MUNICH, Germany - With technology and infrastructure components for electric street vehicles falling into place rather quickly, the costs for the batteries as the most critical piece will be halved within five years, says a market researcher. The bad news: Raw material bottlenecks could make the road to electrification a bumpy one. The current crisis in the automotive industry will be a transient aspect, predicted Greg Mount, Chief Economist of automotive market research company CSM at a presentation during the ongoing IAA motor show in Frankfurt (Germany). Already in 2010 the demand is expected to stabilize. Mount expects demand for vehicles to rise 6 percent on a global scale. Europe will lag slightly, but demand will climb by 5 percent here as well. In the US, demand will climb above the global average, Mount predicted. In order to develop a modest market size for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, six crucial factors - CSM calls them ‘stars’ - must align. These are high oil price, charging infrastructure, government incentives, product availability and a string CO2 legislation. While most of them will not mature before the 2024 through 2030 time frame, the development of lithium ion batteries as the […]
Greening the world will certainly eliminate some of the most serious risks we face, but it will also create new ones. A move to electric cars, for example, could set off a competition for lithium — another limited, geographically concentrated resource. The sheer amount of water needed to create some kinds of alternative energy could suck certain regions dry, upping the odds of resource-based conflict. And as the world builds scores more emissions-free nuclear power plants, the risk that terrorists get their hands on dangerous atomic materials — or that states launch nuclear-weapons programs — goes up. The decades-long oil wars might be coming to an end as black gold says its long, long goodbye, but there will be new types of conflicts, controversies, and unwelcome surprises in our future (including perhaps a last wave of oil wars as some of the more fragile petrocracies decline). If anything, a look over the horizon suggests the instability produced by this massive and much-needed energy transition will force us to grapple with new forms of upheaval. Here’s a guide to just a few of the possible green geopolitical tensions to come. One source of international friction is far more certain […]
U.S. credit-card defaults rose to a record in August and more losses may lie ahead as delinquencies climbed for the first time since March, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Write-offs rose to 11.49 percent from 10.52 percent in July, Moody’s said today in a report. Loans at least 30 days delinquent rose to 5.8 percent from 5.73 percent. ‘Early- stage delinquencies, or loans overdue 30 to 59 days, surged to 1.65 percent, from 1.41 percent, signaling higher losses in coming months. Banks typically write off loans after 180 days. Card issuers have struggled with rising defaults as the recession drove up unemployment to 9.7 percent and the impact of income tax refunds waned. Credit-card defaults typically track the U.S. jobless rate since consumers tend to fall behind on payments when their income dries up. ‘We continue to call for a recovery of the credit-card sector to begin once industry average charge-offs peak in mid- 2010 between 12 percent and 13 percent, said the Moody’s report, which predicted unemployment may reach 10.5 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co.,Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. credit-card lenders, said in federal filings on Sept. 15 that defaults […]
WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word ‘fed’ was scrawled on the dead man’s chest. The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment. Investigators have said little about the case. The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, said Wednesday the man was found hanging from a tree and the word ‘fed’ was written on the dead man’s chest. The official did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is helping state police with the case. ‘Our […]
