electric

Toyota takes baby steps to plug-in car

Questions about expense, reliability and profitability are good reasons for Toyota to take its time on a plug-in electric hybrid, a company executive said Monday.

Yoshitaka Asakura, project general manager in Toyota's hybrid vehicle system-engineering division, said Monday in an article in The Wall Street Journal that Toyota is taking into account that not all consumers, despite vocal environmentalist groups, may be interested in a car that has to be re-charged daily.

Toyota executives spoke at several break-out sessions on emissions reduction, battery technology and design strategy on Monday at the 2007 Tokyo International Automotive Conference, of which Toyota … Read more

Hydrogen-powered Chevys hit the streets

Chevrolet is in the midst of launching "Project Driveway," an ambitious program where more than 100 fuel cell electric vehicles will be put in the hands of select consumers for the largest market test ever of its kind.

Testing will take place over the next several months in the Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., metro areas. Drivers range from average consumers to business owners to policy makers. Chevy reps also promise that some cars will go into the hands of "celebrities," but no names have been dropped yet.

The cars are modified Chevy … Read more

Will cyberintrusions crash U.S. electrical grid?

WASHINGTON--Some critics of the U.S. government's cybersecurity efforts might argue that nothing short of a bomb going off--or, well, purported Chinese cyberattacks on feds' machines--will land the issue more notice.

This time around, the wake-up call for politicians was, indeed, an explosion: In September, U.S. Homeland Security officials revealed that researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory had managed to destroy a small electrical generator through a simulated cyberattack. A few weeks ago, CNN aired a gloom-and-doom segment featuring snips from the once-classified video showing the device going up in smoke.

Although the prospect of that sort … Read more

Think picks EnerDel for its car batteries; will car come soon?

Another day, another mystery in the electric car industry.

EnerDel, which makes a lithium-ion battery for electric cars and hybrids, announced Monday that it has been anointed the "supplier of choice" By Think Nordic, the guys coming out with an electric town car. EnerDel says its battery will keep the car going for 100 miles before a charge is needed.

EnerDel will deliver prototypes to Think in March 2008 and pre-production parts by July 2008. If all works well, the contract could be worth $70 million, according to EnerDel.

Jan-Olaf Willums calls it the biggest contract for electric … Read more

Japan discovers electric cars. Is it doomsday for EV start-ups?

Subaru, one of the more popular car companies with the green set, is going to show off an electric car prototype at the Tokyo Auto Show later this month in what could be a prelude to coming out with a car commercially.

The G4e concept is a triangular-shaped thing, but it has four wheels (unlike the triangular three-wheeled Xebra from Zap.) The G4e will accommodate five passengers, and the batteries will be stored in the floor.

The lithium-ion batteries in the car will carry it for 200 kilometers, or 125 miles. That puts it in the same sort of range … Read more

Electric car maker targets college students

The average person has probably never heard of Miles electric cars. The fledgling Miles Automotive Group, originally based in Malibu and now located in a renovated building at the Santa Monica airport in Southern California, currently makes small, low-speed electric vehicles used primarily by universities, government and the military.

But as it gears up to launch its first freeway-speed consumer car, Miles is hoping to raise its profile by urging college students to create and upload their own videos about how electric cars can help clean up the environment. Miles will post the videos on YouTube and will award each … Read more

Nissan bets on electric cars, not biofuels

CHIBA, Japan--Nissan is going to come out with more hybrid cars and completely electric vehicles in a few years.

But it's less excited about ethanol and biodiesel.

Technically speaking, designing an ethanol or biodiesel car is fairly straightforward, said Minoru Shinohara, senior vice president and general manager of the Technology Development Division at Nissan, during a meeting at the Ceatec show here this week.

The problem is the cost of the fuel. Both biodiesel and ethanol cost more than regular gas, when changes in mileage and other factors are calculated.

"The most important thing is availability of fuel,&… Read more

Homegrown 500-mile electric car

KOLR, of Springfield, Missouri, reported on Daren Luedtke's new electric car, which runs for 150 miles on lead-acid batteries. Luedtke claims it would run for 500 miles on lithium ion batteries. Luedtke showed off a van and a motorcycle powered by his electric drive system at the Ozark International Raceway on October 1. The video and accompanying article are short on technical details, merely describing two electric propulsion systems developed by Luedtke as an "electromagnetic transmission" and a "variable speed belt-driven transmission." Both propulsion systems are being marketed to automakers by Luedtke's company, LEI … Read more

Electric cars and hybrids: Silicon Valley vs. Detroit

As consumers, we generally like choices. In the world of cleaner cars, those choices have been few and far between, but slowly that is changing.

I had a chance recently to test drive two of the cars whose creators are bent on changing the way we view transportation, a converted all electric Scion eBox by Silicon Valley startup AC Propulsion, and a Saturn Vue Greenline hybrid. Both were highly enjoyable. The first, with a $70,000 price tag and a $10,000 deposit, is clearly an EV targeted at Conspicuous Sustainability consumers. I guess then, that the Saturn Vue Greenline … Read more