Charged with Electric Vehicle News and Views
Drayson Racing Technologies took their Drayson B12/69 EV to Silverstone in February for winter testing.
Comparative motor cooling testing and new traction control options were successfully tested in 'damp' conditions.
Arnold Schwarzenegger uses his M47 Patton battle tank to raise money for charity; companies express interest in buying Cars.com. 
MotoringFile reports that high-level sources have confirmed the Mini Clubman Plug-In Hybrid will be all-wheel drive in at least one configuration.
The 2016 Mini Clubman Hybrid will have a 1.5L three cylinder lifted from the F56 Cooper powering the front wheels. Integrated into that will be a plug-in hybrid system (likely derived from the BMW i8) powering the rear wheels only. Think of it as the powertrain layout from the i8 reversed.
The system that BMW has shown in concept form (and has been testing for years in R55 Clubman mules) has an output of approx 140 kW / 190 hp. With a fully charged battery, the electric only range should be over 30 kilometers giving the Clubman Plug-In Hybrid the ability to be in 100% electric mode for the majority of day-to-day trips.
The Mini Clubman Hybrid will likely debut around the same time as the Clubman itself, in the second half of 2015.
A new clip from Red Bull sees Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel explain the 2014 Formula One regulations, arguably the most complex the sport has ever seen.
The CGI based Red-Bull promotional video gives a cut-away look at the new hybrid systems used this year in F1 that we covered in more detail last year.
The first race of the 2014 Formula One season is on this weekend in Melbourne Australia.
Volkswagen is bench testing a new battery chemistry that it says could store up to 80 kWh of energy in a similar volume to that of the current eGolf’s 26.5 kWh battery pack, according to VW board member Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser.
Speaking at the Geneva Motor Show, Neusser said that the company has tested lithium-ion batteries with its existing cell supplier, Sanyo, with capacities up to 37 kWh, but “an 80 kWh unit is under development using our own technology. It would provide between three and four times the battery power in a given package.”
Neusser refuses to name the battery chemistry, but doesn’t deny it is based on lithium-air technology. IBM, BMW and Toyota are known to also be developing Li-Air battery technology.
As to how far a plug-in hybrid or pure battery car could travel in electric mode with such a battery, Neusser says that depends on what the customer wants. He suggests that as a second car, most customers will settle for about 200km (124 miles) of electric range, but as the family’s main transport a battery would have to provide a much greater range.
With VW owning 100% of Audi, we're now openly wondering if this is the battery technology Audi plan to use for their 600 km range Q8 SUV Tesla Model X killer?
Source: The Telegraph
Hyundai plans to start selling its first battery-powered electric vehicle in 2016.
Hyundai has leant toward engines which turn hydrogen into electricity in response to stricter emissions regulations in markets such as the United States. Research and development partner Kia Motors Corp has focused on rechargeable batteries.
But the division of labor is blurring at a time when the number of battery-powered EVs is on the rise. BMW's i3 and Nissan Motor Co Ltd's Leaf are widely expected to reach Korea this year - as will Kia's Soul EV.
"There is no clear direction about which eco-friendly cars will win. We are dividing roles of Hyundai and Kia, with Hyundai launching fuel cell cars and Kia focusing on electric cars," Senior Vice President Lee Ki-sang told reporters on Tuesday.
"But the time will come when Kia will introduce a fuel-cell car. Hyundai is also preparing to launch a (battery-powered) electric car in 2016," Lee said at the Korean launch of the Soul
Battery Power
Kia, 34% owned by Hyundai, has favoured battery-powered cars because they can be charged at home as well as at charging stations. Fuel-cell cars must be refilled with hydrogen only at filling stations.
So far, a lack of charging stations and relatively short driving ranges, as well as high prices resulting from the cost of batteries, has kept the battery-powered EV market niche.
The number of battery-powered EVs on the rise, as BMW’s i3 and Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s Leaf are widely expected to reach Korea this year - as will Kia’s Soul EV.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Kia said it will start building a battery-powered version of its Soul compact in Korea next month. The car will be Hyundai-Kia’s first battery-powered EV export, with destinations including the U.S. and Europe.
For this year, the global sales target is 5,000 Soul EVs, said Cho Yong-won, vice president of Kia’s Domestic Marketing Group.
In Korea, the Soul EV will cost about half of its 42 million won ($43,650) price tag after government subsidies, similar to the higher-end model of the gasoline version.
The car can run up to 148 km per 24 to 33 minute fast charge or four hours on slow charge.
Toyota says hybrids may account for 20 percent of its global sales soon; Honda announces Acura brand’s realignment into a separate division. 
