EV Cup: Green motor sport becomes a reality

From the Earth Times: The EV Cup will be a new green racing circuit to be held on world class racing tracks in UK, Europe and America over the summer and autumn seasons later this year. The London-based company proudly displayed the new 'green' racing cars at the recent Birmingham International Autosport Show and announced the new era of motor. They have also indicated plans for a city street race of the electric vehicles.

The Director of the EV Cup, Sylvain Filippi says, "The electric car is already changing the world and soon will begin to revolutionise the face of traditional motor-sport across the world by embracing the issues of the day from straightforward zero emissions, to eco-friendly cars, sustainability and corporate social responsibility". The commercial and business world is likely to sit up and take notice now as they see the fantastic opportunity presented by the first green car racing circuit. Being a part of the new eco-friendly sporting event would potentially add significant credibility to a company's sustainability portfolio.

There are two classes in the EV Cup that electric cars can enter into. The City EV class is for carbon-free urban cars and the Sports EV class is for race cars racing 185 kph (or 115 mph) powered by batteries made from lithium ion phosphate. There is a third category planned, called the Prototype EV class, which is to showcase time trials for non-production electric cars driving on both the race and street circuits.

Read more...

Read More

What consumers need to know about electric car batteries

From the Contra Costa Times: A variety of electric vehicles will hit the market this year, raising questions about the most critical element of any electric car: the battery.

How often do you have to replace the battery? Will it be recycled? Can you charge a battery even if it is not empty? How many charging cycles can the battery handle? Is it true there's a worldwide shortage of lithium?

Lithium-ion batteries can be found in all kinds of consumer products, from laptops to cell phones, and they also will be the power source in at least the first generation of electric cars -- an EV battery is really just a cluster of thousands of cell phone batteries packaged together.

"If I want to buy an electric vehicle, I would want to know how many miles can I drive under REAL driving conditions, how long will my battery last and how long will the battery take to charge," said Venkat Srinivasan, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who writes a popular battery blog at www.thisweekinbatteries.blogspot.com.

The plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and all-electric Nissan Leaf, the first mainstream plug-ins to reach the market, both offer battery warranties good for 100,000 miles or eight years. That will reassure many consumers, but there still are things they can do to maximize battery life and performance.

"Don't keep continuously fully charging and discharging them," Srinivasan said. "Pressing on the accelerator too much also draws power from the battery at a high rate, and can cause degradation."

Sunil M. Chhaya, an electric drive expert at EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, notes that batteries age faster if the temperature of the battery is frequently elevated, and EPRI research has found that heat management inside the batteries is the single most important predictor of battery health and longevity. That's one reason why Tesla uses a liquid cooling system to maximize the life of its battery packs.

"Batteries are like people and perform nicely when their operating temperature is in a 20-45 degrees Celsius (or 68-113 degrees Fahrenheit) window," Chhaya said. "Outside of it, they need to be 'thermally managed,' either by efficient inflow (if the batteries are cold) or outflow (if batteries are hot) of heat with a well-designed thermal system."

Read more...

Read More

Ghosn says Renault spies 'leaked electric car strategy', not technological secrets

From the AFP: Alleged spying at French car maker Renault targeted its business strategy for electric cars rather than technological secrets, its chief executive said in an interview published Sunday.

"We have come to the conclusion that what got out was not technological information. It could be information on our economic model," the company's boss Carlos Ghosn was quoted as saying by French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

"What was targeted was our strategy for the electric cars," he added in the interview, saying that Renault was the only company making all three key elements for the electric car -- batteries, motors and chargers.

Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan have staked their future on electric vehicles and plan to launch several models by 2014 to meet rapidly rising demand for more environmentally friendly methods of transport.

They have invested four billion euros in the programme.

Ghosn was speaking out for the first time since the affair broke two weeks ago.

Renault has sacked three top managers over alleged industrial espionage and has launched legal action. The three executives have said they are suing over the allegations.

Ghosn said Renault had launched an internal probe in August but waited until this month to alert the authorities because "we had to do preliminary research ourselves to get an idea how serious the affair was."

He said he was "surprised and shocked" by the affair but insisted that in investigating it "we have been irreproachable under the law."

He declined to give a view of who might have benefited from the leaking of strategic information. Media reports and analysts have said Chinese companies are suspected but the Chinese government angrily denied this.

"We are waiting for the results of the investigation (launched by the French secret services) which I am told should last several months," Ghosn told the newspaper.

Read More

Mitsubishi to launch eight new green cars by 2016

From the AFP: Japan's Mitsubishi Motors said Thursday that it will launch a new line-up of environmentally friendly cars by March 2016 and double operating profit in the next three years by focusing on emerging markets.

