The Hybrid, Fuel, and Vehicle Report

Home , Coda Automotive, Miles Electric Vehicles

ISSN 1946-1011

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report June 15, 2013

This report is a summary of articles appearing in popular, business, and technical media referring to the impact of fuel costs and fuel efficiency on vehicle technology, development, and markets. At the end of the report is a list of all articles summarized, with hyperlinks to internet sources where available. Some hyperlinks may require free registration or paid subscriptions to access. The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report (ISSN: 1946-1011) is compiled by Thomas L. R. Smith, Ph. D., Economic Analysis Branch of the Budget and Financial Analysis Division, Washington State Department of Transportation. Contact the editor at [email protected] or (360) 705-7941. Contributions of articles and positive comments about The Report are welcome.

TABLE OF CONTENTS HYBRIDS ...... 2 ELECTRIC VEHICLES...... 2 ALTERNATIVE FUELS ...... 5 COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU ...... 5 OTHER TECHNOLOGY ...... 6 SUBSCRIBING TO The Hybrid Report...... 7 ARTICLES REFERENCED ...... 7

Notice to Subscribers: Due to the editorial staff’s vacation on Tybee Island, Georgia, there will not be a June 30th edition of The Hybrid Report. We’ll see you on July 15, 2013.

“So long, it’s been good to know yuh:”1 Dan Sheppard, long time Hybrid Report subscriber and frequent contributor, retires from State service at the end of this month. We wish Dan well in the next chapter of his life. In addition to his frequent contributions of articles to The Report, Dan filled in as copy editor from time to time. Dan was also the first person to write a letter of complaint to The Report (in our eight years, we’ve had two). On the occasion of our first use of the plural “Prii,” Dan’s letter said, in its entirety, “Aaargh.” Because of his contributions, he was designated as one of our first Honorary Acting Assistant Editors. Upon his retirement, we promote Dan Sheppard to Assistant Editor, Emeritus.

National Hybrid and Plug-in Sales Data for May 2013: May was a good month for hybrid sales, nationally, while the news was mixed for electric vehicles. HybridCars.com and Baum & Associates (Cobb, June 4, 2013) report that even though May was a good month for the auto industry, hybrids still outperformed the market. Overall, auto sales were up 12.3% over April and 8% over May 2012, while hybrids were up 14% and 31.2% for the same periods. Hybrids accounted for 3.4% of the automotive market. Toyota and Prius still dominate the hybrid market with four of the top five hybrids. While sales of Ford’s most popular hybrid, the Fusion, dropped in May from the previous month, Ford has sold more hybrids in the first five months of 2013 than it sold all of last year. Plug-in sales were up 8.6% in May over April; however, this was lower than the auto market as a whole. The Nissan Leaf was the sales leader at 2,138, pushing the Tesla Model S out of the number one spot it has enjoyed for several months. Electric cars account for just over ½ of 1% of the total car market.

1 Woody Guthrie, “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dust)” TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc (BMI), 1940, 1951.

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 2

HYBRIDS

Toyota is planning to build hybrid car battery plants in China to support the development of hybrid cars Toyota plans to sell in that country, Reuters (May 30, 2013) reports. Toyota is involved in two separate joint ventures with Chinese firms to produce hybrid cars. This is a significant turn of events because, until recently, the Chinese government was not interested in hybrids, but had concentrated on development of fully- electric vehicles in its bid to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

The City of New York plans to spend $500 million to give itself “the greenest fleet in the country,” Fleet Owner quotes Keith Kerman (Mele, May 31, 2013), NYC’s chief fleet management officer. The city plans to replace vehicles in the Fire, Police, and Sanitation Departments with 1,000 hybrid or electric vehicles. The city will replace refuse trucks with 20 Compressed Natural Gas vehicles, and the parks department will get 60 Ford and Nissan plug-in vehicles.

The latest entry into the hybrid car market is Ferrari’s new LaFerrari, Greener Ideal (Turberville-Tully, May 31, 2013) says. The car, introduced at the Geneva Autoshow, will sell for just $1.3 million. The car is limited to 499 buyers. Prospective buyers must already own at least two Ferraris. The driver’s seat of the custom made car will be custom-molded to the owners “shape.” LaFerrari will be the fastest Ferrari ever built.

