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| All About Automotive Information |
| basic4automotive.blogspot Your Internet Automotive Links Directory offers everyone a great starting place for their car search, whether your looking for discount car parts and accessories, car repair help and advice, auto news and car related articles or just simple car information for your car, truck,or motorcycle |
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| Gearless in Great Britain: Fast charger in action |
| 2010-04-11 11:51:56 |
Robert Llewellyn is a Brit with a keen interest in electric cars who is one of those leasing a Mitsubishi iMiev this year. He's got a great weekly video podcast, Gearless, chronicling his experiences. This week, Quick Charge. Using the same Japanese device I visited in Vacaville last week.
He uses quaint British time-measurement terms. "A cuppa and bacon bun" is how long it takes to fill up. I wish he'd been more specific, using standard quantitative terms (like minutes,) giving us the state of charge he arrived with and left with.
Anyway, Robert is wowed by how quickly the car charges. We can see that the charger delivered 345 volts at 70 amps, which is actually on the slow side for fast chargers. Check it out:
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| Billion Dollars a Day |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
VoteVets.org has a campaign to highlight the true cost of our oil addiction. Yet another argument for plug-in cars....
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| "Transmission Losses:" 5 die in Wash. refinery blast, fire |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
An explosion and fire at a Washington state oil refinery shook homes and shot flames into the night sky early Friday, killing five people and critically injuring two others....The blast was the biggest fatal refinery accident since a 2005 explosion at a BP American refinery in Texas killed 15 people and injured another 170, authorities said....The state of Washington fined Tesoro $85,700 a year ago after an inspection found 17 serious safety and health violations at the Anacortes refinery. The state Department of Labor and Industries reached an agreement with the company in November requiring the hazards to be corrected and an independent safety audit, the agency said on its Web site. The fine was reduced to $12,250, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’...
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| Big news: LEAF in the mid- 20s |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
The Nissan LEAF, the first all-electric car to be mass marketed by a major automaker, will come in around $25,000, with help from the federal tax credit of $7500. At 25% of the cost of a Tesla, we're no longer talking about a car for millionaires.If you live in a state that recognizes the benefits of EVs with rebates and incentives of their own, the LEAF could come in as low as about $21,000. If you don't, get active with your state legislators.Get ready to sign up, $99 refundable deposit, on April 20.More info at NissanUSA...
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| Transmission Losses: Motorist Dies in Flash Fire at Gas Station |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
A motorist today died today after his car caught fire on a petrol station forecourt, police said.Firefighters said the "flash" fire had been contained inside the car and no-one else was hurt.Police said fire was thought to have broken out shortly after the man had bought fuel and climbed into the car at a Shell garage in Guyhirn, Cambridgeshire."It obviously could have been much worse," said a police spokeswoman. "It seems that the fire didn't spread at all and the garage was able to reopen."[Source: The Independent]...
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| "Transmission Losses" A 2Fer - Oil and Coal |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
Small patches of oil were seen Sunday from a coal-carrying ship that ran aground on Australia's Great Barrier Reef....Authorities fear an oil spill would cause environmental damage to the world's largest coral reef...The vessel was carrying about 72,000 U.S. tons (65,000 metric tons) of coal from the Queensland port of Gladstone to China. It has 1,000 U.S. tons (950 metric tons) of oil on board.Conservationists have expressed outrage that bulk carriers can travel through the reef without a marine pilot with local expertise.[Source: SFgate.com]...
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| Fast charger comes to Voltageville: A Glimpse at the Future |
| 2010-04-11 11:50:52 |
In 2001 I began driving an electric car, obtaining the last of the ZEV mandate-required EVs. As I got turned on to the benefits and technological readiness of electric cars, the writing was on the wall and EVs began to disappear from California's roads. I got enthused just as the automakers, CARB, the feds, and major environmental organizations ended their various flirtations with EVs. The notion of the plug-in hybrid revived the hope of plugging in. I made my peace with the notion of a transition vehicle, with a plug and an engine. GM announced the Volt.Then a couple of years ago Carlos Ghosn had some sort of epiphany and announced Nissan's belief in the inevitable electrification of cars, and Nissan's intention to lead the transition. He defied conventional thinking by moving directly ...
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| Automotive - Audi e-tron Detroit Show Car |
| 2010-02-10 14:21:00 |
Despite the lack of a new name, Audi's latest take on its e-tron EV for the 2010 Detroit show is in fact a unique concept. As with the first e-tron that debuted at last year's Frankfurt show, the Detroit show e-tron concept is based on the R8's aluminum spaceframe, but is more than a foot shorter than its predecessor and nearly 500-pounds lighter. Perhaps most surprisingly, the Detroit car loses its front electric motors, meaning it does not feature Audi's signature quattro all-wheel drive. Instead, two motors mounted on the rear axle combine for an estimated 201 hp and 1955 lb-ft of torque (the latter figure apparently continues Audi's highly suspect practice of providing multiplied torque figures).
Audi E Tron Detroit Show Car Rear
The result is a concept that's slightly less capable than the original e-tron (0-62 mph takes an estimated 5.9 seconds) but potentially more fun thanks to its small size - it looks positively diminutive next to an R8 -- and relatively light weight (less ...
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| Automotive - Executive Privileges: Luxury Sport Sedan Comparison |
| 2010-02-10 10:18:00 |
Fifty grand is a lot of money, certainly in a recessionary economy riddled with layoffs, bailouts, furloughs, and pay cuts. In some parts of the country, that kind of cash would not only make for a healthy down payment on a home, it would also cover the entire cost of the home. Yet, when it comes to a premium mid-level sport sedan from a luxury automaker, whether with six- or eight-cylinder power, $50,000 is pretty much the price of entry.
Eight Luxury Sport Sedan Comparison Rear Collage
Scan the present offerings -- Acura RL, Audi A6 3.0T, BMW 535i, Cadillac CTS 3.6 DI, Infiniti M35, Jaguar XF 4.2, Lexus GS 350, and Mercedes-Benz E350 -- and the average base price comes out to nearly $49,000, with a high of $52,000 (XF) and a low of $44,650 (CTS). Through September 2009, sales of these nameplates were down 29 percent compared with 2008, but that still translates to nearly 110,000 Americans writing $50,000 checks during those nine months. Recession? That just means S-Class buyers and...
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| Automotive - First Test: 2011 BMW 535i |
| 2010-02-10 09:11:00 |
Full disclosure: I do not now, nor have I ever -- since its introduction -- liked the current-generation BMW 5 Series. While it was a tour de force in technological boundary-pushing, in this humble scribe's opinion, that car represented a retrograde move where driving pleasure is concerned.
It may have generated great numbers, but I always felt uncomfortably aware that my hands and feet were ordering a lot of electrons around when they spun the wheel or worked the pedals. It generally went where it was pointed, but I never felt like I could take full credit for getting it there. Early Active Steering was a mess, although it was improved markedly during the production run of the E60/E61 5er.
2011 BMW 535I Front 1
The first-generation iDrive was, shall we just say, arguably suboptimal in some ergonomic respects. And perhaps worst of all, the styling was a bit jarring. Well, like-minded friends-of-the-old-5, rejoice: So revised is this sixth-generation car that its model series ac...
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