Green Cars, Hybrid Cars, Electric Cars and Clean Diesel News

Audi Technology at Le Mans

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:11:00 -0500

One more week before the Le Mans 24 Hours celebrates its 90th anniversary. 15 years of engine development have been shaping Audi’s prototype racing commitment.

Through intensive development work the engineers have repeatedly compensated for the restrictions imposed by the regulations while consistently enhancing efficiency of the engines fielded.

Two major eras have shaped Audi’s commitment at Le Mans from the perspective of Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport: Until 2005, gasoline engines powered Audi’s LMP race cars, since 2006 the engines have been diesel units. For Audi, this is linked to numerous innovations.

-The Le Mans project began with a 3.6-liter gasoline engine that delivered around 400 kW (544 hp), and over 449 kW (610 hp) only a year later. A major stride achieved in 2001 was TFSI gasoline direct injection being used for the first time. It significantly reduced fuel consumption while drivability and response behavior substantially improved. At the pit stops, the time for starting was shortened by up to 1.3 seconds because the directly injected fuel was burned more directly. The Audi team transferred the technology that was tested in racing into production cars when the first models with FSI and TFSI engines delivering fuel economy benefits of up to 15 percent were launched.

-Only five years later, Audi celebrated a pioneering achievement with the TDI engine at Le Mans. After Audi, as the inventor of the TDI, had offered its first production model with this technology in 1989, the brand immediately clinched the first victory of a diesel-powered sports car at Le Mans in 2006. From 5.5 liters of displacement, the V12 engine of the Audi R10 TDI developed more than 478 kW (650 hp). Particularly impressive was its torque of over 1,100 Nm. This was the first Audi diesel engine with an aluminum cylinder block.

-Audi’s diesel engine development directly benefited from Le Mans technology. Experiences gained in pre-development were fed into the first racing pistons. The injection system with two high-pressure pumps and piezo injectors has been refined by Audi for maximum specific performance and best efficiency in racing. The injection pressures of the hydraulic system and the ignition pressures in the cylinder have continually been increasing to this day. This way, combustion and power output could be optimized, which has been beneficial to production development as well. Today, injection pressures of 2,800 bar are achieved in racing and 2,000 bar in production cars.

-Variable turbine geometry (VTG), which has long been in standard use in volume production, was introduced into racing by Audi in the V10 TDI in 2009, following several years of development. The biggest challenge was posed by the high temperatures of over 1,000 degrees centigrade. VTG technology clearly improves response behavior. In 2010, Audi with the R15 TDI not only celebrated victory at Le Mans but, after completion of 397 laps and 5,410 kilometers, broke the absolute distance record, which had existed for 39 years.

-The most incisive change, as well as a major technical achievement by the Audi motorsport engineers, was brought about by the engine regulations for 2011. For diesel engines, the regulations forced the engineers to reduce the volume by 1.8 to 3.7 liters. Audi developed a V6 TDI engine packed with innovations. The exhaust side is located inside the V with its 120-degree angle (‘hot side inside’). A double-flow mono-turbocharger is fed with the exhaust gas from both banks and its compressor is of a double-flow design as well.

-The Audi engineers respond to ever more limitations by making continuous progress. For example, the diameter of the air restrictor in the diesel era since 2006 was reduced by 34 percent. Boost pressure decreased by 4.7 percent and cubic capacity by almost 33 percent. Absolute output dropped from over 478 kW (650 hp) to around 360 kW (490 hp) today, in other words by 24 percent. Considering this, the increases achieved with respect to specific outputs are particularly noteworthy. For instance, the engine output per liter of displacement went up from 87 kW (118 hp) in 2006 to 107 kW (146 hp) in 2011 – a gain of nearly 24 percent. The piston area output – which is the measure for the output delivered by each individual cylinder – during this period of time grew from 40 kW (54 hp) to an amazing 66 kW (90 hp), in other words by 65 percent. Even more impressive is the development of fuel consumption. Audi has improved consumption per lap in racing operations at Le Mans from the first to the most recent generation of diesel engines by more than 20 percent, while the engine’s output per liter has clearly increased.

