Electricnick, The EV Revolution

Here is a last look at the news worldwide on electric vehicles, EV and their related hybrid, HEV cousins.

Obama Irks South Korea.  No, this is not a political blog but South Korean auto manufacturers are feeling hurt after Obama singled out Korea as an unfair auto trader last month.  Jay Leno feels Obama will not rescue Detroit and feels bankruptcy would force auto makers to get under the hood and address weaknesses, excesses and barriers to becoming more globally competitive. They would emerge leaner, more innovative and a greater threat to Asia.  And he continues to say, or joke, however you would like to see it, Obama’s rhetoric worries Koreans who wait for a free-trade agreement with the US.  Obama pointed out that the US imported about 770,000 Korean vehicles last year versus about 5,000 American vehicles in Korea, yet at least 200,000 of these were made in Alabama.   What is particularly troublesome is that while Detroit complains, the rest of the world is moving on and Hyundai is busily building the hybrid cars Detroit says it can’t afford to.  Source: LiveMint.

Mini-Car T.26 Goes Hybrid. Famed designer and auto aficionado Gordon Murray says his next project, the T.26 will could be built using hybrid-electric and all-electric drive trains, amongst other alternatives and looks to the Asian markets, according to GreenTech.

Nissan Sells EVs, Rents Batteries.  True to the Better Place ideal to almost give away electric vehicles, EVs and rent batteries, Nissan, with it’s Renault partner and strategic alliance with Shai Agassi’s Better Place starts to drum up attention with the concept, according to RegisterHardware.  In other words, we would be buying EVs from Nissan and leasing the power pack from a third-party such as BP.

AFS Trinity Wants Small Innovators To Get Help Also.  After all, why should only Detroit get help when smaller, more dynamic innovators are leading the revolution?  A point we have made here numerous times, according to International Business Times, AFS Trinity Power Corporation wants to file for a $2.5 billion funding from the $25 billion established by Congress, since up to $2 Billion of the funding should be used for retooling an existing factory of a major American Car maker whose assembly line employees will be retrained to produce plug-in hybrid, PHEV SUV’s that utilize AFS Trinity’s 150 mile per gallon “Extreme Hybrid”technology.  After all, AFS Trinity has shown better results than ay other local makers so far.  Glad to hear the smaller players voicing their concerns.

That’s it for today.  Stay tuned for more.