The Rimac e-M3: 1984 3 Series with a 600hp electric power

What is the Rimac e-M3 evaluation vehicle?

This emerald green monster is the Rimac e-M3 evaluation vehicle - the technological testbed used to assess the viability for an all-electric supercar, the Rimac Concept One.

The Rimac Concept One

Due to its volt-powered propulsion system, the Concept_One should be pretty efficient, too - Rimac claims a 375-mile range between charges and quotes fuel economy at a conservative estimate of 125mpg electric equivalent.

According to their figures, drive the Concept_One with a feather light right foot and you could see close to 490.

Rimac Concept_One electric supercar offers 1,088hp

DLR Dynamic Driving Simulator 270° Projection System by domeprojection.com - YouTube

The DLR Institute of Transportation Systems operates a revolutionary dynamic driving simulator for the validation of assistance functions in an advanced state of development. domeprojection.com provided the high-quality projection system for the visualisation of the surrounding environment and traffic.

It is equipped with 14 eyevis LED-projectors, offering a total resolution of 9200 x 1280 pixels with a FOV of 270°x40°.

For more information please visit www.domeprojection.com.

PAL-V Flying Car - Maiden Flight - YouTube

This week the Dutch company PAL-V announced the first flights of its prototype "flying car".
This unique vehicle is called the PAL-V One, or the 'Personal Air and Land Vehicle', and It marks the start of a new era.

On the ground the vehicle drives like a sports car. Within minutes its rotor is unfolded and its tail is extended: then it is ready to take off thanks to the advanced gyrocopter technology.

With these successful test results it is proven that it is not only possible to build a flying car but also that it can be done within existing international rules for both flying and driving.

Having passed this important milestone the company is now inviting investors to join them in creating the future.

The next step will be the design of the first commercial production model of the PAL-V, and first deliveries are expected in 2014.

For 100 years people have dreamed of a flying car, and many attempts have been made to realize this dream, but now it has truly become a reality.

www.PAL-V.com

ADHD Challenges Those Seeking a Driver’s License

The first time Jillian Serpa tried to learn to drive, the family car wound up straddling a creek next to her home in Ringwood, N.J.

Ms. Serpa, then 16, had gotten flustered trying to sort out a rapid string of directions from her father while preparing to back out of their driveway. “There was a lack of communication,” she said. “I stepped on the gas instead of the brake.”

On her second attempt to learn, Ms. Serpa recalled, she “totally freaked out” at a busy intersection.

It was four years before she tried driving again. She has made great progress, but so far has still fallen short of her goal: Two weeks ago she knocked over a cone while parallel parking and failed the road test for the fourth time.

Learning to drive is hard and scary for many teenagers, and driving is far and away the most dangerous thing teenagers do. But the challenges are significantly greater for young people who, like Ms. Serpa, have attention problems.

A number of cognitive conditions can affect driving, and instructors report a recent increase in the number of teenagers with Asperger syndrome seeking licenses.

But the largest group of challenged teenage drivers and the mostly closely studied, appears to be those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, ADD).

A 2007 study, by Russell A. Barkley of the Medical University of South Carolina and Daniel J. Cox of the University of Virginia Health System, concluded that young drivers with ADHD are two to four times as likely as those without the condition to have an accident, meaning that they are at a higher risk of wrecking the car than an adult who is legally drunk.

Researchers say that many teenagers with attention or other learning problems can become good drivers, but not easily or quickly, and that some will be better off not driving till they are older or not at all.

The most obvious difficulty they face is inattention, the single leading cause of crashes among all drivers, said Bruce Simons-Morton, senior investigator at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md.

“When a driver takes his eyes off the road for two seconds or more, he’s doubled the risk of a crash,” he said.

Inexperienced drivers usually are distractible drivers. Dr. Simons-Morton cited a study on a closed course in which teenagers proved much more adept than adults at using cellphones while driving and missed more stop signs.

The situation isn’t helped by how “noisy” cars have become, with cellphones, iPods and Bluetooth devices, said Lissa Robins Kapust, a social worker and coordinator of a driving program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Driving is so busy on the inside and the outside of the car it’s the most complex thing we do.”

But ADHD involves more than distractibility (?). Its other major trait is impulsiveness, which is often linked to high levels of risk-taking, said Dr. Barkley.

“It’s a bad combination” for young drivers, he said. “They’re more prone to crashes because of inattention, but the reason their crashes are so much worse is because they’re so often speeding.” Many drivers with ADHD overestimate their skills behind the wheel, Dr. Barkley noted.

Read more in the NY Times

Audi's turbodiesel, electric flywheel hybrid, all-wheel drive prototype race car

Audi has disclosed some of the details of its forthcoming R18 e-tron quattro, revealing a turbodiesel, electric flywheel hybrid, all-wheel drive prototype, and ensuring that the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hour Race will be a battle of the hybrids.

Though Audi's long-time rival Peugeot will not contest the race, Toyota is entering two hybrid race cars in the prototype class, as will Audi, and with Audi's plans for hybrid and electric e-tron road vehicles, the battle for the title of the world's fastest racing hybrids is now on.

And as an added side-show, two TDI Audi R18 ultras will contest the event - the cars are identical to their hybrid brethren apart from the hybrid system itself - so we'll really be able to see how much difference a hybrid makes to performance, particularly as a four-wheel drive vehicle which should offer much superior roadholding when it rains.

Nasa and GM Developing Robotic Gloves

General Motors and NASA are jointly developing a robotic glove that auto workers and astronauts can wear to help do their respective jobs better while potentially reducing the risk of repetitive stress injuries.

The Human Grasp Assist device, known internally in both organizations as the K-glove or Robo-Glove, resulted from GM and NASA’s Robonaut 2 (R2) project, which launched the first human-like robot into space in 2011.

R2 is a permanent resident of the International Space Station.

When engineers, researchers and scientists from GM and NASA began collaborating on R2 in 2007, one of the design requirements was for the robot to operate tools designed for humans, alongside astronauts in outer space and factory workers on Earth.

The team achieved an unprecedented level of hand dexterity on R2 by using leading-edge sensors, actuators and tendons comparable to the nerves, muscles and tendons in a human hand.

Research shows that continuously gripping a tool can cause fatigue in hand muscles within a few minutes. Initial testing of the Robo-Glove indicates the wearer can hold a grip longer and more comfortably.

“When fully developed, the Robo-Glove has the potential to reduce the amount of force that an auto worker would need to exert when operating a tool for an extended time or with repetitive motions,” said Dana Komin, GM’s manufacturing engineering director, Global Automation Strategy and Execution. “In so doing, it is expected to reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury.”

For example, an astronaut working in a pressurized suit outside the space station or an assembly operator in a factory might need to use 15-20 pounds of force to hold a tool during an operation but with the robotic glove only five-to-10 pounds of force might need to be applied.

“The prototype glove offers my space suit team a promising opportunity to explore new ideas, and challenges our traditional thinking of what extravehicular activity hand dexterity could be,” said Trish Petete, division chief, Crew and Thermal Systems Division, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Inspired by the finger actuation system of R2, actuators are embedded into the upper portion of the glove to provide grasping support to human fingers.

The pressure sensors, similar to the sensors that give R2 its sense of touch are incorporated into the fingertips of the glove to detect when the user is grasping a tool.

When the user grasps the tool, the synthetic tendons automatically retract, pulling the fingers into a gripping position and holding them there until the sensor is released.

GM and NASA have submitted 46 patent applications for R2, including 21 for R2’s hand and four for the Robo-Glove alone.

The first prototype of the glove was completed in March 2011 with a second generation arriving three months later. The fabric for the glove was produced by Oceaneering Space Systems, the same company that provided R2’s “skin.”

The current prototypes weigh about two pounds and include the control electronics, actuators and a small display for programming and diagnostics.

An off-the-shelf lithium-ion power-tool battery with a belt-clip is used to power the system. A third-generation prototype that will use repackaged components to reduce the size and weight of the system is nearing completion.

“We are continuously looking for ways to improve safety and productivity on the shop floor,” Komin said.

“Our goal is to bring this technology to the shop floor in the near future.”

NASA and GM have a long, rich history of partnering on key technologies, starting in the 1960s with the development of the navigation systems for the Apollo missions.

GM also played a vital role in the development of the Lunar Rover Vehicle, the first vehicle used on the moon.

Renault Zoe: First ‘affordable’ electric car debut

Last week at the Geneva Motor Show, Renault presented the newest addition to its zero-emissions fleet: the Zoe all-electric car.

The supermini joins the Fluence, the Kangoo Van, and the Twizy, the automaker’s other all-electric models.

But what sets Zoe apart is its price tag.

Marketed by Renault as the “first affordable car for everyday use,” the new model starts at just £13,650 ($21,313), after a French government incentive of up to 25 percent of the cost of the car.

In Switzerland, which does not offer such incentives, the car starts at around $24,800, decidedly below the typical range for an EV.

