Even though you may be saving at the pump, owning a hybrid or pure electric vehicle means that you have to replace that expensive lithium-ion battery at some point. However, A123 Systems claims that it has created a battery that doesn’t need replacing. In fact, they’re saying that it will last as long as the car that it powers.

“Say you want the car to go for 150,000 miles–that’s perhaps 500 cycles,” says chemical engineer Venkat Srinivasan. “That by itself may not sound like a big problem, but I also have to do it over the 10 to 15 year expected life of the car, and that is a problem. It’s hard to simulate the passage of that much time!”

The Nanophospate EXT technology by A123 Systems somehow extends the life of the battery so that it is able to survive for that long. At its core, A123′s approach is to use iron phosphate cathodes, which are more stable. To make up for the poor conductivity, they add traces of other elements and structure the cathodes on a nanoscale, allowing the molecules to rearrange themselves faster. This results in less physical stress and, presumably, the ability to last through more charge-discharge cycles. It is designed to provide better performance over a wider range of temperatures too.

But these are all claims coming from a company that lost the Chevy Volt contract and then had the Fisker Karma deal go south when it had to recall potentially defective battery packs. Until we see real commercial deployment, we’ll have to take these claims with more than a few grains of salt.

[Source]

The post The Electric Car Battery That Never Has To Be Replaced? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Tesla Motors might be hiding a big battery issue from their customers. Apparently, the company’s electric vehicles, including their Roadster and the upcoming Model S, feature a battery pack which if completely discharged might leave a huge financial burden on the unfortunate owner. But is the owner unfortunate, or simply a bit careless?

According to an article by Michael Degusta over at theunderstatement.com, if a Tesla electric car, such as the Roadster is parked unplugged, it will eventually become what the company calls a “brick”. The vehicle can no more be started or even pushed down the road. This is the result of the car’s always-on subsystems which continually feed on the battery.

And when the battery dies, the owner ends up paying Tesla approximately $40,000 for replacing the battery pack. Reportedly, there is no protection available via warranty or a car insurance policy for this particular problem. Apparently, at least five Tesla owners were unfortunate enough to end up with this problem. Degusta says Tesla is unwilling to let their customers know about the issue, although they know that it’s a big one.

But don’t you have a slight feeling that Degusta’s argument is nonsense. That’s because it is.

If you are familiar with electric cars or batteries or even smartphones, you might know the fact that the battery which is not recharged will eventually die. And since the battery pack on a Roadster is not your usual $100 laptop battery, people will have to pay a huge price for not finding the time for maintenance.

And a Tesla, as you know, has an electric motor. There is lot less maintenance required for the vehicle when compared to a vehicle with a combustion engine. So it’s not too difficult to pay attention to the charge in the battery packs. And the company has designed the car in such a way that it warns the owner (and even the company, in the case of the latest Roadster) when the battery is low. The owners who ended up with a brick might have ignored all the warnings.

So who is culpable here?

Tesla has this to say in response to Degusta’s article: “All automobiles require some level of owner care. For example, combustion vehicles require regular oil changes or the engine will be destroyed. Electric vehicles should be plugged in and charging when not in use for maximum performance. All batteries are subject to damage if the charge is kept at zero for long periods of time. However, Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (or even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if SOC falls to a low level. All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent SOC. Tesla provides extensive maintenance recommendations as part of the customer experience”.

The post Who Bricked The Electric Car? You Did! appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Hiriko is already a pretty small car, but the rear wheel portion is actually able to “fold” into the front half of the car, effectively reducing its overall length to a mere 60 inches. The two-seater commuter vehicle also comes with “robot wheels” that allow the car to spin into place, and the windshield can open up like a door in case the sides are boxed in by other Hirikos. In effect, you can fit three of these things where you would normally fit one standard car.

If you’re thinking that the Hiriko looks familiar, that’s because we already saw it as the CityCar Concept four years ago. The good news is that it apparently now ready for public consumption with an estimated price of $17,430. The electric car gets about 75 miles on a single charge. Would you want one?

