Recent Comments:
Audi confirms pure electric car, will likely be based on VW Up! concept {Engadget}
Oct 8th 2008 2:51PM Your gas car uses most of the energy in a gallon of gas ~just~ to heat the area under the hood of your car, while also requiring the addition of a complex cooling system just to keep the engine from melting back into a solid hunk of metal. And then there's friction lost in the pistons, crank, etc. So by the time your gas car has gone a mile, it will have expended considerably more energy and thus generated considerably more pollution than an electric car. Not to mention that an electric car has the potential to be powered by a clean source of electricity, indeed by any source of electricty. Options ftw.
Aptera may undergo some design changes before December production {Autoblog Green}
Sep 30th 2008 4:35PM Do the mirrors and window mean the production model won't have the rear view cameras? That'll be a shame if so, I thought the panoramic rear view across the three dash screens was one of the neater features of the car. It might have been too expensive or just not as useful as it seemed it would be. The even sleeker shape is nice though.
GM reaches agreement with CARB on unique classification for Volt {Autoblog Green}
Sep 26th 2008 7:46PM "At that point, the batteries and drive system they represent, are dead weight that the 1400cc engine carries with it. "
The batteries allow recapture of braking energy and give an extra jolt during acceleration and climbing which means you can get by with a smaller ICE for steady state driving. In other words, the Volt in charge sustain mode benefits from having batteries in exactly the same way the Prius and other parallel hybrids benefit from them. Perhaps moreso considering that the serial nature allows the engine to run steadily at its most efficient RPM.
As far as GM wanting to say "100 mpg" it's a little disappointing. If anything, GM should be calling for an entirely new rating system which would strongly highlight the fact that this car is fundamentally different from anything before it, the game changer it's been called. While "100 mpg" might say "super efficient" to a lot of potential customers, "NO GAS NEEDED FOR 40 MILES" would be a much stronger selling point to a lot of people. It's not like that fact won't be noted and touted by any dealer selling them, but a car calling for a new rating system would get GM a lot of very good press out of the deal.
I agree with the others, it may be time to fundamentally reassess how we rate the efficiency of a car. If electrics become more prevalent, "MPG" will become a more and more meaningless term.
Popular Mechanics: Jetta TDI outdoes Prius in mileage test, kinda {Autoblog Green}
Sep 25th 2008 1:37PM I don't generally complain about misleading headlines but dang, that one takes the cake.
Honda not interested in plug-in hybrids yet, batteries not ready {Autoblog Green}
Sep 22nd 2008 10:17PM From a technical standpoint Li-ion batteries are more than capable of meeting the energy needs of commuter cars in lots of cities. Even the Rav4 EV's had a decent range for daily driving on previous generation batteries. Yes, batteries are by far still too costly to gain mainstream acceptance, but saying they are incapable of having any use at this point in their development is silly.
Getting a Clarity down from costing a half million bucks or so down to 40K will be quite a feat of engineering. I wonder what battery prices will do while they're working on that. And doesn't the Clarity use batteries as storage for regenerative braking energy to help it achieve that range?
VIDEO: Production Chevy Volt on the road! {Autoblog Green}
Sep 20th 2008 7:14PM I wonder if the one in motion was moving under electric power at all. I suppose it's possible to have one running on electricity at this stage. If so, the 2010 date really does seem solid.
I much prefer the production shape to the concept. It's not exactly exciting and it doesn't use many cues that haven't been seen before, but it's a nice looking interpretation of the wedge shape (better than the Prius IMO) and looks really good in motion. The only questionable decisions to me so far are glossy plastic and touch sensitive buttons on the console. But that could just be me liking tradition for tradition's sake. I was a little dubious that it will reach 50 mpg on gas, but as someone else pointed out the Prius can easily do it so why couldn't this car with similar technology?
Given that the tech works out (and there's nothing that's UNproven in the car), I think cost will be the only big question mark hanging over this car's future. And that will largely be a function of where battery technology goes.
Poll: 2011 Chevrolet Volt - which do you prefer, concept or production? {Autoblog Green}
Sep 17th 2008 1:47PM I never cared for the concept, it always just looked like a brick with gigantic wheels on it to me. I'm in the crowd that was much more interested in the tech than the shape.
The production styling doesn't hit the sports car notes, but it does look like something someone interested in a practical car would consider buying. If I could afford a 40K car, it's definitely good enough looking for me to give some serious thought to. And to be honest, I haven't cared for the noses affixed to any of the Prius models.
Officially Official: 2011 Chevrolet Volt finally revealed! {Autoblog Green}
Sep 16th 2008 5:01PM "The EPA mileage (which they're forcing it to be in charge-sustaining mode for) is just under 50mpg. "
I assume "charge-sustaining" means the car is running the gas engine to provide power to the generator which both propels the car and maintains the battery's state of charge at a constant level, but without charging it any further. Fifty mpg is a lot, and I'm really curious. What allows this car to be so efficient when it's being propelled by the once removed gasoline engine? Is it aerodynamics? Wouldn't it lose that efficiency in city driving? Or is it that the motor can run at its optimum RPM at all times? Is that possible given that load on the electric motors will vary as the car accelerates and goes up hills? Or is the gas engine providing enough power for the worst case need and then sending excess to the battery?
Based on my admittedly non-expert knowledge of petrol cars, 50 mpg just sounds a bit high, particularly for something that has to deal with energy losses in two propulsion systems instead of just one.
But then again, even if the 50 turns out to be pie in the sky and the real world number is just around 35, it still turns out to be a winner if it takes you on your daily commute without burning any gas.
And why is anyone worried about needing to take a 400 mile trip in one? It can travel indefinitely as long as you fuel it up occasionally, you never even have to plug it in at all. Do your homework! I'm confident it will be a very short time between the car's release and someone blogging about driving across the country in one.
Bills introduced to mandate E85 pumps, cut oil tax breaks, $7,500 PHEV credit {Autoblog Green}
Sep 13th 2008 3:38PM Fairies and butterflies aren't going to swoop down and magically deposit an E85 pump in each and every gas station, that's for sure. You and I filling up our tank at the conventional gas pump next to it will be footing the bill for it. And it'll proceed to sit there like an expensive piece of sculptural tribute to failed government policy when there just isn't any ethanol to go into the storage tank beneath it.
Cythbot Guitar Hero robot uncomfortably demonstrated on video {Engadget}
Sep 12th 2008 2:07PM Useless if it can't activate star power.
I predict that within fifty years we will have a robot capable of beating Kasparov at Guitar Hero.