Critics of hybrid and electric cars often talk about the “hybrid premium” and how long it takes to payback the premium. The Chicago Tribune (Undercoffler, June 6, 2013) and Edmunds.com have developed another metric to use when trying to decide if it’s worth paying extra for a hybrid car: price per miles per gallon. You take the car’s price and divide by the EPA’s mpg rating. Using this measure, the cheapest car per miles per gallon is the Ford C-Max Energi at $329.50 per mpg. Next, is the Prius plug-in at $336.84 per mpg. The Smart fortwo is the cheapest non-hybrid and registers third on the list.

Lightning Hybrids and National Fleet Hybrids will join up to provide hydraulic hybrid conversion kits to fleet operators of shuttle buses and medium duty delivery trucks, Fleet Owner (June 11, 2013) says. Lightning Hybrid does conversions for fleets in the Rocky Mountain States and the West, while National Fleet Hybrids will offer Lightning Hybrids’ hydraulic conversions to the East Coast.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

The second annual BC2BC Electric Vehicle Rally and International Golden Plug Ceremony are scheduled for June 29, 2013 at the Peace Arch State Park, 19 A Street in Blaine, Washington. The BC2BC (for British Columbia to Baja California) is a road rally

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 3

for electric cars that goes from the border between the Canada and the United States to the border between the United States and Mexico. Public events and festivities are scheduled from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, while the Golden Plug Ceremony is scheduled for 11:00 am to noon. For more information see the All Electric Vehicle Rally website at http://www.allelectricvehiclerally.org/ where you register, sponsor the event, or donate. The rally is supported by the Washington State Department of Transportation, the States of Oregon and California, the Province of British Columbia, and several private organizations.

Tesla, which only has one model of car for sale, plans to introduce several more over the next few years, Automotive News (Lienert, May 30, 2013) says. The first vehicle is the Model X crossover that will hit showroom floors in 2014. Tesla has two more vehicles coming out later. One is a small sedan, priced around $30,000, while the other is another crossover, smaller and cheaper than the Model X.

Possibly more frustrating than finding a charging station, is finding one that is part of the network you subscribe to, Bloomberg Businessweek (Doom, May 30, 2013) speculates. There are 15,000 charging stations operated by several major networks and a plethora of private operators. Many of these required their own RFID cards to use the station, forcing many drivers to subscribe to several systems. Ecotality and ChargePoint plan to establish a joint service which will give subscribers access to 90% of the chargers in the U. S.

A lucky group of 100 residents of Scotland will be able to use a Nissan Leaf for a mere £100 (about $155) per month for 18 months, Wired UK (Dow, June 5, 2013) wired. The deal is part of a trial called My Electric Avenue, put together by EA Technology and Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution to see the impact electric vehicles will have on the Scot power grid.

Customers of the bankrupt firm Better Place rallied in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkron Park to promote a plan to keep the company’s battery swapping facilities open past the planned shut-down date of June 13, The Jerusalem Post (Udasin, June 8, 2013) posted. The Association for Electric Transportation Advancement, the car owner group, is trying to get all of Better Place’s customers to join a cooperative to take over the swapping stations. Meanwhile, Israel’s solar-power developer Captain Sunshine, Yosef Abramowitz, is putting together a take-over bid for the bankrupt company.

The French electric car-sharing company AutoLib will open operations in Indianapolis in 2014, The Indy Channel (Sanchez, June 9, 2013) channeled. The company plans to place 500 electric cars and 1,200 charging stations around Indianapolis available to subscribers.

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 4

If you haven’t bought an electric car yet, you might be interested to know that the price of electrics is dropping. The Chicago Tribune (Thevenot, June 3, 2013) says Honda has dropped the lease price of it electric Fit from $389 to $259 a month, while the Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e, and Chevrolet Spark will all lease for $199 monthly. These prices are bringing electric car prices closer to their gasoline brethren, and in some cases, are lower than gas models. Intrepid National Public Radio reporter and Hybrid Report reader Tom Banse (June 5, 2013) also has a report on the proliferation of deals for electric cars in the Pacific Northwest on Northwest News Network. Mr. Banse quotes one buyer who says with incentives, her electric is “basically a free car.” In addition to the price of electric cars dropping so that they are almost on par with their internal combustion equivalents, it appears that just seeing more electric cars on the road may influence others to buy electric cars. Mr. Banse also has a pretty nice chart (below) that shows Leaf, Tesla, and Volt registrations in Washington State from January 2011 to May 2013.

