Charged with Electric Vehicle News and Views
Katie Fehrenbacher recently interviewed Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen to discuss the process of how Tesla started with a clean sheet to design the Model S from the ground up as a dedicated electric car.
For established carmakers, car design is a very iterative process with decades of work to build from. Tesla Motors had no such history to work with, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing according to Holzhausen.
Nissan said Friday it would unveil a sporty concept electric vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show
The company, which has been selling its Leaf electric vehicle since late 2010, said it hoped its Nissan BladeGlider would help it reach a market of male drivers who still want performance and styling in an environmentally friendly car - a major hurdle to widespread commercial sales.
The car, to be unveiled at the biennial Tokyo exhibition later this month, features an aerodynamic design that widens from the front to back with space for a driver in the middle and two passengers in the rear.
The design -- one metre in the front (3.3 feet) and 1.89 metres at the back and made with lightweight carbon fibres -- puts the vehicle's centre of mass on the rear tires to allow for tighter turns, Nissan said.
"The driver's seat has been positioned in the middle of the vehicle to give a sense of a pilot in an airborne glider," Nissan said.
The concept vehicle is squarely aimed at moving into a higher-end electric vehicle market already tapped with some success by US-based Tesla.
The Japanese firm has invested about 4.0 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in electric car development in a partnership with French carmaker Renault, which owns more than 40 percent of Nissan.
This week, Renault-Nissan announced an electric car tie-up with Mitsubishi.
Nissan said it has sold more than 80,000 Leaf electric vehicles globally since its rollout three years ago.
The Japanese automaker will also be showing off its second commercial electric vehicle, the e-NV200 minivan, which it unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
DRIVE's Chris Harris tests the World Record Holding - Drayson B12/69EV Electric LMP1 Race Car.
NEDRA President John Metric took his Miata, Assault and Battery to an all-time 1/4 mile record for an Electric door slammer at Royal Purple Raceway with a best time of 9.12 at 145 mph!
The EV record has been held by Black Current III since 2010 with a 9.51 sec @135 mph pass of Santa Pod.
The tube frame and tubbed 2002 Mazda Miata runs a 340 volt LiPo pack with 2x 2000 amp Zilla 2K-EHV controllers feeding dual brushed DC NetGain 9-inch motors, a Lenco 2 speed and double GV overdrive. For the record run the controllers were set to 170 volt & 1100 amps per motor.
Japanese fans will have the first opportunity to see the revolutionary Nissan ZEOD RC in action when the car makes its public on-track debut at this year's Fuji Speedway round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Running in pure electric mode, the Nissan ZEOD RC will undertake demonstration runs on October 18, 19 and 20 – all three days of the Japanese round of the WEC. The Fuji demonstration was announced today at the Nissan 360 global media event in California.
The ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car) will make its race debut at next year's Le Mans 24 Hour. The global leader in electric vehicles for the road, Nissan will trial variants of new electric drive train technologies as part of its intended future return to LM P1 competition to challenge for overall victory at the world's most prestigious endurance race.
The Nissan ZEOD RC will kick off its testing and development program soon in the UK with inaugural Nissan PlayStation GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez behind the wheel.
Ordóñez and Krumm were teammates at Le Mans this year where they scored third place in the LM P2 class with 2011 GT Academy winner, Jann Mardenborough.
Nissan is also enjoying a highly successful season in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LM P2 class with pole position and victory at the first four rounds of the season at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans and Interlagos.
"One of our goals with the Nissan ZEOD RC is to draw back the curtain for fans so they can see what goes on behind the scenes in the development of such a unique race car," said Nissan's Global Motorsport Director, Darren Cox.
"As part of that philosophy, we thought it would be quite fitting that rather than just test behind closed doors, we give the fans the chance to see the car in action.
"To be able to do that at such a great venue like Fuji Speedway only 90 minutes away from the home of Nismo in Yokohama was too good to pass up.
"We'll be on track with many of the cars from the WEC at Le Mans next year so our demonstration runs will also give us some initial comparison data as well."
After the Fuji events, the Nissan ZEOD RC will continue its development program in Europe with Lucas Ordóñez returning to the driver seat. The car is scheduled to make its race debut at next year's Le Mans 24 Hour where it will occupy Garage 56 – an additional entry reserved by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest for cars using new and innovative technology not previously seen in the French endurance classic.
