From the category archives:

Hybrids & EVs

Toyota: Toward the 21st Century Electric Car

by Jack Lifton January 20, 2010

The Wall Street Journal yesterday, January 19, 2010, reported that:
“A key supplier of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) moved to secure a long-term source of lithium in Argentina, in one of the first global natural-resource plays of the electric-car age.”
Today, January 20, 2010, it has been disclosed that the same Toyota “supplier” has also extended its [...]

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The Electrification Coalition: The Dangers Of Logical Analysis

by Jack Lifton November 21, 2009

Yesterday at the Seeking Alpha Web site, John Petersen published an excellent article on the new Electrification Coalition, titled “Rapid Transition to Grid Enabled Vehicles Not Possible or Desirable.” I suggest you read this article right now, if you haven’t done so already.
To paraphrase John Milton, “logical analysis is a dangerous thing, drink deep or [...]

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China’s Rare Earth Metals

by Admin November 17, 2009

by PAUL MASON – BBC WORLD NEWS / NEWSNIGHT – Published: Nov 17, 2009
LONDON – Above ground, factories in China are churning out goods to be shipped around the world, below it, lies rare earth metals which are crucial to nearly every 21st century technology.
Paul Mason reports on a rare commodity in hot demand [features [...]

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Look north for critical metals, U.S. conference hears

by Admin November 6, 2009

by ALISHA HIYATE – THE NORTHERN MINER – Published: Nov 6, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jack Lifton has an urgent warning for the United States when it comes to the supply of rare earth elements (REEs) — metals that are essential to everything from cell phones and LCD screens to military applications and hybrid cars.
Addressing attendees [...]

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Will The Chevrolet Volt Even Be Built As A Production Model? That’s The Question

by Jack Lifton September 4, 2009

Johan de Nysschen, President of Audi USA, recently vocalized what is on everyone’s mind in the OEM automotive world when it comes to the Chevrolet Volt. His basic sentiment that the Volt is an idiotic concept, is widely shared wherever in the world cars are designed , built, and marketed by existing mass producers.
In general, among [...]

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As Hybrid Cars Gobble Rare Metals, Shortage Looms

by Admin August 31, 2009

By STEVE GORMAN – REUTERS – Published: Aug 31, 2009
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
That makes Toyota’s market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and [...]

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Autoblog Misunderstood What Bill Ford Said About Batteries Used By Ford

by Jack Lifton August 20, 2009

I recently read an Autoblog.com article entitled “Chevy Volt’s 230 mpg rating, ad campaign comes under fire from Bill Ford, AdAge“. It was poorly edited, poorly fact-checked and poorly written. William Clay Ford, could not have said what the article attributed to him in the context described.
The Ford Motor Company has a first-class battery development group [...]

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Is The Chevrolet Volt Only A Fair Weather Car?

by Jack Lifton August 12, 2009

All the recent nonsense about the Chevrolet Volt’s fuel use and performance is just hot air, until the car is on the road and its actual performance under real driving conditions and with ordinary drivers is measured. I propose a side-by-side test of the Prius and the Chevrolet Volt to settle which is the more practical and [...]

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The Question Of Battery Swap Versus Fast Charging Uncovers The Core Problem Of A Lack Of Planning For National Vehicle Electrification

by Jack Lifton August 9, 2009

The cart is dragging the horse as the economically and electrical engineering clueless are now debating where to put the infrastructure for recharging (fueling) electrified motor vehicles. All we have to do, they say, is change the transportation fueling, the shopping habits, and the daily routines we have built up over the last 100 years as soon [...]

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Is General Motors Backing Off Of The Chevrolet Volt Type Plug-In Hybrid?

by Jack Lifton August 7, 2009

Although you would think that the writers of Popular Mechanics (PM) would be familiar with the various types of hybrid power trains now in actual use, or in the planning stage, it is obvious from the PM article on the proposed Buick “hybrid’ that the magazine’s writers, fact checkers, and editors do not understand very much [...]

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