Cars, Candidates, Loans, and Bailouts

[bobw]

Opinion piece by Andy Grove in the WSJ

What Detroit Can Learn from Silicon Valley

 

[Serge]

What Detroit Can Learn from Silicon Valley

My impression of the article is that it would better be titled "What Washington Can Learn from Beijing", as the question asked in conclusion seems to be "shouldn't we [U.S.] also invest significantly in [domestic] battery manufacturing capability?"

 

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Business | Opel and Vauxhall fate in balance

Speculation now is that GM will try to keep its European divisions. Trouble is, since chapter 11 GM Europe has been controlled by the Opel Trust and the politicians have got involved.

I hope GM do hold on to it, from the point of view of getting the Volt/Ampera built.

 

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Green money slow to flow.

.. the senior advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu for the Recovery Act, said his agency has moved as quickly as possible while making sure the money is going to high-quality projects. "We are making very good progress," he said...

This week, however, the department's inspector general reported that it has continuing questions about the department's ability to manage and track the effect of its stimulus spending...

 

[dpeilow]

Why Remaking the Auto Industry Makes No Sense - BusinessWeek

THE ENTREPRENEURS
First, take the entrepreneurs—people such as co-founders Elon Musk and Marc Tarpenning of electric car maker Tesla Motors. The theory is that entrepreneurs can quickly integrate new technologies (mostly electric propulsion systems) and cobble together cars from outsourced design and components. But assembling cars this way cannot reach the scale necessary for mass volume. Small production volumes result in high prices that can't compete with those of the large auto companies. Although they might be late in adopting a technology, they will have the advantage of scale.

The San Carlos (Calif.)-based Tesla Motors sells the only electric vehicle legal for highway use. But the price of the current model, the Tesla Roadster, is $101,500. That's in the range of the ultra-luxury Porsche Carrera. Despite the high price, Tesla probably loses money on each Roadster it sells. Fisker Automotive, based in Irvine, Calif., prices its Karma model, which uses a hybrid drivetrain, at $87,900. Deliveries will begin next year, but at that price Fisker, owned by former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, is unlikely to sell many of these imported vehicles assembled in Finland.

Entrepreneurs focus on building a car, but that's half the challenge of success in the auto industry. Car developers often ignore the reality of how mass-market cars are sold, financed, and repaired, and they forget how important resale values are to establish a brand permanently in the market. Cars stay on the road for 10 to 15 years, and owners expect a car to have a predictable value throughout its lifetime. That means the supporting infrastructure is as important to the broad base of consumers beyond the elite collector, who is impressed when Tesla sends a technician to his home to fix a part.

 

[dpeilow]

A Long Bet on Electric Cars - BusinessWeek

 

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A Long Bet on Electric Cars - BusinessWeek

The feds have put $465 million into Tesla, but it has raised only $300 million and change in private capital. And the U.S. has invested five times as much in Fisker as private investors. Rogers says Fisker must raise more money to tap the credit line, but debt will still account for 70% of the company's funding.

I had missed the part about matching funds for Fisker.

 

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http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2...s-to-china-for-biofuels-capacity-development/


Report: Energy Secretary Chu Thinks Every Cent Should Go to Electric Cars : Gas 2.0

Attendees at a recent alternative fuels gathering in Washington are reporting that US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu remarked, “If it were up to me, I would put every cent into electric cars,”...

 

[dpeilow]

Compare the tone of these two stories...

BBC NEWS | Business | Deal done to save Vauxhall jobs

REPORT: Vauxhall Ampera production gets snubbed in the UK — Autoblog Green

 

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The Department of Energy called the Oregon plan too futuristic, saying last month in a letter to state officials: “Availability of vehicles is very problematic to this proposal.” The difficulty was that many of the electric vehicles Oregon wanted federal money to help pay for likely would not be available for purchase until two to three years after the money was awarded. Until then, the charging stations proposed for workplace parking lots and other locations would sit idle.

News: Local | "CHARGING AHEAD" | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon

One of the first big electric car charging stations in the Eugene area is being planned for the Lane Community College parking lot, on the south end of Eugene near Interstate 5. The 36-outlet, solar-powered station is in the design and development stage, with plans for its completion next July, said Anna Scott, an energy analyst at the college. With the help of a $100,000 grant from EWEB, the college plans to complete the facility by next summer.

Is there anyone from Oregon in this Forum?

Eugene, Corvallis, Salem and Portland are the cities in Oregon’s test market for electric vehicles. It’s part of a five-state test, underwritten with $99.8 million in federal aid. Oregon stands to end up with:

940 Nissan Leaf EVs, to be sold to consumers and fleets that agree to participate.

2,250 charging stations, with 940 being installed in the Leaf owners’ homes and the rest going to work and public places. About 50 would be “level 3 fast chargers.”

 

[dpeilow]

New Haven Advocate: Leisure - Wasting Our Money?

 

[dpeilow]

Google's New Energy Fix | NBC Bay Area

 

[Serge]

Google's New Energy Fix | NBC Bay Area

DoE's new ARPA-E "venture arm" has awarded $150 million in grants yesterday, to be followed by a second wave in late Fall. Envia Systems is one of the recipients in Energy Storage. They are aiming to develop next generation Li-ion batteries using nano-silicon-carbon composite anodes and manganese-layered-composite cathodes discovered at Argonne National Laboratory with target cell density of 400 Wh/kg. Another energy storage recipient is Arizona State University's Metal-Air batteries, which seem to be Zinc-Air kind.

 

[dpeilow]

Federal Loans to EV Startups: Foolish Bet or Wise Investment? | Autopia | Wired

In light of these conditions and restrictions, it is hard to cast the loans as a reckless use of taxpayer money. In fact, an optimist would consider them a wise investment indeed.

 

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Business | General Motors cancels Opel sale

 

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Taking Taxpayers for a Ride

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/opinion/23niedermayer.html?_r=1&sudsredirect=true

 

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Darryl Siry, "Spread the Love"

Looks like without a gov loan you won't get vencap loan.

As a result, the vibrant and competitive market for ideas chasing venture capital that has been the engine of innovation for decades in the United States is being subordinated to the judgments and political inclinations of a government bureaucracy that has never before wielded such market power

also, at Aptera

“all of the engineers are working on documentation for the DOE loan. Not on the vehicle itself.”

 

[AnOutsider]

“all of the engineers are working on documentation for the DOE loan. Not on the vehicle itself.”

haha, that's crazy. At least Tesla was able to get a car (well 3 versions of a car) to market without it

 

[dpeilow]

BBC News - General Motors chief executive Fritz Henderson resigns

 

[dpeilow]

In Role as Kingmaker, the Energy Department Stifles Innovation | Autopia | Wired.com