Fancy segregating EV charging stations by vehicle manufacturer? No? A slew of major automobile firms didn’t like the idea much either, and have agreed on a combined charging system to use as an international standard. Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen now support a single-port fast charging system that integrates all charging configurations — from spiffy quick charging setups, down to modest Level 1 rigs. The new system also crowns HomePlug Green PHY as the standard communication protocol, allowing charging stations to hook compatible EVs to Powerline Smart Grid applications. Where do all these fancy features leave you and your Leaf? Charged, of course — the new “harmonized electric vehicle charging solution” promises to be backward compatible with current industry standard J1772 connectors.

SOURCE via Green Car Reports

The next time you head out for a leisurely Sunday drive along the autobahn at speed of 300km/h, you might wanna take a minute to consult Google Maps’ live traffic feature, now available in Germany and 12 other nations across Europe.

Announced earlier this week, the new addition offers regularly updated coverage of all highways and major thoroughfares in countries like Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while bringing more detailed street-level data to users in the UK.

Europe’s road warriors will also be able to use a legend to learn about traffic patterns at specific times or days of the week, making it even easier for you to micro-manage your summer getaway to the Swiss Alps.

SOURCE via Google

A car that looks like the one above and gets the “equivalent” of 1,980 miles to the gallon (and one gallon only) is certainly impressive enough on its own, but it’s all the more so when you consider that it’s driven by a 14-year-old and built by his classmates (with a little assistance, of course, they had no license anyway).

This particular vehicle hails from Kingdown School in Wiltshire, England, and it won the recent Mallory Park Mileage Marathon by a margin of more than 1,000 MPG over its next closest competitor.

Not surprisingly, however, the students are already looking to improve things for next years’ race, and say they’re planning on upgrading the engine for starters. No word if they’re considering an X-Prize challenge after that. So are there any takers on this? Why not ask BMW to invest this into their new EV lineup.

SOURCE via BBC

People keep on saying that we’re running out of crude oils, and also petrol engines are damaging the Mother Nature. Then we have hybrid and electric vehicles, that we’re facing problems with, like speed charging issues and battery issues. But people have few times demonstrated that we can also power up electric motors for vehicles by using hydrogen, and it only produces oxygen and no other harmful gas. So why aren’t we humans investing more in such technology.

A pair of Spanish engineers has recently unveiled the dAlH2Orean, a R/C car that runs on aluminium. Dropping a few soda can tabs into a tank of sodium hydroxide produces enough hydrogen to power the little speedster for 40 minutes – at almost 20mph. See their breakthrough result in the video above, and be amazed that you can actually power up a car with pure water that’s available all over the world.

SOURCE via dalh2orean

The Koreans are amazing. Why? Because Starcraft is their national sports! Yes, what the F right? They even won against the Greece in World Cup. And don’t get me started on the underage Hyun-A. Now, come to the topic here. Cars. Hyundai and Kia has been growing rapidly in a pace so fast, that their cars which used to be rubbish and unreliable, as reached design cues that surpass the famous Toyota and Honda. Their engines are also improved with advance technology that is comparable to their Japan counterparts. Now, they’re diving into the EV market as well.

Kia has revealed their new Kia Pop all-electric concept car at the Paris Motor Show. Three-meter long with three seater design, featuring a number of futuristic touches like rear-view cameras in each door and a full length glass roof, it’s going to attract not only girls with its cute design, but also guys which loves the latest techs. Transparent OLED panel displays all your instrument readouts when the car’s running happily on the road. A second touch panel to the right of the steering wheel controls the vehicle’s other functions including audio, sat-nav, and climate.

Now we move to the important part. Under the hood you’ll find 60-ps, 190-Nm motor powered by lithium polymer gel batteries capable of charging in just six hours. Combined we’re looking at an 87-mph (140-kph) top speed and 100-mile (160-km) max range. Of kush, this is all still in concept, so the final production should have some different designs and features. But I just can’t stop thinking how cool it is to ride with this little concept car.

SOURCE via Autoblog GREEN!!!

