July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. will start selling a battery-powered car in 2012, curbing the skepticism about such vehicles that made it the last of Japan’s largest automakers to enter the market for rechargeable autos.
Honda also plans to sell mid-size to large plug-in hybrids in Japan and the U.S. in 2012, Chief Executive Officer Takanobu Ito told reporters yesterday in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo.
Japan’s second-largest automaker follows rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. in planning plug-in models and battery-powered cars as governments tighten emissions rules, and as inadequate infrastructure hampers popularization of the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles favored by Honda. A zero-emission vehicle rule in California is forcing Honda to make the move to electric cars, which the carmaker still considers suitable only for short-distance drives.
“My predecessor didn’t like batteries,” Ito said, referring to former President Takeo Fukui. “But we have been researching them all along. Since I became president, that was accelerated quite a bit.”
In California, the most populous U.S. state, the largest carmakers by volume must sell about 60,000 plug-in hybrids and electric cars combined from model years 2012 through 2014, according to the state’s Air Resources Board.
“There’s tremendous pressure being put on, in California and nationwide by the Obama administration, to offer these advanced vehicles,” said Jim Hossack, an industry analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Fountain Valley, California. “Every major manufacturer is going to have to play ball.”
U.S. fuel-economy rules that phase in after 2015 make the addition of plug-ins and hybrids inevitable, Hossack said.
Ghosn’s Prediction
Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, will sell its lithium-ion battery-powered Leaf hatchback late this year in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
Toyota will start selling a short-distance pure electric car and plug-in hybrid by 2012.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn predicts electric vehicles will account for 10 percent of global car sales by 2020. By contrast, Ito said yesterday electric cars won’t reach a mass-market level of demand in 20 or even 30 years and that plug-in hybrids are more “realistic” in the shorter term.
Pure electric cars will make up 0.63 percent of global car production in 2016, or about 600,000 vehicles, according to a forecast by consulting company IHS Automotive.
Short Driving Ranges
Electric vehicles sales will be limited by short driving ranges and the high cost of batteries, said Toru Hatano, an analyst at IHS Automotive in Tokyo. “The EVs being introduced are only for short distances, so I don’t see this as a big sign that the market will expand,” he said. “Even assuming prices come down in five years, it could take until 2020 to extend the driving range.”
Honda will expand its line-up of gasoline-electric hybrid cars and expects production of those models and plug- ins to make up more than 10 percent of its global output by 2014 from less than 6 percent now, Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo said. The company isn’t including electric cars in its forecast.
Shares in Honda fell 0.2 percent in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading to 2,601 yen as of 9:41 a.m. Honda has declined 16 percent this year, compared with an 11 percent drop in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
The company’s hybrid line-up now includes the Insight and Civic compacts and sporty CR-Z coupe. Honda plans to sell a hybrid version of the Fit compact in Japan later this year.
Toyota’s Success
The carmaker hasn’t matched Toyota’s success with hybrid cars. The Prius, the world’s most popular hybrid, outsold Honda’s Insight 6-to-1 in the U.S. this year through May.
Honda’s next version of the Civic hybrid, due within a year, will use lithium-ion batteries rather than the current nickel-metal hydride pack, Ito said. The carmaker had previously said it would offer lithium-ion versions of Civic and Acura luxury models. Lithium batteries can store as much as twice the energy of nickel-metal hydride batteries that currently power Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s hybrids.
Honda will shift gradually to lithium-ion batteries as depreciation costs for nickel-metal hydride battery production are booked, Ito said.
The carmaker will also introduce a 500,000-rupee ($10,600) car in India next year and will sell a similar model in Thailand, he said.
Honda, also the world’s biggest motorcycle maker, aims to build a new plant in Indonesia next year with capacity to make 500,000 two-wheelers a year.
In Japan, Honda will start minicar production at its Suzuka plant in 2012 and at its Yorii plant in 2013, Ito said. Yachiyo Industry Co., Honda’s 50 percent-owned subsidiary, canceled the planned construction of a factory. Minicar assembly at Yachiyo’s existing plant will continue, Honda said.
