Gas 2.0

Nissan Skipping Hybrid-Only Cars Like the Prius, Wants to Dominate EVs

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:14 AM PDT

According to CEO Carlos Ghosn, unlike its other Japanese rivals, Nissan has made a strategic decision to cede the standalone hybrid wars to them and will not make hybrid-only models such as Toyota’s Prius or Honda’s Insight.

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Electric Car Revolution? Zinc Batteries Powered By Sun And Air

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 09:14 AM PDT

The Salamander of myth and legend: a creature which lives in water but renews its life in fire. It’s rubbish, Bunkum, steaming horse manure… a bit like an electric car with neither plug nor solar panels.

Except no one’s told those clever boffins over at Advanced Power and Energy Sources Transportation (APET) in Hong Kong. According to them, the Salamander and the cordless EV are about to step out of myth and into reality.

APET’s revolution centres upon how zinc air batteries can power EVs. The technology is proven on the small scale: hearing aid battery adverts dominate any Google search for "zinc air battery".

Furthermore, as zinc air batteries need only zinc, air and water to produce electricity they are likely the most environmentally friendly ones around.

However, upscaling the technology from a hearing aid to a car has always been a problem.

Until now.