The Michelin Hy-Light electric car, which is being developed in Switzerland, was recently taken to the road by the “Business Week” reporter Bruno Giussani. The prototype car was found to be fast, silent and completely pollution free.
The Hy-Light…
GM’s Chevy Sequel has now become the very first electrically-driven hydrogen vehicle to move 300 miles on just one tank of hydrogen, and that too on public roads producing zero emissions.
The long 300-mile ride started at General Motors’ Fuel…
Filed under: New York Auto Show, Podcasts, Economy, Sedans/Saloons, Hatchbacks, Ford, GM, Suzuki
It’s nice to be back in the swing of things. We’re once again cranking out weekly podcasts, and #63 is a compact one. We start off salivating over the news that the next generation Suzuki Swift will be headed for US shores. We devolve from discussing an unsubstantiated rumor into wistful praise for the current can’t have it Swift, and even make mention of Swifts from nigh on twenty years ago. The dustup over Alan Mulally’s work of fiction at the New York Auto Show keynote draws our ire next. This one has it all, lies, grandstanding media with agendas, attacks, grandstanding media with agendas, misinformation, grandstanding media with agendas, disinformation, and finally, grandstanding media with agendas. Speaking of grandstanding, we nearly go as far as calling Lutz’s bluff on the announcement that the hotly anticipated RWD cars from GM are on hold ’till regulators get their shizzle together. Whatevs. The entire GM turnaround is on hold? Not bloody likely. The consensus we come to is: Bad Lutz. So, turn on, tune in and peel out for our latest slice of podcast goodness.
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Filed under: New York Auto Show, Ford, Earnings/Financials
“I’m gonna pay for that.” That’s what Alan Mulally said after beginning the now infamous “President Bush almost blew himself up” anecdote in his keynote speech to kick offf the 2007 New York Auto Show last week (video above). Truer words were never spoken by an auto exec. The firestorm that erupted after Mulally’s anecdote hit the intertubes has been incredible. Though Autoblog reported on the anecdote in passing mere hours after it was told onstage, it received its biggest boost in visibility from the Detroit News’ Business Insider column, which retold the story and began by saying “”Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.”
This past Monday, Keith Olbermann broke up the fun being had at the President’s expense by revealing a tape of the White House event in question that showed Mulally’s funny story was not true at all, and that he never stopped President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into a hydrogen refueling port (check out that video after the jump). With the cat out of the bag, Mulally issued an apology via press release (do spouses accept those?) on Monday for his misleading anecdote. His embellishment of the situation with the President was apparently inspired by a bit that appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. For his part, Mulally stated, “I am no Jimmy Kimmel.”
Though all should have ended there, Todd Lassa, who writes for Motor Trend, wrote a scathing diatribe on Tuesday against the “rampant blogosphere” that siezed upon Mulally’s anecdote and repeated it at an exponential rate. Mr. Lassa, who fancies himself a member of our little blogging community (hint: he’s not), proceeds to lash out at us “small-time bloggers” for not checking our facts, placing immediacy above accuracy, and leading major media outlets — presumably ones like Motor Trend — on wild goose chases. We’re not entirely sure at which blogs his venom is aimed, since Lassa conveniently doesn’t name any in particular, but we consider ourselves and our peers to be his target. We might’ve even taken his criticism into consideration if it hadn’t concluded with a shill for his own site. Sigh… we wish we could all just get along, but old media seems to never want to play nice.
Intelligent Energy (IE), known on ABG’s pages as the company behind the ENV fuel-cell motorcycle, has announced that they will partner up with Suzuki Motor Corporation on the development of prototype hydrogen fuel-cell motorcycles. Future bikes produced by the partnership will run on Intelligent Energy’s proprietary Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel-cells that are billed by IE as having class-leading performance in automotive applications. The PEM design utilises thin metallic bipolar plates, allowing the resultant fuel-cell to be extremely compact and easy to mass manufacture.
Intelligent Energy’s Chief Executive Dr Henri Winand was quoted as saying, “As a company, we have a range of leading clean technologies based on proprietary fuel cell and fuel processing systems. We work with key partner companies to integrate our systems into their products. It is well known that Japanese companies are particularly sophisticated and knowledgeable when it comes to fuel cell-based products. We are therefore delighted to announce our new partnership with the Suzuki Motor Corporation.”
Analysis: The ENV has clearly proved the viability of fuel-cell powered motorcycles but Intelligent Energy was always going to have to partner up with an existing manufacturer to bring their PEM technology to the market in a meaningful way. This partnership paves the way for a whole new class of zero-emission vehicles on our roads.
Related:
[Source: Intelligent Energy press release]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen
Battery manufacturer Grupo Cegasa has announced plans to lead a team of fifteen companies in a four-year co-operative effort to improve upon current hydrogen fuel-cell technology. Two different types of cells will be the main focus of the project; polymer membrane and solid oxide fuel cells. In particular, reducing the cost to manufacture fuel-cells and improving the length of their operating life are seen as key factors in taking fuel-cells mainstream.
Analysis: Cegasa, which operates two modern manufacturing plants to produce alkaline and zinc-chloride batteries, sees hydrogen fuel-cells as taking over from traditional battery technologies and are making their play to ensure they have a piece of the fuel-cell market in the future. It will be interesting to see how successful this consortium of internationally diverse companies is in meeting their goals.
Related:
[Source: H2 Daily]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Hydrogen, Transportation Alternatives
To go along with the test drives that Nissan already allows in Japan, they will be allowing the use of their X-Trail hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as chauffeur-driven hired-car vehicles. According to this article, the vehicle’s fuel cell, batteries and motor provide similar performance to their gasoline counterparts, minus the emissions. As all of you probably know, the fuel cell creates electricity which charges the battery, making this an electric vehicle.
The nice thing about this is that it allows consumers a chance to get a feel for the technology and performance of it themselves. There is a big difference between reading about something and actually getting to see, feel and experience it yourself. Of course, when consumers find out how much it costs, that might just scare them right back home! This could bring a new meaning to the phrase, “you break it - you bought it”!
[Source: Huliq.com]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Hydrogen batteries are a combination of a hydrogen fuel cell power module and an energy module to supply and store the hydrogen. Hydrogen batteries can be fueled up with extra hydrogen at any time to increase their range and have a higher energy density than traditional batteries. Hydrogen fuel cell systems producer Protonex utilises hydrogen batteries to provide high-performance, low-cost fuel cells for portable and remote applications requiring 10 to 500 watts of power.
Modern soldiers use a variety of electric powered devices and rely on batteries to run them. Protonex’s ProPack C50, is a 50-watt power system designed for soldiers to use in the field as an alternative to lithium batteries. This system has a range of military applications such as wearable soldier power for radios, laser target designators, GPS and Toughbooks, and is currently available to select U.S. military customers for evaluation. The system features a replaceable sodium borohydride fuel cartridge which generates hydrogen as it is needed by the fuel cell system and lasts for 24 hours at an average of 30 watts.
Analysis: Hydrogen’s high energy density makes it a perfect power source for just about any mobile application if you can overcome the storage and cost issues associated with it. The military definitely has the money, and it looks like Protonex has the technology. Now the U.S. ground troops will be able recharge their iPods on the go.
Related:
[Source: Protonex]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Hydrogen
Mike Hugh from Fuel Cell Today is at the Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo today. As you are all aware, there are many roadblocks holding back the “hydrogen economy“. Besides getting the vehicles themselves to run on hydrogen, the hydrogen delivery infrastructure is a huge hurdle, according to Dr. Haruki Tsuchiya, President of the Research Institute for Systems Technology in Japan. He believes that as petroleum runs out, the first replacement would be gasoline/electric hybrids, which are already flooding the marketplace. The next step seems a little more far-fetched, which he claims will be “solar assisted vehicles”, where the electricity needed to generate the hydrogen for the fuel cell will be via solar cells on the roof.
The Vice President of the Institute of Information Technology in Japan, Hideo Takeshita, then went on to predict that fuel cells will someday duke it out with lithium-ion batteries as the dominant source of electricity production for electric cars. There is more information available at this link, if you would like to read about it.
[Source: Mike Hugh / Fuel Cell Today]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Despite recognizing that a hydrogen infrastructure will not be in place by 2010, GM plans to go ahead with the production of hydrogen fuel cell cars. Mohsen Shabana, GM’s chief engineer on the fuel cell project made this announcement at presentation in Paul Springs, California.
