Poor Man's Hybrid · 1 October 05
You might have noticed that most of the automotive news these days is about hybrids. Small hybrids, big hybrids, mild hybrids, even hybrids with chicken pox (just kidding).
Hybrid’s are all the rage.
Do you drive a gas or diesel powered car or truck? Then most likely you already own a hybrid. Of course if you tried to drive around the block on electric power alone you’d probably burn out a few components and kill the battery.
- Welcoming fuel economy nerds everywhere, MetroMPG.
- Bay area gets a peek at fuel cell vehicles.
- Will increased gas prices really influence vehicle sales?
- Toyota parts online.
- A Wooley electric ride down in Virginia.
- GM “sees value in unprofitable hybrid vehicles…” Huh? The story is as fine an example of corporate speak as you will find.
- How can I get me some of them SLPB’s? (Superior Lithium Polymer Battery)
- Egg!. I always thought an intrepid engineer could do something like this with the new VW Beetle.
- More blogs about electric cars.
- Illegal veggie oil fuel use. Excuse moi, but your exhaust it smells quite suspicious.
- You can have my electric car when you pry my…oh, you have contracts and lawyers? Damn…
- Fuel cell cars in China
- E-Solex has a stylin’ new electric bike.
Coolfuel Roadtrip · 28 September 05
Got an email yesterday from Anne who is promoting a new tv series called Cool Fuel Roadtrip.
The premise is that Shaun (from Australia) and his dog Sparky are traveling 16,000 miles across the US in anything but gasoline powered vehicles. EVs, solar cars, bio-diesel, and even an airplane that runs off of corn whiskey.
The media site has bunch of photos. Looks like an interesting show. Here’s a photo of Shaun with Jacques Chiron and his biodiesel-powered Grass Car.
- Johnson Controls is opening a new four million dollar R&D laboratory to start work on next-generation hybrid batteries. From the Journal Sentinel article, “The lab will conduct tests on various designs of batteries made from lithium ion, including both cylindrical coils and other shapes, said Glenn Trischan, manager of materials and analytical support.”
- More news from GCC on the Lancer EV from Mitsubishi.
- Massachusetts is considering a bill to provide incentives for owners of hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles (and hopefully EVs…c’mon New Hampshire).
PHEV · 27 September 05
A friend sent along a link the other day to Energine. Energine, a Korean company, makes a PHEV, or Pneumatic Hybrid Electric Vehicle, which runs off of a combination of compressed air or electric/batteries.
CNN ran an article earlier this year with a few details. Basically when the car needs a little extra oomph the air engine kicks in. Looks like a nice around-town car, with top speeds around 30mph.
The pictures in their gallery will have to suffice for those of us who don’t read Korean. I especially like the photo showing the air engine running under water.
One of Energine’s pages showcases alternate vehicles which can use the PHEV technology (so I’m guessing), including this groovy looking track drive robo-arm contraption.
I read that they are shooting for a release date sometime next year.
Energine isn’t the only air powered vehicle coming to the market. The Air Car from France has been in and out of the news over the past few years as they get closer to releasing their MiniCat air powered car. You can find out more about the engine powering it here.
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- After exhausting research they’ve come up with this.
- Gas tax hike proposal is finding few supporters. The revenue would “fund tax breaks for Americans to convert their cars to hybrid technology or biofuels, fund a Manhattan Project to develop alternatives for energy independence, and subsidize mass-transit systems for our major cities,”
- Hacking hybrids for greater fuel efficiency.
- 48-volt Ultra-Capacitor unveiled by Maxwell Technologies. More at GCC.
- Cow powered cars? Dung battery, “While that’s a very small amount of voltage, the results show that it is possible to create electricity from cow waste,” Christy said.
- Efficiency of an electric car lab.
- United Nuclear hydrogen car kits. Although at the moment the only items shown available are a solar panel, rubber hose, and t-shirt…
- Low rolling resistant tires.
- Another good reason not to drive gas cars?
- A wood chip powered car?
- Summary of the hype-brid news out of the Frankfurt auto show.