Swappable Battery News: Better Place Opens Its First European Station, and the Renault Fluence is Cheap in the U.K.

Swappable Battery News: Better Place Opens Its First European Station, and the Renault Fluence is Cheap in the U.K.: "

Better Place, an Israeli company that developed an automated electric-vehicle-battery swap station, expanded beyond the Middle East this week, opening its first station in Europe. The Denmark station will function as do the other Better Place stations in Israel, automatically removing the enormous battery pack from a special Renault Fluence Z.E. electric car and reinstalling a fresh unit. This holds a great deal of promise for EVs; current electric vehicle technology is limited not only by battery capacity and recharge time, but by infrastructural hurdles like a lack of available charging stations. A battery switching station—itself a gargantuan bit of infrastructure that would need to be paid for and installed—helps solve at least some of these issues by swapping the depleted battery pack out of an electric car for a fresh, fully charged battery pack in a timely manner, eliminating the typical several-hour wait for a full battery recharge.

At the same time, Renault is launching the Fluence Z.E. in the U.K., and has priced the vehicle very reasonably. How reasonably? Try £17,850 after a £5000 government grant for plug-in cars. At current exchange rates, that translates to $28,535, a whopping $5095 than a base Nissan Leaf here in the States. (More important, perhaps, is the relative affordability of the car in the U.K. A Mini Cooper S, for example, starts at roughly £18,000.) Customers are also on the hook for a $120 per month lease for the battery pack, as well.

The car that British shoppers will soon be able to buy features the same battery pack that’s compatible with Better Place’s switching stations—leading us to think that the Israeli firm has plans to expand its operations to the British Isles some time soon. Even without the station, of course, the Fluence Z.E. can recharge through a traditional power outlet, as does the Leaf. The Fluence Z.E. will feature charging ports on each of its front fenders, an electric motor that produces 94-hp and 167 lb-ft of torque, and a claimed range of 115 miles.

Better Place plans to open 19 more battery switching stations in Denmark over the next nine months, and later in 2011 a switching station is set to open in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. The Renault Fluence Z.E. goes on sale next year as a 2012 model in Europe and Australia.

Better Place—a company that builds and integrates sustainable energy infrastructures—opened its first battery switching station in Denmark today, the first station of its kind in Europe. Better Place has already begun populating Israel with battery swapping stations, and the infrastructure is compelling for the future of EVs. Current electric vehicle technology is limited not only by battery capacity and recharge time, but by infrastructural hurdles like a lack of available charging stations. A battery switching station helps solve these issues by swapping the depleted battery pack out of an electric car for a fresh, fully charged battery pack in a timely manner, eliminating the typical several-hour wait for a full battery recharge.

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Toyota to Reveal All-New 2012 Camry this Fall [Updated]

Toyota to Reveal All-New 2012 Camry this Fall [Updated]: "

Update: Toyota has released a short video of CEO Akio Toyoda assuring that the new Camry will be “the best Camry ever.” The clip shows Toyoda motioning to the new car’s headlight, which you can see above. Exciting stuff.

Car enthusiasts slam the Camry for inducing catatonic states in drivers, but the one million Americans who have bought one in the past three years tend to feel differently. (Yes, one million.) At a national dealer meeting in Las Vegas, Toyota execs told attendees that the company would be rolling out an all-new Camry this fall.

As is usually the case when Toyota introduces a new model, the 2012 Camry won’t be dramatically changed from the car it replaces. The 169-hp, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine will probably carry over with a little bump in power, and the V-6 engine should return as an option, too. Similarly, we’ve heard nothing about Toyota developing a new transmission, so expect to see the same six-speed automatic and manual that the current cars have.

2011 Toyota Camry

While we’d love for Toyota to surprise us with news of some crazy twin-turbocharged, all-wheel-drive, stick-shifted Camry, it’s not going to happen. (Disturbing fact: There was, until a few years ago, a 323-hp version of the Camry in Australia. It routed power from a supercharged V-6 through the front wheels alone.) Instead, all the performance fun will be left to the rear-wheel-drive Scion FR-S.

