Japanese Professor Shows Rare Earth-Free Electric Car (Video)
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Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Japanese Professor Shows Rare Earth-Free Electric Car (Video)
Monday, March 21, 2011
A Closer Look At The World's Most Expensive Hybrid Car
We’ve known for some time that Porsche’s 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept from the 2010 Geneva Motor Show would eventually enter production but today, more than two years out from its debut, Porsche has announced that the order books have officially opened. We can confirm that the production 918 Spyder will cost $845,000 here in the U.S., easily making this the most expensive hybrid car currently on sale.
That’s not at all surprising given its 918 unit exclusivity, or its 718 horsepower on tap. Oh, and did we mention that its fuel economy will come in at around 78 mpg (initial estimate based on European combined driving cycle)?
Click here to see more photos →
Thankfully, Porsche is keeping the original concept car’s awesome plug-in hybrid drivetrain intact. This means that the production 918 Spyder will ship with a high-revving V-8 engine with a displacement exceeding 4.0-liters and output of more than 500 horsepower. The mid-engine power unit is based on the racing engine of the successful Porsche RS Spyder and is matched to a seven-speed Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) dual clutch transmission.
This is then complemented by two electric motors--one each on the front and rear axle--with a joint mechanical output of at least 218 horsepower. This configuration offers a variable all-wheel drive system with independent control of the propulsion force on both axles.
Powering the electric motors is a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery that can be charged from a conventional domestic power socket, delivering an electric-only driving range of around 16 miles on a single charge. Topping up the batteries will take between 3-6 hours depending on the outlet used, but a quick charging option is planned to reduce charging time yet further.
Production isn’t scheduled to start until September of 2013, with first deliveries scheduled to start just one month later. Note that the earlier a customer orders their vehicle, the earlier it will be delivered, as production is initialized in the same sequence in which orders are received.
For more details, check out our previous story or follow the jump below.
Click here to see more photos →
[Porsche photos via MotorAuthority]
This post originally appeared at GreenCarReports.com
View more at Business Insider
See Also:
- HOUSE OF THE DAY: A Real-Life Recreation Of The Simpsons' House
- Dramatic Pictures Of Dark And Empty Tokyo
- Look What Uncontained Nuclear Meltdown Did To Chernobyl
A Closer Look At The World's Most Expensive Hybrid Car
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Monday, November 22, 2010
CODA Delays Rollout of Electric Car: Why We’re Not Surprised
Building any car is tough. Building an electric car is tougher.
Automakers must devote time, skill, technology and financial investment to designing, engineering, and cutting costs for what is still far from a mainstream drivetrain.
Even Nissan, whose Leaf won GreenCarReports’ Best Car To Buy 2011, has pushed back delivery dates for the Leaf.
But a small Californian firm yesterday pushed its own compact all-electric car launch back from next month to sometime in the third quarter of 2011. And we think that puts them in a tough and scary position.
The announcment from Coda Automotive that its 2011 Coda Sedan won't hit the streets until late 2011 comes a week after both the firm's senior vice president of sales & marketing and the CEO resigned.
CODA has said little about the reasons behind this, except that it wishes to make sure the quality of its car is as high as possible.
We can’t say whether that may indicate problems with components, issues with the performance of prototypes, or just the management shuffle. But broken promises are certainly not good for reputation.
What’s the upshot? We won’t be seeing CODA sedans on the road any time soon, at least not in private hands. That’s a shame.
But we have to be honest: Over the past few months, we’ve become increasingly skeptical that CODA could deliver on its promise to bring the 2011 Sedan to market by the start of the holiday season. Why? Let us count the reasons.
(1) Very few anecdotal order stories
The 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt both have stuffed order books. We regularly hear from, and about, buyers on the waiting list for one or other. But we have yet to hear from a single reader, advocate, or potential customer of CODA.
Yes, we know Enterprise Rental have ordered some, as have other fleet managers. But ouside of this, where are the hordes of eager retail buyers waiting for their car?
Anecdotal tales of pre-launch excitement, orders and test drives are often a great way of gauging the success of a car. So we're a little perturbed. Just how many retail orders are there? Why don't we hear anyone who has put up the $499 deposit for a CODA Sedan?
If that's you, let us know. We’d love to set the record straight.
(2) Management turnover
No, it's not uncommon for a company to change executives when switching from development to product launch. But two such senior executives leaving within days of one another surely indicates that something is not well.
