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Category Archives: Alternative transportation
XL Hybrids customers hit 4M mile mark with XL3 Hybrid Electric Drive retrofit system
XL Hybrids customers hit 4M mile mark with XL3 Hybrid Electric Drive retrofit system
20 October 2014
XL Hybrids, Inc. announced that fleet customers of its XL3 Hybrid Electric Drive System retrofit system have logged a cumulative total of four million on-road miles.
Customers are driving their service, delivery and cargo fleets more than 500,000 miles per month, a number that is increasing monthly. XL Hybrids said it would provide more detail during the Southeast Alternative Fuels Conference, 23 October.
Our customers enjoy a quick adoption rate because the XL3 system doesn’t need any special plugs, charging or fueling infrastructure. Fleet managers can retrofit existing fleet vehicles or order new vans with our charge-sustaining hybrid electric powertrains. Fleets immediately benefit from cost savings of 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption.
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The XL3 Hybrid Electric Drive for passenger and cargo vans requires less than a $10,000 investment. The simple, fail-safe system provides fleets with 99.9 percent uptime due to the post-transmission, parallel design, the company said.
2015 Lexus NX 300h CUV Priced From $40,645
Lexus has announced pricing for the 2015 NX 300h at $40,645 for front wheel drive, and $42,235 for all wheel drive.
These prices include shipping, and dealers are expected to have the newly designed crossover that’s been well received in Japan, and positioned wih more youthful design than the originator of the luxury crossover sub segment, the RX 450h.
Power for the new CUV comes from a 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder engine based hybrid system. Fuel economy is EPA rated for the FWD at 35 city, 31 highway, and 33 combined; for the AWD it’s 33 city, 30 highway, 32 combined.
SEE ALSO: 2015 Lexus NX: Turbo And Hybrid VersionsThis is 4 mpg better than the RX 450h which has been on the market for several years, is due for a refresh, but which still carries forward with respectable sales.
The NX could however be perceived as a more desirable alternative given its pricing is significantly less than the RX 450h starting at $48,545, and the NX is all new thus offering a strong potential proposition.
Lexus is positionng the car alongside its first turbocharged car, the non-hybrid 2.0-liter NX 200T and F-Sport version of the same. This model starts at $35,405.
Polestar To Tune Volvo SUVs Next
Sweden’s Polestar tuning house has built a great reputation through motorsports tuning Volvo sedans, and they’re ready to move onto their next big challenge; SUVs. In an interview with Drive, Polestar owner Christian Dahl revealed that he is ready to expand into the SUV game.
As it stands, Polestar only offers a full range of upgrades for the V60 sedan, but future plans call for a “hot hatch” version V40 as well as a full range of modifications for the XC60 and just-revealed XC90.
“Now we have the credibility from motorsport and the sedan models then I think we can expand the brand into the SUV segment,” Dahl said. He also confirmed that future models will use a new version of the Volvo Drive-E four-cylinder, going on to say; “It’s a really small engine. Within a car that’s big like an S60, being small gives you advantages in terms of packaging, what you can do with suspension.”
Polestar has previously mentioned integrating batteries and electric motors into future models, a not-so-subtle hint that the company has plans for the 400 horsepower XC90 Twin Engine hybrid. There’s also the chance the 450 horsepower tri-turbo Drive-E engine Volvo debuted last week could also be shimmied under the hood of the XC90, though there’s nothing quite like the instant torque of an electric motor.
Either way though, Polestar is going to bring some extra performance to a large luxury SUV; the only question is whether it can be plugged in or not.
Ford Cuts $6,000 From Focus Electric; Now $29,995
Ford Motor Co. has confirmed another slashing of the Focus Electric’s price by $6,000 to $29,995 including dealer shipping charge.
The converted all-electric 2012 Focus began sales in 17 initial markets in November 2011 at $39,995 with first deliveries in December. In July 2013 it received a $4,000 cut, and now if anyone questions whether Ford wants to move more units, it’s effectively 25 percent off.
