Electric Cars

See also:

• Small Cars
• Energy Conservation
• Alternative Energy

Electric Cars:

• 2010-Oct-23: The so-called human powered car is more likely a very light weight electric vehicle with the capability of getting a boost from the passengers. When you look at the video bear in mind that the handle bar crank system is unlikely to be providing a significant portion of the power (I would be amazed if it provides more than 5%) as there is no way that driver could even go half as fast on a light weight bicycle let alone a much heavier vehicle with rather poor air drag (look at the wind on his shirt). Also the hand crank system is a very poor choice for human power, a recumbent pedal system would be far better as the legs can produce much more power and for longer periods of time than the back and arms (not to mention it would be safer as this would not interfere with the steering control). So while it's cute I don't think it makes a significant contribution to "human propulsion", though it might point the way to ultra-light electric vehicles. I do like the idea of a four-seat human-propelled vehicle that has an electric booster system (to assist when loaded, or accelerating or climbing hills), but this is not a reasonable implementation. Also, such a vehicle needs a cover to reduce air drag and keep the occupants dry. [9415]
• 2010-Jul-29: The Ewee-PT is a Segway-like electric walker, this is a lot less expensive. [9335]
• 2010-Jul-29: Toshiba's new Super Charge Ion Battery (SCIB) can accept a 90% charge in just 10 minutes and last for 5000 charge cycles. This would make for a very big change in the electric vehicle market since recharging while on a trip could be done in a reasonable time - just about as long as it takes to buy a coffee and a doughnut. These are getting closer to market. [6965]
• 2010-Jul-22: The prices of electric cars should fall over time as batteries become less expensive. [9316]
• 2010-Jul-15: An increase in the number of electric cars should not strain the power grid. [9302]
• 2010-Jul-09: Perhaps a 6kW array of solar cells can generate enough hydrogen for 30 miles of driving per day. [9290]
• 2010-Jul-06: One big problem with electric cars is the time it takes to recharge them. JEF Engineering is developing a quick charging system that they claim will be able to recharge batteries to 50% in only three minutes. [9283]
• 2010-Jul-01: ECO-Green-Speed is a Chinese manufacturer of electric scooters. [9269]
• 2010-Jun-22: A new approach to the construction of battery cathodes by using graphite nanotubes could increase battery capacity by a factor of 5. [9229]
• 2010-Jun-20: A team of students at Imperial College in London have built an electric car with a 248 mile range and are planning to take it for a spin on a 15,000 mile trek down the Pan American Highway (and it sounds like a TV show may document the adventure too). [9182]
• 2010-Jun-06: Coulomb Technologies is going to build electric car charging stations in a number of US states. [9177]
• 2010-Jun-06: A Daihatsu Mira, modified by the Japan Electric Vehicle club, has achieved 623 miles on a single charge. This uses 366kg of li-ion cells. [9171]
• 2010-Apr-11: The YikeBike (discussed here on Slashdot) is a rather bizarre, folding electric bicycle. The short distance urban commuter market that they are trying to tap is real, lots of people would benefit from something like this (especially as you could carry the bike onto a train or bus without issue and you can take the bike into your office for storage) but this design is just too wacky (and expensive) to be of any use. Also, its an electric only solution - once its out of power you get off it and walk. Engadget gets a chance to take one for a spin, it just seems like a strange riding position! [8472]
• 2010-Apr-07: ThinkElectric an electric car start up in Norway got shutdown, now it might be restarting. Looks like this is going to ship in New York in 2010. [8834]
• 2010-Mar-04: The Tata Nano EV will be an electric version of the Nano for the Indian market, this should lead to a melt down of the Indian electric grid. [8989]
• 2010-Feb-10: There are now about 120 million electric bicycles in China. This is a market that is really taking off. [8966]
• 2010-Jan-20: The Trexa EV development platform is a complete chassis, drive train and suspension system for building electric vehicles on. Now if this sort of thing got adopted by a few manufacturers and picked up by the kit car market, things could get really interesting, fast! [8934]
• 2010-Jan-20: Slashdot discusses electric bicycles, which got some exposure at the 2010 CES. [8933]