--With assistance from Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles. Editors: Terje Langeland, Ian Rowley.
To contact the reporter on this story: Makiko Kitamura in Tokyo at mkitamura1@bloomberg.net; Yuki Hagiwara in Tokyo at yhagiwara1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kae Inoue in Tokyo at kinoue@bloomberg.net
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Sustainability watchdog will be axed to meet public sector spending cuts
Plans to scrap the commission come as the agency announces tens of millions of pounds of savings from green improvements
James Randerson and Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 July 2010 18.36 BST
The coalition government will on Thursday announce plans to axe its sustainability watchdog in order to meet targets for public sector spending cuts.
Proponents of the Sustainable Development Commission argue that its remit to advise government on reducing its carbon emissions and other resource use saves far more money that it costs.
The plan to scrap the Sustainable Development Commission is scheduled to come ironically on the day that the agency will release its annual report into green improvements to the government's operations. This lists tens of millions of pounds worth of savings from fuel costs, water, waste and other things. Many of the changes were prompted by advice from the SDC which has staff of around 60 and a budget of just under £3m, and which was set up by the then deputy prime minister John Prescott in June 2000 after persuasion from Michael Meacher MP.
The move will be seen by many environmentalists as directly counter to David Cameron's pledge to lead the "greenest government ever". When meeting civil servants a week after the election he said, "There is a fourth minister in this department [Energy and Climate Change] who cares passionately about this agenda and that is me, the prime minister, right. I mean that from the bottom of my heart."
Tonight Caroline Lucas MP, the head of the Green party, called the move an "absolute disaster". "The Sustainable Development Commission has been a vital source of well-informed scrutiny of government policy. The commission has come out with very sensible proposals."
"If the current government is to really stand a chance of getting its head round sustainability, the urgency of the threats, and the huge opportunities to benefit this country's economy as well as its people through green policies, we need the Sustainable Development Commission and we need it to have a strong and independent voice." She said she had tabled a parliamentary question asking the government assess the SDC's value to date.
The decision to scrap the commission, which is jointly owned by the UK government and the devolved administrations, is likely to raise tensions between the Welsh assembly and Whitehall after the assembly's business minister Jane Hutt said she was "concerned" about the government's review of arms length bodies and added "we will make representations [to the UK government]". Speaking to the assembly, she praised the SDC for playing "an important part" in the assembly's plans to move Wales to a zero-carbon economy.
Her answer was prompted by a question last week from Plaid Cymru's sustainability spokesperson Leanne Wood AM.
Wood told the Guardian: "The Sustainable Development Commission was set up to advise government how to cut carbon emissions. To scrap this body now would suggest that the Conservatives are lukewarm when it comes to tackle climate change." She added that Plaid Cymru wanted the SDC to be retained in Wales.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs refused to confirm or deny whether the SDC would be cut. But a spokesperson said: "'In line with the coalition government's commitments, Defra is examining its large network of arms-length bodies ... No final decision has been made on other arms-length bodies and we are continuing to talk with them and with unions to ensure that essential policy and delivery areas are managed in the most efficient and cost-effective ways. Announcements on other arms-length bodies will be made in due course once this process has been completed."
The SDC began as a tiny £350,000-a-year operation with a unique license to be a "critical friend" to the government, which could provoke and cajole ministers and civil servants into greener actions. It's first chair was the environmentalist Jonathan Porritt, the former director of Friends of the Earth. Porritt stepped down last year to make way for the current head Will Day. The SDC's current role involves independent advice to the prime minister, as well as the devolved administrations. Its brief is, through advocacy, advice and appraisal, to raise sustainability at the heart of government.
James Randerson and Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 July 2010 18.36 BST
The coalition government will on Thursday announce plans to axe its sustainability watchdog in order to meet targets for public sector spending cuts.
Proponents of the Sustainable Development Commission argue that its remit to advise government on reducing its carbon emissions and other resource use saves far more money that it costs.
