Dreaming Big, Despite Bankruptcy

  • One paint technology that GM is developing uses quantum dots - shown here irradiated with ultraviolet light (Source: Walkman16 at Wikimedia Commons)

Even though General Motors has filed for bankruptcy, Rebecca Williams reports the company is still dreaming big:

Transcript

Even though General Motors has filed for bankruptcy, Rebecca Williams reports the company is still dreaming big:

Someday you might be able to power your radio through your car’s paint.

Christopher Webb is GM’s senior creative designer.

He says GM’s research teams are giving some thought to solar powered paint. He says it might start with tiny solar cells called quantum dots.

“You could suspend these solar cells in a resin system or a waterborne or solvent carrier and spray it over the surface of the vehicle. Technically the entire surface of the vehicle could become almost a solar conductor.”

Webb says nobody knows exactly how this might work yet. But he says he’s confident that GM will continue their research into new technologies like this even with the bankruptcy announcement.

Something else that’s being talked about is using volcanic rock in paint. It could be a coating that would reduce a car’s interior temperature by reflecting heat – so you could use the air conditioning less often.

For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

President Obama’s Plan for Clean Cars

President Obama has outlined his plans
for the struggling auto industry. They
include restructuring GM and Chrysler
as well as help for auto workers and
communities hurt by slumping car and truck sales. Lester Graham reports lost in the details was the President’s bigger plan:

Transcript

President Obama has outlined his plans
for the struggling auto industry. They
include restructuring GM and Chrysler
as well as help for auto workers and
communities hurt by slumping car and truck sales. Lester Graham reports lost in the details was the President’s bigger plan:

In one sentence President Obama summed up his vision for the U.S. auto industry.

“I am absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet one goal: the United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars.”

Some analysts say the market should decide whether consumers want fuel-efficient, clean cars. They point to headlines noting hybrid car sales fell off a cliff since gasoline prices went down.

But J.D. Power and Associates’ Michael Omotoso says yeah, hybrid sales are down – but not as much as everything else.

“Hybrid sales are actually doing well compared to overall sales.”

Hybrid sales in February were down 29% from last year, but overall light vehicle sales fell 40%.

Omotoso says hybrids are still selling because people expect gas prices will go up as the economy recovers.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

Related Links

Interview: International Automakers’ Plans

  • Honda rolled out the 2010 Insight for it's world premiere (Photo courtesy of the North American International Auto Show)

Car makers are showing off new
models at the North American International
Auto Show in Detroit. Domestic automakers
are rolling out hybrids and coming plug-in
hybrids. Foreign manufacturers have a
little more experience with hybrids.
Toyota has been doing well with its hybrid,
the Prius, and the Japanese company plans
to release a plug-in version early next year.
Lester Graham talked with Julie Halpert.
She’s a reporter who’s been covering the
preview of the Detroit Auto Show (opens
Saturday January 17th). She says
Honda, which started this hybrid trend,
hasn’t done much lately, but it is now:

Transcript

Car makers are showing off new
models at the North American International
Auto Show in Detroit. Domestic automakers
are rolling out hybrids and coming plug-in
hybrids. Foreign manufacturers have a
little more experience with hybrids.
Toyota has been doing well with its hybrid,
the Prius, and the Japanese company plans
to release a plug-in version early next year.
Lester Graham talked with Julie Halpert.
She’s a reporter who’s been covering the
preview of the Detroit Auto Show (opens
Saturday January 17th). She says
Honda, which started this hybrid trend,
hasn’t done much lately, but it is now:

Lester Graham: They’re paying a lot of attention to the Detroit Auto Show this
year because of the bailout and because of the new green cars that are being
displayed. Julie Halpert’s been covering the Auto Show. Julie, there’s a lot of
talk about the domestic automakers bringing on board hybrids and plug-in
hybrids in the near future, but it appears the Japanese automakers are coming
out ahead.

Julie Halpert: What’s interesting is the Japanese automakers feel it’s more
important in the near future to focus on regular hybrids. For example, Honda is
coming out with a new version of its Insight, that is comparable in size to the
Prius. And, it’s going to be the most affordable Hybrid. Priced under $20,000,
which makes it very attractive. Their argument is, these electric cars are
interesting, but there’s a lot of work to be done on the battery, and, so they would
rather see lots of people in hybrids, near-term. They think that’s going to make a
bigger difference environmentally than coming up with these plug-in hybrids,
which are going to be more expensive, and aren’t going to be offered for the next
couple of years.