• 2009-Nov-27: The Top Gear team from the U.K. takes a home-made electric car for a test drive. Certainly a project worthy of a win in Junkyard Wars! [8806] [1]
• 2009-Nov-23: In order to aid research into improving electric cars researchers are asking for GPS logs from commuters. [8786]
• 2009-Nov-20: If you really want a portable electric mobility device (EMD) then perhaps an battery-powered skateboard would be you thing? [8771]
• 2009-Nov-20: The X02 Urban Transformer is an electric scooter that can be folded for storage or transport. This is to be build by XOR Motors. [8768]
• 2009-Oct-23: A transit bus is being tested that uses ultra capacitors for its power storage. Perhaps with more frequently spaced charging stations electric cars could work this way too. [8650]
• 2009-Oct-02: The Battery 500 Project is going to try to bring us electric car batteries capable of 500 miles on a charge. Discussed here on Slashdot. [8589]
• 2009-Aug-15: The Nissan Leaf electric car is claimed to get an equivalent of 367 miles per gallon. The US DOE has a formula for calculation of the equivalent gallons of gasoline that a pure electric or hybrid vehicle would use, it is discussed here. Essentially what they do is to use a conventional vehicle dynamometer to measure fuel consumption in simulated driving (just like they do with any other vehicle) and then they take that measurement (which is actually in Watt-hours per mile) and convert it from an electric energy value (a Watt-hour is just 3600 Joules - which is a true energy unit) to a gallons of gasoline by using the factor 82049 Watt hours per gallon of gasoline (which would be 295.4MJ/gallon). The odd thing here is that published energy content for gasoline (also here) is about 45.8MJ/kg which would result in about 124.6MJ/gal... [8404]
• 2009-Jul-15: McDonalds is having a look at offering ChargePoint electric vehicle charging stations. [8270]
• 2009-Jul-04: The Solar Impulse HB-SIA is a solar powered plane that will make an attempt at flying around the globe. Now who'll be the first to drive across all the continents in a solar car? [8231]
• 2009-Jul-02: The MDI air car, this looks so odd it will never get approved for use on North American roads... The AIRPod gets closer to the roads, apparently this oddity has a 90 mile cruising range and can reach 50mph. [7021]
• 2009-Jul-01: XP Vehicles is building an electric car that is partially inflatable. [8207]
• 2009-May-25: A new rechargeable battery technology that uses oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere to increase the capacity by up to a factor of 10. If this can be commercialized it would be a game-changing event for battery power, for example typical electric cars currently get a maximum rage on the order of 100 miles, with a factor of 10 this could reach 1000 miles which is more than almost anyone would drive in a day. This is called STAIR for St. Andrews Air. Engadget discusses it here. [8024]
• 2009-May-01: The A2B electric bike from Ultra Motor has the batteries built into the frame and looks like it has the motor in a wheel drum. It should have a 20 mile range. This is now available and Engadget took one for a spin. [6686]
• 2009-Apr-22: Two heavy duty electric plugs for charging electric cars are in the late phases of being standardized. Looks like there will be two designs, one for North America, Japan and markets which have 110V power and another for Europe and other markets that have 240V power. This will mean that EVs cannot be moved between those markets easily and that there will be multiple power controllers for each model of car. [7895]
• 2009-Apr-21: The British Bee.One electric car, which is scheduled for 2011 production, looks like it gets a few things right. It has a substantial 200 mile range and an 80MPH top speed (so I could actually take one on ski trips) and it has a reasonable $18K price tag and has four doors, so should seat at least 4 people. [7892]
• 2009-Apr-20: If an electric bike is not quite your thing, and a Segway is too pedestrian, how about an electric unicycle? [7883]
• 2009-Apr-18: In Canada there are a few dealers who sell electric bicycles, including JV Bike (in Vancouver) and eBikes (in Regina and Lethbridge). Some Canadian Tire stores also carry some electric bikes. Power in Motion is in Calgary's Eau Clare Market. [7877]
• 2009-Apr-10: Mitsubishi's i-MiEV electric car is due to ship first in Japan in the summer of 2009 and then enter the US in 2011. [7860]
