Once I have a more bus friendly bike, I will cut down on the moto even more. I haven't touched my truck since I bought it and I need to get started. I might be buying a place soon, so I don't want it in pieces until I know where it will go.
wake me up if it's actually in production and available in 2012. yet again: Aptera seems much more reasonable than this shuttlecraft...Antro Solo. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38144/113/
solar panels atop charge batteries good for "10-15 miles". pedals inside to charge a generator! and a combustion engine running gas or ethanol to make it a series hybrid when pedaling is not in the cards.
right now it's just a (non-running?) prototype, but claimed construction of carbon fiber, weight of <600 lbs, and seating for three are interesting.
Goddammit, someone just offered me an S50 (M3 engine) swapped e36 318ti (you know, the hatchbacks) for my Golf...must resist temptation.
next up in the vaporware wars: Tesla's Whitestar is now the Model S, and the buzz is that it'll be built in the Bay Area. $60 grand, all electric, and 225 mile range are the goals. we shall see.http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/07/01/vws-238mpg-1-liter-car-to-see-limited-edition-production/ and http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wild-ass-rumor-of-the-day-vw-to-build-235mpg-car/
yes, that's carbon fiber. price purely speculative at 20-30k Euros.
Aptera said:
Nice, but now most people need a bike lisence [I've got mine]
nope, not true: enclosed top, 3 wheels, and in that weight category means no license. again from www.aptera.com
aptera.com said:
the one worthwhile bit in that video piece was showing the sticker over the gas filler flap: official entrant in the automotive X prize. that'll separate the wheat from the chaff with objective testing, not just fluff journalism.
Hmm.... classified as a Bike, but no need for a bike lisence? Wow, talk about a loop-hole in the system!
this thing has 260Wh worth of battery. i have 576Wh. they claim 90-125km in "normal mode" and 182km in "automatic mode". i get maybe 40km.Panasonic Vivi RX 10-S http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/07/panasonic-presents-electric-bike-recharging-its-battery-via-the-braking-system/
clearly backwards captions
$1400 in japan. 26V 10Ah Li-ion (what actual chemistry, however?). big deal is that it has regeneration.
$28k after govt subsidies. 130 kph. 160 km range. "favorable sales conditions created by runaway gasoline prices" indeed...Report: Mitsubishi to Begin i MiEV Retail Sales In Japan A Year Early
9 July 2008
The Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi Motors Corp. begin retail sales in Japan of its i MiEV electric vehicle next summer, a year ahead of schedule. The automaker had planned to start leasing the i MiEV to businesses and municipalities next summer and to wait until 2010 for the retail launch.
However, it is advancing the retail release in light of smoother-than-expected preparations for mass production and the favorable sales conditions created by runaway gasoline prices, according to the report.
Mitsubishi Motors intends to set the price for the i MiEV at around 4 million yen. But government subsidies for low-emission vehicles are likely to reduce the actual retail price to an estimated 3 million yen [US$28,000].
The i MiEV is powered by a compact 47 kW motor that develops 180 Nm (133 lb-ft) of torque and a 330V, 16 kWh lithium-ion battery pack from Lithium Energy Japan (LEJ). LEJ is a joint venture of GS Yuasa Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC). Top speed of the i MiEV is 130 kph (81 mph), with a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) under Japanese 10-15 cycle driving conditions.
The report said that Mitsubishi Motors hopes to sell 2,000 i MiEVs in the first year and to boost the figure to 10,000 units by fiscal 2011.
http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/cycles/jp_10-15mode.html
The entire cycle includes a sequence of a 15 minute warm-up at 60 km/h, idle test, 5 minute warm-up at 60 km/h, and one 15-mode segment, followed by three repetitions of 10-mode segments and one 15-mode segment. Emissions are measured over the last four segments (3×10-mode + 1×15-mode, Figure 1).