The post Three Hiriko Folding Electric Cars Fit In One Standard Parking Spot appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

To get the attention of petrol-heads off their gas guzzlers, electric car manufacturers have to make their cars as jazzy as their cousins running on fossil fuels.

Tesla recently unveiled its Model X, an all-electric cross between a SUV and a minivan, that could indeed make some hard-core petrol motorists rethink their loyalties.

The car is big for an electric car, capable of seating seven passengers quite comfortably in three rows and yes, all in front facing positions. More X-factors are included in Tesla’s new creation, the most eye-catching one being the ‘falcon wing’ rear doors which gives it that sexy appeal usually reserved for sports cars.

Let’s take a peek under the hood of this clean car and see whether it can provide the juice that will do justice to its good looks.

The car will be available in rear as well as four-wheel-drive versions, with two electric motors in the latter model reportedly having the grunt to push the car from 0 – 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in just 4.4 seconds.

Model X is based on the same platform as Tesla’s Model S with some added bulk. The increased weight will affect its range though (expected to be around 10 percent less than Model S). But still it will provide a range of 160 miles with the standard battery pack and it can be extended to 230 or 300 miles depending on the battery pack upgrades used.

The Model X is set for production in 2013 or 2014 for a 2015 release. The price for this beauty will be somewhat the same as Model S, which starts at US $49,900.

[ source ]

The post Many X-Factors In Tesla’s New Electric Car ‘Model X’ appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

After decades of electric cars being avoided by manufacturers, it seems that recently electric cars are really starting to go somewhere (pardon the awful pun). A combination of improving electric batteries and increasing gas prices have likely lead to this change. Competition is fierce in the automotive industry, Nissan and Ford are both offering vehicles that use electric batteries. And now Honda looks to be joining the electric party with its 2013 Honda Fit EV. The all electric Honda hatchback runs on a 20-kilowatt-hour li-ion battery and high-density 92-kilowatt coaxial electric motor. The coaxial electric motor is actually derived from the motor in the Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle. Onboard a 6.6-kilowatt 32-amp charger allows for convenient recharging. When paired with a 240-volt charging port, the Fit EV can fully recharge in as little as three hours. A full charge can travel about 123 miles, which is higher than both the Nissan Leaf and Ford’s all-electric Focus.

The Fit EV will start rolling out in the summer of 2012 to a limited market in California and Oregon, and will spread out to at least six undisclosed East Coast markets in early 2013. The lease payment will target $399 a month for three years and is based on a $36,625 price point.

The downside to the Honda of course is that they are only targeting 1,100 units over the first three years of production. Also keep in mind that with the Honda Clarity only 50 cars have actually made their way into the hands of leasees even though there was an initial queue of over 80,000 interested customers.

Vehicles aren’t the gas-guzzling machines they used to be as hybrid and even all-electric methods are becoming more commonplace than ever before.

Overall, the Fit looks like another interesting electric option. Is the electric car the wave of the future or just a temporary trend that will be replaced by another emerging technology? Only time will tell for sure.

The post Just 1,100 All-Electric Honda Fit EVs To Be Built In 2012 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You might remember my article from a couple years ago when I said that plug-in electric cars are not the future. Even so, there is a big push toward hybrids and electrics these days and it really represents the resurgence of a pre-existing idea. As such, a documentary has been made and it is titled, appropriately enough, Revenge of the Electric Car. A follow up to the 2006 film Who Killed The Electric Car?

Almost taking a Michael Moore-like approach, the new movie talks about how “as many as 5,000 modern electric cars were destroyed by the major car companies that build them” in 2006, but now the electric car is back “with a vengeance.” It features exclusive interviews with people like Bob Lutz of GM, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan-Renault, and Elon Musk of Tesla. Between them, we see cars like the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Roadster.

The documentary opens on October 21 in New York (Landmark Sunshine Cinema) and Los Angeles (Landmark Nuart), with more screens across the country taking on the picture in the days and months to follow. These include Nashville, Portland, Scottsdale, Houston, Detroit (how appropriate!), Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, Honolulu, and more.

Check out the trailer below.

