Nissan, which long ago was one of the first
automakers to be interested in plug-in hybrids,
is back and in the race for PHEVs. After years of
skepticism about hybrids and paying little
attention to battery power, the company now aims
to be the first to sell mass-production EVs.
Sifting through the reports, it's clear that some
of these vehicles will be plug-in hybrids with up
to 100-mile electric-only range (which Nissan,
like GM, prefers to call EVs with range
extenders). The company's timetable for plug-in
cars, using lithium batteries from its
partnership with NEC, is to deliver EVs to a few
fleets in 2010 and to the public in 2012.

News stories below, right after important news about other vehicles:


GREEN CAR CONGRESS:
Fisker Karma Prototype on Test Track 13 May 2008
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/fisker-karma-pr.html
Fisker Automotive and partner Quantum
Technologies are testing three prototypes in
Southern California. The Karma is scheduled for
fourth quarter 2009 delivery with production
levels of 1250/month by the end of 2010. The
company says it has 500 pre-orders for its
$80,000 vehicle with an all-electric range of 50
miles and an expected battery life of 100,000 miles.


AUTOOBSERVER: major update on Chevy Volt
http://www.autoobserver.com/2008/05/chevy_volt_traveling_public_ro.html
Chevy Volt: Traveling Public Roads and Hitting Its Mark
May 14, 2008 By Michelle Krebs

WARREN, Michigan -- General Motors inched closer
to making the Chevrolet Volt a reality in
November 2010 as the vehicle's innovative
gas-electric powertrain is being test-driven for
the first time on public roads and is hitting its
target of 40 miles on pure electric power.

"Today is a big day," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz
told Edmunds' AutoObserver in an exclusive
interview Tuesday. "Today is the first day it is
running on the street on battery power."

Lutz said the Volt's powertrain, comprised of an
advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline
engine, was installed into a mule vehicle and is
being driven on public roads around the
automaker's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan.
More important, Lutz said, the battery is hitting
GM's goal of 40 miles on pure electric power.

"It is reliably meeting its objectives," Lutz
confirmed. "Even with a rough calibration, even
with the wrong drive unit, the wrong body, etc.
etc., it has been hitting its 40 miles on electric power."

Tuesday's road test comes after last week's
testing of the Volt powertrain on a dynamometer
that simulated real-world conditions, such as
varying road surfaces and changing ambient temperatures.

Proving Lithium-Ion Batteries

The successful test of the lithium-ion battery is
a giant step in making the Volt a reality. Many
critics insisted lithium-ion batteries were a
huge risk. However, since GM announced its plans
to use a lithium-ion battery in the Volt and
signed development contracts with battery makers, others have followed suit.

Only this week, Renault and Nissan announced
plans for an all-electric vehicle to go on sale
in 2010 using a lithium-ion battery. Mitsubishi
already has a fully electric vehicle in Japan
running on lithium-ion batteries. Germany's Audi
plans to use the batteries in its upcoming
hybrid. At the same time, Toyota has said its
next-generation Prius hybrid, reportedly debuting
at the Detroit auto show in January and going on
sale in 2009, will stick with nickel-metal
hydride batteries instead of lithium-ion though
the Japanese automaker is known to be working on the more advanced battery.

"The reason we point this out (others using
lithium-ion) shows the fallibility of Toyota and
the American press, which is totally enamored
with Toyota," said the always outspoken and
opinionated Lutz. "When we say lithium-ion is
good and Toyota says they don't trust them and
they are unproven, people say we're taking a huge risk."

An assumed risk of lithium-ion batteries is its
thermal properties. Frank Weber (FAY-ber),
imported from GM's European operations to be
global vehicle line executive and chief engineer
for of E-Flex Systems Development Team (E-Flex is
the GM word for the Volt's gas-electric
powertrain), told AutoObserver last August that
the biggest challenge is to manage the thermal
dynamics of the batteries so that the batteries are the same temperature.

And Lutz insists the lithium-ion battery on the
road has passed that test. Lutz, meantime, won't
confirm which supplier's battery is in the mule
being tested. GM has development contracts with
multiple battery makers. Lutz confirmed that in
GM's dynamometer tests last week of the Volt's
lithium-ion batteries, engineers raised ambient
temperatures and shut off the cooling system. The
result was what GM had hoped: The battery showed
only a slight rise in temperature and the heat
was consistent across all of the battery cells with no pockets of intense heat.

