Electric Vehicles

Prezi for my Initiative project on ENGL 1290 Summer 2011. DR. Radney.

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http://prezi.com/6le6_6bxl4mw/present/?auth_key=2st752w&follow=aashayie@gmail.com

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BMW Mini E

The BMW Mini E is one of a few fully electric, real world cars on the market. 500 of the cars were availably last year by lease only for $850 per month. The company quickly had twice 500 sign up for the 12 month leases. The Mini E is a test car however. 

BMW has another concept vehicle for testing in in 2011. Chinese customers will be testing a fleet based on the BMW Concept ActiveE.Any production car would likely be produced in 2013. The name mentioned for the production car is the BMW Megacity.  The electric Mini has performance specifications typical of a BMW. It comes with a 150kW motor - 201Hp. The 35kWh battery pack claims 100 miles (160km) with a top speed of 95mph (150kph). That is a healthy sized pack for a 3,200lb (1,454kg) automobile. By now the car has had some real world testing to rely on. The reviews are mixed, with typical EV problems surfacing. The first problem is reduced range in the cold reported by a few lessees at least. They reported range reduced to about 1/2 the stated value.  This seems to have caught several by surprise. The news was trumpeted on the Chevy Volt site. It since appears that one of these reviewers was affiliated with the Volt program.Interestingly, the Mitsubishi i Miev experienced a similar drop in range in cold weather. Maybe the battery packs could use better heaters and insulation. Then on the other hand, one driver ran his Mini 130 miles (210km) per day to and from work for 8 months to total 21,000 miles (33,762km). He reported a minimum range of 65 miles at 15 degrees F outside. However, he also mentions no problem recharging the car and getting to and from work. He expects to hit 38,000 miles (61,093km) up to the end of the lease. Other drivers have reported reduced range at higher speeds. Then some others report increased range using the regenerative braking...up to 141 miles (225km) per charge. All in all, it seems that hitting around 100 miles more or less with conservative driving is not a problem with the car, except in sub-freezing temperatures. Drivers in recent test group were asked how many would renew their leases? They all raised their hands. How many have actually signed up? So far, about 1/2 of the original 450 leases are going to be renewed for 2010. The leases run until the actual production cars hit the showrooms.That's pretty impressive when you consider that the 35kWh battery pack is holding the energy equivalent of ONE gallon of gasoline!In the news, BMW will begin trials in China with 50 Mini e cars. The trials are linked to the Chinese-German Forum for Economic and Technological Cooperation. Trial results will be used to design and produce EVs for the Chinese market.The next step in the BME test program is a shakedown of the Active E. BMW says that the Active E is a testing the electric drive system to be deployed in the future Megacity Vehicle, or MCV. (evsroll.com)

iPhone and Blackberry

iPhone and Blackberry

Battery Life

RIM's 1.experience, 2.enterprise focus, and 3.strengths on battery life, e-mail, keyboard, network and carrier distribution may limit iPhone's threat.

On an average:

Blackberry's battery last up to 2 days after spending 2.5 hours on the phone and 3 hours on Internet.

iPhone's battery last only 1 day after the spending 2.5 hours on the phone and three hours on Internet.

iPhone's battery is unchangeable.

* According to Apple.com :  iPhone  will last up to 400 full cycled charges, which is estimated up to 2 years of usage. After that, the iPhone  will lose approximately 20% of its battery charge.


Design,Screen Size and Resolution

   The screen size of iPhone is larger than Blackberry
and is more appealing.

Sales Reports

• RIM shipped 37 million of Blackberry smart phones and 2.1 million handsets in  2010.

• RIM faced challenges in some markets, especially in the Middle East.

• Apple's iPhone sales were up 88 per cent compared with a year ago.

• Apple faced economic challenges in some markets, especially in the US.

Overall

• Each one of the two Companies has a bright surface.

• Blackberry is way better in battery life than iPhone.

• iPhone is way better in design and screen size than Blackberry.