Toyota claims battery breakthrough in possible raise for electric powered autos | Automotive marketplace

Toyota says it has created a technological breakthrough that will enable it to halve the body weight, sizing and charge of batteries, in what could herald a main progress for electrical cars.

The world’s 2nd biggest carmaker was previously pursuing a system to roll out autos with state-of-the-art solid-condition batteries, which offer you added benefits compared with liquid-centered batteries, by 2025.

On Tuesday, the Japanese corporation stated it had simplified production of the content employed to make them, hailing the discovery as a sizeable leap ahead that could substantially reduce charging periods and boost driving assortment.

“For both equally our liquid and our reliable-condition batteries, we are aiming to significantly adjust the situation where current batteries are as well major, weighty and highly-priced,” reported Keiji Kaita, president of the Japanese car firm’s investigate and growth centre for carbon neutrality. “In phrases of possible, we will aim to halve all of these elements.”

David Bailey, a professor of small business economics at the University of Birmingham, stated that if Toyota’s promises have been established, it could be a landmark minute for the long run of electrical automobiles.

“Often there are breakthroughs at the prototype stage but then scaling it up is tough,” he said. “If it is a legitimate breakthrough it could be a gamechanger, quite substantially the holy grail of battery automobiles.”

Kaita explained the firm had produced methods to make batteries far more sturdy and thought it could now make a solid-point out battery with a array of 1,200km (745 miles) that could charge in 10 minutes or much less.

The organization expects to be able to manufacture solid-state batteries for use in electric automobiles as shortly as 2027, in accordance to the Financial Occasions, which very first noted on Toyota’s claimed breakthrough.

Solid-condition batteries have been broadly viewed as a possible gamechanger for electric cars, promising to decrease charging instances, enhance capacity and reduce the fire hazard associated with lithium-ion batteries, which use a liquid electrolyte.

Nonetheless, solid-condition batteries have commonly been harder and costlier to make, limiting their commercial software.

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The 7 Best Bicycle Racks & Carriers for Autos and Vehicles of 2023

Despite the fact that we’ve observed this tray-style hitch rack to be the most reasonably priced just one that’s simple to load and use total, we have picks for cyclists with other requirements.

These consist of the less pricey Küat Beta hanging hitch rack, the ebike-welcoming Thule EasyFold XT 2, the Saris Bones EX 3-Bike trunk rack, the Saris SuperClamp EX 4-Bicycle tray rack, the Yakima HighRoad roof rack, and the Inno Velo Gripper pickup-mattress carrier.

Our choose

Küat Sherpa 2.

Of the tray-fashion hitch racks we analyzed, this is one of the simplest to set up and use. It’s lightweight, holds just one or two bikes securely, and allows you access your vehicle even when the rack is loaded.

Buying Alternatives

*At the time of publishing, the value was $629.

In overall performance and cost, the Sherpa 2. stands out. A lot less energy is needed to mount this light-weight two-bike model on your car or truck and to stow it absent than with a lot of other tray racks. This rack is also easier than most to safe in the hitch, and its small peak tends to make loading bikes easy. The Sherpa 2. holds most sorts of bikes (up to 40 lbs . every). It tilts out of the way, even when absolutely loaded, letting you obtain your auto, and it folds up compactly.

Price range select

Küat Beta

This hanging-design, two-bike hitch rack costs significantly less than our prime decide. It’s light and uncomplicated to install, and it folds flat for storage. But it is not as easy to use overall.

If you have funds or storage constraints, the two-bike, hanging-design Küat Beta is a excellent alternative to the Küat Sherpa 2.. Because it’s a hanging rack, it is not as effortless to load, and you have to unload your bikes to tilt the rack down. But the Beta is solidly manufactured and holds bikes securely. At only 18 lbs ., it’s also a single of the lightest hitch racks we’ve analyzed, so it is quick to put in. And unlike most hitch racks, the Beta folds absolutely flat, producing it simple to store—hang it on a garage wall hook or stash it in a closet.

Improve decide

Thule EasyFold XT 2

This rack is wonderful for carrying bikes weighing up to 65 kilos. It is easy to put in and load bikes onto, but it is significantly a lot more pricey than our prime select.

Getting Options

*At the time of publishing, the price tag was $900.

Regardless of whether you require to transportation heavier ebikes or you just want a rack that is uncomplicated to load, the Thule EasyFold XT 2 is tough to defeat. It’s high priced, but this rack can hold two bikes up to 65 lbs . each and every, and its foldable ramp lets you roll bikes onto the rack instead of lifting them. This rack is lighter than competing types, and it folds up to the dimensions

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Auto care ideas made available to assist motorists prevent warmth-similar issues in autos

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Summer time road excursions are excellent, but not with no dangers

Summer months road journeys offer a likelihood for persons to consider a split from their typical schedule and knowledge the delight of heading to new spots, but sizzling weather conditions can throw a wrench into even the best-laid options.

Getting a game plan upfront can assist avoid problems – both for the motor vehicle you’ll be driving and for these driving in it, in particular younger small children.

