VIDEO: Cadillac ELR to introduce Regen on Demand feature
By
Charlie Morris
on
Mon, 04/15/2013 - 7:59am
EST
The upcoming Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid will include what we believe to be a new and unique feature - regenerative braking on demand, controlled by the paddle shifters on the car’s steering wheel. Pressing one of the ELR’s two steering-wheel paddles will engage regeneration, charging the battery and slowing the car down, similar to what happens when you downshift with a manual transmission.
The brakes also operate in typical hybrid fashion - a soft touch on the pedal engages regeneration, and a harder stomp kicks in the friction brakes when you need to stop quickly.
“Regen on Demand enables ELR drivers to actively re-capture energy when slowing down, such as when approaching slower traffic or setting up for a tight turn. This allows the driver to take more active role in the electric vehicle driving experience,” said ELR Chief Engineer Chris Thomason. “Pulling back on the paddle to slow down allows the ELR driver to keep their foot close to the throttle, ready to accelerate. It provides a more engaged, satisfying driving experience, and when you consider the added benefit of re-capturing energy, it’s also a smart thing to do.”
Is this a handy new feature, something that all plug-in vehicles will have someday? Or does it belong in the “bells and whistles” category? We’ll have to drive the car to know for sure.
The Cadillac ELR is built on the same platform and powertrain as the Chevy Volt, with the same 1.4-liter gasoline engine and 16.5 kWh lithium-ion battery. It’s rated at 207 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, and the electric range is estimated at 35 miles. It’s scheduled to begin production in late 2013, and go on sale in early 2014.
VIDEO: Fisker’s Posawatz talks about A123, the Atlantic and DOE loans
By
Charlie Morris
on
Sat, 12/08/2012 - 9:27am
EST
Fisker CEO Tony Posawatz gave an upbeat interview to Fox News at the LA auto show, singing the praises of the Karma extended range luxury sedan, which he points out is the 4th best-selling plug-in vehicle in the US, and getting excited about the upcoming mid-market Atlantic.
A former GM exec who’s now filling a very different role as the CEO of a California startup, Mr P has learned that fund-raising is a never-ending process. Fisker recently completed a round of private financing, and has raised in total a little over a billion bucks, but will need more to bring the Atlantic into volume production. “We do need a little more funding to take that next step,” said Posawatz.
One source could be Fisker’s federal loan from the DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program - the company drew $190 million of its total $529 million commitment before the loan was frozen early in 2011 due to some missed deadlines. “We are having discussions with the DOE on what's next,” Posawatz hinted, “now that we're post-election.”
Many in the EV world are wondering what’s up with the ATVM loans. President George W. Bush allocated $25 billion for the program, but less than $9 billion had been disbursed when the Obama administration turned off the spigot (the last award was made in November 2010, according to Green Car Reports). Now that our quadrennial madness is behind us, might the faucet be opened up again?
Also this week, Tony Posawatz told the Wall Street Journal that Fisker has hired the investment bank Evercore Partners to help find a “strategic partner,” perhaps in China or Europe. Posawatz specifically ruled out bankruptcy for Fisker, but the WDJ speculated about a possible sale.
VIDEO: New wireless charging system uses magneto-dynamic coupling instead of electromagnetic induction
By
Charlie Morris
on
Mon, 11/26/2012 - 1:46pm
EST
As it becomes clearer that wireless charging is the wave of the future, alternate ways of accomplishing it are beginning to emerge. Most of the systems now available or in real-world testing, such as Evatran’s Plugless Power and Qualcomm’s Halo, work by means of electromagnetic induction. However, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have developed a new type of wireless charging system based on magneto-dynamic coupling, which they believe offers several advantages.
UBC’s system uses a rotating permanent magnet in the transmitting unit to cause a second magnet in the receiving unit to rotate as well, generating an electric current.
According to the UBC team, their system can transfer power across a wide air gap at more than 90% efficiency, power can be transferred through metal without significant loss of performance, and the system is tolerant of misalignment, so there’s no need to line up the transmitter and receiver precisely. Wiring and components are simple and low-cost. Power transfer occurs at a low frequency and in a localized area, so there is almost no risk of interference with other high-frequency wireless devices, and potential health risks of exposure to high-frequency electromagnetic fields are not a factor.