What’s more, the resignations came just days before the 2010 Los Angele Auto Show, an important event for any automaker and particularly so for Coda, which is hosting a cocktail party and offering interviews with executives.
(3) Many press releases, no test drives
CODA has put out regular press releases, providing details to the media of when it planned to launch the 2011 CODA Sedan. We even have an impressive list of fleet purchases the company has booked.
But to date, CODA has not offered the media test drives--whereas the 2011 Nissan Leaf has now been widely reviewed and driven by most of the major national and international automotive media.
That’s surprising for any company that's about to launch an automobile, and it led us to suspect a while back that the December launch target would be impossible to meet.
(4) Higher price, but lower support?
Let’s get one thing straight: CODA is not a mainstream automaker. It has no model currently on the market; the 2011 Sedan is its first car.
Unlike Nissan with its Leaf, it has no franchised dealers, no company-run showrooms, and no nationwide support infrastructure for when things go wrong.
At fully $14,000 more than Nissan’s 2011 Leaf, CODA is asking its first customers to take an expensive gamble that a previously unknown automaker can provide the level of service and support that is taken for granted with the purchase of any car.
While Tesla Motors, another non-mainstream electric car manufacturer, has done pretty well with its company-owned showrooms and growing International support, it sells a $109,000 sports car. When you’ve paid six figures for a car, the service comes to you.
(5) Further delays mean a closing market window
In 2007, when the then-Miles XS500 was announced, it had an initial price of $30,000. Then it was meant to be in showrooms by the end of 2008, though the cost had increased to $60,000.
In 2008, we heard that the Hafei Saibao EV (the car we know now as the CODA Sedan), had passed an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) safety test. At that time, the car was still expected by the end of 2008.
Fast forward two years, and we’re waiting expectantly for the car. Yes, delays are normal in the automotive world, but we can’t help but think the delays facing Nissan's rollout of its Leaf are not the same ones facing CODA.
Delaying the launch for another nine months loses Coda its early-mover advantage, since about a dozen electric cars will be on the market by 2012.
And we’re not sure that small or startup auto firms can beat the big guys without some significant advantage in schedule, price, or technology. Can anyone make the case that Coda has even one of those?
This article originally appeared at All Cars Electric and is republished here with permission.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Tesla's Big Deal With Toyota Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be
- Nissan Will Charge $40,000 For Its Electric Car In Japan
- Are These The Next Tesla Cars? We Hope Not!
CODA Delays Rollout of Electric Car: Why We’re Not Surprised
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Radar: Check Your Surfboard, Car Rental Tips, Europe's Christmas Markets
- Know before you go. Serious surfers looking to catch some waves in a sunnier locale this winter should research checked luggage policies before they fly to find surfer-friendly airlines. To check a surfboard, some airlines will charge up to $200 each way. However, on three carriers-- Air New Zealand, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic-- you can check your board for free. [LATimes via @WashingtonFlyer]
- The Independent Traveler has broken down the first 10-minutes of a car rental, tracing by the second, essential steps every traveler should take before they hit the road. From tuning the radio to checking for dents and scratches, these steps help prepare for a safer journey. [The Independent Traveler]
- Get in the holiday spirit with this list of Europe's best Christmas markets from the traditional to ones with a twist. [The Telegraph]
Photo: Paul Procaccio/My Shot
Post originale: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/11/tues-the-radar-surfboard-trave.html
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
China's BYD Aims to Build Not Just an Electric Car, but an Ecosystem
by Brad Berman
The Chinese company known as BYD-that's Build Your Dreams-has an audacious plan to solve China's energy and environment problems. Readers of this site might know BYD as the carmaker backed by famed investor Warren Buffet-and as the top contender to bring Chinese-made electric cars and plug-in hybrids to the United States.
But it may come as a surprise that BYD views the U.S. market as somewhat irrelevant, and doesn't see high-volume sales of its all-electric e6 or the BYD F3DM plug-in hybrid as that high of a priority.
That's because BYD's Chairman, Chuanfu Wang, has a much bigger vision. "The goal is to create a zero emissions ecosystem," said Michael Austin, a Chicago-based BYD vice president with marketing and public relations duties. "And you don't create the zero carbon zero emissions ecosystem by just producing a whole bunch of electric vehicles." BYD's electric and plug-in hybrid cars, now available in China, will go on sale to U.S. private consumers as early as 2012.
