4 time Solar Challenge winners unveil new car Nuna5

The team that has won the World Solar Challenge for the last 4 consecutive years, Delft University, has unvelied their lattest solar racer ahead of this years event. The Australian based Solar race is probably the toughest race in the world. It covers 3000km of mostly desert road between Darwin and Adelaide where teams must set up camp on the side of the road each night where their car stopped when the sun went down. This year vehicles are required to have treaded tires, which create more rolling resistance and makes it more difficult to achieve the incredible level of efficiency required to win the race.

Like its predecessor the Nuna4, the vehicle is covered with 6 square meters of solar panels made up of 2120x Gallium Arsenide triple joint cells with 34% efficiency. These drive an Australian CSIRO developed Axial Flux BLDC in wheel motor that produces 50 Nm of torque at 97% peak efficiency. When the solar cells are producing more power than is required to drive the motor the excess is stored in a 25 kg lithium polymer battery pack.



The team have reduced vehicle weight by 30 kg to a super low 160 kg excluding driver. The aerodynamic load is approx 1/12 th that of a noraml road car while the rolling resistance is 1/10 th.

The team are aiming for their 5th consecutive win on the World Solar Challenge, this year held on the 25th of October and will run for several days.

6 in 10 would choose 'green car' over gas-powered one

Is green becoming mainstream? A new global survey shows nearly six in 10 people would choose an environment-friendly car over a petrol-powered one, even if they had all the money in the world.

The survey of 13,500 city dwellers in 18 countries, by market research firm Synovate, also showed that over a third of respondents said they would either use public transport, walk, or cycle more often this year, partly to save on fuel costs but also for the sake of the environment.

"More and more, owning a car may not be viewed as that responsible," said Scott Miller, CEO of Synovate Motoresearch. "But car makers are producing more and more options that will appeal to this fast-growing group of green-inclined people.

"Cars are freedom, and people value freedom. If they continue to enjoy guilt-free freedom, the car will stay a large part of daily lives for many people," he said in a statement.

The survey asked respondents to forget about cost and choose between "green" or "dream" -- that is an electric or hybrid car versus a luxury, powerful sports car.

The survey, conducted in March, included the world's top passenger car markets, China and the United States.

Even with money being no object, nearly 40 percent of respondents said green would be their preferred purchase. An additional 20 percent said green cars were their "dream" car.

More than 70 percent of Chinese said they would buy a green car, compared with 42 percent of Americans, the survey showed.

Chinese, at nearly 40 percent, were also the people most likely to take public transport more often in the next year, while Americans -- at 2 percent -- were among the least.

The nation most likely to choose green cars over petrol-powered ones, regardless, was Germany, with nearly two-thirds choosing the environment over their dream cars.

The environment, however, meant little to a third of all respondents, which the survey showed would choose the car they desired the most, green-be-damned.

The majority of these buyers were in South Africa and India, where cars are regarded as a status symbol, Synovate said.

Overall, 15 percent of respondents said they would buy a new car in the next 12 months, despite the economic downturn.

The new car would-be buyers were topped by India, Egypt and Turkey, which Synovate said showed developing countries presented a good opportunity for car manufacturers.

Least likely to be buying a new car were Australians and Germans, while 6 percent of overall respondents say they would buy a used car in the next year.

While 36 percent have a pragmatic view about cars, the survey also showed that nearly a third of all respondents said the would love a car that turned heads, especially in the United Arab Emirates, India, China and Egypt.

"Car makers have to get the balance right," said Tim Englehart, US-based vice president of Synovate Motoresearch.

"A car can still be very cool while offering practicality and a lower price. Success in the auto business comes from understanding people well enough to meet their emotional needs as well as practical ones."

The survey was conducted in March across 18 markets -- Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

Sanyo increase Hybrid NiMH Battery output 250% to meet demand

Sanyo Electric Co. said Friday that it has revised up its production plans for nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries for hybrid cars, citing growing demand for these vehicles. In fiscal 2008, Sanyo made such batteries for hybrid cars at a rate of one million units a month.

When it announced its business results in mid-May, the company said it would boost production by 150 per cent and make 2.5 million units a month in fiscal 2009. But now, Sanyo has decided to boost production by 250 per cent to a monthly rate of 3.5 million batteries in fiscal 2009.

It said it will invest several billion yen to expand production lines at its Sumoto plant, in Hyogo Prefecture, which is the only plant where it makes NiMH batteries for hybrid cars.

Sanyo, which already supplies NiMH batteries to Honda Motor Co. and U.S. firm Ford Motor Co., is now looking to win business from other automakers.

Daimler launches first hybrid car.

German luxury car maker Daimler has launched its first hybrid model, almost 10 years after the market leader, Toyota.

The 2010 Mercedes-Benz S Class is powered by the 3.5-liter Mercedes V6 gasoline engine and produces 279 hp and is mated to a Mercedes seven-speed automatic transmission. The small 900 watt hour (0.9 kWh) lithium-ion battery is the first to be offered in a hybrid. Although it is still not a plug-in the battery is guaranteed for the life of the car. The electric motor has only 20 hp but delivers 160 Nm of torque which gives a combined torque of 385 Nm.

The S400 can do 0 to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, run off electricity alone at speeds 9 mph and below, and Mercedes estimates that the S400 will get 23 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway.

Daimler recently acquired a battery company and a 10 percent stake in the US electric car maker Tesla—so the next step for the German auto maker should be fully electric automobiles.

First Solar-Powered Flight Around the World

Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard unveiled Friday the prototype of a solar powered plane he plans to fly around the world to highlight the potential of alternative energy sources.

The project was launched in 2003 and after six years' work by 70 engineers and technicians on the Solar Impulse, which has a number of high profile backers including Deutsche Bank, watchmaker Omega and Swiss chemicals maker Solvay and a budget of 70 million euros ($97.53 million).

The Impulse has the wingspan of a Boeing 747-400 and the weight of an average family car (1600 kg), resulting in new standards for size to weight. Over 12,000 solar cells mounted onto the wing will supply renewable energy to the four electric motors with a maximum power of 10 HP each. During the day they will also charge the lithium-polymer batteries (400 kg), which will permit the HB-SIA to fly through the night.

The question of energy determines the whole project, from the structure’s dimensions to the extreme weight constraints. At midday, each m2 of land surface receives the equivalent of 1000 Watts, or 1.3 horsepower of light power. Over 24 hours, this averages out at just 250W/m2. With 200m2 of photovoltaic cells and a 12 % total efficiency of the propulsion chain, the plane’s motors achieve no more than 8 HP or 6kW – roughly the amount of power the Wright brothers had a available to them in 1903 when they made their first powered flight. And it is with that energy, optimized from the solar panel to the propeller by the work of a whole team, that Solar Impulse is striving to fly day and night without fuel!

