from http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=18280
AFS Trinity Demonstrates XH-150 Plug-in Hybrid to California Official
Source: AFS Trinity
[May 21, 2008]
SYNOPSIS: In a typical 340 mile week of driving, barely two gallons of fuel will be consumed, resulting in 170 miles per gallon.
a d v e r t i s e r
g o o g l e
California state officials and legislators as well as the general public in Sacramento are getting their first chance today to drive AFS Trinity's fast XH-150 SUV that gets 150 MPG, goes up to 87 MPH on the highway, accelerates faster than comparable gas only vehicles, cuts transportation costs 75%, and greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
"The XH-150 is a break-through, plug-in hybrid like no other because it can drive 40 miles in all-electric mode on an overnight charge without compromising performance," said Edward W. Furia, CEO of AFS Trinity Power Corporation that developed the Extreme Hybrid technology. "The average American drives less than 40 miles a day. On those days, if they are driving the XH-150, they will burn zero gasoline. "
State officials as well as members of the general public can see and drive two Extreme Hybrid prototypes today between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at a demonstration area near the capital in Sacramento on I Street between 14th and 15th. Individuals who want to drive the cars must be over 25 years of age, have a valid drivers license and sign a liability release. The number of general public drivers will be limited to a number that can be safely accommodated between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The AFS Trinity Extreme Hybrid received worldwide attention when it was introduced at the North American International Auto show in Detroit in January. The XH-150 was developed with the help of the world's leading independent automotive engineering firm, Ricardo.
Furia explained that the reason Extreme Hybrids work so well is because "they solve the battery problem that plagues all other plug-in hybrids. We do this by using ultra-capacitors to handle acceleration, thereby making it possible for the batteries to work better, last longer and operate more safely," Furia explained. "The whole system is managed by proprietary power and control electronics systems and software. The result is a powerful SUV with great benefit to the environment and an important contributor to reducing dependence on foreign oil."
Furia said, "In a typical 340 mile week of driving, barely two gallons of fuel will be consumed, resulting in 170 miles per gallon. We round down to 150 miles per gallon to take into account that mileage varies depending on how a person drives."
ABOUT AFS TRINITY
AFS Trinity develops Fast Energy Storage(TM) and power systems for vehicular, spacecraft and stationary power systems utilizing batteries, ultracapacitors, and flywheels. The Company has conducted programs with private and government organizations including DARPA, NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. DOT, California Energy Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Lockheed, Honeywell, Mercedes and Ricardo. AFS Trinity's patent-pending Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train utilizes ultra-capacitors, batteries and proprietary power and control electronics for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The company is also actively engaged in developing flywheel power systems for Formula One Racing (F1). For more information visit http://www.afstrinity.com.
ABOUT RICARDO
With technical centers and offices throughout Europe, the US and Asia, Ricardo is a leading independent technology provider and deep-content strategic management consultant to the world's transportation sector industries. The company's engineering expertise ranges from vehicle systems integration, controls, electronics and software development, to the latest driveline and transmission systems and gasoline, diesel, hybrid and fuel cell power train technologies. Its customers include the world's major automakers, tier 1 suppliers and leading motorsport teams. The company's skill base represents the state-of-the-art in low emissions and fuel-efficient power train technology, and can be best summarized: "Ricardo is Fuel Economy." For more information visit http://www.ricardo.com.
Some statements in this news release are forward-looking. These statements may be identified by the use of words such as "will," "expects," "believes," "targets," "intends," and words of similar import. Actual results may vary depending on circumstances both within and outside the control of the Company including market acceptance of products, technology development cycles and other risk factors. AFS Trinity Power Corporation takes no responsibility for updating any forward-looking statements made in this release.
Extreme Hybrid(TM), ExtremeFleet(TM), XH(TM), XH-150(TM), XH-250(TM), Fast Energy(TM), Fast Energy Storage(TM), Just Plug It In(TM), Powered by Fast Energy(TM) are trademarks pending of AFS Trinity Power Corporation. Patents Pending. All Rights Reserved. (C) 2008 AFS Trinity Power Corporation.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
London's EV Charging Posts
Westminster to launch UK's largest on-street electric car charging service
Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Environment , Local Government on Thursday 8th May 2008 - 11:34am
Westminster to launch UK's largest electric car charging service
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As well as saving cash, commuters will also be helping to save the environment by using any of the 12 on-street Juice Points for a small annual fee to recharge their electric motors, on top of getting massive discounts to use an additional 48 charging points in the council's car parks.
