Category: EV Concept

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Developing the next generation of nuclear batteries

Atomic batteries that don't require recharging and last between 12 and 30 years are being developed for small scale applications that could potentially be scaled up for EV applications. There are quite a few variations on Nuclear batteries and just as many university labs working on them.

Researchers in the US are using pioneering technology to create long-lasting, more efficient nuclear batteries. Several teams at the University of Missouri are pursuing nuclear battery research . Much of this work is focused on pushing the frontiers of nuclear battery technology by employing power sources using alpha or beta-particle decay based on a radioactive isotope that can be produced, separated and refined at the University of Missouri Research Reactor.

The notion of an electric car that recharges itself is appealing but initially the most likely customers are oil and gas and aerospace industries, and space flight companies, which need reliable power sources in inaccessible locations and physical extremes such as high or low temperature and pressure. For example, a betavoltaic incorporated into a flight data locator could signal to search teams for years instead of months.

"With enough financial support to fund both our irradiation and packaging, we could have a commercial-ready device in three years."

Recently Power-technology.com talked to Patrick J Pinhero, Alan K Wertsching and Jae Wan Kwon of the University of Missouri about pushing the boundaries of betavoltaic electricity generation.

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End of the road for car giants?

The car industry is currently mulling over the biggest transformation in its history since Henry Ford set up shop in Dearborn, Michigan.

Before Ford, the automobile was an expensive plaything for the rich that had little effect on the prevalent form of transportation - horse-drawn vehicles. Ford’s introduction of the mass production assembly line and product standardisation (“any colour so long as it’s black”) brought his Model T motor car within the range of the masses, fundamentally disrupting the market for transportation vehicles and sending millions of horses to the knacker’s yard.

Today’s disruptive force is already present in most people’s offices and homes and is carried in most people’s pocket or bag: digital technology. It put a man on the moon in the sixties and sacked the CD in the noughties. But just as digital technology has disrupted business models in the newspaper and music sectors, so the car industry is contemplating just where digital technology will send it spinning.

While R&D departments experiment with the latest digital technology, producing driverless and open source cars, the executives and strategists back at the head offices of automobile giants such as Volkswagen and GM are trying to figure out how they will navigate their way through the digital wormhole. Will GM, Ford and Toyota step in to a world full of new possibilities or on to a planet where they no longer exist?

Warwick Business School Professor of Information Systems and Management Ola Henfridsson has spent the last eight years consulting and researching digital innovation at GM, Volvo and Saab and, while he admits that he doesn’t know what they will find either, he is sure the open platform car is coming.

Just as the smartphone has become a platform where users can download any apps they want and connect to the cloud, so the car could become a giant mobile version.

“If you can develop an android community with so many useful apps, think what could happen with cars,” says Henfridsson.

“Cars already contain so much more digital content, much of the value of the car and the cost of developing a car is related to the digital technology in some way or another. When it comes to lowering fuel consumption or new safety features it is very much about the digital infrastructure, which requires a totally new skill set for the people developing the car.

“It used to be that competition within the car industry was very locked into the boundaries of the car manufacturers, but suddenly there are non-automotive companies taking parts of the markets. Microsoft, are heading into it along with Google and others. Why is it that Google has 10 driverless cars on the streets of California? Because they are imagining a future where a car communicates with its environment, where at some point what will be important in a car’s functionality is not something that GM or Ford or Volkswagen can deliver.

“Suddenly, you can see that the car industry needs to engage with the ‘crowd’, where anybody with £300 and a good idea can become an entrepreneur.”

In the world of open platform cars a kid in a bedroom could become the next giant car company. Just as Mark Zuckerberg has taken over the internet with Facebook, so the next major car development could come from a dormitory at a US university rather than the R&D department of BMW. And that is what is worrying the car manufacturers; opening up their cars to third-party developers could see them lose control of their own products.

