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The DuraCar QUICC! DiVa finally brings the enthusiast world what it has long been clamoring for: A Dutch electric car made entirely of plastic. The QUICC! is intended primarily for European urban delivery markets and features an all-electric powertrain wrapped in a "cradle-to-cradle" plastic chassis and body. The press release jumps around in typical broken English fashion, but the QUICC! apparently employs lithium-ion phosphate batteries in conjunction with bipolar lead batteries and some sort of fuel-cell mechanism. However it works, DuraCar claims a range of 93 miles and a top speed of 75 MPH for the DiVa, with no CO2 emissions. We'll bring you more after the QUICC! gets its Paris Motor Show reveal, but in the meantime the full release is after the jump. galleryPost('quiccevparis', 9, 'QUICC! DiVa Is Plastic Dutch EV Nirvana'); World Première New Dutch Car Brand QUICC! Launched at Paris Motor Show Mondial de L'Automobile HEERLEN, The Netherlands - Mondial...
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It wasn’t until I crashed into a pile of boxes and luggage that I realized riding a motorcycle — even a completely silent electric one with no emissions — around my Brooklyn apartment was a bad idea. I’d been attempting to do a burnout, but the painted concrete floor didn’t have enough grip for the Quantya Strada ’s front tire and plenty for the rear, resulting in a wheelie. Compounding matters was the bar-mounted back brake that sits where the clutch lever normally does. When I went slip the clutch to bring the bike back in line, the brake just tossed me into the boxes. The nice thing about riding a bike in your apartment is that, while you might do irreparable damage to all of your and your friend’s worldly belongings, you probably won’t hurt yourself too badly. galleryPost('quantyastradadrive', 15, 'Quantya Strada Street-Legal Electric Motorcycle'); Never mind the Chevy Volt , never mind the Tesla Roadster , never mind the Dodge ev revealed in concept yesterday. None...
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It wasn’t until I crashed into a pile of boxes and luggage that I realized riding a motorcycle — even a completely silent electric one with no emissions — around my Brooklyn apartment was a bad idea. I’d been attempting to do a burnout, but the painted concrete floor didn’t have enough grip for the Quantya Strada ’s front tire and plenty for the rear, resulting in a wheelie. Compounding matters was the bar-mounted back brake that sits where the clutch lever normally does. When I went slip the clutch to bring the bike back in line, the brake just tossed me into the boxes. The nice thing about riding a bike in your apartment is that, while you might do irreparable damage to all of your and your friend’s worldly belongings, you probably won’t hurt yourself too badly. galleryPost('quantyastradadrive', 15, 'Quantya Strada Street-Legal Electric Motorcycle'); Never mind the Chevy Volt , never mind the Tesla Roadster , never mind the Dodge ev revealed in concept yesterday. None...
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Though not yet available to the public, Daimler has released a few copies of their electric Smart Fortwo to agencies and companies around Britain for some real-world testing. Don't be surprised if you're cruising around Islington only to find yourself apprehended by a bobby in a juiced-up Smart car, though you can try to escape by driving further than the car's 72-mile range. If you can get the cops to run out of power that'll give you an eight-hour jump on them. Drivers of the vehicles have access to free electricity in certain parts of the city and free or discounted parking in London. If it's good enough for Shaq it's probably good enough for some dude named Yorrick. Press release below the jump. galleryPost('099smartev', 6, 'Smart Enough For You'); Press Release We’d like to introduce you to a car that’s designed to bring a breath of fresh air to the streets: the refreshingly new smart electric vehicle – or smart ed, as we call it. It’s the natural...
