Here’s an interesting alternative use for your hybrid electric. John Sweeney, who lives in Harvard, Massachusetts, was one of the many victims of the snow and ice storms in the north east that caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of people a year or so ago. In times of adversity, human innovation takes over.
Sweeney used an inverter to keep his refrigerator, freezer, a wood stove fan, and the news on a small TV running. All running off his Toyota Prius.
The battery in the car provided power and, when it got low, the car started up and recharged itself. The Prius is capable of producing about 3kw of power continuously—enough to run a small refrigerator, efficient freezer, etc. That’s about equivalent to the basic household needs of most people in the U.S.
After three days of this, Sweeney’s Prius had burned through a whopping five gallons of fuel. I can tell you from experience that this is about what my Honda generator gets in economy, so that’s not bad at all.
West Race Cars, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the premier makers of race cars on the market. Their latest model, made in conjunction with Kleenspeed Technology, is the WX10-T, an all-electric sport racer.
While West isn’t the first race car manufacturer to make an electric, they are the first North American one to make one for production. The WX10-T was unveiled at the Performance Racing Industry trade show in early December and has already sold at least one car. The initial production run, which will take place in 2009, will be for between 5 and 10 of these cars with more being built as demand requires.
The car features some awesome specs, not the least of which is the Thruxar electric motor made by Kleenspeed. This motor produces a whopping 200hp and 165fp of torque right off the line. The battery pack on this racer is good for 30 minutes of drive time and is made to be “hot swapped” in the pit, for quick “refueling.” The battery packs take about 1.5 hours to recharge at 220v.
The cars are capable of doing 150mph, but no numbers as to quarter mile and other data are available yet. The car is based on the frame for the WX10 racer and was designed with the involvement of the IMSA (International Motorsports Association).
This probably doesn’t seem like much to most people, since race cars are hardly the cars we’ll see everyday on the road. They aren’t exactly the world’s largest pollution contributors either. It is exciting, however, when you consider that motor sports are usually the cutting edge of the automotive technology world and that more testing, refining, etc. happens thanks to racing than from any other source. Fuel injection, which greatly boosts both power and economy in cars, is an innovation made thanks to racing, for instance.
Now with electrics becoming a new sports market, and with innovators like the Wrightspeed X1 electric race car and established racing manufacturers like West Race Cars in the field, plus the involvement of a major race player like the IMSA, things will only improve.
The Phylla electric car is solar-powered and capable of going 80mph. The concept prototype was driven by some VIP guests at the Turin Environmental Park recently. It’s a “2+2” seater, which means it can seat two or four people, depending on how much luggage space you’d like.
The Phylla is very small and has two unfortunate aspects to it:
Its looks, which are very Hello Kitty plastic toy.
Its name, which makes it sound, well, phallic.
The prototype at least proves a couple of important things: solar powered vehicles are at least possible and at speeds that are realistic for today’s driving. Here’s some specs on this one:
While the car probably can’t power itself all day, every day purely on solar, it can do a good job of it. It’s a realistic prototype that could be a good urban commuter. Questions exist as to whether it would pass safety tests and be road and freeway worthy in many countries, however.
A few years ago, Tom Hanks was pushing this company and then it suddenly just went poof. After an appearance on Letterman, a couple of videos on his Myspace page, and a few guest spots in newspapers and magazines, AC Propulsion and Tom Hank’s promotion of it suddenly disappeared.
Now, a couple of years later, they’re back. In the mean-time, apparently, AC Propulsion has been busy in the background with companies like Tesla (Roadster) and BMW (Mini E).
The company has a new facility in San Dimas, California–home of Bill and Ted–and is now promoting their electric car conversions. Specifically of the Scion from Toyota. For a mere $55,000, you can take your $15,000 Scion and have it made into an all-electric with a 100+ mile range per charge. The price does not include lifetime slurpies at the Circle K. Strange things are afoot. Check out the video:
Until you sit down and really think about it, charging an electric car from a public charging station seems like a pretty simple concept. Then you start to realize that things like vandalism, theft, billpoints, and other stuff starts to come into play. So saying a public electric vehicle charging station is as easy as plug it in, give it your credit card, and walk away is like saying an ATM is just a machine that you say “gimme money” to and it spits it out.
