NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Straighten Up: It's the Electric Balancing Unicycle

Solowheel: $1,800

I have nothing against people who enjoy riding Segways. But after riding a Solowheel last week at CES (short video below), I now look at those people the same way I looked at Big Wheels riders once I'd moved on to riding a bicycle.

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Unlike the Segway, the Solowheel only has a single wheel -- and nothing to hold onto. (A note to the kids: Even though you're hands-free, please don't text while Solowheeling.) Yet like the Segway, Solowheel's gyroscopic sensors allow for turning, acceleration and deceleration, moving forwards and backwards. And just as with a hybrid car, it recaptures energy when slowing down or going downhill.

Also similar to a Segway, on a full charge, Solowheel's custom 39V lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery and 1kW motor can take you 15 to 20 miles at up to 10 MPH. Two big differences between the vehicles are price and size. A new Solowheel costs about a fourth to a third as much as a new Segway. And where Segway folds to fit in your trunk, the 26-pound Solowheel folds to the size of a barstool seat, much more portable.

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It might be tough to tell from the skill and finesse displayed in the video below, but riding Solowheel does take some practice. The most difficult part is getting on. First timers tend to anchor one ankle against the center pad, hold onto a wall, turn on the device while anchoring the second ankle, then quickly stand up. The more advanced version starts with one leg anchored, gives a skateboard-like pump to get going and anchors the second leg on the roll.

My demo unit had training wheels, which made it forgiving when going straight, but tough to turn. The trick to balancing is standing up as straight as possible. Unlike a unicycle, the middle of your body really shouldn't enter into the equation. Unless you want to quickly dismount as if the rug were pulled out from under you...

Credit: Inventist

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Find more CES articles here.

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Austin Plugs In Big-Time

Credit: Thomas McConnell
There's this bumper sticker I sometimes see: "Keep Austin Weird." It's from a place that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of Texas, culturally, politically, gastronomically, and doesn't seem to want to either. Texas is the country's leading energy-producing state, and ranks near the top in pollution emissions. But a new renewable energy plan based in Austin fits right in with the "weirdness" on that bumper sticker.

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The idea of the Pecan Street Project is to connect an entire neighborhood with solar panels, electric vehicles, utility smart meters and household batteries in a giant green power blender. Corporate partners include General Motors, Sony, Intel, SunEdison, Whirlpool, Best Buy and Toshiba. They’ll be using participating households to try out how their products do on an integrated smart grid, according to Brewster McCracken, executive director of Pecan Street Inc."To be relevant, smart grid innovations must solve consumers' problems and provide services that excite them," said Brewster McCracken told the Austin American-Statesman.

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This fall, 200 homes were outfitted with about a half square-mile of solar panels -- that's about a third of the neighborhood. By spring 2012, they will also get systems that automatically regulate heating, cooling and lighting. In June 2012, GM will offer Chevy Volt EVs to 100 people in the Mueller neighborhood with a $15,000 rebate instead of the normal $7,500, against the $40,000 pricetag. While some cities have looked at integrating EVs and solar panels, nobody’s done something this ambitious.

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Supporters hope a $10.4 million stimulus grant, plus matching money from corporate partners, will keep it going for its five years. Companies say they will get feedback on how well their appliances work, and probably a little green marketing cred. Local utility, Austin Energy, will be developing a green building code. Will the whole thing work? Will all these devices and power supplies integrate? Will Gov. Rick Perry pull the giant plug? Researchers from UT Austin, the National Renewable Energy Lab and the Environmental Defense Fund at using Pecan Street Project as a test bed to answer (some) of these questions.

New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine.

However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines.

The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.

Researchers estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car's weight currently taken up by conventional engine systems.

Last week, the prototype was presented to the energy division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is backing the Michigan State University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding.

Michigan State's team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year.

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Ford To Offer Fuel-Saving Start-Stop System

Americans love their cars. Some states have three times as many parking spaces as cars. But the price of gasoline continues to rise and more people are concerned with how their driving leads to global warming, and so fuel-saving transportation options like electric vehicles and public transportation have gotten more popular.

Ford is doing its part with plans to offer a fuel-saving start-stop system in its cars beginning in 2012, according to the Detroit Free Press. The car company won't have an electric vehicle of its own until 2012, when its electric Focus should hit the streets. (The company is expected to unveil the car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this Friday.)