"Nissan has become a global leader in the development of zero emission automotive technology and the Nissan ZEOD RC will allow us to further develop those capabilities using the toughest endurance race in the world as a mobile test bed to test the potential of our planned LM P1 power train," said Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President and Executive Committee member at Nissan Motor Company Limited.
"The ZEOD RC program is designed to develop multiple technologies to evaluate how they could be used for a future LM P1 class return of Nissan at the Le Mans 24 Hour."
Nissan is already a global leader in the development of electric vehicles for the road. Launched in 2010, the Nissan LEAF has become the world's best-selling all-electric car. The LEAF won the 2010 Green Car Vision Award, the 2011 European Car of the Year, the 2011 World Car of the Year, and the 2011–2012 Car of the Year Japan.
Nissan launched the Nissan LEAF RC in 2011 – a race car prototype powered by the same 107-hp electric motor that is used in the road car.
The Nissan ZEOD RC is the next step in the electrification of motorsport. The new car will turn speeds faster than GTE class cars running purely on electric power with zero emissions.
Bloomberg reporter Matt Miller tries to make a case that BMW and Audi are going to squeeze out Tesla at the top-end of the market, but the analysis is fairly poor.
Miller's argument starts by comparing BMW's two seater plug-in hybrid i8 sports car to Tesla's seven seater 100% battery electric Model S 4 door sedan? These cars aren't even in the same market segment!
We're not even sure how Audi enters the competitive analysis as Audi admitted defeat and canned the R8 e-tron saying they couldn't figure out how to make a high performance battery only car economically viable and they have not announced any plans for a high performance battery only sedan to go up against the Model S.
This is the kind of trash reporting that listed companies must endure, commentators constantly trying to talk the stock price up or down. At least it's good to see a 'real' analyst like Dougherty & Co.'s Andrea James who actually knows what's she's talking about get some air time.
The recent Electric Vehicle Racing in Motor Sports Japan Festival saw some interesting EV race car demonstrations, some of which have made their way onto Youtube.
While the environmental benefits of converting tire rubber into smoke are debatable, what is of particular interest is the demonstration of the horsepower available in Monster Tajima's EV class winning Pikes Peak Special.
GKN EVO axial flux motors power all the leading Japanese Pikes Peak EV entries and we believe Tajima's Monster Sport E-RUNNER runs 2x AFM-240 Axial Flux motors, each capable of 335 kw (455 hp) and 1200 Nm Peak.
While we don't know what differential gearing the car runs front and back so are unable to calculate torque at the wheels, anyway you look at it, that's just over 900 horsepower shredding tires in this car park demo, which equals the 900 hp 900 kg Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak Special used by nine time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb to win overall.
When asked about beating the new gasoline record, the 63 year old Tajima responded: “We are able to do that very soon, it depends on the battery. With a high quality and high density battery, I can beat that record for sure.”
Tesla’s backlog of orders for the Model S continue well into March of next year despite a 25% increase in production rates over the second quarter. It is always great to be wanted, but how long will Tesla Model S demand outpace production?
Elon Musk told ABC News that the Tesla Model S “I am not worried about demand for the Model S as we are currently sold out through March of next year, so we don’t have a demand generation problem”.
Contributing to the strong demand for the Model S is that earlier this year Tesla introduced a new lease program and started deliveries of the Model S in Europe. In Norway Tesla is already breaking sales records and as of September is currently the best selling car there. Tesla EVs accounted for about one in 20 of all new cars sold easily outselling hybrids.
Also of note in addition to Norway, Switzerland and Netherlands are also very EV friendly. Those countries in particular are not only very green but also offer additional EV incentives: free EV parking, HOV or bus lane access to EVs and reduced VAT and/or no road tax for EVs. In addition to Europe Tesla plans to open it’s first Tesla Store in China by the end of the year.
BMW will have to increase investment in electric-car production if demand for the new i3 model continues in line with initial orders.
Customers have reserved more than 8,000 of the battery-powered i3, which will cost $US41,350 ($43,500) in the US, even before the car hits showrooms in Europe next month, Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner said today in Amsterdam.
