New Honda Insight ad debuts in Belgium
Mar 30, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies
The new Honda Insight is the cheapest hybrid on sale and now, the car has an innovative ad as well. Enjoy the “Let it shine” video here:
The commercial, called ‘Let it Shine’, was created by the Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and uses a bank of Insights parked in a grid near the mountains as pixels in a giant LED-like display. When the sun goes down, the headlights begin flickering on and off to create a cutesy animation to the tune of “This Little Light of Mine”. Read the rest of this entry »
Honda announces Insight’s US prices while Mitsubishi shows Drive@Earth
Mar 12, 2009 Uncategorized
Barely a month after Honda put the Insight hybrid on road in Japan, it has announced official prices and trims for the US market. Prices start from $19,800 in base LX trim and goes upto $23100, for which you will get goodies like integrated GPS in dash and steering-mounted paddleshift gearchange. The prices confirm Honda’s claim as the Insight being the cheapest hybrid on sale, with the Prius starting prices being $2k more.
Meanwhile Mitsubishi has released ads of its iMiEV electric vehicles, of which, it showed off a couple of newer variants in the recent Geneva Motor Show. The ads are tagged as Drive@Earth campaign and highlisghts that the car has zero carbon emissions while driving.
[More videos follow] Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Green Cars, Honda Insight, Hybrids, Toyota Prius
Coulomb Tech’s charging stations now in San Francisco
Feb 19, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies
Recharge!
The city of San Francisco in California has installed “Smartlets”, electric vehicle charging stations from Coulomb Technologies that can be used by owners of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Plug-in hybrids can use an electric outlet to top up their batteries and extend the distance they can travel in electric motor only mode. . While no mass produced plug-in hybrids are on sale in US currently, there are many aftermarket modifications being offered for the Toyota Prius (like the Hymotion from A123).
Coulomb’s had installed a few charging station in San Jose few months back. People can sign up using one of the various flexible plans, which allow them to recharge their cars a specified number of times.
Coulomb and Better Place are two startups, that are signing deals with governments all over the world and various car companies to set up public charging stations, in anticipation of roll outs of electric vehicles and plug in hybrids in the near future.
Tags: Better Place, Coulomb Technologies, Hybrids, San Francisco
Michelin and Valeo are the new French electrifying power couple
Feb 14, 2009 Auto Tech
Michelin
French tire maker Michelin and French car parts maker Valeo have decided to cooperate in developing electric and hybrid vehicles.
Michelin has already developed a novel technology dubbed the Active Wheel Technology. It features a standard wheel that houses a pair of electric motors. One of the motors spins the wheel, while the other acts as an active suspension system to improve comfort.Michelin says battery or fuel cell-powered Active Wheel cars will not need a gearbox, clutch, transmission shift, universal joint or antiroll bar. This will decrease weight amongst other things. With Michelin providing key elements of the powertrain and tires, Valeo could concentrate on engine and battery cooling systems, climate control, lighting and energy management.
Michelin used to organise competition to challenge fuel efficiency and newly developed technologies, called Challenge Bibendum. But due to the depth of the current economic crisis, it decided to postpone until 2010 the edition of Challenge Bibendum which was due to take place in April 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Recent Financial Times reports show that Michelin, one of the world’s biggest tyre makers, suffered a 54 per cent decline in annual net income to €357m after losses in the second half of 2008. Valeo tumbled into the red for the year with net losses of €207m against a profit in 2007 of €319m. Read the rest of this entry »
MIT students designed shock absorbers increase fuel efficiency
Feb 13, 2009 Auto Tech, Startups
A energy regenerative shock absorber invented by MIT students promises a smoother car ride, while increasing fuel efficiency by upto 10%.
The prototype shock absorbers use a hydraulic system that forces fluid through a turbine attached to a generator. The system is controlled by an active electronic system that optimizes the damping, providing a smoother ride than conventional shocks while generating electricity to recharge the batteries or operate electrical equipment.
The group of ex and current MIT students has already filed for patents and has generated interests from companies interested in using the shock absorbers in heavy trucks, in commercial as well as millitary domain. So don’t be surprised if you see these in the next generation millitary trucks and people carriers.
Read this link more for details.
