A Humvee made by American General.
(Credit: AM General)Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel has signed an 18-month, $1.29 million contract with the U.S. Army to design and test hybrid battery options for the Humvee.
Trying to power the iconic fuel-guzzling High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV aka Humvee) with a battery, may seem like trying to put out a fire with a garden hose. But a lithium-ion battery system can deliver a lot of power from a battery quickly, giving a truck like the Humvee the thrust it requires.
EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1, will collaborate with the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) on four possible power systems that could be implemented in the XM1124 version of the Humvee.
The company, which specializes in battery cell chemistry as well as the electronics and battery system designs, said it already has two viable options. EnerDel has developed a lithium-tatinate system in conjunction with Argonne National Laboratory that could accommodate the acceleration and hard braking required for such a powerful vehicle like the Humvee. It also has a lithium-manganese system that would give a vehicle extra-long range and allow electronics to be run off the battery for extended periods of time before needing to be recharged.
As part of the 18-month contract, EnerDel will also be involved in testing the systems under "extreme performance simulations." In addition to putting the test vehicles through the usual Humvee paces of wading through water and mountain climbing, there will also be an endurance test.
That will include seeing how a hybrid Humvee fares as a power plant for a field hospital or temporary military post. The requirement makes perfect sense given the ease with which a Humvee can be transported to hard-to-reach areas. One of its key features has always been that it could be dropped in to virtually any terrain by parachute.
A Humvee being parachuted out of a plane.
(Credit: AM General)The hybrid Humvee will also be more stealthy. Anyone who's had a close call with a Prius knows how dangerously silent hybrids can be in total battery mode. The hybrid version of the Humvee will have a powered-down "silent watch" mode that will allow it to run with its diesel generator off, reducing not only its noise, but also its thermal signature to avoid detection.
As always with major military project announcements, the company involved was quick to point out the down-the-road commercial application of its technology.
"In keeping with a long tradition, we also expect that innovations perfected here will have important benefits for the commercial markets," EnerDel President Rick Stanley said in a a statement.
There has already been interest in Raser Technologies' H3E, a plug-in hybrid version of a Hummer-branded SUV called the H3. While not truly a Hummer (the civilian version of the Humvee), the "Hummer-light" descendant has garnered the interest of even the most discerning Hummer enthusiasts.
So if EnerDel's batteries might be good enough to power a Hummvee, why haven't commercial automakers been knocking? They have actually. The company has signed research partnerships of varying commitment levels with Think Global, Fisker Automotive, Volvo, and Nissan. Its parent company, Ener1, is also working with U.S. utilities to develop smart grid storage units.
Automatic parking systems are becoming more common, and some automakers are offering several 2010 models with the convenience feature.
Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are leaders in the commercial introduction of automatic parking systems, which allow vehicles to identify and steer themselves into parking spaces.
VW offers the system in six Volkswagen models and the Audi A3. Ford's 2010 Lincoln MKT crossover and MKS sedan have it as well. Both worked with Valeo SA to develop their own ultrasonic-based systems. The Valeo technology, called Park 4U, won a 2008 Automotive News PACE Award.
Toyota's Advanced Parking Guidance System will be an option on 2010 versions of the Lexus LS 460, LS 460 L and hybrid LS 600hL and the Toyota Prius hybrid.
The Toyota version, from Aisin Seiki Co., started in 2003 as a camera-aided visual system on the Japanese-market Prius. But Toyota and Aisin Seiki have added ultrasonic sensors from Denso Corp. to develop the system into a more sophisticated feature that also allows the vehicle to back itself into perpendicular parking spaces.
... Read moreInspired by Ge Kiln porcelain, this one-off Ferrari 599 gets a special paint job by Chinese artist Lu Hao. The method for creating Ge Kiln was practiced in the Song Dynasty (between 960 and 1279). The unique look resembles cracked ice.
Several autoblogs today reported the car sold for $2 million at a charity auction.
We purposely attempted common jumper cable errors with the PowerSafe cables and lived to tell the tale.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)I was given my first set of jumper cables at the same time I received my first car. Before setting me loose on the world, my father gave me a very serious speech about the dangers of improperly jump-starting a vehicle. I was warned of potential electrocution, sparks igniting gasoline fires, and--most seriously--acid spewing battery explosions if the cables weren't connected in just the right way and in just the right order. Even armed with this sacred knowledge, I still throw sparks every time I jump-start a car, just for kicks. Sorry, dad.
However, most drivers didn't get my dad's speech and as a result, they find themselves in an even more precarious situation when the day comes that they need to borrow a few electrons to jump a dead battery. Here's where Energy Safe Technologies come in with its PowerSafe jumper cables.
The PowerSafe jumper cables look like your standard jumpers, with a pair of terminal clamps on each end. However, midway through the cables' length is a small electronic brain that monitors the state of the connections and only lets power flow when everything is hooked up just right.
