Concept of the Day: MG Dynamo

Meet the e-Metro.  The MG team at Longbridge (now under ownership of China’s SAIC) has created an electric city car concept – called Dynamo – on display at the SMMT this week. It’s to make its public debut in June at an MG centenary event at Silverstone. No confirmed details on its powertrain as yet, though the car itself is based on the Chinese-market Roewe E50. It’s to gauge European interest/demand in a small MG EV, apparently.

• Volvo’s showing a petrol plug-in hybrid at the Beijing Auto Show. The S60L PPHEV (as distinct from the diesel V60 PHEV and to be launched in China next year) has its 238hp turbocharged petrol engine supplemented with a 68hp motor (torque is 350Nm+ 200Nm), an eight-speed auto gearbox, selectable all-wheel drive, an integrated starter-generator for stop-start and a 11.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack.In hybrid mode, it emits 50g/km with average fuel consumption of around 141mpg; it can do up to 50km in all-electric mode; or in Power mode, both power sources combine to give 0-62mpg in 5.5 seconds. Total range is about 1000km.

• As electric motorcycles go,  the Austrian-built Johammer J1 is one of the most bizarre-looking yet. It has a promised range of over 200km (comparable with a high-spec ICE bike), and an in-wheel motor/drive system. Top speed is limited to 75mph but its acceleration is pretty brisk. Smaller-batteried 150km-range versions are available, too. Its USP, though – aside from the styling – is that it has no dash, with all info including speed, range, state of charge and soforth on a digital display on the antenna-like mirrors. There’s also hub-centre steering and double-wishbone suspension rather than conventional forks. Prices from 23,000 euros or 25,000 euros for the top-spec model…

• So Saab (in its new Chinese-owned NEVS guise) has confirmed the re-start of 9-3 Aero production (petrol engine), and said that electric versions (for China) will come later this year. More here.

• Danish start-up ECOmove (maker of the Qbeak EV concept) has delivered the first of its lightweight, (relatively) low-cost carbonfibre chassis to German firm TURN-E, for an electric Porsche 356 replica. More here. Its light weight helps give a range of around 500km.

• Some news from the Taiwan EV Show (via headlineauto.co.uk); fans of the 1950s bubble cars are targeted with the D-Face concept by D Art of Gifu (near Nagoya, Japan). This range-extended prototype – with a 7kW motor plus 3kW petrol generator – only does 45mph, but its all-electric range can be upped from 95-odd miles to nearer 190 when the engine kicks in. Apparently it’ll meet Japanese crash test regulations. More here.

• Headlineauto also reports that Japanese company Neues (Osaka) is looking for a British company from the kit car world to help develop rolling chassis for special-bodied EVs. It has two chassis under development, one for a four- or six-seater car, the other for a 10-16-seat commercial vehicle. Its show car in Taipei looks like a scaled-down London black cab, apparently, but its chassis could also support a two-seater sports car. Neues is aiming to supply these flexible platforms, which will support front, rear or all-wheel-drive and different battery/motor capacities, to independent coachbuilders.

• And an affordable Audi – a fold-away electric mini-scooter which will fit in the corner of a TT boot or something, to be offered to Audi fans in Germany. 500 have been made for Audi in Taiwan – by Dijiya Energy Saving Tech, which makes them with or without corporate branding, and which aims to be producing 50,000 a year within the next five years. Range is up to 12.5 miles, and they can be recharged in less than three hours. Dijiya (which supplied the batteries for the Think EV) also “has orders from another premium German auto manufacturer, which intends to supply a mini e-scooter as part of the standard equipment with an electrified car due to be launched later this year”, and plans to supply batteries for e-buses and to possibly expand into electric car-making (headlineauto).

• News on a mobile charging system from Spain here; looks like a heavy thing to lug around in your boot on a regular basis, but could well have application in particular settings (i.e. fleet work).

• Landfill waste to aviation fuel: a conversion facility is to be built at Thurrock, Essex, reports Green Car Congress.

• A nickel-based metal organic framework (Ni-MOF) can improve the performance of lithium-sulphur batteries, according to work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; this can guard against capacity degradation. Science bit plus full academic references at Green Car Congress.

• Ultra-fast charging at 625amps has been tested in Umea, Sweden, via an overhead pantograph system, on the Hybricon Arctic Whisper electric bus: more here. Six minutes.