Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk presented the Tesla Roadster to its partner, Toyota.
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in the California-based electric car maker.
Under the partnership, Toyota will develop an electric RAV4 small sport-utility vehicle using Tesla's battery technology, aiming to sell the model in 2012 in the U.S.
The iQ-based electric vehicle will be powered by a Toyota-developed battery system and will be introduced in the U.S. in 2012.
Earlier this month, Panasonic Corp. (6752) said it invested $30 million in Tesla as the two companies plan to jointly market and sell Tesla battery packs using Panasonic battery cells.

Panasonic To Make Long-Lasting Alkaline Batteries In ThailandOSAKA (Nikkei)

--Panasonic Corp. (6752) said Thursday it will begin producing long-lasting dry-cell alkaline batteries in Thailand in March.
Output of Evolta alkaline batteries is expected to be on a par with the company's factory in Moriguchi, Osaka, which churns out 200 million units annually.
Introduced in 2008, the Evolta battery has a useful life of 10 years, longest in the industry. Panasonic currently exports the batteries from Japan to some 60 countries. Exporting them from Thailand will help lower distribution costs.
By 2015, the company plans to increase overall dry-cell battery production volume, including manganese dry cells, by 50% to 6 billion units per year. With a 15% global market share, Panasonic ranks third in the industry. By cultivating demand in Europe and Asia, it aims to become the global leader.

Solar Cell Shipments Double On FITs, School New DealTOKYO (Nikkei)

--Domestic photovoltaic battery shipments rose 110% on the year to 467,941 kilowatts in terms of power generating capacity in the April-September half, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said Thursday.
In November 2009, the government introduced feed-in tariffs, under which utility companies buy, at premium unit prices, excess electricity generated by households using solar cells.
That has helped those who installed solar cells halve the period needed to recoup their initial investment costs to about 10 years. As such, the domestic solar cell market has expanded exponentially.
In the fiscal 2010 first half, shipments for households, which account for 80% of the overall domestic market, grew 90%.
Shipments for the public and industrial sectors surged 520%, due to the "school new deal" policy in which the government subsidizes schools installing solar cells.

Tesla CEO Expects Japan To Become Firm's No. 2 Market
TOKYO (Dow Jones)

--The head of electric sports car maker Tesla Motors Inc. said Friday that he expects Japan to become the Palo Alto, California-based company's largest market outside of the U.S.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk also predicted that the niche luxury auto maker's U.S.-dominated client base will expand steadily overseas so that its sales are evenly split between the U.S., Europe and Asia.
"We do believe Japan will be our No. 2 country in terms of sales over time," Musk said, speaking at a joint press conference with the CEO of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203). "Japan is a key market for the kind of product we produce," he added.
Tesla opened its first showroom in Asia last month in Tokyo's swank Aoyama district and has announced plans to enter the European market with a dealership in Paris.
The company has sold less than 1,500 of its $100,000-plus Roadsters, which debuted earlier this year. It plans to introduce a midsize sports sedan from 2012.
Tesla has strong ties to Japan as two of its major shareholders are corporate titans Toyota and Panasonic Corp. (6752).
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla, with which it will develop an electric sport utility vehicle. Panasonic, which provides battery cells to Tesla, injected the firm with $30 million on Nov. 6.
Under Tesla's partnership with Toyota, the two companies will collaborate on an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 model using Tesla's battery technology. Limited production of the small sports utility vehicle will begin at a former Toyota-owned factory in Freemont, California with commercial sales starting in 2012, but there are no current plans for mass production.
One reason may be that Toyota plans to sell its own, independently developed electric vehicle in the U.S. from 2012. Toyota's President Akio Toyoda said this ultra mini-car, which is being developed independent of Tesla and is based on its British and Japanese market iQ model, also may be sold in Japan.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," Toyoda said.
Musk and Toyoda spoke to reporters after a ceremony at a dealership of Toyota's luxury Lexus-brand vehicles, just across from Tesla's new Tokyo showroom where a limited-edition Tesla Roadster with a custom "twilight red" paint job was presented to Toyoda.
The car is a right-hand drive twin of Musk's own left hand drive Roadster, which the Toyota CEO drove during a recent visit to Palo Alto.