Most of you are probably aware that GM has been doing hydrogen research for a long time now. They are on the third version of their Sequel, and have made great progress in its capabilities. This still does not solve the major problems with hydrogen, namely that it takes more power to capture it than it gives off in operation. So, maybe they are counting on home fueling stations?
Related:
[Source: Fuel Cell Works]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen
Princeton Uni engineers have identified how to control the flow of hydrogen gas inside a newly designed fuel cell to control its power output. Previously, controlling the hydrogen flow rate was considered impossible but Princeton’s breakthrough was to create a system in which the fuel input itself changes the size of the reaction chamber, and therefore the power output. Other advances with the design include increased understanding of water management in fuel cells which has up until now been a major obstacle in the large-scale deployment of fuel cells in automobiles. The engineer’s findings will be published in the February issue of the journal Chemical Engineering Science.
Conventional fuel cells are typically far more complicated than the Princeton design and feature networks of serpentine channels to combine the reactive hydrogen and oxygen gases, maintain the suitable humidity levels and remove water from the system. In such a system, water droplets can clog the narrow channels, leading to inefficient and irregular power production. The Princeton design mixes the gases via diffusion in a simple reaction chamber and relies on gravity to drain the water produced.
Expected initial applications of the design include lawn mowers, which are currently unregulated in regards to emissions, and other small machines.
Related:
[Source: Fuel Cell Works]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: New York Auto Show, Podcasts, Economy, Sedans/Saloons, Hatchbacks, Ford, GM, Suzuki
It’s nice to be back in the swing of things. We’re once again cranking out weekly podcasts, and #63 is a compact one. We start off salivating over the news that the next generation Suzuki Swift will be headed for US shores. We devolve from discussing an unsubstantiated rumor into wistful praise for the current can’t have it Swift, and even make mention of Swifts from nigh on twenty years ago. The dustup over Alan Mulally’s work of fiction at the New York Auto Show keynote draws our ire next. This one has it all, lies, grandstanding media with agendas, attacks, grandstanding media with agendas, misinformation, grandstanding media with agendas, disinformation, and finally, grandstanding media with agendas. Speaking of grandstanding, we nearly go as far as calling Lutz’s bluff on the announcement that the hotly anticipated RWD cars from GM are on hold ’till regulators get their shizzle together. Whatevs. The entire GM turnaround is on hold? Not bloody likely. The consensus we come to is: Bad Lutz. So, turn on, tune in and peel out for our latest slice of podcast goodness.
SUBSCRIBE to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
LISTEN to the show now
ADD the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: New York Auto Show, Ford, Earnings/Financials
“I’m gonna pay for that.” That’s what Alan Mulally said after beginning the now infamous “President Bush almost blew himself up” anecdote in his keynote speech to kick offf the 2007 New York Auto Show last week (video above). Truer words were never spoken by an auto exec. The firestorm that erupted after Mulally’s anecdote hit the intertubes has been incredible. Though Autoblog reported on the anecdote in passing mere hours after it was told onstage, it received its biggest boost in visibility from the Detroit News’ Business Insider column, which retold the story and began by saying “”Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.”
This past Monday, Keith Olbermann broke up the fun being had at the President’s expense by revealing a tape of the White House event in question that showed Mulally’s funny story was not true at all, and that he never stopped President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into a hydrogen refueling port (check out that video after the jump). With the cat out of the bag, Mulally issued an apology via press release (do spouses accept those?) on Monday for his misleading anecdote. His embellishment of the situation with the President was apparently inspired by a bit that appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. For his part, Mulally stated, “I am no Jimmy Kimmel.”
Though all should have ended there, Todd Lassa, who writes for Motor Trend, wrote a scathing diatribe on Tuesday against the “rampant blogosphere” that siezed upon Mulally’s anecdote and repeated it at an exponential rate. Mr. Lassa, who fancies himself a member of our little blogging community (hint: he’s not), proceeds to lash out at us “small-time bloggers” for not checking our facts, placing immediacy above accuracy, and leading major media outlets — presumably ones like Motor Trend — on wild goose chases. We’re not entirely sure at which blogs his venom is aimed, since Lassa conveniently doesn’t name any in particular, but we consider ourselves and our peers to be his target. We might’ve even taken his criticism into consideration if it hadn’t concluded with a shill for his own site. Sigh… we wish we could all just get along, but old media seems to never want to play nice.
Continue reading Mulally apologizes for frenzy over Bush joke
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