Hybrid car owners cite price, technology in refusing to buy again May 12, 2012

For a surprising number of U.S. hybrid car owners, the experience is one and done.
According to recent analysis by Polk Automotive, last year just 35 percent chose to buy another hybrid when it came time for a new car. Loyalty dropped even more, to about 33 percent, in eco-conscious cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.
Despite a desire to help the environment, lighten fuel bills or reduce dependence on foreign oil, hybrid owners’ decision to buy a second one comes down to dollars and cents.
“There are a lot of gasoline-powered vehicles out there that are much more fuel efficient, and cost thousands of dollars less than their hybrid counterparts,” says Lacey Plache, chief economist with Edmunds.com.
Industry expert and UC Berkeley Prof. Harley Shaiken says the payback period for a hybrid often exceeds 6 years– the average time car owners hold on to their vehicle.
“If you take two similar, even identical models, one a hybrid, one not, for the Ford Fusion, for example, you’re paying a $5,000 premium up front, versus a non-hybrid,” explains Shaiken. “Going forward, it could take 8 to10 years to make up that savings. If you only plan to keep the car for 6 or 8 years, you are not going to see it. People are thinking twice about that kind of a decision.”
For Los Angeles resident Bruce Cornelius, the decision was less about the cost, more about the hybrid technology and performance. He says his 2008 Honda Civic hybrid didn’t get close to the promised 45 miles per gallon — more like around 28. Echoing complaints made by scores of other Honda hybrid owners, Bruce says the electric battery system often failed, which meant his green car released carbon emissions just like the Mercedes-Benz he’d given up.
“They weren’t delivering on the gas mileage, and they really weren’t delivering on the green benefits of owning a vehicle like that,” says Cornelius, speaking about Honda.
Some states have also put the brakes on tax credits, use of car pool lanes, and other perks once given to hybrid drivers.
Analysts predict the low repurchase rate will motivate car makers to improve the technology, and dealerships to lower sticker prices. They say it’s either going to take reductions in price, or soaring costs for gas, to bring former hybrid owners back for a second tour.
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New engine sends shock waves through auto industry April 15, 2011

Prototype could potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent

An illustration of the Wave Disk Generator.

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer’s green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine.

However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines.

The engine has a rotor that’s equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.

Researchers estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car’s weight currently taken up by conventional engine systems.

Last week, the prototype was presented to the energy division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is backing the Michigan State University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding.

Michigan State’s team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year.

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3D printer prints out fully functioning hybrid car November 4, 2010

A full-scale prototype, along with this 1/6 scale finished model of the Urbee will be displayed at the SEMA automotive show in Las Vegas next week. Photo: Kor Ecologic

• 3D printer prints whole car body
• Car is “as green as possible”
• Process uses no tooling or machining

IT didn’t jam the printer but there’s no guarantee it won’t get stuck in traffic.

Two companies in the US have partnered to design and create Urbee – the car built entirely by a 3D printer.

Urbee was made using additive manufacturing processes, which prints layer upon layer of material to create a product.

Many manufacturers, including aeroplane giant Boeing, print their parts, but this is the first time an entire machine prototype has been created using the 3D printing process.

Every exterior component of Urbee, including the windscreen, was made using Dimension 3D printers and Fortus 3D Production Systems by Stratasys, who teamed up with Kor Ecologic to create the energy efficient car.

Jim Kor, president and chief technology officer for Kor Ecologic, said the process eliminated tooling, machining and handwork.

“If you can get to a pilot run without any tooling, you have advantages,” he said.

The electric/petrol hybrid car is extremely fuel efficient, getting approximately 85km/L on the highway.

A standard 4WD uses about 10 times the amount of petrol to go the same distance.

The futuristic looking vehicle can be charged from a regular household power outlet – just plug it in overnight – or can draw power from renewable sources such as sunlight or wind.

This combined with the environmentally friendly production process is part of the manufacturers’ goal of Urbee being “as green as possible”.

There are no current plans to go into mass production but Urbee will be on display in Las Vegas at SEMA 2010 later this month.

