Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Hyundai unveils Sonata Hybrid


After showing hybrid concepts over the last few auto show seasons, Hyundai finally shows the real deal with a hybrid version of its Sonata midsize sedan at the New York auto show. The standard Sonata got an update at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, radically restyling it with Hyundai's new fluidic sculpture design language. Now fitted with Hyundai's Blue Drive hybrid system, the car gets significantly better mileage.

The Sonata Hybrid is the first production hybrid to use lithium polymer batteries, which have more power density over nickel metal hydride batteries used in hybrids from Toyota, Ford, and Nissan. As such, Hyundai tuned the Sonata Hybrid to drive at speeds up to 62 mph under electric power alone, with the internal combustion engine turned off. EPA fuel economy, at 37 mpg city and 39 mpg highway, are competitive with the Ford Fusion Hybrid, but not quite up to the level of the Toyota Prius. Hyundai does not say how far the Sonata Hybrid will travel under electric power alone.

Hyundai says that the Sonata uses a fundamentally different hybrid system than that developed by Toyota and Ford. Rather than use a planetary gearset to combine power from an electric motor and internal combustion engine, the Sonata uses a six-speed automatic transmission with an electric motor in place of a torque converter.

The Sonata Hybrid uses a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, running on an Atkinson cycle, along with an electric motor. Hyundai calculates the total power train output at 209 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque, which should give drivers a satisfying experience behind the wheel. Hyundai also points out that the Sonata Hybrid will idle the powerplant if the brake is pushed hard.

Ford team up with Microsoft In Electric Car Venture


Microsoft is working with automaker Ford to develop an application that will help consumers better manage the power required to charge electric vehicles.

The two companies are teaming up to implement the Microsoft Hohm™ energy management application for Ford's electric vehicles. Ford is the first automaker announcing the use of Hohm, starting with the Focus Electric next year. Hohm will help owners determine when and how to most efficiently and affordably recharge battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles. It also should help utility companies manage the added demands of electric vehicles on the electric grid.

"Ford and Microsoft both share a strong commitment to contributing to a better world. Today, we begin the next major step in our working together and leading the way for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability," said Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company president and CEO. "For Ford, this is a needed step in the development of the infrastructure that will make electric vehicles viable."

Both companies agree that effective management of the energy ecosystem is critical for electric vehicles to be successful and for consumer interest to grow. In a recent Accenture survey, 42 percent of consumers said they are likely to buy a hybrid or electric vehicle in the next two years.

Increasing numbers of electric vehicles, however, will have a significant impact on energy demand. That is because the addition of an electric vehicle to a household could effectively double home energy consumption while the vehicle is charging.

Ford and Microsoft agree that making energy management easy and affordable for consumers will be key to the success of electric vehicles in the marketplace as well as in creating a positive environmental impact.

"Electric vehicles will play an important role in the global effort to improve energy efficiency and address the issues of climate change and sustainability," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "But as the market for electric vehicles expands, it will have a significant impact on home energy consumption and demand across the nation's energy grid. With Microsoft Hohm, Ford and Microsoft will deliver a solution that will make it easier for car owners to make smart decisions about the most affordable and efficient ways to recharge electric vehicles, while giving utilities better tools for managing the expected changes in energy demand."

Introducing Hohm to Ford's electric vehicles supports Ford's aggressive global electrification plan, which will put five new electrified vehicles on the road in North America and Europe by 2013. In North America, they include the Transit Connect Electric later this year, Focus Electric in 2011, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and two next-generation hybrids in 2012.

America's largest domestic hybrid seller, Ford Motor Company today has four hybrids on the road and another coming this year. They include the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, Mercury Milan Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid. Also coming this fall is the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, which is expected to be the most fuel-efficient luxury sedan in America.

Life with electrified vehicles – with full battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles needing to be recharged daily – will require consumers to change how they think about personal transportation and energy use.

Hohm, an Internet-based service, is designed to help customers avoid unnecessary expense by providing insight into their energy usage patterns and suggesting recommendations to increase conservation. With Ford electric vehicles, Hohm also will help drivers to determine the best time to charge their vehicle. Smart recharging habits will help utility companies understand and better manage the increased demands placed upon the electric grid because of electrified vehicles.

Ford and Microsoft's participation in the Hohm program builds on the success of their decade-long partnership to provide customers with superior in-car experiences. The Ford SYNC® communications and infotainment system, built on the Windows Embedded Automotive platform, has been installed on more than 2 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles since its launch in 2007, helping drivers connect and voice-control their mobile devices while driving.

Microsoft Hohm is available today for free to all U.S. residential energy consumers and has multiple partnerships with utilities and other stakeholders already in place. Ford is the first automaker to join in collaboration with Hohm.

Ford and Microsoft also plan to continue to work with utility partners and municipalities to help further develop the energy ecosystem. Ford's work includes collaboration with a dozen North American energy companies to road-test a fleet of 21 Ford Escape plug-in hybrid vehicles. The research has accumulated more than 160,000 miles of real-world data, which provided important groundwork for the new Hohm application.

"Rechargeable vehicles represent a new frontier. Their commercialization will take broad-based collaboration and systems solutions," said Mulally. "Working together, Ford and Microsoft will provide the systems solutions to help facilitate this exciting future."

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Mitsubishi to Reduce Price on MiEV in response to Leaf



In an immediate response to Nissan's price announcement for the Leaf electric car, Mitsubishi Motors Corp said today that it will lower the $48,800 suggested retail price of the i-MiEVs its sells in Japan by about $6,700 starting Thursday.

The new price will be $42,130, and Japanese consumers will be able to buy the vehicle for $30,700 by taking advantage of government subsidies.

Nissan Motor Co. announced earlier today that its Leaf electric car, slated to debut in December, will carry a suggested retail price of $40,600, which drops to $32,300 with government subsidies.

Mitsubishi began sales of the i-MiEV in Japan last July to mainly corporate clients, with retail sales to get into full gear Thursday. It plans to make the i-MiEV available in the U.S. starting April of next year.

Some experts point out that the carmakers must lower prices further if they want to popularize electric vehicles, since the government subsidies will not last forever.

"For electric vehicles to really catch on, the actual cost for consumers needs to be 2 million yen or less," said Koji Endo, a managing director at Advanced Research Japan.

In addition, buyers need to wait three to six months to receive the subsidies after filing their applications, according to the entity that handles such payments. So, with tax, consumers need to pay more than $43,000 up front

Nissan Leaf to cost $25K in US after tax credit


Nissan Motor Co., aiming to be the biggest seller of electric cars, said its battery-powered Leaf will cost $25,280 after a U.S. federal incentive, a price that puts it in competition with Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid.

The compact hatchback that arrives in the U.S. in December will have a $32,780 base price, before a $7,500 tax credit, said Trisha Jung, Nissan’s chief marketing manager for U.S. electric vehicle sales. Added incentives, such as a $5,000 rebate in California for electric car buyers, cuts the price even further.

Nissan is delivering an “affordable mass-market vehicle,” Jung said in an interview in Los Angeles yesterday. After five years, including energy costs, Leaf will “end up being about $150 under Honda’s Civic and $1,000 under Prius, before you include any state incentives,” she said.

Leasing the Leaf may be the most appealing option for many U.S. consumers, Jung said. “We’re able to pass along the full benefit of the federal tax in the lease,” she said. “We’re looking at a monthly payment that will be $349, or just $19 over the Civic or Prius.”

Leaf production starts this year in Japan. Nissan will make the first deliveries there in December for a price of 3.76 million yen ($40,650), or 2.99 million yen after a government subsidy of 770,000 yen, the carmaker said today in Yokohama. By comparison, Mitsubishi Motor Corp.’s i-MiEV electric car sells for 4.6 million yen before subsidies. The Prius starts at 2.05 million yen in Japan.