Well, ATMs probably work like that in Washington D.C., but in the rest of the world…
ChargePoint Smartlets are a system designed by Coulomb Technologies in California. These systems were on display at the EDTA Conference earlier this month and were demonstrated to an interested public and potential buyers/investors.
The system works based on an RFID card that the user waves near the receiver on the Smartlet’s screen. This identifies the driver and “unlocks” the machine for use. The door for the cord is then unlocked and the user can stretch it to the car, plug it in, and activate the charging sequence. Then walk away.
The system monitors the charge, shuts itself off when it’s done, and automatically locks down if the cord is unplugged (no more power), cut, or any tampering with the system is noted. It can then only be unlocked by the user’s card or a technician.
Charging can be stopped at any time by the user’s card if just a quick top-off or some additional juice while you shop is needed, of course.
It’s built to be as bulletproof as possible, as are most financial machines. The next time you’re at the gas station or ATM, think about what’s going on behind the panel on that dispenser you’re utilizing and all the possibilities for things to go wrong and how the machine’s designer’s have built it to think around those. If the hose is cut or ripped off the gas pump, for instance, the whole row of pumps in that line will automatically shut off.
The technology is there and ready for use, so now it’s just a matter of getting it installed (which companies like Better Place are doing now) and getting people to use it.
We here at Zoomi Life are big fans of ecomodder and their informative, DIY-oriented eco-modifications to cars. They posted a hilarious article about one of their featured writers, Ben Nelson, getting pulled over for speeding in his converted electric Geo Metro.
The ticket, which he went to court to fight, resulted in a fine. The judge, however, upon hearing that Ben’s car was an electric DIY conversion, changed the ticket so that it wouldn’t reflect negatively on Ben’s driving record and then took him across the street to talk to the local newspaper about the area’s first-ever electric speeder.
Ben now has a legal defense fund on ecomodder to pay off his legal debt of $83.80. Contributions, through the fund on their site, are encouraged. Check out the story on ecomodder for all the details.
Here’s a video of Ben telling the whole story himself:
Dale Vince, the CEO ofEcotricity, has announced that their electric sports car, which so far has not been given a name (just tagged the “Wind Car”), is ready to name his electric dream vehicle. Back in May of 2008, Dale announced his intention to “build an electric sports car to rival the Tesla.” Ecotricity, the company Vince runs, is a wind energy company in the UK and the announcement for the car was made on Vince’s blog, Zerocarbonista.
Getting off to an immediate rocky start, the car’s design took twice as long as planned and the first model had numerous mechanical issues. This after $150 million USD had been spent on the project.
Apparently, the car is ready for unveiling, but not until it has a name. To get the ball rolling on ideas, Vince has proposed three names: Zero, Nemesis, and Storm.
The following is my own list of names for this car, since there isn’t much in the way of photographs of it to generate ideas from:
Unaffordable: Just like the Tesla.
PublicityGetter: Which is what this car is really for.
ElCaminoEV: Since for all I know, that’s what it looks like.
Obviously, this project is not just, well, dubious, but on all fronts appears to be nothing more than a publicity scam pushed by this CEO to keep his company in the headlines. So far, nothing of substance has come from this EV other than a lot of publicity for Ecotricity (which is mentioned often in all this).
Cree, which was founded in 1996 and began prototyping and testing an innovative 3-wheeled electric called the SAM, went out of business in 2003 due to lack of sales and investors. The vehicles were being tested on Swiss roads almost exclusively by private consumers in Zurich and Basle.
Barely a year later, the company restructured and came back, debt-free, with new investors for the newly-emerging electrics market. The company now boasts about 13 million CHF in investment capital and nearly 400,000 CHF in shareholder capital. The company is still private and has been busy putting together the SAM for today’s market.
