Enginer | Solar Powered Prius Plug-in PHEV Conversion Kit with Lithium-Ion | Hybrid. Turn Your Car Into a Plug-In Hybrid for $3,000 | Autopia. Photo: MTSU After five years of research, students at the University of Middle Tennessee have installed a full plug-in hybrid kit in a stock 1994 Honda Accord. The setup gives between 50 and 100 percent better gas mileage with two electric motors delivering power directly to the rear wheels, leaving the engine-powered front wheels to work with little effort.
The price of all the parts comes to about $3,000 and can be applied to almost any car. Energy for the motors comes from a lithium ion phosphate battery that sits in the trunk. The battery in the research vehicle is big and ugly so it can easily transmit data, but the production version will be about “the size of a carry-on bag,” said head researcher Professor Charles Perry. The twin three-phase DC brushless motors sit in the empty interior around the rear brakes. They power the wheels directly, rather than going through the drive shaft like other hybrids.
100 Reasons ‹ Electric Boat Motor Conversions. Plug-In Hybrid Retrofit Kit Could Greatly Improve Gas Millage For Only $3000. From Earth Techling's Nino Marchetti: The bright minds of young college students and their mentors are at work again in the world of green technology. This time around the scene is Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and the item being developed is a plug-in hybrid retrofit kit said to work with almost any car.
Professor Charles Perry and a rotating group of MTSU students associated with the university’s Department of Engineering Technology have, for the last few years, been developing a wheel hub, plug-in hybrid retrofit kit. This green car technology, currently in proof of concept stage, is now being shopped around to private investors for funding to demonstrate a manufacturing version of it. Perry’s wheel hub technology, according to MTSU, was recently outfitted on a 1994 Honda station wagon and helped this research vehicle to see a gas mileage increase anywhere from 50 to 100 percent. In a video which you can watch below, Perry describes how the technology works. Plug-in Hybrids. Plug-in hybrids, sometimes called Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), are hybrids with high-capacity batteries that can be charged by plugging them into an electrical outlet or charging station.
They can store enough electricity from the power grid to significantly reduce their petroleum consumption under typical driving conditions. Different Kinds of Plug-in Hybrids There are two basic plug-in hybrid configurations: Series plug-in hybrids, also called Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs). Only the electric motor turns the wheels; the gasoline engine is only used to generate electricity. Series plug-ins can run solely on electricity until the battery needs to be recharged. The gasoline engine then generates electricity to power the electric motor. Plug-in hybrids also have different battery capacities, allowing some to travel farther on electricity than others.
Benefits and Challenges Find out more about green power and how you can purchase it in your state. Less Petroleum Use. DIY Hybrid Electric Car. EV Car Kits - Welcome! Convert an Old Car to a Hybrid - Green Transportation. Inhabitat. Inhabitat. Solar vehicles and efficient vehicles. The Accelerated Composites Aptera will be produced as an all electric and as a plug in hybrid. Seating for two adults + an infant seat behind. Zero to 60 in 10 secs, top speed around 85 mph. Drag coefficient of 0.05., weight 850 lbs, range 120 miles(?). While it is licensed as a motorcycle, they have put a lot of emphasis on safety including air bags and front, side, and rollover protection.
Their goal is to offer the EV version in late 2008 and the hybrid version in late 2009 -- prices projected to start at $27K. Pretty exciting vehicle. Update: some delays, but it they have paid reservations for 5000+ vehicles. The 'chemputer' that could print out any drug. Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient presence, a one-man catalyst. "I just want to get stuff done fast," he says. And: "I am a control freak in rehab. " Cronin, 39, is the leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition. A couple of years ago, at a TED conference, he described one goal as the creation of "inorganic life", and went on to detail his efforts to generate "evolutionary algorithms" in inert matter. He still hopes to "create life" in the next year or two.
At the same time, one branch of that thinking has itself evolved into a new project: the notion of creating downloadable chemistry, with the ultimate aim of allowing people to "print" their own pharmaceuticals at home. The idea is very much at the conception stage, but as he walks me around his labs Cronin begins to outline how that "paradigm-changing" project might progress.
What would this mean? 7 talks on the wonder of 3D printing. From ordering movie tickets to booking a dentist appointment, mobile and web apps have made the tasks of daily life easier. But there are some things that an app can’t do. Standing in line at the pharmacy is one of them. Lee Cronin: Print your own medicineIn today’s talk, Lee Cronin asks: “Could we make a really cool universal chemistry set?
In essence, could we app chemistry?” With his team of researchers at the University of Glasgow, Cronin has created a 3D printing application that allows scientists to print out laboratory equipment specific to the experiment they wish to run — something they’ve called “reactionware.” Someday, Cronin says, the same software that runs reactionware could open up the doors of possibility. At TED, we love sharing stories of 3D printing and its rapidly developing power to make new things possible.
Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing So what exactly is 3D printing? David F.