Ener1 Lithium-ion Battery System

First Integrated Platform of Its Kind Offers Quick, Cost-Effective Solution Scalable to Suit Wide Range of Vehicle Applications
Ener1 Lithium-ion Battery System
NEW YORK, July 27 -- A new, fully integrated electric drive train developed by electric vehicle pioneer, Think, and powered by a lithium-ion battery system made by U.S.-based EnerDel (subsidiary of Ener1, Inc. Nasdaq: HEV), has been delivered to Japan Post via Zero Sports. Zero Sports of Japan has been selected by Japan Post as one of the conversion partners for delivering vehicles as part of a comprehensive on-road testing program which has been fast-tracked by the Japan Postal Service to electrify their fleet of 22,000 delivery vehicles. With the support of strategic partner ITOCHU Corporation, who organized this project, Ener1 provided engineering support on the delivery of the first two postal service vehicles to Japan Post via Zero Sports.

The drivetrain is being used to convert a gasoline -powered truck to run entirely on electric drive. The real -life data will be shared with other major users and potential customers of electric vehicles, including other postal fleets in Europe and the Americas.

Initially developed for the Th!nk City electric car, the complete system is the first of its kind to provide off-the-shelf availability combined with made-to-order performance in a wide variety of plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicle (EV) applications.

"The ability to deliver a fully integrated, road-ready package that can be quickly tailored to suit a wide range of vehicle solutions is a major step forward for both of our companies," said Ener1 Chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer. "By significantly reducing time-to-market for our customers and meeting accelerated production milestones has opened up avenues of opportunity in exciting new programs. We are happy to be able to announce one such program today."

The new technology platform being utilized for this program unites Think's industry-leading EV drive system with EnerDel's award-winning lithium-ion battery technology. A spin-out of Ford Motor Company in 2003, Think Global has more than 18 years' experience in producing environmentally friendly vehicles. The two companies began an active partnership in 2007, with EnerDel developing a 26-kWh battery system for the Th!nk City vehicle, the first pure electric vehicle of its kind to use the next- generation technology.

"We have seen growing interest in supplying Think's proprietary EV drive system to third parties, a significant new business line and revenue opportunity," said Think Global CEO Richard Canny. "Our long standing relationship with EnerDel has culminated in one of the most advanced battery electric drive train systems in the world, producing reliable, high performance systems, which are both cost-effective and highly adaptable."

The Japan Postal Service is currently converting 25 percent of its fleet of combustion engine vehicles to electric drive as part of a government push to accelerate market adoption and infrastructure development for electric drive vehicles. It is anticipated that federal fleets across the world will be soon to follow their example. Initially they will develop a fleet of pure electric vehicles for testing in general business and sales use in the Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures, where the two conversion vehicles are currently undergoing on road testing. A picture of the vehicle may be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/meauur.

"Asia has long pioneered the future of electric drive, and Japan in particular has been a global leader in advancing its adoption," Gassenheimer said. "We are pleased to be working on such a high-profile project, and excited to be contributing EnerDel's proprietary lithium-ion battery technology designed and produced here in America. Working alongside our European partner Think, this has become a valuable global enterprise."

ITOCHU Corporation, a multi-billion dollar Japanese trading company and seed investor in Ener1 has been instrumental in expanding the Ener1 and Think commercial presence in Japan through its broad sales and marketing network. Ener1 is also partnering with Kyushu Electric Power ("KEPCO"), one of the largest public power and utility companies in Japan to create and manufacture rapid recharging systems for electric vehicles.

About Ener1, Inc.:

Ener1 develops and manufactures compact, high performance lithium-ion batteries to power the next generation of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles. The publicly traded company is led by an experienced team of engineers and energy system experts at its EnerDel subsidiary located in Indiana. In addition to the automobile market, applications for Ener1 lithium-ion battery technology include the military, grid storage and other growing markets.

Ener1 also develops commercial fuel cell products through its EnerFuel subsidiary and nanotechnology-based materials and manufacturing processes for batteries and other applications through its NanoEner subsidiary.

About Th!nk :

TH!NK was established in Norway in 1991 and designs, develops, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies designed to be smart, flexible and to deliver state-of-the-art and safe urban mobility solutions. The TH!NK City is the company's latest generation EV, and offers a range of 180km per charge and a top speed of 100 km/h.

Automobile History

Car" redirects here. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).



Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) - entered into an early automobile race

Passenger cars in 2000An automobile (via French from Greek auto, self and Latin mobilis moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.[1] However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks.



There were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every eleven people) as of 2002.[2]

Main article: History of the automobile

Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran, while others claim Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam powered car around 1672.[3][4] In either case François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine which was fuelled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir who each produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.[5]



In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.[6]



An automobile powered by an Otto gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie. which was founded in 1883.



Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz is generally acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.[5] In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle and in 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal combustion flat engine.



Approximately 25 Benz vehicles were built and sold before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.



Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler seem to have been unaware of each other's early work and worked independently.



Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed a model named Daimler-Mercedes, special-ordered by Emil Jellinek. Two years later, a new model DMG automobile was produced and named Mercedes after the engine. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.



Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later and in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising—marketing their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands. On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929.



In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[7] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894[8] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs.[8] The first production vehicles came from the Daimler Motor Company, founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, and making their first cars in 1897.[8]



In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel got a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine.[5] In 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent(U.S. Patent 549,160 ) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered more than encouraged development of autos in the United States. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.



Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success

Chrysler Firepower V8 engine The extreme rear of the sport concept car

Chrysler Firepower V8 engine The extreme rear of the sport concept car

The Chrysler Firepower is an attractive and powerful concept, reaching 60 miles an hour in less than 4.5 seconds and continuing on to 175mph.
The Chrysler Firepower is based on a Dodge Viper chassis, and it's not impossible to see a resemblance. Muscular rear arches, wide low and flat bonnet and a cockpit pushed to the extreme rear of the car.
The rear view, especially the taillights and boot lid, have a distinct Aston Martin vibe. This similarity is not by accident, both cars are intended as luxury tourers designed to compete in the same market. Although the Firepower would probably be termed 'the poor mans Aston Martin.

Chrysler Firepower V8 interior

Tesla Roadster Electric Sports Car by Tesla Motors

Tesla Roadster Electric Sports Car by Tesla Motors

The first electric car manufactured by Tesla Motors, the high-performance, zero-emissions Tesla Roadster sports car, was unveiled before a crowd of car buffs and potential customers.
The electric Tesla Roadster has the equivalent of 135 mpg and a range of 250 miles on a single charge, a combination unseen until now in a mass-produced electric car. Its extended range is due to its state-of-the-art lithium-ion Energy Storage System.
The Tesla Roadster is capable of accelerating from 0-60 mph in four seconds.
Using a unique two-speed electrically activated manual transmission, the Tesla Roadster's power comes from a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor. The motor is controlled by the Power Electronics Module (PEM) which also controls the inverting direct current to 3-phase alternating current, charging and braking systems.

Tesla Roadster Electric Sports Car by Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors's engineers have gone to great lengths to ensure that not only is the Tesla Roadster safe to drive, but also is safe when charging, at home or on the road.
The electric motor's efficiency rating is likely to be as high as 95 percent, while the internal combustion engine's efficiency is 20 percent or less. With this efficiency, the Tesla Roadster achieves the equivalent of 135 mpg.
That efficiency doesn't slow this sleek sports car down, either. Estimated 0-60 mph time is around four seconds, and with an electric motor
, the torque is instantaneous, throw-you-back-in-the-seat responsive.