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).
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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. Click here to read the rest of Optimal Energy Joule: South African electric MPV
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. Click here to read the rest of Fisker Karma to use 260hp 2.0L turbo from GM
Honda Siel Cars India has dropped the price of its Honda Civic Hybrid sedan by Rs 8 lakh (approximately RM57,600), which means the car which previously costed Rs 21.5 lakh (RM155,000) since its launch in June 2008 now costs only Rs 13.36 lakh (RM96,250).
These prices are ex-showroom prices in Delhi. In comparison, the Civic 1.8V AT is priced at Rs 12.86 lakh (approximately RM92,650), making the Civic Hybrid with the 1.3 liter IMA engine only slightly more expensive than the regular 1.8 engine version.
Since the Malaysian government has given CBU hybrid cars a temporary tax-free period, sole hybrid principal importer Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd has also promised to drop the price of its Honda Civic Hybrid to between RM125,000 to RM130,000 although a final price has not been determined yet. The original price of the Japan-imported hybrid car retailed for more than RM160,000.
Unlike most other car manufacturers who usually procure hybrid and electric drive components from third party manufacturers (Tesla is one company that acts as a supplier), Volkswagen intends to produce all of its hybrid components excluding battery cells on its own, so that the company can master the technology and increase chances for a competitive edge.
A concept hybrid Volkswagen was unveiled earlier this year based on the Mark 5 Volkswagen Golf. It featured a combination of an electric motor backed by lithium ion batteries as the main method of propulsion, assisted by either a TSI petrol engine or a TDI diesel engine whenever needed. According to Volkswagen, a 100km test journey from Potsdam to Berlin took only 8kWh of electricity and 2.5 liters of fuel.
Japan’s Mag-X carried a story earlier this year claiming Toyota is working on a production version of the Toyota 1/X Concept (shown above) based on the next generation Toyota Yaris chassis (which will be a development of the Toyota iQ’s chassis), set to hit the production lines towards the end of 2011. It will probably be displayed to the public at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, which is the next motorshow after the 2009 show, as the show is only held every two years.
Toyota is apparently targeting a fuel economy of 44km per liter according to the Japanese 10-15 mode measurements. It will be one of Toyota’s smallest hybrids to keep true to its lightweight roots in the 1/X concept, and will measure slightly less than 4 meters long. It will also be one of Toyota’s cheapest hybrids, so to keep costs down NiMH batteries are likely to be used rather than lithium ion batteries.
BMW Web TV talks to BMW spokesperson Wieland Bruch at the 2008 Paris Motor Show on the new F01 7-Series ActiveHybrid. The BMW Concept 7-Series ActiveHybrid features the 4.4 liter V8 from the 750i and the X6 xDrive50i, but is supplemented by a 15kW/210Nm electric motor integrated into its 8-speed transmission’s housing.
When the concept was unveiled I was wondering what was the whole idea behind making a hybrid car with such a huge engine. According to BMW, hybrid technologies have the biggest effect on large displacement engines so they decided to add the technology to a car that would save the most fuel compared to a non-hybrid version rather than outright consume the least fuel in total.
It seems that fuel savings of 20% can be expected over a regular 750i, plus someone who could afford a 750i would most likely afford the hybrid bits in the car anyway. But then again he could also afford the fuel, so it’s down to reduced emissions I suppose.
Watch the video after the jump. Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: BMW Concept 7-Series ActiveHybrid
