Title: Electric/"Green-friendly" cars
MSantor - March 28, 2009 11:24 PM (GMT)
While it's nice to be "green"-friendly, "Is it affordable?" will be another question prospective buyers will ask.
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Tesla Motors -- a Silicon Valley startup backed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the South Africa-born cofounder of PayPal -- is making plans to roll out its second electric car. The company has released the details of its Tesla Model S. While production is, at best, two-and-a-half years away, car enthusiasts are gobbling up the specs. "If it does come out as promised -- even at its big price point -- it will still be quite a feat, Brian Gluckman, manager of media relations at AutoTrader.com, told TechNewsWorld. The Model S is promising a 300-mile range -- this is not just an about-town commuting car -- and the ability to recharge the battery within 45 minutes. The Roadster, the first car Tesla produced, took several hours to recharge. Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Ford and Hyundai are all developing electric vehicles with production scheduled for 2011. However, those vehicles, Gluckman pointed out, only have ranges of about 100 miles. Even the Ford's electric Focus is just a compact sedan, he said. The Model S is also much larger, making it possible for a family to consider it. "http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Tesla-Shows-Off-Family-Friendly-Electric-Car-66660.html" "http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2009/db20090326_679423.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis" This electric car can reach 60mph in just under 5 seconds. Tesla is taking orders for them as we speak...     |
MSantor - July 20, 2009 01:00 AM (GMT)
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| The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is an exotic gull-wing supercar, still in the testing stage, that packs a 6.3-liter V-8 engine, capable of 570 horsepower — and consuming some gas, one assumes. Hardly en vogue these days, and that might explain the development of an electric version of the supercar, the SLS AMG with electric drive. On Thursday, Mercedes issued its first news release on its electric SLS AMG, which will be unveiled to the press at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Unlike the electric Tesla Roadster, which is powered by an electric motor at the rear axle, the SLS AMG has four electric motors placed near the wheels. Mercedes said the motors are not in the wheel hubs, as found in many electric-car concepts. One of the criticisms of in-hub electric motors is the increase in unsprung weight, which encumbers car handling and driving dynamics.  Nevertheless, the SLS AMG electric would be all-wheel drive. The peak output, according to Mercedes, is 392 kW (or the equivalent of 525 horsepower). The protoytpe car (and there is a running prototype, according to Rob Moran, a Mercedes spokesman) uses a 400-volt lithium-ion battery with 48 kWh of energy content. The battery is liquid-cooled and can be recharged under braking. Mercedes says that acceleration from 0 to 62 miles an hour takes around 4 seconds, which is similar to the Tesla Roadster (and the gas-engine SLS AMG). The electric version of the SLS AMG has all the benefits of an electric-car layout (i.e., not having a heavy lump of an engine in the front of the car): low center of gravity, balanced weight distribution. (....) |
Wonder what the price tag is going to be.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/16...amg/#more-18731
MSantor - August 3, 2009 07:51 PM (GMT)
:armycool:
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090802/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_nissan_1 Nissan has promised that the Leaf, which goes into mass-production as a global model in 2012, will be about the same price as a gas-engine car such as the 1.5 million yen ($15,000) Tiida, which sells abroad as the Versa, starting at about $10,000. |