Equipped with Voith’s parallel DIWA hybrid system and ultra-capacitors of Maxwell, the new Solaris Urbino 18 is the latest hybrid passenger bus soon to be put out. With its 389 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque, it is well designed to run on its 150kW electric motor. The passenger bus can hold up to 151 passengers at a time. Finding your way in towards the bus’ interior is no problem either as it comes with an articulating mid-center for full functionality. Another outstanding feature it offers is its diesel and electric team-up. When one pulls away to accelerate or stop, the electric motor backs up the diesel motor. It also stores a massive super-capacitor in which its internal regenerative braking system offers lower emission rates in end.

The Solaris Urbino 18 is said to be priced at a slightly higher amount than other diesel powered vehicles.

To start with the facts, General Motors reported mere 1210 units of Chevy Volt sold for the first quarter of 2011. This includes 608 units in March. Nissan sold only 452 Leafs through their U.S dealers during the same period, which includes 298 units in March. Tough critics are saying that there is no market for plug-in cars, that fact of the matter is that the sales of these cars have been severely limited due to lack of supply and not demand, as thought.
While Nissan and GM have been slow to increase the pace of production and distribution, to ensure prime quality; these EV’s have plenty of potential buyers on the waiting lists just itching to get their hands on to these vehicles. Having said this, there are plenty of new EV’s expected to make an entry into the U.S. and others markets in the next couple of years and it will be interesting to see, how many of them will actually survive.

The US Air Force or USAF has tested its F-22 fighter jet to fly at great speed using a mixology of standard jet fuel and biofuel. This is part of the USAF’s campaign to use more alternative fuels to run 50 percent of its jet by the year 2016, as the demand for standard fuel may threaten its supply by that time.  The fighter jet was able to fly at 40,000 feet above the air base. The director of Alternative Fuels Certification Division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base noted that the F-22 was able to maneuver through different speeds and altitudes on its biofuel.
The biofuel used was derived from a weed-like plant called camelina. This, along with other synthetic class of biofuels comes from an assortment of renewable sources either from plants or animals.

The USAF has also started testing an A-10C Thunderbolt II the previous year. It has also garnered rights to fly its C-17 GLobemaster III carrier planes to fly on biofuel starting February this year.

This week’s Geneva Motor show revealed the development model of the Land Rover_e, a hybrid four-wheel drive set to raise the bar of how SUVs are made in the future. Like the Range Rover Sport on which it was modeled after, the Land Rover Range-e is built with a 245PS, 3.0 litre TDV6 engine, 69kW electric motor and and eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. It can be recharged using a 240V power source and is packed with a 14.2kW/h lithium ion battery.
With a top speed of 120mph, it can run on electric power solely for 20miles. Environmentalists also need not to worry, because the Range-e has a fuel economy of 85mpg, with carbon dioxide emissions at a low 89g/km.
The Land Rover Range-e is expected to be out in full production by 2013. The Land Rover global brand director, John Edwards says that this vehicle will change the way SUVs are made. Along with its hybrid technology, the car has an intelligent system which amazingly decides for you on the most efficient method to use with less power required. In addition to this, it has a system which captures lost heat energy by braking and this is utilized to help drive the vehicle, a feat that environment enthusiasts will be most excited about.

The wordwide proponent of electric cars has done it again. London has introduced the esteemed Citroen C-Zero, an electric car that boasts of a maximum range of 93 miles, and is more than able to tread through urban traffic with majority of the car’s time being able to recharge.  The city mayor, Boris Johnson, stresses that it is London’s aim to be the most conducive place in the world to own an electric car. He believes this can greatly contribute to the city’s success in environmental terms specifically.
Electrified vehicles in modern day London have 250 charge points to choose from, but its expected to increase in number by the year 2013.  The managing director of Citroen-UK, Linda Jackson, believes that electric cars are the ideal way to save up. With zero emissions, owners cannot incur car tax, vehicle excise duty or even London congestion charge. How convenient is that?

- At present the hybrid cars of BMW are limited to the new I brand. But news is around that by this time next year; BMW will come out with hybrid varieties of 3 series and 5 series.

