Featured Threads Archive

If you miss the original Honda Insight, here is your answer:


Source: The technology behind the riversimple hydrogen fuel cell car

• 11 hp fuel cell
• super capacitors
• carbon-fiber body

Yes, it is 'barking mad.' Still an interesting approach regardless of practicality. Just live on flat-land.

Bob Wilson

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Automakers Should Market Electric Cars As Fun-To-Drive, Quiet, Responsive


Sounds like that's what Toyota is going with for the Gen 4.

2017 Mercedes-Benz S-Class PHEV To Get Wireless Charging

Volvo's new 40 series small car concepts look phenomenal | The Verge
"The first car from the new 40 series is expected to go into production next year, with pure-electric and plug-in hybrid variants to come as well."
Who needs Tesla, when you can have this -

or this:

I recall coming back from the Tsawassen ferry terminal one time, battling my way through the labyrinth that is Richmond, decided to ask Garmin to get me home, North Coquitlam. Unfortunately, with dated map and road construction, it took me the long way, way east, ended up doubling-back across the Port Mann Bridge. Anyway, something in the news:

Study suggests reliance on GPS may reduce hippocampus function as we age

CBC radio "The Current" podcast on the subject, here:

Home | The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti | CBC Radio

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5ECA242A-CD3B-4BFD-88DD-CFD03AB25B63/0/HybridReportMay152016.pdf

Source: State seeks more drivers for mileage tax test - Capital Bureau - East Oregonian

The line starts here.
Smaller, cheaper Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car coming in 2019, company says

Aside from our usual Faraday Future tagging, this week we cover... Russell Me talking about buying an electric motorcycle. Or trying to anyway. Zero Motorcycles Hap's Cycles Tony I want to talk hyper loop. Mark New Nissan xStorage (like a Tesla Powerwall) Mark Here we go, owner claiming Tesla crashed on its own! Russell I once knew a guy who was sure that the best idea for a restaurant ever, in the history of food service, was a Dracula themed restaurant where the menus are shaped liked bats. Yeah, that was the whole idea. He was sure it was a winner. Faraday Future thinks our future is robots. Lots and lots of robots. Russell Predicting person makes big prediction, Chevy Bolt sales of 30K to 80K during first year says KBB analyst Tony Could we have a new, viable EV player?

Read more about this episode on WhatDrives.Us

An hour long, still interesting insights about how to design efficiently:


This is the awesome motor: Charged EVs | EV-builder DeltaWing to use DHX motors with direct-winding heat exchange system


In effect, a liquid cooled, motor that allows much higher currents and power density.


In a Prius, these motors could shave almost 100 lbs but there is an even more effective approach. Encapsulate the stators in a non-conductive bath inside a jacket.

This would provide direct, heat conduction and increase the power density even further. With a pressurized coolant bath, it could leave the enclosing jacket and go through a phase change to efficiently...

The heart of the Canadian Oil sands (as far as living residences) is Fort McMurray which has sadly taken serious damage in the recent wild fires. Apparently a significant portion of the oil production is shut in for safety reasons. Bottom line analysts expecting a rough weeks ahead in the gasoline/crude prices.


The Fort Mac fire toll - Gasbuddy Gas Prices

The race is just starting on FS1 channel. Maybe the Toyotas will actually compete this time, the Porsche and Audi hybrids have just been competing against each other.

This week our panel takes on:

• You Say Autonomous Cars Will Encourage More People to have sex in cars Like that’s a bad thing
  
• Volvo pisses on Tesla’s autopilot functionality
  
• RAV4 Hybrid has made the Prius V irrelevant and redundant…already
  
• Mark Coughlan talks about how Awesome the new 2G Chevy Volt is (and how awesome In-N-Out is).
  
• The Chevy Jolt may be a dumb name but it's a great idea, even if it is bogus
  
• Japan has more charging spots than gas stations?

Read more about this episode on WhatDrives.Us

This seems more like an integration effort rather than grafting on self-driving hardware to an off-the-shelf car.


FCA, Google confirm plan for self-driving prototypes based on hybrid Chrysler Pacifica

Source: Ferrari CEO Takes a Tesla for a Test Drive


Bob Wilson

The Tesla of Garbage Trucks Wants to Make City Buses More Sustainable - Curbed

"Wellington, New Zealand, had a serious issues with its beloved trolley system. Decades old, the vehicles rely on a system of overhead wires the city can’t afford to maintain, so it looked like municipal authorities would need to swap out the clean transport system for dirty diesel buses. But before the city revamped its mass transit system, a third way presented itself, a high-tech, more sustainable solution that may foreshadow a shift in how cities run their fleets of heavy vehicles, such as buses and garbage trucks....

The Wrightspeed hybrid system—an electric motor with extensive power and torque, a computer-controlled high-tech gear box and four-speed transmission, and a battery that’s charged by a gas-fueled turbine range extender called the Fulcrum—provides the push needed to move a heavy vehicle up hills...

...

Volvo Engineer Disdainful of Tesla’s Autopilot

HybridsCars article