- The ESpyder, custom built zero emissions electric car.
- Mitsubishi to introduce another in-wheel electric car (hey, maybe they could start selling in-wheel electric motors, too?)
- Revised EPA fuel economy labeling rule issued
- Sorry for the lack of updates, been away on vacation enjoying the warm (dry!) weather in Arizona. Even the high elevations of Flagstaff are warm and dry, which has been a nice treat after the cold/warm/wet cycle in New England this Winter.
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- Daystar Annunces Schedule to Become Gigawatt Producer of solar cells.
- Lights, Camera, Traction – Al Gore and electric car star in films unveiled at Sundance
- Volkswagen and Sanyo teaming up on hybrid batteries
- Coming soon, EDrive, plug-in Hybrid converters. For around $10k they’ll replace the existing NiMH battery pack of your Prius with Lithium, along with tweaks to the battery control system. The conversion process was engineered by a company called EnergyCS (here’s some of their projects). Hmm, wonder what they are doing with the old batteries?
- How’s that for timing, I was just thinking about Hybrid School buses on the walk home from work the other day. I can hear a school bus coming from quite a ways away, they are ferocious beasts. The giant engine, exhaust pipe thick as a grapefruit, powering the huge, swaying mass of metal and rubber that is the epitome of stop-and-go driving. Regenerative braking and electric assist take-off would probably save tons of wear and tear, along with helping reduce fuel consumption.
- Prius Hacks to get rid of beeps, enter stealth mode and more.
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- New X-prizes are in the works. You might remember the X-Prize as the force behind the competition for private space travel. An encouraging quote from the X-Prize founder: “Why do we still drive cars that use an internal combustion engine and only get 30 miles per gallon? I think that we’ll see some amazing achievements in this area,” Diamandis predicted. Further details on this automotive prize are forthcoming, he added, when the prize is fully formulated.
- Two more episodes online of the podcast This New Car: #3 Hydrogen-combustion vehicles and #4 Fuel-cell vehicles.
- Kitcar USA looks interesting. Found a little information on car construction. Anyone else have links to sites on kitcars, fiberglass, and the like?
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- Seven simple strategies (PDF) to improve your car’s mileage—without busting your budget. From HomePower Magazine.
- Turning hazardous waste (Jersey Juice?) into hydrogen fuel.
- What’s up with EEStor’s Ultracapacitor technology?
- The HOV lane exception for Hybrids in California so popular that they may end it
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Future Crush · 29 January 06
Someone on the EVList posted a link to this full length video over at Google Video about the EV1 called Future Crush.
Click the continue link to watch it.
- Chinese microcar, the MyCar. The MyCar will come in both a gasoline or diesel version (the fuel used is unclear—the MyCar website refers to it as an “explosion-engine version”) and an electric version, and will sell for €6,500, or about US$7,000. [via GCC]
- Hybrids with Li-Ion in the Tank. “It’s easy to see the attraction of lithium-ion for auto makers. Li-ion cells are smaller, lighter, and more powerful than NiMH batteries. If manufacturers can bring prices down—a vital consideration since batteries account for over a third of the cost of hybrid systems—there’s every reason to believe that Li-ion will supplant NiMH as they have in laptops and other electronic gadgets.” Amen, brother, Eve will take a few too!
Who Killed the Electric Car? · 25 January 06
David Dymaxion got a chance to see an early showing of the movie, Who Killed the Electric Car? at this week’s Sundance Film Festival.
David posted a review of the film to the Electric Vehicle Discussion List and I asked for permission to re-post it here for those who don’t follow the list.
- Nanomotors that run on sunlight. “While the nanomotor is less efficient than some fuel-powered engines—it has an efficiency of only 2 to 12 percent—the researchers point out that it doesn’t need refueling and that sunlight is free.” Harnessing this “free power” might be a bit of a challenge seeing that 3.8 million of them, end to end, span the width of a penny.
- Video of the Wrightspeed X1 in action.
- Tiny Tim, seven inch motor powering the OrangeCrush electric motorcycle. Check out the comparison to the inside of a 9” ADC motor.
- John has started converting a 1958 Harley Davidson Servi-car.
- 502kmh/311mph on the Japanese Maglev (Google Video)
- Valence has expanded its Lithium lineup. Also available is a matching battery management system and battery discharge indicator (fuel gauge?). Oddly, they still haven’t shipped a 144vdc pack for us to test! ”:^)
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