Irony here is these particular users that commute long distance or travel for work ALSO less likely to be able to drive EV. Between electricity rates that make EV "fuel" even with gas (in CA), distance traveled being at limit of EV range (not window sticker but real world), jobs that very likely don't provide charging (either for fee or included), nor charger local to work location, and limited charging opportunities near/at home. These "low income" drivers usually driving older cars because they can't afford newer, more efficient cars, are also less likely to be able to afford EV for their higher cost to obtain (purchase/lease), insure, keep tires on them. This feels like most homeless programs. They provide housing, but never take care of why people are homeless. Unless you fix the cause then result will happen again.

With four engines, how hard would it be to convert two to run H2 and leave 2 on conventional JetA? A380 without the rest of cargo/passenger weight should be able to operate on 2 engines to some extent. This could also give data on thrust response and capacity in various operating conditions . I still want to see a hybrid jet engine that is part electric, part combustion....

With many years of Hybrid and several with FC Toyota has electrified power train expertise. Just a matter of parley into full BEV.

continued 4)Under current NEM rules, the typical solar customer pays for the solar energy system through energy bill savings in 3-5.5 years depending on utility, and then receives substantial bill savings for the remainder of the current 20-year tariff. Why is this a problem??? Seems like this is one of the biggest incentives to get solar. Instead of trying to take this benefit away they should be figuring out a plan to allow more people to benefit.

Continued 3)Ratepayers without NEM systems, who are disproportionately low-income, pay significantly higher electricity rates due to NEM. The Public Advocates Office at the CPUC estimates that households without NEM systems pay $67 to $128 more per year, depending on the utility, due to the costs of the NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 programs. Without NEM reform, these amounts will increase substantially by Everybody pays surcharges due to programs in place. Difference is people who have solar are offsetting that surcharge with cost savings of solar generation. Also I may be stereo typing here but lower income households have higher percentage renters. Landlords will be less likely to install expensive systems with risk of damage. Program need to put incentives for landlord to install the systems, and so both the renter and landlord benefit, and penalties to prevent renters from damaging systems.

ereading the article the study's findings are basically pointing out where they made mistakes in the first version of the program. 1)All ratepayers pay as much as 10 times more for exported NEM energy than for other sources of renewable energy. Californians today spend more than $3 billion a year to support NEM programs. So why didn't they benchmark the buy back rate on what it cost the utility to procure the renewable energy? 2)An independent third-party evaluation of NEM 2.0 found that its costs substantially exceed its benefits as residential NEM 2.0 participants only pay 9 to 18 percent of what it costs their utilities to serve them, even considering the value of the energy produced by their NEM systems So how does this work? FPL, who serves me, charges me for generation and transmission separately. So why doesn't PUC set the net metering to only reimburse for generation? No charge for transmission of energy you didn't use and the utility only charges transmission for what I use. Some questions on how they came up with this number.

Sounds to me if they want me to install storage as well as solar, then I would just disconnect from grid completely. Then they lose ALL income from me. Why do they think charging $8 per installed kW solar would incentivize people to get solar?? In the same program that adds incentive for storage?? Just use the credits at time of install and have utility disconnect me. As for low income households - do they also realize that those will more likely also NOT own the home?? Most landlords probably won't be in a hurry to install the solar just to have lousy tenants destroy it (talking from experience here). More feel good regulation to get improvements in living conditions that will probably not have the intended results. Jason

Having just removed a tree from the front yard I can say there is a few more years of development needed in electric tools. Pro: instant on, no trying to get chain saw to start 30ft up in a tree OR idling while getting into position. Con: can only cut a couple big limbs before cool down of 30 minutes for motors (not the battery). Tool costs is comparable for low grade consumer model, but if you want/need a replacement for Stihl or commercial model then you need a car loan. I looked into models from Milwaukee and Stihl and they were several times the cost of gas model to get comparable performance. And I have used super XL and McCulloch and compared them to WalMart Poulan - there is a definite quality difference. Also for most consumer level models while the tool cost is much cheaper, the battery price is close to or more than the tool price. And you need to purchase multiple batteries for longer run time and/or to use in the other tools that share the battery. Also you better buy into the winning brand so you don't have orphaned tools in a couple years. Or the next big thing in batteries comes along and your brand redesigns so you have to start all over. A gas can and oil doesn't care which blower, chain saw, weed eater you have - it just works. I'm pulling for a standard battery or some type of interoperability. For the small jobs I'll pick up my electric blower and borrow my buddies electric blow and chain saw. But there are still some bigger jobs I keep the gas models for.

I have been floating an idea on this recently. Can they make a hybrid electric/hydrogen turbine for the engines? Burn hydrogen in the turbine portion in addition to electric motor for take off. Once at cruise shut down the fuel burning turbine and let the electric motor spin the turbofan by itself. Anyone know the comparison between energy density of battery vs H2 storage on a kg basis? BTUs or Joules per kg?

@Engineer-poet - Actually I think the ability to produce hydrogen locally vs drilling for in remote locations, shipping to massive refineries, then pumping and/or trucking the finished product to retail locations, makes hydrogen attractive at least on some aspects. I don't think installing thousands of miles of pipe lines to replace NG or petro pipe lines with H2 is the answer. I agree that both BEV and H2 have their places and for specific reasons. We will see how the BEV market shakes out in the next decade or so with REE supplies and ramp up of volumes of materials. Could be we run into road blocks to building the volumes of BEV or have to change gear to different battery chemistries.

