Tag Archives | EV

Detroit 2011: Volvo C30 Electric Safely Crashes Stage

By on January 11, 2011 in News

By Kevin Miller

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles virtually littered the floor of Cobo hall this year. It seems as though near as many vehicles have an SAE J1772 charging port as have a standard gasoline fuel filler. Show stands on the main floor and the basement of Cobo featured a variety of EV charging equipment. Into this environment, Volvo injected their focus on safety. In combination with the battery supplier ENER1, Volvo showed a C30 Electric which had been subjected to a 40 MPH frontal offset collision.

In C30 models with internal combustion engines, the engine forms a part of the crash-absorbing structure at the front of the car. Because the C30 Electric has a much smaller electric drive unit, with a relatively heavy load of batteries located farther back in the car, additional structural members were added to the front of the vehicle to provide occupant protection in a collision. Continue Reading →

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Check Your Mirrors

By on January 9, 2011 in News

Odds and ends about cars and the car business

By Chris Haak

On the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, there are a few news items that may not necessarily warrant a full article.  However, they’re probably still worth mentioning.

FORD’S new Focus Electric, slated to hit the market in late 2011, made its worldwide debut not at the Detroit show, but at Las Vegas’ CES show.  In the keynote address in which he revealed the car, Ford CEO Alan Mulally called his company as much of a technology company as a car company, and he may be right.  Ford has been on the leading edge of infotainment with its SYNC and MyFord Touch system, and has done a great job of pushing high tech features such as self-parking down from luxury cars into more mainstream offerings.

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A Powermat Charger for the Chevy Volt? Sort of.

By on January 6, 2011 in Editorials, News

By Chris Haak

You may have seen Powermat chargers before in your local Best Buy or somewhere online.  They’re kind of a cool concept; you attach them to the back of your smartphone or music player, and they allow you to just set the devices on a charging mat, and they will charge without having to actually plug a power cord into them.  You can imagine the convenience of eliminating the clutter of multiple power wires.  For instance, I have an iPhone as well as a BlackBerry, and some nights, I have to charge both of them, which makes a tangled web of wires on the countertop next to my wallet and keys.

The thing I’m not crazy about with Powermat technology, aside from its fairly high cost for what it’s providing, is that it bulks up the back of your device.  The thin iPhone becomes a thick iPhone thanks to its Powermat “backpack”, which allows for the wireless charging.  For that reason, I just stick with the old fashioned wires to charge my devices.

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The Return of the Biodiesel Plug-in Hybrid Turbine-Driven 1959 Lincoln Continental Convertible

By on January 4, 2011 in News

By Charles Krome

One of the more unique vehicles to visit the SEMA show in the fall of 2010 was a certain American-made product capable of 50 miles of all-electric driving and a further 350 miles of travel when powered by its onboard generator. The car put out zero tailpipe emissions using pure electricity, of course, and even when relying on its generator, the net result was about 40 percent fewer emissions than a Toyota Prius. The generator offered another bonus, too: When used to recharge the car, it was responsible for 48 percent fewer emissions than would be produced if the vehicle were plugged into the U.S. power grid—although that’s an option here, too. Oh, and when it is plugged in, any extra electricity could be fed back into the grid, too.

A secret Chevrolet Volt variant? Nope. A reincarnated vehicle from Chrysler’s ENVI project? Hardly. Some under-the-radar effort from Ford? Not exactly. It was none other than Neil Young’s LincVolt, a 1959 Lincoln Continental outfitted with a high-tech powertrain featuring a UQM 150-kW turbine motor, a bio-diesel “microturbine” generator from Capstone and 850 lbs. worth of lithium-iron phosphate batteries.

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First Drive: 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV (JDM Spec)

By on January 2, 2011 in Reviews

By Chris Haak

The conventional wisdom is that green cars such as hybrids and EVs have to look like something a little different from the standard three-box sedan if they hope to enjoy sales success. Accordingly, it explains why the Prius outsells the Camry Hybrid.

Well, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV certainly fits the bill of looking different. Technically, I suppose that it’s a one-box car, though in reality, it is far more ovoid and organically shaped to call it a box. It’s smaller than nearly everything on the road today, and will certainly attract attention wherever it goes.  Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to drive an i-MiEV (Japan spec, right hand drive) at a media event, and I found the car to be a curious blend of the normal and abnormal as I tallied a few miles in the little EV.

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First Drive: 2011 Nissan Leaf SL

By on December 21, 2010 in Features

By Roger Boylan

GM’s short-lived electric car of the ‘90s, the EV1, was available in limited quantities as a lease-only proposition, so the 2011 Nissan Leaf is the first all-electric car the general public can buy. Its price is reasonable for such cutting-edge technology: around $25K, once Uncle Sam’s tax credit of $7500 is applied.  Is it worth it? It certainly has great promise, and it’s a well-conceived little car. I spent a short while behind the wheel of Leaf a couple of days ago–a very short while, unfortunately, the actual drive time  having been eaten into by a high-energy sales presentation from Nissan’s own Seinfeld-wannabe; I didn’t catch his name, and I ducked his pitch. I was there merely as an Autosavant, desirous of completing my trifecta of electric-car tests (read about the Toyota PHV Prius here and the Chevrolet Volt here).