Graham: If oil prices stay low, I’m wondering if domestic automakers will stay the
course of these more energy efficient cars. It sounds like they want the
government to force consumers into that market.

Halpert: Well, the government’s obviously placing a priority on this. And what
they’re very much hoping is that the government fuels demand by creating tax
incentives for these vehicles – they have the ability to do that, Congress has the
ability to do that. I think they’ve invested so much now, there’s really no
reversing course. The problem is that customers are very fickle. If gas prices
are low, they’re going to go back to their conventional internal combustion
engines. When gas prices were high, this past summer, there was a huge cry for
these alternative, more fuel efficient vehicles. The problem is that automakers
need to plan months and months in advance to bring out these vehicles. So
now, they’re on course to do that, it would be very difficult for them to switch
course at this point.

Graham: While Honda’s coming out with this new version of the Insight, Toyota’s
coming out with a third generation of the Prius, GM’s trumpeting the Volt, Ford is
going after smaller engines with turbo power. Why are they taking that
approach?

Halpert: Well, it’s actually quite a prudent approach. They’ve got this hybrid
Ford Fusion, which gets 41 miles per gallon. And, they’ve got this super turbo-
charged engine, which can boost fuel efficiency by 20-30%. And, their argument
is, let’s use more conventional motors to do this, because it gets into an
affordability issue. They can basically provide the power of a V8 engine in a V6
engine. And, consumers still want that power. They want low costs. So, they
figure, this new technology can go quite far in getting a lot of fuel efficiency and
not requiring consumers to pay this up-front premium that other hybrids cost.

Graham: That’s Julie Halpert, who’s been covering the Detroit Auto Show.
Thanks, Julie.

Halpert: Thank you so much.

Related Links

Detroit Gets Electric

  • A new element highlighting the green future of the automotive industry has been added to the show. Attendees will be able to experience the latest in technology in a ride-and-drive format on a track built in Michigan Hall. (Photo courtesy of the North American International Auto Show)

Car makers are at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to show-off their hybrids, and coming plug-in hybrids. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Car makers are at the North
American International Auto Show in
Detroit to show-off their hybrids,
and coming plug-in hybrids. Lester
Graham reports:

GM, Ford and Chrysler have all built hybrids and have plans for more – and all plan
plug-in hybrids. Those kinds of cars need good batteries.

Soon lithium ion batteries will replace what’s being used now. But, it’ll still only get
you 40 miles at best in plug ins before it runs out of juice and needs the gas-powered
engine onboard.

So making even better batteries is important to GM, Chrysler and Ford’s Executive
Chairman Bill Ford.

“I actually think the battery break-throughs will now start coming relatively quickly.”

But what if gasoline prices stay low? Will the majority of car buyers care about fuel
efficiency?

GM’s Rick Wagoner bets as the economy improves, gas prices will go back up.

“In general we’d expect oil prices to resume an increase. Hopefully a more gradual
one than we saw last year.”

And the automakers hope the government continues to encourage sales of fuel
efficient cars with tax credits.

For The Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

E-85: The Loneliest Pump

  • This E85 pump is one of two publicly available in the city of Chicago - a city of nearly three million people and dozens of dealerships that sell E-85 compatible cars. The federal government provided incentives to manufacture E85- compatible vehicles, but the fuel infrastructure hasn't kept up. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

If you’ve kicked the tires around
a new car lot recently, your dealer may
have told you about “flex fuel” cars. These
Flex Fuel Vehicles run on gas or they can
burn “E85” – a mix of ethanol and gasoline.
Congress promoted Flex Fuel Vehicles to cut
oil imports, but Shawn Allee reports
on why it really hasn’t helped:

Transcript

If you’ve kicked the tires around
a new car lot recently, your dealer may
have told you about “flex fuel” cars. These
Flex Fuel Vehicles run on gas or they can
burn “E85” – a mix of ethanol and gasoline.
Congress promoted Flex Fuel Vehicles to cut
oil imports, but Shawn Allee reports
on why it really hasn’t helped:

I’m in my car across the street from a gas station. It’s raining right now. Keeping my
distance.

