Electric Vehicles 101

PRESS RELEASE

EVO Electric Technology Powers New Electric Supercar

EVO Electric, a leader in the design, development, production, and sales/licensing of electric drive solutions for the automotive sector, announced today that its advanced Axial Flux motor technology was selected to power the Radical SRZero, an electric supercar unveiled today at Autosport International 2010 in Birmingham, England.

The SRZero is powered by two EVO AFM motors, which offer unparalled perfor¬mance in terms of power, torque, weight, size, efficiency, reliability and durability. Radical Sportscars, the Peterborough-based sportscar manufacturer, worked with Imperial College London’s Racing Green Endurance team to develop this all-electric supercar, and the results are stunning. The Radical SRZero has a top speed of 190 km/h with capability to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. The supercar will be demonstrated in a number of events, culminating with a 26,000km (16,000 mile) endurance trip from Argentina to Alaska later this year. The Radical SRZero aims to be the world’s most focused, fun-to-drive electric vehicle.

EVO technology is also featured at the International Boat Show in London (8-17 of January). EVO was selected to supply motors for the “Fast Electric”, an all-electric boat designed by Patterson Boatworks, a specialist builder of luxury and racing boats. The boat is available for purchase from Patterson and Bates Wharf Marine Sales Ltd.

“Motorsports and luxury boating are a great way of demonstrating the capabilities of EVO technology”, commented David Latimer, CEO of EVO Electric. “Many technologies are first implemented in motorsports and other niches before migrating to the larger but more cost-sensitive mainstream vehicle market segments. We believe the same will happen with hybrid and electric vehicle technologies including EVO’s advanced electric motors and generators, which are also being implemented in other near-term applications such as commercial and military vehicles.”

For more information on Radical Sportscars: www.radicalsportscars.com

For more information on Patterson Boatworks: www.pattersonboatworks.co.uk

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But,

• EVs are inferior to their fossil fueled counterparts
• I’d buy an EV, but they only go a few miles
• EVs aren’t really zero carbon
• EVs take too long to charge

We’ve all heard these opinions and perceptions. Some of us know these are founded on misinformation.

Now, a team made of 10 engineering students is planning on showing the world how EVs offer much more than people think.

Driving the Pan-American Highway — in an EV:

Ten engineering students from Britain hope to tackle the Pan-American Highway — all 15,000 miles of it — in the last thing you’d think to do it in: an electric car.

Not just any electric car, mind you, but one originally designed for racing.

Racing Green Endurance, which consists entirely of students at Imperial College London, has converted a Radical SR8 to battery electric power. As if that weren’t impressive enough, they plan to spend three months driving it from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Tierra Del Fuego to show people that EVs can be quick, they can be cool and they can go the distance.

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Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk seems to have it all. The electric-car entrepreneur is the toast of Silicon Valley, Sacramento, and Tokyo after unveiling a plan to revive Toyota’s shuttered NUMMI plant last week. And deal-hungry Wall Street bankers are angling to take his company public. He’s even a Hollywood star, with a cameo in the hit Iron Man 2 movie, said to be based on his life story.

The one thing he doesn’t have, by his own admission, is money.

“About four months ago, I ran out of cash,” he wrote in a court filing dated Feb. 23, reviewed by VentureBeat. That’s a problem not just for him but for Tesla, where he is the lead investor and chief product architect, as well as chief executive officer. Musk’s willingness to funnel his own cash into Tesla has for years sustained the faith of fellow investors and reassured would-be car buyers in 2008 when the company’s finances were in perilous shape.

Source

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China To Subsidize Electric & Hybrid Car Purchases.
Summary:

• Pilot subsidy program to run in five cities
• Electric car buyers to save 60,000 yuan ($8,800) each
• Buyers of plug-in hybrids to save 50,000 yuan each
• Government to invest in electric car infrastructure
• Also offers 3,000-yuan subsidy for fuel-efficient cars

China to subsidize electric, hybrid car purchases in five cities

English.news.cn   2010-06-01

BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) — China Tuesday released details of its green-car subsidy program designed to boost the nation’s auto industry and cut vehicle emissions.

Through the program, subsidies of up to 60,000 yuan (8,784 U.S. dollars) will be given to buyers of pure electric vehicles in the five cities chosen for the pilot program, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website.

Buyers of plug-in hybrid cars will receive up to 50,000 yuan in subsidies.

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Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment

Charging Stations, Grid Interconnection Issues, EV Charging Business Models,
and Vehicle-to-Grid Technology: Market Analysis and Forecasts

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Electric vehicles will begin shipping in small volumes starting in 2010. These vehicles will require the rollout of a new infrastructure for charging access at home, at work, and around town. By 2015, access to vehicle charging will be available at nearly one million charge points in the United States. Vehicles in the U.S. will be primarily charged at home as early adopters will prefer the convenience, while in the rest of the world, public charging will play a more central role due to reduced access to convenient home charging. The Asia Pacific region will lead global EV charging equipment sales due to strong government incentives and directives. Bi-directional smart vehicle-to-grid charging will be slow to take off and will be limited to fleet applications through 2015.

