Brilliant… and everything about Tesla Model S sounds better when the narrator sounds like Jason Statham (or is it Jason himself narrating it?). A bit of research showed that it is a part of NatGeo (UK)’s Megafactories Show, which has a ton of more such awesome things.. Check out the program’s website.
Going electric has its own benefits which include – Tax credits, rebate checks, personalized home visits, government giveaways — even customer service calls from top corporate executives.
Mr. McNaughton, a lawyer in Nashville, paid his $99 deposit, he has been bombarded with government incentives — promises of a $7,500 federal tax credit, a $2,500 cash rebate from the state of Tennessee, and a $3,000 home-charging unit courtesy of the Energy Department.
Precisely. It is all part of an unprecedented effort by federal, state and local governments to stimulate demand for cars that have zero tailpipe emissions — and Nissan’s pre-emptive bid to corner the all-electric market much the way that Toyota dominated the early hybrid market with the Prius.
The government subsidies are shaving thousands of dollars off the Leaf’s $32,780 sticker price, while other benefits are piling up, like free parking in some cities and the use of express lanes on highways usually reserved for cars with multiple passengers. In Tennessee, where a Leaf assembly plant is being built, Leaf drivers will be able to charge their vehicles free at public charging stations on 425 miles of freeways that connect Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga.
“It’s almost shocking how many subsidies are available on the Leaf,” said Jeremy P. Anwyl, chief executive of the auto research Web site Edmunds.com. “We are putting a lot of money behind this technology.”
(source: Porsche via Wired)
Hybrids and super fast were usually not spelled in the same sentence until Porsche opened a can (rather a car) of surprise for the motoring world with its new hybrid 918 Spyder in Geneva earlier this year.
Now for the first time some of those potential customers got to see and hear Porsche’s latest creation in person. The 918 was flown over from Germany for the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Montery, California. The video above shows a covert shakedown drive before the car was shown to the public.
Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/video-porsche-918-hybrid-makes-debut-drive-in-california/#ixzz0wtLtUQEV
The Copenhagen Wheel, developed by a MIT-team led by Christine Outram, joins nine other regional-designs winners to compete for the grand-prize winner ($15,000 for themselves or their team, and another $15,000 for their school department). Results will be announced on Oct. 15th.
An ingenious wheel that could turn any bike into an electric hybrid has won the U.S. round of the James Dyson Award, an event that’s become the world’s premier student-design competition. Tonight, the winner will be formally announced, at a Designer Pages event discussing the bright, bold future of design.
What they came up with is a hybrid wheel, which generates electricity during braking (similar to the regenerative braking you find in many car hybrids). It then offers that electricity as a power boost up hills or over long distances. That power is controlled by an iPhone interface. (Shades of Apple’s Smart Bike!) Why’s all this groundbreaking? The hope is that hybrid power, by making previously difficult bike commutes easy, could make bikes a viable option for countless more commuters.
Pretty much every nation with a developed economy is preparing to transition out of the petro-based transportation into something clean (?), lean and green..
The Chinese government has said repeatedly that it intends the country to become the world leader in development, production and use of electric cars and other alternative energy vehicles.
Now comes a report that it is preparing to put its money behind that promise. The Shanghai Securities News says China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has prepared a new 10-year plan, slated for approval by the State Council later this month, that sets aside 100 billion yuan (U.S. $14,7 billion) for development and adoption of alternative energy vehicles.
The unattributed news report says that China hopes to produce 500,000 alt-energy vehicles annually starting in 2011.
Analysts at IHS Global Insight say this proposed expenditure is in addition to about $3 billion in already-approved hybrid and plug-in electric vehicle subsidies for private and commercial purchases and that China also is increasing its focus on development of a national EV charging network.
(Source: Green Car Congress & Synovate)
Market research firm Synovate released new study findings showing that nearly six in ten people would choose to buy a green car over a dream car, even if money was no object. In March 2009, Synovate surveyed more than 13,500 people across 18 markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom and the United States of America) about “green” versus “dream” cars, vehicle ownership, intent to buy in the next year and attitudes towards cars, traffic, public transport and their need-for-speed.
