$30M For Plug-in Hybrid Research

Too little, too late? Either way, at least the government showed its determination in making sure that hybrid plug-in research will get the attention of most carmakers. The government thru Department of Energy has earmarked $30 million to develop and demonstrate Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles research projects over the next three years. The said amount will be shared by Ford, General Motors and General Electric. The department said that the projects that can be funded by the money will hasten the development of vehicles traveling up to 40 miles without recharging. The said project will also address critical barriers to achieving the DOE’s goal of making such cars cost-competitive by 2014 and by making these cars ready fro commercialization by 2016. The announcement was made by the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner. Selected projects will be undertaken and these projects are geared towards the acceleration of the development of PHEVS. The Assistant Secretary added that this demonstrated a shared public-private sector commitment to advance clean vehicle technologies and can help reduce the dependence on oil and at the same time confronting the serious challenges of climate changes. He added that the Department remains committed to the research, development and deployment of cleaner and more efficient vehicle options for consumers from laboratory to the street.

Carbon Capture Tech?

What would you say to a car that can recycle its C02 emissions and use this again as the fuel that can power the car again? Sounds like a story line out of a sci-fi thriller, don’t you think? But this isn’t far-fetched. The concept of recycling of this magnitude is now taken into the next level. Georgia Tech has developed a concept that can utilize the CO2 emissions out of the vehicle once again. The Carbon Capture Storage concept that will be developed by Georgia Tech is initially used to reduce the carbon emissions in power plants. But Georgia Institute of Technology wants to get it to the next level and wants to use this technology to combat the threat of pollution coming from automobiles. The concept includes a system wherein the carbon is isolated from fossil fuels, which are disposed of at a refueling station, and then recycled into new fuel. The good thing about this technology is that it will be carbon emission free, and it is also renewable and efficient. This technology, if it will materialize will greatly cut emissions coming from automobiles. Based on research and studies, nearly two-thirds of global carbon emissions are created by small polluters that include cars.

The concept car of Georgia Tech uses an onboard fuel processor, and this device is the one that will separate the hydrogen and the carbon elements in liquid hydrocarbon fuels. This hydrogen is the one that will power the engine, and carbon is stored on board. The prospect of having this kind of technology is actually promising. Carbon capturing will eliminate the problem of carbon emissions. But a problem still lies with this kind of concept. What will happen to the task of carbon disposal? Carbon disposal should be of course in line with the clean technology. It was suggested that the carbon can be injected into underground geological formations, and it will remain there for millions of years. The carbon can be dissolved in the ocean, but it poses a significant threat to all life forms in the ocean. Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology hope that a yet-to-be-developed method of synthesizing liquid fuel from carbon and water will be the final step in a truly reliable energy cycle.

More information about the concept and the technology can be read here.

Another industry player is set to premiere the same system, and the same technology. Origo Industries has developed a system that can capture the CO2 from the vehicle’s engine, and these captured emissions can be used to fuel the same vehicle and can be used as well to power a house. The system is based on a revolutionary new approach wherein the CO2 is regenerated through algae in a home unit, thus helping produce bio-oil. The technology of Origo will be displayed at the UK’s largest Green Motor Show.

Battle of Low Carbon Cars

Escalating oil price. Growing need to be environmentally-aware.

These are just two of the things that fuel car consumers and car manufacturers to drive up their research and development and focus on fuel efficient cars. In fact, the changing market conditions and realities has drove Ford Motors to re-assess its position and has seen its profits dwindle this year. General Motors and Chrysler has also the same problem since these manufacturers heavily relies on profits coming from pick-ups and SUVs. As we all know, with escalating oil prices, these gas guzzlers are the ones that take the hit. As a testament to the escalating prices of oil, the market saw the price of oil reaching $135 per barrel this week. Actually the price per barrel hit $135.09 but then fell back shortly to settle at $130.81 the moment the dollar strengthens. But even though its price continues to soar, demands for oil remains the same. As mentioned, another thing that prompts companies and car consumers to reconsider is the need to cut on emissions and the growing trend to be environmentally-aware. People right now seek vehicles that has some respect for the environment. These things are the ones that motivate car consumers to re-assess their options, to cut their consumptions or to change their mode of transport. The reactions of the consumers can be seen in sales figures right now, and the demand of vehicles. We all know now that Ford is one company that has realized the shift in dynamics. The fall of truck sales and the soaring of gas prices has led Ford to cut production and has led the company to realize less profits. But cutting production and anticipating less profits aren’t the only thing that these car companies do right now. The focus right now is to design, develop and mass-produce cars that pollute less and can go on for miles with the use of the least amount of gas. Enter the low carbon cars.

The low-down on low carbon cars.

