Tooling & Production - March/April 2009 - (Page 10) straight talk Are electric cars truly the future? T By Stan Modic he Big Three U.S. automakers are fighting for survival. One of the weapons they are betting on is the electric car. The growing concern about environmental pollution as well as the vagaries of the supply and cost of oil are intensifying the search for a practical, lighter weight, yet safe electric car — with batteries that cost less than thousands of dollars, have a longer range of travel, and faster recharging rates. These shortcomings today create sk skepticism among consumers. Who w be willing to pay premium dolwill la for so little capability? lars Most of the world’s automakers — and even some newcomers such Chevrolet is testing its electric Volt in the Battery Lab at the a Tesla and Fisker — are investing General Motors Tech Center in Warren, MI. as h heavily to win the electric car race. One of those is Toyota. CEO Katsuaki Mercedes Benz will have its Smart minicar, W Watanabe claimed that until the industry powered by lithium-ion batteries, by 2012. fa faces up to global warming and energy issu “There can be no future for our car sues, Death of the combustion engine? business. We need to develop powertrains for VW’s CEO Martin Winterkorn was quoted alternative energy sources.” as saying, “There is no way to replace diesel and The lithium-ion battery is currently the inpetrol cars over the next few years, but the future dustry’s best bet. Because of its limited range, it belongs to the plug-in electric car.” can’t be the final answer. Toyota has 50 engineers BMW’s former head of research, Burkhard assigned to come up with something better. It Goeschel, agreed. He doesn’t see the end of the predicted it will have a plug-in hybrid car on the combustion engine but sees more electric cars on market by 2010 and will offer hybrid-powered opthe road all the time. He said a big hurdle will be tions on all its models in the next 10 to 20 years. building an infrastructure to recharge batteries. GM’s chief Rick Wagoner claimed its Chevro“It starts with small things like an electric pluglet Volt electric hybrid would be on the market in in an underground parking garage,” he said. in 2010, selling for less than $30,000. GM also DPA News Agency reported that San Franis building a plant to develop and manufacture cisco is already working on plans for a network of its own batteries. charging and battery exchange stations. MOST OF THE world’s automakers — and even some newcomers such as Tesla and Fisker — are investing heavily to win the electric car race. 10 tooling& production March/April 2009 www.ToolingAndProduction.com http://www.ToolingAndProduction.com
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