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Aircraft Maker Will Produce Electric Cars in 2006
clarkie.mg writes "French aircraft maker Dassault has announced that they will team up with Hydro-Quebec to produce an electric car, available as of 2006. Hydro-Quebec will provide the lithium-metal-polymer (LMP) battery and the wheel motor propulsion system. The car will be built in partnership with a car specialist and sold in association with a large automaker not yet found."
In Australia, in 2005 is the completion date of a solar power tower, they, sbp of Germany are building.
:-)
In short, the sun heats the air at the 7km diameter base 'glasshouse'.
This hotair rises, up the 1km tunnel, spinning turbines as it moves.
it's cool. (and hot)
Here another article I found.
So with more advances like this, we will get in the right direction !
Economic forecast prevent a
If electric cars take off, we can make use of all that surplus off-peak power that comes from wind, tidal, etc.. For instance the UK could make 200% of power needs from offshore wind, but that would leave loads of unused off-peak capacity going to waste.
The problem with pure electric (as opposed to petro-electric, etc) has always been the batteries, and the recharge time. I have always thought that you should be able to change a battery for a fully charged one at a pump station, so you in effect "lease" rather than own batteries. Gives the oil companies something to sell & keeps them happy too..
Its got to happen..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Believe it or not, that is a minature of the 1921 Rumpler, a name that anyone familiar with the aircraft of WWI will recognize. After the war Dr. Rumpler applied aircraft knowledge to automobiles, but was usually too far ahead of his time and so largely ignored. Witness the Benz Tropfenwagen GP car of the early 20s. Fully streamlined, independently sprung, with mid-mounted motor and radiators, the very model for the modern GP car. The FIAT of the same year became the model for the next 10 years of GP car though, for although it was revolutionary, it was also evolutionary, and thus in an idiom other designers could understand, copy and develop.
1921 Rumpler
1923 Benz Tropfenwagen
KFG
The facts seem to agree. All the words are true. It's just those pesky numbers that are a lie. Try 80.65%. That's adding the imported energy to the non-hydro energy. Of the energy you produce, it's a respectable 87.57%. But still not 99.9%.
Darn numbers.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Ford's hybrid strategy actually makes sense. Instead of putting expensive hybrid powertrains in cheap and already effecient small cars, they're focusing their efforts on SUVs and large cars. The Escape (SUV) will have a hybrid powertrain in the next year or so, and the upcomming Futura (and I'm assuming it's relatives like the Mazda6, upcomming crossovers, etc.) will have one as well.
Also the reason the hybrid Escape was pushed back was because Ford decided to do te engineering by itself from scratch (originally it was more of a publicity stunt and they were going to source a Toyota or Honda powertrain).
And I assure you Ford designed powertrains run with the best of them. There's no reason to think their hybrid system won't be equal to or superior to what's coming from Honda/Toyota, especially since they have more engineering resources at their disposal and are pairing it to a newer an better gasoline engine family.
GM seems to be aiming even higher by commiting themselves to hybrid full size pickups and SUVs in the next few years. That would make for MAJOR fuel savings. Of course it would be nice of them to have a car hybrid strategy as well...
My wife showed me an article about a two-seater diesel powered Mercedes apparently now available in Europe and apparently coming to North America in a couple of years. If I did the arithmetic correctly, it gets about a hundred miles per gallon. If you run it on bio-diesel, the greenhouse gas problem goes away. It seems to cost about the same as a Toyota Echo.
Why the heck would I bother with an electric (or air powered) car?
Favorite quote; "There are liars, there are damn liars and then there are battery chemists".