While early reports suggested it was essentially a compliance car, Ford product communications representative Aaron Miller today observed the Focus Electric is available now in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
SEE ALSO: 2014 Ford Focus Electric Overview“The Focus Electric has provided customers the design and engineering of the world’s best-selling nameplate combined with unrivaled fuel economy,” said Miller to HybridCars.com. “We hope by reducing the price, we will give more consumers another reason to consider it.”
Model year 2014 cars had already been receiving a $6,000 discount, and Miller said ’14s will be discounted as are 2015s on the sticker. The price cut mirrors other cuts to plug-in cars such as by Chevy for its 2014 Volt, Mitsubishi for its 2014 i-MiEV, and Nissan for its Leaf which as of 2013 was priced at the sub $30,000 level Ford is now offering.
Focus Electric on the assembly line.
But Ford has sold fewer than 4,000 units for as long as it’s been on the market. From January 2014 through September, the automaker moved 1,534 Focus Electrics compared to Nissan’s 21,822, and even the California and Oregon-only Chevy Spark EV has sold 895.
The Leaf and Focus are closer in size to one another with EPA-rated range of 84 miles for the Leaf, 76 for the Focus Electric. The Leaf is a purpose-built EV with battery in the floor. The Ford is an adaptation, but does one better with liquid cooling thermal management.
Since its launch, Ford has broadened the Focus Electric’s market and its price is now lower despite early statements by Ford executives suggesting the EV was a niche car, and its battery costs a king’s ransom.
SEE ALSO: Is Ford Treading Cautiously with its Focus Electric?
Actually, in April 2012 Ford CEO Alan Mulally revealed the company’s cost for each battery assembly fitted to the car that cost around $18,300 with gas engine, was $12,000-$15,000.
Another choice quote came that same month from Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president of global marketing recently said, “the marketing of the Focus Electric is to people who buy electric vehicles, not you and me.”
If that was ever true, it is certainly less so now.
Navitas Systems receives $1.55M contract for 2nd-gen 6T Li-ion battery; double energy density, +50% power density
Navitas Systems receives $1.55M contract for 2nd-gen 6T Li-ion battery; double energy density, +50% power density
20 October 2014
Alion Science and Technology Corporation has awarded Navitas Systems LLC a contract worth up to $1.55 million to develop a next-generation lithium ion “6T” battery system for use in military applications, with a focus on ground combat vehicle applications. (Earlier post.)
Currently, there are three companies funded by Alion to develop a first-generation lithium 6T Battery: Navitas Systems, Saft (earlier post), and Eagle Picher. Navitas is the first, and so far the only, company to be awarded an additional contract for the development of a second-generation Li-ion 6T battery. Navitas Systems will leverage the award to enhance the capabilities of its current Ultanium Military 6T Battery by significantly increasing the energy and power density over the current first generation lithium version.
The first-generation Ultanium 6T battery will be undergoing testing by the United States Army by the fourth quarter this year, with production scheduled for mid-2015 conditioned on a successful test outcome.
The lithium iron phosphate first-generation Ultanium 6T battery is available in 24V and 12V models, and is approximately 40% lighter than lead-acid batteries of equivalent capacity.
The 24V version is targeted to the 24V electrical systems of military vehicles. The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (“JLTV”) is targeted to replace a portion of the Army and Marine Corps’ Humvee fleets, and Lockheed Martin, AM General, and Oshkosh Defense are vying for the production contract. The JLTV is the first United States military vehicle to include in its specifications the use of lithium-ion 6T batteries.
The 12V version can be used in either military or in commercial starting/deep cycle applications. Earlier this year, prototypes of the Ultanium 6T 12 volt battery underwent successful hot and cold weather testing on commercial Class 8 highway delivery trucks in a project funded by the US Army TARDEC and CALSTART.
Ragone plot show’s TARDEC’s goals for Gen 1 and Gen 2 Li-ion 6T batteries compared to lead-acid 6T. Source: TARDEC. Click to enlarge.
For the second generation, Navitas is tasked with improving upon the 6T battery platform for use in high demand environments. TARDEC’s (US Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center) goal for the second-generation is to double the energy density of the Gen 1 6T Li-ion batteries from 80 Wh/kg to 160Wh/kg and to increase power density by 50%.
