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We're almost at the end of the first month of the Volkswagen scandal, which now includes 11 million cars and Leonardo DiCaprio. VW's US boss has testified to Congress, blaming a few rogue software engineers. All the while, questions have raged about VW Group's future: which projects are safe, which ones are on the chopping block, and how exactly will the company recover from this?
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VW's board has finally started to answer some of those swirling questions. For starters, there's going to be much more emphasis on electrification. Electric vehicles and hybrids have played more of a bit part at VW, compared to Toyota, GM, and domestic rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. That's going to change with a standard electric architecture that can be used across multiple vehicles and brands.VW Group isn't devoid of hybrid and EV know-how. Audi's Le Mans program has taught it a lot about high voltage automotive systems, and Porsche has a wealth of experience from the 918 Spyder, Panamera Hybrid, and even the 919 Hybrid racer. VW would be smart to leverage all these programs.
VW is the largest car company in Europe. This is what sudden, disruptive technological change looks like.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Friday October 16 2015, @02:40PM
All of your objections are why the envelope only assumes five hours per day of noon-equivalent insolation. With perfectly-aligned panels on a tracking mount and in a climate with no clouds, you'd get almost twelve hours per day; my assumption is that you'd only get 40% of that with fixed panels in typical US climactic conditions.
And, yes. There're places that won't even do that well. But there're just as many places that'll do better. The worst places in the Lower 48, in the Pacific Northwest, are still no worse than half as good as it is in the best -- and, to boot, better than the average in Germany. As I noted in another post, I've got somewhere between a third and an half of my own modest home covered in panels and it's enough not only for all my current electricity needs but for an EV as well. If I teleported the house to Seattle and covered the entire roof with panels, I'd still meet all my needs, plus those of an EV, plus a surplus. Indeed, I'd have a generous surplus...far and away my biggest usage is in cooling from May through October, including at least a few months where the overnight low hovers around 90°F and the daytime high rounds to 110°F. Seattle isn't going to need anywhere near as much energy to maintain a livable indoors temperature.
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.