Subaru Wants Wind Power For Your Plug In Car
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan 
on 12.13.08
(Photo from Nikkei Tech-On)
I had a chance to talk to Subaru staff at the Eco-Products 2008 Fair in Tokyo. I have been wondering why they are not speeding up the introduction of their plug-in electric car, that has been shown in New York and elsewhere. Here on Treehugger, the R1e or Stella got a good response, but so far, no sales. Then, Japan's Environment Ministry announced that Better Place is coming to Japan, and the Subaru Stella would be part of the project in Yokohama and other cities, hooked up with Better Place's novel mobility concept. Clearly, what Subaru wants, is sustainability: their fancy booth (photos below the fold) here at Tokyo Big Sight not only showcased the cute Stella but also provided ample information about the company's 80/2.0 wind mills.
Award-winning Subaru is one of the smaller companies among Japan's seven auto makers, partly owned by Fuji Heavy Industries. They also make small aircrafts and the wind mills are part of their effort to respond to climate change and Japan's "minus 6 percent" challenge (to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 6%). If you are a Pokemon fan, you may have seen the early 1960s Subaru 360 convertible, a fun car that never made it very big in the US, after Consumer Reports called it unsafe. For the R1e and Stella electric cars, Subaru cites the 360 as an influence. I like that sense of humour, and the reminder that this is a company with small, strong roots. They think the all-electric vehicle could be available to consumers in Japan as early as 2009.
Japan's government has promised a 90 per cent reduction in car tax and purchase tax plus discounted parking and highway fees for these vehicles, and Subaru aims to spread its ground-breaking technology by licensing to other manufacturers.
The big question is - how do you power the electric car? You could easily argue that nuclear fuel or not-so-clean coal plants could do the job, but what these people want is Subaru-branded renewable energy:
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the parent company of Subaru, announced that it has been testing its newly-developed two-megawatt wind generation system since the beginning of 2006. The prototype of the system, called Subaru 80/2.0, is at Hasaki, Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture, facing the Pacific Ocean.The three-bladed wind turbine has a controllable pitch and is 62 meters in height from the ground to the rotor hub. The rotor, which has a diameter of 80 meters, can generate electricity at a wind velocity as low as three meters per second—a 25% improvement over similar wind turbines. It was manufactured by Hitachi, a development partner.
The large-scale Wind Turbine System Subaru 80/2.0 with an output of 2000kW was displayed on a scale of 1/50. This large wind turbine employs the downwind rotor which "makes good use of the updrafts in the locations with mountains and hills."
Fuji Heavy Industry president and CEO Kyoji Takenaka has pledged to address environmental issues and to become an eco-friendly company, and have achieved outstanding results to date, particularly in waste reduction and energy conservation in the production stage.
In other words, to earn your place as a responsible automobile maker in the future, you will have to think in terms of systems, and ask difficult questions about where the energy is going to come from, to power the products that you want to profit from. Great electric cars are indeed available today. The question is how people and nations will change the infrastructure to power them.
About Subaru: Keeping It Green
More about Subaru and wind power on Treehugger:
Photos of Subaru R1e Electric Car in New York City
Subaru Joins Electric Car Race with R1e
Better Place Coming To Japan
Wind Helps Power Our Flagging Economy
Wind Power Beats Nuclear & Clean Coal, Other Renewables As US’s Best Energy Option
Written by Martin Frid at greenz.jp
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Good job Subaru! Keep the EVs coming guys! I made a vow never to drive a car unless EVs became mainstream. Even then I'd probably only get a little vehicle for grocery shopping and never go on the highway. I'm such a wimp.
Just because one particular company makes both cars and electrical generation (in this case, 'greener' cars and green electricity) doesn't mean we should penalize electric cars if their manufacturers don't find green electricity to power them. The fact is we are still better off generating electricity from coal and using that to power these cars, than burning gasoline in regular cars. Electric cars have to be far more energy efficient because battery weight and battery energy density (and by extension, range) are so problematic. As a result they get more miles to the pound of CO2 emitted. You have internal combustion in both scenarios (coal plant for electric car, gas engine for gas car). Switching to electric cars now, and moving to more renewable power over time, is a better approach than not switching until we can guarantee 100% green power for these cars.
Of course, getting away from car culture altogether is even better, and one has to worry that a big shift to electric cars will just appease people's guilt about driving. Getting over car culture is a better way to solve the gas-powered car problem, than moving to electric cars powered by any source of electricity, green or grey.
Solar panels integrated on a car can help to charge the battery.
On the topic of wind, how many billions of dollars have been spent to design vehicles to be more aerodynamic? Furthermore, how many billions of dollars would need to be directed to research and development of a wind-based system integrated into a car to make use of all of the wind generated while the car is either in motion or idle? I suspect the later is a grossly inflated number though is one where designers can think outside of the box.
Being able to charge a vehicle's battery via a plug-in is still viable even with the above options. Any excess energy generated beyond what a full battery charge could accomodate while the car is in motion could be applied to running/assisting the vehicle's propulsion without having to resort to the battery.
i agree with Robin from Green Energy Efficient Homes: Reducing car culture is the best way to go. However i think this Subaru approach is quite a way towards doing that. Windpowered electric is going to be far more expensive per mile than gasoline in conventional cars, both from a fuel cost perspective and a vehicle cost perspective. The Japanese are clearly leading the way by reducing taxes and offering breaks to these vehicles.
Of course, what we really need is a carbon tax, on gasoline and conventional vehicles that make these types of electric cars cost competitive.
i am all about moving to mass transit and reducing car use. and it is quite unrealistic to think this shift is going to happen quickly, culture moves slowly. We can push for these types of intermediate solutions to help get us there without completely trashing the biosphere first.
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