I’ve been watching a pump that dispenses that E85 blend – it’s the stuff with 85% ethanol.

Anyway, this is a very lonely gas pump. I’ve been here for something like an hour and
half and no one’s filled up on E85.

So, I’m gonna head in and talk to a manager to see whether this is normal.

(sound of bell)

Allee: “What’s your name sir?”

McLemen: “Greg McLemen.”

Allee: “How often do you see people fill up on E85?”

McLemen: “It depends on the location. Mostly people just don’t know what it is. They
see a little pump over there that says E85. A lot of vehicles take it, and they don’t even
know it.”

McLemen pulls out a flier that shows which vehicles can use E85.

He says lots of these models pull in, but often pass up his E85 pump.

(sound of crinkling)

McLemen: “You can see most of them are General Motors.”

Allee: “A lot of General Motors – Tahoe, Avalanche, Uplanders.”

McLemen: “We always recommend they go online or check the owner’s manual.”

But there’s something most Flex-Fuel owners manuals don’t tell you.

Nationwide, only about 1% of stations have an E85 pump.

E85 is supposed to cut gasoline use.

So it begs the questions: If there’s not much E85 around, why can so many Flex Fuel cars
use it?

“Currently, auto companies receive a fuel economy credit for producing a flex-fuel
vehicle.”

Environmentalist Roland Hwang tracks car policy for the Natural Resources Defense
Council.

He says the Flex Fuel incentives infuriate him – because they’ve made us waste gasoline,
not save it.

“Just very roughly speaking, like a twenty per mile gallon car might be treated like a
forty mile per gallon, almost like a hybrid-level of efficiency, under these fuel economy
credits. Thereby allowing the auto companies actually to build a less-efficient vehicle
fleet than they would have had to build.”

You don’t have to take Hwang’s word for it – energy analysts in the government agree the
incentives have wasted gasoline.

But some of these analysts say there is a bright side to the Flex Fuel vehicle incentives.

One is Paul Leiby of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Leiby: “The important side of effect Flexible Fuel incentives is that we actually can begin
to achieve energy security with the enhanced capability to use alternative fuels even if
we’re not yet using them.”

Allee: “You mean the flex fuel vehicle program wastes some gas, but having flex fuel
vehicles around is like an insurance policy, for an oil shock or something?”

Leiby: “That’s exactly right. If we have to do something very fast, within one to three
years, we already have some vehicles on the road, that can quickly switch to ethanol.”

Leiby says Congress really believed this “insurance policy” idea, so it let Flex Fuel
vehicle incentives for automakers go on for more than a decade – even while we were
just spinning our wheels when it came to actually saving gas.

But now, the game could be changing.

Congress is phasing out Flex Fuel credits for the car makers.

And, there’s talk about making all cars flex fuel.

It’s a move Detroit doesn’t want to make. Because then they’ll have to actually have to
meet the government’s requirements of a more fuel efficient fleet.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

Related Links

Flex-Fuel Cars Often Burn Gas

  • The seven million or so Flex Fuel Vehicles are just a small portion of the 200-million or so vehicles in the American fleet, but there could many, more in the future. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

For most drivers, filling up at the
pump’s a pretty easy operation – you drive
up, you fill up, and you drive out. But people
who have Flex Fuel Vehicles have another choice.
They can fill up on gas or E-85, that 85 percent
ethanol blend – if they find the right station.
Shawn Allee reports a lot more of us
could have to make that same choice in the future:

Transcript

For most drivers, filling up at the
pump’s a pretty easy operation – you drive
up, you fill up, and you drive out. But people
who have Flex Fuel Vehicles have another choice.
They can fill up on gas or E-85, that 85 percent
ethanol blend – if they find the right station.
Shawn Allee reports a lot more of us
could have to make that same choice in the future:

I’m at a car lot in my home town. I’m not actually in the car market, but I am
curious what these E85 compatible Flex Fuel vehicles look like. I don’t own one
myself.

Anyway, I’m here with Edgar Moreno. He sells cars on this lot. He’s gonna show
me one of these vehicles here.