Nissan plans to sell 6,000 of the cars this fiscal year in Japan and begin mass production in 2012, the company said.

The automaker is also preparing to build the small car in the U.S. and the U.K. Nissan promises that the lithium-ion battery-powered model will be able to go 100 miles (160 kilometers) on a full charge.

Nissan starts taking reservations for the Leaf on April 20. Paying $99 buys you a place in line when Nissan starts building the cars in September. The first cars roll into showrooms in December. and the company is aiming for 20,000 advance orders.

Toyota to Raise Stake in Panasonic Battery Venture


Toyota Motor Corp. will increase its stake in a hybrid-car-battery joint venture with Panasonic Corp. to more than 80.5 percent from the current 60 percent, Nikkei English News said, without citing anyone.

Toyota will purchase shares from Panasonic and also buy as much as 15 billion yen ($162 million) in new stock, the report said.

The move follows Panasonic’s acquisition of Sanyo Electric Co. As one of the conditions for allowing that deal, Chinese authorities demanded that Panasonic lower its ownership in the venture, Panasonic EV Energy Co.

Panasonic EV supplies most of its output to Toyota. With the leading Japanese automaker gearing up to launch 10 or so new hybrid models within the next few years, the joint venture is working toward bolstering its output capacity. Its investments in the new factory and planned expansion of production lines are estimated to reach 35 billion yen.

Panasonic EV is planning to triple annual production capacity at its Miyagi factory to enough nickel-metal hydride batteries for 300,000 hybrid vehicles. This will boost the venture’s combined capacity, along with a factory in Shizuoka Prefecture, to enough for 1.1 million vehicles, an increase of 40% from the end of last year.

Nissan to Charge $32,400 for Leaf Electric Car in Japan


Nissan Motor Co., aiming to be the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles, will sell its battery-powered Leaf car from 2.99 million yen ($32,400) in Japan after government subsidies.

The Leaf will be eligible for a 770,000 yen government credit if current incentives continue through fiscal 2010, Nissan said in a statement today in Yokohama, Japan. The company will start taking local orders for the Leaf from April 1 and expects to sell 6,000 units in fiscal 2010 after the first deliveries in December.

The Yokohama-based carmaker will also start selling the Leaf later this year in the U.S. and Europe. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn expects electric cars will make up at least 10 percent of global vehicle demand by 2020.

In the U.S., Nissan, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, will begin taking reservations for the rechargeable hatchback with a $100 deposit next month. A formal ordering process starts in August and the first cars are scheduled for delivery in December.

Production of the Leaf will begin in Japan this year and in Smyrna, Tennessee, in 2012. Nissan said on March 18 it will also build the car in Sunderland, England, starting in early 2013. The factory will have initial annual production capacity of about 50,000 vehicles.

In addition to the government subsidy, buyers of the Leaf in Japan will also be exempt from car-weight tax and the car- acquisition tax, Nissan said.

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid makes race debut


A successful weekend for Porsche at the season-opener of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship: At its race premiere, the new Porsche 911 GT3 R claimed victory, the innovative 911 GT3 R Hybrid debuted with sixth place and Walter Röhrl made his much celebrated comeback after 17 years.

Timo Bernhard (Germany), Marc Lieb (Germany) and Marcel Tiemann (Monaco) are the winners of the first race of the season on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. With the new, 480 hp Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by the Manthey Racing team, the trio drove a trouble-free race. "It is extraordinary to climb to the top of the podium at the first race ever of a new race car," said a pleased Bernhard. His works driver teammate Lieb added: "It seems the new 911 GT3 R has inherited the reliability of all racing 911." With 14.5 and 3.6 seconds respectively, the three Porsche pilots relegated the best Audi RS and the BMW M3 to finish second and third.

The new Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid also gave a promising debut: Porsche works drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Richard Lietz and the former Porsche Junior Martin Ragginger (both Austria) brought home the white/orange racer with its combustion engine supplemented by two electric motors delivering 60 kW each to the front axle in sixth place after a trouble-free race. "I'm positively surprised how well this car performed already at its first race," said Bergmeister. "We tried many things out during the race and will be busy further developing the hybrid drive for the 24 hour race in May. Our aim is to use less fuel than our competitors without compromising performance," explains Lietz.

Double world rally champion Walter Röhrl (Germany) made his much applauded racing comeback after 17 years. Sharing driving duties with Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch (Germany) and Chris Harris (Great Britain) he put the standard 450 hp Porsche 911 GT3 R through a test under race conditions. "The car exceeded my highest expectations and I had a great time at the wheel," enthused Röhrl. "We were able to match the pace of thoroughbred race cars. The 911 GT3 RS was particularly sensational in fast corners and under braking. And the best thing is, if it wasn't so far tonight I could just put our number plate on the car and drive back to Bavaria without a problem."

Round two of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship takes off on 10 April at midday with a duration of four hours.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Toyota to License Hybrid Technology to Mazda in Addition to Nissan, Ford and Subaru



Toyota Motor Corp. said today that it will license the hybrid technologies used in its flagship Prius car to Mazda Motor Co. in an encouraging move for the world's leading hybrid carmaker.

Under the latest agreement, Mazda will procure key hybrid components developed by Toyota such as the electronic control unit and inverter to develop its own hybrid system.

Mazda, in which Ford Motor Co. owns an 11 percent stake, will combine the system with its next generation gasoline engine to launch a hybrid vehicle in Japan by 2013. The company hasn't yet decided whether to sell the model in other markets, a Mazda spokesman said.

Underscoring its leading position in hybrid technology, this is the third time that Toyota has struck a deal on its hybrid business. It is supplying complete hybrid systems to Nissan Motor Co. and has a technology license agreement with Ford.

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru brand cars, also hopes to roll out a hybrid model by 2012 using Toyota's hybrid system. Toyota holds a 16 percent stake in Fuji Heavy.

Producing components for Mazda will help Toyota lower costs through economies of scale. Mazda, which has so far lagged behind in offering advanced fuel-efficient cars, will be able to bring a hybrid car to market in a shorter time by using Toyota's technology.

Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki said at a press conference that the decision to use Toyota's system as opposed to Ford's was because demand for hybrid cars is quickly growing in the Japanese market, sparked by government buying incentives and Toyota's new Prius and Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid car, both launched last year.

"It is an urgent need to introduce hybrid cars in Japan as the market is rapidly expanding," Yamaki said. "We want to develop a hybrid car quickly, effectively and certainly by utilizing domestic suppliers" of Toyota's components.

Mazda had said that it would seek to introduce a hybrid model early in the 2010's.

Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said the latest agreement is in line with the company's strategy that it "will consider requests from other companies to supply our hybrid technology," if asked.

Toyota, which launched the Prius in 1997 as the world's first mass-produced hybrid car in Japan, boasts its hybrid technology with its patents on more than 2,000 systems and components.

Toyota is streamlining domestic production operations to ensure profitability in preparation for a possibly steep drop-off in demand because of the recalls that have tarnished its reputation for quality.

The Japanese car maker manufactured 655,180 vehicles in February worldwide. That was up 83 percent from 358,573 vehicles in the same month last year, when it slammed the brakes on production to adjust for a collapse in demand in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

However, February's output this year was still 15% below the 767,999 vehicles produced in the same month of 2008.