Car executives are nervous, but they are now dipping their toes in the digital waters. Apps are in cars now, and Ford and GM have started their developer programmes. In January Ford launched its open mobile app developer programmer for iOS and Android. But it is limiting developers to its car’s entertainment systems to enable two-way communication between the apps and the car. Also developers will have to submit an app to Ford for review by its engineers to “ensure it works properly and is suitable for use in the vehicle.” Once it’s been approved, developers get a distribution license so the app can be submitted to the relevant app stores and talk to the car.

More interesting is Google’s tie-up with Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai in the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA)to develop a common platform for Android apps on their cars. It was something that Helen Falkås was working on at Saab until the company filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

“We were planning a similar system, using Android as a platform,” says Falkås, who is now Senior Project Manager at Nordiska Interaktionsbyrån, a leading interaction design agency in the Scandinavian car industry. “We were talking about a two-sided market where you have to give the developers the possibility to have some business benefits with a large customer base and the customers are looking for good content, rather than the proprietary market that the car industry has used. We were looking to lower the threshold of entry for developers to open up a standard API (Application Programming Interface) so data could be accessed to create the open space.

“There were several research projects we were discussing with Google, as you need somebody with the size of Google to push the industry into this open space, but they said they will go into the car industry once they have done tablets and TV.

“Now they have formed OAA and brought in several car manufacturers as they always said they were looking for more volume. It will be very interesting to see how OAA develops and whether they can standardise an open platform across several car manufacturers, because there is a lot of traditional thinking in the automotive industry. We are seeing semi-open platforms for infotainment in cars, but we were looking at the engine management system and other digital systems in the car. After all, there are 500 vehicle signals which are pretty similar in all cars. They have different protocols and different systems of language, but if it was standardised you would have much a larger volume to create new apps. But this will take time for the car industry. It took 15 years to introduce ABS brakes in large scale, so that gives you an idea of how slowly the car industry moves.”

Falkås reveals a project she worked on with Saab and the Swedish road authority which gives some idea of the potential value of connecting all makes of cars across a digital platform.

“Icy roads are a big issue in Sweden, so we wanted to develop an app where you would know exactly where and when a road was slippery and even in what direction cars were sliding,” says Falkås. “That information is available in cars today. These cars would relay instantly to the authority which road was slippery and how slippery so that they could pinpoint their efforts, because it is very expensive to keep roads safe in the winter and salt is bad for the environment.”

That was with just 50 Saabs, but imagine if all cars were relaying this information to the Highways Agency and to drivers as well in real time, it would surely help make roads safer. Falkås’ only problem was the business model as it produced cost savings for the road authority but little value for the car manufacturer.

But Henfridsson argues that is one of the points of opening up access to cars’ data - third-party developers will work out business models and apps we can’t even dream of, as happened with smartphones. As Falkås says: “You can try to guess what apps would be invented, but you will probably be wrong.”

And these developers will be focused on the drivers and the user experience more so than car manufacturers, who have been tinkering with suspensions for decades.

“In the past if you wanted to be successful in the car industry you needed a huge amount of investment,” says Henfridsson. “The car industry has been so focused on scale, that it is only a few companies who own those resources who have been controlling what has been going into the car. Now, we will see the birth of customer-driven DIY developments in the car. An app store for cars, that is what is coming, everybody can design an app for a car.

“Instead of one navigation system you might have 10, or some navigation aid nobody has thought about before and you might be able to sell advertising through this app. Plus opening up to the crowd addresses some of the customisation issues car manufacturers make for local markets. Traditionally they want to minimise them because it drives up cost, but this turns it around, as a small app developer in each country can do those adaptations and it won’t cost the car manufacturer a penny.

“Also, normally in the car industry you need a four or six-year cycle in car development to get your investment back, but this will change. Software can be reproduced at a minimal cost, at the point when you share with the Android community.

“GM asked a company to develop their navigation system. It took them 18 months to develop something new - it’s an expensive process and would then be expensive for the customers. The Android community contains up to 20 navigation systems at the moment, it can very easily be adapted for a bigger screen for the car. Suddenly you already have these developments, that cost is so much lower and quicker.”