Allee: “Edgar, what can you show me?”

Moreno: “The Chevy Impala.”

Allee: “I actually don’t see anything that would tell me it’s a Flex-fuel vehicle.”

Moreno: “Usually it says on the gas cap whether you can use E85 or not.”

(sound of twist)

Allee: “It’s bright yellow. It says E85. In fact it says E85-slash-gasoline. What does
that mean?”

Moreno: “You can fill it with either, or.”

Allee: “How many stations are there available where I could fill this Impala up with
E85?”

Moreno: “I think there’s one in the area, but you have to drive quite a bit to get
there.”

Allee: “So, it’s one of those situations where, if I take this Impala off the lot, I could
still use it at a regular gas station, but I might have to search around for an E85
station?”

Moreno: “Yes, you do. Yep.”

Congress and both presidential candidates are considering making every car a Flex
Fuel Vehicle.

Detroit has spent a lot of money promoting E85 vehicles, and you might think they’d
be in favor of this.

Well, I called Ford Motor Company about this and found out that’s not the case.

“You could mandate every vehicle on the road to be a flex fuel vehicle. It would be a
great cost to our industry.”

Curt Magleby is Ford’s point-man on ethanol regulations.

He says if Congress gets its way there’d be more Flex Fuel Vehicles, but not necessarily
more E85 pumps.

“So you can mandate the vehicle side, but unless there’s a real focus on distribution,
it’s wasted money – we’d be putting dollars on the hoods of our vehicles for no
reason.”

So, Ford and the other car makers could make less profit on Flex Fuel Vehicles if there’s
a mandate.

At one time, they got government incentives to build Flex Fuel Vehicles, but those will
phase out.

So there’d be no benefit for the automakers.

And there’s another twist in the E-85 story.

The fuel industry is pushing to distribute ethanol in a way that might not require flex fuel
cars at all.

This is a little technical, but most gas already has 10% ethanol in it.

The fuel industry wants to sell 20% or even 30% ethanol blends because it saves oil
companies money. The government subsidized ethanol is cheaper than refining oil for
gasoline.

Ford and other car-makers are fighting this.

Magleby says burning E-20 or E-30 blends would be a disaster for existing cars.

“Ethanol is corrosive and it burns hotter, so you have to have a different fuel tank.
You have to have stainless steel fuel lines. You have to have hardened valves in your
engine.”

Car companies say burning 20% or 30% ethanol blends could hurt existing cars.

Scientists are checking whether that’s the case.

In the meantime, Congress is deciding exactly how it will promote ethanol.

It could mandate all cars be E85 Flex Fuel vehicles or it could promote lower-level
ethanol blends in gasoline.

Either way, over the next few years, we’re going to see big changes in our cars or our gas
pumps.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Part One: Kicking Gas to the Curb

  • Ted Bohn, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in the Chicago suburbs, shows off a modified Saturn Vue with a lithium-ion battery in the rear (Photo by Gabriel Spitzer)

One of the great hopes for a green
car is the plug-in hybrid. It’s like a regular
gas-electric hybrid, only you can plug in at
night. That charge is supposed to let most
people make a typical commute without the gas engine. Carmakers and the government are throwing a lot of money at the technology – GM and Chrysler both hope to release models in the next few years. But the cars might not deliver what boosters promise. In the first part of our series on saving gas, Gabriel Spitzer
reports on what new research says about plug-in hybrids in the real world:

Transcript

One of the great hopes for a green
car is the plug-in hybrid. It’s like a regular
gas-electric hybrid, only you can plug in at
night. That charge is supposed to let most
people make a typical commute without the gas
engine. Carmakers and the government are
throwing a lot of money at the technology – GM
and Chrysler both hope to release models in the
next few years. But the cars might not deliver
what boosters promise. In the first part of
our series on saving gas, Gabriel Spitzer
reports on what new research says about plug-in
hybrids in the real world:

Ted Bohn is a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in the Chicago
suburbs and he’s showing off his ride.

“So this a prototype, plug-in hybrid vehicle. The rear half is a 10
kilowatt-hour battery.”

It’s a modified Saturn Vue, with a big old lithium-ion battery in the rear.

That battery is like what runs your iPod – only it weighs as much as a
linebacker.

