Cheap Gas Car Blog

New Battery To Yield Big Hybrid Results

CSIRO researchers in Melbourne Australia have developed a new version of lead-acid battery that is cheap, and can store large amounts of energy like the current nickel-metal hydride batteries used in cars such as the Toyota Prius.

The current battery set-up works better than lead-acid because lead-acid batteries form corrosive deposits when they are charged and used repeatedly over a short period of time, and they lose their long life of power, making them break-down in a sense.

The researchers have combined a lead-acid battery with a capacitor to reduce the corrosion on the batteries metal plates.  Making the lead-acid batteries last as long as nivkel-metal hydrid ones.

"By acting as a buffer during charging and discharging, the capacitor boosts the battery's life to match that of NiMH batteries," The company reported.

The new battery is said to boost power output by fifty percent ad last four times as long as a standard lead-acid bettery.  A test vehicle has drivin more than 185,000 km's  with the prototype batteries installed. 

The cost of the battery is projected to be a third of the current battery costs in current hybrid auto's.  The battery is slated for production in 2009 in the US.

GM Volt to Debut by 2010

General Motors want to unveil plug-in hybrid by 2010, and sell as many as Toyota's Prius.

After releasing a couple new photos of their highly anticipated plug-in hybrid car, GM says this will be it's first real foray into extended range electric vehicle driving.

[caption id="attachment_44" align="alignright" width="290" caption="New Chevy Volt Electric Vehicle"][/caption]

GM reports that the plug-in Volt will drive up to 40 miles on battery power alone, before requiring it's gasoline engine to kick in.  GM has been testing the Volt's powertrain and plug-in battery system for the last several months, in several different body types, but has not yet publicly released production photo's of the Volt to the public yet.  The design for the new Volt is done, it just hasn't been released.  This new electric plug-in vehicle, the Chevy Voly, is supposed to hit the showrooms in 2010.

Compressed Air Car May Be Reality

New York company will build compressed air car for under $18,000 by 2010

Compressed air could would be the first mass produced vehicle of it's kind, acheiving up to 106 miles per gallon.  The car is expected to be ready by 2010, and at a price tag of $18,000.  It would be a six seat model, and reach speeds up to 90 miles per hour, with a fuel range of more than 800 miles due to its dual energy engine.  The motor will be a fuel compressed air combination, with one or more storage tanks of compressed air as well as a tank of fuel wich would be atleast 8 gallons in size.    The car will run on compressed air at speeds under 35 miles per hour, and any speed above that, an external combustion engine that runs on a combination of gas, biofuel, or vegetable oil would be used.

An onborad air compressor would refill the tank while the car is runnin, or the cars owner could plug it into an electrical source and have it refilled within 4 hours.