August 31, 2010
The engineering department at Edison2 greatly appreciates the informed comments and gentle prodding we get on the Blog page. We have and will continue to do our best to put actual information up here. We hope everyone will realize that we also have our jobs to do so sometimes it might be a while to answer even really good questions.
We didn’t have stopwatch on it but it seemed to take only about 5 minutes before Kevin pointed out that the C term in our last blog post didn’t make a lot of sense. He’s absolutely right, it doesn&... more »
August 25, 2010
The engineering department at Edison2 is pleased about the informed and civilized discussion on car efficiency that we see on our blog. A constant strand in the discussion is: where does the crossover come between rolling resistance and aero drag?
The procedure used by the automotive industry to determine resistance to motion is the coastdown. There’s an SAE standard for how to do this but, broadly, the car is either driven, pushed or pulled up to a certain speed, usually a little over 70mph, after which it is put into neutral (or release... more »
August 20, 2010
To say that the Very Light Car displays great aerodynamic efficiency is an understatement. This summer we spent a shift in the GM wind tunnel in Warren, Michigan, and we just flat-out nailed it. We recorded a 0.16 coefficient of drag: the best results ever seen in their wind tunnel, we were told.
No wonder. Our Chief of Aerodynamics is Barnaby Wainfan, the aerodynamics fellow at Northrup Grumman. The goal of aerodynamic efficiency is to punch as small a hole in the air as possible and try to close it seamlessly behind you, or as Barnaby says &l... more »
August 7, 2010
Edison2’s Very Light Car Scoffs at Electric Avenue said AutoBlog Green in January, highlighting the irony of our internal combustion engine powered car sitting in the midst of all the electrics at the Detroit Auto Show.
But electric vehicles are here to stay and an electric VLC makes sense. Our breakthroughs in platform efficiency make all vehicles way more efficient, regardless of power source, and in an electric help solve issues of cost and range.
Billions are being invested in electric vehicle technology for a number of reasons. EV&rs... more »
July 25, 2010
The first week of the X Prize finals is complete and the results are in.
Of the 12 teams that came to the finals 4 have been eliminated or have withdrawn (Amp, Tango, Tata and Spira). Very Light Cars now comprise almost a third of the entire field. It is now us against the X Tracers in the Alternative Tandem class, and us against ourselves in the Mainstream class.
Our cars did well in very challenging circumstances. Our #95 tandem car got a combined 110.8 MPGe (including almost 130 in the highway cycle), but the mainstream cars ran later... more »
July 20, 2010
The Finals stage of the Automotive X Prize is underway. Twelve teams from six countries unloaded their trailers and moved into garages Sunday and began technical inspections yesterday morning. Of the 136 cars that entered the 3 categories of the X Prize a year ago only 15 remain.
The Alternative Side-By-Side class (100+ MPGe, 100 mile range, 2 passengers seated side-by-side, 0-60 in 18 seconds) finalists are Amp, (Cincinnati, OH), Aptera, (San Diego, CA), Li-ion Motors (Mooresville, North Carolina), RaceAbout Association, (Finland), Tata Motors... more »