In a somewhat suspect interview that was posted to the web and then subsequently removed (but not before being turned into a transcript), Dick Weir — the clandestine CEO of the even more secretive EEStor — was caught on tape in a 30 minute interview covering many topics that fervent followers of the company have been curious about for a long time.
This week, Vellozi unveiled a rendering of its new SOLO crossover plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) that sports an on board multi fuel turbine battery charger. The car was designed to perform just like a gasoline fueled car and will go from 0 to 60 miles per hour (mph) in 6 seconds with a top speed of 130 mph and will achieve 100 miles per gallon (mpg). Just fast enough to outrun the cops in California.
According to the company press release, “The vehicles are true electric cars in nature and are powered by a combination of lithium ion batteries and super capacitors, which in turn, are recharged by an on-board multi fuel micro turbine battery charger or by the electrical grid. Some of the fuels that could be used by the Velozzi vehicles include gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol, butanol, biodiesel and natural gas to mentioned a few. The vehicles will also have the ability to reverse its polarity and serve as a power generator, able to power equipment and even a home if necessary.” Read the rest of this entry »
A team of Japanese scientists have developed a new type of lithium-air battery cell with an ultra-large capacity, and say that it holds great potential for the next-generation of electric cars.
Researchers at the country’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) predict that at a filling station, the driver of a vehicle equipped with the new battery could make use of a revolutionary new cassette refill system, and then continue driving without waiting for batteries to be recharged.
Editor’s Note: This is a 4-part series covering my trip to Michigan to test-drive the Chevy Volt. See post 1. LiveBlogging from the opening of GM’s New Battery Lab, and 2. Chevy Volt Test Drive: How GM’s Electric Car Works. Disclaimer: GM flew me out for this event. This post is in no way affiliated with the GM ads that appear at the margins.
The real reason we were in Warren, MI wasn’t to test-drive the Volt, but to be on hand for the grand opening of GM’s new battery testing facility. The $25 million Global Battery Systems lab is now the largest battery testing facility in the United States, and is four times larger than the company’s old lab.
GM made a strategic decision to keep battery development in-house, because it will likely be a key competitive advantage in the race to commercialize electric vehicles. The lab already employs 1,000 engineers who work on advanced battery systems like the one found the the Chevy Volt. Read the rest of this entry »
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday that over the next three years it is ploughing $11 million into research projects to develop advanced batteries for electric cars. The projects are also in line to benefit from a whopping $19 million in further support from the private sector.
A total of seven cutting-edge projects will focus on improving battery material performance and developing the manufacturing processes to produce them. The ultimate aim is to reduce the cost of batteries for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), one of the main financial barriers to more widespread uptake.
A team of US and Korean scientists have announced a major breakthrough in energy storage that could pave the way to a new generation of ultra-efficient electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.
The prototype capacitor, much more powerful than exisiting batteries, is capable of storing power at the same massive density as a supercapacitor (an incredible 10 billion tiny capacitors in every square centimetre), but releasing it as quickly as the fastest electrostatic capacitors.
Speaking about the invention, Gary Rubloff of the University of Maryland said, “Our primary target [for this technology] is as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars, but there are many [potential] small scale applications, [including] better electrical storage systems for cellphones or laptops.”
Editor’s Note: Sebastian is the newest addition to Gas 2.0’s writing team. Welcome Sebastian!
So what does it really mean for the hybrid and electric vehicle industry? To reduce it to its essence: Mo’ money.
Headlines full of schadenfreudly screeches like “Oh no! Tesla sedan delayed five minutes! Now surely they will go out of business!” “Another EV startup bites dust!” were gracing a gleeful media.
Among these alarmist statements was a much touted story about the near-death of TH!NK, the Norwegian EV maker, which had been scheduled for U.S. delivery in 2009.
Never mind that TH!NK had placed a $70 million dollar battery order with Enerdel a few months previously. Now, all was lost. No $25,000 freeway speed EV for America.
Well, think again, pundits. After the virtual collapse of the company last month, the U.S.A. (where the original TH!NK was murdered by U.S. lawyers fighting CARB zero emissions rules in the 90’s) could be just where the TH!NK gets resuscitated this year. How ironic.
Read the rest of this entry »
Since the late 1800s, the primary impediment to the adoption of electric vehicles has been battery technology. And while the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last decade or two (compare your cell phone with one from the early 90s), with a threefold improvement in energy density and more than an order of magnitude improvement in power density, it still lags behind gasoline.
Some have argued that current technology is sufficient — that the ability to drive 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours nonstop is good enough for the overwhelming majority of trips, and that paired with a range extender, rapid chargers, or battery swapping, you have a viable means of replacing the gasoline car. However, there still is a great deal of pressure to get electric vehicle range up to that of gasoline.
Editor’s Note: This is part two of an interview Tetsuya Yokoyama recently had the opportunity to conduct with Honda R&D Chief Engineer, Mr. Yamamoto, at Eco-Products 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. You can read part one here. Mr. Yamamoto is greatly involved in the development of Honda’s hybrid technology including the upcoming 2009 Insight.
As I mentioned in part one of my interview, Honda first introduced the ultracapacitor with the J-VX concept. The J-VX ultimately led to the original production Insight, without the ultracapacitor. Honda also used the ultracapacitor technology on the FCX models (pre-Clarity) for years.
Honda developed their original ultracapacitors, and improved them during the period of FCX development and explains more about it on their web site.
Editor’s note: John Addison publishes the Clean Fleet Report. His new book, Save Gas, Save the Planet, will be published March 25, 2009.
Millions of last minute shoppers used UPS to get their gifts delivered on time. Even the snow storms did not stop them. On December 22, I skipped the hour long line at the post office, which was open on Sunday, and instead shipped via UPS. I got my gifts to my brother on December 24.
Editor’s Note: This is the part one of an interview Tetsuya Yokoyama recently had the opportunity to conduct with Honda R&D Chief Engineer, Mr. Yamamoto at Eco-Products 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Yamamoto is greatly involved in the development of Honda’s hybrid technology including the upcoming 2009 Insight.
I’d like to thank all the readers who responded to my previous article with questions I could pose to Mr. Yamamoto. I’d also like to thank InsightCentral.net members for responding to that article too! I really appreciate your input, and apologize for taking so long to write this article.
After talking a bit about Green Options Media, Gas 2.0 and Insight Central, the very first question I asked him was about the possibility of using an ultracapacitor in a future Honda hybrid. More than ten years ago, the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) power train was first introduced with the J-VX concept and was originally developed with an ultracapacitor instead of NiMH batteries.
Mr. Yamamoto explained that Honda engineers have researched ultracapacitor technology in the past but that the technology, although promising, is still too new and has several challenges to overcome. In the end, Honda decided to go with NiMH batteries on the first generation of Insight in consideration of mass production and quality control.
Apparently one EESU weighs 281 pounds, has a volume of 2.63 cubic feet, can be fully charged in 3-6 minutes, is completely unaffected by temperature, will not explode or catch fire in an accident, and provides 52 kWh of electricity (nearly the same amount of energy the Tesla Roadster battery can hold, which reportedly takes the Roadster about 240 miles).
The idea being considered would involve joining together to put in a substantial order to put weight behind development of Plug In Hybrids (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). The idea is that large fleet orders would provide the certain market car makers need to make the initial move away from fossil fueled vehicles.
With their buying power (they could order 50,000 electric vehicles for their fleets) utilities could provide a solid beginning to switching Detroit to entirely new vehicle markets.
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