NOTE: If you missed them, please start by reading parts one, two and three in Gary's EV1 series.

What was learned, and is being applied today

"As has been stated in comments [to the] previous two posts by Mr. Witzenburg, there are several things which just don't add up, and make him look like a half-wit." – ABG reader Virgil.

Despite your gratuitous insult, Virgil, you raise a couple good points in your comment ... and one not so good. You wrote:

"First, aerodynamics. Anyone who's ever been in a canoe knows that a 17-ft canoe is faster than a 14-ft canoe. They're the same width, same frontal area, but the longer boat allows a more shallow angle of attack and tail-off, so is more hydrodynamic. Making a longer EV1 would improve aerodynamic performance, not decrease."

Really? Based on intuition, without data, I would tend to agree. But vehicle aerodynamic behavior on a solid surface is not always intuitive. Our body engineers said their aero analysis showed a meaningful increase in drag from a longer (and flatter) four-seat body vs. a shorter, teardrop-shaped two-passenger one. I'm no expert, but given that no other practical production vehicle has come close to EV1's astounding 0.19 Cd, I have no reason to disbelieve them.

Read more after the break.

Coming up in a few weeks is the Plug-in 2008 conference and expo, a three-day event (July 22-24) highlighting the benefits of cars with plugs. The official sessions will deal with related legislation, technology, the business benefits of PHEVs and BEVs. Luckily, if you can't commit to the full conference, there is a one-night stand option.

Public Night at the conference takes place on July 22 between 6 and 9 pm at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. For a $10 ticket, you can walk through the expo hall and then listen to a panel on "Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Transforming Our Transportation and Energy Futures." This panel features three speakers who know a little something, something about plug-in cars: Chelsea Sexton of Plug In America, Dan Reicher of Google.org, and Mark Duvall of EPRI. Find our more here, or click through after the break.

[Source: Plug-In 2008]

Electrorides Inc., a company based in California, will debut the ZeroTruck, an all-electric medium duty truck, at the 2008 AFVI National Conference and Expo in Las Vegas in mid-May. The ZeroTruck can go 100 miles per charge using an EIG lithium polymer battery pack and a UQM brushless permanent magnet elecgtric motor. The highway-speed truck can capture energy through regenerative braking and has an on-board charger to suck power from the grid. The first ZeroTrucks will be released in the Los Angeles area later this year - deliveries should start in August - with a national roll-out planned for 2009. More details after the jump.

The ZeroTruck is a converted Isuzu N Series and Greentechmedia.com says that the pure EV version will be joined by a series-hybrid version that uses a modified diesel engine that can burn biodiesel or pure veggie oil. Electrorides has invited AutoblogGreen to test drive the ZeroTruck at the AFVI show, so we'll have a much better idea about what this truck is about in a few weeks.

Sometimes I think our friend Xeni from Boing Boing TV is having a little too much fun. I mean, is cruising down the Berkeley streets in electric vehicles shaped like cupcakes even work? That's an art project, no? The cupcakes have names like Buttercream, S&M and English Muffin depending on the driver and the icing decoration. These are not mass-market sweets.

If the "cakesploitation" style of the first half of the video isn't your style, stick around for the second half, where the Muffineers open up and show how these BEVs are made. The electric muffins are built and operated by a group of "Silicon Valley nerds (including one engineer from Tesla Motors) and Burning Man enthusiasts" as Boing Boing describes them. These are not the safest rides (one doesn't have brakes), but I'd happily cruise around with the gang for a while. Also, there is at least one word that might be NSFW in this clip, just so you know.

[Source: Boing Boing and Xeni]

A Chinese company plans to jump into the green parade at January's Detroit Auto Show. BYD Auto, which has previously announced plans to build a battery electric car later in 2008, will be one of five Chinese companies showing their wares at Cobo Hall. Along with their internal combustion engined cars, BYD apparently plans to show both plug-in hybrid and pure battery electric cars in Detroit. We don't know much about the BEV, but the PHEV based on their F6 sedan will use a lithium iron phosphate battery (similar to those produced by A123 systems). While General Motors has repeatedly tried to play down expectations for the battery in the Volt, BYD has no such qualms for their car. They are claiming their PHEV will have a 62-mile range on batteries and a total range of 267 miles. BYD wants to start selling the PHEV by the end of 2008 and the BEV in 2009 although plans to bring them to the US may be hampered by patent issues (likely held by A123). Fortunately for them, China typically disregards minor issues like intellectual property.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

OK, China, you're on notice. Not by Stephen Colbert, but by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Oh, and it's not everyone in China, but just "manufacturers for automobiles powered by new energies." What are new energies? Chinaview says it means "hybrid cars, battery electric vehicles (BEV), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), hydrogen-fueled vehicles and vehicles powered by other new types of fuel."

Basically, this announcement means that automakers who go green are going to need to make sure their cars are produced in a sensible manner and be reliable when they're on the road. As Professor Zha Daojiong, director of the Center for International Energy Security at Renmin University of China in Beijing, explained, "Enterprises wanting to manufacture new-energy cars should pay attention that their development of new type of energies should be truly 'energy-efficient' rather than only 'new in name. It is also crucial to avoid creating new sources of pollution in the process of the production of vehicles fueled by new energies."

Boy, if this regulation is taken seriously and China greens up its auto industry for real and Wal-Mart is able to muscle its product producers to go green, China's environment might not become a total wasteland after all. Just a little wasteland, like so many other places.

[Source: Chinaview via TTAC]