The new posts have been installed outside homes, offices and prime locations across Westminster following a successful pilot scheme in Covent Garden.
Users will have to pay an annual £75 fee to cover administration costs to register and use the on-street recharging posts. They will then receive a high quality recharging cable and personalised key, which will trigger a welcome message and start charging.
The launch event will give residents and visitors the opportunity to try out a number of electric cars and learn more about minimising drivers’ impact on the environment.
The posts, which cost £3,300 each, have been funded by Westminster City Council, Transport for London, the Energy Saving Trust and EDF Energy.
Westminster Council is leading the way in encouraging greener forms of car travel. Following the success of the Council’s electric car charging points, the London boroughs of Camden and Islington have installed posts of their own and Wandsworth is planning to do so.
The total number of 60 juice points includes 12 on street recharging points and 48 points in 13 of Westminster Council’s car parks.
The scheme is part of Westminster Council’s strategy to improve its air quality and is part of its Go Green programme, which sets out the ways in which the City Council intends to lead in creating a more sustainable city.
Councillor Alan Bradley, Cabinet Member for Street Environment at Westminster City Council, said: "We hope, by taking the lead and offering more recharging points than any other area of the UK, that we can get more people to switch to electric-powered cars, saving both money and the environment.
"This scheme represents an important step in the development of environmentally friendly travel and an improvement to London’s transport system, and we hope other councils will follow our lead, not just in London but across the country, so we can have a truly comprehensive system of recharging points across the UK".
Robert McKinnon, Head of Business Marketing at the Energy Saving Trust, said: “With over 20% of the UK’s total carbon emission produced by road transport every year, these advances in technology are vital. Driving electrical cars is just one of the ways of cutting down harmful emissions in the city. We’re proud to have been involved in supporting this innovative development and hopefully Westminster, as well as the environment, will see the benefits.”
Peter Thorn, EDF Energy Head of Business Development Strategy, said: “EDF Energy and Elektromotive are firmly committed to encouraging the development of a UK wide recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
"We firmly believe that by making recharging posts readily available, there will be greater interest in electrical transport, which in turn will help people reduce the impact their driving has on the environment. That is why we are delighted to be supporting Westminster City Council in the official launch of the additional charging posts and the ongoing development of electric transportation.”
Alex Williams, Director of Borough Partnerships at TfL said: "We are delighted with the launch of the new electric car recharging points in Westminster.
"TfL provides funding for the capital costs of electric charging points and to date there are around 40 charging points installed across London, in the boroughs of Islington, Camden, Greenwich, Sutton, Kingston, Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Ealing, Southwark and the City. "
The Th!nk in London
Photos: TH!NK electric car on London's streets
At the launch of ten new charging points for electric vehicles in Central London today, we also had the pleasure of checking out and even sitting in the new TH!NK electric car. The TH!NK, as regular SmartPlaneteers will know, is expected to land in the UK by the end of the year. Check out our photos below.
It feels like sitting in an old-ish Fiat Punto: it's quite high off the ground, has great visibility and is relatively spacious for a small car. We're on the list to review it, and are gagging to give it a spin and see if we can hit its claimed 65mph max speed. How will it fare against the UK's best electric cars? Watch this space.
Aside from being 95 per cent recyclable, the major plus of the TH!NK versus a Punto is, of course, the fact it's powered with electricity rather than petrol. And with charging points now in the boroughs of Islington, Camden, Greenwich, Sutton, Kingston, Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Ealing, Southwark and the City it should be almost as easy being an electric TH!NK driver in London as a Punto petrol-head.
TH!NK from the side
TH!NK front
TH!NK from behind
And TH!NK interior
Posted: 08 May 2008, 05:13pm by Rikke Bruntse-Dahl
Renualt, Nissan & The EV
from: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11332425
Charge!
May 8th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Renault-Nissan's ambitious plans for all-electric cars
COMMITMENT is one of Carlos Ghosn's favourite words. He makes commitments himself and he expects his senior managers in the Renault-Nissan alliance to do the same. His latest, and one of his boldest, is that Renault and Nissan will lead the car industry in developing profitable zero-emission vehicles.
