BMW announced this week that it will unveil a racy plug-in hybrid concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September.
Called the Vision, the new vehicle will combine a three-cylinder, 1.5-liter turbo-diesel engine with a 10.8 kW-hr lithium polymer battery. Using the energy stored in its 98 lithium polymer cells, it will be capable of driving 31 miles in an all-electric mode. When running only on its diesel engine, it will get fuel efficiency of 62.6 mpg and offer a range of about 400 miles.
The Vision’s real eye-opener, however, will be its speed. BMW says it will go from 0 to 100 km/hr in 4.8 seconds and will hit a top speed of 155 mph.
Charging will take about 2.5 hours at a 220-V outlet, BMW says.
In the wake of the Chevy Volt fire investigations, sales are down, and General Motors' (GM) CEO Dan Akerson is blaming the downturn on a spate of bad publicity.
Smith Electric Vehicles teamed with Trans Tech Bus to roll out a 42-passenger, 26,000-lb electric bus called the Newton eTrans, which it hopes will change the way children get to school every morning.
If you're a prospective Volt owner who wants to load your lithium-ion battery with renewable energy electrons, Chevrolet says it has found a way to help you.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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