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Nissan announces e-NV200 all-electric van, production slated for 2013
So, Chrysler's electric postal van never really took off -- perhaps a few too many mailmen refused to give up those roomy Grumman LLVs -- but now Nissan is giving the electric van concept a go. Yesterday the company announced the e-NV200 compact van (previously teased as a concept), which will go into production in 2013. The van will be Nissan's second all-electric vehicle, following the 2010 Leaf. The e-NV200's design is quite similar to that of the NV200 van, but it swaps taxi-cab yellow for the Leaf's shade of robin's egg blue. Nissan says it's putting $126 million into producing the new model, but so far it's keeping mum on other details. Head past the break for the full press release
Ask Engadget: Electric commuting on the cheap?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from is from Warren, who wants to find an electrical moped within his budget. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "What's the cheapest two-wheeled electric vehicle that goes over 45mph available in the US? I looked at the Gas-powered $2,500 Sym Symba, but as far as I can tell, I'd have to spend four times that much for an electric equivalent. Am I missing something? Thank you!" Unfortunately, you are. The biggest barrier to joining the EV parade is the price of batteries, which are often more expensive than the vehicles they're situated inside. For example, even a motorized bicycle like the Grace One is $6,000 -- but that's as far as our knowledge goes on the subject. Perhaps there is a solution out there, all it needs is for one of our friendly commenters to tell all in the river of text below.
Renault's Twizy EV for 16 year-olds comes too late for Justin to skip the DMV queue
Renault's planning to take advantage of a change in the law that'll enable 16-year-olds to drive vehicles on the roads without a license by releasing the Twizy EV. The futuristic golf-cart will have a top speed of 28mph and give budding Dominic Torettos the chance to drag-race each other in mall car parks every night. Unfortunately, environmentally-friendly road-raging will come at a price, with the Twizy expected to retail at £6,200 ($9,940) and teenage insurance premiums being a further £4,000 ($6,400). At the same event, the company's Andy Heiron mentioned that the high cost of (sister-company's) Nissan Leaf was responsible for the sluggish sales in Blighty, and that Nissan is considering letting buyers rent their EV batteries in order to lower the initial cost of their enviro-whip to more manageable levels. Otherwise, it won't just be the kids fighting over who gets to do that extra paper-route.
Tata announces Megapixel hybrid EV, alas, it's just a concept
The Geneva Motor Show means one thing: fantastic cars will be dangled in front of our faces, before being snatched away and being told that it'll never see the light of day, as it's "only a concept." The latest vehicle we'd purchase if they'd let us is Tata's Megapixel, a four-seater compact hybrid EV that promises a range of 560 miles (900km) on a single tank of fuel. A hub motor sits atop each of the four wheels, driven by a petrol-electric engine under the cabin, with a wireless inductive charging panel for topping up the batteries at home. It's designed for the city: with a turning circle of 180 degrees in a 2.8 meter space and sliding doors for easy entry. Inside, there's a rear-projected dashboard with a joystick controller (that reminds us of BMWs iDrive) and a smartphone dock for connectivity. Head on past the break to see the vehicle in action and wonder if it'll ever reach the market, like we're doing.
Ford Focus gets EPA rating: 105 MPGe, 76-mile range
The EPA has finished its usual gauntlet of tests and has found that this year's Ford Focus Electric is the most efficient five-seater in America. The agency certified that it gets 105 miles to the electric equivalent to the gallon (divided between 110MPGe in the city and 99MPGe on the highway), which is better than Ford's own claim of just 100MPGe. The company's found cause to celebrate the milestone and throw a few jabs at its closest rival, the Nissan Leaf. In fact, you could say that the House that Henry built has a bit of a complex about the leafy EV -- in the press release we've got for you after the break, it mentions the rival vehicle no less than nine times.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: electric taxis, paper robots and a cathedral of 55,000 LEDs
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat saw the light as we reported on several spellbinding new projects around the world -- including an incredible cathedral made from 55,000 LEDs and a glowing prefab pod building modeled after the genetic structure of plankton. We also showcased a luminous forest of thousands of "Frozen Trees" and a high-flying F-Light made from a recycled airplane, and also reported on Toshiba expanding its line of LEDs. Meanwhile, as the lights fire up Lucas Oil Stadium we shared seven ways Super Bowl 46 is going green, took a look at the first organic concessions ever to offered at a Super Bowl, and got things cooking with six delicious recipes for game time snacksEco transportation also blasted off from the starting line as London's first zero-emission electric taxis hit the streets, and Stanford unveiled plans for electrified roads that automatically charge EVs. We also saw Scotland launch the world's first hybrid sea-going ferries, while Agence 360 did cyclists a favor by designing a nifty ultra-compact foldable bike helmet. Meanwhile, Chevrolet announced plans to put environmental impact stickers on all of their cars by 2013, the sun-powered solarGT car set off on a race across the United States, and we brought you a gorgeous set of long-exposure photos that make speeding trains look like laser beams.In other news, renewable energy was a hot topic this week as researchers at MIT found a way to make solar panels from grass clippings, another team of scientists developed a hip-hop powered biomedical sensor and Britain mulled plans to install a new breed of radioactive waste-recycling nuclear reactors that could power the UK for 500 years. We also brought you several fun designs for aspiring little builders - a set of awesome paper robots and an industrial workbench for tots. Finally, since Valentine's day is around the corner we shared 10 red-hot gifts, along with 14 sexy sustainable skivvies.
