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Toyota Hybrid Annual Sales up 43% in Europe

In 2013 Toyota Motor Europe sales reached 847,540 vehicles, an increase of 9,569 units from 2012, equalling a 0.2 percentage point share gain to 4.7%. This progress is mainly due to the excellent sales performance of hybrid models.

European Toyota and Lexus sales of hybrid vehicles reached an all-time high in 2013 totalling 156,863 units, up 43% year-on-year. Hybrid models now make up close to a fifth of total TME sales including several countries out of EU. In Western Europe, 28% of all Toyota and Lexus sold are hybrid models.

But today, Toyota is not only by far the clear leader for hybrid sales in Europe, it is also the first European hybrid manufacturer. Hybrid vehicle production for Toyota in Europe has doubled to reach a record 116,383 units produced at the company’s manufacturing facilities in France (Yaris Hybrid) and in the United Kingdom (Auris Hybrid and Auris Hybrid Touring Sports).

In 2013, the Yaris Hybrid ended the year with sales more than doubling year-on-year reaching 49,774 units, an increase of 25,041 units from 2012. But also the Auris Hybrid registered a record year: the Hatchback saw its hybrid sales increase by 66% to 39,438 units, while the newly launched Auris Hybrid Touring Sports achieved a 60% hybrid mix, equalling 15,175 units.

The success of Hybrid is driven by its excellent cost-of-ownership, thanks to lower fuel-bills and better CO2 ratings. But there is more than that: an increasing number of drivers is discovering the comfort and serenity that a petrol-hybrid powertrain delivers, allowing them to escape the stress of today’s traffic. That is why Toyota is firmly committed to continue its development of its hybrid offer, with 15 new products to be launched globally between the beginning of 2014 and the end of 2015.

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Porsche Launch 919 Hybrid LeMans Racer @ Geneva

At the Geneva International Motor Show, the new Porsche 919 Hybrid is celebrating its world premiere for the top class of the 2014 World Endurance Championship (WEC). The hybrid prototype will enter all eight races of the WEC, whose season highlight will be the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Matthias Muller, Chairman of Porsche AG: "Crucial in the development of the Le Mans prototype were the newly created and revolutionary racing rules for this class as they relate to energy efficiency. In 2014, it will not be the fastest car that wins the World Endurance Championship series and the 24 hours of Le Mans, rather it will be the car that goes the furthest with a defined amount of energy. And it is precisely this challenge that carmakers must overcome. The 919 Hybrid is our fastest mobile research laboratory and the most complex race car that Porsche has ever built."

The high efficiency of the Porsche 919 Hybrid is the result of a balanced overall concept. From the combustion engine to the energy recovery systems, suspension and chassis, aerodynamics and driver ergonomics, the sum of the components form an incredibly efficient unit for maximum performance. The drive system is based on a 4-cylinder gasoline engine that is compact and lightweight. The 2.0 liter V-engine is a structural component of the chassis, and reaches a maximum engine speed of approximately 9,000 rpm. It features direct injection, a single turbocharger and thermodynamic recovery capabilities. The compact unit outputs around 500 hp.

Two different energy recovery systems harness energy to replenish the batteries and provide power. The first system is the innovative recovery of thermal energy by an electric generator powered by exhaust gases. The second hybrid system is a motor on the front axle utilizing brake recuperation to convert kinetic energy into electric energy. The electric energy is then stored in water-cooled lithium-ion battery packs and when the driver needs the stored power, the front motor drives the two front wheels through a differential during acceleration. This gives the Porsche 919 Hybrid a temporary all-wheel drive system, because the gasoline engine directs power to the rear wheels, just like the 918 Spyder.

A new Porsche team of over 200 employees was formed to develop and implement the development center in Weissach. Friedrich Enzinger, Head of LMP1: "Within two and one half years we built the infrastructure, assembled our team and put this highly complex race car on wheels. We have the greatest respect for the lead our competitors have in racing experience. Our objective in the first year is simple: to finish races and be competitive."

Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) will share driving duties in the Porsche 919 Hybrid with number 14. Car number 20 will be driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia).

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LG Chem CEO mulls electric car battery plant in China

Chief executive of LG Chem said that the South Korean company was considering building an electric vehicle battery plant in China, expecting Beijing's efforts to tackle air pollution to drive demand.

Park Jin-soo also said LG Chem, which currently supplies electric-car batteries for General Motors Co's Volt and Renault cars, will double the number of its customers to 20 in the near future.

"We are considering it (the China car battery plant), which should be in line with market demand," Park said at a press briefing on Friday embargoed until Sunday morning.

LG Chem currently has a factory in Nanjing, China producing small batteries for smartphones and other mobile devices, and Park said the firm is looking at not only Nanjing and other sites for the potential car battery factory.

China's Finance Ministry said last month it will extend a programme of subsidies for buyers of electric-powered vehicles after the current subsidy regime, part of efforts to combat pollution in cities, expires in 2015.

The subsidies were designed to help China meet a goal of putting half a million new-energy vehicles, defined as all-electric battery vehicles and heavily electrified "near all-electric" plug-in hybrids, on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.

LG Chem's crosstown rival, Samsung SDI, said in January that it will form a joint venture in China to spend $600 million on building a car battery plant in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, by next year and on other electric car battery-related businesses over the next five years.

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Nissan LEAF Sales Rise 1,000% In January 2014

UK Nissan LEAF sales for January 2014 clocked-in at 1000% higher than the same period in 2013.

The all-electric hatchback accounted for nearly 75% of fully electric vehicle sales for the month. The Nissan LEAF has now reached 3,000 sales in the UK and 100,000 worldwide.

Since its launch in December 2010 Nissan has seen the pace of sales increase consistently and 2013 was a record year. The LEAF is now available to customers in 35 countries on four continents. In Norway, the Nissan LEAF topped sales charts, out-selling conventional gasoline powered vehicles in October 2013.

After leading the era of electrification in passenger vehicles with the LEAF, Nissan will in 2014 bring an all-electric light commercial vehicle to market. The e-NV200 will go on sale in Europe and Japan.

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Drayson Racing B12 winter tests continue at Silverstone

Drayson Racing ran its World Electric Land Speed Record-breaking Drayson B12/69 EV for the first time this year at Silverstone, as its winter test programme continues to develop the world’s most advanced electric-powered racing car.

The aim of the latest test was to try a variety of new motor cooling options and traction control settings – and the extremely wet track conditions were ideal for gathering valuable wheelspin data from the B12’s one thousand data channels.

This time running the B12 with reduced aero and power, test driver Jonny Cocker recorded the same lap time around the Silverstone National Circuit as he’d achieved at a test before Christmas, when the prototype ran in full downforce specification and with full power.

Standing water prevented the B12 reaching its top speed of 220mph, but the pioneering Drayson Racing Technologies technical team were delighted with the results of the test – as the duty cycle of the powerful electric motors and cooling challenges faced doing a land speed record attempt are completely different to running circuit laps.

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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.

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Advanced battery pack for Kia Soul EV

The Kia Soul EV is equipped with an advanced power pack featuring lithium-ion polymer battery cells supplied by SK Innovation. The pack, which has a class-leading energy density of 200 Wh/kg, is the result of a three-year joint development program between Kia Motors Corporation and SK Innovation in Korea.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.