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DOE Offers $2.4 Billion to Support Next-Generation Electric Vehicles President Barack Obama announced on March 19 that DOE is offering up to $2.4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to support next-generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and their advanced battery components. Of the $2.4 billion, $1.5 billion in grants will go to U.S. manufacturers to produce high-efficiency batteries and their components; $500 million in grants will go to U.S. manufacturers to produce other components needed for electric vehicles, such as electric motors; and $400 million will go towards projects that demonstrate and evaluate plug-in hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts. When these plug-in hybrid vehicles are offered for sale, U.S. residents who purchase them will be able to claim a tax credit of up to $7,500. Building a plug-in hybrid vehicle industry in the United States will create tens of thousands of jobs and will reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil.

The battery technology for plug-in HEVs and EVs (both fixed and removable) has evolved tremendously over the last decade with the introduction of lithium-based batteries complementing lead-, nickel- and sodium-based technologies. These technologies will all continue to have a significant impact on electro-mobility as they may give cost and/or performance advantages for specific applications, for example as start-stop and hybrid solutions. The selection of a technology depends on the requirements for performance, life and cost for a given application. Given the diversity of possible operating modes, there is no one battery system or technology that covers the entire range of application needs sufficiently. On the contrary, different battery energy storage technologies exist and each of them has a role to play in the future as the best solution to the needs of a system depending on their specific attributes: * Lead-based: for start-stop micro application, up to mild HEVs * Nickel-based: for HEV applications only * Lithium-based: for HEV, plug-in HEV and full EVs * Sodium-based: for Plug-in HEV and full EVs

But the new technologies-which could help consumers cope with these prices-are unlikely to arrive in large numbers in time for the next oil spike. According to the authors of "The Impact of Plug-in Hybrids on U.S. Oil Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," a chapter in the new book Plug-in Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington, published by the Brookings Institution, cars are durable goods that last well over a decade. "The transformation of the light-vehicle fleet to new internal combustion technologies or to hybrid and plug-in hybrid technologies will take decades from the time such vehicles are widely available at competitive prices," according to the authors, Alan Madian, Lisa Walsh and Kim Simpkins, researchers at consulting firm LECG. They believe it could take another decade from now until the new technologies compete on a price basis, and begin the process of replacing current fleets.

Earlier this week Google.org, the philanthropic arm of web technology company Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), announced its first two investments under its RechargeIT initiative, which aims to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Google.org's official blog stated that RechargeIT, which released a request for proposals last Septmber, invested a combined $2.75 million into ActaCell, an Austin, Texas-based battery developer, and Aptera Motors, a Carlsbad, California-based electric car maker. In the blog posting Karl Sun, an investments principal Google.org, said, "Both of these innovative companies and their capable teams are working to develop technology that is crucial to helping us realize the RechargeIT vision: millions of plug-in vehicles on the road." The ActaCell investment was part of a larger Series A funding round that raised $5.8 million for the company, which began at the University of Texas at Austin. Funders included DFJ Mercury, Good Energies and Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT).

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and A123Systems have teamed up to support the battery-maker's effort to develop safe, less expensive, more powerful, and longer lasting batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles. The Laboratory and the battery-maker have signed a three-year, Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to examine and develop new techniques to improve thermal management in advanced transportation batteries. "We're pleased to be working with A123Systems on thermal management of their advanced nanophosphate-based lithium ion batteries," NREL Principal Engineer Ahmad Pesaran said. "Batteries with improved thermal behavior are critical for widespread acceptance of affordable hybrid-electric vehicles that consume less fuel and reduced harmful emissions." Hybrid electric vehicles get as much as double the fuel economy of comparable cars. Plug-in hybrids will be even more gasoline-stingy with potential of displacing significant amount of gasoline with electricity for road transportation. To achieve these goals, affordable, high-performance, safe, and long-lasting batteries need to be produced in large quantities. Propulsion batteries - batteries that power an electric motor to assist moving a car - are key components of hybrid-electric vehicles, and will be more important in the plug-in hybrid and extended range electric cars of the future. By better understanding the thermal behavior of advanced batteries, NREL researchers will help A123Systems engineers design improved thermal management systems and to optimize the design of the battery cell and develop a battery pack that's lighter, cheaper and more durable.

General Motors Corp., along with a consortium of more than 30 utilities and a non-profit electric industry research group, has struck a deal to forestall potential problems when the company introduces its new electric vehicle to the nation's showrooms. An EPRI official also emphasized the grid aspects of the collaboration. Said Arshad Mansoor, the organization's vice president of power delivery: "Seemless integration of [plug-in hybrid electric vehicles] into the electric grid will require close collaboration between the automobile and electric sectors." The statements from EPRI and the car company also address safe and convenient vehicle charging, public education and other public policies, including codes and standards. Among the utility participants in the collaboration are Consolidated Edison of New York, Duke Energy, First Energy Corp., Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. Others are listed as part of the EPRI statement. The research organization last year released a report along with the Natural Resources Defense Council that concluded plug-in hybrids had the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions. GM, meanwhile, emphasized the cost benefit of the new vehicles, saying consumers could find that the per-mile expense of an electric vehicle would be about one-fifth that of a gas-powered car.

Google's conference this week on plug-in electric vehicles and related federal policy clearly positions the search company's RechargeIT program as an EV incubator for startups, R&D initiatives and policy discussions. Dan Reicher, Google.org's director of climate change and energy initiatives, opened the conference, which was heavily attended by beltway insiders, by announcing that Google would invest in multiple ventures to make wide-scale plug-in electric cars viable.

#1: Would-be buyers will have far more choices in 2012. #2: Prices will remain high for electric vehicles #3: Real estate companies and parking lot operators will continue to install electric vehicle chargers as a service. #4: More businesses will install chargers. #5: Wireless charging technologies will get wider testing. #6: Models will emerge for vehicle-to-grid electricity distribution. In scenarios where a house loses power, electric vehicles could play a role as back-up generators. #7: Safety issues will get closer scrutiny. Others: #1: The majority of people who drive a plug-in vehicle won't own it. #2: "Automakers will get pushback from EV owners regarding the length of time it takes to fully charge a vehicle." #3: Many EV charging stations will spend the majority of their time idle. #4: 'Range anxiety' #5: "The best-selling EVs won't have four wheels

"As a storm raged over the government's directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to no longer back wind energy projects, it emerged that it has also put a stop to solar investments other than the largest industrial-scale projects."