The HB-SIA is the first prototype of the Solar Impulse project. Its mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of a complete day-night-day cycle propelled solely by solar energy. After fine-tuning on the ground, the aircraft should make its first test flights between now and the end of 2009, first of all at Dübendorf airport. A first complete night flight is programmed for 2010 and will take place over Switzerland.

The results from the HB-SIA and their analysis will serve to develop and build a second aircraft, the HB-SIB for circumnavigating the word in five stages, each lasting several days, in 2012.

The pilots will spend 36-hours in the plane's tiny one-man cockpit and fuselage in initial flights to test its ability to fly overnight. The round-the-world attempt will be made in five stages, each lasting several days.

Infiniti Essence Hybrid appearing at Goodwood

The 600hp petrol/electric hybrid coupe, rear-wheel drive Infiniti Essence concept car, shown for the first time four months ago in Geneva, will make a final European appearance at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In specification the car looks very much like a hybrid Nissan 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)

Joining Essence on the Hillclimb – and later in the Sunday Times Supercar paddock – will be the V6 powered G37 Convertible in right-hand drive form, the first example ever produced. The car's appearance at Goodwood will be particularly momentous for the two British Infiniti engineers who will drive it as they have worked on the Infiniti Europe project since it started.

Does Renewable Energy actually cost more?

With the US having passed legislation that would, for the first time, require limits on pollution blamed for global warming, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, we are about to be deluged with politically biased analyses from reporters who really don't know what they're talking about.

First cab off the rank is an old timer from Associated Press, H. Josef Hebert (re-published here by Businessweek). In rhetorically asking what, if this legislation became law, this will mean to the average person, Hebert immediately implies such a law would impact how much people pay to heat, cool and light their homes and he says that IT WOULD COST MORE. I have to conclude that this guy has a political agenda or he simply can't add.

The definition of renewable energy is that it is 'renewable'. The three most common sources of renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydro have no fuel cost! Perhaps the AP reporter who has covered energy and environmental issues for The Associated Press since 1990 is unaware of the fact a 1 Gigawatt coal fired power station consumes 10,000 tons of coal every-single-day.

That coal doesn't just fall out of the sky into the furnace of a coal fired power plant. To keep the fires burning at base load coal power plants a 100 carriage, 2 kilometer long coal train (pulled by up to 6x 5000 hp diesel electric locomotives) is required to make a delivery 7 days a week and the appetite is insatiable. Larger 3+ GW coal power stations require up to four such train deliveries every day consuming in excess of 36,000 tons of coal DAILY. In many cases the coal must be shipped by sea from half way around the world. The world's largest exporter of coal, Australia in 2006 exported 237 million tonnes of coal to power many east Asian countries.

At an energy efficiency of around 40%, for every Gigawatt of generation capacity used, an average coal plant converts something like 6,000 tons of coal every day into waste heat which results in enormous plumes coming off cooling towers to dispose of that unused heat into the atmosphere (See the 4GW Drax power plant pictured above). So over half of the coal being mined, transported and processed is wasted as an unavoidable by-product of the heat cycle generation process.

A 1 GW power plant generates enough electricity to supply base load to a population of around 1 Million people. Once you multiply those 10,000 tons per day by the applicable global population the costs involved just to supply fuel quickly become astronomical. With renewable energy those costs are eliminated, yet ignorant journalists still claim renewable energy will cost more.

Admittedly there are up front costs in the wholesale replacement of a significant proportion of the power generation capacity (54% of all US electricity is coal sourced), but those costs are already being absorbed with utilities able to balance the up front costs of new generation infrastructure against the free renewable fuel supply.

The medium to long term results of investing in renewable energy are significantly REDUCED energy costs.

Riversimple wheel motor FC prototype launched

While the momentum towards next generation cars has started to favor Battery EV s at the expense of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell concepts that have been a favourite of major auto manufacturers, the recently launched Riversimple EV concept car is still very interesting.

The Riversimple vehicle is conceived within an innovative new architecture for cars. It embodies various key features - hydrogen fuel cells, four electric motors, one on each wheel, regeneration of electricity by these motors when the car is braking – known as regenerative braking - and a body made of lightweight composites. However these do not on their own explain the breakthrough in energy efficiency achieved.

Although novel in the industry, they are not unique and none make economic or performance sense on their own. The breakthrough really comes through the synthesis of them all – the benefits derive from their interactions, requiring that we combine them all. Here is an illustration of how Riversimple has rearranged the components in what we call a Network Electric Vehicle.

The two principles that really are new (conceived by Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute) and that make this synthesis so powerful are decoupling acceleration and cruise demands and mass decompounding

Decoupling acceleration and cruise means that the fuel cell needs only to be large enough to meet the maximum steady demand when cruising, which is usually only about 20% of the maximum power required when accelerating.

In a conventional car, acceleration also has to be provided by the engine; but as a car is only accelerating for about 5% of the time, and the power needed then is five times what it is when cruising, it means that for 95% of the time the car is carrying around an engine and transmission that is five times larger than necessary.

In our network electric vehicle, almost all braking is done by the electric motors, capturing the energy of the car in motion, rather than using conventional brakes that just waste the energy as heat. This energy is then stored in a bank of ultracapacitors which can provide 80% of the power required for acceleration. This allows us to have a fuel cell a fifth the power than would be required in a conventional car.

Mass decompounding is an emergent property of whole system design – designing the car as a whole system rather than attempting to squeeze a fuel cell into a car architecture that is designed for a combustion engine. The reduced size of the fuel cell and elimination of a gearbox and driveshafts, results in a weight reduction. This leads directly to a lighter chassis, as this is usually designed to hold on to a heavy engine and gearbox in accidents. This in turn means less power is needed, which means lighter components, which means a lighter chassis, meaning less power and so on, and this effect is magnified by using lighter materials, composites, for the chassis as well. These weight reductions make power-assisted systems for brakes and steering redundant, leading to further mass decompounding and improvements in efficiency.



The hydrogen fuel cell is about 50% efficient, double that of a petrol engine. The combination of this efficiency and the new, and much more efficient, architecture allows for a vehicle which is more sustainable because it needs far less hydrogen energy. Further fuel and emissions savings are gained because, unlike an internal combustion engine, the electric motor is not running when the car is stationary in traffic.

The Riversimple urban car uses a 6kW fuel cell. (For comparison, Honda is using a 100kW fuel cell in its new Clarity model currently being trialled in California - admittedly in a four seater car, not a two seater). In the Riversimple car, less hydrogen needs to be carried (and less held at the filling stations) and the costs of the fuel cell drop dramatically.

They have been working with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Singapore, who have developed a highly efficient yet simple fuel cell system for their urban car. As the output required of the fuel cell is less than in most fuel cell prototypes, Horizon has been able to prioritize cost reduction in the development of the system. This has been the focus of their research since they were founded and so there is a natural synergy between their technology and our approach to commercializing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Together they are pursuing a combined development programme on the next generation for their production prototype vehicle.

