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Recharge Wrap-up: EVs poll well in Portland, Tesla seeks office space

In a poll of drivers in Portland, more than 80 percent said they would be driving an EV in the next 10 years if they weren't already. The poll was small and not scientific, with just 218 votes cast, but it does reflect a slice of a certain population with changing attitudes toward electric mobility, and 80 percent is an impressive figure. Additionally, 43 percent of respondents planned to have an EV in the next five years, and only 18 percent said they prefer gasoline-powered vehicles. With EVs in many ways repeating the adoption process that hybrids went through a decade ago, the five- or ten-year timeframe for more widespread use seems only natural. Read more at the Portland Business Journal. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee parks like an idiot, or rather, his security detail does. His Chevrolet Volt has been ticketed for parking six times since he took office. Granted, those street-sweeping signs are tough to keep track of, but his car has been photographed blocking at a bus stop while grabbing a burrito (who hasn't sinned in the name of a delicious burrito?), and was even caught parked in a crosswalk. The tickets were all dismissed. Read more from the SF Gate. Tesla is looking for office space in Silicon Valley. As the electric car company continues to search for a place to build its $4- to $5-billion battery Gigafactory, it also needs some real estate to expand its operations near its Palo Alto home. Tesla has expanded from 3,000 to 6,000 California-based employees since the end of 2012, and plans to add 500 more by the end of the year. It is currently looking for 200,000 to 300,000 square feet of office space close to its Fremont factory, according to sources in the real estate industry. Read more at the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Related Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Volt View 11 Photos News Source: Portland Business Journal, SF Gate, Silicon Valley Business JournalImage Credit: Paul Sakuma / AP Green Chevrolet Tesla Electric recharge wrapup portland silicon valley parking ticket

The billionaire's passion behind Wanxiang's Fisker bid

If it weren't for billionaire Lu Guanqiu, founder of Chinese auto parts giant Wanxiang Group, the Fisker Automotive bankruptcy bailout deal might have closed earlier this month. Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li, along with Li's affiliate company Hybrid Tech Holdings, assumed their offer was going to be accepted. Instead, the US bankruptcy court judge called for an open auction bid for Fisker's assets on February 12. Lu made a few convincing points to the judge. There's another interesting part of the story that Lu didn't share it with the judge. If the Fisker deal doesn't work out, Lu and Wanxiang might increase their working relationship with Tesla Motors. Lu told US bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross that Wanxiang, which now owns Fisker's supplier of lithium batteries, A123 Systems, is better placed than Hybrid Tech Holdings to restart and expand production at Fisker. Better yet, Wanxiang could move production from Finland to the US. That was convincing enough for Gross to schedule the auction. Lu's move toward taking over ownership and restoring Fisker seems to be driven by two motivations: converting his company from a parts maker to an automaker; and to grow the yet-to-be profitable "new energy " business such as lithium battery and electric vehicle makers. For Lu, it's not so much about believing in Fisker – it's more about playing a leading role in electric vehicles – and that could come through deepening its connection to Tesla Motors. "Of course we want to pocket Fisker. But we will bid rationally," he said to Reuters. "Whatever the result, nothing can stop us from making electric cars." Check out more about Lu in this Reuters piece, including how he and six other farmers pooled together $500 in 1969 to start what would become Wanxiang. Featured Gallery Fisker Karma at Laguna Seca News Source: Reuters Government/Legal Green Fisker Tesla Electric wanxiang

Tesla says Model S fire started in battery pack; share prices falling

Yesterday's fire that engulfed a Tesla Model S, the first blaze involving the critically acclaimed electric sedan, was caused when a piece of road debris impacted the front of the car, damaging the battery pack and starting a fire, according to an email sent to AutoblogGreen by Tesla. Now, The New York Times has learned that the fire was indeed caused by debris that made "a direct impact ... to one of the 16 modules within the Model S battery pack," according to Tesla spokesperson Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean.
Despite the blaze, Tesla maintains that the battery packs did their job by isolating the fire, with Jarvis-Shean saying, "Because each module within the battery pack is, by design, isolated by fire barriers to limit any potential damage, the fire in the battery pack was contained to a small section in the front of the vehicle."
The nature of the fire, though, seemed to catch the Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority off guard. The department's report, which was obtained by the International Business Times and partially published on Jalopnik, claims that water used to put out the blaze seemed to intensify the fire, forcing the firefighters to use a dry chemical. Later, they found the battery pack still burning inside the front end. The report claims firefighters, "had to puncture multiple holes in the pack to apply water to the burning material in the battery," and also had to cut into the frame to douse the burning pack.