Can you provide a link to an article or website describing developments we will see in the electric car in the future? What new models are coming out? What improvements are being made? Please provide a reference. Thanks so much.

Sept 08 – With e-mobility Berlin, Daimler AG and RWE AG launched the worlds largest joint project for environmentally friendly electric cars. These provide locally emission-free driving, thus making a considerable contribution towards protecting the environment and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. The initiative covers all components required for the efficient use of battery-powered electric vehicles ? from innovative drive technology through to customer-friendly infrastructure. Daimler will provide more than 100 electric cars from Mercedes-Benz and smart as well as the vehicle service. RWE, Germanys largest energy company, is handling the development, installation and operation of the charging infrastructure accounting for some 500 charging stations, the supply of electricity and central control of the system. The payment system takes the form of the exchange of data between a special in-car communication system and the intelligent charging point. This unique co-operation brings together the specific know-how of two key industries. The project is being supported by the German federal government due to its significance in terms of sustainable mobility in the future. Daimler AG CEO, Dr. Dieter Zetsche and the CEO of RWE, Dr. Jürgen Grossmann unveiled details of the joint project in the presence of German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel. This is the largest joint initiative of an energy company and a car manufacturer ever to create an infrastructure for emission free …

High reliability, CTE compatibility, and light weight, along with strength, and stiffness are key factors in the design of coolers for power modules in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) applications. CPS AlSiC coolers meet this challenge with optimum thermal performance and consistent reliability throughout the application life cycle.

Liquid cooling is the most effective way to dissipate heat (1 – 2KW) in HEV power module applications. CPS AlSiC coolers cost effectively offer the pin fin geometries that are required for effective liquid cooling. In addition, CPS AlSiC coolers provide an isotropic thermal expansion that is compatible with device/electronic substrate to reduce mechanically induced stresses during power thermal cycling for improved electronics and module reliability. The AlSiC device compatible thermal expansion (8 ppm/°C) simplifies IGBT assembly compared to Cu pin fin coolers (17 ppm/°C) thermal expansion, eliminating the need for stress compensation layers that increase thermal resistance, assembly complexity and module cost.

AlSiC is a lightweight material (1/3 that of Cu), which makes it an ideal cooler material for the weight-sensitive hybrid electric (HEV), electric vehicle (EV) application and in kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS). AlSiC also has higher strength and stiffness than Cu, which, combined with its lightweight nature, makes AlSiC coolers more tolerant of shock and vibration.

The CPS AlSiC fabrication process efficiently produces both the composite material and fabricates the product geometry in one process step. CPS can work with customers to provide designs that are fabricated to shape requiring no finished machining for very cost effective cooler production.

About CPS Technologies Corporation

CPS Technologies Corporation is the worldwide leader in the design and high-volume production of metal matrix composites. CPS uses a net-shape fabrication process, including patented QuickSet™ injection molding and QuickCast™ infiltration. AlSiC components are used in applications in the wireless communications infrastructure, high-performance microprocessor, motor controller, and other microelectronic markets. CPS is a publicly traded company (symbol “CPSH”). CPS’ customers include TI, Motorola, HP, Infineon, Agilent and Amkor. For more information on CPS’ AlSiC components, contact Mark Occhionero marco@alsic.com at 1 (508) 222-0614 x 242 or Samuel Hopp shop@alsic.com at 1 (508) 222-0614 x 242 at or visit www.alsic.com.

A look at Best Buy’s foray into selling electric bikes and scooters. They’re currently available in Portland, San Francisco and LA

Might the most fuel-efficient vehicles in mass production–powerful hybrids, such as Toyota’s Prius, that can run on either gasoline or electricity–already be destined for the science museum?

That’s the argument that French carmaker Renault is making at the Mondial de l’Automobile, the giant auto show running.Renault says that it is engineering a pair of battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), to be produced starting in 2011, that it claims will be cheaper to build, cost markedly less to power, and produce far less carbon dioxide. Renault’s vision for electric cars is small vehicles principally designed for commuting. At the Paris show, Renault unveiled a concept car showing the design of a compact EV commuter car: an EV version of its Kangoo utility van, with startling acid-green windows to minimize air conditioning and a lithium-ion battery that carries the van 160 to 200 kilometers on an average charge. That range “really covers the usage by our customers, who are using their cars only for commuting and maybe short trips during the weekend,” says Renault EV project director Serge Yoccoz. As a result, he predicts that such EVs could capture from 10 to 15 percent of the European car market as early as 2015. (Hybrids currently command just 2 percent of auto sales worldwide.) Renault won’t be the first to test the commuter market with battery EVs. Mitsubishi Motors announced in Paris last week that it will begin testing its i-MiEV minicar in Europe next month with a view to commercial sales by 2010.