The plan to scrap the Sustainable Development Commission is scheduled to come ironically on the day that the agency will release its annual report into green improvements to the government's operations. This lists tens of millions of pounds worth of savings from fuel costs, water, waste and other things. Many of the changes were prompted by advice from the SDC which has staff of around 60 and a budget of just under £3m, and which was set up by the then deputy prime minister John Prescott in June 2000 after persuasion from Michael Meacher MP.
The move will be seen by many environmentalists as directly counter to David Cameron's pledge to lead the "greenest government ever". When meeting civil servants a week after the election he said, "There is a fourth minister in this department [Energy and Climate Change] who cares passionately about this agenda and that is me, the prime minister, right. I mean that from the bottom of my heart."
Tonight Caroline Lucas MP, the head of the Green party, called the move an "absolute disaster". "The Sustainable Development Commission has been a vital source of well-informed scrutiny of government policy. The commission has come out with very sensible proposals."
"If the current government is to really stand a chance of getting its head round sustainability, the urgency of the threats, and the huge opportunities to benefit this country's economy as well as its people through green policies, we need the Sustainable Development Commission and we need it to have a strong and independent voice." She said she had tabled a parliamentary question asking the government assess the SDC's value to date.
The decision to scrap the commission, which is jointly owned by the UK government and the devolved administrations, is likely to raise tensions between the Welsh assembly and Whitehall after the assembly's business minister Jane Hutt said she was "concerned" about the government's review of arms length bodies and added "we will make representations [to the UK government]". Speaking to the assembly, she praised the SDC for playing "an important part" in the assembly's plans to move Wales to a zero-carbon economy.
Her answer was prompted by a question last week from Plaid Cymru's sustainability spokesperson Leanne Wood AM.
Wood told the Guardian: "The Sustainable Development Commission was set up to advise government how to cut carbon emissions. To scrap this body now would suggest that the Conservatives are lukewarm when it comes to tackle climate change." She added that Plaid Cymru wanted the SDC to be retained in Wales.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs refused to confirm or deny whether the SDC would be cut. But a spokesperson said: "'In line with the coalition government's commitments, Defra is examining its large network of arms-length bodies ... No final decision has been made on other arms-length bodies and we are continuing to talk with them and with unions to ensure that essential policy and delivery areas are managed in the most efficient and cost-effective ways. Announcements on other arms-length bodies will be made in due course once this process has been completed."
The SDC began as a tiny £350,000-a-year operation with a unique license to be a "critical friend" to the government, which could provoke and cajole ministers and civil servants into greener actions. It's first chair was the environmentalist Jonathan Porritt, the former director of Friends of the Earth. Porritt stepped down last year to make way for the current head Will Day. The SDC's current role involves independent advice to the prime minister, as well as the devolved administrations. Its brief is, through advocacy, advice and appraisal, to raise sustainability at the heart of government.
Helsinki data centre to heat homes
Water warmed while cooling a server centre installed in a cathedral bomb shelter will go on to heat 500 homes
Justin Vela, Helsinki
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 July 2010 12.04 BST
A mini revolution in eco-friendly computing is taking place in the depths of the 19th-century Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral in downtown Helsinki.
The Finnish IT company Academica has installed a new 2MW database server centre in an empty second world war bomb shelter meant to protect city officials in the event of a Russian attack. Water warmed while cooling the servers will go on to provide heat for 500 homes or 1,000 flats in a city that often suffers winters of -20C. After the heat is extracted, the water will be recycled back to cool the servers again.
"There have been smaller implementations of similar systems," says Pietari Päivänen, head of sales at Academica. "Data centres being used to heat parking lots. No one has conducted the heat towards a central heating system however."
Around the world, vast and fast-rising amounts of information and data are being stored online, creating a huge demand for affordable data centres. But the servers consume vast amounts of energy, raising concerns about the greenhouse gas emissions produced. About 2% of the total electricity used in Britain powers data centres, making them expensive to operate and a significant factor in the causes of climate change.
