The people of Japan are courageously moving forward after the devastation of a 9.0 earthquake, a tsunami that ripped apart buildings and roads, and a nuclear crisis that now threatens their food and water. The Japanese economy depends in no small measure on the success of its automotive industry and its complex eco-system of component suppliers and service providers.

Just when gasoline prices are rising and hybrid cars are again hot sellers, the crisis is making hybrids and new electric cars tough to get. Let’s look at the impact on three big sellers of hybrids and electrics.

Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are hurt less than expected because they have diversified globally, including billion dollar plants and operations in the United States. The most advanced hybrids and electric cars, however, are first produced in Japan. Every supplier must be able to produce for new cars to be assembled in Japan. Once assembled, it will be challenging to move them across roads not ripped apart. It will take time to return shipping ports to normal after the recent tsunami tossed cars and railcars around like toys. Plants and operations require MW of electricity, now constrained by nuclear plant shutdowns.

Toyota reports that all 13 North American vehicle and engine plants are running normally, although overtime has been curtailed to maintain adequate inventories of parts that come from Japan. Toyota now makes 12 different models in North America, including high-volume vehicles such as Camry, Corolla, RAV4, and Lexus RX 350, and nearly 70 percent of all Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in the U.S. are made in North America.

Suppliers in North America provide most parts and materials for Toyota’s North American-built vehicles. Toyota has temporarily stopped all Japanese production of vehicles, but it is restarting production of replacement parts for cars already sold and parts necessary for overseas production. In general, Toyota is seeing adequate inventories at most dealers.

Prius vehicles are built in Japan, Steve Curtis with Toyota told me that the Tsutsumi plant where the Prius is made was not damaged by the earthquake. Production depends on more than the plant condition. It depends on a complex web of suppliers, supply of electricity, roads that can be crossed by employees and trucks deliveries parts. Toyota has delayed 12 Japan plant openings until March 26.

The tragedy in Japan has not delayed the U.S. launch of the new larger Prius V Crossover SUV and the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, not the new Toyota small electric city car. It has delayed the launch of the Prius wagon and minivan models in Japan from the original plan for the end of April. Reuters  Article

Since the production of current Toyota and Lexus hybrids, depends on a complex supply chain, and shipment to the United States depends on roads and ports, Clean Fleet Report forecasts that shipments of Prius and other hybrids will be delayed and reduced for months.

Only one of three Toyota hybrid battery plants in Japan sustained limited damage from the earthquake. The other two plants are located in central Japan and were not affected. Panasonic and Sanyo are Toyota’s primary suppliers of nickel metal hydride and lithium batteries; their production status is uncertain.

Car dealers are betting that the supply of hot selling hybrids will be tight, especially with gasoline costing $4 per gallon in parts of the country. Auto News reports that dealers that were averaging $1,700 discounts on the Prius are now getting $800 premiums.

Honda

Honda is globally diversified in manufacturing and suppliers. With nine U.S. plants, Honda has invested more than $12.7 billion in its U.S. operations. The company employs nearly 25,000 associates and annually purchases $12 billion in parts and materials from more than 530 U.S. suppliers.

For hybrids such as the Civic Hybrid, Insight, CR-Z and Fit Hybrid, Honda also heavily depends on Japanese suppliers, including advanced battery suppliers such as Sanyo. At the heart of the 2012 Civic Hybrid and Honda’s new electric cars are the lithium-ion batteries built at its Blue Energy join venture (JV) with Japan’s GS Yuasa; the battery plant is in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto, Japan.

Last week, Honda had announced plans to resume production of major Japanese plants on March 20. Now these openings are delayed to March 27 or beyond. Like all major manufacturers, Honda depends on a complex eco-system of suppliers and joint ventures. Some plants have been damaged and roads to move parts have been ripped apart.

Nissan has delayed March 21 plans to restart production of parts for overseas manufacturing and repair parts, based on parts availability from suppliers, at these plants Oppama, Tochigi, Kyushu, Yokohama, Nissan Shatai. Vehicle production will be constrained by inventory availability. The Iwaki engine plant remains closed.

Nissan recently shipped 600 Nissan LEAFs before earthquake and tsunami damage. At the Port of Hitachi, however, Nissan lost 1,300 U.S.-bound Infiniti and Nissan cars to the tsunami. Nissan had plans to soon have 10,000 LEAFs built at the Oppama plant. Now Nissan’s hopes of catching-up with U.S. deliveries of the Chevrolet Volt have faded in the near term.

Starting next year, Nissan’s Tennessee assembly plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars per year, and 200,000 lithium-ion battery packs per year. The lithium packs could also be used in future Nissan hybrid cars. The Tennessee battery production is by AESC, a joint venture of Nissan and NEC.

Once production returns to normal, U.S. shipments could still be delayed. Japan faces a fuel shortage. Fuel is needed to transport cars to ports, to run port drayage trucks and lifts, and to run ships. Even electric cars still depend on diesel to move them to market.

