Sunday, July 22, 2012
Nissan Ford - This is my friend's car! Amazing!
An electric Ford Focus, Tesla’s Model S sedan and a five-seat electric Nissan are among the cars that $8 billion in loans from the U.S. Energy Department will help speed to market over the next few years as the government looks to help automakers transition to building more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The first round of loans was announced Tuesday morning at a Ford research center at the company’s Dearborn, Mich., headquarters. Ford will get the lion’s share of the money--$5.9 billion through 2011--to retool two truck plants to make cars and update other facilities.
Ford also will fortify its electric offerings as part of a broader investment, which will include battery-powered versions of the Transit Connect van in 2010, the Focus in 2011 and more hybrids, including a plug-in, by 2012.
Despite fluctuating fuel prices, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said his company is betting that consumers will continue to thirst for efficient rides.
“This is absolutely what consumers are going to want to buy long-term,” he said.
Nissan will get $1.6 billion to build a battery plant and modify its existing facilities in Tennessee. The company says it plans to build a zero-emission vehicle there with a range of up to 100 miles before recharging. The vehicle, which was not named, will first be built in Japan before production is shifted to the United States. The site also will produce lithium-ion battery packs.
“This loan is an investment in America,” Dominique Thormann, Nissan North America senior vice president, administration and finance, said in a statement. “It will help us put high-quality, affordable zero-emissions vehicles on our roads. This project will expand our Smyrna [Tenn.] plant, and that’s great economic news.”
Tesla will receive $465 million to finance a manufacturing facility for the Model S, an electric sedan that starts production in 2011, as well as to build a powertrain plant. The Model S is expected to cost $49,900 after a $7,500 tax credit.
“Tesla will use the loan precisely the way that Congress intended--as the capital needed to build sustainable transport,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. “We are honored that the U.S. government selected Tesla to be among the first companies to participate in this progressive program.”
The first round of loans is less than a third of the $25 billion appropriated to help companies make more fuel-efficient cars. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the government began talks with Chrysler when it emerged from bankruptcy and said General Motors could get loans when it leaves bankruptcy, but stopped short of saying that money had been reserved for them. GM and Chrysler have been surviving on federal loans as they restructure.
Smaller firms, including an Indiana company called Bright Automotive that wants to build plug-in electric vehicles for government and commercial fleets, also are interested in the program. More loans are expected to be given out over the next several months, the DOE said.
The Story of First Car
Several Italians recorded designs for wind driven vehicles. The first was Guido da Vigevano in 1335. It was a windmill type drive to gears and thus to wheels. Vaturio designed a similar vehicle which was also never built. Later Leonardo da Vinci designed a clockwork driven tricycle with tiller steering and a differential mechanism between the rear wheels.
A Catholic priest named Father Ferdinand Verbiest has been said to have built a steam powered vehicle for the Chinese Emperor Chien Lung in about 1678. There is no information about the vehicle, only the event. Since Thomas Newcomen didn't build his first steam engine until 1712 we can guess that this was possibly a model vehicle powered by a mechanism like Hero's steam engine, a spinning wheel with jets on the periphery. Newcomen's engine had a cylinder and a piston and was the first of this kind, and it used steam as a condensing agent to form a vacuum and with an overhead walking beam, pull on a rod to lift water. It was an enormous thing and was strictly stationary. The steam was not under pressure, just an open boiler piped to the cylinder. It used the same vacuum principle that Thomas Savery had patented to lift water directly with the vacuum, which would have limited his pump to less than 32 feet of lift. Newcomen's lift would have only been limited by the length of the rod and the strength of the valve at the bottom. Somehow Newcomen was not able to separate his invention from that of Savery and had to pay for Savery's rights. In 1765 James Watt developed the first pressurized steam engine which proved to be much more efficient and compact that the Newcomen engine.
2000-2001: “2020″ – a concept car for the year 2020
During the last years the world of 3D modeling was following a very interesting design contest from a well known French car manufacturer Peugeot. The contest is also active now, it’s called “Peugeot Design Contest – 5th edition” by the way and 3D artists can submit their works for it. But first things first. In this post we will review the award winning 3D Models as well as the ones we consider the most interesting from the contests of previous years. And let’s start from the beginning:
2000-2001: “2020″ – a concept car for the year 2020
The winner of the 2000-2001 competition was “Moonster” by 23-year-old student at the university of applied art in Belgrade – Marko Lukovic. His proposal was that the Peugeot of 2020 should be an original vehicle, inspired by aeronautics, incorporating a two-seater passenger compartment in the center.
