Eco Factor: Concept car designed to run on electric engine fueled by solar power.
Pforzheim University graduate Anne Forschner is one auto designer who believes that cars of the future need to harness renewable energy and convert it into usable fuel for a zero-emission ride. Anne has come up with a concept car, designed in collaboration with BMW, that mimics natural forms to harness solar energy.
Solar power and electric can go together like a horse and carriage. That’s the idea behind SolarCity’s effort to market its solar energy system sales along with electric car charging installations.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company announced Tuesday a
partnership with Rabobank to make electric car charging available for
free to owners of Tesla Motors’ vehicles traveling on Highway 101
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that can make use of
same charging technology are welcome.
SolarCity has set up a fast-charging device at four of the bank’s
branches near the freeway as part of a larger charging technology
development project by Tesla, which is headquartered just south of San
Francisco.
The partnership with Rabobank is more than just a marketing strategy
to win over more solar customers. Rive said his company is entering the
business of installing charging stations for plug-in hybrid and
electric cars because it, too, promotes the use of cleaner energy.
"We want to design systems for powering your home and car," said
Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity. "The key thing is we want to eliminate
all the reasons we can’t live a carbon-free lifestyle."
Rive is throwing out some incentives to entice home and business
owners to install solar and charging stations: "If you get a PV system,
then the EV system is free." (This deal won’t likely last once more
electric cars become available.)
SolarCity has been selling and installing solar energy systems since
its founding in 2006. The company is one of few that offer financing
options to both residents and businesses that don’t want to pay the
expensive upfront costs of owning a solar energy system.
Last week, it said it had finalized its purchase of Los Angeles-based SolSource Energy, whose business includes installing electric car charging stations. SolSource has been the North American distributor of Toyota Tsusho electric car chargers. Toyota Tsusho is responsible for the export, sales and marketing of Toyota vehicles and auto parts.
The four charging stations at Rabobank branches are part of a larger project by Tesla Motors to develop and deploy a car charging technology.
The San Carlos, Calif.-based electric automaker received a grant of
1,000 from the California Air Resources Board for the project in
2007, said Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad.
Part of that money went into co-developing the charging device with ClipperCreek
of Auburn, Calif., Konrad said. The result is a fast-charging device
Tesla calls the "High Power Connector" that provides up to 70 amps, 240
volts of electricity, making it possible to fully charge a Tesla
Roadster after 3.5 hours, Konrad added.
Tesla car owners can have an electrician install the High Power Connector, which costs an extra ,000
and comes in a wall-mounted box with a power cord, in their garages.
Tesla also has designed its cars to be able to charge with the standard
110-volt outlet, which could take 37 hours for a full charge.
About ,000 of the 1,000 grant was set aside for setting up the
charging spots, Konrad said. The money went into buying equipment for
the installations, SolarCity said. Incidentally, Rive is a cousin of
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO.
The solar installer has built the charging stations at Rabobank
locations in Salinas, Atascadero and Santa Maria. The Goleta location
is scheduled to be up and running by Oct. 15, said Jonathan Bass, a
SolarCity spokesman.
SolarCity also has erected a 30-kilowatt solar energy system at the
bank’s Santa Maria branch. Rabobank has signed a power purchase
agreement with SolarCity to pay for the electricity generated from the
30-kilowatt system (SolarCity will own it). The bank is considering
adding solar in its other locations.
The bank offers the sites and will be paying for the electricity
while SolarCity owns and maintains the charging stations. The stations
are located in or near shopping centers, so motorists have something to
do while waiting for their cars to juice up.
The charging is free for now. Given the limited number of Tesla car
owners, the bank isn’t in danger of seeing a huge spike in electricity
bills. The same deal isn’t likely to last after major carmakers begin
to launch plug-in hybrid or all-electric cars starting in 2010.
SolarCity does plan to add charging equipment from those companies,
or install universal chargers when standards are in place, Bass said.
The company has installed a fifth station on land owned by the city of San Luis Obispo, which will operate it, Bass said.
Image via SolarCity.
Eco Factor: Zero-emission car designed to run on lithium-ion batteries.
First-year students at the University of Sydney have spent the last five months designing and building an all-electric vehicle dubbed ManGo. The hand-built car is designed to be lightweight and features a four-wheel drive with a motor in each wheel, eliminating the need for mechanical brakes.
Eco Factor: Car intended to be powered by a zero-emission electric engine.
All those who think that battery-powered cars should be lightweight and streamlined are in for a shocker as Auto Express has learnt that Rolls-Royce might be eyeing an electricity powered Phantom. The news broke as a company spokesman let slip that a battery-powered Phantom is something that the company is considering.
Solar power and electric can go together like a horse and carriage. That’s the idea behind SolarCity’s effort to market its solar energy system sales along with electric car charging installations.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company announced Tuesday a
partnership with Rabobank to make electric car charging available for
free to owners of Tesla Motors’ vehicles traveling on Highway 101
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
In February 2008, I had talked about how Rolls-Royce, the world’s premier high-end luxury car maker was starting to build large stationary fuel cells that would not be going into their cars.
Rolls-Royce has continued down this path by expanding their fuel cell division in Canton, Ohio, creating approximately 60 jobs, while retaining 32. These utility scale fuel cells will be used by electric companies for supplementary power or by combined heat and power stations in distributed systems for neighborhoods.
Now, at the same time that the luxury car manufacturer has made this announcement they are unveiling their new Rolls-Royce Ghost at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show. The sticker price will be around 0,000 when the Rolls-Royce rolls out.
But, I think that Rolls-Royce is missing the boat on this one. High end carmakers such as Rolls did not benefit from the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Most consumers chose much cheaper replacement vehicles.
But, there is a smaller segment of consumers that have proven they are willing to pay a premium for new technology. Take the Tesla Roadster for instance that is an all battery powered vehicle with a price tag of over 0,000. Tesla can’t build these cars fast enough.
And take for instance, the Honda FCX Clarity, in which drivers are leasing for 0 per month for 3 years. That totals ,600 over the three years in which time they have to give the car back to Honda.
So, the “greening edge” people, those who are on the leading edge of green technology have proven they are willing to pay handsomely to be the first to drive zero emission vehicles.
Does, the Rolls-Royce Ghost have a ghost of a chance of being the company’s first fuel cell vehicle? Well, never say never. While some companies start small and scale up, Rolls-Royce may just be doing things backwards and starting big and scaling down its fuel cell efforts.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Phantom FCV has a nice ring to it. If you build it people will come. And, that’s not just a field of dreams.
The auto industry has gone through bailouts and bankruptcy since Shai Agassi, CEO of electric vehicle infrastructure startup and the former second-in-command at software giant SAP, declared that we’re about to enter the era of Car 2.0. With the allocation of billions of dollars in stimulus funds for smart grid technology, electric vehicle development and car charging infrastructure, movement toward a transportation system for the digital age — in which vehicles are connected to the power grid as well as communication networks — has picked up momentum. Here are the key players and technologies you need to know about.
Graphics courtesy of the companies and Plug-In 2009
We know this guide hasn’t covered all the firms involved in the smart grid. If you have particular favorites, add them in the comment section. We’ll keep this page updated with Earth2Tech’s continuing coverage of Car 2.0 and its key players.
Eco Factor: Concept car runs on a zero emission 1000 cc electric engine.
Nature is the best thing to derive inspiration from and varieties of creations that can be found in it are incomparable. Taking advantage of this very aspect of nature, designer Mohd Azam Abd Halim has conceived a marvelous concept for Malaysian roads. Much better, the concept is inspired by nature for the sake of nature. It’s a public transportation concept, named “MCET” (Malaysian city eco-transit) that gives looks similar to the woodpecker found in Malaysia.
A new electric car charging initiative is being planned by Brighton and Hove City Council.
by Brad Aaron
A couple of stories we’ve linked from headlines this week point to the continuation of a disturbing trend: families whose parents are questioned, criticized and even intimidated for encouraging their kids to bike or walk to school.
In Saratoga Springs, reports The Saratogian, controversy has erupted over the Marino family’s desire to let son Adam ride his bike to Maple Avenue Middle School. Before the first day of classes last week, officials actually placed calls telling parents not to permit kids to bike or walk. The Marinos, regular bike riders, defied the “rule” — school officials can’t dictate how kids get to school any more than they can tell parents which make of car to drive. They were greeted outside by school personnel and a New York state trooper.
They were informed that they were “out of compliance,” and had a lengthy discussion over where Adam’s bike could be locked.
“I was extremely bothered,” Kaddo Marino said, “after reviewing the way we were met at the school. It was very intimidating to be met by these three men, one of whom was a trooper.”
The Marinos aren’t alone. A recent New York Times back-to-school piece profiles similar cases in which parents who permit their kids to walk and bike are met with raised eyebrows, or worse. One mother in Mississippi was threatened with a child endangerment charge for letting her 10-year-old walk a mile to soccer practice after passersby saw the boy and called 911. Another in Vancouver, British Columbia, was left waiting and worrying for her first grader after school officials prevented him from walking himself home — a distance of six houses.
Issues of liability and fears of abductions are often raised to explain the resistance to a practice that was commonplace 40 years ago, when 41 percent of American kids walked or biked to school. But the facts, as cited by the Times, don’t support the paranoia. While about 115 children are abducted by strangers each year, some 250,000 are injured in car crashes. Many parents get this, and some are wondering: If schools and districts are so obsessed with the responsibilities entailed by enabling students to bike or walk, why aren’t they more concerned about having kids arrive in — much less driving their own — cars?
The most obvious answer: car culture. While some communities mentioned in these stories are, and should be, concerned over street safety (advocates in Saratoga Springs, for instance, are rallying around the Marinos), the response in most cases has not been to make improvements, but to castigate families who want their kids to navigate the world outside the confines of a motor vehicle. This reaction — to escalate the simple act of a child riding a bike to the level of civil disobedience — can only make sense in an environment where it’s considered normal to shuttle the kids by car down the driveway to meet the school bus.
Related posts in the Worldchanging archive:
Seattle to the World: Feet First and Walkable Communities
Get Schooled in Livable Streets
The Ruins of the Unsustainable: Searching For Answers to the Suburbs
This piece originally appeared in Streetsblog NYC.
Help us change the world – DONATE NOW!
(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Transportation at 11:44 AM)
The Frankfurt Motor Show this year has hosted a slew of hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Renault has caused quite a bit of buzz by introducing not one, but four all-electric concept vehicles ranging from tiny to : the Twizy Z.E., Zoe Z.E., Fluence Z.E. and Kangoo Z.E.
The Twizy is actually more like half a car. The 1+1 city car is only 2.3 meters long and just over one meter wide, barely larger than a scooter. It maxes out at 47 mph with its 15kW motor.
The Zoe is a compact car with a 100-mile range and a 70kW motor. It’s front and rear feature polyurethane gel bumpers. You can also personalize your own avatar to deliver driving information and it comes with mood lighting and “hydrate, detox and active scent” climate control settings – uh, cool?
The Fluence is their version of an all-electric family vehicle. It’s a four-door, five-person sedan with a 100-mile range.
The Kangoo is an electric commercial fleet vehicle, also with a 70 kW motor and solar roof panels.
All four models will have three options for recharging: standard charge that takes four – eight hours at any charging spot, quick charge that takes 20 minutes at special charging points and “Quickdrop” battery exchange, all of which the company has paired up with Better Place to facilitate.
Renault expects to start releasing these vehicles in 2011.
via Autoblog Green
Eco Factor: Concept car for the Frankfurt Motor Show designed with a solar roof.
If you love a scooter because it’s easier to drive on a congested street, but hate it because of the lack of adequate safety systems, then Peugeot is the brand you should look forward to. The company has unveiled their latest concept vehicle, dubbed BB1, for which they say, “Its mother is a scooter. Its father is a car.”
Eco Factor: Low-emission concept car runs on a diesel/electric hybrid engine.
Volkswagen has announced that the company will unveil the updated version of its 1-liter concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The lightweight car is supposed to drive 170 miles on a gallon of fuel. Powered by a diesel/electric hybrid engine the car could make it to the streets by 2013.
First algae fuel-powered vehicle in the world was officially launched in San Francisco. The car, called Algaeus is a modified Toyota Prius, which derives power from green crude, from Sapphire Energy. The car runs on an astonishing 150 miles per gallon of green fuel. But they are aspiring to cross the US on approximately [...]
Posted in: Biofuels, Hybrid Cars, Transportation
Electric and hybrid car projects have received new funding from the Technology Strategy Board.
Filed under: Solar, Peugeot, Frankfurt Motor Show
If a scooter is too small, dangerous and uncovered for your tastes but you’d still like to have as minimal an impact on your surroundings as possible, Peugeot has just the concept car for you. Called the BB1, the French automaker says of its Frankfurt Motor Show-bound machine, “Its mother is a scooter. Its father is a car.”
So, the unholy offspring of a mini two-wheeler and a city car would look something like a cartoon car that’s straining to stop before smashing into a brick wall. Good to know. One thing is for certain: you won’t mistake the Peugeot BB1 for anything else on the road. With its exaggerated forward-pitched stance and solar cell-covered glass bubble roof, this is one concept that stands apart from the rest of the crowd. As for what powers the BB1… well, we have no idea. Could be electric, gasoline or hybrid.
Amazingly, Peugeot has found a way to cram four human beings inside the BB1, and those occupants gain access to the cabin via a pair of reverse-hinged doors with mini roll-down windows. Driving the diminutive machine would surely be an experience, and the controls are more akin to those from a motorcycle than a car. See for yourself in our gallery below, and stay tuned for more details as the doors in Frankfurt officially swing open in the morning.
[Source: World Car Fans]
Frankfurt Preview: Peugeot mixes car with scooter to create the BB1 Concept originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
If
you love a scooter because it’s easier to drive on a congested street,
but hate it because of the lack of adequate safety systems then Peugeot
is the brand you should look forward to. The company has unveiled their
latest concept vehicle, dubbed BB1, for which they say, “Its mother is
a scooter. Its father is a car.”
Though
the details on the car and its power source are limited, the images do
speak some green features about the car. The…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
The first algae-fueled vehicle called the Algaeus has begun its drive across the country. The car, a converted plug-in Prius outfitted with a nickel-metal hydride battery and filled with a blend of 5 percent algae and 95 percent gasoline from Sapphire Energy, set out from San Francisco yesterday and will take 10 days to make it to Washington, DC.
The group responsible for the Algaeus, the Veggie Van Organization, expects the car will only require 25 gallons of fuel to make the entire trip.
Yes, a 5 percent blend of algae doesn’t exactly signal the start of an algae revolution, but it does mean that progress is being made on fuel with great potential and this road trip lets people see the progress in action. The main point of the Algaeus is to show the ability of algae to be used in a standard engine.
The road trip isn’t being made just to show off the algae car, but to also promote the film FUEL that discusses solutions for our dependence on foreign oil and opens on September 18th, the day the algae car will reach its destination.
Sapphire Energy plans to produce two million gallons of algae fuel per year for the next two years with hopes of it becoming cost-competitive in the next few years at to a barrel. The company intends to create a 10 percent algae blend for its future commercial products. Sapphire is also producing one million gallons of algae-based jet fuel this year.
via Inhabitat
India’s Reva electric car company has been producing low-speed, low-cost electric vehicles for it’s home country for sometime now. Now they’ll be launching two new models and some very peculiar sounding charging technology at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The new modles include the NXR, a four-seat, three-door “family car” and the NXG, a two-seat sportster (with a removable roof!)
The “family” NXR will be available in 2010, and Reva will be taking orders for the car at the show. Unfortunately, we don’t have numbers on range or top speed, for those of you who might be there and interested in ordering one. The NXG, on the other hand, is slotted for 2011 release.
In addition to this somewhat exciting, but not-too-unexpected news comes the announcement that Reva will be releasing a new charging technology called “REVive.” According to their press release, the system will allow you to text REVA for an “an instant remote recharge should they run out of charge.” Unless Reva has solved one of the 21st centuries most pressing problems (wireless energy transfer) then this is just a reserve tank that’s already in your car, but doesn’t get released until you text it.
It’s a psychological trick, and a bit of a silly one, but with the amount electric vehicles are complaining about “range anxiety” I’m willing to give them credit for trying something new.
Via AutoBlogGreen
Eco Factor: Sustainable electric car designed to run on solar power.
The upcoming World Solar Challenge has kept universities all over the world busy in designing ecofriendly cars that run on electricity that they get from several meters of solar modules installed on the vehicle. The Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany is the latest to show off their ride, which they call the BOcruiser.
It’s the BMW Vision, a car that has an ultra-efficient turbo-diesel engine and two electric motors that could combine to make it the greenest sports car that isn’t a Tesla Roadster. Of course the 400 mile range (not to mention the backseat) makes the Vision a tad more practical.
BMW will be officially unveiling the car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a couple of weeks, but we’re getting a HD preview in the form of the following video.
The car doesn’t just get an EcoGeek’s approval because of the plug-in system, which can carry the vehicle for 30 miles on a 2.5 hour charge. The 1.5 liter turbo-diesel engine is also extra green, and its placement over the rear axle allows for an extremely low front-end, which decreases drag significantly. Additionally, the concept has been created using extremely light-weight materials and a battery chemistry that allows for less battery weight. Of course, the lighter a car is, the less fuel it has to use.
While the car can drive on electric power alone, it isn’t an extended-range electric vehicle like the Volt. The turbo-diesel can re-charge the battery, but it can also be used to power the wheels. The idea is that, if you really want to pull out all of the stops, the diesel engine can kick in and work with the electric engines, thus making the car “perform like a BMW.”
Of course, performing like a BMW isn’t important to me. But it is important to me that luxury car companies work these technologies into expensive cars, thus allowing rich dudes with midlife crises to subsidize the technology for the rest of us. Hopefully there are some of you out there who’ll be buying this car as soon as it’s available. Which, let’s be honest, may be never. But it’s still worth looking at and drooling over. Check out the Hi-Res gallery at AutoBlogGreen.
Car brand BMW will unveil its Vision EfficientDynamics concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. (more…)
French car brand Citroën will launch its new DS3 model at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. (more…)
Compared with Tesla Motors co-founder Martin Eberhard, the startup’s other founder — Marc Tarpenning — has kept a relatively low profile. But Tarpenning spoke this morning at IBM’s Almaden Institute 2009 in San Jose, Calif., telling his version of the Tesla creation story that Eberhard and CEO Elon Musk have been fighting over this summer.
Back in 2003, Tarpenning and Eberhard knew they wanted to start a new company, but hadn’t settled on specifics. “We knew we wanted to solve a real problem,” Tarpenning said. “We just couldn’t do another network widget.” Eberhard suggested that they “do oil.” Climate change had yet to become a major mainstream concern in the U.S., but “there was this nagging suspicion about, what if we run out of this stuff.”
The pair looked at cellulosic ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells, but ultimately decided to work on the electric car. Tarpenning said that at the time, about half of the venture capital community was interested in taking a close look at fuel cells, and the other half had already looked at the technology and concluded that “the energy equation doesn’t make sense.”
Settling on electric vehicles, Tarpenning and Eberhard developed the idea of building a beautiful, but expensive “aspirational” vehicle to help improve the image of green cars and bring them into the mainstream. Then the entrepreneurship part began. “Imagination is great,” but “how do you then start a car company?” Tarpenning said. “In Silicon Valley, you have an idea, you immediately incorporate — why not?”
From there, Tarpenning described Tesla’s next three years as a cycle of developing, hitting a milestone, and then seeking fresh capital. When you have a major milestone, you switch gears, said Tarpenning, to seek funds for future development. After hitting its first major milestone in 2004 — the company’s first drivable version of a Tesla car — “the main thing we did is immediately raise money,” he said.
By May 2006, when Tesla had closed its third round of venture capital investment, Tarpenning said the pitch had gotten much easier — and not just because the startup had a drivable mule. The cleantech sector had started to take off and the startup refined its pitch, shifting from the idea of a car with “a bunch of computers in it and it goes real fast,” to a technology and vehicle that could become a key part of the nascent cleantech sector and market for greener cars.
Even so, Tesla ran into trouble late the following year when the transmission failed in durability testing, and in April 2008 had to get a bridge loan. This time, the milestone-fundraise pattern worked against the startup. “We had this big milestone, and we failed it.” These were “dark times” for Tesla, Tarpenning said.
Tesla has since managed to pull itself away from the brink, and Tarpenning noted, has since “received a bunch of money” from the Department of Energy loan program, as well as a million investment from Daimler AG.
But Tesla is far from mass production. And Tarpenning says he’s “a little skeptical” that Tesla will hit its 2011 production target for its own electric sedan. Likewise EVs are nowhere close to mainstream. What’s the biggest hurdle still standing between electric cars and the mass market, according to Tarpenning? “The batteries really aren’t good enough yet.”
TH!NK (with the cute exclamation point in place of an ‘i’) hasn’t been the loudest name in electric cars, and perhaps that contributed to them entering bankruptcy protection last December. But in Norway (where Think is headquartered) earlier this week, Think’s reorganization was approved, and the company is on track to resume production.
One of the new investors in Think is the Finnish company Valmet Automotive, whose production facilities will be used to produce the car, alongside the Boxster and Cayman models they build for Porsche. Think is also reported to be looking for a location in the US where they can produce the car for the North American market.
The TH!NK City is a two-seat, battery-electric car with a top speed of 100 kmh (62 mph) and a driving range of 170-200 kilometers (105-124 miles). With its small size – slightly over 3 meters (10 feet) long – and range constraints, not to mention calling the vehicle “City”, it is definitely targeted at urban commuters. Think has showed other models, such as the Th!nk Ox Concept Car, and according to the company, has a 2 + 2 configuration forthcoming which will allow urban parents to bring their children along. This will add to the growing variety of electric vehicle options that are becoming available.
via: Detroit News
