Eco-Thinker

First we had hybrid-busses and then plug-in hybrid busses, and now a no-plug-in hybrid wirelessly rechargeable bus? Say what? So the terms may need tweaking. From Tokyo, check out this interesting new project by Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota. Before the majority of society can even ingest the news of a prospective electric-car-future, we have a design that can keep a battery charged without having to stop, plug in, and “fill up”. But, as EcoGeek pointed out, the available wireless energy transmission technology is rather inefficient. So to actually make it a truly green project would mean the source of the energy providing the grid would have to be solar power or some other efficient energy production.

Far from what I would consider an objective report, this was quite deliberate at the expense of Aptera and the viewers who were denied a more informative report, not to mention a technology that can, you know..sorta save mankind and all… no big deal.

Could this possibly mean what we think it means for electric cars? The question this raises is, if the Tesla, for a commonly known example, can travel 240 miles on a charge, will the new design allow for a 2,400 mile trip? It appears that little change to the size of the battery itself will be needed, but a major change to the life of the battery could result from the newer version.

Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Corporation and battery supplier GS Yuasa Corporation have been planning a joint venture company to get the ball rolling on much needed large format and fast recharge lithium-ion batteries with an electric car application in mind.
On December 12, 2007 they formally solidified the deal into Lithium Energy Japan. This is phenomenal news for the EV car industry.

Some might argue, but I think this vehicle looks awesome. The all electric version has a range of 120 miles and a low charge time of 2 to 4 hours. While I couldn’t find a hard number for the range of the PHEV, the website did have this: “after 350-400 miles it eventually plummets to [...]

This is one of the 40 surviving EV1 electric cars built by General Motors, that had been completely disabled and then donated to various universities and museums. It was transported to EV Bones in Dec 2007, and powered up for the first time following three days of hardware and software work by university faculty, students, and EV Bones. Enjoy the short video.

When an electric car producing company successfully introduces an electric vehicle to the market, painstakingly hurdling over the barriers of monopolistic financial interests such as oil and steel as two majors in this case, we should all take notice and know that one day soon humanity will absolutely witness the end of oil dependence. At least for the use of fuel.

From : AutoBlogGreen
Dodge’s entry in the 2008 Detroit Auto Show concept sweeps is the new ZEO, a concept that is perhaps the polar opposite of the Viper. The four-door, four-seat sport-wagon has the typical Dodge aggression but, like its partners this year, big eight- and ten-cylinder engines are out the picture. The ZEO is a battery EV with a claimed 250-mile range courtesy of a lithium ion battery pack. It will be interesting to see if this one is a runner like most Chrysler concepts or just a mock-up. We’ll be watching this one very closely.