After driving across most of Canada and the United States smashing the previous world record, already 36,200km (22,000 miles ) and counting. The XOF1 project will add another first to its impressive list of firsts and world records. The XOF1 solar car was pulled by hand from Niagara Falls to Toronto to inspire ordinary citizens to do what they can to help preserve the planet and encourage governments to foster a mutually rewarding atmosphere for those who seek green prosperity and those in power who can make it happen. The future is bright as new decisions bring new possibilities. It only takes one to change the world, YOU. Be inspired! Watch the videos of the inspiring 12 day task.
Bravo to the The Power of One project!
It wasn't given a lot of press, but the Big Three know how to make very high fuel efficient cars. Maybe they can tell us how us the 1 billion American taxpayers spent on this project was put to good use. I have a few questions I would like answered.My Challenge to the Big Three: Build the cars you said you would build.
How come the only company not invited to participate in the USCAR funding was the only manufacturer to actually make and market a Hybrid car, (the Toyota Prius)? Why did we have to spend billions to retool thier factories? Why did we have to finance "cash for clunkers" program? In December 2009, Toyota announced that the Prius Plug-in Hybrid sedan will be available for purchase in 2011. I haven't seen one for sale yet. Have you? Toyota's PHEV will only have enough battery for 13 miles. Isn't this smarter and less expensive? In 2007, GM said the Volt was due to be out in 2009, estimated to have a sales price of $22,000. They have sold a few in 2011, and at a price of $45,000. Now that it is in production, we find that the VOLT is not a series hybrid. Why can't we buy the BYD electric car, or an American version of it? If the technology existed in 1998 to get 80 miles per gallon, what kind of mileage would we be getting now if they had followed through?
Black Wave - The legacy of the Exxon ValdezSo far, the company that has come closest to the TransTexasTruck idea of a series Hybrid truck is ALTe. ALTe is developing range extended electric powertrains focusing initially on fleet vehicles such as taxis, limos, delivery trucks, vans and shuttle buses in the light to medium duty vehicle classes.
Crude the Story of Texaco's (and now Chevron) fifteen year court battles with the people of Ecuador over the pollution of their drinking water.
Fuel One man's efforts to get the US to use biofuel diesel. Also shows how the New Orleans area has been poisoned by their refineries.
Sprawling from Grace How the 50's suburban planning based on cheap oil no longer works. Points out innovative ways to build cities and our need for new energy strategies.
Nissan is introducing the LEAF zero emissions Battery powered car. This University of Texas report on the state of Electric Vehicles makes the point that compared to the Nissan Versa, the extra cost of the LEAF cannot be justified unless gasoline starts selling for $7.00 per gallon.
Here is the YouTube movie trailer.Buy your copy at Half.com for under $10.
There is also a website http://freedocumentaries.org that has Who Killed the Electric Car? and many documentaries available for FREE.
If you don't have time to watch, here are the highlights:
The Battery Patents are currently owned by Chevron
280 million barrels per year. How long until we have no more oil? The Automakers Sued CARB, and the Automakers WON the lawsuit against CARB, and WON the right to stop producing their Electric Vehicles, they also WON the right to go bankrupt because they desired to sell their very profitable lines of SUVs instead. No Plug, No Deal Join the Electric Auto Association at www.eaaev.org. Some revealing text in the eulogies at the EV1's Mock Funeral - especially by Ed Begley, Jr.
The GM Lemon
The Volt is finally for sale in select markets.
Do you think the Chevy Volt's $45,000 price is an affordable price? I don't call that affordable. But, knowing GM's track record, I just don't think they really want to sell electric cars. And their series hybrid Volt turned out to be the same type of drive train used by the Prius. For a price well above $20,000 more. I guess they think they can still sell SUVs, muscle cars and "luxury economy cars" ($24K for a Cruze?). In my opinion, The Volt was a PR Ploy to defend the bad press caused by "Who Killed the Electric Car", and I don't think GM cares if they ever sell any of them.And...according to Consumer Reports, it is a real stretch to see the value of paying so much to be green.
