Peugeot has announced that the world’s first diesel/electric hybrid car, based on its 3008 model, will go on sale in the next European spring.

The car has a 163-horsepower 2.0-litre diesel engine and a 37-horsepower electric motor. Claimed fuel consumption is 3.8 litres per 100 kilometres.

The car has four modes of operation:

• Auto – the system automatically operates the diesel or electric motor as required;
• ZEV- only the electric motor is used (providing the batteries are sufficiently charged);
• 4WD – both motors are used – the diesel motor drives the front wheels and the electric motor drives the rear wheels;
• Sport – for higher speeds and quick gear changes.

Pricing has not been announced but is tipped to be more than €35,000 ($50,000).

The French Government has announced plans to invest €1.5 billion ($au 2.5 billion) in infrastructure for the two million electric and hybrid cars it wants on the road by 2020.

The plan includes industrial research, making batteries, producing clean cars and building a nation-wide network of battery-charging stations.

Under the plan, a million battery-charging points will be built by 2015. From 2012 all new apartment blocks with parking lots will have to include charging stations. The network will grow to a total of four million points by 2020.

Funds will also be provided for the development of elecric cars by Renault, Peugeot/Citroen and Daimler’s Smart Car division. The French manufacturers presented their plans for electric and hybrid cars at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show. (See http://www.greenbizcafe.com/?p=661).

The electric car announcement comes just two weeks after the French Government announced that it would invest more than €7 billion ($au12 billion dollars) to develop freight transport by rail to reduce road traffic. The French Government also announced last month that a carbon tax would be introduced from next year to help cut fossil fuel consumption.

Researchers at two institutions have proposed different ways in which the use of ultracapacitors could boost the efficiency and reduce the cost of hybrid vehicles.

According to estimates by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in Illonois, ultracapacitors could lower the cost of the battery packs in plug-in hybrid vehicles by hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, by halving the size of the packs that are needed.

The cost of the batteries is the main the reason why hybrids cost thousands of dollars more than conventional vehicles. This is especially true of plug-in hybrids, which rely on large battery packs to supply the power during short trips. In addition, batteries degrade over time. To compensate for this, vehicle manufacturers oversize them to ensure that they continue to provide enough power throughout the life of the vehicle.

On the other hand, ultracapacitors, which don’t rely on chemical reactions to store energy, don’t degrade significantly over the life of a car. But they store much less energy than batteries. The Argonne National Laboratory’s proposal is to use both ultracapacitors and batteries. This would protect batteries from intense bursts of power, such as those needed for acceleration, thereby extending the life of the batteries and ensuring that the car could accelerate just as well at the end of its life as at the beginning. Click here to read the rest of this entry.

When the third-generation Toyota Prius was released in Japan a month ago, Toyota’s sales target for the month was 10,000 vehicles. Actual orders reached 180,000!

The Prius was the top-selling vehicle in Japan in May – the first time that it has achieved the top spot. Honda’s hybrid Insight, released in February, was the third best selling vehicle.

The new Prius is selling for just over two million yen (about $au26,000) in Japan; the Insight is 1.89 million yen ($au24,500). Toyota is also selling the previous model Prius for the same price as the Honda Insight. Sales of the old model are not included in the 180,000 orders.

Hybrid vehicles are now free of sales tax in Japan, saving about $au2,000.

While most car makers have been announcing their grand plans for electric and hybrid cars, Fuji Heavy Industries which own Subaru, has been noticeably silent.

It seems that Fuji wanted to produce a hybrid Subaru based on Toyota’s technology. Toyota is the largest shareholder in Subaru with a 16% stake and the two companies have a long-standing agreement to share development costs. However, Toyota was very reluctant to share the technology which has made the Prius the market leader.

That attitude seems to have changed now that all manufacturers will have to produce more efficient vehicles if they are to participate in the American market.

Fuji has announced that it will be releasing a hybrid model, using Toyota’s technology, in 2012 as well as a fuel-efficient diesel model in 2011 or 2012.

Subaru is also testing an electric car with a range extending petrol motor, the R1e, which is similar in size to the Smart car and has a range of 80 kilometres on batteries alone.

