Rep Sander Levin (D-MI) has introduced legislation which would increase the cap on consumer tax credits for plug-in electric vehicles.The current subsidy allows consumers to take a $7,500 taz credit, but caps the number of qualifying credits at 200k per manufacturer, but Levin’s bill would raise that to 500k units. Said Levin in a statement

Green vehicles represent the vanguard of automotive innovation, but they have to be economical for consumers and profitable for manufacturers. Raising the cap on this credit will help carmakers reach the demand and production scale necessary for long-term viability.

To which, his brother Senator Carl Levin, adds

The U.S. auto industry is poised for a technological explosion that promises to fundamentally change transportation here and around the world. But if we fail to support this revolution, workers in China, India, South Korea and our other competitors will build these vehicles instead of American workers.

The call to raise the cap for EV consumer tax credits was first publicly raised by GM’s Tom Stephens, who argued that 200k units was inufficient government support to keep the Volt viable until the second generation comes out. At the time, Rep Debbie Stabenow argued that credits should be “front-loaded” and deducted from the price of the vehicle at the dealership, but that proposal seems to have fallen b the wayside.

“First smart ED Delivered in America.” Read More >

As the world’s first commercially-available (ish) plug-in hybrid, the BYD F3DM is one of the few modern cars that can legitimately claim a piece of automotive history. In full knowledge of this fact, a younger, more innocent version of myself once sent a number of emails to every possible BYD PR contact I could find, in hopes of securing an early review of the car that ushered in the plug-in automotive age. Needless to say, I never heard back from BYD… but I expected that. What I didn’t expect is that, years later, I still wouldn’t be able to find a real in-depth review of this mysterious yet potentially groundbreaking vehicle. Apparently BYD is either extremely cautious about letting writers experience its vehicles outside of convention hall laps and round-the-block drives… or the automotive media has a very poor sense of history. Or, as is most likely the case, both.

Either way, this strange state of affairs just got stranger: thanks to plugincars.com, we now have the first report of the F3DM’s performance on American roads… from an LA Public Housing Authority inspector. Yes, really.

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With worrying news breaking recently about Nissan’s slow rollout of its Leaf EV, Toshiharu Sakai, a senior VP at the Japanese automaker reassures the Nikkei that

We initially planned to produce 10,000 this fiscal year, and we can meet (this target) by the end of March.

Sakai insists that the Leaf’s production has not been interrupted, and that the Oppama plant would produce 3,000 units in February before ramping up to its capacity production of about 4,000 units by March. Leaf production at Nissan’s Smyrna, TN plant will begin late next year, and will produce as many as 150k units per year (and 200k battery packs per year), while Nissan’s Sunderland, UK plant will be producing another 50k Leafs and 60k battery packs annually starting in 2013. All told, Nissan will have about 250k units of Leaf production when the Sunderland plant reaches full volume, which puts it on track to a commanding lead in global EV production… now it just needs the market to start demanding that many cars. Meanwhile, a minor issue with the Leaf’s ownership experience has raised its head and deserves a little attention.

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Typically when an automaker launches its first EV, the standard procedure is to spend a lot of time talking about how this car will change the world. Not so with Audi. Having created an “e-tron” EV concept version of its Auto Union Type C pedal car, Audi is backing up its modest EV ambitions with some tough talk from CEO Rupert Stadler aimed at putting EVs in their proper place. Stadler tells Automotive News [sub] that

We are still in the early phase with the electric vehicle, in terms of commercialization and whether the cars will be sold or leased, or will just be a collector’s car. First of all we have to industrialize the lithium-ion-battery. This is happening with the hybrid cars which now have the role of a bridge technology. We should not overplay euphoria for electric vehicles. Our industry is in the middle of a system change and we still have a lot of challenges to solve.

And, just as its CEO admits, Audi still has real issues with the commercialization of EVs: for one thing, even its e-tron kiddy car is still a one-off modification of its €9,700 pedal-powered Type C racer. Audi currently has no plans to commercially produce the 1.5 HP, 25 km range EV sportster. Perhaps its too early to say for certain that Audi will be able to knock Tesla off its solitary spot atop the EV sportscar world.

Mazda has so far been, well, reluctant when it came to newfangled powertrains. Now they can’t help it any longer and announce their intention to jump on the electric train. Mazda announced today that it is working on a plug-in. It is an electrified version of what Mazda sells as the Demio in Japan, or as the Mazda2 in most other markets. The pluggable Mazda will be available in spring of 2012. In a way. Read More >

Production of Chevrolet’s Volt was supposed to be limited to 10k units this year, a target GM has already set its sights on surpassing. With 2012 volume projections now reaching 25k units, the next step in The General’s quest to prove that the Volt is a viable vehicle is a staggering goal: doubling its 2013 production target from 60k  to 120k units of production. According to Bloomberg, GM has not officially announced the 120k volume goal and may not build that many Volts in 2013 at all, if energy prices and supplier challenges don’t allow it. And though supplier issues could well leave the goal out of reach, even if GM is able to ramp up production to fulfill its 120k unit goal by next year, there are no signs yet that the market will support those production levels. After all, GM is essentially banking on the kind of volume-to-price niche that BMW has taken years to cultivate with its 3 Series… which starts at prices slightly below the Volt’s $41k, and still moved fewer than 110k units last year.

