Gas 2.0 |
- Toyota Developing Electric Motors that Don’t Need Rare Earth Metals
- Building Bike Lanes Creates Twice as Many Jobs as Road Repairs
- Subaru Planning Hybrid for 2013?
| Toyota Developing Electric Motors that Don’t Need Rare Earth Metals Posted: 18 Jan 2011 02:58 PM PST
Toyota is working to develop an electronic motor that eliminates the magnets and uses instead an "inductive motor." This motor is supposed to be lighter and more-efficient than the current magnet-type motors, and less prone to disruptions in on the supply side When I say supply disruptions, I actually mean China's unpredictable export scheme. Recently, there were reports that China had suspended exports of rare earth elements necessary to building, among other fancy technologies, electric cars and batteries. China actually controls about 90% of the world's rare earth elements. China cut export quotas by 72% in the second half of 2010, and another 35% for the first half of 2011, more than doubling the prices of some elements. A supply disruption could really slow down acceptance of electric cars and drive costs through the roof, though really, it isn’t any different than our reliance on foreign oil. If OPEC turned off the petrol spigots tomorrow, we’d be in deep doo-doo. While Toyota is looking to get rare earths from places other than China (Afghanistan seems likes a good place to start), development of this new electric motor is apparently in the "advanced" stages of development. Toyota could be setting itself up to take the lead in electric motors down the road, but for now Toyota and other automakers have got to rely on a deal with the devil. Source: Automotive News Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
|
| Building Bike Lanes Creates Twice as Many Jobs as Road Repairs Posted: 18 Jan 2011 11:08 AM PST
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is a very vocal supporter of transportation projects besides highway and road projects for cars. In particular, he seems very interested in the prospect of more bike lanes in cities. According to a recent study cited by LaHood, road repair and upgrade projects create, on average, about seven jobs per $1 million spent, which includes labor and material costs. Sounds like a good deal, right? Well not compared to building bike lanes. Bike lanes and boulevards require fewer materials, but more labor, and as a result for every $1 million spent there are about 14 jobs created. That's twice as many as highway repair and upgrade projects. Sounds much more cost effective to me. I'm all for bike lanes, even though I'm an avid auto enthusiast. I'd much prefer to take a bike downtown than drive my gas-guzzling Jeep, but without bike lanes I take my life in my hands (I simply do not trust other drivers). The only question I have about this study is what about total jobs created? I say this because while your average highway project runs in the tens, or even hundreds of millions of dollars, many bike projects don't even break a million bucks. You can only spend so much on a bike lane, but highway projects are much more complicated and involved…and thus probably employ more people in the long term. Also, I imagine the upkeep for bike lanes is a lot less too, again, employing fewer people than repaving a road. So I guess I'm kinda split on this. Is it better to build multiple bike lanes that employ more people per-dollar spent, or one HUGE highway project that employs hundreds of people over many years? Source: Infrastructurist | Fastlane Blog | Bike League Study (pdf) Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
|
| Subaru Planning Hybrid for 2013? Posted: 18 Jan 2011 07:58 AM PST
My girlfriend calls Subaru's "granola cars," as they tend to be driven b y socially and environmentally conscious people…who munch on granola I guess. I do know that Subaru's only automotive plant in Indiana produces zero landfill waste, as they recycle almost 100% of the materials that pass through its doors, and the 832-acre plant campus was declared a natural habitat. An auto factory as a natural habitat? You heard right. And yet Subaru offers no hybrid or electric vehicles for sale in the U.S. (though several of their models are PZEV, or partial-zero emissions vehicles). That could all change by 2013 though, according to Reuters, as Subie will probably bring a hybrid to the U.S. market soon. Subaru has a historically tight relationship with Toyota; they actually build Camry's at their Indiana plant, and the two automakers have been developing a rear-wheel drive sports car together as well. So it isn't too much of a stretch to say that a Subaru hybrid would likely have some Toyota technology in it. Indeed, Subaru has said a hybrid will come at some point, and they did unveil the gullwing "Tourer" hybrid concept (above) last year. A hint of things to come? Even with all the hybrid models coming out though, they still represent just 2% of U.S. auto sales. Subie has done just fine without them, with their sales rising 22% in 2010 versus 2009. All the Subaru owners I have talked to straight up love their cars for the all-wheel drive and decent gas mileage . So is Subaru being smart by following the herd, or should they stick to their own game plan? I'll tell you what, the prospect of an all-wheel drive hybrid sounds pretty good to me. Source: Reuters Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gas 2.0 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment