XEV LSEV, 3D-printed E-Vehicle for $7.5k

Range 150 km, weight 450 kg, max speed 72 kmh.

[cleantechnica.com] – Finally, Your Next Car Could Be A 3D-Printed Electric Car — Only $7,500 & Can Be Built In 3 Days

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VW E-Crafter Van 200 KM Range

First roll-out in Germany, Holland, UK, Sweden.

[cleantechnica.com] – Volkswagen Delivers First e-Crafter Vans To Customers In Europe

High Tech Campus Eindhoven – Toekomst Zelfrijdende Auto

In deze podcast praat interviewer Ingelou Stol met:

– Gerardo Daalderop van chipfabrikant NXP
– Merien ten Houten van start-up Amber
– Maurice Kwakkernaat van TNO

[hightechcampus.com] – High Tech Podcast #1 – Toekomst zelfrijdende auto

Catenaries For Every Highway?

Trolleybuses in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Could this be an intermediate solution for trucks as well? How about catenaries for highways only? The result would be that trucks only needs small batteries, “for the last miles”. During long distances travel the truck’s batteries could recharge via the catenary as well.

Pipistrel Alpha Electro 2-Seater Plane

Electric airplane Pipistrel Alpha from Slovenia taking off.

17 kWh battery
Battery swap in minutes
300 meter climb per minute
Flight time one hour or longer
Optimized for flight training
Regenerative breaking: descending gives back 13% electricity
Recharge in less than one hour

New Car Mileage and Emission Certification Test WLTP

[source]

Most people realize that official mileage data from car manufacturers are bogus. On average their figures are 42% better than reality as established by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The ICCT was one of the clubs that helped unveiling the VW diesel scandal. One of the main reasons behind the discrepancy is the 1992 old test method called NEFZ (“Neuer Europäischer Fahrzyklus” or “New European Driving Cycle”).

Meanwhile there is new test method WLTP (“Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure”) that should shorten the distance between test and reality. WLTP is in force since September 1, 2017 for new cars

[spiegel.de] – Die Verbrauchslüge

First Full Scale Hyperloop Test Track to be Build in Toulouse, France

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is a mode of underground transport in a sealed tube or system of tubes through which a capsule travels free of air resistance or friction conveying people or objects at very high speed of up to 1200 kmh or twice the speed of a short or medium range plane. This would mean that a distance between Paris and Lyon of 466 km would take less than half an hour to bridge. Toulouse announced it will build the world’s first full scale HTT system in the world, for test purposes. Proposed advantages: low energy, silent, fast, 3m tube can be buried underground with no disruption of the landscape. Would make medium range flying, like in Europe, superfluous.

[wikipedia.org] – Hyperloop

Wind Power Returns to Shipping

No it is not sails, but rotating cylinders, generating the Magnus effect.

Electric Flying Goes From Two to Four Passengers

[wikipedia.org] – Aero Electric Sun Flyer

Solar Driving – State of the Art

Darwin-Adelaide 3021 km (Stuart Highway)

Available data World Solar Challenge 2017:

[worldsolarchallenge.org] – The 41 teams
[worldsolarchallenge.org] – Dashboard, timing

Speed racing

Nuna Solar Team TU Delft: 3021 km, 14:10:41, average speed 81.2 km/h

Cruising

Solar Team TU Eindhoven: average speed 69 km/h, 6 charges, 10197 person-km, 45.7 kWh external energy, average passengers: 3.4, energy efficiency (person-km/kWh) 223.2

Note that the external energy was necessary due to the long distance of 3021 km in merely 6 days. If the available time would have been 12 days, no extra electricity would have been required. In other words, the daily range without external (grid) charging (but “24h” solar charging) under Australian conditions in October would be ca. 250 km with 5 persons.

Eindhoven btw drove with 5 persons until a major technical malfunction occurred, after which no risks were taken and a single driver-passenger completed the race alone, which pressed down the passenger average. If you offset these 250 km with a daily average distance of merely 37 km in an industrialized country like Holland, you can verify that an energy-autonomous car is not a pipe-dream at all.

[wikipedia.org] – Stuart Highway

Wood You Buy a Car Like This?

French cabinetmaker Michel Robillard poses in his handbuilt wooden 2CV Citroen Car built as an exact one/one replica on March 20, 2017, near Loches, Central France.
A retired cabinetmaker has just completed the production of a Citroen 2 CV in a Touraine fruitwood, a life-size vehicle unique in the world, equipped to take the road, which is about to pass its first technical inspection. / AFP PHOTO / GUILLAUME SOUVANT

[bbc.com] – Could wood pulp make cars lighter and more efficient?
[thelocal.fr] – This Frenchman just made a working Citroën 2CV out of wood

EasyJet Believes in Electric Flying

EasyJet says that electric flying could be with us in a decade and for that purpose has begun a partnership with US firm Wright Electric to build a battery-powered plane for two hours flight duration.