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BYD had a bit of a rough time lately. This might cheer them up: According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, a joint design team of BYD and Daimler has finished the styling of an all-electric battery car that will be launched by a BYD/Daimler ( or “Benz” as they call them in China) joint venture. Read More >

Even the most ardent EV proponents, like Nissan, think that by 2020, the market share of electric cars will be 10 percent.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has some better predictions Read More >

Wheh, that’s a big question… and I was dismayed to see myself giving such a short answer to it in my Newshour appearance. There are a host of reasons for my swift “no” answer to that question… here are a few of them:

1: GM Doesn’t need saving. The Government “saved” GM.

2: The market projections for EVs are all works in progress.

3: GM isn’t actually committed to the electrification of the car. It’s committed to gas engines and transmissions and the idea of “range anxiety”… for its “electric car.”

4: If GM were committed to electrification, and that was a prudent business gamble, it would still be chasing Renault-Nissan just as Honda chased Toyota in the race for hybrid leadership not so many years ago. And like Honda, GM seems less committed (in the literal, mechanical sense) to the electric car than the emerging global leader, Nissan. Yes, the Volt is mechanical marvel, unrivaled in its complexity… but only because it clings to its gas technology. Honda’s hybrid half-step, never introducing an electric drive mode to its “mild” hybrids, seems pragmatic by comparison. Toyota’s sole ownership of the “hybrid halo” is instructive (and worrying for Toyota, considering it’s been taking a GM-esque tack towards EVs lately).

5: Even after GM starts selling tons of electric cars (in a scenario where that is indeed possible), it will be working uphill to re-establish consumer trust (in all its products) that was squandered over decades.

I could go on, but I’d rather hear your answers to the question.

The case of three Renault executives who are accused of passing off trade secrets to a foreign firm has taken yet another turn for the confusing, as two of the dismissed managers are suing Renault for defamation. Reuters reports that Michel Balthazard, the highest-ranking executive to be accused in the case, has joined colleague Bertrand Rochette in threatening to file a defamation suit against his former employer. Balthazard is also appealing his dismissal to a French labor tribunal, in hopes of being reinstated at the company. Rochette, Balthazard and a third exec, Matthieu Tenenbaum, are accused of passing strategic information to a foreign network in exchange for bribe payments, charges all three executives deny. According to the WSJ, Rochette denies even having a Swiss bank account into which Renault alleges his bribes were deposited. Meanwhile, French finance minister Christine Lagarde tells the NYT that

I really don’t think that the Renault case has a Chinese angle. I have zero indication

But, as has been typical thus far in this strange case, other French officials including the head of Parliament’s economic intelligence working group insist that a Chinese connection is involved. We will continue to keep an eye on this case… but don’t expect much clarity on the details for some time.

Model S Alpha Hits the Road from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.

Elon Musk’s desire to see “every car on the road” driven by electricity is briefly realized in this video of the Tesla Model S “Alpha” prototype testing somewhere in the coastal hills of California. Tesla’s “Alpha” phase of testing began last year, and will be followed by a “Beta” test phase before the Model S goes into production. More videos on the Model S and its technical components can be found at Tesla’s Vimeo page.

AFP [via Google] reports:

Nissan Motor had delivered only 60 units of its Leaf electric vehicle in Japan as of Friday, Kyodo News reported, despite already taking 6,000 orders due by the end of March.

Nissan denied any delay in the delivery of the pre-ordered cars and company spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa told AFP on Tuesday that the automaker was taking a cautious approach to ensure quality control.

“We have to make sure that everything is 100 percent safe and sure,” Yonekawa said. “This is the first time we have mass-produced an electric vehicle so we need to be very careful. We are not delayed or behind schedule.”

Well don’t rush it then… but it’s got to be rough to be one of the 6,000 folks who pre-ordered by the end of last March. Nissan promises these patient souls that production of the initial 6,000 units will be complete by the end of this March.

TTAC doesn’t typically “do” motorsport, but we absolutely make exceptions for those racing-related stories that are of real significance to the larger industry or are simply too awesome to ignore (i.e. LeMons). The launch of the EV Cup may not seem particularly germane to the larger industry, as it will feature race-prepped Think EVs and open-wheeled Westfield iRacers (above), but it is significant in the sense that it is the first-ever all-electric racing series. But if you think about it, the lack of major OEM participation in this world-wide series is significant in and of itself. After all, wouldn’t Tesla be interested in promoting its Roadster as the epitome of EV excitement? Apparently not, as Autoblog Green reported way back in December of 2007 that Tesla admits its Roadster would make a poor track car because

The power electronics module (PEM) monitors a variety of the sensors in and around the battery pack and the air-cooled AC motor. If anything starts to get too hot, the PEM will automatically start limiting the power flow from the battery until things cool down. The result is that after a only a couple of laps of all-out track running, the motor will start to heat up and performance will be limited. On the road in real world conditions this won’t be a problem, because conditions generally won’t allow that sort of sustained extreme driving.

Oh well. After all, Tesla doesn’t want to be the “Silicon Valley Ferrari” anyway… that’s just too easy. But what about Audi, which is gunning for Tesla’s niche with two EV sportscars bracketing Tesla’s Roadster? Or Mercedes with its retina-searing SLS E-Cell? Or Ruf’s Greenster electrified Porsche? Seriously guys, it’s up to Think and Westfield to take the lead on this one?

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Bloomberg reports that Toyota’s engineers have reached an “advanced stage” of research on a new “induction”-type electric motor which holds the promise of freeing the Japanese automaker from dependence on so-called rare-earth materials. These elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, are used to strengthen the magnets used in traditional electric motors and generators, and are crucial to the production of everything from electric and hybrid cars to wind turbines and guided missiles. China currently controls over 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare-earth materials, and has recently cut exports quotas, raising tensions between China and Japan.

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