You can glean snippets every now and then from Oliver Kuttner's facebook page. The trend has been that if it does get made, it probably won't be in America. As background info, i believe he is in Ukraine right now, and is posting lots of things about the Russian invasion of Crimea.
This is his most recent substantive post on the subject of Edison2 in general.
Quote:
In the end it is all about money...
The reason I work on Edison2 80% of my time is that it represents one rare place where a "reset" button can be pushed. A reset that affects everything...
Everything we do is decided on either a positive trajectory or a negative one. We have growth or contraction, We have a good economy or a bad one, We have unacceptable unemployment or good numbers.... All of it comes down to a few single digit percentage points.... Cumulative.
"Wealth of a nation" is built over years. Thus we live in a world where there is a fine line between winning and loosing...
Energy is the big flow of capital across borders. The amounts may not look big, but when added day in and day out they become the deficits... Add to this the products that can not be made in each locality. Germany is rich because it exports cars... China is richer than it was, because it makes all the stuff we want to consume.... Russia has power because it has energy to export, as do the oil producers of the Persian Gulf....
So there are two fixed problems that cause the status quo to continue: Energy trade imbalances.
Cars being shipped from places where they built the billion dollar plants. To put it in other words: Greece has enjoyed a decade of importing cars from Germany on credit and now can not pay the bill with exports in tourism and olive oil.... Cars are simply too expensive...
The USA would have a positive trade balance if we attacked only energy consumption and became a net car exporter like Germany.... all our troubles would dissipate....
That said it is clear to me that two things must happen:
1; We must use less energy... (This includes the energy in production, for example: 18% of the energy a car uses is used in its manufacture).
We must create a system whereby the cars become more energy agnostic, meaning they can use different sources of energy--- this is where electric cars (or part electric) shine...
2; Cars must be simpler, lighter and cheaper... mainly the cost of the manufacturing plants must come down so that cars can be made on a more localized path.
Edison2 is all about re-inventing the car, re-inventing it to consume 40% the energy of the best cars we have today.
Re-inventing the car to allow for more labor content and more local content.
Re-inventing the car to get away from the capital intensive way we are stuck only with large players....
Large players do not innovate. They hope to preserve the Status Quo and maybe get a small incremental improvement.
All our financial systems and political systems are geared towards large players now....
There is no doubt in my mind that with good engineering the "aircraft carriers" of the industry will become obsolete.... they simply can not steer... I know it can be done because we have cars that do the numbers.... Now all we have to do is perfect the system so when we shoot we win....
I see Edison2 and my work as a new industry and a new way of thinking that can change the world, I see it as the kind of company and way of doing business that can universally raise the tide...
I am in Ukraine because Ukraine is exactly the kind of place where $4.-- gallon of gas is very expensive (average income $2500.-- per year per person...) You learn how to win in Ukraine you will win where more than 2/3rds of the world population sit.....
And you just may change the world and give those people a chance at a economic prosperity run not dissimilar to what we had in the 50s and 60s.... This is what I believe in and it is what I am spending my time on... It is important.
To me it is all about raising the tide....
And you know what: funny thing happens when you use less energy and less material... suddenly the batteries of today are good enough, suddenly a solar charging station for your car pencils out profitable... because solar against gasoline always wins... and suddenly there is real sustainability.
Besides people no longer have the money they used to have....
The institutions of today, from financial systems (yes, you the consumer make a big error in trusting your savings to the TIA Creff and the Wachovia Wealth Managers), to the large corporations who are risk averse and have way too many layers of decision making, to the political minded professionals are all obstacles...
But I am sure that we can create a leap so big that it is a new industry.
If you think about out it: It is only new industries that have real profit and real innovation... the old ones end up in "the race to the bottom" ...
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