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Google’s Automated Toyota Prius October 13, 2010

Autodrive Prius

If you’re going to be testing unmarked automated cars in the field, inevitably people will get curious and – because it’s 2010 and all – whip out their video cameras or cellphones to record them in action. If you’re Robert Scoble, you’ll even do it while driving.

Hence the video of Google’s awesome automated Toyota Prius cars we posted earlier (as well as Scoble’s).

But here’s one that was captured last March at the Googleplex, stopping for a red light, giving the guy who recorded the video (hat tip to Van Tucker) the chance to get some close-ups of the car and the sensor that’s mounted on top.

I’m terribly excited about the prospects of automated cars becoming the trend in, say, a decade or so. And you’ll get to brag that you watched one of the first videos of Google testing the technology on the road back in 2010. Unless it flops, of course, in which case you’ll still get to say you watched a video of another thing Google cooked up but never got anywhere.

Still, kudos for the desire to innovate, you Mountain View idealists you.

 

Google Automated Prius at Google Campus – March 2010 from Van Tucker on Vimeo.

Aptera’s 200 MPGe ‘Car’ September 26, 2010

Its name means "wingless flight", but will the ultra aerodynamic Aptera 2e two-seat electric car get off the ground?

“If you finish second, then you’re the first loser.”

That motto may have served Dale Earnhardt well as he racked up seven NASCAR championships, but for the team at California startup automaker Aptera, the opposite could turn out to be true.

At the finals of the recent Progressive Automotive X-Prize – a $10 million competition to design and build a commercially viable, 100 mpg car – the company’s ultra-aerodynamic three-wheeled electric vehicle lost its class in a tie breaker to an ultra aerodynamic four-wheeled electric car.

Aptera chief engineer, Tom Reichenbach, maintains that his entry came up short only because its battery pack wasn’t designed to meet the specific requirements of the final event and he wasn’t interested in putting in a different one. That’s because, unlike the winning one-off Wave II from electric car conversion specialists Li-ion Motors, Reichenbach says the Aptera 2e was designed for production, not just to win a contest. This from a guy who used to work on Formula One cars for Ford Racing.

Resembling the cockpit section of a cartoon airplane in search of a pair of wings, the teardrop-shaped coupe is unlike anything currently on the road. At a recent test drive

event, one onlooker described it as “from the 22nd Century.” In appearance that may be true, but much of the technology behind it is from today. The electric motor that propels it is a modified version of the one found in a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid.

What makes it different is obvious, and less so. The complex, teardrop-shaped body has a very low aerodynamic drag coefficient of .15, which compares to around .30-.35 for most cars and .25 for the best on the road today. Just as vital in the quest for fuel economy, the 2e weighs only 1,800 pounds, 300 pounds less than an electric Smart Fortwo. The designers were able to achieve both of these goals through the use of a lightweight composite honeycomb monocoque structure similar to that of an aircraft. It’s cheaper than the carbon fiber used in racing cars, but still three times stronger than steel.

The result? According to Aptera, the 2e is four times more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Using a measurement known as Miles Per Gallon Equivalent (MPGe), which compares the amount of energy used by a vehicle regardless of its source – gasoline, hydrogen, electric, etc. – the 2e delivers close to 200 MPGe. Its 486-pound, 20 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion phosphate battery pack giving it claimed range of 120 miles per overnight charge on a 110v outlet.

It should also be as safe as any other car, which is important because its three-wheel layout means that the 2e is technically a motorcycle in the eyes of the federal government and most states including California, where it will initially go on sale. Nevertheless, Aptera CEO Paul Wilbur says that it was designed to meet the same safety regulations as an automobile, and he’ll be more than happy to submit it for crash testing. Better yet, since it has three wheels you don’t need a motorcycle license to drive it, and the roof means a helmet is not required.

The 2e that competed in the X-Prize is actually the second iteration of a vehicle that has been in development since 2005. Although it looks almost identical to the original, it’s larger inside and out, having been scaled up better to accommodate passengers and luggage. The wide flip-up doors make entering it easier than is the case with many conventional cars, while the cabin offers tons of head and legroom for two passengers.

As it is now, the interior is very simple, and reminiscent of the one in a Lotus Elise — another car that values lightness, and is the basis of the electric Tesla Roadster. The fit and finish, if not the design of it, should change some before the 2e goes on sale, but isn’t too far off the mark now.

