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Mercedes recently announced it will be brining a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to market. As this USA Today story reports, a test fleet of small, practical vehicles that get 80 miles per gallon using advanced lithium ion batteries will be available within the next couple of years.

These lithium ion batteries are similar to those used in cell phones or lap top computers except far larger and capable of carrying much greater amounts of energy. The difficulty with these batteries has always been the heat they generate, but Mercedes believes it has the solution to this problem.

“Mercedes says the key to practical auto-scale lithium batteries is a combination of technologies that the car company says address cooling, the batteries’ Achilles’ heel. Mercedes taps the vehicle’s air conditioning system for chilled liquid to regulate the battery pack’s temperature and uses special components within the battery pack to draw heat from the cells. Kohler says Mercedes considers cooling mandatory to safe and reliable long-term use of lithium batteries, whether in a hybrid or a pure electric car.”

If Mercedes has solved the problems associated with lithium ion batteries they may well come in first in the race to bring these advanced vehicles to American consumers.

Many people think ethanol is a fuel available in the mid-west only. The Albany Time’s Union recently featured Christian King, a business man in New York benefiting greatly by brining ethanol to the Albany area. As the article reports:

“He became the first gas station owner in New York State to offer E85 — the common name for a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline — when he started selling it at Campus Mobil on Western Avenue in Albany last May.”

When asked why he sold the fuel, “It’s certainly not the silver bullet,” King said on a day when he was selling E85 at $2.75 per gallon compared to $3.43 for regular gas. “But it’s one of the best alternatives we’ve had to combat these high prices.”

While the entrepreneurial spirit of King is a major reason for his brining ethanol to the capitol area, a New York program that supports ethanol suppliers also offered an incentive. The New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) is willing to reimburse gas stations 50 percent of the cost of installing E85 and biodiesel systems, giving up to $50,000.

It is this kind of public – private partnership that will bring the infrastructure needed to bring alternative fuels to the general public. With the help of government programs like these entrepreneurs like Christian King can help green the economy while making a little green for themselves.

In a recent article Don Hammonds of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviews Michael Omotoso, J.D. Power’s senior manager of global powertrains. During this interview Mr. Hammonds asks Mr. Omotoso which green vehicles are right for which people. I found his answers very interesting and if you are looking to purchase a new vehicle see into which group you fit and how a greener car can help the environment as well as your bottom line.

Below is an excerpt from their conversation, this segment discusses diesel powered vehicles:

“Question: How do diesel-powered cars work?

A: They basically work pretty much the same as a conventional car, but the main difference is that an engine powered by diesel fuel is 25 to 30 percent more efficient. That’s because diesel fuel has a higher energy content than gasoline, which results in 25 to 30 percent higher fuel mileage.

Q: How much more expensive is a diesel-powered car to a comparable conventional one?

A: For instance, the Mercedes E Class diesel costs just a thousand dollars more than the nearest gasoline E Class.

Q: What are the disadvantages of diesel-powered cars?

A: Diesel exhaust is dirtier than gasoline. It has nitrous oxides and diesel particulate matter — basically soot. But diesel fuel is much cleaner than it used to be because we have low sulfur diesel instead. In addition, we now have exhaust treatment systems that get rid of most of the nitrous oxide and particulate matter.

Q: So what type of consumer would be most likely to benefit from a diesel-powered car or truck?

A: Diesel would be best for people who drive long distances. Right now, we see more diesels in the luxury segments. Mercedes has the E Class diesel model, and they will soon have three kinds of diesel powered trucks or SUVs. They are the ML Class, GL Class and R Class. There also is now a diesel-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee.”

Since 1978 White Plains, NY has been a leader in alternative fuel use. The gasoline shortages at that time prompted White Plains to adopt gasohol, a gasoline and ethanol combination, for use in their city vehicles. Ever since White Plains has implemented fuel saving techniques, whether alternative energy sources or reducing the weight of their vehicles by replacing steel components with lighter, fuel saving aluminum.

So it seems only natural that White Plains would be the site of a new hydrogen fueling station, currently the only station offering public fueling in the New York City metropolitan area. In addition to the fueling station, the New York Times reports:

“The city has amassed about $700,000 in grants from Shell, the New York Power Authority and the State Energy Research and Development Authority to buy five of its own hydrogen-powered vehicles, said Joseph Nicoletti Jr., the public works commissioner. Under its agreement with G.M., the city gets half the station’s hydrogen output for use in its fuel-cell vehicles.”

Not only will White Plains be a leader in alternative fueling, but will soon become a leader in hydrogen municipal vehicles as well. White Plains has a legacy of alternative fuel leadership that will be carried far forward into the future with the addition of hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure.

In 2004 Governor Schwarzenegger of California launched the state’s “Hydrogen Highway.” Four years later much progress has been made but there are still bumps in the road. In a recent Sacramento Bee piece Jim Downing reports on the progress of hydrogen in California as well as areas that need some improvement.

