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Panasonic invests $30 million in Tesla Motors
Electronics giant Panasonic Corporation has added a new dimension to its existing relationship with Tesla Motors by purchasing $30 million worth of the automaker’s common stock. The acquisition will leave Panasonic — which currently is the preferred supplier for lithium-ion battery cells that make up the custom packs used in the Tesla Roadster — holding about two percent of Tesla’s common stock.
In making the announcement, Naoto Noguchi, President of Energy Company — a unit of Panasonic responsible for the battery cell business, reiterated that “Panasonic aims to be the number one Green Innovation Company in the Electronics Industry by 2018, the 100th anniversary of our founding. Our sophisticated lithium-ion battery cell technology, combined with Tesla’s market-leading EV powertrain technology, helps us fulfill this goal by promoting sustainable mobility. We are proud to strengthen our relationship with Tesla Motors.”
Calling the move “an honor and a powerful endorsement” of Tesla technology, Tesla CEO and co-founder, Elon Musk, added that he feels Panasonic offers the highest energy-density cells and industry-leading performance and is confident that “our partnership with them will enable us to further improve our battery pack while reducing cost.”
Tesla already is involved in the development and production of electric powertrain and component elements for other manufacturers, the highest-profile linkup being its deal with Toyota on the new RAV4-EV. As a result of this latest Panasonic buy-in, the Silicon Valley-based automaker and its new business ally plan to explore joint marketing and sales of battery packs that would be designed and assembled by Tesla using Panasonic’s battery cells.
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Green Car News
Toyota/Lexus interiors will feature new “Ecological Plastic” parts
Numerous manufacturers have begun using significant percentages of recycled materials to create various interior components for their vehicles. Now, Toyota has announced it’s developed new and even more eco-friendly alternative that it plans to introduce throughout its product lines starting with the new 2011 Lexus CT200h. This revolutionary form of ecological plastic is based around the first use of a core element called bio-PET — officially polyethylene terephthalate — that was co-developed with the Toyota Tsusho Corporation. Unlike its conventional plastic counterpart, this ecological plastic substitutes the normal 30 percent monoethylene glycol ingredient with a biological raw material that’s derived from sugar cane.
According to Toyota, in addition to reducing the overall need for petroleum during the manufacturing process and being significantly more carbon-neutral, this new-gen ecological plastic has several key advantages over existing bio-plastics and delivers at least parity with traditional plastics in functional areas like appearance, durability and heat resistance. Equally critical, Toyota says it will come close to matching per-component cost when used in high volumes. Although the first use of this bio-PET based ecological plastic is confined to the luggage compartment liner in the 2011 Lexus CT200h, Toyota plans to greatly expand both the breadth and scope of its application and will have at least one vehicle in production during 2011 that will have 80 percent of its interior panels made from the material.
Toyota began experimenting with various “greener” forms of plastics as early as 2000. In 2003, it became the world’s first automaker to introduce it in a mass-production capacity in the domestic-market Raum minicar that had it floor mats and spare-tire cover made from a polyactic acid-based bio-plastic. Most recently, its Sai hybrid sedan that went on sale in Japan last December has 60 percent of exposed interior surfaces made of bio-plastic.
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Green Car News
Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell — First look
Mercedes-Benz has announced that it plans to launch its second series-built electric car which will be based on a five-door version of its latest A-Class subcompact model. Production of 500 of these series-build Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell variants will start this fall at the automaker’s facility in Rastatt, Germany, which is also home to the standard A-Class. The new E-Cell will be leased to selected customers in several European countries, principally Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Dubbing it a “family electric car for urban areas,” Mercedes says the E-Cell offers the same levels of passenger and cargo space as the conventional A-Class. To optimize cost efficiencies, the A-Class E-Cell will use the same modular electric-drive elements from the Mercedes B-Class F-Cell fuel cell vehicle and the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery storage units introduced in the smart fortwo ED.
Beneath the hood of the A-Class E-Cell lies an electric motor that makes 68 continuous horsepower but can deliver up to 95 ponies and 214 lb-ft of peak torque in max-effort mode. A pair of compact Li-ion battery packs with a total capacity of 36 kWh gives the vehicle a per-charge range of up to 124 miles and will let it hit 60 mph in about 13.5 seconds and top out at 93 mph. The batteries employ liquid cooling to optimize their operational efficiency and can be replenished in about eight hours using standard European 230V outlets or in about three hours on a dedicated commercial charger. The A-Class E-Cell also features the same “SmartCharge Communication” intelligent charging management system as the smart fortwo, which allows all relevant information, including the electricity supply contract identification data, to be exchanged with the charging point in order to create a more convenient framework for automated billing.
Like the conventional A-Class, the E-Cell uses a “sandwich” structure floor that enhances passenger safety in case of a head-on impact. It also allows the battery packs to be positioned low in the vehicle to improve its handling while keeping them outside of the deformation zones. Other key commonalities with the standard A-Class include a full range of vehicle dynamics systems plus front/side/rear window airbags.
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