Running a car…on aluminum?

Phinergy has developed a battery that’s, well, a bit difficult to categorize. It’s powered by aluminum and air, but it’s not readily rechargeable. Every 200 miles it needs to be refilled with water, and after 1000 miles, the aluminum plates need to be replaced. So, what’s the point? Well, it has some potential as a range-extender used in conjunction with a conventional rechargeable battery. This Al battery could be a ‘reserve’, or for long road trips, actually replaced enroute (the cost of the raw material being replaced would be ~$50, so it might not cost much to do this). It’s an interesting idea…and ideas like this take creative marketing and some lucky business deals to work out. We’ll see.

(read more at extremetech)

March 28, 2013

GGLC Autocross video (“Live” coverage)

I love autocross, and when I lived in the Bay Area, was an active participant in the Golden Gate Lotus Club‘s autocross series. They just kicked off their 2013 season, and one club member put together this great video of the event since his car wasn’t running (it IS a Lotus event after all), check it out!

March 18, 2013

Electric-powered tilt-rotor aircraft

The European company AgustaWestland has not only designed, built, and flown the world’s first electric-powered tilt-rotor aircraft, but they managed to create a design which looks freakin’ awesome. When the rotors are positioned vertically, they’re shrouded, but as far as I can tell (details are sparse), when the rotate 90 degrees for horizontal flight, they’re then unshrouded. Cool.

Even better, when parked on the tarmac, the rotors can be rotated to the horizontal position and used like wind turbines, charging the batteries from wind power! Neat. At this point, it’s only done some unmanned and tethered test flights, so don’t expect to see it in the skies over your city anytime soon.

(via Inhabitat)

March 7, 2013

VW to start selling 261mpg car

Volkswagen unveiled the production version of its XL1 two-seater car at the Geneva Motor Show recently. It’s a diesel-electric plug in hybrid vehicle that gets about 261mpg and an electric-only range of around 30 miles! While those numbers may end up slightly lower once the car goes through the US tests (the European test cycle turns in higher numbers typically), it’s still incredibly impressive.

Powered by a .9 liter two cylinder diesel engine, it’s not especially fast, even with the electric motor assist….0-62mph takes 12.7 seconds, for example. There’s no official word on price, though since it’s a low volume, largely hand-built production car, you can expect the price to be pretty high, probably pushing six figures. Definitely an ‘early adopter toy’, but also a good example of the future of automobiles.

Ferrari LaFerrari

Supercars may be environmentally wasteful and pointless in a world with speed limits, but I’ll admit I have a weak spot in my heart for them and am thankful that car companies still make these magnificent machines. One of the newest, the Ferrari LaFerrari, can be viewed – and heard – in all its glory in the short video below. 950hp in a V12 hybrid powertrain, in a car that weighs about the same as Subaru BRZ. I haven’t seen mention of price, but then, for a car like this, you typically need to be invited by Ferrari to buy one, and chances are you don’t really care what it costs.