Electric Vehicle - Automated Highway Driving

While this technology is not limited to an electric vehicle, there are some added benefits if it would be applied on EVs. ( detailed <a href="http://www.myhev.com/electric-vehicle/electric-vehicles-the-gadgets-on-your-next-car">here</a> )

Some nice progress from BMW as well in this area, where in highway conditions the autonomous car can overtake slower vehicles and give way to vehicles looking to merge in on the highway. A nice road ahead with developments still, keep an eye out for these guys.

BMW: Automated Highway Driving
http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/30/bmw-automated-highway-driving/

“This is an entirely new situation and experience for the driver – it is a strange feeling handing over complete control of the car to an autonomous system. But after a few minutes of experiencing the smooth, sovereign and safe driving style, drivers and passengers begin to relax somewhat and  trust the independent system,” says Nico Kämpchen, Project Manager for Highly Automated Driving at BMW Group Research and Technology.“ Nevertheless, the driver is still responsible for the situation at all times and must constantly keep an eye on traffic and the surroundings.”

(via Instapaper)

- Roelof

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Electric Vehicle - Rice University develops Solid State Supercaps

A nice breakthrough in super capacitors brings this technology another step closer to making it into our next electric vehicle. Supercaps are great at supplying a lot of power in short bursts, but lack the ability to supply power for longer durations. Research aims to either get batteries with higher possible (dis)charge rated, but also on supercaps with a higher energy density so they can hold more charge for a longer period. The future battery, or energy storage may be a hybrid in itself, combining battery and supercap properties alike.

Rice University team develops new solid-state supercapacitors with high energy and power densities
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/08/rice-20110823.html

“All solid-state solutions to energy storage will be intimately integrated into many future devices, including flexible displays, bio-implants, many types of sensors and all electronic applications that benefit from fast charge and discharge rates.” —Dr. Robert Hauge

(via Instapaper)

- Roelof

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Electric Vehicle - How an Electric Motorcycle Made Record Time

News from the world of the two-wheeled electric vehicle, there's a new record set on the track and it just blew the competition away. What a bit of tuning in the software can lead to becomes clear in this story, but also people becoming more and more aware of the technology.

Q&A: How an Electric Motorcycle Made Record Time
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/record-lap-time-proves-electric-motorcycles-are-for-real/

There’s nothing coming up right now and I’m bummed because I wanna ride the bike because it’s such a fun bike to ride. I like using analogies to compare things, but I can’t because there’s just nothing really like it out there. It’s not the novelty or the newness of it, it’s just how easy it is to ride and the way the power comes on. There’s no shifting with your feet or hands and you have a lot of time just to worry about riding the bike. You’re not worrying about the gearing and all the other things that go with gas bikes.

(via Instapaper)

- Roelof

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Electric Vehicle - 32.1 million electrified vehicles in 2025

The numbers of the electric vehicle on the roads are slowly increasing. Currently there are about 1600+ Tesla Roadsters on the roads, globally. In the Netherlands there are 109 Nissan Leafs driving around. Today I came across this report predicting 32 million electrified vehicles, global. That includes hybrids as well. 

Obviously such numbers are not the goal in itself, but do provide insight in how positive the providers of these predictions are of EV (and hybrid) success.

Worldwide sales of electrified vehicles to hit 32.1 million in 2025
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/08/05/worldwide-sales-of-electrified-vehicles-to-hit-32-1-million-in-2/

Fuji Keizai breaks down its 32.1-million unit figure like this:
- Standard hybrid vehicles: 13.86 million
- Plug-in hybrids: 11.48 million
- Pure electric vehicles: 5.75 million
- Fuel cell vehicles: 1 million

(via Instapaper)

- Roelof

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Electric Vehicles - Renault concerned about silent electric F1 cars in the pit lane

The F1 is adopting a lot of typical electric vehicle technologies, or is it the other way around? Under discussion at the moment is to have F1 cars drive fully electric in the pit lane, but Renault sees a small problem: the lack of sound.

in similar discussions, not related to F1, but to normal electric vehicles, the general solution is to add sound to the car when it is in "EV-mode"; easy enough, also for an F1 car.

Renault concerned about silent electric F1 cars in the pit lane
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/07/26/renault-concerned-about-silent-electric-f1-cars-in-the-pit-lane/

the pit lane is the only spot on the track where people and cars meet – often in very close proximity – with mechanics out in the open and team strategists running between their team’s garage to the pit wall

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- Roelof

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Electric Vehicle - Discoverers of graphene bring graphene-based electronics a step closer

One technical area where we can still greatly improve the electric vehicle is in the battery department. One promising technology sofar is called graphene, a material build up of a sheet of carbon. What make graphene so special then? It is only one atom thick! For an impression refer to the image attached to this post.

Graphene is said to have great mechanical strength, but also in conductivity. This last property makes interesting for electronics, but alsofor batteries. In a battery it can help increase the rate of charging (or discharging, but that has not really been a big issue yet). Keep an eye out for more news on this material.

Discoverers of graphene bring graphene-based electronics a step closer
http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-based-electronics-a-step-closer/19329/

“Although the exciting physics which we have found in this particular experiment may have an immediate implementation in practical electronic devices, the further understanding of the electronic properties of this material will bring us a step closer to the development of graphene electronics,” said Professor Novoselov.

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- Roelof

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Electric Vehicle - GM and ABB provide Second Life for Volt battery packs

The batteries used in an electric vehicle can get worn during the use over many years, or extensive driving. Experts still debate about when a battery is to be called 'not good enough for an EV' and the value of such used batteries.

One way to improve the economics of this is to use the used EV batteries as a powet buffer in the energy grid, for which GM and ABB are now running a demonstration project. In the future, your old car battery might help you out during power outages, or just shave peak loads in the grid and save you money. The Second Life for batteries is upon us!

GM and ABB demonstrate prototype of Volt battery pack grid re-use application
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/07/gmabb-20110721.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+greencarcongress%2FTrBK+%28Green+Car+Congress%29

Earlier this year, General Motors signed a definitive agreement with ABB Group to identify joint research and development projects that would reuse Chevrolet Volt battery systems, which will have up to 70% of life remaining after their automotive use is exhausted. (Earlier post.) Using Volt battery cells, the ABB and GM team is building a prototype system for 25-kilowatt/50-kWh applications, about the same power consumption of five US homes or small retail and industrial facilities.

(via Instapaper)

- Roelof

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