• 2009-Apr-10: The PeaPod is a neighborhood electric vehicle with about a 30 mile range, a short video clip of it is here and a photo gallery is here. They are talking about a $12K price for this which might produce a lot of demand as most of the other electric car solutions are much more expensive currently. While some might call this a golf-cart, it really shows a lot of thought about providing a fresh solution to short-trip driving (which is what the majority of miles probably are). Some of the steps they have taken to reducing weight (and increasing usable space) like the "thin seats" are quite clever and very appropriate. I'm not thrilled about the massive sunroof though, that's going to get quite hot in the summer - to the point of needing air conditioning. [7859]
• 2009-Mar-25: From the department of "they'll never sell one" comes the Mercedes-Benz F-CELL Roadster. In a word: daft! [7791]
• 2009-Mar-20: In 2009 the US electric car industry received a $2.4G stimulus package, most of which was directed towards battery manufacturing. [7751]
• 2009-Mar-09: The Wheego Whip is a small, all electric, car for city commuting that should be available to the American public by May'09. They are starting to take orders now. [7604]
• 2009-Mar-01: The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle will be sold at Best Buy. [7664]
• 2009-Feb-27: The GreenWheel is a replacement hub assembly for bicycle wheels that contains an electric motor and batteries. This allows just about any bicycle wheel to be converted into an electric drive system. It claims to have a range of up to about 25 miles (which should be more than enough for most city use). Hopefully they have designed this so that the guts can be easily accessed in case service (i.e. battery replacement) is needed, otherwise a design that does not integrate the battery would be far superior. One advantage of this approach is that you could put two of these on a single bicycle for two wheel drive, which might be useful in winter cycling. [7651]
• 2009-Feb-23: China's Cherry Automobile has announced their S18, a small, battery-powered car with up to a 150km range. [7623]
• 2009-Feb-18: The US economic stimulus package contains billions to stimulate the US battery manufacturing industry. [7603]
• 2009-Feb-17: Michelin and Valeo are working on e-wheels, these are a full electric drive and suspension system built into the wheel allowing for a simpler electric car design. I wonder if these will refuse to roll if another manufacturer's tires are mounted on them. [7601]
• 2009-Feb-06: The Mission One electric motorcycle can hit 150MPH for a crazy $69K. [7542]
• 2009-Feb-04: The Tazzari Zero is a Mini-like electric car for city driving. [7534]
• 2009-Jan-27: Shelby's Aero EV does 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds, proving that elevtric cars don't have to be boring. They are also claiming a 10 minute recharge time, which would give you just enough time for a coffee and a doughnut while recharging. [7488]
• 2008-Dec-25: EEStor has been granted a patent for their supercapacitor design, this system packs 52kWh of energy into a 281 pound package, which means that it is a competitive (unless it ends up being too expensive) system to current battery technology. [7394] [1]
• 2008-Dec-19: The US auto industry is waking up to the demand for electric vehicles and also has started to realize that the most expensive component, the battery, is not made in the USA. Naturally, they now want a government handout to rectify the situation... [7372]
• 2008-Dec-16: China is getting its first electric car, a plug-in plus hybrid vehicle. [7353]
• 2008-Nov-11: The LincVolt electric car conversion company. [7192]
• 2008-Nov-07: The Chinese automaker Changan is looking at supplying some electric cars to the Canadian market with Electrovaya providing the part of the system. Still I would prefer the electric Mini or an electric version of the Smart. [7169]
• 2008-Oct-24: An electric motorbike is about to go into production, made by Electric Motorsport this will have a 100kph top speed and about 100km range. [7084]
• 2008-Oct-24: Australia is making plans for a nation-wide charging network for electric cars. [7080]
• 2008-Oct-22: A simple solar powered electric car, that claims to be able to drive up to 150km on a 30 hour charge. [7075]
• 2008-Sep-25: Chrysler is starting to get serious about producing some electric vehicles, maybe we'll actually see something by late 2010. [6917]
• 2008-Sep-09: Build your own hybrid electric car, the XR-3 hybrid from Robert Q Riley Enterprises. [6821]
• 2008-Aug-19: The Powabyte X-6 is an electric-assist commuter bike. [6702]
• 2008-Aug-18: The XR3 is a hybrid car kit that is claiming 225 MPG with availability in 2008 (maybe - it's slipped already). [6699]
