Hybrid Cars

If we can control the excess carbon emissions from fossil fuels we can control the global warming to a great extent. When we start our cars and apply brakes using combustion engines we use generous amount of fossil fuel and the carbon emission too is in the direct proportion of the amount of gas used. Now researchers are trying to concentrate on two points: starting a combustion engine and applying breaks. If we start using hybrid cars that use electricity for breaks and then run on fossil fuel for the rest of your journey then we will be able to reduce the emitted carbon quantity. Now companies are paying heed to the green consumers and launching hybrid cars in the market. They produce less pollution. 6 Comments

People want to use clean and green energy and live easy on earth’s resources. Many are changing to hybrid cars and using solar panels side by side with conventional sources of energy. But they hold a grudge. How to store large amount of energy in batteries? Hybrid cars fit batteries for power storage. But this power is not enough to last long distances and takes many undesirable hours to recharge. The storage battery is not very helpful during acceleration. Solar and wind also don’t provide us with power at constant rate. They give us energy intermittently. Their storage devices also take lots of space and money as well and yet they don’t seem promising for surge demand. Gary Rubloff, who is the director of the University of Maryland's NanoCenter is also voicing a common consumer’s concern, "Renewable energy sources like solar and wind provide time-varying, somewhat unpredictable energy supply, which must be captured and stored as electrical energy until demanded. Conventional devices to store and deliver electrical energy -- batteries and capacitors -- cannot achieve the needed combination of high energy density, high power, and fast recharge that are essential for our energy future." 2 Comments

Don’t curse the potholes, they can give you energy, says a team of MIT students. The MIT undergraduates have devised a shock absorber that can smoothen your ride as well as harvest energy from bumps that will generate electricity! The study was published in MIT Tech Talk on Wednesday. The team wanted to figure out where energy is being wasted in a moving vehicle. Some hybrid cars are already recovering the energy from breaking. So the team searched elsewhere and quickly concentrated on suspension. Shakeel Avadhany and his teammates said they can generate up to a 10 percent enhancement in overall vehicle fuel efficiency by using the regenerative shock absorbers. 5 Comments

Automobiles companies are on the lookout to manufacture tomorrow's car. They want to minimize the disadvantages of the today's hybrid cars and capitalize on its positive features. Mechanical and electrical engineers at DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and BMW are jointly making an effort in this direction. They want to roll out a tomorrow's car equipped with technology that shuts off the internal combustion engine on its own when the vehicle is not moving. This car will work well within the city where traffic is characterized by stop and start again. But you can safely drive this car on highways too where you can speed up and enjoy a smooth ride. This car will be 100-percent electric. "It takes the combination of hydrogen and oxygen to form water, and at the same time produce electricity," says Doanh Tran, an advanced vehicle engineer with DaimlerChrysler’s Fuel Cell Vehicles & Technologies. The exhaust pipe of the car will emit water vapor. 7 Comments

Although the idea of driving a hybrid vehicle (and getting a better car insurance rate for doing it) has become increasingly common for the automotive public, designers are still hotly contesting the best form "alternative" fuels should take and happily experimenting with everything from electrical and hydrogen-powered cars to those that run on compressed air or draw power from solar cells. With the venerable Toyota Prius now an everyday sight on American streets, the two most productive areas of improvement for currently available and soon-to-be introduced models can be found in battery tech and the changed view of driving underlying the interest in plug-ins. 5 Comments

China is one of the most polluted countries in the world. But they are not unaware of the ill effects of the excessive use of fossil fuels. They are paying attention to lessening the environmental effects of the poisonous gases. China is making rapid strides towards clean energy and investing considerable time and talent in new researches regarding green energy. They are working on a new type of internal combustion engine. Researchers in China are developing and using a new and more accurate computer model to assess performance of the free-piston linear alternator (FPLA). No Comments

The latest generation of hybrid cars will be blessed with revolutionary fuel cells developed by Monash University scientists that can make hybrid cars more reliable and cheaper to produce. This breakthrough was published on August 1, 2008 in the Science Journal. The key component in the latest design of these fuel cells is Goretex(R), which a specially-coated form of popular hi tech outdoor and sporting clothing material. No Comments