4,548 MPG Achieved at 2010 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas


Extreme mileage was the goal this weekend on the streets of downtown Houston as 42 student teams competed in the 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Americas, a challenge for students to design, build and test fuel-efficient vehicles that travel the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. More than 400 students were on hand to stretch the boundaries of fuel efficiency and participate in the first-ever street course challenge for the Americas event.

So who came out on top? For the second year in a row, the student team from Laval University in Quebec, Canada took home the grand prize with an astonishing 2,487.5 miles per gallon, equivalent to 1,057.5 kilometres per liter, in the "Prototype" category. And in the "UrbanConcept" category, the team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, IN took the grand prize for the second year in a row by achieving 437.2 mpg, equivalent to 185.87 km/l.

The challenge kicked off on Saturday, March 27 with Shell Oil Company President Marvin Odum waving the green start flag and Houston Mayor Annise Parker proclaiming "Shell Eco-marathon Americas Day." With 48 vehicles testing on the Houston street course, competition was steep. This year's challenge brought together a number of returning teams determined to beat the winning 2,757.1 mpg (1,172.2 km/l) achieved by Laval University in 2009, combined with a number of new teams adding fresh innovation and vehicle designs to the competition.

"The competition was tough this year, plus participating on a street course for the first time was a whole new experience for us," said Bruno Leduc of Laval University. "We put a lot of time and energy into our vehicle this year and are very proud of how we did. We are excited to be the Shell Eco-marathon Americas champions again in 2010!"

"The 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Americas is a challenge that brings together high school and college students from across the Americas to push the boundaries and design mobility solutions," said Mark Singer, global project manager for the Shell Eco-marathon. "And, it is a clear demonstration that we're never too young to start making energy innovations and efficiency a priority. It was inspiring to see these vehicles of the future on the streets of downtown Houston this year."

Student teams were invited to participate in either the Prototype or UrbanConcept categories. For the Prototype category, teams entered futuristic prototypes - streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction. For the UrbanConcept category, teams entered more "roadworthy" fuel-efficient vehicles. Aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers, these vehicles are closer in appearance to the cars seen on roads today. For both categories, teams can use any conventionally available energy source - including fuels such as diesel, gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), as well as alternative fuels such as hydrogen, biomass and solar.

The 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Americas roster contained 42 teams from 9 high schools and 28 universities from across the Americas. Additionally, one guest team from Italy joined the roster with their Prototype vehicle.

The Prototype entries included 28 vehicles powered by combustion engines, five by fuel cell/hydrogen technology, two by solar power, and two by diesel fuel. The UrbanConcept entries included six vehicles powered by combustion engines, two by diesel fuel, one by fuel cell/hydrogen and one by solar power.

Category winners for the 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Americas include:

Prototype

Grand Prize - Combustion Engine

With mileage of 2,487.5 mpg (1,057.5 kilometers per liter) the Alerion Supermileage team from Laval University of Quebec, Canada won a US$5,000 grand prize with their vehicle, NTF 4.0.

Fuel Cell/Hydrogen

The Cicero North Syracuse High School team from Cicero, N.Y. achieved 780.9 mpg (331.99 km/l) in its Clean Green Machine vehicle.

Solar Power

The Purdue University Solar Racing Team took first place with its solar vehicle, Pulsar, which achieved 4,548 mpg (1933.5 km/l).

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Does a Lotus Elise use less energy than a Tesla Roadster?



Does a Lotus Elise use less energy than a Tesla Roadster? I would've thought the answer to that question was a fairly obvious NO. An Auckland New Zealand publisher has produced a 168 page report that he's spent 3 years researching that says otherwise "the Tesla electric car is less efficient and more polluting than its petrol sibling and a Tesla would require over 25% more energy than the Elise"

Normally we here at Electric Vehicle News don't re-publish such blatantly ignorant claims but I have exchanged emails with this 'self-appointed expert' on a previous occasion and I'd just like to add some cold hard facts to the debate.

It’s simply impossible for an EV to use more energy than an ICE car. All gasoline fueled ICE powered cars are just 15% energy efficient at the wheels. They’re the road going equivalent of an incandescent light bulb as a product that converts the majority of the paid-for energy it consumes into useless waste heat.

Comparing the Tesla roadster with the Elise is like comparing a 4 cyl against a V8 in performance terms. A standard Elise has a 100kw motor and does 0-60 in 5 sec, a Tesla Sport has 215 kw and does 0-60 in 3.7 sec.

Yet despite the huge difference in performance, in terms of energy efficiency, a Lotus Elise consumes 9.6 Liters per 100 km. The energy content of petrol is 8.89 kwh per liter so to drive 100 km in an Elise requires 85.34 kwh worth of energy or approx 853.4 watt hours per kilometer (wh/km). A Tesla Roadster uses 110 wh/km so consumes only 11 kwh to drive 100 km. That’s 1/7th the amount of energy to drive the same distance. Quite literally the energy required to drive one lightweight, small 1.8L engined, Lotus Elise around town could power seven Tesla Roadsters driving the exact same distance.

So the answer to the question is... a Tesla Roadster in fact uses 87% less energy than a Elise to do the same work, or looking at it the other way the Lotus Elise uses 775% more energy than a Tesla Roadster. That's exactly why EVN will not be re-publishing the fact-free Kiwi report any time soon.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

KTM show off new EV motocross bike



We told you about the KTM EV MX bike in June 2009 and here are the first pictures released of the production version named "freerider".

The idea of the Zero Emission Sport Motorcycle, says KTM CEO Stefan Pierer is primarily to allow sporting motorcycles to be accepted back into urban areas. By eliminating the high noise emissions, it should be possible in future to install off-road parks in close proximity to population centers.

KTM Sales Director Hubert Trunkenpolz says that the purchase price will be at least Euro 10,000. They consider the cost of Li-ion battery to be volatile so a firm price has not been released.

The big task for the development team was to achieve the same performance of the conventionally powered motor cycle with an electric bike. With the help of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) based in Vienna, the team developed a bike with a weight of less than 100 kg and performance similar to a 125 cc two-stroke engine.

Frame and suspension are the current state of the art so are equal to conventional motorized competition. The electric motor delivers 22 kw (30 hp) at 6000 rpm with maximum torque of 43 Nm at 500 rpm. The large spread of the two main points of a power curve should be key to a genuinely fun ride.


Mitsubishi Motors announce MiEV UK pricing



Mitsubishi Motors (UK) has announced the on-sale price of the Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle – the MiEV.

For orders delivered to the customer from January 1st 2011, to coincide with the UK government’s recently announced Consumer Incentive Scheme, the price has been set at £33,699 including VAT ($50,685.14 USD) The government grant will be worth £5,000 off the purchase price of qualifying electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, reducing the price to £28,699 ($43,152.34 USD)

The ultra-low running costs of the i-MiEV are a key advantage over other cars, with additional incentives including:

- Only £115 fuel costs for 12,000 miles driving (£0.96 pence for a full charge)
- Low servicing costs and downtime – only approximately 4 working parts compared to over 300 in a typical internal combustion engine
- Exempt from road tax (saving approx £300 per annum)
- First year capital allowances for fleet vehicles
- Zero benefit-in-kind company car tax
- Lower rate of VAT for domestic electricity
- Exempt from congestion charge (saving up to £2,000 per annum)
- Free parking in many London boroughs and cities such as Milton Keynes
- Expected high residual values due to high demand outstripping supply for several years to come

Mitsubishi’s newly opened Electric Vehicle Centre in Central London has already taken its first orders for delivery in January, and enquiry levels have soared following the Government’s consumer incentive announcement on 25th February

Mitsubishi Motors to Triple MiEV Electric Car Output


Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to produce 30,000 i-MiEV electric vehicles for fiscal 2012, more than three times the number planned for fiscal 2010, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing an unidentified company executive.