Retired Estonian Engineer Invents a Simpler, Greener and More Powerful Engine

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:23:00 -0500

Retired Estonian engineer has come up with the engine that is so simple, fast & small that can well beat the existing 4-stroke engines by its power and also by the production cost!

As fossil energy is running out now we need more green-engines and way more alternative energy to run our motorbikes, cars & boats.

But how to achieve that? Some have made it already, but still a lot more progress needs to be done!

Retired engineer Georgi Vassiljev from Estonian capital Tallinn has come up with the solution, which is so simple, fast & small that can well beat the existing 4-stroke engines by its power and also by the production cost!

Georgi is searching for a manufacturing company, which could produce his engine in good quality and quantity.

If you seize it as your opportunity for the further innovation and possible lead on the market, please contact Leo Siemann, founder of Estonian Inventor, at leo@estonia100.com.

You can also download the inventor’s documentation in PDF here.

Here is what inventor Georgi Vassiljev wrote:

The International Searching Authority sent me an International Search Report and Written Opinion on my International Application for "Two-cycle trunk-piston engine” that was sent to European Patent Office in Hague and was published by WIPO in April, 2013(WO2013/0068).

The contents of these documents allow me to introduce to interested parties both the design of the above mentioned engine (Fig. 1) as well as the design of some other engines the applications for which were sent to the Patent Office later.

Fig. 1 depicts the engine at the moment exhaust gases free emission start from the cylinder 4, the scavenging ports 3 are open, the exhaust gases from the cylinder 4 have flown to the plates of the return valve 6 and have closed the valve that prevents the exhaust gases flow from the cylinder 4 into the receiver 5. The further movement of the piston 1 opens the exhaust ports 2, the exhaust gases start emitting freely and as result, the exhaust gases pressure drops in the cylinder below air pressure in the receiver 5, valve 6 opens and the scavenging of the cylinder 4 starts until the exhaust ports 2 are closed by the retrogressive movement of the piston 1, following which until the closing of the scavenging ports 3, the air from the receiver 5 would flow into the cylinder 4 and raise the air pressure in the cylinder.

The gases interchange in the engine (Fig. 2) is analogous to the above described, the only difference being that from the moment of scavenging ports 3 opening and until the pressure drop in the cylinder 4 below the pressure value in the receiver 5, the flow of exhaust gases from the cylinder to the receiver is prevented not by the return valve plate but by slide valve 7 that is cinematically connected with the crankshaft.

Fig. 3 shows the engine at the moment when the pressure in the cylinder 4 during the free emission of the exhaust gases through the exhaust ports 2 dropped lower than the air pressure in the receiver 5. As the result of further movement of the piston 1, the scavenging ports 3 are opening and the cylinder 4 starts scavenging by air from the receiver 5, that ends as the result of the piston retrogressive movement at the moment the exhaust ports 2 are closed by the slide valve 7 that is cinematically connected to the crankshaft (see drawing on Fig. 4) and then until the closing of the scavenging ports 3 (see drawing on Fig. 5) the air from the receiver 5 will flow into the cylinder 4, raising the pressure in the cylinder.

All engine models are equipped with external compressors.

Fig.6 shows the engine with crankcase scavenging at the starting moment of the scavenging of cylinder 4 through scavenging ports 3.The exhaust ports 2 are open and during the free venting of exhaust gases the pressure in cylinder 4 falls below the crankcase pressure. Moving further, piston 1 opens scavenging ports 3, the scavenging of cylinder 4 begins and it continues until piston 1 in its retrogressive motion closes the ports 3. Item 8 - the gate connected with the fuel supply, it transforms the resistance of the exhaust pipe to the partial scavenging of cylinder 4. Item 9 – the membrane preventing the ingress of oil from the crankcase into the cylinder. If the volume of fresh air let in by piston 1 is smaller than volume V, the fresh air taken in will not mix with the air in the crankcase. The replacement of gate 8 with slide valve 7 ( see Fig. 3) enables the supercharging of cylinder 4.

During the movement of piston 1 to the upper dead centre (Fig. 7) the vacuum developed in the crankcase is filled with fresh air through inlet ports 10 and scavenging ports 3. During the movement of the piston to the lower dead centre it compresses the air for scavenging of cylinder 4 through scavenging ports 3.

