Chinese automaker BYD has announced that it is going to start selling electric cars in Israel by 2009, as well as European markets in the following years. The planned models are the BYD E6 and a Plug-in Hybrid F6DM, which will benefit from Israel's soon-to-be installed electric charging stations network although I don't know what Nissan-Renault/Better Place think about this.

The specs for the cars don't look bad, so let's hope they reach our expectations. The BYD E6 seats 5 and runs from 0-100 km/h in about 10 seconds, and uses BYD's own lithium-ion iron phosphate batteries, stored behind the rear seats. The F6DM hybrid is a mid-sized sedan with a range of 62 miles (100 km) in the all-electric mode and 267 miles (430 km) total.


[Source: BYD via Gasgoo]

In a virtual slap to the face of eco-friendly drivers worldwide, a wealthy Sheikh went to the trouble of shipping his oddly-hued Lamborghini from Qatar to London and back... for an oil change. That is 3,250 miles each way, or about the total distance likely traveled between oil changes in the first place. It's bad enough that the Lambo LP640 is a high carbon-emitter in the first place, but this act truly shows utter disregard for the environment. The shipping companies seemed to agree, with an airport worker saying, "This car doesn't have a carbon footprint – more of a crater." A London-Heathrow cargo handler added, "It would have been far more efficient to fly mechanics out there."

It could be that these things happen more often than the public knows, as David Price of Lamborghini Club UK says: "If an owner wants to service his car in that way, it is his choice. I'm not surprised. Thankfully the age of excess in some areas continues." Lamborghini UK spokeswoman Juliet Jarvis says, "This sort of thing is not unheard of." Perhaps that's true, but it certainly should be unheard of. Coming from Qatar, the wealth which made this purchase possible, along with the ridiculous $46,644 USD is cost to ship, likely comes from oil in the first place, making this story truly come full circle.

[Source: The Sun]

Having the family car converted to run on electricity has become a very popular concept in Palestine. Since we told you about the Peugeot prototype, the two men behind the project, Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan, have heard from over 400 folks willing to throw down the $2,500 they say it would cost to do the work. Only there's one small problem: because of the Israeli blockade currently in place, they only have enough materials to convert 30 or 40 vehicles. The blockade also keeps them from charging significantly less as well, according to the Christian Science Monitor, Annan says he could do the work for a measly $1,700 if the cease-fire that is now in effect holds and more normal trade resumes. Asked about that price tag by the Monitor, Ron Gremban, lead engineer from CalCars.org said, "With the cheapest components I can imagine, it would cost around three times as much over here."

Interestingly, they also talked with Ziva Patir of Project Better Place about the possibility of the Palestinians working with that company. She told them that although she couldn't speak for PBP on the issue, "I believe that business creates peace, and any peace project is good for everybody." Indeed it is.

[Source: Christian Science Monitor]

Saudi Aramco's core area in Dhahran city

The world's insatiable demand for petroleum is about to cause more drilling and pumping in Saudi Arabia, as the country is set to begin setting up shop on the Khurais oil field. A ten-billion dollar investment will be made which is expected to allow the nation to pump one and a half billion additional barrels of oil per day by the end of next year. The project, which is already expected to begin shipping over a million barrels of oil beginning next June, is a massive undertaking.

Saudi Arabia has, to this point, resisted producing additional oil, as it believes there is no shortage at all. Instead, the country points to the low value of the U.S. dollar and unrealistic speculators are the major driving forces behind the record-high oil prices. Still, the country remains extremely important to major oil-consuming nations such as the United States as it currently produces eleven-percent of the world's daily supply of oil and is the only country left with relatively easy-to-tap oil reserves.

[Source: AP via The Detroit News]

After lots of initial enthusiasm and many deals done, Project Better Place is starting to attract some critics. The most recent fault-finding flak comes from Karin Kloosterman who suggests that PBP is "green smoke and mirrors." In a piece for the Huffington Post....wait a sec., isn't that a website for latte-slurping, Prius-collecting, (etc. etc.) liberals who are all gaga about the prospect of electric cars? We'll leave it to you to decide which media outlets are fair and balanced while we focus on this one article.