Figure 1. 10-15 Mode Cycle
The distance of the cycle is 4.16 km, average speed 22.7 km/h, duration 660 s (or 6.34 km, 25.6 km/h, 892 s, respectively, including the initial 15 mode segment).
head on over to http://ebikes.ca and browse the store! you'd be interested in the eZee kit, but everything i used is available separately... the guy in the linked thread is running a 24V 12Ah setup it looks like. my e-penis is weighted with twice the Watt-hours, at 48V 12Ah flowing at 30A max.
note japanese govt support for initiatives such as this. contrast to republicans shilling for shale oil.
nytimes editorial said:
A Modest Proposal: Eco-Friendly Stimulus
David G. Klein
By ALAN S. BLINDER
Published: July 27, 2008
ECONOMISTS and members of Congress are now on the prowl for new ways to stimulate spending in our dreary economy. Here's my humble suggestion: "Cash for Clunkers," the best stimulus idea you've never heard of.
Cash for Clunkers is a generic name for a variety of programs under which the government buys up some of the oldest, most polluting vehicles and scraps them. If done successfully, it holds the promise of performing a remarkable public policy trifecta - stimulating the economy, improving the environment and reducing income inequality all at the same time. Here's how.
A CLEANER ENVIRONMENT The oldest cars, especially those in poor condition, pollute far more per mile driven than newer cars with better emission controls. A California study estimated that cars 13 years old and older accounted for 25 percent of the miles driven but 75 percent of all pollution from cars. So we can reduce pollution by pulling some of these wrecks off the road. Several pilot programs have found that doing so is a cost-effective way to reduce emissions.
MORE EQUAL INCOME DISTRIBUTION It won't surprise you to learn that the well-to-do own relatively few clunkers. Most are owned, instead, by low-income people. So if the government bought some of these vehicles at above-market prices, it would transfer a little purchasing power to the poor.
AN EFFECTIVE ECONOMIC STIMULUS With almost all the income tax rebates paid out, and the economy weakening, Cash for Clunkers would be a timely stimulus in 2009. As was made clear during the Congressional debate last winter, prompt spending is critical to an effective stimulus program. And the quickest, surest way to get more consumer spending is to put more cash into the hands of people who live hand-to-mouth.
Here's an example of how a Cash for Clunkers program might work. The government would post buying prices, perhaps set at a 20 percent premium over something like Kelley Blue Book prices, for cars and trucks above a certain age (say, 15 years) and below a certain maximum value (perhaps $5,000). A special premium might even be offered for the worst gas guzzlers and the worst polluters. An income ceiling for sellers might also be imposed - say, family income below $60,000 a year - to make sure the money goes to lower-income households.
The numbers in this example are purely illustrative. By raising the 20 percent premium, lowering the 15-year minimum age, or raising the $5,000 maximum price or the $60,000 income ceiling, you make the program broader and costlier - and create a bigger stimulus. By moving any of these in the opposite direction, you make the program narrower, cheaper and smaller.
People who sell their clunkers would receive government checks, perhaps paid to them at the motor vehicle bureau office where they turn in their old vehicles. They would be free to spend this money as they see fit, whether on a new car or truck or some other form of transportation - or anything else. To ensure that the program really pulls clunkers off the roads, only vehicles that had been registered and driven for, say, the past year would be eligible.
The government can either sell the cars it buys to licensed recyclers for scrap, or refit them with new emissions controls and resell them. But the government must not ship the cars to poor countries, where they would continue to belch pollutants.
Cash for Clunkers is not the pipe dream of some academic scribblers. Local variants are either now in operation or have been tested in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Texas, Virginia and several Canadian provinces. So there is no need for a "proof of concept." Rather, a national Cash for Clunkers program could learn from all this experience in building a better system.
THE big need to date has been money, which is why the scope of Cash for Clunkers programs has been limited. And that, of course, is where the need for stimulus comes in. We now want intelligent ways for the federal government to spend money.
Here's a high-end cost calculation for a national program. Suppose we took two million cars off the road a year, at an average purchase price of $3,500 (the top price in the Texas program today). Including all the administrative costs of running the program, that would probably cost about $8 billion. Compared with other nationwide income-transfer or environmental policies, that's a pretty small bill. For stimulus purposes, it would, of course, be better to run the program on a larger scale, if possible. There are over 250 million cars and light trucks on American roads, and some 30 percent are 15 years old or older. That's at least 75 million clunkers. At five million cars a year - an ambitious target, to be sure - the program would cost less than $20 billion, still cheap compared with the $168 billion stimulus enacted in February.