Challenges Other Than the Battery Remain

"I can almost say the battery is the least of our
problems," Lutz told AutoObserver.

That's not to say GM doesn't face huge challenges
in making the Volt work. The challenge now, Lutz
said, is the smooth integration of the battery
with the gasoline engine that, unlike traditional
hybrids that use a gas engine to power the
vehicle, kicks in to generate electricity to feed the battery.

GM engineers are grappling with such questions
as: When does the gas engine cut in? How long
does it stay on? Is it better to run at lesser
power and charge the battery slowly or run at
peak power and charge the battery fast? How does
it deal with extreme cold days in Alaska or North
Dakota, which require the gasoline engine to
start the car and warm the battery? If the car's
GPS or OnStar tells the car it is close to home,
is there a way for it to tell the engine to
charge the engine just enough to get home and
plug in versus charging the whole battery using
gasoline in the last 15 minutes? How does it
handle wide variations in temperatures with accessories on?

"All of that requires reams and reams and reams
of software," Lutz said. "Our task would be
simplified if we didn't have the range-extending
gasoline engine and the only question would be
how fast can we productionize it. Then we could
devote all of our time to optimizing the battery.
But then we wouldn't have an extended-range vehicle.

"And then," he added, "you'd be back to the thing
that has limited the acceptance of electric
vehicles: It only gets 80, 100 or 120 miles of
range and buyers worry 'what happens if I run out
and I can't walk to the nearest gas station to
get a 5-gallon can of electricity?'."

Target: November 2010

Lutz said the successful dynamometer and road
tests increase GM's confidence that the Chevrolet
Volt will debut in November 2010.

"Three months ago if you asked Frank Weber
'November 2010?' he'd get flustered and say he
wouldn't answer until he knew more," said Lutz.
"Now if you ask him the same question, he's calm
and relaxed and says unless we encounter some
completely unforeseen obstacle - November 2010 looks good."

Intense Interest at the Highest Levels

Indeed, Lutz said, that's the answer Weber gave
GM Chairman Rick Wagoner in his monthly update on
Volt only Tuesday morning - November 2010 looked good.

"I'm pleased to say there's no other project Rick
spends as much time on than Volt," said Lutz. "He
gets a monthly two-hour update from the Volt
team. He's as close to Volt as I am. In fact, I
have to run hard to stay ahead of Rick in my
knowledge level so that I can still answer questions."

Indeed, Volt could be a game-changer -- and the
vehicle that defines the legacy of both Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner.


NISSAN STORIES: Below are excerpts from several
reports from the NY Times, Wall Street Journal,
AFP, National Public Radio and Green Car Congress:


NEW YORK TIMES
Nissan Plans Electric Car in U.S. by '10
May 13, 2008, By BILL VLASIC
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/business/13auto.html

DETROIT -- The Nissan Motor Company plans to sell
an electric car in the United States and Japan by
2010, raising the stakes in the race to develop
environmentally friendly vehicles.

The commitment -- expected to be announced
Tuesday by Nissan's chief executive, Carlos Ghosn
-- will be the first by a major automaker to
bring a zero-emission vehicle to the American
market. Nissan also expects to sell a lineup of
electric vehicles globally by 2012.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Ghosn said Nissan
decided to accelerate development of
battery-powered vehicles because of high gasoline
prices and environmental concerns, not just
because of the need to meet stricter fuel-economy standards.

"What we are seeing is that the shifts coming
from the markets are more powerful than what regulators are doing," he said.

Mr. Ghosn said Nissan envisioned a broad range of
electric vehicles, starting with small cars, and
adding: "It's not only about a small city car or
a small minivan. It can also be about a small
commercial vehicle and a small crossover."

Mr. Ghosn was not always enthusiastic about
alternative-fuel technology. In a 2005 speech to
the National Automobile Dealers Association, he
called gas-electric hybrids "niche products"
useful only to meet strict fuel-economy and
emission standards in states like California.

