Recent Comments:
Craigslist find of the day: Electric Volvo {Autoblog Green}
May 10th 2008 1:12AM I drive a Volvo so I'm aware of the heavy duty suspensions and the beefed up bodies. However, from an engineering standpoint when you retrofit a car for efficiency, i.e., longer range and performance, you start with as lighter a chassis as will meet your specs for strength and just like a race car, as Colin Chaplin said: "you add lightness." If you're building a long range, performance car, take a page from Tesla's book.
As things stand currently, retrofitting old cars are mostly a hobby; however, with improvement in lead acid batteries, such as the Firefly products, retrofitted older production cars might someday cost less and have a practical use. As you know, essentially the BEV is a motor, control unit, chassis with components and batteries for fuel.
Craigslist find of the day: Electric Volvo {Autoblog Green}
May 9th 2008 8:59PM Other than the novelty of it all, these conversions don't make a lot of sense. These cars weigh about 3500 lbs before the conversion. I'll bet it easily exceeds two tons after conversion.
Venture funds flowing into Firefly for advanced batteries {Autoblog Green}
May 8th 2008 10:48PM Or, how about cheap, long-lasting, batteries for an electric drive lawn tractor?
Electric vehicle company RTEV focusing on battery-powered ATVs {Autoblog Green}
May 7th 2008 2:12PM What this country needs is a $2000 battery powered Lawn Tractor complete with grass cutter!
Showdown between Arnie and the Automakers set for Thursday {Autoblog}
May 6th 2008 4:17PM Are you really that disassociated from the reality of what's happening to the price of oil and the facts published on Green House Gasses? Listen please! The world's oil supply is running low and your fuels are going to cost you more! The Internal Combustion Engine automobiles are grossly ineffecient and waste about 70% of the fuel you pump in 'em. Smaller engines and lighter cars don't waste as much fuel! Building smaller internal combustion engine cars is the prelude to a more efficient and lower polluting form of personal transportation called electric drive. Got it! I hope so!
You know you've pushed your car too hard when... {Autoblog}
May 6th 2008 11:47AM Let's see: all-wheel-drive system, Active Center Differential (ACD), Active Yaw Control (AYC), Active Stability Control (ASC). S-AWC active suspension, active braking ABS and DUEL CLUCH, etc., these guys have nannies that take care of nannies and you mean they don't make a "nanny" to cover a simple case of a snapped pedal on a $40,000 EVO...shame!
When you see these guys on the track all the driver does is point them, press the gas and paddle shift...the nannies take care of the lack of talent issues.
Nissan to trial "sexy" electric cars in London and California by 2010? {Autoblog Green}
May 5th 2008 1:16AM Project Better Place is designed so that every (every) place there is a parking place in Israel, there is a recharge receptacle nearby. Denmark's Project Better Place has similar specifications. So a 62 mile battery should work in those smaller countries.
In the U.S. a 62 mile EV should work as a commuter car; however, I would like to see EVs offered in various configuration of batteries and gensets to meet the needs of individuals and their families; there is no reason to carry around the weight of a 100 mile battery, if 40 mile battery will do the job...here is no reason to carry around a genset if you only need it twice a year to take vacations. I think the battery cars should be offered with custom sized battery and gensets to meet unique needs assessments.
Innovations into lead-acid battery technology {Autoblog Green}
May 1st 2008 6:11PM I thought that "Firefly" would be fully into this market with their new carbon augmented lead batteries. They have made some great claims about the technology. Don't know why they're not selling unless the product was mostly vaporware and PR.
GM considering all-electric Volt to meet Cali requirements? How about no battery? {Autoblog}
May 1st 2008 2:23AM I know this is an old posting but I can't let the idea that auto gearing is efficient go by. As a rule of thumb the ICE is about 20-35% efficient, meaning that of the potential energy in a gallon of gasoline only about .3 of the gasoline is used in working; the .7 that's left is lost as wasted heat or exhaust toxins. An additional 15 % of the energy is lost in the drive line, including the third member. So if you start out with 100 hp at the crank you end up with 85 hp at the read wheels...and the thing that's really sad about all this is we have been running ineffecient ICE cars for 100 plus years. Any time you add gearing to an energy source, you introduce an additional loss. That's why the best of the new EVs will minimize the use of gearing.
Ford's Mark Fields wants more flex-fuel, less California regulations {Autoblog Green}
Apr 30th 2008 9:12PM Without a mpg mandate, do you think the market would move auto makers to spend money on R&D to improve mileage or on PR to sell the idea that it can't be done? Their record shows they move the money to PR.
One must realize the American Auto Market is not a free market in any sense of the meaning because the so called free market has been greatly modified by the oil, Augra, and auto industries paid lobbyists and their influence on the federal government. It is not a fair or free market because it is a politically skewed. As a result you need regulations to guide the industries to do good for the people.
