Benjamin Kuo’s Blog

There’s been a lot of news on the electric car front in the last few weeks, including today’s announcement that Irvine-based Fisker Automotive is the recipient of a $528.7M loan from the Department of Energy to help it bootstrap its production. Other recipients of government money here are Ford, Nissan, and Tesla Motors.

In a way, the electric car industry reminds me of the early origins of the auto itself, defined by the development of the Model-T.

For those students of history, the development of the Model-T by Henry Ford ushered in the new world of assembly line manufacturing — standard parts, efficient operations, and mass production. The fact that Michigan became the center of the U.S. auto industry was directly related to Henry Ford’s success in taking automobiles from something which was expensive, experimental, and which had limited production, into something which nearly anyone could purchase.  The success of Ford’s mass production catapulted the Model T into one of the most successful automobiles of all time, and raised Ford above hundreds of wanna-be automobile manufacturers and models (the names of whom I doubt very few remember today).

Similarly, there’s a race today to determine where the next generation of automotive firms will be located, with a strong crop of contendors here in Southern California, but competition in Silicon Valley, and efforts in Detroit from the traditional auto makers; plus competition from the rest of the world. Southern California has Fisker Automotive, CODA Automotive, stealthy V-Vehicle, and Aptera, not to mention a number of firms developing batteries, power trains, and other components for various electric car makers. Northern California’s main — but highly covered prospect — is Tesla Motors.

The question is: who (if anyone) is going to create the next “Model T” — the electric car which brings technology to the masses? Will it be one of the Japanese firms who have the head start right now on hybrid/electric technology (ie, Toyota or Honda); will it be one of the old Detroit automakers; aspiring automakers in China and India; or, will it be one of the new crop of startups here? Success — which I’d define in this case as widespread adoption and purchase of an automotive model, beyond the luxury/specialty market — a modern equivalent of the “Model T”, which triggers widespread adoption from the general market. The success, or failure of companies could well determine if Southern California, Detroit, Louisiana, or Mumbai is the next center of the world’s auto industry.

I had the chance to moderate a panel on sustainable technology Wednesday at Los Angeles Technology Week, and had a great opportunity to ask questions and hear from some experts in the area. On the panel was Rao Surampudi of JPL — who designed the batteries and power systems for the Mars Rover, Gregg Ander — a green building expert from Southern California Edison, Michael Bissonette, GM of Aerovironment’s Efficient Energy Systems group; John Howard, of Idealab startup Distributed World Power; and Deep Patel, of GoGreenSolar.com, an online retailer for solar and wind power. The one benefit of being moderator on these panels is you get to ask the questions you want to hear the answers too, and you get to hear from experts who are far more experienced that you are on topics such as clean energy.

Among the many great insights from the panelists — as well as from other panels at the conference — was that much of getting the benefit of sustainable energy and clean energy is just putting it into action. I asked the panelists if there were any areas of clean technology which could make a huge difference, and they all said that the technology is now out there, available, and just needs to be put into the market. They also all agreed that one of the most exciting areas — in both the energy industry as a whole, as well as for Southern California, is in the auto industry.

Some snapshots from the conference:

Tesla P1 Roadster — the very first production line Tesla electric car, parked at the conference.

Another view of the Tesla. This one is actually Elon Musk’s personal car.

The Aptera Typ-1. Steve Fambro, the car’s designer and CTO of Aptera, is on the left.

Steve Fambro, Aptera Motors

Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle. Here’s a solution to your high gas prices: If you’re within range of the (very few) hydrogen fueling centers for this car (ie, Santa Monica, Burbank, etc.) Chevy is loaning out this and other Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles for free (including hydrogen), for two months at a time.

Although Tesla Motors–which launched its electric sports car Friday in Santa Monica–may get the attention of Silicon Valley, there seem to be a lot more, Southern California companies at the forefront of the green automobile industry. We have more than a handful of companies looking to tackle the auto industry. We had Tom Taulli look into the industry with his piece: Southern California: The New Detroit? this morning.

Among Southern California electric/hybrid car firms here: Miles Electric Vehicles; Phoenix Motorcars; Venture Vehicles; and Aptera Motors. Add to that a few auto technology firms — Fallbrook Technologies for transmissions and Transonic Combustion for fuel injection — plus many others, and it looks like there’s a substantial amount of automotive innovation going on in the region.

Part of the reason for this is a long involvement by Southern California in the automotive industry. Not too may people are aware that the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena is one of the leading schools for automotive designers in the word. The major auto firms all have design houses out here — BMW Group/Designworks USA, California Advanced Product Creation (Ford), Calty Design Research (Toyota), 5350 Industrial Concepts (General Motors), Mercedes Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Volkswagen/Audi all have design operations in Southern California.

As Tom writes:

Of course, it’s all good news for a variety of companies in southern California, which are developing next generation car technologies. “Southern California is the home to a myriad of design studios for all the major car companies,” said Andre Peschong, who is a principal at Bridgewater Capital. “There is a talent pool of engineers, CAD design specialists and let’s face it, a car culture.”