Last week, White Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) staff traveled to SBE Inc. in Barre, Vermont, where a $9.1 million Recovery Act grant is helping the company build a new electric drive component factory. As we toured the construction site with the company leadership, it truly felt as though we were witnessing a brand new American industry rising from the ground. (more…)

Who will play the lead character in Who Revived the Electric Car?, the sequel that is bound to be made to the famous documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? Many are vying for the role: car manufacturers, battery producers, scientists and now the Obama (more…)

The San Francisco to Silicon Valley corridor made many a millionaire during the dot-com boom as companies wanted their mail to arrive at a place close to technical talent and potential investors. While much smaller in scale, the industry for electric vehicle charging technology is also being largely centered in the Bay Area for similar reasons. (more…)

Yesterday, President Obama spoke with workers at Smith Electric’s new factory in Kansas City. Missouri. With a $32 million grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act coupled with $36 million in private capital, the electric vehicle company is building up to 500 all-electric trucks.

While he was there, the President also had the pleasure of announcing the company was hiring its 50th worker at the plant. By September, that number is expected to grow to 70, and at the project’s peak, Smith tells us the project will create more than 220 direct and indirect jobs.  As the President said:

(more…)

Imagine that every car in America was an Electric Vehicle (EV) powered by a electric battery like the Tesla’s (Nasdaq: TSLA) Roadster.  Imagine also that each and every car was powered with solar energy. Here’s a question: what amount of land would you need to generate the solar energy to power every electric vehicle in America?  And how would that solar acreage compare with the land surface that the oil industry uses to drill today?

I did the numbers and the answer will surprise you. (more…)

Investors Love Tesla: Observers were taken aback by the overwhelming success of Tesla’s IPO. But does $226 million amount to even a drop in the oil pan?

The Leaf Stampede: Nissan revealed that 90 percent of the U.S. presale orders for the all-electric Leaf are customers new to the Nissan brand. Perhaps there’s a lesson for other companies: Lead the way into green, and a whole new class of customers could follow.

Belkin Kills the Vampire: The company debuted a line of power (more…)

On a day when the rest of the stock market was tanking, Tesla Motors cruised to an IPO win worth $226.1million.

Concerns over consumer confidence, the European economy and growth in China brought the market to its lowest level of the year finishing down 268 points. Don’t tell Tesla. In a clear testament to the position the automaker has already achieved as a brand, investors lined up for a ride as the company became the first American car manufacturer to go public since Ford in 1956. (more…)

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have developed a positive electrode made of carbon nanotubes that enables lithium-ion batteries to deliver ten times more power than a conventional battery.

If produced on an industrial scale, these carbon nanotube electrodes could significantly extend the range of electric vehicles, the MIT scientists say.

Reporting in the journal, Nature Nanotechnology, the MIT researchers write that the secret to their technology is that their carbon nanotubes contain a very high surface area for storing and reacting with lithium.

(more…)

Last week’s announcement of a marketing agreement between EV charging company Coulomb Technologies and energy services provider Siemens should come as no surprise. Siemens has been an investor in Coulomb, so a closer relationship was all but inevitable. Siemens gains access to Coulomb’s ChargePoint networked charging stations technology, while Coulomb can leverage Siemens’ smart grid infrastructure and applications.

The EV charging equipment market is currently (more…)

Those who are passionate about electric cars know that, after many fits and starts, 2010 will likely be the year the world finally gives birth to an EV for the mass market. GM has its Volt, Nissan its Leaf, Tesla its Model S and Coda… its Coda.  Now Daimler AG appears poised to get a jump-start on the competition by rolling out its electric Smart Fortwo.  In a cool display of marketing savvy, Daimler will be cruising to more than a dozen US cities this fall where it will be inviting the public to come and take its Smart-ist car out for a spin. (more…)