AutoblogGreen

Following the report on Friday that Lotus was planning to introduce an electric car of its own, we contacted Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk for a comment. Tesla and Lotus collaborated on development of the Roadster and Lotus builds the rolling chassis at its Hethel factory. The FT story did not come as a surprise to Musk. Lotus apparently let Tesla know of its plans in advance and Tesla is hoping to sell some powertrain components to Lotus for the new car.

Tesla already has one powertrain supply deal with a company that has not been disclosed yet. Musk hopes that customer will be willing to make a public announcement in the next month or two. That customer is widely believed to be Daimler and the powertrain is destined for the second-generation Smart ED. Musk will be in Detroit the week after next to deliver a keynote about working with automakers to supply powertrain systems, components and software.

With the current financial situation being what it is, Musk also wants to play nice with Detroit as evidenced by the following comment, "I've made some comments about Silicon Valley being a lot more competitive on the world stage than Detroit, which few would disagree with and I think is a fair criticism, but that has been misinterpreted as anti-Detroit. The right move here for Detroit is to harness Silicon Valley innovation and work with companies like Tesla. It is ironic that our first major automotive partner is not American."



Photos copyright ©2008 Drew Phillips, Sam Abuelsamid, Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

Having gone through the automotive equivalent of a near-death experience, we are happy to report that Th!nk is registering vital signs again and that the halted production of it's sub-compact City is set to resume, sort of. The company is still on life support and the factory in Aurskog will be completing vehicles and making some parts for future cars rather than resuming a regular production schedule. The head of the "debt committee," Jo Rodin said (in Google-translated English), "There will be no cars on the market in January."

According to the Norwegian news sources, short-term financing should be in place by Tuesday or Wednesday that would allow for a couple months of breathing room and help the troubled automaker to reach agreements with current creditors and hopefully attract some new investment. Although the amount of debt owed by the company wasn't stated, it is said to need at least $29 million to keep going. We hope Th!nk manages pull a Lazarus since its demise would not only make for a gloomy Norway-hosted EVS24 in May but also prove problematic for American battery supplier, Ener1. To help boost spirits in the meantime, we offer up an entertaining bit of bonus video (after the jump) of an original Ford Th!nk making a spirited pass through some cones. Thanks to Sindre for the tip!

[Source: E24 / YouTube]

In recent weeks, as the price of crude oil and refined gasoline have continued to decline from their summertime highs, an increasing number of people have been jumping on the gas tax bandwagon. Many analysts and pundits have come out in favor of a tax to keep fuel prices high and encourage the use of more efficient vehicles. Two segments however, have been notable by their silence: politicians and the oil industry. I wouldn't expect any spineless politician to actually come out in favor of taxing gasoline back up to $3.50-4.00 a gallon, after all the only thing they really care about is the next election. Even President-elect Obama is opposed to it.

However, it was surprising to see Paul Foster, the chairman and CEO of El Paso-based Western Refining come out of the closet in an interview the other day. Foster, a self-avowed conservative Republican normally opposed to taxes, actually favors a gas tax of at least $2 a gallon. He agrees that the only way to get people out of gas guzzlers and reduce our oil imports is to keep fuel prices high enough to discourage its use.

Should it happen? Absolutely! Will it happen? Almost certainly not.

[Source: CNN Money]

Looking back on 2008, it seems that the biggest stories that shaped the automotive landscape had more to do with gas prices and economic conditions than the vehicles themselves. Regardless, there are quite a few new technologies that are just starting to make waves, and many of them are intended to reduce the world's use of petroleum and the resultant emissions. Proof positive can be seen in Motor Trend's list of the "Top Ten Tech Treasures" of 2008. For instance, the first two bits of technology praised by MT are the cellulosic ethanol processes being used by Coskata and Mascoma, while the third has to do with finding a suitable non-food crop for said ethanol. Ethanol not your style? Try methanol, which manages to hold down spots 4 and 5 in one form or another. There's five more entries on the list, and we don't want to spoil them for you, so we'll just mention that all but one have something to do with saving fuel or cutting emissions.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Want to prove that ponies like ethanol? Give Oklahoma corn farmer Brent Hajek a call. He helped get a FR500C Ford Mustang running on E85 up to 252.78 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats is Utah back in September. The record-setting drive (well, almost. It still needs to be duplicated to make the books) handily beat the previous record of 246 mph. The Mustang used a 5.4L Ford GT block, heads and various performance parts from Ford Racing, but that sort of support was not a given. NewsOK reports that there was little enthusiasm for the Mustang record attempt until Hajek suggested using the corn-based fuel. Once the biofuel was part of the plan, they [Ford] were hooked."

