With the recent increase in carbon dioxide concentration in our global atmosphere posing a threat to our way of life, a small growing company in the UK is pushing ahead with its own zero emission technologies.

Green MotorSport and colleagues are involved in several markets for clean technology, with cars, buses, boats, and robotics, as well as onsite power generation.  High energy density battery storage will help to overcome the variability of solar and wind energy, as renewables are stored for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

BATTERY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Lithium ion batteries have been powering electric vehicles for over 10 years, but recent developments with solid state and polymer technologies are improving longevity, energy density and reliability. The markets projected for these new batteries are over 7 billion in the next ten years. For the last decade lithium ion technology has been widely available for any type of electrical or mobile device, however recently emerging solid state lithium is the one technology to keep a close eye on. Solid state lithium technology will improve volume manufacturing possibilities and could potentially drive manufacturing costs down, making battery vehicles our main form of transport.  These solid state designs under development will have higher energy densities per kg than conventional lithium battery technologies, lower cost and lower internal cell resistances which all help to build a better battery. Lower internal resistance means potentially higher power output and as a result the cells get smaller and lighter and longer lasting. Solid State battery technology will bring a paradigm shift for pure electric transportation.

Green MotorSport over the years has tested several battery management systems in order to find the best possible cost effective option.  Reliability and stable performance are necessary for building a viable safe electric vehicle product.

MOTOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Green MotorSport is developing a new range of electric motors and generators to meet rapidly growing global demands for efficient power production.   They are currently being evaluated.  We are starting a new project to advance our understanding of  high frequency motors and their  associated  benefits. Normally these exotic technologies are much more expensive than conventional induction type devices. We aim to produce some cost effective working examples  in  2017 and add to our IP portfolio.

Above image shows the Vorlon, it’s soon to be released!  : More news shortly.

ADVANCED DRIVE TRAINS

Alongside our electric motors, we have been developing advanced electric drive trains which will make electric vehicles cheaper to buy, with longer range and faster recharging, in order to meet the growing demand around the world.   Based on years of development, evaluation and modification, Green MotorSport’s drive trains are now powering several vehicles.

WORKING PARTNERSHIPS

Keith Ashford, has already covered over 2,000 miles in his electric conversion and it is still going strong!  The car is powered by a GMS  48V cost effective liquid cooled induction motor.  It meets all his requirements with 125 miles range, top speed of 65 mph and zero emissions. Keith has installed an aerodynamic package of polycarbonate material under the car to reduce drag coefficient and noise levels. He has improved the suspension to give better handling at high speed.  Heating for the passenger compartment and for defrosting the windows is recycled from the motor’s cooling system.

Keith is running tests every day on lithium ion technology in a real world environment. He is now testing heating and cooling of battery packs to improve performance in the colder weather.  Keith’s results clearly demonstrate that he is saving a fortune in petrol – hundreds of pounds so far and within the next two years he will have paid off the price of the motor. With the latest advanced batteries and Green MotorSport’s new motor, Keith is aiming for range over 250 miles on one charge. Keith is also a member of the Battery Vehicle Society in the UK. Founded in 1973, the Battery Vehicle Society (BVS) is Britain’s foremost and longest-running Electric Vehicle (EV) society.  Keith drove the test vehicle to demonstrations at CENEX in Bedford as well as a car show in the Malvern Hills, where members of the public were delighted to see his electric car arriving.  He is making massive improvements, no other Kewet has the same range and performance.   In collaboration with Green MotorSport Keith is helping with testing of the drive train and new advanced battery chemistries.

HIGH PERFORMANCE CARS

David Chapman of Razor Cars has partnered with Green MotorSport to investigate the cost effective car and is preparing  a prototype new pure electric version of their superb trike incorporating Green MotorSport’s electric drive train.  The project is a two stage performance package in which the first system is as cost effective as possible and the second stage solution will be for the high performance markets. The Razor is a road-legal trike with full Motor Cycle Vehicle Approval and is currently in limited production. We look forward to testing in early 2017. The first stage of the project will be used to stretch the performance and reduce manufacturing costs by using clever engineering techniques.  The biggest calling for the technology is the US market.

MARINE PROJECTS

Green MotorSport’s drive trains will also help to make our canals, rivers and lakes cleaner, quieter and safer for wildlife. We have built a demonstration electric boat that we recharge using solar power. The boat called UMA is located on the River Thames in London. UMA has been operating successfully, even in the strongest tidal conditions, for nearly a year now. The electric drive system uses our cost effective motor and controller package. The battery pack is lithium with a nominal system voltage of 48V, a capacity of 400Ah and 3kW charger solution is used with full automatic battery management.  The boat has a maximum passenger payload of 12 people and run time of over 2 hours. Extra battery space is also available to increase the potential range up to 4-6 hours depending on the battery technology used.

Another Green MotorSport customer, Kevin Farr has made further advances with his traditional narrow boat.  This is being fitted out for two people to comfortably live aboard all year round. When complete it will weigh about 15 tonnes. It is being converted to hybrid diesel electric drive. The GMS Cost effective motor drives the prop shaft via a 30mm wide toothed belt to give a maximum prop speed of 800 rpm. The motor is cooled by a GMS cooling package that includes a cost effective brushless electric DC pump passing water through a skin tank fabricated on the hull.  Motor speed is controlled by a 550 amp, 48 volt AC controller mounted directly on an area of the hull in contact with the water outside. The batteries will sit at the front end of the boat under the foredeck to counterbalance the weight of the engine.   Apart from charging by the engine alternator, it will be possible to use regenerative charging from the motor and land line mains charging. There will also be solar panels on the roof. Although mainly used for the electric drive, the batteries will also be available for powering washing machines, microwaves, televisions and computers through an inverter when moored.

INVESTIGATING ROBOTICS

Green MotorSport works alongside other engineers developing efficient and renewable energy technologies, as well as innovative battery control systems.  This prototype assistive robot designed and built by Alexandre Vicente can manoeuvre through a human crowded environment efficiently and without bumping into or blocking anyone in its way.  It weighs 58 kg, is 1.3m high and can move at the speed of an average walking adult.   It was designed to be modular and easily reconfigurable so that new sensors could be attached and moved if needed. Its chassis is made of aluminium profile extrusions cut to size and one steel tube located at its base to create a swivel suspension to maintain all four wheels in contact with the floor. The four wheels, each powered by a 30 watt DC motor, move around while rotating simultaneously. The robot can sense its environment using two Hokuyo lidars. It also uses 3D depth sensors to identify objects and detect when someone is trying to interact with it.  At the middle of its frame there are two core i7 64Bit computers running Ubuntu, with 16GB of RAM each that act as the brain of the robot. One computer handles all the real time mapping, navigation and obstacle avoidance, and the other handles the 3D sensing and processing of the environment.  Powering all the systems is a 24V 40 Ah Green MotorSport integrated battery system. The 8 Cells provide constant 24V DC for the drive motors and a 24V to 12V high power DC converter is used to supply 12V to all the other sensors and systems. The batteries have their own power management system that can be accessed via a serial port by the robot or the human operator to check the status of each of the cells. The battery charger was also included at the base of the robot in order to create a self-contained unit that can be plugged into the wall to charge, without the need to carry any extra equipment around. These batteries give the robot an autonomy of 2-3 hours running, or about 5-6 hours in standby with only the computers running calculations. When the robot is plugged into the mains, the power system switches a mechanical relay that disengages the batteries and engages a small power supply unit to keep the computers running while charging. This allows the charging system to be isolated from the rest of the electronics so that the charger can focus solely on the batteries. This technology could also be utilised in autonomous electric vehicles in the future.

AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Green MotorSport and our colleagues in the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) are demonstrating that clean, efficient electric vehicles will help to limit the projected rise in the global temperature to 1.5°C.  We are working with developing countries, where the main increase in global warming gases to 2050 is projected to occur.  Green MotorSport represents TEAM GB in the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) in which electric vehicles drive around Europe powered by the sun or wind.  We have received certificates from WAVE for the past six years, showing that we have successfully completed the rally, which includes some of the most difficult terrain in Europe.

This year in collaboration with WAVE Earth, letters from schoolchildren, many from low lying countries, were delivered to the United Nations Development Programme in Geneva, asking that action must be taken to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

The WAVE’s  Director, Louis Palmer said; ” There is no reason why all vehicles could not be electric”. Gordon Foat of Green MotorSport Limited took over 400 hundred letters from schoolchildren at the George Abbot School in Guildford, Surrey.

