Replacing Oil

Commuters in SIngapore will be able to breath just a little easier very soon. Working in conjuction with NTU and Beijing’s Tsinghua University it appears that Singapore will finally get it’s first public bus powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

What surprises me isn’t that they have a hydrogen fuel cell bus, but that it’s the first. Singapore is one of the few places that recycles nearly 100% of its water. I would of thought that they would have entire fleets of electric vehicles in their public transport system. If this is the case and MIke at the Green Optomistic made a slight error in this post, please comment.

Years ago when moved to Bangkok I used to marvel at how cheap taxis were. A few years later I bought a small Corolla with a modest 1.6 liter engine. I realized that the price my very efficient Toyota per km was just a bit higher than what it cost to be chauffeured around in a taxi the same distance. I was baffled.

Turns out they can afford it because an engine converted to run on Compresed Natural Gas (CNG) costs about 1/3 as much to operate as the same car on gasoline. Sitting in the back of Bangkok taxis thinking about how lucky I was to live somewhere that had adequate CNG pumps (and no longer metro Detroit) planted the seed that has become this blog.

Well travelling by taxi just got a whole lot better.

On Sunday, Better Place launched switchable-battery electric taxis onto the streets of Tokyo (see the slideshow at the bottom of this post). Although I think there are only a handful at the moment. The electric vehicles are able to drive into a battery switching station and exchange their empty batteries for ones with a complete charge in less time than it would take to fill up with petrol. They can run all day, cool and emission free.

EVs are cheap to operate and with a lot less moving parts, require far less maintenance. Will they pass that savings along to customers, probably. One thing is certain they’ll be a whole lot quieter.

Chery Automotive China To Produce Electric Vehicles With Swappable Batteries For Better Place Project

Just exactly what a “memo of understanding,” means is beyond me, but the electric car network program Better Place has apparently signed one with China’s Chery Automotive. The agreement involves developing switchable-battery electric vehicle prototypes to be used in Better Place’s network of electric vehicle battery switching stations.

If you’re not already familiar, Better Place is a business model more than a specific product begun in Isreal by Shai Agassi. The basic concept is a network of battery swapping and charging stations that work with affordable electric vehicles. Instead of pulling into a petrol station and refilling your tank with gasoline, your car’s empty battery would be completely removed and replaced with an identical one with a full charge and you’re good to go another 100 miles.

In other Better Place projects Renault is building cars with quick battery swapping technology, however it seems China wishes to use their own manufacturer, Chery. No surprises there.

Now this isn’t necessarily an example of fossil fuels being replaced with cleaner energy. The electricity used to charge the batteries will most likely be coal fired. However the electricity from any source, like the enormous solar arrays that the Chinese government has contracted from First Solar.

I suppose I should be grateful to see the DOE dole out 10 million dollars to Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corp. to build a new truck manufacturing plant in Kansas City, but my blood pressure is still rising. GM received billions and the Chevy Volt is still not in production. Smith Electric on the other hand is very likely going to take this Department of Energy grant and effectively.

Coca-Cola and other large companies are already using Smith’s all elictric delivery vehicles, however they’re currently built in Europe. It’s very likely this investment will pay off for the local economy, I just wish I could say the same for the rest of the Recovery funds.

This one just stinks to high heaven. Although it’s great to hear anyone in the Senate praise Electric Vehicles like the Smith Newton, when I saw Kit Bond from Missouri at a podium in front of a Coca-Cola delivery truck manufactured by Smith Electric Vehicles.

Sen. Kit Bond Loves the Electric Vehicles Except When Voting

Kit Bond, who has voted against numerous bills to curb greenhouse emissions and promote alternative fuel sources actually said, “we must have a comprehensive solution including investment in alternative energy technology if America is ever to be in control of its own energy future.”

This is a Senator that voted to block legislation that would of given companies a tax break when upgrading their fleets to more efficient vehicles, now he’s standing in front of one praising it.

Is he changing his game? It hardly matters now that he’s announced that he will not be seeking re-election in 2010.