The ultracapacitors which store electricity can also be smaller: Riversimple urban cars have just 21 kg of ultracapacitors, capable of absorbing over 30kW of power from regenerative braking, and of delivering 15 kW for bursts of acceleration of up to ten seconds, enough time to reach maximum cruising speed.

The result is a car with an expected fuel consumption equivalent to 300 miles per gallon, a range in excess of 200 miles, a top speed of 50mph, and greenhouse gas emissions at 30 gms per km (well to wheel), less than a quarter of the most efficient petrol-engined cars currently available. Note: The Polo Blue Motion is currently the lowest emission car available at 99g/km but this is only “tank to wheel” – when extraction, refining and distribution of the petrol is included this rises to 121 g/km “well to wheel”.



While no technical details at all are provided about the Wheel Motors, based on their Ultracapacitor specs and the fact they state the caps can provide up to 80% of the power needed to accelerate we estimate the wheel motors output at 5 kw peak each at most. With a total vehicle weight of 350 kg that's only 77hp per ton, about average for a mini car.

Only time will tell if the Riversimple open source business model is too radical to reach critical mass but we're sure the huge energy efficiency improvements resulting from the use of wheel motors on all four wheels that allows the use of such a small energy source will also be applied to hybrid and battery EV vehicles.

A Wind powered Lotus based EV gets a 100 MPH test run.

Dale Vince, the CEO of UK wind power company Ecotricity seems to fancy himself as a shameless self promoter from the same mold as Richard Branson. The company has been funding an EV project based on a Lotus chassis.

To generate PR for the project Ecotricity hired their own TV production company to produce a reality style series of videos. They seem to mainly feature inane comments from Mr Vince and a complete absence of any technical detail. The latest episode has the car fired up for the first time with a couple of passes of an airfield.

First impressions are that it sounds like a supercharger and it is capable of 100 mph on it's first ever test run. Technical specs are extremely thin on the ground but we'll try and peace together what they have used.

The car uses Prismatic Lithium ion cells that give a range of 150 miles. They have used 2x BLDC motors, one for each rear wheel, connected to the standard CV drive shafts with a reduction gear arrangement using Gilmer belts (hence the supercharger sound track). The motors are powered by a pair of UQM inverters. The car will do 0-60 in 4 sec.

Unfortunately no further specs on motor power or battery capacity have been provided (estimate approx 35 kWh battery pack) as Vince seems to be primarily obsessed with naming the car and getting the attention of the crew from Top Gear.

Zero Carbonista

Caterpillar unveils hybrid bulldozer

Caterpillar Inc. is getting into the hybrid vehicle business. Except these won't be vehicles you'll see on the highway.

The company Tuesday officially launched its line of Diesel-electric hybrid bulldozers - the D7E - that it says will improve fuel efficiency 30 percent or more while not skimping on the power its customers expect from Caterpillar equipment.

The launch came at Caterpillar's demonstration center in Edwards, with trade media and several of its biggest customers on hand to see demonstrations of that power.

Caterpillar said the D7E, a product 10 years in the making, is the first tractor in the world with an electric drive system. The electric drive tractors were first introduced to the public during ConExpo 2008 in Las Vegas more than a year ago.

While there are many test D7E tractors running today - including 18 of them placed with customers to get feedback - Caterpillar will begin production in October at its track-type tractor plants in East Peoria. It expects the machine to reach full production by the middle of 2010, said David Nicoll, commercial manager of tractor products in the company's Earthmoving Division.

Customers on hand who have been using the machines - including one company with more than 1,600 hours on the machine - lauded the D7E as reliable, comfortable and more efficient while still capable of delivering the power they need for different applications.

"We're very excited about the power it has, the visibility from the cab, the maneuverability - all of it," said Curtis Valencia of Crossfire Construction LLC in Colorado. The company mostly uses the D7E for building, reclamation and cleanup work in oil fields.

Those sentiments were echoed by Dale Hill, director of mine operations for Dolet Hills Lignite Co. in Mansfield, La., whose company has been running the machine 24 hours a day and has topped 1,600 hours of operation with no problems.

Dan Plote, owner of Plote Construction Inc. in Hoffman Estates, said he parked the larger, more powerful Caterpillar D8 bulldozer while testing the D7E and has found the new machine "is more than keeping up, pound for pound. And it's 30 percent more fuel efficient."

The comments from customers included urging that Caterpillar find a way to denote on the machines that they are a hybrid. The users said that would help with the public image of big machines. The company made no promises.

Nicoll did say Caterpillar has been collecting the thoughts of users and already has made several modifications to the D7E to keep it user friendly.

More than 50,000 machine and lab hours have been spent to date on the machine that engineering manager Mike Betz said is a completely Caterpillar design with more than 100 patents, granted or pending.

While Caterpillar declined to give prices for its machines during the event, the company said the D7E cost about 20 percent more than the D7R. However, Nicoll said, Caterpillar believes that extra cost will be recouped in improved efficiency within 2 1/2 years.

The machine, he added, uses 10 percent to 30 percent less fuel per hour of operation, and thus can move an average of 25 percent more material per gallon of fuel than the D7R.

Ford, Nissan, Tesla Get Funding For Fuel-Efficient Cars

Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motors, and San Carlos-based Tesla Motors Inc, will all receive government financing to speed production of fuel-efficient cars.

Ford, which will get financing of $5.9 billion to retool factories in five states, will be among the first recipients of the loans within the Energy Department’s $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, which promotes fuel-efficient vehicles, according to a department statement.

Nissan will get $1.6 billion to refurbish a factory in Tennessee to produce electric cars.

Tesla will receive $465 million. The bulk of the money will go toward retooling a factory to build its Model S – a more affordable electric vehicle than its high-end Roadster – and about $100 million will be used to fund an electric-powertrain manufacturing facility that will sell parts, including motors and battery packs, to other carmakers.

The technology development loans were created by Congress in 2007 to help automakers increase fuel economy by 40% to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. President Barack Obama has moved up that 35mpg deadline to 2016.

Tanfield named preferred supplier in UK govt EV van project

British commercial electric vehicles maker Tanfield Group Plc said it has been named as preferred supplier in the UK government's electric van programme, administered by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The first phase of the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme will have four suppliers deliver up to 150 electric vans to 12 public sector bodies, Tanfield said on Wednesday.

The company said it would supply the Smith Edison, a vehicle already in production at its Washington facility, which is based on the "popular Ford Transit panel van".
"If the first phase of the programme is successful, the DfT will look to expand the trials into the wider public sector," said the company, whose Smith Electric Vehicles unit has a collaboration with Ford Motor Co.

Earlier in the day, Tanfield said it would be eligible to receive government funding of 1.6 million pounds ($2.6 million) to develop electric passenger vehicles.