"It wasn't long ago that Carlos Ghosn was a big
naysayer about the role of electric vehicles,"
said John O'Dell, senior editor at the auto Web
site GreenCarAdvisor.com. "Obviously, something has opened his eyes."

Other automakers like Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji
Heavy Industries are testing versions of electric
cars, and General Motors and Toyota are working
on battery-powered vehicles that have small
gasoline engines for recharging. G.M. plans to
start producing the Chevrolet Volt in 2010, while
Toyota expects to offer a similar, so-called
"plug-in" hybrid around the same time.

But Nissan, which a decade ago was on the brink
of bankruptcy, is the first manufacturer to say
it will sell mass market, all-electric vehicles
worldwide. The zero emissions refers to those
from the car's tailpipe and not those from the
production of electricity used to power the car.

Still, Mr. O'Dell said: "Nissan is upping the
ante tremendously. They are the first to put it
on the line and say we're going to have an
all-electric vehicle for a certain market by a certain date."

Mr. Ghosn declined to disclose details of the
electric products and said initial quantities
would be small. "We're talking about hundreds of vehicles first," he said.

But he said that the company was determined to
achieve "zero-emission-vehicle leadership."

With customers in emerging markets like China and
India clamoring for cars, the industry has a
responsibility to invest in the cleanest vehicles
possible, he said, adding, "The question is how
we participate in the growth of emerging markets,
while doing it in a way that is not in
contradiction with the fact that a lot of people
are sensitive to the emission levels and the preservation of the planet."

Early this year, Nissan and its French alliance
partner, Renault, signed a deal with the
California-based Project Better Place to produce
electric cars for sale in Israel and Denmark.

Renault will provide the cars and Nissan will
supply lithium-ion battery packs. Mr. Ghosn, who
also serves as chief executive of Renault, said
the Israeli government would encourage sales of
electric cars by sharply cutting taxes to levels
below those on gasoline-powered vehicles.

"We would never have done this if the Israeli
government was not encouraging it," he said.
"Whoever puts the most incentive on the table is
going to get the technology first."

The goal to sell electric vehicles is part of a
new five-year business plan, called Nissan GT
2012, also to be announced Tuesday. It contains
goals that are among the most ambitious set by
Mr. Ghosn since he took the reins at Nissan in 1999.

In previous plans, Mr. Ghosn set strict targets
for cost cuts, profit and return on investments
to turn around the company's lagging fortunes.

But now Nissan is healthier. It is expected to
report a profit in the most recent fiscal year of $4.1 billion.

The next five years, Mr. Ghosn said, would focus
on growth and trust. "Trust is about
sustainability," he said. "It's about return,
it's about loyalty. In our industry, the
companies that are performing best are the ones
that have established a high level of trust with the different stakeholders."
<snip>
But Nissan is being more aggressive about its
electric-car efforts. Mr. Ghosn declined to say
how much an electric vehicle would cost, but
stressed that they would be affordable and
comparable with other vehicles in the marketplace.

"We are not interested in some 'Stars Wars'
prototype," he said, "but in really bringing a
mass market product that everybody can buy. It's
really a new chapter in the life of this industry."

He said that as many as 10 million of the 69
million vehicles produced each year worldwide
could ultimately be electric-powered, with a
concentration in urban areas. "We think that cars
sold in cities are the obvious first starting point," he said.
<snip>


WALL STREET JOURNAL [another story with a misleading headline]
Ghosn Hedges Bets on Emissions
Nissan to Push For Zero Emissions, But Plans Fallback
By JOHN MURPHY May 15, 2008; Page B2
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121074186054991351.html?mod=todays_us_marketplac\
e

TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos
Ghosn this week declared that he wants the
company to lead the world in producing
all-electric, zero-emission cars. But he is hedging his bets.

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Ghosn said not all
the electric cars Nissan manufactures will be
purely electric or emission free. He said Nissan
would make some models available with an optional
"range extender" -- a gas-powered engine that
recharges the battery and keeps the vehicle
moving after the initial plug-in charge expires.
Nissan, he said, aims to sell vehicles that are
"pure electric, zero emission. But you always
have the possibility of having a range extender."

