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Nissan Scores $200 Million for Biggest-Ever Electric Car Grid Project
Nissan's early commitment to push its autos from the pump to the plug is paying off.
In June came the news that the automaker landed $1.6 billion in lucrative loans to electrify American cars. And now the company has won another $200 million to help deploy the charging network that will power them.
When it happens, it will be the largest roll out of electric charging stations and electric vehicles in the history of the world, by far.
Half the funding will flow from the Obama administration's $2.4 billion electric car grant program. The other half will come from local project participants.
All of it is a sign that Nissan, the Obama government and certain states are serious about achieving technology leadership in producing the car of the future.
The Nissan electric car project was developed in cooperation with Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a subsidiary of Arizona–based ECOtality and specialist in clean electric transportation and storage technologies.
eTec will provide the charging stations, Nissan the cars.
The automaker will deliver 5,000 of its LEAF EVs, the planet's first affordable, zero-emission, "fast-charging capable" vehicle. The LEAF, a medium-sized hatchback that runs on a lithium-ion battery, was announced to the world on August 2, to great cheers, and will hit the U.S. market by the fall of next year.
Beginning in summer 2010, the companies will start installing 13,000 220V charging systems and 250 fast-charge stations in five states: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Tennessee.
The plan will create 750 new jobs by 2012 and more than 5,500 jobs by 2017, eTec said in a statement. The hope is to pave the way for electric car networks nationwide.
"By studying lessons learned from electric vehicle operations and the infrastructure supporting these first 5,000 vehicles, the Project enables the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 electric vehicles," said Don Karner, President of eTec.
Nissan won't be the only car manufacturer to benefit, the automaker said.
"[The eTEC chargers] will work for anybody's plug-in vehicle...One system will work for all," said Mark Perry, Nissan North America director of product planning,
eTec explains further:
The Level 2 (220V) residential infrastructure will be provided specifically for the Nissan EV, but will meet the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1772 connection standard that will be used by all major automotive manufacturers. All public charge infrastructure will also use this standard and other applicable standards devised by the SAE.
The $99.8 million from the feds was handed out as part of a $2.4 billion slice of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was earmarked to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of EVs and their components.
Around 50 companies were awarded the money. Some two-thirds of the total, or $1.5 billion, will be steered into battery manufacturing. That has prompted the confounding "chicken or the egg" dilemma: What comes first, the car or the fleet-pluggable stations to recharge them?
The top priority for the Obama administration, for now, it seems, is the car. Specifically, the feds are intent on making the batteries EV-ready -- to improve capacity, safety, charging time and longevity. They also want to ensure the batteries are made in the USA.
As the president said this week:
"I don't want to have to import a hybrid car. I want to build a hybrid car here."
But charging infrastructure isn't getting completely brushed off, despite some media hype on the topic. While no single project earned the same scale of funding as the Nissa-eTec plan, other plug-in demos got millions. Via Green Car Congress:
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Keep pushing forward!
I cannot wait! Good job Shai! Good job Better Place! This is going to exciting transition and change for the world.
More on plug-ins
Plug-in hybrid car is essentially a regular hybrid with an extension cord. You can fill it up at the gas station, and you can plug it in to any 120-volt outlet. It's like having a second fuel tank that you always use first -- only you fill up at home, from a regular outlet, at an equivalent cost of under $1/gallon. Plug-in hybrids use no fossil fuel during their all-electric range if their batteries are charged from nuclear or renewable energy sources.
In an all-electric car, high performance batteries store cleaner, cheaper, domestically produced electricity, and an electric motor provides propulsion with zero emissions. In a plug-in hybrid, more batteries than a conventional hybrid allow local all-electric, zero-emission driving with an internal combustion engine for longer distances.
Other benefits include improved national energy security, fewer fill-ups at the filling station, the convenience of home recharging, opportunities to provide emergency backup power in the home, and vehicle to grid applications. The best way to reduce carbon emissions is to utilize the ever cleaner, greener, more renewable grid to power transportation. Only grid-rechargeable cars can attain the end goal of zero-emissions and ensure fuel price stability.
