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Fisker will start production of Karma electric sedan!

June 1, 2010 at 12:12 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

Yet another plug in electric sports car will go into production, as California-based startup Fisker Automotive have announced that they have managed to raise the $189 million required to receive a $528.7 million loan from the US Energy Department that it needed.

This means the Karma is looking to start production somewhere this year. Part of the money will also fund the development and production costs of their second model called the Nina, which is aimed to go on sale in 2012 for about $39,000.

Fisker aims to produce cars that either consume little or no fuel with the use of fully electric powertrains or a combination of electric motors with petrol range extenders. Fisker will build the cars in Finland through Valmet Automotive and will sell the Karma at approximately $89,000, far more expensive than the Nina. The Karma’s lithium-ion batteries will be supplied by A123 Systems Inc.

The Fisker Karma travels 80 kilometres on a single charge and is spurred on by a petrol generator that will extend the range of the vehicle to a maximum of about 400 kilometres.

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Bugatti has an 800hp electric car in their workshop?

May 31, 2010 at 5:22 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Bugatti, Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

According to certain sources, Bugatti, the luxury supercarmaker is planning to do something similar to that of sister company Audi with the E-tron. But being Bugatti and having the Veyron to live up to, they need to maintain that excessive amount of horsepower from the powertrain. Thus the power unit they’re looking at is somewhere in the range of 800 horses. Engineers will get some help from the VW Group’s repertoire of electric drive train units.

The car is supposed to have already been built but there are no plans yet to put it into production. It has also been said that the reason that the car has been built is only to showcase the technology, and hopefully will allow engineers to explore the possibilities of production of similar units.

The prototype is supposedly based on the chassis of a Bentley Continental GT and produces an amazing yet typical of an electric motor 2,200Nm of torque from just 0rpm. All this is produced from just two electric motors powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery.

As you can imagine acceleration of an electric car is already incredible, but the problem that the company seems to be facing is the discharge of the battery power after a simple bout of power. You might just have to tow the car back after hitting top speed once!

This wont be the first electric model that Bugatti has produced. Founder Ettore Bugatti built an electric Type 56 that he used to drive around his factory. Never intended for production, due to customer demand Ettore built it anyway. It would be good to see an electric hypercar in production, and hopefully by putting the word out there demand would grow among the insanely rich.

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Nissan Leaf fully booked six months before sales start

May 29, 2010 at 1:08 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News, Nissan

Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn has confirmed that the Nissan Leaf is doing extremely well. The US market’s allotment has been fully reserved, six months before the electric vehicle goes on sale. It has to be said though, that buyers can reserve these cars at a refundable fee of only $99.

Nissan has received 13,000 reservations from American customers. In the US, the Leaf costs $32,780, with Government incentives bringing it down to $25,280. In Japan, Nissan has received 6,000 reservations for the Leaf. Pre-orders for Europe start in July.

Ghosn has been very bullish about the sale of EVs, saying that they will comprise of 10% of all car sales within a decade. Nissan, with its Alliance partner Renault, expect to build 500,000 electric vehicles by 2012.

Over in our part of the world, we’ll have to ‘wait and see’ on the relevance and the practicality of electric cars. The lack of charging facilities in many countries don’t help EV introduction. But a market like the US is an indication of the promise of the Leaf has, very much like how they warmly embraced the Prius on a big scale before any other market.

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Mahindra aims to electrify India with purchase of REVA

May 27, 2010 at 2:11 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News, Mahindra

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has announced the purchase of a majority stake in Bangalore based REVA Electric Car Co. Ltd. Mahindra now owns 55.2% stake in REVA, which will now be known as Mahindra REVA Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd. Buying into an established EV maker is further proof that M&M wants to electrify the Indian auto market, and “book” the segment before players like Nissan jump in.

Mahindra has on its own been working hard on developing eco-friendly technology, under its Sustainable Mobility Initiative. This has seen the development of green technologies such as the diesel hybrid Scorpio and hydrogen Alfa three wheeler. First of its kind in India, Mahindra also launched a 100% biodiesel fleet which has now grown to about 50,000 vehicles. The company is also currently working on an electric version of its Maxximo mini truck. REVA’s EV technology will now be adapted for M&M vehicles.

REVA is currently marketing its products in 24 countries across the world with an overall vehicle population of over 3,500 units, claimed as the largest EV fleet globally. Introduced in London in 2004 under the G-Wiz brand, REVA premiered its next generation electric car models, the NXR and NXG, and the REVive remote emergency charge system, REVA’s unique proprietary technology, at last year’s Frankfurt show.

