Showing posts with label electric cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electric cars. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
VIDEO: Nürburgring Nordschleife Electric Lap Record Lap with Toyota TMG EV
And here's the video... mental fast! Instant electric power is fascinating to watch and weird to hear! Great driving too Jochen.
NEWS: Toyota Break Nürburgring EV Record Again
Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) continued its record-breaking success with the TMG EV P002 – setting a new electric record on the legendary 20.8km Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, with an electric (sorry!) time of 7:22,329, with driver Jochen Krumbach at the helm. This smashed their own record set by TMG last August by over 25 seconds! This achievement marks the second milestone for TMG’s electric powertrain this year following its new record at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, United States. As with the Pikes Peak success, TMG’s latest electric milestone used pioneering off-board battery-to-battery charging technology. The TMG DC Quick Charger was developed in partnership with Schneider Electric GmbH to meet the challenge of recharging an electric race car at tracks without reliable access to grid power. Mounted in the rear of a Toyota Hiace van, the TMG DC Quick Charger uses Schneider Electric’s EV Link technology and includes a 42kWh lithium ion battery, which can be charged direct from the AC power grid. After an overnight charge, the TMG DC Quick Charger is able to quickly deliver high levels of power to a battery-based electric car without additional installation or infrastructure, making it the perfect solution for electric motorsport.
Ludwig Zeller, TMG General Manager Electrics and Electronics: "Since our Nürburgring record last year, we have developed our electric powertrain to deliver more power, more consistently, over a longer distance by managing the temperature of batteries, motors and inverter. Pikes Peak was a clear illustration of the improvements and we have now reinforced that at the Nürburgring. But this achievement is not only about on-track performance; we are also very proud of the DC Quick Charger which again provided a reliable power supply in a remote location. This is an aspect of electric motorsport which has not been discussed at length but it is very significant; electric race cars need to be charged and it is a challenge to have the right infrastructure at race tracks, particularly temporary street circuits. Together with our partners at Schneider Electric, we have developed a solution to charge a race car literally anywhere in the world. This, along with the TMG EV P002 powertrain, represents a major step forward for electric motorsport." Incredible stuff. You are staring at the future her folks...! Like it or not, it's darn impressive stuff...
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
NEWS: Audi R8 e-tron Sets Nürburgring Nordschleife EV Lap Record
Audi's exciting new R8 e-tron has just set a new lap record at the ultra-challenging Nürburgring Nordschleife for electrically powered production vehicles. Racing driver, Markus Winkelhock put in a time of 8:09.099 minutes on the 12.92-mile track, in the new all-electric sports car with 280 kW (equivalent to approximately 380PS)... adding another Green Hell accolade to their overall wins at the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring (oh, an and Le Mans!). "The R8 e-tron has given a magnificent demonstration of its potential on the toughest race track in the world," said Michael Dick, AUDI AG Board Member for Technical Development. Dick, who completed a fast lap himself in the R8 e-tron, added: "The record-setting drive confirmed that we are on the right track. To us, electric mobility has never been about sacrifice, but rather is about emotion, sportiness and driving pleasure."A comparison with the current record lap driven by a production car with a conventional combustion engine shows just how impressive the 8:09.099-minute time really is. The record time of 7:11.57 minutes was achieved by a Gumpert Apollo Sport, which is powered by a 700PS Audi V8 petrol engine. The all-electric Audi R8 e-tron was just over one minute behind that. Impressive...
The drive system of the Audi R8 e-tron that Markus Winkelhock drove to the world record is identical to that of the road-going model that will enter production towards the end of the year. The car’s electric motors generate a combined output of 280 kW and 820 Nm of torque; more than 4,900 Nm (3,614.05 lb-ft) is distributed to the rear wheels virtually from a standing start. The Audi R8 e-tron accelerates from zero to 62mph in just 4.6 seconds. Its top speed is normally limited to 124mph (and Markus Winkelhock drove two fast laps in one go in a second R8 e-tron that was limited to 124mph, recording 8:30.873 and 8:26.096 minutes, both well under the important nine-minute threshold); 155mph was approved for the record-setting lap. It has a range of 133 miles, although most likely not at this sort of race pace. And it weighs in at just 1,780 kilograms, despite the large battery, thanks to an all aluminium body.
"The record drives were a fantastic experience for me," said Markus Winkelhock. The 32-year-old, who lives near Stuttgart, has a high standard for comparison – the Audi R8 LMS ultra, in which he, along with Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase and Frank Stippler, won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring a few weeks ago. "Of course, the R8 e-tron is a production car, not a racing car with the assistance of aerodynamics," Winkelhock emphasised. "But with its low centre of gravity and rear biased weight distribution, it brings with it a lot of sporty qualities. The torque with which the electric motors propel the car uphill beats everything that I know – even if they make hardly any noise in the process, which at the start was really a completely new experience for me. In places where I really need traction, the torque vectoring – the displacement of the torque between the powered wheels – really helps me."
Michael Dick proudly summed up events after the record-setting drive at the Nürburgring. "Within just a few weeks we’ve taken on some big challenges and in the process we’ve shown that we are at the forefront with all of our drive concepts," he said, adding: "We won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in May in the Audi R8 LMS ultra with a ten-cylinder engine. In mid-June we triumphed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro – the first overall victory for a hybrid-electric vehicle in the toughest race in the world. And now we’ve set another record with the all-electric-drive R8 e-tron on the most demanding track there is."
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