The Kloosterman piece takes issue with the Project Better Place model on a few fronts. After a few niceties, she takes a jab at the subscription part of the model, comparing it to the Sony Betamax debacle suggesting that the proprietary nature of the battery and car would not compete well in an open market. She follows up that somewhat salient point with the mention of a couple of the problems of establishing battery-swapping infrastructure such as cost and available real estate.

Her final points are mostly borrowed from an Israeli commentary. While the suggestion that it may not be a stroke of genius to introduce two million new private cars into the small country and instead divert national development money to city-connecting light rail projects, though slightly overstated, has its merits, her advice to wait until Israel develops a different method of electricity generation does not. While the coal used now may be nasty and ought to be phased out as quickly as possible, it is still cleaner than a multitude of new tailpipes, not to mention that if planned properly, the existing generation capacity may well be sufficient to power the first few years of electric-car influx, thereby reducing overall pollution and CO₂ production and giving further impetus to cleaner future energy generation. Your opinion is always welcomed in the comments section after the post.

[Source: Huffington Post]

It appears it's not only their good friends and neighbors the Israelis who are gaining interest in the whole electric car concept. Faced with an on-going fuel shortage, a pair of Palestinian electrical engineers have put together a battery-powered car that is now the envy of their fellow countrymen (and women). Spending only $2,500, the two converted a small liquid-fuel drinking car to one which is simply plugged in to acquire its locomotive energy. Powered by 32 batteries, the car has a range of around 100 miles and appears to be a success. "At first people laughed, saying it would not work, now people are begging us to convert their cars," said Fayez Amman, one of the vehicle builders. Truly, necessity is the mother of invention.

[Source: Reuters UK]

It could be the quickest vehicle to go from concept to a public, drivable prototype in automotive history. As previewed, "Israelis got a first demonstration Sunday of the electric car that developers hope will revolutionize transportation in the country and serve as a pilot for the rest of the world," began the report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

A parking lot in Tel Aviv hosted the demonstration of the Project Better Place/Renault collaboration. Acceleration was said to be impressive and the silent drive familiar to proponents of electric vehicles was noted in the silver, normal looking sedan. The car is expected to have a range of 125 miles, more than sufficient for most drivers in a nation that's no more than 60 miles wide and 260 long. Haaretz reports that several hundred cars will begin appearing on Israel roads in 2009, with sales to begin in late 2010.

[Haaretz]

One of the launching points for Shai Agassi's Project Better Place is in Israel and it looks like the first tangible progress might be demonstrated this weekend. The CEO of PBP is planning to drive a prototype electric car that is being developed at around noon on Sunday at the Fairgrounds and Conference Center in Tel Aviv Israel. Agassi will apparently provide an update on the status of the project to develop both electric cars and a charging infrastructure. Israel is just one of a number of countries to express interest in the program. According to Israeli President Shimon Peres, the hope is to have electric vehicles on the road in Israel by 2010. If any readers happen to be in Tel Aviv on Sunday and catch this send us a report.

[Source: Jerusalem Post, thanks to Vince for the tip]

Lots of Nissan electric car news today. Shortly after hearing that Nissan intends to be a global leader in affordable electric cars, news comes that the company is looking at a few cities to trial some of their new electric vehicle technology. One such city on the short-list is reportedly London. Carlos Ghosn says, "We have not yet got to the level of talking to the mayor's office. At this stage it is just a feasibility study, but London is definitely among the cities interested." London seems to be a rather obvious choice, considering the cities controversial new congestion charges which would offer zero-emission vehicles a big advantage over their gas or diesel-consuming cousins.

Let's recap the other recent news. Israel and Denmark want in on the electric car craze too. In fact, What Car reports that Israeli authorities have struck a deal with Nissan allowing the automaker exclusive rights to sell electric cars in Israel for a period of ten years. California is slated to be the first stop for an upcoming Nissan electric car in the U.S.