In recent months Renault-Nissan has teamed up with Project Better Place, a Silicon Valley start-up, to introduce all-electric vehicles and a network of charging points in Israel and Denmark by 2011. Now Nissan is going further. Speaking at a media event in Portugal this week, Mr Ghosn said that the time for the mass-market zero-emission car has come. Nissan plans to launch a battery-powered car in America in 2010 and by 2012 the Renault-Nissan alliance will offer a complete range of electric vehicles in every large car-market. And these new battery-powered cars, it claims, will work out less expensive than equivalent petrol models.
Renault-Nissan's new electric-vehicle strategy is, says Mr Ghosn, the culmination of two years' work. It is the product not just of rising fuel prices and the prospect of new emissions rules, but the frightening environmental implications of rapid growth in emerging markets. At the Beijing motor show in April, he observed that “nothing can stop the car being the most coveted product that comes with development”—but that more efficient conventional engines were not the answer.
Technically, says Mr Ghosn, everything is now ready for electric vehicles to enter the mainstream—except for the batteries, in which Nissan and NEC, a Japanese industrial giant, are “investing massively”. What matters for all-electric vehicles—as opposed to hybrids, such as the Chevrolet Volt, due in 2010, which can fall back on a petrol engine when the battery runs out—are their limited range and the time taken to recharge their batteries.
When California briefly mandated the sale of electric vehicles in the early 1990s, their 50-mile range and long charging cycles meant that they failed to attract more than a dedicated core of green-minded motorists. But lithium-ion battery technology could push range to 200 miles, and fast-charge systems promise to provide a 70% top-up in only a little more time than it takes to fill a tank with petrol.
Another requirement is innovative business models. Mr Ghosn says the electric version of the Mégane saloon that Renault is building for Israel will come with a lifetime warranty, and payment will follow the model established by the mobile-phone industry. After buying the car, owners will subscribe to a battery-replacement and charging plan based on their anticipated mileage. Recharging will be done at one of 500,000 spots that Project Better Place will build and maintain.
When Nissan launches its new line of electrical vehicles in America in 2010, it will initially target fleet buyers, which can provide their own charging stations. “It will be a real business,” says Tom Lane, Nissan's global product-planning chief, “not just a way to sell 200 cars in California.” He expects sales to retail buyers to begin in 2012, at a price of around $25,000.
Nissan is also hedging its bets by developing both a “parallel hybrid” system (akin to that found in the Toyota Prius) and a plug-in “series hybrid” similar to the Chevy Volt. But it favours the all-electric approach, even though it will be a tough sell, says Mr Lane. As for Mr Ghosn, he has no doubts. “We must have zero-emission vehicles,” he says. “Nothing else will prevent the world from exploding.”
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Solar Car Port
New Product Launch: Solar Carport
May 4th, 2007 · 2 Comments
A company called Solar Integrated Technologies recently announced it will be launching a solar carport product. The carport provides shade for parked vehicles, and generates 1.22 kilowatts of solar power in the process. The carport has a modular design that accommodate parkings lots of all sizes and shapes. Solar Integrated also announced the completion of its first solar carport project – 152kW of solar power on carports covering 186 parking spots at the Millennium SportsClub in Vacaville, California.
The company also offers a solar roofing product for commercial buildings.
Italian Village Running on Solar
Italian Town Runs On 100% Renewable Power
December 17th, 2007 · 5 Comments
Varese, a town in Northern Italy, runs on 100% renewable power. The town uses a mix of wind, solar and small-scale hydropower. The town has reaped benefits from the energy network through added jobs, and an additional 350,000 euros [US $514,000] in revenues that are handed over to the council each year. Varese has also seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.
Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100% of its power from renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more renewables.
The town has also launched initiatives to make Varese 100% sustainable. A total of 108 organic farms now supply 98 percent of the town’s food; water is purified using environmentally friendly technology, and waste has been significantly reduced.
Four wind turbines located on a ridge 1100 meters above sea level — where the average annual wind speed is 7.2 meters per second — generate 8 million kWh of electricity a year that is fed into the local grid managed by Acam, a power company in La Spezia. Photovoltaic (PV) panels have been installed on the town hall and the local school. The town hall has 102 PV panels covering 95 square meters and generating 12,700 kWh a year, which supplies 98 percent of the total energy consumption of the building. Varese’s secondary school has 39 PV panels covering 36 square meters and producing 4,600 kWh a year, which supplies 62 percent of the energy used.