• 2008-Aug-14: Some articles in the mainstream press have appeared about DIY conversions of cars to electric power, Slashdot discusses here. [6690]
• 2008-Aug-02: An electric tricycle based on a recumbent bike design looks a bit like the return of the Reliant Robin. [6624]
• 2008-Jul-30: A technique that uses microwaves to help form lithium iron for use in lithium batteries could result in reduced manufacturing costs. [6611]
• 2008-Jul-23: The Twist Freedom DX from Giant is an electric bicycle with up to a 75 mile range (depending on sweat input). [6571]
• 2008-Jul-18: Shelby is going to try to build the world's fastest electric car. [6539]
• 2008-Jul-11: BMW is planning to offer 490 electric Minis for sale in California, looks like they'll need a lottery. [6507]
• 2008-Jul-03: Mercedes-Benz is hoping to stop shipping petroleum fueled cards by about 2015. [6471]
• 2008-Jun-27: VW plans to get into the electric car game with a hybrid based on the Golf, this will feature an electric system as the primary drive with a gas or diesel backup power plant. They are targeting the first working road tests in 2010 but some time after that for production. [6451]
• 2008-Jun-26: The ZAP Alias electric car is starting to be assembled - at least a prototype of it. [6444]
• 2008-Jun-26: A home electric motorcycle conversion project (discussed here on Engadget), achieving a 20 mile range off four lead acid batteries and a reasonable 45MPH top speed. With lithium cells this could probably get something in the 50+ miles range. [6440]
• 2008-Jun-22: An almost fully enclosed electric motorcycle, it won't get you a date but it might keep the rain off. A recumbent seating design would look a lot neater. [6404]
• 2008-Jun-20: The Chevy Volt climbs in price to $40K and has a 2010 expected release date. [6388]
• 2008-Jun-13: Pure Electric Vehicles is trying to build an electric car for $10K, looks rather like it's carved out of a block of styrofoam. [6339]
• 2008-May-24: Life in the fast lane, the Wrightspeed SR-71 electric car. [6221]
• 2008-May-14: The Triac from Green Vehicles will launch in July - finally an affordable electric car. [6161]
• 2008-May-08: The Poulsen Hybrid car conversion kit (discussed here on Engadget) could be a smart way to make the commute more efficient. It would be interesting to see how well one of these does when attached to a diesel powered Smart car. [6076]
• 2008-May-08: The Triac, a three-wheeled electric car that is claimed to be highway-capable may appear soon. Though it would probably be more at home on the streets of Rome. Some more information about this is here. [5987]
• 2008-Apr-29: One Californian has built his own electric car, he converted a eight seat bicycle to be driven by an electric motor and fitted three solar panels to the roof. [5993]
• 2008-Apr-25: An electric bicycle where the motors and maybe the batteries are built into the wheel hubs. At $3500 quite pricey, but it makes for a very clean looking bike, maybe a few competitors will enter the field and drive the prices down a bit. [5973]
• 2008-Apr-24: July'07, a Norwegian car company is building a compact electric car called the Think City that may be brought to the US in 2009. Discussed here on Slashdot. Their plans have firmed up somewhat and in Apr'08 announced the first cars would go on sale to the US public in 2009. Discussed here on Engadget. [3019]
• 2008-Apr-15: New electric bicycles from OHM. [5808]
• 2008-Mar-20: A build it yourself kit electric (battery/solar panel) car, reminds me a bit of very old ice cream carts... [5313]
• 2008-Mar-07: GE is investing in the electric car maker Think and the A123Systems battery maker. [5239]
• 2008-Jan-18: An advanced lead-acid battery is being developed that could increase the battery pack life span by 4 times and the power capacity by 2 times, this would keep lead-acid in the game. [4959]
• Lean Muscle, finally a better enviro-car. [5890]
• Electric motorbikes can be very fast, and equally dangerous as the developer of one demonstrated. [3021]
• Zero Motorcycles has made an electric dirt bike with about a 40 mile range, they are looking at producing a street ready version too. This is getting very close to production now. [3020]
• Development of the car of the future, according to Wired, discussed here on Slashdot [3018]
• The Rhoades Car, 4-wheeled pedal powered transportation, with up to 4 seats [3017]
• More talk of the compressed air powered car. MDI in France is close to making this work. Air France and KLM are going to do a six-month trial of this car, mid-2009 is the current target for production (the car will only do 50km/hr for up to 215km). Slashdot discusses a recent study that finds that compressed air cars may have a greater carbon footprint that alternatives. [3016]
