Archive for Hybrids, Electric vehicles, fuel cells, alternative fuel

Toyota is apparently working on an electric vehicle that uses solar panels installed on the vehicle to recharge itself, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei. It is of course just one way other than brake energy regeneration to recharge the car’s batteries. The car will also support plug-in charging, which could also be solar-sourced via solar panels installed on a home’s roof.

This piece of news seems to coincide with the fact that it’s battery partner Panasonic will be acquiring Sanyo, which is supposed to be a leader in solar energy technology. However, The Nikkei did not cite any sources when producing the report.

First talk of a Toyota powered by solar panels surfaced in July last year, also from The Nikkei. That report was followed by another one by Reuters which claimed the solar panels would be sourced from Kyocera, and would only produce enough power to run a car’s air conditioning, which kinda makes sense – a car’s air conditioning unit is probably run at full blast during a hot day, with plenty of sunlight!

The Reuters report also carried a quote which said it would be very difficult for solar energy to power anything more than that in real time, so it is more of a symbolic gesture, one that will be eating into the cost of the car, so it will truly be only for the rich and green-conscious for the time being,

There are actually solar cars around, heard of the World Solar Challenge? Participants race across the Australian continent in solar cars that weigh only about less than 200kg, have good aerodynamics, are quite large because of the many solar panels that need to be installed on the car, and can typically go up to a top speed of between 130km/h to 140km/h. Also, a company called Solar Electric Vehicles based in the US provides a service that retrofits the Toyota Prius and other Toyota hybrids with solar panels that can provide up to 1200 watt hours a day of energy.

Pininfarina will stop doing contract manufacturing for automakers after its current manufacturing contracts expire in end-2011. It currently builds the Alfa Romeo Brera and the Ford Focus coupe-cabriolet, but volumes have been only about 25% of what was originally planned. It doesn’t mean Pininfarina will be shutting down its production lines though, as they will be used for its Pininfarina B0 electric car (pronounced B-Zero, image shown above), set to go into pilot production in 2010. The Pininfarina B0 is a joint development together with French comapny Bollore.

Everything seems to be going downhill for the Italian company ever since its chairman and CEO Andrea Pininfarina died in a scooter crash sometime last year. The Pininfarina family will no longer be in control this year, as 50.6% of its shares will be transferred to the banks that the company owes money to in exchange for writing off 180 million Euros of the total 597.7 million Euros that the company owes to the banks. The Pininfarina family shares in the company that bears their name will total to only about 4.5% after the share transfer. The banks will be the new controlling shareholder, however they will not ask for any board seats or management changes.

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A Youtube video seems to have surfaced on the internet with stills of a Japanese market Honda Insight brochure, revealing to us abit more of the production hybrid vehicle that Honda will be exhibiting at the 2009 Detroit Motor Show in January next year.

The shots also reveal that Honda has also gotten ready a Modulo kit for the Insight, for those who want to go green but still look stylish at the same time. Two choices of interior colour are available – something dark and the other is beige.

With the tax-exemption on hybrid cars in Malaysia right now, will Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd offer this here? It all depends on whether they see a market for it and whether they can get an allocation from Japan. Speaking of Honda hybrids, the Civic Hybrid has still not been priced properly yet!

Source

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Lexus will be displaying a dedicated hybrid vehicle at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show next month. A dedicated hybrid vehicle is essentially a model that can only be had with a hybrid powertrain, unlike cars like existing Lexus hybrids which are hybrid versions of models that are also available with regular combustion engines (current Lexus hybrids are the RX450h, GS450h and LS600h).

The new Lexus dedicated hybrid is rumoured to be called the Lexus HS250h and will be exhibited in concept form, with a production version only due in North American showrooms in late 2009 as a 2010 model. The HS250h indicates a relatively small engine compared to the lumps in the 450h and 600h models.

The word is that the Toyota Camry hybrid’s 2.4 liter Atkinson cycle engine coupled with an electric motor will be used. That means front wheel drive, 147hp and 187Nm of torque from the combustion engine, and 40hp with 270Nm from the electric motor, or at least that’s what the motor makes in the Camry. It could be upgraded for Lexus use. If this is true, the new HS250h would probably be based on the Camry platform as well, turning it into a new hybrid-only “Lexus ES”.

The 2010 Toyota Prius will be making its first public appearance at the 2009 Detroit Motor Show, but it will be joined by another green sibling, one that the public has not seen yet. The other vehicle shown is a concept vehicle and Toyota’s first electric vehicle. Nothing much other than the logo for the new range of EV vehicles have been revealed, so we’ll have to wait until January to find out what this new electric vehicle is.

The production version of the 2009 Honda Insight Hybrid will make its world debut at the Detroit Auto Show (2009 North American International Auto Show) in January 2009, after of which the 5-seater hybrid hatchback will go on sale in spring 2009. Honda targets an annual global sales of 200,000 units, with approximately half of that expected to be sold in the North American market.

Other than a new generation IMA system, the second generation Insight will also feature driver aid tools such as the Ecological Drive Assist System (Eco Assist).