Other industries would love to get their hands on car data, one obvious one being insurance companies.

“Very soon we will have insurance setting up deals with customers to gain information on how they drive,” says Henfridsson. “You would be able to have lower fees for those that drive carefully, but at the point you speed you would lose that deal, it would be personalised to each individual.

“This will cut across industries, because digitalising the car means it becomes another sensor within a huge network. Google might not want to sell cars, but it definitely sees them as another source of information that they can use to become even better in digitising the world. Eh how is the traffic situation in Los Angeles? - Search Google cars and find out?

“Also, in the Android world developments are being pushed out and customers are testing it for you. The car industry is totally different where it has to be perfect for the customer before it is on the market, but releasing a new patch for the software doesn’t cost anything.”

It could be the end of all those costly recalls to adjust the steering system or throttle, just send out a system update and it would be done - though repairs done digitally could have a serious impact on car dealerships, a relationship that car manufacturers would be loathe to hurt. And talk of app developers being allowed into the engine, suspension, and brakes of a car must send many car executives into convulsions. Who is liable if something goes wrong if there is a crash? Is the insurance company going to turn to the app developer or the car manufacturer?

Falkas reveals how at Saab they planned to open the engine management system to developers in stages.

“You could select certain sensors and data to publish as ‘read only’,” says Falkas. “The next step for selected third companies with whom the car manufacturer is in partnership is to give them the ability to write into the system, as you would still have liability. There would then be possibilities to have a bundle for something like additional horsepower, it would be a gradual process.”

Liability is one issue that has to be resolved, but Henfridsson is sure it will be and believes whoever moves first to totally open up their car will have a big advantage. The big worry for the car manufacturers is that if they don’t do it somebody else will, somebody of the scale of Google or Apple. They could make a standard car and then send it out as an open platform vehicle, transforming the industry and potentially killing off some big manufacturers.

“An app that can tune your engine could have been done 10 years ago,” says Henfridsson. “At the point GM or Audi allows third-party developers to design apps to tune their engine there would be hundreds of them. They may not allow access to the braking system, engine, or power train immediately, but it will soon come.

There is a middle ground, where you can have 60 or 70 trusted vendors. Then it is a different business, the car will become a platform. Why not have other people innovate on your platform? That is what you want to be, a platform owner like Facebook. It is very old fashioned to sell a whole product these days.

“This is coming, the car manufacturers know it and they can’t stop it. We will see a totally new car industry when digital takes over. It will change everything, there will be new brands that might be connected to Google rather than a car manufacturer. It is a do-or-die issue for the car industry.”

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Heat-gathering tire charges electric cars on the move [VIDEO]

At the Geneva auto show, Goodyear shows off an intriguing concept tire that would feed an electric car's batteries while rolling down the road.

The concept – named "BHO3" – offers the possibility of charging the batteries of electric cars by transforming the heat generated by the rolling tire into electrical energy.

This tire generates electricity through the action of thermo / piezoelectric materials in the tire that capture and transform the energy created by heat when it flexes as it rolls during normal driving conditions. The materials used would optimize the tire's electricity generation capabilities as well as its rolling resistance.

As demand for electric cars grows, this technology has the potential to significantly contribute to the solution of future mobility challenges. This visionary tire technology could eliminate the vehicle-range anxiety motorists may have with electric cars.

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Koenigsegg Regera Launch 1,500 hp Plug-In Hybrid

The Regera was created as a luxury Megacar alternative to Koenigsegg's traditional extreme lightweight race-like road cars. Even though the One:1 and the Agera RS have surprising levels of practicality, creature comforts and features, their primary focus is, and has always been, to be the overall fastest cars on the planet – around a racetrack or elsewhere.

Regera is Swedish for "to Reign" - a suitable name for a machine that offers a never seen before combination of power, responsiveness and luxury - creating a true Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde persona.

