tagged w/ Plug-In Hybrid
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YG
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1 year ago
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LABELS that read Made in China are long familiar to American consumers. But a car for sale in the United States bearing those words — considering what that might portend for our economy and our self-image — could deliver a jolt far sharper than discovering that our newest digital gadget was produced in the world’s largest exporting country.
Yet there was no wobble to be felt in the earth’s rotation as I drove away from Cars 911, a used car dealership in this Los Angeles suburb where BYD Autos has set up temporary North American operations. The generic-looking BYD I was testing — read what you wish into the company name, whose initials stand for Build Your Dream — is a compact sedan so bland as to completely escape the notice of fellow drivers.
Still, it could make its mark: if BYD clears the regulatory hurdles, its F3DM plug-in hybrid would be a frontrunner in the race to become the first production car in American showrooms from a Chinese automaker — arriving as soon as next spring, the company says.
Despite its potential importance, hardly anybody noticed the F3DM, not surprising given its appearance — about as trendy as a Y2K-era Toyota Corolla. Until now, the car has been unavailable for test drives in the United States. The view from behind the wheel is as proletarian as it gets: no frills, no flash, no real driving engagement. It would be easy to chuckle at the F3DM’s minor flaws — the wobbly storage compartment between the front seats, subpar floor mats, squishy handling. But the build quality and materials seem perfectly adequate for utility-oriented Americans. The exterior panels line up; audio and air-conditioning buttons are a bit big, but easy to use; seats are reasonably comfortable. Slam the door and it goes “thunk.”
BYD says that later this year it will submit the necessary filings to obtain federal safety and emissions certification. My test car was a Chinese-issue production model, visiting California on a research exemption. According to company officials, “close to 10,000” of the F3DM models have been sold in the home market.
To focus on the F3DM’s inconspicuous sheet metal and boring driving experience is to miss the audacity of BYD’s strategy. Think of the F3DM as a Chevrolet Volt with a Wal-Mart price tag, a car with a large-capacity battery — that delivered 31 miles of uninterrupted pure-electric driving for me — as well as a gasoline engine that gives it the ability to go an additional 300 miles.
General Motors, however, loaded up the Volt with a powerful electric motor, an iPod-like console and a luxury feel that help to justify a $41,000 price tag (before state and federal tax incentives). The F3DM — which does have an auxiliary audio input jack and a parking sensor — is expected to sell for less than $29,000. Incentives could drop the price closer to $20,000.
My drive of the F3DM started with the 16-kilowatt-hour battery charged to 95 percent of its usable capacity. Instead of babying it to see how close I could get to the 60 miles of E.V. range BYD claims, I punished the F3DM with a succession of pedal-to-the-floor freeway merges and herky-jerky speeding and slowing, all with the air-conditioning going full tilt.
No matter how hard I floored the accelerator or how hard I pushed to keep pace with the frenzied Los Angeles freeway traffic, the F3DM stayed in purely electric mode, as long as the battery’s state of charge was above 20 percent. Acceleration, as expected, was quick off the line — not as snappy as the Nissan Leaf, but better than electric offerings from niche E.V. makers like Smart and Think.
After 31 miles of this flogging, the battery reached its 20 percent switchover threshold and the car automatically shifted from pure E.V. operation to its hybrid mode.
The F3DM can be described as a plug-in hybrid, but dual mode — that’s what the DM stands for — is more accurate. Drivers can manually toggle between modes.
The F3DM’s E.V. button is not like the one on a regular production Toyota Prius. Those are stingy things, generally yielding a few blocks of engine-off electric driving (Toyota says it can go a mile, conditions permitting). The F3DM’s mode choices offer dozens of miles of all-electric driving, even while the switch is in hybrid mode. One day of driving didn’t begin to scratch the surface of how to finesse the modes for maximum efficiency.
That will be fun for the tech geeks, but is irrelevant for BYD’s aim of bringing a practical energy and environmental solution to a billion potential customers in China — and a truly affordable option for the growing number of American consumers who just want to get to work with cheap homegrown electricity.