Vertical Integration
I recently spoke with Austin, a former Motorola executive who began working with BYD about a decade ago, when he was looking for an affordable source of commodity batteries for Motorola cell phones. Of the three-dozen or so Chinese companies making cell phone batteries at the time, BYD was the only one with durable and safe battery chemistry-backed by its own intellectual property regarding battery technology. Moreover, the company's philosophy of vertical manufacturing integration allowed the company to reach an enormous scale.
"They own the chemicals. They own the mines. They refine the chemicals. They make their own cans for the cells. They did their own windings," Austin said. "They did every component of the build, and that total vertical solution got them in a place where they had the lowest cost, so they could control the market."
And what they did for batteries, they also did for cell phones. Currently, 30 to 40 percent of the world's cell phones, regardless of the brand, can be traced back to BYD. Now they are applying the same scale to solar panels and to automobiles. They have 100 million square feet of factory space. They make every component of the vehicle, except the tires and the safety glass. And for the past two years, the company's F3 sedan has been China's number one seller.
Coal-Powered Nightmare, Avoided
BYD needs its massive scale of manufacturing to match the size of the Chinese auto market. Last year, China bypassed the United States to become the largest automobile market in the world, and it continues to grow at an impressive rate. "If BYD were to sell tens of thousands of electric vehicle in Tianjin and in Beijing, it would create a worse environmental condition than China has today. All they have are coal-burning plants," Austin said.
Instead, BYD wants to couple solar energy generation with massive amounts of stationary energy storage using its batteries. Then, add efficient lighting at home-BYD also makes LED lighting-and electric cars for the road. "If you discharge to those energy storage plants to electric vehicles, then you have zero emissions." Voila! The ecosystem is complete.
Back in the U.S.A.
Given the size of the Chinese auto market, and the Chinese government's goal of making electric cars represent 10 to 20 percent of total cars sales, the U.S. auto market is nearly an afterthought.
Nonetheless, with that kind of scale driving production and reduced cost in China, it's possible to bring the same total energy solution to the United States. Austin: "We don't want to just sell electric vehicles in our U.S. dealerships. That's not selling the zero emission story. We want to sell solar panels. We want to sell solar-shaded parking. We want to sell LED lighting. We want to sell energy storage for your home, and charging stations coupled to energy storage, so we can do DC-to-DC quick charging. Oh, and you can use solar panels to charge your energy storage, that's now powering your vehicle."
BYD wants to work down the price of its electric car-without any subsidy-to $20,000 or less. Austin says that the price of BYD's EV batteries is currently at $350 per kilowatt hour. "That's lower than everybody else. Nobody else is even close to that," Austin said. "And that's where we are at today.
It all comes full circle, when you consider the effects of the Chinese economy on the price of gasoline. "BYD is completely convinced that the emerging markets are going to eat up all the gasoline. When China and India emerge, the price is going to skyrocket," Austin said.
The price in the U.S. and the developed world, that is. The Chinese government will continue to subsidize its gas to around $1.50 a gallon, according to Austin. "They don't curb their consumption. So, we'll get screwed with high prices, and they'll continue to consume at incredible rates," he said. Consider that less than six percent of Chinese currently own cars, but that around 30 percent now have the financial means to buy a vehicle. "There are 330 million cars yet to be sold," Austin said.
Reprinted with permission from PluginCars
Post originale: http://featured.matternetwork.com/2010/10/chinas-byd-aims-build-just.cfm
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Rise and Fall of America's Jet-Powered Car
Pickens writes "The WSJ reports that the automobile designs of these 1950s and 1960s were inspired by the space race and the dawn of jet travel but one car manufacturer, Chrysler, was bold enough to put a jet engine in an automobile that ran at an astounding 60,000 rpm on any flammable fluid including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, peanut oil, alcohol, tequila, or perfume. Visionary Chrysler designer George Huebner believed that there was plenty to recommend the turbine. People loved the car. In a publicity scheme to promote its 'jet' car, Chrysler commissioned Ghia to handcraft 50 identical car bodies and each car would be lent to a family for a few months and then passed on to another. Chrysler received more than 30,000 requests in 1962 to become test drivers and eventually 203 were chosen who logged more than one million miles (mostly trouble free) in the 50 Ghia prototypes. In the end Chrysler killed the turbine car after OPEC's 1973 oil embargo. 'How different would America be now if we all drove turbine-powered cars? It could have happened. But government interference, shortsighted regulators, and indifferent corporate leaders each played a role in the demise of a program that could have lessened US.dependence on Middle East oil.'"
Post originale: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/seb3EcenRxo/story01.htm
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Post originale: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/seb3EcenRxo/story01.htm
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