So, if you accidentally connect your cable backward on either end, the system will display a red warning light and the power stays off. If you accidentally touch the loose ends of a live cable, the red light glows and there are no sparks. If there's a short of any kind, even within the dead battery, the red light glows and everyone remains safe.
Once both ends are properly connected and both indicator lights glow green, the system uses a soft start circuit to gradually ramp up the power flow, eliminating power spikes and protecting delicate vehicle electronics.
We were given a demo of the PowerSafe cables prototype at Energy Safe Technologies' booth, tucked away in the back of the SEMA Show's north hall. No matter how haphazardly we connected or disconnected the cables, we were unable to cause a fire, throw wicked sparks, or create an acid-spewing battery explosion--which is boring, but very safe.
The PowerSafe jumper cables should be available in early 2010. Pricing has not yet been announced.
The EcoRoute ESP will connect your Garmin Nuvi to your vehicle's diagnostics port.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)We stopped by Garmin's booth at the 2009 SEMA Show expecting a new GPS device or news of another OEM integration deal, but we stumbled upon something even better. Sometime next year, Garmin's Nuvi GPS devices will gain the ability to communicate with your car through ESP. In this case, we're not talking about psychic extra-sensory perception, but the EcoRoutes ESP module for Nuvi navigation devices.
The ESP module is a small hideaway box that communicates with Nuvi units via Bluetooth.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)The ESP module is a hideaway box that connects to (and is powered by) your vehicle's OBD-II diagnostics port. The device gathers information about your vehicle's performance and relays that info via a Bluetooth data connection to your Garmin Nuvi GPS device atop your dashboard.
Using the Nuvi's touch screen, users can view a set of customizable gauges, view and clear fault codes when the Check Engine light comes on, and monitor real-time fuel economy and emissions data. The unit also provides data logging for users who want to track their performance and interfaces with the EcoRoutes software that's already present on current Garmin devices.
Garmin's representatives were happy to give us a quick demo of the system in action at their booth on the show floor and it looks pretty slick. Pricing and availability were unavailable at the time of publication, but we're told to expect more information at CES in January 2010, so stay tuned.
LightForm strips are available in red, amber, green, and blue (although that really looks like purple to us), with white currently in development.
(Credit: Grote Industries)Flexible LED lighting strips could mean flash in unexpected places. Grote Industries' LightForm flexible LED lighting film, which just became commercially available, is ultrathin and ultrapliable, meaning it can be bent around corners and over contoured areas and maneuvered into various shapes. It can also be cut to fit while lit and slid into narrow crevices and between panels and trim.
The LED strips can be sewn directly into fabric.
(Credit: Grote Industries)Grote mainly envisions the strips being used for vehicle lighting (along carpet edges, floor vents, and window openings; inside trunks; and as ambient lighting under dashboards and seats) or sewn into fabric--say, for LED dresses and doggie porcupine costumes (too bad we found out about this just after Halloween). We're sure creative types will be able to think of plenty of other possibilities, though.
The strips, introduced at the 2009 SEMA auto trade show in Vegas Wednesday, measure 10 inches long, half an inch wide, and less than 1 millimeter thick. They're expandable: up to three, 10-inch segments can be connected, providing up to 30 inches of red, amber, green, or blue LED lighting.
LightForms come with a peel-and-stick adhesive backing that sticks to clean metal, acrylic, polycarbonate, and fiberglass surfaces. And they're hardy enough to withstand hammer blows, as well as extreme humidity, heat, and cold, according to the maker--potentially good news if you live in Fargo, N.D., and plan to trick out your car/garage/clothing in January.
We've contacted Grote for pricing information and will add that as soon as we hear back.
A nice look, but let's not get too carried away here.
(Credit: Grote Industries)About a week ago I was watching "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, and all of a sudden Stephen Colbert starts talking about an extravagant SUV made by the Russian-based Dartz brand that costs roughly 1.5 million dollars and is so luxurious that its upholstery is made of genuine whale penis leather (no, I'm not making this up). I had to look this up, and while I have yet to locate video of the exact model vehicle that Stephen was talking about, I did find a clip of a similar model SUV made by Dartz in action, and since it's kinda timely, I thought I'd throw it up for your viewing pleasure.
What we got here is the Dartz Kombat T-98 armored VIP on display both on the interior and the exterior. It's a similar vehicle to the one Stephen Colbert was talking about on his show. While I can't visually discern if this particular Dartz has the oh-so-special whale penis leather, sometimes this sort of detail is best left to the professionals. Anyway, this is a fun little video of an SUV that many of us will never even get to see first-hand, let alone drive. Dig it.
The already light Lotus Elise loses a few more pounds with even lighter carbon fiber.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)Most car guys know that carbon fiber is lightweight (and very cool-looking), but most don't know much past that. We stopped by well-known carbon fiber manufacturer Seibon's booth at the 2009 SEMA show to get the skinny on this miracle material.
