Toyota has premiered its HC-CV (Hybrid Camry Concept Vehicle) ahead of the 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show in Australia. Using the same continuously variable transmission layout as a Toyota Prius, the new Hybrid pairs a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with an electric motor and battery pack, with the familiar Camry exterior lines tweaked in favor of aero efficiency.
The HC-CV is basically a body kitted Camry with the emphasis on aero efficiency. The front gets sharp lines, vertical fog lamps, larger lower opening and a streamlined upper grille. The sharp corners indicate aerodynamic efficiency, although sharp corners are more commonly found on the rear end of a vehicle to improve clean air separation. The "aero" theme continues along the side skirts, which flow into the rear diffuser, giving a sporty, functional appearance. The flat rear spoiler further enhances aero efficiency. The front fog lights and rear taillights are all LED lamps.
The new car is the second Camry to have a hybrid option as it follows the Hybrid Camry currently produced and sold in Japan and America. During spirited driving, the petrol and electric engines work together to provide 143kW of power. However when at a standstill or under light acceleration the car runs on battery power alone, with the battery being recharged via brake regeneration. If the US Camry hybrid version in any indication, the Australian based Camry Hybrid should get 7.1L/100km — a normal manual four-cylinder Camry uses 8.9L/100km.
Plans for the new hybrid was announced by Toyota Australia in June 2008 when it received $70 Million in taxpayer dollars for the project. Toyota plans to build 10,000 Camry Hybrids per year and the production version will be Australia’s first locally produced hybrid.
The premiere marks the start of a 12-month countdown to the car's launch and according to the company's senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner, the concept being shown in Melbourne "is a strong pointer to the hybrid Camry we will manufacture right here in Australia from early next year."
Michelin has announced that it will partner to bring an affordable electric car powered by its Active Wheel System to the roads in 2010. Featuring two electric motors housed within the wheel, one for traction and braking and the other for electric active suspension control, the system has revolutionary potential - no more engine under the hood, no more traditional suspension system, and no more gearbox or transmission as all the essential components have been integrated into the wheel itself.
The Future of Car Design
First showcased at the Bibendum Challenge in 2004 in a fuel cell powered electric concept vehicle called Hy-Light, the Active Wheel System could outperform Ferrari and Porsche in a straight line when it comes to braking. While a typical high performance supercar takes about six seconds to come to a complete halt from 100km/h, the Michelin concept does it in a mere 2.8 seconds at up to 1G.
Michelin have been developing the Active Wheel system for over 12 years in conjunction with Swiss based Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and has now unveiled the Opel Agila based Heuliez WILL - the first production electric car with Active Wheel drive system. The WILL results from a partnership between Michelin and coachbuilder Heuliez and although it may represent the next generation in transportation technology, its designers and builders want to convey a comfortable familiarity with the empty storage space in both the front and rear trunks being the first hints that something unusual is afoot.
Wheel Motor technology should trigger a paradigm change in car design. Without engines, transmissions and ancillary systems, smaller cars can carry more people and cargo. Impact absorbing collapse zones in both front and rear offer potential safety improvements and advanced active safety features such as anti-lock brakes and stability control can be taken to new levels with direct computer control of each wheel motor. For example, electric active suspension can react in 0.0003/sec and control ride height, pitch under braking and roll during cornering replacing passive anti-roll bars.
Technical Specs
Each Michelin in-wheel motor weighs 42 kilogram (95 pound) and includes a 30 Kilowatt water-cooled drive motor of a similar size to a conventional starter motor. The motor has a spur gear that drives a rind gear on the hub. A second electric motor operates the active suspension via a gear rack and pinion that effectively replaces the normal hydraulic shock absorber (no news on if they are used as regenerative shocks). There is also a coil spring to hold the static load of the car and a small outer rotor disc brake. The wheel motor is attached to the vehicle chassis by a single lower control arm suspension arrangement.
With the smallest of the battery packs on board, the prototype Heuliez WILL weighs in at 900 kg, 75 kg less than the internal combustion engine powered Opel Agila.
While the earlier Hy-Light prototype had four wheel motors and could be switched between two wheel drive and four wheel drive the Heuliez WILL comes with only two wheel drive. Together, the two front wheel motors deliver a combined 60 Kw (81 horsepower), which can peak up to 120 Kw (163 hp) for short sprints. The car should do 0-100 km (0 - 62 mph) in 10 seconds and will have a max speed of 140 km/h (87 mph).
