High Voltage The Fast Track to Plug in the Auto Industry (Audible Audio Edition) Jim Motavalli Brian Troxell Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : High Voltage The Fast Track to Plug in the Auto Industry (Audible Audio Edition) Jim Motavalli Brian Troxell Audible Studios Books
A behind-the-scenes look at the robustly competitive race to dominate the market for electric cars, the larger-than-life moguls behind them, and the changes that are transforming the auto industry.
In the 1980s, it was unimaginable that the home computer would become as common and easy to use as a toaster. Today, plug-in charging stations and smart grids seem like something still far off in the future. But by 2020, the auto industry will look very different from today's field of troubled auto giants. The combination of technological breakthroughs and charging networks driven by global warming and peak oil makes it clear that revolutionary change in the auto industry is happening right now.
In High Voltage, Jim Motavalli captures this period of unprecedented change, documenting the evolution from internal combustion engines to electric power. Driven by the auto world's ambitious and sometimes outlandish personalities, the book chronicles the race to dominate the market, focusing on big players like Tesla and Fisker, as well as a tiny start-up and a battery supplier. Flashing forward to the changes we'll see in the coming years, High Voltage shows a not-so-distant future where we will live on a smart grid, our cars "fueling," that is, charging, while we shop or sleep. The ramifications of these changes will be on a grander scale than most of us ever imagined-altering foreign policy, reducing trade deficits, and perhaps even ending global warming.
High Voltage The Fast Track to Plug in the Auto Industry (Audible Audio Edition) Jim Motavalli Brian Troxell Audible Studios Books
Jim always writes well, but his crystal ball for predicting the future looks pretty cloudy from the year 2017 looking back. This book is a lot more on target than his previous book, "Forward Drive" which devoted about a third of its pages to hydrogen fuel cell fantasies. This time out he's a bit more skeptical about hydrogen. The Volt and Leaf are on the scene by 2011 and he has a lot of good info on them, but he spends a lot of time on Wheego, Coda and Fisker, all of which bombed out a short time later. At the very end of the book he lists his "top 10" most likely to succeed. The Volt is #1, the Leaf #3, #4 Tesla, #9 is the BMW i3. All of the rest either never came to market (#7 Fisker) or never made much of an impression (#2 Prius plugin). If you're interested in this subject you'll get a kick out of reading this despite (maybe because of!) all the dead ends and over-optimistic predictions "experts" shared with Jim.Product details
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High Voltage The Fast Track to Plug in the Auto Industry (Audible Audio Edition) Jim Motavalli Brian Troxell Audible Studios Books Reviews
great read exploring lots of trials andgreat innovations into the electric car economy. thanks bob
Had to read this book for my Econ Class. Definitely came out learning more on various aspects of the Automotive world than expected.
I had little insight on the various classifications of cars, those being electric, plug-in, hybrid, etc. This book lays out in detail everything that is needed to know on all these types of cars and their benefit to us. It also describes a lot of circumstances the government faces in trying to approve certain types of cars because of their needs and it examines the international market of these cars.
I would definitely recommend this book for those of your who would love to know more about the electric car, its past, present and its future. Especially for those who want to learn more about what things we can do to help our environment out down the road!
This book describes some of the activities and personalities surrounding the effort to develop the Lithium cell of the future. It winds up inconclusively, because the story is far from finished. It does, however give a good look at the most promising current technology, and points out what will be necessary to reap the bonanza that a successful fix will produce.
Definitely well researched and surely inclusive of the many, not the few. Motavalli presents with a balanced approach, especially when comparing all the electric and hybrid vehicles. Sure, he presents his own favorites and orders them accordingly, but he give his reasons why.
Most commendable is that this book is not like others, which appear to be more corporate-sponsored or soft-soaped so as not to offend anyone. His travels around the world accompanied with multiples of interviews, links and quotes makes the reader a fly on the wall, so to speak. I now know things that I did not know before, but somewhat suspected.
Now why I didn't give this a 5-Star? In Chapter 10, Eden Attained, he presents alternate realities, where 1) IF battery-only EVs flopped and 2) electric-assisted hybrids flopped. His conclusion was that all that we would be left with would be for us to face Peak Oil until government forced the issue to fully electrify. In that regard, I respectfully but totally disagree. Eventually, electrification will overtake the IC engine, but we are not at Peak Oil. I say we are at Peak Easy Oil; big difference.
However, the author missed the opportunity to present the IC engine alternatives in that scenario up to 2030 and 2050, like natural gas for cleaner and cheaper fuel and the advantages of split-cycle engines, especially with its air-hybrid, Miller-like option. Reading "Splitting I.C.E." for example, along with it provides the element that I feel is missing in the scenario of that chapter. Together, story is super clear.
Other than that, I consider "High Voltage" my favored EV reference book and is worthy of a prominence in my private library.
The book is well-written, in the typical NYT journalistic style, and very comprehensive. Mr. Motavalli managed to chronicle in a short book the rebirth of plug-in electric cars (PEVs) and the state-of-the-art of the industry as of mid 2011. As the book's introduction explains, PEVs include all-electric cars (EVs or BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), but not the conventional gasoline-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which do not plug-in.
