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Paul Evans
Closer look: the Tesla Model S
By Paul Evans
01:31 April 3, 2009 PDT
There is much excitement and publicity surrounding the launch of the long awaited all electric sedan from Tesla Motors and more details have emerged since the Tesla Model S was unveiled. The specs that have officially been announced are not yet substantial enough for a full technical review at this stage, but we do know that the EV sedan has a top speed of 130 mph, is capable of 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, charges in 45 minutes and has a 160 mile (256 km) range with the standard battery option. According to the company's website we can expect to see an AWD option somewhere in the future and although it's not not officially stated, according to reporters at the the unveiling who were able to question Tesla engineers the Model S will be rear wheel drive (RWD) in its standard configuration. Gizmag's Paul Evans takes a closer look at what we know, and what questions remain unanswered. Read More
Wind Powered car sets new world record at 126mph
By Paul Evans
19:17 March 29, 2009 PDT
With a wind speed of just 30mph (48kmh), British engineer Richard Jenkins has set a new land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle at blistering 126.1mph. Driving the Ecotricity sponsored all carbon fiber land yacht Greenbird across the Ivanpah dry lake bed on the Nevada / California border Jenkins eclipsed the previous benchmark set a decade ago by American Bob Schumacher by almost 10 mph. It also continued a the rivalry between Britain and the United States for setting speed records that dates to the 1920s, when Sir Malcolm Campbell set several records on land and sea. Read More
The World's first flying hotel - The Hotelicopter
By Paul Evans
18:16 March 29, 2009 PDT
The double deck Airbus A380 has set new high standards for luxury accommodation in the air but, unless you can afford to deck out your own A380 as a private jet, the Hotelicopter concept aims to top this airborne opulence by equipping a four story converted heavy lift aircraft with 18 luxuriously-appointed room hotels. Modeled on the Soviet Mil V-12, the largest helicopter ever built, of which only two prototypes were built in the 1960s, the Hotelicopter company would like us to believe they purchased one of these prototypes in 2004 with the Hotelicopter now ready for its maiden flight in June 26th. We're not sure that we do, but we like the concept. Read More
Solar car travels more than 12,500 miles to break world distance record
By Paul Evans
17:36 March 29, 2009 PDT
A Solar car called Power Of One (Xof1) claimed a new unofficial world distance record for a solar powered car when it arrived in Los Angeles on March 6th having driven over 12,5000 miles (20,000 km) using only sunshine as fuel. Read More
Formula One KERS explained
By Paul Evans
01:33 March 26, 2009 PDT
The FIA Formula One World Championship starts this weekend with round one in Australia where we are about to witness the biggest number of rule changes in the history the sport. The front and rear wings have been significantly changed in size and height to reduce the aerodynamic effect on cars following each other. Many of the aerodynamic 'extras' added by teams last season around the side pods will be banned and after 11 years of grooved tires slicks will make a return. The aerodynamic changes include a first in F1, driver adjustable front wing flaps, but the rule changes we're most interested in are those concerning the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) that will eventually make every future Formula One race car a hybrid. Read More
Back to the Future: Mercedes-Benz F-CELL Roadster
By Paul Evans
20:17 March 25, 2009 PDT
Mercedes Benz has released pictures of an intriguing (if not practical) design study where century old tradition meets transport technologies of the future. The historical roots of the F-CELL Roadster are immediately recognizable in its large spoked wheels that hark back to the the first car developed by Karl Benz in 1886. Pair this with a modern-day hybrid drive system with a 1.2 kW (1.6 hp) electric motor powered by small fuel cell and you have one very modern roadster in a classic quadricycle package. Read More
Ericsson claiming a major breakthrough in broadband - 500Mbit/s over copper lines
By Paul Evans
17:19 March 22, 2009 PDT
The next generation of Super Broadband DSL is just around the corner. Swedish Telecommunications giant Ericsson has demonstrated 500-Mbits/s transmission rates over copper cabling by using new crosstalk cancellation or "vectorized" VDSL2 based modems. The data rate is over 20 times faster than the fastest ADSL2 services currently on offer in most countries. With products using the technology likely to be available by the end of the year, this will open up the possibility of broadband services such as video-on-demand over IPTV networks. Read More