There’s no mechanical key or start button, just a wireless smart key and a four-way transmission selector topped by a knob that you twist to change the strength of the brake regeneration, which can be adjusted from 0 to 100 percent. Other than that, if you didn’t know the car was an electric three-wheeler, you wouldn’t know the car was an electric three-wheeler.

Even as you put it in drive and pull away, there’s no immediate indication that there’s anything dynamically odd about the configuration of the 2e. Driven at the speed limit, its handling is surprisingly conventional. Only once did I manage to get the single rear tire to skip out a little bit when I took a 90-degree turn much faster than anyone normally would, but the ensuing skid was probably no worse than if the car had four wheels. At the speed I was going, only one of the rear tires would’ve been on the ground anyway. I also clipped a few corners due to the deceptively wide spacing of the front wheels, which is on par with a full-size pickup truck.

I only drove the car for a few miles, so I can’t vouch for the claimed range, but the 82-kilowatt motor driving the front wheels gives it the performance of a typical economy car. Electric motors can produce maximum torque at zero rpm, and this one has 232 pound-feet on tap, which is twice as much as you get in something like a Ford Fiesta.

What is very apparent is how heavy the unassisted steering is, especially when trudging through parking lots, and how hard you have to push on the manual brakes if you’ve got the regeneration dialed down low. With it set to max you rarely need to use the brake pedal, and Reichenbach says that it can recapture 80 percent of the energy that was used to get the 2e up to whatever speed you’re slowing down from. Ideally, both the steering and brakes will remain without power assist because any extra electricity wasted on them will decrease the vehicle’s range, but further testing and consumer feedback could lead to some changes.

Wilbur sees a limited, but sizable market for this type of car of about 20,000 to 30,000 units per year. Aptera’s factory in Oceanside, Calif., will have an annual capacity of 22,000 vehicles that he hopes to sell at a base price of $25,000. That is, if it gets the money to start production.

The company is waiting to hear if it will receive a $184 million dollar loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. One of the requirements for it is attracting matching funds from private investors, which Aptera is actively pursuing. Cleverly-named New Jersey-Based electricity company NRG is one of the first major investors to come on board.

And while this may suggest the beginnings of a plug-in version of the mythical conspiracy between big oil and the world’s large automakers that has kept us addicted to oil and out of water-powered cars all these years, after talking with NRG President and CEO David Crane, you get the feeling that its more like a grape farmer opening up a winery. Crane drives a Tesla. He appreciates the good things electricity can do in a car. If it turns out to be a conspiracy after all, so what? At least this one has the potential to be less polluting and get us off imported oil.

If the money comes through, Wilbur says that he can get the 2e on the road in less than a year, and he’s already planning for what happens after that. If the market wants it, a hybrid version known as the 2h is on the drawing board, and would work much like the Chevy Volt, carrying a small internal combustion engine to produce electricity on long trips so you don’t need to stop for several hours every couple of hours to recharge. After that a second factory with an annual production capacity of 130,000 vehicles is planned for an undisclosed location in the United States. Since that far outstrips the projection for 2e demand, it’s pretty obvious that another vehicle is in the works.

That one will have four seats, and, sadly, more than three wheels, but Wilbur will say no more about it than that. Considering that he once worked on another groundbreaking aerodynamic car, the 1986 Ford Taurus, one hopes he’s not already thinking about taking Aptera mainstream. Then again, he is trying to make his company a winner.

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China Designs a Negative-Emissions Vehicle June 10, 2010

SAIC

The Nissan Leaf electric car has nothing on this.

The YeZ (a take on the Mandarin word for ‘leaf’) may look like something out of the next “Tinkerbell” movie, but the organic two-seater was designed by a real automaker, General Motors’ Chinese partner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).

The “negative carbon emissions” vehicle features an all-electric drivetrain that draws the bulk of its power from photoelectric converter mounted on the yez…uh, roof of the vehicle. Similar to the way a plant grows towards the light, the solar crystal films that make up the system can track the movement of the sun to maximize solar energy collection. Illuminated power lines that mimic the veins of a living organism carry the electricity to the battery of the vehicle via streams of light. Additional electricity is generated by small windmills mounted on each of the wheels.