Renault claims the five-seater is the first mass-market electric vehicle with a range of more than 130 miles (based on the New European Driving Cycle).

Also, thanks to the use of a Chameleon charger, Renault says the car is the first EV that can be charged at any level of power, taking anywhere between 30 minutes and nine hours to charge.

Zoe is now available for pre-order in 11 countries. As arguably the first electric car to be priced comparably to traditional diesel-engined city cars (where tax incentives are available), the success of this EV may provide a gauge of consumers’ willingness to cross over to electric vehicles, as in this case cost is not a main concern.

House made of recycled and salvaged car scraps and local wood

Click on the image to see more

While the McGee house may look like any other new designer home in the neighborhood, its walls tell a different story.

Designed by husband and wife team Karl Wanaselja and Cate Leger of Leger Wanaselja (ecological) Architecture, the upper outside walls of the house are made from over 100 salvaged car roofs.

In a pursuit to build a house that utilized green technologies and reused materials, the couple sourced car roofs from a selection of gray-colored cars that had been left for parts in local junk yards in Berkeley, California.

Their biggest challenge was sourcing car scraps that were in relatively good condition, without dents and with a good paint finish. The scraps were then cut into long tile-like shapes and used to complete the upper outside walls of the house, rendering a similar appearance to slate.

Donkervoort GTO - Dutch supercar

The new Donkervoort GTO uses the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo from the Audi TT RS and, despite being the firm's largest-ever car, still weighs just 700kg - half the weight of a VW Golf.

The Caterham-style car a hefty 150mm wider and 350mm longer, says the firm, to accommodate Audi's longitudinally-mounted five-cylinder engine.

This motor has also been lightened by 30kg, again to aid weight distribution and handling.

Honda Microcommuter Concept: Can it outsmart the Smart

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept EV has heads-up display, social networking, advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2 like the T25 and T27 city cars), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and a fold-up electric bike for last mile transport.

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept looks like it will take the basic design Micro Car design and update it to the world of today, with advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and last mile transport in the form of an ingenious fold-up electric two-wheeler known as the Motor Compo.

Very little has been revealed by Honda in its pre Tokyo Motor Show press release, but the electric city commuter vehicle looks like a winner from the get-go.

Studying the photos released with the press blurb suggests that the Micro Commuter Concept has seen plenty of time inside a wind tunnel to optimise its aerodynamics for the low to medium speed range of urban roads.

The relationship between the compact, fold-up Motor Compo electric two-wheeler is not clear as yet, but one of the very few indications of the functionality of the two-wheeler in the press releases states it to be a "compact EV commuter which offers the casual and convenient mobility of a two-wheeler, but also strives to be useful even when it's not being ridden.

This model can be loaded into the Micro Commuter Concept, with the battery that drives this commuter detachable and designed to be used as a power source in everyday life."

The Micro Commuter Concept and Motor Compo are just two of seven concepts to be shown in Tokyo, but Honda clearly has the concept of last mile transport still firmly in its mind.

It may be difficult for Americans living in cities with a lot of space to comprehend the problems faced by other city dwellers around the world, but as urban roads become more crowded, the distance between where you park and your final destination is set to become a significant part of the daily commute.

Read the full article here

Lit Motors unveils concept, all-electric, fully enclosed motorcycle

Lit Motors Gyroganda from Danny Kim on Vimeo.

Lit Motors CEO Daniel Kim wants to reinvent the motorcycle as we know it today. His idea? To design and manufacture a fully enclosed, two-wheeled motorcycle that runs purely on electric.

Get an exclusive first look at the C1-concept vehicle and its patented gyroscopic stability technology that helps prevent it from tipping over.

Daimler Smart’s new EV: solar energy and plastic tires

Daimler’s subsidiary Smart, maker of seemingly impossibly small cars, is set to present its new electric vehicle at the Frankfurt Auto Show this week.

“With the Forvision Smart is doing justice to its role as Daimler’s think tank for urban mobility,” said Dr. Annette Winkler, Head of Smart. “With the clear objective of greatly increasing the zero-emission range we concerned ourselves with all factors that influence this on the vehicle. 

This resulted in completely new concepts and materials in the areas of insulation, reflection, lightweight design and energy management.”

Notably, the diminutive car uses solar energy, featuring invisible organic solar cells on top of the car. During the day, the cells provide light and energy, and at night they become built-in LED lights.

The Forvision’s also sports all-plastic wheels, the first of the kind suitable for high-volume production. Their composition makes each wheel three kilograms lighter than normal wheels. 

