IF YOU were one of the thousands who lined the streets of Battersea Park, southwest London, in June to watch the Formula E race in its inaugural season, you may remember the innovative safety car that was used: a plug-in hybrid BMW i8 with a nifty paint job.
Now the car has been given a revamp in time for the second Formula E championship, which gets under way in Beijing in October. The new car is seen as a testbed for green technology that could trickle down to production vehicles in the near future — particularly its wireless charging arrangement.
The Qualcomm Halo system provides twice as much energy to the BMW i8’s lithium-ion batteries per hour as last year’s system. This halves the full charging time to just one hour.
Wireless charging, also known as inductive charging, uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. The inventor Nikola Tesla was the first to demonstrate wireless power transmission in 1891, when he succeeded in lighting electric lamps without wires.
For the technology to find its way into the mainstream took more than a century, but it is now on the verge of being adopted by electric car makers. The attraction is that it would allow owners to park over a recharging pad, flick a switch on their dashboard and fill up with electricity.
Advertisement
You’re to blame for road accidents too, cyclists told
Cyclists are being told they must take their fair share of responsibility for preventing accidents, under recommendations published by the government.
The call comes after a study for the Department for Transport questioned 1,000 drivers and cyclists about what they thought was the most common cause of cycling accidents. It found that cyclists consistently blamed inattentive and careless drivers and seldom said cyclists were at fault.
The study — an evaluation of the Think! road safety campaign — suggests there has been little thawing in the hostile relationship between drivers and cyclists. “Cyclists continue to place more responsibility for preventing cycling accidents on drivers,” the study found. It said campaigns should “emphasise to cyclists that they also have an active role to play in preventing accidents”.
David Murray from CTC, a national cycling charity, criticised the conclusion of the report, pointing out that the government’s own accident figures confirmed that drivers were to blame in most accidents involving cyclists.
“It is unfortunate to see the DfT coming to a conclusion that is effectively victim-blaming. Their own statistics do not back this up. If you want to change people’s behaviour and encourage cycling, you are not going to do this by saying to the people who are most vulnerable on the roads that they should be extra-specially careful,” he said.
Weekend wheels
Advertisement
Whether you like manicured lawns sprinkled with multimillion-pound car collections or tyre-smoking, high-speed action, there’s an event for you next weekend. The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh hosts the Concours of Elegance with 60 gleaming classics. Adult tickets are £35 (concoursofelegance.co.uk). There’s a similar event taking place at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire: Salon Privé has almost 70 classics competing for best in show, as well as 68 sports cars and supercars. An adult Saturday ticket for the supercars is £20. You’ll need a VIP ticket, from £117.33, to see all the events (salonpriveconcours.com). About 100 miles away on the south coast, but much further in spirit, are the Brighton Speed Trials, where about 200 bike and car owners will race against the clock on the seafront. Expect to see everything from Minis to supercars (brightonandhovemotorclub.co.uk).