BYD supply E6 electric 'taxis' to London

BYD have announced that they will supply 50 electric cars to London cab service firm Greentomotocars, marking another move by the Chinese car maker to expand overseas markets.
 
The 50 pure electric e6 cars will be taking to London's roads in the second quarter of 2013.

BYD's E6 model has a pure electric drivetrain and they claim it is capable of traveling 186 miles on a single charge.

Audi F12 e Sport announced

 

Cleantechnica report on Audi's recent announcement of the F12 e Sport, built with the same chassis as the Audi R8 e-tron supercar. They look alike, but their internal builds are quite different — primarily because of the new battery pack and electric drivetrain, jointly developed by Audi and Bosch.

“The lithium-ion battery pack delivers 38 kWh of power, a little less than the Audi R8 e-tron, sending power to three electric motors. At low speeds, the electric motor at the front wheels drives the Audi F12 e Sport in a manner that saves energy. At higher speeds, two rear-mounted electric motors propel the car in conjunction with the front motor. The combined power output of this electric motor trio is a respectable 204 horsepower and 405 ft-lbs of torque.”

There’s a heat pump present to keep the battery cool, though the batteries are also designed to be able to store heat, allowing the engine an easier warm up on colder days. The new model also makes use of a removable tablet computer as the control panel.

China EV parc around 13,000 units

Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a research note that EV sales in China totaled about 13,000 vehicles from 2009 to 2011, and that figures for 2012 are “not expected to be orders of magnitude higher,” the London-based researcher said in a statement released today.

The Chinese government aims to have 500,000 cumulative sales by 2015 and 5 million by 2020. Those targets were outlined in the New Energy Vehicle Industrial Plan for 2012 to 2020 released in July, part of an effort to cut pollution and help the Chinese auto industry catch up with foreign competitors, New Energy Finance said.

 

2014 Kia EV

Rumours abound that Kia will release an all-electric Kia Soul EV in 2014, with a redesign based on the Trackster Concept (above). Nice.

2013 smart fortwo electric drive

Big congratulations to smart for their new for two electric drive ad.

Paris Autolib an early success.

 

There are now 1,750 Bollore Bluecars parked at 670 kiosks along the streets of Paris,as the Autlib car-sharing system proves a success.

More than 37,000 people have already joined the system, and Autolib' enrolls another 1,200 every week.

The Bluecars have been rented more than 500,000 times in 10 months, covering more than 3 million miles (5 million km) in total.

Today, they are rented 4,000 to 5,000 times a week, with highest usage on the weekends. You can't spend 15 minutes in central Paris without seeing one pass by on the street.

When all 3,000 cars are on the streets, they are expected to travel 40 million zero-emission miles (60 million km) a year, collectively reducing emissions by the equivalent of 22,500 cars in Paris.

While users were predominantly men at first, more and more women are taking to the Autolib' system. Most users are 25 to 39 years old, and 70 percent of them do not own a car.

Most interesting, because the cars don't have to be returned to the original station, fully 90 percent of the trips are one-way. The car is dropped at a different Autolib' kiosk, just as it is for Velolib bikes.

By the end of next year there may bas 3,000 Bluecars in operation. Wow.
 

'Why electric cars are our future'

 

Mr Bill Destler, President, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US writing in the Huff Post believes that within 50 years a majority of our cars will be equipped with electric drivetrains.

 

1. Electric vehicles are inherently more efficient at turning energy into miles driven. Most people do not realize this, but electric drivetrains are much more efficient than internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrains (about 75% vs 25%, in fact). In fact, there is little hope that ICE drivetrains could ever compete with electric drivetrains in terms of efficiency. Why are ICE drivetrains so inefficient? There are many reasons, including heat losses and inertial losses of various kinds, but ICE's are also thermodynamic systems with efficiencies limited by the heat cycle they operate under. Engineers have done amazing work in improving the efficiency of gas-powered cars, but they are up against fundamental limits. In contrast, a Nissan Leaf or a Chevy Volt can go about 40 miles on 11 Kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity, the energy equivalent of a third of a gallon of gasoline. And since the national average cost per KWH for electricity is only $0.11, this performance translates cost-wise into the equivalent of more than 120 miles per gallon.