The team has successfully demonstrated their system in a fleet of EVs run by UBC Building Operations, with the support of a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. This fully automated system performed successfully in a variety of weather conditions including snow, rain and sub-zero temperatures.
VIDEO: ABB builds nationwide EV charging network in Estonia
By
Charlie Morris
on
Thu, 11/08/2012 - 10:08am
EST
Electronics giant ABB is busily building what it claims is the world’s first nationwide EV charging network in the Baltic nation of Estonia. This snappy video highlights the typical European blend of ancient architecture and modern technology in the country’s capital, Tallinn, as a modern-looking dude drives his LEAF to work and hooks it up to a shiny new ABB fast charging station.
Estonia is one of Europe’s most EV-friendly countries. The government is electrifying most of the public fleet, and ordered 507 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs in October of 2011. In this video, Jarmo Tuisk, of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, explains that it was clear that the country needed to provide infrastructure for EVs as well. “There is no point to buy[ing] EVs without charging options on the road.”
The goal is to have a comprehensive network serving Estonia’s entire 30,000-kilometer road network. ABB is installing 700 charging points, 200 of them fast chargers, located along intercity roads and freeways. The company will also operate a network behind the scenes, providing remote assistance, remote management and smart software upgrades.
VIDEO: EV West and partners build electric off-road Baja racer
By
Charlie Morris
on
Fri, 11/02/2012 - 12:47pm
EST
No, it’s not a reincarnation of GM’s visionary but premature EV1 - far from it. The Strategic Recovery Institute (SRI)’s EV1, which was unveiled in October at the Lucas Oil Off-Road Expo in Los Angeles, is a fully electric off-road vehicle with 535 hp and 750 ft-lbs of torque. It has a range of 100 miles and a top speed of 125 mph, and is designed to sustain 1,200 miles or 35 hours of continuous operation (with battery swapping) in the world's most challenging terrain.
Strategic Racing Designs built the structural components, and EV West designed and engineered the electric power plant for the SRI EV1. It will be displayed at the SEMA show in Las Vegas in November and the San Diego Auto show in December, and will be racing at two off-road events in Nevada later this year.
"Initially, we will compete head to head and side by side, with the existing state-of-the-art gas engines" says SRI founder Jeffrey Smith. "We are excited to be a part of the movement toward clean renewable energies and creating new jobs with exciting career prospects to help others who are underserved and less fortunate."
There’s more to this story than winning races in the desert. In the future, EVs may have important military applications. The initial impetus for this project was a challenge by US Army Lieutenant General James Pillsbury (Ret), to design, build and race an all-electric car in the 2012 SCORE Baja 1000. According to General Pillsbury, the US military spends the equivalent of $435 a gallon for fossil fuels to be delivered to our combat troops. Racing the EV1 in Baja will demonstrate the superior performance and significant cost savings of electric vehicles (SRI estimates that motor and fuel costs for the Baja race will be less than a tenth those of legacy ICE vehicles).
Silent-running EVs are ideal for tactical Military, DEA or Border Patrol uses where stealth is required, and solar energy is abundant in many parts of the world where our forces operate.
In the latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, our favorite TV personality and auto enthusiast takes an in-depth look at Tesla’s Model S, which he introduces as “the car they said would never be produced” and “the electric car that doesn’t look like an electric car.”
Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen gives Jay the grand tour, explaining the advantages of designing Model S as an EV from the ground up - for example, its flat battery pack, which forms the floor of the car, gives it a low center of gravity, as well as an unprecedented amount of interior space. Unlike most cars, Model S has no “tunnel” to accommodate a drive shaft, and there’s room for additional storage in the “frunk” under the hood.
Getting behind the wheel, Jay checks out the high-tech toys. The touchscreen, which is bigger than the screen on most laptops, provides a satellite view as you cruise along, and even allows the driver to adjust the car’s suspension and brakes to suit personal driving styles.
