Dr Automotive Design and Tools

Porsche’s stunning 918 Spyder hybrid sportscar will compete at the 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hours race, according to German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

At this year’s recent endurance race, Porsche entered a hybrid which showed great pace and speed. The 911 GT3 R Hybrid even led the race for 8 hours, until a mechanical failure made it retire.

For 2011, Porsche has greater plans, this time with another hybrid racecar. Reports from Germany suggest that the Stuttgart-based company plans to enter the 918 Spyder hybrid at the Nordschleife race next year.

Premiered at the 2010 Geneva motor show, the 918 Spyder is a gasoline-electric hybrid which uses both a 500 horsepower 3.4-liter V8 engine from the LMP2 Porsche RS Spider and two electric motors placed on the front and rear axle totalling 218 horsepower. The V8 and the rear electric system are mated to a Porsche PDK double clutch gearbox that delivers the power to the rear wheels, while the front-wheel electric drive is connected to the wheels via a invariable transmission ratio.

According to official figures, the 918 Spyder goes from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.2 seconds and reaches a top speed of 198 mph (320 km/h) while returning a fuel economy figure of 78 mpg (3 liters/100 km) and emitting 70 grams of CO2/km. 718 horsepower for a 1,490 kg (3,285 lb) hybrid is enough to make the 918 Spyder go faster than the Carrera GT supercar round the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Porsche claims its simulations have shown this car is able to lap the “Green Hell” in under 7 minutes and 30 seconds.

It remains to be seen if the car can get near that sort of time and that kind of fuel economy in the real world and, most of all, in endurance racing. If it can, the next year’s Nurburgring race winner seems like a safe bet for us.

Toyota is charging ahead with its plans to expand the Prius range, with a compact people-mover as one of its top priorities. Now in its final stages of development, the Prius mini-minivan, dubbed Alpha, will be the first vehicle in the Prius line to use lithium-ion batteries when it debuts in March 2011. Just one-third the weight of the nickel-metal hydride battery pack used in the current production Prius sedan, the new lithium-ion batteries generate greater power and are already in use in the prototype Prius plug-in hybrid.

The Toyota Prius Alpha sits on the current Prius sedan platform but gets an extra row of seats in the back, turning it into a mini people-mover. Toyota settled on the Alpha name because the new addition simply adds 'alpha' to the Prius equation. The new Alpha's overall length will be stretched by about 300 mm (one foot) in contrast to the Prius, while its wheelbase will be extended 20 mm (just under an inch).

A five-seater version is also planned, but this variant will incorporate nickel-hydride batteries to save cost, according to one insider. That same source also tells us that Toyota are bullish about pricing and will offer the Alpha seven-seater from 2.5 million yen, undercutting many of the current seven-seater minivans on the market now.

Inheriting the Prius' 1.8-litre Atkinson-cycle petrol engine and THSII hybrid system, the new model's gasoline engine will generate 98 horsepower while the electric motor is expected to produce 81 horses. The maximum combined power output will be 135 horsepower. Fuel economy will likely be slightly less than the current Prius sedan's 50 mpg combined, due to the Alpha's extra size and weight.

All’inizio del 2012 è previsto il lancio di una nuova compatta Fiat: sarà la monovolume destinata a prendere il posto dell’Idea, alla quale si avvicinerà come dimensioni, attorno ai 4 metri. È destinata però a sostituire anche l’altra MPV Fiat, la Multipla, che, dopo molte incertezze sul suo futuro, uscirà di produzione senza essere sostituita da un nuovo modello, “uccisa” da scelte stilistiche discutibili, nonostante la validità tecnica e la razionalità del concetto dei posti 3+3. La nuova MPV avrà un’abitabilità per 5 o, in alternativa, 7 persone. In comune con la nuova Panda dovrebbe avere il "family feeling", ispirato dalle linee del frontale della 500. Questo modello, che sarà prodotto a Mirafiori, potrebbe in futuro sbarcare negli Stati Uniti, con un marchio del Gruppo Chrysler, forse con la trazione integrale.
(Fonte: www.auto.it - 20/5/2010)

The Audi A2 will be an electric-only car when it is launched in 2012, according to Autocar sources.

The move would pitch the car against the BMW Megacity, which is due to go on sale in 2013.

The second-generation model will drop the pricey spaceframe construction of the original A2 for a conventional steel monocoque borrowed from the A1.

The new A2’s styling remains under wraps, but Audi has hinted that it will follow the template of its predecessor, with a tall one-box design and relatively narrow tracks.

Audi chairman Rupert Stadler has said electric drive is a priority

The Japan Electric Vehicle Club has succeeded in getting an electric car to run 1,003.184 kilometers without a recharge, far surpassing the world record they achieved last year.

The group said it will ask Guinness World Records to officially recognize the journey, completed at an auto racing driving course in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the world’s longest.

It said the vehicle, which was equipped with Sanyo Electric Co’s lithium-ion battery system, ran for about 27 and a half hours until around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, at a speed of about 40 km per hour. A total of 17 people took turns at the wheel.

Driving the same brushless DC powered Daihatsu Mira Van as used to set the World Record at 555.6 km (345 miles) in November 2009, the team were able to reduce energy consumption to as little as 60.5 Wh/km.

The car carried the same 74 kWh battery pack as used for the previous record with most of the improvement credited to the use of an oval track instead of public roads, weight reduction (including an ultra light weight carbon fiber Recaro seat) and reduced rolling resistance tires provided by Toyo.


MIRA-EV 1000 km

When the Chevrolet Volt finally hits the market this November, it will mark the end of a long and highly publicized journey for the Volt team. Or will it? According to several reports, GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has said that the company is already developing a spin-off of the Volt, this one without the car’s 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine/generator. Yep, that would make it a pure EV, or “BEV” (for battery electric vehicle).

GM spokesman Shad Balch says that GM expects some of the Volt’s more fanatical customers to simply yank out the Volt’s gas engine and its supporting components, including the fuel tank and exhaust systems, while reprogramming the car’s computers so as to access most or all of the Volt’s 16 kWh of battery power. (The Volt currently allows the lithium-ion battery pack to operate only in its “sweet spot,” between a 30 and 80 percent state of charge, in order to prolong its life.)

Even with the considerably lighter weight that would come with the engine-ectomy, the Volt’s 400-plus-mile range would be seriously curtailed. But there are people willing to live with such limitations, Balch says, and GM would like to have something to offer them. It would also give GM a credible (and far more attractive) BEV to go up against Nissan’s new Leaf. A GM-built version would add battery capacity in place of the engine in order to increase the range beyond the current car’s 40-mile electric-only barrier.

Furthermore, a Volt BEV would pave the way for other GM BEVs. Just as the Volt’s E-REV technology could be fitted to the Cruze, with which it shares a platform, the BEV technology could be adapted to other small GM products like, say, the upcoming Aveo replacement, or the all-new Spark minicar (another car aptly named for electric propulsion).

Having an all-electric variant could also make it easier for Chevy to cast the standard Volt as an electric car with a range-extending engine versus a plug-in hybrid. No word, however, on how much a Volt BEV might cost relative to the E-REV version, nor how long we’ll have to wait before we might see it.