Green Charge: an app that helps your EV talk to you (video)
The maker of PlugShare is determined to satisfy your EV needs with a new app that'll feed the data from your Leaf or Volt straight to your iOS device. GreenCharge monitors your battery data, charging speed, efficiency of recent journeys and environmental impact and keeps it to hand in handy graphical form. You can chart your price-per-mile (compared to using petrol) and monitor your environmental impact -- sending all this data to your friends over Facebook or Twitter. If you're considering dropping some cash on an EV but don't trust the salesman, sync it up to a demonstration vehicle and it'll give you the deep dish without any fluff. You'll be able to pick it up from the App store today for $10 (equal to three days gas, but then you did just save $1,000 on your new Volt) and if you're not convinced, we've got a cornucopia of treats to whet your appetite after the break.
Qualcomm Halo wireless charging concept eyes-on
Let's run through the fundamentals of wireless charging: floor-mounted electromagnets pump out EM waves to your EV's engine to absorb. This means ripping up the floor to install and precisely driving your whip over the exact spot. There's no efficiency loss between wireless and wired charging, in case you were wondering. We got to speak to Qualcomm's Joe Barrett as he walked us through the chip foundry's innovative approach to the technology that it picked up from the University of Auckland. The Halo is a 28mm plate that can reportedly push 3.3kW/h to your vehicle without requiring it to park it precisely over the unit. The company's not talking about vertical range, but did insist that it would charge an SUV, so we can assume it'll travel at least a foot off the ground. The company is planning to foster an open standard for the technology through licensing and has joined the three-year design cycle that modern cars undergo -- with an expectation that we'll see the first commercial models of the technology surfacing in 2014, which you can just lay on the floor of your garage. A 50 unit trial led by Chargemaster and Polar is currently underway under the names of your favorite tier-one automaker. Sean Buckley contributed to this report.
Daimler testing wireless charging on a Mercedes Benz in a house from the future
Daimler (owners of Mercedes-Benz and Smart) is teaming up with Conductix-Wampfler and Röchling Automotive KG to produce wireless charging coils to form the centerpiece of 2012's Effizienzhaus-Plus. It's a government-backed project to build and test a dwelling that generates more energy than it uses -- the excess will then charge the supplied B-Class E-Cell 'Benz EV without the need of cabling. Simply park the car over a coil in the garage floor and the electromagnetic field will juice your environmentally friendly whip for free. The company hopes the project will iron out the logistical and financial issues preventing it from bringing the tech to the Autobahns of the world. One thing the project can't do, however, is soothe the troubled brow of the fossil-fuel lobby -- the press release we've got below dryly notes that "clearly, BP will not be happy about this." [Thanks, Ashley]
German museum recreates 130-year-old EV, looks like a steampunk Segway
If you think that EVs are new-fangled rubbish, it'll serve you well to listen up. Five years before Karl Benz patented his original horseless carriage, messers. William Ayrton and John Perry engineered the electrically-powered Starley Tricycle. Germany's Autovision Museum spent around a year building a fully working replica of this transportation sensation of the 1880s. Considering the 130-year-old nature of the technology, the vehicle turned out to be very comfortable, super-quiet and fast: it'll top out at a respectable eight miles per hour, with a range of around 25 miles. After the break you'll be able to see the machine in action. No word on if the museum will produce any more in time for Christmas, but it would certainly be a hit with the steampunk commuter crowd.
