Gas 2.0

Porsche to Unveil Flywheel-Hybrid 911 GT3
Trexa’s EV Skateboard/Car Pricing Announced
The Brave New Electric Grid For Europe
Kia Comes to the Hybrid Party Late With Their Rather Odd Ray Concept

Porsche to Unveil Flywheel-Hybrid 911 GT3

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 09:08 AM PST

Some automakers can’t make up their minds. Or maybe they just like confusing the public. Such is the case with Porsche, which has been playing a back-and-forth game with the whole hybrid 911 idea. First they dangle it out in front of the public, hinting that maybe they are making a hybrid and spy photographers grabbed pictures of what seemed to be a hybrid Porsche 911 last summer.

Then Porsche CEO Micheal Macht comes out and says no, Porsche will not make hybrid versions of the 911 or Boxster.

Now Porsche says they have a flywheel-electric-hybrid 911 GT3 race car to show off at the 2010 Geneva car show. Oh Porsche, how you toy with our heartstrings.

Maybe what they meant was that they won’t make any street-legal, showroom versions of the 911 hybrid. Because the 911 GT3 is definitely not a car made for the streets. While the rear-mounted 480 horsepower supercharged flat-six engine drives the rear-wheels, a very interesting KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) provides a combined 160 horsepower boost to the front wheels for 6-8 seconds. This is accomplished by replacing the passenger’s seat with a 40,000 RPM flywheel that captures and stores kinetic energy from the braking system and then transfers it to two electric motors powering the front wheels. When the driver feels like they need a boost, they press a button on the steering wheel, giving them the extra power to scoot past an opponent.

It is a brilliant, if slightly-terrifying system. I wouldn’t want to be seated next to a large metal disc spinning that fast. But race drivers are a breed all their own. Porsche is apparently claiming the car is a rolling laboratory, and not indicative of a hybrid 911. Yeah right. Maybe Porsche is trying to maintain its street cred, but I think a hybrid 911 isn’t that far off. While the first Porsche likely to get a hybrid system is the four-door Panamera, who wouldn’t want a little boost button on their steering wheels? It would make on-ramps a whole lot more fun.

Sources: Green Car Advisor | Motor Authority | Images: Porsche

Trexa’s EV Skateboard/Car Pricing Announced

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 09:03 AM PST

Last month we came across the Trexa, an old idea with some new life breathed into it. The old idea was to use a self-contained “skateboard” as a vehicle chassis which included all the components necessary for propulsion. The skateboard could then use interchangeable bodies, or customers could design their own. It takes the idea of car ownership to a whole new level.

But what about the price? Surely something so savvy, eco-friendly, and customizable would cost a pretty penny. Well Trexa seems to be bucking conventions, because the whole self-contained skateboard can supposedly be had for $15,999.

This is not a complete, sit-behind-the-wheel-and-turn-the-key car. Just the platform. But for the price, you get a whole lot out of this little platform. The two-wheel drive platform includes an electric motor, 7 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, battery charger and management system, and everything you need to design your own body, or “app” as Trexa calls it. A CAD program and some pieces of hardware help you design your quad or very tiny car with a wheelbase of 96 inches (the same as the Ford Ka). So you can come up with your own car… though I’m not quite sure how Federal safety regulations will apply.

There is also the deluxe, twin-motor, four-wheel drive Trexa platform. This one comes with a 28 kWh battery pack (for comparison’s sake, the Nissan Leaf has a 24 kWh battery pack) as well as a faster charger. AutoBlogGreen places the price of that platform around $32,000, but you still have to build your own body.

While the Trexa isn’t likely to overrun our highways anytime soon, finally having access to a skateboard/car platform is huge. We’ve heard about these things for over a decade, but to have one so close as to put a price on it? Imagine one day being able to swap your vehicle from passenger sedan to pickup truck without having to own two separate vehicles? I see the Trexa finding a home at golf courses and events at first, as it really is too small to be practical for most people. But even a thousand mile journey starts with the first step, and this is one big step towards the future.

Check out the press release on the next page.

Sources: AutoBlogGreen | Trexa

The Brave New Electric Grid For Europe

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 08:56 AM PST

There are times when our elected representatives are blinded by a stunning flash of light and realise The Truth of something Common Sense has told the rest of us forever.

Sadly that moment hasn’t yet arrived. But it may be drawing closer, inch by painful inch.

A new report, commissioned by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Transport and Environment, has listed six policy changes which the EU should make in order to ensure we’re “harvesting the climate potential of electric vehicles.” Yeah, whatever.

And although these are aimed squarely at the EU, they’re worth paying attention to as they could make a great blueprint for the US and other countries to work from.

Transport has the fastest growing GHG emissions of any sector, with an increase of between 20 and 40% in the US and EU over the past two decades.

Just replacing gas guzzling cars with electric cars is only half the story. As the report concludes, if this were to happen without a change in current energy generation policy the level of emissions may stay the same or could increase, as more fossil fuel and nuclear power stations are built to take the strain.

So the report comes up with a three simple steps to ensure that electric vehicles will cause a real drop in emissions as they come on line:

enhance smart grids so that they can communicate to vehicles the source of the electricity they’re charging from
enhance electric vehicles so that they favour renewable sources of electricity when charging
ensure renewable energy capacity keeps in line with projected electric vehicle take up (at present it’s predicted to lag behind)

It’s not really rocket science is it?

So let’s hope the politicians see the wisdom in following this advice, otherwise all this electric vehicle technology may be for nothing.

Picture Credit: Building The Tesla by jurvetson from flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

Kia Comes to the Hybrid Party Late With Their Rather Odd Ray Concept

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 07:23 PM PST

For green car nuts like myself, the 2010 Chicago Auto Show was a little bit dull this year. Ford really was the only auto manufacturer with anything of note, showing off its electric and CNG versions of the 2011 Ford Transit Connect and a version the 2011 Ford Edge with an EcoBoost engine. In fact, in my eyes Ford stole the show.

But there was one more little nugget to pop out of Chicago this year: the Kia Ray plug-in hybrid concept. Representing Kia’s first foray into the world of plug-in hybrid design, the Ray concept is really nothing more than a showpiece at this point. And it’s a kind of strange looking one at that.

As Kia’s U.S. based design team took the stage to talk about the Ray, we heard nothing of real substance surrounding its performance or fuel efficiency. We did, however, hear lots about its “airy design” and its “smooth, flowing lines.” Sometimes the unveiling of concept cars can be so frustrating. Yet at a show where the other “concept” cars included an upcoming version of Honda’s Odyssey minivan, the Ray certainly took the cake for being the most flashy concept to debut in Chicago.

Whether it’s an attractive flashy car is up for debate, however.

The front is somewhat enticing, yet when you get around to the back everything seems to go horribly wrong. The front looks active and sleek… even a bit happy. But the rear end looks like droopy dog on a bad day. The unbroken thick black line resembles a piece of tar melting over a white rock in the summer sun. Anyway, all that doesn’t really matter. Concept designs never make it to the production level, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

But wait, Kia also announced in Chicago that they will be debuting their first production-intent hybrid model at another upcoming as-yet-to-be-announced auto show this year, and that the design of the Ray was “closer than we think.” Uh. I sure as hell hope not. At the very least, I hope they ditch any thought of including anything resembling the Ray’s rear end.

In the press release, Kia says that the Ray is designed “to reach driving distances of more than 50 miles using its electric motor on a single charge, and has a fuel economy rating of more than 202 miles per gallon, and has a total range of 746 miles.” It sure is easy to write that all down when all you have is a fiberglass model. I guess we have to wait and see if Kia can actually deliver on those claims.

But kudos to Kia for their presentation. They had some crazy sock monkey and orange condom-like creatures on hand to show off the Ray (the creatures are from Kia’s new new advertising campaign that debuted during the Super Bowl). There was also a live band rocking the largely tie-encumbered crowd with funkily rearranged hip-hop and classic rock tunes. Plus there was the free beer from the “Kia Kegger” booths; happily served in “fully compostable” glasses. Anyone hazard to guess how many of those glasses actually made it to the compost? Anyway, the beer certainly helped to make the whole crazy mismatched ensemble more bearable—so thanks for thinking ahead Kia!

Check out the Ray gallery below and decide for yourself if it’s ugly, sexy, or somewhere in the realm of indescribable.