Green Vehicle Evolution | Green Energy News

May 8 2005 – Vol.10 No.7

GREEN VEHICLE EVOLUTION.

On the chance that hydrogen fuel cell vehicle developers can't get viable products to consumers (and an infrastructure built to feed them) in the next few years, the evolution of green vehicles might take a different path, or possibly a choice of two.

One path would be for the current technology in hybrid vehicles to lead to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) that can go a number of miles around town on battery power alone. Those vehicles could lead, in an evolutionary step, to all-electric vehicles with gas/electric hybrid technology becoming an option.

The reasons? Drivers with PHEVs will get accustomed to plugging-in for a recharge. In the same time frame battery technology will improve - as it has been lately - to allow longer range on battery power alone.

Another path may skip over the plug-in hybrid all together and lead directly to all-electric battery vehicles.

The reasons? Rapid advances in battery technologies that will allow long range (say, 300 miles) and quick battery recharge (a few minutes for a full charge, no longer than filling a tank with petrol) seem almost realistic goals today when they weren’t just a few years ago.

There's already evidence that the second scenario may be taking shape. Toshiba has previously announced that its nanotechnology lithium batteries that can recharge 80 percent in a minute will be available in 2006. They announced at the time that they had developed the battery for the hybrid vehicle market, but there's no reason it couldn't be used in battery electric vehicles.

And now Mitsubishi has developed what it calls the Mitsubishi In-wheel motor Electric Vehicle (MIEV) technology. The company, as well, has announced it will begin selling a battery electric vehicle in 2010. Who knows? It could very well use MIEV technology.

For now the company has built a test bed for the in-wheel, or hub-motor, technology. Planted in a Mitsubishi Colt, MIEV transforms the Colt into a the Colt EV with proprietary lithium-ion batteries and 20-kilowatt in-wheel electric motors mounted on the rear. Moving the drive motors to the wheels opens up space within the body cavity of the vehicle for more batteries, or more space for passengers.

The Colt is all-electronic. The electric drive motors are regulated by computer to control drive torque on a per-wheel basis.

The Colt EV is a two-wheel drive vehicle but could be converted to four-wheel drive by adding in wheel motors to the front end. The company said that it is also developing a more powerful 50-kilowatt motor with four-wheel drive vehicles in mind.

Flexibility is one of the great strengths of the MIEV technology, Mitsubishi says. In-wheel motors could be used in conjunction with a combustion engine for a hybrid electric vehicle. A fuel cell could supplant the combustion engine under the hood. Or existing, now-produced, conventional vehicles could have their drive systems removed for a quick transition to electric drive.

Mitsubishi will test the Colt EV and the MIEV technology for road-holding, durability and reliability. Visit Mitsubishi at http://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp/ (click Corporate Info)