Robert Llewellyn reviews the UK built 2nd generation Nissan Leaf from Oslo Norway.
Fully Charged – 2nd Generation Nissan Leaf Launch in Norway [VIDEO]
BASF Commits R&D to EV battery market
BASF, the largest chemical company in the world, is betting customers will flock to electric cars, using its chemical products to create a battery that will enable vehicles to run longer. BASF, with an annual 1.7 billion-euro ($2.3 billion) research budget, has made battery materials one of 10 areas it’s targeting for growth.
“We are committed,” Adrian Steinmetz, head of global business management at BASF’s battery materials unit, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen. “Having this long-term strategy is typical of BASF. It’s the reason why this company has existed for 149 years.”
To become a major supplier for electric cars, BASF needs to challenge the dominance of Asian market leaders Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp., Sumitomo Chemical Co. and LG Chem. Those companies have an advantage in lithium-ion technology, crucial in car batteries and helped by their proximity to the region’s booming electronics, computer and phones industries.
Advanced battery pack for Kia Soul EV
Engineers from Kia have developed the outstanding power pack featuring 192 lithium-ion polimer battery cells in eight modules, delivering a total power output of 27 kWh. The pack incorporates state-of-the-art thermal control technology to maintain individual cells at optimum temperature and structural design to enhance crash worthiness.
Nickel-rich NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) cathode material is used in the mass production of the battery cells for Soul EV. Energy density, which is dependent on cathode capabilities, is a core performance factor deciding EV driving range. By exploiting the class-leading energy density of its battery, the Soul EV offers a driving range of 'around' 200 km on a single charge.
Toyota to Increase Yaris Hybrid production to 200,000 for 2014
Toyota announced this week that it will start operating a third production shift at its European Yaris factory from June 2014 in order to meet high demand for its two products, the Toyota Yaris and the Toyota Yaris Hybrid.
The Yaris is unique among small cars in having the option of proven Toyota hybrid technology, bringing the easy driving, fuel efficient hybrid drive to a wider audience than ever before.
The three-shift operation will require an increase in manpower by 500 production employees, which will bring total employment at Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF) in Valenciennes to more than 4,000.
Until the third shift is in place, some Saturday production is planned to meet the demand.
“Sales forecasts have led us to increase production plans by around 15 per cent for 2014, for a total annual production volume of around 220,000 units,” confirmed Koreatsu Aoki, President of TMMF.
Tesla Plans $5 Billion Battery Factory for Mass-Market Electric Car
Tesla, which markets a $70,000-plus electric sedan, took aim at the broader market in announcing a way to make the batteries that power the cars cheaper.
LaFerrari hybrid voted Best Sports Car in Madrid
Ferrari has taken the prize in the Best Sports Car category during the Best Cars 2014 awards celebrated in Madrid. The award ceremony at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was organized by the prestigious Spanish motoring magazines, Autopista, Automóvil, Coche Actual and Autovía.
Ferrari’s "LaFerrari", the limited-edition hybrid special of which only 499 units will be produced, was voted Best Sports Car, winning its first award in Spain. Since its launch, "LaFerrari" has earned worldwide critical acclaim from clients and media alike, in part because it is the most powerful Ferrari ever produced and also because it´s the first hybrid vehicle from the brand.
Panasonic may invest $1 billion in Tesla’s U.S. battery plant
Panasonic Corp is inviting a number of Japanese materials suppliers to join it in investing in a U.S. car battery plant that it plans to build with Tesla Motors, with investment expected to reach more than 100 billion yen, the Nikkei reported.
Tesla shares also hit an all-time high on Tuesday after one brokerage firm set a new target price that suggested shares would rise almost 50 percent from Monday's closing price.
The plant, expected to go on-stream in 2017, will bolster Panasonic's supply of lithium-ion batteries to the U.S. electric-car maker.