Low carbon cars, or simply those cars that pollute less are the rage right now in the market, and advocated by environmental engineers. In fact, these engineers call for government support for this initiative. They said that the government needs to pump extra cash from fuel duty so that this may reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. A number of groups call for a carbon emissions cut to 80 g per kilometer by 2020. Automakers has responded and they are now developing vehicles that go that way- the way of low carbon cars.

General Motors is taking a lead right now, though Toyota thru its Toyota Prius has been in the business for some time and has been successful. Aside from Toyota and General Motors, we also have Honda, Nissan and Ford. Ford is expected to deliver its very own hybrids that will join the Ford Escape SUV in the Ford’s gasoline-electric line-up. At the heart of the Honda’s technology will be the Eco Boost engines that can generate plenty of power and better fuel economy. * More on Eco Boost in later postings. Nissan on the other hand plans to dip its fingers on the hybrid industry by 2010.

Then there’s General Motor’s Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is by far the sexiest green car of GM. Expect to see the Volt before the year ends in Paris and actual production vehicle can be seen by 2010. This sedan is expected to run for 40 miles before the small gasoline engine takes stage and recharge the battery for another 600 miles. For longer trips, it is expected that the Volt can deliver 100 miles per gallon. For General Motors, it isn’t just the Volt. An 80 mpg version of the Saturn Vue SUV is in the works as well and this will be delivered by next year. The Vue will be the first plug-in hybrid in the US once it debuts in the market. * More on plug-in hybrids on later postings.

These move by these companies is sure to address the needs for fuel efficient and eco-friendly cars. And most of the targets by these companies are pegged on 2010. So we will see by then if these vehicles can make a significant impact. But right now, we see oil prices surging ahead, going to record highs.

All-in One Vehicle Control System

Allow your car to stay under the sun for a few minutes, and then enter your car. What do you feel? A few minutes outside on an extremely hot day is sure to give your car the hot temperature that makes you think that you are in the kitchen! Now in order to address this extreme temperature inside, drivers can turn on the air conditioning system and the car’s cooling system will take care of the temperature of the engine compartment. We know that’s necessary so that engine won’t overheat. But other than these, there is another way to address this issue inside your car. And would you want to turn on the car’s air conditioning system minutes before you enter the car? Enter the remote start system. This technology is actually sold by after-market suppliers and sold by vehicle manufacturers as well such as by General Motors. Price may range from $100 to $400 depending on the sophistication of the product. An example of a more sophisticated version of this product is the one produced by Directed Electronics of San Diego. The Viper system from the company connects directly into the so-called controller are network, the data bus that forms the electronic architecture of most new cars. With this product, the car owner can have a control of almost every electronic system in their car. For example if you are about to enter your car in around 20 minutes time, then you can use the control so that the air conditioning system can be started at once. The result? A cooler interior by the time you enter your car! Aside from controlling the air conditioner functions, the remoter control can also open windows, unlock doors, sound the horn and start the music.

The main purpose of this system, they say is to prevent theft. This new anti-theft system will feature a remote start, both the factory installed and the after-market systems, then tie into the controller area network and these are the most sophisticated in the market. The Viper remote can unlock the doors via the encrypted signals into the system’s brain. If somebody attempts to open the car without the proper signal, the Viper will sound an alarm. There are a lot of things that can be done by the Viper remote start system and you can check the news article here.

This is an award-winning product. It just won the innovation award at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. So if you are looking for added control on your car, then this product is sure to fit you like a glove. Look for other systems and technologies like these in the market for better safety and convenience on the road.

Nissan-NEC Partnership on Lithium-ion

NEC takes a new role with its partnership with Nissan Motors.

Nissan takes zero-emission vehicles and this kind of technology seriously. In fact, the company forged an agreement with electronics maker NEC Corp to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries. Analysts believed that the future of next-generation cars and green cars lie on these types of batteries. The joint venture of the two companies will invest 12 billion yen or roughly $115 million in advancing the technology. The move of Nissan was part of the company’s vision to be the leader in zero-emission vehicles. Right now, lithium-ion batteries are usually seen on consumer electronics such as on laptops and other electronic gadgets. But automakers see the potential of these batteries, so these companies are developing ways and means so as to harness this technology. According to Nissan officials, the new batteries in development will be more powerful than half the size of nickel-metal hydride batteries that are used on ecological cars of today. But it isn’t all good news when it comes to lithium-ion batteries. Safety issues remain a top concern. Lithium-ion battery powered consumer electronics like cellphones and batteries tend to over heat and caught fire. But Nissan and NEC argues that their version of these batteries will be safer. The two companies mentioned that their laminated call batteries use a stable crystal structure called the spinel manganese, and this design will effectively eliminate the risk of over heating. The two companies plan to open the batteries to other automakers as well.

Nissan and NEC’s joint venture is the Automotive Energy Supply Corp., and plans to make advanced lithium-ion batteries for use on electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells. The plant of these batteries is set to run in 2009 and it is expected that the plant will have a production capacity of 65,000 and a starting capacity of 13,000. Investment will cover three years, Nissan officials said. The first products of the plant will be seen on the Nissan forklifts in 2009 but batteries on electric vehicles for the US market will be seen in 2010.

The move by Nissan is a response to growing remarks that the company lags behind its Japanese rival Toyota and Honda in terms of ecological technology. Toyota is known for their Prius, one of the company’s top-selling model. The model has already crossed the 1 million sales mark worldwide after a decade of presence in the market. For Honda, the company has its own hybrid and fuel-cell models. Nissan understands the importance of this technology and believes that this technology is the ultimate solution for sustainable mobility. And the partnership with NEC is one way of achieving the goal. Getting the plant starting is just part of the process for Nissan, since the company has said as well that it will introduce its very own hybrid in 2010 aside from the electric vehicles planned for US and Japan. The company has targeted 2012 as the year to mass-market electric vehicles.

Nissan’s entry to the lithium-ion battery market means competition. Toyota has also announced its plans to start mass-producing batteries for plug-in hybrids in the next few years. Toyota is expected to team-up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the same company that manufactures Panasonic products.

NEC Corporation is a Japanese multi-national IT company headquartered at Tokyo, Japan. The company is formerly known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited. The company is known as a chip manufacturer, and one of the world’s top manufacturer of chips. In fact, NEC Semiconductors is considered as one of the world’s Top 20 semiconductor sales leaders. NEC celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1999. And the company’s deal and joint venture with Nissan was first planned in 1997. NEC’s business is divided into three segments; the IT Solutions, Network Solutions and Electronic Devices.

Battery for Next-Gen Cars

Zero-emission vehicles and green vehicles. That has become the buzzword right now in the automotive sector, just like what globalization is for newly industrialized countries and the developing countries in the 1990s. But getting there is a tricky process and getting a zero-emission vehicle is hard work. But this thing doesn’t deter our car manufacturers right now as they develop their own ways and means to make this happen, and it did! One such automaker that has joined the bandwagon is Nissan. The company is in this market as well, and one of Nissan’s plans is to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries, a technology that is widely seen as key for the next-generation green cars. Before we dig on the news regarding Nissan’s plan to work on mass-producing the the lithium-ion batteries, it is logical that a description of this special battery should be in order.

A lithium-ion battery or known as the Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery in which the lithium ion moves in between the anode and the cathode. The use of this kind of battery is popular on consumer electronics. But right now, as we all know its use is no longer confined on consumer electronics. We see this kind of battery on automotive applications as well. There are three primary components in one lithium-ion battery; the anode, the cathode and the electrolyte. The most popular material for the anode is graphite and the cathode is one of three materials. I could be the layered oxide, a polyanion or a spinel.

Ready for 2,843 mpg?

Are you ready for a vehicle that boasts of 2,843 in mpg?

Automobile manufacturers right now take pride in their cars that can make a respectable 40-plus or a 50 plus in mpg. That’s quite a feat when it comes to fuel efficiency. Leading the way is of course, the hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius. But then this can be rivaled, at least in theory by a vehicle that registered 2,843 mpg. That’s right, you read it correctly. This green and mean machine took part in the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas that was held at the California Speedway in Fontana, California. The team from the Mater Dei High School of Evansville, Ind developed their three-wheeled combustion-engine vehicle and in the process breaking the record of the said competition. The vehicle achieved 2,843.4 miles per gallon.

The said event was attended by 300 students in 32 teams coming from four high schools and 23 universities from US and as far as Canada and Mexico. Aside from the combustion-powered vehicle of the grand winner; the other entries in the competition featured 25 vehicles that are powered by combustion engines, four vehicles that are powered by fuel cell/hydrogen technology, one by diesel fuel, one by LPG and two vehicles are powered by solar power.

The grand prize went to the Mater Dei High School, and this same school also took the honors for the combustion engine category.  The College of the Redwoods of California netted 304.5 mpg which is powered by diesel; the LPG-powered entry of Schurr High School in Montebello California got 163.5 mpg; Penn State got 1,668.3 mpg and is powered by fuel cell technology and the Purdue University achieved 2,861.8 mpg. Wait insn’t the entry of Purdue University netted a higher mpg? Contest rules do not allow solar vehicles to compete for the grand prize, so the entry from Mater Dei got the prize.

Safety Assist: Automatic Collision Notification

We all know how important the BMW Safety Assist. Now it’s time to take a look at one of the underlying technology that makes the BMW Safety Assist works. After the MyInfo service that comes with every safety assist, there is also the Automatic Collision Notification feature. So how does this technology works?

This features comes in handy during accidents and emergency situations. To be more precise, it begins its help the moment the air bags have been initiated or when severe impacts do happen on the road. When any of these two happen, signal will be sent to the BMW Assist Response Center. Now at the center, Assist Response Specialist will then receive information about your car and will attempt to speak to you or the other passenger of the car. If the event has been grave and you cannot speak, the Response Center can direct the appropriate emergency services to your location.

Safety Concerns For Hybrids

For a moment, lets think and imagine a hybrid car cruising our highways. You can almost feel the quality and the smoothness of the ride. Its efficiency is undeniable, and you can almost see fuel economy at its finest. Another thing that makes a hydbrid car unique is the amount of noise or rather, the less noise that it creates once it starts cruising the highways. Sweet sounds, almost light and so sensitive. Contrast that to the sounds of high-performance and muscle cars out there. Noise and growls dominates the  air. That is one reason why a number of people tend to like hybrid cars. But painting these hybrid cars and pushing it on a pedestal can be quite harmful. In fact silent cars that prowl the highways right now can put some people at risk. Yes that’s right; there is always a trade-off. In search for efficient cars and ’silent’ cars, some aspects need to be sacrificed and can even pose threats to some people. The sponsor of a new bill in Congress Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns says it best:

The beneficial trend toward more environmentally friendly vehicles has had the unintended effect of placing the blind and other pedestrians in danger.

That’s correct. The less-noisier hybrids that we see on the roads right now may revolutionize automotive technology and can be sweet to the ears, but we have to accept the fact as well that these hybrids can pose significant threats to our blind people as well. Though it was noted that there are still no news that reported injuries that are caused by these almost-silent cars on the road, the bill’s supporters thinks that its only a matter of time that something will happen along this line. There was this study that was conducted by the University of California-Riverside that stated that these cars do pose some significant threats. It mentioned that hybrids that operate at slow speeds must be 40 percent closer to the pedestrians than combustion-engine vehicles before they make enough noises for their location to be detected.

The bill that will be filed will require the Transporation Department to conduct a two-year study before issuing safety standards, and in turn the automakers will have two years to comply. The introduction of this bill is helpful, and I guess a considerable study and research should be done as well to check and to validate furthermore that a slow and a noise-free hybrid can be a threat on the road.

Parking Woes?

Need to park the Lexus 460L? Worry no more since the Lexus 460L is equipped with the self-parking technology. The same technoloy that is available for the Toyota Prius for Europe and Japan. The Lexus 460L is the first vehicle in North America that is equipped with this kind of technology. With this technology on-board, the vehicle can park itself on the road thru the use of onboard ultrasonic sensors, miniature cameras, electric motors and the vehicle detection technology. A testament to how lazy the drivers have become or are we seeing one of the faces of the vehicle’s future?

How the self-parking technology works.

Parallel parking is an art. In a densely populated locale where traffic and congestion is given, often parallel parking is needed. Now in order to bring that vehicle to a complete rest next to the next vehicle on the road, proper techniques should be used. Experienced drivers may appear that they can do it with ease and finesse, but what about those average drivers?  Fender benders may happen, and dents and scratches on the vehicle may be produced. These things are reality-based, and that is why the self-parking technology like the one that was introduced by Toyota is a welcome development.

This technology on board help makes parallel parking easier. The driver still gets to do most of the job like regulating the speed of the vehilce by effectively pressing and releasing the brake pedal. When its time to actually help park the car, the vehicle’s computer system takes the steering wheel. The vehicle will then be manuevered in front of the car, and a signal will be released so as to inform the driver if its time to stop the car. The driver then will allow the vehicle to move in a reverse adn the brake should be released initially to allow the backward movement of the vehicle. The computer thru the power steering system will turn the wheel then place the vehicle at the desired spot. When the vehicle is at the right space, a signal will be released so as to inform the driver. A final signal will be issued as well if the parking assist has been finished. This is true on the Toyota Prius wherein a recorded voice will say “The assist is finished” once the job has been done.

A dashboard screen on the British edition of the Prius help makes the parking easy and convenient and the screen will basically inform and guide the driver on what to do on situations like that.

The self-parking technology is basically anchored on the presence of a number of sensing objects and tools on board the vehicle. These sensors are located on the front and rear bumper and these will usually act as transmitters and receivers. Some systems may incorporate cameras that can be seen on the bumpers and radars that maybe necessary to detect objects.

In a sense, this technlogy should be seen as a help rather than a complete solution on the road.