The company said it was part of a consortium that successfully bid for the development and trial of 16 vehicles under the Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programme, adding that the total project was worth 3.2 million pounds.

Tanfield said building on its relationship with Ford, it will develop five people carriers and a executive minibus.

Tanfield also said it would deliver 10 electric taxis, through its collaboration with Manganese Bronze Holdings Plc.

The FIM creates a new Series for Electric Motorcycles in 2010

Following the success of the TTXGP race held on the Isle of Man on June 12, the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) has decided to create a FIM Series for electric bikes in 2010. This new FIM Series will be run inside the Road Racing Grand Prix Commission, a project led by Mr Azhar Hussain a UK Entrepreneur founder of the TTXGP.

No further details about the FIM sanctioned Series for electric bikes have been released at this stage.

Nissan U.S. EV capacity to be over 100,000

Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday its electric vehicles will be affordable, setting sights on the potentially lucrative market with a plan to mass produce zero-emission cars globally from 2012.

Japan's No. 3 automaker said it would unveil its first electric vehicle in Japan on August 2 and begin sales next year.

"We are moving forward with zero-emission vehicles," said Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn at a shareholders' meeting.

Nissan will sell electric cars first in Japan and the U.S. after April 2010, and then mass produce them globally in 2012.

Along with production in Japan and Europe, Ghosn said Nissan would make electric vehicles in the United States at its Smyrna plant in Tennessee with initial output capacity of more than 100,000 units per year.

"The U.S. is going to be a very important market" for the company's electric vehicle strategy, he said.

"I can tell you I'm not at all worried about how to sell these cars because there is an appetite for zero-emission cars."

Other carmakers are also racing to produce fully electric cars. U.S.-based Tesla Motors has a prototype that is scheduled to be produced by 2011. Toyota Motor Corp. has said it plans to sell electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2012 while Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Corp. has teamed up with a Dutch-based company to develop and make electric cars.


Ghosn gave few details, but stressed that Nissan's zero-emission cars will come "with a very reasonable price."

"If it's not affordable, it's not going to work," Ghosn told reporters.
"We are not going to come with a very high price. We are going to come with a reasonable price," he said. "We are here to mass market them."

Earlier in the month, Nissan's smaller rival, Mitsubishi Motors Corp., launched its electric vehicle, the i-MiEV, with a price tag of 4.59 million yen ($48,300). Even the company acknowledged the i-MiEV is too pricey and said it aims to cut the price in the future.

Ghosn said expensive electric cars are "for a niche" market which Nissan doesn't plan to target.

Ghosn brushed off criticism that Nissan is falling behind its bigger rivals _ Toyota and Honda Motor Co. _ in the increasingly competitive market for gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

Ghosn said the global market for hybrid cars remains too small, with hybrid cars accounting for just 3.5 percent of the Japanese auto market in 2008, and 2.3 percent in the United States.

Globally, the market for hybrid cars is below one percent, Ghosn said, attributing hype over gas-electric cars to heavy media coverage.

The meeting of Nissan shareholders came after the company reported a net loss of 233.7 billion yen in the financial year to March 2009. It was the first time Nissan had sunk to an annual loss since Ghosn took the helm a decade ago under an alliance with Renault SA of France.

Hit by a collapse in demand amid the global economic crisis, the company's sales tanked worldwide. It expects to sell 3.08 million vehicles in the current fiscal year to March 2010, down 9.7 percent year-on-year.

Ghosn said a prolonged slump in the global market is continuing, with sales projections in Japan, the United States and Europe all looking grim this year.
"Is the worst behind us? I don't know. I cannot tell you," he said. Nissan forecast its global market share will stand at 5.7 percent in the current financial year, up just 0.2 of a point year-on-year.

Nissan shares closed at 571 yen Tuesday, down 4.7 percent from Monday.

How to power heating and A/C in an electric car

The move to battery powered electric cars poses several challenges when it comes to climate control within the vehicle. Gone is the hugely inefficient internal combustion engine who's coolant system can easily be tapped for cabin heating while powering a 3 - 5 kw air conditioning compressor takes on a whole new meaning when your typical EV consumes only 200 wh/mile to drive down the road at highway speeds.

In an effort to improve the energy efficiency of ICEs the US DoE has been funding development projects for Thermoelectric Vehicular Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and for Waste Heat Recovery. There are several approaches to the problem.

The first is localized or zonal heating and cooling. Current vehicular HVAC technology heats and cools the thermal loads of the surrounding structures such as the headliner, windows, flooring, and seat backs in addition to the occupants. These systems consume between 3,500-5,000 W. To reduce this load heating or cooling can be plumbed directly into the seats. These seats are called Climate Controlled Seats (CCS) and usually feature internal ducting, their own blower and a perforated leather surface.

As the seat has direct contact with the occupant it has much higher thermal conductivity compared to air which is a poor conductor. With direct contact cooling or heating load per person could be reduced to less than 700 Watts compared to 5,000 W to heat/cool the entire cabin. Imagine the difference in power requirements between an electric blanket compared to an electric space heater that uses 10x the energy.

Reverse cycle air conditioning

In an EV with no ICE to drive the A/C compressor it has to be driven electrically much the same way as a residential air conditioner. Where some cars today have started to improve fuel efficiency with electrically driven power steering pumps and racks, the 12v electrical system in most cars isn't powerful enough to drive a 5 kw A/C compressor. However, most battery EVs have a 350 volt main battery with more than enough power to drive a compressor. The challenge is to reduce the load so that running the A/C doesn't overly drain the battery and dramatically reduce range.

As with residential air conditioners, variable speed compressors driven by inverters operate more efficiently, mostly because they avoid the high current drain require by repeatedly starting the electric motor driving the compressor. The combination of Climate Controlled Seats and variable speed compressor will reduce loads significantly compared to systems used on ICEs today. Also like residential air conditioners, with the addition of a simple valve, these A/C systems can be run in reverse cycle to provide heat as well as cooling.

Occupant cooling requirement are much reduced to start with in an Ev as the largest heat source in any vehicle, the ICE, is removed. In a normal fossil fueled car the engine, transmission, coolant and exhaust systems are all radiating enormous amounts of heat any time the engine is running. To get some idea, an ICE is only 15% energy efficient at the wheels, meaning up to 70% of the energy in the fuel is converted into waste heat. For every 100 kw of engine power, 300 kw of waste heat energy is produced. A significant percentage of that can radiate into the cabin increasing the need for air conditioning.

In super cold climates where cabin heating is essential, there are several sources in an EV. An electric vehicle is approx 80% energy efficient meaning there is some waste heat available from the power electronics, the motor and battery pack. In production Evs most of these parts have a liquid coolant system so cabin heating can be plumbed in exactly like a conventional car heater system and/or into climate controlled seats.