Schoolchildren’s letters from India were delivered by Naveen Rabelli in his solar powered tuktuk.   Naveen is a very talented electrical engineer who converted his internal combustion engine tuktuk to electric drive.   On his way across Europe, Naveen took a precious bundle of letters from schoolchildren in India and other countries to the United Nations Development Programme  in Geneva.  The children, many from low lying countries, want to take stronger action to keep the global temperature rise to the safer level of 1.5°C, as proposed at the Paris climate change meeting.  The tuktuk is a popular vehicle in India, used for making deliveries and as a taxi.  Naveen wants to help his country to change from using polluting internal combustion engine vehicles to clean electric vehicles. This will help to make India’s towns pleasant places to live in, as well as slowing the rate of climate change.

When Naveen finished his epic journey from Bangalore in India to Buckingham Palace, over 9600 miles, Gordon escorted him in his tuktuk to the Cenex vehicle test centre at Millbrook, where low carbon vehicles were demonstrated.   Naveen was also invited to talk about his journey to the BBC and  NTV and recently with Gordon Foat of Green MotorSport at the George Abbot School in Surrey.  You can find links to the numerous interviews on his Tejas facebook page.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

The WAVE delivered many more children’s letters at the UN climate change meeting in Marrakesh.  These were displayed in a huge mosaic, which created two records with the Guinness Book of Records, with the contributions of nearly 50,000 school children from all over the world!  Prior to the meeting, the UN stated that national plans to cut carbon emissions fall well short of the levels needed to keep the rise in global temperatures under 2°C, but that ambitious action on energy efficiency in buildings, businesses and transport could help to drive down carbon significantly.  Green MotorSport and our international partners believe that we can make a tremendous effort to introduce electric vehicles and stop the temperature rise going above 1.5°C.

Louis Palmer, Director of the WAVE, said “I am very pleased to announce that we have successfully set up the mosaic at the UN World Climate Change Conference, together with the electric car race of FIA formula E in Marrakesh, Morocco. We have created a powerful message from more than 50,000 students from all over the world, that they are ready to do something and to reduce their CO2 emissions. So the world leaders should also take steps to stop global warming!

The world record for the largest greeting card mosaic was so far around 390 m2, and we measured that our mosaic was exactly 699 m2!   We have also broken the world record for the greeting card with the most contributions. It stood so far at 13000, and we have received 50581!

For us as a WAVE EARTH team, it’s not so important to break world records, but it’s important to educate children in the world about global warming. As global emissions are still too high, and the world leaders at the World Climate Change Conference are not taking enough action, we believe that we must not change the climate, but the minds of people. We believe what Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.”

We are fully energized to continue our efforts and will continue with our mission to educate more and more children, together with teachers and governments all over the world. After this first successful event, our partners want to continue and even strengthen their support. So we decided to lay out these cards again and make the next mosaic even bigger. This is going to happen at the next UN World Climate Change Conference, in Bonn, Germany, in November 2017.    The posters are already back at the WAVE office in Switzerland thanks to a Tesla electric car, and they will be used again in Bonn next year.

Many thanks to the #1o5C campaign of the Climate Vulnerable Forum supported by UNDP, Formula E, Global Programme Climate Change (GPCC) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Fondation pour le développement durable des régions de montagne FDDM, TWIKE Maroc and many other organizations in different countries all over the world!”

Green MotorSport will announce opportunities for sponsorship of Team GB in WAVE  2017 in the new year.  Wave 2017 will involve more local vehicles covering shorter distances in drives across Switzerland.  Once again our sponsors will be able to show the world how quickly our technology is advancing and how important it is that we expedite the change over to clean, zero carbon transport.

We are sad to report that Gordon Hamilton, the scientist who has been working in dangerous conditions in the Antarctic in order to help the world to avoid severe climate change, gave his life for future generations, as his sledge disappeared into a deep crevasse. Hamilton was a researcher with the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program studying the stability of the ice shelves near McMurdo Station, a research center on Ross Island, 2,500 miles south of New Zealand.  He and his team were camped in a heavily-crevassed area known as the McMurdo shear zone, where the Ross and McMurdo ice shelves meet.