Conserving a precious dwindling commodity is a fine reason to drive a plug-in hybrid, and avoiding price spikes at the pump is another strong incentive. But with the F3DM, there’s a more immediate imperative to keep the engine dormant: when the battery drops to a 20 percent charge level, the 3-cylinder engine loudly rumbles into service. No, it’s more accurate to say that it screeches like a banshee as it converts gasoline into power that can turn the motor — now acting as a generator — to bring up the battery charge to 30 percent.
Much of the recent progress in conventional gas-electric hybrids has been aimed at making a seamless transition from gas to electric and back again. Not so with the F3DM. The car’s personality shifts from a quick, nimble and silent E.V. to a revving demon. The steering wheel vibrates. The dashboard hums. You feel the vibration in your molars. As long as the battery pack’s charge is in the 20 to 25 percent range, the F3DM’s urgent priority is to fill up the batteries to about 30 percent so that electric driving can be resumed. Even at a stop, when other hybrids — and gasoline-only cars in increasing numbers — use an idle-stop feature to shut down the engine, the F3DM’s engine noisily stays on task.
After about a minute at a standstill, the car’s computer reluctantly stops the loud engine. But even a gentle toe on the accelerator brings the engine back to a roar. If you need to accelerate onto the Interstate while the engine is busy recharging the batteries, the engine power is routed directly to the wheels to assist the electric motors, for a total combined output of 168 horsepower.
But as loud as the engine roars, drivers can take comfort: allowing the engine to rev operates the system most efficiently. At a standstill, the engine backs down to about 1,800 r.p.m., just recharging the batteries. Step on the accelerator and it speeds up to about 2,700 to 3,000 r.p.m. for charging plus acceleration. The gas engine is either running hard or running harder.
With some engineering effort, better engine mounts and lots of sound damping, BYD can reduce the din. The company has nearly a year to absorb feedback from spoiled Americans and do something about it. The hardest engineering is done, and there are no showstoppers. All of the problems are fixable without adding a lot of cost.
BYD’s to-do list before bringing the F3DM to the United States next year already includes upgrading the charging system with an SAE-standard J1772 connector found on all new plug-in cars.
BYD’s challenge is made more daunting because it will take years to establish a nationwide network of dealers. The company, which will base its American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, plans to start by opening about five dealerships in early 2012, where it will also sell the e6 pure electric car (with a promised 200-mile range), as well as BYD solar panels, solar-shaded parking systems, home energy-storage systems, charging systems and LED lighting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/automobiles/autoreviews/byd-f3-dm-review.html?_r=1&hpLABELS that read Made in China are long familiar to American consumers. But a car for... more
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What do we want from an electric car? Miss Electric drives the Chevy Volt at Columbia U. to find out why electric drive is so hot.What do we want from an electric car? Miss Electric drives the Chevy Volt at Columbia... more
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With the program’s environmental and economic benefits nearly negligible, billions could have been better spent encouraging more people to buy cars that make a real difference – plug-in hybrids.With the program’s environmental and economic benefits nearly negligible,... more
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khsing
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2 years ago
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Their mission: to deliver cost-efficient solar electricity. The Nanosolar company was founded in 2002 and is working to build the world's largest solar cell factory in California and the world's largest panel-assembly factory in Germany. They have successfully created a solar coating that is the most cost-efficient solar energy source ever. Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal. These coatings are as thin as a layer of paint and can transfer sunlight to power at amazing efficiency. Although the underlying technology has been around for years, Nanosolar has created the actual technology to manufacture and mass produce the solar sheets. The Nanosolar plant in San Jose, once in full production in 2008, will be capable of producing 430 megawatts per year. This is more than the combined total of every other solar manufacturer in the U.S.Their mission: to deliver cost-efficient solar electricity. The Nanosolar company was... more
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The A123 module carries 5,000 watt-hours of usable energy, compared with about 1,300 watt-hours for the battery that is built into the Prius.
The module fits in the well normally occupied by the spare tire, with a charging port installed on the back bumper.
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I e-mailed Hymotion, expressing interest in their A123 module, but they never replied.
I'm not upset, because like the person in this New York Times Article says: “I don’t have $10,000; I have children.”The A123 module carries 5,000 watt-hours of usable energy, compared with about 1,300... more
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