Books and articles of interest
I own a copy of "The Zero-Carbon Car", and it is 544 pages of great information on how to make a series hybrid. I ordered mine from Tower Books for under $25.00 including shipping.
I also just received the book "Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle" by Seth Leitman. Great information!
Wake up, Detroit
The End of the Oil Age is one of the best explanations of how we got into this mess, and some ideas for how to solve it are in this report published in PDF Format by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is named Plugged In -The End of the Oil Age.
You will find items like these....
Once again, it should be clear that the Oil Age will not end for lack of oil, and in spite of the Peak Oil theory, we have more than enough geological hydrocarbons within our grasp at some price to decimate the climate system. From "Plugged In - The Full Report"...more
From time to time, the PHEV range-extender will be called upon to supply some fraction of the vehicle's motive power. In keeping with our sustainable renewable energy vision, this onboard generator will likely be fuelled with sustainably produced liquid (or even gaseous) biofuels from second or third generation techniques. However, the great beauty of the PHEV architecture is that it is essentially futureproof: the ultimate flexible fuel vehicle.
...their responsibility should be to produce the most efficient energy-consuming appliance possible, while continuing to satisfy additional legislative requirements such as minimum safety standards, maximum noise levels, and so on. In other words, vehicle manufacturers must be held to account for the tank-to-wheels (TTW) portion of the automotive energy life-cycle.
Back to the Future?
GM produced this movie to tell their employees about the 1995 IMPACT. The movie shows the 1995 impact beating a Nissan 300 and a Mazda Miata in a drag race.
EVworld says "prepare to be amazed at how far we've traveled and how little we've moved".
Watch this clip about GM's 1995 Impact Electric Car and tell me that if they had really tried to sell this car, how GM could have possibly failed.
Geeks to the Rescue
...Pickups, SUVs, vans, and the like represent about 80 million vehicles, with mileage of perhaps 13 to 16 miles per gallon. Converting these should be our first priority. The instincts of conservationists have been to improve what is already pretty good—compact cars with decent fuel efficiency. Our national priority to decrease the amount of oil-based energy dictates that we go after the low-mileage part of the fleet first.
Andy Grove's American Magazine article: Our Electric future .
Toyota's Tundra Plant in San Antonio
Instead of the Tundra, (and now the Tacoma as well) why not produce the A-BAT?
Toyota laid off 200 "temporary employees" in San Antonio in June, 2008. About 2000 San Antonios are producing a truck that Toyota has a 100 day supply of. Will San Antonio be the next Big Truck Assembly Plant to close down? Maybe we could get Toyota to retool the San Antonio Tundra Plant to make the Toyota A-BAT Pickup.
Why we need Series Hybrids
Detroit Auto-makers rave about achieving 22 miles to the gallon. They are capable of doing more, but the stockholders that own GM also own millions of shares of Chevron. I also believe they feel threatened by the loss of revenue from the repairs they do on internal combustion vehicles. There are far fewer moving parts in an electric car. If Electric Cars were to become popular, they would only be able to make money from the sale, and not so much money on the after-market goods. Currently that is a major source of income for the dealers. So, instead of a manufacturing giant like GM, Ford, or Chrysler building thousands of shiny new electric vehicles, these companies play the publicity game to turn people against these "small and dangerous" electric cars, and continue to market the SUV as the "safety before pocketbook" choice. Meanwhile, with such short sightedness on the automakers part, they continue to let the foriegn companies create the cars that "Americans don't want." I have news for Detroit. Toyota will out-sell GM this year, and unless they actually make it to "gas free", they are doomed.
The reason I want a series Hybrid Pickup is simple. I don't work in Seguin. I drive 42 miles to San Antonio to work, and at the end of the day, I drive 42 miles to return. A round trip of 75 miles, even in a car that gets 30 miles per gallon like my Honda Accord can get expensive when gas costs about three bucks a gallon. The Accord is nice, but I have always thought that having that extra leg room, and the carrying capacity of a crew-cab pickup would be a better way to go. The gas mileage they get is atrocious at best. Nobody yet offers a ready-made crew-cab electric pickup truck for sale to the general public One is available for fleet buyers, but even at fleet prices, the cost is well over $40K.
