Dr Automotive Design and Tools

President Barack Obama announced today that the U.S. government will buy only advanced technology vehicles — such as hybrids and electric plug-ins — by 2015.

The government already has doubled the number of hybrids in the 600,000-vehicle federal fleet.
At a speech at Georgetown University, Obama unveiled his strategy to cut U.S. oil imports by a third by 2025, by stepping up domestic oil production and requiring a major increase in fuel economy for the 2017-25 model years.

"Here's the bottom line — there are no quick fixes. And we will keep on being a victim to shifts in the oil market until we get serious about a long-term policy for secure, affordable energy," Obama told a crowd of several hundred at McDonough Arena. "We cannot keep going from shock to trance on the issue of energy security, rushing to propose action when gas prices rise, then hitting the snooze button when they fall again."

The reduction would be more than the 11 million barrels of oil a day the United States imported in 2008, the White House said today. Obama noted that the U.S. has just 2 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. The U.S. consumes about a quarter of the oil.

In 2010, the government purchased 23,000 more fuel-efficient vehicles for the federal fleet, including almost 9,000 hybrid-electric cars. This year, the government will buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, including its first 100 plug-in electrics.

Last year, the U.S. imported less than half of the oil it used for the first time in more than a decade.

White House aides said the president's plan to reduce imported oil relies on improving efficiency for half of the anticipated reduction, but they said the government hasn't settled on a proposed increase for the 2017-2025 timeframe.

A new report from GTM Research offers some interesting insights into where the electric road might lead. The report, “The Networked EV: The Convergence of Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles,” predicts there will be 3.8 million electric cars on the road worldwide by 2016, with about 1.5 million in the United States, 1.5 million in Europe and 760,000 in Asia.

“It is the hope of this industry that just as cellular phones and laptops before them, EVs will begin as luxury products but will eventually become widely affordable,” wrote David J. Leeds, the report’s author.

Leeds notes that it took a decade and three generations of the Toyota Prius hybrid to capture five percent of the California automotive market. He expects it’ll take a third generation of electric cars, likely to be introduced around 2018-2020, for carbon-free driving to break out of Berkeley, Portland, and other early adopter cities.

It’ll come as no shock that Leeds estimates that 20 percent of electric cars will be sold in California, which currently accounts for 11 percent of total auto sales in the U.S. New York will follow with nine percent of electric car sales with Florida, Texas, and Illinois rounding out the top five.

Predicting such numbers is a guessing game, of course, and electric cars sales will be determined by a multitude of factors, including vehicle cost, advancements in battery technology, gasoline prices, government subsidies, and the fickle tastes of car buyers.

The early adopters of electric cars that will like drive the industry aren’t so much all those Prius owners but corporate accountants looking to keep a lid on the cost of company fleets of cars and trucks.

“Electric vehicles make great sense for fleets due to their highly predictable routes, as well as the fact that these groups tend to excel at logistical operations,” wrote Leeds. “More than any other sources, commercial and government fleet purchases have the power to accelerate the adoption curve of this market.”

He noted that fleets account for 15 percent of miles driven in the U.S. and that many of those vehicles travel fewer than 100 miles a day, the range of many current electric vehicles, and can take advantage of centralized parking and charging stations as well as lower electricity rates negotiated by big corporations.

General Electric, which will buy 25,000 electric vehicles over the next four years, is aggressively promoting EVs among its corporate customers.

“We can’t forgot the importance of scale,” Luis Ramirez, chief executive of GE Industrial Solution, told me earlier this month when he came to San Francisco to promote electric vehicles and GE’s various services for them. “An average delivery truck makes 10 deliveries a day in a city like San Francisco. So when you think of electric vehicles, that creates a whole new blueprint that’s more efficient and uses less energy.”

Clarence Nunn, chief executive of GE Fleet Services, noted that a big cost of operating delivery trucks is the fuel wasted when idling in congested urban areas. Noise ordinances also can restrict delivery times for fossil-fueled powered vehicles. That’s not a problem, of course, for electrics.

The blogosphere had been buzzing over reports of low sales so far of the electric Nissan Leaf and plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt. That, however, may be more of a production than a demand problem. Leeds noted that nearly 250,000 potential Volt buyers had registered on GM’s site.

“We’d like to buy more than they can build,” said Ramirez of the Volt and Leaf.

SIM-Drive has developed the Advance Development Model No. 1 named “SIM-LEI” as its nickname. LEI stands for the initial letters of “Leading Efficiency In-Wheel motor”.

The object of this project is to develop a prototype of the advanced development model aiming to start mass-production in 2013. This project collected 34 establishments and organizations who intend to enter in the electrical vehicle business in the future.

The target performance of SIM-LEI was to achieve over 300km of range per charge, which is generally pointed as the major concern for the electrical vehicle to promote in the market. The prototype achieved this target by 333km of range per charge by JC-08 mode, which represents general urban traffic condition in Japan.

