Dr Automotive Design and Tools

Dale Vince is to attempt to break the current British electric land speed record of 137mph in February in his racing car dubbed Nemesis.

According to The Times, Dale Vince is Britain’s richest green entrepreneur, worth £58 million after he launched Ecotricity, an energy provider which invests profits into wind turbines.

Nemesis, developed by Formula One engineers, cost £400,000 to build. In tests so far, it can reach 60mph in less than four seconds. It can run 150 miles between charges and can be powered in one hour from a high charge or eight hours from the mains supply. Dubbed the ‘first wind-powered car’, Nemesis has been run on purely wind-generated electricity.

Vince told the newspaper he is confident he will break the land speed record set in August 2000 by Don Wales.

London mayor Boris Johnson launched a new plan called the Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London that will allow all Londoners to be within one mile of an electric vehicle charging station in five years.

The plan calls for the installation of 25,000 charging points at public, residential and commercial spaces by 2015 in order to encourage the addition of 100,000 EVs within the city ASAP. The city government is doing their part by committing to add 1,000 EVs to the Greater London Authority fleet over five years.

This is another aggressive move by the city to clean up their transportation. The city successfully instituted congestion pricing in 2003, added hybrid double-decker buses, converted the Scotland Yard fleet to hybrids and air-powered vehicles and is testing state of the art fuel-efficiency technology.

With its track history, I have little doubt the city will meet its EV goals and can only hope that their ambition will rub off on the rest of the world's major cities (and small cities, and suburbs...).



Map of London

I think many people watch the video how a Romanian Maybach owner repaired his car by himself.



And now in Russia; a Bentley Continental Flying Spur flew to a Maybach 62 and they had a crash. Not a big one but they crashed :)

Here is the video from WorldCarFans

Audi has confirmed that it will bring a hybrid Q5 model to market in 2011, the first mass-market hybrid vehicle for the German brand. Audi will offer a hybrid version of its Q5 premium SUV in the US starting in late 2010, says Wolfgang Hatz, head of powertrain development for the Volkswagen group.

If the car is a success in the US, Audi said it may launch it in Europe.

In an interview, Hatz said Audi must offer a hybrid model to compete with rival vehicles that already offer the technology, such as the Lexus RX 400h. The BMW X6 will be offered as a hybrid late this year, and Mercedes-Benz plans to roll out a hybrid in each of its major models starting with the S400 hybrid this year.

Opinion is split on whether Audi will use nickel metal hydride or lithium ion batteries in the Q5 Hybrid. However odds are high that the powertrain will be similar to the 3.0 litre V6 petrol engine and 300Nm electric assistance motor used by the upcoming 2011 Porsche Cayenne hybrid, 2010 Porsche Panamera hybrid and 2010 VW Touareg hybrid.

Up until now, Audi has resolutely stuck to clean diesel technology as its answer to emissions reduction.

It remains to be seen whether the automaker will follow up the Q5 Hybrid with more petrol-electric models. Some commentators postulate that the petrol-electric Audi is less about reducing CO2 and more about profiting in the hybrid-friendly US market.

Audi, like its compatriot Mercedes-Benz, favours all-electric powertrains as its long-term answer to reducing environmental impact. The company has revealed that it intends to launch a battery-electric version of its R8 supercar by late 2012, with the technology to eventually work its way down the Audi range.

For now though, the company is keen to demonstrate what it can do with petrol-electric technology. The Audi Q5 Hybrid is due to be officially unveiled in late 2010, most likely at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Ford Motor Co. will start a two-year test program of electric Focus compact cars and Transit vans in Germany on Jan. 4 as the U.S. company prepares to introduce battery-powered models as early as next year.

The 25 vehicles will be driven under normal traffic conditions in Cologne, where Ford’s European division is based, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen, which is overseeing the 15 million-euro ($22 million) study.

The drivers will include researchers and customers selected by Ford, Dudenhoeffer said today in a telephone interview. Data from the models will be monitored on computers that can simulate testing of more than 10,000 vehicles, he said.

Bernd Meier, a spokesman for Ford in Cologne, said the study is the automaker’s first in mainland Europe. The company is already trying out battery-powered vehicles in London, Meier said.