The top answer across all 18 markets, if money was no object, was to buy a green car, with 37% of respondents saying this would be their preference. Thirty percent said they would buy their dream car and a further 22% claimed that &ldqou;my dream car is a green car”, meaning that 59%—or very nearly six in ten—showed the desire to go green.
This In:fact survey on cars was conducted in March 2009 across 18 markets - Australia (AU), Brazil (BR), Canada (CA), China (CN), Egypt (EGY), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), India (IN), Japan (JP), Korea (KR), Malaysia (MY), South Africa (ZA), Thailand (TH), Turkey (TR), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (US). It covered over 13,200 urban respondents
Some of the other findings of the survey include:
Click here to read the entire study.
(Source: Time & Green Car Congress)
Orders in Japan for Toyota’s new Prius hybrid have topped a booming 110,000, a major dealership chain said Saturday, in what is turning out to be a rare bright spot in the gloomy auto market.
The third-generation Prius officially rolled out in Japan just two weeks ago. But dealers are already flooded with orders, including some placed weeks in advance, according to the dealership. (See TIME’s photos of General Motors factory-scapes)
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, said two weeks ago that it received 80,000 advance orders, and has not updated that number.
But the Toyota Tokyo Corolla dealer said Saturday that nationwide orders at Toyota dealerships in Japan, including those of rivals, have soared to 110,000. Dealers tally their customer orders differently from the way manufacturers do.
But any way you slice it, the Prius is a hit. Toyota has set its monthly sales target for Japan at 10,000 new Prius cars — a figure that should make it the top-selling car in the country.
As the orders stack up, the company looks on track to meet or even surpass its goal and take that crown — an astonishing accomplishment for a hybrid, although the Prius is fighting competition from another new hybrid, Honda Motor Co.’s Insight.
Hybrids are in demand partly because the Japanese government began offering tax exemptions for the cars to encourage their sales earlier this year.
The overall Japanese auto market has been languishing for years, with vehicle sales falling to their lowest level in more than three decades last year. Demand has worsened since the U.S. financial crisis sent this nation into a recession. According to Green Car Congress, the Nikkei estimates that Japan passenger car production in fiscal 2009 will likely decrease to 1979 levels, mostly due to a plunge in exports. The projection, which was compiled based on automakers’ data and interviews with company officials, calls for the eight Japanese passenger car firms to assemble 8.21 million vehicles in the year ending in March 2010, 14% fewer than last year and the second consecutive annual decline, following a 15% fall in fiscal 2008.
(Source: Good Magazine)
Amidst the clutter of alternative vehicles that are already in the market and the ones just arriving in the market, how would one decide on the “right” vehicle? Our savvy folks at Good magazine have published an excellent resource that makes this decision-making process less-complicated and easy to navigate.
Whatever happened to hydrogen?
The idea is great: Take the most abundant element in the universe, turn it silently into electricity, and the only byproduct is a wisp of steam. To its fans, the hydrogen fuel cell is a transportation miracle that will cork our carbon output and curb our addiction to foreign oil. To its critics, it’s vaporware.
Are hybrid batteries toxic?
If the forecasts are right, electrons will replace hydrocarbons as the energy source in our cars. Then, of course, we’ll have to face the question of batteries. The batteries favored in hybrid cars—nickel-metal hydride—have an encouraging track record of lasting at least as long as the cars themselves. The lithium-ion batteries used in fully electric cars are similarly enduring. But how bad are they for the planet? Depends on what you do with them when they die.
The amazing Indian Air Car: Coming to America?
Perhaps you have heard that India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, has created the world’s first commercial car that runs on air. The good news is that they’re bringing it here. A few fun facts:
It is powered by compressed air • Zero Pollution Motors will produce the American version • It’s priced at $17,800 • Reservations in the States will be taken midyear; delivery is early 2010 • ZPM estimates that its Air Car will run up to 1,000 miles per fill-up, and at speeds up to 96 mph • It’s up for the Automotive X Prize (see below), and is considered a front-runner • Made out of fiberglass instead of sheet metal, it’s expected to be safer and easier to repair than a traditional car and rust-proof • It seats six.