The battery capacity to achieve this target is 24.5kWh as almost the same level as other electrical vehicles presented in the market. Electrical power consumption is 77Wh/km. (for comparison, a Nissan LEAF uses 173Wh/km)

The fundamental technologies to achieve this performance are the SIM-Drive original technologies, such as direct drive in-wheel motors and component built-in frame. Other than these two, the following technologies contribute a lot.

All steel monocoque body contributes to reduce body weight. High power density battery provides highly efficient energy re-generation. Super low rolling friction resistance tire reduces friction resistance. The super low air drag body reduced the drag drastically.

The SIM-LEI is as long as medium size sedan, and as wide as a compact car. It has a lot of leg room and large trunk space.

The acceleration performance, which is one of the feature of the electrical vehicle presented by
SIM-Drive, achieved by 4.8 seconds for 0-100km/h standing start acceleration. This is the performance equivalent to the prestige sport cars.

In total 34 Japanese corporations participated in this project. On completion of the development and construction, SIM-LEI proved to be able to drive in long range, and the energy consumption rate is quite favorable.

This achievement indicates that if we use mid-night surplus electricity, no additional power generation plant is required even when all vehicles in operation are replaced with the electrical vehicles.

Using battery on board of the electrical vehicle as the energy storage, electricity charged at mid-night could be used at daytime for domestic household. The electrical vehicle can be used for grid storage to help utilities at the peak-times.

Altro che Parmalat: qui rischiamo di perdere la Fiat, con tutto quel che un’azienda come quella torinese significa in termini di quote del mercato mondiale (circa il 3% nell’auto, molto di più nei trattori e nelle macchine movimento terra) e soprattutto di ricerca, settore nel quale vantiamo ben pochi campioni nazionali. Eppure continuano a fioccare indiscrezioni sull’idea di Sergio Marchionne di spostare il quartier generale in quel di Detroit, nella sede del partner americano Chrysler: è stata la Reuters a rilanciare autorevolmente queste voci, smentite (ma senza troppa convinzione) dal Lingotto. Diciamolo subito: per l’Italia sarebbe una sconfitta storica, francamente incomprensibile. La Fiat è un pezzo di questo Stato che ha appena spento le sue prime 150 candeline, è l’azienda che ne ha accompagnato il boom economico con le sue utilitarie - che si chiamassero Topolino, 500 o Uno - ricevendone in cambio un forte sostegno. Perché mai dovrebbe emigrare? Quando la Renault ha acquisito la giapponese Nissan, nessuno è stato sfiorato dall’idea che la Regie potesse traslocare da Parigi a Tokyo. E mai la General Motors, nonostante le tante marche comprate in giro per il mondo, ha pensato di lasciare Detroit. Perché in questa tentazione dovrebbe cadere la Fiat? Questo sarebbe anzi il momento per insediare a Torino un gruppo di comando forte, che sappia dare il meglio dell’italianità (sissignore, anche in termini di creatività e design) nell’ambizioso piano di Marchionne di entrare tra i primi cinque costruttori al mondo. Che cosa osta a uno sviluppo così naturale? Forse solo il disprezzo che il capo della Fiat ha maturato nei confronti di tutto quanto sa di sindacato e di politica italiana. L’uomo del “senza se e senza ma” detesta gli arzigogoli delle nostre trattative e adora il pragmatismo americano. Una faccenda molto seria, ma non abbastanza seria da farci scivolare via l’unico costruttore che ci è rimasto, con Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari e Maserati al seguito. Pensiamoci, prima che sia tardi. E diamo anche a Marchionne uno straccio di motivo per amare questo disgraziato Paese.
(Fonte: http://qn.quotidiano.net - 27/3/2011)

Remember that time Top Gear gave the Tesla Roadster such a thrashing it broke, except it really didn't break? Tesla does, and it's now filed suit against the BBC and Top Gear accusing the Beeb of defamation.

The test from the episode aired in December, 2008 involved a race between the Tesla Roadster and the gas-powered Lotus Elise it's based on. The show featured Jeremy Clarkson saying the Tesla ran out of charge at 55 miles, with footage of it being pushed around a garage, ending with Clarkson saying "It's just a shame that in the real world it doesn't seem to work."

Shortly after it aired, Tesla said the Roadster never lost its charge, never needed to be pushed and asked Top Gear for some kind of retraction. After some sparring, the BBC admitted the footage of the push-powered Roadster was meant to show what could happen, saying the show fairly represented how the Tesla performed during tests.

With that episode still playing in repeats, available on DVD and now on Netflix streaming in the United States, Tesla says it was forced to act: "The BBC's conduct has given us no choice but to sue them and clear up their lies."

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC.’


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