The car has a tridion passenger cell, and doors made of carbon-fiber-reinforced epoxy resin make the car 50 percent lighter compared to those made with steel, and 30 percent lighter compared to those made with aluminum.

Features like a heat shield made of infrared reflective film keep the car from overheating, while a metallic-looking white special-effect coating and special color pigments provided by BASF reflect heat radiation from the sun.

“This leads to a temperature reduction of up to 20 degrees Celsius on the paint surface and of up to approximately four degrees in the vehicle interior,” according to a statement from Daimler.

Daimler says the new version will have 20 percent more range than the Fortwo, its predecessor, getting around 96 miles on a single charge.

Photos: Daimler

RIMAC: The Croatian Tesla

As new ideas emerge to choke off the giant funnel of fossil fuel that feeds it, start-up companies are spawning with Internet-like rapidity.

Frankfurt Motor Show 2011

This also includes the motor sector, where concepts for electric cars are crawling out of the woodwork, including those from relatively unknown entities.

The latest example comes from Croatia where, Rimac Automobilli, is expected to unveil a stunner at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week.

The specs of its Concept One would rival the Tesla Roadster – the gold standard of sporty EVs.

The Concept One accelerates 0-to-100 km/h (basically, 0-to-60 mph) in a blinding 2.8 seconds, boasts a top speed of 305 km/h (189 mph), and has a range of 366 miles which if true would match the range of many a gasoline engine.

Rimac Automobili Facebook Page

How will they achieve those numbers: a high capacity 92 kWh battery drives 4 separate electric motors that propel a lightweight car of 1650 kilograms (3638 pounds)) made with an aluminum frame and carbon fiber body. It will also generate: 1088 bhp, and a 3800 Nm torque.

In keeping with the upstart dotcom-like flavour of it all, Rimac is run by a youngster. The boss is a 23-year-old automobile designer with a friendly sounding first name, Mate Rimac.

As can be seen from this teaser Youtube video, the Concept One appears to be made in high-tech facilities.

Rimac Automobili? Not exactly a household name but then, neither are Lightning Car Co. or Evilio, just two examples of obscure little companies that have thrown their hat into the EV ring recently.

Rimac is emblematic of the entrepreneurial zeal that will help drive along new ideas that could unseat fossil fuels.

Of course, Rimac et al have to compete with the EV initiatives of the more established automobile companies, where the list of vendors these days is almost as long as the list of all big car brands such as VW with its one-seater, GM, Nissan, BMW, Ford, Mercedes and the staggering Audi.

Jaguar C-X16: New Jaguar E Type concept

The Jaguar C-X16 concept has a surprise treat under the long bonnet - a new engine that's part of a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain concept.

The supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine produces an impressive 380hp (more than the entry-level new Porsche 911), driven through an eight-speed paddle shift automatic. 0-60mph takes 4.4 seconds and it can reach 186mph.

More pics here

VW about to capture Small Car market?

Volkswagen is set to release its newest model, the diminutive up! - yes, the exclamation point is part of its name - in Europe in December.

With the up!, Volkswagen hopes to shake up the small car market. At 11.6 feet long, 5.4 feet wide, and 4.9 feet tall, the model will be one of the smallest 4-seat cars.

“If the goal is to maximise space, the ideal form for a small car would be a rectangular box,” said Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for the Volkswagen Brand. “In the up! we were able to sculpt such a box with a clean and powerful design that does not lose sight of space utilisation.”

The car is intended for the urban driver and will sport high fuel efficiency and safety standards. It will be the first small car with optional City Emergency Braking - which employs a laser sensor at speeds under 30kph.

Depending on the situation, the car will brake automatically, reducing the risk of collisions.
The up! will be debuted at the Frankfurt auto show next month. It will feature three 1.0-liter three-cylinder gas BlueMotion engines, and an electric up! is expected to debut in 2013. The car will be available in three versions: the entry-level take up!, the comfort-oriented move up!, and the higher-end high up!

According to an emailed statement, a flexible financing plan called AutoCredit2 will “make the goal of driving a safe and economical new car more attainable than ever. Like the Beetle back in the 1950s, one could say that the up! is once again ‘democratising’ car driving.”


No word yet on when we can expect to see the up! in the U.S., but it will be interesting to see what effect the up! has on the European small car market.

Photos: Volkswagen

BMW i8 Concept Car - YouTube video

The BMW i8 - a sporty, hybrid all-rounder

While the i3 is best suited to round-town usage, the i8 has broader ambitions. It uses the same electric motor as the i3, this time mounted over the front axle, in conjunction with a three-cylinder, 220 horsepower petrol engine over the rear axle. Combined, you're looking at a 354 horsepower all-wheel-drive with 550 Nm of torque.