So it's a taking a step in the fuel-saving direction with a start-stop system that reduces gasoline use by turning the engine off when the vehicle is idling, and quickly restarting it when the driver takes his or her foot off the brake or steps on the gas pedal. The system is expected to improve each car's fuel economy by four to ten percent, according to Ford.

According to this article from Ford, the start-stop system is "designed to work on both gasoline and diesel engines, is standard on the ECOnetic models of the Ford Ka and Mondeo, and is launching now on Focus, C-MAX and Grand C-MAX. The fuel-saving system debuts in North America in 2012."

Thanks to new fuel economy standards, any car sold in America will be required to get at least 34.1 miles per gallon, even though that might not be the best measure of a car's environmental impact.

The fuel-saving benefits of the start-stop system don't show up much in the Environmental Protection Agency's testing, because those tests don't include many stops.

So, do you want a car with start-stop technology, even if the results don't show up on the car's sticker in the showroom? Let us know in the comments section.

Photo: Ford

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The Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station

With gas at more than three dollars a gallon and more people concerned about global warming, electric vehicles have found a new surge of popularity. Everyone from Olympic officials to our very own Tech editor Tracy Staedter has tested out the Chevy Volt. The major hurdle for electric cars is that the infrastructure to support them doesn't exist yet.

But Honda is one of the companies trying to change that, as they have begun trial testing an electric vehicle charging station that is powered by solar energy.

When car companies first began discussing electric vehicles, they planned to substitute one fossil fuel for another by using coal to generate electricity to power the vehicles, instead of gasoline. But using renewable energy to power electric vehicles will cut down on the carbon emissions created in the process.

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Honda will begin its Electric Vehicle Testing Program in three Japanese cities. The project is a collaboration with Saitama Prefecture on environmental issues, according to Gizmag. The two companies hope to achieve what they call "Total Energy Management," a system that supplies households and communities with energy for personal use, while supporting a comfortable, low-carbon lifestyle.

The program isn't just for electric vehicles, but also plug-in hybrid vehicles, electric scooters, and electric carts. Honda will monitor how effective the charging station is at generating electricity, and ways to improve the convenience and usability of the charging station for customers.

Honda hopes to have electric vehicle charging stations in the United States, but it hasn't released a timeline of when it hopes to do that by. For the sake of settling the question of which electric vehicle is better, the Nissan Leaf or the Chevy Volt, let's hope this technology gets stateside soon.

Photo: Honda

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Recharge That EV Wirelessly

Maybe we won't even need plugs to recharge electric cars in the future. It will be like magic: Simply drive around and the whole thing gets powered wirelessly with help from magnetic fields. The New Zealand-based company HaloIPT recently unveiled its commercially available charging technology that makes that magic possible.

HaloIPT's debut definitely isn't the first time I've heard of wireless car charging. Not long ago, a team of German university students announced that they had created a small aerodynamic vehicle that draws power from conducting paths on a track. HaloIPT's technology seems more advanced, though, and the company says it can work in all kinds of weather conditions.

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IPT stands for "inductive power transfer" and as CleanTechnica's Chris Milton writes, the system works a little like the way an electric toothbrush gets charged. Just on a much, much larger scale. Inside the car, electricity energizes an inductive coil attached to a bunch of capacitors that help keep the currents and voltages at the right levels. Outside the car, a pad containing separate coils or "pick-up" coils get coupled magnetically to the primary coil. The coils all get tuned to the right operating frequency and electricity is transferred to them using a switch-mode controller.

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The car just needs to be in proximity to the pad containing the pick-up coils. Power flows to the transmitter, and magnetic resonance goes through the receiver to the controller and voila, the battery gets recharged. At least, that's my understanding of the technology. HaloIPT's system, according to the company, works with different kinds of car batteries. CBC News reported that the charging speed is comparable to that of a plug-in.

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If charge time is similar, you're probably wondering what's so great about this. I did, too. The company's long-term goal is pretty awesome, though. The vision is having inductive power transfer tech embedded right into roads so EVs will be able to charge as they move along. Range anxiety? Range infinity. I also like that the tech is supposed to be durable, reducing e-waste. Not to mention how beautifully it would get us set up for widespread vehicle-to-grid systems.

The technology is supposed to work even when there are about 16 inches between the charger and the receiver. And drivers won't need to park directly over the pad with the coils for it to still work. The controller has sensors that detect what's going on with the battery, potentially maximizing battery life.

