Transportation Tech

PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-25T07:38:49Z

Aircrafts are notorious for adding carbon content into the atmosphere because more and more people are choosing this mode of travel. We are trying to reduce carbon emissions on the ground. But we are not giving enough thought to reducing carbon content by aircrafts. Environmentalists are concerned that the figures are bound to reach [...]
Posted in: Electric Cars, Future Energy, Transportation

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-25T00:25:00Z

At a recent shareholders" meeting in Japan, Toyota executives stated their continued commitment to bringing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to market in the near future. The previous forecast was for production to start in 2014, but they"ve revised their timeline, pushing production back a year to 2015.

That still seems awfully soon for a full-scale production of a hydrogen car, but maybe Toyota knows something we don"t. Hydrogen fuel cells have a lot of potential, but the technology and infrastructure is still way behind electric vehicles.

We"re more optimistic about the plug-in hybrid and all-electric models they"re planning for release much sooner, but we"ll be interested to hear more about the HFC model and to see if they stick to their timeline.

via AFP and Autoblog Green

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-24T07:15:32Z

A new hydrogen car was unveiled in London, UK by Riversimple. This Riversimple Urban Car (RUC) is powered by fuel cells. These fuels cells combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to release energy. What comes out from the exhaust pipe is not toxic fumes but water. Even using hydrogen fuel from source to [...]
Posted in: Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Fuel, Transportation

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-23T08:17:00Z

If you recall, a big chunk of stimulus money ($25 billion) was made available for car companies who are on the road to developing electric cars. Both the big auto giants and the lightweight electric startups applied for as much of said money as possible, and the Department of Energy is moments away from announcing the lucky winners.

Although the DOE has made no official announcement, the Detroit Free Press has leaked that the winners are going to be: Tesla, Nissan and Ford (which explains why this particular publication was so eager to spread the good news early). Let’s take a look at each

Nissan – Lest you worry that US stimulus dollars are funding industry abroad, rest assured; Nissan will have to use the money in-house under the conditions of the loan. This means we’ll likely be seeing EVs coming out of Smyrna, TN – a town which, despite a modest Wikipedia entry, boasts a Nissan manufacturing plant. Nissan says it expects to be selling EVs for commercial fleets by 2010 and then start rolling out cars for consumers like us in 2012.

Tesla – Thanks to the $350 million Tesla is expected to get, the Model S may have been saved from death-by-lack of funding. ABG speculates that Daimler’s recent financial support of the company may have convinced the DEO that Tesla is good, stable investment. As for how the DOE justifies using the nation’s money to help build a car that most Americans can’t afford (estimated in the ballpark of $50,000)… ok maybe it doesn’t make all the sense in the world, but – like most other EcoGeeks – the DOE appreciates Tesla nonetheless and wants it to succeed. After all, you can’t kill the company whose cars are the sex symbols of green technology.

Ford – But of course. The stimulus loans would be downright un-American if they left out this icon of American auto ingenuity. And it would be downright crazy to invest the money into the other two icons of American auto ingenuity – GM and Chrysler – currently wallowing in the mire of bankruptcy… yes, Ford is a good choice. Not too many details on what they are actually going to produce, but there is talk of a plug in EV of their own.

Via ABG

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-23T07:19:26Z

If we can control the excess carbon emissions from fossil fuels we can control the global warming to a great extent. When we start our cars and apply brakes using combustion engines we use generous amount of fossil fuel and the carbon emission too is in the direct proportion of the amount of gas [...]
Posted in: Hybrid Cars, Inventions, Transportation

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-23T01:37:00Z

I haven"t yet had an opportunity to ride a Go-Cycle, the electric-assist bicycle designed by Forumla One designer Richard Thorpe, but it seems like everyone else has. I"ve now seen three reviews for the Go-Cycle (at TreeHugger, the Times Online and The Guardian), and if you live in a hilly town, or just aren"t a fan of pushing your quads to their limit, you should check them out.

The consensus is almost entirely positive. But lets start out with the cons, just for fun. First, it"s pretty heavy. Though it"s designed with light-weight materials, the battery and motor make it difficult to cary up and down stairs. However, you can disconnect the battery (the size and weight of a brick) and cary it up and down stairs for charging at home while the bike stays on the street. The £1198 sticker price might also make you a bit wary. There are, after all, cars that are almost cheaper than that now. Some riders wished there were higher gears, and it"s more complicated to fix if it ever breaks down.

The good news is that it"s extremely intuitive, can add power to your ride for up to 20 miles, charges in less than three hours, and works just fine as a regular bike once the battery is dead. The sleek, collapsible design will also (apparently) turn heads and make life in a small apartment simpler.

And for those of you hard core folks whol don"t believe bikes should be tained by the scourge of coal-fired electricity, just think of this as an alternative to an electric vehicle which would, of course, use much, much more power.

Via TreeHugger

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-06-18T12:36:00Z

The New York Times has a look at a rival to Project Better Place - A Car Charging Infrastructure Takes Shape

Having shipped hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations, and with repeat orders now coming in from Europe, Coulomb Technologies, a privately-held Silicon Valley company, expects to be profitable by the 2010 introduction of the Chevy Volt, according to its chief executive, Richard Lowenthal.

(Mr. Lowenthal appears in the video above, explaining the company’s ChargePoint Network.)

“Our plan was to sell a thousand stations, but we will probably double that,” he told Green Inc. last week after the company secured its third Bay Area order this year. “Our company is structured to be profitable based on early adopters.”

Founded in 2007, Coulomb is looking to crack the chicken-and-egg riddle that bedeviled the hydrogen fuel cell industry. Without a refueling infrastructure, consumers won’t buy vehicles. But no one invested in refueling stations without potential customers on the road.

“It is a very fundamental issue for the business,” Mr. Lowenthal said. “What do you do about the road trip?”

With electric vehicles, the additional problem is that in cities like San Francisco, where almost half of all vehicles park on the city’s streets, many potential buyers couldn’t recharge their cars overnight.

Mr. Lowenthal, a Cisco veteran who served as mayor of Cupertino, said that municipalities, parking companies and condo developers represent the first tranche of customers for charge points that will be deployed on city streets and in garages. They sell for $2,500 to $4,000 and can recharge an electric vehicle battery in four to ten hours.

In what might shape up to be the VHS/Betamax duel of the industry, a Coulomb rival, Better Place of Palo Alto, is looking to develop refueling stations where consumers on road trips can swap batteries in a matter of minutes. Still other companies are building rapid recharge points.

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-04-04T11:07:00Z

I think I mentioned the large volume of "black" patents in "The Shockwave Rider" - Kevin at Cryptogon has been speculating that the new head of GM may be charge with transitioning some of these to the US transport industry - More on What Kent Kresa Might Bring to GM.

What technologies might someone like Kent Kresa be tasked with providing to GM?

—Obama Fired GM’s CEO; What’s Stirring Behind the Black Curtain?

Not only did the Obama administration fire GM’s CEO, the Los Angeles Times reports that they also installed Kresa as Chairman.

Via: Bloomberg:

Alternative Energy, Technology

Kresa will probably help steer GM toward alternative-energy fuels and technology investments, based on his record and interests at Northrop, said Jim McAleese, a defense industry consultant with McAleese & Associates in McLean, Virginia. “Speed will be of the essence” as he focuses on cost cuts, McAleese said.

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-04-03T20:59:19Z

This week has been a good one for electric cars: Tesla has received more than 500 orders for their Model S that was just revealed last week, which is far more than expected (reserving one costs $5,000), Detroit Electric announced they would have an affordable electric sedan on the market in less than a year and now Mitsubishi is having to increase production of the iMiEV because of strong demand.

The iMiEV won"t begin leasing in Japan until this summer, but orders have come in so quickly that they"re upping their production. The carmaker had planned to produce 2,000 cars this year, but is now planning on making 5,000. Some reports say they may even be shooting for 20,000 by 2011.

The demand for these cars is exciting and I"m hoping it"s a sign that there will be continued and increased demand over the next few years as more and more electric cars are introduced.

via AP

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PainlessPump.com :: Transportation Tech | Articles

2009-04-03T18:44:44Z

While the Honda Insight has been selling extremely well in Japan, Toyota has had a few tricks up its sleeve to take on the fledgling (and less expensive) Honda Insight. Toyota"s battle comes on three fronts, each making the Insight seem like less of a deal to Japanese buyers.

First, Toyota is keeping on the 2008-style Prius as Japan"s cheapest hybrid, beating the Insight by a few hundred dollars at the base price. Second, they"ve significantly reduced the Japanese price points for the 2010 Prius. They"re now selling the Prius in Japan with a base price of just over $20,000, about a thousand more than the Insight.

Of course, the Prius has enough extra features not included at the base price that the car could cost as much as $33,000, while the Insight tops out (entirely tricked out, with everything you can get) at $22,000. The trick, obviously, is to get someone in the driver"s seat, and then remind them that all of those wonderful features they"re enjoying will cost a lot extra.

But this last trick is what has me even more steamed. Toyota has managed, it seems, to hack Japan"s efficiency test cycle. The Japanese model is calibrated specifically to Japan"s low-speed, urban test cycle (with an average speed of 16 mph.) Toyota (and Honda) proved that they were good at this here in the U.S., and it looks like Toyota"s done it again. While the 2010 Prius rates a combined 50 mpg here in America, the Japanese government has rated the car at 89 mpg.

Now, it"s certainly possible that Japanese drivers will get better fuel economy than American drivers, just due to the average speeds on Japanese roads. But they will not get 89 MPG. This is just about as high as a highly trained hypermiler will get, and it"s a little embarrassing for the Japanese government to have to stick that on the window when everyone knows it"s inaccurate.

But Toyota isn"t pulling any punches here. Why would someone pay $1,000 less for an Insight when they could get 40 MPG better with a Prius? Toyota wants to be the hybrid car company...they"ve gone so long without challengers that they"re not about to give up without a fight. And it looks to me that, in Japan at least, they"re going to win.

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