Aug
19
A Look A Lithium Accumulators
August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Many of us are familiar with accumulators in gas and hydraulic systems as a vessel that stores a volume usually with an internal diaphragm that has a spring force by a compressed gas. The result is a cell that can buffer the system gases or fluids smoothing pressure spikes.
As a practical point though, a lithium [...]
Aug
13
John Axsen and Ken Kurani at the University of California’s Institute of Transportation Studies completed what may become a landmark in getting good handles on the personal vehicles available for purchase in the coming years in the form of plugin hybrid electric vehicles. (A pdf download)
What the study learned is the state of consumer knowledge [...]
Jun
18
The Riposte Worth Reading
June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Last month the Wall Street Journal alleged Vinod Khosla was advocating subsidies for food-based ethanol. The WSJ story opined that Mr. Khosla should “take a vow of embarrassed silence,” in that Mr. Khosla has a position of claiming that ethanol is “overblown” in its role to the food price and rice and wheat shortages.
Mr. Khosla [...]
May
29
Set Speed – Touch Here
May 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The batteries are good enough – at least A123 Systems has batteries that will make the cut and there are likely more to come. A123 Systems is shipping their lithium based technology to Black and Decker for their professional line of power tools. These tools are said to be even more powerful than [...]
Apr
29
BIG Miles Per Gallon Options for Toyota Prius Owners
April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Hymotion, a division of A123Systems has announced the availability of a high capacity battery called the L5 Conversion Module for the Toyota Prius that will ship to customers in July of 2008. At $10,395 delivered and installed, it’s a lot of money, equal to 2772 gallons of $3.75 gasoline. With only three years [...]
Mar
24
The 100 MPG Car Lists – Let the Shopping Begin!
March 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There is a long list of cars coming that will take you 100 miles or much more for a $3.00 gallon of gas. Its been quite a while now since one could get some place by car for $0.03 a mile or less for the fuel expense. With common 30 mpg cars available [...]
Mar
6
Plug-in And Hybrid Cars Are Coming, Like It or Not
March 6, 2008 | 3 Comments
Opposite to the drives to get more energy and fuel to market and pull down prices the effort to make more efficient vehicles is well underway. This week saw the Volkswagen announcement of a parallel diesel design and the Chevy Volt is an exemplary PR effort to get anticipation built for the series hybrid [...]
Feb
8
Can You Get A Good Electric Car Now?
February 8, 2008 | 4 Comments
There are a few compelling reasons to be thinking about just how one will get around if the price of fossil fuels rockets up again, be it because of any one or a combination of causes. Transportation is critical to work, food, and nearly any other modern endeavor. That makes looking into what [...]
Feb
1
An Early Look At the Hybrid and Electric Car Operating Costs
February 1, 2008 | 2 Comments
To get a feel for what might be possible in saving money this post is a check into the current costs, as general sense of how a hybrid or electric car might work in your budget. I suspect you’re like me – conservation is really about the money – a particular fuel or energy [...]
Jan
16
Getting the Power to the Pavement
January 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Engineers know that to design a device you need to build beyond the anticipated peak load so the device doesn’t just break the first time it gets used at peak load. For the rest of us that means we’re always buying a safety margin that assures that our investment is worthwhile and long lasting. [...]
