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<title>Haaze.com / teraperspective / Published News</title>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[The plugged-in Prius]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-plugged-in-prius</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-plugged-in-prius</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>teraperspective</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-plugged-in-prius</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Toyota is testing the plug-in version of the Prius in fleets, in advance of sales to the public in 2012.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)2012 Toyota Prius PHEV (photos) Early in the Toyota Prius' history, U.S. owners noticed it lacked the EV mode switch included in the Japanese marketcar. Thus was born the first Prius hack, restoring that button's functionality in the U.S. cars. Then, in 2004, CalCars took Prius hacking even further, adding the capability of charging up the battery pack from the grid. CalCars boasts that this hacked Prius gets 100 mpg.That Toyota is now promising the public a plug-in Prius as a 2012 model should only beg the question of what took so long. As with most car companies, Toyota moves at a conservative pace, not wanting to risk a manufacturing line on a product that could turn out to be a dud. The launch of the official Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) began with concept vehicles shown at car shows, and now test vehicles being added to fleets. This launch program culminates in August 2012, when Toyota will make the Prius Plug-in available to the public.The Prius PHEV plugs in to a 110- or 220-volt wall outlet.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)As part of its roll-out, Toyota let CNET drive one of these Prius PHEV's for a week to assess the technology. Although this car offered essentially the same specifications as the model Toyota will release to the public, there will probably be a certain amount of refinement based on data from the fleet testing. Consider the current Prius PHEV a beta.Besides the stickers along the sides proclaiming this Prius' plug-in status, the exterior sports a charge port on the left front fender. Covered by a hatch similar to the fuel filler hatch toward the rear, the charge port uses the JA1772 standard plug for electric cars. Nobody should have a problem distinguishing the fuel and charge ports.Inside the Prius PHEV, the cargo area suffers a tiny bit from the conversion. The cargo floor is raised by about half an inch to make room for a stack of lithium ion batteries underneath. This battery pack replaces the nickel metal hydride pack used in the standard Prius. And although lithium ion has greater energy density than nickel metal hydride, the battery pack still takes up more space, as it has to store enough electricity to drive the car in EV mode. The cargo floor is up about half an inch to make room for the battery pack.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)This bigger battery pack not only knocks out the spare tire, but it feels like it makes the car heavier, as well. Toyota makes up for the spare with a patch kit.Where the Nissan Leaf has a row of colored lights that let you know its charge state when plugged in, the Prius PHEV has a single amber light set in the dashboard that turns on when it is charging. This light isn't designed into the general instrumentation of the car, and looks more like something an engineer knocked into place with a Dremel tool.Short rangeIt does not take long to charge up the Prius PHEV, maybe a couple of hours. But instead of any great charging efficiency on the part of Toyota, that charging time has more to do with the fact that the battery pack is not particularly robust, only capable of driving the car for 13 miles. That's right, only 13 miles. Once that less than copious amount of electric range gets depleted, the car switches to hybrid mode, where it operates very similar to a standard Prius.But while the car is in electric mode, indicated by a green EV icon in the eyebrow display, it feels much like a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt. Push the accelerator and it jolts forward, making a turbinelike whirring sound. Acceleration continues with that linearity peculiar to electric cars. At least up to 62 mph, at which speed it automatically switches over to standard hybrid mode.This display shows what percentage of time the car has been driven in EV mode.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)Along with the green EV icon in the instrument cluster, the Prius PHEV also sports an extra graph among its various power use animations. This simple bar graph shows how much time the Prius PHEV has been driven in EV mode and how much in hybrid mode.When the Prius PHEV arrived in the CNET garage, it showed only 2 percent EV driving, and fuel economy down at 43 mpg. Over our testing period, EV time was boosted up to 15 percent, with final mileage about 58 mpg.Commuting within the confines of San Francisco, a city measuring only 7 by 7 miles, the car was able to make round trips under electric power the entire distance. For a commute as short as this, a driver might not use a drop of gas all week. When the battery became depleted, the Prius PHEV almost unnoticeably switched over to its hybrid mode. Toyota has always done a good job of making the engine kick in very smoothly in its hybrids. Where in a normal Prius, you might see the battery meter rise to full after a few downhill runs, the Prius PHEV takes much longer to fill, as the battery pack is bigger. And even when the battery meter showed a quarter full after some careful driving, it would not switch back into EV mode, still operating as a normal hybrid.There is little change to the handling feel with the Prius PHEV--the car still feels wobbly, as if it would much prefer to go in straight lines rather than bother turning. The suspension, though not rough, has more of an economy than luxury car feel. The steering feel is on the numb side, the electric power-steering unit giving off its characteristic whir when the wheel is turned.Toyota has not released full specifications on the Prius PHEV yet, but it feels heavier than a standard Prius. The addition of the bigger battery pack would account for the mass increase, and leads us to suspect that the Prius PHEV would get worse gas mileage than the standard Prius when driving in hybrid mode because of the extra weight. That loss of efficiency can be mitigated merely by charging it up and driving it in electric mode.Given the nature of its plug-in system, the phrase &quot;your mileage may vary&quot; applies to the Prius PHEV in a big way. Whatever numbers the EPA comes out with for the car's mileage will apply to few owners. Someone driving the car in EV mode 50 percent of the time will get much different mileage than another person only taking advantage of EV mode 20 percent of the time.As the electric range is not that great, few owners would likely go to the extra expense of installing a dedicated charging station at home. But the car recharges reasonably fast from a 110-volt outlet. One thing not offered in the Prius PHEV is the ability to schedule charging times, as in the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. Toyota has not yet released pricing for the Prius PHEV.   