Temperatures in the 90- to 100-degree range are forecast around the Fourth of July during substantially of the Midwest, as very well as other sections of the country.

Professionals say traveling in hot temperature can contribute to car or truck challenges and end result in high-priced repairs and bring the street trip to a screeching halt.

Alternatively of rolling down the highway, you might obtain you caught in a hotel place, waiting for a section to arrive in so your car or truck can be repaired.

In advance of taking off for your street excursion, it is a great notion to get your auto checked out by a highly regarded mechanic, who can assist detect probable troubles just before you leave your driveway.

Below are a handful of suggestions from AAA to aid prevent heat-related vehicle issues:

1. Get your battery analyzed and, if essential, replace it before it dies.

Most batteries last 3 to 5 years, but just about every working day of intense climate pushes a battery closer to its end. Have your battery tested and replace it, if necessary.

Also take into account purchasing a portable battery charger and air compressor that you can use when you are in an space the place a jump-commence or air compressor isn’t readily available. But a word of warning: Be certain the moveable battery charger is completely billed just before you established sail.

2. Make positive your vehicle’s tires are appropriately inflated.

Driving on underneath-inflated tires can cause tires to overheat and enhance the probability of a blowout. This problem results in being even more of a concern when highway temperatures are extremely substantial.

For accurate effects, tires must be checked at the beginning of vacation before driving any good length. They need to be inflated to the tension encouraged by the automobile maker – not the range molded into the tire sidewall.

Recommended tire pressures can be identified in the owner’s guide or on a sticker normally located on the driver’s door jamb or the within of the glove compartment doorway. Some vehicles use different pressures for the entrance and rear tires.

Even though checking the tire pressures — together with the spare — motorists also should inspect the tire treads for ample depth and any indications of uneven wear that may possibly indicate a suspension or alignment challenge.

3. Check out all fluids.

When fluid degrees are lower, the probability of overheating boosts. Drivers should examine all motor vehicle fluids together with motor oil,

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Community automotive tech retains race autos on the track | Discover Wellness

Sean Petersen helps prevent race autos from crashing ahead of they even get started their engines.

Petersen, a 24-12 months-old automotive technician from Tucson, inspects race vehicles in Southeast Arizona to make guaranteed they are safe and sound, conserving drivers’ lives.

He performs for Crown Ideas, an automotive general performance shop on the northwest facet of Tucson near Topgolf that sponsors races at Inde Motorsports Ranch in Willcox. Crown specializes in trackside companies, this sort of as race prep, revenue and assistance, and Petersen will make certain the autos are mechanically sound ahead of winding by a paved monitor at extra than 175 miles for each hour.

“You simply cannot crack beneath stress in this line of perform because it could be a $150,000 mistake or someone’s life,” Petersen said.

Petersen has generally been into anything at all with engines, whether or not it’s dirt bikes, previous diesel vans or sporting activities vehicles. So, when he enrolled at the College of Arizona setting up to examine engineering, factors appeared to be working out. When he was a senior very last slide, however, he observed a position at Crown Principles for a motorsports mechanic, dropped out of college, and went for it.

“I felt like I wasn’t heading for the proper factors, I did not truly feel like I belonged in the engineering application,” he stated. “There ended up some amazingly smart people today I achieved, and also some of the most unintelligent people today. I felt as if I had unique considered processes as other folks all around me and I really should quit disregarding my heart.”

Seven months later on, he’s found his place.

“I’d say what sets me aside from other experts is that I’m the youngest by 10 years at minimum,” he reported. “I do absence the knowledge and awareness in some regions, but I really feel like we’re always discovering continually and bettering together, which is what racing as a group is.” 

While typically staying local, he’s also had the likelihood to travel to California’s Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

“Every motor vehicle I touch receives inspected for safety concerns, practically every one bolt will get touched, each and every auto also receives established up in accordance to the driver’s chosen style,” Petersen reported. “When a shopper buys a brand new (race) automobile, we have to examine every little thing on the auto and even be at the keep track of when it receives delivered to the keep track of and see it go by means of its to start with paces and validate everything’s Ok.” 

The most popular decision of race automobile Crown sells is any of the models in the Radical lineup, which are lightweight single seater race vehicles with bike engines mounted guiding the driver. Obtaining ridden in the vehicles he expert services, he stated it was an unforgettable working experience.

When he isn’t operating on Radicals, Petersen spends most of his time working on his have vehicles, together with a 1989 Toyota

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Autonomous Driving. Electrical Autos. Charges. Take a look at Drives. Simon-Kucher’s 2022 Automotive Consumer Study Explores U.S. Consumers’ Response to Automotive Innovation.

BOSTON–(Organization WIRE)–As the automotive sector continues to innovate, U.S. customer attitudes are shifting toward escalating openness to details sharing, new mobility ideas, and substitute production marketplaces. These are the results from world wide consulting business Simon-Kucher & Partners’ Automotive Purchaser Survey 2022*, masking 1,529 U.S. consumers as component of a world review that reached 10,000 buyers throughout 14 markets. On the other hand, the research also highlighted that a lot of even now prioritize common dealerships and paying for types when it arrives to their cars.

