Webchat: Discuss Key Developments in Electric Infrastructure
Electric vehicles and the infrastructure to support them are key elements of The Business of Plugging In conference that kicks off tonight in Detroit. Please join Britta Gross, GM director of Global Energy Systems, Infrastructure and Commercialization, and Mark Duvall, executive director of the Electric Propulsion Research Institute (EPRI), on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. EDT for a live webchat to discuss key developments in the electric infrastructure space, including who needs to do what and when.
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1. Will the Volt need to display a HAZMAT placard on the side to warn first responders arriving at a crash scene? (Semi-trailers hauling Li-ion batteries do have to display a HAZMAT sticker.)
2. Will first responders need any special training to handle auto crashes where the case of an Li-ion battery has burst and scattered its contents?
Depends on the threshold level for the hazardous material in question. Maybe that’s why current range is lmited.
Chief –
Any idea what the allowable threshold level is? Li-ion batteries are considered as HAZMAT when carried in bulk in a common carrier, I’m curious as to how those HAZMAT rules will apply to the Volt.
In the course of their due diligence, GM would certainly have looked into that, and must know the answer, don’t you think?
Here is an article about Nissan.
Electric Transportation Engineering Corp. this week finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy to begin developing and installing a charging network for electric vehicles across five states, including Oregon.
The Phoenix company, a subsidiary of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ECOtality Inc., is rolling out more than 11,000 charging stations in five states — Oregon, Arizona, Tennessee, Washington and California — using $99.8 million in federal funds.
The project is in partnership with Nissan North America, which will deploy 4,700 of its all-electric Leaf vehicles which are scheduled for release in fall 2010.
As part of the project, Oregon expects to receive just under 1,000 of the Nissan vehicles and around 2,000 charging stations, centered around Portland, Eugene, Salem and Corvallis.
Pacific Business News
Mark, great to see your response to Scott re V2G and providing some level of power to the home during grid outages or brownouts. This is exactly what I have been proposing all along. Having been in this business (of home standby) I want to make sure anyone else thinking of the possibilities attacks it with t hecorrect and proper saftey in mind.
First of all, as you indicated, when providing backup power direct to home the grid connection must be disabled. The usual method is by 3-way transfer switch which only allows household input from one source at a time and completely isolates the two sources. Nothing worse than a utility worker picking up a supposedly dead wire repairing downed lines only to find it live from standby power supply.
Second, the generator for home standby MUST be located outside the garage. Whether it be a Volt or simply a portable generator it cannot be operated for power supply from within the c\onfines of the house.
Otherwise it can be pretty straightforward. Have a transfer switch and outside receptacle installed by a licensed electrician to code. Make sure car is parked outside. Throw switch, plug in vehicle, start vehicle and set manual thtrottle to provide a steady state engine speed (some modification of car may be necesary for this)
This is from an article in Fortune magazine by Steven Rattner, President Obama’s first car czar. When will GM comment on his perception of GM as being poorly-managed and its leaders insulating themselves at the top of the Renaissance Center?
The auto bailout: How we did it — an inside look at the bankruptcies that shook America
“Everyone knew Detroit’s reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company.
The cultural deficiencies were equally stunning. At GM’s Renaissance Center headquarters, the top brass were sequestered on the uppermost floor, behind locked and guarded glass doors. Executives housed on that floor had elevator cards that allowed them to descend to their private garage without stopping at any of the intervening floors (no mixing with the drones).”
The long slow decline in market share……..
GM for too long ignored it’s customers complaints.
I can see now management did not even talk to their own employees.
WOW
Apparently GM is not going to comment on Mr. Rattner’s article in Fortune. If they have nothing to rebut, the only conclusion we can draw is that Rattner’s claims of poor management and senior executives sequestering themselves on the upper floors of the RenCen must be true.
Still no official GM reaction to Mr. Rattner’s article. That must mean GM doesn’t contest what he said.
Let me just say that GM has been the leader in building the electric cars and should really keep on this. It’s a fantastic concept and I hope they really run with it.