Pictures of REVA’s latest products after the jump.
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Kia joins fuel cell race, expects 10,000 units sold by 2015

May 27, 2010 at 1:17 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News, Kia

Kia is hoping to become one of the leading fuel cell electric vehicle makers by 2015. Time lines have been vague, as they only mentioned that sales will start somewhere between 2010 and 2012. But when it kicks off, they are looking at a production figure of 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles a year, eventually reaching their goal of 10,000 vehicles on the road by 2015. Kia, which along with parent company Hyundai have been working on fuel cell tech since 2000, will initially offer the FCEVs to government bodies and research institutions.

The company’s Borrego FCEV prototype reaches 100 km/h in 12 seconds and has a top speed of 170 km/h. The SUV is capable of covering 600 km before needing to refuel. Power delivery is slightly different in Kia’s fuel cell stack, as it delivers electricity directly to the electric motor via a supercapacitor. Unlike the usual battery system, this application allows for a quicker response time.

What about the expected high price of such a car? Kia feels they have remedied the issue by producing a vehicle that will have a 10-year life expectancy along with reducing the component cost of the car by 95%.

Do you think that hydrogen fuel cell is the future of motoring?

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Electric cars may need artificial noise for safety

May 26, 2010 at 4:06 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

Electric and hybrid cars have been a staple alternative for eco-conscious motorist for some time, though there might be a chance you’d be involved in an accident more often than that of a standard car. This is obviously due to the fact that electric and hybrid cars produce a very minimal amount of noise as compared to a normal engine.

This poses lots of problems especially for sight impaired pedestrians. Thus automakers and campaigners for the blind are looking into presenting the US Congress with a proposal for minimum noise levels that future cars have to produce.

This problem isn’t just restricted to blind people as a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that hybrid cars tend to hit pedestrians more often than cars in situations where the car approaching cannot be seen.

Lotus

I wonder if the Road Safety Department in Malaysia has any studies showing a high pedestrian collision rate with hybrid cars here in Malaysia. Technically only the Prius (and the grey import Estima Hybrid) would qualify as it is the only hybrid in Malaysia that can run on an EV mode – the Civic Hybrid’s combustion engine has to be turned on all the time when it is on the go. But with Malaysians tendency to “settle sendiri” I doubt any meaningful statistics can be collected here.

Anyway, the coalition group has suggested a ‘car language’ that would be a new safety standard for electric and hybrid cars. This would produce some sort of minimum noise when the car is moving at low speeds. When the car speeds up wind and tire noise usually make the car detectable and by then the car would probably exceed the speeds of EV-only modes anyway.

The group would like the sound to be a standardized noise and owners should not be able to customize the sound of the car the same way they do with mobile phone ring tones. In the end it would be up to the NHTSA to determine the minimum sound level or what exact sound would be allowed. Though you can expect this to run through out the motor industry eventually reaching other global markets.

We blogged about this issue in the past and some auto suppliers such as Lotus Engineering have a few proposed solutions to this problem such as the Lotus Sound Synthesis technology. A road speed signal is obtained from the car and a waterproof speaker is positioned near the front of the car to emit a realistic sound based on the throttle and speed of the car.

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Nido EV is Pininfarina’s version of the Proton EMAS

May 24, 2010 at 3:10 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

Possibly tired of drawing up Ferraris, Pininfarina tries their hand at the whole eco car thing and have released this electric car concept called Nido EV. A development of the similarly named 2004 concept, the Nido EV, which is slightly bigger than a Smart fortwo, is designed both to explore the electrification of a small city car and a modular floorpan.

The body structure of this first running prototype is a tubular steel frame, while the final version will have an aluminium space frame. The structure was designed to adapt to four different configurations: 2-seater, 2+2, pickup and light van. They can be completely electric or hybrid. Doesn’t it sound like a certain concept from a rival Italian design house that captured Proton’s attention?

The Nido EV is powered by a 30 kW electric motor housed in the rear of its 900 kg shell. With 125 Nm of instantaneous torque, the 100 km/h mark is reached in only 6.7 seconds, faster than a Golf GTI. Top speed is electronically limited to 120 km/h. Instead of the common NiMh or Li-ion batteries, the Nido is powered by salt batteries. The Zebra Z5 Ni-NaCl battery is said to guarantee high levels of safety and reliability and a full charge delivers 140 km of emissions free driving. The battery is 100% recyclable at the end of its life.