What I think they should do could be done TODAY. I think they should start by replacing the regular gasoline engine with a small horsepower engine that will power only a generator, used to re-charge the batteries and run the electric motor for extended periods, so that you can go more than 40 miles on a charge. By using wheel motors and a small number of batteries, a plug-in series hybrid could be built. The whole thing could cost under $40,000. That's still too high. Using a two or three year old crew-cab truck with a good body could get the cost down another $10.000. I have seen some 2002 models for $11,000, and with $10,000 conversion expense, we can produce a series hybrid for under $26,000, and that includes labor.
In an interview with Orange County Weekly, Doug Kortoff summarized the current state of NiMH.The battery we use is the NiMH, same as used in cameras and small cylinder AA, AAA, etc. Toyota-Panasonic formed a partnership "PEVE" to license and improve NiMH for EVs. Around this time, GM purchased the worldwide patent rights to the NiMH battery. Later, GM decided to sell those rights to Texaco, which then merged with Chevron. Chevron then put the battery rights under control of a Joint Venture, "COBASYS," and decided to fund a lawsuit against large-format (electric car battery) competitors such as Toyota-Panasonic. Chevron's lawsuit led to a settlement agreement with PEVE (and Sanyo, etc.) whereby Toyota paid $30M to Chevron, Toyota was granted the rights to use "small-format" batteries on the Prius, and Toyota agreed not to build "large-format" versions of its batteries (needed for plug-in cars) for export to the U.S. until 2014. At least, that's what it seems to be; portions of the settlement agreement are still secret.
So, it will be up to a handful of entrepreneurs to get American car buyers turned on to Electric cars, Plug-in hybrids, and hopefully soon, Series Hybrids.
VentureBeat website has a list of currently available electric vehicles. Notice that on only one company produces a Series Hybrid Pickup, and it is only for fleet purchase.
Is Thirty Years a Long Enough for Development of Series Hybrids?
Would you think 100 years would be enough?
Too bad that Ferdinand Porsche's 1901 Porsche/Lohner Hybrid didn't catch on over one hundred years ago!. With a hundred years of development we would have been oil free by now. Maybe we should have stayed with the designs introduced by Studebaker from 1902 to 1912.
Although Chevrolet would have you believe that the Chevy Volt, due out in 2010 is a new idea, GM built their first series hybrid cars in 1972. By the way, it used a Stirling Engine, which is a closed system, and is zero emissions.
I also ran across a thesis written in 1969 that discussed plans for a series Hybrid car. Mr. Szott is now building a "Hybrid Electric Horseless Carriage".
I understand that Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway is thinking about producing Stirling engines. What about it Dean?
We used to make Limestone Address Stones as a Hobby. Visit our TexRocks.com website.
The Alamo City Electric Automobile Association Some Electric vehicle websites in the Seguin - Austin - San Antonio Area
The Austin Area Electric Automobile Association.
Some interesting links
We will post more stories as we find them.
My bad experience with BlueBonnet Motors when I purchased my 2006 Sonata. This is a 55 meg download, but very interesting. Plug in America short film about Plugin conversions. This is an NPR Living on Earth sound clip of a story on the Phoenix Motorcars Electric Pickup Truck . An explanation of the Federal budget, using Oreo Cookies.
John Penry
Seguin, Texas
The Express-News did a nice story on the Wounded Warrior Project with San Antonio Fencing Center.
Here are some Pictures from the 2009 Endeavor Games.
Here are some Pictures from the 2009 Summer Nationals (Sabre). More photo essays on Wheelchair Fencing are on SwordsOnWheels.com.
They moved the house across the street. See the photo essay.
Bottom of the Page Bonus! View The world's Deepest Holes . AMAZING!
Or for fun, check out my collection of humor on the Texrocks website .
For more information on Aerodynamic Tonneau Covers, refer to this story of the T1000 that increased mileage by 26%.
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