Rolls-Royce now looks likely to adopt plug-in hybrid technology within the next three years. Chief Torsten Müller-Otvos told Auto Express at the Geneva show that “It will be essential in two years, maybe not from customer demand but through legal regulation on emissions”
With parent company BMW already working on plug-in hybrid technology that is soon to be launched on the X5 eDrive – which uses a four-cylinder turbo paired with an electric motor – Rolls-Royce could soon have access to such a powetrain. Müller-Otvos said: “We are now a completely self-sustaining business, but technology like this is so expensive to develop that without BMW, Rolls-Royce would probably not have survived.”
With the completion of the development work and final preparations for production at the BMW Group plant in Leipzig, the launch of the BMW i8 approaches its peak. Delivery of the first customer cars will start in June 2014, beginning with the main European markets.
Beforehand, special public events will be held in various regions all over the world to meet the enormous interest in the BMW i8. For this purpose BMW i agents will be equipped with separate demonstration vehicles. The start of series production of customer vehicles will commence in April. Customers have already been able to place pre-orders for the BMW i8 in all major markets since autumn 2013.
However, demand for the BMW i8 is already exceeding the planned production volume during ramp-up.
Further improvements to the BMW i8 specifications
In parallel to the completion of the statutory type approval the BMW engineers were also able to achieve a further improvement of key driving performance and fuel consumption data. Thanks to its novel powertrain concept BMW eDrive in plug-in hybrid configuration, the i8 combines a 0–100 km/h (62 mph) sprint time of 4.4 seconds with an EU test cycle average fuel consumption of 2.1 litres/100 km (134.5 mpg imp) and CO2 emissions of 49 g/km. The related electricity consumption was measured at 11.9 kWh per 100 km .
Every-day fuel economy substantially better than all conventional sports car concepts
Although the results achieved in the EU test cycle allow for quick comparisons with other vehicles and despite their relevance for a favourable taxation in many countries, the BMW i8 engineers hat a particular focus on low fuel consumption in real life.
As a result the BMW i8 shows extraordinary efficiency not only in standardized testing procedures, but also in the practice of everyday traffic:
In typical everyday commuting, with the battery fully charged at the beginning, the BMW i8 can return a fuel consumption below 5 litres/100 km (more than 56 mpg imp) around town. If the commute includes extra-urban or motorway driving less than 7 litres (more than 40 mpg imp) are achievable.. Even in longer-distance operation at higher speeds, drivers can keep their average fuel consumption below 8 litres/100 km (more than 35 mpg imp). Overall, the fuel consumption of the plug-in hybrid model therefore works out around 50 per cent better than that of conventionally powered sports car models.
World’s first production car with laser light.
Introduction of the optional BMW laser headlights is scheduled for autumn 2014, when the BMW i8 will become the world’s first production car to offer this innovative lighting technology. BMW laser headlights are around 30 per cent more energy-efficient than the BMW i8’s standard LED headlights and provide considerably more powerful road illumination, with a range of up to 600 metres. Highly concentrated beams of light from high-performance laser diodes act on a fluorescent phosphor material inside the headlight, which projects a sharply focused beam of light onto the road. The laser headlights produce a light similar to natural daylight and are therefore always easy on the eye.
BMW eDrive: Sports car powertrain of the future.
The BMW i8’s plug-in hybrid system comprises a 170 kW/231 hp, 320 Nm (236 lb-ft) three-cylinder petrol engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo technology and a 96 kW/131 hp, 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) hybrid synchronous electric motor. The BMW eDrive system also includes a lithium-ion high-voltage battery (with a usable capacity of 5,2 kWh) and intelligent energy management that uses the combined output of 266 kW/362 hp to provide breathtaking performance and maximum efficiency, while always taking into account the driving situation and driver requirements. The excellent balance between driving pleasure and fuel economy is aided by a low vehicle weight of 1,485 kg (DIN kerb weight) and an unusually good drag coefficient (Cd) for a sports car of 0.26.
In zero-emission all-electric mode, the BMW i8 has a top speed of 120 km/h (75 mph) and a range of 37 kilometres (23 miles) within the EU test cycle. Depending on whether the plug-in hybrid sports car’s lithium-ion battery is recharged at a household power socket or BMW i Wallbox, or at a public charging station, charging times range from less than two up to three hours. In Sport mode the BMW i8 offers mid-range acceleration from 80 to 120 km/h (50 to 75 mph) in 2.6 seconds. The electronically governed top speed is 250 km/h (155 mph).
