Archive for March 3rd, 2010

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Chevrolet, GM

When Bob “crock of s*!t” Lutz first announced his retirement from General Motors a little over a year ago, he said he would not be around to see development of the Chevrolet Volt. Of course, he returned to the company (becoming vice chairman last December) before he ever really left and kept on strongly promoting the plug-in hybrid. Sometimes, of course, he continued his habit of saying things that attract a lot of attention, like that hybrids won’t ever be that great for GM.

Well, today Maximum Bob said he will retire for real May 1 and that, with decades in the auto industry under his belt, called the Volt his “proudest achievement,” according to the AP. Lutz said that GM is in good shape now, which means he can retire in peace. We expect he’ll have a thing or two to say about the Volt before the car bows in November, but for now we’ll take him at his word that he’s really quitting.

[Source: AP]

Bob Lutz retires (again), calls Chevy Volt his “proudest achievement” originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog Green

It seems as though every auto show for the past six or eight years has attempted to out-green the last one, but the 80th annual Geneva show featured more electric, hybrid, and fuel cell cars than I can ever remember seeing on one show floor. Not counting the boutique company stands, it was a struggle to find anybody in Geneva that wasn’t touting some manner of electric drive. The good news for us enthusiasts is that this technology is now being used for evil as well as good–if you consider using that electrification to boost performance as the evil side of green. Below are highlights of these and a few other technologies I encountered on the show floor.

Ferrari 599 Hy-KERS

This concept is still in its infancy. The show car was just completed and will commence dyno testing upon its return to Italy. According to Franco Cimatti, Concept Engineering Manager, the net weight increase of the hybrid system is 176 pounds, which shifts the weight bias by a welcome two-percent toward the rear. Only 44 pounds of that comes from the lithium-ion battery pack, which is divided into two one-inch thick aluminum-sheathed units packaged beneath the floor in openings cut in the underbody tray. They’re as smooth and flat as the aero tray, and the air cooling saves the mass of a battery cooling circuit. The batteries store 3 kWhrs, enough for about 10 km (6 miles) of Euro city-cycle range or 10-12 seconds of auxiliary thrust with the hammer down. The 80-kW (107-horsepower) electric motor powers the dual-clutch transmission’s odd-gear shaft, but by selecting neutral on the odd gears and closing the odd-gear clutch, it also powers the car when even gears are selected. (This works because Ferrari’s exceptionally robust triple-cone synchronizers can engage and disengage way quicker than most.) A separate motor in the front runs the accessories. Many other opportunities for weight savings and driving dynamic improvements may prove possible as development continues. For example:

• Use the electric motor’s regenerative capabilities to rapidly slow the engine for faster gearshifts
• Use the electric motor to smooth the resonance vibration peaks that naturally occur in the transmission during hard acceleration
• Eliminate reverse gear and drive the car backward electrically

It remains to be seen how customers would react to a silently accelerating Ferrari, and Cimatti is opposed to adding weight for external speakers generating synthetic noise, but concedes that in-vehicle speakers could serenade the driver with faux V-12 music. It’s also unknown how one might jump-start the car if the entire battery system discharged (a voltage converter supplies 12 volts for ancillaries, and only a tiny 12-volt battery is used to power the radio preset memory and energize the car for startup). We’ll be keeping a close eye on Maranello’s hybrid efforts. 

Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid

Behold the hybrid, as conceived on the altar of lightweight. This Chevy-Volt-style series hybrid shaves mass by using a dedicated three-cylinder range-extending engine with an aluminum monoblock that integrates the block, head and exhaust manifold in one casting. The engine weighs just 187 pounds and runs on gasoline, ethanol, methanol, or any combination of the three.  Acceleration to 60 mph is claimed to take less than 4 seconds. Electric-only range is quoted at 35 miles, with hybrid range at 307. One of the coolest tech tricks here is the “HALOsonic” Internal and External Electronic Sound Synthesis system which offers four driver selectable engine sounds–a V-6, a V-12, a futuristic sound (think Tron bike) and a combination of the futuristic one overlaid on the conventional engine. The system, designed in conjunction with Harmon International, grew out of a noise-cancellation effort (which will also be employed to mask the monotone of the range-extender when it kicks in). Steering wheel paddles direct HALOsonic and the power controller to simulate the sound and feel of accelerating with a seven-speed twin-clutch. Using them during acceleration will blunt acceleration a bit (it has to taper torque slightly before each shift to give you the up-shift shove in the back), but it’s quite useful for providing precise control of the regenerative braking during deceleration.

To optimize handling, power is delivered by two electric motors at the rear, driving each of the rear wheels independently via a single speed gear reduction integrated into a common transmission housing. This enables torque vectoring for stability control and enhanced turn-in. Each motor is limited to providing 204 horsepower and 295pound-feet of torque to its wheel. Lithium Polymer battery chemistry provides 17 kWH of energy storage capacity. The battery pack is optimized for energy density, efficiency and high power demand, with over 100 kW discharge capability. I’m eager to sample this lightweight riff on the E-sportscar.

Porsche 918 Spyder and GT3 R Hybrid

Porsche takes the plug-in hybrid concept and adds an F1-style steering-wheel button for a push-to-pass power boost (when that 500-plus horsepower V-8 alone isn’t quite enough) and a pair of torque-vectoring motors on the front axle to get enthusiasts onboard with going green. Porsche claims its plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder is quicker around the Nurburgring Nordschleife than its Carrera GT forebear–just under 7:30.

And for even more extreme duty, the endurance-racing-optimized GT3 R Hybrid mounts a twin-electric-motor drive unit at the front axle, with each motor capable of delivering 80 horsepower to its wheel, with more going to the outside wheel in a turn (torque vectoring). But to enable these motors to recover a lot of braking energy very quickly–way more than it would be possible to feed into a chemical battery–the recovered energy is used to spin up a flywheel. Yes, Porsche is planning to put the flywheel energy storage device on the track. You’ll recall that Chrysler tried to power a LeMans prototype racer with a flywheel and met with disastrous results, but that was a very large flywheel storing many orders of magnitude more energy storage capacity. This one is compact (it fits on the passenger side floor), low mass, and spins at 40,000 rpm. Its mass is easily contained within its ribbed aluminum housing. And if something does go awry, the flywheel stops, and all energy is dissipated–this isn’t always the case with electric batteries. The Porsche system provides 6-8 seconds of E-Boost at a time. Porsche plans to run the car at the 24-hours of Nurburgring on May 15-16. We’ll be cheering for the flywheel.

Audi A1 E-Tron

In another interesting riff on the Chevy-Volt-style plug-in hybrid, Audi proposes fitting a tiny 254cc single-rotor Wankel engine under the cargo area floor. No detailed information about the Wankel engine or its supplier was divulged, but together with the power generator and electronics, it weighs only 154 pounds. And as you’ll recall from those Mazda ads way back when, the engine goes “hummmm,” spinning smoothly at a constant 5000 rpm creating no perceptible noise or vibration in the cabin, and just 65 dBA when measured from outside and directly behind the car and hearing the exhaust. The engine produces 15 kW (20 hp) and extends the 50-km (31-mile) range by 124 miles, running on 3.2 gallons of fuel. Another cool feature: If you program your destination into the navigation system, using Audi’s three-dimensional database, it tailors the control of the range-extender so that, for instance, if it knows you’re going to drive up a hill and back down again, it won’t fire the engine knowing it’s about to get a dose of regeneration on the way down. It can also ensure that there’s sufficient range to run silent in a no-combustion town center at the end of the journey. This seems like a great application of the little smooth-running Wankel.