BMW expects to sell more than 10,000 of the four-person car next year and “will adjust capacity according to demand,” he said at a press conference. “If demand holds, which is what it's looking like, we will soon have to invest more.”
The maker of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles is upgrading its lineup with the i3, the new 4-Series coupe and a revamp of the X5 sport-utility vehicle to maintain its sales lead over Volkswagen AG's Audi and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz. Both competitors have vowed to surpass Munich-based BMW in deliveries by the end of the decade.
The i3 will go on sale in Germany for 34,950 euros ($50,100) on Nov. 16, followed by the US, China and Japan in the first half of next year. The model made its public debut July 29 at simultaneous events in New York, London and Beijing. The push to sell the electric car and recoup investments in the technology underpinning the vehicle include an international print, TV and Internet advertising campaign.
The spending on development of new models and expanding production capacity caused the operating profit margin at BMW's auto division to narrow to 9.6 per cent in the second quarter from 11.6 per cent a year earlier.
“We'll have to work very hard to keep profitability within our target corridor” of 8 per cent to 10 per cent in the coming years because of large investments required to meet stricter emissions regulations and the weak car market in Europe, Eichiner said today.
Sales gains in China and the US have helped BMW cushion the effects of the sovereign-debt crisis on Europe's car market, which is sliding to a 20-year low. BMW, which doesn't anticipate a recovery in demand in its home region before the second half of 2014, expects deliveries to rise this year for its third straight annual sales record.
“Demand in China and North America continues to be strong,” Eichiner said. “It makes sense for us to think about expanding production capacity in North America,” with the US and Mexico both options, he said.
The rollout of the i3 will go ahead as planned next month and won't be impacted by issues that typically affect the ramp up of a new model, he said. The executive was responding to a report by Wirtschaftswoche over the weekend that problems bonding carbon-fiber components for the car led to a 10-day production halt.
The Dutch have dominated this year’s 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Having already won the elite Schneider Electric Challenger Class title when team Nuon crossed the line first on Thursday, Team Eindhoven made it two from two winning the Michelin Cruiser Class category announced at the Awards Ceremony in Adelaide on Sunday night.
With a score of 97.5% to Eindhoven it was perhaps closer than the Dutch had predicted, with Germany’s Hochschule Bochum team a close second on 93.9%, in turn just beating Australia’s UNSW Sunswift team, who scored 92.3% taking third place.
The Michelin Cruiser class was judged on the key criteria of solar kilometres travelled, passenger kilometres, speed, energy efficiency, and a subjective element of design and practicality.
Of the eight Cruisers built especially for the Australian event, four completed the 3020 kilometres on full solar power, the University of Minnesota from the USA joining the ranks with the Dutch, German and Australian teams, taking out fourth place with 79.2%.
Each of the top teams had differing strategic approaches to the contest. Eindhoven being a four seater car easily accounted for the most passenger kilometres; Bochum were the most energy efficient, and UNSW Sunswift were the fastest to the finish line.
Final judging occurred on Saturday afternoon with the expert panel assessing characteristics such as: ease of access, comfort, controls, features, style, ease of charging, overall desirability, road registration, parking and cargo space. Judges put the cars through their paces on the finish line. Teams were tested for their parking skills, their ability to load the trunk with numerous suitcases and the ultimate cargo test – could the Aussie esky also be stowed the right way up in the trunk?
The judging panel spent hours deliberating final scores with the topl three cruisers all shining in their own right. Team Bochum’s Powercore Suncruiser scored high on accessibility and desirability and Sunswift’s ‘eVe’ was the most stylish. In the end it came down to just five points between the three top teams with the world’s first four seater solar family car , ‘Stella’ taking the honours.
The remaining four cruisers completed the Challenge with a combination of solar kilometres and trailer kilometres: Goko High School from Japan (2288 km); Apollo Taiwan (1558); Australia’s TAFE SA (1469) and University of Calgary (719).
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge started October 6th in Darwin and finished 3,000 km later on Sunday 13th October in Adelaide.
Disclosure: EV News has been engaged by the South Australian Motor Sport Board to help promote the World Solar Challenge 2013.
A familiar scenario is being played out between two champion teams in the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. After nearly 2,800 kilometres just 20 minutes separates the two leading cars. It is almost a repeat performance of 2011 except on this occasion the order is reversed, with the Netherlands Nuon Solar team leading Team Tokai from Japan.