Da Segno al Coda:2 The Fortress Investment Group plans to buy the assets of bankrupt Coda Automotive, a Reuters (June 12, 2013) report in Automotive News Europe reported. Fortress will pay $25 million for the portions of Coda that make cars. Coda will stay in business as a manufacturer of “energy storage systems,” which we believe are also

2 Music notation (Italian) for “play from the sign to the tail symbol and end the piece.”

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 5

called batteries. But we could be wrong. Reuters also reported that Miles Electric Vehicles has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Miles has up to $50 million in assets but owes up to $100 million. Miles made low-speed electric cars and trucks for use off the highway. Miles is affiliated with Coda.

If you want to compare the cost of fueling an electric car with a gas-powered car, The U.S. Department of Energy has a new tool called eGallon. It tells us that at $3.65 for a gallon of gas, it would cost $1.14 to get the equivalent energy in electricity. In Washington State, with an average gas price of $3.87, the equivalent electric charge would be 84¢.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS

Anyone wishing to learn more about renewable natural gas (RNG), there is a workshop just for you, Cash Cow: The Future of RNG as a Transportation Fuel in Washington. The conference is scheduled for July 16, 2013 at University Place, Washington. According to Scott DeWees of Western Washington Clean Cities, the conference answers the question, “What do cows, cars, and cash have in common?” The workshop will include presentations on the potential of RNG Fuel in Washington, State, fleets using biomethane, financing options, local projects, and gas cleaning technology. For registration or more information go to http://biomethane.eventbrite.com/. The conference fee is $25 until June 21. It goes up to $50 after that date. To get in the proper mood for the workshop, we recommend you listen to “The Bovine Belching Song,” by David Maloney.3

Volvo Trucks will start building trucks that will use dimethyl ether (DME) as a fuel source, Fleet Owner (Mele, June 6, 2013) reported. Safeway will use two trucks modified to use DME in a field test. DME is produced from natural gas, coal, and other materials. It produces 95% less CO2 emissions than diesel. You can also use it to remove warts.

COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU: The latest news on new charging stations which may or may not be somewhere close to you.

United States: Tesla owners get a Tesla supercharging station at Town Center in Port St. Lucie, Florida, News Channel 5 (Curz, June 1, 2013) announced. There will be eight charge points at the station.

Rhode Island opened a new charger at Rhode Island College last month and plans to open another 30 over the summer, Boston.com (Smith, June 9, 2013) reported. The State currently has 11 state-owned charging stations. There is no word about where the chargers will be installed. Rhode Island’s chargers are free.

3 David Maloney, “The Bovine Belching Song,” An Ordinary Day, Reilly and Maloney Music, 1993.

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 6

The entertainment and retail lifestyle center (aka “shopping mall”) Tempe Marketplace in Tempe, Arizona, installed eight ECOtality Blink chargers in parking lots on both the north and south sides of the shopping complex, according to a press release from both ECOtality and Vestar (June 10, 2013), the mall’s management company.

In Oregon, electric chargers could be coming to condominiums all over the state, the free and independent Albany Tribune (June 11, 2013) reported. House Bill 3301, on its way to the Governor’s desk for signature ensures that residents of condominiums and neighborhoods with homeowners associations can purchase and install electric vehicle chargers.

Around the World: Hamilton, Ontario, opened two new charging stations at the York Boulevard parking garage in the city’s center, The Hamilton Spectator (Paddon, May 29, 2013) observed. These chargers join the seven already in Hamilton and the 3,000 across Canada.

The City of Williams Lake, British Columbia, the biggest town between Kamloops and Prince George, gets two charging stations at Thompson Rivers University, Welcome to Williams Lake (May 31, 2013) says. The stations fill a hole between chargers in the south of the Province and Prince George.

Travelers in the United Kingdom can currently charge their electric cars at any of 50 Best Western hotels on the island kingdom. By September, Public Sector Travel (Low, June 4, 2013) says that over half of the 270 Best Westerns will have charging stations. The hotel claims that their charging network is larger than any other hotel chain in the world.

