{"id":209406,"date":"2010-01-21T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27954921.post-1802940610378736761"},"modified":"2010-01-21T15:51:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T20:51:42","slug":"lithium-and-ree-the-electric-car-revolution-will-soon-take-to-the-streets-tnr-v-czx-v-wlc-v-li-v-rm-v-lmr-v-avl-to-res-v-quc-v-byddy-nsany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/209406","title":{"rendered":"Lithium and REE: The Electric Car Revolution Will Soon Take to the Streets TNR.v, CZX.v, WLC.v, LI.v, RM.v, LMR.v, AVL.to, RES.v, QUC.v, BYDDY, NSANY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“<\/span>This initiative is good for middle-class families. It is good for our security. It is good for our planet,” President Obama.<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

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CS. Obama has told you about our <\/span><\/i>Investment Thesis<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/a> in three short sentences. We are not so smart and we do not have such an authority – we need to bring reason to decompound his message. Time for us to drop couple of lines about Middle-class and our Christmas wish.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

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YALE <\/b>Environment<\/b><\/span> 360:<\/b><\/p>\n

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21 JAN 2010:<\/span> REPORT<\/h4>\n

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The Electric Car Revolution<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/a>Will Soon Take to the Streets<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/h1>\n

For years, the promise and hype surrounding electric cars failed to materialize. But as this year\u2019s Detroit auto show demonstrated, major car companies and well-funded startups \u2014 fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries \u2014 are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.<\/em><\/h2>\n

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by jim motavalli<\/div>\n

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Electric cars are a green movement that is finally moving. Shunted to the side as the public indulged its love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel-drive trucks, history has finally caught up with the plug-in vehicle.<\/div>\n
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The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is the domestic auto industry\u2019s biggest annual showcase, and the new models have traditionally been brought out in a son et lumi\u00e8re<\/em> of dancing girls, deafening music, and dry ice smoke. The few green cars that made it this far were usually for display only \u2014 very few actually made it to showrooms.<\/div>\n
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\"Tesla\"<\/div>\n
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The Tesla Model S electric vehicle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But not this year. It\u2019s become a race to market for green cars, and soon you\u2019ll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. The auto show featured one hybrid and battery electric car introduction after another. Although the only truly road-worthy, plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City.<\/div>\n
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Indeed, the entire auto industry \u2014 from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive \u2014 has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles.<\/div>\n
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There\u2019s a reason the automakers in Detroit are finally plugging in as something more than a greenwashing exercise. Spurring them forward is a historic confluence of events. Chief among them are Obama administration green initiatives, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. (Much of that money is going to Michigan, which despite record unemployment is emerging as something of a green jobs center<\/a>.)<\/div>\n
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Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries.<\/div>\n
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Even without federal largesse, some companies are moving aggressively into the electric vehicle market. A prime example: Coda Automotive, a<\/div>\n

A key factor in making electric vehicles possible is the rapid development of lithium-ion batteries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

southern California start-up, has raised an impressive $74 million in three rounds of private funding. CEO and President Kevin Czinger is a former Goldman Sachs executive, as is co-chairman Steven Heller. Among the company\u2019s investors are Henry M. Paulson, who was Goldman Sachs\u2019 chairman and Treasury Secretary under the second President Bush. Clearly, these former investment bankers see electric cars as a good bet.<\/div>\n
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A key factor in making today\u2019s electric vehicles possible is the rapid development of the energy-dense lithium-ion battery. William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chairman of the company that bears his name, told me in Detroit, \u201cFive years ago, battery development had hit a wall, and we were pushing hydrogen hard. But now so much money and brainpower has been thrown at electrification that we\u2019re starting to see significant improvements in batteries in a way we hadn\u2019t anticipated. Now we have the confidence that the customer can have a good experience with batteries.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Drawing a huge crowd, Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk showed off his company\u2019s 1,000th electric Roadster at the auto show. \u201cFor a little company, it\u2019s a huge milestone,\u201d he told me. \u201cA year ago, we had built only 150 cars. We had two stores then, and now it\u2019s a dozen.\u201d<\/div>\n
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For a major automaker, 1,000 cars would not be much to show for a year, but electric vehicles are still in their infancy. And since the electric car\u2019s <\/div>\n
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An e360<\/em> discussion with Tesla’s Elon Musk.<\/div>\n
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first swan song in the 1920s \u2014 when the widespread availability of petroleum ushered in the era of the gasoline-powered car \u2014 very few start-up companies have reached the milestone of making green vehicles, especially battery-powered ones.<\/div>\n
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Here\u2019s a look at some of the prime contenders bringing battery cars and plug-in hybrids to market:<\/div>\n
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