It is possible to configure the inlet and exhaust systems to facilitate the return of fresh air through exhaust ports 2 into cylinder 4. Item 11- oil ring, item 12 – air filter.

The engine in Fig. 8 has an external air compressor and slide valve 7, which provides for the supercharging of the cylinder. During the movement of the piston up, the vacuum developed in the crankcase is filled with fresh air through inlet port 10. During the movement of the piston down it compresses the air in the crankcase for the consequent scavenging of cylinder 4. If scavenging ports 3 are filled with porous metal, which lets pass air and is not wettable by lubricating oil, then oil ring 11 can be omitted and the size of the engine will be reduced. The arrows show the movement of the lubricating oil.

In case a wave compressor „Comprex“ is used, its case can be designed similar to the case of slide valve mechanism 7.

The engine in Fig. 9 differs from the engine in Fig. 8 in that scavenging ports 3 permanently connect receiver 5 and the crankcase and also that piston 1 sends a greater volume of air into cylinder 4.

The engine in Fig. 10 comprises two symmetrically positioned engines in Fig. 7, but only one piston rod. Item 11 – oil rings, item 10 – inlet ports.

When comparing the areas of the exhaust ports 2 with the area of the exhaust ports of the high-speed racing two-cycle engines with the cylinder multichannel loop scavenging that have the power-weight ratio up to 400 horse powers per 1 litre of the cylinders' work capacity, it is important to note that in case of the identical exhaust ports height, piston stroke and cylinder capacity of the compared engines, the aforesaid engines' models have the area of exhaust ports two times bigger and even exceed the area of the piston because their cylinder's outer diameter is bigger and there is no need to locate scavenging ports beside each other, thus enabling the higher speed of scavenging than in the engines of racing motorcycles.

The high scavenging speed in the said models together with internal carburetion and the boost through scavenging ports give the possibility to develop, for example, a two-cylinder opposed engine with the cylinders' work capacity of 0.8 litres, the performance of 250 horse powers and the cost several times lower than of a four-cycle engine of the same performance.

Dear Mrs/Mr, I would be sincerely grateful for your reply to this letter.

Yours sincerely,
Georgi Vassiljev ,engineer
Tallinn, Estonia

New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Stores 4 Times the Energy of Li-ions

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 05:29:00 -0500

Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an all-solid lithium-sulfur rechargeable battery that is considerably cheaper and battery with four times the energy density of standard lithium-ion batteries that power today's electronics.

The ORNL battery design, which uses abundant low-cost elemental sulfur, also addresses flammability concerns experienced by other chemistries.

"Our approach is a complete change from the current battery concept of two electrodes joined by a liquid electrolyte, which has been used over the last 150 to 200 years," said Chengdu Liang, lead author on the ORNL study published this week in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Scientists have been excited about the potential of lithium-sulfur batteries for decades, but long-lasting, large-scale versions for commercial applications have proven elusive. Researchers were stuck with a catch-22 created by the battery's use of liquid electrolytes: On one hand, the liquid helped conduct ions through the battery by allowing lithium polysulfide compounds to dissolve. The downside, however, was that the same dissolution process caused the battery to prematurely break down.

The ORNL team overcame these barriers by first synthesizing a never-before-seen class of sulfur-rich materials that conduct ions as well as the lithium metal oxides conventionally used in the battery's cathode. Liang's team then combined the new sulfur-rich cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material, also developed at ORNL, to create an energy-dense, all-solid battery.

The new ionically-conductive cathode enabled the ORNL battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius. For comparison, a traditional lithium-ion battery cathode has an average capacity between 140-170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of lithium-ion versions, this eight-fold increase in capacity demonstrated in the ORNL battery cathode translates into four times the gravimetric energy density of lithium-ion technologies, explained Liang.

The team's all-solid design also increases battery safety by eliminating flammable liquid electrolytes that can react with lithium metal. Chief among the ORNL battery's other advantages is its use of elemental sulfur, a plentiful industrial byproduct of petroleum processing.

