400 MPH on an electric motorcycle

Her husband created the Killacycle, the quickest EV on Earth. Her father is a mechanical genius and championship-winning designer and rider in the 1960′s. Introducing Eva Håkansson – who became immersed in the world of business and environmental science at Malardalen University in Sweden. Electric motorcycles are the quickest, cleanest, and most efficient vehicles. Lots of hard work (and money) resulted in the ElectroCat, a 100 MPH (top speed) electric bike with a range of about 50 miles per charge. This might sound meager compared to gasoline powered motorcycles, but Eva hopes to rework the ElectroCat to run in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a grueling stage of 156 turns across over 12 miles which climbs over 4,700 feet in elevation. The course is taxing on even the best drivers in the best cars, and Eva hopes to be the first to do it on an electric motorcycle.

Eva figures she’ll need about 400 horsepower to make a good showing in Bonneville with their new streamliner. They don’t expect to break 400 mph first go-around, but are hoping to break Kent Riches’ 176 mph pass made with the Airtech-Lightning Bolt streamliner motorcycle. So far Eva and her husband, Bill Dubé have engineered suspension parts and the chrome-moly frame for their new creation.

The team doesn’t just embody green thinking in their motorcycles. Their tow rig and generator they use to recharge batteries run on biodiesel. The forklift they use is electric, and their daily driver is a 1986 VW Cabriolet converted to battery power. This team is doing their best to spread the green philosophy into motorsports and we applaud their work. We are looking forward to seeing their latest creation at Bonneville, and best of luck to the team.

Gordon Murray, best known as the creator of the McLaren F1 and SLR Mclaren, is now busy with a new project. Murray’s firm is collaborating with Zytek Automotive, a UK-based consultancy to create the most energy efficient production vehicle. Murray also worked on the T.25, which features the same basic structure, including a 3-seat arrangement like the famous McLaren F1 supercar. The T.27 isn’t much different than the T.25, except it will be given an all-electric battery-powered drivetrain. The car is 7.9 feet long and has a 12 kilowatt-hour battery pack with a 25 kilowatt electric motor driving the rear wheels. Zytek claims the system gives the car a range of 80-100 miles. Its turning radius is just 19.7 feet and at 4.3 feet wide, you could fit 3 of them side-by-side in a parking spot perpendicular to the lines. Squeezing the motor, single-speed transmission and electronics into one tidy unit reminds me of the electronics wars where smaller and smaller cameras and cell phones are being invented. At what point does a small electric car pass the threshold to become an electric kart?

Gordon Murray’s involvement excites us because of his no-nonsense approach (usually) to reducing weight, attention to weight distribution for balance, and desire for a great driver’s car with excellent performance. Murray is obsessed with efficiency in the car, but also in the manufacturing. In fact, Murray developed a new low-energy manufacturing system called the iStream for these city cars. It reduces the investment and energy required for manufacturing and expands flexibility. Engineering and design began November 2009, and tests are scheduled until April, 2011. Sometime next year investors will determine whether we really ever have the opportunity to buy these city cars, which will probably compete with the Smart Fortwo, and the anticipated Mini city car.

Need electricity? Get off your ass and make some.

If you were Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of Phoenix, Arizona you might be concerned with allegations that you have abused your power. Arpaio has gained national attention for aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, among other concerns on his operation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. That said, he has another concern. He has made several attempts to trim inmates’ waistlines by cutting food intake to 2,500 calories, stating the inmates are “too fat.” His methods may strike controversy but I can’t help but enjoy watching his latest creation. He has now installed an energy-generating stationary bike, attached to a 19″ TV. Inmates can watch whatever local television channel they want, as long as they put in the effort to bike, thereby generating electricity for the television. Sheriff Arpaio has received criticism in the past from human-rights organizations for making inmates pay money to see nurses. This pedal-powered TV, however is a smart move because television is a privilege, not a right, and it shows ingenuity and an honest attempt to improve inmates’ health. Check out the video below.

Now transitioning over to the automotive world, we are already seeing more manufacturers produce electric cars. Electricity to our homes isn’t free, financially or environmentally. Call me a treehugger, but I would love to have an exercise bike in my home wired to my electrics in addition to my solar panels.