New Nanoscale supercapacitor can store 100 times more energy
By Paul Evans
16:52 March 22, 2009 PDT
It has been a big week for news on advances in energy storage technology. We recently reported on new research that makes a Lithium Ion battery perform more like a supercapacitor, now we can report on research on a supercapacitor that performs more like a battery. Researchers at the University of Maryland and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a supercapacitor with 10 billion nanoscale capacitors per square centimeter, giving it 250 times greater surface area than that of a conventional capacitor of comparable size. The Nano Supercapacitor is being developed primarily as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars. Read More
Cajun Crawler: the Segway gets a leg-up
By Paul Evans
19:21 March 17, 2009 PDT
Take one DIY Self balancing electric vehicle project, replace the wheels with 6 pars of short legs based on Theo Jansen kinetic sculptures and the result looks like something out of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. A dynamically stabilized, ride-on robot that crawls. Read More
Lithium Ion Battery breakthrough promises 100-fold boost in performance
By Paul Evans
05:42 March 16, 2009 PDT
Researchers have developed a new advanced Lithium Ion battery that will allow mobile phone and laptop computers to be fully charged in seconds. Electric car batteries may be charged in as little as five minutes, removing one of the main barriers to wider uptake of EVs. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy. Read More
Spain sets new wind power record supplying 40% of total demand
By Paul Evans
01:30 March 12, 2009 PDT
Wind Turbines in the north west of Spain set a new record for power generation on March 5th as gales blew across the country, with more than 40% of the country's energy needs being generated by wind turbines. The new record stands at a peak of 11,180 megawatts (11.18 GW) of electricity supply beating the previous record of 10,032 megawatts. The percentage of demand supplied depends on time of day as demand rises and falls throughout the day. Read More
TH!NK FROST: AWD, all-wheel-steer electric sports car concept
By Paul Evans
18:54 March 11, 2009 PDT
While World Rally Championship cars travel at incredible speed on ice covered roads using studded tires, something with a little more surface area is needed for an Arctic Off-Road vehicle. Taking cues off four track snowmobiles Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie designed the FROST as a concept proposal for TH!NK, an electric car company based in Norway. The layout of the FROST is a 2-seat sports car platform based on a tubular space frame chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear teamed with push-rod actuated in-board coil over shock and spring units. The suspension features hydraulic wheel extenders to increase the track when required and the proposed electric drivetrain features All Wheel Drive (AWD), all-wheel-steering and radical tracks instead of conventional wheels that should offer superior traction when driving on snow, ice and slush. Read More
Forget your wallet? Pay with your mobile phone
By Paul Evans
18:07 March 11, 2009 PDT
With around four billion mobile phones in use world wide at the end of 2008 they now outnumber credit cards in circulation by a factor of 2:1, so the proliferation of payment systems based on the ubiquitous mobile phone seems almost a certainly. We've previously reported on Near Field Communication (NFC), a new generation of mobile phones able to make contactless payments and now UK mobile phone operator Orange is partnering with businesses to offer a complete range of contactless services. Read More
SEAT's green vision: Leon Ecomotive and Twin Drive concepts
By Paul Evans
16:50 March 11, 2009 PDT
SEAT displayed its first electric vehicle prototype in January of this year to Spain’s Minister of Industry who recently promised one million EVs on Spanish roads by 2012. SEAT has now announced the 74.3mpg TDI powered Leon Ecomotive at the Geneva Auto Show 2009. Read More
Tata Nano heads to Europe
By Paul Evans
20:38 March 10, 2009 PDT
The European version of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show this week. The Nano Europa is an upgraded version of the $2,500 "People's Car" soon to go into production in India. The Europa model sticks to the same narrow, upright, four-door format, but has a longer wheelbase, more safety features and is better finished than the Indian-market version so will be considerably more expensive than the Indian model due to go on sale in April 2009. Read More
Magna MILA EV, the future BMW Electric Car?