The post Revenge of the Electric Car In Theaters Oct. 21 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As the market for electric cars grows, General Motors have announced the upcoming 2013 launch of a new electric urban car, cleverly named the Volt and the Malibu Eco with eAssist technology in Chevy’s growing range of electrified vehicles.

The Spark minicar will only be available in the United States and it is modeled after the feedback participants in Chevrolet’s electric vehicle demonstration fleets in Shanghai, Korea and India.

“Our global demo fleets continue to provide insight into the needs to electric vehicle customers living in urban environments,” said Jim Federico, global vehicle chief engineer for electric vehicles at Chevrolet.

Chevy Spark will differ from the volt, which is equipped with a gasoline engine that takes over when the electric motor depletes. The 2013 Spark will be an all-electric car, which is why the drivers have to travel short distances, or have, as they called it “predictable driving patterns”.

The post GM Announces All-Electric Chevy Spark EV for 2013 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In addition to cameras, laptops, and gaming consoles, Sony is also pretty big in the battery manufacturing department. And now they want to latch onto the rising trend in greener transportation by making and selling batteries for electric vehicles.

Sometime in the middle of this decade, Sony will start manufacturing lithium-ion batteries specifically for electric cars and hybrids. Demand for these batteries will surely increase as more people buy hybrids and electric cars, so Sony says it is prepared to build dedicated plants for this purpose too. No details about the batteries have been released, but an early prototype, measuring 257x182mm, was shown at a press conference earlier this week.

Sony will be competing against the likes of fellow Japanese company Panasonic in this realm, along with other battery makers around the world. I just hope that these batteries aren’t like the ones they used to make for our notebooks. A laptop fire is disastrous enough; I don’t want my Tesla or Prius spontaneously combusting on the freeway eitiher.

The post Sony wants to power your electric vehicle appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Nissan messed up. Though naysayers hate on electric vehicles because of low ranges, lack of refueling stations on every corner and expensive batteries, things looked promising for the all-electric Leaf. The EV has won several car awards, including the 2011 European Car of the Year and the 2011 World Car of the Year, and currently ranks as the most efficient EPA certified vehicle for all fuels ever. The EV has received praise from critics and was met with enthusiasm from consumers. But now Nissan has dropped customers from the waiting list for the car and asked them to reapply, if a USA Today report is to be believed. This has angered customers who have been waiting for months for the car and have faced multiple delays.

Customers have described delivery dates being moved back several months, and some fear they might have to wait too long and no longer be able to obtain federal tax credits to make the car more affordable. There were 20,000 pre-orders in the United States for the vehicle’s debut, which led Nissan to stop taking orders until they had shipped out the existing orders. On May 1st, Nissan reopened reservations to US customers in certain states. Folks itching for a Leaf have been waiting for months now, and we’ll see if they’re willing to wait even longer for their zero-emissions car.

The post Nissan Screws up Leaf Orders appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Who said electric cars can’t be fast? The Peugeot EX1 electric concept car, which we first saw some time last year, recently attacked the iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, emerging with a new lap record.

The twin electric motor in the EX1 is capable of developing 340bhp, so it’s not exactly a slouch in the power department. Even under some somewhat adverse weather conditions, the EX1 was able to achieve an average speed of 138km/h and a total lap time of 9:01.338.

That’s a record… for electric vehicles. The previous electric record was held by the Mini E, which lapped the Nurburgring in 9:51.45. That means the Peugeot smashed the time by almost a whole minute, but its times still pale in comparison to the best regular gas-powered cars.

As far as production cars, the current leader is the Radical SR8 LM with a time of 6:48. The 2011 Nissan GT-R? That’s 7:24.22. You have to go pretty far down the list before you see nine-minute times. The EX1 is in the same range as a Ford Focus RS, Chevy Cobalt SS Turbo, and Jaguar S-Type Diesel.

Even so, it’s a big achievement for an electric car and it’ll be interesting to see how much faster they’ll be able to go in the very near future. After all, the Mini E only did the lap last year. Does this mean we’ll be looking at 8-minute electrics by 2012?

The post Nurburgring EV Lap Record Shattered by Peugeot EX1 Electric Concept appeared first on Mobile Magazine.