Mitsubishi Motors expects to sell 9,000 units in fiscal 2010, compared with 2,000 the year before, the report said. GS Yuasa Corp., which makes lithium-ion batteries for the i-MiEV, will also increase production, the newspaper said.

Monday, March 22, 2010

UK To Launch Largest Global Electric Car Field Test



IBM along with engineering firms Arup and Ricardo UK will be led three studies that will investigate consumer reactions to electric vehicles, the economics and carbon benefits associated with their mass rollout and the upgrades to the electricity grid and recharging infrastructure that will be required to support large numbers of electric vehicles

The research programme will be a part of the world’s largest field test of electric cars, involving 3,000 cars and 11,000 recharging stations across the United Kingdom.

Big Blue said Friday it had hired Energy Technologies Institute to determine the infrastructure changes necessary to support a mass market for electric cars and plug-in hybrids. The test is to begin next year and continue in 2011.

The project is the result of a number of stars aligning. The British government has agreed to kick in 300 million pounds for infrastructure development and is providing grants of 5,000 pounds to consumers who buy the ultra low-emission vehicles. It is possible a billion pounds of investment will ultimately be needed.

The effort hopes to lead to the development of a smart electric grid capable of handling the recharging a large fleet of cars. Some estimates predict electric cars will consume as much power as an average home running air conditioning on a summer day.

Along with examining infrastructure needs, the study will gauge the potential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The charging stations will be installed in London, the South East, the Midlands and the North East.

Also involved in the research will be EDF Energy and Imperial Consultants.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

First Irish on-street electric car chargers usable this month


Ireland's first on-street electric charging points for electric vehicles (EVs) will become operational later this month.

The Irish electric utility Electricity Supply Board (ESB) confirmed this weekend that four kerbside charging points will be available in Dublin from next week, ahead of a nationwide programme that will see 1,500 installed throughout the country within two-and-a-half years.

The four points are located at parking spaces in Dublin city centre: two in Fitzwilliam Street (outside ESB headquarters), one on Molesworth Street and the other on Adelaide Road.

Known as “juicepoints”, the charging stations are tall, narrow columns.

In a system not dissimilar to the dublinbike scheme, users will be required to register and will then be given a personalised electric fob. Recharging an EV at the point could take one to two hours.

Paul Mulvaney, managing director of ESB e-cars, said that this is the first phase of an ambitious project that will see EVs and charging points becoming commonplace during 2011 and 2012.

The semi-State utility company already has agreements with the Renault-Nissan partnership for electric vehicles and is in advanced discussions with other major manufactures including Peugeot-Citroen and Mitsubishi.

“We envisage having 1,500 charging points installed. Our target is to have 2,000 EVs in Ireland by the end of 2011.

“We have really been pushing Ireland as a test bed and have done deals with manufacturers,” said Mr Mulvaney.

“We are a little different from most of Europe in that they are basing their tests in clusters and cities, while we are doing it across the whole country.”

The ESB have not yet settled on a recharging price but Mr Mulvaney said it will be markedly cheaper than petrol.

He said that there will three different types of charging point. The first will be at home where it is estimated that up to 90 per cent of the recharging will be done, using cheap overnight electricity.

A special seven-pin all-weather socket will need to be installed outside homes. The cost of recharging will be circa €2.50 which is about six times cheaper than petrol or diesel.

The second will be the kerbside juicepoint, which will cost more, but still less than petrol. The third will be a high-speed DC charger that will recharge batteries in 20-25 minutes.

DARPA's Solar Powered Radar Blimp to Hover 12 Miles over Future Battlefields


A high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance platform, the Integrated Sensor Is the Structure (ISIS) is a tall order—literally. The unmanned airship, which measures 450 feet in length, will soar 70,000 feet above Earth for up to 10 years. It's not exactly the Goodyear blimp, and—in case you haven't guessed already—it's designed to cover more than the Super Bowl.

ISIS, like all blimps, is filled with helium, but comparisons end there. Hovering in the stratosphere, safely out of range of most surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles, ISIS is designed to provide unsurpassed situational awareness with a surveillance range of 187 miles for individuals on the ground and 373 miles for advanced cruise missiles.

From its parking space in the heavens, ISIS will have an excellent vantage point for surveillance and tracking. For example, objects on the ground can't disappear from the view of ISIS behind trees or mountains. "It's not just point coverage, like a view of a city," says Perry Hamlyn, head of MITRE's Advanced Wireless Electronics department. "You can see significant areas of an entire region."

As its name implies, ISIS features a highly creative design that takes the performance-to-mass ratio to a new level. In comparison with a conventional airship, in which the payload is two or three percent of the system mass, the ISIS payload will approach 30 percent.

An Unmanned Sensor Requiring Less Support

The system study for ISIS began in 2004 at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In essence, ISIS offers more intelligence for less cost. "The whole idea behind ISIS is that the cost of the logistics is reduced considerably," says Weiqun Shi, a group leader in MITRE's Advanced Wireless Electronics division. "You don't have people in the air; you don't have multiple planes to keep an orbit going. Once you've launched an airship, it could be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no humans on board. Think of it as an enormous, autonomous, unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets."

ISIS offers a compelling cost savings over existing reconnaissance aircraft that depend on forward-based logistics. At an airspeed of 60 knots sustained and 100 knots in a sprint, ISIS can deploy globally in 10 days from a permanent ground station in the continental United States. Current costs associated with reconnaissance—a local air base, multiple aircraft for a single mission, air crews, ground crews, fuel supplies, and maintenance facilities—will no longer be required.



New Designs for Enabling Technologies

To develop a stratospheric, airship-based, autonomous, unmanned sensor requires new technologies. The challenge for ISIS is to integrate an extremely lightweight, phased array radar into an airship platform. This involves three enabling technologies: the hull material, active-array antenna, and power system.

The hull material, which has significantly reduced fabric mass over the current state of the art, is a key design feature. It has to be stronger, lighter, and last 10 times longer than conventional hull material. This is a huge task.

Another distinguishing characteristic of ISIS is that the performance of its active-array antenna is based on size, not power. The exceedingly lofty height of ISIS allows the integrated airship-radar to use its aperture—not high power—to meet radar performance requirements. This approach, which exploits the platform's size and at the same time conforms to its limitations on weight and power, allows for the elimination of heavy high-power electronics. In addition, low-power transmit and receive modules based on low-cost "cell phone" technology contribute to the design requirements.

Energy generation and storage present another significant design challenge. ISIS includes novel power systems for the airship that are based on solar-regenerative power. Solar cells collect energy from the sun and create hydrogen and oxygen from water during the day. At night, the hydrogen and oxygen are recombined in the fuel cell, which releases energy that allows the airship to operate after dark. Fuel cells were chosen for energy storage since they offer the best mass-to-energy storage ratio when compared to batteries and other storage systems.

"We developed solar availability and system energy models, performed trade studies, and provided technical support to ISIS from the early concept phase all the way up to the current demonstration phase," says Hamlyn. "Throughout the program, we have been helping the contractors and the government ensure the technical feasibility of the project."

Testing Viability of the Total System

In its capacity as a manager of federally funded research and development centers, MITRE is able to play a critical role in working with the various contractors associated with the ISIS program. "We have been involved in all major technical challenge areas and have influenced the contractors toward viewing the viability of the total system, not just individual parts," says Shi. "For example we have tried to help all those working on ISIS understand how much power the whole system needs and the trade-offs associated with various options."

