Hasta La Gadget!

Residents of SoCal’s Torrance should consider themselves lucky, as they’re now living in America’s first-ever city to have a pipelined hydrogen-fueling station. You can thank Shell and Toyota for picking up this government-funded green project. Sure, while the few other hydrogen stations still rely on delivery by supply truck (presumably running on diesel, ironically), this nevertheless marks a new milestone for our squeaky clean fuel, and it’s only a matter of time before more stations get piped up to Air Products’ hydrogen plants. If there’s any indication of a time frame, Wired reminds us that 2015 should see the arrival of many new mass-market hydrogen cars from Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz. Not long to go now, fellow tree huggers.

Shell opens America’s first pipelined hydrogen-fueling station in Southern California originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some day you’ll charge everything wirelessly — phones, cars, graphing calculators, all using the same basic technology. That’s the sort of utopian vision Toyota had in mind when it formed the Wireless Battery-charging Alliance with WiTricity. The young Massachusetts-based company is pushing “resonance” technology, which charges electronics without contact and is supposedly more efficient than induction-based charging — a category that includes the popular Qi standard. This new partnership ups the ante, adding electric vehicles to the list of chargeable devices, a vision of the future where Prius batteries can be filled wirelessly, while sitting in driveways and parking garages. Exxon’s engineers are no doubt working to perfect the hose-free gasoline transfer as we speak. PR after the break.

[Thanks, Paul]

Continue reading Toyota and WiTricity team up for OTA car charging

Toyota and WiTricity team up for OTA car charging originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What happens when you put the powertrain from a Tesla Roadster into an SUV? You get the Toyota RAV4 EV, an early prototype of which PluginCars got a chance to drive. It referred to a “sophisticated proof of concept,” basically a drivable show car, and the performance is reasonably stout: 0 – 60MPH in nine seconds — not bad for a 3,900lb car. Range is estimated to be 100 miles in real-world conditions, but that’s liable to change between now and when the car is expected to hit dealers, sometime toward the end of 2012. We’re guessing the Roadster-style pushbutton gear selector will be gone by then, too.

Prototype Tesla-powered RAV4 driven, demonstrates extreme brake regen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today at 3:00pm EST Microsoft and Toyota are holding a little webcast and, while they’re staying mum on just what the topic of discussion will be, we’re hearing they’ve been having some heart-to-hearts about making dumb power grids a little smarter. The details naturally are yet to be unveiled, but we’re presuming it’ll be similar to what Microsoft and Ford have worked on for the Focus Electric, technology that enables the car to know when rates are cheapest and only charge up then, also providing detailed data on the car’s power consumption. The Tesla-powered RAV4 EV will be Toyota’s first pure electric vehicle, and while it surely won’t be as invigorating to drive as the similarly Tesla-powered Roadster, thanks to Microsoft maybe it’ll be a little smarter. It’ll certainly be cheaper.

Update: Sure enough. Toyota and Microsoft have announced a ¥1 billion (about $12 million) deal to extend Microsoft’s telematics wizardry (which powers Toyota’s Entune system, among many others) to help “link people, automobiles and homes for integrated control of energy consumption.” Interestingly it’s all going to be built on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud operating system that, apparently, works in cars as well. That and lots more PR speak after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft and Toyota to partner on smarter charging systems for EVs (update: yes)

Microsoft and Toyota to partner on smarter charging systems for EVs (update: yes) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our thoughts this morning are with the folks in Japan and the other Pacific areas affected by the massive 8.9 earthquake that struck about 230 miles East of Tokyo. Reports of damage are flooding in from the country, and indeed many familiar manufacturers are checking in. Sony and Toyota have both stopped operations in their factories due to damage. Tragically, one Honda worker lost his life after a wall collapsed, while several Panasonic workers are said to have suffered minor injuries. It remains to be seen exactly what impacts this will have on consumers, but Sony’s closed factories were responsible for the production of Blu-ray discs and batteries, while the numerous automotive shutdowns could result in short-term shortages. This bad news sent stocks downward, with German share prices for Sony dropping 2.5 percent and Honda 4.5 percent. We’re still watching with concern to see what other impacts the resultant tsunamis could have, but for now we’ll keep hoping for the best.

Update: Some further news from Smarthouse, which indicates that Sharp’s new 10G LCD plant in Sakai City shut itself down automatically upon first signs of a quake. Hooray for technology.

Sony, Subaru, and Toyota close factories in wake of earthquake, other companies check in originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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