There's a video of the event -rocking guitar soundtrack and all - after the jump. For more alt-fuel Mustangs, check out these biodiesel and electric versions.

[Source: NewsOK via Domestic Fuel]

A vehicle in motion has a lot of energy passing through it various ways. The limited capacity of electro-chemical batteries means engineers have to find any way they can to reduce wasted energy and recapture as much as possible. The primary means of recapturing energy up until now has been regenerative braking, where the wheels turn the motor during deceleration causing it to charge the battery.

Tufts University engineering professors Ronald Goldner and Peter Zerigian have developed a regenerative shock absorber that harnesses the kinetic energy of the wheels' vertical motions as they follow the contour of the road. Traditional dampers use the resistance of a viscous fluid flowing through orifices to dampen out the motions as wheels traverse bumps and potholes. This new configuration would put a magnet stack within stator windings and use the resistance provided by an electromagnetic field to achieve the same effect. Such a system could provide continuously variable damping while providing power instead of consuming it.

A similar concept was developed several years ago by Pennsylvania man David Oxenreider. Electric Truck LLC has apparently licensed the commercial rights to the Tufts design, although there is no indication when we might see it on the road.

[Source: GizMag]

Apparently, Ireland will be getting a diesel version of the Subaru Impreza. We're were a little surprised to see the press release, which is pasted after the break, considering that it was just last week that we heard the model was being indefinitely delayed in the UK. Of course, only a fifth or so of Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but we find it odd nonetheless. No matter, the oil-burner was slated to go on sale starting yesterday for a base price of €21,495 excluding dealer charges.

Standard equipment includes a 6-speed manual transmission, which is, as always, hooked up to the Impreza's standard all-wheel drive system. Three trim lines will be offered, starting with the base model, to which up-level S and loaded RS levels are added. Fuel consumption stands at 6.8 L/100 km (42 mpg imperial or 35 mpg US) and carbon emissions come in at 152 g/km in the combined cycle.


[Source: Subaru of Ireland]

Lithium ion battery maker EnerDel wants to tap into some of the $25 billion that Congress set aside to help fund advanced vehicle manufacturing in the 2007 energy bill. EnerDel has applied for low interest loans totaling $480 million to help fund the construction of manufacturing capacity for batteries. Automotive scale battery manufacturing is limited today, particularly in the US. Right now EnerDel is the only US company making automotive lithium batteries at facilities in Indianapolis and Noblesville, Indiana. The money would allow EnerDel to double the size of an existing factory to 600,000 packs a year and build a new factory capable of building another 1.2 million packs annually. The first packs are destined for the troubled Tn!nk company, something that Ener1 Chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer told AutoblogGreen is not a problem.


[Source: Ener1]

Panasonic is a growing player in the electric car business, as the recent purchase of battery-maker Sanyo and its partnership with Toyota. It also at one time had big plans for 2009. The electronics giant's latest EV move is developing a network that allows home appliances to check on the status of your electric car. Details are pretty much nonexistent at this point. TMC says the prototype system can use the electric cables already in your wall to send information. NetworkWorld says the EV communication system is one of three that will be part the HD-PLC (High-Definition Powerline Communications) display during CES in Vegas later this month. Right now, I'm unconvinced that getting my microwave to beep when my electric car is done charging is all that awesome.

[Source: TMC via EVWorld, NetworkWorld]

Dr. John Patten of Western Michigan University recently installed one of HyMotion's L5 plug-in conversion kits in his Toyota Prius as part of his work in educating people on alternative energy. The HyMotion kit is the first commercially available system that allows Priuses to become plug-in hybrids. Half of the total cost was paid for by the university with the rest coming from a Michigan Community Energy Project grant. Patten will conduct seminars and demonstrations at events around the state to help make people aware that the technology for plug-in hybrids is available. Patten also had a wind turbine installed at the school's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to be used as part of his research into alternative and renewable energy. A student will also be working with the professor on analyzing energy data with the now pluggable-Prius.

Hopefully, Patten will also explain to people the limitations of such conversions. Unlike the Chevy Volt, say, the electric drive system in the Prius is not designed to provide full range electric operation. Anyone who has tried driving current hybrids in electric mode will be fully aware of the very light foot required to keep the engine from starting. A conversion like this will not yield a car that you can just unplug and driving normally without the engine for 30-40 miles. Nonetheless, this $10,000 kit can yield significant improvements in mileage. Learn more here.

[Source: Kalamazoo Gazette]