The term "carbon fiber" can be used to describe microscopically thin fibers composed mostly of carbon atoms, the yarns composed of those fibers, or the fabric woven from that yarn. For our purposes, the term will be used to describe composite materials created from carbon fabric suspended in resin or plastic.
Carbon fiber parts are considerably more lightweight than similar parts made of metal but can be just as strong (or stronger). Low weight plus high strength makes carbon fiber a good material for aerospace and racing applications. Since most good racing technologies eventually trickle down to consumer applications, we're seeing more and more carbon on the road today.
According to Seibon, there are two major types of carbon fiber, wet and dry.
Wet carbon fiber is the glossy type that most consumers are used to seeing. It's made by hand laying sheets of carbon fabric onto a mold between brushed-on layers of resin, which is then cured.
Dry carbon fiber is preimpregnated with resin (and is also known as prepreg carbon). The carbon sheets are formed in a vacuum mold under high heat and pressure, which causes the resin to flow evenly and completely through the formed part with little or no waste. Dry carbon parts are both lighter and stronger than their wet counterparts because they contain less excess resin with fewer imperfections. However, because of the complex vacuum molding required in their creation, dry carbon parts are also more expensive.
Carbon fiber is lighter, but what's the point? Well simply put, removing weight (or more accurately removing mass) from a vehicle also means that the vehicle's inertia has also been reduced, which means better acceleration, braking, and handling. If you can keep your foot off of the right pedal with this improved performance, this can also mean better fuel economy and less wear on parts such as brakes and suspension components.
If carbon fiber is so great, why not just make all cars out of it? The most obvious reason is that carbon fiber is expensive and more difficult to mass produce than sheet metal or plastic. Replacing all of the sheet metal on a vehicle the size of, say, a Toyota Yaris with carbon fiber would probably double the price of the car. Secondly, while carbon fiber is as strong as metal, it's usually only strong when stretched or bent progressively. When compressed or exposed to the shock of sudden impact, carbon fiber becomes brittle and can splinter unpredictably. A dent knocked into a metal or plastic bumper could probably be hammered out, but a carbon fiber bumper would most likely need to be replaced, which can be pricey.
For many, these cons are but minor speed bumps on the road to ultimate performance (or style). Check out our tour of the Seibon booth at the 2009 SEMA show for a closer look at some vehicles that feature heavy use of this lightweight material.
With 983 firm orders at launch, Porsche's new four-door Panamera is breathing life into the brand and will help the company record flat or slightly increased sales this year, said Michael Bartsch, COO of Porsche Cars North America.
"We now have a new level of floor traffic and inquiry, and there is a multiplier effect," Bartsch said in an interview. "This is bringing a level of business back to the dealerships and is allowing them to start the process of recovering."
Porsche's overall sales in the United States were down 32 percent to 14,310 units through September after declining 25 percent in all of 2008 to 26,035 units.
Bartsch expects to receive about 1,200 Panameras in the United States this year, with about 200 kept as demonstrator models. Next year, Porsche plans to produce 20,000 Panameras, and the U.S. market is to get 4,000 to 6,000.
Bartsch won't forecast Panamera sales in the United States in 2010 because of uncertain market conditions.
In 2008, Bartsch said sales of passenger cars that range in price between $80,000 and $100,000 totaled 25,756 units. This year, he said sales in that category will come in at about 19,000.
"This market is still extremely volatile," Bartsch said. "Panamera competes against the Mercedes-Benz S class, BMW 7 series, Audi A8 and the Maserati Quattraporte."
The Panamera went on sale October 17 in the United States. Prices start at $90,775, including shipping. Because the sedan is a first for the brand, Panamera is being advertised on TV--a rarity for Porsche, which normally sticks with print ads, the Internet, and motorsports to promote its high-performance cars.
On October 15, Porsche began airing a TV spot called "Welcome to the Family," as part of a campaign that includes print, Internet, direct mail, and dealer promotions.
In addition to the advertising campaign, 197 of Porsche's 202 dealers are launching the Panamera with lavish parties, often partnering with upscale retailers or magazines.
(Source: Automotive News)
(Credit:
Antuan Goodwin/CNET)
If you can't tell by our coverage of the GoPro Hero and the ContourHD camera systems, we're big fans of capturing video of our automotive excursions. The ChaseCam system takes things a bit further than simple video capture by also recording GPS position, accelerometers, external vehicle sensors, and OBD2 data, all of which can be synchronized and overlaid onto the video using ChaseCam's software. However, to get these benefits, you need to purchase a camera, a solid state recorder module, and the data acquisition module.
At this year's SEMA Show, ChaseCam is simplifying its system with the unveiling of its latest generation video/data capture device, DIVA (Data Integrated Video Acquisition). DIVA basically combines the solid-state recorder and data acquisition modules into one box, with a few new features that aid in usability.
Captured data can be overlaid onto the video.
(Credit: ChaseCam)
ChaseCam's SEMA booth was home to a very cool 500-horsepower racing Volvo S60R.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)
