Listen To iPod in The Car

If you’re a music lover who spends a lot of time on the road, you don’t want to fumble with an iPod’s controls to enjoy your music. So what’s the solution? An iPod stereo receiver for the car. And there’s no need to break the bank – here are four of the best options available for under $150.

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Yesterday, GM and Segway unveiled an electric-powered urban vehicle called the Puma. The Puma seats two people, and is said to reach a top speed of 35 miles per hour. The vehicle can go 35 miles before needing a recharge.

Larry Burns, vice president of research and development for GM, said it would cost about 35 cents to charge the Puma’s lithium ion battery system — essentially a larger version of the power system for the Segway Personal Transporter. (more…)

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Gasoline-powered cars are perhaps the most inefficient devices that many of us use daily. The internal combustion engine is inefficient in term of pollution, gas costs and maintenance costs. Electric motors are comparatively simple devices that do not require much maintenance at all. But, as you may know, it’s difficult to obtain an commercial electric car today. One option is to buy a used vehicle that somebody else has converted to an electric vehicle. (more…)

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At MetaEfficient, I am a strong advocate of car-free living (see my review of the books How To Live Well Without Owning A Car and Car-Free Cities). However, clean, electric vehicles can be useful in some situations. If you recharge them using a renewable energy source such as solar power, they are completely emissions-free. The least expensive way to get an electric car is to convert your current car to an electric vehicle — see this article I wrote more info. Here’s a round-up of the pure electric cars that can be ordered today: (more…)

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Denmark has a problem — it’s generating too much power from the wind. Currently, Denmark gets about 20% of its total electrical power from wind. On windy days, that percentage can double. The ups and downs of wind power can strain an electricity grid. In western Denmark, the price of electricity can drop to zero on a windy day, leaving utilities scrambling to offload excess power or take a financial hit. To solve this problem, the Danish utility company Dong Energy plans to build a nationwide system to charge electric cars with the surplus wind power. (more…)

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Toyota has just announced that it plans on building its first plug-in hybrid by 2010. This car will be direct competition with GM’s high-profile Volt, which is set to released that year. However, many pundits believe that the Volt is “vaporware” and will not be released in 2010.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is basically a souped-up Prius running on 2 nickel-metal hydride batteries (the 2010 PHEV will run on lithium-ion batteries). It gets almost 100 miles a gallon in electric mode. It takes about 4 hours to charge, and it can run on the batteries for only about 7 miles. GM has claimed that the Volt will be able to go 40 miles with a single, 6-hour charge.

The 2010 plug-in will use lithium-ion batteries, the same sort of batteries that Toyota was saying were not stable enough to use in a car, and this, just months ago. But now Toyota states that it has instructed its Panasonic joint-venture battery factory to add a production line that will produce the new batteries.

Via: NYT (subscription required)

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It’s a prototype hybrid car that gets 150MPG, and goes 40 miles on electricity alone, drawing its power from a combination of lithium-ion batteries and ultracapacitors. The ultracapacitors provide a burst of energy to the engine, when needed. They are then recharged by the lithium-ion batteries. This avoids the problem of emptying the batteries too fast, which can cause them to heat up, and possibly catch on fire.

The prototype is based on a Saturn Vue Green Line, a hybrid crossover that General Motors builds using a low-cost belt-alternator system for its electric drive. It was created by AFS Trinity, and a running prototype will be shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens Sunday.

Typically, hybrids exploit the synergies of electricity and internal combustion by using only an electric motor at low speeds; the gas engine kicks in as speed increases, and both are used when maximum output is called for. AFS Trinity, on the other hand, took a purist position. In its system, the gasoline engine is not started until the batteries run down, an approach that Edward W. Furia, chairman and chief executive of the company, calls an “extreme hybrid.” Here’s a video of the car in action:

The rate of energy flow is also an issue as a hybrid car slows down, when its electric drive motor turns into a generator. This process, known as regenerative braking, converts the car’s motion into a powerful stream of electric current, but today’s hybrids capture only about half of the energy produced this way. Ultracapacitors can absorb a much higher percentage. The ultracapacitors take up about as much space as the lithium ion batteries, although they store a total of less than one kilowatt hour.