"Even though each subsystem—airship, radar, and energy generation and storage—is defined individually, we're helping the individual subsystem teams understand the complex interactions," adds Hamlyn. "All the systems have to react appropriately to each other in order to make the ISIS system possible."

The Air Force and DARPA have signed an agreement to develop a small demonstration prototype by 2014. Currently, ISIS is in phase three, which includes demo system design, large-scale integration, high-fidelity flight test simulation, demonstration system build, and flight demonstration. Much more remains to be done between now and the 2014 airship demonstration. "We are looking forward to seeing a revolutionary new ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] capability for the future battlefield," says Hamlyn.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Electric Taxis Debut in Tokyo


Hinomaru Limousine Co. is introducing two Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric taxis into service around Tokyo Station—Tokyo’s first in-service electric taxis.

The new cabs will be available in the Marunouchi, Otemachi and Yurakucho business districts during the daytime on weekdays. The EVs—dubbed ZeROTAXIs—will only take short-haul passengers.

Electrically powered cars are already used for taxi service in some regional cities, such as Okayama and Matsuyama, according to the Nikkei.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Australian Company Prepares to Launch 400 hp AWD Wheel Motor EV


An Australian based start-up company is making final preparations to emerge from stealth mode with the launch of a high performance in-wheel motor powered electric vehicle. Evans Electric, based in Sydney close to the Eastern Creek Raceway, has been hard at work for the last 3 years developing disc type Axial Flux AC Induction wheel motors.

The demonstration vehicle to be launched is a small 4 door sedan based on a well proven model with a long history of World Rally Championship success. The car will feature All Wheel Drive with a 70 kw (95 hp) 3 phase AC Induction disc motor in each of it's 19 inch wheels. The EV sports sedan will be powered by a 400 volt high power density A123 lithium ion Nanophosphate battery pack.

The company is quietly confident that with close to 400 horsepower on tap a 0-60 mph (100 km) time in the sub 3 second region is a realistic performance target.

Stay tuned (subscribe to email or RSS) for more news as it breaks.

Source: Evans Electric

UPDATE

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Honda Plans Li-Ion Hybrid Civic


Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- largest carmaker, plans to introduce lithium-ion battery-powered hybrid cars as it struggles to narrow Toyota Motor Corp.’s lead in sales of gasoline-electric cars.

Honda plans to use lithium-ion batteries in its Civic compact “within the next two to three years,” as well as in its Acura luxury cars and other models, Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo said in an interview.

Honda has failed to match Toyota’s success with hybrids, led by the top-selling Prius. Lithium-ion batteries can store as much as twice the energy of nickel-metal hydride batteries that currently power the Prius and Honda’s Civic, Insight and CR-Z hybrid models, said Takeshi Miyao, a supply-chain analyst for auto consultant Carnorama in Tokyo.

“Lithium will become a lot more prevalent,” Kondo said in a March 16 interview at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo. The lithium-ion batteries will be produced with Honda’s joint- venture partner, Kyoto-based GS Yuasa Corp., starting in the second half of this year, he said. The venture is 49 percent owned by Honda.

Honda fell 1.5 percent to close at 3,200 yen in Tokyo trading.
“With lithium-ion being used in upcoming electric cars, Honda may be switching to the new technology to compete,” said Mitsuru Kurokawa, an analyst at consulting company IHS Global Insight in Tokyo.

Insight Misses

Honda’s Insight hybrid fell short of the company’s global sales target of 200,000 units in the first year after its February 2009 debut. Deliveries totaled 143,015 as of last month.

Toyota’s third-generation Prius replaced the Insight as the best-selling car in Japan after its release last year. Toyota sold 27,008 Priuses in February, compared with Honda’s 3,517 Insight deliveries.

In the U.S., Toyota sold 7,968 Prius cars last month, compared with Honda’s 2,014 Insights. The hybrid version of the Civic sold 346 units. The larger Prius is more fuel-efficient than Honda’s hybrids, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

Honda Chief Executive Officer Takanobu Ito said in July the carmaker is developing a new hybrid system to be installed in mid- to large-size vehicles. The company will also add a hybrid version of its Fit subcompact later this year.

Cost Savings

While similarly sized lithium-ion batteries may cost 30 percent more than nickel-metal hydride cells, carmakers may be able to find savings by using smaller packs because of their higher energy density, Miyao at Carnorama said.

Lithium-ion costs will also decline as technical advances are made and production increases, according to research company Fuji Keizai Group.

Nissan Motor Co. will roll out its first lithium-ion battery-powered car, the Leaf, this year in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn predicts electric vehicles will account for 10 percent of global car sales by 2020.
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Subaru unit and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. introduced electric vehicles last year. Mitsubishi will start delivering its 4.6 million yen ($51,000) i-MiEV to retail customers next month.

Toyota plans to begin retail sales of a lithium-ion powered plug-in Prius in two years. The company will also start selling a short-distance all-electric car in 2012.
Separately, Honda’s Kondo said he expects overall vehicle demand in the U.S. to rise to between 11 million and 12 million units this year from 10.4 million in 2009. That’s still lower than the 13.2 million sold in 2008.

Honda’s U.S. sales in the first 10 days of March were up almost 20 percent from a year earlier, Kondo said. For the full month, sales will likely exceed the 13 percent growth posted in February, he said.

Electric Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 40 Days


Replacing chemical rockets with electric motors could cut the 6 month travel time between Earth and Mars by 75%. A company called Ad Astra has successfully tested a 200 Kw proto-type electro-magnetic thruster at full power and says a 20-megawatt engine could propel human missions to Mars in just 39 days.

A VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) sometimes referred to as Electro-thermal Plasma Thruster or Electro-thermal Magnetoplasma Rocket, capable of reaching speeds of up to 126,000 miles per hour, uses radio waves to ionize and heat a gas such as argon, xenon, or hydrogen to 51.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (11 million degrees Celsius) contained and directed by a magnetic field to accelerate the resulting plasma and generate thrust.

We've had a look at Plasma Jet Engines possibly replacing fossil fueled jet turbines in commercial aircraft and it seems Plasma motors are the preferred option for NASAs future propulsion systems. Although a VASIMR is not suitable to launch payloads from the surface of the Earth due to its low thrust to weight ratio, they are well suited to act as an upper stage and can reduce the fuel requirements for in-space transportation, in some applications they are one-twentieth the cost of operating chemical rockets.

As with a Plasma Jet Engine, the electrical power source may be a challenge. As a station keeping motor on the International Space Station (ISS) the VASIMR could maintain the ISS's orbit without requiring any additional fuel as the motor would be powered by the Stations solar panels and use hydrogen as the propellant gas which is already generated as a waste product on the Station.

While the 200-kilowatt prototype VASIMR engine will suffice for ISS station keeping, the distance between the Earth and Mars varies between 35 and 250 million miles (55 million and 400 million kilometers) depending on their points of orbit, so a 20-megawatt plasma rocket is required for a human flight to Mars. Solar isn't really an option at these power levels. The entire solar array on the ISS generates 120 kW. Using Solar to generate 20 MW would require an array 160 times the size and it would produce less energy as the spacecraft traveled further away from the sun so the only option is a Nuclear power source.

The VASIMR is expected to be put to work on the ISS for orbit re-boosting duty in late 2013 or early 2014.

Ad Astra Rocket Company

Nissan to build 50,000 Leaf EVs a year in Sunderland UK


The Japanese carmaker said today the Leaf will be the world's first mass-produced zero-emission car. Around 50,000 will be made in Sunderland each year, as well as 60,000 batteries, creating more than 550 jobs.

Production of the five-seater hatchback, due to be launched next March will begin in 2013 in Sunderland and forms part of a £420m investment by the Japanese company in its UK operations.