Cooling the servers is the most expensive and energy intensive part of maintaining a data centre and Academica are tackling this challenge by making use of the heat extracted. Together with Helsingin Energia, an energy company owned by the city of Helsinki, they have designed a system to use the chilly waters of the Baltic sea to cool the servers. The heat is transferred by a separate pipe system of desalinated water and then sent through the city's vast underground tunnel network to the district heating system, for which the tunnels were originally built.
The data centre began operation in the last few weeks and immediately Helsinki was able to lower the output from its coal-fired power stations, reducing pollution and saving money. Expectations for the future are high, and Academica has already been contracted to build a second data centre – ten times larger – to provide heat for the city.
"In the US for example the access to energy is cheaper," says Juha Sipilä, an engineer at Helsingin Energia and project manager. "For us in Finland fuel and energy has always been quite expensive. It has forced us to look for some solutions to cut down on our energy consumption." The use of the underground bomb shelter has another perk, said Sipilä: "The servers will be very safe."
Providing a green data centre is also expected to save Academica about £140,000 a year.
"There is the saving cost," Päivänen says. "There is not any conflict between those areas. People believed a couple of years ago that being green meant higher costs. This is not necessarily the way anymore."
The new data centre in Helsinki comes at the same time as Google is building their own database server centre in Finland, in the town of Hamina about 93 miles from Helsinki.
Set to begin operation this year, the £180m data centre will use water from the Baltic Sea to cool their servers. Two of Google's 40 plus data centres run on 100% recycled water. This year Google expects recycled water to provide 80% of its total data centre water consumption.
Justin Vela, Helsinki
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 July 2010 12.04 BST
A mini revolution in eco-friendly computing is taking place in the depths of the 19th-century Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral in downtown Helsinki.
The Finnish IT company Academica has installed a new 2MW database server centre in an empty second world war bomb shelter meant to protect city officials in the event of a Russian attack. Water warmed while cooling the servers will go on to provide heat for 500 homes or 1,000 flats in a city that often suffers winters of -20C. After the heat is extracted, the water will be recycled back to cool the servers again.
"There have been smaller implementations of similar systems," says Pietari Päivänen, head of sales at Academica. "Data centres being used to heat parking lots. No one has conducted the heat towards a central heating system however."
Around the world, vast and fast-rising amounts of information and data are being stored online, creating a huge demand for affordable data centres. But the servers consume vast amounts of energy, raising concerns about the greenhouse gas emissions produced. About 2% of the total electricity used in Britain powers data centres, making them expensive to operate and a significant factor in the causes of climate change.
Cooling the servers is the most expensive and energy intensive part of maintaining a data centre and Academica are tackling this challenge by making use of the heat extracted. Together with Helsingin Energia, an energy company owned by the city of Helsinki, they have designed a system to use the chilly waters of the Baltic sea to cool the servers. The heat is transferred by a separate pipe system of desalinated water and then sent through the city's vast underground tunnel network to the district heating system, for which the tunnels were originally built.
The data centre began operation in the last few weeks and immediately Helsinki was able to lower the output from its coal-fired power stations, reducing pollution and saving money. Expectations for the future are high, and Academica has already been contracted to build a second data centre – ten times larger – to provide heat for the city.
"In the US for example the access to energy is cheaper," says Juha Sipilä, an engineer at Helsingin Energia and project manager. "For us in Finland fuel and energy has always been quite expensive. It has forced us to look for some solutions to cut down on our energy consumption." The use of the underground bomb shelter has another perk, said Sipilä: "The servers will be very safe."
Providing a green data centre is also expected to save Academica about £140,000 a year.
"There is the saving cost," Päivänen says. "There is not any conflict between those areas. People believed a couple of years ago that being green meant higher costs. This is not necessarily the way anymore."
The new data centre in Helsinki comes at the same time as Google is building their own database server centre in Finland, in the town of Hamina about 93 miles from Helsinki.
Set to begin operation this year, the £180m data centre will use water from the Baltic Sea to cool their servers. Two of Google's 40 plus data centres run on 100% recycled water. This year Google expects recycled water to provide 80% of its total data centre water consumption.
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