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When Adolf Hitler commissioned ‘The People’s Car’ he had a very specific idea in mind about what he wanted this car to be and he kbrand new release who he wanted to use to design it. Ferdinand Porsche had previously been the chief designer at Daimler-Benz before starting his own engineering consultation firm when Hitler offered him the Volkswagen proposal.

Germany’s car market up to the late 1930’s was predominantly luxury cars and everyday people and families could not possibly afford to own one. Hitler saw this as a way to get to the hearts of the nation by creating an affordcapable car, and saving schemes such as this one ”Fünf Mark die Woche musst du sparen, willst du im eigenen Wagen fahren.” – “Five marks a week you must put aside, if you want your own car to ride.”

His original design brief to Porsche had been to create a small four seater car, air cooled and with an economical engine of 40 miles per gallon, he also intended for it to cost 1000 deutsche marks. Porsche had been involved with designing similar vehicles in the past but they had never gone in to production and in his time working with Hitler he designed a total of 50 prototypes. Hitler didn’t ever get to see his aim achieved due to the onset of the Second World War and the Wolfsburg Factory (built especially when the manufacture of the Peoples Car) was taken over by the German air traffic ministry.

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Both Linde and TOTAL have taken a step in reducing the world’s carbon footprint by supplying green hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles in Germany this past week. Both companies are producing hydrogen from clean and reable resources.

According to <a title="Linde" href="http://www.the-linde-group.com/en/s_and_media/press_releases/s_120423.html” target=”_blank”>Linde, “The hydrogen generated from biodiesel by-products at the company’s pilot plant in Leuna, Germany, was certified by TÜV SÜD, one of the world’s leading test, inspection and certification organisations, in time for the HANNOVER MESSE 2012 trade show … The pilot facility has shown that the pyroreforming process developed by Linde on the basis of raw glycerine has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 50 percent compared with conventional hydrogen production processes using natural gas. Advancing the pilot facility to a commercial-scale, fully mature production plant would increase potential greenhouse gas savings to up to 80 percent.”

But, wait, there’s more. <a title="General Motors" href="http://media.gm.com/media/intl/en/opel/s.detail.html/content/Pages/s/intl/en/2012/opel/04_24_hydrogen4_wind_power” target=”_blank”>General Motors talks about an even cleaner method to produce h2, which is wind to hydrogen as pioneered by TOTAL and ENERTRAG, “For the first time, the longstanding Opel partners TOTAL and ENERTRAG have started to supply a Berlin gas station with hydrogen fuel produced from wind power. Both companies have been testing fuel cell vehicles for everyday use. The hybrid power station run by ENERTRAG in the Berlin district of Prenzlau is now supplying ‘green’ hydrogen fuel to gas stations owned by TOTAL. This means that vehicles taking part in the hydrogen fuel CEP (Clean Energy Partnership) supported by the German government will now be powered by environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel sourced from wind power. The Opel HydroGen4 run by TOTAL was the first vehicle to be fuelled in Berlin with the ‘green’ hydrogen.”

The Opel HydroGen4 in the United States is known as the GM HydroGen4. So, there you have it. This is exactly why Germany is leading the world in hydrogen cars and hydrogen infrastructure development. The Germans have committed to the idea that hydrogen cars will run our future and have put this idea into action by quickly developing infrastructure to support the vehicles.

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If you race it, they will buy it. If they see it raced, they will want it, at least so goes the logic behind. Nowhere has this been more prevalent than in Europe in the early 1930s when Bugatti and Alfa Romeo dominated the racing scene. They were exotics, high performance cars and anyone who could afford them, had to have one. Nowhere was it more proven when Ferrari, despite a World War II torn country, built an empire by racing his prancing horse cars. You race them, they will want them, it’s that simple.

Racing EVs. Electric cars and electric motorcycles have been raced for some time now, and the last few years have brought more and more attention to their outstanding results. From the TTXGP to the budding electric EVCup racing series, it seems manufacturers and developers understand the importance of racing a brand new release technology. It not only tests it in real life scenario, it also makes it visible. You need to race EVs to get people excited.

Financing The Electric Racing World. Case in point, Kemet Corporation who manufactures tantalum, ceramic, aluminum, film, paper and electrolytic capacitors, announced it would continue to sponsor the TUfast e-Technology Racing Team from the Technical University of Munich for its 2012 racing season. This is great brand new releases, and pushes forward the electric vehicle momentum.

The budding 2012 Formula Student Electric Competition is still a grass root movement. Yet all the great races we follow today started as little local events, to eventually become international crowd gatherers. You have to start somewhere and this is as good as anywhere.

Technically Speaking. By manufacturing DC link film capacitors, the company can give technical expertise in electric vehicle energy conversion and supply all capacitance solutions required for the project, while furthering the development of the technology. According to Dr. Philip Lessner, KEMET Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist: “After such a successful 2011 racing season, KEMET is pleased to increase our collaboration with some of the most outstanding and committed engineering students at one of Germany’s finest universities,”…”Our sponsorship of the TUfast program reinforces KEMET’s continued commitment to electric/hybrid vehicle and green energy technologies, along with fostering the next generation of innovation in the automotive and alternative energy industries.”

