Tesla Chairman Elon Musk recently told Fox Business Network [via just-auto.com, sub] that the EV startup has inked a deal with Daimler. With its Roadster safely at "good-enough" status (says them), the California firm is turning its attention to its planned WhiteStar sedan. With full-EV and serial hybrid versions of WhiteStar planned, Tesla needs some help with the various technical elements– such as an internal combustion engine. "We have a deal right now with Daimler," boasts Musk. But like much of Tesla's efforts (transmission, batteries, deliveries), the details haven't quite been ironed-out. "[The deal is] still in the early stages," Musk admits. "We have a small deal that could potentially lead to a very big deal." Autoblog speculates that WhiteStar's serial-hybrid ICE could use a Daimler-sourced SMART three-banger. But just as there are no Roadsters available for delivery at Tesla dealerships (or anywhere else), there's no firm info on this hook-up, including its actual existence. 

With the autoblogosphere going ape over Toyota's hybrid three-fer, ToMoCo reps are tamping down the hype. Advanced Technology Group guru Bill Reinert tells Automotive News [sub] to chillax on the mpgs. "When we see the (claims of) 100 mile-per-gallon stuff, not everybody's going to get 100 miles per gallon." Toyota isn't backing away from its 40-mile, EV-only range for its forthcoming plug-in hybrids. But Reinert warns "the demands of real-world driving, such as rapid acceleration on freeway entrances, could dramatically reduce the all-electric range of plug-ins… just as some consumers have been disappointed by the real-world mileage of regular hybrids, plug-ins may not live up to those high hopes." Meanwhile, GM's "moon shot" plug-in electric – gas hybrid Hail Mary appears to run solely on media attention. In Jonathan Rauch's feature in the Atlantic Monthly, GM PR maven Steve Harris reveals that the Volt project came about because "The PR guys want something more sexy and dramatic, a singular point for our message. This issue of the environmental image was hurting the company substantially." Which will be as nothing compared to the hit to GM's rep if or when the Volt fails to meet its expected launch date or [as yet unspecified] price point.

TTAC burned a lot of metaphorical midnight oil trying to make heads or tails of plug-in EVs. Thankfully Ford's mouthpiece Mark Fields is here to set us straight about our energy independence, via the "It's important to note most battery supply is currently being developed in Asia," Fields told the Detroit News. "For those looking to plug-ins to answer our energy security concerns, we must ensure a domestic battery supply. Moving from imported oil to imported batteries clearly would not address this growing concern." I'm struggling to remember if that's a masked-man fallacy, a package deal fallacy of just plain old Ignoratio elenchi. Luckily (for Ford) politicians are completely immune to all forms of logic. If Fields keeps making arguments like this, Detroit might get the $500m of our tax dollars they so desperately crave for battery R&D. But, spades being spades, he's confusing the issue. At least.

Two new hybrids to be precise, in addition to a redesigned Prius. Automotive News [sub] reports that all three vehicles will debut at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. One of the new mystery hybrids will be a Toyota and the other will be a Lexus. We'll go ahead and speculate that the Toyota will in fact be a production version of the FT-HS sports car hybrid we saw at last year's Detroit spectacle. As for the Lexus, we're stumped. Maybe an IS variant? The massively anticipated third-gen Prius will soldier on with the same old nickel-metal hydride batteries for now. But come the hyper-magical automotive year 2010, the Prius will switch to lithium ion batteries. Panasonic — they build ToMoCo's batteries — will start whipping-up the lithium ion electro-juice containers in 2009. Cars powered by the same tech in your cell phone should hit dealers you know when (2010). Not to be outdone, Honda has promised four all-new hybrids by 2015 (guess they didn't get the 2010 memo). Nissan's gone on record promising to begin making lithium ions next year. Discounting GM and Chrysler's two-mode hybrid behemoths and The General's belt-assisted has-beens, and the Ford Escape Hybrid, it's up to the Hail Mary Chevrolet Volt to meet the hybrid onslaught. What are the chances?

Please read before screaming. Earlier today our man Wilkinson posed a very good question. Can our (in many cases) ailing power grid cope with EVs? Now, I'm lucky. I live in Los Angeles where DWP supplies the juice. DWP's union (wisely) refused to go private when out-on-his-ass former Governor Gray Davis was using Enron to help privatize most of California's electrical production. Long story short, LA has power to spare and was one of the only counties unaffected by the rolling blackouts a few years back. So, I'm confident us Angelenos will be able to handle plug-ins, capacity-wise. But where the hell do we plug 'em in? I live in a classic LA hill home. It's four flights of stairs up me. Meaning street parking. Short of running 200 feet of extension cord down a hill and across a street, I can't charge an EV. Hundreds of my neighbors are in the same outlet-less boat. That's just in my 'hood. In other words, if I had an EV, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Would you?

