Irish Government signs electric car deal with Peugeot Citroën

The Irish Government signed a deal late last week with carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën to introduce two electric vehicles onto the market.

The Memorandum of Understanding will see initially see 50 each of Peugeot’s iOn and Citroën’s C-Zero supplied to the Irish market in 2011.

Prices for the vehicles will be announced in January, when the first vehicles arrive in Ireland. Following the initial shipment, vehicles will be supplied depending on demand.

The Government has set an initial target of having 6000 electric passenger vehicles on the road by 2012 in preparation to achieve 10% of all vehicles (around 230,000) by 2020.

The plans are being supported by Ireland’s main utility, Electricity Supply Board (ESB), which is installing 1500 public charging stations, 2000 domestic charging points and 30 fast charge units by 2011.

“Ireland is one of the first countries in the world to build a nationwide electric vehicle charging infrastructure and to put in place other necessary conditions to facilitate the widespread adoption of ecars,” said ESB’s chief executive, Padraig McManus, at the launch late last week.

From 1 January next year, grants of up to €5000 will be available for the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles.

“We have all the elements in place to be a true world leader in the electrification of private transport,” said Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan. “2011 will be the year electric cars become a common sight on Irish roads.”

China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record

A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.

The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster.

A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past green farm fields in eastern China. It reached the top speed on a segment of the 824-mile (1,318-kilometer) -long line between Zaozhuang city in Shandong province and Bengbu city in Anhui province, Xinhua said.

The line is due to open in 2012 and will halve the current travel time between the capital Beijing and Shanghai to five hours.

The project costs $32.5 billion and is part of a massive government effort to link many of China's cities by high-speed rail and reduce overcrowding on heavily used lines.

China already has the world's longest high-speed rail network, and it plans to cover 8,125 miles (13,000 kilometers) by 2012 and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

The drive to develop high-speed rail technology rivals China's space program in terms of national pride and importance. Railway officials say they want to reach speeds over 500 kph (312 mph).

Branson Says Oil Might Hit $200 Without New Policies

Oil prices may soar to $200 a barrel if the world doesn’t move more rapidly to a clean-energy economy, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., said in an interview.

“It’s certainly conceivable unless we can start to conserve energy quickly and come up with alternative fuels,” Branson said yesterday in Cancun, Mexico, where countries are meeting to negotiate a new accord to combat climate change.

Branson predicts an “unbelievably painful” economic slump if governments don’t do more to encourage renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels such as oil. In the U.S., where efforts to cap carbon-dioxide emissions failed in the Senate earlier this year, unemployment could reach record highs, the British billionaire said.

“We are going to have the mother of all recessions if we don’t sort out our energy policy fast,” Branson said earlier yesterday at the World Climate Summit in Cancun. “We think we’ve got it bad today. In five years time unemployment could go to 15 percent without any difficulty at all in America.”

Branson, 60, spoke alongside U.S. billionaire Ted Turner, founder of Cable News Network. Branson and Turner, 72, also will speak tomorrow at the two-day conference focused on how businesses can help combat climate change.

Balking on Kyoto

Meanwhile, negotiators from about 190 countries are grappling with how to proceed in United Nations-led treaty talks to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Industrialized and developing nations are divided over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Japan, Russia and Canada have refused to sign up for a second round of emissions reductions once the current ones written into Kyoto expire in 2012.

Emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil are “completely unanimous” in their position that developed countries must agree on a new commitment period, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said yesterday. Discord over Kyoto threatens to take attention away from talks for a new global climate agreement that includes the U.S., she said. The U.S. is the only developed nation not part of Kyoto.

Turner urged countries to reach agreement.

“Let’s do it,” he said. “Let’s do it now before it’s too late.”

Nissan's home city seeks to power homes from electric cars

Electric cars are quiet, get great mileage, and don't pollute the air.

But if you ask officials in Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city, an electric car has yet another attribute: it can feed the electricity network.

Because electric vehicles run on batteries, officials believe they could store energy and channel it back into the home or even provide electricity to the community if it was connected to a central grid.

Yokohama is one of four cities in Japan testing the Smart City concept, bringing together power companies, electronics firms and others.

Nissan Motor Co. is providing the EVs and tips on where best to place charging spots around town. In Yokohama's vision, homes and businesses will be connected to a smart grid that combines electricity and telecommunications to make the most efficient use of energy across a community.

Solar panels will be installed on rooftops, and instead of having a separate storage unit, electric cars would capture that energy.

In doing so, the car would run on clean energy and provide power to households when demand arises, the city says.

"Electric cars would play a very important role in this kind of city," said Tetsuya Nakajima, director of Yokohama's Climate Change Policy Headquarters.

Over the next five years, Yokohama, home to Nissan's global headquarters, is aiming to have 2,000 EVs in use in three neighborhoods, comprising 170,000 households and 420,000 residents.

The city, with a population of 3.7 million, is targeting a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 from 1990 levels, and 80 percent by 2050, Nakajima added.

Electric taxis

Nissan also believes EVs could open up other possibilities for car-based transport, such as making taxis more efficient.