Tags: fuel efficiency, Hybrids, MIT
Audi may get hybrid Q5 and Volkswagen a hybrid Touareg
Feb 4, 2009 Auto Tech
VW Touareg
Audi may release a hybrid version of its Q5 SUV in US in late 2010. While diesels may have comparable efficiency and much lower development costs, US car buyers have a love affair with gasoline powered vehicles and this is forcing Audi to develop a hybrid to go head to head against Lexus RX470h. But if it meets with success in US market, Audi may start selling it in Europe as well.
Europe will also get the Volkwagen Touareg hybrid, a close cousin of the Q5, come next year. The first hybrid from Volkswagen, it will have a V6 TSI (i.e. a turbocarhed V6) and a 52hp electric motor, for a combined performance of 333hp. It will come with a new eight-speed automatic transmission and potentially have a 9L per 100km fuel efficiency rating.
Ford selects battery suppliers for its plug-in hybrid
Feb 4, 2009 Auto Tech
Ford Fusion
Ford, the financially soundest carmaker amongst the Detroit Big 3 and whose new Fusion hybrid is gaining good press reviews, has announced deals for battery and utility support for its plug-in hybrid programme.
Ford announced that Johnson Controls-Saft will supply the complete battery system for Ford’s first production plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) beginning in 2012. Ford has been testing a few plug-in versions of its Escape hybrid (which was the car of choice for US president Obama), so 2012 seems like a long time, especially since Chevrolet Volt will become available from 2010.
But there are other goodies coming as well. Ford has plans of bringing a full battery electric vehicle (BEV) van to market in 2010 for commercial use, a small BEV sedan developed jointly with Magna International by 2011 aprt from the PHEV by 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Walmart gets new hybrid trucks
Feb 3, 2009 Green Technologies, Natural Resource Conservation
Walmart green trucks
With an aim of doubling fleet efficiency compared to 2005, Wal-Mart Stores announced that it will test two new types of heavy-duty commercial hybrid trucks and two different alternatively fueled heavy duty trucks.
These include a full-propulsion Arvin Meritor dual-mode diesel-electric hybrid as well as fifteen trucks converted to run on Reclaimed Grease Fuel, made with the waste brown cooking grease from Walmart stores. There will be other trucks operating on an 80/20 blend of biodiesel made of reclaimed yellow waste grease. The list of vehices in the green fleet will also include heavy-duty hybrid trucks with diesel-electric hybrid power systems as well as trucks converted to run on natural gas.
UPS, a package delivery company and Coca Cola have been experimenting with hybrid trucks as well, though they are using hydraulic hybrids. Read the rest of this entry »
Newark tests Vehicle-to-Grid power system
Jan 22, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies
Prof.Kempton's EV
The city of Newark in US became the first electric utility in the US (maybe even the world) to test the use of a car to store and provide power for the local electric grid.
University of Delaware Associate Professor of Marine Policy Willett Kempton usually plugs his car in at his Newark home and in his University campus, and while it sits, he says, it stores enough energy to power 7 to 8 homes on his block for approximately 30 minutes.The vehicle, which runs on electricity alone, is specifically designed to store energy and improve grid reliability.
As we start using energy sources like wind and solar that are periodical and the use of electricity is itself varying at different times, we will need to store the electricty produced somewhere, instead of simultaneous production and consumption. With more hybrids being bought, their batteries can be used as storage devices. So, you can charge your car when the demand is low and transmit back to the grid during peak hours. With smart grids and dynamic pricing, you may be able to sell power units at a higher price than you paid during charging! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Hybrids, V2G, Vehicle to Grid
Coca Cola expands fleet of hybrid delivery trucks
Jan 17, 2009 Auto Tech, Natural Resource Conservation
Coke
Coca Cola has been experimenting with small hybrid delivery trucks for sometime now. Today, Coca Cola launched a new, larger hybrid electric tractor, which is the size of standard bulk delivery truck the company uses for large deliveries.
The hybrid tractor uses about 30 percent less fuel and produces about 30 percent fewer emissions than standard tractors. A motor/generator, working with the transmission and a series of lithium ion batteries, allows the truck to source electrical power instead of gas when traveling at speeds below 30 MPH, reducing emissions and fuel use.
Coca Cola said that it plans to deploy an incremental 185 hybrid electric trucks across the United States and Canada in 2009, bringing their total number of hybrid electric delivery trucks to 327, the largest such fleet in North America. Read the rest of this entry »