With gasoline engines eventually on its way out, what would race cars of the future be like? Would they run on Bio Fuels? Hydrogen? Lithium Batteries?
If you guessed battery, you’re definitely off to a good start. Nismo, a Japanese Tuner company, has already built their first fully-built race car with the Nissan Leaf. Check the video below:
This really shows how new technology can open up more opportunities to explore other areas of motorsports that have never been explored. Fans can now watch races at tracks closer to home, tracks that are held indoors, or even have a live chat with the drivers inside the race cars themselves.
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If you’re going to the Marin County Fair, go check out a home-built all-electric car. It took two years and 2,000 hours for Raul Atkinson to finish it. Now he’s hoping to come home from the fair with some cash and attention to see if he can move the idea toward mass production. Read more at NBC New York.
Meet a non-traditionalist … That’s an apt description of Daniel Girard. He’s a diesel-driving 30-year-old who is on track to graduate from Appalachian State University next summer with a degree named Appropriate Technology. He’s busy outside the classroom, too. Girard is founding president of the only college affiliate of the over 60 chapters of the Electric Auto Association. The nonprofit EAA has been advocating electric vehicles since 1967. Girard is joined at the chapter by about 10 other undergrads in the Technology program, all of them eager to find work – and play a role – in how technology is used in the future. “We don’t pay dues but becoming a part of EAA and gaining support from the chapter for the Triad gives us a way to involve ourselves in more “hands on” work and take on more do-it-yourself projects,” Girard said. His chapter’s non-profit status is also appealing to potential donors willing to support student efforts with financial contributions and by donating vehicles that can be converted to electric power. Girard is confident about the future. “Renewable energy is now a problem of finances, not technology and knowledge. Plenty of that is available already,” Girard said.
Tennessee gets ready … When Nissan rolls out an electric-powered five-passenger compact vehicle to the U.S. market a year from now, interested groups throughout the state of Tennessee plan to be ready. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with Nissan, state government and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to establish electric car charging stations for the new plug-in from Nissan as well as from Chevrolet and other companies. In 2010, corporate and government fleets will be the first to take delivery of the lithium-ion battery powered Nissans. Sales to the public are planned starting in 2012. TVA officials expect smart grid technology to help avoid system overloads due to battery recharging. Vehicle plug-ins at night – when electric demand is at non-peak – may become a consumer favorite. But eventually, power companies may be faced with extending more power lines along rural stretches of highway and opening recharging stations at grocery stores, malls, on downtown streets and in parking garages to handle day-time recharging. Billing consumers for recharging costs is another issue. According to Nissan, home car recharging will require 220 volts – the same as a typical air conditioner, hot tub or clothes dryer. Nissan is working on a quick-charge system capable of refueling a vehicle in less than 30 minutes.
High voltage competition — Helmet secured, Mike Willmon tightens his grip on the wheel and prepares for another run in Crazy Horse, his electric-powered ’78 Ford Pinto drag racer. His car can go from zero to 60 mph in 3 ½ seconds (360 volt pack; 1,500 amps, 400 hp to the wheels). Alaska resident Willmon is president of the National Electric Drag Racing Association. Of NEDRA’s 150 or so members, 75 percent are devoted drag racers like Willmon. NEDRA events are planned at established drag sites through the summer. Cars and cycles compete in 1/8- and ¼-mile events in categories based on available voltage. Last fall, Scotty Pollacheck aboard the 375-volt bike called the Killa-Cycle hit 174 mph in a quarter-mile run at a Colorado strip – considered the fastest any electric vehicle has covered the distance. The 175 mph barrier should fall this year. Willmon said electric racing is speed on the cheap: one run for a gas car can cost $20 in fuel. An electric car can get a day of racing – 10 runs in all — for $20 including costs of running a tow-along 16K recharging generator.
Most of us assume that some things are givens when it comes to environment-friendly transportation choices. Among those assumptions: Taking the subway is better than driving an SUV, riding a train tops hopping on a plane, and a hybrid car is much preferred over a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.
But that’s not always true.
Environmental engineers Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath of the University of California found that instead of taking a train into the city from suburbia, there are times when “people would be better off traveling through town in a gas-guzzling, high emission SUV. Ouch!