Because the AFS Trinity Vue runs long distances as a pure electric, it needs a full-size electric motor to go along with the full-size gasoline engine it uses in hybrid operation. While G.M.’s design for the Vue Green Line can get by with a small electric motor connected to the drivetrain by a belt, the AFS Trinity version has been modified with a 200-horsepower electric motor under the rear floor. The Vue Green Line’s standard hybrid system drives the front wheels, and the motor added by AFS Trinity drives the rear wheels.

So in its first 40 miles, the Vue is a rear-wheel-drive vehicle, and after that it is intermittently a four-wheel-drive vehicle, with the energy from regenerative braking captured by the capacitors and funneled through the motor driving the back wheels. “It saved us from mechanical integration and made it basically a software integration,” Mr. Bender said. But the ultracapacitors could be used in any kind of design, he said.

The idea behind the AFS Trinity is based on a widely accepted rule of thumb: the vast majority of drivers travel fewer than 40 miles a day. According to AFS Trinity, a driver who went 40 miles or less a day six days a week, and 100 miles once a week, would be traveling 150 miles for each gallon of gasoline burned, spending a little less than $8 for the gasoline and a little less than $8 for the electricity. The total fuel cost of $15.49 is about one-third of what it would cost for the gasoline to propel a conventional hybrid like the Lexus RX 400h the same distance, by AFS Trinity’s calculation.

Via: New York Times

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It’s the Aptera — a futuristic car that has generated a lot of buzz lately — and with good reason — the Aperta is a very, very efficient vehicle (just check out the video: you’ll see what I’m talking about). The car’s head-turning design has a purpose: the shape is highly aerodynamic (much like a jet). It ready available for pre-order, and priced at about $27,000. There will be two models of the Aptera: an all-electric version that goes 120 miles on a charge (for 2008), and a gasoline version that will get 300 mpg (for 2009). The car is also said to be very safe, see the safety FAQ here.

Aptera founder and CEO Steve Fambro says sticking your hand out the window of an average car driving 55 mph creates more drag than the Aptera’s entire body. Recently, Popular Mechanics, took the Aptera for a test drive. Here’s their enthusiastic reaction:

Turn the dial to the “D” position, and the Aptera accelerates like many other pure EVs, with a constant rush of torque. The powertrain pulls strongly up to 50 mph or so (the fastest the streets on our route would allow). Interestingly, when you floor the accelerator, there’s a moment when the rearend jacks up slightly as the torque is applied. It’s a slight feeling, as it is on some shaft-drive motorcycles — and it’s kind of fun. It makes the acceleration feel stronger than it is.

Here’s a video clip of the test drive:

Website: Aptera

Via: Popular Mechanics via Ecotality

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Ener1, an alternative energy company, has become the first to successfully integrate a lithium-ion battery into an operating hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), an important milestone for the electric vehicle industry. The company’s battery division, EnerDel, will exhibit its lithium-ion battery pack in an operating HEV at the EVS-23 show in Anaheim, California Dec. 2-4.

EnerDel’s engineering team has modified a Toyota Prius vehicle to work successfully with the company’s exclusive battery chemistry and design. Making approximately twice the energy available for the car’s use compared with the existing nickel metal hydride battery is expected to substantially increase performance.

EnerDel is scheduled to deliver a prototype electric vehicle (EV) battery to Think City of Norway in March under a $70 million development and supply agreement. The company has also received a $6.5 million contract from the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium for development of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) battery.

Via: CNN Money

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Volvo is unveiling an innovative plug-in hybrid at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The ReCharge Concept is a specially designed Volvo C30 with individual electric wheel motors and batteries that can be charged via a regular electrical outlet. When fully charged the Volvo ReCharge Concept can be driven approximately 62 miles on battery power alone before the car’s four-cylinder 1.6 Flexifuel engine1 is needed to power the car and recharge the battery. The concept car also retains the Volvo C30’s lively and sporty drive thanks to an acceleration figure of 0-62mph in 9 seconds and a top speed of 100mph.

The only extra cost will be the electricity used during charging. The Volvo ReCharge Concept can be charged at any regular electric plug socket at convenient locations such as at home or work and a full recharge will take three hours. However, even a quick one hour charge provides enough power to cover just over 30 miles.

During a journey the combustion engine starts up automatically when 70 percent of the battery power has been used up. However, the driver also has the option of controlling the four-cylinder Flexifuel engine manually via a button in the control panel. This allows the driver to start the engine earlier in order to maximise battery charge, for instance when out on a motorway in order to save battery capacity for driving through the next town.

Via: Jalopnik

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