"Sulfur is practically free," Liang said. "Not only does sulfur store much more energy than the transition metal compounds used in lithium-ion battery cathodes, but a lithium-sulfur device could help recycle a waste product into a useful technology."

Although the team's new battery is still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications. A patent on the team's design is pending.

"This project represents a synergy between basic science and applied research," Liang said. "We used fundamental research to understand a scientific phenomenon, identified the problem and then created the right material to solve that problem, which led to the success of a device with real-world applications."

The study is published as "Lithium Polysulfidophosphates: A Family of Lithium-Conducting Sulfur-Rich Compounds for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries," and is available online. In addition to Liang, coauthors are ORNL's Zhan Lin, Zengcai Liu, Wujun Fu and Nancy Dudney.

The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office. The investigation of the ionic conductivity of the new compounds was supported by the Department's Office of Science.

Duke Researchers Develop New Way to Produce Clean Hydrogen

Sat, 25 May 2013 07:51:00 -0500

Duke University researchers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications.

While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most current methods of producing hydrogen is carbon monoxide, which is toxic to humans and animals.

The Duke engineers, using a new catalytic approach, have shown in the laboratory that they can reduce carbon monoxide levels to nearly zero in the presence of hydrogen and the harmless byproducts of carbon dioxide and water. They also demonstrated that they could produce hydrogen by reforming fuel at much lower temperatures than conventional methods, which makes it a more practical option.

Catalysts are agents added to promote chemical reactions. In this case, the catalysts were nanoparticle combinations of gold and iron oxide (rust), but not in the traditional sense. Current methods depend on gold nanoparticles ability to drive the process as the sole catalyst, while the Duke researchers made both the iron oxide and the gold the focus of the catalytic process.

”Our ultimate goal is to be able to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells," said Titilayo "Titi" Shodiya, a graduate student working in the laboratory of senior researcher Nico Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. "Everyone is interested in sustainable and non-polluting ways of producing useful energy without fossil fuels. We were able through our system to consistently produce hydrogen with less than 0.002 percent (20 parts per million) of carbon monoxide," said Shodiya, the paper's first author.

Fuel cells produce electricity through chemical reactions, most commonly involving hydrogen. Also, many industrial processes require hydrogen as a chemical reagent and vehicles are beginning to use hydrogen as a primary fuel source.

The Duke researchers achieved these levels by switching the recipe for the nanoparticles used as catalysts for the reactions to oxidize carbon monoxide in hydrogen-rich gases. Traditional methods of cleaning hydrogen, which are not nearly as efficient as this new approach, also involve gold-iron oxide nanoparticles as the catalyst, the researchers said.

One of the newest approaches to producing renewable energy is the use of biomass-derived alcohol-based sources, such as methanol. When methanol is treated with steam, or reformed, it creates a hydrogen-rich mixture that can be used in fuel cells.

The researchers ran the reaction for more than 200 hours and found no reduction in the ability of the catalyst to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen gas.

The Duke team's research was supported by the California Energy Commission and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

Capacity of Lithium-Ion Batteries EVs Will Multiply More than 10-Fold by 2020

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:09:00 -0500

Improvements in lithium-ion battery technology are helping to accelerate the worldwide market for electric vehicles.

In the last few years, automakers have shifted from nickel-metal hydride batteries to lithium-ion batteries.

This shift represents a major endorsement of Li-ion chemistry and its ability to perform consistently in an automotive environment.

According to a recent report from Navigant Research, total worldwide capacity of lithium-ion batteries for transportation applications will increase more than ten-fold, from 4,400 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2013 to nearly 49,000 MWh by 2020.

The market for lithium-ion batteries will primarily be driven by the growth of battery electric vehicles, as they utilize much larger battery packs than plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Today’s BEVs use battery packs ranging from 16 kWh to 85 kWh, compared to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that typically use packs ranging from 4 kWh to 16 kWh.

Additionally, many recently introduced hybrid vehicles, such as the Honda Civic Hybrid, use lithium-ion batteries, and the percentage of hybrids using lithium-ion technology is expected to grow steadily as automakers update their models.

