Electric Vehicles 101

Announcement from www.milesev.com:

We are down to our last remaining inventory of our New 2009 ZX40ST Truck Sale.

With the new year coming upon us we need to sell the last of our new 2009 Trucks. Our new price reduction should allow us to sell the remaining 2009 trucks before we bring in our new 2012 trucks.

All vehicles have the standard equipment listed in our specifications, plus:

1.       New batteries with 18 month prorated warranty

2.       Standard Warranty – 12 month Bumper to Bumper

3.       Spray on Bed Liner

4.       Spray on Undercoating

Price for our remaining new 2009 ZX40ST Trucks is $9,900.00 per truck plus $895 freight.

Price is good for P/O’s received  by January 15^th 2012.

Miles Electric Vehicles  LLC
Dan Christy
C – 916-796-3901

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“Still, it could make its mark: if BYD clears the regulatory hurdles, its F3DM plug-in hybrid would be a frontrunner in the race to become the first production car in American showrooms from a Chinese automaker — arriving as soon as next spring, the company says.”

…

“Think of the F3DM as a Chevrolet Volt with a Wal-Mart price tag, a car with a large-capacity battery — that delivered 31 miles of uninterrupted pure-electric driving for me — as well as a gasoline engine that gives it the ability to go an additional 300 miles.

“General Motors, however, loaded up the Volt with a powerful electric motor, an iPod-like console and a luxury feel that help to justify a $41,000 price tag (before state and federal tax incentives). The F3DM — which does have an auxiliary audio input jack and a parking sensor — is expected to sell for less than $29,000. Incentives could drop the price closer to $20,000.

“My drive of the F3DM started with the 16-kilowatt-hour battery charged to 95 percent of its usable capacity. Instead of babying it to see how close I could get to the 60 miles of E.V. range BYD claims, I punished the F3DM with a succession of pedal-to-the-floor freeway merges and herky-jerky speeding and slowing, all with the air-conditioning going full tilt.

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EPA: Nissan Leaf Is Tops in Fuel Efficiency, Gets 99 MPG Equivalent

Nissan’s Leaf–the first mainstream, affordable all-electric car–just got the thumbs-up from the Environmental Protection Agency. Not only is it best in the midsize vehicle class for fuel efficiency, but the EPA gave the Leaf a whopping 106 miles per gallon for city driving and 92 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 99 mpg equivalent.

How does the EPA calculate the miles per gallon of a vehicle that doesn’t contain any fuel? Green Car Reports explains that the energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline is 33.7 kilowatt-hours, and the Leaf uses approximately 80% of its 24-kWh battery pack. The EPA put the Leaf through five-cycle tests using a number of different driving conditions and climate controls.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1704873/epa-nissan-leaf-is-tops-in-fuel-efficiency-gets-99-mpg-equivalent

The real world figures are not 100 miles/charge as I thought I read, but 73. That would be using 80% of a full battery charge. Looks like it’s close to 1 mile per 1% of full charge.

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Chris Paine the director of Who Killed The Electric Car will be at University of Minnesota, Duluth on Nov 29th and 30th.

Winter 2010 Sustainability Fair at UMD
Sustainability: The New Business As Usual

Featuring Chris Paine, Director of WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? and the
upcoming REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR
Monday & Tuesday, November 29 & 30 at UMD

Join UMD students, faculty, staff and community members as we explore the topic of sustainability in business during our Winter Sustainability Fair on Monday & Tuesday, November 29 & 30, 2010.

Chris Paine, director of WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? will present a lively presentation titled How many lightbulbs does it take to plug in an electric car? at Weber Music Hall on Mon. Nov. 29 at 7 pm, free and open to the public. He will then kick-off the Fair at 11:00 a.m. in

Kirby Ballroom on Tuesday, November 30 with a talk titled “”Science, change and the art of storytelling”, that will venture through the business, environmental, and societal impacts of electric cars.  Chris’ talks glide through the politics, personalities, and cold hard cash reasons for return of the electric car.  He shares his role as the filmmaker who caught GM and others destroying thousands of this “disruptive technology” in 2003.  Seven years later, he’s documenting the incredible return of electric cars for his 2011 doc “Revenge of the Electric Car”.   Chris will also include a preview of the upcoming documentary release REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR.