In spite of all its advanced technology and creature comforts, the Regera is comparatively light. Therefore it can still perform competitively around a race circuit. According to us, the only Hyper/Megacar that could be faster around a circuit, is another Koenigsegg. However, out in the open the Regera will reign as the king of the road, as the fastest accelerating, most powerful production car ever.

The Regera will be handcrafted in only 80 examples. Apart from being a suitable production run for Koenigsegg´s newly upgraded and refurbished production facility, the number 80 also symbolizes the principle of domination, control and achievement in Pythagorean Numerology.

With the introduction of the Regera, Koenigsegg will, for the first time ever, have two parallel models in production.

The interior features; added insulation, 8 way electrically adjustable memory foam seats. A Koenigsegg 9" infotainment system, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, front, inner and rear camera system with recording capability, Apple CarPlay, supreme sound system, ambient lighting and many other great new features. The Regera also comes with front and rear parking sensors and remote diagnostic and firmware update capability.

Constellation DRL
A good design and layout of the DRL (Daylight Running Lights) gives character, as the DRL is what's first seen when a car comes driving from a distance.

We wanted the Regera to stand out and clearly be recognized also from a far, so we came up with a novel idea that we call – Constellation DRL.

To get a constellation of stars effect, we scattered the LED´s, which make up the DRL, around the lamp cluster, giving the effect of star constellations on a night sky made up of polished carbon fiber.

A side effect is that the LED´s make the whole lamp cluster glitter and shine, as if there where diamonds thrown into them. That´s what we call - Koenigsegg cool.

The heart of the matter
The heart and soul of every Koenigsegg is its Internal Combustion Engine – the ICE. The ICE of the Regera follows the path of its siblings, based on the proven and extremely reliable Koenigsegg drysumped twin turbo, DOHC, 5.0 liter V8.

As before, the Koenigsegg V8 is the most downsized homologated production ICE in the world, with 220 Hp per liter engine (using regular pump gas). The compactness of the engine makes the Regera nimble, efficient and lightweight.

The difference to the Agera engine is that, given the electric propulsion of the Direct Drive system, we did not have to go as extreme on ICE power, as the combined output is way over 1500 Hp and over 2000 Nm torque, anyway. Given this we could install even smaller, faster spooling turbos on the Regera, further enhancing the ICE drivability and response.

A new level of luxury
The Direct Drive transmission of the Regera is capable of delivering never before experienced blistering response and performance and at the same time able to deliver one of the smoothest and most soothing driving experiences. Given this high level of bi-polar characteristics, the rest of the car had to be up to the task of delivering blistering, lightweight performance at new levels of soothing luxury.

Therefore Koenigsegg developed a completely new rear sub frame and rear structure that allows the engine and transmission to rest on active soft mounts. When driving in normal conditions the mounts stay soft and isolate engine noise and vibrations. When driving spirited, the mounts firm up to solidify the car and give greater response. The shock absorbers are active in height and stiffness – again allowing for the bi-polar behavior.

Furthermore, the Regera can be driven in absolute silence, as it is possible to go into full EV mode for shorter periods of time.

The first fully robotized car
Given the latest advances in compact lightweight hydraulics, Koenigsegg has managed to robotize the entire Regera with almost no weight addition. As the Regera features functions such as; active front and rear wings, chassis control and lifting system - the pumps and accumulators were already in place to connect a few more hydraulic operators. These in turn replaced gas struts of equal weight – resulting in minimal weight impact.

Due to the above, the Regera is the first car in the world that operates all body closures completely automatically. The spectacle to open and close the entire car simultaneously from the remote or smartphone, truly turns the Regera into a transformer.

On top of this, all body closures have soft latching mechanisms, giving the Regera a sophisticated feel. The fully robotized body system, with soft latches adds a mere 5 kg, making full robotization a very desirable option.

Furthermore the wing mirrors are auto-folding while the doors open, giving added practicality and visual drama, as the Dihedral Synchro Helix Doors swing out and rotate 90 degrees to fully clear the door opening, without protruding more than the width of the door – making them highly ergonomic.

