Electric cars are all the rage. Punctuating this clear market trend, famed Italian automotive design house Pininfarina’s latest head-turner isn’t an exotic sports car but a four passenger five-door…
Tags: group travel Uk, green cars, travel, vacations
Fascinating trends are developing in the world of battery electric vehicles. On one side of the performance and cost scale are tiny city EVs like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Th!nk from Norway. At…
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The first of 500 ‘MINI E’ electric cars will soon start appearing in California, New York, and New Jersey. This will be the largest number of pure electric vehicles in American consumers’ hands since…
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Step on the gas of the Saturn 2 Mode Hybrid and be prepared for an exhilarating ride. With the added kick from electric help, Saturn’s new advanced hybrid really scoots thanks to 262 horsepower and…
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With the clear trend toward small cars and a general downsizing of our transportation choices, one has to wonder just how small American car buyers are willing to go. Are drivers here ready to accept…
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1. Aerodynamic Forces
Drag and lift are two aerodynamic forces acting on any body traveling through the air whether it’s an airplane, car, or truck. Unlike aircraft where both lift and drag are…
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Eight states, the nation’s capital, 1,039 miles, and just 24.7 gallons of fuel – that was the tally after the first stage of the Audi Mileage Marathon that Green Car just completed. If you haven’t…
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Introduced in the 1990s as the ‘Swatchmobile’ concept by trendy Swatch (a morphing of ‘Second Watch’) co-founder Nicolas Hayek, the innovative precursor of the smart fortwo had no peers when it came…
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It was nearly nine years ago when Honda brought its innovative Insight gasoline-electric hybrid to U.S. highways, beating Toyota to the punch with a North American hybrid model by mere months. It…
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Regenerative braking is an integral part of every hybrid electric vehicle. Here, deceleration and braking energy is converted to electrical energy to keep batteries charged. Hydraulic hybrid trucks…
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Filed under: HUMMER, Green Daily, USA
Joining our compatriot over at Jalopnik, Ray Wert, on Thursday night’s episode of The Colbert Report were individuals out to have a excellent time in their live axle-driven ‘utes from the HUMMER Club. According to the members of the elite group, their SUVs represent everything that is right with America and deride the fact that “the Prius owners kinda stick their noses up at us, thinking we’re damaging the environment,” according to one member. These days, many people living in the U.S. are concerned about the future of their country. Dread not. “If we could save the HUMMER, we could save America,” adds a HUMMER loving and very patriotic club-goer.
We’re not going to jump on the thought that the HUMMER brand is worse than any other large, V8-powered off-road vehicle… it really isn’t. The problem with HUMMERs is that nobody wants to go out and buy huge gas-guzzlers that they don’t really need. Similar massive sales declines are happening across the board, and those vehicles are suffering the consequences as well. Oh yeah, and magic-wand technology is still decades away. Watch the video after the break.
[Source: The Colbert Report]
Continue reading Difference Makers! Patriots! The HUMMER Club goes on Colbert
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Filed under: Diesel, Mercedes Benz, North America
Mercedes made a huge red, white and blue balloon-y smash with their BlueTEC SUVs at the New York Auto Show earlier this year and the vehicles are in American showrooms now. In the Fantastic White North, Mercedes-Benz Canada has just launched a new BlueTEC microsite to introduce Canadian car buyers to the clean diesel technology. If you click over, you’ll find videos of how the BlueTEC system works (converts most NOx emissions to water and “harmless nitrogen”!), a convenient link to book a test drive and a list of which models Canadian customers can get with BlueTEC. The flash-heavy microsite does not mention – at least, not anywhere that I could find – the small detail that these vehicles won’t start if the urea tank is empty.
[Source: Mercedes-Benz Canada, eMercedesBenz]
Continue reading BlueTEC microsite now available from Mercedes-Benz Canada
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, On Two Wheels, USA
Is there finally a excellent-looking electric motorcycle with decent specifications available on the market in the U.S. for a relatively affordable price? It looks that way, as Electric Motorsport has just released its new GPR-S electric motorcycle, which costs $8,000 including lithium ion batteries. Using a permanent magnet DC motor that offers up to 19-horsepower, the GPR-S can hit up to 70 miles per hour with a range of up to 60 miles, depending on rider size and speeds, of course. Honestly, it’s not a terrible looking package, with full bodywork, USD forks, disc brakes and a digital dash. A full charge takes 4-hours with the stock charger, but a high-speed option is available and includes BMS, cutting the charge time to 1.5-hours. The on-board battery accounts for just 90-pounds of the e-bike’s total 285-pounds, and that’s not terrible at all for an electric motorcycle.