How does it feel to have the best of both worlds? People who are using hybrid cars might have a taste of it. Hybrid technology tries to combine the advantages of combustion engines and electric motors. This way a person can save fuel especially in an urban environment. But the million dollar question is how to improve the performance of storage units? How to make high performance storage units safe for the end user? 1 Comment

General Electric and the C-MAR Group recently announced plans to work together on the development of hybrid engine technologies for tugboats, in an effort to offer lower costs for customers and while lowering carbon emissions. The tugboat platform builds on current hybrid technology projects for locomotives, city buses and off-highway vehicles. These hybrid technologies are all part of GE’s ecomagination initiative. Ecomagination represents the company’s commitment to develop new environmentally friendly technologies and products to solve our toughest environmental challenges. No Comments

The soaring oil prices and the rising level of awareness among the masses regarding the rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions are compelling many car makers to switch over the developing hybrid cars. There are already more than one million hybrid vehicles running on American roads (May, 2008). Big car companies like GM and Toyota have already made big strides in this direction. In fact GM is cutting down on producing and marketing its behemoth gas-guzzling trucks and focusing more on lighter, fuel-efficient cars. The number one selling hybrid car is Toyota's Prius. Incidentally, Toyota is far ahead in the race for producing hybrid cars. 6 Comments

The Scuderi Group will be presenting a scale plastic model of their highly anticipated split-cycle air-hybrid engine during this week's Engine Expo 2008 in Germany. The company plans to display a demonstration model of the valve train at the show. The computer models that the Scuderi Group are using to develop the Air-Hybrid Engine are producing concrete engineering results that work as expected when prototyped. The new engine is expected to increase fuel-efficiency by 1/3 in regular gasoline engines, and have even greater efficiency in diesel engines. 4 Comments

A new hybrid vehicle prototype could make cargo transportation a lot more energy efficient. The add-on system uses a special trailer that provides a power assist on hills and uses regenerative braking technology to recharge the onboard battery system. The system works similar to a hybrid car; the motor generators produce electricity via regenerative braking instead of normal friction brakes, and a bank of batteries can be mounted under the trailer chassis to store this energy. When the truck/trailer combo needs to accelerate or go uphill, electric power flows from the batteries to the motors to provide some or all the power needed to propel the truck. It is one of several potential systems that aim to increase fuel economy and reduce the carbon emissions from heavily polluting tractor trailers. 15 Comments

When you look around today it’s easy to think that the environmentally friendly bandwagon was always crowded with corporations and other types that were clamouring all over each other to prove that they were the only big business giant concerned about the future of the earth. No Comments

BMW has announced the start of production of the new BMW Hydrogen 7, the world's first hydrogen-powered luxury saloon car. Destined to make its first public appearance on 28 November at the Los Angeles Motor Show, the Hydrogen 7 will be built in limited numbers and offered to selected users in 2007. The BMW Hydrogen 7 is based on the existing 7 Series and comes equipped with an internal combustion engine capable of running on liquid hydrogen or petrol. In hydrogen mode the car emits nothing more than water vapor. Powered by a 260hp 12-cylinder engine, the Hydrogen 7 accelerates from zero to 62mph in 9.5 seconds before going on to an electronically limited 143mph top speed. 16 Comments

A battery developer is claiming its technology can extend the range of hybrid electric vehicles. Technology Research Laboratories Inc. (TRL, Research Triangle Park, N.C.) claims its battery technology can extend the range of hybrid electric vehicles to 75 miles or better per charge. The company claims its battery operates on physical chemistry principles different from conventional lead-acid batteries, and is made almost entirely of carbon and plastic materials. Problems with battery technology have hindered large-scale development. Technology advances are needed to improve consumer confidence in hybrid vehicles. 7 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. 6 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. 1 Comment

The State of New York is buying two hybrid electric school buses through a unique purchasing program. The buses will be powered by Enova Systems' post-transmission 80-kilowatt hybrid drive system. Financial support for the project is being provided by a consortium of energy agencies, school districts and transportation providers throught the United States. There are almost 50,000 school buses in the state of New York and energy groups hope to encourage more energy efficient transportation throughout the system. No Comments