A123 Systems Sees Shipment Shrink, but Tomorrow Better, Really

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/11/11/a123-systems-sees-shipment-shrink-but-tomorrow-bet.aspx
Michael Kanellos, Greentechmedia.com
November 11, 2010

Another quarter, another urge to look to the future from A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE).
The Massachusetts-based battery company today reported third quarter revenue of $26.2 million, an increase of $23.6 million, and reiterated an alliance to produce car batteries for the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
That was the good news. Here's the bad news. Losses increased to $43.7 million over $22.8 million from the same period the year before. More ominous, product shipments are dropping. The company shipped the equivalent of 15.8 million watt hours of batteries in the quarter, down from 17.1 million in the same quarter a year ago. Shipments for the first three quarters have dropped to 44.2 million watt hours compared to 44.8 million for the first nine months of 2009.
Product revenue in the quarter dropped from $19 million to $20 million a year ago. The bump in revenue came from a rise in revenue from service projects.
The Fisker Karma comes out later this year and will be powered by A123 Systems batteries. What do these shipments mean for the Karma, which has been delayed from late 2009, to September 2010 to sometime soon. Transportation revenue grew to $9.5 million from $8.3 million in the quarter, but has declined to $30 million from $34 million for the first three quarters.
Last quarter, the company stated that it is dropping out of a project to supply batteries to Fiat/Chrysler for electric cars and urged investors to look to the future. (Not the three months away future. The future.)
Last year, A123 lost out on the GM Volt contract, and longtime customer Black and Decker began to phase out incorporating A123 batteries in its power tools.
The company is also experiencing increased competition from other companies. Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive, told us at The Networked EV yesterday that Lio Energy Systems, Coda's sister battery company, can make batteries for $500 a kilowatt hour. Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk recently told us that his company can produce battery packs for less than $700 to $600 a kilowatt hour. The quote is in the first video, the Zapruder film of EV videos.
Charlie Vartanian, an A123 exec speaking at the Emerging Technologies Summit in Sacramento this week, said that A123 was approaching the $1000 per kilowatt mark when talking about grid storage battery packs. It's not a direct comparison, but it underscores the challenges.
Disclosure: I've been somewhat skeptical of A123 for some time, so I stand accused of sometimes taking a more critical slant on this topic than other reporters. But those are the numbers.

Flow Batteries Coming Into Homes?

For approximately $7,500, you might soon be able to get a 30-kilowatt-hour flow battery to match your solar panels.
Sacramento--Flow batteries soon won't be just for utilities and cell phone carriers anymore if Premium Power is right.
The North Reading, Mass.-based company is currently working on a device called the HomeFlow, a scaled-down version of the zinc bromide flow batteries it currently sells to industrial customers. The HomeFlow will store approximately 30 kilowatt-hours of energy, have a 10-kilowatt rating, and cost around $7,500, said Doug Alderton, director of government sales at the company during a session at the Emerging Technologies Summit earlier this week in Sacramento.
The price includes an inverter, so if you are linking it up to a solar system, your costs will be lower.
The ambitious company seems to want to become the Dell Computers of flow batteries. It plans on bringing out a variety of flow batteries -- ranging from the HomeFlow to a 6 megawatt-hour/2-megawatt behemoth that would function like a power plant -- based around a basic building block made from 54 cells. (Dell, in its heyday, mastered the art of designing a few basic SKUs and tweaking them to produce a complete product line.)
Just above the HomeFlow in the product line is the ZincFlow, a 45-kilowatt-hour/15 kilowatt machine. The LocalFlow is next in the line at 100 kilowatt hours/30 kilowatts. The TransFlow 2000, which can hold 2.8 megawatt-hours of energy, has a 500 kilowatt rating, and is 53 feet long. The company is in the process of installing five near Syracuse and Sacramento to help curb peak power in those two regions. (Editor's note: Premium rates its batteries by both kilowatt hours and kilowatts.)
If successful, the batteries will help delay grid upgrades. Other applications exist as well. Lee Burrows of VantagePoint Venture Partners in an earlier interview suggested that flow batteries could be used to recharge electric cars instead of high-speed charging stations.
And, like Dell, the company wants to make them cheap. Most of Premium's flow batteries cost $250 to $300 a kilowatt hour or $250 to $350 a kilowatt. That's incredibly cheap. Rival Deeya Energy last year came out with flow batteries that cost $4,000 a kilowatt. A123 Systems, which makes lithium ion batteries, makes battery packs that are close to $1,000 a kilowatt hour, said company exec Charliee Vartanian at the same conference.
The company's batteries last 30 years and take up 1/15th of the space of conventional batteries, he added.
Whether and when Premium Power can achieve its goals remains to be seen, but the potential is intriguing. At these rates, storage could be added fairly easily to wind farms and solar arrays. Government officials and developers in Africa have been regularly calling the company to see if Premium's batteries could power microgrids.
Flow batteries pretty much act like their name suggests. A charged electrolyte infused with zinc and bromide ions flows from one tank to another. The trick is in coming up with a battery design that allows the zinc to continually be recycled. After zinc bromide is broken up into its separate elements (a key part of the process for harvesting electrons), the zinc adheres to plates inside the battery. That plate has to be polished before the recharging process can begin again.
Zinc bromide, he added, is a byproduct of shellfish. In other words, there's a lot of it.

