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City of Houston launching electric vehicle pilot project
From Green Right Now Reports
The City of Houston and Reliant Energy are launching a program to bring plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the streets of Houston, to demonstrate the important role that electric cars can play in the city’s clean energy future.
Under the program, called the “Power of the Plug-In,” 10 city-owned Toyota Prius cars will be converted to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and 10 vehicle-charging stations will be installed to power them. The Power of the Plug-In is designed to raise consumer awareness and education about plug-in electric cars and to promote Houston and Texas as an electric vehicle center. Seven of the 10 stations will be available to the public, representing the largest public charging infrastructure in Texas, the city said.
“We’re committed to making Houston the nation’s green energy capital,” Houston Mayor Bill White said in a statement. “That commitment begins at City Hall and these clean-running electric cars and the charging stations that will be available to all Houstonians will get us farther down that road.”
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Tags: · ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations, Coulomb Technologies Inc., Electric vehicles, Houston Mayor Bill White, Power of the Plug-In, Reliant Energy, Reliant Energy President Jason Few, Texas, The City of Houston
Palm Desert, Calif., sizzling green
September 8th, 2009 · 4 Comments
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Considering how the desert challenges our green aspirations, it’s surprising there’s not already a reality show: Extreme Green — Finding eco-friendly solutions where the sun always shines.
OK, so the title could use some work. The facts remain – the desert is great for producing heat and making solar power. But when it comes to human habitation, it’s an air conditioning-dependent, rugged place.
They understand that in Palm Desert, a small city in Southern California’s desert Coachella Valley. Palm Desert, in fact, would make a good candidate for the Extreme Green pilot show.
“Palm Desert has a long history of interest in the environment both in energy conservation and saving water and respect for the environment,” said Lauri Aylaian, director of community development for the resort city of 50,000.
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Tags: · California, Coachella Valley, Electric vehicles, energy incentives, golf carts, golf courses, native vegetation, Palm Desert, Southern California, Vacations
Whoever said the SUV was dead might have to Hum(mer) another tune
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Remember those Hummers your neighbors drove heedlessly around town, burning through barrels of gasoline but rarely finding those off-road challenges for which these vehicles were created?
 With the downturn in the economy and the uptick in carbon emissions, they became a symbol of SUV excess.
But don’t count them out.
Raser Technologies, Inc. has been testing electric Hummer H3Es and reported this week that they recently ran a successful all-electric 50-mile drive. That’s significant because battery-operated vehicles have been curtailed by short ranges of around 40 miles. New models under development are aiming for more than that in hopes of alleviating anticipated consumer concerns over EV range.
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Tags: · electric powertrain, electric vehicle range, Electric vehicles, gas mileage, Hummer H3E, hybrid vehicles, Raser Technologies, Volt
Get answers about Nissan’s new Leaf
From Green Right Now Reports
Nissan has opened a chat room to discuss it’s newly unveiled all-electric vehicle (EV), the Leaf, with potential customers.
 The car company’s also publishing more pictures of the family sedan, due out in 2010 and revealed this past weekend in Japan.
Many of the questions, predictably, center on the infrastructure to support electric vehicles. For instance, how does an apartment-dweller recharge the thing? There’s not a great answer for that, just yet; apartment building owners will have to get on board and provide parking lot charging stations. Nissan replies that urbanites might find some help at public facilities.
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Tags: · charging stations, Electric vehicles, energy efficiency, LEAF, Nissan
UC Berkeley study sees mass-market adoption of electric cars
From Green Right Now Reports
A study released today by the University of California-Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology predicts there would be rapid adoption of electric vehicles, assuming the ownership of the battery is separated from the vehicle.
Overall, the study finds that electric cars with separate battery ownership are not only more affordable than gasoline-powered cars, but that incorporating their financing into a network service contract will overcome the range limitations inherent to fixed-battery electric vehicles.
The new study predicts that electric vehicles with this type of pricing will account for 64 percent of light vehicle sales and comprise 24 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle fleet by 2030. This level of adoption is made possible by the lower purchase price and reduced per-mile driving cost of electric cars with switchable batteries as compared to gasoline-powered cars.
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Tags: · Electric Cars in the United States: A New Model with Fo, Electric vehicles, Ikhlaq Sidhu, Thomas Becker, University of California-Berkeley's Center for Entrepre
Ford, Chrysler gear up electric and hybrid vehicle projects
From Green Right Now Reports
Enmeshed in the worst business conditions in decades, America’s auto companies are trying to envision the coming world of transportation. For Ford and Chrsyler, the future is atarting to look electric.
 Both companies are pushing for federal funds to develop new elctric vehicle programs. Chrysler LLC has submitted a $448-Million plan to the U.S. Department of Energy for the rapid development and manufacturing of electrified vehicles. And Ford has also proposed to the DOE a national pilot project to promote the use of electric vehicles.
Chrysler LLC said yesterday that it has applied for two initiatives established by the DOE — the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative and the Transportation Electrification Initiative. Both are designed to speed development, demonstration, evaluation and manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs). The program would be a 50/50 partnership with $224 million coming from Chrysler and its partners, combined with a matching $224 million from the DOE.
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Tags: · Chrysler, Electric vehicles, Ford, Plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles
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