[theguardian.com] – EasyJet says it could be flying electric planes within a decade
[money.cnn.com] – Your airliner may be flying electric within a decade
[telegraph.co.uk] – EasyJet could be flying battery-powered electric planes within the next 10 years

Hey Taxi! – Volocopter Maiden Flight

Autonomous air taxi takes off in Dubai. German development.

[wikipedia.org] – Volocopter
[spiegel.de] – Lufttaxi meistert Jungfernflug über Dubai

Navya – The Autonomous Shuttles of Paris La Defense

Youtube text:

Three autonomous driverless and 100% electric shuttles circulate all week long, for six months, in the most visited business district in Europe! The three autonomous shuttles operate on three different tracks in order to cover the district of La Défense which hosts more than 500 000 visitors daily!

During the first three months of the service, welcome officers will be present with the passengers onboard the shuttles to acquaint them with this unprecedented service. Then they will circulate without any welcome officers during the last three months.

The experimentation will be conducted, at least, until end of December 2017. It will allow to test this 100% autonomous and eco-friendly public transport service, in a very dense urban area, for the purpose of a possible deployment in the years to come. The goal of this service is to transport passengers on the first and last kilometer.

This service, offered by the STIF, Keolis, NAVYA and DEFACTO, is free during all the experimentation.

[navya.tech] – Company site

2017 Frankfurt Motor Show

Audi Aicon offering level 5 autonomous driving

[telegraph.co.uk] – Frankfurt Motor Show 2017 – your guide to this year’s event
[dezeen.com] – Five of the most innovative self-driving and electric car designs
[engadget.com] – Audi’s Aicon concept car is all about autonomous luxury
[elektroauto-news.net] – Audi Aicon – Concept Car der Audi AG auf der IAA 2017
[nos.nl] – Ontwikkeling zelfrijdende auto’s

VW I.D. Buzz Self-Driving Electric Minibus for 2022

[wikipedia.org] – Volkswagen I.D. Buzz
[cnet.com] – Volkswagen I.D. Buzz Preview
[techcrunch.com] – VW’s I.D Buzz concept is a microbus for the self-driving era
[autoexpress.co.uk] – VW I.D. Buzz Microbus confirmed for 2022 release

Airbus Electric Aircraft Roadmap

Airbus and Siemens signed an agreement recently with the aim to develop a hybrid electric propulsion system. The fossil fuel part is used to bring the plane at the desired altitude, while losing fuel weight in the process and continue less energy intensive flying and descending on battery power. 2020 is the target year to assess if larger scale e-flying is a realistic prospect in the first place. For small planes this has already been proven.

[airbus.com] – Electric Aircraft Roadmap
[airbus.com] – Siemens and Airbus sign long-term cooperation agreement in the field of Hybrid Electric Propulsion systems
[newatlas.com] – Airbus’ Urban Air Mobility Roadmap leads to an electric future

Volkswagen to Introduce 50 New E-Vehicle Models by 2025

It’s official, Volkswagen is putting its cards on e-mobility by announcing a massive program that should lead to a e-vehicle product palette of no less then 50 full electric models and 30 hybrids by 2025. Investment volume: 20 billion euro in cars and 50 billion euro in better batteries. After the diesel scandal, VW has abandoned its former diesel strategy and wants to be a leader, not a follower in matters of e-mobility. Obvious target: Tesla. VW is following in the footsteps of Mercedes that announced it wants to offer 50 e-models by 2022 and Volvo that announced that by 2019 all new models will be full or partial e-cars.

The e-revolution is clearly beginning in earnest.

[bloomberg.com] – VW to Build Electric Versions of All 300 Models by 2030
[welt.de] – Volkswagen startet die große E-Auto-Offensive
[nos.nl] – Volkswagen doet miljardeninvestering om auto’s elektrisch te maken
[autofans.be] – Volkswagen: “50 Elektrische Modellen Tegen 2025”

Hummingbird

[kickstarter.com] – HUMMINGBIRD: The World’s Lightest Folding Bike

Scotland E-Vehicle Country by 2032

The quiet streets of Edinburgh in the late thirties.

The Scottish government has pledged to phase out new petrol and diesel cars and vans across Scotland by 2032, eight years ahead of the UK Government target. Nicola Sturgeon outlined plans to “massively expand” charging points and set up pilot projects to encourage uptake of electric vehicles.

Comment: Scotland can afford it, now that it every now and then produces more than 100% of its electricity needs from renewable power.

[independent.co.uk] – Scotland to ‘phase out’ new petrol and diesel cars by 2032
[techcrunch.com] – Scotland plans to ‘phase out’ gas and diesel cars by 2032
[independent.co.uk] – Scotland sets renewable energy record as wind power provides equivalent of 118% of nation’s electricity