Having just watched New York City barely make it through a four-day heat wave, and being aware that Con Ed is only by the skin of its teeth able to keep up with air-conditioner/escalator/elevator/refrigerator demands during the summer–and sometimes can't–you have to wonder what will happen when first 5k, then 50k and then who knows how many plug-in hybrids add their loads to this precarious system. I have yet to read any power-industry statement, "No problem, we're ramping up powerplant construction by 80 percent in anticipation of this demand." Instead, all I hear is emergency-this and backup-that, plans to borrow power from Canada and whines that NIMBYs won't allow the construction of nuclear plants. Everybody seems to assume that the world will recharge its hybrids at night "when demand is low." Fact is, that's exactly when a lot of blackouts have occurred: 95-degree day, everybody gets home at six when it's still sweltering and turns on the a/c, the TV, the stereo, the lights… Blackout. How much more likely is that to happen when thousands of hybrids also get plugged in at six? And what about all the hybrid owners who deplete their batteries simply getting  to work and then, simultaneously, plugging them in at nine in the morning?

Sales in the toilet? Market share down? Cash burning? Thank God for Maximum Bob. Post Black Tuesday, GM Car Czar Bob Lutz demonstrated GM's commitment to a better tomorrow by not flying a Harrier jump jet to the recent Volt mule demo. According to ever-faithful Detroit News, "Bob Lutz has upped his personal commitment to battery-powered transportation with the purchase of an electric scooter." If that doesn't make you think longingly about someday maybe having the opportunity to possibly order an actual Chevrolet Volt, then this: "Lutz already has four electric Segways at home, including a pair of X2 off-road models." Four? Segway soccer? Anyway, Autoblog's Sam Abuelsamid trades his Bob props for some scuttlebutt. In terms of potential Volt battery suppliers, GM has "a lower risk with one company than the other." Since the Guardian recently ran a story naming potential supplier LG Chem/Compact Power as the provider of the Volt mule's powerpack, Abuelsamid's colleagues at AutoblogGreen assumed that LG Chem/CP was Lutz's preferred company. Twice. AutoblogGreen must've missed the International Herald Tribune story "Compact Power plans to make Volt batteries at a factory on Seoul's outskirts that will make paperback-sized cells for a coming Hyundai hybrid." In other words the real headline should be "GM Volt To Use Hyundai Batteries."

Once it was big shiny convertibles that caught the ladies' eyes. Then it was Corvettes, Lambos or anything else low, fast and expensive. But the times they are a-changin'. Yahoo! Green reports that hybrids are this generation's automotive codpieces. A survey done by GM during this year's Challenge X competition reveals that 88 percent of women say "they'd rather chat up someone who owns the latest fuel-efficient car versus the latest sports car." On top of that, 80 percent of American car buyers would rather talk with someone at a party who has the "latest fuel-efficient car" than someone with a sports car. And for the fashionists out there, 45 percent of "18- to 43-year-olds say it's a fashion faux pas nowadays to have a car that's not green or environmentally friendly." But does that now mean that those who buy the highest mileage cars are overcompensating? And what does that say about all those who put down deposits on Teslas and Volts? The mind– or something– boggles. 

That RenCen money tree must be producing a bumper crop this spring. The custody battle over Cobasys between parents Chevron and Energy Conservation Devices (the loser gets custody) has reached the point where GM feels obliged to intercede (i.e. throw money at it). Cobasys makes the batteries for GM's mild hybrids. No other batteries will work in the vehicles, at least until they're redesigned in (all together now) 2010. Automotive News reports "three sources" told them GM is preparing to buy the floundering battery company. The irony: GM helped found Cobasys, then sold its share to Texaco (which later merged with Chevron). Just as spin-offs Delphi and American Axle continue to sap GM's waning resources, Cobasys now returns to haunt them. No one's saying what this acquisition will cost The General, but not to worry… they have plenty of money to get them to the end of the year.