And what would all this money buy? First, less pollution. The Texas program estimated that clunkers spew 10 to 30 times as much pollution as newer cars. Second, the subsidy value (the 20 percent premium in my example) is a direct income transfer to the owners of clunkers, who are mostly low-income people. Third, these folks would almost certainly spend the cash they receive - not just the subsidy, but the entire payment, giving the economy a much-needed boost.
Oh, and I left out a fourth possible goal. By pulling millions of old cars off the road, Cash for Clunkers would stimulate the demand for new cars as people trade up. It need hardly be pointed out that our ailing auto industry, like our ailing economy, could use a shot in the arm right now. Scrapping two million or more clunkers a year should help.
With today's concerns over stimulus, inequality and greenhouse gases, as well as an aging vehicle fleet, Cash for Clunkers is an idea whose time may finally have come. Write your congressman.
Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. He has advised many Democratic politicians.
it's propaganda, yes, but key points are revealed: the Vue PHEV lives, and it will use Li-ion. cool.
With all of the excitement created by Bob Lutz’s first drive of the Chevrolet Volt test mule vehicle recently, some may have forgotten GM has another plug-in vehicle that is approved for production and progressing through early program development stages.
As I revealed to the audience today at the Plug-in 2008 Conference in San Jose, CA, we currently are testing 11 Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEV) at the GM proving grounds in Michigan and Arizona. In fact, we brought one with us to San Jose.
We initially started testing with two early development vehicles using nickel-metal hydride battery technology. But now we’re using lithium-ion batteries. We’ve done extensive battery thermal management work in the lab and on the road, and plug-in charge integration is fully operational and undergoing refinement.
The Vue Plug-in Hybrid is expected to be one of the first commercially availably plug-in hybrids produced by a major automaker. So in many ways, we’re pioneers.
However, we do have an advantage over others working to develop a plug-in hybrid.
The Vue Plug-in uses a modified version of the GM Two-mode Hybrid system, which was introduced in transit buses in 2003. As you may know, we scaled down the Two-mode Hybrid system for use in passenger vehicles, and began offering the fuel-saving technology in our 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon – the world’s first full-size hybrid SUVs.
Later this year, we’ll begin offering the third iteration: a front-wheel-drive version in the new 2009 Vue 2 Mode hybrid, which will set the standard in the compact crossover segment for its combination of fuel economy and performance.
So a majority of the Two-mode components that will be used in the Vue Plug-in Hybrid have been proven. They have undergone more than 800,000 miles of dynamometer testing (think of it as a treadmill for automobiles).
We clearly still have a lot of work to do before the Vue Plug-in is ready for production, but we continue to make progress. When the Vue Plug-in Hybrid arrives in a couple of years, we expect it to set the standard for its combination of fuel economy and performance. And that’s really what the Two-mode technology is all about – significantly improving efficiency while maintaining the capability our customers expect from an SUV or crossover.
This is possible because the Two-mode system uses a powerful battery, gas engine and an all new hybrid transmission to move the vehicle.
The Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid compliments our efforts with the Chevy Volt, in providing a range of electrified solutions for customers… from gas friendly, to a variety of hybrids - including plug-ins - to the all-electric Volt. The Vue Plug-in Hybrid will hit a market segment of crossover owners with the promise of potentially doubling the fuel efficiency of any current SUV, which is how most of these customers use their vehicles every day.
It’s an exciting time at GM, and we are working hard to expand our portfolio of electrified vehicles to give consumers an even broader range of fuel-efficient alternatives (as we approach the next decade).
and from autoblog green (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07/29/2009-honda-hybrid-system-cost-to-be-cut-in-half/) comes rumor that the upcoming honda prius-like hybrid, Kamm back and all, will start at $18995. hot.