By Paul Evans
16:27 March 10, 2009 PDT
As part of the BMW Project i electric car program, Magna, the company that will be building the Ford Focus EV in 2011, has presented the MILA EV at the Geneva Motor Show 2009. Where most mass production electric vehicles announced to date are retrofitted or converted versions of existing vehicles, the five-door Mila has been designed without compromise as a fully integrated electric vehicle platform. Driven by a 50 Kw (67 hp) electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, the MILA EV is expected to have a charge time of 2.5 hours a range of up to 150 km (94 miles) with charging supplemented by solar cells integrated in the glass roof. Read More
600 hp Infiniti Essence: the World's most powerful hybrid car
By Paul Evans
17:15 March 9, 2009 PDT
To celebrate 20 years as a brand Infiniti has produced a stunning concept car for the 2009 International Motor Show in Geneva. The Infiniti Essence is the world’s most powerful Hybrid car with a total of 600 horsepower combined output from its V6 twin turbo and electric motor. The luxury sports car hybrid offers enormous power on the open road and zero emission driving in urban settings. Read More
Wire Bike uses carbon fiber and Kevlar cables
By Paul Evans
07:05 March 9, 2009 PDT
Super light structural materials such as carbon fiber and Kevlar have incredible natural strength in tension but are much weaker in compression. A good example of this is how the carbon fiber suspension on a formula one car can resist several tons of downforce but explodes when crashed into a barrier. The concept of tension has been a familiar sight in large engineered structures such as suspension bridges and now the same concept has been applied to a bike frame. Read More
Oyster ocean power system to provide 1 GW by 2020
By Paul Evans
17:27 March 8, 2009 PDT
A new milestone for marine energy was achieved recently when UK based Wave and Tidal Technologies company Aquamarine Power Ltd signed a 1,000 MW (1 GW) Development Agreement with the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy, Airtricity. Aquamarimes's Wave Power device, called Oyster, is a near shore hydroelectric wave power system. Still at the full scale prototype stage, the Oyster is based around a large movable buoyant barrier structure that is mounted on the seabed in depths of 10 – 12 m (33 – 40 ft) and pivots like a gate. Read More
Smart fortwo BRABUS electric drive
By Paul Evans
17:48 March 4, 2009 PST
Following on from the cosmetically customized version of the Tesla Roadster which debuted at the Essen Motor Show 2008, German tuning house BRABUS has seen the writing on the wall and launched a second electric car, this time based on a Smart fortwo. Drowned in matt green throughout the exterior and interior, the car comes with the same style monoblock light-alloy wheels and the (somewhat gimmicky) LED Daytime running lights as used on the Tesla, as well as some real technical innovation in the drive train. Read More
Opel Ampera: Europe's Chevrolet Volt unveiled
By Paul Evans
23:52 March 3, 2009 PST
After various sneak peeks and spy shots, we now have official pictures of the European version of the Chevrolet Volt. To be officially launched at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the left hand drive Opel/Vauxhall Ampera will go on sale late 2011 with a right-hand drive Vauxhall version available in 2012. Read More
Solar panel industry achieves Holy Grail - $1 per watt grid-parity
By Paul Evans
15:02 March 3, 2009 PST
Arizona based First Solar has achieved a major milestone in reducing the manufacturing cost for solar panels below the $1 per watt price barrier - the target necessary for solar to compete with coal-burning electricity on the grid or grid-parity. Using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology in its thin-film photovoltaic cells, First Solar claims to have the lowest manufacturing cost per watt in the industry with the ability to make solar cells at 98 cents per watt, one third of the price of comparable standard silicon panels. The efficiency is in part due to a low cycle time - 2.5 hours from sheet of glass to solar module - about a tenth of the time it takes for silicon equivalents. Read More
Ocean-power installation up and running
By Paul Evans
13:54 March 2, 2009 PST
Renewable Energy Company Oceanlinx has re-deployed its full-scale wave energy conversion unit at Port Kembla in Australia. First deployed in 2005, the unit has been undergoing planned refurbishment and modifications for the past several months. The Oceanlinx wave generator, which is an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device capable of generating peak power outputs of between 100 Kw and 1.5 MW, is one of six installations around the world currently being trialed. Read More
New hydraulic hybrid transmission doubles MPG in city driving
By Paul Evans
18:57 March 1, 2009 PST
Mechanical transmission of power using gears is very energy inefficient. The familiar automotive multi-speed gearbox and differential suffers from the friction losses that result in 20 – 30% of engine power being lost between a car's engine and the wheels. Many techniques are being developed to eliminate mechanical transmission including Wheel Motors and Hydraulic transmissions that we have seen being trialed in UPS delivery vans. Now in an innovative new approach, Scottish company Artemis Intelligent Power has developed a hydraulic hybrid transmission system it says can double a vehicle's MPG in city driving. Read More
Solar Powered hybrid aircraft - Sunseeker II
By Paul Evans
16:58 February 28, 2009 PST
A variety of solar powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have been setting world records for flight duration and altitude in recent times, there are even plans for solar powered craft that can remain aloft for years at a time. But it's not just aircraft of the unmanned variety that stand to benefit from solar technology, with planes that carry pilots now starting to take to the skies. Based on glider/sailplane construction methods, the Sunseeker II is the only manned solar airplane flying in the world, and according to SolarFlight, it has logged more time in the air than all other manned solar powered airplanes combined. Read More
Sam Munro
- November 26, 2009 @ 08:08 UTC
