Hasta La Gadget!

141 horses is a good amount of power for an average sized car. On a motorcycle that equates to one heck of a ride. That’s what the Mission Motors Mission R electric superbike is putting down in a package that’s the size of a 600cc road bike — the sort of bike that might match that rating but only when you ride it like you stole it. An electric bike, naturally, gives you all that power right from 0 RPM, and after first seeing it in the flesh back in December we’re now getting a glimpse under the fairing, at the trellis frame that bolts to the MissionEVT drivetrain ahead of the swingarm. There’s naturally a big hole ahead of that, where the battery slots. The aluminum plate you see is part of that, left in place here but normally yanked from the top with the rest of the cell pack. Lots more tech details like that on the other end of the source link, and a bunch more pictures over at Autoblog Green. As to when you can get one, sadly right now it’s just for racing.

Mission R electric sportbike drops its fairings, shows us its billet birthday suit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Autoblog Green  |  Mission Motors: Blog  | Email this | Comments

Steaming down the autobahn could be about to get a whole lot more efficient. Volkswagen has carted out its newly updated Super Efficient Vehicle concept, now dubbed the XL1, which — after a great deal of fuzzy math, we’re sure — is rated at a 313MPG fuel efficiency and produces only 24g of CO2 per kilometer traveled. There’s an electric motor and a TDI diesel engine making all the buzzing and roaring noises inside, while the overall body design is focused on making the car as light and as aerodynamic as possible. Volkswagen has achieved a 795kg curb weight by using carbon fiber, magnesium, ceramics, and aluminum to shave down any excess portliness from the XL1, while wind-tunnel testing and optimizations have resulted in a rather exemplary 0.186 drag coefficient. It’s rare to see such attributes on anything outside the supercar realm, but then there’s a reason why this PHEV is still only a concept. FOF.

Continue reading Volkswagen’s XL1 concept plug-in diesel hybrid has 313MPG fuel efficiency, questionable aesthetics

Volkswagen’s XL1 concept plug-in diesel hybrid has 313MPG fuel efficiency, questionable aesthetics originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Autoweek  |  Volkswagen  | Email this | Comments

Apparently when Elon Musk was talking last week at the Cleantech Investors Summit, the Tesla CEO’s prognosticating extended far past 2015. He reiterated that there’s an electric Model X SUV coming soon and a sub-$30k Tesla within four years. However, in 20 years Mr. Musk thinks that everything will be EV — well, everything in the US, anyway. He believes that every car sold in America in 2030 will be electric and that within a few decades after that they’ll take over worldwide. Of course, this is someone who believes he’ll be living on Mars in 2030, naturally sent thither astride one of his SpaceX rockets. Obviously not a man short on optimism.

Elon Musk: all cars sold in 2030 will be electric, boogie woogie woogie optional originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Truth About Cars  |  egmCarTech  | Email this | Comments

Daimler AG is of course best known as the producer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, cars that usually sit toward the higher end of their respective classes. BYD, on the other hand, makes batteries, cellphones, and inexpensive cars that often look an awful, awful lot like other, rather more expensive ones. Strange bedfellows, these, but according to a “knowledgeable individual” quoted by The Wall Street Journal the two are getting closer to finalizing plans for an electric vehicle, freezing the design ahead of production to begin toward the end of 2012. The car is said to be called the GOLF, standing for Green, Oxygen, Light, and Friendship — though that L could also double for Lawsuit given VW already sells its Golf in China. This partnership is similar to what BMW is doing, working with Brilliance China Automotive to get a foothold into the potentially Chinese EV market, which is already starting to heat up and should only continue to do so over the coming years.

Daimler and BYD’s GOLF electric car getting closer to completion? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Truth About Cars  |  China Realtime Report  | Email this | Comments

Surely it’ll come elsewhere eventually, but for now an electric version of BMW‘s generously proportioned 5-series sedan looks destined exclusively for China. As part of the company’s partnership with Brilliance China Automotive, BMW Brilliance Automotive is planning to create a pure EV 5-series and to show it off this year — at some point. No further details are known about the car, though we’re quite sure why this is happening. EVs are becoming more and more popular there as China struggles to shrug off a massive foreign oil dependency and BMW saw a similarly massive 87 percent jump in growth of its sales in China in 2010. So, there’s your motive, but we’ll still have to wait a bit for the rest of the details.

BMW working on electric 5-series sedan for China, we still can’t get a diesel originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AutoBlog Green  |  Automotive News Europe  | Email this | Comments