The Sustainability Fair continues into the afternoon, and UMD Kirby Lounge will be filled with engaging panels, presentations, and tables in the UMD Kirby Lounge.  Learn which Duluth area businesses are working on sustainability- including a panel discussion at 1:00 p.m. in KirbyLounge. At 2:00 pm, Mindy Granley, UMD Campus Sustainability Coordinator, will discuss what sustainability means to UMD’s bottom line.  Stay for an encore showing of WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? at 3pm.  In addition, local businesses will be tabling all afternoon throughout the Kirby concourse.

Chris Paine Background
Chris Paine is the writer/director of Who Killed the Electric Car?. The
film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 before its release
by Sony Pictures to become one of the most successful documentaries of
the last ten years. His next documentary is Revenge of the Electric Car
due in 2011.

Previously, Chris executive produced the motorcycle racing film Faster
with Ewan McGregor and No Maps For These Territories about cyberpunk
author William Gibson.    On the entrepreneurial front, Chris co-founded
Internet Outfitters, an early player on the web and Mondo-tronics a
materials provider for the Mars Pathfinder mission.

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Swiss solar plane flying high in crucial test

GENEVA – An experimental solar-powered plane took off from western Switzerland on Wednesday for a 24-hour test flight — a key step in a historic effort to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun.

The plane with its 207-foot (63-meter) wingspan left Payerne airfield shortly before 7 a.m. after overcoming an equipment problem that delayed a previous attempt, the Solar Impulse team said.

Clear blue skies on Wednesday allowed the prototype aircraft to soak up plenty of solar energy as it flew over the Jura mountains west of the Swiss Alps. The big question, however, was whether the plane’s 12,000 solar cells could fill up its batteries with enough energy so the plane could fly through the night.

The flight is going “extremely well,” said team co-founder Bertrand Piccard, a record-breaking balloonist whose father and grandfather also accomplished pioneering airborne and submarine feats.

“The goal of the project is to have a solar-powered plane flying day and night without fuel,” Piccard said. “This flight is crucial for the credibility of the project.”

By late afternoon, pilot Andre Borschberg had his oxygen mask on and was cruising at almost 29,500 feet (9,000 meters), having earlier dodged low-level turbulence and thermal winds that are frequent in the mountains.

Read the full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_hi_te/eu_switzerland_solar_adventure

Find the Solar Impulse official site here

Commentary:

This is not the first nor the last electric airplane. NASA had similar planes, and you can find consumer planes here that are electric: http://www.electraflyer.com/

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A month ago the Karma by Fisker was in Minnesota, here some shots

A well-built vehicle

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The fancy and pricey Tesla roadster was in MN!

Title: Electric car turns heads in Minnesota

from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38081493/ns/local_news-minneapolisst_paul_mn/

KARE11.com

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – You could serve hot dogs to attract customers to your car dealership. Or you could do what Kurt Bublitz did on Friday: offer rides in a $109,000 electric car.

Bublitz’s dealership, EurocarsUS, recently purchased the Tesla Roadster as a marketing tool. “We think it’s kind of the wave of the future,” he said.

California-based Tesla has sold more than 1000 electric cars since its two-seat sports car went on sale in 2008. But it’s about to get some competition. By year’s end Nissan plans to release the fully electric Leaf, a compact car priced just over $25,000 -after a $7500 federal tax credit is applied. Chevrolet is also on track for a late 2010 rollout of its plug-in hybrid Volt.

“It’s like everything else,” said Bublitz, “as the technology gets adopted and so on, it will become more affordable.”

Tesla – which is planning a more affordable electric sedan for 2012 – boasts a range of 244 miles between charges for its roadster.

Full story

updated 7/3/2010 5:45:18 PM

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The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan revealed on 14 January 2008 at the North American International Auto Show.  It is the first car from Fisker Automotive, a joint venture of Quantum Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild, LLC, announced on 5 September 2007.