The Fuel-Cell-Powered F-CELL

In addition, an update about the U.S. rollout of the fuel-cell-powered Mercedes-Benz F-CELL car will take place at the Mercedes-Benz exhibit during news media activities prior to the public opening of the show. Essentially an electric car that makes its own power on board, the Mercedes-Benz F-CELL boasts 54 miles per gallon (EPA combined city-highway equivalent fuel mileage) and a range of about 230 miles. Running on compressed hydrogen, and with water as the F-CELL's only exhaust emission, the hydrogen and air react without combustion in the fuel cell, producing current to run the 136-horsepower electric motor. The F-CELL is also equipped with a 35-kilowatt lithium-ion battery that stores recovered braking energy, helps provide instant acceleration and ensures fast starting in very cold weather.

The hydrogen gas is stored in 10,150-psi tanks that can be refueled in only three minutes. Beginning in Southern California, the new F-CELL car is being offered through a lease program in markets with growing networks of hydrogen refueling stations.

Research and Markets: This Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021 Report Forecasts the Industry to Grow to $60 Billion

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5a5f62/electric_buses_and) has announced the addition of the "Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021" report to their offering.
The electrification of commercial on-road transport is now being progressed strongly by both paybacks and mandates of local and national governments across the world. Even where paybacks are underwhelming, the green agendas of the participants is driving things forward but there are impediments too, including up-front cost and the poor range and reliability of some versions and the practicality and cost of infrastructure. This report gives numbers and value for hybrid and for pure electric buses and taxis, market drivers and overall transport statistics to put this in context. The most active countries are identified and projections specifically for China are given. Large numbers of suppliers are identifies and some interesting ones are profiled. Drive trains and batteries are examined.
This is the world's first report forecasting the global market for electric buses and taxis both hybrid and pure electric. It separately forecasts the market in the most important country, China, and it takes a detailed look at technologies present and future with a blunt assessment of reasons for failure and threats for the future, not just the positive aspects. The market for electric buses and taxis will rise 8.7 times from 2011 to 2021, approaching $60 billion not long after that. The buses will be designed exclusively for purpose, though some will have power trains used for trucks as well. The taxis will largely consist of regular cars and people movers with modest adaptation. We explain why, for both, this is the decade of the hybrid but with pure electric versions coming up fast. China will become by far the largest market for both electric buses and electric taxis within the decade. This report looks at the statistics and trends for conventional buses and taxis, the government incentives, paybacks and new technologies with detailed tables and figures to summarise the situation, so the reader can understand the situation with ease. There are no rambling anecdotes or cut and paste of catalog items here - this is all summary, comparison and prediction with numbers, unit values, specifications and a profusion of images.
This uniquely up to date reference book is extremely thorough. Just one of the tables lists 78 hybrid bus manufacturers with country and product image, another lists 53 pure electric bus manufacturers with country and product image and another compares 68 lithium-ion traction battery manufacturers with cathode and anode chemistry and other technical detail and who is using these batteries - naming bus, car and other companies using them, explaining who is winning and why. There is a table comparing eight electric taxi projects with country, image and commentary, including technical detail, and another comparing many fuel cell bus trials. Many of the figures are graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and other analysis to allow you to assess the situation quickly and conveniently.
The market forecasts cover units, unit prices and total market value 2011-2021 backed up by forecasts for the market for all types of bus taken together, each for global and separately China. Taxi number, unit value and market value is similarly forecasted and the whole is put in the context of statistics for past sales and production output by manufacturer and forecasts for the electric vehicle market as a whole. The leading suppliers are identified. Transmission manufacturers are compared using sectioned technical diagrams. There is a glossary of terms and one hour of free consultancy with every purchase will answer any questions you have remaining.
In addition, all report purchases include one hour free consulting with a report author from IDTechEx, by email or telephone. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.