The goal is to develop a battery that will enable high efficiency to vehicles that spend extended time with engines idling to power onboard electronics. Navitas will be developing both the cell and pack technology for the second-generation Ultanium 6T lithium ion battery. In addition, Navitas plans to commercialize the cell for dual-use applications.
The features of the new technology will ultimately address long cycle and calendar life, high charge acceptance rate, reduced weight and an intelligent battery management system designed to maximize the performance of the overall system. The Ultanium 6T Generation II battery will be designed and assembled in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The standard battery for the Unites States and many NATO ground combat vehicles, is the 6T battery which has to-date been based on lead acid chemistry. For example, a HUMVEE vehicle has two 6T batteries, and an Abrams tank can have from six to twelve 6T batteries.
In early 2012, Navitas acquired the Government Solutions Group of lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems, which introduced a Military 6T Battery in February 2012.
Resources
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Jasna Tomic, CALSTART; Laurence Toomey, US Army RDECOM-TARDEC “Lithium-Ion 6T Battery Technology Field Testing in Commercial Trucks” (25 August 2014 presentation)
New Torque Vectoring Transmission For EVs
Green Car Congress reports that engineers at Munich Technical University (TUM) in Germany have developed a torque vectoring transmission that is optimized for use in electric vehicles. The design is part of the Visio.M project, which focuses on long range, agile driving dynamics and excellent safety for EVs.
When a car goes around a corner, the drive wheel on the outside travels a greater distance than the inside wheel, so it has to rotate faster to keep up. In basic cars, a differential lets the driven wheels rotate independently of each other. But to accomplish this, it sends power to the wheel with the least amount of traction. That’s why your Mom’s ’68 Buick was always getting stuck in the snow.
In high performance cars, a more complex device known as a limited slip differential (LSD) is used to send power to the wheel with the most traction. Torque vectoring is just a high tech name for using a limited slip differential.
Electric vehicles have different technological challenges than conventional cars because the drive wheels not only move the car forward but also help recapture kinetic energy while the car is coasting or under braking. That energy is stored in the battery for use later in the journey. If an EV is turning while coasting or when the brakes are applied, harvesting energy from both wheels equally can make the car unstable.
The TUM torque vectoring device accounts for different traction levels during cornering to maximize energy harvesting and minimize driving instability. When the car is accelerating in a corner, more torque is sent to the outside wheel to help guide the vehicle through the turn, resulting in more stable handling. Instead of the standard bevel gears used in differential transmissions, the engineers developed a spur gear differential in which additional torque can be applied from outside via a superimposed planetary gearbox.
Weight and cost are critical for EVs because today’s batteries are heavy and expensive. So anything that can be done to reduce the weight of the rest of the vehicle means using a smaller, less expensive battery. TUM has worked hard to get the weight of its torque vectoring device as low as possible. It uses aluminum for the housing and is looking to save even more weight by employing an aluminum and carbon fiber composite housing in the future.
TUM Professor Karsten Stahl says “The elegant thing about the torque vectoring transmission we have developed is that it not only has a higher recuperation level, and, with that, an increased driving range, the transmission also improves road handling dynamics, driving pleasure and safety. The continuously improving optimization measures leave us optimistic that in the near future both the weight and cost will be able to compete with today’s standard differential transmissions.”
Affordable, light weight torque vectoring systems will be an important component for electric cars of the future.
NIMS team develops new magnetic compound with lower neodymium content
NIMS team develops new magnetic compound with lower neodymium content
20 October 2014
A research group led by Dr. Kazuhiro Hono at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) has synthesized a new magnetic compound which requires a lower amount of rare earth element than the currently used neodymium iron boron compound.
The ratio of neodymium, iron and nitrogen in the new compound (NdFe12N is 1:12:1). Its neodymium concentration is 17% of the entire mass compared to 27% for the neodymium iron boron compound known as Nd2Fe14B, the main component used in the strongest permanent magnets. Furthermore, the intrinsic hard magnetic properties of the new material were found to be superior to those of Nd2Fe14B.
In particular, the Curie temperature of the new compound is higher than that of Nd2Fe14B by 200 ˚C. This feature is particularly attractive for the application to traction motors of hybrid and pure electric vehicles, where the operation temperature exceeds 150 ˚C. The results of this research are published in Scripta Materialia.
