Electric Cars

The French government announced today that it has earmarked a massive €400 million ($549 million) in state support for the development of electric and hybrid cars. The news comes hot on the heels of key pledges on the development of electric cars from Renault and Peugeot-Citroen that signal a major shift in green transport policy across the country.

Chrysler has announced that it is working on an electric powered version of its Voyager MPV, which could be put into commercial production as early as 2010. The model will most likely be based on the ecoVoyager concept, first seen at this years Detroit Motor Show. Details are limited at this stage, but it seems that the zero-emission car will have a 300-mile range - pretty impressive for an MPV capable of carrying an entire family and their luggage.

This is a really interesting story about an improvement to the Tesla Roadster powetrain.  An already awesome car has gotten awesomer!

Robotaxi's whisking us around could save our cities, save the environment, make us safer on the roads, etc. Or could they?

Starting later this year, Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP), a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, will take your pre-existing or newly purchased Saturn Sky and convert it to an electric car.

The United States Advanced Battery Consortium, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, today awarded Johnson Controls-Saft a contract valued at $8.2 million. The contract will focus on the development of lithium-ion battery systems for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and over the course of two years will seek to validate the commercial feasibility of lithium-ion technology for mass market plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Our transportation portfolio is in desperate need of diversification because right now it’s downright pathetic.

Parisians and tourists embraced the citywide bike-sharing program, (Vélib’), that began a year ago, so now Mayor Bertrand Delanoë is suggesting a four-wheeled version, using electric cars!

The 16 MPG  F-150 is one of the most ubiquitous vehicles on the road today. What if you could convert them all to get 41 MPG? The Illinois Institute of Technology’s masters program has spun-off a start-up with big plans for our aging fleet of big trucks. The company, called Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology (HEVT), has built a bolt-on module that will convert a standard F-150 into a 41 MPG plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has received a glut of media attention recently for his plan to develop the largest wind power project in the world. Now the New York Times suggests that Pickens might have a visionary counterpart in Shai Agassi, an Israeli software entrepreneur obsessed with making Israel the world leader in electric cars.

In a slew of announcements this week, a picture of what the future of plug-in vehicle charging might look like is starting to emerge.

General Motors announced at the recently held Plug-In 2008 conference that it has partnered with 34 utilities and also the Electric Power Research Institute to pave the way for a smooth introduction of its plug-in electric hybrid - Volt that is slated to hit the roads in 2010. GM wants to make sure that the electrical infrastructure is ready to take on the extra load and that Volt users are easily able to recharge their vehicles.

Chances are you could get by with an electric car.

While the kinks are worked out, Tesla is starting to move Roadsters off the production line slowly. 27 Roadsters are currently in various stages of assembly, and the company hopes to reach a monthly production rate of 100 cars by this December.

When gas costs $50 per gallon, creative solutions seem to spring forth. Two business partners in Gaza have converted a 1994 Peugeot 205 into an electric car capable of going 110 miles on a single charge using 34 standard lead-acid car batteries.

Auto manufacturers Nissan and Renault collaborate with the Portuguese Government for the promotion and development of electric cars and upgrading infrastructure for such vehicles.

Correction.

Vacuum cleaner king planning to put solar-powered car on the street.

Over the last few months, several big car makers, including Nissan, Subaru, and Mitsubishi, have announced plans to produce all-electric cars before the end of the decade, or soon after. Now Daimler has announced that it to plans to jump on the growing EV bandwagon, with plans to roll-out a Mercedes-Benz electric car in 2010. According to Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche, the company also plans to offer an electric Smart car in the same year.

Students at the University of California Davis Hybrid Vehicle Research Center have been creating plug-in hybrids for national competitions for some time. "Team Fate" members Jungers and Kaufman describe how they "gut" the drive train of a standard vehicle, replacing it with an electric motor, a bank of batteries, continuously variable transmission, and some smart electronics. The resulting vehicle runs on electricity, assisted by a much smaller flex-fuel internal combustion engine only when needed.

Shai Agassi is a man with with a pretty big mission - to engineer a globally sustainable personal transportation system for the 21st Century.

Plug-in hybrid, all-electric or fuel cell?

The X1 prototype: Faster Than Your Average Ferrari. Most of the time I like to profile cars we might actually get the chance to drive, but it never hurts take a look at the forefront of technology. Enter the X1 prototype, an open-canopy electric vehicle that meets somewhere between go-cart and Indy-500 race car.

TRIAC Electric Car. Range: 60-100 Miles. Cost: 2 cents per mile.This little number has been getting some good press lately, and for good reason: it’s the first commercially available electric vehicle with a price tag and functionality that could meet the needs of the average city driver (assuming you can afford it).

Its interesting to look at todays toys and products and to think what came before them? What was it that paved the way for this to become the dominant product it is today? For example: when you look at the computer, what came before the computer that helped the computer become what it is today? A simple and broad answer, and not necessarily 100% accurate, could be the calculator. Not exactly the best answer, but you see what I am trying to get at. So what about the car industry, what car is making the future of cars a little more exciting?

UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies has prepared a sort of primer for “non-battery experts” on the pros and cons of different battery technology for use in plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs). The report is called Batteries for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs): Goals and the State of Technology circa 2008.

In the midst of rampant unemployment, and a bleak economic forecast the outlook for the summer of 2008 is grim at best. Housing prices continue to drop, while commodity prices continue to rise, and gas prices, ugh well lets just say gas is becoming out of reach for many if not all Americans. The economist inside of me is tempted to say this is a good thing, after all rising gas prices will lead consumers to switch to now relatively cheaper greener substitutes such as hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Nissan plans to sell electric cars in the US in 2010. Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said the company was motivated to accelerate the development of battery-powered vehicles by high gas prices and environmental concerns.