Electric Car Blogging

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, USA

We’ve shown you pictures of the electric HST Shelby Cobra 427 before sitting pretty while on display at EVS23 but now we have video of this sexy carbon fiber machine being propelled by its own 300 horses and 1000 lb-ft worth of spinning and drifting power. All the while the machine is churning up clouds of tire smoke, it’s being expertly guided by the gifted hands of Lisa Klassen, rally driver and drifter extraordinaire. Ms. Klassen found herself behind the wheel of the Cobra after getting a call from her rally driver pal, Tanner Foust, who hosts the SpeedTV show “SuperCars Exposed” asking her to fill in for him on a segment covering the electric monsters from HST. Although Tanner made it to the set to do some canyon-road driving, Lisa took full advantage of her time with the car making donuts and generally getting a feel for the EV which is capable of 3.2 second 0 to 60 times and a 150 mph top end. You can read Lisa’s take on the electrified drive over at Urban Racer and warch the whole episode on iTunes. Hit the jump for smokin’ excerpts from the episode.

[Source: YouTube / Urban Racer]

Continue reading VIDEO: Lisa Klassen all smiles and burnouts with electric HST Shelby Cobra

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Manufacturing/Plants, Mitsubishi, Japan

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Mitsuibshi i MiEV

Once again showing how important automakers see the lithium ion battery is an announcement from Yuasa and Mitsubishi that their joint venture battery plant needs to be much larger than originally planned. In fact, the two companies have quintupled planned output before a single battery has even been manufactured. Mitsubishi is expecting high demand for its upcoming i-MiEV electric car, which should go on sale in Japan sometime in 2009. We wonder how much impact Japan Post’s plan to use an all electric fleet had in this decision.

At the outset, the plant will cost about 4 billion yen (.94 million) and be able to produce enough packs for 10,000 EV’s. By 2012, an additional 10 billion yen ( million or so) will have been spent to double that capacity. In order to make room for a plant this large, Yuasa is said to be searching for a new site in Japan.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Infiniti, Nissan

Click the hybrid G35 for high-res images

While Nissan has been offering a version of the Altima in selected states for the last two years with a licensed version of the Toyota’s hybrid system, they have been diligently working on their own design back in Japan. The Nissan developed system is expected to debut in 2010 in an Infiniti model and the company is now showing a prototype publicly for the first time. The new system is a single motor configuration with two clutches that allow the vehicle to be powered by either the engine, the electric motor or both. When the system launches it will be the first from the Japanese automaker to be applied to a rear wheel drive platform and the first to use lithium ion batteries.

Also using lithium ion batteries will be Nissan’s electric vehicle launching in 2010. At the New York Auto this Nissan showed the Denki Cube, a battery powered version of the Japanese market Cube. A next generation prototype with new batteries and a new 80 kW motor and inverter is now running in preparation for the fleet launch of an all-new electric car. The production model will have distinct styling and won’t be based on any other existing Nissan vehicle. The Nissan-NEC joint-venture, AESC (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation) will be supplying batteries for both vehicles. The Nissan press release is after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]

Continue reading Nissan shows off next-gen green vehicles including new EV and Hybrid

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Nissan, Renault

A hint was given when the Spanish Government announced its wish list to reduce the Iberian country’s dependence on oil but now it’s been announced by Europa Press: The Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce has announced an agreement with Nissan-Renault to study the possibility of a large-scale project (à la Better Place) to manufacture and sell EVs in Spain, as well as creating a network to plug them. Renault has confirmed such contacts. Spain expects to have one million electric and hybrid cars on the roads by 2014, and an agreement such as the one for Denmark, Portugal and Israel could be a solution. Renault-Nissan is surely making its stakes with such ambitious projects, since Spain is Europe’s 5th largest market. Pictured on the right, one of Renault’s early electric prototypes, a 1971 Renault 5, which was also manufactured in Spain.