NLV Solar Quant

The vast majority of the battery packs shown on the floor were variations on the Lithium-ion theme, but NLV Solar’s Quant  concept envisioned a redox-flow energy storage system. Redox-flow “batteries” work a little like a fuel cell, but with two liquid electrolytes separated by a proton-exchange membrane through which the electrons flow. Advantages include the possibility of very fast discharge (high power output), high tolerance of overload, and the possibility of fast recharging by replacing the spent electrolyte liquids with fresh–though this presents its own infrastructure challenges. To date, the concept’s relatively low energy density has conspired to keep these (usually vanadium-based) systems out of mobile applications (they’re popular as uninterrupted power supply emergency backup generators because of their quick response to big loads). But maybe the Swiss know something the rest of us don’t? Being in the solar business, NLV also claims to have coated the Quant concept with a photovoltaic solar-energy capturing coating that is applied using chemical vapor deposition techniques. Even with the entire body absorbing energy, it’s only enough to power the accessory loads. We’ll keep an eye on this concept, but we’re not holding our breath.

Via MotorTrend Magazine Blogs

Daihatsu customers are finding it ever more difficult to find a car of their choice because dealers are running out of stock.

IM Group, the company that imports Daihatsu’s, hasn’t brought in any new cars since last Summer because of the poor exchange rate between the Pound and the Yen. An IM spokesman admitted that numbers of new Daihatsu’s in the UK ‘are limited’. However, a Daihatsu dealer told a mystery shopper: ‘We are out of new Daihatsu’s, as are most dealers in the UK. The manufacturer hasn’t exported any new cars to the UK for a while and will not be doing so for the foreseeable future.’

According to the latest figures from the SMMT, Daihatsu sold 22 cars in January, compared with 97 in same period 12 months earlier. Daihatsu has around 100 dealers in the UK and currently sells the Materia, Sirion, Copen convertible and Terios 4×4.

Via Cars Of The Future® Blog

Filed under: Budget, Geneva Motor Show, Hatchback, Nissan

The more charming – if that’s even possible – Nissan Micra has been tweaked to bring smiles to consumers in 160 countries where it will go on sale. To keep them smiling once things get under way, a brand new 1.2-liter, supercharged three-cylinder gas engine gets down with 80 horsepower and 144 pound-feet.

Believe it or not but the bounty doesn’t stop there, with a suspension combining “agility, refinement and poise” also included as standard equipment. We’ll let you decide for yourself, unless you’re in the U.S. since we probably won’t get it. For you, there’s a press release after the jump and a gallery of high-res photos below.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Geneva 2010: Nissan Micra is easy being green

Geneva 2010: Nissan Micra is easy being green originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog

Filed under: Budget, Geneva Motor Show, Etc., Hatchback, Tata, Electric

Tata Motors just debuted an electrified version of its Nano today at the Geneva Motor Show, promising no compromises in the way it drives compared to the regular 600cc Nano. The Tata Nano Electric Vehicle (EV) will be built on the existing Nano platform and still seats four adults, but adds “super polymer lithium ion batteries” to the mix. No word on power, but Tata does promise a range of 160 kilometers (99 miles) and acceleration of 0-60 kilometers per hour in under 10 seconds. Notice that’s 60 km/h, which equates to 37 miles per hour, so the Nano EV isn’t going to be one of those instant torque EV drag racers like the Tesla Roadster.

Tata plans to put the Nano EV into production and sell it alongside the company’s already launched Indica Vista EV, which goes on sale in Europe later this year. Development has also already begun on the Nano Europa, set to go on sale in Europe in a couple of years, so perhaps the Nano EV could join it in showrooms at launch. No word on pricing yet either, although we’re guessing it will be somewhere between the bargain basement price of the regular Nano in India and the DC Designs Nano we showed you a little while ago.

There is a press release after the jump with even more details about the EV as well as Tata’s other vehicles on display in Geneva, and also a live gallery from the show floor below.

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Geneva 2010: Tata debuts Nano EV concept

Geneva 2010: Tata debuts Nano EV concept originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog