Hybrid Cars

AID (Automotive Industry Data) reports that first-time registrations in April of electric vehicles in Western Europe were up almost one-half to just under 2,600 units, representing 0.26% of the region’s new car market. Registrations of electric cars this April were up in eight markets, down in seven, AID reported. France, thanks to the launch of the Renault ZOE, currently ranks as the region’s largest electric car market, with 3,188 new electric car registrations during the first four months of this year. French electric car registrations in April more than doubled to 940 units, according to AID.

Filed under: MPG, Legislation and Policy, USA Americans are about to spend a lot of money on gasoline. If the number crunchers at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) are correct, US drivers will spend a tidy $1.44 billion filling up for their Memorial Day travels as 31.2 million people use the long weekend to participate in the time-honored tradition of a road trip. Almost nine out of 10 Americans (89 percent, by UCS estimates) who will travel this weekend are expected to do so by passenger car or truck and therefore will spend the equivalent of 77 million bottles of sunscreen or 300 million cones of ice cream on petroleum. That gas tab will theoretically go up a tad after that ice cream's polished off and the collective weight's put on, of course. The holiday spending number would be cut in half if we had tomorrow's cars today. The UCS says that if we were driving the average new vehicle from 2025 - which will have an average fuel economy that's roughly twice as high today - we would be paying about $619 million less on gasoline this weekend. Which means more ice cream and sunscreen for all of us. Check out the UCS press release below.Continue reading Memorial Day weekend gas tab likely to hit $1.44 billion in USMemorial Day weekend gas tab likely to hit $1.44 billion in US originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 24 May 2013 19:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Diesel, Hybrid, BMW Hey, for some, $4,800 is the price of their next car. For the Ultimate Driving Machine, it's the price difference between a diesel and a hybrid. BMW has released pricing specs for its 2014 model-year 5 Series sedans, and it turns out that the German automaker appears to view diesel as a superior way to hit stricter fuel-economy standards compared to hybrids. How do we know? Bimmer is pricing its 535d sedan at $57,525. Not only does the oil burner deliver 255 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque, but it's less expensive than the ActiveHybrid 5, which checks in at $62,325. Of course, one could scrap any pretense of fuel economy and go for the V8 with TwinPower Turbo, which delivers a whopping 445 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque - and a fuel economy rating that will likely displease the treehuggers of the world. Check out BMW's really long press release below.Continue reading 2014 BMW 5 Series diesel costs $4,800 less than ActiveHybrid in US2014 BMW 5 Series diesel costs $4,800 less than ActiveHybrid in US originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 24 May 2013 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

As far as official info goes, it is anyone’s guess, but anonymous sources have said Henrik Fisker is working with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li in one of two potential bids to keep Fisker Automotive’s name alive. Henrik Fisker abruptly left the company he co-founded six years ago in March this year, and Reuters says the investors are discussing purchase of the U.S. Department of Energy’s outstanding loan – at pennies on the dollar – along with avoiding bankruptcy by Fisker Automotive. The Energy Department is owed $171 million and provisions could allow it to try and negotiate what amounts to damage control and selling off the debt at a loss to minimize otherwise greater loss to taxpayers. The other group said to be thinking about doing something similar to Li and Henrik Fisker, as previously reported, includes Bob Lutz – the “L” in VL Automotive which already has a Web site with Fisker bodied, Corvette-engined cars, but without a reliable supply of the needed bodies. Lutz and company are looking at snapping up the former 400-plus employee company at fire sale prices of $20 million, and sources said this could crest higher, and may need to, given more money is reportedly on offer by Li and his group. Sources have agreed avoiding bankruptcy could be desirable for Fisker in maximizing what value it can return to investors. Henrik Fisker has reportedly been communicating with potential investors to get in on a deal to revive his former company. What role the talented designer who has also penned Aston Martins and BMWs remains unclear. The group he’s said to be involved with led by Li has reportedly bid on the outstanding Energy Department loan for a sum in the range of $25 million to $30 million. While higher than what the group Lutz had initially offered, it amounts to 17.5 cents on the dollar back to U.S. taxpayers. Anything could happen, however, and inquiries to Fisker Automotive, and others involved have gone unanswered. Automotive News The post Will Fisker Help Revive A New Fisker? appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Ormat Industries Ltd. in Israel report the development of a comercially-viable, one-step catalytic hydrotreating process for the conversion of soybean oil to renewable diesel-type fuel in a paper in the journal Fuel. The conversion of soybean oil to green diesel was carried out on Pt/SAPO-11-Al2O3 catalyst in a trickle-bed reactor. Steady-state operation was reached after about 150 h. The steady-state performance was recorded at 375–380 °C, 30 atm and LHSV = 1 h?1. The green diesel produced in this study was characterized according to ASTM procedures by a certified lab. Most of its properties were found to fit the standard of qualified diesel fuel (European standard EN-590) making it an excellent component for diesel fuel blends. Resources Moti Herskowitz, Miron V. Landau, Yehudit Reizner, Dov Berger (2013) A commercially-viable, one-step process for production of green diesel from soybean oil on Pt/SAPO-11, Fuel, Volume 111 Pages 157-164, doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2013.04.044

Cycling behavior of TEGDME-based electrolyte lithium?oxygen cells; capacity limited to 1000 mAh g?1carbon. Credit: ACS, Park et al. Click to enlarge. A team including researchers from Hanyang University (South Korea) and University of Rome Sapienza (Italy) have shown that operating temperature plays an important role in the performance of Lithium-air batteries. They also demonstrated “to the best of our knowledge for the first time” that a lithium-air battery, fabricated with optimized electrodes and electrolyte, may successfully operate in a temperature range extending from ?10 to 70 °C. The electrochemical and morphological study of the response of Li-air cells cycled at various temperatures is published in the ACS journal Nano Letters. Lithium-air (or Li-oxygen) batteries are attracting a great deal of research interest due their very high energy densities, and thus their potential application in electric vehicles. In its most classical configuration, the Li/O2 battery is formed by a lithium metal anode, a liquid organic electrolyte and a carbon-supported (with or without catalyst) air electrode. Recently, a new configuration, where the lithium metal is replaced by a lithium alloy silicon anode, has also been reported. Key parameters in assuring proper Li/O2 battery behavior are (i) the optimization of the positive electrode structure, in terms of use of an adequate gas diffusion layer and of effective catalysts, and (ii) the choice of an electrolyte stable to superoxide attack. It is in fact well-known that the basic electrochemical cell process, leading to the reversible formation and dissolution of lithium peroxide, involves an intermediate oxygen anion radical O2?•, namely, a highly reactive base that readily attacks and decomposes conventional electrolytes, such as organic carbonate solutions. Dimethoxyethane (DME)-based and ionic liquid-based solutions have been proposed as alternative electrolyte media, however with little success. Recent works demonstrated that the best results in terms of Li/O2 battery stability and cycling may be obtained with the use of long chain, ether-based glymes, such as tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TEGDME) electrolyte solutions. [Earlier post.] In a previous paper we have reported a detailed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study showing that Li/O2 batteries based on the TEGDME-LiCF3SO3 electrolyte indeed show a very promising behavior at room temperature. In this paper we extend the study by investigating the role of temperature on influencing the response of Li/TEGDME-LiCF3SO3/O2 cells.—Park et al. The Li-air cells in the study were based on a specially developed gas diffusion layer (GDL) oxygen electrode and on a TEGDME-LiCF3SO3 electrolyte. The gas diffusion layer was coated with Super-P carbon as matrix to host the lithium oxygen reaction products (Li2O2 nanospheres and hollow nanospheres formed at the interface with the tetraglyme-based solution). All of the cycles were run under a fixed capacity regime of 1000 mAh g?1carbon. Low temperatures resulted in a rate decrease, due to a reduced diffusion of the lithium ions from the electrolyte to the electrode interface. High temperatures resulted in a rate enhancement, due to the decreased electrolyte viscosity and consequent increased oxygen mobility. They also showed that the temperature also influences the crystallinity of lithium peroxide formed during cell discharge. Resources Jin-Bum Park, Jusef Hassoun, Hun-Gi Jung, Hee-Soo Kim, Chong Seung Yoon, In-Hwan Oh, Bruno Scrosati, and Yang-Kook Sun (2013) Influence of Temperature on Lithium–Oxygen Battery Behavior. Nano Letters doi: 10.1021/nl401439b

Russian oil and gas major Rosneft, 75% owned by the government, and the Venezuelan Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP), a subsidiary of PDVSA, signed an agreement to create a joint venture to develop heavy oil reserves in Venezuela in the framework of the Carabobo-2 project. (Earlier post. Rosneft’s stake in the joint venture will amount to 40%, the other 60% will be held by CVP. The Carabobo-2 project includes blocks Carabobo-2 North and Carabobo-4 West with a total area of 342 square kilometers located in the Orinoco river’s heavy crude belt. Reserves at the blocks are estimated at 40 billion barrels (6.5 billion tonnes). Commercial oil production is expected to peak at more than 400 thousand barrels per day (about 25 million tonnes per year). According to the memorandum, Rosneft is to pay a bonus of $1.1 billion for entering the project in two tranches (40% and 60%) and also to offer a loan of $1.5 billion to Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo with the maximum yearly take-off of $0.3 billion. The joint venture plans to perform the entire cycle of site exploration and development, building ground facilities and field pipelines. There are also plans for building an upgrader to increase the quality of the extracted oil. The Orinoco Belt contains heavy and extra-heavy oil with a range of gravities from 4 to 16 degrees API (a measure of density) as well as large deposits of natural bitumen (i.e., oil sands). The US Geological Survey (USGS) characterizes extra-heavy oil as having an API gravity of less than 10°. Natural bitumen shares the attributes of heavy oil but can be yet more dense and viscous. According to the Government of Alberta, Canada, Athabasca bitumen has an API gravity number of less than 10°. President and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin said that the new joint venture would be named Petrovictoria. The companies actively work on other new projects including the Venezuelan shelf, he also added. The companies have also signed a confidentiality agreement allowing Rosneft to obtain geological data on Venezuelan offshore blocks for possible future cooperation. Earlier Rosneft and the Venezuelan company had signed a memorandum of intent to study several gas sites on this country’s shelf.

EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future named Pennsylvania State University its Year Two winner at the EcoCAR 2013 Competition in San Diego. The 15 universities competing in EcoCAR 2 gathered in Yuma, Arizona last week for six days of vehicle testing and evaluation on drive quality and environmental impact at General Motors (GM) Desert Proving Ground. From there, the competition moved to San Diego for a second round of judging by automotive industry experts. The Penn State University Advanced Vehicle Team (PSU AVT) designed a series plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) fueled with E85. The converted 2013 Chevrolet Malibu uses a front-wheel-drive system powered by a Magna E-Drive motor with a 90 kW electric drive unit to supply the propulsion for the converted Malibu. For the auxiliary power unit, the PSU AVT uses a Weber MPE 750 engine fueled with E85, coupled to a UQM PowerPhase 75 generator to supply DC power to the high-voltage bus. The vehicle uses lithium-ion-phosphate batteries to form the basis for the energy storage system. After a year creating and testing their eco-vehicle designs using technologies such as Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation, teams spent the second year of EcoCAR 2 utilizing advanced automotive engineering processes to redesign their Malibu vehicles. Argonne National Laboratory and GM engineers subjected these vehicles to extensive safety inspections and on-road evaluations, similar to those conducted on new GM vehicles. Each car was evaluated on reduced fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as well as performance, utility and safety. Pennsylvania State University was named this year’s winner after impressing inspectors and other judges representing various EcoCAR 2 sponsors with its E85 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The team was the first to pass safety and technical inspections, on-road safety evaluation as well as run all the competition dynamic events. The second place team, Cal State Los Angles, excelled with its ethanol-fueled vehicle and was the first team to complete all the dynamic events. The Ohio State University took third place overall after demonstrating its series-parallel hybrid electric vehicle. The 15 university teams will now spend Year Three of EcoCAR 2 perfecting their designs before the competition finals in Washington, D.C., in May 2014.

Panamera S E-Hybrid PHEV on the road. Click to enlarge. During an international press event in Germany, in which more than 42 test drives were conducted with journalists in the Panamera S E-Hybrid (earlier post) covering a total distance of more than 1,200 kilometers (746 miles), the new plug-in hybrid model consumed 4.4 l/100 km (53.4 mpg US) averaged over all drives. The lowest fuel consumption value recorded on the circuit course for the Panamera plug-in hybrid was 2.8 l/100 km (84 mpg US). NEDC testing indicates combined cycle fuel consumption of 3.1 l/100 km (75.9 mpg US) for the PHEV, with accompanying CO2 emissions (combined) of 71 g/km. Electrical consumption (combined) is rated at 162 Wh/km. Layout of the plug-in hybrid powertrain. Click to enlarge. The test drive results were obtained from four unmodified Panamera S E-Hybrid production cars, each carrying three to four people, with the climate control system activated and accelerating up to 230 km/h (143 mph) on the highway section of the route. The test circuit, which had a total length of 28.7 km (17.8 miles), followed a course through and around the city of Hockenheim and comprised 6.5 km (4.0 miles) city driving, 9.2 km (5.7 miles) of country roads and 13 km (8 miles) of German Autobahn—some without speed limits. A prerequisite for attaining such fuel consumption values is systematically exploiting opportunities for charging the 9.4 kWh lithium-ion battery on the electrical grid, Porsche noted. The car’s range of 36 kilometers (22.4 miles) in all-electric driving was also confirmed in practice with a fuel consumption value of 0.0 l/100 km and zero local emissions, which was not only attainable in NEDC testing on a dynamometer, but also on the street. The car attains this value at an average speed of 54 km/h (33.6 mph), while the average speed in NEDC testing is just 33 km/h (20.5 mph). Powertrain. The Panamera S E-Hybrid features a new Euro 6-compliant turbocharged 3.0L direct-injection V6 engine that delivers 245 kW (329 hp) of power and 440 N·m (325 lb-ft) of torque; three-phase 70 kW synchronous motor developing maximum torque of 310 N·m (229 lb-ft); an 8-speed Tiptronic S transmission with Normal and Sport shifting programs and a separate shifting strategy for E-Power mode; and a 9.4 kWh Li-ion battery pack. The Panamera S E-Hybrid offers a combined system power of 416 hp (306 kW), accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 5.5 seconds and has a top speed of 270 km/h (168 mph). The electric drive produces 95 hp (71 kW), with maximum torque of 310 N·m (229 lb-ft). The Panamera S E-Hybrid offers multiple modes that can be selected by pushbuttons on the center console. The E-Power mode—activated by default, provided that the battery charge state is sufficient—enables largely all-electric driving. The total system power can be accessed at any time by kickdown, such as to overtake another vehicle. In this case, the E-Power mode remains activated in background, and it enables all-electric driving as soon as acceleration returns to a moderate level, and the electric top speed is not exceeded. When E-Power is deactivated, the operating strategy switches to Hybrid mode. This operating strategy—programmed for efficiency—fully automatically switches between the driving states of electric driving, hybrid driving with load point shift, coasting, electrical system recuperation and boosting. Here the E-Power Assistant, which the driver can select in the instrument cluster’s TFT display, can precisely meter, based on the display, whether the car is driven all-electrically or with support of the combustion engine. Essentially, the system “reserves” the battery’s available energy capacity for later electric driving phases by switching to Hybrid mode and engaging the six-cylinder engine earlier. The E-Charge mode is a newly developed driving mode t

The long-promised announcement from Tesla Motors on expansion of its Supercharger network has been delayed by the company's billion-dollar fundraising, and this week's payoff of its entire Department of Energy loan. But Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] still plans a rapid expansion of the network of fast-charging stations for its Model S electric cars...