[Source: Europa Press via Econoticias]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Chevrolet, GM

In an interview with Design News, GM Vice President for R&D and Strategic Planning Larry Burns reiterated the company’s intention to have the lithium ion battery pack last essentially the life of the car. Since early on the program, GM officials have set the target lifespan of the battery pack as 10 years and 150,000 miles. Since the battery is such an integral part of making the car work, the company needs to ensure its durability. In his response Burns indicated that the battery would be covered under warranty for that time frame although at this point it far too early to know what the details of such a warranty might be. Regular 12V car batteries typically have pro-rated warranties that that cover less as the age of the battery increases. With only a three year development time for the Volt GM will have a tough time validating the durability of the battery although a lot of accelerated testing is happening. The pack itself will have 200-300 cells inside and will have to be carefully manufactured so that all the connections are robust. Beyond the Volt, Burns expects all of GM’s cars to eventually be electrically driven either with batteries or fuel cells. He indicated that a commercial fuel cell market should be going by about 2012-14 although that depends on the expansion of fuel availability.

[Source: Design News]

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Filed under: Diesel, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, HCCI

In the wake of a new lithium ion battery joint venture, Bernd Bohr, CEO of Bosch is not concerned that automakers will try to keep battery production in house. In an interview with German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, Bohr was asked about the fact that several automakers including Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan are involved in their own joint ventures for lithium batteries. Bosch is investing 0-400 million in a venture with Samsung to produce automotive lithium batteries. Bohr feels it will take 10-15 years for lithium batteries to become dominant so the company still has the opportunity to come to the forefront of the technology and play a leading role. While the Samsung will start with Korean production Bohr intends to eventually expand to other locations as well. By the time lithium batteries become mainstream in electric vehicles, Bohr expects the energy density to increase by a factor of 3-5 times. With Bosch’s experience in power tools and appliances the company already has plenty of in-house motor technology that they are now applying to hybrid and electric drive systems. By 2015 Bohr expects hybrids to account for about 2.5-3 million vehicles annually with another 800,000 battery electrics.

Before electrics take over the world though, Bohr expects diesel engines to pick up another five points of market share taking 28 percent of the global market by mid-decade. In spite of elevated diesel prices right now, Bohr believes that diesel will be the only way to meet coming CO2 emissions standards and taxes in the near to mid-term. According to Bohr investments are being made to increase diesel refining capacity that will alleviate the price pressures by 2010. Bohr mentioned that HCCI engines could appear in production before 2015 which will also help reduce consumption and emissions. Bosch is also focusing on large volumes of the most cost-effective methods such as auto start-stop systems which are expected to be on 50 percent of European cars by 2012.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Lotus

click to enlarge

For the past two decades, Lotus has been working on active noise cancellation technology to make cars quieter. While that may have been a good thing on internal combustion cars, the spread of hybrid and electric cars has made advocates for the blind concerned. Electrically driven cars tend to be almost silent at lower speeds meaning that visually impaired pedestrians who rely more on audio inputs to know what is going around them have a problem. Lotus is now taking its technology and turning it around on a Toyota Prius demonstrator. Instead of using internal speakers to generate opposite sound waves to cancel noise, Lotus is mounting speakers externally with a controller tied to the accelerator pedal. The system generates simulated engine sounds that will allow people in the vicinity hear the car approach. Lotus is working with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to develop the system. The press release is after the jump. You can also view videos of the demonstrator at the Lotus web-site.

[Source: Lotus]

Continue reading Lotus announces Safe and Sound hybrid demonstrator

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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green, Nissan

Click above for high-res gallery of Nissan’s new green cars

Nissan has been selling a hybrid version of its Altima sedan in select U.S. states for the last two years that uses a licensed version of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive. At the same time it’s been working on its own hybrid and all-electric powertrains, and yesterday it unveiled two prototypes that show us exactly what it will be replacing those Prius parts with.

The first is a new hybrid system that will debut on a rear-wheel-drive Infiniti model, most likely the G. It employs a parallel hybrid system with one electric motor and two clutches that allows the gas engine and electric motor to power the vehicle at the same time. Nothing fancy there, but Nissan’s new hybrid will be one of the first to use lithium-ion rather than nickel-metal hydride batteries. The smaller, more efficient batteries were developed by a joint-venture company between Nissan and NEC called Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC).

Meanwhile, those same li-ion batteries are also being tested in an all-electric vehicle. Though currently installed in a JDM Nissan Cube, the system will eventually be put in all-new model with unique styling and be on the Japanese market by 2010 and sold globally by 2012. It uses a new 80kW motor and inverter and packs all the batteries beneath its floor.

Very cool stuff, Nissan. Just leave the vinyl graphics at home next time.

[Source: Nissan]

Continue reading Nissan debuts its own hybrid and EV

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