(Source: Autobloggreen & Gizmag) & Mc24.no)

It’s been a little while since we last heard from Suzuki regarding its planned hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle, Crosscage, but apparently the Japanese company has been hard at work getting the machine ready for production. According to Ivar Kvadsheim over at MC24.no, teams from both Suzuki and Intelligent Energy were present at the EVS24 event in Stavanger, Norway, with their fuel cell-powered machines.

Image Courtesy: Autobloggreen

In the ENV and Cross Cage used tl cell to produce electricity to recharge the batteries, which in turn drive electric motor. On the prototype cell gives a power of 1 kW and delivers power to a motor that gives 8 horsepower. The new cell will be used in the production models are lighter and more efficient and delivers 1.8 kW, almost double the output. 

Over the last few years, Intelligent Energy has reportedly managed to increase the output of its fuel cell from 1 kW to 1.8 kW, and both its ENV bike and Suzuki Crosscage will use this same power source. That’s great, but the real issue holding up production is the bike’s hydrogen storage tank. It seems the two companies were planning to use a tank from BMW, but later found out that unit was only approved for automotive use and couldn’t be legally used in a motorcycle.  So we have to go through the entire process to create and get approved a new container, “explains Dennis Hayter of Intelligent Energy. 

This process will probably take about four months. Then both Suzuki and Intelligent Energy to run a few months of testing with an approved container, before they can be put into regular production.

It is expected that both ENV and Cross Cage arrive for sale in the course of next year, probably already in the spring. Bikes will have a range of 160 miles and Hayter estimates a price of around 8000 Euro.

According to Gizmag, Suzuki’s Crosscage will feature a single-sided suspension front AND rear. The brushless electric motor’s mounted inline with the rear wheel, and looks-wise it’s so far out there that it’s on its way back again. It was rumoured that Bridgestone’s even developed a special futuristic-looking tyre to match the bike’s oddly tesselated discs.

(Source: Autobloggreen) & HyNor)

As the US government is cutting down its funding and research/deployment interest in Hydrogen-based transportation systens, Norway is thinking the exact opposite.  In an all out push, Norway is moving ahead with the deployment of a 580 kilometer highway peppered with hydrogen fueling stations.  One of the biggest questions surrounding hydrogen-powered vehicles right now is where to find an appropriate hydrogen pump, and looks like Norway has moved to answer that question by opening it up its first hydrogen highway.

This hydrogen highway is part of Norway’s HyNor project and stretches for 580 kilometers from Oslo on the eastern coast to Stavanger on the western North Sea coast. So far, the route consists of 12 hydrogen pumps, which is apparently sufficient to allow the Mazdas to be refueled along the way.

It is worth something and appropriate to mention a recent New York Times article titled “Norway Thrives by Going against the tide“, which articulates how Norway’s investment decisions for its future saved its economy from going bust, while the recession monster is shaking up the financial foundations of many Western economies, including those of US and UK.  The article points out “With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state. And in the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway’s economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.”

If the above mentioned investment decision is a good indicator to go by, Norways decision to invest in a hydrogen based transportation future seems foretelling and something worth noting, especially for the United States which just dealt a blow to hydrogen research by cutting down the investment.   The HyNor website notes the following: The HyNor Partnership and StatoilHydro are pleased to announce the official opening of the Norwegian hydrogen highway, HyNor, on 11 May 2009 at StatoilHydro’s new hydrogen station at Økern in Oslo. HyNor was opened by Norway’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Liv Signe Navarsete. H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway joined the first stage of the EVS Viking Rally, from Oslo to Lier, together with internationally renowned race car driver Henning Solberg. The governing mayor of Oslo, Erling Lae, opened StatoilHydro’s new hydrogen service station at Økern, and Navarsete opened the hydrogen station at StatoilHydro’s service station in Lier.

The first hydrogen station was opened at Forus in Stavanger in 2006, the second in Porsgrunn in 2007, and now the two new stations are open in Oslo and Lier. HyNor has some 50 partners and manages a fleet of more than 50 hydrogen vehicles made by Mazda, Toyota and Think.

“We are very pleased to open up this hydrogen infrastructure for testing and demonstrating hydrogen cars. By doing this, we nurture our ambition to help implement hydrogen as a fuel in the transport sector,” says Anne Marit Hansen, Chairman of the board in HyNor. 

The EVS Viking Rally vehicles are the first to drive the Norwegian hydrogen highway. The rally commences with H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon racing together with the famous Norwegian race car star Henning Solberg. 14 hydrogen vehicles, two plug in hybrid cars and 14 battery electric vehicles are starting in Oslo and will reach the beginning of the EVS (Electrical Vehicle Symposium) 24 in Stavanger on 13 May. Events will take place along the way in Porsgrunn, Grimstad, Arendal, Kristiansand, Lyngdal and Egersund. Another 10 battery electric vehicles will join the rally in Egersund. 