The Leaf is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack of the type familiar to me from the Prius Plug-In and Volt. Lithium-ion batteries offer quicker acceleration and a longer range than your common or garden nickel-metal hydride battery, but unfortunately, they’re still at a fairly rudimentary stage of development, with limited range and—in the Leaf—a dead weight of about 500 lbs. We were shown cutouts and diagrams by the comedian. But I was reassured to note that, notwithstanding the futuristic technology, the Leaf is a fairly normal-looking car, a four-door hatchback with that cloyingly cute Pokémon face so typical of small Japanese cars.

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Volt, LEAF Powertrains Among Ward’s 2011 “10 Best Engines”

By on December 8, 2010 in News

By Charles Krome

The Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF continue to rack up the awards, with the propulsion systems from both being named to the annual “10 Best Engines” list put together by Ward’s.

Per the editor’s, the former’s “‘Voltec’ propulsion system is brilliant—a technological masterpiece,” with editor-in-chief Drew Winter adding that “General Motors engineers have changed the course of history by creating an electric vehicle with true mass appeal.” But is it really an EV? Well, Ward’s says “Some consider it a glorified hybrid while others just don’t understand it.” Make of that what you will.

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The Great Hill Country Volt Jamboree

By on December 7, 2010 in Features

By Roger Boylan

That isn’t how GM, who organized the event, billed it. It’s just me being cute. Not quite as cute, mind you, as the herd of little Chevy Volts I found tethered to their battery-charging stations at 8 a.m. last Friday, when I arrived to participate in the Texas leg of the nationwide “Volt Unplugged” media event.  About a dozen automotive writers convened at The Crossings, a plush resort hotel west of Austin, with stunning views of Lake Travis and adjoining hills and bluffs in autumnal shades that reminded me—and a German-born colleague—of the Rhine and Mosel valleys. “Wunderbar,” we exclaimed, jointly. “Jawohl.”  Tears welled; thoughts of beer came, and sparkling Riesling. Then we pulled ourselves together and the drive got underway.

Coincidentally, I’d just reviewed a Plug-In Prius, which impressed me so much that I was unprepared to be equally or more impressed by the much-hyped, perhaps overly hyped, Volt, Motor Trend’s 2011 Car of the Year. And indeed, there are undeniable superficial similarities between the two futuremobiles: a starter button instead of a key; a Star Trek instrument panel; winking displays of electronic arcana on the display screens; otherworldly clicks and faint moans at ignition. But as soon as I moved onto the two-lane blacktop, the Volt came into its own. Even on uphill spurts and cruising at 70+, my power source was all electric, and I made sure that some of those spurts were fast. GM claims 0-60 in 9 seconds, but I estimate that my heavy boot application shaved nearly a half second off that figure.

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Honda Further Undercuts Prius With New Base Insight

By on December 1, 2010 in News

By Chris Haak

Honda’s second-generation Insight, which is based heavily upon the Fit’s architecture, but without the conventional car’s peppy drivetrain or much of its sporty handling, has not been a sales success for Honda so far.  While the company initially hoped to sell 60,00o Insights annually in the US, sales have been barely over a quarter of that number, with 17,789 units sold through the first ten months of 2010, against 17,530 units sold during the first ten months of 2009.  Meanwhile, the Prius is whooping the Insight in terms of sales:  Toyota’s standard-bearer has moved 115,065 so far this year (again, through October 31) and 118,290 during the same period last year.

So does Honda’s solution involve developing a trick new hybrid system, tossing out the underperforming IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) mild hybrid system?  Nah, instead they just stripped content from the car to lower its price point.

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GM, Chrysler Each Set to Add 1,000 Engineering Jobs

By on December 1, 2010 in News

By Chris Haak

GM and Chrysler – yes, the same two companies that shed tens of thousands of white-collar and production employees over the past few years as both firms stumbled into bankruptcy in 2009 – announced separately today that they plan to hire a considerable number of engineers.  Most of the new jobs will be located in Michigan, where it seems likely that there is a large number of out-of-work, qualified engineers with automotive experience ready to start working again on a moment’s notice.

For Chrysler, which saw its US-based employment fall from 64,750 in 2006 to just 32,250 in June 2009, the new hires will come in large part from stepped-up campus recruiting efforts at 35 schools, but the company also wants to hire a mix of new grads and experienced hires.  Since exiting bankruptcy in June 2009, the company has already hired some 5,000 workers, of whom at least 500 are engineers.  Of the 1,000 projected new hires, about 600 will actually be on Chrysler’s payroll, and 400 will likely be contract employees.  Chrysler expects to fill the openings within the next four months.

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