All the I-grades of BMW nicely tuck their electric motors and batteries under the floor of the vehicle. This leaves sufficient space for luggage and passengers.

The CEO of Tata Motors, which owns luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover, Mr. Carl Peter Foster believes that in the next ten year nearly 80% of the luxury segments cars will switch over to the hybrid variants.

Many cars have switched over from gas to diesel over the years for efficient fuel economy and lesser taxes.

Ian Robertson, the marketing Director of BMW believes that the advances made in batteries in the next 5 years will supersede the advances made in the past 100 years.

GridPoint has just invested around $120 million in accumulated funds to purchase the V2Green electric car charging facilities and software. The company, GridPoint, specialises in the distribution of software that helps to power multiple generating units, in this case, electric car charging outlets. The software is used to control the distribution of electricity from port to car, and eliminates any risk to the car.

The reason for this purchase was to eliminate electricity grid ‘taxing’, which means that in peak times the number of electric cars that are plugged in to recharge would create a demand for too much electricity, so eventually more electric power plants would need to be built. The V2Green software is designed to assist the already present power grid to cope with all this extra energy that is needed.

It is thought that this kind of high demand on the power grid is not going to become much of an issue until late 2010 or early 2011, which is when most of the new electric cars go into wide distribution. The hype over the poor condition of the O-zone layer and other environmental concerns is thought to push electric car sales to an all time high, making the V2Green a necessity, mainly in the U.S. and China.

The current electric and hybrid car batteries, whilst they are fit for purpose, they do not last as long as they should. It is thought that a Lithium-Ion Battery would last twice as long. No figures have been released as of yet, but plans are being pursued to manufacture electronic chips that may serve to help these new batteries work for longer.

Linear’s LTC6802 is it’s name, and it will be able to accurately monitor the power output of up to 12 individual Lithium-Ion battery cells when installed in electric and hybrid cars. The production of the chips is going to be expensive, however work has already commenced, with prototypes nearing completion.

The system has already been purchased by Toyota, to use with it’s third generation hybrid cars which are going to run on Lithium-Ion batteries. More and more companies are placing bids each week, but no other information has been released as of yet. Lithium-Ion batteries are prone to ‘catastrophic failure’, as stated by the company that produces these new technologies. The new chips will eliminate over charging and over discharging damage, making the driving safer and keeping the car in good ‘health’ for longer.

Chrysler, whilst the company has recently revealed it’s electric car production plans, as previously stated in one of my other posts, the plans have been pushed forward! It is apparent that Chrysler is now going to exhibit a line of prototype electric cars as soon as next week.

The company is focusing more on their business strategies in their show to dealers of Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler. The exhibition will take place via videoconference across over 100 movie theaters all around the U.S.A. This will pull Chrysler to the front in the run up to 2010, when most of the new electric cars are released from all of the biggest companies, and some of the older ‘pioneers’ of the electric car.

This new line of electric cars has been hailed as the new generation of electric cars. As they are just some more plug-in hybrids, they are not the most environmentally friendly cars, although they are very technologically advanced…watch this space!!!

Everyone is hearing the buzz around the new Chevrolet Volt. Countless news articles have been written about it, it is mentioned in dozens of blogs etc, but how good is it? Nobody seems to want to make any comments on how good the fuel economy is.

Stepping back slightly, for those who don’t know, the Chevrolet Volt is the newest offering from the motoring industry giants, GM. The Volt is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery combined with an internal combustion engine. Whilst the car is a plug-in hybrid, the combustion engine does still charge the battery.

It is always good news when a motor company embarks on an electric venture, but companies cannot seem to move out of the hybrid shadow. Each year companies reveal plans for new hybrids. Hybrids, hybrids hybrids, when are we going to hear the news of a fully electric powered Volt that can reach speeds of up to 150mph and only needs recharging every 100 miles. Well, for the time being, the technology has not yet been adapted.

Coming back to the Volt, set to arrive in 2010, the combustion engine does have a reasonable fuel economy, although the Toyota alternative, which has been available for some time now, has a better fuel economy. It just seems like GM are having some troubles trying to move away from their usual muscle cars, so they need a more powerful engine, with a less than amazing fuel economy rating.