Electric Miata Blasts Down Dragstrip In 9 Seconds - VIDEO

While a lot of focus on electric motorsports sits with the newly-formed Formula E series, the National Electric Drag Racing Association has been silently and speedily setting records and going fast. The latest accomplishment out of NEDRA comes from President John Metric and his electric Miata, Assault & Battery, which laid down a low 9-second pass earlier this month.

Metric’s Miata ran a newly-installed 333-volt lithium-ion battery pack with two Zilla controllers and a park of forklift motors driving the rear wheels. While the team initially planned to only run 900 amps down the track, Metric raised the power level to 1100 amps, intent on flexing his new battery pack.

And flex he did, ripping off an incredible 9.12 second quarter mile at a blistering 145 mph. That parachute ain’t just for looks people. Incredible, Metric laid down a 1.3 second 60-foot time, and the 9.12 second run was enough to set a new NEDRA XS/A2 class record. This is one of the fastest production-body electric cars out there, and there’s still plenty of juice left to play with. It won’t be long now before John Metric and his electric Miata make a run for the 8s.

Source: NEDRA

50 MPG Accord Hybrid Goes on Sale Today, Without a Transmission

The new for 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid goes on sale today, with a reasonable pricetag, a 50 MPG EPA rating, an almost impossibly low-emissions 4 cylinder engine, a torquey electric motor, and withOUT a conventional transmission.

As I mentioned in my initial review of Honda’s 50 MPG Accord Hybrid earlier this month, this new Honda is different from other hybrids. Instead of an engine connecting to a conventional gearbox or CVT, the new Honda’s engine is directly connected to the drive wheels. The torque multiplication of lower gears is simulated with variable input from the electric motors at low speeds. As before, the best way to sum it up is like this: the 50 MPG Accord Hybrid drives exactly, precisely, and inimitably like a slot-car.

The batteries, electric motors, and Earth Dreams engine inside Honda’s new hybrid are definitely awesome, but the real magic to the car is in its ECU …

… which is massive.

The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid’s driving dynamics and fuel efficiency all come down to that box up there. Much more than a conventional ECU, the Honda unit acts as a voltage converter and capacitor, handling how much juice goes from the battery to the motor and back into the battery during regenerative braking and engine braking. It’s a marvel, and it’s complicated enough that the three Honda reps I was listening to describe all did so using slightly different, equally simple, deceptively confusing analogies. Still, the system works- the implication there being that Honda’s engineers are smarter than me … and I can live with that.

You can buy the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid today for as little as $29,155, which climbs to $34,905 with all the digital, leather, and sliding see-through roof goodies tacked on. So, that’s it. Go out and get you one.

Source | Photos: Honda.

Tesla Signs $7 Billion Deal With Panasonic

Tesla Motors is one hot commodity these days, and the electric automaker is single-handedly gobbling up every laptop battery on the planet. With its plans to grow only larger and larger, Tesla is going to need a lot of batteries, leading to a $7 billion battery deal with Panasonic that expands the original 2011 deal by another four years.

Things are looking mighty good for Tesla, and these new-and-improved battery packs will be used both in the Tesla Model S and the Tesla Model X. The deal calls for Tesla to buy some 2 billion individual laptop batteries from Panasonic. Sounds like a lot, until you consider that each of the largest Tesla battery packs uses about 7,000 individual laptop batteries each. The deal could be worth as much as $7 billion if all the batteries end up sold.

There are enough cells for an estimated 300,000 vehicles if they each came with the 85 kWh battery pack, indicating that Tesla plans for serious growth in the next five years. You better believe Wall Street loves hearing this news, as is Panasonic, which was losing some battery business to suppliers like Samsung when Panasonic couldn’t produce enough batteries last year. Seems like those problems are over though.

Tesla also announced that there are now enough Superchargers installed on the West Coast to make it from San Diego to Vancouver. Elon Musk’s plan to unite North America via a network of free, fast-charging stations is coming to fruition, and pretty soon there could be a Tesla Supercharger in your neighborhood too.

Source: Tesla