Automotive: electric

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The Morgan EV3

Small British automaker raised a few eyebrows when it recently announced that it was making electric cars.

They have released a teaser video of the three wheel EV3 which looks as eccentric as their other models.

Peugeot Fractal concept

Peugeot has unveiled the new Fractal concept ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show. This is an electric urban coupé which explores the sense of hearing in addition to sight and touch. According to Peugeot, it makes driving "even more instinctive, creating an unparalleled on-board experience".

It was designed by StelLab, a PSA Peugeot Citroën research unit. The Fractal concept was developed in partnership with sound designer Amon Tobin. It features a high-definition holographic head-up display screen. A 45-degree polycarbonate strip delivers additional information and creates an impression of depth. This allows the driver to customise the way information is shown.

The concept also explores new design and manufacturing processes. 3D-printed parts represent more than 80% of the interior trim surface. The anechoic materials were made through generative design - a process used to achieve the perfect component.

A 30 kW/h lithium-ion battery powers two electric motors, each delivering 75kW/102hp, fitted to the front and rear axles to provide a total output of 125 kW/170hp and combined-cycle autonomy of up to 450km. Variable ground clearance allows the vehicle to adapt to different types of terrain. The 7cm clearance for motorway driving improves aerodynamics to range and boost battery life. This can be increased to 11cm in urban environments, allowing the car to take speed humps and car park entrances in its stride.

As for it's dimension, the car is extremely compact, at 3.81m long and 1.77m wide, allowing it to weave through heavy traffic. The 19‑inch Tall&Narrow wheels are positioned at either end of the car, with an overhang of just 0.52m front and back to improve manoeuvrability.

The car styling features dynamic lines that flow along the length of the smooth body. The Coupe Franche, a straight line dual paint finish, further enhances the sense of vitality with a sharp shift from intense pearly white to matt black at the door hinges. The upper body features a removable roof to turn the coupé into a cabriolet. An LED strip above the vent at the rear shows the battery charge status via an equalizer-type display. These LEDs also act as rear lights when PEUGEOT FRACTAL is moving. The light signature in the front starts below the grille and flows over the headlamps. It also includes scrolling indicators.

Tesla Model S 2014 scores 5/5 in Euro NCAP crash test

The Tesla Model S electric car has scored 5 stars (the maximum) safety rating after testing by the Euro NCAP.

The 4 door saloon falls under the executive class.

Read the full report here.

The Strati -World's first 3 D printed car

Welcome to the age of printed cars. Arizona based car manufacturer Local Motors has come out with the World's first 3 D printed car - the Strati. It won the 2014 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in New York yesterday.

The car chassis/frame, exterior body, and interior features are made from ABS plastic reinforced with carbon fibres. The electric engine, wheels and other parts were sourced from Renault’s Twizy. It takes the company around 44 hours to print out.

It only has a top speed of about 40mph (60km/h) but I am sure the speeds will improve as time goes by. I am just thinking at the possibilities. In the future, you can probably print out spare parts at home.

Can you power cars using AA batteries

What did you think of the post "Clubbing together for an electric revolution!" yesterday?

I am sure most of you must have realised that it was a spoof post.

"LipraLoof" is an anagram of APRILFOOLS

Unfortunately, you can't power cars using AA batteries yet.

Happy April Fools Day

Clubbing together for an electric revolution!

The UK’s largest independent car club, City Car Club, is working with innovative start-up LipraLoof Technologies Ltd, to trial smart power technology, which could one day see cars powered by AA-style batteries. Who’d have thought it?

James Finlayson, Managing Director of the hourly rental car club said: “When LipraLoof approached us we instantly realised how exciting this technology was – it has the potential to revolutionise the way we drive. However, like with any new technology, rigorous real-world testing is a must and with a 700+ fleet of cars which are used mainly for short journeys, we are in the perfect position to help.”

LipraLoof’s batteries contain complex mix of four metal hydrates which creates a quad, or 4A battery, which produces far more power than a standard battery. When these batteries are combined with technology that harnesses, stores and reuses the energy usually wasted when driving, it creates a system capable of powering a car up to 88mph over a significant distances.

LipraLoof’s founder and managing director Dr Ed Heaverben, explains: “We’ve combined our quad batteries with virtually 100% regenerative breaking which harnesses the energy normally lost when we brake. Another significant area where we’ve conserved energy is with the tyres – we’ve developed a specially designed tread that ‘grabs’ energy which normally escapes onto the road as heat. This saved energy is then stored in a French-Luxemburg engineered Flux Capacitor, ready for use when needed.”