Tech specs   Model 2012 Toyota Prius PHEV  Trim Prius Two  Power train 1.8-liter four-cylinder gas electric hybrid, electronic continuously variable transmission  EPA fuel economy Not rated  Observed fuel economy 58 mpg  Navigation DVD-based  Bluetooth phone support None  Disc player MP3-compatible single-CD  MP3 player support None  Other digital audio Satellite radio, auxiliary input  Audio system Six-speaker system  Driver aids None  Base price Not priced  Price as tested Not priced  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Construction begins on 1,000 mph rocket car]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=construction-begins-on-1000-mph-rocket-car</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=construction-begins-on-1000-mph-rocket-car</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:10:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>teraperspective</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=construction-begins-on-1000-mph-rocket-car</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Bloodhound will have a Formula One engine to deliver fuel to its rocket.(Credit:Nick Haselwood)A group of British companies is starting construction this week on what could be the world's fastestcar, designed to go over 1,000 mph and break the land speed record. The Bloodhound SSC project has been on the drawing board for more than three years, though a full-size show car was put on display last year. The 6-ton, 42-foot-long, 135,000-horsepower monster will be propelled by a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine and a Falcon rocket. It should be able to go from 0 to 1,000 mph in 45 seconds. Advanced Composites Group, Cosworth, and Hampson Industries are involved in construction. After Bloodhound is built, low-speed trials will start at a runway in Britain in the second quarter of 2012. Royal Air Force Wing Commander Andy Green is to pilot Bloodhound in South Africa next year in an attempt to shatter his own 1997 record of 763 mph in the Thrust SuperSonic Car, the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. A significant threat to the car will be the presence of rocks on Hakskeen Pan, the dry lake bed where the trial will take place. Since rocks can damage the car's body and wheels, local workers began removing debris from a large area last year. (Via BBC News)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[GM bets on cheaper electric car batteries with Envia, leads $17M round]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-bets-on-cheaper-electric-car-batteries-with-envia-leads-17m-round</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-bets-on-cheaper-electric-car-batteries-with-envia-leads-17m-round</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>teraperspective</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-bets-on-cheaper-electric-car-batteries-with-envia-leads-17m-round</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Riding high on a bout of good press for its Chevy Volt, GM is putting $7 million into its next big bet on electric cars: cheaper, higher-energy batteries.In his state of the union address yesterday, President Obama called for the U.S. to be the first country to put one million electric cars on the roads by 2015. While there&amp;'s great interest in electric cars, mass adoption is still hobbled by availability, battery prices and consumer concerns about range limitations.Today, GM announced it had invested $7 million in Envia Systems, a Newark, Calif.-based maker of lithium-ion cathode technology that it says can increase energy density of battery cells by one-third and for less money. Envia says it uses cathode materials that store more energy per unit of mass than current cathode materials, meaning less of it can be used, yielding a cheaper battery. GM also licensed Envia&amp;'s advanced cathode material for use in future GM electric cars.The company&amp;'s venture capital arm led a $17 million round of fundraising for Envia with investors that included Asahi Kasei and Asahi Glass' and current investors Bay Partners, Redpoint and Pangaea Ventures.a4ASkeptics have suggested it would probably be many years before lithium-ion batteries with significantly lower cost and higher capability are available, potentially limiting sales of electric vehicles for the foreseeable future,a4 said Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures in a statement. a4AIn fact, our announcement today demonstrates that major improvements are already on the horizon.a4Mass-produced electric cars kicked off in December with the all-electric Nissan Leaf, which goes about 100 miles on a fully charged battery and is the first all-electric car widely available by a major automaker. The Volt also went on sale last month' it&amp;'s a range extender that goes 25 to 50 miles on battery, then switches to gas. The Ford Focus Electric and an all-electric sedan by startup Coda are slated to go on sale later this year.Next Story: Open question: What is Marc Bodnick going to do at Quora Previous Story: Apple surges, Android stalls in enterprise activations (report)PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: batteries, electric cars, electric vehicles, Ford Focus Electric, Leaf, VoltCompanies: Asahi Glass, Asahi Kasei, bay partners, Chevrolet, Envia Systems, GM, Pangaea Ventures, RedpointPeople: Jon Lauckner          Tags: batteries, electric cars, electric vehicles, Ford Focus Electric, Leaf, VoltCompanies: Asahi Glass, Asahi Kasei, bay partners, Chevrolet, Envia Systems, GM, Pangaea Ventures, RedpointPeople: Jon LaucknerIris Kuo is the VentureBeat's lead GreenBeat writer. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Houston Chronicle, the McClatchy Washington Bureau and Dallas public radio. Iris attended the University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Houston. Follow Iris on Twitter @thestatuskuo (and yes, that's how you  pronounce her last name). Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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