Autoblog

Efficiency is a large stumbling block if you're looking for a way to replace gasoline. It's pretty hard to better such an exceptional fuel, and several alternatives show promise but are nagged by inefficiencies or cost, and usually both. Nanotech to the rescue; it may soon be possible to produce your own hydrogen at home cheaply and easily, and NiMH batteries and fuel cells also stand to become less expensive and offer much better performance. With claims like that, QuantumSphere might well be selling fairy dust, but the Portland, Oregon-based company has developed a nanoparticle coating that may end up being the key to making alternative fuels actually viable.

QuantumSphere's catalytic nanoparticle coatings have 1,000 times the surface area of traditional materials, which means that more catalytic action can be housed in the same space. It's the the highly reactive nature of the coatings that allows cheap home electrolysis, also boding well for replacing precious metals like platinum in fuel cells with a coated piece of stainless steel. QuantumSphere's president Kevin Maloney claims that his company's technology makes electrolysers so efficient that they can supply hydrogen on demand while driving. The technology will roll out later this year in a battery that uses a coated cathode for a five-fold increase in energy density, which translates into a 320-percent power gain over alkaline cells. If things go QuantumSphere's way, we won't be paying $100,000 for the Tesla Roadster in a few years, and it will have an even better range than already promised.

[Source: Automotive Design Line]

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Where the Cadillac V-Series moniker focuses on high performance, the Platinum Series tag being introduced in LA this week places the emphasis on luxury. Now, we believe that this emphasis should be the brand standard anyway, and not just a trim package, but if this represents a step towards bringing Cadillac to the next level, where we hope it's headed, then so be it.

Available for the XLR, STS and DTS, the Platinum Series trim level sets the cars apart by bestowing them with specific paint colors, badging, and interior appointments. The XLR, for example, sports an exclusive and attractive Liquid Amethyst paint color and healthy doses of chrome added to its grille, bespoke wheels and other trim bits. Climb into the Cashmere leather seats and you'll notice the "Platinum" badging on the doorsill, more wood trim, and hand-stitched leather covering the upper dash and door panels. Unfortunately, based on GM's press release, it appears to stop short of the full-blown "Cut and Sew" interior available on the SRX, but we'll wait until our guys in LA get up close and personal to make that call.

Keep reading after the jump for the rundown on the STS and DTS Platinum Series, plus more photos and the official release from GM.

[Source: GM]

Raw materials costs are a headache for automakers worldwide, but the skyrocketing price of precious metals could escalate that headache to a migraine.

The chief culprit is platinum, the preferred catalyst in automobile catalytic converters. According to Reuters, platinum futures hit $1,340 an ounce late last week, and the net impact for automakers is in the range of $100 to $200 per car - yet another hit to already razor-thin profit margins.

Although automakers hedge against materials costs, as they do against currency fluctuations, if the price of a commodity stays high for a prolonged period, the company's costs will inevitably rise.

Cheaper palladium (at a relatively modest $395.50 an ounce last Friday) is an alternative to platinum, but there are technical issues. Not only is palladium somewhat less "active" than platinum as a catalyst, it is also much more sensitive to "sulfur poisoning" (reaction of the catalyst with sulfur, limiting its effectiveness in the emissions control system), a serious problem for diesel emissions systems.

In Europe, where over half of all cars sold are diesels, this is a significant problem and diesel catalytic converters have been exclusively platinum for this reason. Only the advent of ultra low sulfur fuels has made the use of palladium feasible, and even so, the newest diesel catalysts only substitute palladium for part of the platinum catalyst.

[Sources: Reuters, Dieselnet.com]