German electric airplane is ready to fly

From the Green Car Congress: PC-Aero, a German aircraft design, engineering and consulting company for general and business aviation, in December 2010 successfully performed the static tests on the 1-seat Elektra One prototype electric powered aircraft for German Ultralight Certification.

The structure of the aircraft (wing, fuselage and tails) was loaded up to limit load.

In November 2010, PC-Aero performed the rollout of the electric airplane with running engine. This event took place at the Rotortec company in Görisried/Germany, where the aircraft is being prepared for first flight, which is scheduled for this month.

Elektra One, intended to be the first member of an electric aircraft family, was presented for the first time at the AERO 2010, The Global Show for General Aviation, in Friedrichshafen/Germany.

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BMW electric supercar could be named the i8 and cost 200,000 dollars

From Green Car Reports: BMW is pressing forward with its plans to build a production version of the striking plug-in hybrid concept car it called Vision Efficient Dynamics, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2009.

According to reports filtering out of Germany, the model that goes on sale in October 2013 may be called the i8 and cost roughly $200,000.

BMW's "i" sub-brand, for which a logo was leaked a couple of weeks ago, stems from its uber-green "Project i" research program. The "i" name will also be applied to the radical "MegaCity" carbon-fiber all-electric car that's scheduled to launch in 2013. You could consider the "i" label the green counterpart to its "M" series of performance editions.

The company hasn't announced which "i" number the MegaCity Vehicle will carry, though betting is on either zero or one. But if the i8 label is confirmed for the Vision Efficient Dynamics, it would clearly position the production plug-in hybrid as a counterpart to BMW's 8-Series sports coupe.

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BMW to launch its electric series, the i

Tweet this post The BMW MegaCity will be the German manufacturer's first production electric vehicle, part of the future i Series.

The MegaCity, still under development, will be presented during the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is not expected to go on sale until 2013.

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VIDEO: Mercedes electric SLS AMG review

After Tesla, it was just a matter of time before Mercedes supercars went electric. UK's Auto Express has tested the SLS AMG E-Cell, a car with not one, but four electric motors.

With an impressive estimated autonomy of 200 km (125 miles), the SLS AMG E-Cell promisses to deliver the same thrills of a V8 - almost, as it is 400kg heavier than the non-EV SLS.

And it will be probably twice as expensive, Auto Express states, although there's still a lot for Mercedes to reveal about the model. The SLS AMG E-Cell is expected to debut in the markets somewhen between late 2012 and early 2013.

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Germany calls for global EV and mobility standards

The standard use of AC charging plug standard IEC 62196-2 Type 2 vehicle inlet, priority for wired charging over inductive charging and battery swapping and the standardisation of batteries at cellular level are some of the proposals made by the German National Platform for Electromobility in an interim report revealed by Cars21.

The working group led by Audi and RWE utility company also calls for increased cooperation with China, for a German-Chinese led standardisation process. The uniformisation of charging interfaces, charging stations and battery safety rules is identified by the group as the most important requirement for a successful market introduction of electric vehicles.

Read more at Cars21 and download the interim report (in German)

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Cars21: Germany's electricity grid ready for millions of EVs

From Cars21: An interim report of the National Electromobility Platform concludes that Germany’s grid is ready for electric vehicles. Only upgrades in some regions are needed to handle far more than the 1 million EVs on the street forecasted for 2020.

As part of the National Electromobility Platform (NEP), the working group "Charging Infrastructure and Network Integration" is chaired by experts from energy service provider E.ON AG and Siemens and submitted their key findings to the German federal government recently. The report points out that the German government’s smart grid plans, including the integration of up to 1 million electric cars by 2020, will generally not pose a problem for the power grid. Only in cases of a locally high density of electric cars could isolated segments of the grid be overloaded and require upgrading.

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EVs and hybrids: BMW to hire 2,600 new employees

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s larger maker of luxury vehicles, is increasing hiring as the company expands its lineup to meet environmental regulators’ demand for cleaner-running cars.

The manufacturer plans to add 1,300 employees this year and at least 1,300 in 2011, Michael Rebstock, a spokesman at Munich- based BMW, said today by phone. The maker of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models aims to add expertise in electric vehicles, hybrid powertrains and cleaner combustion engines to develop models with lower carbon-dioxide emissions, he said.

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Concept car the helios lizard

Kim Gu-Han of Universitat Dulsburg-Essen, Germany, wants to build a solar-powered car that can charge itself entirely from the sun. The problem is the limited space for photovoltaic panels on a car’s roof. The Helios overcomes that limitation by acting like a frill-neck lizard. When stationary, the off-road vehicle can unfurl a large set of photovoltaic cells to produce enough energy to run the car, with excess energy for home power. The Helios won Best Use of Technology category at the Interior Motives Design Awards 2008.

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Concept car the helios lizard

Kim Gu-Han of Universitat Dulsburg-Essen, Germany, wants to build a solar-powered car that can charge itself entirely from the sun. The problem is the limited space for photovoltaic panels on a car’s roof. The Helios overcomes that limitation by acting like a frill-neck lizard. When stationary, the off-road vehicle can unfurl a large set of photovoltaic cells to produce enough energy to run the car, with excess energy for home power. The Helios won Best Use of Technology category at the Interior Motives Design Awards 2008.

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