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Richmond, B.C. (September 1, 2010) — Corvus Energy is transforming the marine, transportation and energy industries with its release of an advanced lithium-ion battery technology that is able to store and distribute energy in megawatt sizes and has the capacity to output sustained power comparable to diesel engines in hybrid and full-electric vessels and vehicles.

Current hybrid designs in the marine industry, being installed with Corvus batteries, will cut CO2 emissions and fuel consumption in heavy-polluting workboats by 75 percent.

Corvus’ proprietary lithium-ion battery packs have four times the power and energy storage of lead-acid batteries in half the volume and a quarter of the weight. Each battery pack delivers at least 22 percent more power and energy density than the most powerful Lithium-ion phosphate batteries used in electric vehicles and consumer products.

The battery design is built around a new nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC)-based Dow Kokam cell and patent-pending Corvus battery management system that exponentially enhances battery efficiency and performance with energy storage capacity from 6.2kWh to unlimited sizes.

“We’ve made the theoretical possible,” said Brent Perry, Corvus’ chief executive officer. “This is the first time that truly effective portable and remote energy storage has been created for the marine, transportation and heavy-power industries. Our battery’s cells are 99 percent efficient, a full 10 to 30 percent better than any other brand. It’s available today and it’s revolutionizing the energy sector.”

Company founders George Roddan, a ground-breaking naval architect, and Neil Simmonds, who holds more than 70 patents in battery management systems, joined forces with Perry in 2009 to create a battery pack that could provide diesel-engine-scale power and solve the marine and transportation industries’ energy problems.

Corvus invested more than $5 million to create a safe, modular battery pack tough enough to withstand the world’s harshest ocean and port environments, as well as fully function between -4 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, each pack has an average life of twenty years. Lead-acid batteries last just seven years.

“Corvus is enabling engineers, who design wind farms and grid systems to cruise ships and tug boats, to rethink how they can store energy and use power,” said Perry. “It changes the entire landscape. Energy can be stored in regions that previously didn’t have consistent power and ports can clean up their act with workboats and equipment that no longer require diesel engines.”

Marine Applications:
Tugboats idle up to 90 percent of the time and operate at full power the remaining 10 percent. With Corvus, a 3,000-horsepower harbor tug in hybrid form will save 122,000 gallons of fuel and will reduce its emissions by 900 tons of carbon, 21 tons of nitrogen oxide and 8.62 tons of particulate matter each year. Tugboats can draw extra energy from the battery packs during full-power surges, fully rely on the pack during idle periods and power critical navigational instruments for hours. The packs are the most efficient in the industry and recharge in 30 minutes. It’s a maintenance-free technology that comes with a lifetime warranty .

Transportation Applications:
Corvus’ affect on the trucking industry is just as far reaching. Long-haul trucks idle an average of 2,000 hours per year, consuming one gallon of fuel per hour. Auxiliary power units with Corvus batteries allow trucks to reduce fuel consumption by 2,000 gallons annually and eliminate on a per vehicle basis: 19 metric tons of carbon dioxide, 705 pounds of nitrogen oxide, 143 pounds of reactive organic gas and 9.5 pounds of particulate matter.

One of the most popular Hybrid cars on the market today is the Toyota Prius. It is both compact and economical, with a starting price of just $22,400. The price puts the Prius within the realms of possibility for the everyday, although environmentally-conscious, individual.

The third generation of Toyota Prius, the 2010 model, has EPA ratings of 51 mpg in the city, and 49 mpg on the highway. That’s pretty good even for a hybrid, and is a step up from earlier years’ Toyota Prius models.

But now, a new pricing structure is lined up for this hybrid; and the Toyota Prius I, II, III, IV, and V are reportedly already available.

The lowest-prices model is the Toyota Prius I, which should run for around $21,000, while the Prius V starts at $27,670.

While the new line of Priuses will include a range of features, it gets better.. A rooftop solar panel package is available for the Toyota Prius II, III, and IV Models – although not for the V.

The solar roof costs between $3,600 and $4,500, and uses solar energy to supplement the vehicle’s power and get even better mileage. This package also includes a solar-powered ventilation system, a navigation system, a power tilt/slide moon roof, and remote-control AC (for those of us who just can’t be bothered to lean forward and turn the knob?)

With this new combination of hybrid technology and solar power, an entirely different range of fuel efficiency may be possible. The solar powered version is said to make mileages of up to 70 miles per gallon possible, under ideal circumstances.

If you live in or often travel in a sunny climate, a solar-powered roof might go a long ways in reducing your gas bill and carbon emissions.

Under some (somewhat theoretical) circumstances, the driver of a solar-powered Toyota Prius might never need to buy gas at all.

But minimally, a driver of a solar powered Prius who uses the vehicle’s “eco” settings and who follows basic guidelines can expect to fill up on gas far less often – so infrequently, in fact, that he should probably take care not to forget to stop for gas at all.

About the author: Megan Barlow helps others learn how they can live greener and more environmentally friendly lives.

To learn more, visit her blog, Green Gadget Blog.