2. Electric vehicles are greener than gasoline-powered cars. There are those who have tried to argue otherwise, but the most credible research has shown that most of a vehicle's carbon production comes during operation rather than production, and electric vehicles that consume only a third as much energy in operation are inherently greener no matter what fuel is used to generate the electricity they use. And electric vehicles powered by electricity from hydro, solar, wind, or nuclear sources produce no carbon in operation.

3. Electric vehicles can be powered by electricity produced from multiple energy sources. Electricity can come from wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, biofuel, and fossil fuel sources including natural gas, oil, and coal. All but one of those sources is produced almost entirely within the U.S. from local natural resources. So electric vehicles have the potential to support the U.S. economy and reduce our dependence on imported oil.

4. An efficient distribution network for electricity already exists in the U.S. This seems obvious, but compare this situation to that of other next-generation vehicle fuels such as natural gas and hydrogen.

5. Range is less of an issue than most think. Most Americans drive 40 miles per day or less on the average, well within the range of almost all available electric cars, and future models will have 10 times this range or more. And for advanced designs like the Chevy Volt, driving distances are unlimited as long as one keeps filling the gas tank, because an onboard gasoline powered generator can provide electricity when the battery is depleted. In fact, statistics monitored daily at Voltstats.net on over 1700 Volts in operation indicate that the median Volt owner drives 80% of their miles using the stored energy in the battery, and consumes only one gallon of gas per 177 miles driven. So these drivers get benefit of the greater efficiency of an electric vehicle and the unlimited range of a gasoline powered car.

6. Next generation technologies, such as fuel cell vehicles, will require electric drivetrains to propel the vehicles. Fuel cells can be efficient, portable sources of electricity running on a variety of fuels, but all cars and trucks using these energy sources will use electric drivetrains. In fact, there are new fuel cell technologies that use natural gas as a fuel to produce electricity, but in a chemical reaction rather than a combustion reaction. These advanced fuel cells produce sequesterable Carbon that can be simply buried rather than being emitted into the atmosphere.

2.4m charge points globally by 2020

TheGreenCarWebsite reports that almost 45,000 public charging stations could be installed around the world during 2012, taking the global total to just short of 200,000.

That’s the prediction of Pike Research, which has just published a 99-page document raising key questions on the roll-out of charging points for plug-in electric vehicles.

It predicts almost 2.4 million charging points to be in place by 2020, marking a 12-fold increase in the space of eight years.

Pike’s study expects global sales of charging equipment to grow at a steady pace in line with the plug-in vehicle (PEV) market.

It notes “a major uptick” in electric vehicle supply equipment over the past year but says sales of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have been disappointing when compared to government targets.

Still, 2.4m charge points is starting to look like success to me!

smart Forstars electric concept

Ssang Yong electric crossover

At the Paris Motor Show, SsangYong, owned by Mahindra & Mahindraa, showed its e-XIV Concept (electric – eXciting user Interface Vehicle) ‘range extender’ Electric Vehicle. The SsangYong e-XIV is a crossover which uses an 80-kW Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM), giving a range of 80km by taking power from the 16-kWh lithium-ion battery. Four hours are required for charging a fully discharged battery, and 20 minutes for quick recharging.

SsangYong has earlier displayed its XIV 1 B crossover concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011, and the XIV 2 Coupe at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012. Now it is equipping the e-XIV with a small 1 litre petrol engine to give the car real range extender capability.
The car also features a range extending system comprising a two-cylinder 1,000cc petrol engine and a 20-kW generator. Once the 80km distance has been achieved, the petrol engine supplies additional power via the generator to extend the range up to 600km. One of the talking points of the e-XIV’s sci-fi design is the glass roof solar panel which converts solar energy to electric power and operates interior equipment such as the air conditioning, audio system and internal lighting. Drivers can also select their preferred method of driving by activating the car’s VCU (Vehicle Control Unit) via a smart phone or remote control. This a compact crossover and of course what you see here is a pure concept but it will yield a production version in the future