The biggest area in need of improvement is not the vehicles, as the numerous fuel cell vehicles around the country will attest, but infrastructure. Infrastructure is a hurdle because without fueling stations automakers cannot make vehicles in large enough numbers to bring costs down. California is America’s leader in hydrogen but despite this the state still has infrastructure in a nascent stage.

As Len Brewster, a Detroit-based auto industry analyst says:

“The performance of hydrogen fuel cell cars is not that much of a concern. They have enough get-up-and-go for most drivers. The problem is going to be setting up the infrastructure to keep these cars fueled and running.”

With the infrastructure in place automakers can begin to mass produce the vehicles, taking advantage of the lower costs, greater efficiencies and smaller amount of labor per vehicle that comes with assembly line manufacturing. This in turn lowers the cost to consumer and makes hydrogen vehicles a reality for consumers in all segments of the auto market, not just wealthy early adopters.

The automakers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in vehicles, its time for the energy companies to make a similar investment in the infrastructure. A good place to start this investment is California: the automakers are willing to supply the vehicle test fleets and Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature will back hydrogen as far as the energy companies are willing to go.

For years Forbes magazine has been documenting the efforts of automakers and their attempts to build cleaner and more efficient vehicles. In a recent article, “The Gold In Automotive Green,” Forbes also discusses private investors and entrepreneurs and their efforts in the clean car arena:

“But, as we’ve also chronicled, entrepreneurs are taking up the challenge. Take Project Better Place, for example. The California venture-backed company, launched last October, has been involved in an ambitious plan to create a network of electric cars in Israel.

Others are targeting ways make existing technology better. Venrock, a well-known venture capital firm, is the lead investor in Transonic Combustion, a developmental start-up working on improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine using ultra-high compression and very precise engine timing.”

The entrepreneurial spirit of venture capital and private investors cannot be valued highly enough when it comes to brining future technologies to the automobile. Innovation can act as a multiplier, if the big automakers fear an upstart will bring technology to market faster than they can, they will invest further in their own innovation. For many years this innovative and entrepreneurial spirit was more the realm of technology and internet companies and was absent from heavy manufacturing industry. With the growing need for “green” advances this is no longer the case and automakers and inventors are racing toward breakthroughs in automotive technology. As the Forbes article says:

“If those entrepreneurs, and their big-company counterparts, succeed here, everyone wins: cleaner air, reduced flow of dollars to hostile oil-producing nations, and safer, more reliable vehicles.”

I think we can all agree the outcome is worth the investment.

In a recent Financial Times article John Reed discusses all of the many ways automakers are implementing alternative fuels:

“Alongside hybrids, electric cars and biofuel or biodiesel “flex-fuel” vehicles are set for dynamic growth around the world, albeit from a small base. And amid strides in technologies such as downsized engines and improved fuel injection, some leading manufacturers such as BMW are investing heavily in cleaner conventional petrol and diesel-engined cars.”

As we have discussed on this blog many times the international auto industry is handling the need for greener automobiles in exactly the right way. Rather than declare a winner and start investing solely in that technology the automakers are investing in many alternatives and allowing the market to declare the winner. This strategy greatly increases automakers costs in the short term, but is extremely advantageous in the long term as this allows consumers to choose which technology best fits. Popular demand should choose wining technology, not automakers or governments, and the strategy of the automakers will allow this to happen.

More importantly investments in all of these technologies make business sense. As Reed goes on to say in his article:

“Until recently green cars had a whiff of science project or window-dressing. Over the past two years, tighter regulations and changing political sentiment on greenhouse gas emissions and energy security have turned the field into serious business.”

It is only in changing consumer perception that these vehicles will be adopted on the scale needed to make a positive economic and environmental change. By investing across the board automakers will not force consumers to adopt a technology they aren’t willing purchase, and by spreading eggs around all of these technological baskets the automakers may lose money in the short term but will reap massive benefits down the road.

The big global automakers aren’t the only ones getting into the advanced technology game. Continental Automotive Systems, a company whose tires you are probably familiar with, is playing a major role as a supplier of next generation technology. Continental supplies parts for hybrids, diesels, stability control, wireless devices for vehicle communication and lithium ion batteries for use in plug-in hybrid cars.

In an interview with HybridCars.com, William Kozyra, president and CEO, Continental Automotive Systems North America had this to say about his company’s work in advanced technology:

“We’re spending tens of millions of dollars investing in these fields, from an engineering development standpoint. We’re confident that our customers [the car companies] will be able to design in our hybrid systems, because what’s ultimately going to drive positive change is the cost side.”

Aside from this multi-million dollar effort in futuristic equipment, Continental is also implementing current technology to improve fuel economy. As Mr. Kozyra discussed later in his interview:

“When we look at the total range of Continental production, we do everything from low-resistance tires to lightweight solutions in many areas, all of which go to improve fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

It’s clear from this interview that Continental is making the investments necessary for the future while focusing on what is technologically achievable in the present. Efforts like this from suppliers make it that much easier for the global automakers to achieve their environmental and efficiency goals.