The flying Dutch team have maintained an average speed of around 93 kilometres an hour accelerating at some points today up to 113 km but the Japanese matched their pace, refusing to let the gap between the two teams widen. Unless the Japanese team has something more in reserve, Nuon in their solar car ‘Nuna 7’ look poised to take back the title they lost to Team Tokai in 2009 and again in 2011.
Both teams are camped south of Port Pirrie and are due to make their final run to the official finish line in Hindmarsh Square Adelaide, arriving mid-morning tomorrow.
Netherlands Team Twente with their ‘Red Engine’ is in third place some 240 kilometres behind the leaders with Stanford University from the USA hot on their heels in 4th just nine kilometres behind, 49 kilometres south of Woomera. Belgium’s Punch Powertrain is in 5th with Solar Energy Racers about 25 kilometres behind in 6th. Still flying the flag for Australia, team Arrow holds 7th position. Other teams still under solar power include Onda Solare from Italy, Blue Sky Solar from Canada and Australia’s UWS Solar team in SolAce.
Strong wind gusts today played havoc with some of the teams including the American solar champions Michigan, who were bumped to the side of the road coming into the Coober Pedy Control Stop. They are now frantically working on their solar car Generation hoping to resume tomorrow morning.
All Michelin Cruisers are now in Coober Pedy for their last mandatory overnight stop before they resume tomorrow morning for the final stage. It will be a battle between Team Eindhoven from the Netherlands in their four seater Stella; the German Hochschule Bochum’s Powercore SunCruiser and Australia’s UNSW Sunswift Team, in their solar sports car ‘eVe’ who flew into Coober Pedy today hours ahead of the field. Final judging of the Cruiser class will be held in Adelaide on Saturday, taking into account design, practicality and person kilometres travelled which could put Eindhoven in a strong position as they have the capacity to carry four passengers.
In the GoPro Adventure Class Australia’s Aurora arrived into Coober Pedy, their final overhead stop, ahead of the other contender still running on solar power, team Antakari from Chile.
The leaders are expected to reach ‘finish of timing’ in Angle Vale tomorrow morning before proceeding to the Official Finish Line at Hindmarsh Square. Even if a team is first to Angle Vale they must still reach the official finish line to claim victory.
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge started October 6th in Darwin and finishes 3,000 km later tomorrow in Adelaide.
Disclosure: EV News has been engaged by the South Australian Motor Sport Board to help promote the World Solar Challenge 2013.
It would be safe to say Peter Valdes-Dapena, the editor for automotive and other consumer content at CNNMoney.com, 'gets it' when it comes to EVs.
Back in February of this year, when a reviewer at the New York Times drove a Tesla Model S around New Jersey determined to miss as many freeway exits as possible to get a photo of the Model S on a Flat bed truck, Peter Valdes-Dapena over at CNN volunteered to do the same trip to prove the doubters wrong.
Here the CNN reviewer gives the Chevy Spark EV two thumbs up, saying the only down side is it's limited distribution in California and Oregon only.
Team Nuon from the Netherlands, in their solar car Nuna 7, took an early lead in the Schneider Electric Challenger Class of the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge and at the end of day one are approximately 633 kilometres south of Darwin. Just 32 kilometres behind at the Dunmarra Control Stop there is one minute separating second placed Team Twente in ‘Red Engine’ also from the Netherlands and the 2011 Champion team Tokai from Japan, who as predicted, made up time early from 20th position on the starting grid.
USA solar champions, team Michigan, are in fourth place approximately 10 kilometres out of Dunmarra with Australia’s Team Arrow showing they can mix it with the elite international field just behind in fifth place.
In the Michelin Cruiser Class team Bochum from Germany are in first place approximately sixty kilometres north of Dunmarra, with team Eindhoven from the Netherlands just five kilometres behind in second place, Minnesota Solar team from the USA in third place and University of NSW Sunswift team in fourth place approximately 100 kilometres north of Dunmarra.
Leading the GoPro Adventure Class was Australia’s team Aurora who have never missed a solar challenge; followed by IVE from Hong Kong and Antakari from Chile.
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge started today October 6th in Darwin and finishes 3,000 km later on Sunday 13th October in Adelaide.