Plug-in capability
The Regera utilizes an EV plug in feature. Behind the robotized rear number plate nestles a type 2 mode 3 charging port. This means that the Direct Drive Battery can be charged either by the combustion engine or through the charging port. The plug-in solution enabled us to create a novel feature we call - Battery Drain Mode, or BDM for short. For example, when there is around 50 km range left to the destination or next charging point, a preset geo location or a push on the touchscreen will trigger the BDM. This means the car calculates the driving behavior and makes sure the battery is fully drained upon arrival and is ready for a full charge. This drastically minimize fuel consumption and lower C02 emissions as the fuel consumed has been correctly optimized for the length of the journey.

The world's first fully foldable, active, top-mounted rear wing The Koenigsegg One:1 featured the world's first top mounted active rear wing. This was an innovative solution that maximized down force compared to its size and weight.

The Regera, being more luxury oriented, has taken this solution to the next level, allowing the wing also to fully fold down into the body work enhancing the cars elegance while parking and reducing drag while cruising. The wing´s active foldable mechanism, is a lightweight work of carbon fiber art and the movement is truly mesmerizing.

Sporting a unique exhaust-note, the Regera has a custom designed, sound tuned titanium system jointly developed by Akrapovic.

The novel exhaust system includes a fish tail outlet, envisioned by Christian, which has not been seen on a production car for the last half century, so we are excited to bring back the sound of the past!

Koenigsegg Direct Drive
As many of you have heard, Christian is not a fan of hybrids, as they are generally compromised when it comes to weight, complexity, cost, packaging and efficiency.

Given this the Regera is not what we at Koenigsegg would call a hybrid, as it does not have the traditional shortcomings of a hybrid. Instead the Regera is a new breed of Koenigsegg - and car for that matter.

Traditional, so called parallel, hybrids are compromised and heavy, as they have two independent propulsion systems. Alternatively, series hybrids are less compromised when it comes to weight, complexity and costs, but instead they are compromised when it comes to efficiency, as there is too much energy conversion going on.

This brings us to the Koenigsegg Direct Drive Transmission or KDD for short - invented by Christian von Koenigsegg and developed for the Regera by the Koenigsegg Advanced Engineering team. The patent pending KDD system replaces the combustion engines traditional transmission and gives the added benefit of pure EV mode. What is unique is that the KDD manages to create direct drive to rear axle from the combustion engine without the need of multitude gears or other traditional types of variable transmissions, with inherently high energy losses.

During highway travel, for example, the KDD reduces drivetrain losses, compared to traditional transmission or CVT by over 50%, as there is no step up or step down gear working in series with the final drive - just direct power transmission from the engine to the wheels.

To supplement the energy from the combustion engine and to allow for torque vectoring, regenerative braking, extreme drivers response, reverse and energy conversion, there are three YASA developed electric motors. YASA´s axial flux motors are extremely power dense and allow for direct drive, making them a key-ingredient for the KDD. One YASA for each rear wheel, giving direct drive - this time electric - and one on the crankshaft, giving torque-fill, electrical generation and starter motor functionality.

The three electric motors constitute the most powerful electrical motor set-up in production car history, replacing the gears of a normal transmission while adding; power, torque, torque vectoring and yet still able to remove weight.

The battery pack and PDU for the KDD were developed and manufactured together with Electric Supercar virtuoso Mate Rimac and his engineering team. The 620 V battery pack is of the latest fully flooded type and is the most power-dense battery pack ever created for a road going car with 9,27 kWh of energy, 67 liters of volume, and 115kg of weight. Still, a full 500 kW can momentarily be drawn during acceleration and over 150 kW can be absorbed by the battery-pack during regenerative braking and ICE power generation mode.