Sunderland had been tipped as favourite for European production of the Leaf since Nissan sited its electric car battery plant nearby. Founded in 1984, Nissan's Sunderland factory employs around 4,000 people.

Nissan's investment will be supported by a £20.7m grant from the UK government and a proposed finance package from the EIB of up to £197.3m.

Andy Palmer, senior vice-president for Nissan's global electric vehicle strategy, said: "Thanks to the UK's firm commitment to a low-carbon future in terms of infrastructure, customer incentives and educational programmes, the Nissan Leaf will be built at Sunderland, making the UK the third country in the world to produce this revolutionary car."

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Regenerative shock absorber recovers energy from bumps in the road


In the past decade, regenerative braking systems have become increasingly popular, recovering energy that would otherwise be lost through braking. However, another energy recovery mechanism that is still in the research stages is regenerative suspension systems. This technology has the ability to continuously recover a vehicle's vibrational energy dissipation that occurs due to road irregularities, vehicle acceleration, and braking, and use the energy to reduce fuel consumption.

We have reported on Regenerative shock absorber developments including Linear tubular electric motors and hydraulic actuator based systems

In a recent study, Professor Lei Zuo, Brian Scully, Jurgen Shestani, and Yu Zhou, all mechanical engineers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, have designed and tested a retrofit regenerative shock absorber that recovers a vehicle's vibrational energy. The researchers built a 1:2 scale prototype of the regenerative shock absorber, and demonstrated its ability to harvest 2-8 watts of power during typical driving conditions at a speed of about 45 mph. They predict that a full-scale system on a four-wheel car should be able to recover up to 256 watts under these driving conditions.

“For typical driving conditions, we are predicting the ability to harvest approximately 64 watts per wheel, for a total of approximately 256 watts,” says Zuo. “This value increases considerably when the system is used on irregular roads.”

The purpose of the shock absorber in a vehicle's suspension system is to reduce the vehicle’s vibration by dissipating the vibrational energy. About 10 years ago, researchers began looking into recovering the vibrational energy using various magnetic devices. In general, these systems work by first absorbing the kinetic energy of suspension vibration between the wheel and a sprung mass, and then converting that energy into useful electric power.

Zuo and his team’s shock absorber consists of two tube-like components: a smaller magnetic tube slides inside a larger, hollow coil tube. The coil component is made of copper coils wound around a plastic delrin tube, while the magnetic component is made of ring-shaped magnets separated by ring-shaped magnetically permeable spacers. The magnets are aligned with like-poles facing each other to produce a radially emitted magnetic flux. The magnetic tube is also surrounded by a high magnetically permeable material in order to further “pull” the magnetic flux outward. As Zuo explained, having a high magnetic flux is key to the design.

“The power we regenerate is proportional to the square of the magnetic flux across the coils,” he said. “Therefore, if we increase the flux by two times, the peak power output will increase by four times.” 


When placed in the vehicle suspension, vibrations in the suspension cause the coil tube to move relative to the magnetic tube. As the copper coils move inside this magnetic field, a voltage is generated. The electricity can then be used to recharge the vehicle’s battery.

By recovering the vehicle’s vibrational energy and using it to drive the vehicle, the researchers hope that regenerative suspension system technology will be able to increase fuel efficiency and cut down on pollution. They note that, in the US, automobiles are a major source of several pollutants in the atmosphere, including 70% of the carbon monoxide, 45% of the nitrogen oxide, and 34% of the hydrocarbons. Further, fuel efficiency has lots of room for improvement: currently, only 10-16% of a vehicle’s fuel energy is used to drive the vehicle, i.e. to overcome the resistance from road friction and air drag. The rest is lost due to braking, vibrational energy dissipation, and other forms of loss.

“Regenerative braking harvests large amount of power in a very short time, in an intermittent manner,” Zuo said. “However, the regenerative shock absorbers can harvest the power in a continuous way. On the smooth highway road, the regenerative shock absorbers can improve the fuel efficiency by 2%, and on bumpy roads up to 10% increase can be expected.”

In the future, the researchers plan to increase the energy density and efficiency of the system by further increasing the magnetic field intensity and improving the harvesting electrical circuit. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will provide funding to support Zuo on this research and development work.

“We believe there is still room for improvement in the overall design of the regenerative system, and we are working on such improvement under funding support from NYSERDA,” Zuo said.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Honda take 8,000 CR-Z Hybrid Orders in First 3 Weeks


Honda Motor Co. said today it had received about 8,000 orders for the CR-Z sporty hybrid car in Japan after less than three weeks on the market, or eight times the monthly sales target of 1,000 units.

The two-door compact, which went on sale in Japan on Feb. 26 at a cost 2.27 million yen (roughly $25,340), is the second in a line of low-cost hybrid cars from Japan's No. 2 automaker and is scheduled for launch in North America and Europe this summer.

Honda has said it expects to sell 40,000-50,000 of the CR-Z a year worldwide.

Of the orders received in Japan, 40 percent of customers chose the six-speed manual transmission version in what Honda officials said indicated a popularity among sports car enthusiasts. Nearly 100 percent of cars sold in Japan are automatic.

Honda trails Toyota Motor Corp. by a wide margin in hybrid sales, with the low-cost Insight selling just 3,500 units last month, compared with 27,000 for its rival's flagship Prius.

It should be noted that Honda sold some 18,000 Insight hybrids in that model's first month on the Japanese market about this time last year. That was 3.6 times the 5,000-a-month sales target Honda had set for the model.

But since then, the Insight has not sold as well as Honda had planned, tallying 136,000 sales globally in its first year versus the original goal of 200,000. As a result, Honda set its sales sights lower for the CR-Z.

The CR-Z has been criticized for being a weakling (122 horsepower and just 128 pound-feet of torque) and for so-so fuel economy for a small hybrid (36 miles per gallon city, 38 mpg highway). The 2010 Insight has been EPA rated at 40 mpg city and 43 mpg highway.

Valmet Automotive's new Eva electric concept vehicle


The new electric concept vehicle of Valmet Automotive got its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show on March 2–14th. "Eva" represents the company's latest knowhow in new ecological vehicle technologies.

The concept vehicle is a 2+2 seat electric city car with a range of up to 160 km per one charge. In engineering the vehicle, lightweight and safe body structures have been combined with innovative electric and recharging systems.

Fortum, a leading energy company focusing on the Nordic countries, Russia and the Baltic Rim area, brought to the project its extensive knowhow in recharging systems. Thanks to the cooperation with Nokia, the car is equipped with a pioneering Human Machine Interface through mobile handset connectivity. The booth will also showcase a demo based on NAVTEQ's high-quality map data and content which enables green routing and driving functionality use cases.

Valmet Automotive is a forerunner in engineering and manufacturing electric vehicles. Already last year the company started the series production of one of the world's first urban electric vehicle, the THINK City, as well as the luxury Golf Car Garia. Valmet Automotive is also an engineering and manufacturing partner of the world's first premium plug-in hybrid electric vehicle Fisker Karma. The production of the Karma will start later this year.

The manufacturing of Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman represents Valmet Automotive's experience and recognized know-how in the production of premium vehicles.

In line with its new strategy, Valmet Automotive today offers to its automotive customers a large portfolio of services from product and process engineering up to series manufacturing and business services.




Monday, March 15, 2010

CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology: Australia’s Temp has Risen 0.7 °C Since 1960, Climate Change is Real



In a joint CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology statement released today, Australia’s two lead climate science agencies have produced a snapshot of the state of the climate to update Australians about how their climate has changed and what it means.