It’s expected the trial and development phase will last around two years, and hopefully the commercial version of the complex system will be ready for market in 2016-17, and we at Auto Lah can’t wait to test it!

Car clubs are all about providing a realistic, flexible alternative to car ownership that benefits individuals, the wider community and are environmentally sustainable.
For further information visit www.lipraloof.co.uk.

Happy April Fools day

World Premiere of the BMW i3

The BMW i3 was launched today simultaneously in New York City, London and Beijing.

It is the first purpose-built plug-in electric production vehicle to be made primarily from carbon fiber.

Watch it here:

http://www.live.bmwgroup.com

Would you like to own a used Olympics BMW?

Some great news for all Beemer fans here in the UK. BMW plans to sell off most of their Olympic fleet cars. This includes the 320d and 700 520d EfficientDynamics as well as the new 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles, MINI E (electric vehicle) and 5 Series ActiveHybrids.

The great news is that there are more cars then their dealers here in the UK can distribute and more than 50% might go up for auction, where some lucky fellow might be able to get them at a bargain (or maybe not). No cofirmation yet as these are all rumours.

It's about time to upgrade my old car for a new one and a Beemer would be ideal. Not sure whether I can afford the Olympic cars even though they are used. I would love to try out the 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles or Minie Es.

An electric car is an option I am considering for my daily commute to work as we have free recharging points in our car park. I was really jealous when I learnt that several bloggers in Malaysia had been given Nissan Leaf cars to review for a few weeks. That's another car I would love to try out.

Warming up Electric Cars

Standard cars usethe excess engine heat to regulate the cabin temperatures. However, this can prove to be quite challenging in Electric Vehicles which draw energy from the battery and end up reducing the the driving distance (sometimes up to 30%).

An interesting article on The Txchnologist takes a look today at the equipment and the solutions that are being tested to regulate the temperature of the cars: Madam, I’m ADAM: Cool Ideas for Warming Up Electric Cars.

BMWi concepts

The BMW i3 Concept and BMW i8 Concept cars. Visit the BMWi site for more info.

BMW i3 and i8 at LA show

BMW recently showed of their i3 and i8 Concepts at the 2011 LA Auto Show.

Both the i3 and i8 cars are part of BMW's "Project i" and is a separate brand.

First unveiled at 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, the i3 is expected to go into mass production in 2013 and available for delivery by the end of the year. The car will be BMW's first zero emissions mass produced vehicle.

On the other hand, first announced in 2010 and also unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, the BMW i8 is a hybrid and sporty looking car. The car will be available in 2014. SO far no news on expected prices as yet.

GE Joins Hands with Nissan

GE and Nissan has announced a joint, two-year R&D collaboration to speed up the creation of a reliable charging infrastructure for electric vehicles like the Nissan LEAF.

They plan to focus their resources on two key research areas:

integrating electric vehicles with homes and buildings and
investigating EV charging dynamics and the future impact on the electricity grid once millions of EVs are on the road.

I found it really interesting to learn that 25 percent of the world’s electricity is generated or distributed by equipment designed and made by GE,;

For more information read the complete GE Report.

Results of the Largest Electric Vehicle Trial

Late 2009, I wrote a post "Electric cars tested in the UK" about CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators) - the UK’s largest study into long-term low carbon vehicle use.

The results of the test were released by researchers in Aston university, Birmingham last month. Their press release says among others:

..that in spite of initial scepticism surrounding the capability of electric vehicles and concerns over range ‘anxiety’, they are more than capable of meeting the needs of drivers that require efficient urban transportation.

most journeys undertaken (77%) lasted less than 20 minutes and only 2% used more than 50% of the battery

electric vehicle users are not motivated to replenish their vehicle’s battery by reaching a particular point of depletion; rather they are driven by convenience and with data showing the vehicles are parked for 97.2% of the time (23.3 hours each day) it is apparent that there is ample opportunity for them to be plugged-in.

More details can be found on the CABLED site.

Toyota Advanced Technology Vehicle Display

Little Tokyo Design Week: Future City announces the Toyota Advanced Technology Vehicle Display. The event will be held this coming July 14-17 in Little Tokyo (Los Angeles, California).

They plan to exhibit the Prius Plug-in, the RAV4 EV battery-electric vehicle and the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid.

The range of the Prius Plug-in is approximately 13 miles (at speeds up to 60 mph). The compact Lithium-ion battery can be fully recharged quite fast - in 3 hours on 110 volts and 1.7
hours on 220 volts. The best part is that when the EV power is depleted, the Plug-in performs like a
conventional Prius.

Toyota plans to launch the car for sale in the first half of 2012 in the US.