For those who get their thrills from saving on fuel, there will, of course, be a hybrid version of the next-gen Camry. It’s possible this will see greater technological changes aimed at improving fuel economy and smoothing out the system’s operation.

Toyota told dealers at the Las Vegas meeting that it would be making a major push to clean up the Camry’s battered image. Advertising will largely focus on the car’s reliability and safety, both of which, ironically, were longtime strong suits for all Toyotas.

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Porsche Returning to Le Mans LMP1 Class in 2014

Porsche Returning to Le Mans LMP1 Class in 2014: "

The winningest manufacturer in the race of all races returns to defend record.

The fight for the 24 Hours of Le Mans podium has created its fair share of rivalries both personal—like the one between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari—and between manufacturers. Lately, an unlikely fight for the overall win has involved Audi and Peugeot, and with diesel engines, no less. But someone, it seems, is tired of watching from the sidelines (or at least from the slower GT class): Porsche, the constructor with the most Le Mans victories in history.

Of course, Porsche isn’t merely concerned with having a presence in the front-running LMP1 class. It wants to add to its record total of 16 overall wins. Audi has won 10 of the last 12 races, which means that by the time Porsche returns for the 2014 running, its VW Group sibling could trail the Stuttgart powerhouse by just four victories. This year, Audi broke its two-way tie for second with Ferrari (read a recap of this year’s wild race here), and the company doesn’t seem interested in quitting there. To add a little intrigue to what’s shaping up to be the best sibling rivalry in motorsports history, consider that Audi has done much of its winning with two of Porsche’s champion drivers (Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish) and Porsche’s old LMP1 racing partner, Team Joest.

What will power Porsche’s LMP1 car, which we seriously hope won’t share a platform with the Audi? Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport, is nice enough to speculate for us: “After the conclusion of our works-supported sports prototype program in the American Le Mans Series we have kept up with the latest technological advances. Now we will begin with detailed research in order to evaluate the various concept alternatives for our new car. These obviously depend on how the regulations for the year 2014 look in detail. In principle, these regulations are interesting for us because the integration of our hybrid technology in the vehicle concept is one possible option.”

A diesel Audi battling a hybrid Porsche to win the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans? Hank the Deuce and il Commendatore might finally be able to agree on something—that’s completely insane. Consider us intrigued and very excited to see how it all plays out.

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Australian V8 Supercars Mess with Texas, Schedule Race in Austin for 2013

Australian V8 Supercars Mess with Texas, Schedule Race in Austin for 2013: "

GM tried it with the nuevo-GTO and then the offed-too-early G8 GXP. Ford has, rightly or wrongly—feel free to debate—never brought its Australian-market Falcon to these shores. But now, courtesy of the Lone Star State (where road signs remind one to “Drive Friendly, the Texas Way”), unadulterated Australian muscle is finally coming to American shores. On a trade mission to Austin, Texas, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced that Australia’s V8 Supercar Championship is coming Stateside in 2013 for a round at the new Circuit of the Americas.

Built to bring Mr. Ecclestone’s high-dollar F1 Eurocircus back to the U.S. next year, the new 3.4-mile road course outside Texas’s capital city also has confirmed a round of Moto GP for 2013. The five-year contract with the what-NASCAR-should-be antipodean series gives the new course three major events to anchor the track’s second season. It’s not the first time the Falcons and Commodores have escaped their home Down Under; they’ve also run in Shanghai and Bahrain, while this season’s calendar includes Abu Dhabi. We’re hyped and amped over the development. Now if Ford and GM could just get on with it and bring the Ute variants of the Commodore and Falcon to our shores; we’ll take ours with a side of pretty girls with Australian accents.

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NOKIA 5200 LED SOLUTION

NOKIA 5200 LED SOLUTION: "

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NOKIA N97 MMC PROBLEM

NOKIA N97 MMC PROBLEM: "

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NOKIA E72 DEAD PROBLEM

NOKIA E72 DEAD PROBLEM: "

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