Category: Electric Car News

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Bustech lands $176m deal to build electric buses for Malaysia

Australian bus manufacturer, Bustech has been chosen as the lead design and manufacturing partner for a $170 million electric bus project.

Announcing the project, Bustech CEO Michael McGee said the project would position Bustech as an innovative regional leader in the use of renewable energy for buses.

“The E-Bus project is an international research and development project co-funded by the Malaysian and Australian players and governments, which aims to develop an electric bus for trial operations in Malaysia,” he said.

Bustech, part of Transit Australia Group, has partnered with the Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI) (a Malaysian government body), Swinburne University of Technology and AutoCRC and a private Malaysian company to develop and test the E-Bus project in Malaysia.

Swinburne University is providing the electric bus technology to the project and will work closely with Bustech throughout the trials of the prototype vehicle.

On the Gold Coast to inspect the Bustech facility, Malaysian Automotive Institute CEO M Madani Sahari said if successful, the electric bus could be exported to other countries.

“This partnership is a win-win for both Australia and Malaysia because it develops opportunities that have benefits for both countries,” he said.

Mr Sahari said that Malaysian industry was spending 500 million ringgit ($AUD170 million) on establishing an electric bus public transport system, including infrastructure such as charging stations.

Transit Australia Group is working closely with a Malaysian manufacturer in exploring opportunities to commercialise the technology.

AutoCRC, whose role it is to identify and develop opportunities for the Australian automotive industry, helped broker the deal by bringing the MAI and Bustech together.

AutoCRC research director Gary White said Bustech was well-suited to the project, with high-end capabilities in the manufacturing process.

“Our long-term vision at AutoCRC is to re-build manufacturing in Australia and this project is a perfect illustration, with Bustech’s manufacturing facility capable of delivering high-quality, innovative products,” Dr White said.

The first bus is planned to roll off the production line in July 2015, with trials to begin in September.

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BMW i8 versus M4 in drag race [VIDEO]

Auto Bild magazine has set up an old school versus the latest tech drag race. The BMW M4 has a turbocharged inline-six with rear wheel drive, up against the i8 with its turbocharged three-cylinder with electric all wheel drive. See what happens when they go head to head.

Even on paper, the race looks quite close. The i8 weighs about 150 kg less but the M-car has a healthy horsepower advantage with 425 hp against the hybrid's 357 hp.

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Audi aims to launch two electric vehicles by 2018

Volkswagen's premium Audi division aims to bring two purely electric vehicles to market by 2018 as it tries to catch up with rivals such as Tesla Motors and BMW.

Audi's Chief Executive Rupert Stadler told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) in an interview to be published on Saturday that the launch of an electric sports car and a sports activity vehicle (SAV) were under way.

The SAV would be a four-wheel drive with a range of more than 500 km (310 miles) per battery load, Stadler said.

He also told FAZ that Audi's push to develop electronic drive and digital technologies would mean the division adding 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) to its investments by 2019. Audi's investment budget through 2018 amounts to 22 billion.

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Tesla Roadster 3.0 adds 70 kWh Battery and 640 km Range

Tesla Motors have announced a new extended-range upgrade for the Roadster — the Lotus-based two-door that preceded the Model S sedan.

The upgrade includes a battery swap, a retrofit aerodynamics kit to reduce drag by 15% plus new tires and wheel bearings to decrease rolling resistance by 20%. The upgrades are expected to yield a 40 to 50 percent improvement in range, breaking the 400-mile mark.

Battery technology has continued a steady improvement in recent years, as has Tesla's experience in optimizing total vehicle efficiency through Model S development. Tesla have long been excited to apply this learning back to their first vehicle, and aim to do just that with the prototype Roadster 3.0 package. It consists of three main improvement areas.

1. Batteries
The original Roadster battery was the very first lithium ion battery put into production in any vehicle. It was state of the art in 2008, but cell technology has improved substantially since then. Tesla have identified a new cell that has 31% more energy than the original Roadster cell. Using this new cell they have created a battery pack that delivers roughly 70 kWh in the same package as the original battery.

2. Aerodynamics
The original Roadster had a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.36. Using modern computational methods Tesla engineers 'expect' to make a 15% improvement, dropping the total Cd down to 0.31 with a retrofit aero kit.

3. Rolling Resistance
The original Roadster tires have a rolling resistance coefficient (Crr) of 11.0 kg/ton. New tires for the Roadster 3.0 have a Crr of roughly 8.9 kg/ton, about a 20% improvement. They are also making improvements in the wheel bearings and residual brake drag that further reduce overall rolling resistance of the car.