Mitsubishi will launch a total of eight electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, starting with a mini commercial vehicle, the MINICAB-MiEV, the company said as it unveiled a new mid-term business plan.

Japan's fourth-largest automaker launched the i-MiEV, the world's first commercially produced electric vehicle, in 2009 and the race to manufacture greener cars has heated up among rivals such as Nissan, Toyota and Ford.

The new models will also include Mitsubishi's first plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, to be rolled out in the fiscal year starting April 2012 as it looks to boost emerging market production to target growth.

It aims to double operating profit to 90 billion yen ($1.10 billion) in the year to March 2014 and triple net profit to 45 billion yen.

Mitsubishi hopes the new business strategy, which also includes cost cuts, will boost its earnings as it looks to expand its China business through a new joint venture with a local partner.

"There is huge domestic demand in China and people's living standards are rapidly improving. I believe there is no major doubt that China will continue to grow," company president Osamu Masuko told reporters.

The automaker said it would build a third factory in Thailand in fiscal 2011, making the nation the company's second-largest export hub after Japan, and produce a low-price, energy-efficient compact for the growing middle class.

Mitsubishi will also increase capacity in China and Brazil, and begin full-scale production of sport-utility vehicles in Russia.

Masuko said his company wants to maintain its production level in Japan but acknowledged it is "very difficult to keep the current export-oriented structure and expand output and capacity in Japan."

"We have to produce cars where consumers are and where there are less foreign exchange risks," he said.

For many Japanese automakers, the yen's surge against the dollar and the euro has eaten into profits and made exporting from Japan less profitable.

More companies are considering moving production abroad to stay competitive against rivals benefiting from weaker currencies in their home countries.

Mitsubishi's ratio of overseas production to total output is expected to rise to 54 percent in the fiscal year 2013 from 44 percent in fiscal 2010.

Global output is to soar to 1.58 million units from 1.1 million in the same period, the company said.

It targets sales of 2.5 trillion yen in fiscal 2013, up from 1.9 trillion yen expected for fiscal 2010 ending in March 2011.

Mitsubishi shares closed higher Thursday, up 1.69 percent at 120 yen, outperforming a 1.13 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei index.

Read More

Recharging posts for electric cars put into use in Hainan, China

From Xinhua: The first group of four recharging posts for electric vehicles were installed and made operational on Thursday in south China's island Hainan Province as part of the central government's promotion throughout the nation of new energy vehicles.

The recharging posts were erected on Haifu Road in the provincial capital Haikou by Hainan Power Grid Corp., a subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. (CSG).

The recharging posts will mainly be used for a government fleet of 30 electric cars, which will take to the street during the first half of this year, said Hu Bin, a recharging station program director with the Hainan Power Grid Corp.

Haikou was singled out in May 2010 as one of the 25 pilot cities in the country for the promotion and operation of electric vehicles.

Construction of recharging facilities began in November last year by the power company.

According to an electric vehicle development plan by the Haikou municipal government, the city will have installed six recharging stations, along with 759 recharging posts by 2012 to serve 1,050 new energy vehicles, including 400 electric vehicles.

The Chinese government introduced policies in 2010 to boost the development of new energy vehicles, including electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.

According to a development blueprint released in September last year, China aims to have more than 500,000 new energy vehicles on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.

In the meantime, China will build 4,000 electric vehicle charging stations over the next five years and another 6,000 before 2020.

Read More

Smart to decide on electric scooter by the summer

From Automotive News Europe: DaimlerAG's Smart subsidiary, which is seeing its car sales decline, will decide by the summer whether to expand its lineup by launching an electric motorcycle and an electric scooter, the unit's boss, Annette Winkler, said.

"We want to reach a decision within the next six months. The question is whether the business case is positive," Winkler told Automotive News Europe on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show. Winkler said the business case currently is looking positive.

Smart is talking with potential production partners, but Winkler declined to disclose names of motorcycle makers with which Smart is negotiating. Smart unveiled concepts for the two-wheelers at the Paris auto show in October 2010.

This year, Smart forecasts sales of more than 90,000 units, compared with 97,500 in 2010 and about 134,000 in 2008. Its biggest markets were Germany, Italy, the UK, France and the United States. Last year, U.S. sales decreased to 5,930, compared with 24,000 in 2008, the year that the one-car brand launched sales in the country.

The successor to the current Smart ForTwo two-seat minicar will go on sale at the end of 2013 at the earliest. A four-seat Smart will follow in 2014 and will help boost sales.

Until then, Smart's only innovation will be a full-electric ForTwo, which will launch in 2012 with forecast sales of 10,000. Winkler said electric Smart sales could be combined with offers, such as the possibility to rent a larger car on a short-term basis.

Winkler also hopes to win new customers by selling individualized ForTwo models.

Read More