Electric car
Triac getting ready to hit the streets
Is there a Triac in your future? Maybe — if your conscience has evolved to a deep shade of green and you have $25,000 to spare on a locally manufactured, three-wheeled gasless electric vehicle with a 100-mile range. I drove one around Los Gatos the other day with Mike Ryan, president of Green Vehicles, the Salinas company that makes them. A prototype, one of just a dozen made so far, it had a stick shift that will be replaced in the upcoming Triac 2.0 with an automatic transmission.
It’s no Tesla, but that’s the point, Ryan says. The Triac is a less costly vehicle for an environmentally conscious lifestyle. ”It’s centered around what we call the Green Core. They want to better their environment and lower their carbon footprint. We want to do that within the limits of sustainable manufacturing, careful materials selection and affordability,” he said.
[Source & Read More: Inside Bay Area]
Charge That Car — for less
Electric cars are coming, and utilities are rolling out special rates for the first wave of buyers. Others are promoting deals to encourage charging overnight, when electricity costs are lowest. The plans put the electric vehicles on separate meters, and all offer significant savings compared with gasoline prices.
In August, DTE Energy, the old Detroit Edison, became the first utility in the U.S. to offer a flat monthly rate, $40 for each vehicle. The test rate aims to measure customer response.
Consumers Energy Co., of Lansing, Mich., is offering a rate plan of $35 a month for 300 kilowatt-hours of electricity, if it’s used exclusively for car charging. Customers using more than that amount would pay 7.8 cents a kilowatt-hour from October through May and 12.5 cents from June through September.
[Source & Read More: Wall Street Journal]
M’sian Govt talks with Proton about hybrid cars for officials
Government officials will soon be provided with hybrid electric cars in another effort to go green. The Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry is now in discussions with Proton Holdings Bhd to replace the current fleet of government vehicles with hybrid cars, said its minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin.
“If we really want to see the country go green, the Government must take the lead and show by example. We cannot keep telling the people and the private sector to go green if we do not do the same,” he told The Star yesterday, explaining the rationale behind the change.
[Source & Read More: The Star]
China targets huge electric vehicle growth
China is serious about electric cars – and if you don’t believe it then check out the latest numbers issued by China Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang. The minister has said that he wants the country’s annual production capacity to reach one million units by 2020. He said that the promotion of public transportation will help ease the problems caused by expanding car ownership and should be the top priority for use of new energy automobiles.
Now 25 Chinese cities have signed up for a pilot programme co-sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology along with the Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission and also the Ministry of Industry and Information. Its aim is to replace public transport vehicles with electric vehicles to support the development of the industry.
[Source & Read More: The Green Car Website]
GM, Maplesoft collaborate on EV Tech at UW
A new five-year, $10.5-million partnership between General Motors of Canada, Waterloo-based Maplesoft Inc., and a multidisciplinary research team at the University of Waterloo is tackling the challenges of next generation electric vehicles. Through model-based design and prototype testing, the team will investigate crucial technologies for achieving more widespread use of electric vehicles.
“Vehicle electrification is a key pillar of our energy diversification strategy,” said Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM of Canada. “Building on our leading R&D commitments in Canada, this project better positions us to exceed customers’ expectations with respect to the performance, safety, and sustainability of our electric vehicle technologies.”
[Source & Read More: Maplesoft]
PNNL Researchers developing High-Capacity Si Anode
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a silicon-based anode material for Li-ion batteries using micrometer-sized silicon particles with a nanopore structure. The material shows reversible capacity of more than 1,600 mAh/g after 40 charging/discharging cycles.
With a theoretical capacity some 10 times that of graphite, silicon anodes could contribute to a doubling of the capacity of graphite-anode Li-ion batteries. However, a silicon anode experiences a large volume expansion during lithium-ion insertion and a consequent shrinkage during extraction; this leads to severe particle pulverization, resulting in quick failure of the electrode structure and resulting capacity fade with cycling. Accordingly, a numerous efforts are underway to devise a structure and a material resistant to those changes.
[Source & Read More: Green Car Congress]
Continental supplies Maxwell systems to PSA
Continental AG is supplying Maxwell Technologies ultracapacitor-based booster systems to PSA Peugeot Citroën for its second-generation e-HDi Start-Stop Systems. PSA plans to sell around one million vehicles equipped with the new E-Booster micro-hybrid technology e-HDi over the next three years.
The system takes advantage of even the slightest opportunity to turn off the engine, thus noticeably reducing fuel consumption. A vehicle equipped with standard transmission will even shut off its engine when rolling at speeds below 20 km/h (12 mph). Under normal driving conditions, such a system can increase mileage by about 5%. That figure jumps to 15% if a lot of city driving is involved, with CO2 emissions also dropping by 15%.
[Source & Read More: Green Car Congress]
Johnson Controls to build 3rd China battery plant
Johnson Controls Inc. said Wednesday it will spend $118 million to build a third auto battery plant in China, as the company aims to increase its presence in that growing automotive market.
The 30,000 square-meter plant, to be located in Chongqing, will produce automotive lead-acid batteries, Johnson-Controls said.
The new plant complements existing plants in Shanghai and Changxing. Together the three plants will produce 18 million auto batteries per year. The company eventually plans to install capacity for 30 million batteries in China by 2015.
[Source & Read More: Bloomberg Businessweek]
Azure Dynamics sells Hybrid Electric Trucks to TruGreen
TruGreen, the nation’s largest professional lawn care provider, is the first in the lawn care industry to introduce advanced technology hybrids into their fleet and plans to deploy the vehicles in California.
Azure Dynamics Corporation, the fast-growing hybrid electric and electric power train innovator for the commercial truck and bus market, today announced the sale of 10 BalanceTM Hybrid Electric trucks to TruGreen, the nation’s largest lawn care provider and operator of one of the country’s largest private vehicle fleets.
TruGreen is a leader in introducing advanced technology hybrids into its lawn care fleet. The company plans to deploy the vehicles in California in lawn care and landscape service capacities as a part of the company’s commitment to create a greener fleet through innovative technologies.
[Source & Read More: MarketWatch]
Coulomb Technologies gives Marin EV Charging
Eight cities in Marin County participating in Marin Clean Energy (MCE) will receive free electric charging stations from Coulomb Technologies, Inc., as a part of Coulomb’s $37M ChargePoint America program. The announcement was made jointly today by Sustainable San Rafael, which initiated the request, San Rafael Community Development director Bob Brown and Coulomb Technologies.
The ChargePoint stations have universal hookups that can be used by most plug-in electric vehicles, including electric bicycles and the electric cars that major auto companies are beginning to roll out this fall. The first two charging stations are slated to be installed in the public parking garage between B and C Streets in downtown San Rafael.
[Source & Read more: KansasCity.com]
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