Green supercar!

Get this: 550 pound-feet of torque, 640 horsepower, and it uses no gasoline at all:

Click the image to see the story.

Yup, this sexy beast is a fully electric car. Some more amazing stats: 250-mile range using regenerative braking and nano-lithium-titanate batteries that are claimed to charge in only 10 minutes and maintain 85% capacity after 15,000 charges.

Wow! I want one. Oh, except for one small detail: It costs about $300,000.

But if this is coming soon, the rest of us will be able to get our hands on really cool, durable, and practical electrics not long after.

Best,
Chris

Green supercar!

Get this: 550 pound-feet of torque, 640 horsepower, and it uses no gasoline at all:

Click the image to see the story.

Yup, this sexy beast is a fully electric car. Some more amazing stats: 250-mile range using regenerative braking and nano-lithium-titanate batteries that are claimed to charge in only 10 minutes and maintain 85% capacity after 15,000 charges.

Wow! I want one. Oh, except for one small detail: It costs about $300,000.

But if this is coming soon, the rest of us will be able to get our hands on really cool, durable, and practical electrics not long after.

Best,
Chris

electric car follow-up

Another cool electric-car company is Hybrid Technologies (thanks to gryphonrose for the tip). They also make products for moving your house off the electric net:

Click the image to see the company's website.

Here are some really cool things about electric cars: It'll be much simpler to update our driving infrastructure to suit electric than hydrogen. Also, I read a great article recently about how the electric grid doesn't actually need more power plants if we have 220-volt electric cars that serve as power storage. The argument goes thus:

If we leave our electric cars plugged in all the time, they spend 90% or more of their time sitting parked, charging or selling power back to the grid during high-demand times. Most of the time, the grid produces much more power than people use, but they have to keep it charged at full capacity that might get used or we'll have brown-outs. However, the grid could be buffered by using millions of electric cars sitting idle, drawing from their batteries (which would provide refunds to the cars' owners) as needed.

I love it! More electric cars could equal less power-plant construction.

Best,
Chris

electric car follow-up

Another cool electric-car company is Hybrid Technologies (thanks to gryphonrose for the tip). They also make products for moving your house off the electric net:

Click the image to see the company's website.

Here are some really cool things about electric cars: It'll be much simpler to update our driving infrastructure to suit electric than hydrogen. Also, I read a great article recently about how the electric grid doesn't actually need more power plants if we have 220-volt electric cars that serve as power storage. The argument goes thus:

If we leave our electric cars plugged in all the time, they spend 90% or more of their time sitting parked, charging or selling power back to the grid during high-demand times. Most of the time, the grid produces much more power than people use, but they have to keep it charged at full capacity that might get used or we'll have brown-outs. However, the grid could be buffered by using millions of electric cars sitting idle, drawing from their batteries (which would provide refunds to the cars' owners) as needed.

I love it! More electric cars could equal less power-plant construction.

Best,
Chris

Astro-image of the Day: Martian avalanches!

Wow! In this photo, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures not just one but at least four avalanches on Mars:


Click the image to see the story.

Best,
Chris

Astro-image of the Day: Martian avalanches!

Wow! In this photo, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures not just one but at least four avalanches on Mars:


Click the image to see the story.

Best,
Chris