Effect Thermoelectrics

Another approach to zonal heating / cooling that is in the very early stages of development is the use of Peltier Effect Thermoelectric (TE) devices located in the dashboard, headliner, A&B pillars and seats / seat backs. TE devices convert electrical energy directly into either heat or cold. The DOE Vehicle Technologies (VT) Program has funded selected project teams headed by Ford and GM to develop automotive thermoelectric heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (TE HVAC) systems, using the zonal concept of cooling or heating only the occupants and not the whole cabin.

Current TE devices are very inefficient at around 5-10% compared with 40–60% achieved by conventional compression cycle systems so significant development is still required before TE HVAC could be used in EVs. Most effort is focused on multi-layer Quantum Well Thermoelectric devices originally developed for CPU cooling. Most of the efficiency gains are theoretical at this stage with 15% having been achieved in lab tests and up to 25% being 'possible'. These types of TE HVAC systems under development are being considered where the power to run them is generated from TE systems that generate energy from the waste heat in an ICEs exhaust and cooling system and could make it into production vehicles by 2012 to 2015.

Nissan Plans $1 Billion Electric Car Plant in U.S.

Nissan Motor Co plans to launch production of electric vehicles and their batteries in the United States to tap low-interest loans for green vehicles, the Nikkei business daily said.

The overall investment is estimated at 50 billion yen ($516.4 million) and may rise to 100 billion yen, it said.

Under the plan, the new electric-car assembly lines are to be built at a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, where Nissan North America Inc is based, the paper said.

The facility, capable of making 50,000 to 100,000 eco-friendly vehicles a year by 2012, is expected to first produce a small passenger car, it said.

Nissan also intends to construct a production facility for high-capacity lithium ion batteries at the Smyrna site with NEC Corp.

The company has applied for funding from the U.S. government under a low-interest-loan program to support the automobile industry.

Nissan intends to assemble up to 50,000 electric cars a year in Japan starting in fall 2010, the paper said.

Toyota gets 180,000 orders for new Prius hybrid

Toyota Motor Corp. got 180,000 orders for the new Prius hybrid in Japan in just a month, far surpassing its target of 10,000 vehicles in monthly sales, the automaker said Friday.

The third-generation Prius, which rolled out a month ago, has been a big hit here, partly because of tax-breaks and other new government incentives that are meant to perk growth during the nation's downturn.

The Prius was the No. 1 selling vehicle in Japan for May, clinching the top spot in the domestic market for the first time and overtaking Honda's new hybrid, the Insight, which fell to third after taking the top spot in April.

Competition in the hybrid vehicle market has intensified after the Insight debuted in February in Japan at 1.89 million yen ($19,700). Toyota is offering its new Prius at just over 2 million yen ($20,900), about 300,000 yen ($3,100) cheaper than the previous model. The upgrade has a larger 1.8-liter engine but gets better mileage than the older one.

The new Prius is just starting to arrive in the U.S., where sales for last month totaled just 700. Dealers are still selling mostly the second-generation Prius, making for total Prius sales of 10,091 for May, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said.
Strong hybrid sales are a rare bright spot for Japan's automakers, which have been battered by the global slowdown, a strengthening yen and the U.S. credit crunch.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, which also makes the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, recorded its worst loss in its seven-decade history for the fiscal year ended March.

In Japan, hybrids are now tax-free, delivering savings of about 150,000 yen ($1,500) for a Prius buyer. Other fuel-efficient models qualify for lower savings.

Also helping is a "cash-for-clunkers" program similar to the plan initiated by President Barack Obama, which offers vouchers worth up to $4,500 for a gas-guzzler turned in for a new car in the U.S.

In Japan, people who trade in a car 13 years or older get a 250,000 yen ($2,500) rebate for buying an ecological model. Those without a trade-in get 100,000 yen ($1,000).

Toyota is also continuing to sell the old-style Prius in Japan at the same price as the Insight. That's relatively unusual as manufacturing of old models is usually discontinued with the arrival of the new model. Those sales numbers aren't included in Friday's orders number from Toyota.

But while hybrid sales are booming, demand for other models is plunging.
The overall auto market continues to sag in Japan. Vehicle sales in Japan fell for the 10th straight month in May, dropping 19.4 percent from the same month the previous year, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers' Association.

The decline has been easing from previous months as sales fell 29 percent in April and 31.5 percent in March. Toyota's vehicle sales in Japan tumbled 24 percent in May from the same month a year ago.

Closer look at the Subaru Stella Plug-In electric vehicle

Since Subaru announced the world's first mass production lithium ion battery powered plug in electric vehicle would go on sale next month, a few motoring publications have got their hands on one if only very briefly. Edmunds took it for a spin but the contributor obviously is not up to speed technically on Evs as he kept referring to the cars constantly variable transmission (CVT). As with all Evs the Stella has a single speed reduction gearbox for maximum energy efficiency to the wheels and because the 47 Kw (63 hp) BLDC electric motor has 170 Nm (125 ft/lb) from zero rpm.

Caradvice.com.au took an early prototype for a spin in February and the Stella EV has some interesting features. The gear lever the Edmunds writer was confusing with a CVT is actually use to adjust the level of brake regeneration the driver prefers. With the 'transmission' lever in D the car drives with mild regen. Putting the lever into L engages heavy brake regeneration and the Subaru EV can be driven in city traffic almost completely without using the friction brakes at all.

There are a couple of unfamiliar gauges in the instrument cluster. Replacing the fuel gauge is a battery charge gauge with increments in km. Interestingly it is not a linear scale as while 'full' is 80 km, 2/3rds full equals 30 km range. The second new gauge shows how much power the motor is drawing or returning to the batteries.




The Stella Ev tops out at a max speed of 100 kph (60 mph) which Subaru say helps keep to energy consumption in check and the batteries cool. Seeing as around 100 kph is expressway speed in most countries it seems a reasonable limit for an urban commuter car. The Stella body shell isn't the most aerodynamic we've ever seen and as aero load increases as the square root of speed (i.e. double your speed and you quadruple the wind resistance) the shape of the car, no doubt, has a lot to do with the imposed speed limit.

Range from the small 9.2 kWh battery pack of 90 km (55 miles) is quite impressive when you keep in mind that much like the Chevy Volt, not all the battery capacity is used. In the Volt only 8 kWh of the 16 kWh capacity is actually usable.

It is believed Hitachi Maxell are the suppliers of the high performance Lithium Ion batteries found in the Subaru Stella EV. The battery will accept an 80% charge in as little as 15 minutes or take 4 hours to charge with a 240 volt outlet. Perhaps the best part of owning an EV is how much they cost to run. To 'fill' the Stella will cost less than $1.00 @ $0.10 kWh. The additional weight of the battery only ads 120 kg to the car compared with the ICE version and curb weight is still in the 'lightweight' range of around 1000 kg.