@Davemart - we had a substantial fleet of electric forklifts even back in the '90s. Most of them were a giant lead acid batteries with a fork lift attached. They had cranes and would switch battery packs if one died mid-shift, other wise they just parked them next to chargers. It's one application where weight is a benefit, not a liability. Of course we also had equal amount of dual fuel that ran mostly propane. They ran the outside jobs while the electrics ran the inside jobs (mostly) Jason

For example, we can eliminate the need for a mechanical locking mechanism in the drivetrain and keep the vehicle in park mode through software that controls this function within the ESC and redundantly in the Electronic Brake Booster unit.\ —Manfred Meyer, Senior Vice President for Engineering of ZF’s Active Safety division This scares me. Working on the cars I see plenty of failures of "normally redundant" systems that could kill people. In this car a loss of power will render the parking brake unusable. The redundant backup should be a mechanical lock such as the locking pawl in an automatic transmission. Current model VWs have a shift cable and its SOLE function is to engage the mechanical parking lock. The rest of selecting gears and shifting is done electrically with sensors. All though in US we haven't gotten the new Golf so even that may change. Even the electric parking brake mechanically locks on and then requires no power. And on the combustion engine models all you need is a quick jump with a booster to apply it on a dead battery. So far with electric cars if it can't turn on and do it's normal start up and safety check, nothing works. Jason

I agree mahonj. Or a least count the hybrids for both categories since they have both as a source of power.

Depending on how simple and cheap a system can be built, I wonder if we could install them on cars and trucks. Put them behind the catalyst. Maybe even as a retrofit program? I do realize there is the safety issue of cars now emitting higher volume of CO that is dangerous to breath. For that I wonder how fast the CO will make bonds to something else? Along with the coated radiators we can actively reduce emissions and convert some existing into less harmful compounds.

Why not take this a step further. Why not take a cue from how smart devices handle voice controls and offload the actual computational work to a service farm. Siri and Alexa don't work without internet because the actual work is not done on your phone or Echo. If we are to go to automated driving, then why not have the computational load completed on a server farm and that also serves to connect that cars to each other for better reaction times and integrated traffic flows. The cars have enough processing power to gather data and organize it. Then A.I. can coordinate with the data coming from all the other sources and return a proper course of action. Initial roll out would be to larger metro markets and major arterial roadways. As infrastructure improved and expanded then auto drive could be used in more places. In the mean time the limited "auto pilot" functions currently available would handle outside the built up areas. I think if we require helmets for all bicycle riders (a lot of US cities do) then maybe a chip that shows position and size on short range RF would help autonomous cars in detecting them. Like Citizen watch uses motion to keep charged, a small device that only transmits size (kid's helmet) and relative motion or stopped. After a period of no motion shuts off. Similar system would work for smart phones, though even more info could be available if owner wishes to provide.

How about this? Instead of getting a complete ID on the object, just get closing motion and size threshold? So the system will warn if an object is moving towards a collision and if object is bigger or smaller (person vs truck).

For that price I can buy a Fiat 500e and get a complete, running vehicle. Probably could find a wrecked EV and take out the parts needed to build my own conversion for half that. I agree with SJC - that price is too high.

I wonder if this should be part of the required equipment on vessels over a certain size. I've watched enough fishing shows to know break downs happen. Having a means to mitigate the mess, especially if they are reasonable priced, seams prudent. Jason

At most sizable airports there is an umbilical that does this. Similar to boats at port. Once the plane (or boat) is docked, the umbilical is connected and the main and aux engines are shut down. Airlines are big on ways to save fuel. Though I could see this as an alternative during adverse conditions, extended waits on the tarmac, or at smaller airports where you walk out onto the runway to board. In these cases this would replace the mobile diesel generator. Jason

I read about a guy who came up with a plasma incinerator plant over a decade ago. His idea was to get trash companies to "burn" all incoming trash and start consuming existing dump piles. The waste was syngas (CO/H2 mixture) and small amounts of inert glass/slag. They would consume even construction waste such as concrete. Last I heard there was a plant operation in Tampa, FL The big selling points were: 1) Syngas byproduct could power your trash trucks. 2) After initial startup you generate enough electricity from syngas to power the system 3) Can sell excess H2 or electricity to grid and/or direct to customers. 4) In cities such as NY it would be cheaper from startup than the high cost of trash removal. Would slowly gain parity with traditional methods within a couple years at other locations.

Also will be useful for road side recharge. As it stands right now if you run out of charge the only option is tow it. As many times as I have seen people run out of gas around here I believe they will do the same with electric cars.

Can someone explain to me why they take AC from the grid source, convert to DC, then use an inverter to change back to AC to create a magnetic field? Or is the article trying to say that the process of creating the magnetic field does it as AC (the process is intertwined)? Three hours seems a little long for UPS, but how is it 5-6 hours for plugging in? I could see fleets install these at docks so the trucks recharge while being reloaded. Though 3 hours seems a little too long for how fast UPS turns and burns. Jason

If this model works like the last Touareg Hybrid that came to US then the drive motor is sandwiched between the ICE and the transmission. That prior model had disconnect clutch so it could operate in Emode. The bigger draw back was the older chassis was not designed with a place for the battery which limited the hybrid function severely. I believe it was something like 30 mph and 5-10 mile range? If you can take existing certified chassis and bolt on technology to improve emissions and reduce energy use then overall a win. Eventually the MEB cars (I.D.) will take over but this will bridge that gap while getting people used to the change.

Funny, my 2002 Jetta has the activated carbon filter. But the yellow allergen layer is new. Recent years a lot of VWs had switched to cheaper particulate filter, but now are starting to go back to activated carbon. Only a few have come with the yellow layer. New time I change them in mine (and wife's) car I'll pick the yellow ones.