[source: Navigant Research]

Volvo Starts Production of New VEA Engine Family

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:53:00 -0500

Volvo Car Group is starting production of the first engine variants in the new, high-efficiency four-cylinder Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) family.

The strategy of four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines with i-ART injection technology and driveline electrification is the path that Volvo Cars has chosen for the future.

The new VEA engines were developed by a Swedish team of engineers. The new, smaller engines are optimized and deliver higher performance than today's six-cylinder units, while offering lower fuel consumption than the current generation of four-cylinder units.

VEA consists of four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines with i-ART injection technology. Together with driveline electrification, VEA replaces the previous eight engine architectures on three different platforms.

The new engines will be introduced between 2013 and 2015. Almost 20,000 engines will be produced in 2013, and by the end of the year the production pace will be 2000 units a week.

The first variants will be fitted to the Volvo S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80 in autumn 2013.

Swedish Researchers Develop Cheaper Rapid Chargers

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:55:00 -0500

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed a unique integrated motor drive and battery charger for electric vehicles.

Compared to today's electric vehicle chargers, they have managed to shorten the charging time from eight to two hours, and to reduce the cost by around $2,000.

Saeid Haghbin, doctor of electric power engineering, undertook his doctoral studies in order to develop the optimal electric vehicle charger. The result is a novel high-power integrated motor drive and battery charger for vehicle applications, where a new power transfer method has been introduced involving what is known as a rotating transformer.

"The ideal scenario would be to have a charger powerful enough to charge a car in five to ten minutes, but this would cost over $100,000, which is more expensive than the car itself," says Saeid Haghbin. "The question we posed was: how can we reduce the size, weight and price of the on-board charger."

Model of the integrated motor drive and battery charger. The image shows a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which also has a fuel tank and a combustion engine, but the technology system works equally well with a purely electric vehicle.

Since the electric motor and the inverter are not used during battery charging, the researchers looked into the possibility of using them in the charger circuit and building some kind of integrated motor and battery charger. In other words, would it be possible to use the motor and inverter in the charger circuit to increase the charging power at a lower cost?

"Instead of having a separate isolated battery charger, we introduced a new concept for the power transfer, the rotating transformer, which was developed to transfer electric power while rotating," says Saeid Haghbin. "The battery is charged through the transformer and a split-phase electric motor that was especially designed for this purpose."

The Chalmers integrated charger is, from a university perspective, still on laboratory level. To achieve a more optimal system, further investigations and experimentation are necessary. However, the product has resulted in both a Swedish and an international patent.

Chalmers is trying to find a potential industrial user, and Volvo AB is working on the concept for further enhancement to be used in its system.

"Electric cars have been discussed as a possible solution to reduce carbon emissions for a long time, but scientists debate whether this mode of transportation is the future or not," says Saeid Haghbin. "If we manage to solve the main problems with the battery and the battery chargers, I think the electric vehicles will succeed. And in general, I think electric transportation will become more common in the future, for example trains, trams and plug-in hybrids."

Envision Solar Completes First Cadillac Solar Tree Array

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:25:00 -0500

Envision Solar International, Inc., a sustainable infrastructure product designer and developer, has completed installation of its new Cadillac Solar Tree array at Fremont Cadillac Buick GMC.

Energy produced by the Cadillac Solar Tree installation will go directly back to the dealership. This will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the consumption of 2,500 gallons of gas, or 52 barrels of oil, on an annual basis.

The Cadillac Solar Tree will generate approximately 33,000 kWh of clean energy from a highly architecturally accretive platform. Installation of the array will lower the dealership's environmental impact while improving the region's built environment.

Equipped with integrated electric vehicle charging stations, the Solar Tree array can generate enough renewable energy to charge six electric vehicles each day. Envision Solar's proprietary tracking system, EnvisionTrak, causes the array to follow the sun, capturing more of its energy and increasing electrical output by nearly 25 percent over typical fixed solar installations.

Within the next year, Cadillac will launch the ELR, the first luxury coupe with extended range electric technology. The Cadillac Solar Tree is available to Cadillac dealers nationwide to support the ELR launch, and to assist in making dealership facilities more energy efficient.