Three versions will be available in 2010 with three different sizes of Lithium-Ion battery module configurations, offering ranges of 150, 300 and 400 km (93, 186 and 248 miles). Drivers will have the option of changing from one module size to another in the same vehicle depending on their needs. Just like hybrids, the Active Wheels recover energy during braking to extend vehicle range. The in-wheel motors are reported to be 90% efficient, compared to about 15% efficiency for a conventional vehicle in city driving.
Test versions of the WILL are on the road now with production scheduled to start in 2010 with a first year output target of several thousand vehicles. The target price of 20 to 25,000 euros (USD$27 – 34,000) puts the Will in the affordable electric vehicle class, along with the much anticipated Chevy Volt. If you are willing to wait a bit longer, and spend a bit more, look for Active Wheels on the Venturi Volage in 2012.
The Foiljet MR1 is a new personal watercraft concept that takes the best features of a motocross bike and jetski, throws in two hydrofoils plus a silent, energy efficient electric motor to create what would have to be a surefire recipe for outrageous fun. The design looks something like a motocross bike, but instead of wheels there are beams with small hydrofoil wings mounted at the ends that can be raised or lowered. The concept would use a 15 kW (20 hp) electric motor housed at the end of the rear beam with its instant electric torque lifting the craft out of the water to become "foil borne".
To cope with shallow water the beams can be raised at the flick of a switch. The electric motor runs off a 48V battery that should see three hours of full load running with the possibility of a theoretical 10 min recharge time.
While still at the purely concept stage Matt De Bellefeuille & Robert Vandenham have come up with an original design that most definitely deserves to reach the prototype stage.
The designers have selected a T-shaped fully submerged foil system which, while not affected by surface waves is not self stabilizing, so it needs constant adjustment of the angle of attack of the front foil to keep the craft level with the surface. Front foil angle adjustment on the Foiljet MR1 is made manually by what would conventionally be the clutch lever on a motorcycle. In larger applications this sea-keeping function is automated with a computer system that measure either surface height or pitch and roll to make constant fine adjustments to the front foil.
Hydrofoils produce relatively no wake and electric propulsion is near silent, so if the Foiljet MR1 makes it into production it may allow current laws against jetski’s on inland water ways to be relaxed around residential areas.
To celebrate 20 years as a brand Infiniti has produced a stunning concept car for the 2009 International Motor Show in Geneva. The Infiniti Essence is the world’s most powerful Hybrid car with a total of 600 horsepower combined output from its V6 twin turbo and electric motor. The luxury sports car hybrid offers enormous power on the open road and zero emission driving in urban settings.
In specification the car looks very much like a hybrid version of Nissan’s GT-R. (Infiniti is a Nissan owned brand) With a 3.7 liter V6 DOHC Twin Turbo VQ based engine (VQ37DETT) putting out 434 hp (320 Kw) in a rear wheel drive FM (Front Midship) platform currently used in modified form in both the Nissan GT-R, 350Z and Infiniti V36. An additional 158 hp (116 Kw) and 500 Nm comes from the twin clutch mounted Disc type electric motor giving a total of 592 hp (435 Kw). No combined torque figure was released by Infiniti but it should be in the region of 1088 Nm (802 Ft/lb)
Strictly a two seater, the front-engined rear wheel drive super-luxury coupe is Infiniti’s first super-performance car with design cues that Infiniti says will distinguish its production cars of the coming years. The Essence is a real styling exercise featuring razor sharp lines, side windows that appear to be resting on a ledge and a steeply raked windscreen that combines as a sun roof and extends all the way to the B pillar while the car rides on 22-inch wheels. The Essence also comes complete with Bespoke Louis Vuitton luggage.
The petrol engine and electric engine can work independently or together as a “parallel” hybrid system. At urban speeds the Essence operates as a pure battery electric vehicle. A lower trunk mounted laminated lithium ion battery supplies power to a new type of electric motor called the 3D Motor. The motor is a BLDC design that maximizes torque density to meet tough requirements on size and power output. The result is a particularly slim, disk-shaped motor that has twice the torque of a conventional unit. Its design was achieved by 3D magnetic field analysis to optimize the layout of the electromagnetic coils and permanent magnets. The motor is positioned between the engine and transmission and provides 158bhp (116 Kw). The 3D Motor operates in both propulsion and power regeneration modes to recapture braking energy to keep the battery pack charged up.
