Charged with Electric Vehicle News and Views
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive is the company’s first battery-electric car, but it is not a spartan green vehicle. In terms of its interior fit and finish, the car will feel right at home in a Mercedes showroom. Car and Driver gathered five slippery cars to study their drag and lift properties at a wind tunnel to determine which brand did the best job optimizing its car’s aero performance.
The overall winner was the Tesla Model S by virtue of its larger 25.2-square-foot face and lower 0.24 drag coefficient, which yield the same 6.2-square-foot drag area as the Prius. Low drag is a tougher challenge with a larger frontal area, hence the Tesla’s overall win.
Source: Car & Driver
Chevrolet announces specifications for the 2015 Corvette Z06; Mercedes-Benz says it will double its urban sales locations. Consumer Reports had their Tesla Model S updated with new Titanium under-body shields that add protection for the battery pack after several road debris-caused fires.
Keith Barnham, emeritus Professor of Physics at Imperial College, said he and his colleagues were already producing solar panels, which were three times as efficient as current models.
“A typical (solar panel) system will generate enough electricity for typical mileage in a year.
“Free fuel for life from your rooftop. Even the most fervent opponents of electric cars like Jeremy Clarkson couldn’t argue with that.
“We need to spread the word that we have got the technology already, we just need to use it.”
A good example is EV News contributor Dr Phoebe Thornley who charges her Nissan Leaf with a 3kw roof top solar system. In Australia a 3kw PV system generates enough energy to power a Leaf for 15,000km annually which is precisely the average annual distance travelled by private motorists.
Source: Telegraph
TT legend John McGuinness won his 21st TT race on Wednesday morning when he took the SES TT Zero race in record-breaking style.
Riding the Mugen Shinden, McGuinness was always in the lead and with a stunning new lap record of 117.366mph, he came home 23.3s clear of team-mate Bruce Anstey. Rob Barber, on the Ohio State University Buckeye machine, took third.
Hot on the heals of news earlier this week that Nissan's Leaf has set a new monthly sales record of 3,117 sales in May, comes official sales figures from Toyota showing the Plug-In Toyota Prius is now the 2nd best selling EV in the US.
Toyota sold 1,741 Prius PHV in May, up 180% on the same month last year. That knocks the Chevy Volt back to 3rd place with 1,684 sales for May.
The number of Plug-in Prius sales are all the more remarkable considering it is available in only 15 states.
Battery weight has long vexed engineers designing electric cars for the mass market. Bigger batteries are needed to power a car for longer distances, but their weight in turn requires the car to expend more energy. But what if the body of the car itself was a battery?
Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology have found a promising solution with carbon fibre. Eric Jacques, a researcher in vehicle and aerospace engineering at KTH, says carbon fibre can fill two functions in an electric car: as a lightweight composite reinforcement material for the car’s body, and as an active electrode in lithium ion batteries.
“The objective of our research was to develop a structural battery consisting of multifunctional lightweight materials that simultaneously manage mechanical loads, and store electrical energy,” says Eric Jacques, a researcher in Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering at KTH.
“This can result in a weight reduction for electric vehicles,” Jacques says.
He says carbon fibre offers a viable alternative to graphite. Lithium can be inserted into the carbon fibre microstructure and the carbon fibre acts as a good conductor. The carbon fibre which the KTH researchers have worked with is very light and has a continuous structure and excellent mechanical properties, Jacques says
“The research project has demonstrated very good results, but we have some work to do before we can display finished batteries.”
The project is run as a partnership between three professors at KTH: Göran Lindbergh, Chemical Engineering; Mats Johansson, Fibre and Polymer Technology; and Dan Zenkert, Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering. The research is done in cooperation with Swerea SICOMP and Luleå Insitute of Technology.
Johansson says the work is about improving the mechanical properties of batteries – so that it not only stores energy but is part of the design.
“For example, the hood of the car could be part of the battery,” Johansson says, adding that similar consolidation of battery and structural material could be used in mobile phones and other battery-operated devices.