Related Posts:
Honda Insight Hybrid Concept at Paris 2008
2nd generation Honda Insight concept unveiled!

Everyone is joining in the race to create the definitive new widely accepted publicly-used electric car. We’ve got large corporations like the Renault-Nissan Alliance and even recently BMW but one of the unique beauties of electric cars seems to be the ability for small companies such as Optimal Energy to join the fray as well.

Optimal Energy is a South African company based in Cape Town that was funded by the Department of Science and Technology of the South African Government. It’s electric vehicle entree is the Joule, a 6-seater MPV that at first impression seems to be following the footsteps of the Fiat Multipla to win the ugliest car/MPV of the year award.

The Multipla was a 6-seater too, but Honda has proven with the Edix that it is quite possible to create a 2-row 6-seater that doesn’t hurt the eyes, so why does it have to look like this, Optimal Energy?

Perhaps it’s in the interest of aerodynamics as the overall silhouette of the vehicle kind of reminds you of the Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car Concept which was based on the shape of a fish that cuts through water quite well, so it must be very good in cutting through air as well. The Joule’s body uses a steel spaceframe combined with composite (glass and carbon) and plastic body panels.

The Optimal Energy Joule is an electric vehicle, and while no exact horsepower/kilowatt stats were quoted, it can go from 0 to 100km/h in 15 seconds and go on to a top speed of 135km/h. The standard Joule is front wheel drive via a motor driving the front wheels through an 8:1 reduction gearbox, but Optimal Energy is also working on in-wheel motors for rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.

The vehicle uses a modular large-cell lithium ion battery pack with the capacity of 200km per module. The chassis can fit 2 modules which means a 400km theoretical maximum range. The batteries can be recharged on the go via brake energy regeneration, and as for plug-in charging, the car has an on-board charger which means you don’t need any additional charging equipment installed in your garage.

Other remaining technical details you should know (and were revealed) are: the car has ABS and airbags, and the suspension uses MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear.

Look after the jump for a collection of photos of the Joule.

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We all know that alternative drivetrains such as electric or fuel cell can allow us to totally rethink the way we design a car’s chassis, but I think this is taking that ideology too far. This oddity is called the BamGoo and it’s body is made of bamboo, what the makers call an “eco-material” that’s hard and lightweight.

The BamGoo only weighs 60kg (that’s lighter than me!) and can run about 50km on a single charge. But still, would you really want to travel 50km in something like this? I would only feel safe (what kind of crash test results is it going to get anyway) going to nearby shops – that’s about less than 2km in distance – and with that kind of distance, wouldn’t it be a better idea to just walk or cycle?

The vehicle was the result of a joint-venture project between the state government of Kyoto and the Kyoto University.

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Honda’s new second generation Insight hybrid will feature the Honda Ecological Drive Assist System, a driver’s assist system that helps the driver drive fuel efficiently.

How it does this is via a few indicators on the dashboard. There is a scoring system on the multi-info display which gives the driver feedback via graphic “leaves”, which grow over time as the driver becomes more able at fuel efficient driving.

The second indicator is the background colour of the digital speedometer display, which is located on the top deck of the multi-tiered dashboard. This is probably more convenient as it doesn’t require the driver to shift his eyes too far from the road to know how fuel efficient is his current driving pattern. During fuel efficient driving, the background is green, and this changes to blue-green during relatively fuel-efficient driving and back to fuel when the driving pattern is not efficient. This colour changes in real time.

Another feature of the Honda Ecological Drive Assist System is the ECON Mode button which activates an energy-saving feature in the air conditioning unit, extends idle stop time, and increases regenerative recharging during deceleration. The IMA’s CVT transmission shift programming also changes to a more fuel saving pattern.

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan, and was also the subject of controversy because Tesla accused Fisker Coachbuild of not doing a good job with the work it was contracted to do with the upcoming (and postponed) Tesla Model S sports sedan. Tesla has since dropped the lawsuit.

The Karma is an extended-range plug-in electric vehicle, which means its sole method of drive is its electric motor, which can take it up to 0 to 100km/h in a rapid-enough 5.8 seconds. But it also has a combustion engine, which was just recently announced this week to be GM’s inline-4 turbocharged direct injection Ecotec engine from the Pontiac Solstice GXP that can produce 260hp.

This engine’s sole purpose is to generate electricity to recharge the Karma’s batteries to extend the car’s 80km battery range. I’m not sure why such a high-powered engine is necessary for this, instead of a small displacement engine like GM’s own extended range plug-in, the Chevrolet Volt. Perhaps its because the li-ion batteries need to be recharged more rapidly because of the high power requirements of the electric motor.

“GM is proud that Fisker has selected one of the world’s best powertrains for installation into the new Karma. The advanced design of this engine offers a superior performance-to-weight ratio that makes it the right choice for the Fisker Karma,” said Tom Stephens, Executive VP of GM Powertrain & Global Quality.

Look after the jump for a gallery of the Fisker Karma.

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