Such a device would let Nissan's electric car, to
be introduced in limited numbers in the U.S. and
Japan by 2010 and marketed globally in 2012,
compete with similar vehicles planned by rivals
General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.
Nissan is Japan's No. 3 auto maker by sales
volume, behind Toyota and Honda Motor Co.

GM plans in 2010 to start selling the Chevrolet
Volt, an electric car with a gas-powered engine
to recharge the battery while driving. Toyota is
expected to roll out its plug-in Prius hybrid the same year.

Nissan says its electric car will have a range of
100 miles on a single charge. The range extender
would allow the car to travel an additional 300
miles before refueling or recharging.

Mr. Ghosn said he wants to help put the world
behind the wheel of zero-emission vehicles to
address growing concerns about the effect of
tailpipe emissions on the environment. Outfitting
vehicles with gas-powered range extenders falls
short of that goal, but a hybrid compromise might
help make Nissan's vehicles more appealing to
consumers, who likely will be concerned about the
limited range of a purely electric car.

"The more practical solution is the hybrid. It's
more consumer friendly," said Tatsuo Yoshida, an
auto-industry analyst at UBS Securities Japan in Tokyo.

Several years ago, Nissan debated pursuing
hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles, as Honda is,
or electric cars in the U.S. Nissan settled on
electric cars because of the high cost of
producing fuel-cell vehicles and the difficulties
in establishing widespread hydrogen-refueling
points. Mr. Ghosn said Nissan will continue to
pursue fuel-cell technology, which he believes is
the long-term solution to power vehicles.


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Nissan to make lithium-ion batteries with NEC: report: Sat May 10
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080510/bs_afp/japanautoelectronicscompanynissannec\
?

TOKYO (AFP) - Nissan Motor Co and NEC Corp will
join forces in the world's first mass production
of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric
vehicles, a newspaper said Saturday.

The two companies plan to spend 20 billion yen
(194 million dollars) to build a plant in
Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, the Nikkei business daily said.

Production will begin early next year under
Automotive Energy Supply Corp. (AESC), an equally
owned joint venture Nissan and NEC established in
April 2007, the newspaper said.

The venture will mass-produce enough lithium-ion
batteries for 10,000 electric vehicles at the
initial stage and plans to raise production
capacity by six-fold in the future, it said.

Nissan, Japan's second largest carmaker, plans to
raise its stake in the venture to 51 percent when
AESC increases its capital for the project, it said.

Lithium-ion batteries are smaller and lighter
than the nickel-metal hydride batteries now used in hybrid and electric cars.

AESC is to ship batteries to Nissan as well as
the automaker's French partner, Renault SA.
Nissan and Renault plan to sell electric cars in
Japan and the United States starting in 2010.

By putting the next-generation batteries in its
environmentally friendly autos, Nissan hopes to
catch up with its rivals Toyota Motor Corp and
Honda Motor Co, which lead in green vehicles, Nikkei said.


NATIONAL PULIC RADIO
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90405906
Nissan Builds Buzz with Plans for Electric Car
by Dustin Dwyer

All Things Considered, May 13, 2008 · Nissan
Motor Co. announced plans Tuesday to build an
electric car by 2010, part of what the automaker
says is a strategy to make it the global leader in zero-emission vehicles.

Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, who unveiled the
plan at a news conference in Tokyo, says the
company will mass produce electric cars within
the next five years. He laid out a simple case
for the vehicles: The number of people buying
cars around the world is increasing, while the
need to reduce emissions is becoming more urgent.

"There is a perceived conflict between the demand
for more cars and the demand for a cleaner planet
-- 10, 20 or 30 percent lower emissions cannot be the only answer," Ghosn says.

The goal, he says, should be 100 percent lower emissions.

Although other auto industry executives have made
this argument, they have estimated it will take
at least a decade to get the right technology to build zero-emission cars.

"Today, there is latent consumer demand, but no
offer," Ghosn says. "Nissan has an opportunity to
mass market an affordable car that is both
independent from oil and environmentally neutral."

The company will have zero-emission electric cars
on the road in two years for government fleets in
the U.S. and Japan, Ghosn says. The cars will be in mass production by 2012.