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We've told you about Nissan's new electric concepts . Now the trendy technicians over at Popular Mechanics have actually flown to Japan to drive the electrified Nissan Cube , the EV-02, and lived to tell the story. The lithium-ion battery-powered box on wheels is said to be just the start of Nissan's big li'l electric vehicle efforts, but how does current concept impress? [ Popular Mechanics ] galleryPost('cubeEV02', 3, 'Electric Box');
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Paris's Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, has announced the installation of a massive electric car-sharing scheme in his city. Autolib takes its cue from the city's successful Velib bicycle-sharing system and will make up to 4,000 electric cars available at stations located throughout Paris, allowing users to rent one on the spot and return it elsewhere, charging them a per-mile rate. There will be about 700 pick up/drop off/recharge locations scattered throughout the city and its suburbs. Autolib will be open to any legal driver who registers with the service. Despite opposition from France's Green Party, which wants to eliminate car use in the city altogether, Delanoe is aiming to have the system up and running by late 2009 or early 2010 and says that it will reduce congestion, the battle for parking spots and pollution. Vive la France! [via Channel 4 ] Image Courtesy: Eley Kishimoto
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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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A constricted passage though which fluid flows and accelerates while the internal pressure drops and an object or action upon which unreasonably excessive attention or reverence is placed, Venturi Fetish . It's French, who knows. But, it's still a pretty slick car and it's ready to join the quickly expanding field of electric sports cars. Just as the Venturi is going into production, we're hearing news... ...of a more powerful and lighter electric motor will be added to the mix. This motor is tiny at only 77 lbs, but it delivers 300 HP with 280 lb.ft. of torque. Mighty impressive, but then again, it better be for 100,000€. And by today's exchange rate that gives the Fetish a pricetag in 'merican bucks of about $14.2 million dollars. Or something around that. galleryPost('venturifetish3', 9, 'Maybe it means they love the Venturi effect');[ WorldCarFans ]
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Thor is of course the Norse god of thunder, thunder comes from lightning and lightning is made of electricity, thus naming an all-electric se7en ThoRR is appropriate. The chassis we all know and love is largely unmolested, but the powertrain is pure electrons with a Siemens 3-phase electric motor sporting a redline of 10,000 RPM, a peak horsepower of 272, and max torque of 331 lb.ft. Interestingly, there is no transmission to get in the way so this gets even closer to go-kart like driving. galleryPost('thorrseven', 6, 'The Mighty ThoRR Strikes With Thunder'); With lithium polymer batteries holding enough juice for 124 miles, it's a little on the chunky side for a se7en, tipping the scales at 1,664 lbs. We're betting with all that torque available at zero RPM it will be a hoot on the track — if you can find a class for it. No word on the acceleration figures yet, and also no explaination as to why it seems to prefer hanging out in remote fields of grass. [ Carscoop...
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If you live in central California and have a hankering for a Zap Xebra sedan or Zap Xebra truck, do we have good news for you. Zap opened up their very first dealership in Davis, California last week, and just in time for this week's Earth Day. We're sure the EV's will do pretty well in the extra crunchy college town, but the 45 MPH top speed and dynamically unstable two-in-the back design will probably limit the car's general appeal. We just can't help but wonder how the tricloptic little jellybean would do when fully 'Busa enabled. Maybe eventually they'll sell the Zap X or Zap Alias there, but we're skeptical after reading all about Zap's shenanigans recently. DAVIS, California (April 13, 2007) — A dealership for electric car pioneer ZAP (OTC Bulletin Board: ZAAP) opened this week in the City of Davis. This is the first electric car dealership for Davis, California, famous for being one of the most bicycle-friendly towns in the world. The University...
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This week we heard about a couple of lawsuits mythical electric sports car almost-manufacturer Tesla has managed to get tied up in. The first one saw Magna suing Tesla for breach of contract over its transmission design, the other was Tesla going medieval on Fisker for allegedly stealing designs associated with the Tesla Whitestar Hybrid for its Fisker Karma Hybrid . Well Popular Mechanics has gone out and consulted a lawyer-type about the guts of these lawsuits and what the likely outcomes of the twin tussles might be. We just want the slap fights to be over. [ Poular Mechanics ]
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There's something distinctly bizarre about the idea of an all-electric Ford Mustang, even more so with a battery powered Shelby Cobra. Isn't part of the allure the throaty grumble of the exhaust, the fire and noise and fury of acceleration? Where's the passion when you simply press the go pedal in these HST International modified sports cars and you're fired from a silent slingshot to 60 MPH in only 3.9 seconds for the Stang, and 3.2 seconds for the Cobra. Sure that's damn fast, and you can get a 100 miles on an 8 hour charge at 120V, or a three hour charge at 220V, but still, we'd prefer to keep our E-cars separate from our muscle cars. Unless of course we roll like Fisker and just play that tune from the loud speakers. [ MotorAuthority ]
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Dansk Olie og NaturGas (DONG) has announced it will be partnering with Renault and Shai Agassi to develop Denmark's electric vehicle infrastructure. DONG is a big swinger in the gas supply world and also has about 600 MW of installed wind turbines — a perfect fit for the EV market. DONG will be rolling its system out first in Copenhagen in 2009 with 100 cars, and then spreading its stations across the land with up to 20% of the market as EVs by 2020. At the heart of the system will be a battery capable of being swapped in and out repeatedly at a service plaza. In a press event on the topic, DONG brought an example of the battery which will be used in the cars, but would not allow photographs of its unit. [ Treehugger ]
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It makes perfect business sense -- a power company responds to serious air-pollution problems by allowing customers to finance electric vehicles on their monthly electric bill. It's happening -- not in California -- but in Chile , where the country's...
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