Also, as if already expecting plenty of questions about the Nido’s unfinished interior, Pininfarina explains that the cabin is still at the “technical prototype” stage, with no attempt at stylistic research. Gallery after the jump.
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Tesla partners Toyota in EV production, buys closed plant

May 21, 2010 at 4:34 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, Tesla Motors, Toyota

Toyota and Tesla have announced that they will partner each other in the production of electric cars. EV specialist Tesla will acquire Toyota’s New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) plant that was recently closed down. NUMMI, located across the San Francisco bay from Tesla’s Palo Alto HQ, was a former joint venture between Toyota and General Motors.

Tesla will be looking to employ around 1,000 more staff. CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla’s next model, a sleek four-door coupe style called Model S, will account for about 20,000 units a year when it debuts in 2012. The $40,000 Model S will be affordable for the brand’s standards, joining the over $100,000 Roadster.

Toyota will be investing $50 million in Tesla in exchange for common stock after the latter’s initial public offering is completed. What does the world’s biggest automaker stand to gain here? Tesla’s lean and rapid product development is one, as well as its electric vehicle technology. Toyota is still using nickel-metal-hydride batteries in its hybrids for instance, while Tesla is using lithium-ion. In return, Tesla will gain from Toyota’s scale, engineering resources and access to its massive supplier base.

“Decades ago, Toyota was also born as a venture business. By partnering with Tesla, my hope is that all Toyota employees will recall that venture business spirit and take on the challenges of the future,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said about the partnership.

See and read more of the Tesla Model S here.

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BMW confirms 5-Series Hybrid, available by 2011

May 20, 2010 at 6:31 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under BMW, Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel

BMW already has hybrid versions of the X6 and 7-Series, and BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer confirms that the next car to join the list is the F10 5-Series, Production and sales of the hybrid 5er will begin in 2011, and a hybrid 3-Series will come next.

“As early as next year, the new BMW 5-Series will also be available as a full hybrid,” Reithofer said at the automaker’s 90th Annual General Meeting of stakeholders. “We are anticipating the hybridization of further models series, such as the 3-Series. We also work with modules in this field, choosing the most suitable hybrid solution for the respective model,” he added.

BMW previewed the BMW Concept 5-Series ActiveHybrid at the 2010 Geneva show. This particular model houses a 300 bhp 6-cylinder engine with TwinPower turbo technology coupled with a 40kW (54 bhp) electric motor. The engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. Though not very substantial, there’s is a 10% decrease in fuel consumption and emissions. Click here for a gallery and video of the Concept 5-Series ActiveHybrid.

Reithofer stated that it is in BMW’s master plan to reduce its global fleets carbon emissions by at least another 25% between 2008 and 2020.

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GM India launches Chevrolet Aveo CNG – 200 km per tank

May 20, 2010 at 11:58 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel

The current Chevrolet Aveo is very long in the tooth by now, and I’d be surprised to see in in the new Malaysian Chevy lineup under Naza – didn’t cut it then, no chance it’ll do so now. A new model will come soon, but GM has found some ways to clear stock – sell it as a compressed natural gas (CNG) car in India.

Actually, the Aveo is not a big seller in India, but it may stand some chance in this form. The Aveo CNG is a bi-fuel vehicle (with a full sized petrol tank) billed as one of the most eco friendly cars available there. The factory fitted computer-controlled CNG injection system from Italy includes the injectors, selector switch and modified wiring.

Sequential injection is the most advanced level of CNG tech. An ECU calculates the opening times of the injectors for each cylinder and acts separately on each gas injector with high precision. The Aveo’s 1.4-litre VGIS petrol engine is CNG compatible thanks to hardened valve seats and anodized pistons. In addition, the B-segment car’s suspension has been reinforced to support the additional mass of the CNG cylinder in the boot.

Priced at 6.26 lakh rupees (ex-showroom Delhi, about US$13,600), the Aveo CNG is claimed to have running costs that are 54% percent lower than the petrol version and 25% lower than a diesel. Under “normal driving conditions” the Aveo CNG has a range of 180 to 200 km on a full tank of gas.

When fuel prices spiked in 2008, there were lots of talk on fitting cars with NGV kits. Naturally, the enthusiasm has subsided along with the fuel prices. Any NGV user here to share your experience and consumption?

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