Automotive

Future cars: Auto bodywork composite doubles as a battery

By Tannith Cattermole

18:41 February 7, 2010 PST

The problem is clear. Hybrid cars and EVs rely on batteries for power, but batteries are bulky and heavy, causing the car to use up more energy. But what if a car's bodywork was made of a strong, lightweight material that could store and discharge electrical energy just as a conventional battery does? In pursuing this goal, researchers at the Imperial College London are developing a key building block for the hybrid car of the future, and the implications go way beyond automobiles - think wafer thin mobile phones and laptops that don't need a separate battery because they draw power from their casing. Read More

The appropriately named Bright IDEA hybrid delivery van

By Ben Coxworth

13:34 January 30, 2010 PST

If you were a hybrid vehicle manufacturer, and you wanted to lower the world’s CO2 emissions, would you first...

• a) Try to replace all the privately-owned gas vehicles, that mostly just drive to and from workplaces, one vehicle at a time, or...
• b) Replace entire corporate fleets of gas delivery vehicles, that typically spend all day, every day, on the road?

Well, you’re supposed to answer “b”. That’s what Indiana-based Bright Automotive wants to do with their plug-in hybrid delivery van, the IDEA. And now that they’re close to signing a pact with an unnamed major automaker, they’re one step closer to realizing that vision. Read More

Jaguar's Gas Turbine Electric Vehicle Project wins funding

By Paul Ridden

12:37 January 27, 2010 PST

The UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board recently announced the recipients of carbon reduction technology research project funding which sees a consortium made up of Jaguar Land Rover, SR Drives and led by Bladon Jets taking a GBP 1,103,392 (about US$1,790,000) slice of the multi-million GB-pound cake to develop "the world’s first commercially viable - and environmentally friendly - gas turbine generator designed specifically for automotive applications." Read More

Automotive X PRIZE events to begin in Michigan from April 2010

By Ben Coxworth

20:03 January 17, 2010 PST

Things are beginning to heat up in the race for the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, as the kick-off date for the actual on-the-road events approaches. The fun will begin April 26th in Michigan, continue through August, and culminate in a September awards presentation in Washington, DC. A number of the contenders were on hand at the Detroit Auto Show this week, where the official announcement was made. Read More

Kia offers 7-Year/150,000 km warranty on all cars sold in Europe

By Gizmag Team

16:47 January 10, 2010 PST

Korean auto maker, Kia, has announced a seven-year/150,000 km bumper-to-bumper, parts-and-labour warranty for all vehicles sold and registered in Europe from January 1, 2010. This is far-and-away the longest fleet-wide warranty ever offered by a car manufacturer anywhere at any time and the move could have far reaching consequences. Brands with big reputations are charging two, five, even ten times as much for a car as Kia, yet they are clearly unprepared to guarantee their quality to the same extent, and this might well be the point the public finally understands that new price does not reflect quality, that quality is measurable, and that reputations for quality are distinctly at odds with reality. At very least, as the warranties are fully transferable to subsequent owners, Kia resale values should skyrocket. Read More

Ceramic coated exhausts protect panniers and pillions

By Alan Brandon

14:38 December 16, 2009 PST

Nothing ruins a motorcycle trip like the smell of burning nylon and the sight of your possessions scattered across the highway. Soft-sided panniers are great when you want to pack some gear for a weekend getaway, but they’re not so great if they come into contact with your bike’s hot exhaust pipe. By applying a Zircotec ceramic coating to your bike’s exhaust system, the manufacturer says you can get rid of the heat shields and protect your panniers (and passenger!) from heat damage. Read More

Driving the Spira 3-wheel prototype

By Mike Hanlon

17:23 December 11, 2009 PST

The Spira three-wheeler is a unique vehicle. It's one of the finalists in the Automotive X-Prize but its frugal fuel consumption and low emissions are only part of the vision of making it a car for the people. The Spira starts with a scooter, uses everything but the frame, and all those parts bolt into a foam composite tub to create a lightweight (137 kg) three-wheeled two-seater with immeasurably greater crash protection for the occupants. Gizmag visited the Spira's home in Thailand to drive what inventor Lon Ballard hopes will become a machine for the people, and came away mightily impressed. Read More

Capstone CMT-380 electric hybrid supercar with microturbines

By Jeff Salton

22:04 December 3, 2009 PST

Capstone Turbine Corporation has shown off its high performance hybrid electric car, the CMT-380, at the LA Auto Show. The car features a 30kW microturbine that extends the range of its traditional EV batteries, and which the company likens to having an ultra-clean and quiet jet engine under the hood. Capstone adds that the supercar, still in its test phase, reaches 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 150mph, and a range of up to 500 miles on a single tank of fuel - all with ultra-low exhaust emissions that rival any hybrid on the market today. Read More

car2go car sharing program hits the US

By Darren Quick

21:22 November 26, 2009 PST

car2go, the innovative car sharing program first seen in Ulm, Germany, has launched in Austin, Texas. A joint partnership between the City of Austin and Daimler will initially see 200 smart fortwo vehicles made available 24/7 within the city to a select group of city employees and their relatives, with plans to increase the number of cars and make them accessible to all Austin residents and students in early 2010. Read More

