GM about to make a VERY good hybrid!

Groovy! Maybe GM won't go down in flames. (My Scandahoovian is a little weak: is that a conventional automatic transmission?)

 

Must take a very long extension cord. :mrgreen:

I'm stumped by the language barrier some, too; but it interests me that there's appears to be rear electric motor as well as a front one. Curious why that's of use to small or medium size cars (as opposed to trucks or 4-wheel drive vehicles.)

Also, will lithium-ion batteries be superior to NiMH batteries for this purpose? I know they're supposed to be better for small electronic devices (PDAs, phones, etc.), but I didn't know if they stood up as well over time for holding large charges with much greater current and voltage demands.

Big yes to diesel hybrid research by anyone; the horse I'm betting on in 10-20 years for automobile drives are diesel hybrids, powered by biodiesel fuel.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bookrats\";p=\"81267)</div>

The rear motor is probably due to the fact that it's a SAAB. They've been itching to get into the AWD market for a while now, and let's face it... AWD in Sweden isn't such a bad thing.

I'd more think that SAAB would go with a gasoline engine with a turbocharger. Turbos have always been the way to go for them, and they do make a lot of sense from a power/economy point of view.

 

Toshiba is to release a new L ion battery in 2006. It is said to charge in 6 minutes. 80% of it's power is available down to -40 degrees. 1% reduction in capacity after 1000 charge cycles. fully discharges in as little as 7 minutes. The cell is built using nanotechnology, which is the breakthrough that makes this all possible. It was designed for use in hybrid cars and in industrial applications.

Here is a link: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558...,1782283,00.asp

Nissan is looking to use the same technology. Here's the link: http://www.azom.com/news_old.asp?newsID=788

Oh, and the horse I'm betting on is full electric cars in ten years, charged off much cheaper solar panels and batteries at home. Charging and conversion efficiencies are all going to be dramatically reduced by nanotechnology.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ray Moore\";p=\"81276)</div>

If they're able to do what they say they're able to do, (and there's no serious downsides, that's really exciting.

 

I found the original article and got an extremely awful Swedish-to-English translation going:

Mixxen de Saab en chikkin, BORK BORK!

Honestly, I can't glean much more than educated guesses from this, but y'all have at it!

 

I sure hope it's true. I don't know about you folks, but I'm getting *really* sick and tired of listening to Lutz p*** and moan all the time about the SUV/pickup market imploding.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CitizenjaQ\";p=\"81300)</div>

Here's my attempt at cleaning it up. I don't actually understand Swedish, so it could be totally off in some places!

Saab engineers build new hybrid

GM's cars to be adapted for hybrid system in Trollhattan

Saab Automobile is developing a hybrid version of Saab 9-3. A prototype will be cleared in September and will be tested next winter. Saab sees a market for a fuel efficient car due to the rising price of fuel and increased environmental concerns. But the project is also an educational project for Saab's engineers.

"Customers are more interested in cars that draw less fuel," says Tommy Lindholm, project manager for hybrid vehicles at Saab.

As examples, he refers to Toyota's best-seller hybrid Prius and also interest for the Honda Insight. He justifies the investment with the rising oil prices and increased taxation of carbon dioxide.

But Saab's new hybrid is also an educational project for engineers at Saab's development centres. General Motors is concurrently developing its own hybrid system together with Daimler Chrysler, intended for ??? cars.

The system can be used in cars for in the entire global market.

Saab's hybrid will be sold in Europe

Saab has many missions from GM to adapt one or more of the groups car models for the hybrid system. The result will become a hybrid adapted for the European market.

"We do not know which model is coming. But we will be ready and must have personnel ready for these complex jobs," says Tommy Lindholm.

Saab already rebuilt a 2001 Saab 9-5 to hybrid. The new system is built in a Saab 9-3. The car becomes what is called a parallel-hybrid that runs with both electric and gas engines.

"We want to standardize the structure so that we are able to produce the car on a general production line, that is built out and modified," says Tommy Lindholm.

Entirely new components

Despite that Saab's old and new hybrid systems fundamentaly resembles each other, there are big differences between the projects, asserts Tommy Lindholm.

"We have upgraded the system considerably. We have entirely new components and have computerised everything."

Saab will also test several different types of energy technologies in the car. The car gets easy rolling decks. And since the batteries and two electric engines make the car heavy, the company is working on doing the structure better.

The car will also be tested as a so-called plugin hybrid, which means that the car can be charged from the pwoer network and used as an electric car. It is also possible that the combustion engine will be run with ethanol fuel E85 or other environmentally friendly fuel.

Researchers from Lund are ???

The new hybrid is a cooperation with Lund's technical college who analyzed knowledge from several other experiments with hybrids.

"My group is researchers have come together with Saab to find the concept that we think is optimum," says mats Alakula, professor in industrial electronics at Lund's technical college.

Hybrids increases the automotive cost by approximately 15 000-30 000 kronor. But the car uses 25-50 percent less fuel, according to Mats Alakula.

 

Two thoughts:

• They had a non-computerized hybrid? Yikes! Did they have chimps doing the electric motor/ICE mix?
  
• I'd love to live in a city named Trollhatten. (Or New Orc.)

 

"Charging could be really easy - you could come up to a stop light and an automatic arm underneath the car plugs you into a charging socket in the road."

This might work if it never rained. Or if they wouldn't have to rip roads all over the place. It's far more likely that gas stations would have these plug ins. Pull in, plug in, wait a minute, then pay and take it through the car wash.

 

I was reading about those fast-charge batteries elsewhere, and scaling up to plug-in EV batteries would either increase the charging times dramatically (though still better than today's EVs) or require a MASSIVE current - on the order of several thousand amps.

They're good for hybrids because hybrids provide short, irregular bursts of charge during braking. Those batteries will be able to convert a lot more kinetic energy to electricity than is currently ( :wink: ) possible. Bye bye friction brakes! Hello 500mpg city!

 

My Braun electric toothbrush uses induction charging, since there's no exposed metal in the charging stand. I put the plastic brush in the plastic stand, and power gets into the toothbrush.

Unless induction charging on an automotive scale would kill all living things within 100 yards, it might work out eventually...

 

Please note that unless I am missing something in the article, it says nothing about any plans to actually sell this car, only that they plan to make a prototype this fall. GM has been making prototypes of various environmentally sound cars for years. Unfortunately, thus far they have used them mostly as excuses for actually not actually producing real cars to sell. I may begin to believe that this is a vehicle rather than a publicity item when I see a price and a date.

 

personally knowing that gm is releasing this in europe tells me that they wont do it here because in their cracked induced logic, they still feel it wont fly here.

geezus...they are stupider than i thought

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mikepaul\";p=\"81505)</div>

The EV1 used an inductive "paddle" for charging. Seemed to work OK. It had to be in very close contact with the car (i.e. in a slot in the hood) so it's not too much different than a plug in that respect.

 

After my last four years of Saab ownership...they could invent a vehicle that required no fuel or electricity and I'd still think twice before buying it.

They have invented some very good things. Quality control isn't one of them.