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At the moment, the company has a demo version of its tech but plans to get a commercial-scale version ready in two years. By then, wireless recharging will be heralded as a convenient, painless way to keep going, even if it's sleeting outside.

Image: The Halo Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) system uses magnetic resonance to wirelessly recharge an electric vehicle. Credit: HaloIPT.

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Electric Vehicles, This Plug's For You

Remember this moment. In a few years, we're going to chuckle about how charging stations for electric vehicles were big news. For now, I'm excited because it's looking like new stations, including quick-charging ones, are going to become ubiquitous.

Thousands of EVs set to hit the road in the coming months, including the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt and the Ford Transit Connect. If we behave with EVs at all like we do with our laptops, there will be some serious initial clustering going on around electricity sources. (Think about how many laptop and mobile phone charging stations are available at airports, now.) Charging vehicles represents a huge opportunity. Electronics retailer Best Buy just announced that it's going to add ECOtality's Blink network electric car fueling stations to 12 stores in five metropolitan areas by next March.

If you're a gas station owner, you might want to jump on this, especially if you've got a station that actually serves decent food. Speaking of gas stations, BP, still muddied in consumers' minds by the ginormous oil spill in the Gulf, agreed this week to install ECOtality's new 480-volt Blink fast chargers at 45 BP and Arco gas stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee.

NPR's Andrea Kissack, who writes that she's getting an outdoor dock to charge up an EV at home, points out in her search for a plug that California company Coulomb Technologies -- with some federal help -- is even giving away 4,600 charging stations across the country to get this party started. Speaking of Coulomb, the company unveiled a fast charging station in Detroit yesterday that works across vehicle models to charge EV batteries in half an hour.

Related Links:

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• Electric Car Charging Stations En Route
• The Nation's First Electric Highway
• My Test Drive of the Chevy Volt, and A's To Your Q's
• A Green Driver Braves Manhattan

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Half an hour seems to be the time to beat. The first public use rapid-recharging station in America was installed last August in Portland, Ore. NEC's Takasago Rapid Charging Station can get batteries to 80 percent in 20 to 30 minutes. Over the summer, the MIT Electrical Vehicle Team studied rapid recharging, including technology that can provide a 50 percent charge in a mere five minutes. They got an all-electric motorcycle 80 percent recharged within 10 minutes.

The team also looked at rapid recharging and the grid. They suggest that instead of drawing directly from the grid, vehicles could get help from recycled car batteries linked to the grid that have slowly been drawing off-peak power. Recycling and recharging at the same time. Yeah!

I'm not even going to pretend this post is a comprehensive look at all the EV charging activity going on, but I have to point out that California-based Better Place is still working on a battery swapping option that would reduce wait time to under a minute. Swapping might make the most sense for EV fleets instead of individual EV owners.

The Department of Energy really wants to see charging stations happen: 20,000 in the next few years with both 220-volt and 440-volt capabilities to be precise. GM wants 'em, too. In Michigan alone the company is coordinating the planned installation of 5,300 fast-charging stations for the Volt, including ones made by SunLogics that are solar-powered. Nifty! Meanwhile Nissan is anticipating that there will be 12,000 charging stations that can power up the Leaf in 19 states by next year.

Only a few months ago, I was thinking we had a ridiculously long way before getting fast and easy charging. Well, those stations are closer than they appeared in my rearview mirror.

Image: An EV charging station design. BestBuy just announced that the store will be installing Ecotality's Blink network stations in 12 stores. Credit: Johnston Marklee for Ecotality. 

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My Test Drive of the Chevy Volt, and A's To Your Q's

This past weekend, I was in Dallas to attend the Electric Vehicle Showcase at the Texas State Fair. Texas may not immediately come to mind whenever talk about electric cars creeps into conversation. After all this is oil country, right? But it's also wind country. Of the top 5 states producing the most wind energy, Texas ranks number one, according to the American Wind Energy Association's latest numbers from 2009. Here they are:

1. Texas 9,405 MW
2. Iowa: 3,670 MW
3. California 2,723 MW
4. Washington 1,908 MW
5. Oregon: 1,821 MW

 

The state is also building out 400 miles of transmission lines that will help export wind energy generated in west Texas as far away as Atlanta, Ga., where wind energy capability is practically nonexistent.