Narrow track vehicles - the convergence of the car and the motorcycle

By Mike Hanlon

01:22 November 19, 2009 PST

Since Nicholas Negroponte first came up with his landmark teething ring visualization of the coming together of communication, computing and content, the term convergence has become the uber buzzword. Now there’s convergence going on in the personal transport industry, with the car and the motorcycle morphing as car makers attempt to downsize their vehicles to make them better suited to the world’s increasingly crowded roads. This article begins with Nissan’s tandem two-seat, half width tilting car, the Landglider, and examines all the other work being done around the world as narrow track vehicles seriously begin to make their case. Read More

Nissan licenses self-healing paint for mobile phones

By Mike Hanlon

14:33 November 11, 2009 PST

Self-healing paint has been with us on automobiles since Nissan released its “Scratch Shield” in 2005. Scratch Guard is a highly elastic resin that self-heals fine scratches and is capable of restoring the vehicle’s paint surfaces overnight or up to a week’s time in more severe cases. Now Japan’s major Telco, NTT DoCoMo, has announced it will license Scratch Shield for use on mobile phones as a value-add feature for Japanese customers. Read More

The Lexus LFA supercar – the long awaited production version arrives

By Darren Quick

22:29 October 25, 2009 PDT

It’s been a long time coming. The Lexus LFA that first appeared as a concept car at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show is finally production ready. Lexus made the announcement at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show where a prototype of the production car was on display along with a full-scale see through model in the company's “art gallery” - and the stunning 202mph V10 supercar is indeed worthy of a place in an art gallery, although keen collectors will still have to endure a bit more of a wait since the car isn’t expected to reach garages until early 2011, with only 500 units being produced. Read More

Global Green Challenge kicks off later this month

By Alan Brandon

06:28 October 10, 2009 PDT

This month dozens of competitors will gather in Darwin, Australia, for the start of the Global Green Challenge. This 1860 mile (3000km) showcase of state-of-the-art transport technologies pits environmentally friendly vehicles against the heart of the Outback as they race south towards the finish line in Adelaide. The event has evolved from the famous World Solar Challenge and now includes two classes: one for solar-powered vehicles and an "Eco Challenge" for other types of electric, hybrid and alternative fuel production and experimental vehicles. Read More

West Philly Hybrid X high school team in race for Auto X Prize

By Mick Webb

04:04 October 10, 2009 PDT

The Automotive X Prize is a competition aiming to “inspire a new generation of viable, super – efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change”. With a $10 million prize pot and over 100 teams from 12 countries contributing entries, an unlikely contender has emerged in the form of West Philadelphia High School’s Hybrid X Team, which is applying its experience and knowledge to two entries including the Factory Five GT based EVX GT sports car. Read More

MAX: An almost Lotus that runs on vegetable oil

By Paul Ridden

05:05 October 7, 2009 PDT

Even before entering the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition, Jack McCornack had started to pull together all the things needed to knock out a sporty two-seater car capable of achieving 100 miles per gallon. Fueled by the desire to make his creation a template for others to repeat and determined to bring it together within a strict budget, the race was on to bring MAX into the world - a Lotus Seven replica which just happens to run on vegetable oil. Paul Ridden traces the history of this fascinating project. Read More

Mechanical bolt-on KERS hybrid for buses offers 30% fuel saving

By Gizmag Team

03:05 October 3, 2009 PDT

It seems that the lessons learned in developing a mechanical KERS system for F1 may yet hold the key to a low-cost, high-efficiency hybrid system particularly suited for the stop-start patterns of buses, which are quite similar to the distances between capturing and delivering energy of those of a race car. Torotrak will deliver a paper at the SAE Commercial Vehicle Congress in Illinois next week showing how flywheel KERS for buses can offer more than 30 percent fuel saving over the London bus test cycle, yet package around an existing transmission. Read More

Mitsubishi i-MiEV CARGO and PX-MiEV Plug-in hybrid crossover concepts

By Gizmag Team

04:29 October 1, 2009 PDT

The 41st Tokyo Motor Show in October looks set to lift the veil on the first wave of Japanese electric cars we’ll actually see in mainstream distribution, so it’s incredibly exciting to see what will be rolled out as we are entering the pre-announcement period for the show. Mitsubishi’s MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle ) lineage gets two new offspring concept cars – the PX-MiEV (PX stands for Plug-in hybrid crossover) and the i-MiEV CARGO. The CARGO in particular looks like it will fill an immediate need for emission-free delivery vehicles in the world’s most congested cities and, not surprisingly, although it’s classed as a concept, the company is currently accepting pre-orders for delivery in April 2010. Read More