Aimed mainly for the Swedish, Danish, and German markets, the SAM is approved for public road use. This little 2-seater’s got some pretty impressive stats:
168v, 250a motor putting out 15kW at 1,800rpm (Permanent magnet, brushless)
5.54:1 gear reduction to synchronous belt drive
Full charge in 6 hours (40% in 1 hr, 70% in 2)
Range of 50-70km
Top speed of 85km/h
0-50km/h in 7 seconds with full load (2 passengers)
The chassis is almost entirely aluminum and the vehicle has a tare weight of 545kg (with batteries). It’s an interesting front-wheel steering and rear-wheel drive with the rear wheel being the single wheel. One thing it doesn’t have is regenerative braking, but it does sport great stability for such a small, 3-wheeler. It meets all European safety standards and has a roll cage and 3-point safety belts.
One of the designs that really sets this one off, though, is the hinged gull-wing doors that fold inward to crimp their profile for tight parking spots. This means the doors don’t extend beyond the front wheels when opening, allowing for very tight parking without “door dings.”
It’s a little dated in looks, but still isn’t too bad for a 3-wheeler. I’m not a big fan of these designs, though I do like the Aptera (thanks to it’s alien spaceship looks). I’m willing to cut the SAM some slack, though, because it’s an extremely fun-looking electric vehicle. Plus it’s been road tested and approved, so it’s literally ready to sell right now.
Cree is looking for business partners in marketing and investing to get this car to market and into mass-production. Most of the drive train technology is proprietary and designed by Cree while most of the standard parts, like tires, wheels, struts, etc., are freely available after-market. This means that maintenance and repair won’t be too costly.
The prototype is currently being sold on a minimum-build run in four color offerings. Customization is, of course, available. It’d doubtful that the SAM will ever see American shores in any numbers, but it would be cool to get one. If they meet their target mass-production pricing (6,600 Euros), it might be possible to import one for less than $20,000USD.
The Triacis neither a car nor a motorcycle, but sort of a combination. It’s in the same category as the Apteraand other “technically-motorcycles, but really cars” vehicles, with it’s 3-wheeled design, thin body, and light weight.
These electric vehicles are highway-capable, have a top speed of around 80mph and can go 100 miles (at 45mph) on a single charge. Made by Green Vehicles, the car can charge from a 110v or 220v outlet and has a 5-speed transmission.
The Triac looks like a VW bug (the new ones) from the front and are in a tear-drop shape with a single wheel in the back. They seat two and are designed for the American market and feature a 20kW AC motor and lithium-ion batteries. No price fields are forthcoming as of yet, but supposedly the release date for this could be as early as 2010.
Green Vehicles is also in the final design phase of an electric pickup called the Buckshot. This one will feature the same motor, but a 3-speed transmission with lower gearing to make it a “true work truck.” Little else is available on that EV, but it’s an interest development. Especially to me, since I like my pickups.
This is great news, although it would be nice of Green Vehicles were to give out a little more info so we can compare some specs. The good news about this company is that they’re apparently spending more money and effort on actually building the vehicles than they are on marketing. This is obvious by the fact that their initial press release on the Triac was met with such high feedback and questions that their marketing department was overwhelmed and had to release a new information sheet to try to deal with the overload. Many sites reported an inability to get through via email or on the phone to have questions answered. I personally take that as a good sign.
Green Vehicles has two dealerships currently, one in San Jose, California and a new one in Mill Valley (where they are located). They’ve also got partner dealerships in Salem, Oregon and Escondido, CA. New dealers will be opening in February in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles, California.
Check out the Triac preview video put together by Green Vehicles:
Got an opinion about the Mistubishi i MiEV? Maybe shape the future of how this car company views EVs? Well, here ya go. While it might be nothing more than a customer relations marketing tool, this survey could very well shape how Mitsubishi sees itself in the electric future.
Why? Well, this company is one of the smallest of the Japanese automakers and has always had a pretty customer-focused outlook. Their surveys in the past have shaped (literally) their cars and their engineering for popular after-market and factory-installed additions.
So perhaps this survey will gain their attention as well, especially if enough of us are asking for the same basic things. Especially if enough of us non-California types that ride on freeways and go more than twenty miles a day chime in. No offense to the California types, of course. It’s just that EV makers seem to focus on you all too much.
So take the survey (it’s just a few minutes long) and let them know what you think. You’ve nothing to lose anyway.
