quick 4 question survey.

It’ll take less than 3 seconds. Not kidding.

Something for my friend’s project for the Transportation Planning class.

Please reblog if you’re a UCSD student, and keep at least the UCSD tag.

ontologicalterrorist:

Germany’s world-class cadre of car designers are searching for the holy grail — a zero-emission car that wins over the world’s petrolheads. “There are so many concepts,” said one Audi executive. “We’re not sure what the customer is willing to pay for.”

At the moment, even with oil prices soaring, the cost of a battery pack adds €10-15,000 to the cost of an electric vehicle, and even then it has a limited range.

“We’ve not yet gone far enough to break through with this technology,” said Audi. “People only change to new technology if they have all the benefits of the old plus something extra at the same cost. We assume that one day all cars technology will be electric: maybe not in 2020 or 2030, but by 2050.”

Not surprisingly, carmakers are focusing on hybrid vehicles, which combine a conventional combustion engine with an electric powertrain. The best-selling hybrid is the Toyota Prius. Pure electric cars have a battery that lasts only as long as the equivalent of 6-7 litres of petrol, which means recharging every hour or so.

Progress is being made in reducing the weight of the car through carbon fibre, but the key to winning the hearts of motorists is coming up with a battery that lasts for the equivalent time of a tank of petrol.

While Renault-Nissan has led the way with its €27,000 Leaf, already on the market, with the cheaper Zoe to follow soon, BMW is the only manufacturer that has decided to design an electric car from scratch, building it around new electric components rather than converting existing conventional cars.

Tobias Hahn of BMW explains that while a traditional car has a big engine and a small tank, an electric car is the reverse, with small electric components and a giant battery. This calls for a new architecture, BMW argues. It will launch its i3 model — a pure electric car — in 2013, followed by the i8, a hybrid.

“It’s a wholesale change in the approach to vehicle architecture,” said Tim Urquhart, senior auto analyst at IHS Global Insight in London.

Berlin’s Free University, meanwhile, has pioneered a “self-driving” car. It uses cameras, laser scanners, heat sensors and satellite navigation to sense other cars, pedestrians and physical obstacles. Professor Raul Rojas reckons the truly automatic car is the vehicle of the future. “The cars of today,” he said, “are the horses of yesterday.”

If the Germans can’t perform an engineering miracle then no one can.

Deutsche elektrische autos!

(via envirolutionary)

sfgate, 22.11.10.

reader comment:

In my use the Leaf will get infinite MPG. I won’t be buying gasoline for it (isn’t that the G in MPG??). Now, if we’re talking ‘miles per kilowatt’ (MPK) or ‘miles per kilo of carbon oxidized’ (MPKCO), then we’re comparing apples to apples. Calling it 99 MPG is inaccurate and retarded.  

But then, first paragraph of article:

The Nissan Leaf, an electric car aimed at attracting environmentally conscious motorists, will get the equivalent of 99 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, based on government testing.  

Just wondering now a bit of the technicalities, of how they equilivate (sp?) mpg to mpk.
And will future EVs (electric vehicles) efficiency labels be tagged with mpk instead of mpg?

Anyway, one day last school year during which I lived in the Regents/Genesse area quite near school (UCSD campus) when I was walking in the Regents parking lot to get to the frequently-run shuttle that would take me to campus in about 7 mins (vs 15-20 mins walking), I found a shiny new Nissan Leaf in the concrete park along with a small circular track composed of orange safety cones and yellow caution tape for test-runs.

Nissan Leaf zero-emission tour at UCSD Regents parking lot.
pics by me, 19.11.09.

I think the Leaf looks alright. A little weird, most people would say, but then how would one imagine a “futuristic” auto/typical concept car look like?
But instead of using a battery that recharges with electricity, how about PVs (photovoltaics) solar panels to charge its battery?
And a green paint job to make the name seem less arbitrarily chosen?

Dudes, and how about we get a bundle deal?
The Nissan Leaf + the juicy thin actual solar-powered/solar-cell’ed (I’m not so technically familiar) Leaf bracelet mobile phone?