New posts from Gas 2.0! |
- Does Indiana Make You Th!nk About RVs or EVs? Th!nk City Hits the Heartland
- Canadian Kids Building Electric Drag Racing Truck
- Tesla CEO Bets on Capacitors, Not Batteries, For Future of EV’s
| Does Indiana Make You Th!nk About RVs or EVs? Th!nk City Hits the Heartland Posted: 22 Mar 2011 03:00 PM PDT
Viewed from I-80 at about 70 mph, Elkhart, Indiana seems like RV production capital of the world, with massive factory, assembly plants, and signs for dealerships plainly visible from the road. As of last October, however, one of those many many thousands-of-square-feet buildings (formerly a Philips product plant for RV parts) has been occupied by Th!nk, and they have set up shop, hired employees, and begun building (and selling!) electric cars. They’ve built and sold nearly 300 at the time of this writing, too – which seems to imply that this is a serious bid for US market share. Th!nk is the once-owned-by Ford company from Finland that builds the Th!nk City micro cars sold throughout much of Europe, of course, and the company has high hopes for their new US assembly arm, projecting 2500 units will roll off the Indiana line this year alone. The company recently invited John Voelcker of greencarreports.com for a guided tour of the 205,000 sq. ft facility earlier this month, and his experience at the plant is definitely worth a read. CLICK HERE to check out John’s original article. Enjoy!     Source: GreenCarReports.
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| Canadian Kids Building Electric Drag Racing Truck Posted: 22 Mar 2011 12:52 PM PDT
Americans fell in love with cars via auto racing and hot rodding, and I think to get a new generation of young Americans to love cars again, we need to make electric cars and other alt-fuels fun. 50 mpg and low CO2 emissions aren't fun; driving down the drag strip in an electrified hot rod is, and that's exactly what students at the Delta Secondary School in Ladner, British Columbia are doing. Casey Mynott, the auto class intrstructor, decided that instead of building the typical drag car that many BC schools do, his class would try to turn a small Toyota pickup into a fast electric drag racer. And why not? A pickup is the perfect platform for an electric drag racer. The students put 20 lead-acid batteries with 240 volts of power over the rear axles, making for some good grip.
The electric motor goes where the old combustion engine sat, and a custom aluminum driveshaft hooks it all together. As the truck is tuned for racing, range is limited to just 40 miles, and it isn't exactly fast either; a trip down the ¼ mile (the standard range for most drag races) takes around 14 seconds. For comparison, the new Mustang GT can do the quarter mile in the low-13 second range. But it ain't too shabby either, and give them a few years they might be chasing after the Nissan GT-R-beating White Zombie electric Datsun. I really hope to see more projects like this cropping up and maybe rekindle our young peoples' love for the automobile. Source: Wired | Images: Casey Mytnott Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
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| Tesla CEO Bets on Capacitors, Not Batteries, For Future of EV’s Posted: 22 Mar 2011 09:55 AM PDT
On Wednesday, Musk told a Cleantech Forum in San Francisco that “"If I were to make a prediction, I'd think there's a good chance that it is not batteries. But capacitors.” Capacitors are not unlike batteries, in that they store energy for later usage. Unlike your standard battery tough, capacitors deliver quick, intense bursts of energy rather than dolling it out in a slow, metered fashion. As a result, capacitors (or ultracapacitors) can deliver more power, faster, and survive more discharge/recharge cycles than current batteries can. I'm no engineer, so I'll leave the explanation of exactly what a capacitor is to Wikipedia. But Elon Musk seems to think that capacitors, perhaps in conjunction with batteries, will represent the biggest breakthrough in the acceptance of electric vehicles. Musk originally went to California to study capacitor technology in advanced ship building, and it seems the entrepreneur hasn't forgotten his roots even though his company builds cars using huge lithium-ion battery packs (though they could very well be researching capacitors too.) Companies around the world are toying with capacitors in electric vehicles, and there is even a bus system in China that runs on short bursts of capacitor energy before being recharged at stops along its route. Then there is ZENN Motors and the "mythical" EESU energy storage system, which makes me think that we're still a long ways away from actually applying this technology en masse. It's important though that car makers don't get bogged down in just one technology. While battery tech has advanced rather rapidly in the past few years, capacitors show a lot of promise too. Which way is the right way to go? Source: Gigaom | Image: Brian Solis Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
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