Gas 2.0

India Sees the Light, Plans to Skip Fossil Fuels
Fiat Sells Out the 500C; Is America Ready to Embrace the Brand Again?
Volvo Gets Clever: Body Panels as Batteries
Infiniti Releases New EV Design Sketch, Wild Speculation Ensues
World’s First Human-Powered Ornithopter Takes Flight
Will China Force Automakers to Surrender EV Technology to Sell Cars There?

India Sees the Light, Plans to Skip Fossil Fuels

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:36 AM PDT

Government officials in the Indian state of Orissa have decided to bring electricity to more than 2,000 country villages by March 2012. Normally, reading something like that would be pretty scary. In this case, however, the news is inspiring!

Why? Because the government of Orissa will be using decentralized solar power to bring electricity to a region of India that has never seen electric lights – and they’re ready to expand the grid, as needed, with more renewable and sustainable tech than you can shake ~~an unprocessed biomass fuel source~~ a stick at. Find out more, after the jump.

The Indian government already has plans to supplement the proposed solar energy grid with biomass and wind power, and points out that there are currently almost 400 villages powered through a similar solar/bio/wind arrangement. India expects to electrify an additional 200+ villages by the end of 2010, building up to large-scale deployment of the solar tech through 2011 and 2012.

Reports about Orissa’s supplemental plants include 118 MW from biomass plants, along with two 150 MW wind farms. Surveys for 22 more locations are reportedly underway.

As exciting as all this seems at first glance, keep in mind that India is (in many ways) a developing nation, and government projects can easily get held up. Still, this project – even as it is today – proves that fossil fuels are not a necessary step between “developing” and “developed.” Good on you, India!

SOURCE: Treehugger.

Fiat Sells Out the 500C; Is America Ready to Embrace the Brand Again?

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:34 AM PDT

It is generally believed that Americans don’t have much of an appetite for small cars. It is also generally believed that, when the Fiat brand left US shores in 1983, the brand’s image was so badly tarnished that a US comeback would be nothing more than an embarrassing (and expensive!) failure.

The good people at Fiat might like to remind you that it’s good to question your beliefs, now and again.

Fiat had high hopes for the 500C in the US – the little compact was to lead the charge for the first American Fiats in nearly 30 years. For many American carbuyers, the 500C would be their first encounter with the brand, so the car’s success or failure would be critical to the early growth of the brand.

If early indicators can be trusted, Fiat needn’t worry: all 500 examples of the limited-edition 2011 Fiat 500 Prima are already spoken for.

Laura Stove, the head of Fiat North America, is thrilled by this early success, remarking that ”it's important that the Fiat enthusiasts and fans are among the first to receive their very own Fiat 500 Prima Edizione vehicles, as they share the same excitement about the brand's presence in North America. As we begin to introduce Fiat to North America, our goal is to develop a solid relationship with our customers so they are made to feel as part of the brand.”

Selling out of 500C Primas months before they’re available to be driven is a good start for Fiat as a brand, and (hopefully!) an indiciator that Americans might be finally ready to accept “smaller” European cars with smaller, more fuel-efficient engines. Whatever the cars, this particular FLU member will be keeping his fingers crossed for a successful Fiat return.

SOURCE: TopSpeed.

Volvo Gets Clever: Body Panels as Batteries

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:32 AM PDT

They say that when you see a truly great idea, it’s often so obvious that your first reaction is “Why didn’t I think of that!?”

Well, Volvo thought of it. The short version of “it” is that Volvo has found a way to shape batteries into body panels for a car, replacing the hood, doors, trunk, and roof with batteries… but there is much more to it than that.

One of the biggest problems facing electric vehicle designers is packaging. To put it another way, “Where do you put the batteries?”… and it’s not an easy question to answer, especially when converting ICE chassis to EV duty (as with Volvo’s previous EV concept, below).

Consider: more batteries take up space and add weight. Added weight reduces range and performance, but reducing the number of batteries also reduces range, making the entire system little more than a series of compromises.

Volvo’s newest nano-technology batteries, however, are made from ultralight carbon fibers… and (if they work) might change all that. Volvo describes the revolutionary new material, saying a “composite blend of carbon fibres and polymer resin is being developed that can store and charge more energy faster than conventional batteries can. At the same time, the material is extremely strong and pliant, which means it can be shaped for use in building the car’s body panels.”

According to Volvo, automotive chassis made from this new material will weigh up to 15% less than chassis made from conventional steel, leading to electric cars that could weigh LESS than ICE cars, eliminating many (if not all) of the trade-offs inherent in EV design.

Volvo estimates that a car with only the panels described above as batteries would have an electric range of up to 80 miles, but that the material is still in testing phases… However, they do promise a running prototype soon.

Check out the next page for the official press release.

SOURCE: Volvo Cars.

Infiniti Releases New EV Design Sketch, Wild Speculation Ensues

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:26 AM PDT

Nissan’s upcoming Leaf EV has been getting a lot of attention recently, but the Leaf is far from being the only electric vehicle program underway at Nissan. Driving that point home this past Friday, Nissan released the sketch above on Infiniti’s Facebook page.

Our own Chris DeMorro recently covered the topic of a new sportscar from Infiniti’s parent company, Nissan. That article quoted Toshiyuki Shiga, COO at Nissan, as saying that "we are keeping this brand, these technologies, and trying to offer sporty cars. I am also thinking of electric vehicles as sporty cars." So it’s a safe bet that a sporty electric Nissan is coming – but what form the car might take is a matter of speculatio …

…so let’s speculate!

The Autoblog guys are saying ”it’s quite obvious that Infiniti has taken cues from its stellar G37 Coupe and applied them to its upcoming EV… can it get much better than that?”

My answer? Yes. Yes it can.

See, Infiniti’s G model (in coupe, convertible, and sedan) is sold and marketed internationally as the Nissan Skyline. If that sounds familiar, but you can’t quite place it, add the letters G, T, and R.

That’s right: Nissan Skyline GT-R – and you can bet that if the latest EV sketch circulating around has anything to do with the next batch of production G coupes and sedans from Infiniti (read: Skyline coupes and sedans from Nissan), then the same platform will underpin a fully-electric version of the next GT-R.

Need more fuel for the speculative fires? Consider that Mercedes has a new electric supercar in the new electric SLS, and as Mercedes goes, so goes Infiniti…

…keep checking in for more electric Nissan / Infiniti / GT-R news, as it becomes available.

SOURCES: Infiniti (via Facebook), Autoblog, Jalopnik.

World’s First Human-Powered Ornithopter Takes Flight

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:23 AM PDT

Last month, a University of Toronto student brought one of Leonardo da Vinci’s dreams to life by building (and flying!) a human-powered ornithopter capable of sustained flight.

So… what’s an ornithopter? Good question!

Ornithopters are winged aircraft that fly like birds, flapping their wings to achieve and sustain flight. Up to now, though, the only ornithopters to achieve flight are the ones from Frank Herbert’s Dune novels… but this one’s real.

Ever since da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485, engineers have tried (unsucessfully) to make one actually fly… and it was a UT student named Todd Reichert—not an established skunkworks engineer from Boeing or NASA—that would make history, flying his ornithopter for over 19 seconds at an average speed over 25 kilometers per hour.

"This represents one of the last of the aviation firsts," says Reichert, who built and piloted the ornithopter—named Snowbird—into the history books.

The ornithopter was built using advanced processes to keep overall vehicle weight under 95 lbs., despite a wing span of 105 feet (think Boeing 737). Snowbird was built with sustainability in mind, as well, in a process that encourages "the use of the human body and spirit," according to Reichert…

…which is all well and good, but how does it fly?

To answer that question, the team behind the Snowbird’s construction have posted a full technical brief online that documents the project in incredible detail, including an explanation of flapping-wing design theory, which I thought was interesting enough to share, below.

FLAPPING WING THEORY
In an ornithopter the wings must produce both the lift to counteract the weight of the aircraft, and the thrust to counteract the body drag. Lift is produced in the conventional way, with the oncoming air striking the wing at a positive angle of attack; thus no feathers, valves or folding of the wing is required to produce lift. The key is to produce enough thrust with the wing to keep the aircraft flying at the required forward velocity. This thrust is produced by placing the wing at a lower angle of attack, relative to the local flow velocity, on the upstroke, and at a higher angle of attack on the downstroke. It can be seen in the figure below that this results in a large amount of lift and thrust on the downstroke and a small amount of lift and drag on the upstroke. The net result is positive lift and positive thrust.

Throughout the stroke (above) the wing must twist with the proper magnitude and phase to produce the proper angles of attack. This is accomplished passively by designing the structure in such a way that the aerodynamic and inertial forces produce the proper twist.

Getting that “proper twist” is one of the hardest things about ~~the Macarena~~ building a successful ornithopter, but the final movement that Reichert’s team came up with is both visually organic and hauntingly beautiful, as can be seen in the video below.

No word, yet, on whether university’s plans for Snowbird, but if they plan on a solar or electric pedal-assist model in the future, you know we’ll cover it here—stay tuned!

SOURCES: University of Toronto, the HPO Project.

(If anyone can find some video of the ornithopters from SyFy’s Dune movie, post a link in the comments!)

Will China Force Automakers to Surrender EV Technology to Sell Cars There?

Posted: 27 Sep 2010 09:15 AM PDT

China is currently the world’s largest auto market, and is on track to sell anywhere from 15 to 20 million cars this year. By 2030, China could be buying 50 million new cars annually. That is a lot of cars, though thankfully, China is hoping to be the world’s leader in electric cars and other alternative fuels. They are shoveling money at domestic car makers to get them to produce electric and hybrid vehicles. They are also considering some less-than-friendly methods of acquiring new technology as well.

Chinese leaders are mulling a plan that would require foreign automakers to merge with domestic Chinese car makers and share their intellectual property with them if they want to sell electric or hybrid vehicles in China. Naturally, foreign car companies are crying foul.

The Chinese market is of growing importance to automakers around the world. With so much money up for grabs, everybody wants to get a piece of the pie. China also wants to position itself as a leader in green technology, which includes electric, hybrid, and other alt-fuel vehicles. Companies like BYD are already touting their electric cars designed for the masses. While much of the technology that we find in our cars and computers today is manufactured in China, they aren’t quite up to par with the rest of the developed world when it comes to research and development.

So China’s leaders want foreign car companies to bring their technology to China. The catch? Form a joint venture with a Chinese car company in which the foreign company could only hold a 49% stake. They would have to share their technology with domestic Chinese automakers. So far, this plan is merely a draft, but it has kept companies like Toyota from launching its latest Prius in China until the rules are clearer.

This news came out about the same time that Japan accused China is halting shipments of rare earth elements to their companies in response to the arrest of a Chinese fishing captain. China is getting pretty bold in its strong-arm tactics, but these same tactics could backfire. China hasn’t cultivated a domestic car company that can compete with the rest of the world, so they are trying to force other automakers into bolstering their lineups. I doubt any European, U.S., or Japanese company will willingly sign up for this though. Would you want to give up your hard-earned technology to some up-and-comer who hasn’t even cut their teeth in the industry yet?

Is the business worth the risk of losing their intellectual property?

Source: Wall Street Journal Image: BYD