Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

According to Tata Motors’ managing director Ravi Kant, the company plans to launch an electric version of its Indica hatchback in Norway within a year, and will bring it to the local market at a later stage.

“Right now we want to test it out in Norway with the Norwegian party. Because, you know, lot of infrastructure is required for electric vehicles and … in Norway, they are making arrangements for electric cars,” Kant said.

“We will bring that to India at an appropriate time.”

S. Ravishankar, senior general manager at Tata Motors’ engineering research centre, said the car can run for 175 km to 200 km (110-125 miles) when fully charged with a “two-pack” battery, but mileage could vary according to the battery used.

Dutch-based EV start up Detroit Electric has announced that, by the end of next year, it plans to produce a range of affordable electric cars that are much more powerful than existing models and have zero emissions.

The company is in talks with Proton, the national Malaysian car-maker to produce the cars at their facilities in South East Asia. It is also in negotiations with two other, as yet unnamed, auto manufacturers from Germany and the U.S.

Speaking at a prototype viewing at the Proton test circuit in Malaysia, Detroit Electric’s Chief Executive, Albert Lam said, “We believe in affordable electric vehicles for the public. That is our dream … to find innovative ways to counter global warming.”

The cars, a sportscar, a sedan and a subcompact car, will feature a li-ion battery with a range of 200 miles on a single 7-8 hour charge and a total life span of 125,000 miles. They will also contain electric motor technology produced in-house. According to Chief Scientist Frits van Breemen-Schneider, the motor is 4 to 12 times lighter than exisiting designs, giving it a superior power-to-weight ratio. This means that it can produce 5kw of power per kilogram, whereas the best electric car in existence can only currently produce 0.25 kw per kilogram.

Peugeot has announced plans to debut an all-new performance hybrid concept at the Paris motor show in October. According to the French manufacturer, the car, known for now as the RC Clubs, (but whose final name will be confirmed at the show), will be a four-door, four seat GT Coupe with “highly innovative hybrid architecture.”

Peugeot claim that the car boasts 313bhp, with combined CO2 emissions of 109g/km. If true, this would make the RC Clubs easily the most powerful model in production by the French outfit, yet also one of the greenest. Moreover, when running at low speeds, the RC will be powered solely by an electric motor, meaning zero emissions at source, much the same as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid.

In the world of hybrid and electric cars, the upcoming commercial release of the Chevrolet Volt must surely rank as the most widely (and wildly) anticipated event. Now GM has ramped up the expectation levels another notch by releasing two teaser pictures providing us with a sneak-peak of its much vaunted plug-in hybrid model.

The release of the pictures, showing parts of the front and rear ends, will be seen in the industry as a signal that GM is still very much on track for the forecast 2010 launch of this pioneering car.

A major new report has claimed that by 2020 all new cars sold will be hybrids of one form or another, and that battery technology will be commonplace in most cars.

The report, ‘Automotive 2020: Clarity Beyond the Chaos,’ (.pdf), written by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, is based on interviews with 125 anonymous car industry executives across 15 different countries.

The findings make it clear that the car industry is currently undergoing a period of radical and fundamental change. According to one respondent, an executive with a European car company, “In the next ten years, we will experience more change than in the 50 years before.”

Starting later this year, Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP), a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, will take your pre-existing or newly purchased Saturn Sky and convert it to an electric car.

Initially only available for the Sky, AMP will add other Saturn models as company growth allows.

The company is currently taking orders for a limited run of 300 “signature series” Sky conversions. The Sky EV will be able to go from 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in 5.7 seconds, will have a top speed of 90 mph (145 kph), and can go 150 miles (240 kilometers) before needing a recharge.

In its latest round of funding, Aptera has raised more than $24 million to begin production of both its Typ-1 electric car and Typ-1 plug-in hybrid. Major venture partners include Google and Idealab.

Aptera also plans to use the new funds to construct a manufacturing facility in Vista, CA, close to the company’s present headquarters in Carlsbad.

In a slew of announcements this week, a picture of what the future of plug-in vehicle charging might look like is starting to emerge.

The Problem:

There are 54 million garages for the 247 million registered cars in the US, meaning that the majority of cars are parked overnight in parking structures, parking lots or curbside.

As a result, most potential plug-in vehicle consumers do not have an adequate place to charge their vehicles. This problem is even more pronounced in urban areas like San Francisco, where only about 16% of cars are parked in garages overnight and the rest end up curbside or in parking lots.

Also, although the US power grid probably has enough overall capacity to supply energy to a nation of plug-in vehicles, it may not have the ability to charge them when they all plug-in and demand energy at the same time — say 6 pm every weekday.

BMW has announced plans to sell all-electric versions of its popular Mini car in the U.S., starting from summer 2009.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mini USA Vice President, Jim McDowell, said that the company is still deciding whether to sell or lease the vehicles. He remained tight-lipped over exactly where in the country the cars will be available, and declined to comment on other aspects, such as range, power, charging time and price.

He also said that speculation that Mini will sell 500 EVs in California next year was premature, since no exact plans have yet been finalised. Mini will apparently make a further announcement later this year, possibly to coincide with the Los Angeles Auto Show.

While the kinks are worked out, Tesla is starting to move Roadsters off the production line slowly.

27 Roadsters are currently in various stages of assembly, and the company hopes to reach a monthly production rate of 100 cars by this December.

In a blog post on the company website, Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori has reprinted the content of a note he sent to customers last Friday in which he states that Tesla has finally “broken the logjam” and already delivered 9 Roadsters to California.

When gas costs $50 per gallon, creative solutions seem to spring forth.

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) has reported on two business partners in Gaza who have converted a 1994 Peugeot 205 into an electric car capable of going 110 miles on a single charge using 34 standard lead-acid car batteries.

After more than a year of being blockaded by the Isreali government, Gazans find themselves facing out-of-sight prices for fuel.

Instead of letting that get the better of them, civil engineers Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan claim to have developed an electric motor that is different than other electric motors and allows for improved efficiency.

The converted Peugeot has 15 horsepower and can travel at a top speed of 60 mph. To most Americans this may seem underpowered, but on the 25 mile long and 7 mile wide Gaza strip this amount of power and speed is more than satisfactory — and in reality, it’s probably more than satisfactory for most Americans too.