OTHER TECHNOLOGY

In Australia, the Titans of the University of Wollongong have hit upon car battery improvements that could double electric car mileage on a single charge, The Motor Report (Collett, June 4, 2013) reported. The batteries use Germanium instead of Lithium, but even though Germanium is more expensive than Lithium the researchers responsible for the development believe that due to the increased power, simplicity of production, and other advantages, the price of Germanium batteries would quickly fall.

For many Japanese automakers, the next big thing in greater fuel economy is stop- start engine technology. In a stop-start system, when a car comes to a stop, the engine goes off. When the car gets ready to move, the driver presses on the gas pedal and the engine starts. These systems can save achieve a 5 to 10% fuel savings. But, Automotive News Europe (Greimel, June 7, 2013) says, there are many ways and technologies car

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 7 makers can use to create stop start systems, so automakers are looking at a variety of tech improvements from battery type to capacitors.

SUBSCRIBING TO The Hybrid Report. The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report (ISSN: 1946-1011) is published in Olympia, Washington on or about the 15th and 30th of each month, except for those months we decide not to. It is available on the WSDOT website by clicking this link. From there, you can download the current report in a PDF, look at back issues, or subscribe to a notification service that lets you know when a fresh report has been posted. You may also click this link to subscribe or contact the editor at [email protected] who can add you to the subscription list.

The fine print: The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report (ISSN: 1946-1011) is not responsible for hyperlinks that do not work or are inactive. All links worked when created, however, many news outlets archive or move reports soon after publication, so it’s not our problem that you can’t get to the cited article. The appearance of articles, products, opinions, humor (such as it is), and links in this summary does not constitute an endorsement of the same by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), my wife, or my cat (especially my cat). Except as otherwise noted, WSDOT holds the copyright to The Hybrid Report. Photos and other artwork in The Report are included with express permission of the copyright holders of those works. Further reproduction or distribution of copyrighted material is not authorized without permission of the original copyright holder. Merely acknowledging the source is not sufficient and does not excuse reproducing copyrighted material without permission. It’s not that hard to ask for and get permission. So there. This Report is intended for educational purposes only. In the interest of full disclosure, the editor of this summary owns a 2005 Toyota Prius, while Mrs. Hybrid Report Editor owns a Lexus HS 250h hybrid. Nota bene who drives the Lexus. We are not saying you should get either one, that would be an endorsement and we’ve already said we don’t endorse products.

Just a Reminder: There will be no Hybrid Report on June 30, 2013. We’re going to the beach! We will return July 15, 2013.

ARTICLES REFERENCED

Albany Tribune. 2013, June 11. Electric Vehicle Charging Station Bill Heads To Governor Kitzhaber. Retrieved: http://www.albanytribune.com/11062013-electric-vehicle- charging-station-bill-heads-to-governor-kitzhaber/

Banse, T. 2013, June 5. Low Cost Leases Electrify Plug-In Car Sales On West Coast. NW News Network. Retrieved: http://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/post/low-cost-leases-electrify-plug- car-sales-west-coast

Cobb, J. 2013, June 4. May 2013 Dashboard. HybridCars.com. Retrieved: http://www.hybridcars.com/may-2013-dashboard/

Collett, T. 2013, June 4. Lithium-ion Battery Breakthrough For Electric Vehicles At Australian University. The Motor Report. Retrieved: http://www.themotorreport.com.au/56658/lithium- ion-battery-breakthrough-for-electric-vehicles-at-australian-university

Cruz, A. 2013, June 1. Tesla Motors electric car charging station coming to Port St. Lucie. News Channel 5. Retrieved: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_st_lucie_county/port_st_lucie/tesla- motors-electric-car-charging-station-coming-to-port-st-lucie

Doom, J. 2013, May 30. Electric Car Owners Face Confusion at the Charging Station. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-30/electric-car- owners-face-confusion-at-the-charging-station

Dow, C. 2013, June 5. Subsidised electric cars on offer for power grid test volunteers. Wired UK. Retrieved: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/05/my-electric-avenue

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 8

ECOtality and Vestar. 2013, June 10. Eight Blink Charging Systems Installed at Tempe Marketplace. NASDAQ. Retrieved: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/vestar-installs- ecotality-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-20130610-00280

Greimel, H. 2013, June 7. Japan’s nonstop search for best stop-start system. Automotive News Europe. Retrieved: http://europe.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130607/ANE/306079997/japans- nonstop-search-for-best-stop-start-system&cciid=email-ane-daily&r=6334E3775912E4Z#axzz2VXgQrVUL