Unsurprisingly, a car’s value drives the getting choices, position as the solitary most critical obtain criterion for respondents. Price tag was adopted by extra value-based mostly standards, these types of as technological know-how, model, and style. When making a obtain, standard dealerships nevertheless come out on best. Eighty-seven percent of buyers however favor motor vehicle dealerships, with 75 percent figuring out the check push as a important priority. Also, 80 percent of respondents noted gratification with the existing gross sales processes even though with negotiation getting the number 1 reason for dissatisfaction, it is also essential to 69 per cent to be ready to do so, to get better pricing.

Customers cautiously open to facts sharing

When it comes to either information sharing or in-vehicle ads, attitudes are bit by bit shifting. Around 2/3 of respondents ended up open up to some variety of details sharing, primarily with regards to automobile information (e.g., gas consumption and technical circumstances) somewhat than personal information (e.g., desired destination). A the vast majority of the respondents (60 per cent) are willing to share individual information centered on assorted amounts of payment and limitations.

There was a lot more hesitancy over in-automobile promoting: nearly 50 % (49 percent) of Us residents are opposed entirely. Only 25 percent of all individuals were open up to the plan in some variety, having said that, asked for a discount or voucher in exchange.

Electric powered motor vehicles are getting acceptance but will need to have to electricity up to increase gross sales.

When a important pattern globally has been the escalating acceptance of EVs (Electric Cars), driven by sustainability worries and fears of rising regulatory restrictions on regular vehicles, 90 p.c of U.S. respondents at this time generate gasoline or diesel-driven vehicles and will think about a gasoline-driven auto for a new-vehicle obtain.

Price tag, array, and charging infrastructure were the important motives specified by respondents for not thinking of an EV. On regular, respondents count on a driving assortment of in excess of 343 miles (552 km).

Dylan Grien, Supervisor at Simon-Kucher, commented:

“It is crystal clear to us that the upcoming of the automotive industry is electrical, but buyer sentiment signifies that this transition will be calculated, dependent upon (amid other components) the proliferation of supporting infrastructure and the improvement of battery technology”

Autonomous driving technologies gaining traction

Reactions to autonomous driving technological know-how continue to be mixed. Forty-5 p.c of respondents indicated exhilaration about the technologies,

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Former students pitch in to prepare Raymond Central auto tech teacher’s car collection for auction | Autos

VALPARAISO — Darrin Pecka first met Jay Henderson through his dad, Duane, who had taken Henderson’s industrial tech class when he was a student at Raymond Central High School in the late ’60s.

But it was Henderson’s matte-black Hudson coupe — recognizable by many in Valparaiso — that drew Pecka’s admiration early on.

“Everybody knew who he was. Everybody knows what he had,” Pecka said.







Darrin Pecka sorts through car parts at Jay and Polly Henderson’s house in Valparaiso. He’s helping them prepare items from Jay Henderson’s collection for an auction at the end of this month.




Henderson drove that car to school every day, and the family took it into Lincoln to get groceries. It was the family car, Henderson’s wife, Polly, said.

“Everybody in the four (Raymond Central) towns, they all knew that was Jay Henderson driving that Hudson,” she said. 

That car, and all of those industrial tech classes, are part of what made Henderson a local legend. Even as a kid, Pecka would knock on Jay and Polly’s front door and remind them that “Mr. Henderson can’t retire until I get to take his class.”

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Pecka graduated in 2012. Henderson retired the next year. 

They’ve remained good friends, and now Pecka, with help from other former Raymond Central students, is preparing Henderson’s Hudson car collection for auction.


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Behind the mystery of the hillbilly shack on a busy southeast Lincoln corner, Sept. 27, 2020

On a Friday in late February, the afternoon sun is shining down on Pecka’s shoulders and his stocking cap. He rummages through rusted car doors, fenders and bumpers that have accumulated over the years, mixing and matching the pieces to create some semblance of organization. His hands are protected by winter work gloves as he inspects the car body parts strewn over straw-colored grass.

He doesn’t mind the work, though. He figures it’s the least he can do.

“(Jay) and Polly always say I’m like another kid,” Pecka said. “They’re older than that for me. They’re like another pair of grandparents.” 

Juncos and sparrows chirp from a winter-worn maple tree nearby, the base of which is keeping company with a late-’30s Hudson Terraplane coupe with suspended headlights. That’s Polly’s favorite, though Jay interjects that the Terraplane series was an economy line and couldn’t keep up with a Hudson on a closed course.  

Henderson’s love of Hudsons was long and unconditional. But it took a fascination with some earlier cars to eventually lead him to the Hudsons. He was in elementary school when a neighbor who raced stock cars asked Jay’s dad, Wesley, to fix his ’35 Plymouth with the fenders partially removed. 







Hudson Cars Lined Up

Eleven cars from Jay Henderson’s collection of Hudsons

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