Ford, the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid model, said on Dec. 8 that it may spend $300 million to $500 million on factories in its home state of Michigan to build electric vehicles and batteries. The Dearborn-based company has a target of rolling out an electric-powered version of the Transit Connect commercial van next year, followed by an electric Focus in 2011.

Local utility RheinEnergie AG will supply vehicle-charging stations for the test, which is being financed by the German government’s economic-stimulus package, Dudenhoeffer said.

Please click for more information about EuroNCAP and your car's rating.
http://www.euroncap.com/

Toyota Industries Corp has developed a solar charging station for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). The municipal government of Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture plans to build 21 such stations at 11 locations such as the municipal office and branch offices. Full operation of the stations will begin in April, with 20 Prius Plug-In Hybrids.

The station is grid connected, and also captures power generated by the 1.9 kW solar panel in an 8.4 kWh storage battery, for subsequent use in charging. Maximum output using grid power is 202VAC/3.2kW. Self-sustained operation using solar power from the battery pack has a maximum output of 101VAC/1.5 kVA.

Excess solar power can be used for facilities in the system, or sold to a utility company. TIC envisions that the station can also provide power to electrical equipment in a disaster.

TIC developed the EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment), which now has a communication function and the maximum 200V/16A/3.2kW output.

TIC has been involved with the development of charging systems for electric vehicles such as charging stands and onboard chargers since the 1990s. TIC launched its current EVSE stands in July 2009. (Earlier post.)

At the 41st Tokyo Motor Show (24 Oct - 4 Nov 2009), TIC displayed newly developed charging stands with communication devices. In addition to the basic functions of the standard charging system, the newly developed stations allow user authentication using IC card technology, and enable the collection of data such as usage conditions of the charging service and amount of power used.

During the press briefing at the show, TIC said that it aimed to increase charging functionality to respond to the needs of the charging infrastructure by developing systems that support electronic billing, and solar charging stations incorporating solar power generation to further reduce the environmental impact.

It is also concurrently, developing smaller onboard chargers with higher efficiency to meet the growing demand for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

TIC has directly a number of components to the Prius, starting with the first generation system, including converters, inverters, and car air conditioning compressors.

China on Saturday unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.

The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 kilometre journey to a three hour ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven and a half hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.

"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua.

Test runs for the service began earlier in December and the link officially went into service when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday.

By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, said Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to Xinhua.

Beijing has an ambitious rail development programme aimed at increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.

China unveiled its first high-speed line at the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 -- a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin.

In September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012 in a massive system overhaul as part of efforts to spur economic growth amid the global downturn.

The network uses technology developed in co-operation with foreign firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

In November of this year, overall hybrid sales were up 21 percent, and most manufacturers did better with hybrids than they did in the same month of 2008. Toyota moved 14,473 hybrids, up 16.3 percent from the previous year. Honda sold 1,646, which was a 57.8 gain. Nissan found new homes for 503 Altimas, which was nonetheless a 42.5 percent increase.

Ford was behind only Toyota in hybrid sales, with 2,361 units, up 73.5 percent. Overall, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales were down (0.2 percent).

Despite the industry problems, Ford is crowing about its hybrid sales. It sold 31,000 of them through November, beating its previous high in 2007. For the year, Ford’s hybrid sales were up 67 percent, a development it credits to the successful launch of the midsized Fusion and Milan Hybrid twins (41 mpg city/36 highway).

Ford sales analyst George Pipas claims that it is making more “conquest” sales, luring customers from other brands (mostly Toyota and Honda). These shoppers, he said, want fuel-efficient cars and the hybrids, Pipas said, lure “a whole community of customers who might have otherwise never visited a Ford showroom.”

Green concern remains a major factor in hybrid purchase decisions. Bill Casselberry of San Angelo, Texas (who happens to be 91) says he traded in his 2006 Camry on a 2010 Fusion Hybrid because “I’m concerned about all the greenhouse gases we’re putting into the air, and I wanted to do my part to reduce the negative effect on our atmosphere. If we don’t do something now, future generations are not going to have a world to live in.”

Black & Veatch, an engineering, consulting and construction company, has 22 Escape Hybrids, and they didn’t buy them to save money on gas (though that’s a welcome benefit). “Our company is always looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Rod Cramer, fleet manager at the company. “The Escape Hybrids also play a major role in showing our employees and clients how serious our commitment is to the environment that we all share.”