Every cell of the pack is carefully monitored for voltage, state of charge, health and temperature. The cells are enclosed in a fully machined aluminum casing for safety and stability. The battery is located in the most protected area of the car - the carbon-aramid chassis tunnel. The whole battery pack is actively cooled by external radiators and the Regera´s all new electrical air-conditioning system, which also can pre-cool the car via the Koenigsegg app on a warm day.

The complete KDD system, including the battery, adds a mere 88kg to the Regera´s weight, compared to what the Regera would have weighed with a traditional ICE, coupled to a 7 speed DCT transmission instead of the KDD. Presently no other hybrid Hypercar even comes close to this type of weight ratio for their electrification. This is interesting, as they all have smaller battery capacity and less electric power than the Regera.

To put it into perspective, the Regera has almost triple as many electric Bhp (700 Bhp) and over 300 Bhp more than its closest hybrid rival. Still the Regera manages to be very competitive weight wise, while including unusual features such as a six way adjustable electrical seat and a fully robotized body work. This is no small feature and it is a testament to the meticulous nature of the Koenigsegg engineering team.

The combination of electrical and combustion power is just mind boggling. When you get up to speed, the system really comes into play - How about 3.2 seconds between 150 to 250 km/h and under 20 seconds from 0 to 400 hm/h?

Powertrain stats
1100 Hp of combustion engine power on 91 octane DIN or 95 octane RON (a bit more on E85)
1250 Nm of combustion engine torque
700 Hp of electric propulsion
900 Nm of electric torque
9 kWh 620 Volt, flooded liquid cooled battery pack

Combined numbers
Over 1500 BHp or 1.11 MW
Over 2000 Nm of torque
Dry weight 1420 kg
1628 kg curb weight (including all liquids and full fuel tank)

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Aston Martin début all-electric all-wheel-drive DBX Concept

Aston Martin has surprise all at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show with the debut of an all electric DBX Concept.

Aston Martin is calling the DBX Concept a high luxury GT that fits the description of a crossover coupe. Far from a production ready vehicle, the concept is just a design study for the time being, but Aston does admit there is a market for such a vehicle.

The DBX Concept is an all-wheel drive crossover high luxury GT that uses in-board electric wheel motors at all four corners powered by lithium sulphur cells. Steering is a drive-by-wire system and both the driver and passenger have head-up displays surrounded by auto-dimming ‘smart glass’.

The DBX Concept can accommodate four adults and all the cargo they could ever want since there is a traditional rear cargo area as well as a front trunk occupying the place usually reserved for a ICE.

Souce: Autocar

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Lower cost carbon nanotube supercapacitors promise 10x higher energy density

Ultra- or supercapacitors are emerging as a key enabling energy storage technology for use in fuel-efficient transport as well as in renewable energy systems (for instance as power grid buffer). These devices combine the advantages of conventional capacitors, that can rapidly deliver high power densities on demand, and batteries, that can store a large amount of electrical energy.

"Among the various types of supercapacitors, carbon nanotube (CNT) based devices have shown an order of magnitude higher performance in terms of energy and power densities," says Ramakrishna Podila, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University. "The bottleneck for transferring this technology to the marketplace, however, is the lack of efficient and scalable manufacturing methods."

Podila's team at Clemson University have developed a new scalable method to directly spraycoat CNT-based supercapacitor electrodes. "Much like painting a car or a wall in your home, we can spray CNT solutions on flexible electrodes, porous aluminum foils in our case, to achieve high energy density supercapacitor electrodes without the need of any binder," explains Podila.

The resulting supercapacitors have a 10 times higher energy density compared to the state-of-the-art supercapacitors on the market.

Source: Nanowerk

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Magna to Present Plug-In Hybrid Sports Car Concept at Geneva Motor Show

Magna International Inc. is set to debut MILA Plus, an innovative two-seat hybrid sports car at Geneva Motor Show 2015. The concept vehicle, which will be displayed at Magna's booth #6261 in Hall 6, combines a sophisticated, lightweight construction with an intelligent, alternative-drive solution to produce maximum performance as well as eco-friendliness. With an all-electric range of 75km and a vehicle weight of 1,520kg, MILA Plus achieves reduced CO2 emissions of 32g/km.

