Hasta La Gadget!

Want to show that electric cars can be practical in day-to-day living? Take one on an impossibly long trip and show the world. That’s the plan for the Racing Green Endurance team, centered at Imperial College London, which will be taking its SRZero electric car along 26,000km (16,000 miles) of the Pan-American Highway, starting in northern Alaska and driving all the way down to Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of South America. Their car is a repurposed Radical SR8, once a back-breakingly quick two-seat prototype with a curb weight of just 1,433lbs and a rollicking 363 V8 in the back. That lump has been displaced by a pair of Axial Flux electric motors, producing a combined peak of 386hp, though their batteries conspire to nearly double the car’s initial weight to 2,600lbs. Still, a 248 mile range is predicted on the EPA cycle, and since you can eke out 300 in a Tesla Roadster (224 mile EPA-rated range), 350 might just be possible here. We’ll find out in July, when the trip begins. Early video after the break, filmed by Claudio von Planta of Long Way Round fame, and we threw in footage of the SR8 setting the Nurburgring production car record just for kicks.

Continue reading Racing Green Endurance SRZero electric car to make 16,000 mile trip, 250 at a time

Racing Green Endurance SRZero electric car to make 16,000 mile trip, 250 at a time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want an electric vehicle with more than a piddly couple-hundred mile range? Apparently you have to build it yourself and follow in the footsteps of the Japan Electric Vehicle Club, which broke the Guinness World Record last weekend by driving 623.76 miles (just over 1,000km) on a single charge in its customized Daihatsu Mira. The trip took 27.5 hours traveling around what appears to be the famous Tsukuba circuit in Shimotsuma, Japan. The car was powered by 8,320 Sanyo li-ion cells, each weighing about 44 grams, for a grand total of 807lbs — more than half the weight of a stock Mira. While we’re sure Daihatsu helped with this build, it’s worth noting that this is not an official project of the company, meaning the 100 mile Nissan Leaf is about as close as you’re going to get to this feat for the near future.

[Photo credit: Japan Electric Vehicle Club]

Continue reading Electric Daihatsu Mira goes 623 miles on a charge, but not to a showroom near you

Electric Daihatsu Mira goes 623 miles on a charge, but not to a showroom near you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan didn’t hesitate to gloat about its ability to book 8,000 Leaf pre-orders in just nine days during a pre-pre-order for those who specifically requested early access to the automobile, and now the outfit’s looking to make good on plans to have 25,000 orders in place by December. If all goes well, the all-electric car will be “widely available” in 2012, with a semi-wide release slated for next Spring. Naturally, the buzz is already fueling demand, and the automaker has today opened up a public reservation system online for those unwilling to take chances on availability come 2011. If you’re interested, you can actually reserve your Leaf right now with precisely zero clothing on — you heard right, there’s no need to even visit a local dealer. Simply hand over a $99 refundable deposit and wait, but you best get your story in line before being pinged by Nissan. The Wall Street Journal has it that pre-orderers will have to “convince Nissan they are up to the task of owning an electric vehicle based on their driving patterns, living arrangements and other factors,” and if you call Nunapitchuk, Alaska home, you can bet you’ll be shoved to the rear of the line. But hey, we always heard it was best to pull the trigger now and ask questions later.

[Thanks, Jim]

Nissan opens all-electric Leaf pre-orders to the US public: $99 to reserve originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 May 2010 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says people aren’t willing to pay upwards of $30k for a car that can only go 100 miles before needing to be tethered to a wall outlet? Evidently Nissan has struck a chord with the US populace, as the automaker just announced that 8,000 orders for the all-electric Leaf were booked in a mere nine days after orders went live. According to Mark Perry, the company’s North American director of product planning and strategy, Nissan is “on its way to have 25,000 firm orders by December,” and considering that it’ll only ship initially in California, Arizona, Washington, Tennessee and Oregon, that’s a pretty bold assumption. Better still, Nissan plans to “make money at the price that it announced,” though we’ve no doubt that the $7,500 Federal tax credit has urged fence-sitters to jump in the pre-order line. Still, it’s good to see consumers putting their money into unconventional automobiles, but we can’t say we’re eager to see a special run of Parking Wars dedicated to brawls over what motorist gets the last charging socket on Main Street. Or maybe we are, in a sick and sadistic sort of way.

Nissan books 8,000 Leaf orders in nine days, gets turned on with that electric feel originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Encouraging news for all you EV enthusiasts out there: Tesla’s Model S appears to still be on track for its planned 2012 launch and will be using battery technology offering the highest energy density “in the world.” Built in Panasonic’s new fab in Suminoe, Japan, these 3.1Ah cells (you can just about see one of them being held by the two corporate types above) will be manufactured at a rate of more than 300 million per year. Considering each car would require a few more than 6,000 of them for its full energy storage, that means Tesla would be able to churn out about 48,000 Model S sedans per year. Then again, the company has only sold about 1,000 units of its Roadster so far, so we doubt it’ll be pushing Panasonic’s max production capacity any time soon. Still, good to know things are progressing in the right direction.

Continue reading Panasonic’s 3.1Ah batteries to be used in the Tesla Model S, have highest energy density yet

Panasonic’s 3.1Ah batteries to be used in the Tesla Model S, have highest energy density yet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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