Ten points to Subaru for being first to launch a production li-ion battery powered EV while other car companies, noticeably Toyota, who even in their 3rd generation Hybrid still don't sell either a plug-in or lithium ion batteries.

While some headlines have focused on the relatively expensive purchase price of these new Evs due to the very new technology in the batteries, if you add up your fuel costs with an ICE powered car over the life of the vehicle, in many cases you will have paid more to fuel the car than you did to purchase the car in the first place.


Plug-in Stella specifications:
Dimensions (Length x Width x Height): 3395mm ×1475 ×1660
Curb weight: 1060 kg
Passenger seating: Four
Maximum speed: 100km/h
Per-charge driving distance: 80km
Electric motor: Permanent magnet synchronous motor
Max. power output: 40kW
Max. torque: 150Nm
Drive-train: Front-wheel drive
Battery type: Lithium-ion batteries
Total voltage: 346V
Total energy capacity: 9.2kWh

Navy tests World's most powerful superconductor ship motor

Northrop Grumman Corporation have successfully load tested the most powerful electric motor ever tested by the U.S. Navy and the world’s first 36.5 megawatt (49,000 horsepower) high temperature superconductor (HTS) ship propulsion motor, double the Navy’s power rating test record.

Incorporating coils of HTS wire that are able to carry 150 times the power of similar-sized copper wire, the motor is less than half the size of conventional motors. It will help make new ships more fuel-efficient and free up space for additional war fighting capability.

This system was designed and built under a contract from the Office of Naval Research to demonstrate the efficacy of HTS motors as the primary propulsion technology for future Navy all-electric ships and submarines. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) funded and led the successful testing of the motor.

The Navy has invested more than $100 million in the development of HTS technology, paving the way not only for use in Navy ships but also in commercial vessels, such as cruise liners and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, which can also take advantage of the space and efficiency benefits of HTS motors.

Technical Background

Load testing demonstrates how a motor performs under the stresses and operating conditions it undergoes when powering a vessel at sea. This final development stage of the motor provides engineers and ship propulsion integrators with vital information regarding design options and the operating characteristics of the new superconductor motors.

Significantly, the HTS motors being developed by American Superconductor involve no major changes in fundamental motor technology. The machines operate in the same manner as conventional motors, gaining their substantial advantages by replacing copper rotor coils with HTS rotor coils. The rotors of HTS motors run "cold," so they avoid the thermal stresses experienced by conventional machines during normal operation. The inability to achieve proper thermal management has been a key impediment in developing power dense, high torque motors required for naval and commercial marine applications. Stresses caused by heat in other advanced, high power motors often necessitates costly motor repair and refurbishment.



The 36.5-MW (49,000 horsepower) HTS motor does 120 rpm and produces 2.9 million Newton-meters of torque. The motor is being specifically designed to provide propulsion power for the next generation of Navy warships. A motor of this scale also has direct commercial application in large cruise ships and merchant vessels.

As an example, two 44-MW conventional motors are used to propel the famous Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship. These motors each weigh over 400 metric tons; the 36.5-MW HTS motor will weigh approximately 75 metric tons.

World's most powerful Hybrid locomotive

In our series of articles where we take a look at the worlds biggest electric vehicles in an effort to dispel the myth that EVs have to be low powered vehicles we've already looked at a 3650 hp dump truck, a 24,460 hp Bullet train and a 140,000 hp ship this week we'll look at Diesel electric hybrid locomotive.

Although the V12 Diesel in the GE Evolution Hybrid Locomotive is 'only' 4,400-horsepower, on a typical fully loaded coal train, for example, pulling 100 coal hoppers with 10,000 tons that stretched 2 kilometers (enough to keep a 1 GW coal fired power plant fueled for a single day), up to 5 such locomotive would be used giving a combined output of 22,000 hp with close to half a million newton meter (489,000 Nm) of starting torque from it's AC electric traction motors.

What sets the GE hybrid locomotive apart from the rest is while standard diesel electric locos burn off brake energy as heat through a large roof mounted resistor bank called a rheostat, the hybrid captures the energy dissipated during braking and store it in a series of large batteries. This stored energy can allow operators to draw an additional 2,000 horsepower when needed while reducing fuel consumption by as much as 15 percent and emissions by as much as 50 percent compared to most of the freight locomotives in use today.




The energy dissipated in braking a 207-ton locomotive during the course of one year is enough to power 160 households for that year. In fuel savings the recycling of energy through regenerative braking saves approximately 1 million gallons of fuel over its lifetime or approximately $2.50 million at $2.50 per gallon.

CODE – X solar hybrid power yacht

For the man who has everything, a swiss company called Code-X have developed a boat for maximum exclusivity that uses renewable energy combined with two Formula One spec motors. It's not your average speed boat that requires a low loader semi trailer to be transported on land, while any boat the comes standard with 2 x 710 hp Ilmore V10s is very impressive. Code-X combines those with 2 x electric motors and a deck lined with solar panels.

No specs are provided at all for the EV power system so we have no way of judging if they are anymore than novelty value but solar electric pleasure craft is something we are sure to see more of in the future.


Engines:
2 x electric engines
2 x Ilmor marine combustion engines MV10-710
Configuration : 90 degree V 10
Horsepower : 2 x 710 HP
Torque : 882 Nm @ 4800 rpm
Full throttle rpm range: 5400 - 6300
Capacity: 2 x 8.3 liters
Performance: 90 kn


Source of Energy:
Fossil fuel (2 tanks)
Solar-power

CODE-X

Bosch say ICE to remain unchallenged till 2030

The chairman of automotive components giant Bosch says it will take more than a decade for Electric Vehicles to even “make a noticeable mark” on the world car market and the the internal combustion engine is likely to be "unchallenged in the next 20 years”.

Speaking at an automotive seminar at the company’s Boxberg research center near Stuttgart, Bosch chairman Dr Bernd Bohr says the company estimates that by 2015 electric car sales will account for just 500,000 units annually, from a car production total around 100 million units.

Improved and downsized turbo petrol and diesel engines, their efficiency boosted by as much as 50 percent over today’s designs, will remain the main motive power for cars for at least 20 years, and probably beyond, Bosch believes. They could only possibly be referring to potential fuel efficiency improvements as opposed to energy efficiency which is fairly fixed for an internal combustion engine.

However, Dr Bohyr does believes that electrically powered vehicles will eventually dominate based on simple efficiency grounds. For the oil equivalent of one kilowatt hour of power, today’s internal combustion engine delivers 1.5 to 2.5 km of range, he says, a figure that improves to about 3.2km in a diesel hybrid. Under the same conditions, an electric motor delivers about 6.5km of range.

The major hurdle for electric cars remains the weight and cost of their batteries, says Dr Bohr. Bosch is “working hard” to develop the lithium ion variety it believes has the best development potential for cars, through a recently-arranged joint venture with Samsung.