PortiloBox - changes from bike rack to extra boot in seconds

By Jeff Salton

00:08 September 21, 2009 PDT

Westfalia-Automotive has created a towbar-mounted bicycle rack that, in a matter of seconds, converts into an extra boot by attaching a cleverly-designed waterproof lid. Portilo – the bike rack – is built to hold two bicycles in stands, rather than hang them from the frame (which is becoming increasingly difficult these days, given the variation in frame sizes between brands). The PortiloBox fits the Portilo easily with no tools needed to secure it. It’s only small but, if you just need that little bit of extra space, it’s ideal. Read More

Ferrari gives the 599 GTB Fiorano a spit and polish with its HGTE package

By Darren Quick

23:48 September 13, 2009 PDT

As it nears the end of its product cycle, Ferrari is giving the 599 GTB Fiorano an extra lease on life with a 'Handling Gran Turismo Evoluzione' (HGTE) package. The package hones the 599’s performance with the inclusion of modified suspension with stiffer springs, rear anti-roll bar and new calibration settings for the magnetorheological (a type of smart fluid that becomes a viscoelastic solid when subjected to a magnetic field) shock absorbers. Read More

Oshkosh demonstrates TerraMax autonomous vehicle system

By Paul Lester

18:27 September 3, 2009 PDT

The ability of military vehicles to better protect occupants with modern designs and high-tech materials has become an increasing priority and UK firm Amsafe has already seen success with its Tarian armor plating in the U.S. Oshkosh Defense, part of the U.S. Marine Corp’s MRAP (Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected) program, is also heavily involved and a recently-announced armor system took an alternative approach with an emphasis on mobility. Development of its new TerraMax vehicles seems almost flawless in its potential, however, at least in protecting the lives of the soldiers on board because, put simply, there aren’t any. Read More

Gumpert Apollo Sport claims Nurburgring lap record for road legal cars

By Darren Quick

18:27 August 24, 2009 PDT

German manufacturer Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur is claiming a lap record for road legal cars on the world famous Nurburgring Nordschleife. Florian Gruber completed the 12.93-mile track (20.81km) in a standard factory specification Gumpert Apollo Sport equipped with road legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires and an adjustable suspension by KW suspensions in a time of 7 minutes, 11.57 seconds. That averages out at 106.78mph (171.84kmh) and is 3.32 seconds faster than the Donkervoort D8 RS06, which posted a time of 7 minutes 14.89 seconds in November 2005. Read More

Fisker Karma PHEV hits the tarmac for the first time

By Jeff Salton

19:27 August 17, 2009 PDT

The Fisker Karma Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) recently demonstrated how quick it is in two ways – it goes from 0-60mph in six seconds and from concept to public driving debut just 19 months after the company was formed. The 403hp prototype Karma PHEV almost silently attained a top speed of 100mph (using no gasoline) as it made its way around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races. Read More

Obama bets US$2.4 billion on battery-electric vehicles

By Loz Blain

03:29 August 7, 2009 PDT

Awesome news: battery technology is about to get a US$2.4 billion-dollar kick in the pants. US President Barack Obama has announced the single largest funds injection into battery development and electric/hybrid vehicle technology the world has ever seen. Obama's hope is that this huge chunk of stimulus funds will be enough to knock down the biggest wall standing between electric vehicles and the mainstream: the fact that current batteries are still too expensive, take too long to charge, and don't hold enough energy. If the move succeeds, it could put America right at the front of the electric car revolution - but at the least, it could help the next generation of iPhones last more than a day between charges. Read More

Nissan's Forest AC a breath of fresh air

By Jeff Salton

23:38 August 4, 2009 PDT

Nissan's new Fuga vehicles will have an air conditioning system that emulates forest scents and refreshing breezes to make driving more comfortable. The company says the air conditioner uses a number of technologies to control cabin temperature, ventilation, aroma and humidity. It can even detect bad smells from outside and shuts its vents to prevent their entry. The system is based on the results of a joint research study with the Tokyo University of Science on the effects of aroma on human mental activity. Read More

Cheaper, more fuel-efficient tires? Wooden it be good

By Darren Quick

01:28 July 24, 2009 PDT

Making tires from wood might seem like an idea that would be more at home on the Flintstones than in the early 21st Century, but that’s just what a team of wood science researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) are proposing. They aren’t suggesting constructing the tires solely from wood, but replacing silica with microcrystalline cellulose derived from plant fiber as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires. The result could be a tire that would cost less, perform better and save on fuel and energy. Read More