The Growing Air Foundation is a registered non-profit group in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The group  has also been granted the ANBI Status which means donations are tax deductible. The worlds forests are the air conditioners of the planet. Our goal is to plant 1 million trees across 98 hectares of degraded and destroyed land in the Atlantic Rain Forest in Brazil of which there is only 7% left. This project is called the Heart Project. The project is associated with Green MotorSports electric Tapir utility buggy that was developed for the rain forest project to help get around the tree planting zones. The project is still running and recently Green MotorSport  made several modifications to the vehicle to improve its reliability and performance. The Green MotorSport Tapir also participated in the WAVE 2014 and 2015 WAVE trophy winning several high profile awards for charging technology and best light class prototype.

CLEAN AIR IN CITIES

Green Motorsport and colleagues have been working for decades to clean up our atmosphere, but it is only recently that this is being taken seriously.  Two committees from the UK House of Commons have called upon the Government to take firm action to deal with air pollution, which is causing the early deaths of around 40,000 people every year in the UK alone.  The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee (EFRA) said “This is costing the UK economy some £15-20 billion per year. More importantly many thousands of people bear the human costs associated with damaged cardiac and respiratory systems and life-limiting diseases.”    In another report, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) advises the Department of Transport that a stronger commitment to sustainable transport is essential. The uptake of ultra low emission vehicles is too low to meet Government climate change targets and air quality targets for 2010 will not be met until 2020 at the earliest.

The World Health Organisation states that each year air pollution causes 3.3 million deaths worldwide, including cancers, and action must be taken to deal with this public health emergency.

A new study is revealing the damage caused by minute particles of iron oxides which are released by vehicle engines and brakes.  Prof David Allsop of the University of Lancaster is co-author of an international study into the effect of magnetite particles upon people’s brain function.  Hundreds of these tiny particles are being found in people’s brains where they can cause oxidative damage which may lead to neurodegenerative diseases including  Alzheimers.  Unlike the internal combustion engine, electric vehicles do not emit nitrogen or sulphur oxides or particulate matter. There are significantly less polluting magnetite particles produced from brake linings in electric vehicles as they utilise regenerative braking.

The UK Government is backing investment in manufacturing fossil fuel cars as well as a third runway at Heathrow while carbon dioxide emissions are at over 400 ppm. Noise pollution is also a growing problem in cities, but it can be ameliorated by using quiet electric vehicles.   There is added noise from aircraft. An earlier report by the former Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution entitled The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight  expressed deep concern about the global impacts of the rapid growth in air travel.  It was suggested that instead of encouraging airport expansion and proliferation, the Government should facilitate a modal shift from air to high-speed rail for short-haul journeys.

GLOBAL FAIRNESS DEALING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

Aubrey Meyer author of Contraction and Convergence which aims to find a fair way of cutting global warming gases, has advised Gordon Foat that the US courts have upheld a claim from children that they have a legal right to a stable climate.   The US Government attempted  to dismiss the Children’s claim but the Judge ruled that there is  no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society. A stable climate system is quite literally the foundation of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress.
Aubrey Meyer told us that in the growing climate crisis we face, this judgment shifts the centre of gravity to the courts. Donald Trump’s unexpected election victory harnessed white voter rage about the growing joblessness in America. His intention to deconstruct the Paris Climate Agreement is another unwelcome part of that shock. However, his rage against political corruption at the highest level is apparent.   Changing climate and the warming dangers we all face is a global reality, driven by fossil fuel consumption. The refusal to deal with that adequately is more of the political corruption against which Trump campaigned. Fortunately his appointees dealing with climate change have told us that they consider Contraction and Convergence to be a fair way ahead.  www.gci.org.uk

Green MotorSport has been a supporter of Contraction and Convergence for many years.

The Global Commons Institute has outlined the reductions in carbon emissions that all nations will have to make in the future in order to keep the temperature increase to 1.5°C or at most 2°C.   Green MotorSport and our colleagues will enable people to buy zero emission systems now to power transport, their homes and industries.  If we start the transition to zero carbon fuels now, whether you are in a developing country with a growing economy or in a wealthy country aiming to meet climate change targets, we will all benefit from zero emission technologies!