Green carmakers may emerge as next U.S. car industry

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens is investing in a new car factory in Louisiana. The San-Diego-based company, V-vehicles, is keeping tight wraps on what type of car will be produced there, but Pickens said in a statement that it will be an “environmentally friendly” vehicle that will run on gasoline and eventually may offer a natural gas option. (In related news, the Potential Gas Committee on Thursday upped its estimate of available natural gas reserves in the United States by about 34 percent, due to improved recovery technology.)

This got me thinking about all the new start-up car companies popping up around the United States, as the traditional Detroit automakers (and even big imports with U.S. plants) are faltering.

Several we have written about here before include:

Tesla Motors – founded by PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, and based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tesla builds a $100,000 electric sports car, the Roadster, and has plans to build a seven-passenger electric sedan, the Model S. The company is seeking more than $350 million in funding from the Department of Energy to buy an existing factory to build the Model S.

Fisker Automotive – based in Irvine, Calif., is developing a plug-in hybrid (range-extended) electric luxury sedan called the Karma. Run by former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, who designed the car, the company has outsourced everything from manufacturing to engineering. The Karma will be built in Finland.

Carbon Motors – Based in Hermosa Beach, Calif., former law-enforcement officers and automaker executives are leading the company to offer a new, purpose-built police cruiser. So far the company is still working on developing a legal framework for the car, although it has shown a prototype. It says the car will be made in the U.S.

Zap – This long-time electric bicycle-maker based in Santa Rosa, Calif., has branched out into making small electric cars, including the Zebra 3-wheeled coupe and pickup.

Aptera – Run by a group of former auto industry executives, based in Vista, Calif., is developing a three-wheeled electric two-seater that it says will be built in California later this year, and initially only sold in the state.

Bright Automotive – based on a spinoff from the Rocky Mountain Institute think tank, Anderson, Indiana-based Bright plans to market a small(ish) electric delivery van, called the Idea, in 2011.

Myers Motors – born out of the defunct Corbin Motors, Myers, based in Tallmadge, Ohio, bought the fiberglass tooling and design of the Corbin Sparrow, which it sells as the Myers NMG, for No More Gas.

EV Innovations – Based in Las Vegas, EV Innovations has been converting cars to electric power for years, and it is now developing two of its own vehicles: the two-seat Wave and the Inizio sports car. Both are supposed to be ready by the time the competition begins for the Automotive X Prize later this year.

Admittedly, this is only a partial list. Other companies, are launching new motorcycles in the U.S., including Zero Motorcycles, and Brammo, which will be sold through Best Buy stores. The XPrize alone has attracted dozens of competitors developing plans to build fuel-efficient alternative cars in the U.S. And an industry has developed to build low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles such as the G.E.M. car around the country.

Just like the dawn of the 20th century, which saw a proliferation of horseless carriage builder, most of these modern startups may not last. But one or two, or one that follows behind them, may eventually thrive. So as Chrysler and General Motors shrink and become dependent on government support, it is encouraging to see American ingenuity springing in to fill the void.

--Eric Evarts

Comments

[Cyberwolfman]

Aptera will most likely be the one company that succeeds through these dark days for the auto industry. Designing a car for efficiency first and not just taking an existing heavy car and yanking a gas motor and and slamming a half a ton of batteries in instead. You failed to mention the hybrid that they will be releasing after the all electric. Called the 2h, it will get over 200 MPG. Prius? Who needs that gas guzzler?

The big automakers did it to themselves by not looking that far ahead. They still work with heavy steel and here in the states you cant get a car that gets more than 50mpg. In Europe you can get many cars that get well over that and not have to pay out the rear to do so. If you want to see for yourself compare the websites. For example go to kia.com then kia.co.uk and check out the mileage difference between similar cars. Then check out other car companies that are both here in the US and in the UK. Ford is one of them and they have cars in the UK that get over 50 MPG. Yeah, over 50 MPG....and they aren't hybrids.

Just look here:

http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/FordECOnetic

and here, Fiat, the company that bought Chrysler

http://www.fiat.co.uk/Showroom/#showroom/home

check those cars out, many over 70 MPG there too!

I doubt we'll see them over here with that kind of mileage...here they'll probably only get about 40 MPG at most and be considered groundbreaking and innovative.

If you have a smart car and think you got a great car think again, here's its UK counterpart!

http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135035552-1242115679-0000022482-0000000016-1246371459-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-uk-content-Site/en_UK/-/GBP/Smart_NG_ViewStatic-PageComponent?NavigationID=urn%3Auuid%3Ae0a1fb03-d93b-5af7-80ab-7c81f0ff63f2

Yeah...that one's a bit long but just copy and paste, check out the mileage you should be getting in your smart but aren't. Don't forget to check out the different trim levels for the engine, the CDI turbodiesel gets over 80 MPG! that's DOUBLE what you get here.

It's called the World Wide Web for a reason folks, don't just let yourself explore only the US sites for the car industry, look at what's actually out there.