Combining all of these improvements Tesla 'expect to achieve a predicted 40-50% improvement on range between the original Roadster and Roadster 3.0. There is a set of speeds and driving conditions where we can confidently drive the Roadster 3.0 over 400 miles (640 km). Tesla will be demonstrating this in the real world during a non-stop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015.

Appointments for upgrading Roadsters will be taken this spring once the new battery pack finishes safety validation. Tesla are confident that this will not be the last update the Roadster will receive in the many years to come.

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Mercedes Developing Electric Vehicle Platform

Mercedes-Benz is in the early stages of developing a new platform to underpin a range of electric vehicles.

The platform, tentatively called Ecoluxe, is part of an ambitious €2 billion project that Mercedes executives are allegedly about to approve. The guidelines call for a platform that is light in order to offset the bulk of the battery pack and modular so that it can underpin both long and short wheelbase vehicles. Mercedes is currently planning on building four body styles on the Ecoluxe platform, though additional variants could be added later in the production run.

German magazine Auto Bild reports that all cars built on the Ecoluxe platform will feature rear-wheel drive and an innovative four-wheel steering system. The first model, which has not been given a name yet, will pack the equivalent of 544 horsepower in standard S form or 603 hp in GT tune. A high-capacity battery pack located under the passenger compartment will give the car a maximum driving range of at least 450 km.

The first model underpinned by the Ecoluxe platform is scheduled to hit the market in either 2019 or 2020

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BMW say Auto Industry Switch to Electric Cars Not Far In Future

BMW gives the signal of change in the auto industry saying that the moment to move to electric cars is not that far in future.

The evolution of electricity storage technologies will ensure the appearance of more efficient batteries and the launch of electric cars with ranges comparable to that of fossil fuel cars. BMW officials think that moment will soon be upon us.

One of the core people in BMW’s organization chart, Ian Robertson, said that electric cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells may be the solution for the future of the automotive industry. But this is very unlikely to happen because the technologies that will enable more efficient energy storage in “normal” batteries will evolve and will radically transform ranges and load times of conventional electric cars.

“We’ve said we’ll continue to invest in hydrogen and that will result in a small number of production test vehicles being made to prove the technology works. The real issues lie not around what we can do, though, but whether the infrastructure can be built up to supply hydrogen in the marketplace cost-effectively.” said Robertson arguing that the current lithium-ion batteries will slowly be replaced by more efficient technology.

“Advances in lithium ion technology are set to be followed by a switch to lithium air and then solid-state batteries. These advances over the next 10 years could see charging time and range worries disappear,” Robertson thinks.

Solid-State Batteries are one of the solutions proposed by technology companies. This battery is based on solid electrolytes instead of liquid electrolyte from today’s batteries. This technique allows using conventional electrodes and they are changed with some Lithium Metal. In this configuration, a battery can store two to three times more energy and provides short charge times, thus improving the level of safety: the battery does not contain the flammable liquid presently found on any battery on the market today.

With regards to the pace of adopting electric cars, BMW official believe that it will be accelerated by the manufacturers which, at one time, will redirect investments from classical combustion engines toward the electrical ones.

“At some point in the future the technologies will switch over. When the crossover comes and the focus becomes electricity, the rate of learning will accelerate even faster. Relatively, that time is not far away” concludes Ian Robertson.

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Renault previews new EV motor

Renault has previewed a new EV motor that it says will enter production in 2015. The synchronous electric motor offers 65 kW of power and 220 Nm (162 lb-ft) of peak torque, and features an integrated Chameleon charger.

Renault designed the new motor with integration, miniaturization and simplification in mind. It uses smaller and fully integrated modules, assembled closely together to minimize the need for power supply cables. The junction box, power electronics and Chameleon charger are all contained within a single Power Electronic Controller. Overall, the size of the motor has been reduced by 10%, while retaining the same level of performance. The motor is now air-cooled, although the Power Electronic Controller still has a liquid cooling system.

The designers improved the efficiency of the charging management process, reducing the consumption of energy and improving charging times.

“The future of mobility calls for the same command of electric motor technology as it does of internal combustion engines,” said Rémi Bastien, Renault’s Director of Innovation Engineering. “We are consequently active on every front, from internal combustion engines to electric motors and alternative energies.”