Changes observed include:

* Highly variable rainfall across the country, with substantial increases in rainfall in northern and central parts of Australia, as well as significant decreases across much of southern and eastern Australia.

* Rapidly rising sea levels from 1993 to 2009, with levels around Australia rising, between 1.5cm and 3cm per decade in Australia’s south and east and between 7cm and 9cm in the country’s north.

* About half of the observed reduction in winter rainfall in south-west Western Australia can be explained by higher greenhouse gas levels.

Bureau of Meteorology Director Dr Greg Ayers said the observed changes showed climate change was real.

“Australia holds one of the best national climate records in the world,” Dr Ayers said.

“The Bureau’s been responsible for keeping that record for more than a hundred years and it’s there for anyone and everyone to see, use and analyse.”

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Megan Clark said the Bureau data underpinned a great deal of CSIRO research.

“Understanding options for mitigation and adaptation are important research priorities for us,” Dr Clark said.

“With this snapshot, Australians will be better prepared for the next step of planning for how to adapt to a changing climate and how to also take action to reduce the impacts of climate change. CSIRO has been working with industry and in sectors of the economy such as agriculture to prepare for and implement necessary changes.”

Dr Ayers said the snapshot presented the facts in an accessible format.

“There is a thirst for good quality climate science and our two organisations are proud to publish this,” he said.

Full Report

Japan targets global electric car standard


Toyota and three other Japanese automakers together with a power company have set up a group to promote electric vehicles by standardizing recharging machines and marketing the technology abroad.

Representatives of Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Fuji Heavy Industries and Tokyo Electric Power Co gathered at a Tokyo hotel yesterday to announce the association, which includes about 160 businesses, some of them foreign, and government organizations.

The officials said the time may have arrived for electric vehicles to really take off not only in Japan but also around the world as concerns grow about emissions and dependence on oil. But the main hurdles that need to be overcome are better battery technology, costs and having recharging stations in convenient locations.

“Automakers are competing in many aspects, but the entire industry needs to come together and offer convenience for our customers,” Nissan chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga said.

Nissan is planning to start selling in limited numbers an electric vehicle called Leaf later this year, and Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy already have electric vehicles on the market. Toyota has begun offering for rental a plug-in version of its gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

However, electric vehicles still remain largely experimental. The main users now are government-related groups with only a niche market among regular consumers.

The Japanese government has made reducing greenhouse gases a pillar of its policy, and encouraging electric vehicle use is seen as a key way that can be achieved.

“Please make this an all Japan effort,” Teruhiko Mashiko, the economy minister, told the crowd.

The group is still working out the details of its recharging platform. Standardization would require all makers to agree on the voltage, outlet and other aspects of the technology while also ensuring relatively speedy recharging.

Although some participants expressed hopes the standard would spread internationally, Toyota executive Koei Saga said that was “close to impossible” because of different needs and uses overseas.

“It is key that recharging infrastructure becomes standard,” Saga told reporters. “But look at how electrical outlets are all different, even just in Europe.”

Among the other businesses in the group are Pacific Gas and Electric Co, French carmaker PSA, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp and KDDI Corp, a major Japan telecommunications company.

Conspicuously absent among the top members is Honda Motor Co, whose participation was limited to its research unit. Honda has not been as aggressive on electric vehicles as Nissan or Mitsubishi, focusing instead on fuel cell vehicles, which it already leases in small numbers, as a clean technology.

The association is called “CHAdeMo,” which comes from the words “charge” and “move,” and sounds like Japanese for “Care for some tea?”

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Audi expects 5% of its car sales will be electric models


About 5 percent of Audi's new-car sales could be electric models in 10 years, the brand's technology chief Michael Dick said.

At the Geneva auto show last week, Audi unveiled the A1 e-tron, a nearly production-ready concept developed from its new A1 subcompact.

The A1 e-tron is the third electric car concept from the German brand. Audi unveiled larger e-tron cars at the Detroit auto show in January and in Frankfurt last year.

Audi has already said it will bring an e-tron sports car to market in 2012. A prototype will soon be tested and Audi will head into intensive trials with three to four vehicles by the end of the year, Dick said.

Audi's management board hasn't officially made a decision on the A1 e-tron, but it's very likely that the concept will be built, Dick told Automobilwoche. He expects a three-year development period.

The range of the 102-hp A1 e-tron is about 50km in city traffic. A small single rotor Wankel engine achieves an additional range of 200km. When needed, the engine charges the lithium ion battery like a generator.

Audi is developing components and systems that could also be used in smaller electric cars. For example, the battery cell is the same for both the A1 and a larger e-tron sports car concept.

Dick said that, with its e-tron range, about 5 percent of Audi car sales could be electric models by 2020. Audi sell around 1 Million cars each year so they are talking about selling 50,000 EVs per annum.

Delta Motorsport to enter X Prize with E4 Coupe


Delta Motorsport’s E4 Coupe is a contender for the X-PRIZE, an eco competition that searches for the “greenest” cars in the world.

Delta Motorsport is the only British/European company that has submitted an entry to this contest. The winner gets a $10 million prize fund from US insurance company, Progressive Insurance. To qualify, vehicles must be designed for mass production, be capable of at least 200 miles per charge and comply with certain braking and usability standards. Delta Motorsport hopes that its E4 Coupe, a zero emission four-seater, is up for the task.

Delta Motorsport, based at the Silverstone Circuit Technology Park in Northamptonshire, was founded in 2005 by Simon Dowson and Nick Carpenter, who say their first four-seater road car will be completed in April. They say they will have taken the E-4 Coupe from computer to production in just three months.

Design-judging rounds of the X-Prize competition have already taken place; Delta is now planning to take the E-4 to the Michigan International Speedway, where it will undergo safety inspections and "dynamic evaluations".

Further heats will take place throughout the summer, with entries being eliminated at each stage. The winner will be announced in September, in Washington. Delta says the project was made possible by support from the East Midlands Development Agency, with a £235,000 grant for research and development.

When the firm was invited to a reception at 10 Downing Street as one of 100 firms embracing "clean" technology, Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the E-4 Coupe as being "at the forefront" of the UK's transition to a low-carbon economy, and said that Delta's innovation and expertise showed why the UK was "one of the best places in the world for low carbon business".

The car can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in under 5 seconds, and reach a top speed of more than 100 mph. These figures match some of the top performance vehicles.

Simon Downson, one of the company’s co-founders, said that Delta Motorsport is involved with the design of environmentally friendly vehicles because it faces many of the hurdles related to motorsport.

This includes maximum efficiency, light weight, good aerodynamics, etc. Downson divulged that the company collaborated with Oxford University on a lightweight, highly efficient electric motor. In fact, they have completed several road haulage aerodynamic programs to improve fuel efficiency.

It appears that the competition has very high standards, as there have been several upcoming “green” vehicles made by huge automotive firms that failed to meet its requirements. You’d be surprised to learn that the Ford Escape, Renault ZE and Nissan Leaf all didn’t make the cut. None of the teams that participate in the contest are from multi-national companies.

Follow Delta Motorsport’s progress on their blog

A123 Systems to make batteries for Navistar electric trucks


Battery technology company A123 Systems Inc. will be making its lithium ion battery systems for electric vehicles for truck company Navistar International Corp. under a new deal that will provide the batteries to a joint venture between Illinois-based Navistar and British company Modec Inc.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies did state that the batteries for the joint venture — called the Navistar Modec Electric Vehicle Alliance — will be made in A123’s new facility in Livonia, Mich., planned to open this month.