The relationship between battery maker Cobasys and parent companies Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) is entering the crisis stage. Previously, we reported that Cobasys had no budget or business plan for 2008. They still don't. Chevron cut off funding in September 2007. Oakland Business Review (via mlive.com) reports "the company has been operating on a loan and price increases from an undisclosed customer since February." In February, Cobasys' corporate parents "entered into an interim settlement agreement to negotiate a sale with an unnamed bidder;" they've extended the deadline for completing the sale seven times since then. GM's rumored to be their benefactor and mystery buyer, since Cobasys has the contract to develop and test lithium-ion battery systems for GM's plug-in hybrid electric vehicle program. Given GM's current financial situation, buying into a dysfunctional battery maker seems like a particularly dodgy deal. Which probably means it's exactly what they'll do. [Hat tip to Dan Segal for the link]

The new Lithium-Ion Polymer batteries are from Superlattice Power. Supposedly, they will "significantly increase operating voltage range and energy density." Translation: instead of going 120 to 140 miles between charges, electric vehicles will be able to go 200 miles on a single charge. [Ed: just like the Tesla Roadster!] Not only that, but unlike current lithium-ion batteries, the Superlattice variety will be non-toxic and disposable. How'd they do it? According to Motor Authority, a new material gives the new batteries a "wider volt range." We're not entirely sure what that means, but… sounds good! Which brings us to the hard questions. Like, is this the battery breakthrough we've all some of us have been waiting for? Probably not yet, as new technology is rarely cheap. Still, if you're going to spend $40K on a Volt, why not $50K? Oh yeah…

Not only does GM want the U.S. taxpayer and the Chinese government to subsidize development and sale of the Volt, now they're reaching into Michigan taxpayers' pockets to subsidize the production. GM insists they want to produce their electric-gas wundercar in Detroit to show how much they support the city and state– but only if the city and state support them by giving them tax breaks. The Detroit News reports GM met with the Detroit City Council yesterday to discuss their plans for the Volt. But no one will say just what kind of extortion "tax incentives" they demanded are seeking. With the magical year 2010 just a short time away, it seems to me they need to stop their fund-raising activities and get on with aligning their webbed-footed waterfowl. That is, if they really do plan on getting the Volt to the market in 2010. Otherwise, they can just keep on playing "poor poor pitiful me" and blame production delays on the government. 

Steve Levy, over at Autofiends.com, has encountered the Tesla in person in Los Angeles. The lithium-ion -powered sports car was driven by none other than your sister's favorite actor, Matt Damon (who does a killer Matthew McConaughey impression). Levy spoke with Damon, who claimed the car was still a prototype. Damon said the off-the-line acceleration sucks, but the 30 – 60 acceleration is like light speed. Range? Unknown. Recharge time? Unknown? Is Damon going to buy one? Well, of course. But is it even on sale yet? That's hard to say. But if even Damon gets an unfinished prototype to tool around in, it's not sounding good for Tesla. So was the end of the Tesla Birthwatch premature? It seems like it might have been. Then again, this is a functional (mostly) prototype. You know what the take away lesson here is? Even Matt Damon, with all his money, has questionable taste in cars.

Automotive News (sub) reports that Toyota is investing $673m in new Japanese battery facilities, with the goal of building one million batteries per year by 2011. A new nickel-metal hydride plant is planned for northern Japan, and a new lithium-ion plant will be built southwest of Tokyo. They're also adding to an existing metal-hydride facility as Toyota expands operations to meet the million hybrid vehicles per year demand it expects in the next decade. Toyota's batteries are built by Panasonic EV Energy Co, a joint venture between Panasonic and Toyota. Details are not currently available for the two new plants, but once expanded, the existing metal-hydride plant will build 300k batteries per year. Reports indicate that lithium-ion production will not exceed the tens of thousands, indicating that Toyota will continue to rely on its proven metal-hydride technology for most hybrid applications. With Nissan jumping into lithium-ion production, and Honda announcing an increased hybrid lineup, Toyota's investment is a necessary step in building on its enviable lead in hybrid production. With about 430k hybrids sold last year, and sales of the gas-electric whips rising at a steady clip, Toyota should have few problems selling a million hybrids annually within the next five years.

GM's Vice-Chairman has (characteristically) been all over the map about the Volt's price. The Winner of TTAC's Bob Lutz Award has pegged the plug-in electric – gas hybrid's eventual sticker at everything from "around $30k" to $48k to $2.99 plus tax (just kidding; what's the bet there won't be any tax). And now Maximum Bob's boss has finally added his two bits on the Volt's msrp. In an interview with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner threw down the gauntlet. "GM has a clear goal: we want to bring the Volt to the market in 2010 at a price of less than $30,000." Want. Not will. But wait there's more! Wagoner also says that "unlike Toyota, we want to make money on the Volt from the beginning. And the obstacles to that are reducing the price of the batteries and convincing the consumer of the advantages of the Volt." Profit? As in sell the Volt for more than it costs to make, from the get-go? Toyota didn't make a dime on the Prius for many years (the exact margins are unknown). Will Wagoner even be around to eat his words? Place your bets here.