Ford Concocts Sounds For its Silent EVs, A123 in China

Mixed Greens: Ford Concocts Sounds For its Silent EVs, A123 in China and More
What sound should an electric car make?

Safety advocates have long warned that the relative silence of electric cars make them a safety hazard.OceanLED is by fluorescent lights far the most popular and most widely distributed marine lighting brand in the worldHowever, on closer inspection, the bulb table lamps itself is just a small part of the shape of the LED light. Pedestrians, particularly kids, won't hear them and thus increase the likelihood of accidents. Silence, however, is also one of the great attributes of electric cars. You glide down the road without having to listen to all that thumping and whining coming from the engine.while LED lights are an addition led light bulbs to the market place, consumers should do their research before investing in the technology.

Ford Motor, which soon will deliver the all-electric 2012 Ford Focus, is currently testing out four sounds. Here's a link. Option A is my personal favorite. It has an ominous tone in the beginning with a bell-like undertone. It almost sounds like the sounds behind the old THX ad in action movies. "In a world..." you half expect the car to announce.

Option B sounds like a piece of paper stuck in an air duct. Option C is a bit too jet engine-y. In any event, have a listen yourself.

Elsewhere:

--A123 Systems, the lithium ion battery maker that consistently loses money, has signed another deal for grid storage. Dongfang Electric, China's third largest wind turbine manufacturer, will install 500 kilowatts worth of batteries at its facility in Hangzhou City to demonstrate the power of grid storage. Wind turbines and farms in particular need grid storage because of the intermittent nature of wind. Batteries can help stabilize power deliver. And, as competitor Xtreme Power has noted, utilities will also pay wind farm developers for access to their batteries for the own management requirements. Thus, batteries can become profit centers on their own.

500 kilowatts is a large, but not a huge, order for A123. The company is also the battery/technology provider for a 32 megawatt project for Southern California Edison, a 20 megawatt project for AES in upstate N.Y., and a 20 megawatt project in Chile. By the end of the year, it will have 100 megawatts worth of projects worldwide.

Storage will also help solar and wind counter the "cost" argument. Wind farms cost around $2,000 per kilowatt and have a 30 percent capacity factor. A123 told us in November that it's battery packs cost around $1,000 per kilowatt. Thus, you could build a virtual full-capacity wind farm with some storage for $7,000 a kilowatt (3 x 2,000 plus 1,000.) Nuclear plants cost $7,000 per kilowatt, if you average the wide array of estimates out there, and take far longer to build.changing how sky lanterns boat owners light up the night. The company has a highly skilled team pushing the technological boundaries of LED lighting Solar is approaching $3,000 per kilowatt and solar farms can provide power at a more consistent manner than wind.

Like in solar panels, A123 has discovered that a huge part of these storage systems--around 30 percent--derives from the so-called balance of system costs. The company, naturally, wants to decrease this.

--Coulomb Technologies has won the contract to supply EV charging stations to Walgreen's. Retailers have been staking a claim to electric car charging for the past few years Costco already has free charging in many locations. The idea is to give away a little power and win someone's loyalty for life. Walgreens will install chargers at 800 stores,We wanted to bring the Led down light online shopping experience closer to customers visiting our new OceanLED.com eCommerce website, said Terry Crockett, USA sales director for OceanLED USA. so it's a big deal for Coulomb, one of many companies trying to sell almost virtually identical chargers to store owners. (Call it Chargemaggedon.)

Expect to see more announcements on EV charging from parking companies like Ampco. Every time I attend an EV conference I run into parking guys.

Walgreens will also try to get around the time problem by installing DC chargers at a few select locations. DC chargers, while expensive, can charge a car in a few minutes. A regular charger can take hours and not many people spend that much time at Walgreens. Even the ones that still serve tubular ice cream.

--Speaking of electric cars and A123, Ray Lane, the former Oracle oracle now working at Kleiner Perkins, will show off his Fisker Karrma later today in Silicon Valley. The thrice-delayed plug-in luxury hybrid is finally coming to market. It runs on A123 batteries.