Watertown’s A123 will create and manufacture the battery systems for Navistar’s EV, which will be a completely new truck design, instead of converting an existing, conventional fossil fuel powered truck. Alliance officials say the Navistar EV can possibly cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 10 tons annually, when compared to an equivalent diesel-powered truck. The new electric truck is scheduled for launch in mid-2010. Using A123’s battery pack, the truck will be able to run approximately 100 miles on electricity before needing to be recharged.

In August of 2009, A123 Systems landed $249.1 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding to construct the Michigan manufacturing plant to build and package batteries for electric vehicles. In September, the company went public in a $378 million IPO, at an offering price of $13.50 per share, well above the initial projection of a range of $9 to $9.50. In December, A123 finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy for another $250 million, this time a construction loan, for the new plant.

With nearly 1,700 employees, A123 Systems lost $22.8 million on the third quarter of 2009, on revenue of $23.6 million.

BorgWarner eGearDrive Transmission Propels 2011 Ford Transit Connect Electric


BorgWarner's 31-03 eGearDrive™ transmission will propel the 2011 Transit Connect Electric, Ford's first all-electric production vehicle based on the global Transit Connect, the 2010 North American Truck of the Year. Targeted at urban delivery fleets, the all-electric commercial van will reach a top speed of 75 miles per hour and offers a range of up to 80 miles on a full charge. Ford's Transit Connect will be upfitted to an all-electric model by Azure Dynamics, which will install its electric propulsion system driving the front wheels through BorgWarner's eGearDrive™ single-speed transmission. Adapted in collaboration with Azure Dynamics, the eGearDrive™ transmission delivers high torque capacity, high efficiency, and low noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) in a compact package.

"With this latest application, BorgWarner's eGearDrive™ transmission is proving its broad adaptability to a variety of electric propulsion vehicles, from high-performance roadsters to sedans to commercial vans," said John Sanderson, President and General Manager, BorgWarner Drivetrain Systems. "Partnering with Azure Dynamics allows both companies to build on their legacies of innovation, driving growth in environmentally friendly solutions that also deliver efficiency and performance."
Named a finalist for the 2010 Automotive News PACE Awards, BorgWarner's eGearDrive™ transmission incorporates patented and proprietary technology as well as over 100 years of powertrain know-how. Through its high-efficiency gear train and compact, low-weight design, the BorgWarner eGearDrive™ transmission contributes to extended battery-powered driving range which in turn reduces the required amount of battery capacity needed. The transmission also achieves high torque capacity in a compact package with greater than 97% efficiency, while providing smooth, quiet operation. Approximately 99% of the materials used in the eGearDrive™ transmission are recyclable.

BorgWarner Drivetrain Systems produces highly engineered drivetrain technologies for the global vehicle industry. Key product segments include: dual clutch modules; wet friction clutch components and systems; mechatronic transmission control modules; electro-hydraulic solenoid valves; mechanical clutch assemblies; all-wheel drive couplings, transfer cases and software/controls; and electric vehicle transmissions. These systems improve fuel economy and performance while enhancing vehicle stability. BorgWarner Drivetrain Systems is a trusted supplier to virtually every major light vehicle and automatic transmission producer in the world today.

Auburn Hills, Michigan-based BorgWarner Inc. is a product leader in highly engineered components and systems for vehicle powertrain applications worldwide. The FORTUNE 500 company operates manufacturing and technical facilities in 59 locations in 18 countries. Customers include VW/Audi, Ford, Toyota, Renault/Nissan, General Motors, Hyundai/Kia, Daimler, Chrysler, Fiat, BMW, Honda, John Deere, PSA, and MAN.

BorgWarner will supply its 31-03 eGearDrive™ transmission (left) for Ford's first all-electric production vehicle, the 2011 Transit Connect (right), a 100% electric version of the 2010 North American Truck of the Year. Vehicle photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Spike in Prius complaints may not be all it seems


Reports of sudden acceleration in the Toyota Prius have spiked across the country. But that doesn't mean there's an epidemic of bad gas pedals in the popular hybrid.
Experts on consumer psychology say the relentless negative media attention Toyota has received since the fall makes it much more likely that drivers will mistake anything unexpected — or even a misplaced foot — for actual danger.

"When people expect problems, they're more likely to find them," said Lars Perner, a professor of clinical marketing at Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California.

In just the first 10 weeks of this year, 272 complaints have been filed nationwide for speed control problems with the Prius, according to an Associated Press analysis of unverified complaints received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

By comparison, only 74 complaints were filed in all of last year, and just eight the year before that.

For problems with the brakes, rather than the gas, the figures are even more stark: 1,816 filed so far this year versus just 90 in all of 2009 and fewer than 20 in every other year of the last decade. Toyota recalled 440,000 Priuses on Feb. 8 because its antilock brakes seemed to fail momentarily on bumpy roads.

It's doubtful the Priuses of the past two years suddenly became more dangerous than those made in years past. After all, Toyota's own recall for Prius floor mats that can trap gas pedals covers model years 2004 to 2009.

Earlier this week came one of the most high-profile case of any Toyota problem so far: A man driving on a Southern California freeway said his 2008 Prius sped out of control, reaching 94 mph, before a patrol officer helped him bring it to a stop.

Then, in suburban New York, the owner of a 2005 Prius said his housekeeper was driving it forward down the driveway when the car lurched forward, crossed the street and hit a stone wall.

"She appears to have all her faculties," Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison, N.Y., police said of the housekeeper Wednesday. "She didn't appear to be disoriented in any way. There's nothing at this particular time that would indicate driver error."

Investigators from the federal government and Toyota are looking at both cases, and authorities have not suggested either case is anything but legitimate.

Toyota has continually said it has found nothing wrong with its electronic throttle controls and that it is confident they work properly.

The automaker has recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems.

Electronics experts say the computers, sensors and wires that control the throttle can be compromised by electronic interference. Toyota insists the problems with its cars have been mechanical.

Toyota has a "quite lengthy" procedure for its specialists when they evaluate cars, including a diagnostic check, an oscilloscope to test electronics and a checklist of potential problems, spokesman Brian Lyons said.

The 2008 Prius, the model involved in the California freeway runaway, would have been equipped with a backup mechanism designed to cut power to the wheels if the gas and brake pedals are depressed at the same time, Toyota says.

The driver, James Sikes, said he jammed the brake repeatedly, even stood on it, before he was able to bring the car under control.

A Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said Toyota engineers talked with Sikes on Tuesday, but he did not know what was said in the interview.

Toyota's engineers, as well as investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will check physical evidence from the Prius and compare that with what Sikes said in the interviews, Hanson said.

The government does not give statistics on how many of the reported car problems are actually confirmed. Toyota keeps its own stats — and, perhaps not surprisingly, does not release them.

So there's no way to know how many runaway cases are for real — even as the figures pile ever higher. The phenomenon has plenty of parallels.

In 2003, thanks to a media blitz by the police union, New Yorkers were convinced the cops were on a ticket-writing spree, for everything from sitting on a milk crate to resting on the steps of subway station. It turned out tickets were actually on the decline.

Think of medical students who learn about all sorts of disorders and then suspect they may be stricken by them. Or muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens, who competed for police scoops with his fellow newspapermen and once wrote: "I enjoy crime waves. I made one once."

Even the heightened number of complaints is relatively small compared with how many Priuses are on the road. Toyota sold about 750,000 of them from 2004 to 2009.
But as long as reports of Prius profile keep rolling in — just look at the extensive coverage given to a single crash in that New York suburb, something that would have gone utterly unnoticed a year ago — expect complaints to keep rising.

"We are basically anticipating them happening, and we may be prone to jump to conclusions," said L.J. Shrum, a marketing professor who specializes in consumer psychology at University of Texas at San Antonio.