The Stimulus to go Electric
The price of oil, imported foreign, politically priced, OPEC oil must go up with the rapid devaluation of the dollar, every time our government prints money in a "Fiat" system! Sitting near $70.00 U.S. bbl today, and poised for another exponential rise the moment Obama heats up the presses, oil is expected to soar to new all-time highs, even higher than the previous $147.78 U.S. bbl! Do not get caught with a gas-guzzler this time! Go Electric, Hybrid, small Euro-diesel, anything but and American V-8 hooked to a slushy automatic transmission! Even change employment to a Cruise-Ship, where back and forth transportation and huge 'burbs nearby with over-priced real estate are not a necessary added expense, a condition to your employment! I see a new, full-featured gas/electric hybrid from China, sold in America at a reasonable price, revealed shortly after the "Volt" follies are over. This car will be closer to the EV-1 but with a light carbon fiber, and polymer composites body of exquisite engineering design, not for annual model changes, but for keeping long term! Motors will be high efficiency electric, with greater lifetime durability built right in - no American "Planned obsolescence" B.S. here! The part that will be expendable/recyclable will be the battery! Honestly marketed for reasonable profits, not Yankee Doodle rabid "Model Changing" profiteering of the old automotive days! Sane sensible communist fairness and good judgment will prevail over the vulture capitalists ROI disease, and even the environment will suffer less! Sustainability in mind, the communists will make the cars easily repairable, with a full measure of replacement parts available. These mundane, dependable repairable,one model only cars will be the Saviour of the American economy the common American folk have prayed for, and will help return average Americans to a sustainable, reliable, well fed, comfortable, modest, lifestyle without the wild economic cycles and false expectations of their past fiasco, and enable them to catch up in Health care, education and physical well being as well as the arts, sciences with the Asian world at last, without having to chase the wild-eyed commissioned propagandists view of the world to feel satisfied in their hearts! Electric Cars At Last! Solar powered, for a free America! Free from OPEC's domination! Free from Arab influences! Free from Saudi controls!
Thanks for sharing... I
Thanks for sharing... I can't wait to get a electric car myself...
We're just waiting for a few more to get on the market and it will be time to replace our Honda... I'm hoping that the volt will be a good choice or the prius... the rebates are definitely a great step in putting more people in these cars.
If just saw this today as well (hybrid government rebate - http://www.hybridmile.com/news/government-rebate-hybrid/) I hope that these get extended into 2010 and really they should be available till every single gas car is off the road.
alternative fuel engines
I have Invented a light weight, extremely frugal and efficient, variable compression, Tri-Brid Engine with direct energy recovery.
It has the facility for forced induction without the addition of any major moving parts and it is directly compatible with braking energy re-capture for automotive use It can be easily retrofitted to existing Gas Guzzlers as well as to new vehicles. Fitting ultra efficient engines to new vehicles ONLY stops things getting worse. Cost effectively upgrading existing stock (there are over 70 million S.U.V & pickups currently in use in the U.S.A alone) will REDUCE the current unsustainable levels of green house gasses.
Variable compression allows my engine to run on virtually any gaseous or liquid fuel including Bio Digester gas or Petro-Chem waste gas.
We can all produce our own Organic Waste Gas from a simple bio-digester, my engine will convert this gas, cleanly and cheaply into mechanical and electrical power. So we can get away from the hugely polluting central power stations and lessen the impact of regional "Power cuts".
Equally exciting is the potential for Third World power supply, my engine coupled with a simple Bio Digester could provide electricity, mechanical power and pumping all from the same simple unit.
Most people think if it sounds too good to be true then it is. Not this time, I'm not a crank just an ordinary engineer with an idea too big for me to handle on my own. I'm looking for a serious industrial partner to help develop it and bring it to market.
twitter @engineman09
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