This is reportedly the first integrated network of hydrogen pumps in the world, and it’s a creation of Norway’s StatoilHydro, the company that installed the underlying structure as well. Future plans call for the highway to extend into the rest of Scandinavia, as shown in the map to the right. Afterward, the alliance intends to extend into Germany. For your information, Mazda has shipped the first Hydrogen RX8 REs to Norway, indicator of a strong response to the government’s interest in Hydrogen vehicles.  

Note:  A related article from NY Times articulates how California’s efforts to build a similar Hydrogen Highway has fallen behind. One of the leading investors in Hydrogen fuel research was the State of California.  Soon after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) took office in 2003, he set in motion a campaign promise to build, by 2010, a “hydrogen highway” composed of 150 to 200 fueling stations spaced every 20 miles along California’s major highways.  In spite of the great interest, the hydrogen infrastructure has not expanded much since its inception.   the program has fallen short of expectations. With less than 10 months until the end of the decade, 24 hydrogen fueling stations are operating in California, most of them near Los Angeles.State officials say all this is part of what they now view, in the words of ARB spokesman Dimitri Stanich, as a “retooled” hydrogen highway.

“It’s very much alive,” Stanich said of the program. “This vision is still there. It’s just being groomed.”

 (Source: Autobloggreen & Reuters)

We first heard about a proposal to ban cars powered solely by fossil fuels way back in 2007. According to Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, the plan “is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about” it and is still very much in the works. Still, it’s highly unlikely that the proposal would come to fruition due to opposition from current Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

“The financial crisis also means that a lot of those car producers that now have big problems … know that they have to develop their technology because we also have to solve the climate crisis when this financial crisis is over,” she said.

“That is why we would like a ban from 2015,” she said, during an exhibition in Oslo of electric and biofuel-powered cars during which she raced a red and white Mitsubishi electric car around a course against several other politicians.

(Source: Yahoo News via Jalopnik; Photo: Jalopnik)

The unnamed couple, a 28-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman, were caught in the act late on Easter Sunday by traffic police on the E18 highway, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Oslo.

Officers who clocked the couple’s silver Mazda 323 racing at 133 kilometres per hour in a 100 zone realised they were doing more than just breaking the speed limit, police told AFP.

“It was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man’s lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say,” said Tor Stein Hagen, a superintendent with Soendre Buskerund district police.

“He couldn’t see much because her back was in the way,” he added.

“Why they did it on a highway with such a high risk we don’t know.”

After following the couple for nearly a kilometre, officers pulled the car over at a service station.  He now faces fines worth several thousand Norweigan crowns and a lengthy driving ban for reckless driving. When the case goes to court it should be an open and shut proceeding, as the police recorded the carnal activities with their dash cam for use as “evidence” later on.

(Source: Autobloggreen)

Th!nk details U.S. manufacturing, sales plans: hopes to sell City EV for under $20,000

This morning at the Michigan Information Technology Center in Ann Arbor, Th!nk finally gave the media the details of it’s planned expansion into the U.S. market. The short version: by 2010, Th!nk North America hopes to be building electric vehicles in the U.S. These City models (seen above) will be able to go around 70 mph, pass all required safety standards and be targeted at fleet customers, initially. Th!nk NA will be submitting a loan application to the Department of Energy on March 31, and its U.S. plans are dependent on getting this money. Well, Th!nk officials were hesitant to put a firm number out, but Th!nk CEO Richard Canny said that the price to consumers, after government incentives, would probably be under $20,000, but you’ll need to figure in an $80-90 per month fee to lease the battery. 

Click here to read more about this “North American Invasion” plan. 

(Source: TreeHugger)

TH!NK Electric Car Maker Wants to Move to Sweden (or the U.K.)

 Norway’s electric vehicle manufacturer TH!NK has a long and troubled history – gone bankrupt twice, changed hands a couple of times (including a short stormy marriage with Ford) and stopped its production line late last year when the economic crisis hit. But TH!NK’s woes are far from over, it seems, as the company’s leaders try a novel idea: an offer to move TH!NK lock, stock and batteries to a nation willing to prop it up until propserity re-appears. The two current contenders? Battered Britain andSlumping Sweden. Sweden may be in the lead, as Saab has tanked, and Swedish King Carl Gustaf has already reportedly purchased two TH!NK electric vehicles – in blue and gold, of course.

Click here to read more about this “migration” plan.