Fisker Automotive plans to have Valmet Automotive manufacture 75-100 cars for testing in 2010 with mass production in February 2011. The car is anticipated to have a PHEV-50, 50-mile (80 km) all-electric range.

The Karma is powered by Quantum Technologies’ Q-Drive technology, an innovative petrol engine/electric motor combination; Q-Drive is a series hybrid system meaning that the engine is mated with a generator to provide an electrical connection to the motors and also recharge the batteries and as such the electric motors are the only mechanical driving force connected to the wheels.

As a factory option the Karma can be fitted with a solar paneled roof not only to aid in the recharging of its Lithium-Ion batteries but also to aid the cabin climate control system. The solar roof is capable of generating a half kilowatt-hour a day[6] and is estimated to provide up to 4 to 5 miles (6.4–8.0 km) of additional range a week assuming continuously sunny days. Additionally, the car will offer a set of solar panels for the garage/house which may charge the Karma entirely ‘off the grid’.

Although Fisker Automotive has yet to release solid statistics regarding Karma’s fuel economy, the company estimates the average driver will only have to refill the fuel tank annually provided they do not drive more than 50 miles (80 km) a day. Fisker Automotive has also suggested that when in ‘sport-hybrid’ mode the Karma will be capable of 100 miles per US gallon (2.4 l/100 km) of fuel consumed for a range of 300 miles (480 km). Despite its eco-friendly background the Karma features a 125 mph (201 km/h) top speed and is capable of reaching 60 mph (97 km/h) from a standstill in 5.8 seconds.

The Karma’s two 201 brake horsepower (204 PS) motors produce 1,300 newton metres (960 ft·lbf) of torque, more than the Bugatti Veyron at 1,250 N·m (920 ft·lbf).

In January 2009 Fisker previewed the Karma S ‘Sunset’ at the North American International Auto Show, the world’s first plug-in hybrid convertible, with a folding hardtop.

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Under-reported story: Reports that OIL is leaking from multiple locations in the seabed, thus the well is leaking oil underground into seabed sideways.

BP continues to lie and hide the true magnitude of this BP-created disaster.

How much exactly is gushing? the initial claim was of 1k , then 5k, 10k, then it was 25k barrels a day, and now it is 40k barrels. When will this stop?

There is almost no independently owned news media. The “news”, the things you are allowed to hear and not allowed to hear – are completely managed and controlled. The talking heads on TV yell at each other as if they were arguing about something, but that is for show.

The two parties depend on exactly the same sources of funding. There is no appreciable difference in policy at all.

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Racing Green Endurance is a project of Imperial College students who intend to build an electric super car with a record breaking range of up to 500km. To proof the endurance of their high-tech wonder they want to drive the 26’000km long Pan-American Highway from Argentina to Alaska. The start of the expedition is scheduled for May 2010.

Claudio von Planta, the director / cameraman of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s motorbike TV series ‘Long Way Round’ and ‘Long Way Down’ will use the Racing Green Endurance event as an opportunity to film a ‘green’ version of the ‘Long Way Up’

The World’s Longest Road: The Pan-American Highway

Our project aim is to turn around the public perception of electric vehicles as slow, unattractive and of limited range. So, is there a more perfect challenge than tackling the longest road on the planet in our electric supercar?

From Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, to the world’s southernmost city, Ushuaia, we will become the first electric car to travel the full 26,000km of the Pan American Highway!

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EVO Electric Limited (www.evo-electric.com) develops and manufactures advanced electric machines, drive systems and other integrated products for a wide range of transportation and mobile power applications. Our core competence is the development, design and integration of high torque electric motors and generators based on Axial Flux technology, an ultra efficient, low weight alternative to conventional radial flux machines. Axial Flux motors and generators are particularly relevant to hybrid and electric vehicle applications, enabling automotive OEMs and systems integrators to cut the cost, weight, size, complexity and power requirements of electric powertrains.

EVO is backed by Imperial Innovations plc (AIM: IVO) which creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies. Imperial Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas and has exclusive access to scientific and technological developments coming out of Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading research institutions.

Currently EVO’s product range includes:

• Electric Motors
• Electric generators
• Electric drive systems
• Generator sets
• Custom products

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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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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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