Take a Cool Guess—The Fun Quiz on Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability. Today’s Topic: Carmakers’ Investment in Electric Transportation
Question: How much money in US dollars have the world’s auto OEMs invested in EVs? What percentage of that comes from Germany alone?
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
Relevance: GreenAutoDigest reports: Ford Motor Co. on Sunday said it’s more than doubling its investment in vehicle electrification to $11 billion. It will be part of total (see answers) that global automakers have committed to spending on electric vehicles, and that total is still growing. That will include at least $19 billion by automakers in the U.S., $21 billion in China, and $52 billion in Germany, according to a Reuters analysis. U.S. and German automakers said in interviews at the Detroit auto show that most of the investments are earmarked for China, where escalating EV quotes will be staring in 2019. Ford executives just announced that 40 electrified vehicles will be launched by the company by 2022 – 16 battery electric and 24 will be hybrid or plug-in hybrid.
Craig,
As an earlier adopter, investor and even EV maker, I applaud your enthusiasm for EV’s.
Regrettably, enthusiasm without analysis only raises unrealistic expectations and unsubstantiated claims.
Four year is a very short period and most “EV” models will simply feature some form of very mild hybrid technology (even just a larger car battery). The figures quoted are usually inflated by all kinds of qualifications and are more feel good PR exercises than reality. Automakers know most governments last less than a decade and alter policies and priorities continuously in line with political expediency.
Reality is very different. Government policies can’t discover technical solutions that don’t exist. Just passing a law mandating your local Fire Brigade use electric vehicles, won’t produce the technology, just no fire tenders !
This has been the problem created by advocates like the WKTEC crowd. Overly enthusiastic advocates kept insisting government and automakers had the technology, but it was deliberately suppressed to please oil companies.
In reality, the numerous technologies required to build a commercially viable EV have been slow to develop and ESD technology is still far from adequate. Thanks to Toyota, hybrid technology has advanced much faster and provides a significant input to future automotive construction.
Pure EV’s await a “breakthrough” ESD technology. When that will arrive no one can say, (except conspiracy theorists) but such a breakthrough will be eagerly received.
In the meantime, the general public still admires the efforts of Elon Musk and Carlos Ghosn (even if they end up buying a Toyota hybrid), and that must be regarded as a good omen.
ESD: Electrolytic Storage with Dielectric