Electric-Powered, More Efficient Cars - Obama Wants US Atomakers to Produce

Americans Rev Up for Cleaner, More Efficient Cars
Obama calls on US automakers to produce more electric-powered alternatives

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, D.C. February 15, 2011 - VOA

Photo: VOA - A. Greenbaum
Lawyer Jeff Parmet, behind the wheel of his Volt, says he hasn't pumped gas since buying the electric car in December.

Americans are in the market for more energy-efficient and cleaner-running cars. In his State of the Union address to Congress last month President Obama challenged the U.S. automotive industry produce more electric-powered alternatives.


"With more research and incentives we can break our dependence on oil with bio-fuels and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015," he said.

That message echoed through the cavernous exhibition halls of the 2011 Washington Auto Show, held recently in the nation’s capital, where 700 domestic and imported vehicles were on public display, including new, environmentally friendly, or "green" cars.

Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan awarded the magazine’s Green Vision Award to Ford for redesigning its best-selling Focus line of gas powered cars into the Ford Focus Battery Electric model. "This is a pretty amazing car. The technology is first rate," he said.

Another crowd pleaser at the show was the all-electric 2011 Chevy Volt, which General Motors introduced as a concept car in 2007 and is on sale in U.S. showrooms.

Cogan says the sleek, aerodynamic four-seater is a milestone in automotive engineering. "It offers the essence of what an electric vehicle should be, with the ability to have an on-board internal combustion engine generator that also creates electricity so you can just continue driving."

High performance

That’s been the experience of Jeff Parmet, a lawyer who works from his home in Potomac, Maryland. He says he hasn’t pumped a drop of gas into his car since he bought it in December. "Ideally I never want to put gas in it. That’s the goal."

VOA - R. Skirble

Jeff Parmet starts his Volt inside on a cold day using an application on his mobile phone.

The Volt goes about 65 kilometers on a single charge. When the onboard gas generator kicks in to recharge the battery, the car can go up to 480 kilometers between plug-ins.

Parmet says the Volt more than meets his needs. "A lot of people thought it would be like driving a glorified golf cart. That's not the case. This is an engineering marvel. It’s a performance car. It really accelerates fast. It handles great. It corners great. My hat is off to Chevy for what they did with this car. I’m just delighted with it."

General Motors hopes to manufacture 10,000 Chevy Volts this year and another 45,000 in 2012.

On a cold day like this one, Parmet sits at his kitchen table and warms up the Volt by tapping into an application on his mobile phone. A few minutes later in the garage he unplugs the long electric charging cable from the car and stores it in his home power station, a box on the wall about the size and shape of a large bathroom scale.

VOA - R. Skirble

Volt owner Jeff Parmet disconnects the power cord from his new electric car.


Next he gets in and pushes a power button to start the car. The car responds in silence. An electronic sound effect confirms that the motor has started. The only noise when he drives is from the wind outside.

Parmet gazes down at his glowing instrument panel. There’s a digital speedometer, a satellite navigation system and buttons to control the radio and the cabin temperature. He also monitors a rear-view camera and a computer screen that calculates battery range, a display with settings for recharging, and a gauge that gives continuous feedback on driver efficiency.

Assessing costs and benefits

Parmet admits that the Volt is expensive. He says while it costs about twice that of a similar-sized car with a gasoline engine, it’s a price he’s willing to pay.

"I bought this car because I strongly believe that we need to move off an oil petroleum-based transportation economy. And I want to make a statement. So I felt that this was an opportunity to do more than just talk the talk."

Parmet sees a bright future for electric cars. He says tighter air pollution controls and higher fuel economy standards have resulted in more efficient gas-powered cars, but he thinks Americans are ready for alternative cars that can achieve much higher energy efficiencies. As more and more electric re-charging stations are installed in public places around the country and as prices begin to come down, Parmet is confident he'll be seeing more and more electric cars joining his on America's highways.







Americans Rev Up for Cleaner, More Efficient Cars
Article and Video from VOA

GM Volt - Top at Auto Show

GM Volts to Top at Auto Show

US automaker emerges from bankruptcy to win North American Car of the Year

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, D.C. - 12 January 2011 - VOA 

The Volt can travel 64 kilometers on its rechargeable batteries before a gasoline generator kicks in to extend its range to more than 450 kilometers. GM thinks its next generation Volt can go even farther, with a superior battery that holds twice as much energy.General Motors is making a comeback in a big way. The U.S. automaker has emerged from bankruptcy and was star of the 2010 North American Auto Show in Detroit this week. GM’s plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt was named North American Car of the Year.


The Volt can travel 64 kilometers on its rechargeable batteries before a gasoline generator kicks in to extend its range to more than 450 kilometers. GM thinks its next generation Volt can go even farther, with a superior battery that holds twice as much energy.

Longer lasting power

The company has signed a license agreement to use lithium-ion battery technology developed at Argonne National Laboratory, a government-funded research facility. General Motors Ventures President John Lauckner says the move has great potential for GM’s entire electric-product line from "pure battery electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles."

The new technology is a composite cathode material, a combination of lithium and manganese oxides. The battery can store twice as much electricity as conventional lithium-ion batteries and would greatly extend vehicle range and reduce its cost, making electric cars more attractive to consumers looking for energy-efficient transport. Lauckner says the cutting-edge technology is very promising. "The idea is that we want to get it on the road for the next generation of battery packs that come out in vehicles that General Motors offers around the world."

Equally hopeful is Mohamed Alamgir, research director for LG Chem, GM’s electric-car battery supplier. LG Chem, which also signed agreements with Argonne, is building a new factory and it expects mass production to begin next year.

Alamgir says refinements to the technology are still being made. "We are trying to increase the specific energy and the life of the battery and lower the cost. We are also doing a lot of work to improve, modify and tailor our chemistry to address those concerns and these broad set of patents give us the flexibility to carry out that work."

Closing competitive gap in electric car market

The new composite cathode could give GM a boost in its attempt to catch up to Asian automakers who currently dominate the electric car market.

Cathy Zoi, Acting under secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy says government investment in research and development and applied commercialization can pay off in economic growth and job creation. "DOE has invested about $400 million over more than a decade to support electric drive batteries and today we’re seeing a lot of return on these investments. In fact, the battery technology in almost all of the electric vehicles and hybrids on the road today were developed with DOE support."

In 2008 the U.S. manufactured just two percent of the world’s advanced batteries. Zoi expects that number to skyrocket. "By 2015 we’ll produce up to 40 percent, equivalent to 500,000 electric-drive vehicles per year. And that’s just fantastic."

Zoi adds that developing the electric car and other clean-energy industries will also help cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil and put the brakes on climate-changing carbon pollution.

GM Volts to Top at Auto Show

US automaker emerges from bankruptcy to win North American Car of the Year - article came from VOA