Detroit Electric unveils $135G battery-powered sports car

Published April 03, 2013

FoxNews.com

• 

More than 100 years after it began making cars, Detroit Electric is back in business.

The automaker on Wednesday is unveiling in Detroit the SP:01, a limited-edition electric sports car.

Detroit Electric was founded in 1906 and built 13,000 electric cars. Among its customers were Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford's wife, Clara. But the company halted production in 1939, overcome by the Great Depression and drivers' growing preference for gasoline-fueled engines.

Detroit Electric was revived five years ago by Albert Lam, a former Lotus Cars and Apple Inc. executive. The company has set up offices in Detroit's historic Fisher Building and plans to build its cars in Michigan.

The two-seat, $135,000 SP:01 has a top speed of 155 miles per hour and can go from zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, the same as BMW's high-performance M5 sedan. Detroit Electric says it will be the world's fastest pure electric production car.

Its closest competitor, the electric Tesla Model S sedan, goes from zero to 60 in 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 130 mph.

Detroit Electric said the SP:01 can go for an estimated 190 miles between battery charges. A home charging station can fully charge the car in a little more than four hours. The charging unit can detect if the home loses power and use the car's stored electrical energy as a backup power source.

Detroit Electric will make 999 SP:01s. They'll be sold worldwide starting in August.

View the original article here

New internal combustion engine could boost electric cars

A revolutionary new internal combustion engine doesn’t go in circles, at all.

Developed by engineers at the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Vehicle Concepts, the Free Piston Linear Generator is an all-new type of powerplant designed to be used as a range extender for electric cars.

The motor is comprised of two pistons, on either side of a single combustion chamber. Instead of using a crankcase to convert linear piston movement into rotational energy to turn a driveshaft or conventional electric motor, the pistons are mounted on air springs that generate electricity directly as they move back and forth.

As an added benefit, the design allows the size of the combustion chamber and its compression ratio to be infinitely adjusted without having to change parts, allowing it to run on a variety of fuels, including diesel, natural gas and hydrogen.

Although it currently exists only as an oversized technical demonstrator installed in a laboratory, the team behind it believes that it can be downsized into a compact unit that weighs about 125 pounds and puts out up to 40 hp. Several of the generators could be installed side by side to meet the power requirements of various vehicles.

The main hurdle holding back the widespread acceptance of electric cars are the expensive, heavy and relatively low-capacity batteries currently available, and the technology is improving at a snail’s pace. Range extenders allow automakers to use smaller, cheaper batteries that are good enough for everyday driving, while offering convenient long-range, though not zero-emissions, capability.

However, the motors found in cars like this on the road today, like the Chevrolet Volt and Fisker Karma, are simply internal combustion engines that have been converted from use in conventional vehicles, and not optimized for the task at hand. Future generations of plug-in hybrids are expected to feature engines specifically designed to act as range extenders, and the Free Piston Linear Generator is just one idea.

A spokesperson for the center says a production version of the Free Piston Linear Generator could be on the road within four or five years if an industrial partner comes on board to develop the technology for commercial use.

Read: New technology could stoke clean coal-powered cars

View the original article here

Nissan announces electric entry for 24 Hours of Le Mans

Less than a year after being a crucial part of the pioneering DeltaWing project, Nissan has revealed that it will return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014 with an all-new electric race car, set to compete as the “Garage 56” entrant.

The announcement was made Monday evening by Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn during the opening of NISMO’s new headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Ghosn also confirmed that NISMO has become the brand’s exclusive global motorsports and performance arm.

“We will return to Le Mans with a vehicle that will act as a high-speed test bed in the harshest of environments for both our road car and race car electric vehicle technology,” Ghosn said in a statement.

Further details of Nissan’s new project, incorporating electric technology, have yet to be revealed. However, the Garage 56 entry is the first step towards a planned entry into LMP1 in the future, according to Darren Cox, Nissan’s Global Motorsports Director.

"We say we're about innovation and excitement,” Cox said in an exclusive interview on radiolemans.com. “If we weren't trying to get Garage 56 every year, we wouldn't be innovative.

“That particular entry is put in place for the most innovative car that year. That's what we're all about. We're not about using it once and walking away from it. We really want to utilize that opportunity to show our innovation."

Cox said Nissan is currently evaluating an undisclosed type of propulsion technology with the ACO and FIA and the feasibly of it fitting within the new-for-2014 LMP1 regulations, which sees a switch towards energy allocation and efficiency.

No specific timeframe for Nissan’s planned LMP1 effort has been announced.

"We're in uncharted territory here,” Cox said. “We don't know how good this technology is going to be. We're obviously doing a huge amount with simulation at the moment. We think we will be pretty accurate when we actually get there in terms of the simulation. But we need to run these cars and need to work out how it all works."

As one of the driving forces behind the DeltaWing project, Nissan was part of the first-ever Garage 56 entrant at Le Mans in 2012, running outside of the general classification but aligned to the LMP2 class. While the DeltaWing retired early after contact with a Toyota LMP1 car, the Ben Bowlby-designed car went on to finish an impressive fifth at the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans.

This year, a hydrogen-electric powered car from Green GT will occupy Garage 56 at Le Mans, which will be followed by Nissan’s planned return in 2014.

"With Garage 56 and the open regulations, you're not restricted. You can do different things," Cox added. "We're already talking about different strategies and how you use the electric technology. It's really interesting.

“Yes, there'll be the headline that we'll be doing a lap of Le Mans [in 'x amount of time'] with an electric car. But actually, there is a real interest in terms of the strategy of how you use the electric technology."

Nissan will also have a continued presence in the LMP2 category at Le Mans, as well as the FIA World Endurance Championship and European and Asian Le Mans Series, with customer-based efforts utilizing its 4.5-liter V8 powerplant.

Click here for more motorsports news from Speed.com

View the original article here