600 hp + 30 MPG
Optimized energy usage across the widest possible range of driving conditions is guaranteed by two separate clutches which “switch in” the motors as required. It is a system that needs no torque converter and the result is a 600 hp sports car with combined fuel economy of 8 liters / 100 km (30 US MPG).
The Essence also previews some next-generation collision avoidance safety features. Distance Control Assist (DCA) and Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) systems are available in today’s production Infinitis but the Essence adds Side Collision Prevention (SCP) and Back-up Collision Prevention (BCP) to extend the anti-collision shield all the way around the car.
With SCP, when the driver decides to change lanes, side-mounted sensors activate a warning if an approaching vehicle is detected in the driver’s intended lane. A yaw mechanism is then activated through brake control of individual wheels to help prevent a potential collision. Back-up Collision Prevention works in a similar way, sensing a vehicle behind, giving the driver a warning but then, if the warning is not heeded, activating the brakes automatically.
We're familiar with the soccer playing exploits of intelligent machines in Robocup and have been treated to a taste of what autonomous robotic systems are capable of in events like the DARPA Urban Challenge, but could a rider-less motorcycle robot compete with the speed demons of MotoGP? That's the vision of Japanese computer graphics designer Yutaka Igarashi who has conceived a new robotically controlled motorcycle design aimed at beating the lap time of a MotoGP bike around a circuit.
Powered by an electric motor, the concept is controlled by swinging a boom (which replaces the rider) through hydraulic actuators. The design is still at concept stage, so no power output or battery details have been specified.
With robots now used for everything from automobile manufacture to robotically assisted heart surgery, a robot motorcycle could no doubt be very accurate at high speed. It may even be possible to replicate a fast lap using telemetry recorded from a human rider but we do have our doubts about whether the talents of a MotoGP riders can be successfully be digitized into G code to allow a Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) machine to outperform them.
We have previously seen a robotic motorcycle called Ghostrider which has contested the DARPA Grand Challenge, but has never finished the course.
While World Rally Championship cars travel at incredible speed on ice covered roads using studded tires, something with more surface area is needed for an Artic Off-Road vehicle. Taking cues off four track snowmobiles Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie designed the FROST as a concept proposal for TH!NK, an electric car company based in Norway.
The layout of the FROST is a 2-seat sports car platform based on a tubular space frame chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear teamed with push-rod actuated in-board coil over shock and spring units. The suspension features hydraulic wheel extenders to increase the track when required. The exterior styling was inspired by Arctic conditions and features numerous ‘cracks’, which house the lighting systems.
The electric drivetrain of the concept features All Wheel Drive (AWD), all-wheel-steering and includes radical tracks instead of conventional wheels that should offer superior traction when driving on snow, ice and slush. The fans at the back of the vehicle control air flow into the cockpit and adjust the temperature of the electric motors and battery packs. An “information hose” takes measurements of the weather and temperature at the rear of the vehicle and relays the information to screens inside and outside the vehicle.
Wind Turbines in the north west of Spain set a new record for power generation on March 5th as gales blew across the country, with more than 40% of the country's energy needs being generated by wind turbines.
The new record stands at a peak of 11,180 megawatts (11.18 GW) of electricity supply beating the previous record of 10,032 megawatts. The percentage of demand supplied depends on time of day as demand rises and falls throughout the day.
Spain is the third largest producer of Wind Power in the world, behind the US and Germany, with 16,740 megawatts wind capacity installed at the end of 2008. At the moment of peak production, the country's turbines were working at 69% of their maximum theoretical potential. Wind energy alone has covered 11.5% of demand so far this year, with production up by a third on last year.
When Atlantic storms generate strong gusts wind turbines supply more than either Nuclear power, the second largest contributor, with 6,797 megawatts, or coal-fired electric generation, the third largest, at 5,081 MW. Spain has plans to install a total of over 21GW of wind generation capacity by 2010 to help meet their target of 30% of annual demand for electricity from renewable sources by next year.
