Williams Auto Group

Making Us At Home on the Range

 

Ready to learn a new term?  Feel like the modern world just doesn't contain enough things to be stressed about?  Introducing "range anxiety".

Range anxiety is the term designers are using to describe the fear potential consumers have regarding electric cars and where to charge their batteries.  Imagine undertaking a trip in your gas-powered car, knowing there was only one gas station between your house and your destination three hundred miles away.  Would you be sure to plan your route and your refill very carefully?  Us too.

That's why the ChargePoint America program is underway.  Tasked with helping change the way America drives, ChargePoint America is providing electric vehicle charging infrastructure to nine selected regions in the United States.  Soon, electric charging stations will be as ubiquitous as gas stations.  And gas stations?  Well, tanks for the memories!

Hyping a Honda Hybrid/Plugging a Plug-In

Reports have surfaced that Honda is planning the release of an at-home chargeable hybrid and a fully-electric car by the year 2013.  According to this article at cnet.com, Honda will present a version of the Honda Insight which can be plugged into standard 110 Amp home outlets to recharge, and will be capable of making short trips on battery power alone.  The vehicle will reportedly make its world debut right here in the USA.

Reserve the Future at Williams Nissan Today!

For the first time ever, you can reserve your all-electric, zero-tailpipe emissions plug-in Nissan Leaf starting today at Williams Nissan of Sayre, PA!  The Leaf promises to be at the forefront of evolving automobile technology, and you can be there, driving right along the cutting edge!  See Williams Nissan today for details!

Reserve Your Nissan Leaf April 20th!

NissanUSA has announced that it will begin taking reservations for the new all-electric zero-emissions Nissan Leaf starting April 20th of this year.  In this article, you can get some up-to-the-minute information on rebates, expected lease offers, pricing, charging stations and more.  The article also provides links to sign up to receive Nissan Leaf information as it becomes available, and begins to explain the one-stop shopping process Nissan has instituted for those interested in becoming the first in their neighborhood to drive a no-tailpipe emissions vehicle!

Look Ma, No Tailpipe!

 
Nissan has updated the Q&A section of the Nissan Leaf portion of NissanUSA.com.  Now there are more answers to more questions about Nissan's new plug-in all-electric zero-emissions vehicle, due to appear in showrooms this Fall.  Visit the website to learn more about how it all will work, and what makes the electric Nissan Leaf worth considering for your next vehicle.  While you're there, you can watch a new video to learn about Leaf's performance.  Watch the future happen at Williams Auto Group!

Congress Goes Postal Over Electric Vehicles

Graphic by edrive.org

Will the U.S. Congress try to help the Post Office deliver email by giving it money to buy electric vehicles?  Well, maybe not, but this article sheds some light on one possible future for the Postal Service and electric vehicles.

According to HR4399, a bill now before Congress, the US Postal Service fleet is an ideal test bed for large scale electrification because of its predictable routes, frequent stops and starts, range of weather and terrain conditions, and high visibility. Post offices could provide the public easy access to EV charging stations with its more than 37,000 brick-and-mortar facilities located throughout the US.  At the same time, this new mission could help provide the Post Office with a "salvation strategy" to counter diminishing demand for its traditional services.  Further, electric postal vehicles could feed excess storage capacity back into the grid during the protracted periods of idleness they experience during the parts of the day when the letter carriers are preparing the mail for route delivery.  The Postal Service currently spends almost $3 billion per year on fuel and maintenance, but the cost of electric vehicles would still require extraordinary financing arrangements for USPS.  One scenario envisions the Postal Service being given authority to issue bonds, to be paid from the savings realized by the use of the energy efficient fleet.  The chart above was developed by evworld.com based on the details of the bill (HR4399) now before the House of Representatives.

Whatever the final outcome, it appears that the future development of the electric fleet will see an intimate involvement between government, the business and scientific communities, and gthe public at large.