"A lot of taxis drive around looking for passengers, and that wastes fuel," said Hideaki Watanabe, managing director of the zero emission business unit at Nissan and its French partner, Renault SA.

Instead, Nissan's central data unit, connected to all of its EVs, could indicate which taxis are free and passengers could "call" them through a reservation center online. Rather than trawling for passengers on the streets, the electric taxis could be parked at charging spots at train stations or hospitals.

Formula 1 set to adopt new 'green' engines in 2013

Formula 1 stakeholders have reached an agreement for grand prix cars to use a new type of 'green' engine from 2013.

The sport will switch from the current 2.4-litre V8s to 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo engines with energy recovery systems and fuel restrictions.

The move is an attempt to mirror the trend towards fuel-efficiency in road cars and to popularise it, increasing public demand for such engines.

The new rules could be confirmed by governing body the FIA on 10 December.

Mercedes and Ferrari had been reluctant to agree to the move as recently as a month ago, believing that it was an unnecessary expense at a time when F1 was trying to reduce costs.
But a spokesman for Ferrari said the rules had been agreed and he would be "surprised" if it was not announced by the world council.

He admitted Ferrari had concerns about the move on cost grounds but added: "An agreement is there, and when there is an agreement you work accordingly."

A high-level source involved in the talks said it was "most likely" that the FIA would announce the move on Friday.

The aim is for the new rules to improve the efficiency of F1 engines by as much as 50%.
Care has been taken to ensure the performance of cars will not be affected and total power outputs will remain at current levels - approximately 750bhp.

By adopting the regulations, F1 hopes to widen its appeal to sponsors - commercial insiders say some companies are reluctant to get involved in F1 because of its image of being wasteful with resources.

The agreement to change the regulations from the 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8s used in F1 since 2006 comes after months of protracted negotiations and it had looked as if the switch might have to be delayed until at least 2014, or perhaps until as long as 2017.

F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone has been firmly opposed to the rule change. He said "We have a very good engine formula. Why should we change it to something that is going to cost millions of pounds and that nobody wants and that could end up with one manufacturer getting a big advantage?"

But the change has been agreed in a series of recent meetings between F1's current engine manufacturers - which also include Renault and private company Cosworth - and the final touches were put to the regulations by a steering group of F1 engineers on Thursday.

It is understood that a series of checks and balances have been written into the regulations to keep costs down and to ensure it should be impossible for one manufacturer to steal a march on the others in terms of performance.

This will primarily be done through resource restriction - such as limiting the amount of people or time that can be devoted to a project.

German car giant Volkswagen has also been heavily involved in the discussions and has privately indicated to F1 insiders that the only way it would consider entering F1 would be if the sport adopted these new rules.

However, sources say VW is giving conflicting messages about whether it will commit to an F1 engine project. If it did enter the sport, it is expected to use its Audi brand.

The regulations will go before the F1 Commission - a group of stakeholders that agrees all rule changes - on Thursday 9 December before being rubber-stamped by the World Council the following day.

The move is a triumph for both F1 teams' organisation Fota and FIA president Jean Todt, both of whom have made increasing the future sustainability of F1 a key aim.

Leading figures in F1 hope that the adoption of the new rules will insulate the sport from charges of wastefulness at a time when supplies of fossil fuels are diminishing and there is pressure for the world to cut its production of greenhouse gases.

The aim is that by associating these energy-saving, fuel-efficient technologies with a glamorous and popular sport, they will become desirable in road cars, where their use is already increasing dramatically.

About 600bhp of the 750bhp produced by the engines will come from the four-cylinder single-turbo engine itself, with the rest being provided by energy storage and power-boost systems.
These systems - known as KERS - were first used in F1 in 2009 before being abandoned for 2010 and are being reintroduced next season.

For 2013, the power capacity of the KERS systems will be increased from 60kw to 120kw.

Fuel consumption will be restricted both by limiting fuel flow and introducing a maximum capacity for races.

The new engines will not do more than 10,000 revs per minute - current F1 engines spin at 18,000rpm.

In subsequent years, complex new turbocharging technology called compounding will be introduced to further enhance efficiency.

The regulations have been framed to encourage the pursuit of efficiency in engine design, dramatically increasing the amount of power that can be produced per litre of fuel burnt.
Those lessons in efficiency can then be transferred to road cars so that considerably less fuel is used for a given amount of performance.

The FIA KERS rules were originally planning to allow four wheel brake regeneration from 2013 but this has been delayed as all teams agreed to not use KERS in 2010.

The KERS regulations were to allow the energy storage limit to be doubled to 800kj (222 wh) by 2011, and KERS was to be allowed on both axles with up to 200kW and 1.6MJ (444 wh) of energy storage per lap from 2013.

Fully Charged Farewell iMiev

This weeks episode of Fullycharged sees Robert Llewellyn say fairwell to his Mitsubishi MiEV test fleet car which has to be returned after a year on loan gathering data.

How It's Made: Nissan Leaf Electric Car (Video)

Quick video tour of the Nissan Leaf assembly line. Includes footage of automated battery pack and electric motor assembly.