Interestingly, Nissan hopes to get 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, of range from a single battery pack, which could then be swapped out or recharged at an EV station -- sorta like an electrified version of today's gas stations and part of the Project Better Place idea. Ghosn says that Nissan is fully capable of offering an EV, sans battery, for the same cost of a normal gas-powered car. After the initial purchase, the cost of the battery and the amount of money spent keeping it charged will be less than the cost of gasoline. Ghosn also says that Nissan's electric cars will be sexy and attractive. That seems to cover all the bases rather well. Nissan, you've got our attention... we're waiting!

[Source: What Car]

OPEC president Chakib Khelil believes that the already staggering price for a barrel of oil could continue to rise. Citing the low value of the U.S. dollar, Khelil says that investors are likely to continue to place their bets on oil, a necessary commodity. With current prices hovering around $120 per barrel of dino-juice, the sixty percent increase mentioned by OPEC's leading man would place the going-rate darn near $200 a barrel.

Those of us living in the U.S. have seen our gas prices rise at an alarming rate, but Whatcar in the U.K. highlights more problems for those living across the pond. A strike at the Grangemoth oil refinery in Scotland could cause a ripple effect which would reach consumers just in time for the summer driving season. OPEC has chosen not to increase their output to help curb the supply and demand problem. Kinda makes us long for the electric car, huh?

[Source: What Car]

Although The Great Race has been postponed due to the recall of travel permits through China, the show will go on. According to the official website, "Great Race Sports owners, executives and participants are dedicated to honoring the history of this illustrious race." We think that the race, assuming it does take place, could gather a great deal of attention the world over. We've been keeping an eye on the race with posts on the E85-powered 1967 Aston Martin DB6 that will take part and other ethanol participants. This bears watching.

Vroom on to Number 2.

Photo by Soylentgreen23. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

As we noted when Dubai announced a test of GM Hybrids for taxi and limo service, just because the Emirate has a lot of oil doesn't mean it isn't interested in checking out alternatives. News is out today that the Dubai Group has
made a large ($49.5 million U.S.) investment in Malaysian biodiesel company GBD and now has a 30 percent stake in that company. The emirate-owned Dubai Investment Group's CEO, Abdulhakeem Kamkar, said that renewable energy and biofuels are the "preferred industry focus" for the DIG (the DIG is a subsidiary of Dubai Group). By the end of the year, GBD's huge biodiesel plant should be able to produce up to 500,000 metric tons of biodiesel a year from palm oil (d'oh) and jathropha.

[Source: Cleantech]

Until more eco-friendly alternatives become available, most of us are stuck burning fossil-fuels for our power, whether we're driving or just powering the lights in our homes. With that in mind, researchers from the Middle East are working on new ways to reduce the emissions from methane-gas burning turbines for power generation. Using very high heat and very low oxygen levels, Mohamed Sassi of The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dabi, along with Mohamed Hamdi and Hamaid Bentîcha from the National School of Engineers of Monastir in Tunisia, have modeled what is known as flameless combustion, or flameless oxidation (FLOX). This new process could drastically reduce the harmful NOX emissions associated with gas-burning turbines while also being more efficient.

We have hopes that the widespread generation of power could be taken care of with alternatives such as wind, solar and wave power, but since even landfills give off methane gas, technology such as this could prove very useful in the future.

[Source: Science Daily]

As our faithful readers are aware, we reported last November that the government of Denmark has been talking with Project Better Place about the possibility of setting up an electric car program along with a charging station network. Now comes word of the impending official announcement of the initial pilot program.

The Israeli business news publication Globes is reporting that the Danish government will announce that Shai Agassi's much touted Project Better Place, with financing help from its major investor, Israel Corp, will begin a program to study the feasibility of the project in Copenhagen and other locations.

Not only have Danish officials recently visited Israel to meet with the company, but a prototype of the project's electric car, based on the Renault Megane (pictured above) has already been shipped in the opposite direction and may be on hand for tomorrow's announcement.


[Source: Globes]

Look, more signs that Project Better Place is taking root in Israel.

Two companies have been chosen to implement the charging infrastructure designed by Better Place. Aran Research and Development Ltd. and Nekuda DM Ltd will develop and install the first of an intended 500,000 charging sites in Israel alone. Hundreds will be installed in 2009. According to the Israeli business website Globes, "Project Better Place's engineering and marketing teams have formulated the design, safety, engineering, and operational features of the recharging stations."