At present, says Dr Bohr, a li-ion battery that can propel a 1000 kg car for the 200-km range most buyers say they need weighs 250kg and costs around 17,000 Euros, far too much. Bohr is “very confident” that by 2015 it can cut weight by around 30 per cent and cost to by nearly half, figures it believes are approach acceptability for production cars.

Of course Bosch are pushing their own barrow here as they make both diesel and petrol direct injection systems that stand to benefit from a continuation of ICE dominance, they are not a Li-ion battery company.

Their biggest cash cow, ABS and ESP may also be under threat by the move to EVs as computer controlled independent wheel motors will make the use of electro-hydraulics to actively control vehicle dynamic safety systems obsolete.

BOSCH

Koenigsegg to buy Saab and make Quant Electric car

SAAB Automobile is to be sold to Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg. US automaker General Motors has signed a tentative agreement with Koenigsegg to sell its beleaguered unit, GM said in a statement on Tuesday.

Koenigsegg, founded in 1994 by Swedish businessman Christian von Koenigsegg, has just 45 employees and produces 18 Super cars a year for more than a €1 million ($1.4 million) each. Saab Automobile employs about 3,400 people in Sweden and sold 93,000 cars worldwide in 2008.

Reports from Swedish news service Realtid say that Koenigsegg is eager to get their electric concept supercar, called the Quant - which develops 512 hp (382 Kw) and 715 Nm through its twin electric motors - into production, and the company views Saab’s knowledge and facilities as the key.

Developed in partnership with Swedish company NLV Solar AG, specialists in photo voltaics and electrical power technology, the Quant was launched at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year with wild claims of previously unheard of Flow Accumulator Energy Storage (FAES), a thin layer photovoltaic coating over the entire car and 500 km range.



The NLV Quant is a rear-wheel drive, with four-wheel regenerative braking (no details yet on how the front captures energy), ABS and ESP. It is powered by two AC induction electric motors connected to each rear wheel via in-line planetary step down drive, one for each rear wheel with the twin motor layout eliminating the need for bevel gears or a differential.

It will be very interesting to see how much of this concept car technology makes it onto the production version.

WiTricity to charge Electric Vehicle market

We recently wrote about some new wireless charging technologies that broke cover at the 2009 CES and wondered aloud if some of them might make their way into the electric vehicle market, particularly induction coupling whose simple mat like induction coil antenna lends itself to under car charging in parking spots or even at traffic lights. Well, it turns out the CEO over at WiTricity has had the same thoughts and is announcing a WiTricity product at the "First German Electric Vehicle Conference" in Bonn Germany today.

There will be two configurations used to charge Evs. The first being the aforementioned mat form factor that can easily be installed in home garages and commercial parking stations. The second is a vertical antenna that presumably lines up with a cars bumper. The vertical installation being more practical where perhaps embedding a coil in the road surface is not cost effective such as road side or curb parking.

No technical details have been released as yet but we'll keep you posted.

Hyundai Avante LPG Hybrid now accepting pre-orders

Hyundai Motor Co has announced they will accept pre-launch orders for their first hybrid electric vehicle from today. The price of the car will be disclosed before its Korean launch on July 8.

Based on the Avante 4 door sedan, the car is powered by a 1.6-liter 4 cyl engine that runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with a 15kW/105Nm electric motor mated to a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) and powered by lithium polymer batteries.

The car has been specifically designed to run on LPG, which is a waste by-product from refining petroleum, and is often sold alongside petrol at a much reduced price. LPG has a lower energy density than either petrol or diesel, so the equivalent fuel consumption is higher. This needs to be take this into consideration when comparing LPG mpg to gasoline mpg figures.

Hyundai say the LPI hybrid covers 17.8 kilometers per liter of LPG, which according to the company is equivalent to 22.2 kilometers per liter in a gasoline-powered vehicle. That's 42 mpg (U.S.), equivalent to 52 mpg (U.S.) in a gasoline-powered vehicle.

GM and Segway try to reinvent urban transport

General Motors and personal mobility pioneer Segway have revealed a two-wheel, two-seater prototype vehicle they’ve code named Project P.U.M.A (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility). The self-balancing electric “car” is designed to transport two adults in a seated position, and can travel up to 25 and 35 miles (40 - 56 km) powered by large format lithium-ion batteries on as little as $0.60 worth of electricity.

The 300 lb (136 kg) zero-emissions vehicle has a top speed of 35 mph (56kph) and is powered by two electric wheel motors. The control system is based on the original Segway with dynamic balancing and drive-by-wire for acceleration, steering, and braking. It also features vehicle-to-vehicle communications, digital smart energy management and a dockable user interface that allows off-board connectivity.

Pricing wasn't announced but is expected to be one-fourth to one-third the cost of what you pay to own and operate today's automobile. GM said it hopes to have the vehicle in production by 2012. The Segway Personal Transporter debuted with great fanfare in 2001, and has found a niche market, but failed to "be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy," as its inventor, Dean Kamen, predicted. We're not sure that what is effectively a two seater electric wheel chair with a roll cage will fair any better but it's encouraging to see GM actively working on electric vehicles with wheel motors and drive-by-wire automated dynamic controls. It will be interesting to see if those developments are incorporated into more conventional GM electric vehicles in the future.

It's also possible for the technically skilled to build their own open source DIY balancing electric vehicle.

DIY Open source segway

As electric vehciles go, the Segway is certainly a unique way to get around and to the casual observer, the way the device operates might seem to defy gravity. There are quite a few DIY projects around the Internet including standard two-wheeled upright versions, unicycles and one wheeled skate boards that operate on the same self-balancing principle. Now a kind soul named Geoffrey Bennett has released an open source version of the firmware required to operate a ride on robot free, allowing anyone with basic mechanical ability and some electronics skills to build their very own self-balancing transport.

The ride-on robot named "Meta" was built by Geoffrey who openly admits that “hardware isn't my thing” so mechanically it’s of fairly simple construction with dimensions based around the choice of motors and batteries used. It couldn’t be simpler, two pieces of wood, one broomstick some duct tape and miscellaneous parts from the local hardware store.

Basic construction

The basic requirements are two wheels driven by motors, a platform to stand on, batteries to provide power, sensors to detect leaning, electronics to drive the motors and software to drive the electronics. The motors selected for this project are off a used electric wheel chair. The motors come complete with a hub, wheel and gearbox all in a single unit. Some rudimentary brackets can be used to mount these between the two wooden boards. The batteries used are six 12 volt sealed lead acid batteries chosen because they are cheap, heavy for ballast and easy to recharge. These are mounted between the motors on the wood platform.

The sensors used in are an accelerometer, which measure gravity or G and a gyroscope that detects changes in angle. These components may sound exotic and something you might only find in a spacecraft. With many thanks to the auto industry these components have been in mass production for quite some time to be used in safety features such as airbags and stability control. Both the accelerometer and gyroscope chips can be bought for as little as UDS$115 on a small circuit broad from robotics hobby stores.