(Based on sources including The Japan Times

The hybrid Honda Insight was Japan’s best selling car in April – the first time that a hybrid has topped the list.

Honda sold 10,481 Insights which retail for 1.89 million yen ($au25,500) each. Toyota’s Prius hybrid dropped to 21st place ahead of a new model release due on May 18.

Honda Insight

The unveiling of the new Tesla Model S seems to have signalled the beginning of a new round of electric and hybrid vehicle announcements.

The Tesla Model S is an electric sedan that Tesla says will carry seven passengers and provide more cargo space than any other sedan currently on the market. The reason for the large cargo space is the lack of gears and the location of the battery pack under the floor, leaving space under the bonnet.

The battery pack is designed to be swapped in less time than it would take to fill a petrol tank. Alternatively, the onboard charger allows the battery to be recharged from any standard 120, 240 or 480 volt outlet. Fully charging at a 240 volt outlet takes about four hours but a "quickcharge" can be done in 45 minutes. It has a range of up to 480 kilometres on a full charge, depending on battery options.

The price of the Model S is expected to be $US49,900 (after a $US7,500 tax credit), which is half the price of the original Tesla Roadster. Full production is planned for 2011.

Click here to read the rest of this entry.

The Chery Automobile Co., China’s largest maker of own-brand cars, has unveiled its first plug-in hybrid.

Chery claims that its S18 can travel 150 kilometres using just its batteries – compared with 64 kilometres claimed for General Motors’ Chevy Volt, due to go on sale next year.

The S18 can be fully charged in as little as four hours and be 80 percent powered via a quick charge at a specialist station in 30 minutes.

Chery will be China’s second mass manufacturer of plug-in hybrid cars, following BYD Electronics which already has a model on sale. BYD’s F3 DM can run for 100 kilometers using only batteries. It takes as little as seven hours to fully charge and can be 50 percent powered via a quick charge at a specialist station in just 10 minutes.

Coca-Cola Enterprises (US) has announced that it is more than doubling the size of its hybrid electric delivery fleet, Coca-Cola will have the largest hybrid delivery fleet in North America with 327 hybrid trucks on the road. The new hybrid trucks will be comparable in capacity to the company’s current large delivery trucks, with a gross weight of about 25 tonnes. But they will consume 30% less fuel.

Meanwhile, the US Arrmy has announced that it will lease 4,000 electric vehicles. The electric vehicles will be used in non-tactical roles on Army bases for passenger transport, security patrol, and maintenance and delivery services. The first of the "NEV’s" (Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles) will be four-passenger sedans, and utility vehicles able to carry two passengers and a 450 kilogram load. They will have a top speed of 40 kilometres per hour and a range of about 50 kilometres on a full, 8-hour charge.

The Army expects that fuel costs for the electric vehicles will be about one third of the cost for equivalent petrol vehicles and that their use will reduce the Army’s fuel consumption by about 44 million litres over six years.

The Army is also developing eight new types of hybrid-electric armoured vehicles for battlefield deployment. These are intended to reduce the Army’s dependence on fossil fuels and reduce the number of refueling convoys exposed in combat.

Senior Energy Executive for the Army, Paul Bollinger, stated that "The Army will continue to leverage new and emerging technologies to ease its dependence on fossil fuels…The Army can and will be a catalyst for greater production and innovation by renewable and alternative energy producers."

John Sweeney, a Harvard, Massachusetts electrical engineer used his Toyota Prius to power part of his house during a three-day blackout last month.

Mr Sweeney used an inverter to convert direct current from the car battery to 120-volt alternating current for the refrigerator, freezer, the fan for a wood stove, television and some lights. He ran the car for a few minutes every half an hour and “burned about five gallons (19 litres) of gas”.

While knowing that you can use a car as an emergency generator might enhance its appeal enormously, especially when the reliability of the electricity grid is questionable, the main benefit of Mr Sweeney’s use of his Prius was to show the practicality of using the batteries in electric vehicles as a way of storing electrical energy and releasing it as required.

As wind and solar power become more common, having a means of storing energy when electricity is not being generated will becoming critical. One solution which has been proposed is for electricity utilities to contract with motorists to be able to use a small fraction of the power stored in the batteries of parked vehicles.