Click here for SLIDESHOW

What takes the car to the new levels of environmental friendliness, however, is a body comprised of metal-organic framework materials, or MOFs, that capture water and carbon dioxide from the surrounding air through adsorption, and combine the two through a process of artificial photosynthesis that not only generates electricity, but also creates air conditioning refrigerant and “exhales” oxygen back into the atmosphere. Hence, “negative carbon emissions”.

Interested in buying one? There’s a short wait, about twenty years.

While the technology behind the YeZ is theoretically sound, SAIC admits that it will be 2030 – at least – before any of it has been developed to the point that something like this concept car can become reality. Oh well, maybe the grandkids will like it.

In the meantime, you can check out the YeZ at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, China.

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Ford Fusion Hybrid Wins 2010 Car of Year Award January 11, 2010

Ford Fusion Hybrid Wins 2010 Car of Year Award

New Ford Fusion

DETROIT —  Ford Motor Co.’s market momentum got a lift Monday by winning both the 2010 North American Car and Truck of the Year awards.

Ford’s Fusion Hybrid midsize sedan took top car honors and its versatile Transit Connect compact van snagged truck of the year at the Detroit auto show.

It was only the third time in 17 years that an automaker has won both awards, selected by 49 auto journalists and given annually since 1994. Finalists for the car award included the Buick LaCrosse and Volkswagen Golf GTI and TDI diesel. The Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Transit Connect and Subaru Outback were finalists for the truck award.

“It’s such a huge motivator for our team,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, told reporters after the announcements on the first day of media previews for the show. “It’s a reaffirmation of all the hard work over the past couple of years.”

The awards, given annually by journalists who test cars throughout the year, are often used by automakers in advertising. Vehicles are judged on innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value.

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Ford, the only U.S.-based automaker to avoid bankruptcy protection, has fared better than its two Detroit rivals, with overall sales down 15 percent last year compared with a 36 percent drop for Chrysler and a 30 percent decline for GM.

Ford’s final month of 2009 was strong, with a 33 percent increase in sales thanks to strong demand for midsize cars. Last year, it gained U.S. market share for the first time since 1995, helped by critical raves for its fuel-efficient cars, like the midsize Fusion. Its compact Focus and popular Escape crossover also boosted sales.

“We still have a long way to go … getting the business back to healthy profitability,” Fields said. “We have to channel that good feeling into our efforts for 2010.”

To be considered for the car and truck of the year honors, vehicles must be new or substantially changed from the previous model.

Last year’s winners were the Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan and the Ford F-150 pickup. The Transit Connect, a small, European van, is the sixth Ford truck to win the award. Fields said the automaker thinks of it as a “white space vehicle” — one unlike anything else on the road.

“When you see this on the road, your first reaction is, ‘What is that?”‘ he said. “The second reaction for a lot of customers, particularly small fleets and small business owners is, ‘Hey, I want to get into that and check it out.”‘

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US Navy Unveils “Hybrid” Warship October 22, 2009

USS Makin Island (hybrid drive)

The USS Makin Island is the newest ship in the fleet and the first to use hybrid technology –earning it the nickname the ‘Prius’ of the Navy.

Three football fields long, the Makin Island carries 2,000 marines, their helicopters, hovercraft, Bradley fighting vehicles and a squadron of Harrier jets. The ship is designed for cruising offshore for long periods at slow speeds-perfect for a hybrid electric motor.

SLIDESHOW: USS Makin

Compared to other steam driven ships, the Makin Island can stay on water almost twice as long before refueling. On its first voyage from a shipyard in Mississippi to San Diego, the hybrid engine saves more than 1 million gallons of diesel, saving taxpayers 2.2 million dollars.

The Makin Island is just the first “green” ship to sail the ocean blue- part of an ongoing initiative to make our armed forces less reliant on fossil fuel and to reduce the Military’s carbon footprint.

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Chevy Volt to get 230 mpg rating August 11, 2009

Of course now that the government (taxpayers) own GM, we can say that the Volt gets “as many miles as we want it to get”.

Ultra-high mileage for GM’s electric-drive Volt could give it a marketing boost.