Do you own a Lambo? I sure don’t. Heck I don’t even think it’s possible for me to own one in this life, though we just be optimistic in life so yeah I’m gonna own one soon, hopefully. If you’re desperate to boost that you do own one (3cc vroom vroom combustion!), then maybe you should start collecting all 65 booklets.

DeAgostini has scored a license to produce a ‘somewhat not limited’ 1:10 scale models of the Reventon, and turn it into a radio-controlled mini-supercar. But these aren’t your typical RC car from Tamiya. They’ve got a 3cc internal combustion engine, hydraulic shock absorbers, disc brakes, and permanent all-wheel drive.

Your minds must be thinking of the price, and they should be accompanied by a few zeroes behind too, not falling short of the real deal’s $1.2 million dog tag. But no, all you need to do is to collect the 65 issues of €8 booklets, as all the parts come free from there, except for the controller thought, which is €60 for one. This will add up to a final cost of €580 ($737) for the complete set. Not that bad actually, since you’ll also get the right to boost around about owning a Lamborghini Reventon.

SOURCE via Autoblog

Tata, the famous Indian company that manufactures the budget mini hatchback Nano in India, is invading Europe next year with two new EVs. Not to follow their low-budget hatchback, Tata will be going somewhat upmarket in the designs and packages, by launching the better looking Indica Vista for green-conscious Englishmen and Scandinavians by early next year, alongside the Ace, which is a commercial electric mini-truck. It’s good to see that more car manufacturers will be stepping into the EV cycle. Mother Nature might be pleased by this, as the Toyota Prius is getting rather dull. Over here at 2dayblog, we all love EVs as it’ll save Mother Nature (*besides saving my sky high petrol bills) so we hope there’s more affordable EVs out there.

SOURCE via Oh!Gizmo]

Porsche has confirmed that they will be committing to develop electric sports cars, with three Boxsters in all-electric drive systems will kick off the research and testing process in early 2011. The trio will make available a preliminary insight into new electric drive components and battery systems for EVs. The field test will also provide statistics on the infrastructure required for electromobilty, user comportment and demands.

“We will definitely be offering an electric sports car in future. But such a concept only makes sense if it offers product qualities typical of a Porsche,” said Michael Macht, President and CEO of Porsche AG.

This isn’t surprising news as Porsche is known to be toying with the idea of putting the 918 Spyder Concept into production. The stunning 918 Spyder, which wowed this year’s Geneva show goers, combines the assets of a plug-in hybrid and the performance of a supercar. Just imagine 0-100 km/h in under 3.2 seconds and a faster Nurburgring lap time than the Carrera GT with finest exertion of fuel consumption of 3 litres per 100km.

The 918 Spyder Concept isn’t publicly available, but hybrid Porsches aren’t out of reach if you have the cash. The Cayenne S Hybrid is available as part of the new Cayenne ranges that includes the Cayenne S, Diesel and Turbo.

SOURCE Paultan.ORG

iPod being integrated into cars is a common thing, as done by many car manufacturers. But still, we can only select the songs through our small iPod’s screen. BMW has decided to change that, and is the first automobile maker to integrate the iPod Out functionality of the iOS 4. This means that you’ll be able to view your iPod’s screens and menus right on your car’s built-in display. This seemed to be a nice feature, as we no longer have to fiddle with the small menu when we can control our iPod using the bigger display screen in the car.

[via Cnet]

Intel has redefined ‘smart’ vehicles at their latest Research Day. It’s a new safety system for vehicles that I would skip in my car. Imagine having dozens of cameras and sensors attached around your car. That’s their new ‘Intel Connected Car’. It records data about your driving behavior, like speed, steering, braking distances, and everything else around. I wonder if it will record my smell in the future. Anyway, yes the system will record your driving style, and forward any information regards of any accidents that (touch wood) happened to the police and insurance company. I guess there’s no more escaping when you’re drinking, driving and didn’t signal your car.

The idea is good, it’s there. There are still a lot of factors to explore. But it seemed spooky to have someone monitoring my driving style. It’s like having a driving test everyday! Why? Well because they can just take over your car’s control and stopped it when you go break any rules.

[via Engadget]