Electric Vehicle Summit at Greentech Media’s Networked EV Event
Tesla, Coda, BYD, GM and Panasonic weigh in on their upcoming electric vehicles and batteries.

Reporting from Greentech Media's The Networked EV event in San Francisco:

Electric Vehicles (EVs) aren't new, but the next-generation EVs hitting the market in late 2010 and 2011 will mark the first time in the history of EVs where price and performance might actually live up to the hype.

In a panel moderated by Greentech Media Editor-In-Chief, Michael Kanellos, the audience assembled at the PG&E auditorium got to hear from automakers about what could be the year that electric vehicles broke and a bit about the batteries that make them go.

Diarmuid O'Connell, Vice President of Business Development at Tesla Motors, focused on his firm's big bet -- the Model S sedan that's due in 2012 and is being built at the immense Nummi plant in Fremont. See Taking the Tesla Factory Tour and their Q3 Earnings data here.

Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications, General Motors, celebrated GM being "back in the business of electric vehicles."
He said that the "Chevy Volt is a kick to drive" and spoke of the "instant torque" when you step on the accelerator. He saw the vehicle's 50-mile range as the sweet spot and regards the charging engine as being able to alleviate range anxiety. The battery takes three to four hours to charge at 220 volts and ten to twelve hours at 120 volts. The car will be in showrooms at the end of the year.
Peter M. Fannon, Vice President, Technology Policy, Panasonic Corp. of North America, said that by 2019, Panasonic wants to get one-third of their revenue from energy-related activities and to be the number-one green manufacturer in the world.
Panasonic has a long history in electric vehicles; they made the nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries for the hybrid Prius and are now the supplier of choice for the lithium-ion cells for the Tesla Roadster. They recently announced a $30 million investment in Tesla and they expect to see their batteries halve in price over the coming years (see Panasonic Invests $30M in Tesla).

Liam Li, Senior Business Director, BYD America, dropped what was for this reporter one of the biggest pieces of news of the session -- the $25,000 cost of the BYD electric vehicle will be subsidized by about half by the Chinese government for Chinese consumers. Compare that to the Chevy Volt, which will retail at about $30,000 after tax credits.

Phil Gow, Vice President, Battery Systems, CODA Automotive, spoke of his firm's 4-door, 5-passenger EV sedan that is equipped with the standard amenities you'd expect on any car in this class -- air bags, anti-lock brakes, etc. It has a 90-to-120-mile all-season range from the 33.8-kWh LiFe PO4 battery system. Read more about Coda's pricing here and about the recent CEO issues here.

And while we're talking EVs, you can read about Wright Speed's recent funding announcement and view a video test drive with Michael Kanellos here.
The Greentech Media event, however, wasn't meant to focus solely on the cars themselves, but rather on the relationship of those vehicles to the grid and the impact of charging millions of EVs on an electric grid not yet engineered for that purpose. We'll discuss this impact and the role of EVs as the gateway drug for adding smarts to the utility grid and the way it will change the consumer's relationship to the grid in upcoming articles. Stay tuned.
New grant paves the way for transformative science at magnet lab
Scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University are working to open a new frontier in chemistry, biology and materials studies, thanks to a recent $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
To explore that new frontier, magnet-lab researchers are developing a spectrometer (a machine that measures the mass of molecules) to work with a powerful new magnet. The grant will pay for the design and construction of a portable, 500-pound-plus array of electronic amplifiers and devices needed to advance science. Construction of the magnet, known as the Series Connected Hybrid, started in 2006 with an $11.7 million grant from the NSF.
When completed in 2013, the combined tools will allow scientists "to perform potentially transformative science in an unexplored magnetic-field range for a broad range of applications, from biological tissues to battery materials," magnet-lab physicist Bill Brey The spectrometer will enable researchers to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques similar in principle to those employed by MRI machines — but at very high magnetic fields. Hospitals routinely scan patients inside MRI machines whose magnets produce a field of no more than 3 tesla. (Tesla is a scientific measure of magnetic-field intensity; by comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about 0.00005 tesla.) What makes the Series Connected Hybrid magnet unique is that it will combine an amazingly powerful magnetic-field strength of 36 tesla with the field quality needed for NMR.
"For nuclear magnetic resonance, 23 tesla is now the cutting edge for science," Brey said. "So 36 tesla is years and years beyond the cutting edge. It's an increase in field strength of more than 50 percent."