Gordon Murray's 350MPG EV sweeps the board and steals our hearts
Gordon Murray, designer of the truly insane McLaren F1, swept the board at the RAC Future Car Challenge this Saturday -- but for something much more sensible. It's the 1,500lbs T.27 EV, the little wonder in the picture above, which just carried two people the 57.13 miles from Brighton to London on just 64p ($1.20) of electricity. Compared to a petrol car that would be the equivalent of getting 350MPG. It's believed the T.27 can easily make 100 miles on a single four-hour charge and scooped eleven awards on the day, including most efficient and best EV. Murray is still waiting on a manufacturer to sign on to produce the things, but thanks to his super efficient iStream process, they could pop up for sale soon after -- which can only be good news for anyone who wants a commuting vehicle with something of a racing pedigree.
Nissan's showing off the Pivo 3, another EV-concept we wish it'd sell us (video)
Nissan's unveiled the Pivo 3, the latest version in the formerly egg-shaped Pivo line of Concept EVs. Ditching the spherical, independently moving cabin for a boxier, sharper look, the zero-emission car retains the roomy 1+2 configuration of it's forebears (all the better to pretend you're driving a McClaren F1) and motors mounted on each of the wheels. It's designed for the urban environment, with a tiny four-meter turning circle and automatic parking (it'll also come to you if you summon it with a smartphone). As much as we want one of these on our driveway, the company is still pondering putting it into production, and if it does arrive, it won't be until 2017 at the earliest, by which point we'll all be riding Rynos. Watch footage of the car in action, including it's snapping turning abilities at the video we've got for you after the break.
Zero Motorcycles reveals longer range, longer lasting 2012 lineup (video)
Zero Motorcycles is gearing up for 2012, and not by stockpiling canned goods and ammunition. The company is refreshing its line of all-electric bikes and adding a host of refinements, including a new powertrain and a battery pack rated to last as long as the motorcycle does (though, whether or not it lives up to that lofty claim in real-world conditions remains to be seen). Of particular interest is the 9kWh configuration of the Zero S, which has an estimated range of 114 miles -- making it the first EV bike available to consumers that can exceed 100 miles on a single charge. In total Zero will be shipping five models in February, starting at $7,695 for the XU, while the S and DS will fetch $11,495 or $13,995 in their respective 6kWh and 9kWh versions. Off-road enthusiasts can choose between the trail shredding Zero X at $9,995 or the motocross-minded Zero MX for $9,495. Check out the gallery below and the video after the break for peek at the company's 2012 line. %Gallery-138781%
350Green to install 400 EV charging stations across the US
EV charging stations are still hard to come by here in the US and, while 400 new ones won't exactly blanket the nation, we'll take what we can get. 350Green is teaming up with Coulomb Technologies to build exactly that many new ChargePoint stations across New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and California. With the latest announcement the ChargePoint Network is expected to grow to over 1,000 locations, many with fast charging capabilities. We wouldn't exactly call the plan a game changer but, like we said, every little bit helps. Check out the PR after the break.
Ford teams with SunPower, offers EV owners $10,000 solar charging system
We might not know how much Ford's expecting for the Focus Electric, but it's already put a hefty $10,000 price tag on one of its accessories. The company announced today that it has teamed with SunPower to offer purchasers of the upcoming Focus Electric and C-MAX Energi a 2.5-kilowatt rooftop solar system. That setup will apparently provide "enough renewable energy production to offset the energy used for charging" cars that log 1,000 miles per month (about 30 miles per day) or less. If $10,000 is just a little too rich for your blood, there's always Best Buy's $1,500 budget-friendly charging station. Full PR after the break.
2012 London Olympics to feature 3D broadcasts from 10 venues?
There's no word from the official Olympics host broadcaster OBS, but equipment manufacturer EVS is already confirming the 2012 London Olympics will be covered in 3D. According to The Hollywood Reporter, at least 10 Olympic venues are on deck for 3D cameras with broadcasts for "a few of the main events" planned. In the UK the rights holder is the BBC who has already toyed with 3D broadcasts a bit, but it's hard to tell what that could mean here in the US. NBC has shown no inclination towards 3D itself, but it is owned by Comcast who has been more than willing to put special events produced by its (now part of NBC Sports) Versus channel in 3D from time to time. With the Olympic Games less than a year away we should hear more soon and, as the article remarks, have an idea how this might affect the sales of 3D-capable TVs around the world.
Japanese team takes top prize at World Solar Challenge
A Japanese team from Tokai University has taken the top spot at the World Solar Challenge, which was held at the end of last week in Australia. The team beat out the Delft University team which won four consecutive previous Challenges, and this year took second place, with the third seat going to the University of Michigan. The race course travels from southern to northern Australia over 3,000 km (about 1864 miles), and the winning team's car, Tokai Challenger, completed the race in just under 30 hours, averaging 62 miles per hour. Other notable participants included the MIT-built Eleanor. [Via Wired]