The book was very well-researched, with a lot of primary content as many key players were interviewed just for the book, and of course, Mr. Motavalli's ample experience as a green car journalist, bringing along all his behind-the-wheels test drive experience with almost all the plug-in electric cars available in the world today. The book covers all relevant aspects regarding PEVs, advantages, disadvantages, barriers to wide adoption, the key role of EV battery technology, the deployment of charging infrastructure, fast charging standards, battery swapping, you name, every aspect is covered. There is an entire chapter devoted to Motavalli's test drives of several PEVs, which includes his experience with the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, Th!nk City, Aptera 2e and the Toyota Highlander FCHV. By the way, electric vans and truck are out of the scope of the book.
The book is aimed for a wide audience, not just the early adopters, techies and green car fans. Actually, regular consumers with an interest in PEVs will find this book quite a primer to help them decide whether now is the right time to go electric or wait. I believe it would have been helpful for the layman to include some pictures, at least of the most relevant PEVs, such as the Volt and Leaf.
My other quibbles about the book have to do with its bias towards the American market. Despite covering all PEVs from the big players and start-ups, with the exception of China, the discussion is mostly focused around those PEVs already available or slated for the U.S. market. Surprisingly there is almost nothing about the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (renamed Mitsubishi i for the American-spec version) , launched more than a year before the Nissan Leaf and actually, sharing the leadership in global sales of electric cars as of October 2011. The i-MiEV is only mentioned a couple of times in the context of plug charging standards. The REVAi (or G-Wiz) is also missing, despite having sold a few thousand units since 2001. And the Japanese market is only covered in terms of its charging infrastructure and charging standards, despite sharing the world leadership with the U.S. in terms of PEV sales. Also, the book has a very interesting chapter about the potential of Iceland to become the first 100% electric transportation country, but surprisingly there is nothing about Norway, despite being the country with the most PEVs per capita in the world. It would have been interesting to learn some lessons from the Norwegians, who are ahead of the rest of the world.
The last chapter presents the author's vision of commuting in 2030, a very creative scenario indeed, but Mr. Motavalli closes the book with a down to earth view of what he believes is likely to happen next, and his "Ten Most Likely to Succeed" list is included. I agree with most of the cars in the list, and also share with the author his educated guess that the chance of survival is higher for the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and the Prius Plug-in, but not for the Ford Focus Electric, which has a base price higher than the Leaf and the same as the Volt (to be fair, pricing of the Prius PHEV and the Focus EV was not available when the book was finished). I believe that price is the most important factor for the successful adoption of plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars, therefore today's premium with respect to gasoline-powered cars will have to shrink significantly for PEVs to become affordable and the remaining premium has to be paid back in a few years, just like conventional hybrids today. And finally, just as Jim Motavalli wished for in the book, if I had the $41,000 to spare on a car, I'd spend it on the Volt, really a technological marvel and a game-changer.
Considering that all-electric range and the price of the battery packs are the two deal breakers for mass adoption of PEVs, I recommend an excellent complementary reading about the present and future of battery technology, Seth Fletcher's Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy. Also do not miss the movie Revenge of the Electric Car, recently released to the public. And for those readers who want to know more about the Volt's development and innovative technology, do not miss Chevrolet Volt Charging into the Future.
* Final note only for the edition
I read the version, which comes with active hyperlinks to the web for many of the endnotes for each chapter, so frequently I went back and forth between the web and the book to check out further info. A very handy feature indeed. Nevertheless, I have a complaint for because in doing this back and forth at some point the Whispersync software lost track of the real last location, showing the endnotes as my last location. This bug was really annoying because I often switch the reading between my iPad and my iPod, so I had to synchronize the devices manually with go to.
I think it is about time that adds a feature to allow the user reset the `Furthest Page Read.'. Sometimes I like to peek the final pages or check something ahead of the reading (just as you do in a regular book), or simply do a word search. Nowadays I have to refrain from doing so to make sure I do not lose my last reading location. Or, is this a particular problem with the book's version I bought?
PS I google for a solution. It seems expect you to email costumer service to reset the last location. What a lousy solution. The should allow it to do it yourself.
Jim always writes well, but his crystal ball for predicting the future looks pretty cloudy from the year 2017 looking back. This book is a lot more on target than his previous book, "Forward Drive" which devoted about a third of its pages to hydrogen fuel cell fantasies. This time out he's a bit more skeptical about hydrogen. The Volt and Leaf are on the scene by 2011 and he has a lot of good info on them, but he spends a lot of time on Wheego, Coda and Fisker, all of which bombed out a short time later. At the very end of the book he lists his "top 10" most likely to succeed. The Volt is #1, the Leaf #3, #4 Tesla, #9 is the BMW i3. All of the rest either never came to market (#7 Fisker) or never made much of an impression (#2 Prius plugin). If you're interested in this subject you'll get a kick out of reading this despite (maybe because of!) all the dead ends and over-optimistic predictions "experts" shared with Jim.
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