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More electric vehicle charging stations projected.

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A total of 4.7 million electric vehicle charging stations will be installed worldwide over the next five years to support the transition to plug-in vehicles, says Pike’s “Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment” report. The United States alone is likely to be home to almost 1 million charging points by 2015.

Pike Research forecasts that annual revenue from EV charging equipment will reach $1.8 billion (US) in 2015.

That need will be fueled by the more than 3.1 million electric vehicles (EVs), including both hybrids and all-electric cars, expected to be sold worldwide during the next five years,

Read the full article here

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An article Five reasons Obama should put BP under receivership presents five facts about the BP catastrophe and argues that it is time for the government to take control from BP.

I listed the 5 facts below:

1. We are not getting the truth from BP. BP has continuously and dramatically understated size of gusher.

2. We have no way to be sure BP is devoting enough resources to stopping the gusher. BP is now saying it has no immediate way to stop up the well until August, when a new “relief” well will reach the gushing well bore, enabling its engineers to install cement plugs.

3. BP’s new strategy for stopping the gusher is highly risky.

4. Right now, the U.S. government has no authority to force BP to adopt a different strategy …
Expressing grave concerns is not enough. The President needs legal authority to order BP to protect the United States.

5. The President is not legally in charge. As long as BP is not under the direct control of the government he has no direct line of authority, and responsibility is totally confused.

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This article was originally posted May 25, 2010 at 8:30 am

I fully expect the following events to occur — I do hope I am wrong:

1. British Petroleum with subcontractors (Transocean, Halliburton and others) will (appear to) work hard on stopping the oil gusher (referred to as a “spill”).
2. BP tries to fix the problem, all the efforts try to stop the leak and harvest the crude oil for production.
3. BP decides to ditch their attempts to harvest this oil (from this hole) and moves on to try to permanently seal the hole.
4. After many tons of crude oil spilled, millions of dollars spent, priceless nature is destroyed, and after months of trial they will fail to stop the gusher.
5. Due to BP’s apparent failure, the US government will take ownership of this problem and attempt to stop the gusher/spill.
6. BP is now out of the picture, for a short while.
7. The US government will have to spend a few billions of dollars on this disaster.
8. The US government will have to hire the same subcontractors that caused this mess, because they are the most qualified ones to fix this mess. Transocean, Halliburton and others will be subcontracted by the US government. BP employees will be also contracted for their expertise.
9. The persons who created this disaster will essentially be bailed out.  [Does this sound familiar so far? (hint: wall street bailout)]
10. Halliburton will be paid again (this time by we the people, not by BP) to clean up their mess.
11. British Petroleum, Transocean and Halliburton will be reprimanded in some fashion, but it will too late, too little and essentially just political theater, just for show.
12. Eventually, the gusher/spill will become a leak.
13. Monitoring this leak will have to continue for decades.
14. Further attempts will have to be taken to stop this leak and maintain the containment.
15. The leak (like so many other disasters) will disappear from the main stream US news media.
16. You will hear numbers in millions even billions of lost dollars (in lost property and economy). Yet,
17. The real loss here is priceless. The real loss wont be given to you by economists or politicians.
18. History will quickly be rewritten , new disasters will distract.

Observations:

• This is one other example of corporate welfare in this bailout era
• The corporations are too big to fail
• The problems are too big to ignore
• No one else knows how to fix the problems, except for those who created them.
• The corporations make a profit regardless of their performance
• The corporations make a profit regardless of destruction and loss of life resulting from their actions
• We pay them, we get taxed, we obey the law, they pay law makers (in various ways) to make the law

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Oil + Corexit dispersant in the ocean

The Ocean Futures Expedition Team discovered this massive oil slick just 24 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The oil stretched as far as the eye could see and down to about 15 to 25 feet deep. Amongst the muck swims a Man o’ War and a small fish that swims alongside for protection. The team is encountering many floating globs of rust colored oil; dark black fresh crude; and oily surfaces as they explore the coast.

We need funding to keep our team in Louisiana. Please consider making a donation on our YouTube site or website.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.oceanfutures.org/

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On May 20, the EPA called on British Petroleum to use a less harmful dispersant to dissolve the oil spill that is spreading rapidly from the gushing oil well into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite this, BP continued its use of this dispersant.

What are dispersants and why should you care?

Popular science has a good article on what dispersants do, you can find it here.

BP is using a dispersant known as “NALCO Corexit 9500″ made by NALCO (NALCO Holding Company)

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BP cut corners, made decisions to save money and compromised safety resulting in this disaster.

Article: BP Knew Of Deepwater Horizon Safety Risks Almost A Year Ago – By Jack Loftus on May 31, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Top kill has failed. As BP moves on to whatever it is they plan to do next, we’re learning executives knew there were “serious problems and safety concerns” with the rig as early as 11 months ago and did nothing.

… totally knew, because the Army Corps of Engineers told them exactly that! … BP senior drilling engineer Mark Hafle:

Though his report indicates that the company was aware of certain risks and that it made the exception, Mr. Hafle, testifying before a panel on Friday in Louisiana about the cause of the rig disaster, rejected the notion that the company had taken risks. “Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue,” Mr. Hafle told a six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials.

Emphasis mine, because everyone at BP apparently knew there were issues with this rig, and yet they continued to cut corners, some as recently as June 22.

What happened on June 22? Why, that’s when Hafle, the same engineer testifying Friday, and other BP engineers wrote in an internal BP document that the metal casings used at Deepwater Horizon might collapse under high pressure. “This would certainly be a worst-case scenario,” Hafle wrote. “However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur.”

Sources: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/05/bp-knew-of-deepwater-horizon-safety-risks-almost-a-year-ago/

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Originally posted on May 27, 2010

Toyota Motor Corp said it would take a $50 million stake in U.S. electric car maker “Tesla Motors”. The two companies said they would cooperate on the development of electric vehicles, parts and production system.

Toyota and former joint-venture partner General Motors had shut down the massive New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) plant in the San Francisco suburb of Fremont, Calif.  Tesla will take over this plant to build its upcoming all-electric Model S sedan starting in the year 2012.

While stressing that it still considered gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles the most promising and effective alternative to reducing emissions and fuel use, Toyota said Tesla’s cars, capable of long range highway driving, made it rethink the real potential of all-electric vehicles.

With the Toyota backing in hand, Tesla expects to hire an estimated 1,000 workers to team on building electric cars.

Tesla, which now makes a $100,000 electric sports car, will use its alliance with Toyota to support its “S” model sedan aimed at the upper end of the passenger car market. Toyota has been planning to offer an urban commuter electric car in the U.S. in 2012 as well as a plug-in version of its popular Prius hybrid car.

Sources:

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A recent news article on www.marketwatch.com titled “Nissan Charges Up for Leaf Electric Car” showed a clip of Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn stating to Neal Boudette of the Wall Street Journal that demand for the company’s soon-to-be-released electric car, the Leaf, is outpacing production.

Quotes from Carlos Ghosn:

the demand is here because we have a lot of people showing interest

we had one hundred and thirty thousand hand raiser already in the united stats and these are .. individuals, .. not talking about companies or a fleet

we have a lot or pre-orders being taken

Other items mentioned:

• Nissan is working on a large ramp up in production
• Nissan is planning on producing a family of Nissan electric cars:
  • The leaf will be a small 4-door sedan with a 100 mile range.
  • Other vehicles will include a small delivery van, a luxury car under the infinity brand and a family vehicle.
• Carlos Ghosn also said that cities have to put up charging spots, public garages, at supermarkets etc..

With an attitude, the reporter here, Simon (last name??), pontificated the following opinions: Read more…

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I was very excited when I read a news article on March, 12 2009 about a new battery technology developed at MIT.  Basically, these new battery cells can charge up very very quickly.

This technology enhances Lithium Ion energy storage and speeds up charging to just a few seconds. The news was released in a letter written by Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder of MIT. The letter described their work on enhancing lithium iron phosphate electrodes. The letter was published in Nature.

With li-ion batteries it normally takes hours to fully charge. This new technology means that EVs (Electric Vehicles) that take all night to fully charge can now fully charge in only one hour. Further, cell phones could be charged in a few minutes.

Apparently charging this fast requires high levels of power that could require wiring changes at homes.

I was thinking  WOOHA!  Now we will finally have Electric Vehicles, they can no longer claim that battery technology is not good enough for 100% Electric Vehicles. But, it seems I might be wrong.

Later on, I found that batteries that can fully charge in a few minutes are not really news, they’ve been around for a while and have been used in EVs that are allegedly nearing commercial usage. Read more…

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Are you under the impression that usable and reliable electric vehicles do not exist? Are you waiting for the major auto makers to produce electric vehicles or to see these electric cars on TV ads? Do you think the Chevy Volt is your only choice and are chocked by the price tag? Do you think that your only choice when it comes to driving an electric car is to make one yourself using a conversion kit?  If you said “yes” to any of these, I have good news for you.

We live in a world where a few brave minds have took it upon themselves to do what the major auto makers couldn’t (ehm.. I meant, wouldn’t), namely to build 100% reliable electric vehicles.

I am not talking about converted vehicles; you know, these regular cars that people convert to electric vehicles, I am also not talking about the do-it-yourself conversion kits.. NOoo, real, street worthy, 100% electric cars do exist today and are probably available for sale near you.

Whether you live in the US, in Europe or in Asia, electric car are being produced now and you could purchase one, without paying $40,000 or more.

In my opinion, the newer generations of electric cars is a good match for the current generation of fluid fuel (gas, diesel, ethanol, hybrid) powered cars. The development is fast and furious.

While the best battery technology remains patented and shelved rather than used in street cars, there exists sufficient enough batteries to enable workable EVs. You can read an article I wrote on a recent advancement in battery technology here . Lio-Ion batteries are common choices in today’s EVs; with a variety of powerful electric motors these electric cars have amazing acceleration and reliability. They also cost much less to maintain.

What is even more impressive is that these EVs are finally catching up to liquid fuel vehicles (hybrids, gas, ethanol etc vehicles) when it comes to range.

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