What does wind energy have to do with electric vehicles? Ideally, charging stations would get their electricity from a renewable source, such as wind, and not from coal- or natural gas-fueled power stations.

While at the showcase, I had the chance to attend an Executive Panel discussion (summarized nicely here on the Smart Grid Security Blog), and test drive Chevy's new electric vehicle, the Volt. Technically the Volt is a hybrid electric vehicle, in that it has a gas engine. But the gas is never used to drive the car's transmission as it is in other hybrid cars. As Alyssa Danigelis points out in her blog post EV Smackdown: Volt Vs. Leaf, the Volt's 72 hp gasoline engine only serves to recharge the battery, when the battery gets low. This extends how far a driver can actually go in the Volt.

My assessment: The exterior of the car is attractive. I think it looks sporty and modern. And I would say the same about the inside, as well. The dashboard lights up with icons to tell you about the energy you're capturing while braking and it also tells you how much charge is left on the battery.

The car has good pickup, although I couldn't really test this to my satisfaction. The test track at the State Fair was small and super curvy, allowing me to get up to only about 30 miles per hour. That was a little disappointing. It did feel pretty stable and I was told that the battery runs down the bottom center of the car, giving it a low center of gravity.

The inside of the car felt a little tight, though. I'm 5'9" tall, and need more headroom than this car offers. Visibility through the windshield also seemed somewhat cramped.

Overall, I think it's a good start, and that many folks would be happy to drive this car.

Now, let's get to your questions. Before I left for Dallas, I asked you over Twitter and Facebook to send me your questions about the Volt. Here they are, along with the answers, which were provided to me by Monte Doran, of Chevrolet.

How far does the Volt go on one charge?

With a full charge and a full tank, the Volt will travel up to 350 miles without stopping.

With a full battery, the Volt will travel between 25 to 50 miles using only electric power. That range was developed based on a Department of Transportation survey that indicated 76 percent of Americans drive less than 40 miles, every day.

Once the battery power is depleted, the Volt has a 1.4-liter, gasoline-powered engine creates electricity to extend the driving range. With a full tank, the Volt could drive up to an additional 310 miles before stopping to refuel or recharge.

Does the charge last the same in wintertime/when its cold?

Like traditional fuel economy, electric range will vary based on terrain, driving techniques and the ambient temperature. To help reduce the effect the winter cold (or the summer heat) has on driving range, the Volt features the only mass-produced, climate-controlled battery. In temperatures as low as -13 degrees Fahrenheit, the system warms the battery to provide full electric power. In temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit the system cools the battery during charging to improve long-term reliability.

How long does the battery last over the life of the car? (Warranty?)

The Volt battery carries an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty.

What's its top speed?

The Volt is speed-limited to 100 miles per hour.

What's its acceleration?

The Volt is surprisingly quick, accelerating from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than nine seconds, and crosses the quarter mile in less than 17 seconds.

How many does it seat?

The Volt has two rows of bucket seats, for four people.

What kind of maintenance can an owner expect to have to deal with over the life of the car?

In some ways, the Volt will require less routine maintenance than a regular car. For example, the engine maintenance on a Volt is based on usage, not mileage. As such, some drivers may go a long as two years between oil changes.

In addition, the Volt’s four-wheel disc brakes are expected to last a lot longer on than those on a traditional car. The Volt’s regenerative braking system uses the electric motors to slow the vehicle, converting momentum into electricity. The process will reduce the use of the disc brakes by as much as 90 percent, dramatically increasing their useful life.

Is there a warning sound for pedestrian safety?

Yes. Because the Volt operates so quietly in all-electric mode, a driver-activated feature sounds a noise to alert nearby pedestrians. The alert was developed in conjunction with the American Federation of the Blind.

Is it worth $41,000?

The Volt’s manufacturer’s suggested retail price will start at $41,000, including destination, or $33,500, if the buyer qualifies for the full $7,500 federal tax credit.

The Volt will also be available to lease monthly payment as low as $350 for 36 months. That payment is based on the MSRP minus the full $7,500 tax credit, as well as $2,500 due at lease signing.

Where can I charge it?

If you can recharge a cell phone, you can recharge the Volt. It comes equipped with a 20-foot, 120-volt charging cord that plugs into a household electrical outlet. Using a 120-volt outlet, recharging the battery from empty to full will take 10 to 12 hours. Some customers will chose to install a 240-volt charge station, which will recharge the Volt in about four hours.