Environmentally savvy automobile enthusiasts everywhere are undoubtedly familiar with lithium ion battery technology, as it is the standard battery system for the most popular hybrid engine layouts available commercially today. The problem with lithium ion batteries is that, in addition to the fact that using lithium metal in the batteries means that they risk of exploding at random, as demonstrated by Engadget here, a great many of them are needed to make a car function properly due to their limited storage capacity. Tesla crams some 6,831 lithium ion battery cells into every roadster that it produces. Aside from the obvious cost issues, there is the tremendous weight of that many cells, which is never a good thing for a car designed to be as fuel efficient as possible.

However, the boys at Stanford have announced that they have successfully tested an early prototype that could prove to be a serious alternative. “Lithium sulfur” technology provides up to 80% greater capacity than the lithium ion equivalent, and is significantly safer because they use a more stable form of lithium in their construction. Projections indicate that the technology could provide up to four times the amount of charge once it is fully developed. But before you get too excited (and why wouldn’t you) the new batteries are only capable of lasting for between 40 and 50 cycles, instead of the 300 to 500 cycles that the average lithium ion battery lasts for. Having as little as one tenth the lifespan means they won’t be showing up in cars, laptops, cell phones, or anything for that matter anytime soon.

But hey, it is certainly something to be on the lookout for in the future.

Via Engadget

Tesla Motors announced via their newsletter on Friday that they plan on continuing production of their signature automobile into 2012:

“Responding to customer demand, Tesla has negotiated agreements with key suppliers that will increase total Roadster production by 40% and extend sales into 2012. In the coming year, you’ll find Roadsters in more countries as we expand to Australia and Asia. Customers in 23 countries have now taken delivery of their Roadster – last month we delivered the first Roadsters to Spain and Ireland.”

Initial reports from Wired’s Autopia had suggested that the company had suggested in SEC filings that it would stop building the roadster sometime next year ahead of a move to a revised version of the car in 2013. This may or may not have had something to do with Lotus’s planned revision to the Elise/Exige platform, as the Hethel, UK-based company provides the underpinnings (and more than a few styling cues) to Tesla’s current generation car.

The Roadster will remain Tesla’s only production car until the planned introduction of the Model S sedan at some point in 2012. If the company had been forced to halt production of the Roadster due to supplier issues, this would have left the fledgling company without a significant source of income for almost a full calendar year.

Lithium-sulfur and carbon nanowires battery

Source: Nano Letters & Technology Review

Right now your cell phone, laptop, and most EV vehicles being engineered use rechargeable lithium ion batteries. However, the specific energy of existing lithium ion batteries is still insufficient for many applications due to the limited specific charge capacity of the electrode materials. Two years ago we heard of a potential battery breakthrough by Stanford University professor Yi Chui using carbon nanowires. The recent development of sulfur/mesoporous carbon nanocomposite cathodes represents a particularly exciting advance. In full battery cells, sulfur-based cathodes have to be paired with metallic lithium anodes as the lithium source, which can result in serious safety issues. The researchers at Stanford report a novel lithium metal-free battery consisting of a Li₂S/mesoporous carbon composite cathode and a silicon nanowire anode. This new battery yields a theoretical specific energy of 1550 Wh kg⁻¹, which is four times that of the theoretical specific energy of existing lithium-ion batteries based on LiCoO₂ cathodes and graphite anodes (410 Wh kg⁻¹).  Besides increasing the lifespan and storage capacity, the new design should also be safer and result in less fires, since the materials won’t expand and pierce the separator materials which occasionally happen now. The next hurdle before this design can be used, is figuring out a way to stop the production of poly-sulfides during each charge and discharge so the battery lasts more than 40-50 charge cycles.

Korea's KAIST bus-train is an EV with a twist

The Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST) has developed an On Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) which draws current through non-contact magnetic strips embedded in the road at an amusement park in Gwacheon, Korea. The train-looking bus sucks power from strips during about 400 meters of the total 1.4 mile route (18-20% of the total distance). If the system proves successful, Korea will build a larger system in Seoul for buses.

The exciting thing about this technology is it migrates the cost for the vehicle’s technolgies into the development costs of roads. If electric vehicles on the roads could draw power while gliding over magnetic strips, there will be less necessity for expensive, heavy battery cells in the vehicles. The result could be EVs with batteries that are only 20% as large and powerful, and cut the cost of production in half.

Here’s a thought: Remember these RC cars you had as a kid? Imagine real race tracks with embedded strips allowing your EV racecar to grab voltage from the pavement. The results could be pretty awesome as you know from those RC micromachines that did loops.

