It may not be the first time Porsche’s 918 plug-in hybrid has had a chance to flex its 770 horse power for the camera, but when we last saw the pricey insanely expensive speed demon strut its stuff on record, it certainly didn’t look like this. The freakish prototype has emerged as a beautiful, high-performance vision of efficiency, blasting its way past 100 kilometers of terrain for every three liters of petrol (78 miles/gallon). The $845,000 machine pairs a combustion engine with electric motors to achieve that consumption rating, and sports a carbon-fiber reinforced-plastic monocoque (self-supporting) shell, rear-axle steering and that unique upward-venting exhausted system that you may have noticed in the shot above. The 918 Spyder is slated for its initial production run beginning in September of 2013, with the first models making their way to US customers late next year. It’s time to start saving — just a few thousand blog posts to go.
Collision detection for cars? Yeah, scientists are on that. But whenever we read about concepts like this, the accompanying literature is often curiously light on details pertaining to real-life driving conditions; it’s often unclear how well the tech will fare if you dredge it up on a foggy day, or in the middle of torrential storm. But in that press release you seen down there, low visibility and poorly lit roads are all Panasonic wants to talk about. The company just unveiled its new crash-avoidance system, which, like other concepts we’ve seen, uses millimeter-wave radar technology to detect pedestrians and bicyclists. Since humans tend to reflect weaker radar signals than cars, Panasonic has designed a new pulse radar code sequence that allows pedestrians to leave a bigger footprint. It’s so effective, the company claims, that it can detect bystanders up to 40 meters (131 feet) away, and will work at night and through rain, fog, snow and blinding sunlight. That all sounds promising, of course, but as with other concepts, it’s not clear, when, exactly we’ll see this system put to good use in the real world.
Terrafugia’s Transition could finally be making its way to the production line. The “flying car” has journeyed far beyond the concept phase, achieving its compulsory nod from the DOT last summer, and now reaching production prototype status. On March 23rd, the latest Transition flew past one more hurdle, completing its first airborne trial. The hybrid vehicle rolled down the runway at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York before ascending to 1400 feet — the entire flight lasted a mere eight minutes, and marks the first of six planned phases of flight testing during the aircraft’s voyage past experimental stage. There’s still no word on when the Light Sport Aircraft will be making its way to soon-to-be Transition owners, but those hankering for a preview can catch a glimpse of the craft at the New York Auto Show from April 6th through the 15th. You can also taxi past the break for a tail-level view of the test plane’s trek to takeoff.
It’s been less than a year since our first opportunity to get up close and personal with BMW’s i8 plug-in electric car, and now the German automaker is back to tease a whole new beast. The Concept Spyder made a static appearance over the weekend, but today the sportier i8 has returned to the spotlight, with video footage in tow. BimmerPost managed to share some clips via YouTube, including a straight-cut-gear-fueled drive around a parking lot and across a lamp-lit bridge, somewhere in the Eastern U.S., believe it or not (take note of the I-95 sign in the first few seconds). You can also gawk at some side-to-side pans of the Spyder’s exterior, with a few HD interior close-ups to boot. And where can you find said stimulating simulations? Buckle up and click past the break.
We got a quick glimpse of Fisker’s once-halted Project Nina the other day courtesy of Autoblog, and we now have our best look at the car to date thanks to some seemingly official press photos that have turned up on Autoforum.cz. Now being dubbed the Atlantic, the car promises to be a smaller and more affordable version of Fisker’s Karma sedan and, as those earlier shots indicated, we should soon be seeing plenty more of it at this week’s New York Auto Show. Apart from an expected BMW-sourced four-cylinder engine, though, details on the car itself remain decidedly light — including any indication of a possible price tag or rollout date. In the meantime, you can find more photos where this one came from at the links below.
Fancy segregating EV charging stations by vehicle manufacturer? No? A slew of major automobile firms didn’t like the idea much either, and have agreed on a combined charging system to use as an international standard. Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen now support a single-port fast charging system that integrates all charging configurations — from spiffy quick charging setups, down to modest Level 1 rigs. The new system also crowns HomePlug Green PHY as the standard communication protocol, allowing charging stations to hook compatible EVs to Powerline Smart Grid applications. Where do all these fancy features leave you and your Leaf? Charged, of course — the new “harmonized electric vehicle charging solution” promises to be backward compatible with current industry standard J1772 connectors.
The next time you head out for a leisurely Sunday drive along the autobahn at speed of 300km/h, you might wanna take a minute to consult Google Maps’ live traffic feature, now available in Germany and 12 other nations across Europe.
Announced earlier this week, the new addition offers regularly updated coverage of all highways and major thoroughfares in countries like Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while bringing more detailed street-level data to users in the UK.
Europe’s road warriors will also be able to use a legend to learn about traffic patterns at specific times or days of the week, making it even easier for you to micro-manage your summer getaway to the Swiss Alps.
A car that looks like the one above and gets the “equivalent” of 1,980 miles to the gallon (and one gallon only) is certainly impressive enough on its own, but it’s all the more so when you consider that it’s driven by a 14-year-old and built by his classmates (with a little assistance, of course, they had no license anyway).
This particular vehicle hails from Kingdown School in Wiltshire, England, and it won the recent Mallory Park Mileage Marathon by a margin of more than 1,000 MPG over its next closest competitor.
Not surprisingly, however, the students are already looking to improve things for next years’ race, and say they’re planning on upgrading the engine for starters. No word if they’re considering an X-Prize challenge after that. So are there any takers on this? Why not ask BMW to invest this into their new EV lineup.
People keep on saying that we’re running out of crude oils, and also petrol engines are damaging the Mother Nature. Then we have hybrid and electric vehicles, that we’re facing problems with, like speed charging issues and battery issues. But people have few times demonstrated that we can also power up electric motors for vehicles by using hydrogen, and it only produces oxygen and no other harmful gas. So why aren’t we humans investing more in such technology.
A pair of Spanish engineers has recently unveiled the dAlH2Orean, a R/C car that runs on aluminium. Dropping a few soda can tabs into a tank of sodium hydroxide produces enough hydrogen to power the little speedster for 40 minutes – at almost 20mph. See their breakthrough result in the video above, and be amazed that you can actually power up a car with pure water that’s available all over the world.
The Koreans are amazing. Why? Because Starcraft is their national sports! Yes, what the F right? They even won against the Greece in World Cup. And don’t get me started on the underage Hyun-A. Now, come to the topic here. Cars. Hyundai and Kia has been growing rapidly in a pace so fast, that their cars which used to be rubbish and unreliable, as reached design cues that surpass the famous Toyota and Honda. Their engines are also improved with advance technology that is comparable to their Japan counterparts. Now, they’re diving into the EV market as well. Read more…
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