All wheel drive isn't entirely accurate though - the i8 constantly proportions the power between the front and rear drive systems according to how the car is being driven. With a much smaller battery system than the i3, the i8 can only manage around 35 km (20 miles) in fully electric drive mode - but then, that would cover an emission-free commute for the majority of people.

The real value of the hybrid system comes with longer range driving, where on the EU cycle, the i8 manages a whopping 104 miles per gallon (2.7 liters per 100 km). Driven hard, the fuel consumption will double, but don't forget that the Toyota Prius is advertised as a 50 mpg hybrid and is nowhere near as much fun.

Like the i3, the i8's top speed is electronically governed, but this time at a very sporty 250 kph (155 mph), so it'll hold its head high on any autobahn. The i8 will hit 100 kph (62 mph) in a brisk 5 seconds or less, decent sportscar territory there, and the car's entire underbelly is totally enclosed to boost aerodynamic efficiency and reduce fuel consumption.

‪BMW i3 Concept‬‏ - YouTube

The BMW i3 - all-electric city slicker

First up is the town car getabout - the i3. As a fully electric car, it's mainly aimed at urban commuting, but its battery range is specified to a level a little beyond that. On the FTP72 cycle, it's rated for 225 km (140 miles), but BMW says the car's everyday range, being driven by regular lead-foot clowns like you and I, is more like 160 km (100 miles.) That's heaps for your general commuting duties.

Acceleration is in the range of 8 seconds to 100 kph (62 mph), but it should be fairly zippy off the line, as it develops 100 percent of its torque from a standstill. Top speed should be around 150 kph (93 mph) - but that's electronically limited, because autobahn speeds can be brutally draining on most electric vehicles.

The i3's large battery pack sits under the floor of the vehicle in a slab that's protected from crash damage by a number of buffer zones in the structure. As batteries are typically the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, you'd certainly want to protect them.

The 170 hp electric motor, single-gear drive system and differential are located over the driven rear axle, and there's room there for an optional range extender - a high efficiency petrol engine that putts away and generates electricity to charge the batteries. With the range extender on board, you can roughly double the i3's range, and fill up at any petrol station.

Alternative Transport from Audi - Wooden Cycle

While a number of car makers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and McLaren, have sought to leverage their brand and technical knowledge to produce vehicles of the two-wheeled, pedal-powered variety, they tend to opt for the same high-tech, lightweight materials used in their cars, such as carbon fiber and aluminum.

Audi has done the same thing in the past, but for its latest bicycle offering Audi of America has taken a different tack by teaming up with Renovo Bicycles to create the "duo" – a line of bikes that feature monocoque frames made of hardwood.

Audi teams with Renovo for 'duo' line of wooden bicycles - Image 1 of 6

Volvo 660-Pound Auto Battery Crash Test

What happens when a 660-pound electric car battery hits an offset wall while traveling at 40 mph?

Without a conventional engine under the hood, and with 660 pounds of extra weight in the back and center, Volvo engineers had to rethink the way they designed the C30 Electric.

They had to add some extra reinforcement to the front end crumple zones. Which they did, before crash testing the car:

"The test produced exactly the results we expected," Jan Ivarsson, Volvo safety senior manager, said in a statement. "The C30 Electric offers the very same high safety level as a C30 with a combustion engine. The front deformed and distributed the crash energy as we expected. Both the batteries and the cables that are part of the electric system remained entirely intact after the collision."

The successful test doesn't mean Volvo is going to jump on the EV bandwagon immediately. Other car manufacturers e.g. Chevy and Nissan, have their Volt and Leaf respectively, heading into consumer hands relatively soon, but Volvo's plans for a demo fleet of it's C30, will be delayed until later in 2011.

New De Lorean model released

Looking for a Christmas present for the geek who has everything?

How about this - a detailed 1:18 scale model of the Delorean from the Back to the Future movies, which is also a 500GB hard drive?

The $250 cars-shaped hard drive features gull wing doors an opening bonnet and even a replica of the reactor needed for time travel. It simply plugs into your PC's USB socket and you can utilise the Seagate storage hidden within.

Dave Hersch of US company Flash Rods says: "After four years of engineering, it's finally out and worth the wait. This is one of the coolest hard drive cars we have ever made.

It would be hard to have more fun than this rolling around your desk top."

Picture: Flash Rods / Rex Features