By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 13:20
The success of the electric vehicle will depend on a number of factors that need to be tackled within the near future. Incentives by governments and the premise of environmental concerns will probably not balance the limited range or the grid integration issues.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 13:14
Electric vehicles may be going mainstream very soon! Whether it is just trendy to have one or not, governments and industries across the world are getting to grips with them. All it takes is to have the vehicles on the market, because the grounds for buying one are there. The reduction in emissions and energy savings convince many customers, but to counter the price premium, governments across Europe (and the world) are bringing up a number of incentives.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 12:56
The recently established Electrification Coalition, a group of business leaders committed to promoting the deployment of electric vehicles though a variety of policies and actions, has published its Electrification Roadmap: a sweeping report outlining a vision for the deployment of a fully-integrated electric drive network.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 12:47
Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based organisation whose mission is to promote transport policy that is based on the principles of sustainable development, has recently published a report analysing what role electric cars could play in the decarbonisation of transport.
Visitors to the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show may have been left with only one impression: the future is electric. Virtually every manufacturer exhibited a car powered by batteries. Electric cars are the talk of the town.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 12:36
In 2008, WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) published Plugged-in: The end of the oil age making the case for electric vehicles.
This book aims to demonstrate how automotive electrification can ease the necessary transition towards a transport paradigm which is both highly efficient and compatible with a sustainable renewable energy future.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-08-17 13:59
President Obama announced on August 5 2009 the start of 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The aim of the projects is to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries, and components for the next generation of advanced vehicles. The announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles made in the US, and shows that the US is willing to invest in the vision of electric cars.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Fri, 2009-05-29 11:49
At the moment, the market is dominated by conventional cars, with a combustion engine fuelled by fossil fuel. Some car manufacturers also introduced hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), that make use of both electric motors and other types of engine. Batteries of hybrid vehicles can be charged from an external source, the so called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The coming decade will show us whether the electric vehicle will be capable to oust these types of cars and will be worthy to win the trust of car drivers…
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2009-05-05 07:42
Paper authors: Ching-Shin Norman Shiau, Constantine Samaras, Richard Hauffe, Jeremy J. Michalek, from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburg, USA
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Mon, 2008-08-04 05:30
Turning point for hybrid vehicles?
In May, the third generation of the Toyota Prius was launched in Japan. The car was immediately very well received by consumers. In June it accounted for a stunning 7% of all cars sold in Japan. Such a high market share is a rarity in the car market. One of the main selling propositions of the Prius is the concern for the environment. Its hybrid drive combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. It consumes only 3.9 litres per 100 km on average and produces only 89 grams of CO2 emission per kilometre.
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By Anne Rialhe / Published on Tue, 2007-11-13 14:05
Technology
A hybrid car refers to a vehicle that uses both a fuel powered engine and an electric motor with a rechargeable system (batteries or maybe in future solar fuel cells) for propulsion. Hybrids cars, unlike pure electric vehicles that need to be plugged in to the electricity grid, recharge their batteries on the road (using the combustion engine to generate energy and capturing energy from braking).
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By Anne Rialhe / Published on Tue, 2007-10-23 15:13
Technology
Solutions for convenient ‘clean’ transportation (‘soft modes’) have re-emerged last decades. One can list three distinct possibilities: no-power or low-power (assistance) solutions like standard or electric bikes, scooter, skates and walking; non-fossil or partially non fossil-fuel powered engines like electric and hybrid cars; and finally public transportation.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2007-10-10 13:28
The Aptera is the newest two-seat car with high fuel efficiency entering the market – the company is accepting orders for delivery in about one year. The producers claim that it can achieve more than 300 miles to the gallon (or less than 0.78 l/100 km) and a top speed of 150 km/h.
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By Hans Nilsson / Published on Wed, 2007-08-08 07:00
We often get the impression that the sustainable future lies in a shift of technologies only, and furthermore that it is just a matter of a simple swap. Exchange a this for a that and "Shazaam", the earth is saved!
The change of incandescent light bulbs to CFLs is a good example of this way of thinking. In reality, we have to consider much more than the swap. We have to look into the impact on the entire system to understand the full range of effects that a change brings with it.
A recent stucy on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, PHEV, can be used to illustrate the complications. The study has been commissioned by the Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, and the Natural Resources Defence Council, NRDC, in the U.S.
The result of the study is not very surprising. It shows that there is a potential for great improvements in energy economy, in air quality and in emissions of GHG. The load profile of the GHG is a dream for any utility (see figure)! How the base load could be improved and capital structure utilisation with it! EPRI is clearly endorsing this perspective.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2007-06-14 07:30
All Toyota cars expected to be hybrids by 2020
A Toyota spokesman has announced that the production cost of hybrid vehicles is coming down rapidly. It is expected that by 2010 it will be approximately the same as the production cost of a traditional car. He suggested that Toyota will aim at selling only hybrid cars by 2020. Given Toyota’s current position as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, this announcement will almost certainly have a major impact on the car industry.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Fri, 2007-02-16 11:44
A popular class at Santa Rosa Junior College, California
At Santa Rosa Junior College in Petaluma, California, mechanics and do-it-yourself environmentalists are learning how to convert a standard car into an alternative fuel vehicle running on ethanol, vegetable oil, or electricity. The class was created two years ago by diesel truck mechanic Mark Armstrong and has quickly grown in popularity. The maximum number of forty students filled the class soon after registration opened this year and another forty had to be turned away.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Mon, 2007-02-12 06:30
The Chevrolet Volt announced at the North American Auto Show
General Motors (GM) has faced severe criticism for shutting down its production of the EV-1 electric vehicle in the nineties (see blog post 'Who killed the electric car?'). At the Detroit North American Auto Show in January, GM announced that it is currently developing the EV-1’s successor, called the Chevrolet Volt.
GM shares this newfound interest in electric hybrid vehicles with Toyota, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. This interest is fuelled in part by promising technology breakthroughs in lithium-ion batteries. The technology is currently tested and approved at the battery cell level. What remains to be done is the packaging of cells into large units and testing them in the vehicles.
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