The market
The global market for all electric vehicles will drop from just under 10,000 units in 2008 to around 350,000 cars, trucks, vans and bus by 2013, which represents a turnover of $ 15 billion. It is not much compared to the 2.6 million hybrid cars that circulate today on the roads. Battery demand is growing at an increasingly rapid rate, which puts sales from around $ 900 million today to between 10 and 15 billion by 2015 only for large lithium-ion batteries. By 2020, this market alone could reach between 30 and 40 billion dollars. Electric car manufacturers and their suppliers conclude strategic alliances with battery manufacturers to lock battery technologies, as we can see with the agreement signed between VW (Germany) and Sanyo (Japan), Continental (Germany) and ENAX (Japan), Bosch (Germany) and Samsung (Korea), Varta (France) and Johnson Controls (USA). Toyota spent about 5 billion dollars in the hybrid program, selling +60 % of all vehicles of this type, while minor actors like Byd (China), Tesla (USA) and Think (Norway) each have been cut a Small niche on the emerging market of electric vehicles in front of all major players who will come into production in series, including Renault-Nissan which will inaugurate a factory in Spain in 2011. Serial production of the Valladolid factory reaches only 25,000 units for the first year. However, Renault provides that by 2020, up to 10 % of its production will be made up of electric vehicles. China has decided to tackle automotive technologies and aims to increase its production capacity by almost nothing in 2008 to 500,000 by the end of 2011, including hybrid/electric and electric cars. On this date, North America would only manufacture 267,000 units, while South Korea and Japan together would already exceed 1.1 million. Although it is still lagging behind, China should soon take the lead. Byd has 10,000 auto and battery engineers at Shenzhen headquarters, capable of competing with the best. China has an additional advantage: 80% of customers buy a car for the first time and are not used to power and diversity present on the foreign automotive market.
Innovation
Electric cars are more expensive. The market will not buy a vehicle that is not competitive, except when governments offer significant tax credits, up to $ 10,000 per car or when the rich decide to appease their conscience. The challenge remains the battery. It is heavy, its radius of action is limited and the supply contracts are locked, which makes general efficiency gains rather difficult to achieve. The most innovative battery produced by Eliiy, controlled by Daiwa House (Japan) has proven itself for 10 years, with a loss of retention of only 20 % over a decade. The manufacturer offers a 100 %recycling guarantee. However, this very efficient system is not even available on the automotive market. For the moment, the Eliiy battery will only be deployed in homes. When Javier Morales studied the options available to him to convert the entire car fleet of 6,000 heat engine vehicles to electrical energy, he realized that the necessary breakthrough was the creative use of the creative use of funding. He was inspired by the city of Chattanooga which had already opted in 1994 for busy transport by bus. As vice-president of the local government of El Hierro, a small island of only 10,500 inhabitants off the African coast, which is part of the Canary Islands, it has designed an innovative approach which not only makes electric cars cheaper Upon purchase, but the conversion of oil -based transport to renewable energy transport gives additional momentum to the local economy. The island has decided to replace the annual expenditure by approximately $ 10 million for fossil fuels with a capital investment in wind energy, strategically supported by accumulators. The four old service stations will be transformed into storage electric power plants to ensure the stability of the network powered by wind energy (10.5 MW operational by May 2011). All the excess energy of the generators first converts sea water into drinking water (operational), which is then pumped up to an old crater, transformed into a giant tank (May 2011), which will produce additional hydroelectricity during peak consumption hours. The system provides inexpensive electricity during off -peak to power the batteries.
The first cash flow
The local electricity company, mainly owned by the island, controls the company. The batteries are not sold with cars, but are part of the network's rescue system. This reduces the purchase cost for each car owner. The sale price can be maintained below 12,000 dollars per four -seater vehicle. The key is that each car owner will pay $ 12 weekly costs to replace the battery at one of the four charging stations, which are the old petrol stations converted into rescue accumulators. This weekly royalty generates a turnover of +70 million euros over 7 years, sufficient to finance the operation. As the maximum round trip on the island is only 50 kilometers, the batteries are smaller, lighter and easier to change. It is not necessary to install public or domestic charging stations, which require excessive and security wiring systems which total up to $ 1,800 per car. This money is better invested in rescue stations that make the electric car more competitive under these island conditions. Javier quickly realized that his quest for purchase of 6,000 cars made him the largest buyer of a fleet of electric car in the world - coming from an isolated island of just over 10,000 inhabitants, Which was a big surprise. The financing of this scheme is guaranteed. Supported by the weekly cost of the battery, the island will guarantee capital in the form of a loan and the cash flow to pay the debt, simply replacing what went from the continent to oil suppliers. . This reflux of money, instead of draining money, stimulates the local economy, creating a large portfolio of additional opportunities that make this island an attractive place to live.
The opportunity
Starting from a quest to make the self -sufficient island in renewable energy, it has evolved towards an island strategy without combustion with guaranteed funding. Today, the island is embarking on a third quest: an abundant supply of drinking water. The strategy of continuing this rescue system for the electricity network and the payment of weekly fees provides safe income to the electricity company. In addition, the introduction of vortex technologies (see case 1) makes water cheaper and more abundant than ever before. Now that farmers are driving their electric vehicles and have enough water for irrigation at competitive prices, they have undertaken over the next 8 years to convert into an island of 100 percent of organic products. The reaction was overwhelming: for the first time, people return to the island; For the first time, people return to settle in farms. The change does not start in the center, the change begins on the outskirts. This successful implementation of a strategy in terms of renewable energies, launched ten years ago, should inspire the hundreds of island economies which can hardly imagine how to offer a challenge and a lifestyle at the next generation in order to avoid total depopulation. El Hierro paved the way and the Blue Economy team has had the privilege of getting involved for over ten years.