Temperature dependent anisotropy field and magnetization of the new NdFe12Nx compound. For comparison, the values of Nd2Fe14B compound are also shown. Source: NIMS. Click to enlarge.
Neodymium permanent magnets are the strongest magnets used in many industrial applications such as hard disk drives, cell phones, hybrid electric vehicles and wind turbines. Recently, their usage is increasing rapidly due to the growth of the production of hybrid and electric vehicles.
Rare earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium are essential components of these magnets. Since China dominates the production of rare earth metals, there is some concern regarding the stable supply of rare earth elements for the increasing demand of these magnets. This has led to worldwide intensive research to reduce the content of rare earth elements in high-performance permanent magnets (e.g., earlier post, earlier post).
The neodymium permanent magnet, invented by Dr. Masato Sagawa in 1982, is composed of the Nd2Fe14B compound and some minor nonmagnetic components. No magnetic compound has been able to challenge this compound during the last 32 years.
A different type of magnetic compound, NdFe11TiN, has been known to exist in the long history of rare earth permanent magnet research. However, the alloying of the non-magnetic Ti was necessary to stabilize this compound, causing its magnetic properties to be inferior to those of Nd2Fe14B; therefore, not much attention has been paid to it.
Since the compound becomes unstable without Ti, no one has succeeded in synthesizing it only with magnetic elements. In this new study, the NdFe12N compound was synthesized successfully without non-magnetic Ti.
The NdFe12Nx compound with a ThMn12 structure (space group I4/mmm) was successfully synthesized by nitriding an NdFe12 layer grown on a W underlayer on a single-crystalline MgO(001) substrate. The c-axis expanded from 0.480 to 0.492 nm while the a-axis showed a slight contraction from 0.852 to 0.849 nm after the nitriding. Excellent intrinsic hard magnetic properties of μ0Ms ≈ 1.66 ± 0.08 T, μ0Ha ≈ 8 T, and Tc ≈ 550 °C, which are superior to those of Nd2Fe14B, were obtained.
The NdFe12 thin film was grown on a tungsten layer using a sputtering method, and then the NdFe12N was obtained by nitriding the NdFe12 layer. The small lattice misfit with the tungsten layer made the growth of the unstable NdFe12N compound possible. Although the compound was processed in the form of a thin film, they found it can be grown to the thickness of 350 nm.
Looking ahead, the team will seek to establish a processing route to synthesize a large quantity of powders of this compound and to manufacture bulk magnets.
This research was performed at the Elements Strategy Initiative Center for Magnetic Materials (ESICMM), which was established at NIMS in the scheme of Elements Strategy Initiative Project by MEXT, Japan. The work was in part supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST.
Resources
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Y. Hirayama, Y.K. Takahashi, S. Hirosawa, K. Hono (2014) “NdFe12Nx hard-magnetic compound with high magnetization and anisotropy field,” Scripta Materialia doi: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2014.10.016
A picture is worth: The Brooklyn Death-O-Meter
And we think the Slow Down campaigns are a recent phenomenon. In fact, they go way back to when cars were first taking over the roads. Taras Grescoe, author tweets about the Brooklyn Death-O-Meter that was built at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn in 1927. Ben Fried wrote on Streetsblog:
I think what’s jarring about this picture is the willingness to publicly tell drivers, without beating around the bush, that their actions behind the wheel have potentially fatal consequences. The Death-O-Meter assigned agency to motorists in a way that you rarely see in the modern press, police statements, or the courts.
© Kids at Play
Indeed, almost a century later, people are still trying to do the same thing, as seen by this campaign happening in Toronto right now.
Why is this still happening? Over at the Project for Public Spaces, Jay Walljasper mused about how we have come to take traffic deaths for granted.
Unfortunately, pedestrian deaths (and all traffic fatalities) are viewed as an inevitable side effect of modern life. “People accept this as normal, just as 100 years ago most people accepted that women could not vote,” observes Gil Penalosa, Executive Director of 8-80 Cities, an international organization working to make streets safe for people of all ages.
Perhaps we need more Death-O-Meters.
California May Alter ZEV Requirements
Since the 1970s the California Air Resource Board (or CARB) has regulated vehicular emissions in the Golden State, even requiring automakers to make a certain number of electric vehicles. Green Car Reports says that sales requirements for California’s best-selling brands could be altered at a CARB meeting later this week, but to understand how this affects things, first you need a little history lesson.
Back in 1990 CARB enacted the Zero-Emissions Vehicle mandate, which required the six largest automakers to produce enough EVs make up 2% of each automaker’s total sales in California. That number was going to rise to 10% in 2003, but automakers convinced CARB to reconsider the mandate, replacing the EV requirements with low-emissions vehicle credits, which could be bought and sold between automakers. This led many automakers to essentially abandon electric vehicles and accusations that CARB was in the pocket of the car industry.
For 2012 though the ZEV requirements came back, with the Big Six (Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, GM, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan) required to build 7,600 EVs between them from 2012 to 2014, and then rising to 25,000 vehicles from 2015 to 2017. Hydrogen and electric vehicles earn automakers a full credit, while hybrids have been worth a partial credit; CARB can fine each automaker up to $5,000 for every credit it falls short, and each credit expires after three years.
For larger automakers the solution has been to roll out “compliance cars” like the Chevy Spark EV and Fiat 500e, which don’t earn automakers much (if any) money but enable them to earn most (if not all) of the ZEV credits. The shortfall is made up through purchasing credits from the likes of Tesla Motors, which used ZEV credits to earn its first quarterly profit ever last year.
But for smaller automakers like Volvo, Mitsubishi, and Subaru, building an electric car just to meet regulations is a lot costlier and more difficult. This has these so-called “Intermediate Volume Manufacturers” (IVMs) scrambling to meet the upcoming regulations requiring X amount of ZEVs, so they’re arguing they should be able to earn full credit for plug-in hybrids as well.
Plug-in hybrids are much less costly to develop and more practical for consumers, and smaller automakers don’t need to spend millions of dollars on paper credits to meet regulations. On the consumer side, California just passed six new pro-EV laws designed to encourage the adoption of plug-in vehicles, but sales still haven’t taken off the way some had hoped.
Environmentalists obviously aren’t thrilled with the proposed compromise, but these smaller automakers are also asking for more time to deliver vehicles that meet California’s stringent requirements. As the largest car market for pretty much every automaker, California has a lot of weight to swing around when it comes to regulations. You can read the proposed regulation changes in detail here.
The question is, do these automakers deserve the break they’re asking for, or have they had more than enough time to get the ball rolling on truly zero-emissions vehicles?
Toyota Launches EV Sub Brand…In China
In California Toyota is discontinuing its EV program in favor of hydrogen fuel cells, but in China Toyota is launching the Leahead brand devoted to cheap electric cars. CarNewsChina reports that when it launches next year, the Leahead brand will hawk cheap electric cars to young buyers (just as we predicted earlier this year).
Toyota currently has two joint-partnerships in China, one with FAW and the other with Ghuangzhou, with Leahead being formered with the latter company. Toyota first hinted at the new brand last year at the Shanghai Auto Show with an unnamed concept car, and the Leahead brand will supposedly launch with an electric version of the Corolla EX in 2015. There are no other details of the brand except that its name is supposed to mean “Leap Ahead” in a nod to its electric roots.
When I hear “Leap Ahead” in reference to anything from China though, I think of Chairman Mao’s disastrous “Great Leap Forward” program wherein millions if people died through flawed national policies. Toyota’s new electric car brand is far more benign than that, but maybe not the name I would have gone with. The idea of a youth-oriented EV brand specifically for China is a good idea though, and perhaps Toyota should consider a similar revamp of Scion here in the US.
It seems Toyota hasn’t given up on EVs entirely, as long as there are government incentives on hand to encourage EV sales. With China predicted to be the biggest EV market in the world in just five years, investing in EVs is probably the right move…but what about that bullishness on the superiority of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles? Outside of Toyota’s home market, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have little support, and without that support a hydrogen fuel economy seems like little more than a dream.