"Magna's broad range of services – from engineering to diverse product capabilities to full-vehicle contract manufacturing – helps support our customers as they continue to be challenged with the changing dynamics of the automotive industry. The MILA Plus vehicle concept illustrates our value proposition and advantage within the global supply base," emphasized Günther Apfalter, President Magna Europe and Magna Steyr.

As the latest vehicle concept in the MILA innovation family, MILA Plus features advanced technologies and flexible manufacturing processes with a focus on eco-friendliness.

Lightweight Construction
The structure of MILA Plus is based on an extruded aluminum space frame which has a number of advantages over a steel structure, including: lower weight; modular structural flexibility; and ability to accommodate different driveline configurations. The modular body-in-white (BIW) concept also allows the use of components and systems from large series production, thus enabling improved manufacturing efficiency and flexibility for global automakers.

MILA Plus offers additional benefits aimed at structural rigidity and weight reduction. For example, the concept integrates a high-voltage battery into the space frame, which increases structural rigidity. Lightweight plastic body panels are used due to their corrosion resistance and styling flexibility. A combination of manufacturing methods, sophisticated joining technologies and a multi-material external skin further contribute to a lightweight vehicle architecture that meets global safety standards.

Sophisticated Joining Technologies
Cold mechanical joining, a hybrid process in combination with bonding is used on the BIW. This reliable technology is more cost effective versus traditional welding solutions and is a joining process Magna has used on other vehicles including the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Aston Martin Rapide.

Alternative Drive Solutions
MILA Plus plug-in hybrid system achieves a reduced emission of 32g/km CO2. The performance of the three-cylinder gasoline engine is enhanced by the addition of two electric motors - one between the internal combustion engine and transmission to drive the rear axle, and one on the electric front axle. This arrangement results in an electric all-wheel-drive system which transmits more torque to the road and results in improvement of vehicle maneuverability and dynamics.


Vehicle Dimensions:

Length:              
4403 mm
Width:                
1925 mm
Height:                
1250 mm
Wheelbase:         
2575 mm
Baggage compartment: 
360l (145l front; golf bag possible rear)
Acceleration:                   
0 to 100 km/h in 4.9s
Electric acceleration:       
0 to 80 km/h in 3.6s
Power output (kW/PS):     
200 / 272
Torque (Nm):                      
580 peak
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GM to Study Vehicle Sharing with Shanghai Jiao Tong University

General Motors China has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to collaborate on a vehicle sharing program featuring the Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 starting next year.

A fleet of EN-V 2.0 vehicles will be integrated with a multi-modal transportation system alongside bicycles, cars and shuttle buses at the university’s Minhang campus in Shanghai to evaluate the benefits and challenges of a vehicle sharing transportation model.

“The vehicle sharing program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University will allow us to assess the real-world application of the EN-V 2.0 as part of a vehicle sharing system,” said Matt Tsien, GM executive vice president and president of GM China. “We will apply these learnings to the development of future urban mobility transportation solutions, not just for China but for the world.”

"Electric vehicles represent the transportation mode of the future, but the big topic now is how to develop them," according to Yin Chengliang, vice president of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Automotive Engineering School. "This project will explore a model that integrates electric vehicles with the transportation network and intelligent transportation system."

The Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 is the next generation of GM’s original Electric Networked-Vehicle (EN-V), which made its global debut at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. It can travel up to 40 kilometers on a single charge.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University collaboration is a continuation of GM’s vision for sustainable urban mobility announced at Expo 2010. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is a comprehensive research-oriented university and one of China’s leading educational institutions. GM and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have collaborated on many automotive, training and development projects over the past two decades.

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SUBARU VIZIV GT Vision Wheel-Motor powered series hybrid concept [VIDEO]

Subaru has revealed the digital-only Viziv GT Vision Gran Turismo, which will find its way into the Gran Turismo 6 on the PlayStation 3 video game system . It takes up the mantle from the Viziv Concept that debuted at the Tokyo motor show last year.

