Subaru R1e in Geneva Motor show 2007

Subaru show their electric concepcar R1e at Geneva Motor show 2007. The R1e is the joint development between Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd. (FHI) and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO).

R1e is based on the gasoline version R1. It is front wheel drive and has an AC permanent magnet motor with a maximum output of 40 kW, which gives a top-speed of 100km/h. The range would be 80km with its litium-ion battery co-developped with NEC. 80% of battery can be rechared in 15 minutes using a special charger and 100% within 8 hours on a standard domestic plug. The battery life is at least 240,000 km.

For me, I like it so much. But I can't find further technical infomation about it, like acceleration. I think with permanent magnet motor it shouldn't be so bad. It begins that small car like R1e or Reva (G-wiz in UK) use permanent magnet motor rather than DC motor because ussually it's smaller, higher efficiency but much more expensive...

photo from http://autoshow.autos.msn.com

Why electric car?

1. GREEN : First of all, they are clean. Zero emissions --- no NOx, no CO, no CO2 --- nothing.
2. NO MORE FUEL IN FUTURE : In 50 years or earlier, it’ll be too expensive to produce fossil fuel. That means we have to find other energy sources. Electricity can be produced by many sources; coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydraulic power or from renewable sources like wind or solar.
3. HIGH EFFICIENCY : With gasoline engine, you get less than 30% of the energy you put in your tank but with electric motor you can get more than 40% (until more than 90%) depending on how you produce electricity. Efficiency of electric motor and drive itself can be easily higher than 90%. You can drive an electric car and pay your electricity bill much less than when you drive your old gas car.
4. SILENT AND COMFORT : No more noise and vibration like gas engine. It sounds something like .... oh I don't know how to 'write' this sound.
5. LET'S PLUG YOUR CAR : Don’t waste time in gas station. Plug-in your car in your garage when you sleep or at your office when you work, just like you charge your mobile phone.
6. LOW MAINTENANCE : air filter, engine oil, oil filter, spark plug, water pump, valve setting, belt --- forget all about them.
7. It’s COOL!!!

First post

This is my first post. evpassion stands for Electric Vehicle Passion. We’ll discuss all about electric cars. I have a plan to collect information of all electric cars I’ve known so far. In this post I just want to let you know about "my exiting" :). so let’s see my F.A.Q.

This Thursday (29/03/07) I am going to a conference and exhibition called EVER in Monaco. It’s about electric vehicles and renewable energies. I think it’s like EVS (a conference on electric vehicle). I know there’ll be many electric cars there. I’ll try to get some photos and report about this when I come back.


MY F.A.Q.

Q: Let’s talk about you?
A: I am Thai. (so I’m sorry if my english is not so good, please try to understand what I write) I am studying Ph.D. in Lille, France. My work is about the optimization of electric propulsion system for rolling stock.

Q: Your work is about the train but why do you write about electric cars?
A: So, train is my work but car is my passion, that’s all.

Q: And why electric car?
A: I think electric car is our future. It would be the world’s revolution. I wanna be a part of this legend. J

Q: We can find only electric cars in this blog?
A: I’ll try to do so but I don’t think I can stop myself to talk about the cars I like.

Q: Why do you write this blog?
A: First I’ve heard about Google Adsense and I want to make some money from this thing. So I need a website. Then I think why I don’t write about something I like. That’s why I start this blog that we can talk, share what we know about electric cars.