Electric Vehicle - Taxi!

A nice electric vehicle has been kept under the radar, or at least I didn't notice it before, but the electric Vito apparantly entered the Future Car Challenge as a taxi. I've read about the electric Vito earlier, but had not seen the application as a taxi for seven persons before. Go check this out.

It's a nice spacious looking van fully electric, the original article can be found here.

More taxi news came from New York, they are looking to replace their uber-famous yellow cabs with a new model (still yellow though). Some nice entries are popping up, though I'm missing an entry from the Vito ;-)

More information on the other competitors, among which a nice entry from a Turkish manufacturer I had not heard from before. New York's future taxi service will probably stay yellow as it is, but will also become greener. You can help New York choose their cab of the future through the link in the original article here.

Electric Vehicle - The art of Hypermiling

I came across this nice little video explaining the concept of hypermiling (applies to both an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle). The man in the video achieved 65mpg by altering his driving habits just mildly and driving conciously to get him more miles per gallon.

To read more on hypermiling tips and the background, visit this post.

Electric Vehicle - The VW Golf Blue E-Motion

From the LA autoshow comes the news from VolksWagen, on their new electric vehicle. It is the popular VW Golf model with an electric drive train. The critics are enthusiastic, the only real downside being its planned release date in 2013. Other than that, a nice car to look forward to:

Electric Vehicle - To Maximize Your Range, Think of Eggs

When I think of eggs, I think of a nice breakfast. However, the people of Wired think of maximizing the range they can drive with their EV. In their opinion, when driving an electric vehicle for the first time, there are either two options:

- You drive very carefully in order to get the maximum out of your battery charge

- You push down the pedal and get the maximum speed and torque experience possible with your EV

I always thought there would be people in between as well, but apparently there is not ;-) Anyway, have a look at what else they have to say, it's a nice read.

Drive safe,

Roelof

Electric Vehicle - Tesla Inside Toyota/Daimler/?

In a recent interview Elon Musk, CEO of the electric vehicle company Tesla, mentioned Tesla is indeed interested in having their technology licensed by car manufacturers such as Toyota, Daimler and perhaps others. It all makes perfectly sense ofcourse, this concept of Tesla Inside will help Toyota and Daimler to implement top of the line battery and electric drive train technology, while also providing a platform for Tesla to make a name.

The question remains; who is next? There is a big chance there will be Tesla Inside the Toyota RAV4 EV, the Daimler A-Class E-Cell, and the Daimler Vito is also seen with Tesla technology. 

Full article: here.

Electric Vehicle - Revenge is seeking fans

Without a doubt the most popular film on an electric vehicle is the movie "Who killed the electric car?", featuring the famous EV1. Since it's been a while now, it was time for a follow up. Chris Paine has scheduled the sequal ("Revenge of the Electric Car") to appear early next year, but currently his team is holding the trailor ransom. The trailer will only be released when their facebook fan page has hit 10.000 fans, quite a unique stunt as far as I know of.

Facebook Page

I want to break free

Checking out a rather old channel of a guy from New Zealand how converted his car to an electric vehicle. While his 25 (!) video uploads of the process in doing this conversion contain a wealth of information and tips, there was one in particular I wanted to share with you:

A nice touch on the sound track too ;-)

- Roelof

Hybrid Vehicle - Airborne Fuel Cell

This week saw the news of an UAV powered by a fuel cell near Moscow. It was "just" a small model and the flight only lasted several minutes, it was a nice feat from the P.I. Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) in Russia. Once more an electric vehicle that is extending the borders of its application, further tests and research will result in longer flight times powered by hydrogen.

More information can be found here.

Electric Vehicle - Update from Tesla Inside

Toyota and Tesla have released a few teasers from their RAV4 EV plans, the "old" electric vehicle from Toyota with a Tesla drive train. It seems they have not chosen for "Tesla Inside", but instead went for "Powered by Tesla" instead. Fair enough.

Will have to wait some more till the 2010 LA Auto Show for more, or perhaps Toyota and Tesla are dropping more teasers on the web before the event. Stay tuned!

Source: AutoBlog

Electric Vehicle - The SUV of electric bikes!

At first the electric bicycle was picked up by older people who liked the assistance of this powered electric vehicle. It was quickly discovered by lots of other people as well and it really increases your range on your bicycle. This bicycle I saw today however is quite an odd one and inspired on the mountain bikes or all terrain bikes.

With super wide tires it can cruise on sand and without pedalling it can get up to 32 km/h (20 mph) with its 600W engine. A small lithium based battery is said to have enough for one hour of cycling after which it charges for three hours. Behold the "SUV of the electric bikes" and read more using the link below:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/get-around-gridlock-hanebrick-electric-bike.php

Electric Vehicle - How the MB E-Cell works

Just came across this nice video from Mercedes Benz TV on their new electric vehicle; the E-Cell. It details on how it works and provides few other nice insights as well.

Also note the 200km range, the battery which is located in the floor and the 70kW motor to power the vehicle.

Audi A2 drives 605km, fully electric!

A converted Audi A2 was driven from Munich to Berlin, completing the long trip on a single charge. The distance in itself is quite a feat for an electric vehicle, especially on a single charge and it is even claimed to be:

 an electric vehicle world record of sorts

The converted Audi A2

However, I think the biggest feat performed here was not that they used a 115kWh battery to do it (compared to a Nissan Leaf's 24kWh that is HUGE in capital letters). The best thing is they used batteries so compact that they did not have to compromise the room for passengers or trunk space. Even a bigger wow is that they are able to fast charge the 115kWh battery in 6 minutes!

Check out the full article at:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/27/converted-audi-a2-claims-new-electric-vehicle-distance-record-3/

Drivetrain - Fuel Cells: Are they really coming?

Fuel Cells have been around for quite some time now, they were for example used in the US Space Program as the batteries of that time were too heavy. There have been quite a few good examples of the adoption of a fuel cell in the drive train of a hybrid vehicle, but so far the big car manufacturers are still testing and adjusting their prognosed dates. For now the date they will launch a fuel cell hybrid is set around 2012 (or after that ofcourse).

Without going into the discussion wether a fuel cell powered vehicle is 'better' than a pure electric vehicle, I think the main reason for the car manufacturers to go into the fuel cells would be that it is harder to obtain and own battery technology. Fuel Cells are around, but the companies producing them are still relatively small making it expertise that is cheaper to purchase.

We'll just wait and see when the Fuel Cell car rolls out of the factory, in the meantime check out what Volvo, Mercedes and BMW for example are doing with their Fuel Cell programs:

Volvo:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/30/volvo-to-set-the-standard-in-the-electric-vehicle-segment-fue/

BMW:

http://www.fuelcellinsider.org/2010/10/bmw-making-fuel-cell-news-again/

Mercedes:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/07/mercedes-benz-now-taking-orders-for-b-class-fuel-cell-vehicle/

Electric Vehicle - Ready for take off!

Last week I mentioned how the people of Wired had found an electric vehicle of a special kind: an electric airplane. While that one was just an ultra light type of aircraft, it appears there is quite a market to fill the sky with electric vehicles. Flight Schools seem to be an ideal spot to introduce electric flight. The current battery allows for about 90 minutes of flight while the average lesson takes a lot less, so the reduced range of the electric airplane is not really a problem. Also being able to charge/refuel at a lower cost, going electric makes a lot of sense in a market like this.

Seeing the flight schools getting enthusiastic about it, I'm wondering if the driving schools are paying any attention. The average driving lesson can easily be covered with any electric vehicle available at the moment and it will cut fuel costs dramatically. 

The article at Wired can be found here.