OCTANe Event on Automotive Future Packs the House
Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by Ben Upham in Clean Tech, Entrepreneurship, Events
Close to a hundred automobile execs and entrepreneurs, plus the venture capitalists that support them, as well as the curious and inspired, filled an auditorium at UC Irvine yesterday for a panel on the future of the automobile. The panel was sponsored by OCTANe, a group of businessmen and investors looking to spur business opportunities in Orange County.
Featuring some leading automobile “futurists,” including Bill Reinert of Toyota, who was instrumental in the roll out of the Prius in this country, the panel also had: W. Brian Olson, CFO of Quantum Technologies, a lead investor and provider of technology to start-up Fisker Automotive, which plans to launch the Karma extended range luxury electric sports car next year; Dave Barthmuss of GM, who talked about their Volt; Ben Knight, VP of Engineering at Honda Americas, who touted their fuel cell car the Clarity, and a representative of Mitsubishi, which will introduce the MiEV electric vehicle next year.
Reinert, who is National Manager of Advanced Technology for Toyota, is known as an electric-vehicle skeptic, and last night’s presentation fit that view to a T. Reinhart presented graphs from Lux Research, which predicted minimal market penetration of EVs for oil prices at less than $200 a barrel. He also said people will be buying fewer cars in the future, and that car share companies like Zip Car will take an increasing share of miles driven by urban dwellers.
Execs from GM, Honda and Mitsubishi were more optimistic about EVs and plug-in hybrids, and not surprising, since GM in particular has a lot riding on its extended range EV Volt, due out by November next year. And since the panel took place at UC Irvine, home of the National Fuel Cell Research Center, there was a lot of discussion of fuel cell cars as well, even though that technology has gotten short-shrift lately as electric vehicles have become the technology to beat.
Following the executive’s presentations was a panel with two venture capitalists that specialize in clean tech and efficiency technologies, Walter Schindler, Managing Partner at SAIL Venture Partners, and Dipender Saluja, Managing Director of Capricorn Investment Group. Both men have directed VC money at automotive cleantech. Capricorn, which was started by Jeffrey Skoll, former president of EBay Inc., has invested many millions in Tesla Motors, the all-electric car company.
Schindler of SAIL, a much smaller fund than Capricorn, brought along Stephen Smith of Enerpulse, an impressive small company which has figured out how to make a more efficient spark plug. Enerpulse’s spark plug, called the Pulstar, increases fuel efficiency an average of 4-7%, while increasing power 4-12%. That may not be as sexy as Fisker’s Karma, but it’s an innovation that could have a real, long term impact — and make a lot of money. From Enerpulse’s press material:
If, during the normal replacement cycle, PULSTAR™ replaced spark plugs, 250 million existing cars per year could reduce fuel consumption by an average of 6% or 22.5 billion gallons (536 million barrels). Since each gallon of gasoline (6.3 lbs/gallon) generates almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, a potential contributor to global warming, pulse plugs alone could actually reduce this greenhouse gas by 450 billion pounds (200 million metric tons) within four years. Extrapolated to the worldwide replacement of spark plugs, pulse plugs could potentially reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 1 billion metric tons per year.
It’s these little innovations, “building a better mousetrap,” that, over the long run, will have just as great an impact as a total sea change in the kinds of cars we drive. Which was why Enerpulse’s lowly spark plug may have been the most inspirational presentation of a very inspirational evening.
[...] profitability. This was a trend also mentioned at the OCTANe automotive cleantech panel OppGreen attended last [...]