Category Archives: Transport
As the fuel prices are expected to escalate to dizzying heights, the options to find a reliable alternative are the primary concern for scientists and researchers. It’s not everyday such breakthroughs are achieved in which a team manages to keep a hydrogen vehicle powered for six days without needing any refueling. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have successfully achieved a world record for the maximum distance travelled by a hydrogen powered car. Until now the fleet of hydrogen-electric Toyota Prius’s sold in the market and used by some city governments, run on compressed hydrogen gas, and have a limited range of around 80 miles between refuels. Even a pretty un-ambitious three-gallon tank fills the entire trunk of a Prius, yet still only enables a range of approximately 200 miles, which does not qualify as a gasoline competitor. By using liquid hydrogen, this takes up around a third of the volume of compressed gas.
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Trying to fit a compact car with revolutionary fuel technology or electric components is a quiet hard to do at present or when the technology itself is experimental. However the dynamics change with bigger vehicles as many more components can be easily placed and studied in much more detail. That’s exactly what Ford is trying to do with its F650 trucks. Smith Electric Vehicles along with Ford plans on producing commercial electric vehicles for Europe and North America. The first of these vehicles was unveiled at the Commercial Vehicle Show as the Faraday mark II, a pure electric truck using the Ford F650 chassis cab, with a GVW of up to 13,000kg.
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Sumitomo Electric claims to have developed the world’s first automobile powered by a superconducting motor. A high-temperature superconducting motor cooled by liquid nitrogen powers the electric passenger sedan, which is a modified Toyota Crown Comfort. Apparently Superconductors are energy-efficient materials that can carry electrical current without resistance and are used in applications ranging from medical devices to linear motors for trains. Sumitomo’s motor uses high-temperature superconducting wires replacing the copper wire usually used in the coils in electric vehicle motors. According to the company the prototype vehicle can travel more than 10% farther than conventional electric vehicles running on the same type of battery.
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American Honda Motor Co., Inc. announced five of the first customers for its advanced new FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle and also provided details of the world’s first fuel cell vehicle dealership network in the United States. Film producer Ron Yerxa will take delivery of the first FCX Clarity in July. The remaining four early adopters for Honda’s next-generation fuel cell vehicle are author and actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest; business owner and car enthusiast Jim Salomon; actress Laura Harris; and Jon Spallino, already the world’s first retail fuel cell vehicle customer, who has been leasing the current generation FCX since 2005. Yerxa, Harris and Spallino attended the event in Japan.
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The Car Buyers’ Guide was first published by the ETA in 1992 in response to requests from its growing membership and has since become the environmental benchmark for the car industry and the public, championing the greenest cars in Britain. After looking at 1300 models of cars which are currently in sale in Britain and comparing their power, emissions and fuel efficiency along with the noise they produce, only one car stand as number one green vehicle. The Toyota Yaris has been named Green Car of the Year 2008 by the Environmental Transport Association. The least green car is the Dodge SRT-10 sports car.
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The Hammacher Schlemmer solar powered Golf kart has an array of 72 photovoltaic cells built into the roof that collect solar energy, providing up to 33% more range between recharges than non-solar electric golf carts. The 160-watt array produces up to three amps per hour for its 48-volt rechargeable battery system, providing a range of up to 49 miles i.e. approximately 10 rounds of golf before requiring a full recharge (overnight via its 6′ long AC adapter; 15 hours via its solar array).
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Laying it down straight for you- the average motorcycle is 10 times more polluting per mile than a passenger car, light truck or SUV. Yes sir, that’s the truth. Although bikes are twice as fuel-efficient as cars and emit a lot less C02; they account for 10 percent of passenger vehicles’ smog-forming emissions. Bikes emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides, which along with hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide are measured by state and federal air quality regulators to determine whether vehicles meet emissions rules.
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With gas getting into the realms of luxury liquid, the prices of gas prices going lower than even a cent and the chances of your salary doubling are next to nil. So what of your car is made to pay for its own gas? Wouldn’t that be a lovely thought? There are a number of advertising companies who are more than willing to get their signboard innovatively placed, in this case plastered on your car. These companies happily pay up huge amounts to the right people. However there is a reason you don’t see many of these driving billboards, because the companies with the money are looking for people who travel a lot and park their car in interesting places.
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Don’t you wish your car would run on something that isn’t a rare commodity? Like something as free as air? Well with the prices of gasoline reaching new scales everyday it’s no wonder that a group of scientists have now developed cars that actually need air as a fuel, promising to run at great speeds. Mechanical engineering students from Canada’s Dalhousie University have unveiled their air-powered go-kart. Under their year-long research project, these five Dalhousie mechanical engineering students have developed compressed air engine of their own. The students modified a 40-year-old snowmobile engine and ran compressed air through the engine to produce power similar to a gas engine. They attached the engine to a refurbished go-kart using two scuba tanks to house the air. The air is released through a standard scuba fitting with a high-flow regulator. The released air travels through tubing to a ball-valve connected to the foot pedal and throttle.
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The next time you get a red carpet treatment its time you show some class by demanding a greener way to arrive in style. Car rental companies are choosing Hybrid car services to pick up or drop their clients, this way they provide their clients the coveted white glove treatment with a green car. It is now widely accepted by privileged clients to get the green treatment without sacrificing on comfort, the number of limo companies offering hybrid pick-ups is rising. Clients are collected in a hybrid Ford Escape in D.C. and a hybrid Lexus in another city.
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