Who will build the best 100-mpg car?
After staging a high-profile competition for civilian spaceflight in 2004, the X Prize Foundation now has another $10 million on the table, this time for a 100-mpg car. And after the checkered flag flies and the winning team claims the Progressive Automotive X Prize, there is “no reason you should not be driving a car that gets over 100 miles per gallon,” according to the prize’s creator, Peter Diamandis.
Candid corn: Is ethanol worth it?
A parade of studies has tried to decipher the pros and cons of ethanol. Depending on a multitude of variables, some studies find it environmentally better than gasoline, some much worse. The implications aren’t light: The USDA says that nearly a third of all U.S. corn used this year will go into ethanol production. And globally, food prices have been ratcheted up as more corn is brewed into fuel.
(Source: New York Times)
The stimulus package has $2.5 billion for batteries and hybrids, and one of the many companies seeking a slice, AFS Trinity, arrived in Washington on Sunday with two Saturn Vue S.U.V.’s — “crossover” vehicles that General Motors sells as hybrids, but which AFS Trinity has extensively modified as plug-in hybrids.
The company is inviting members of Congress and their employees to drive them, and a favorite stretch is a steep hill up Constitution Avenue on the north side of the Capitol building.
AFS Trinity, of Bellevue, Wash., added two kinds of batteries to the Vue: A bank of lithium-ion batteries with 16 kilowatt-hours of usable storage (enough to go more than 40 miles), and a small bundle of ultra-capacitors — devices that hold only a little bit of energy, but can deliver or accept it very quickly.
The ultra-capacitors smooth out the start-and-stop flow of that comes with everyday driving, buffering the main batteries in a way that extends their lifetime. And they deliver real “vroom,” even though the electric drivetrain is silent.
The original Saturn comes with a four-cylinder, 170-horsepower gasoline engine. As a plug-in, normal practice would be to charge the battery overnight and drive around without the engine for the first 40 miles or so, but AFS Trinity put a button near the cigarette lighter. Push it, and the electric motor kicks in, creating a 370-horsepower street rod.
The vehicle can also run in gasoline–only mode. And it can run in something called “charge-depleting mode,’’ in which it uses electricity from the battery to assist the gasoline engine. In that mode, it gets 68 miles a gallon, the company said, and it can operate that way for 60 miles — far longer than most peoples’ daily drive.
From the outside, the prototypes look like ordinary Saturn Vue’s, except for the big lettering on the side that announce them as 150-mile-per-gallon vehicles (that number assumes the owner drives it in all-electric mode most of the time).
Edward W. Furia, AFS Trinity’s chief executive, is looking for $40 million to build 100 cars, probably for use by a government agency like the Postal Service, then $200 million for the next thousand vehicles. Eventually he would like $1.3 billion to re-tool a GM factory to produce hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids. The company’s long-term plan is to produce vehicles with a price premium of $8,000 above the cost of the regular, nonhybrid version. If it could reach that point, the consumer’s extra investment might be quite small, after federal and state tax credits.
(Source: Jalopnik)
The General Dynamics Reconnaissance Surveillance and Targeting Vehicle is one cool piece of kit. It’s powered by four electric in-wheel motors and can export thirty kilowatts directly to the grid. It’s also got neat-o gauges.
It uses a small diesel-engine powering a generator to charge on-board batteries or power the in-wheel electric motors. Instead of mounting the wheels to studs on the motor as is normally done on hub-motor concepts, this concept works a bit differently. First the wheel is assembled on a bearing riding on an stub axle, then on goes the 90 kW peak, 50 kW continuous pancake motor mount installed on the splined hub shaft, then on top of that a pancake gear reduction unit which interfaces with an eccentrically mounted geared track one the rim of the wheel. Very, very clever. Each wheel gets an independent motor controller so even if three motors get shot out, forward motion is still possible. Aside from being able to operate in all-silent mode, it can also export over 20 kW of power to the grid.
Click here to read the entire article.
