Lightning GT: An Electric Car with Speed!

I recently read about the Lightning GT made by the Lightning Car Company in the United Kingdom. This car is a pure electric car that recharges by plugging it in. The performance is quite astounding. The company claims it has 700 horsepower on tap and it propelled by four hub motors (one in each wheel). This car uses the same Hi-Pa Drive™ motors as found in the Volvo ReCharge. Acceleration from 0-60 mph is claimed to be under four seconds!

However, the really amazing thing about this car is the claimed recharge time. The car can supposedly go 300 km on only a ten minute charge of it's NanoSafe™ batteries. These batteries also have a claimed useful life of 12 years while still remaining 85% of it's peak capacity.

With the combination of these motors, batteries, and charging system, this could revolutionize driving forever. There will not be a need for gasoline anymore with this kind of technology.

To read the full article click here. Picture ­copyrighted by Jamie Lipman/Microsoft.

Volvo's New Green Car: "ReCharge"

Volvo is on the right track with their latest concept vehicle. It's a plug-in hybrid and uses hub motors instead of traditional electrical motors. This provides greater efficiency because there are less transmititive loses because there are less moving parts because the traditional drivetrain is non-existent.

It definitely has taken a long time for someone to decide to use hub motors on a vehicle. The first time I have seen hub motors in use was when I worked on AN/AAQ-15 FLIR systems for Combat Talon II airplanes. The torquer motors in these were hub type, and they were very powerful. They are so powerful that I saw one break the frame that was designed to hold it. Volvo has made a very good choice in using these motors and teaming it up with a plug-in hybrid style vehicle. Hopefully the ReCharge will be on the market soon and that the price for it will be reasonable.

To see more information about this vehicle click here for the full article. The picture is copyrighted under "Volvo Cars of North America".

Is Growing Our Fuel a Good Idea?

I'm just going to touch the basics of this for today's post.

Ethanol, biodiesel, and butanol at first sound like great ways to cut our dependence on foriegn oil. In reality, it's not as good as it sounds. The increase in prices for crops that are used for producing these fuels has increased dramatically. In turn this has also increased the price of food crops due to less being grown. Farmers find it to be more profitable to producs "fuel" crops instead. This is great news for farmers, but not very good for everyone else.

We still need to push for hydrogen based transport. Everything else is just steps in the road that will eventually lead us to nowhere.

My Reasons Why Drilling for more Oil is not a Solution

Politics for Smart People: Is America's Solution Drilling for more Oil?

Where's my electric car?

It's amazing how slow the development of electric cars for widespread use is. It does not seem like it can get much slower. Some of the biggest excuses are insufficient battery technology, and fuel cells are too expensive. This is understandable, however someone should do the best they can with the technology readily available.

A company that is doing cool things with existing technology is Tesla Motors. This company has created an electric sports car. They use the body of a Lotus Elise, install an electric drive train, and use lithium-ion batteries of the style typically found in laptop computers. The car is very expensive, but the performance is outstanding. This company is an example of pushing forward with the best you have available. Take a look at their website and see for yourself.

Two men from Canada, Csaba Lemak and Patrick MacKenzie, have built the first known electric paramotor. As stated in the referenced article, the technology is nothing new. They are just people who push forward anyways. This is what we need from car manufacturers and governments around the world.

Add Solar to Hybrids and Pure Electric Vehicles

It seems strange that mainstream hybrid vehicles do not have solar recharge capabilities added to their vehicles. Thin film solar cells like the ones created by Nanosolar would be a great addition to the roofs or even the hoods of hybrid vehicles. The amount of solar energy produced would not be enough to run the vehicle, but it would be enough to help charge the batteries. The solar cells could be mounted to the roof and covered by a thin acrylic film to keep them attached. A better solution would be to build a composite roof with the solar cells embedded within them. This solution would preserve the smooth aerodynamics of the vehicle.

When plug-in hybrids become available for sale, it only makes sense to add solar recharging capabilities to them. Every milliamp of electricity produced by the solar cells is one less that has to come from the electrical grid.

For Power for People, Inc., one of our marketing ideas was to ask either Toyota or Honda to make a "Power for People" edition of their hybrid cars. The cars would be used in promoting our charity. The proposed "Power for People" editions would have had thin film solar cells embedded in the body of the cars. It would have been a win-win situation for all.

This idea is something that should be looked into.

A way to get hydrogen usage mainstream

It is a shame as to why it is taking so long for the use of hydrogen in vehicles. The technology exists, but very few people are willing to create the infrastructure to support these vehicles. It's also a shame that these vehicles are not being built quick enough, but that is a different story.

What we need are near-self sustaining hydrogen fill up stations accross the United States. The initial investment does not even have to be extremely expensive either. Here is my idea of what could be built and how it would help lower the costs of operation until more hydrogen vehicles are available.

The fill-up station must have or use the following:

• As many photovoltaic panels/sheets installed as possible
• Wind generators (preferably with vertical turbines to reduce noise and visual impact)
• Rain collection and passive filtering system to filter the water before it is used for electrolosis
• Large hydrogen storage tanks for fuel storage for customer use and use by the station at night for power generation
• At least one fuel cell for the station's own power
• The use of LED lights for any lighting needs
• Connection to a water source because rain water will not always be available
• The station must be hooked up to the electrical grid so any excess power generated can be sold to electric utilities
• Credit card/debit card only because no one will be attending the station

The station would be monitored remotely and it will be able to send messages when problems occur. The amount of maintenance the station will require will be determined by the environmental conditions existing in the area.

The beauty about this idea is that it can make money for the owners by producing electricity until it will be used by consumers needing fuel. We can start building these stations now, and this can be a catalyst for bringing more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the market.

If someone decides to make vehicles that will combust hydrogen and oxygen, then the design of the station can be adapted to cater for this, too. The oxygen can be stored as well, and maybe it can be sold to companies who bottle oxygen.

If only some people with enough money will have the foresight, and be willing to wait for long term profits instead of just the short term, then we will be well on our way to a hydrogen "economy".