The virtual Viziv GT is powered (virtually) by a 2-liter boxer four featuring both direct injection and turbocharging to the tune of 591 imaginary horsepower.

The Viziv GT has all wheel drive with little lights over each fender that light up when the axle is receiving torque vectoring courtesy of three electric motors, one up front and two in the rear. Subaru compares it to their iconic "Symmetrical AWD" in an attempt to link it to their road-going cars, but this is a hybrid system unlike anything the company has previously worked on.

“By independently controlling each of the motor outputs, turning ability while cornering is drastically improved, while the torque vectoring lamps built into the fenders visualize its movement, Thus, as with any other Subaru, the car is made controllable for anyone driving the car, regardless of its extremely high performance levels.”

Maybe it's where the company is headed? Mitsubishi is already going down that road. Perhaps this is a sneak peek at a hybridized, CUV-like future for the iconic WRX and STI. Or it could just be a digital flight of fancy, which of course it is.

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Supercapacitor panel-powered EVs a ‘reality’ in 5 years say QUT researchers

A car partly powered by its own body panels could be on our roads within five years following the development of breakthrough nanotechnology by Queensland’s University of Technology.

Researchers at QUT have succeeded in developing lightweight ‘supercapacitors’ that they say can be combined with regular batteries to dramatically boost the power of an electric car.

The supercapacitors – described as a ‘sandwich’ of electrolyte between two all-carbon electrodes - were made by the research team into a thin and extremely strong film with a high power density.

The development means that the film could one day be embedded in a car’s body panels, roof, doors, bonnet and floor - storing enough energy to turbocharge an electric car’s battery in just a few minutes.

The findings, published in the Journal of Power Sources and the Nanotechnology journal, are the result of the work of the team comprising Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Jinzhang Liu, Professor Nunzio Motta and PhD researcher Marco Notarianni from QUT’s Science and Engineering faculty – Institute for Future Environments, and PhD researcher Francesca Mirri and Professor Matteo Pasquali, from Rice University in Houston in the United States.

According to Marco Notarianni, the car partly powered by its own body panels could be a reality in the next five years.

“Vehicles need an extra energy spurt for acceleration, and this is where supercapacitors come in. They hold a limited amount of charge, but they are able to deliver it very quickly, making them the perfect complement to mass-storage batteries.

“Supercapacitors offer a high power output in a short time, meaning a faster acceleration rate of the car and a charging time of just a few minutes, compared to several hours for a standard electric car battery.”

Dr Liu says one of these cars, after one full charge, should be able to run up to 500km – “similar to a petrol-powered car and more than double the current limit of an electric car."

According to Dr Liu, currently the ‘energy density’ of a supercapacitor is lower than a standard lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery, but its ‘high power density’, or ability to release power in a short time, is far beyond a conventional battery.

“Supercapacitors are presently combined with standard Li-Ion batteries to power electric cars, with a substantial weight reduction and increase in performance.

“In the future, it is hoped the supercapacitor will be developed to store more energy than a Li-Ion battery while retaining the ability to release its energy up to 10 times faster – meaning the car could be entirely powered by the supercapacitors in its body panels.”

Dr Liu says the technology would also potentially be used for rapid charges of other battery-powered devices.

“For example, by putting the film on the back of a smart phone to charge it extremely quickly.”

Another member of the research team, Professor Nunzio Motta, says the technology discovery may be a game-changer for the automotive industry, with significant impacts on financial, as well as environmental factors.

“We are using cheap carbon materials to make supercapacitors and the price of industry scale production will be low.

“The price of Li-Ion batteries cannot decrease a lot because the price of Lithium remains high. This technique does not rely on metals and other toxic materials either, so it is environmentally friendly if it needs to be disposed of.”

The QUT researchers who made this discovery are part of the university’s Battery Interest Group, a cross-faculty group that aims to engage industry with battery-related research.