Electric Cars

Till now we have battery operated cars or hybrid cars. Hybrid cars reduce your gas consumption and air pollution. If you are using battery operated cars, you can’t drive on the spur of a moment. You have to PLAN and recharge the batteries. Otherwise your vehicle will carry you for a few miles and then it will stop and you will be stuck somewhere you don’t want to. You also have to compromise on the size, space and speed of the car. And since you are using a storage device in the car, you have to fear and respect that too. No Comments

Frontiers for electric vehicles have changed: 10 years ago or even more recently it was almost impossible to consider an electric solution for all-terrain purposes, now on the market we see new products with highly improved performances. Pioneer in this field is the Italian company Alkè (www.alke.com) who invested research and time to develop the new ATX E range of high performance electric vehicles. They have been able to provide electric utility vehicles that face till 40% slopes (with RID version engines), sandy and icy grounds, loading capacity of 500-1000Kg and towing capacity of around 2000-3000Kg. 1 Comment

California based company Green Vehicles recently began selling an affordable $20,000 electric car called the Triac. The small but efficient 3-wheeled car has a range of 120 miles and can travel up to 70mph on the highway. Charging the lithium-ion batteries that power the 20kw electric motor takes about 6 hours, and there is an optional capacity boost battery pack available that extends the range by 20% (why not include it with the car?). The Triac comes in 8 different color combinations and is available from the dealership in San Jose. See the company website for more details. 7 Comments

Canadian Inventor Ben Gulak of BPG-Technologies has developed a wild new green motorcycle that uses gyro technology to stay upright on its two side-by-side wheels. Acceleration is controlled by leaning forward to go faster, and leaning back to slow down. The gyro tells the ECU how much to accelerate and that in turn delivers the proper amount of current to the electric motors, one for each wheel. Weighing in at a mere 129 pounds, the 'bike' has a top speed of 25mph and a battery life of 2 1/2 hours. The bike was recently unveiled for the first time at the 2008 National Motorcycle Show in Toronto. 3 Comments

Interview with Martin Eberhard, Engineer and Founder of Tesla Motors. The company was co-founded in 2003 with fellow Engineer Marc Tarpenning. Their plans to develop electric cars were met with skeptical curiosity. The release of the Tesla Roadster has proven a success even though the price tag is still around US $100,000. Some 'green' celebrities like George Clooney have been spotted taking a ride in one. This interview by Plenty asks some questions about their vision for an electric car future and plans to introduce a mainstream electric vehicle in 2009. 8 Comments

Astrolab, the world's first commercial solar car, will be available in January 2008 thanks to automobile designer Sacha Lakic. The car was developed by the French manufacturer, Venturi. The vehicle is powered by energy from the sun - the 16kW electric motor requires very little energy for propulsion. The solar hybrid can travel a minimum distance of 110 kilometres and has a top speed of 120kph. The chassis is molded out of a high-tech lightweight carbon monocoque material in order to maintain an efficient form. 3.6 metres of photo-voltaic cells are integrated into the chassis. 4 Comments

Designers at PML Flightlink have transformed a mini into a hybrid-electric performance vehicle. The car has a great fuel efficiency and performance specifications. It can achieve a top speed of 150mph and accelerates to 60mph in 4.5 seconds. The clever design incorporates four 160bhp electric motors (one on each wheel) which also function as the braking system. Electricity is generated and stored when the brakes are applied. Company executives are excited about this new electric car technology and hope to see it used on a larger scale. They are confident their technology can easily be fitted on most modern cars. No Comments