Electricity and Muscle

Here's a link to an article in at SFGate.com on this years Detroit Auto Show, which opens today.  Two prominent, if contradictory, trends this year are electric/hybrid vehicles and muscle cars.  Pictured above is a Toyota FT-CH hybrid subcompact concept vehicle.  (Click the pic to read the article).  Toyota this year will look to extend its dominance of the hybrid vehicle market through the extension of the Prius nameplate.  Detroit also marks the first appearance of the Nissan Leaf in an auto show - Nissan's plug-in electric car which has been the subject of much anticipation.  And many other global manufacturers plan to show new hybrid or all-electric vehicles at this year's show.

The other hot segment?  Muscle cars!  Yes, those high-performance street racers are selling well, showing that lots of folks don't mind getting a little spendy for the buzz of good old-fashioned automotive power.  There's some high octane enjoyment for ya!

Toyota Moves Forward with Plug-in Plans

As the industry leader in gas/hybrid technology vehicle sales, the strategy of the Toyota Motor Company was to have a hybrid version of its entire model lineup available within ten years.  But, as this article in the NY Times reports, the rush ahead by other industry players is dictating a modification to this strategy.

As the articles states, Toyota now plans to bring a plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle to market next month (limited to corporate and government fleets for now, they say).  After a test period which will allow for the processing of feedback (I wonder if they realized the pun?) from these customers, "several tens of thousands" of the plug-ins are planned to be available for general distribution by late 2011.  Clearly, by accelerating its foray into this alternative to its current alternative-fuel vehicles, Toyota is signaling its intention to be prepared to supply whichever new technologies the marketplace determines are viable.  And as always, we at Williams will be right there with them - on the cutting edge, and moving you forward!

Well It's Pretty Popular With Us!

Popular Science magazine has always been unarguably nerdtastic, but the Williams Auto Group especially likes the current issue.  Why?  Because two of our brands have garnered honors on the "Best of What's New 2009" list.

Nissan Motors leads the way with two separate mentions.  The first is for the upcoming Nissan Leaf all-electric zero-tailpipe-emissions vehicle, and you can read what Popular Science had to say here.  The second mention is for the Nissan SynchroRev Match Transmission featured in the Nissan 370Z.  Truly amazing technology available right here at Williams!

Toyota is the second Williams Auto Group brand honored on the list, with Popular Science using these wonderful words to describe the Toyota Prius Hybrid: "The best mileage in America"!  (Read all about it here!)  So, if you'll pardon a little self-promotion, we'll point out that when you're thinking cutting edge, fuel-efficient automotive technology, you're thinking Williams!

Buy the Sizzle, Lease the Steak?

I thought I had my hands full with reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic.  How am I going to do with "Reuse, Resell, Refabricate and Recycle"?  Nissan Motors and Sumitomo Corporation aim to find out.  In this article, they announce a joint venture to recycle the lithium ion batteries slated to power the new Nissan Leaf electric vehicle due out in 2010.

The business model recognizes that after the end of normal vehicle life, the high-performance lithium-ion batteries to be used by Nissan will retain 70 to 80 percent of residual capacity and can be reused and resold to various industries as a solution to energy-storage.  Nissan and Sumitomo's intent is to create a market for these so-called "second life" batteries.  According to the Sumitomo website, "Second-life batteries present an ideal solution to the renewable-energy sector, allowing energy to be stored for later use. Such ecological application of second-life batteries would contribute to a net reduction of CO2 beyond what is achieved by the all-electric, zero-emission car".  This will also serve as a carbon-footprint offset to the generation of the electricity used by electric vehicles.

But wait, you say, these batteries are quite expensive, are they not?  How will the average driver afford them?  "This direct management of the battery's entire value chain is important to ensure that our EV customers do not bear the cost of the battery," said Hideaki Watanabe, head of Nissan's Zero Emission Business Unit. "Nissan is exploring several options including battery lease or credit model based on a monthly payment scheme. With this proposition, the total running cost, which equals the monthly battery payment plus the cost to charge the battery, is comparable to the cost to refuel a similar gasoline-powered car. Ultimately, this is a compelling economic proposition for a zero-emission car that meets all your driving needs."

So, under this proposed arrangement, I may someday buy an electric car, but lease the battery?  And the cost (including charging) should be about what we pay for gasoline?  We'll continue to keep you posted as this fascinating new technology emerges.