Here is a couple of screenshots of a digital 3D Model:
And here is the actual photo of a real concept from auto show:
(with thanks to CarDesignNews.com)
* * *
2002-2003: “Retrofuturism”
This contest, themed “Retrofuturism”, had a winner named Stefan Schulze with “4002”. Schulze’s well-done, not to say fabulous, mixture of historic elements and futuristic body design makes the 4002 differ from the bland retro concepts we have seen on international motor shows so many times before. The vehicle’s silhouette is intended to symbolize the Peugeot’s heraldic animal – the lion. But the original one stands upright whereas the vehicle’s side profile shows the one that lies and waits in the Savannah.
Digital 3D Model:
The actual concept car photo exhibited at one of the auto shows:
(with thanks to UltimateCarpage.com)
* * *
2004-2005 “Design the Peugeot you dream of seeing in the near future”:
That years’ contest’ best work was of a Portuguese designer André Costa with a work called “Moovie”. I guess that the main reasons for the award were the original style expressing a clear allegiance to the brand with lots of innovations at the same time which made it a genuine future prospect.
The digital 3D Model:
And this is what “Moovie” looks like in actual life:
(with thanks to: Official Peugeot ’2020′ Design Contest Results and Moovie by Andre Costa)
* * *
2006-2007 “P.L.E.A.S.E.” – stands for Pleasurable, Lively, Efficient, Accessible, Simple, Ecological:
The great winner is Mr. Mihai Panaitescu, 20 year old, a design student of I.E.D. Turin. With unbelievable work called “Peugeot Flux Concept.” It’s a relatively small car (3,500cm long by 1,650cm wide), it runs on a slim hydrogen power generator hidden in the back, with the tank mounted under the hood, according to what it says in car’s features.
3D Model:
The name Flux was inspired by the continuous change and flow of our daily lives during work and fun. The shape also represents this flow with transitions between hard and smooth lines, straight and curved all of which are typical Peugeot’s styling cues.
According to the author, his intention was to design a vehicle that would please its passengers whatever the situation is.
The actual concept car:
(with thanks to: Official Peugeot ‘P.L.E.A.S.E.‘ Design Contest Results and Flux by Mihai Panaitescu)
* * *
Wesley Saikawa, 27-year guy from Brazil took the second place with a very uncommon work called “N Jooy” that can be read in two ways: “enjoy” and “Nature + Joy”. Designer offers to take form as “organic”, a vehicle management system as “intellectual” and appearance as “aggressive”. Wesley said that he was inspired with old Formula-1 race cars to give the driver a strong sense of a car movement.” Instead of wheels this car has some sort of spheres which makes it omnidirectional.
* * *
The third prize belongs to Venezuelan artist Gustavo Ferrero with his project of hybrid sport car called “Allscape”. As you can remember this work called “Peugeot Allscape – Feel the Wind” was mentioned in our “Awesome 3D Cars and Vehicles” blog post. This sports car is a part of a new generation of extreme, powerful and really fast cars and at the same time it remains clean and safe for the environment. Besides the contest jury called this work the most detailed work ever presented in Peugeot design contests.
The most detailed work means that not only did the author make the exterior outlook of concept car, but also designed the interior as much as possible so that we could see the parts and how they look inside the car. And honestly I like this concept the most.
* * *
It’s all for the winners and let’s look to some less fortunate finalists that nevertheless deserve some portion of your attention.
A concept model “CUB” by Chineese designer Ka Dan excels from others with simple forms and futuristic ergonomics:
* * *
Nice work called “Peugeot Plaire” by James Ma. A nonstandard sports car with a calm and suspended design:
* * *
“LiiON Concept” by Christian Sano from Romania. 3-cycled-cars are very uncommon for design contests but this concept is truly unbelievable! Single-seated, aggressive, slim – all these things are half the battle for being a successful vehicle.
* * *
And Peugeot 910 by Turkish designer Ertug Yenidemir with clean and streamline design. Author made accent to the lines and form and was right about it – model looks very attractive.
* * *
As for this year – the contest’s topic is the following: “Imagine the Peugeot in the worldwide megalopolis of tomorrow.” It’s open to budding designers from all over the world. The participants can use the application form and send one or more images (exterior perspective, side view, interior, sketches or 3D model renderings, etc) as well as text explanations of their concept. So designers, modelers and artists who love beautiful cars – you still have a little time until July 20th to design the car from your dreams and send it to Peugeot. We in turn can’t wait to see the results of the contest of 200 – we promise we’ll publish the review of this year’s contest participants.
2000-2001: “2020″ – a concept car for the year 2020
The winner of the 2000-2001 competition was “Moonster” by 23-year-old student at the university of applied art in Belgrade – Marko Lukovic. His proposal was that the Peugeot of 2020 should be an original vehicle, inspired by aeronautics, incorporating a two-seater passenger compartment in the center.