Daimler, meanwhile, said that a battery version of its popular Smart Fortwo, in testing in London since last year, will be sold starting at the end of 2009.Renault says that EVs are a necessity because hybrids cannot deliver the level of gasoline use and emissions reductions that governments and customers are demanding of automakers. The EV is the breakthrough required because, according to Renault, driving the EV Kangoo displayed in Paris generates zero carbon dioxide when charged with renewable energy, and no more than 60 grams per kilometer when charged on today’s coal-heavy power grids; when charging in France, carbon-dioxide emissions would be somewhere in between because nuclear power provides 80 percent of France’s electricity.

On this spot there’s a new scenario about electric transaxles for electric vehicles, with the new website www.ac-transaxles.com. Any of those scenarios compares well with the more than 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer coming out the tailpipe of Renault’s diesel-fueled Kangoos, which are relatively efficient vehicles for their class.Lithium batteries for Renault’s first round of products, at least, will come from a joint venture of Japan’s Nissan, with which Renault is partnering on EV technology development, and NEC.

Newer lithium technologies have eclipsed the performance of the joint venture’s manganese-based lithium-ion chemistry, but Yoccoz says that the Nissan-NEC process is one of the cheapest. With the new transaxles the vehicles efficiency will grow, and will permit longer drive with a load of battery. 

For more info please visit www.ac-transaxles.com, where you can find information about high ratios transaxles for electric vehicles.

(April 14, 2010) Tom Turrentine, Director of UC Davis’s Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center, discusses recent anthropological research on changes in consumer behavior in response to the recent rapidly growing and changing alternative-fuel vehicle market and how these responses may be shaped by perceptions of the social and political associations related to electric vehicles. Stanford University www.stanford.edu UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center http Stanford Energy Seminar energyseminar.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube http

How powerful will “all electric trucks be” and how expensive. LOL. I think the very idea of all electric cars to the average joe is hilarious.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles Join UPS Fleet in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA—-UPS today announced its fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles had expanded with the deployment of 50 next-generation hybrid electric delivery trucks to Philadelphia.

Read more on Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance

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Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

Are you considering converting your current hybrid into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle but you’re wondering what the benefits are?

After all, being environmentally friendly is nice, but you should get some more benefits than just saving the planet, right?

Fortunately, there are a lot of benefits that will help you actually save money, not just the planet.

1) Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can get 100 mpg.

That’s right, if you’re going to use your PHEV for trips like your daily commute and you’ll be driving it less than 50 miles per day, you can get your gas mileage up over 100mpg. For long road trips, it will be less, but since most people take short trips on a day to day basis, you’ll be consuming very little gasoline. Some days your gas engine may not even need to turn on at all – which means no gas consumption at all.

2) PHEVs Are Cleaner Than Gasoline Powered Cars

One thing skeptics like to say about plug-ins is that they’re simply transferring the pollution from cars to power plants. While it’s true that PHEVs are transferring the pollution, it’s not an equal tradeoff. Studies show that using electric power in a vehicle results in 67% less greenhouse gases than using gasoline in a car – even when considering that half the power in this country comes from coal. That’s because large powerplants are far more efficient and are far cleaner than a conventional internal combustion engine.

3) Get cleaner as they get older.

Only PHEVs and 100% electric vehicles actually get cleaner as they get older due to the fact that the electrical grid gets cleaner every decade. A typical gasoline powered car gets less efficient as time goes on and becomes dirtier as it gets older.

4) Cheaper To Run And Maintain

While PHEVs and electric vehicles (EVs) cost more money upfront, they are actually cheaper to run and maintain than a regular non hybrid car. For example, if gas is $3/gallon, the very best non hybrid cars will cost 8 cents per mile for gas and gas guzzlers will cost 20 cents or more per mile. A PHEV, on the other hand, will cost only 2-4 cents/mile during short trips. Or if you’d like another way to look at it, when running on the electric engine, you’re getting the equivalent of 75 cent/gallon gas.

5) PHEVs Reduce Dependency On Foreign Oil

Since the electric grid only depends on oil for 3% of its power, there’s very little dependence on foreign oil when it comes to generating electricity (about half comes from coal). It’s been estimated that if everyone drove PHEVs, we’d need 55% less oil and we could eliminate foreign oil completely.