Gizmodo: Electric Vehicles

Superconductor-Powered Car is Energy Efficient Awesomeness

Adrian Covert — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:51:46 EDT

Electric vehicles are pretty great as it is, but ones powered by superconduction and liquid nitrogen cooling are even better. That happens to be the case with Sumitomo Electric's car, which promises to be 10% more efficient that the typical electric vehicle. Built using an old Toyota Crown Comfort, the combination of superconducting wires and cooling nearly brings resistance and current loss to zero, allowing for better efficiency and more torque. The car was unveiled today in Osaka, and will be shown at the Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit on June 18. [Pink Tentacle]

DIY Project: Motorbike to Electric Motorbike

Haroon Malik — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:00:00 EDT

There's a new Instructables page up that shows you how to mod your regular motorbike into an eco-warrior electric cycle. You'll be able to hit a top speed of 70mph after shelling out $3000 to complete the project. Thankfully, you'll probably make the money back in saved fuel in approximately a days use. The machine pictured above is a mid-mod bike. Sure, the 72v motor is held in place by rope, but it isn't properly finished yet, so give the modder a break. If you have the time, spare cash, a bike that's looking at you with contempt and the technical know how, give it a shot and then send us a video of the finished article. Hit the link if you're tough enough. [Instructables via Hack n Mod]

Tesla Electric Sports Car Coming This Fall, Not Sold Out Yet

Charlie White — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:50:25 EDT

The Tesla electro-roadster that goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds is due to hit the streets this fall, and there are 560 orders for the $98,000 electric sports car already pending. Hey, wait a minute. We thought all the Teslas were sold out. Not so, according to a Tesla Motors spokesman, who says the Lotus factory where the cars are built can crank out 800 of the 2008 models. When can we get one?

Not right away. It's not too late to plunk down a $50,000 deposit, which gives you the right to buy your shiny new Tesla by next July, or if you pay a $30,000 deposit, you'll be in line behind the $50,000 depositors. Oh yeah, you'll have to pay the balance on the final price of $102,900 plus any tax and delivery charges, and that breaks down to $98,000 for the car, and of course you'll want to add a $1200 navigation system, a carbon fiber hard top that matches the body color for $3200, and then there's that $500 mobile charging system. All of those options sound like necessities to us.

It does look like a great car, but we're reluctant to buy anything that's in a such a limited edition, and especially since it's version 1.0. We'd rather let others be the beta testers for this fire-breathing electro-rocket. [Mercury News]

Hammacher Rocks Banana-Like Electric Trike for One

Charlie White — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:59:23 EDT

We didn't realize Hammacher Schlemmer was in the car business, but look at this monstrosity: a semi-globular arrangement that looks like a transmogrified banana or maybe Pacman with a boner. If you can get past its dog-ugly countenance, it's actually a highway-legal three wheeler that might be useful for trips around town if you don't mind being laughed at.

Since it just goes just 30 miles on a charge, don't be thinking about taking any extended road trips with this 33hp motorcycle-like contraption, but it has a top speed of 70mph so you could probably head out on the highway for a short trip or two if you're able to muster up enough courage. Plug it into a 110-volt outlet and it takes six hours to charge, but connect it to 220 volts and it takes only an hour to juice it up.

Pricing, an even uglier pic that'll make you laugh out loud, and an alternative suggestion, coming up:

Ha ha ha! If you really can't stand that banana color, you can choose from a long list of other colors, too, including red, teal, orange, blue, purple, magenta, white, coral, dark aqua, green, lime green, lilac and aqua. Maybe just paint a clown face on the thing for even more fugly impact.

But now the shocker: this 1600-pound ugly duckling costs—wait for it—$24,899.95. Save your money; there are much better electric trykes on the way. – Charlie White

The Electric One-Person Car [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Silence PT2 Electric Trike Goes 125MPH, Ships This Spring

Charlie White — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:45:00 EST

It seems like nary a week goes by without an intro of yet another electric vehicle, and this week it's the Silence PT2 by EBW & Silence Inc., an all-electric three wheeler that's a cross between an electric car, a go-cart and a motorcycle. Its makers say the 13-foot-long pocket rocket has a range of 125-250 miles.

The minuscule 900-pound vehicle is not quite as fast as that zero-to-60-in-4-seconds Tesla electric roadster, but then it still has a top speed of 125mph, and at $42K, doesn't cost nearly as much as the $100,000 Tesla. The company's taking orders for delivery this spring.

Here's more, a trio of tack-sharp shots of this electro-coolness:

If the hotcake-like sales of the Tesla were any indication, this Silence PT2 will probably sell out fast. – Charlie White

Product Page [EBW & Silence Inc., via AutoBlog Green]

Electric SUV to Rival Tesla Roadster in Speed, Range

Charlie White — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:40:00 EST

That Tesla Roadster electric vehicle that can do zero-to-60 in four seconds may not be able to hold the crown for coolest and fastest production electric vehicle for long, especially when this crossover SUV comes into town. Our greasemonkey guru blog-brothers at Jalopnik tell us this Lotus-designed firebreather packs 644 horses, a top speed of 155mph and a 350-mile range on a charge. Those are some serious numbers, especially for an SUV.

Lotus Engineering is busy these days—it's the same company that designed the Tesla's body. This next electric road rocket will be a joint venture of Lotus and ZAP, the company that's bringing Smart Cars to the US. No word on when this electro-tech might be available to the public, but a prototype is expected to show up at the big North American Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting early next month. – Charlie White

Zap, Lotus Team Up on Electric Crossover SUV [Jalopnik]

EEStor's World-Changing Super Battery to Ship This Year

Charlie White — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:02:17 EST

EEStor, the company that says its battery is 10 times more powerful than all others on the planet and can make a four-passenger sedan drive like a Ferrari, came out of hiding last week, announcing it's going to ship its first product. That'll be a battery inside a car (pictured at left) to be delivered later this year by Toronto-based ZENN motors.

A car equipped with EEStore's Electrical Energy Storage Unit (EESU) is said to only need $9 worth of electricity to travel 500 miles, compared to the $60 worth of gasoline needed by a conventional vehicle with an internal combustion engine. The company's goal goes far beyond powering vehicles—it plans to "replace the electrochemical battery" everywhere, from powering laptops, storing electricity at electrical utilities and storing energy from wind and sun. This could change the world. – Charlie White

Battery Breakthrough? [Technology Review]

Camper Lotus Personal Commuter: Two Wheels, Gyroscope, Utopian Vision

Charlie White — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:16:19 EST

Designer Patty Yuan dreamed up this Personal Commuter idea that she hopes will be picked up by international shoemaker Camper, naming her little two-seater electric vehicle the Lotus (after the flower, not the car). Similar to a Segway, it balances its two wheels using a digitally-enhanced gyroscope, giving it the added ability of spinning around 360 degrees in one place.

Yuan aims her design concept at China in 2012, hoping urban professionals will pick up on this customizable idea. It's a wonderful utopian notion, but we doubt it would do too well against cabbies in New York or SUVs ruling the roads in the U.S. Check out more fanciful renderings, vaguely describing how it works:

Team up this idea with automated driving and self-parking, and it might be an acceptable post-apocalypse runabout. – Charlie White

Design Page [Patty Yuan, via Yanko Design]