BYD Begins Electric Hybrid Tests in Los Angeles

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and BYD Motors Inc. announced the launch of a break-through electric vehicle fleet today. The agreement was signed and BYD vehicles were put into service at HACLA Offices, 2600 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles.

“The BYD ‘Dual-Mode’ vehicles resolve any ‘range anxiety’ that consumers might have driving an all-electric vehicle. The F3DM can be treated as an all-electric because gasoline is never required – users can drive all-electric all the time”

“We are ecstatic to partner with BYD to test this fantastic EV fleet technology – not only will these electric vehicles reduce fuel costs significantly, but it will reduce direct-emissions by almost 37 lbs of CO2 per car, traveling less than 40 miles per day!” said HACLA President and CEO, Rudolf C. Montiel. “With BYD’s technology, I believe we will accomplish great things for the environment and demonstrate the lowest-cost fleet program in the United States.”

The F3DM (Dual Mode) sedans used in HACLA fleets can travel by electricity for 40 to 60 miles. An important attribute of the Dual-Mode vehicle is that the users have the ability to manually switch the vehicle to stay in all-electric vehicle or “EV mode” just like a conventional battery-electric vehicles (BEV) throughout the life of the car. However, if there is a requirement to go farther than 60 miles in a given day, the vehicle can be manually switched to plug-in-hybrid electric or “PHEV mode”, where a 1.0L gasoline engine can be engaged to extend the range another 300+ miles while charging the batteries. “The BYD ‘Dual-Mode’ vehicles resolve any ‘range anxiety’ that consumers might have driving an all-electric vehicle. The F3DM can be treated as an all-electric because gasoline is never required – users can drive all-electric all the time,” stated Micheal Austin, Vice President of BYD America.

“As a leader in the affordable housing industry, HACLA continues to implement innovative technology to reduce cost as a sustainable solution to helping the environment,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “I commend HACLA and hope that its example will lead others to make environmentally conscious decisions.”

The F3DM comes with an onboard overnight-charger which charges vehicles in less than 7 hours, allowing HACLA to simply install standard 220VAC outlets as you would for a home clothes dryer in their EV fleet parking areas. “Part of the appeal of this EV is the fact that we don’t need any special EV charging pedestals or equipment to charge, its all standard – that kept our initial launch costs in control and shortened our pay-back times,” said Mr. Montiel. BYD is also in discussions with HACLA to integrate solar power to charge an Energy Storage Station (ESS) during the day that could then discharge later during the EV fleet charging hours.

“BYD is pleased to partner with HACLA and Rudolf Montiel to integrate EVs and potentially renewable energy to charge them – he is a visionary leader and a great friend to City of LA and to the environment,” said Mr. Austin.

“The HACLA is the second largest authority of its kind in the United States, serving more than 100,000 residents, and takes seriously its obligation of leadership both environmentally and fiscally” said Mr. Montiel. “This test partnership demonstrates our strong commitment to reducing the City’s carbon footprint and HACLA’s cost.”

View the original article here

Electric Car Market Gets Useful Jump-Start, Tax Breaks

When Toyota unveiled its gasoline-electric Prius hybrid in Japan in 1997, car executives here scoffed that the car was little more than an expensive novelty. When Honda began selling the first hybrid in the U.S. market in 1999, the two-seat Insight was derided as cramped and impractical.
OPPOSING VIEW: Subsidies? Just say no
Eleven years later, more than 2 million Priuses have been sold worldwide, and there are about 1.5 million hybrids on the roads here, including models from the U.S. automakers. That’s still a tiny fraction of the 250 million vehicles in America, but they have helped cut gasoline use.
Now comes Round 2, as General Motors and Nissan begin delivering their first new electric cars to buyers amid some of the same sort of skepticism that dogged the early hybrids. Americans should hope the skeptics are wrong again.
The two new cars, due to be followed by models from other automakers, are promising fuel savers. The Chevy Volt can go 25 miles to 50 miles on battery power alone; after that a gasoline engine kicks in to power a generator for a total range of about 350 miles before fill-up or recharge. The more limited battery-only Nissan Leaf can travel an estimated 62 miles to 138 miles before it needs a recharge.
It’s easy to deride the new electric cars, just as it was the early hybrids. The batteries take hours to recharge, and when the Leaf is out of juice, it had better be at a plug. It presumably would be useful only to short-range commuters with no other need for the car. Both cars are small, though the Volt is no smaller than many sedans, and automotive writers say it’s as quick and responsive as a gas-powered car.
The biggest drawback, and the one critics have made much of, is the cost, and not just to buyers. The Volt lists for $41,000 and the Leaf for $33,000, so the federal government, eager to jump-start a market for electric cars, is helping with the sticker shock by shelling out up to $7,500 per car in tax credits for the first 200,000 cars an automaker sells.
There’s a downside to this. The tax code would be far better if it weren’t riddled with tax breaks such as this one. In addition, the tax credit spends money the government doesn’t have.
But those are bigger, more important issues in which the credit is a bit player. The benefit comes if electric-car technology gets cheap enough to stand on its own, providing a way to trim U.S. dependency on foreign oil, now two-thirds of our use, some of it from countries hostile to us. There’s plenty of skepticism, but the automakers are optimistic enough to invest in the technology, betting that rising oil prices will boost sales, as they did with hybrids.
One of the best arguments for tax breaks is that they helped get the hybrid market where it is today, along with gas prices and the fact that some states allowed hybrid drivers access to HOV lanes.
Those hybrid tax breaks have been phasing out as the law required — just as the tax breaks for electric cars are required to do. Electric cars must eventually live or die without government help.
As the writer of the opposing view argues, there are compelling arguments against the new cars — but there are equally compelling arguments against every other alternative to the status quo as well. Nuclear is too dangerous, coal too dirty, solar and wind too unreliable, offshore oil drilling too risky and so on.
But the most compelling argument is that the status quo — more and more foreign oil — is unsustainable. Electric cars might not be the answer, but they are an answer, and that makes them worth a try.
SOURCE:
View the original article here