Conferma della chiusura di Termini Imerese, ma anche avvio della produzione di due modelli di segmento alto negli stabilimenti ex Bertone di Grugliasco, nel Torinese; un'erede della Fiat Idea, ma in due versioni da cinque e sette posti; e ancora una Lancia mediogrande su base Chrysler nel 2011, che sarà proposta pure in versione cabriolet. Infine, una Lancia di grossa taglia, ideale sostituta della Thesis, sempre su piattaforma americana, e una fuoristrada Fiat con meccanica Jeep. C'è questo e altro nella relazione presentata dall'amministratore delegato della Fiat a Governo e sindacati il 22 dicembre. Non soltanto i piani della casa automobilistica per i suoi stabilimenti italiani, cinque dedicati all'auto e che oggi danno lavoro a circa 22 mila persone, ma anche informazioni sui prodotti che verranno, tutte ben nascoste in uno schemino che individua i modelli con le denominazioni tecniche dei segmenti. Andiamo con ordine, quindi. Marchionne ha detto che a condannare Termini sono gli insostenibili costi logistici. "Produrre un'auto lì ci costa fino a mille euro in più", ha dichiarato, "e, se per anni ci siamo accollati l'onere di gestire lo stabilimento di Termini in perdita, il mutato contesto della crisi economica non ce lo consente più". Per giustificare la decisione su Termini, il numero uno di Fiat ha tracciato un quadro impietoso. "I cinque stabilimenti di Fiat in Italia", ha detto, "producono in complesso 650 mila vetture l'anno e occupano quasi 22 mila persone. In Polonia un unico stabilimento produce circa gli stessi volumi con meno di un terzo di addetti. In Brasile un solo impianto arriva a produrre 730 mila unità l'anno con 9.400 persone". L'altra fabbrica della Fiat a rischio è Pomigliano d'Arco, in provincia di Napoli, dove oggi si assemblano le 159. La soluzione che ha in mente la Fiat è di trasformare radicalmente le linee per trasferirvi in futuro la produzione della Panda e farne dunque il secondo più grande stabilimento in Italia. Ma l'operazione richiede risorse ingentissime. Marchionne ha bussato alla porta del Governo, sapendo bene che l'alternativa sottintesa che mette sul piatto è la chiusura dell'impianto. Anzi, gli scettici pensano che alla fine andrà così, e all'inizio del 2011, una volta terminata l'ulteriore tornata di incentivi all'acquisto di auto ecologiche promossa dal Governo, sarà quello il destino di Pomigliano. Anche perché all'orizzonte si staglia l'ombra dell'impianto serbo di Kraguejevac, capace di 200 mila unità l'anno. E veniamo ai prodotti. Nel 2010, accanto all'Alfa Romeo Giulietta e alla commercializzazione della Doblò, ci saranno tre modelli Abarth: la 500 TC, la 500 Cabrio e la Punto Evo. Ma la vera sorpresa è una fuoristrada col marchio Fiat su base Jeep, con ogni probabilità la Wrangler. Il 2011 poi è un vulcano in eruzione. A parte ciò che si sapeva, e quindi nuova Panda e nuova Ypsilon, ci saranno: una Fiat crossover su base Chrysler, e - sempre debitori verso l'altra sponda dell'Atlantico - quattro modelli Lancia. Sì, quattro! E sono: una monovolume grande, cioè l'erede della Phedra, fatta su base Voyager; una nuova ammiraglia costruita sulla meccanica della 300 C; e una vettura medio-grande in foggia di berlina e di cabriolet (base Sebring?). Un piano molto ambizioso, forse anche troppo. I modelli sulla rampa di lancio sono così numerosi che pare difficile gestirli commercialmente. E, a ben vedere, si tratta sempre delle stesse meccaniche che girano di qui e di là, in un gioco delle tre tavolette. Ma anche questa - la capacità di spremere il massimo dal poco che si ha in casa - è abilità. Speriamo che al mago Marchionne l'incantesimo funzioni anche stavolta.
(Fonte: www.quattroruote.it - 23/12/2009)