• A123 Systems claims to have created a new Lithium Ion battery that can be recharged much faster than current batteries. This would allow one to quickly recharge while on a trip (instead of overnight), which would also allow vehicles to be built with smaller batteries (greatly reducing the cost of the vehicle) since the reduced range would not be such an issue. [3015]
• The PT2 from Silence brings a future hot-rod design to the electic car [3014]
• Electrik Motion makes electric bikes [3013]
• Some people realize that the hydrogen economy is not a silver bullet [3012]
• Schwinn is going to produce a new line of electric powered bycycles with about a 40 mile range. [3011]
• Wilderness E.V. has some electric vehicle conversion kits, and also sell pre-converted cars. [3010]
• The electric vehicle photo album has lots of different electric vehicles [3009]
• One man's successful conversion of a Jeep Cherokee to electric power, the range is not much but the operating costs are quite low (less than when gasoline powered) [3008]
• Venturi's solar and wind-powered electric car. Not life in the fast lane. More news about it going into a limited pre-production run. [3007]
• Going 500 miles on an ultra-capacitor that could be recharged in 5 minutes? If true, this should make electric cars mainstream.This is from a company called EEStor. This received more press in Jan'07 at Technology Review (and was discussed on Slashdot). [3006]
• A 30% solution of borohydride in water stores hydrogen in a more compact form that liquid hydrogen [3005]
• At the other end of electric based performance is the Human Powered Car, this seats up to 4 and also has some electric drive assistance [3004]
• While not as fast as a Ferrari, and probably not even as fast as a Lada, the Microcar Zenn is an all-electric car that would be suitable for a lot of in-town work and is to be commercially available in 2006, for as little as $10K. [3003]
• Electric cars as fast as Ferraris? [3002]
• The US Department of Energy has filed for a patent on the idea of hydrogen fuel balls. [3001]
• A new pellet-based storage system for Hydrogen may allow a hydrogen car to be fueled faster and travel more than 500km on a 50L tank. [3000]
• The Twike (see Engadget) battery and human powered two seater car. There is some information on Wikipedia here. The Canadian site is here, I wonder how it fairs in snow? [2999]
• One outfit claims that the Prius is less "green" than a Hummer, this implausible claim sparked some lively debate on Slashdot. [2998]
• HyMotion is going to produce a add-on battery pack for the Prius and Ford Escape to allow these hybrids to function in an electric-car mode for longer (meaning you can do short trips on electric alone). [2997]
• People are now starting to modify hybrids, such as the Prius, to allow them to run further on batteries alone. How about extending the economy of the Prius by adding solar panels to the roof. [2996]
• Here is a small, collapsible, electric powered tricycle [2995]
• HFI, hydrogen fuel injection, is being used to some advantage on diesel trucks. This uses an electrolysis unit powered by the truck's alternator to make small amounts of hydrogen which are then mixed in with the diesel on injection. [2994]
• How about a hydrogen powered vehicle that generates its own hydrogen from solar power. [2993]
• Building your own hybrid car [2992]
• Toshiba has developed new very-small fuel cells. While the intended application is in small electronic devices this technology may migrate to larger cells too. [2991]
• The Sparrow electric car (the makers of which went bankrupt after producing less than 400 units) has returned. See also Pheonix Environmental Motors. Meyers Motors will be producing the new Sparrows. HighTechScience.org has some information on the Sparrow. [2990]
• More on new directions in battery development. [2989]
• Hybrid cars may be falling far short of their fuel efficiency claims [2988]
• A Slashdot review of the book: Bicycling Science, by David Gordon Wilson, ISBN: 0262232375. [2987]
• China is getting into electric-bicycles [2986]
• Li-S, Lithium Sulfur batteries may improve storage capacity by a factor of three over current Lithium batteries [2985]
• Looks like NEC has developed new battery technology that cuts the recharging time dramatically (down to 30 seconds for small batteries) [2984]
• Electro Automotive makes electric car conversion kits and has quite a bit of useful information on line. [2983]