Affordable electronics

Next on the list of electronics is something to drive the motors. This project uses something called the Open Source Motor Controller (OCMC) and again robots enthusiast web sites come to the rescue with a 50 volt 160 amp DC motor controller being available for USD$169 in kit form. This is a simple H Bridge type motor driver and it uses one for each wheel.

The electronic fun starts with building a circuit to drive those two motor control boards. This circuit needs to take inputs from the accelerometer, gyro and steering joystick, do some calculations and send pulse width modulation signals to drive the motors. To do this we need some computer power but not the kind of PC you are no doubt reading this story on but something with a small faction of the power. This DIY project uses an Atmel 8-bit processor that only has 1kb of ram and 16kb of memory.

Most people are familiar with how a self-balancing ride on robot operates but lets review the basics. The original Segway is a 2-wheeled self-balancing vehicle. To move forward the rider leans forward, to go faster he/she leans forward more. Lean back to slow down, stop and go backwards. To turn twist the handlebars (a joystick in this case). The primary function is to remain upright. If you lean forward, the circuitry moves the wheels forward to try and make the vehicle upright again. The rider is in fact in a controlled fall towards the ground with the vehicle catching the fall. To do this with software requires some complex mathematics called Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) and that’s where the ‘open source’ part of this project comes in very handy. PID is a very well known and often used software technique but well beyond anyone with only a casual interest in mathematics or software development. Luckily there are many free examples available that are no harder to burn onto a small processor than burning a CD.

So if you want a Segway-like steed but don’t want to pay the price and don’t mind the DIY, then join the legion of high schools kids around the world who have made their own for a fraction of the cost and learned a great deal into the bargain.

Follow this link for video, code and a slide presentation on Meta.

KTM SR 85 deuce high performance quadricycle

With Austrian motor bike manufacturer KTM having already announced plans for a production electric enduro bike, we wonder what the chances of seeing the sr85 high performance quadricycle concept in production might be?

Looking like a Formula Ford race chassis minus the nose cone with the power to weight ratio perhaps matching that of a super bike, even if the SR 85 never finds itself road registered it would make a great choice for a one make single seater race series or track day car like an Ariel Atom.

The advantage of making the SR 85 an Electric Vehicle means the EV motor can pack a huge punch in a small and light weight package. For example the 3 phase AC induction motor in the Tesla Roadster has 248 horsepower (185kW) and 276 ft/lbs (375 nm) yet the motor only weighs 70 lb (31 kg) and can fit inside a backpack. The down side of going EV is battery size and weight.

With the relatively short range required for 10 lap circuit races it would be possible to run small li-ion battery packs of similar capacity to those used on the bikes that contested the TTXGP on the Isle of Man. The recent winners of the TTXGP, Team Agni, used 63x 70 AH Kokam Lithium Polymer batteries giving 16 kWh. According to the Kokam spec sheet the total pack weight would have been between 107 – 122 kg. If A123 M1 Li-ion nano phosphate battery cells were used a 16 kWh battery pack would also weigh about the same, 123 kg, almost the same weight as a cast iron block combustion engine.

If the Lithium metal-air batteries IBM are working on come to market we might be looking at super lightweight battery packs. With energy storage of more than 5,000 watt-hours per kilogram, they would reduce the weight of a 16 kWh pack to an almost unbelievable 3 kg.

The organizers of the TTXGP have announced plans to run the event again in 2010 and to include a class for electric cars. Perhaps we will see entires along the same lines as the KTM SR 85.

Irish company claims world’s most efficient solar hot water panel

Irish company Surface Power has launched what it claims is the world’s most efficient solar hot water panel. A report from Silicon Republic states that certification by testing house TUV Rhineland has shown that the innovative product is up to 131% more efficient in morning and evening time and 76% more efficient at midday than other panels.

Surface Power estimates that the product, which has undergone six years of development, has the potential to reduce domestic and commercial hot water bills by up to 70% if insulation standards meet new building regulations.

Unlike the more familiar flat plate solar collectors evacuated tube solar collectors use sets of long double walled glass vacuum evacuated tubes connected to a manifold with a small copper tip inside each tube. A tiny amount of water sealed in each tube is heated by the sun, producing superheated steam which rises to the top of the tube and heats the copper tip. The water to be heated runs past all the copper tips in the tubes via the manifold and then flows down to the storage tank below. The vacuum acts like a thermos flask, retailing up to 97% of the thermal energy resulting in increased efficiency.

Australian Company Hills Solar might contest that claim as they have tested their evacuated solar collectors at up to 163.5% more efficient per m2 over a flat plate solar collector in Australian conditions.

Team Agni Motors wins historic TTXGP

A former newspaper deliveryman and EV motor guru Cedric Lynch have won the world's first Electric Vehicle Grand Prix with a bike they started building two months ago in a shed in London's outskirts. They finished ahead of multi-million dollar US entries Mission Motors (4th) and Brammo (3rd).

The Team Agni X01 has a 16 kWh lithium-polymer-battery, two Agni 95 motors, that combined put out 80-horsepower, all bolted into a 2007 model Suzuki GSX-R600 road bike frame. Rider Rob Barber topped 106 mph during the run.

Underdog inventor Cedric Lynch has been developing his axial flux permanent magnet brushed DC motor for 30 years, since he built the first Lynch motor prototype using baked bean cans for lamination steel. This must seem like just reward after he had his IP stolen and was shown the door by the company who first put his motor into production LEMCO. Lynch had to start from scratch and partnered with Indian company Agni to achieve this historic result.

Team Agni was one of 60 entrants from 15 countries initially registered to compete when the race was announced. Sixteen showed up on the island last week; just nine finished the actual competition.

BEST BUY PRO Class
Pos 1 AGNI X01 (Rob Barber) - Time: 25:53:50 - Speed: 87.434
Pos 2 XXL Racing Team (Thomas Schoenfelder) - Time: 29:04:93 - Speed: 77.841
Pos 3 Brammo (Mark Buckley) - Time: 30:02:64 - Speed: 75.350
Pos 4 Mission Motors (Thomas Montano) - Time: 30:33:26 - Speed: 74.091
Pos 5 HTBlauva (Paul Dobbs) - Time: 36.10.63 - Speed: 62.575
Pos 6 Brunel X-team (Stephen Harper) - Time: 56:27:89 - Speed: 40.092

OPEN Class
Pos 1 Electric Motorsport (Chris Heath) - Time: 34:17:30 - Speed: 66.022
Pos 2 Barefoot Motors (Chris Petty) - Time: 36:23:06 - Speed: 62.219
Pos 3 TORK (John Crellin) - Time: 37:26:01 - Speed: 60.475