TUfast e-Technology Racing Team. The team is made up of about 30 students from different areas and expertise, all studying at the Technical University of Munich. The team aims to design and build the best possible Formula Student Electric race car every year. According to last season, it is on track to achieving this as it won nearly every dynamic discipline at least once at races in Germany, Austria and Italy.

Formalizing Electric Car Racing. Electric car competition formalized itself back in 2010 when the Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE’s International Formula SAE competition for combustion engines decided it needed to create an electric racing version. Developed to adhere to the strict Formula SAE rules, this allows these EVs to compete in Formula SAE races worldwide.

NEDRA & Electric Drag Racing. Michael at SSI-Racing has been drag racing for some time now, before EVs starting popping up here and there. See my story here; Electric SSI-Racing Challenges Drag Racing And EV Kits. NEDRA is the National Electric Drag Racing Association, a specialized chapter of the Electric Auto Association that works on increasing public awareness of EV performance and encourages competition, advances in electric vehicle technology.

EV Cup. EV Cup hails itself as the world’s first circuit race series exclusively featuring zero-emission electric vehicles, providing the platform for sustaincapable motorsports. . It aims to achieve the same goals via a few types of races ranging from urban EVs, to sports to prototypes. All good venues to further develop endurance and overall technology.

All of this still points to the old adage that what you race on Sunday, sells on Monday. In this case, as we witness more and more electric vehicle races, it will make them become a clearer reality in the mind of the public.

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A hydrogen-hybrid power station has started up in Prenzlau, Germany. The hydrogen from the power station is going to feed cars in Berlin and Hamburg. The power station creates hydrogen by wind to hydrogen methods and biogas to hydrogen methods. Both methods are green and create no CO2 gases.

According to deutschebahn.com, “The aim of this ground-breaking project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a safe and sustainable supply and storage of energy by using a mix of purely reable energy sources in practical testing. The hydrogen-hybrid power station unites for the first time wind, hydrogen and biogas to one compound. The electricity generated by three wind turbines is proportionately used to manufacture CO2-free hydrogen.

“This green hydrogen is stored and used to produce electricity and heat by means of a combined hydrogen-biogas power plant at times of high demand and simultaneously low supply of wind en-ergy. Moreover, this hydrogen is also used in the pumps at TOTAL hydrogen filling stations in Berlin and Hamburg. In this way, green hydrogen from the Uckermarck guarantees CO2-free mobility in our capital city.”

Now, in the past I’ve talked about some hydrogen fueling stations being powered by either wind energy or biogas. But this is the first time I can remember talking about an H2 filling station powered by both wind and biogas.

Here’s a 54-page PDF from 2008 concerning the hydrogen infrastructure being built around Germany. It’s a good read with lots of details about how Germany aims to have the first hydrogen highway system on the planet.

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Akio Toyoda, who is the president of Toyota, has brought brand new release passion to the Japanese automaker and infused the brand with a competitive spirit. Toyoda who isn’t your typical grey-suited CEO, is a certified test driver for Germany’s famed Nurburgring, and regularly drives competitive vehicles.

Before the creation of the FR-S, Toyoda asked himself, “where is the passion in our lineup?, I want to build a sports car.” With Toyoda’s racing background and his love for fast cars, he has been instrumental in developing the Toyota GT 86 that will be sold across the globe, and the Scion FR-S here in the U.S.

The Toyota GT 86, Scion FR-S, and Subaru BRZ are getting closer to a release date and Inside Line was lucky enough to get their racing gloves on a FR-S and threw it on the dyno to see how the sports car would perform. The naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four cylinder with 200 horseStrength and 151 pound-feet of torque isn’t all that impressive on paper but they found out some interesting things about the four-cylinder boxer engine.

The engine that was developed by Subaru and Toyota delivered what Inside Line called “the most repeatcapable runs on the dyno of any car in recent memory,” with peak wheel Strength measuring 173 horseStrength at 7,000 rpm and 143 pound-feet of torque at 2,500 rpm’s. So what happened to the advertised 200 horseStrength? The numbers on a dyno are generated at the rear wheels and most manufacturers record horseStrength and torque at the crankshaft.

That can mean a loss of 10 to 20 percent loss of Strength when you factor in the loss through the transmission, driveshaft, and differential. They found that the 2.0-liter engine was impressively consistent in producing 173 horseStrength at 7,000 rpm and 143 pound-feet of torque at 2,800 rpm. The peaks, horseStrength, and torque curves were almost identical on every run on the dyno.

This is the world’s only front-engine, rear-drive sports car Strengthed by the all-brand new release Subaru boxer engine that features Toyota-sourced direct injection. Because of its unique design, the boxer sits low and farther back in the chassis which keeps the center of gravity as low as possible which is an ideal thing for a sports car.

It’s a testament to Subaru and Toyota for developing an engine with the kind of consistency and Strength output without the use of a turbo. The boxer engine produces strong low-end torque and just a 14 percent drop in torque at 4000 rpm. The engineers did a great job of developing a four-cylinder engine producing 200 horseStrength in a sports car that costs less than $30,000. Now just imagine what will happen when they bolt a turbocharger to the four-cylinder boxer.

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