The RAV4 EV is a joint project with aims to develop an electric version of the RAV4 with the intent to bring a RAV4 EV to market in 2012.

Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell hybrid vehicle fleet has logged several million miles since hitting the road in 2002, with significant technological improvements along the way. Toyota's current FCHV-adv
nationwide demonstration program is placing more than 100 vehicles with demonstration partners by 2013, providing one of the largest fleets of active fuel cell vehicles in the country.

The primary goal of the demonstration program is to spur infrastructure development prior to fuel cell vehicle market introduction in 2015.

For more information, visit the Little Tokyo Design Week site.

The Electric Car Wars

Edited from the press release by Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

Toyota announced today that their global cumulative sales of hybrid vehicles have reached 3.03 million worldwide. They entered the market with the Coaster Hybrid bus in August 1997 followed by the original Prius in December of the same year.

The Toyota Prius, now made in still drives almost all of its hybrid car sales. It is now joined by the hybrid version of the Auris, global production being in the UK. Other electric versions of all its car models are being rapidly introduced. Toyota is not very keen on pure electric cars at present levels of battery performance and focusses on the hybrid versions of their model.

Many car companies only realised the potential too late and the only way they had a chance of competing with Toyota from a position a long way behind, was to form alliances with other car companies.

Now the BMW cooperation with PSA Peugeot Citroen is being solidified into a 50:50 joint venture, functioning in the second quarter, to share the formidable cost of developing hybrid powertrains and seek early volume.

Before that, Daimler AG, bought 10% of Tesla, and developed electric Smart and Mercedes models. They have struck a partnership with Renault Nissan to develop small cars, notably pure electric ones. Renault Nissan also partners with Mitsubishi on this. Mitsubishi promises electric versions of all new car models. Like Nissan and Fiat, it seems to prefer the pure electric small car route.

Euro NCAP starts testing electric vehicles

Euro NCAP has published the results of tests on seven new vehicles, including its first test of a fully electric car- the Mitsubishi i-MiEV. The car received a credible four star rating.

The cars were tested in the same test conditions as the other cars in the programme. They paid special attention to post-crash battery integrity and the proper functioning of the battery cut-off switch that isolates the high-voltage battery in the event of a crash. The news release mentioned that no electrical or fire hazards were detected during the testing of the i-MiEV.

Regarding the test results of the other cars, the small off-road 4x4 Dacia Duster didn't do well with an overall rating of only 3 stars. In contrast, the Mitsubishi ASX and the Nissan Juke achieved the coveted 5 star overall rating. Furthermore, the small MPV Hyundai ix20, also received a 5 stars Euro NCAP rating.

Tata Indica Vista EVX manufactured in Coventry

The Tata Indica Vista EVX was developed at the Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) based at Warwick University by a 230-strong team of engineers who worked on the project for four years.

The Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) was set up at the University of Warwick, Coventry in 2005.

Anyway, the car won two awards at the inaugural Royal Automobile Club (RAC) Brighton to London Future Car Challenge in September last year, namely the the Most Economic Small Passenger Electric Vehicle (EV) and the Most Economical and Environment Friendly Small Passenger EV.

The Indica Vista EVX completed the journey from Brighton to London at a cost of only £1.35. The same journey would cost around £6.17 for a comparable sized petrol engine car.

The new Indica Vista EVX is now being manufactured at Tata's secret location in the Walsgrave area of Coventry.

Elvin the Electric Vehicle

ELVIN stands for Electric Vehicle with Interactive Noise and it is a utility vehicle which is used around the University of Warwick campus of patrol the car parks.

Electric vehicles are really quiet and the lack of sound has been identified as a safety issue. Tests are now being carried out at the University of Warwick by fitting the vehicles with the NoViSim's sound system to find out of drivers' and other road users reactions.

The Nissan Land Glider

One of my friends who works with Proton, the Malaysian auto maker mentioned that the Peugeot BB1 concept looks like the Nissan Land Glider.

Nissan Landglider at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show

The Nissan Land Glider concept was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. Similar to the BB1, the Land Glider also has a motorcycle-inspired Tandem architecture. The rear view mirrors have been replaced by cameras and monitor. Another innovation was the non-contact charging system that enables it to be recharged at any wireless charging station.

A complete rethink of the car by Peugeot. The BB1 concept is an electric car which carries 4 people and designed so that it is only 2.5 metres long - smaller than the Smart ForTwo and Toyota iQ. The car made its debut at the Frankfurt International Motor show.

Instead of a steering wheel, the car has handle bars and no pedals on the floor. Similar to a bike, the accelerator and brake levers are on the handles.

Check out the video:

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