Editor’s Note: If you live in Austin, Tex., Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, Wash., or Washington D.C., you qualify to apply for a free, networked charging station.

How safe is it?

The Volt is designed to provide safety before, during, and after a crash. To help drivers avoid a crash, the Volt features many standard safety features including anti-lock brakes, traction control, and StabiliTrak vehicle stability control. During a crash, the Volt offers the production of a robust structure – 80 percent of which is high-strength steel – and eight standard airbags. Following a crash, Volt offers the security and peace-of-mind of OnStar, which can contact emergency personnel with the vehicle’s exact location and information about the crash severity.

In addition, GM engineers have completed more than 1 million miles, and 4 million hours, of testing just for the Volt battery pack. Engineers have subjected batteries to the worst possible scenarios, including short circuits, corrosion, dust, impacts, water submersion, crush-and-penetration tests, and extreme temperature swings combined with aggressive drive cycles.

 

A Pod Car of One's Own

About 15 years ago I asked my family why we didn't have personal vehicles that move on tracks around town instead of cars. Little did I know that there were other people actually making it happen. A new generation of pod cars is poised to take off down the tracks.

Pod cars are usually called personal rapid transit or PRT, and several systems have been around since the gas crisis of the 1970s. They're different from trams or elevated trains that have connected cars for passengers. Instead, PRT involves small automated pods that carry up to six passengers from point to point. Imagine something like a gondola moving horizontally on tracks.

The beauty of PRT is that you can choose your destination and your fellow passengers. Anyone who has been squashed into an armpit on the subway knows what I'm talking about. PRT cars are electric-powered, quiet, don't require drivers and use very little energy and land. So why aren't they everywhere?

Actually PRT systems do exist stateside in West Virginia, Florida, Texas and Micigan. But as Crosscut.com's Curtis Johnson points out, these early versions were like the first IBM personal computers -- slow and clunky. The PRT in Morgantown, W.V., has become known for its long delays. New systems are more advanced.

London's Heathrow Airport is testing one built by ULTra PRT and the city of San Jose is conducting a PRT feasibility study, Jim Witkin writes on the New York Times Wheels blog. Heathrow's futuristic system includes 21 vehicles that run among three stations. A ride in either direction of the 1.2-mile guideway takes about six minutes, according to ULTra's site.

Even the slickest, most modern PRT systems face significant hurdles. The city of Winona, Minn., wanted to build one but their application for $25 million in federal funding to build a test facility was denied. Critics also worry that PRT will draw riders away from other forms of public transport, which already face budget strains. Plus, gaining the right of way for such a system is no easy task.

The bike, the bus, a carsharing service and rides from friends have made it possible for me to stay car-free, but a pod car system could make it even more tempting to ditch car ownership, if you only need one to get you down that last mile. That's the dream: a pod of one's own.

Photo: A PRT vehicle that's part of the new ULTra network being tested at London's Heathrow Airport. Credit: ULTra.

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E-Quickie Car Draws Power From the Road

Aw yeah. It had to happen somewhere, someday: a bubble on bike wheels that gets its power from conducting paths on the ground. The "E-Quickie" is one such vehicle.

A team of students at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany led by mechanical engineering professor Jürgen Walter used lightweight, aerodynamic materials on the car, which weighs a mere 132 pounds (60 kilograms). Receivers on the vehicle's underbody pull in power from electric conducting strips that were laid on an indoor track, according to the university.

The vehicle has a modest 2 KW motor, but the design is so tight that the bubble car was able to zip around a 720-foot indoor track 40 times, topping out at a little over 31 miles per hour. Small batteries in the vehicle are only needed when the E-Quickie rolls away from the conducting tracks.

While the overall idea isn't exactly novel, the team thinks the setup could have industrial applications. Forklifts, for example, might be powered this way if they weren't so heavy. Wireless energy transmission could become a better way to power mobile phones, too, although I'm not going to shelve my charger quite yet. Clearly myriad safety details would need to be worked out first.

Next the team plans to keep testing and optimizing the E-Quickie, getting it as lightweight, efficient and fast as possible. In the meantime, I hope the vehicle lives up to its name. Quick-charging electric vehicles currently heading into production is still going to be a massive challenge. Perhaps one day roads will do more of the work.

Photo: The E-Quickie takes a lap. Credit: Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences.

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