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There's an idea kicking around in the egghead community about a notion called V2G, or vehicle to grid, where parked hybrid or electric cars would be plugged into the city grid and used as a distributed power storage medium. Car owners would collect a fee as the cars would be used as a buffer to store power generated in off hours for use during peak times. The concept would do away with the need for backup generators and further offset the higher costs of hybrids. What the idea won't do is work without ginormous cross industrial and governmental standardization the likes of which will never be seen in the United States. To Europe, eggheads! [ LiveScience ]
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Ever been curious what takes place under the Tesla Roadster ’s hood in the absence of internal combustion? Well, here’s an explanation of what the parts are and and what they do, conveniently numbered so you can follow along at home. Make the jump to see why "Tesla mechanic" would be a totally cush job. galleryPost('teslaroadsterinsides', 2, 'Inside the Tesla Roadster'); Number 1: This is the electric motor. Running on AC power, it can rev up to 13,000 RPM while producing 248 HP and 200 lb-ft. Maximum torque is available all the way from 0-6,000 RPM Number 2: The one-speed transmission. After reliability problems with a two-speed design, Tesla settled for this stronger, simpler one-speed. The 8.27:1 drive ratio allows for a 0-60 time of around 4 seconds and a top speed of 125 MPH. Number 3: The Power Electronics Module. In addition to capturing the power from regenerative braking and using it to recharge the batteries, it also smooths out power delivery under hard...
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newVideoPlayer("John_McCain_talks_Gas.flv", 506, 423,""); So we had the Today Show on in the background this morning while getting ready to run over to NPR when we heard some story about gas prices. We glanced up and noticed a guy who looked exactly like John McCain talking to Matt Lauer. We mean, it looked like McCain, it sounded like McCain — he even moved his cheeks like McCain! But the words coming from his mouth were like those from a crazy man. This nutty doppelgänger told Lauer he thought the possibility existed that we could have a car battery capable of running a car for...wait for it... 100 miles on one charge . By November. And, of course, that this new "magic superbattery" would change the gas prices game. Huh? Wait. What? Does he know something we don't? Who is this crazy old coot? We've got the transcript below from the above clip — judge for yourself. Matt: Come November, what do you think we'll be paying for a gallon...
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The current state of gas prices may not be as big of a ball-buster for Prius owners , but recent reports suggest that there aren't as many Priuses on the road as there could be because of manufacturing shortages. One move by Toyota to try and combat this shortage is by building a $192 million battery plant in the Japan city of Shizuoka. Toyota is partnering with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. for a plant that will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, the same batteries used in the Prius hybrid. Maybe they'd save on materials if they made smaller keys. [ Wired ] (Image via Getty)
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Nissan has announced a strategic partnership with tech giant NEC for a lithium ion battery factory in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The facility will operate under a new company dubbed Automotive Energy Supply and will be capable of putting out 16,000 batteries by next year, and 65,000 at full rate by 2011. With this $115 million announcement, Nissan's claims of putting EVs on the road by 2010 don't seem so far fetched. If Carlos the vanquisher says it will be, it will be. [ Wired ]
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Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Solutions have teamed up to open the world's first lithium-ion battery plant--for cars. The plant will be in Nersac, France and will churn out 5,000 batteries per year for clients such as GM, Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz. Johnson Controls is a supplier of automotive batteries and Saft is a big manufacturer of nickel-cad and lithium-ion batteries, so together they are the perfect couple to produce lithium-ion batteries for electrics and hybrids. Will the creation of this plant increase the production speed or lower costs of electrics and hybrids? Not likely, but at least someone out there is trying to get the ball rolling. [ Financial Times via Autopia ]
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Location, location, location. Er, make that timing is everything. Whatever the cliché, we were sitting on our butt talking to some friendly Honda folk when in rolls Autoblog Sam and Tesla's Darryl Siry. They had just whipped the all-electric, Elise-based Roadster up and down Latigo Canyon -- which is a hell of a road. So, not only is the Tesla for real, but according to Sam it kicks some major butt. galleryPost('teslasam', 4, 'Tesla Roadster in the Buff');
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