More EV price decreases

BMW is starting to build the combo plugs in europe. I think they may act a little like tesla, and build more stations here to help get people in the i8s, but those don't come out for a year. I think nrg is going to provide both chademo and comboplugs on new quick chargers. Very little quick charging has been built in the US or Europe. chademo rules in Japan, but they only have very short range bevs, and sales are disapointing.

DC Quick Charging Battle Just Beginning: CHAdeMO Vs. SAE Combo Vs. Tesla Supercharger
It seems that Nissan having bet big on chademo, will continue to support it, and might upgrade it to higher power and an easier to operate plug like combo plug (if these had been changed, and nissan opened it up, chademo might have won competition).

 

...I'd like to know if VA hybrid fee is part of cause of lackluster sales (VA is/was a top Prius market). We got no help from Toyota trying to stop the hybrid fees, which I theorize might have been an intentional attempt to slow down Toyota vs. domestic autos.

 

No actual dates announced AFAIK, but releases state they plan to have the Smart ED available nationwide by the end of the year. The Smart has nearly 25% more range than the eQ. 68 miles versus 50 in combined driving.

Even longer range, the Spark EV might be a better deal. GM's nationwide plans are more vague than Smart's, though.

 

I don't think that is an irony. They want fewer hybrids, and to tax prius owners more. It seems like they will collect the tas. Put it at $100, and taxes would be rejected. They put up a curve to collect the most taxes, not to sell the fewest prii.

 

Not saying this applies to you hill, but it seems Chademo supporters ire about the frankenplug may be misplaced. Nissan charged licensing fees to just experiment with it. That's not how you promote growth of your product, and things may have been different if they had lowered the Chademo fees earlier.

As an aside, the Atkinson cycle, and maybe the atkinsonization we see today, is because Atkinson didn't pay Otto licensing fees.

 

The other things mentioned in inside evs were it was devised by a utility to be low power in japan, but people want high power (faster charging) in america and we can build it. Nissan now says they can make it higher power, but were pushing the slow standard. Anouther is it is clumsy to use, which now nissan is saying they can partially fix. The third 2 holes, is still a drawback, 2 plugs, is still a draw back. The tesla plug is technically and ergonomically superior to combo plug and chademo, but it is propriatary, and the standards comittee would not have chosen it even if it were open, too much nissan, gm, bmw politics. We will know in about 2 years whether chademo or combo plug wins in the US and Europe. Until then the only company that gains from chademo is nissan. The only company that really loses if chademo fails is also nissan.

Atkinson cycle is inferior unless you don't need torque. It needs something like a hybrid to work well. Miller cycle can be superior, and some turbo engines use the miller cycle, but do it through valving (atkinson valve timing), making hardware less expensive.

 

The 'very little' term got me wondering what the #'s are. As of July 5, from their website;

CHAdeMO Association
In addition to this - the Nissan dealers around our area are commissioning a bunch - 4 or 5 in our surrounding 2 counties ... in process of a hundred or more. boy - that's sure a lot better than it was just a year ago.

 

To me 160 is very little for a country the size of the US. Many of these are at nissan dealers where other BEVs aren't allowed to charge (which is fair, but it lowers the public charger number). IMHO the country is going to want a 200+ mile plug-in, not a 73 mile plug in. Other than the predatory pricing of the chademo, the big problem I had with it was the low charge rate. IMHO 100kw is much better for this country, than 62.5kw. When the japanese chose the standard, they were thinking 100 mile or less cars, and tepco didn't want the pulling too much power from its grid. Nissan now says chademo can be modified for the faster charge rate. They are starting to do things they should have done 2 years ago if they wanted it standard in the US.

 

Toyota RAV4 EV lease gets cut in half to $299/month - Autoblog