Disclosure: EV News has been engaged by the South Australian Motor Sport Board to help promote the World Solar Challenge 2013.
During a recent Nürburgring expedition the Electric RaceAbout team set a new, greatly improved, lap time.
While testing the latest powertrain improvements and the new Nordschleife Aero-kit Micke Be rgman stopped the timing at 8:23.56. To put this in context the Audi R8 e-tron did it in 8:09.099 while the Mercedes SLS E-Cell set a time of 7:56.234
Due to the limited possibilities for only three complete laps this time there is still room for significant improvement.
According to Micke the new Nokian Hakka Black tyres, the torque vectoring control and Aero-kit combined with the lighter and more powerful battery take the E-RA to a completely new level of performance.
The almost unlimited new potential unleashed by the torque vectoring both improve the car's agility and stability. This was not previously possible with traditional powertrain technologies and together with the team we'll continue to explore the possibilities and improve the technology.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is a plug-in hybrid with four driving modes, two electric motors, and a 4.6 liter mid-mounted V8 engine. E-Drive is an all-electric mode primarily for city driving, with a range of up to 20 miles and a top speed of only 93 mph.
There are also three different “hybrid” modes (Hybrid, Sport, and Race) that use varying degrees of power from both the V8 engine and two electric motors. Hybrid mode is obviously on the more fuel-frugal end, with the engine and electric motors working to optimize fuel economy. Meanwhile Race mode is reserved for on-track shenanigans, with a special sub-mode called “Hot Lap” which unleashes the full fury of the 918 Spyder, with the electric motors providing even more of a power boost.
The 918 Spyder also has a carbon fiber-reinforced monocoque for a curb weight of just over 1,632 kg. But really, it’s all about the cutting edge drivetrain, and while it may remain prohibitively expensive for now, there’s no doubt Porsche is working to bring more economy-minded plug-in hybrids to the roads. The 918 Spyder is merely the R&D test bed.
The Clipsal and Schneider Electric Challenger Class single seat aerodynamic masterpieces were presented to Scrutineering on day 2 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge at the Royal Darwin Showgrounds.
This year’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is held from 6th – 13th October. If you can’t make it to Darwin or Adelaide, you can follow the race on Twitter via @tsport100 or @WorldSolarChlg.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Words and thoughts are entirely my own.
AOL's Translogic take the NISMO RC for a spin and interview NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani at the recent Nissan 360 media event.
Nissan is selling more LEAFs than ever before and is the lead sponsor of National Plug-In Day in 2013.
With the day being about plugging in to charge up, Nissan pointed some video cameras at the company's EV quick charger, stationed in front of Nissan Americas headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. to see who is stopping in to charge and go.
California has a goal of having 1.5 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2025.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday toured an electric car fleet that included Tesla, BMW and Honda as part of a meeting with other car manufacturers and private companies. The meeting was held at San Francisco's Exploratorium and discussed the future of the electric car.
Brown said he will sign two pieces of legislation continuing incentives for purchasing electric cars.
At the recent launch of the BMW i3 lithium-ion battery-electric car, BMW board member Ian Robertson said that in the next three to four years there will be more progress in battery development than in the previous 100 years. He said electric cars will have batteries with twice the current power within four to five years, which will double the range.
We reported back in January that Toyota Motor Corp and BMW AG agreed to jointly research a lithium-air battery. Lithium-air battery has its anode filled with lithium, and cathode with air.
Lithium metal-air batteries can store more than 5,000 watt-hours per kilogram. (A123 M1 cells are around 120 wh/kg) That's more than forty-times as much as today's high-performance lithium-ion batteries, and more than another class of energy-storage devices: fuel cells.
The reduction in battery mass is achieved by eliminating the need for a second reactant inside the cell. Lithium metal batteries react with oxygen in the air that is pulled in through a 'breathing' casing, making them lightweight and compact.
The technology is being studied by researchers including IBM , which is working to develop a lithium-air battery that will let electric vehicles run 500 miles on one charge.
Given the recent new that General Motors is working on an EV that can go 200 miles (320 km) per charge at a cost of about $30,000 to compete with Tesla's as yet un-named 200 mile $30,000 EV due in approx three to four years, the 2016/17 model year promises to be a very exciting year for affordable, long range electric vehicles.