Last week, Tesla shed some light on its plans for building a lithium-ion battery plant, or "giga factory," that will cut battery costs and allow the company to launch a more affordable electric car in 2017. However, it said at the time that further details would be announced this week.
Tesla declined to comment on Tuesday. Panasonic, the carmaker's primary supplier of lithium-ion batteries, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The U.S. plant, which will handle everything from processing raw materials to assembly, will produce small, lightweight batteries for Tesla and may also supply Toyota Motor Corp and other automakers, the Nikkei said.
In Tesla's earnings conference call last week, Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric car maker expects to build the factory with more than one partner, but a "default assumption" was that Panasonic, as a current battery cell partner, "would continue to partner with us in the giga factory."
"The factory is really there to support the volume of the third generation car," Musk said on the call. "We want to have the vehicle engineering and tooling come to fruition the same time as the giga factory. It is already part of one strategy, one combined effort."
Tesla posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and said deliveries of its luxury Model S electric sedan would surge more than 55 percent this year to more than 35,000 vehicles.
Shares in the Palo Alto, California-based company, which was founded in 2003, surged as much as 19 percent on Tuesday, hitting a new all-time high intraday trading price of $259.20 a share after Morgan Stanley raised its target price for the stock to $320 a share from $153.
Tesla shares were still up $30.50, or 14 percent, at $248.15 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in his research note that the potential for lower battery costs through higher sales volume could nearly double Tesla's share of the global car market to 0.9 percent by 2028. Tesla remains the firm's top pick in the U.S. auto sector with an "overweight" rating.
"Tesla is an extremely ambitious company for whom flooding the market with fun-to-drive EVs and giving competitors a headache might not be the endgame," he said.
Stifel analyst James Albertine said the giga factory could be far more than an auto opportunity, as Tesla could have an even more significant opportunity to supply the energy storage market. He expects the factory would take two to three years to build and require a $5 billion to $6 billion capital infusion.
"While we remain negative on Tesla shares above $200 as an automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer), the energy storage opportunity requires a broader perspective and could very well justify current, if not higher valuation levels," he said in a research note.
Consumer Reports: Tesla Model S as “Best Overall” Automobile [VIDEO]
Electric luxury car Tesla Model S was named by Consumer Reports magazine on Tuesday as its overall top pick for 2014, while Japanese models took just five of the top 10 spots, their worst showing in the 18-year history of the annual rankings.
The battery-powered Tesla Model S was chosen best overall for its "exceptional performance and its many impressive technological innovations," Consumer Reports said, noting it was "pricey" at $89,650.
Tesla Motors said it expects to deliver about 35,000 of the model this year. By comparison, the best-selling car in the United States last year, the Toyota Camry, sold about 408,000 in 2013.
Consumer Reports hasn't named a best overall since a Lexus model took the top honors in 2010.
BMW to launch Carbon Fiber wheels
BMW could offer entire wheels in carbon fiber reinforced plastic, are close to production and available in one or two years. According to BMW the full-CFRP wheel is 35-percent lighter than a forged alloy wheel, and the one using a CFRP rim and alloy spokes will be 25-percent lighter.
Innovative use of materials in the BMW i3 and BMW i8.
Systematic lightweight design is particularly important on electrically powered vehicles, given that vehicle weight is one of two main constraints on vehicle range, along with battery capacity. For EVs, too, reduced weight means reduced energy consumption and improved driving dynamics. In order to offset the weight penalty of the electric components, the BMW Group came up with a rigorous lightweight design strategy for the BMW i brand in the form of the LifeDrive concept, an innovative vehicle architecture which for the first time combines an aluminium chassis and a CFRP passenger cell.
CFRP: high-tech material of the future.
Carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) boasts a particularly favourable strength-to-weight ratio and is therefore an ideal material for use in the vehicle body. For the same functionality, CFRP is around 30 per cent lighter than aluminium and 50 per cent lighter than steel. Used in the right places, this material therefore reduces weight, optimises the vehicle’s centre of gravity and improves body strength. This material is currently being used not only in the new BMW i3 and BMW i8 models: the sporty BMW M3/M4 and BMW M6 models have likewise been utilising the benefits of this high-tech material for some time. Components such as their roof and bumper supports are made of CFRP. The BMW Group is currently working on further potential applications, including the use of this material in rotating-mass components. Examples include hybrid aluminium/CFRP wheel rims, while CFRP’s high rigidity and low weight allow the CFRP propeller shaft on the BMW M3/M4 to be produced as a single-piece component, without a centre bearing. This results in 40 per cent weight savings over the previous model and reduced rotating masses, leading to further improved response.
In future, other BMW and MINI models will also benefit from this lightweight material in various ways. For example, production offcuts can be reprocessed into “secondary” (recycled-content) CFRP, which can be used to reduce the weight of components such as seat frames, instrument panel frames and spare wheels by up to 30 per cent, with simultaneous improvements in terms of cost-efficient, environmentally friendly manufacturing.
Technology leader in mass production of CFRP components.
After more than ten years of intensive research, resulting in improvements to processes, materials, production machinery and tools, the BMW Group has today become the first and only car manufacturer in the world with the necessary know-how to use CFRP in mass production. The processing technology used is unique and cycle times for even the more complex CFRP components are unusually short. The same is true of the specially developed bonding process used in the fully automated assembly of body parts.
As well as setting standards in the production of CFRP finished components, the BMW Group also attaches utmost importance to the use of environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and largely CO2-free processes in the manufacture and processing of the raw materials themselves. From fibre production right through to recycling of fibres and composites, the company is involved in all the various process steps in a state-of-the-art CFRP production chain that begins in Moses Lake in the USA and moves through Wackersdorf and Landshut to final assembly in Leipzig.
Garlits 200 Mph Dragster gets Lawless V-6 Electric Motor Installed
SR-37, the Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries Dragster, is being configured with its own 1.5 megawatt power grid for 2014. At the famed Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, FL, a technical team from Lawless Industries (Poland, OH) has outfitted SR-37 with a large battery-powered motor system befitting the largest name in drag racing sport.
Lawless Industries, using six (6) 7.5” series-wound DC motors custom-built by General Electric and donated by Crescent Electric Supply (East Dubuque, IL), carefully modified the motor package for drag strip use in SR-37. Motors were tuned with a splined shaft for high torque output, internal motor wiring and insulation improved for high load, brush timing advanced to synchronize the 6-pack, and the package rigorously unison-tested prior to assembly into the dragster. The completed Lawless V-6 electric motor assembly has been final-fitted into the SR-37 digger’s rear engine motor compartment and engaged to the Goethe Enterprises driveline directly behind. Motor control for Big Daddy is provided by Manzanita Micro “Zilla” controllers. The entire motor package is engineered so that each motor can be driven by over 200 horsepower for a 200 MPH+, 6-second run down the 1/4 mile asphalt strip.
The distinctive side pods of SR-37 will conceal the source of the massive power. A custom one-off multi-cell Lithium Polymer battery system engineered by Derek Barger/HighTech Systems LLC of Colorado will produce 1500 kilowatts (1.5 megawatts) of instantaneous launch energy for the digger, a total power source of over 2000 HP! The array is comprised of (4) packs, (2) per side pod, and operates at a peak voltage of 420V. Total battery power weight is 500 pounds, about the same as a fully dressed Top Fuel engine. The entire battery array can be fully recharged and ready for the next run in as little as 5 minutes.
The SR-37 Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries BEV Dragster has it all: Big Daddy Don Garlits, 1500 kilowatts, over 2000 horsepower, starting line launch times nearly as quick as a Top Fuel dragster, energy cost per run-about 25 cents.
The team hopes to commence spring testing soon with a build-up to full sub-200 mph 1/4 mile runs. The summer event schedule for record runs is being developed and will be announced during the test program.
