Do plug-ins dream of electric horses?

VW to join Toyota, GM with 2010 plug-in hybrid

Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 1:26 PM on 30 Jun 2008

The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress.

-----

VW Twin Drive under the hood The German government announced it will be helping to fund VW's plug-in hybrid development program with 15 million euros. VM aims for a 2010 vehicle with 31 miles of all-electric range. VW head Martin Winterkorn said that while petrol or diesel powered cars would be around for some time to come, "the future belongs to all-electric cars." According to autoblog, the Twin Drive uses a 82-hp electric motor and a 2.0L turbodiesel producing 122 hp.

VW recently signed a deal with Sanyo, which is aggressively ramping up automotive lithium-ion battery production. It expects the hybrid and plug-in hybrid markets to be 4 to 4.5 million vehicles by 2015, and aims to capture 40 percent of this market. Sanyo uses a mixture of Ni, Mn, and Co for the positive electrode, thereby producing a safer battery that exhibits power retention ratio of 80 percent or higher after 10,000 cycles (10-15 years in a hybrid vehicle).

Last week, Daimler announced it would bring an electric car to market in 2010.

For more on plug ins, see "Turn on, plug in, drop out."

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

For story: Do plug-ins dream of electric horses?
10 Comments | Post a Comment

Too Little Too Late

4.5 million by 2015. Way to little to late. Time to really push real solutions like high-speed rail, rapid transit and cycling.

by racc at 2:01 PM on 30 Jun 2008

So what about

Ford and Honda?

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 4:01 PM on 30 Jun 2008

Wet Blanket Time

In current hybrids, where the batteries are smaller, they have to be replaced every few years and it costs $3000 to $4000 dollars.

With the bigger batteries in the plugins, won't the consumer have to fork over $6000 or $8000 in "maintenance" every few years.

by jabailo at 7:57 PM on 30 Jun 2008

Audi

http://www.hybridcarblog.com/2007/10/audi-debuts-plug-in- ...

'The Audi Metroproject Quattro plug-in hybrid "concept features a plug-in hybrid drive. A 1.4-liter TFSI engine developing 110 kW (148hp) powers the front wheels by means of the S-tronic Direct Shift Gearbox. A 30 kW (40 hp) electric motor positioned on the rear axle is able to deliver up to an additional 200 Nm of torque when the vehicle is accelerating.'

'The Audi plug-in hybrid has a range of 62 miles using pure electric power, but has a top speed of only 62 mph when in electric mode. The engine kicks in when the battery charge drops below 20 percent.'

VW owns audi, so why are they trying to reinvent a different plugin hybrid? why not install the audi drivetrain in VWs?

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 9:15 PM on 30 Jun 2008

Carbon fiber BUG

How about a carbon fiber hyper BUG vdub? With the audi plugin hybrid system. The 70s upgraded bug had a 60 hp engine.

This hyperlite, super crash resistant BUG would be a world beating climate saver. Talk to Lovins' Fiberforge about carbon fiber mass production.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 9:20 PM on 30 Jun 2008

Current hybrids, future plug-ins still are better.

Jabailo-

Toyota offers a 10 year or 150,000 mile warranty on their batteries.

After that length of time, which most people won't even have it for that long, it costs $4500 to replace. By that time you make your money back in gas savings and tax credits.

Mmmm bien mmmm-kay?

by rwelborn at 8:31 AM on 01 Jul 2008

Low carbon, carbon fiber BUG campaign

Maybe if all us baby boomer BUG fans bugged VW about this, they would actually make a carbon fiber BUG with this Audi drivetrain?

They would take over the US auto industry overnight.

http://www.vw.com/customerservice/contactus/en/us/#

I just called them! I think a few million calls and emails would get noticed?

1-800 DRIVE VW

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 8:55 AM on 01 Jul 2008

GM bankruptcy? Good job Lutzie!

That's the latest business news. Assets are being liquidated. Duuuhbya loving business reporters are crying, "Well they can't switch production from SUVs and trucks to economy cars by flipping a switch, it takes years and billions of dollars".

Uhhh, haven't environmental advocates been imploring GM to wake up for the last 8 years?

Meanwhile Bin Laden predicted oil would rise to 144 bucks per barrel to punish the US, that was when oil was 8 dollars a barrel.

The duuuhbyaist regime? What was their prediction? They predicted the Iraq war would cost taxpasyers 1.8 billion and it would stabilize oil prices. Whoops.

Ford and Chrysler are in more trouble than GM.

my guess is the US auto industry will offshore all manufacturing and become marketing, sales, and finance entities. rebranding Korean cars as chevies? Yep, they already do that, no problem.

Buy american! This would be funny if it weren't so tragic for our economy.

The last thing the board room executive office morons will ever consider is building plugin hybrid economy cars. Maybe after bankruptcy? Which is still easy for corporations, but has been made nearly impossible for the outsourced worker's families by bush/banking lobbyist "reform". Tell Lutz how smat he is.

http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2008/02/talk_about_a ...

Can't these idiots be fired? Nope, too expensive, what with those golden parachutes.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 7:13 AM on 03 Jul 2008

used cars

How many Americans really need to buy new cars each year ? Why are so many new cars being sold ? Making a new car and destroying the old one cost a lot of energy.

Making a new Prius hybrid costs 113 million BTUs. It takes several years for it to pay off this energy debt.

A similar argument can be made for all kinds of stuff including computers, televisions etc.

I think the auto industry should be put on a hold for a couple of years, until they invest enough money for new production lines composing of hybrid or purely electric vehicles.

Till then, there is no point building more of the inefficient energy guzzlers. In the mean while, all the money should be spent on trains and high speed transit.

by vakibs at 7:43 AM on 03 Jul 2008

Thanks Marie!

"I think the auto industry should be put on a hold"

What about auto workers? Let them eat cake?

I agree though, vehicles ought to be converted to plugin hybrid, instead of being scrapped. The Audi rear axle electric plugin hybrid design is excellent for conversion of existing front wheel drive economy cars.

Buy up the GM factories cheap and switch them to conversion assembley lines maybe? That would save US jobs and the economy. A WW2 like manufacturing effort would do it.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 8:00 AM on 03 Jul 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.