Source: LeftLaneNews.com

Yes Ferrari is going “green” folks.  Based on the 599 GTB Fiorano, this hybrid is not only stunning to stare at, but I would go as far as to hang a poster of it on my wall.   Using the KERS technology used in their F1 race car, the HY-KERS hybrid concept carries an 88 pound electric motor attached to the rear of the seven-speed F1 transmission.   Power is applied via the gearbox’s two clutches, which combined with the V12 produces a whopping 100 hp over the standard car. That’s 712hp total!

Performance specs are not available at the moment, but Ferrari says that the hybrid has the same performance characteristics that all Ferrari’s are born with.   Our hope is that with the added weight of the low mounted battery packs (lithium-ion), the Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid doesn’t become an understeering  tank with every flick of the wheel.  If Ferrari plays their cards right, they may have a shot of being the first hybrid on the Top Gear  cool wall that’s actually “cool”.  What do you think?

How much is the Nissan Leaf? How much is an EV to operate?

Last week I brought the Nissan Leaf to your attention, and left some of you wondering what the price will be. That will depend on whether or not Nissan decides to lease you the battery pack. You see, the most expensive part of the car is the $10,000 – $20,000 Lithium-Ion cell pack. Seeing as how you’ll want to consider swapping your battery pack out for a new one after 10 years or so when you can no longer quite make it home on a single charge. In the Leaf’s case, Nissan will probably strive to make it available in the low to mid $20k’s. Whether or not that will include full ownership of the battery pack is yet to be determined. There are definate advantages to leasing the expensive batteries separate from owning the car itself. Battery replacement costs and residual values are something to consider. Imagine spending $40k on an EV and after 5 years when, hypothetically, your battery warranty is up, you try to sell your vehicle. Instead of being worth $25k after 5 years, it’s only worth around $15k because of the expensive cost of replacing the aging battery. At the moment you can factor in the $7,500 tax credit you’ll get for purchasing an EV, which will also help increase public interest.

Then there’s the cost of fuel. Right now the cost of Crude Oil is nearing $80/barrel. In the Washington, DC area, regular gasoline is about $2.65/gallon. Nissan estimates a full charge for the Nissan Leaf EV will cost you around $3 if you charge it up at home during off-peak hours (You can set the charge time.) The full charge will take between 4 and 8 hours on a 220V home charging unit and get you around 100 miles. Alternatively, at one of the quick-charge stations being built in Tokyo, an 80% charge could occur in just 26 minutes. What if you park in your apartment complex’s garage and want to plug in and charge? -Well at the moment, you are stealing electricity so as more people get caught doing this, rules & enforcement will follow.

Lastly, there’s the big bad tax man. Right now in the US, about 15% of your gas money goes to the government. That money helps fund road projects and maintain current roads. If we all start switching to EVs, we will be using the government built roads without contributing to their costs. How will the increase in infrastructure spending to beef up our electric grids be paid for? There have been several proposals about how to replace that revenue. If there’s one thing politicians don’t like to be known for, it’s imposing taxes. Some options include a per-kWh tax for charging your vehicle. Another possibility is some kind of GPS mileage tracking tax rate. The state of Washington is considering imposing a $100-per-year registration tax on Electric Vehicles. That flat tax rate seems pretty made-up, but determining a fair tax system for EV users is going to stir controversy this year. Please leave your comments about taxation ideas in the comments.

2010 Nissan Leaf EV

It would be easy to overlook Nissan with companies like Chevrolet, Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, etc bombarding us with PR announcements, and marketing their latest and greatest achievements in eco-friendly hybrids and electric vehicles. Over the last decade Nissan has focused their image on sportiness and affordability. The release of the GT-R and 370Z are excellent examples of cars which simply outperform in their price ranges. It might seem contradictory then, that Nissan is going to be the first company to release an affordable all-electric vehicle in the USA later this year.

Starting in April you can pre-order your Nissan Leaf, expected to begin sales this December, 2010. The goal was to bring the first affordable medium-sized EV people would want to use every day. It boasts impressive cargo capacity for an EV, and an estimated 100 miles between re-charges. It also features a pretty advanced mobility IT system which allows you to remote-control your air conditioning and set charging functions.

The real success here in my opinion is that Nissan may pull off releasing an EV which seats 4 or 5 comfortably, it isn’t completely fisher-price looking, and they may manage to bring this thing to market without a big parade about its release. People might even stumble across them in Nissan sales lots and inquire about it without even knowing what it was, and that’s a success. An EV which is a real car, not some symbolic toy with tons of marketing and little function.