Fleet Owner. 2013, June 11. National fleet Hybrids to sell hydraulic hybrid retrofit systems. Retrieved: http://fleetowner.com/running-green/national-fleet-hybrids-sell-hydraulic- hybrid-retrofit-systems?NL=FO-01&Issue=FO-01_20130611_FO- [email protected]&YM_MID=1400842&sfvc4enews=42

Lienert, P. 2013, May 30. Teslan readies smaller, cheaper crossover, sedan by 2017. Automotive News. Retrieved: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130530/OEM04/130539989/tesla- readies-smaller-cheaper-crossover-sedan-by-2017&cciid=email-autonews-daily&r=6334E3775912E4Z#axzz2VAbywySy

Low, B. 2013, June 4. Best Western UK installs electric car charging points. Public Sector Travel. Retrieved: http://www.publicsectortravel.org.uk/2013/06/04/best-western-uk- installs-electric-car-charging-points/

Mele, J. 2013, May 31. NYC spending $500 million in 2013 fleet renewal. Fleet Owner. Retrieved: http://fleetowner.com/news/nyc-spending-500-million-2013-fleet- renewal?NL=FO-01&Issue=FO-01_20130531_FO- [email protected]&YM_MID=1397917&sfvc4enews=42

Mele, J. 2013, June 6. Volvo adds DME to alternative fuel options in North America. Fleet Owner. Retrieved: http://fleetowner.com/running-green/volvo-adds-dme-alternative-fuel- options-north-america?NL=FO-01&Issue=FO-01_20130607_FO- [email protected]&YM_MID=1399902&sfvc4enews=42

Paddon, N. 2013, May 29. City opens first electric vehicle chargers in core. The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3241192-video-city-opens- first-electric-vehicle-chargers-in-core/

Reuters. 2013, May 30. Toyota to make batteries in China as country warms to hybrid cars. Retrieved: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/us-toyota-china-batteries- idUSBRE94T0V720130530

Reuters. 2013, June 11. Miles Electric Vehicles files for bankruptcy. Retrieved: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/11/us-mileselectric-bankruptcy- idUSBRE95A0A020130611

Reuters. 2013, June 12. U.S. EV maker Coda wins approval to sell assets to Fortress. Automotive News Europe. Retrieved: http://europe.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130612/ANE/130619954/u- s-ev-maker-coda-wins-approval-to-sell-assets-to-fortress&cciid=email-ane-daily&r=6334E3775912E4Z#axzz2W0tqyOMr

The Hybrid Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Report ISSN 1946-1011 June 15, 2013 9

Sanchez, R. 2013, June 9, 2013. French electric vehicle sharing system coming to Indianapolis. The Indy Channel. Retrieved: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/french- electric-vehicle-sharing-system-coming-to-indianapolis

Smith, M. R. 2013, June 9. RI to build charging stations for electric cars. Boston.com. Retrieved: http://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2013/06/09/build-charging-stations-for- electric-cars/7xGtMaQ7b3gTBfe5hXLwCO/story.html

Thevenot, B. 2013, June 3. Cost of electric cars dropping to gas equivalents. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved: http://cars.chicagotribune.com/fuel-efficient/news/chi-cost-of-electric-cars- dropping-to-gas-equivalents-20130603

Tuberville-Tully, C. 2013, May 31. Ferrari Unveils It’s [sic] First Hybrid Car. Greener Ideal. Retrieved: http://www.greenerideal.com/vehicles/0531-ferrari-unveils-its-first-hybrid- car/

Undercoffler, D. 2013, June 6. Low-cost, high-mpg cars. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved: http://cars.chicagotribune.com/fuel-efficient/news/chi-lowcost-highmpg-cars-20130606

Udasin, S. 2013, June 8. Better Place car owners champion electric vehicles. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved: http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Better-Place-car-owners-champion- electric-vehicles-315862

Welcome to Williams Lake. 2013, May 31. The first two hybrid vehicle charging stations in Williams Lake will be at TRU. Retrieved: http://welcometowilliamslake.ca/index.php/human- interest/76-human-interest/7000-hybrid-vehicle-charging-williams-lake.html

That is all.