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Recharge Wrap-up: Couple wins Toyota Mirai; Tesla Gigafactory wages reported

A couple who won a Toyota Mirai at the Los Angeles Auto Show are among the first people to own the new fuel-cell sedan. Marianne Ellis bought the winning ticket - auctioned off by the Environmental Media Association to fund environmental programs - as a possible 30th anniversary gift for her husband, David. The excited couple picked up their ceremonial keys at the LA Auto Show on Wednesday. "For us, it's about being at the cutting edge of change," says Marianne Ellis. "It's a chance to support environmental causes and clean energy, while showing it's possible to make a car like this part of your lifestyle." The Mirai will go on sale in California in the fall of 2015. Read more in the press release below. The salaries for 6,500 full-time employees at Tesla's Gigafactory battery production facility have been reported. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the 4,550 production associates and 200 material handlers will be paid $22.79 an hour. 460 equipment technicians and 360 quality technicians will get $27.88 an hour. 930 engineers and senior staff will earn $41.83, or $87,000 a year. Tesla plans to staff 6,500 people at the Reno, Nevada-based Gigafactory by 2020. Read more at the Reno Gazette-Journal or at Teslarati. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has elected its governing board members. The board leaders include Sprague Operating Resources Chairman Steven J. Levy, Minnesota Soybean Processors Vice Chair Ron Marr, American Soybean Association Treasurer Mike Cunningham and Nebraska Soybean Board Secretary Greg Anderson. NBB also filled four more spots on the board, discussed federal policies, began program planning and recognized outstanding member involvement in the biodiesel industry. Read more at Biodiesel Magazine. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has reported progress on renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production. The DOE calls electrolysis, photoelectrochemical, biological and solar-thermochemical key areas of hydrogen production and has made advances in each. The DOE is looking into technological advancements in making the clean fuel and ways to reduce production costs. The DOE has also outlined various plans for the 2015 fiscal year with regard to advancing hydrogen technology, with the goal of getting hydrogen prices in line with other fuels. Read more at Green Car Congress. Toyota Mirai Winners Celebrate The Future November 19, 2014 TORRANCE, Calif. (Nov.

Buy a Toyota GT86 and your wife will hate you

Marketing can be a very strange business. Convincing a man or woman (or child, really) that they absolutely cannot live without the latest, greatest new bit of technology oftentimes takes a unique approach. In the "online film promoting the Toyota GT86" you'll see below, created by agency Happiness Brussels, men are reverse-psychologied into thinking a new sports coupe will make them more masculine by getting their loved ones to hate them. Or something like that. We think.
In any case, we suggest you watch the video below to see how much fun men can have with a GT86 - or Scion FR-S or Subaru BRZ, presumably - at the expense of their significant others. Fair warning: There's a potential Not Safe For Work moment in the ad: beware of a brief male butt shot about 44 seconds in.
Marketing. Gotta love it. Unless you're married to a man. Or something like that. We think. Whatever, just watch.

Bibendum 2014: Former EU President says Toyota could lose 100,000 euros per hydrogen FCV sedan

Pat Cox does not work for Toyota and we don't think he has any secret inside information. Still, he's the former President of the European Parliament and the current high level coordinator for TransEuropean Network, so when he says Toyota is likely going to lose between 50,000 and 100,000 euros ($66,000 and $133,000) on each of the hydrogen-powered FCV sedans it will sell next year, it's worth noting. That was just one highlight of Cox's presentation at the 2014 Michelin Challenge Bibendum in Chengdu, China today, which addressed the main problem of using more H2 in transportation: cost. The EU has a tremendous incentive to find an alternative to fossil fuels, since Europe today is 94 percent dependent on oil for its transportation sector and 84 percent of that 94 percent dependency is imported oil. The tab for that costs the EU a billion euros a day, Cox said, on top of the environmental costs. To encourage a shift away from petroleum, European Directive 2014/94 requires each member state to develop national policy frameworks for the market development of alternative fuels and their infrastructure. For the member states that choose to fulfill 2014/94 by developing a hydrogen market – and to be clear, Cox said, it's not an EU diktat that they do so, since a number of other alternatives are also allowed – the aim is to have things in place by the end of 2025. The plans don't even have to be submitted until the end of 2016. The long lead time is due to a quirk in a hydrogen economy. In hydrogen infrastructure, "the first-mover cost is not the first-mover advantage, but the firstmover disadvantage." – Pat Cox In deploying a hydrogen infrastructure, Cox said, "the first-mover cost is not the first-mover advantage, but the first-mover disadvantage, and high risk." That's why the EU and member states will financially support the early stages, but everyone agrees that "if this is to work, it will have to be ultimately and essentially a commercially viable and commercially driven infrastructure roll-out." Since 1986, European Union research programs have spent 550 million euros on hydrogen-related and fuel-cell-related research, including methods of hydrogen storage and distribution as well as improved fuel cells vehicles, Cox said. Expensive problems remain to be solved. At a conference in Berlin, Germany this past summer, Cox said, the unit cost of the refueling stations was identified as the main problem.