Nissan has not announced a specific model that
will be mass produced. But in March, at the New
York International Auto Show, the automaker
unveiled an electric-powered concept car, the
Denki Cube, which runs on lithium-ion batteries.

Ghosn also warned Tuesday that there are "tougher
times ahead," joining the long list of auto
manufacturers worried about what will happen to
sales if the U.S. economy remains weak.

Nissan's chief executive has faced tough times in
the past. Brazilian-born and raised in France,
Ghosn is revered for saving Nissan from the brink
of bankruptcy after he took the helm not long
after the company merged with Renault in 1999.

Many industry analysts were skeptical about
Tuesday's announcement by Nissan, which so far
has not been a leader in hybrid or electric research.

"It feels like a target that I'm not sure they're
going to make," say Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with AutoPacific.

She says Nissan is already behind in developing a
new high-powered battery that's needed for an
electric car. Toyota and General Motors are both further along.

Even if Nissan has a battery breakthrough,
Brinley says, the company will still have to
convince people that electric cars are worth buying.

"Particularly with the U.S. market, we haven't
been all that accepting of electric vehicles
before, so it has to be something pretty darn
amazing to really get us to think about it," she says.

It is possible to buy an electric or
zero-emissions car in the U.S. But for the most
part the cars are tiny and can't travel very far without recharging.

There is the Tesla, a sleek two-seater that goes
from zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds.
But its cost -- the 2009 Roadster has a base
price of $109,000-- puts it out of reach for most consumers.

Nissan has to do better to succeed, Brinley says.
In the end, she notes, what's most important is
that the automaker gets electric cars right, not that it gets them first.


GREEN CAR CONGRESS
Nissan to Introduce Electric Vehicle in US and
Japan in 2010; New Business Plan Focuses on Zero-Emission Vehicle Leadership
13 May 2008
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/nissan-to-intro.htm

Nissan will introduce an all-electric vehicle in
the US and Japan in 2010 and then mass-market
vehicles to consumers globally in 2012, according
to President and CEO Carlos Ghosn. (Earlier
post.) The accelerated introduction of EVs
reflects Nissan's goal of establishing leadership
in zero-emission vehicles as part of its new
five-year business plan called "Nissan GT 2012"
("G" for growth and "T" for trust), covering the
period from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2013.

In addition to establishing zero-emission vehicle
leadership, the other main commitments of the GT
2012 plan are to establish quality leadership and
to deliver 5% revenue growth on average over five
years (FY2008 to FY2012). Nissan will support the
revenue growth target by a product plan that will
launch 60 all-new models in the next five years
and more than 15 new technologies every year from 2009.

Nissan GT 2012 reflects the determination of our
company to play a major role in the development
of a sustainable mobile society. There's a
balance to be sought between the potential growth
in world markets and the demand for a cleaner
planet. We are convinced that the mass
availability of affordable zero-emission vehicles
is the most significant breakthrough our industry
could deliver, and, together with Renault, Nissan
intends to be the breakthrough leader.

The Renault-Nissan alliance is also working with
Project Better Place on the mass deployment of
electric vehicles to select country markets, such as Israel. (Earlier post.)

In 2007, Nissan, NEC and NEC TOKIN Corporation
established a joint venture--Automotive Energy
Supply Corporation (AESC)--to develop and market
lithium-ion batteries for wide-scale automotive
applications including hybrids, plug-in hybrids,
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles. (Earlier post.)

AESC is developing laminate-type lithium-ion
cells with a manganese spinel cathode material
(LiMn2O4). Current cells have energy densities of
up to 89 Wh/kg and 171 Wh/L. For the next
generation of cell, AESC is working with
Nickel-mixed Mn spinel cathode material, along with the graphite carbon anode.

Ghosn said that Nissan's global sales forecast
for fiscal 2008 is 3.9 million units. In fiscal
2007, Nissan sold a record 3,770,000 vehicles
worldwide, an increase of 8.2%. The main
contributions to volume growth in 2008 will come
primarily from GOM and Russia. Nissan will launch
nine all-new products during fiscal 2008: Teana,
Infiniti FX, Maxima, Bakkie successor, Qashqai+2,
a mini SUV, Cube, Z and Infiniti G37 Convertible.


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --