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As reported by the New York Times yesterday, the two leading manufacturers of electric cars in the US are involved in a serious quarrel over alleged theft of vehicle design and trade secrets.
Tesla Motors, who recently began production of their electric Roadster, claims that Henrik Fisker took on an $875,000 design contract with Tesla in order to access confidential design information. After producing “inferior work,” Fisker launched his own company, Fisker Automotive, and released an $80,000 competing vehicle—the Fisker Karma—less than a year later.
Looking for a sweet ride that can get you infinity miles per gallon? Check out the Eco-Chic Fisker Karma, a luxury sports sedan capable of 50 miles of emissions free-driving on one overnight charge.
This sexy-looking sports car, which I stumbled upon at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, uses the same kind of technology as the lusted-after Chevy Volt. Both cars use a purely electric drive train for the first 40-50 miles of driving, then switch to a small gasoline engine that recharges the lithium ion battery pack for longer drives. This means that if you drive less than 50 miles per day, you’ll only need to refill the tank once per year.
By Philip Proefrock •
January 15, 2008
I’ve been away a bit the last couple of weeks which is why you haven’t heard as much from me as usual. I’ve been learning some new things about cars and automotive technology and seeing the latest models being unveiled. I had an opportunity to find out about the new ethanol process and partnership between General Motors and Coskata Inc. that may prove to be a significant milestone in energy production, and signal a reduction in the use of fossil based materials as fuels.
I also attended the North American International Auto Show (more commonly known around here as the Detroit Auto Show) to see what is new in the automotive world. Over at our sister website, Gas 2.0, I’ve written more about Coskata’s technological development in ethanol production, a next generation process for producing ethanol without using corn or other food as feedstock for the process. Even if you hate cars and never drive one, the Coskata process is interesting because, by using different microbes in the bioreactors, other useful alcohols can be produced, including some that are used in the production of plastics (which have applications in buildings and other products). The front end gasification technologies also can be used to deal with municipal waste streams, in some implementations.
