Audi makes its R8 e-tron electric car sound like a spaceship

Electric cars are silent, and that’s a problem. Yeah, it’s a problem for pedestrians (who can’t hear them coming), but it’s a real problem for electric car owners, who want their cars to sound like the amount of money that they paid. When Audi’s R8 e-tron becomes available, that will be a lot of money, so Audi is inventing a new sound to match.

So, before watching the video below, think about this: if you were to pay slightly less than a bajillion dollars for an electric car that looks more like a spaceship than anything else that you’re ever likely to get a license to pilot, what would you want it to sound like? Got it? Cool, now go watch the video.

(Seriously, go watch it, because otherwise you’re not going to be able to mentally participate in the next part of this article, and that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?)

Did you watch it? You better have, because that’s a damn good sound, if I do say so myself. It’s electronicsy but not overly so, and it also sounds like how you’d figure an ion spaceship drive would sound, if ion spaceship drives were to make sounds, which they don’t.

Ideally, though, you’d want to have access to the e-tron’s sounds for yourself, so that you could tweak them to suit your own personal preferences. You shouldn’t be allowed to turn them off (since otherwise those poor pedestrians would be little more than road meat), but you should be able to swap in something as good or better. Maybe not something like this, but definitely something likethis.

Via Inhabitat

DVICE

8bitfuture:

New technology could halve the cost of electric car batteries.

Startup company Envia has demonstrated electric car batteries which are able to store twice as much energy as current models. Once fully developed, the system could halve the cost of batteries - currently up to $10,000 or more.

Before the technology can be used commercially though, the developers must find a way to at least double the amount of times they can be charged and recharged, before the technology will be cost effective.

To last the life of a vehicle, they need to be able to recharge over 1,000 times and still maintain 80 percent of their original storage capacity. The company is still testing the new batteries, but after only 400 charges, they have dropped to 72 percent of capacity, Kumar says. Solving the problem could require substantial improvements to the electrodes. The cells also have to be put through several other tests of performance and safety before they’re qualified for use in vehicles.

This is a brand-new, all-electric DeLorean

For several years, DeLorean Motor Company of Texas has been reconstituting the fruit of John Z.’s troubled loins (phrasing!). Now it’s working with electric-car startup Epic EV to put an all-electric DMC-12 into production by 2013. You know what that means: Onboard power for the Mr. Fusion.

Humble, Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company not only owns the DMC brand name, but it also maintains a huge stockpile of original, factory parts. The company’s primary business has been restoring, servicing and selling DeLorean cars and merch, but it’s also been using those parts to assemble new cars to order, using 80% original parts and 20% modern engine and suspension tech. These new models are, in effect, pro-touring versions of the original DeLorean cars.

The new car the two companies unveiled today at the International DeLorean Owners Event in Houston, Texas is no run-of-the-mill electric DeLorean conversion. It’s a development model of a car, called DMCEV, which DeLorean plans to launch into production in two years.

The companies haven’t released any specs yet, but if it’s anything like Epic EV’s Torq Roadster, it’ll get a 200 hp+, 44V/156V electric motor, powered by a 24-30 KWh lithium ion phosphate battery. Sure, it’s bit low on jiggawatts right now, but the companies have two years to get that sorted out. Though I guess they never did, or else they’d have come back to let us know.

jalopnik

swifttech:

The T.27 is claimed to be “The Worlds Most Efficient Electric Car”, The dinky little 3 seater, which is a similar size to the smart car claims to be able to do 0-100KPH in a time less than 15 seconds, however the T.27’s competitors reportedly use between 29% (the Smart EV) and 86% (the Mini-E)…

trendd:

Tesla scored a 10 out of 10 for emissions and smog.

“The EPA has just revealed a new design for the stickers you see in the windows of new cars. The new setup aims to help consumers calculate the equivalent mileage of electric and hybrid vehicles and judge how a car stacks up against the competition for fuel savings and greenhouse gas emissions. For Tesla, this means a new industry-topping 119 mile-per-gallon equivalent sticker in the window of the company’s Tesla Roadster.”

(via New EPA Fuel Economy Window Sticker Rates Tesla Roadster at Industry-Topping 119mpge | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World)

chrismejia:

Voltagecycles - Custom Electric Bicycles!

I want!

Best Buy teams up with ECOtality to install EV charging stations at 12 stores

Best Buy has already started selling some electric scooters and motorcycles in its stores, and it’s now about to expand even further into the EV business. The retailer has just announced a partnership with ECOtality, which will be providing Best Buy with some of its Blink EV charging stations that will be installed at twelve stores in Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle by March of next year. That’s being done as part of the government-funded EV Project that ECOtality is overseeing, and Best Buy says that it may install chargers at additional stores if the initial test phase proves to be successful. Full press release is after the break.

Engadget

TTXGP UK: Jenny Tinmouth makes it two wins in a row at Pembrey

While the North American TTXGP championship may have wrapped up for 2010, the UK edition is still in full swing with the third of four races just having been decided. As in the previous round, Jenny Tinmouth came out on top at Pembrey Circuit after some serious battling and now leads in overall points.

Autoblog Green

The Next Alternative Energy Source: Electricity Out of Thin Air

It’s been coined “hygroelectricity”, which means “humidity electricity”, and scientists are already in the early stages of developing devices to harness it. What is “it” exactly? “It” is electrically charged water droplets hanging in the atmosphere.

Recent experiments have shown that moisture in the air is not electrically neutral, as previously thought. Water in the atmosphere can actually accumulate electrical charge and transfer that charge to other things it comes in contact with.

This means that in the future, in areas with high humidity, hygroelectricity could be captured similarly to the way sunlight is collected in photovoltaic cells. And a similar device could even be used to help prevent lightning from striking and forming, which would help save millions in property damage, death, and injuries. But would thunderstorms still thunder?

[Physorg]

gizmodo

Ford using wireless remote monitoring for in-vehicle battery testing and updates

As Ford prepares to start selling the Transit Connect Electric later this year and the Focus Electric in 2011, it has to thoroughly test the lithium ion battery systems used in these vehicles. To help accelerate the process, Ford has equipped all of its test vehicles and the battery packs being tested in the lab with wireless remote monitoring systems.

Autoblog Green