Fascinatingly, the crew at Electric Motorsport have made this a modular design, so future motors, battery packs and electronics can be added at a later date. So, the basic chassis could theoretically last well past the technology’s prime. The company has apparently taken 25 orders so far, a number we’d expect to go up in the near future.
Gallery: Electric Motorsport GPR-S
[Source: Electric Motorsport via Wired via Engadget]
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Filed under: Hybrid, Lexus, LA Auto Show
Click the photo for a high-res gallery of the LF-Xh concept
Lexus is set to bring its 2010 RX-series of crossover utility vehicles to the LA Auto Show, including an updated hybrid model. Details are scarce, but there may be a clue or two we can glean from the LF-Xh concept that was shown back in late 2007 at the Tokyo Motor Show. Recent spy shots indicate that the new ‘ute won’t differ all that much styling-wise from the current model, so don’t expect anything as radical as the LF-Xh concept, but we’d expect to see the lines smoothed out even more than they currently are. The hybrid system is likely to be at least mildly revamped and could possibly get an EV mode akin to the one that its Highlander hybrid sibling got when it was redesigned and introduced at the Chicago Auto Show. We’ll be in LA to bring you the goods live.
[Source: The Car Connection]
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Legislation and Policy
At meeting this week at Michigan State University on “green collar job” creation, Governor Jennifer Granholm floated the thought of state income tax credits for residents that buy hybrid or electric cars. While the IRS and a variety of states already offer similar incentives, it’s unlikely that Michigan will be able to offer anything unless they stipulate that the cars must be built in the state. In that case the number of qualifying vehicles would be … ZERO. At this time none of the available hybrid vehicles on the market are assembled here. GM’s hybrids are built in Texas, Kansas and Mexico. Ford Escapes come from Kansas and the soon-to-be-discontinued Chrysler SUVS come from Delaware. As for the import brands, while Toyota builds Camry’s in Kentucky, most of the rest come from Japan. The only such car plotted for Michigan production is the Chevy Volt.
With a rapidly declining tax and manufacturing base it’s not clear how the state could afford any kind of breaks and what economic benefit it would bring to the state if they did. Certainly there would be an environmental benefit, but that doesn’t help if you don’t have the cash to pay.
[Source: Detroit News]
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid
Magna International is the third largest auto supplier in the world and it now appears the company was very lucky to escape buying Chrysler last year. Having survived to fight another day, the company has recently been working to develop a complete electric car. The company is currently developing all the systems necessary for an electric car, including the propulsion systems and electrically-driven accessory systems. The Canadian company is looking for an automaker to partner with on production of a car. Magna is prepared to provide anything from components and sub-systems to a complete vehicle if that’s what a partner needs. Chief technical officer Ted Robertson told Automotive News the company is on track to have a four-door car ready by 2010 to demonstrate all the systems. Its buy of Michigan-based BluWav is helping. BluWav speciallizes in electric propulsion and energy management systems. The energy management is necessary to reduce the draw of all of the vehicles systems on the battery, thus maximizing range.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, BMW, MINI, LA Auto Show, UK, USA
BMW is all set to debut its electric MINI E at the LA Auto Show next month and has already laid out plans to offer the machine in California (of course), New York and New Jersey, where the company’s American headquarters are located. We feel pretty confident that demand will outpace supply, as there will only be 500 of the electric MINI’s assembled for the first batch. After that initial run, we have no thought if the German automaker will build any more. All of the vehicles will be offered for lease only, so there’s no need to head to your dealership with a boatload of cash in hand.
We have heard that MINI is likely send a small supply of the E’s to London, with other “major cities” being considered. Considering that the modern MINI takes its inspiration from the classic Cooper, it only seems fitting that this latest incarnation of the breed should at least make an appearance in the UK where its forebearer was designed.