Taking it for a spin on the streets of LA, it’s obvious Jay loves the American-made luxury sedan - he praises the pep (0-60 in four seconds), the quiet and the overall quality (nary a squeak or rattle). Part of the fun seems to be using the regenerative braking to see how little electricity you can use. Referring to the 300-mile range enabled by the optional high-capacity battery pack, Jay declares, “the problem of the electric car has been solved.” Well, it certainly has for those who can afford the price (around 100 grand with all the goodies).
The American-made LEAF is getting closer to reality every day. Nissan has released a new video of the amazing machinery that builds its eMotor, a high tech marvel with more than a mile of copper wiring inside. It takes more time to assemble an electric motor than a gas engine; Nissan says it takes about 25 people per shift.
Nissan's eMotors are currently assembled in Japan, but soon they will also be produced in Decherd, Tennessee, about 70 miles from the main LEAF plant in Smyrna. Adam Reed, Nissan's globally certified trainer for eMotor production, has been spending time at Nissan's global headquarters in Japan learning how to sculpt the motors.
"The winding takes place on a very complex piece of equipment," said Reed. "It has two parts at a time traversing inside the equipment going in different directions. So it's very hard to keep up with sometimes. It's very exciting to get it started and knowing that when that first LEAF comes off the line in Smyrna, we're going to have our name somewhere on the motor."
VIDEO: Andy Palmer and Chelsea Sexton discuss the LEAF battery
By
Michael Current
on
Fri, 10/05/2012 - 1:07am
EST
Newly appointed EV advisory committee member, and well-known EV advocate, Chelsea Sexton sat down with Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer to discuss the LEAF battery. The YouTube video was posted by Nissan late Thursday night.
VIDEO: 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV - Reducing the Coefficient of Drag
By
Charlie Morris
on
Sun, 08/26/2012 - 10:56am
EST
Toyota has released a series of videos about its second-generation RAV4 EV, featuring engineers explaining various technical details of the vehicle, plus plenty of cool on-the-road footage. In this installment, Toyota’s team describes the many steps they took to reduce the RAV4’s Coefficient of Drag (CD).
Reducing drag is important for any vehicle, at least if improving fuel efficiency is considered important. However, for an EV, it’s especially significant, because less drag means better range, and fewer cases of the dreaded “range anxiety” will hopefully mean more sales.
The RAV4 EV features a powertrain from Tesla Motors, and like Tesla’s Model S, it features a flat battery located in the underbody, which yields a number of benefits, including better airflow under the car. To squeeze out every bit of airflow efficiency, the team chose the most aerodynamic components from all the global RAV4 models, including headlights, wheels, and front fascia. They also paid careful attention to spats, which are flaps under a car that direct airfow around the tires to improve CD.
According to the team, all the measures they took to reduce CD are the equivalent of removing an imaginary parachute from behind the car. The CD is around 3.0.30[correction 8/27/12], one of the lowest of any SUV in existence.
The new RAV4 EV is expected to achieve an EPA-rated combined range 103 miles, and a combined fuel economy rating of 76 MPGe. It’s scheduled to go on sale in selected California markets late in the third quarter of 2012.
VIDEO: Jay Leno's latest toy - Proterra's electric bus
By
Charlie Morris
on
Tue, 08/14/2012 - 1:37pm
EST
Jay gets to play with all the coolest toys - he’s tested lots of EVs, from SUVs to roadsters to motorcycles. The latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage features a hot rod for public transport buffs - the Proterra Ecoliner electric bus. Designed from the ground up as an EV, the new bus has been in service for Foothills Transit in Pomona, California for a year. The agency’s director gives Jay a complete demonstration.
One of the most innovative features is an overhead fast charger, which can charge the bus in about 10 minutes, allowing it to operate 24 hours a day. The concept is similar to a system that recently went into service in Sweden. However, the Swedes use a retractable “pantograph,” like those used by trains and trams, while Pomona’s Proterra has a special charging head that retracts into the overhead unit.
Buses have come a long way from their horse-drawn origins. This one is loaded with high-tech features, including GPS, DVR-equipped security cameras, and a “people counter” that automatically keeps track of passengers as they board. The body is made of a fiberglass and balsa wood composite developed by the navy - it’s far lighter than an old-fashioned steel bus, but strong enough to shrug off a collision with a car.