He has always worn his passions on this sleeve and now Neil Young is doing more than singing about a cause. He is fronting a new company to encourage folks to take their old cars and retrofit them to green energy fuel, electric cars renewed. To show it off he took his prize 1959 Lincoln Continental (one of the biggest and bloated cars of all time) and converted it to a hybrid of electric and natural gas power system. Now instead of a gas guzzler he is cruising down the highway in a giant American car getting 80 miles to the gallon instead of 5 or 6.

He is debuting it today the at Salesforce.com convention in SF. He has partnered with a fellow to start up a new company, LincVolt that will take your car and covert it to this new combo of energy sources which they say is more suited to the needs of older cars than a straight electric conversion.

Here is the Lincoln in the garage.

Add into that the fact that Neil and company have also announced they are entering the XPrize contest to try and make the first 100 MPG car.

read more:

LINC VOLT ENTERS X PRIZE RACE

The Automotive X Prize, a competition for 100 MPG vehicles has been announced and the Goodwin Young “Linc Volt” team has had its “letter of intent” to participate accepted. A qualifying race will be held in 2009 and the final race from California to Washington D.C. will take place in 2010.

Linc Volt is a 2.5 ton Lincoln Continental Mk IV convertible manufactured by Ford motors in 1959. At 19.5 feet long, it was the longest car of its era. A new series-hybrid system for powering the car is in the final stages of tuning and development. Testing is scheduled for March and April.

Not sure he needs the cash prize but the results would sure be good.

Hybrid cars are here to stay. Because of the benefits it can give you, you will definitely want to get one for your own. Obviously, more and more people are now making the switch from their conventional car to purchase a hybrid car. So, what could be the reason that increasingly people prefer getting a hybrid car instead of a conventional car even if hybrid car retail prices are far more expensive?

This is because hybrid cars run on two engines. One is the conventional internal combustion engine that you will find in conventional cars and the other is the electric motor and batteries. Hybrid cars are basically cars that combine electric energy and gasoline energy. By combining these two to power your car, it will run quieter, cleaner and far more efficient than conventional cars. These are the main advantages of hybrid cars.

Another advantage is that you will be able to save more money from tax breaks imposed by the US government to hybrid car users and buyers. Also, you will be able to enjoy free parking and other incentives that the government imposed on hybrid car owners.

More on Learn All About Hybrid Cars

Green meets the race track, a hybrid race car from Germany with 630 hp will roll onto the track this month to compete in a the 24 hour race. It looks awesome and must be pretty fast as well. Showing the world that hybrid does not mean wimpy I guess.

A green car for the Green Hell, a private team round about ex-Formula 1 driver Heinz Harald Frentzen will be entering an electric-petrol hybrid race car into the next 24 Hours Nurnburgring this May. The race car is based on the Gumpert apollo and will be piloted by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Dirk Muller.

The Hybrid apollo uses both an 100 kW electric motor and a 3.3 liter V8 bi-turbo petrol engine and produces a total of 630 hp.

“Motorsports can not ignore the necessity to save energy. I see a chance that our sport will go back to the forefront of technical development, making cars outside of the racetrack much more energy efficient,” said Frentzen.

Gumpert apollo movie (QT)

Would you like to listen to the keynote speech by General Motors’ Larry Burns in which he makes a call for a vast expansion of hydrogen stations to fuel the current and future generations of fuel cell vehicles? As a result of recent studies completed with Shell Hydrogen, he stated with confidence that a hydrogen fueling infrastructure is less challenging and less costly than many people think.

Last month, the National Hydrogen Association wrapped up its Annual Conference and Hydrogen Expo, held this year in Sacramento, California.

H2Gen’s Sandy Thomas presented the findings of a comprehensive, life cycle analysis of hybrid, plug-in, ethanol and hydrogen vehicles showing that while all of these fuel and technology pathways should be pursued for near-term benefits.

And finally:

SMUD opens hydrogen vehicle fueling station powered by the sun

Will be used to fuel SMUD hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as well as others in the region
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is taking a bold step into the future of
automotive technology. Earlier this month SMUD formally opened a solar-powered hydrogen fueling
station for fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV).

The station is part of a joint SMUD, BP, Ford and U.S. Department of Energy project to
demonstrate FCEVs and generation of hydrogen from renewable sources. The station produces hydrogen
onsite using power from the sun produced by a large solar panel array. The hydrogen will be used to fuel
SMUD FCEVs and other hydrogen-powered vehicles in the region. The project is the next step in a
nearly two-decade-long effort by SMUD to improve local air quality by advancing alternative-fuel clean
transportation, as well as cleaner power sources.

Over the past 15 years, small pickup trucks in North America have transformed from somewhat practical mini-haulers into slightly smaller versions of their bigger cousins in the full-size market.

This steroidal growth has made these ostensibly smaller pickups much more capable than their initial versions, particularly when it comes to hauling and towing capacity, but their size has made them less practical in an urban environment.

Enter Toyota, who has apparently decided that what the world really needs is a truck that isn’t quite big enough to be useful, but still isn’t quite small enough to be convenient.