Here is a couple of screenshots of a digital 3D Model:
And here is the actual photo of a real concept from auto show:
(with thanks to CarDesignNews.com)
* * *
2002-2003: “Retrofuturism”
This contest, themed “Retrofuturism”, had a winner named Stefan Schulze with “4002”. Schulze’s well-done, not to say fabulous, mixture of historic elements and futuristic body design makes the 4002 differ from the bland retro concepts we have seen on international motor shows so many times before. The vehicle’s silhouette is intended to symbolize the Peugeot’s heraldic animal – the lion. But the original one stands upright whereas the vehicle’s side profile shows the one that lies and waits in the Savannah.
Digital 3D Model:
The actual concept car photo exhibited at one of the auto shows:
(with thanks to UltimateCarpage.com)
* * *
2004-2005 “Design the Peugeot you dream of seeing in the near future”:
That years’ contest’ best work was of a Portuguese designer André Costa with a work called “Moovie”. I guess that the main reasons for the award were the original style expressing a clear allegiance to the brand with lots of innovations at the same time which made it a genuine future prospect.
The digital 3D Model:
And this is what “Moovie” looks like in actual life:
(with thanks to: Official Peugeot ’2020′ Design Contest Results and Moovie by Andre Costa)
* * *
2006-2007 “P.L.E.A.S.E.” – stands for Pleasurable, Lively, Efficient, Accessible, Simple, Ecological:
The great winner is Mr. Mihai Panaitescu, 20 year old, a design student of I.E.D. Turin. With unbelievable work called “Peugeot Flux Concept.” It’s a relatively small car (3,500cm long by 1,650cm wide), it runs on a slim hydrogen power generator hidden in the back, with the tank mounted under the hood, according to what it says in car’s features.
3D Model:
The name Flux was inspired by the continuous change and flow of our daily lives during work and fun. The shape also represents this flow with transitions between hard and smooth lines, straight and curved all of which are typical Peugeot’s styling cues.
According to the author, his intention was to design a vehicle that would please its passengers whatever the situation is.
The actual concept car:
(with thanks to: Official Peugeot ‘P.L.E.A.S.E.‘ Design Contest Results and Flux by Mihai Panaitescu)
* * *
Wesley Saikawa, 27-year guy from Brazil took the second place with a very uncommon work called “N Jooy” that can be read in two ways: “enjoy” and “Nature + Joy”. Designer offers to take form as “organic”, a vehicle management system as “intellectual” and appearance as “aggressive”. Wesley said that he was inspired with old Formula-1 race cars to give the driver a strong sense of a car movement.” Instead of wheels this car has some sort of spheres which makes it omnidirectional.
* * *
The third prize belongs to Venezuelan artist Gustavo Ferrero with his project of hybrid sport car called “Allscape”. As you can remember this work called “Peugeot Allscape – Feel the Wind” was mentioned in our “Awesome 3D Cars and Vehicles” blog post. This sports car is a part of a new generation of extreme, powerful and really fast cars and at the same time it remains clean and safe for the environment. Besides the contest jury called this work the most detailed work ever presented in Peugeot design contests.
The most detailed work means that not only did the author make the exterior outlook of concept car, but also designed the interior as much as possible so that we could see the parts and how they look inside the car. And honestly I like this concept the most.
* * *
It’s all for the winners and let’s look to some less fortunate finalists that nevertheless deserve some portion of your attention.
A concept model “CUB” by Chineese designer Ka Dan excels from others with simple forms and futuristic ergonomics:
* * *
Nice work called “Peugeot Plaire” by James Ma. A nonstandard sports car with a calm and suspended design:
* * *
“LiiON Concept” by Christian Sano from Romania. 3-cycled-cars are very uncommon for design contests but this concept is truly unbelievable! Single-seated, aggressive, slim – all these things are half the battle for being a successful vehicle.
* * *
And Peugeot 910 by Turkish designer Ertug Yenidemir with clean and streamline design. Author made accent to the lines and form and was right about it – model looks very attractive.
* * *
As for this year – the contest’s topic is the following: “Imagine the Peugeot in the worldwide megalopolis of tomorrow.” It’s open to budding designers from all over the world. The participants can use the application form and send one or more images (exterior perspective, side view, interior, sketches or 3D model renderings, etc) as well as text explanations of their concept. So designers, modelers and artists who love beautiful cars – you still have a little time until July 20th to design the car from your dreams and send it to Peugeot. We in turn can’t wait to see the results of the contest of 200 – we promise we’ll publish the review of this year’s contest participants.
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