Ted Bohn: “If you actually had to drive less than 40 miles on a typical
day, you could drive the whole day without starting the engine.”

Gabriel Spitzer: “Could you drive this very vehicle 40 miles round-trip
without starting the engine?”

Ted Bohn: “Close. If you drive slowly. To be honest, 25 to 30 is what
you’ll really do – driving on a nice day downhill with a tailwind is 40,
more realistically, 25 to 30.”

The thing is, you don’t hear those little caveats from some people, like, say,
General Motors.

“You plug it in. And they expect you’ll get up to 40 miles without a drop
of gas. Wow. The Chevy Volt. I’ve heard the future, and it hums.”

That 40-mile range is based on EPA tests.

Argonne scientist Aymeric Rousseau, with backing from the government,
compared those measures to how people drive in the real world.

Based on more than 100 drivers in Kansas City, he found that 40 mile range
shrinks to about 30.

Flip on your AC, and it’s more like 20.

“People now think about, you know, your mileage may vary. Now we
have to think about, your electrical distance may vary, depending on
how you drive, and what accessories you’re using.”

Rousseau says factors like aggressive driving sap the all-electric range.

And don’t forget – we’re talking Kansas City, here.

“When we talk to people from the EPA they actually say that people in
California drive more aggressively than people in Kansas City.”

General Motors concedes the point.

Rob Peterson is a spokesman for GM.

He says driver behavior can have some affect on the all-electric range.
Though …

“I wouldn’t go as low as 28 to 32.”

He says for a reasonable driver, the Volt can still get about 40.

And how about those pedal-to-the-metal Californians? Well, he says GM
studied exactly those people.

“For 64% of the people that we tested, they would be able to finish their
day with a petroleum-free and a tailpipe-emission-free commute.”

That’s not exactly what Argonne found.

Granted, the batteries they looked at were a little smaller than the Volt’s.
Size matters when it comes to batteries.

Said Al-Hallaj teaches at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He says carmakers could build a battery that would boost up the all-electric
range – the problem is money.

“If you’re talking about a 25% increase, you know, from 30 to 40 miles,
that could mean thousands of dollars. So that could take it out of the
price range that will make it actually practical for the industry to make
it.”

Al-Hallaj says as the technology improves, so will drivers.

People are already getting better at squeezing fuel efficiency out of their
cars.

“For the first time I see people even worried about closing the window
versus opening the window because of drag. And we’re talking about
common people here, just trying to pay attention to, if your tires are not
properly inflated, the you have prob — so people start adapt and
probably get the best out of your battery.”

So it’s not that a plug-in hybrid can’t get 40, it’s just that you need to drive
like a grandmother to do it.

But if gas prices continue to climb, we may be seeing a lot more grannies
behind the wheel.

For The Environment Report, I’m Gabriel Spitzer.

Related Links

More Money for Plug-In Hybrid Research

  • A laboratory researcher examines a lithium-ion battery that may be put in a hybrid car in the future (Photo courtesy of the Department of Energy)

The federal government and US carmakers are spending more

money on battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles. That’s because

existing battery technology is limited. But some of the grant winners

say success won’t come easily. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

The federal government and US carmakers are spending more

money on battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles. That’s because

existing battery technology is limited. But some of the grant winners

say success won’t come easily. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

The US Advanced Battery Consortium is made up of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.
Together with money from the Department of Energy, the consortium is handing out millions of
dollars to develop batteries for Hybrid vehicles.

Johnson Controls and a partner will develop lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrids.

Michael Andrew is a spokesman for Johnson Controls. He says his company has a lot of work to
do to make a battery that will go forty miles between charges.

“You’ve got to hit volume targets, weight targets, power targets, energy targets, cost targets. For
the 40 mile range application, that’s gonna be a tremendous challenge for us.”

The battery and car makers say it might take even more government support to help the US auto
industry shift away from gasoline-powered cars.

Critics say the companies should have focused sooner on fuel efficiency.

For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links

Are Nuke Plants Online for Y-2-K?

There are two dozen nuclear power plants operating in the Great Lakes
states. Congressional investigators say they aren’t sure all the
plants
are ready for the Y-2-K rollover at the end of December. But another
government agency insists you have nothing to fear. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has details: