The Green LiterGoing the extra mile with electric vehicles, hybrid cars, fuel efficient cars, biofuels and alternative energy sources

Peugot has just released a video of their electric racing car called the EX 1, burning down the 20.832 kilometres (12.944 miles) tracks of Nordschleife race track in Germany.

The team at hand managed to beat the previous record held by the MINI E since last year with they futuristic-looking concept car, the EX1. The final result: 9 minutes and 1.338 seconds (9:01.338) at an average speed of 138.324 km/h (85.951 mph).

The electric racing car had two electric motors, ultra-light structures, and streamlined aerodynamics that allowed it to run at such a high speed.

I had to agree that listening to the car run down the road, reminded me of the motorcycle scene in Tron.

You can watch the video below:
PEUGEOT EX1 schlägt Nordschleifen Rekord

Article via: Autoevolution| Image By Thesupermat (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Electric Car drivers may not need to worry about charging stations at all if this goes to fruition: charge your batteries via the road!

According to txnologist, researchers at Energy Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University are working on then idea of electrified roads:

Electric vehicles, or EVs, could pick up small amounts of electricity as they drive over charging pads buried under the asphalt and connected to the electrical grid. Researchers say that a continuously available power supply would allow EVs to cut battery size as much as 80 percent, drastically reducing vehicle cost.

A good idea for electric car drivers, but it seems to be a bad one for jaywalking pedestrians…

Image By TinHauHuang (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

Electric Vehicle (EVs) owners don’t have to think of gas prices anymore, but they do have to mind the range to which their batteries can take them.

This particular challenge is now being worked on Nanotune with ultracapacitors that can store more seven times more electricity than the conventional batteries of today.

Using a conventional electrolyte, the company has demonstrated energy storage of 20 watt-hours per kilogram, as opposed to roughly five watt-hours for a conventional ultracapacitor. Using a more expensive ionic-liquid electrolyte, it has made ultracapacitors that store 35 watt-hours per kilogram.

It’s expensive to buy right now, but as more and more people use electric cars, the more it will get cheaper.

Article via: Technology Review | Image By LossIsNotMore at en.wikipedia [Attribution], from Wikimedia Commons

General Motors is looking to the future by sponsoring the 2011 Alternative Clean Transportation Expo (ACT).

This 2011 ACT brings together stakeholders of alternative fuel and clean vehicles. Besides being the Gold Sponsor, GM also brought their plans that will make GM as THE car manufacturers for alternative fuels.

Several plans, like the Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative, point to the fact that GM will not focus its green efforts on only one technology. The car maker is working of several planes of this new industry, launching the Volt plug-in hybrid vehicles, announcing plans to make fuel cell cars a reality as well and focusing on alternative fuels like LPG.

Plans are good, but the real thing is even better. We’ll see if GM goes through with these plans.
[Article via: Autoevolution | Image By CoolKid1993 at en.wikipedia. (Transferred from en.wikipedia ([1])) [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons]

Despite all the potential savings a green car driver will have, there’s still one thing that keeps most Americans from buying one: the price of the car.

According to Mike VanNieuwkuyk, executive director of global vehicle research at J.D. Power and Associates, their study show that people won’t put up with the car price if it’s too expensive:

“As concerns about the functionality and performance of hybrid vehicles have abated, vehicle price has become more prevalent as the primary purchase impediment. Without a tax credit to offset the price premium, consumers must absorb all of this additional cost. Furthermore, aggressive government subsidies are unlikely to be sustainable over the long term. Ultimately, the true cost of the technology needs to come down substantially.”

Another issue that concerns them is the availability of fuel/charge resources. With charging stations still not that common in the US, the potential buyers fear that they’ll be forced to use gasoline anyway.

Based on the report, it says that interest for green cars will remain below 10 percent of the US Market until 2016.

[Article via: Press Release | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (CC By 2.0)]

Electric cars not only allow you to save money by not buying gas, not only does it reduce the carbon emissions around you, it may also save your life.

According to some crash tests don on both the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, they performed really well. The reason for their performance? Weight.

“They behave like heavier cars, and in a crash that can be a good thing,” Wiesenfelder told FOX Business Network’s Jeff Flock. “All other things being equal, heavier cars fare better in crashes.”

Specifically, the battery is so heavy that the roof strength needs to be reinforced. This results in the roofs not buckling as much during crashes.

[Article via: Fox Business | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)]

Electric car owners aren’t concerned with gas prices anymore, but it’s mostly where to charge when the batteries are about to die out.

Although the DOE and Google are on it, sometimes just knowing where to charge isn’t enough. This is true, especially when it takes almost 30 minutes just to charge the car’s batteries to 80 percent. How does the electric car driver ensure that when he gets to the station, the electric charger will be free to use? Enter: Chargepoint.

Chargepoint allows the EV driver to reserve an electric charging station for his or her vehicle. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Drivers search for reservable charging stations at http://www.mychargepoint.net.
2. Drivers can easily make a reservation once signed into their ChargePoint Driver Account.
3. Upon making a reservation, the driver is billed the station owner-determined fee.
4. By using their ChargePass™ card, drivers have unlimited charging station access privileges during their reserved charging session time.
5. Reservations may be cancelled by the driver up to 24 hours prior to the start of the reservation.

Since this is “real-time”, the EV driver can find available charging stations easier.

[Article via: Press Release | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (CC by-SA 3.0)]

The hybrid car is not a recent concept as the The Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus shows. It’s a car that was originally designed and created in 1900.

The Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus uses a gas engine to run a small generator, which in turn provides power to a pair of electric hub motors built inside the front wheels. A battery can run the car if you run out of fuel, which was kind of a problem back in 1900 when there wasn’t a gas station on every corner.

An additional trivia is that this car has also inspired NASA’s drive system of its Lunar Rover. Hopefully it will also serve as inspiration to other car manufacturers to go green.

[Article via: DVice | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)]

I have to give major props to Mitsubishi for having the most unique electric car name: The Mitsubishi i.

The car manufacturer has decided to test out the car by selling it to a few US cities first before going global. One of those cities is Hawaii and they will receive the cars by November of this year. For Hawaiian citizens, they can reserve their orders at i.MitsubishiCars.com with a $299 deposit starting on April 22.

As for details on what the car can do:

The Mitsubishi i can be charged using the onboard household charger through either 120V or 240V power sources or by a DC quick-charger system that utilizes a three-phase 220V power supply (80% charge in 30 minutes). The charging times from a very low battery to completely full are approximately 6 hours at 240V and 22.5 hours at 120V. Mitsubishi is targeting a driving range of 85 miles for the vehicle.

It will be available nationwide by end of 2012.

[Article via: Press Release |Image via: Wikimedia Commons (CC by-SA 3.0)]

Most electric car owners may no longer be worrying about paying high prices for gasoline nor polluting the air, but something is worrying them when they need to commute to far away places: the fear that there won’t be an electric charging station near when their batteries go dry.

It is because of this reason that the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) along with Google, Inc. and 80 more companies have agreed to create a map for electric cars.

“This goal of this new collaboration is to establish a primary data source for GPS and mapping services tracking electric vehicle supply equipment locations–or charging stations,” the National Renewable Energy Laboratory said in a statement.

With this move, more Electric Car drivers will be able to plan their long commutes and push those who were on the fence on buying an electric car to buy one.

[Article via: CNET | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)]