"Fremont Cadillac's solar tree installation is a great individual example of how we're elevating and expanding in the areas of product, technology and customer experience," said Chase Hawkins, Cadillac Vice President of Sales. "We're the fastest growing full-line luxury brand in the U.S. today, including a 54 percent increase in the San Francisco area."

Electric Vehicles Provide Power to PJM Grid

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:44:00 -0500

NRG Energy Inc. in collaboration with the University of Delaware has sold power from an electric vehicles to PJM Interconnection LLC’s grid.

The University and NRG said in a statement that they began work on the eV2g program in September 2011 to provide a two-way interface between electric vehicles and the power grid that enables vehicle owners to sell electricity back to the grid while they are charging their cars.

On Feb. 27, the project took a big step forward when it became an official participant in the PJM’s frequency regulation market.

Frequency regulations are used to balance supply and demand on the grid second-by-second. Since then, the project has been selling power services from a fleet of electric vehicles to PJM, whose territory has 60 million people in the 13 mid-Atlantic states.

“This demonstrates that EVs can provide both mobility and stationary power while helping making the grid more resilient and ultimately generating revenue for electric vehicle owners,” said NRG Executive Vice President Denise Wilson, who leads the company’s emerging businesses. “The advancement also proves the power of partnerships such as these to accelerate the development of clean energy technologies that will deliver for the economy, consumers, security and sustainability.” A key aspect of the technology is that it can aggregate power from multiple electric vehicles to create one larger power resource, rather than individual, smaller ones.

Additional company partnerships that make up the entire system include BMW AG providing the EVs, Milbank Manufacturing providing charging stations based on UD technology, AutoPort Inc. installing UD control technology into the EVs and others.

For grid operators, the technology serves as an innovative new approach to energy storage. It has the potential to balance the power provided by intermittent renewable resources such as wind and solar. Energy storage, such as large-scale batteries or those in a fleet of vehicles, can take the wind’s power generated at night and store it to use when demand is higher.

The technology is expected to initially help managers of commercial EV fleets by providing revenue while the vehicles are parked, with individual EV owners to eventually follow. The system is currently in development with restricted test fleets and is not now a commercial offering.

Besides being one of the country’s largest and most diverse power generators, NRG is innovating to make clean energy more accessible. This includes work to deploy large-scale renewable projects, smart meters and other demand-side management technologies, and EVs through its eVgo network of charging stations. The University of Delaware has strong clean energy research and development programs and industry partnerships in solar energy, wind energy, fuel cells biofuels and electric vehicles.

Schaeffler and Ford Demonstrate eWheelDrive Car

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:24:00 -0500

Schaeffler and Ford demonstrated the Fiesta-based eWheelDrive car, a driveable research vehicle that could lead to improvements in urban mobility and parking by making possible smaller, more agile cars.

Powered by independent electric motors in each of the rear wheels, eWheelDrive technology offers space under the bonnet that in conventional cars is occupied by the engine and transmission, and in electric cars by a central motor.

This technology could in the future support the development of a four-person car that only occupies the space of a two-person car today. At the same time, eWheelDrive steering system designs could enable vehicles to move sideways into parking spaces – a potential breakthrough as cities become more populated and congested.

With in-wheel motors, the components required for drive, deceleration and driver assistance technologies are installed in an integrated wheel hub drive – including the electric motor, braking and cooling systems.

Ford joined the project led by Schaeffler, the leading German-based automotive component manufacturer and supplier, to investigate the potential for future vehicles that also could offer zero emissions, and more space for features such as additional protection zones.

In-wheel electric motors are seen by many industry experts as a potentially important future technology enabler for city cars as the world becomes more crowded and urbanised. It is projected that by 2050 the number of people living in cities globally will have increased from 3.4 billion to 6.4 billion, and the number of cars worldwide will have increased fourfold.

Ford will next partner with Schaeffler, Continental, RWTH Aachen and the University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, on project MEHREN (Multimotor Electric Vehicle with Highest Room and Energy Efficiency) to develop two new driveable vehicles by 2015. The project aims to increase the integration of in-wheel motors in a car and will look at vehicle dynamics control, braking, stability and the fun-to-drive factor.