But it gets even worse: Taking the commuter train across Boston results in higher greenhouse gas emissions than traveling the same distance in a jumbo jet, says New Scientist.
How could that possibly be?
Part of it comes down to how the power that fuels the transportation is generated. Boston’s electric commuter trains use electricity that comes mostly from burning fossil fuels.
“Including these additional sources of pollution more than doubles the greenhouse gas emissions of train travel. The emissions generated by car travel increase by nearly one third when manufacturing and infrastructure are taken into account. In comparison to cars on roads and trains on tracks, air travel requires little infrastructure. As a result, full life-cycle emissions are between 10 and 20 per cent higher than ‘tailpipe’ emissions.
Occupancy also matters when it comes to measuring greenness – almost-empty buses at off-peak hours were less efficient than even SUVs and pickup trucks.
This way of measuring the environmental impact of transportation should be taken into account when planning new initiatives, say the researchers.
Of course, none of this is to deny the long list of benefits of buying a hybrid vehicle (or even taking the train or bus). But it does point out the complexity of many environmental issues.
Bottom-line Bobs and Barbs The nearly 20,000 responses to the latest J.D. Power & Associates Web-based survey on newfangled car technologies and enhancements reinforces conventional wisdom about how some households react to a souring economy. Bells and whistles be damned! The Power study reveals that average Bobs and Barbs think more about bottom-line costs than appealing new features.
Fuel-saving hybrid electric technology ranked fifth among the 19 available features – earning “definitely interested” status from 15 percent of respondents. But that 15 percent dropped to 4.2 percent when Power said the upgrade to hybrid technology would boost the price of a car by $5,000. For hybrid marketers, the challenge continues: to motivate consumers to look beyond the bottom line and consider more than price in their purchases.
Oh that William Morrison! Hybrid car enthusiasts should remember the name William Morrison. A native of Scotland, William Morrison built America’s first electric automobile in his secret basement lab in Des Moines in 1892. His 4 horsepower front-wheel-drive vehicle required 24 battery cells, had a top speed of 20 mph and needed recharging every 50 miles. It was the talk of 1893’s Chicago World’s Fair. Just four years later, another inventing Morrison – William J. Morrison – a Tennessee dentist and civic leader, patented an electric candy machine. The machine spun sugar into what was first called Fairy Floss. Today we know it as cotton candy. Remember those names this summer when you cruise over to the county fair in your hybrid.
Are you trying to figure out which hybrid car to buy? HybridCars.com has a cool online comparison tool that lets you compare up to 3 hybrid cars side by side. Add or remove different cars from the dropdown menus at the top and compare their estimated fuel use and cost, greenhouse gas emissions, technology, and more, plus see photos of the interiors and exteriors of the cars you choose.
Only cars that are currently for sale are included in the comparisons. There’s no wishful thinking here of what may come. If you’re in the market right now, this is a great help in the decision making process.
On June 9, 2009 the House approved the Cash for Clunkers Bill with a vote of 298 to 119. The passing of this bill means that consumers may receive a voucher for up to $4,500 from the government in return for their fuel thirsty cars. The voucher will be good towards the purchase of a newer, more fuel-efficient car of the consumer’s choice. Car owners will qualify to receive a $3,500 voucher if their current vehicle gets less than 18 mpg, and they purchase a new car that gets at least 22 miles per gallon in it’s place. They could, instead, receive up to $4,500 if their newly purchased car gets at least 10 mpg more than their old vehicle.
In the Cash for Clunkers program, the government will essentially buy gas-guzzling cars and trucks from their drivers in order for them to purchase newer more fuel-efficient cars, stimulating our struggling auto industry. It is estimated that the program could lead to 1.3 million new-vehicle purchases.
Funding for this bill will be derived from the already existing $787 billion dollar stimulus package plan. Furthermore, the effects Cash for Clunkers program is expected to be grandiose as it will create job opportunities and will also put more hybrid and eco-friendly cars on the road. Lastly, it will help in minimizing the amount of cars that contribute to global pollution in the atmosphere.
