Archive for March, 2011

Car of the year 2010 – Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf, based on the judgment of the 58 judges for Europe’s annual Car of the Year contest gained the accolade. The essential, purpose-designed, all-electric family car made the most points and was rewarded the Car of the Year 2011. Nissan Leaf also earned more zero point scores than other cars in the seven-strong chosen apart from the bargain-SUV Dacia Duster.

Without doubt the Leaf is a noteworthy car, and the most technically advanced out of all the earlier period’s new cars. Car of the Year normally rewards for innovation, but frequently the victor in this completely democratic process is merely the car that the maximum number of people like enough not to punish with a low score.

Revolutionary cars are more potential to polarize views, so their triumph is all the sweeter. The Leaf’s win is a slim one, its 257 points only nine ahead of the second-place Alfa Romeo Giulietta (248) and 13 ahead of the Vauxhall Meriva in third (244).

The approaching year, then, goes to the Nissan Leaf. Before long it will be united by another pair of intention-planned electric cars from the Renault-Nissan alliance, the cute Renault Zoe hatchback and the Twizy city car.

Toyota Gets all Electric with RAV4 Prototype

Toyota has become the most recent auto manufacturer to launch a pure electric vehicle, the RAV4 intersect model that will be brought out sometime in 2012. The RAV4 Electric demo prototype was brought out at the latest Los Angeles auto show.

The Japanese automaker stated “that will allow for complete evaluation before introducing ‘a fully engineered vehicle’ with a ‘target range’ of 100 miles between charges of its battery.”

U.S. electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla will be Toyota’s collaborator on the RAV4 Electric, which will have a battery pack and other electric elements made by Tesla at its plant in Palo Alto, Calif.

They will be set up in the RAV4 prototypes built up at the Toyota plant in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, but where finishing assemblage with the electric constituents will take place has not been decided yet, said Toyota.

The demo replica of Toyota presented in Los Angeles has a lithium-metal-oxide battery. But ultimate specs for the battery and other electric elements continue to be ascertained, along with the cost and what production volumes might be. Toyota also has not yet said if the RAV4 Electric would be obtainable all over the country or in select markets.

Utilities Ecstatic and Anxious about Electric Cars

The first heaps of electric cars go on sale next month, and the nation’s electric public utility companies could not be more delighted — or concerned.

Plugged into an opening, an electric car can draw in as much electric power as a little house. The rush in demand could blow out power to a home, or even a locality. That has utilities in parts of California, Texas and North Carolina clambering to advance transformers and other tools in neighborhoods where the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt are anticipated to be in high demand. The main obstructions to widespread use of electric cars are high price and restricted range, at any rate until a network of charging stations is built.

Mike Rowand, who is in charge of electric vehicle planning at Duke Energy states “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

David Owens, executive vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group says that “Electric vehicles have the potential to completely transform our business.” Nationwide, utilities have enough power plants and equipment to power hundreds of thousands of electric cars. Problems could crop up long before that many are sold, though, because of a phenomenon car makers and utilities call “clustering.”’’

Toyota Ready to Make Public Tesla-powered Electric Rav4 at LA Show

Toyota is ready to set in motion the most recent of its alternatively motorized vehicles at the Los Angeles motor show next week. This car is a concept for an electric Rav4.

The conception will boast of a standard Toyota Rav4 body case, save for the engine which has been endowed with by the people at the rear of the Tesla sports car. This has been made possible only due to the flourishing partnership between the two companies, announced back in May this year.

There are no tangible particulars on the car up to the present moment, with the two companies in all probability keeping the whole thing under veil of secrecy until the opening day of the show on 17 November.

On the other hand Toyota has emphasized that the idea will be making it to production, with the Rav4 EV owed to be set up in the US market from 2012. This will be the first electric SUV to enter in to the market. Despite the fact that there are no devices to carry it to the UK just so far, a Toyota spokesman said it had not been entirely ruled out.