In addition to the that, the town’s swimming pool is heated by solar power and a program to promote the use of wood pellet stoves is in the works.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Nissan to offer Electric Vehicle
from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120966606763059713.html
Electric Nissans Planned in U.S. by 2010
By EDWARD TAYLOR
May 2, 2008; Page B2
CASCAIS, Portugal -- Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said he is preparing to take advantage of a "mass market" in electric vehicles he expects to emerge by 2012.
Nissan, an alliance partner of Renault SA of France, will launch electric vehicles in the U.S. and Japan in 2010, and globally by 2012, Mr. Ghosn said at a Nissan event in Portugal. He said he expects the market for electric vehicles to grow strongly due to high oil prices, a new awareness of environmental issues and breakthroughs in battery technology.
Eventually, Nissan "will have a whole lineup of electric cars," he said. "The electric car is not a niche product for us."
Mr. Ghosn said battery-technology advances have given the electric car sufficient range to make it a viable mode of transport for the shorter journeys often made by commuters in big cities. Globally about 10 million vehicles are being used in this way, he said.
High oil prices and the willingness of governments to give tax incentives for so-called zero-emission vehicles can change the economics of owning an electric car and make it "cheaper than gasoline," Mr. Ghosn said.
Nissan and Renault are in talks with "companies, governments and cities," to see what kind of incentives can make the introduction of zero-emission vehicles more attractive, he said.
Mr. Ghosn expects new areas of business will open as electric vehicles become more widespread, including making the batteries and providing access to batteries and electricity. Moving beyond merely making cars could see "a change of the business model" in the auto industry.
"In some ways it could move more toward how a mobile-phone operator works, because there the handset is only one part of the business; the rest is providing services to customers," said Mr. Ghosn.
One drawback of electric vehicles has been battery capacity, limiting their range. Another is that recharging a battery traditionally takes hours, far longer than to refuel a car with gasoline. Nissan and Renault are looking at ways to fix that. Renault will use a battery provided by Nissan for an electric vehicle to be launched in Israel, Mr. Ghosn said.
Mr. Ghosn reiterated that Nissan is open to expanding its alliance with Renault to other car companies, but he said that would happen only if it created value for Renault and Nissan's stakeholders.
Write to Edward Taylor at edward.taylor@wsj.com
Electric Nissans Planned in U.S. by 2010
By EDWARD TAYLOR
May 2, 2008; Page B2
CASCAIS, Portugal -- Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said he is preparing to take advantage of a "mass market" in electric vehicles he expects to emerge by 2012.
Nissan, an alliance partner of Renault SA of France, will launch electric vehicles in the U.S. and Japan in 2010, and globally by 2012, Mr. Ghosn said at a Nissan event in Portugal. He said he expects the market for electric vehicles to grow strongly due to high oil prices, a new awareness of environmental issues and breakthroughs in battery technology.
Eventually, Nissan "will have a whole lineup of electric cars," he said. "The electric car is not a niche product for us."
Mr. Ghosn said battery-technology advances have given the electric car sufficient range to make it a viable mode of transport for the shorter journeys often made by commuters in big cities. Globally about 10 million vehicles are being used in this way, he said.
High oil prices and the willingness of governments to give tax incentives for so-called zero-emission vehicles can change the economics of owning an electric car and make it "cheaper than gasoline," Mr. Ghosn said.
Nissan and Renault are in talks with "companies, governments and cities," to see what kind of incentives can make the introduction of zero-emission vehicles more attractive, he said.
Mr. Ghosn expects new areas of business will open as electric vehicles become more widespread, including making the batteries and providing access to batteries and electricity. Moving beyond merely making cars could see "a change of the business model" in the auto industry.
"In some ways it could move more toward how a mobile-phone operator works, because there the handset is only one part of the business; the rest is providing services to customers," said Mr. Ghosn.
One drawback of electric vehicles has been battery capacity, limiting their range. Another is that recharging a battery traditionally takes hours, far longer than to refuel a car with gasoline. Nissan and Renault are looking at ways to fix that. Renault will use a battery provided by Nissan for an electric vehicle to be launched in Israel, Mr. Ghosn said.
Mr. Ghosn reiterated that Nissan is open to expanding its alliance with Renault to other car companies, but he said that would happen only if it created value for Renault and Nissan's stakeholders.
Write to Edward Taylor at edward.taylor@wsj.com
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