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) — The Chevrolet Volt, GM’s electric car that’s expected to go on sale in late 2010, is projected to get an estimated 230 miles per gallon, the automaker announced Tuesday.

That exceptionally high government mileage rating could give the Volt a major boost. For the first time, car buyers will easily be able to compare electric cars with ordinary gas-powered cars.

“Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us,” said GM CEO Fritz Henderson.

Determining fuel economy for an electric car is a tricky matter. While General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) has been working with the Environmental Protection Agency for years on the issue, the agency says it has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM.

50 mpg? or 5,000 mpg?

Basically, you will be able to drive the Volt for about 40 miles using the lithium-ion batteries. For those driving less than that, gas mileage is essentially unlimited. It is only after 40 miles that the Volt will start using gas.

“Most Volt drivers will operate on a daily basis without having to use a single drop of gas,” said Henderson, saying that three out of four drivers travel 40 miles or less a day.

Fuel economy for hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius is displayed in the same way as it is for any other gasoline-powered vehicle. It gets 46 mpg, for example, versus 19 mpg for a V-6 Ford Mustang.

That standard works because all the energy used by the Prius ultimately comes from burning gasoline. The Prius just uses that energy more efficiently than other cars do.

The Chevrolet Volt, on other hand, runs on electricity that comes from two sources — a battery as well as a gasoline engine.

When gasoline is providing the power, the Volt might get as much as 50 mpg. But that mpg figure would not take into account that the car has already gone 40 miles with no gas at all.

So let’s say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That’s the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be just 62.5 mpg.

The Volt will need to be plugged in at night to recharge. The company said it estimates it will need 8 kilowatt hours for the recharge necessary to travel 40 miles. That should cost a total of about 40 cents at off-peak electricity rates in Detroit, Henderson said. National figures from the Department of Energy suggest most consumers would pay more than that, probably around 88 cents per recharge.

Even at those modest recharging costs, and limited use of gasoline, it will be difficult for the Volt to save money for their owners, according to auto sales service Edmunds.com.

“Even if the Volt’s fuel savings could possibly be as dramatic as today’s numbers suggest, the expected purchase price will be much higher than that of existing hybrids, and it will take years to pay off its price premium,” notes Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell.

Making — and selling — the Volt

The fuel efficiency rating is based on the EPA’s proposed methodology which GM used in its Volt tests and applies to city driving only. Henderson said GM is confident that when Volt’s combined city/highway mileage average is calculated, it will be over 100 mpg.

But GM is obviously focused on the 230 mpg estimate as part of its early marketing campaign for the vehicle. It unveiled a logo with the number 230, with the zero looking like a cross between a smiley face and electrical plug.

Edmunds officials said they have doubts about the assumptions used to achieve the lofty fuel economy estimate.

“For most people, it is not realistic to expect that kind of mileage in real world driving,” said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst.

But Krebs said the Volt is likely to get achieve significantly better fuel economy than current offerings, such as the Toyota Prius that gets an estimated 50 mpg.

GM started pre-production of the car in June is making about 10 a month. “Volt is becoming very real, very fast,” Henderson said.

Henderson conceded the cost of building a Volt will be expensive, about $40,000 per vehicle. But he said the vehicle will qualify for a $7,500 tax credit, which will reduce the vehicle cost by that amount for consumers.

He also stressed that GM has not set the pricing for the Volt, and conceded the company may have to subsidize the vehicle. The goal: Make enough sales to move the Volt from “first generation” to lower-cost future designs.

“The cost of the vehicle in the first generation is high,” he said.

GM has not given sales targets for the first year, other than to say it will sell only thousands in the first year, and tens of thousands after that.

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One Possible Future for the RV February 8, 2009

Future efficient RV ??

With the price of gas, it’s tough to imagine the migrant RV lifestyle as being sustainable through retirement or even just a reprise of MTV’s classic Road Rules. Here is the RV of tomorrow.

Well, it’s the RV of tomorrow as designed by Christian Susana. With its injection molded design, the vehicle is essentially a Tupperware container on wheels. But what’s really clever about the design is its detachable cockpit—not so different from a semi or that prostitute’s space ship on Firefly—that can cruise around unencumbered when you’re not in need of a living room’s worth of furniture dragging at your butt.

[Tuvie via Jalopnik]