Gallery: MINI E
[Source: Autocar]
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, UK
What better way for a young British automotive company to gain recognition for itself and demonstrate its engineering prowess than to enter a revolutionary vehicle into one of the oldest of motorsports, hillclimbing? Perhaps none. And so it is that heretofore unknown Bee Automobiles will be contesting the 2009 British Hillclimb Championship with the Bee.four ERV in the “unlimited class.” Before you start with the skepticism and the humming of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” please note that the single-seater electric race car has been designed by Lotus Formula 1 notable, Martin Ogilvie, and will be driven by two-time British Hillclimb Champion Graeme Wight Jr. One might also note that Wight finished off the ‘08 season with a win in V10 powered “Predator” also designed by Ogilvie. Details about this new car are still quite slim, though it is said that it will feature one motor per wheel to give it a total of 700 bhp and will start testing at MIRA facilities in early 2009. This bhp number is suspiciously reminiscent of the figure given for another quick future-car, the Lightning GT, and we wonder aloud if it will also feature the in-wheel Hi-Pa Drive[TM] motor from PML Flightlink.
If the initial plans of the fledgling company seem high-reaching, its future aspirations are far more ambitious. According to their website, Bee Automobiles not only has a reasonable electric four-seater, called the Bee.one, on their drawing board but also an exotic-looking road-going Tesla-Roadster-beating two-seater version of their race car, the Bee.four, in the works. If they can really achieve a sub 3 second 0-to-60 time with their gas-free roadster, they could hold the car-to-beat standard for some years. The official announcement of the Bee.one and Bee.four is expected to occur during the 2009 edition of the Geneva Auto Show in March.
Gallery: Bee Automobiles Bee.Four ERV
[Source: CAR keys / Bee Automobiles]
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One of the many problems with Chrysler’s product lineup is the aging powertrains. The six cylinder engines in particular are in desperate need of revamp, a project that the company announced it was working on in early 2007. Unfortunately, last week it appeared that amid all the financial market turmoil and discussions of a merger with GM the program had been killed. This week, Chrysler President Jim Press denied those reports and claimed that the Phoenix engine program was still very much in progress. The Phoenix engines are expected to be a thoroughly modern design with variable valve timing and direct fuel injection. The new engines should be significantly more fuel efficient and refined than Chrysler’s current engines, but the program was expected to cost $3 billion including two new engine plants to build them for the 2010 model year. If a deal does happen, it seems likely that the engine program may yet be canceled.
[Source: Reuters]
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Filed under: Hybrid, Saturn, First Drive
We attended the New York-area “GM Collection” event this week, which is basically an opportunity for journalists to drive a variety of 2009 models up at Bear Mountain, an hour or so outside Manhattan. What we didn’t know going in was that GM would bring along three production-spec examples of the ‘09 Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid, and that this would be the first opportunity to take the new gas-electric ‘ute for a spin. Bear in mind that this impression is based on about 25 minutes of shared time with the car (we buddied up with Jalopnik’s Wes Siler). The official full-dog-and-pony-show media launch event is set to take place in December, and we’ll be on hand for that as well. For now though, follow the jump to see some initial impressions of the new Saturn hybrid.
All Photos Copyright (C) 2008 Alex Núñez / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading First Drive: 2009 Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid
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Hybrid cars outscored other vehicle segments for reliability, according to the Consumer Reports Annual Car Reliability Survey, released on Thursday. Nine hybrid models were included in the survey of 1.4 million subscribers of Consumer Report. All the hybrids earned above-average predicted-reliability ratings.
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We’ve keenly waited for the arrival of the Saturn Vue Two-Mode Hybrid, the full hybrid version of Saturn’s Vue compact sport-utility. HybridCars.com was able to spend nearly an hour behind the wheel of the 2009 Vue Two-Mode, with lead vehicle engineer Tom Dye along for the ride. The Vue Two-Mode will arrive at Saturn dealerships in January and February 2009.
Tags: holidays, group travel Uk, coach hire, Hybrid cars
BMW officially jumped on the electric car bandwagon with the announcement of the limited edition Mini E car for production. Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW chief of development, told Hybridcars.com, “This is yet another example of the company’s environmental push.” Approximately 500 cars are slated for production.
Tags: coach hire, green cars, coach hire UK, Hybrid cars
As the global trend for small cars grows, Toyota has announced the arrival of its most miniscule production vehicle yet, the iQ. This tiny 55-miles-per-gallon four-seater will make its launch in Japan before the end of this year, and start European sales in early 2009. Introduced as a concept car at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, the iQ has been the focus of much speculation. The largest uncertainty at this point, is whether it will make it across the Atlantic.
Tags: travel, group travel, eco cars, green cars
San Francisco taxi drivers are providing solid information about the outer reaches of hybrid battery life. At a recent Ford Motor Company event, Paul Gillespie, San Francisco Taxicab Commission president, said some of his city’s Ford Escape hybrid taxis had passed 300,000 miles of use with no problems. He added that they also found brake life to be three times normal due to the regenerative braking system.
Tags: eco cars, coach hire UK, travel uk, Hybrid cars
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Ford, Green Daily
Back in June, Ford questioned students at five universities to re-imagine the Model T for the 21st Century. Ford’s gotten a bit of mileage out of fanciful updates to the iconic vehicle over the years, and this latest round saw the German team from the ika (Institute of Automotive Engineering Aachen) at Aachen University beat out teams from Australia, California and Michigan with a three-seat version that can be used with an all-electric or hybrid drivetrain. Aside from the EV nature of the vehicle, the best part is that this concept could be sold for under $7,000.
The ika students won $25,000 in scholarship funds for their design, which features a centrally-placed driver’s seat in the very lightweight vehicle (800 kg). CO2 emissions will range between 54 and 100 grams per kilometer, depending on powertrain. Second place went to the team from the Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
Continue reading We Wish. Students design hyper-efficient “Ford Model T for 2015″
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pa href=”http://350.org/invite”img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-1868″ src=”http://ecoworldly.com/files/2008/10/invite-obama-mccain.jpg” alt=”Invite Obama, McCain to COP in Polan” width=”267″ height=”260″ //a/p
pAddressing the fact that the United States has historically contributed the most to global warming, and over the past eight years has done the least to stop it, a href=”http://350.org” target=”_blank”350.org/a has come up with an exciting and timely campaign. /p
pRealizing the fact that whoever takes office as U.S. President next year has a lot of work to get the country back in the game and to ensure that climate change is taken seriously as an issue, it becomes vital that the the next US President participates in the Conference of Parties (COP) that will be held in Poznan in December. And to ensure that this does happen, it is vital that the people of the world stronga href=”http://350.org/invite”invite them for the same/a/strong!/p
pa href=”http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/21/invite-obama-mccain-to-the-un-conference-of-parties/” class=”more-link”Read more of this tale #187;/a/p
pa href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/GreenOptions?a=7i4TMK”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/GreenOptions?i=7i4TMK” border=”0″/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare”
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Tags: bus charter, group travel, holidays, green cars
pa href=”http://350.org/invite”img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-1868″ src=”http://ecoworldly.com/files/2008/10/invite-obama-mccain.jpg” alt=”Invite Obama, McCain to COP in Polan” width=”267″ height=”260″ //a/p
pAddressing the fact that the United States has historically contributed the most to global warming, and over the past eight years has done the least to stop it, a href=”http://350.org” target=”_blank”350.org/a has come up with an exciting and timely campaign. /p
pRealizing the fact that whoever takes office as U.S. President next year has a lot of work to get the country back in the game and to ensure that climate change is taken seriously as an issue, it becomes vital that the the next US President participates in the Conference of Parties (COP) that will be held in Poznan in December. And to ensure that this does happen, it is vital that the people of the world stronga href=”http://350.org/invite”invite them for the same/a/strong!/p
pa href=”http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/21/invite-obama-mccain-to-the-un-conference-of-parties/” class=”more-link”Read more of this tale #187;/a/p
pa href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/GreenOptions?a=7i4TMK”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/GreenOptions?i=7i4TMK” border=”0″/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?a=vEC8M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?i=vEC8M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?a=fa4Rm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?i=fa4Rm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?a=h0rOm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?i=h0rOm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?a=FVXUm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?i=FVXUm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?a=CtbmM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GreenOptions?i=CtbmM” border=”0″/img/a
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Filed under: Etc., Green Daily
I assume most of us can agree that green cars do their part to save the environment (although declaring which technologies are best is opening a can of worms I don’t want to open up right now). What’s nice to see is a new general agreement being formed in America (and probably the world) that says that green jobs are really the answer when it comes to saving the economy. Case in point here is an article in The Boston Globe that draws from a variety of sources to find predictions ranging from 2.5 million to five million new jobs resulting from anywhere from $150 billion to $500 billion worth of investments in moving to a cleaner, more efficient economy. The article doesn’t specifically mention cleaner cars, but we know they’re part of the picture, as are public transportation improvements and renewable energy and bioenergy updates.
If you watched the presidential candidate debates this fall, then you heard both Barack Obama and John McCain hold up green jobs as a way to turn the economy around. But now we are hearing the rumblings of a new stimulus package. One of the people interviewed for the Boston Globe tale said that, “What we ought to be doing is rethinking regulating the financial market to channel credit into useful investments instead of useless, destructive speculations. Putting money into green jobs is useful in many ways.” I’d say using less gasoline and boosting the job market counts as two of those ways, no?
[Source: The Boston Globe]
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors, First Drive
Click above for high-res gallery of Tesla Roadster v1.5
Last January we landed an exclusive first drive of the Tesla Roadster. We were impressed, but well aware that the particular two-gear model we drove that wet afternoon wasn’t identical to the version set to land in customers’ hands later in the year. Last week, we were invited back to briefly test drive a genuine production model with the latest transmission and software updates (aka “powertrain 1.5″). Check out our round-two impressions after the jump.
Gallery: 2009 Tesla Roadster v1.5
Continue reading Driven: 2009 Tesla Roadster v1.5
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Volkswagen
Volkswagen recently built twenty prototype diesel plug-in hybrid Golf prototypes for a field test of the technology. AutoExpress magazine in the UK recently had an opportunity to try out the so-called Twin-Drive Golf. The Twin-Drive combines a 1.5L diesel with electric drive and lithium ion batteries with plug-in capability. A pair of wheel motors turn the back wheels providing all wheel drive capability while a third motor and generator are combined with the diesel engine at the front axle. With a very light foot on the go pedal, the Twin-Drive can go to 31 mph on electricity alone. It can reportedly go 30 miles on a charge of its Sanyo battery pack. The plug-in hybrid hardware adds 550 lb of mass to the Golf but it yields up to 94.1 mpg (U.S.), according to VW. AutoExpress says the even distribution of the new mass keeps things balanced but the car does feel heavier than a standard Golf. It’s unlikely we’ll see a production VW with this configuration anytime soon though. The cost would simply be prohibitive.
[Source: AutoExpress]
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Filed under: SEAT
Last week, Al Gore was being chauffeured around the Netherlands by Audi. This week, another company (or, more accurately, another part of the same company) is trying to tie itself to the former Vice President. SEAT used the Alhambra Ecomotive in its “first official function” by driving around Seville, Spain doing ferrying duty for attendees of the recent ‘Climate Change, Awareness and Action’ meeting. Gore’s The Climate Project was one of the organizers of this meeting, which featured over “200 key figures from the worlds of politics, society and culture to discuss the latest developments in the fight against climate change.” The 38mpg U.S. Alhambra Ecomotive has CO2 emissions of 159g/km, which doesn’t make it the cleanest thing on four wheels but is respectable for a vehicle this size. Read more after the jump.
Gallery: SEAT Alhambra Ecomotive
Continue reading SEAT supports climate change meeting – and Al Gore
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Filed under: Biodiesel, Ethanol, GM, China
China is already the third largest producer of ethanol in the world behind Brazil and the US. But, General Motors wants to make the industry sustainable just as it is trying to do here in the U.S. with its investments in Coskata and Mascoma. To that end, the company held a workshop on sustainable non-food biofuels for media in Beijing China this week. GM is working with the China Automotive Energy Research Center to support the development of sustainable biofuels policies in China.
David S. Chen, vice president of GM China Group told the workshop that land that might not be suitable for growing food crops could be used to produce other biomass that could be turned into biofuels. China’s comparatively young automotive economy means that its energy infrastructure still has room to evolve in different directions than western countries. For the same reason that hydrogen fueling could potentially happen in China before other places, so to could biofuel production and distribution. The GM press release is after the jump.
[Source: General Motors]
Continue reading General Motors holds sustainable biofuels workshop in Beijing
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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Porsche
The recently-revealed all electric Porsche 911 from longtime tuner RUF uses an electric motor from UQM Technologies. The motor offers up some 150 kW of power and seems to be an off-the-shelf motor that the company is capable of providing for automotive use. At first glance, the motor’s 204-horsepower seems a tad low, but then you notice that its 479 lb-ft of torque makes up for that small issue. Ninety-six separate lithium iron phosphate batteries from Axeon power the motor, allowing the eRUF Model A to accelerate to sixty miles per hour in less than 7 seconds and allow for a range of up to 200 miles. UQM also has smaller motor packages available for cars that aren’t expected to have such high performance or are significantly lighter that the 4,200 lb eRUF Concept Model A. See the full press release after the break.
Related:
Gallery: Electric Ruf Porsche 911
[Source: UQM]
Continue reading Ruf’s electric Porshce powered by UQM motor
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