India’s most famous electric car maker, Reva, is now giving prospective buyers in Europe the opportunity of turning their new REVAi into a REVA L-ion by offering a lithium-ion power source for the 2+2 city car. The modern battery gives the little EV increased performance while reducing charging time and maintenance. Numbers-wise, that means a 75-mile range with a 50 mph top speed. Acceleration times haven’t been released but we expect that just the reduced weight of the cars power source alone will go a little way towards adding some pick-me-up. Equipped with a proprietary battery management system (BMS), the lithium ions should offer owners a substantially longer battery-pack lifetime and will come with a three-year warranty.
Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

After the engineering side of Lotus has spent over a decade working on electric vehicle technology, the production side finally looks ready to take advantage of it. Lotus CEO Michael Kimberley recently told the Financial Times, “Don’t be surprised to see an electric Lotus shortly,” which could appear as a concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

The first electric Lotus is expected to be a range extended EV with a smaller battery to provide some plug-in range and an internal combustion engine to stretch the driving distance out to 300-400 miles. That would put Lotus in direct competition with the Fisker Karma. It’s not known what vehicle layout Lotus will use, but given its limited resources, the new Evora is likely to be the donor platform. That will likely mean a mid-mounted battery pack with an engine directly behind.

Lotus Engineering consults with many automakers around the world on a wide variety of projects, most of which we never hear about. However, in the past two years, the company has been prominently involved with both Chrysler and Tesla Motors. Lotus developed the chassis of the Tesla Roadster as an evolution of its own Elise and manufactures rolling chassis for the California Company. Lotus also built the battery-powered Dodge EV based on its Europa sports car. What impact this new car will have on either of those projects is not clear right now. However, building its own EVs without a middle man would likely give Lotus a big financial advantage over Tesla.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

Back last spring, Audi began offering an optional all-LED headlamp cluster on its R8 sports car as a $5,600 option. The new R8 V10 that was announced in early December will incorporate these LED lamp clusters as standard equipment. The R8 V10 is the first car in the world to get LEDs for both the high and low beams. The LEDs use only one quarter of the energy of conventional halogen lamps and Audi expects that energy consumption to drop by another half over the next decade. That amounts to significant reduction in electrical load on the vehicle. While this may not be particularly significant to ABG readers with respect to the 520+ hp R8, it will matter a lot as we move to electric vehicles. Those rather unspectular range numbers that most EVs get today are all based on driving with the lights off. A lot of driving gets done after dark and that cuts heavily into the battery range. Technology like LED lighting will play a big part in making electric vehicles viable.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

A Spartan press release accompanied by a teaser photo is all that Toyotas has revealed about its new battery-powered electric vehicle FT-EV concept car that will make its world premiere at the forthcoming Detroit auto show in mid-January. If ever there was a one-button press release, this is it: “Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. will display a battery electric vehicle concept at the 2009 North American International Auto Show. This display marks the world debut of this concept vehicle.” Well, there you go. Guess we’ll have to be patient for a few weeks until Toyota fills us in on the details.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

Renault is currently working on a trio of electric cars that will be rolled out starting in 2011. The first to appear will be a four-door sedan based on the Megane. This one will debut in Israel as part of the Better Place rollout that includes a charging and battery exchange infrastructure. A battery-powered version of the Kangoo MPV will also be built. That vehicle will be used as a competitor and VIP shuttle for the 2012 London Olympic games. The Megane and Kangoo are expected to have a range of about 100-120 miles on a charge with a charge time ranging from 30 minutes to 8 hours depending on the current available from the outlet. The third car will be a dedicated EV city car. It is expected to be slightly larger than the Twingo mini but the timing of that car is unknown at this time.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

Previous G8 summits have seen talk about biofuels and GEM electric vehicles. This year, the EVs are getting a bit of an upgrade, with ten Mitsubishi i MiEV electric vehicles available for officials at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Japan in early July. Media representatives covering the conference will also be able to ride in the zero-emission jellybeans. MItsubishi said in a statement (after the jump) that it hopes “attendees of the G8 Summit will find a new appreciation for the superior practicality and environmental viability of electric vehicles.”

The Summit will cover a wide variety of topic, from environmental concerns to African development to the world economy. The Prime Minister of Japan, Yasuo Fukuda (also the G8 Summit chair), said that, “Global warming is a huge challenge, and humanity has no time to lose. The international community must urgently strengthen efforts to resolve this issue.” He hopes that a Japanese proposal called the Cool Earth Promotion Programme will pick up support in Hokkaido.

Popularity: 1% [?]

GM is currently working on design proposals for an all-electric version of the Chevy Volt, according to PetroZero.org. In a one-on-one interview, vice chairman Bob Lutz suggested that in lieu of dropping the batteries from the current Volt’s E-Flex system, which would simplify its design and could potentially still achieve 50 mpg, the company was considering going in the other direction and removing the gas engine altogether.

“What if we could do a Volt that’s cheaper, without engine and all the plumbing, and have a pure electric with more range,” he asked in the interview. He later answered himself, saying that the folks at GM are pondering just that question as an answer to the California mandate that it produce a couple thousand zero-emissions vehicles.

Popularity: 1% [?]