Spitfire Electric Car · 26 August 07

This is a 1980 Spitfire which Alvan Judson converted to electric.

Alvan sent along a suggested change to Eve’s schematic a couple years back and mentioned that he was in the planning stages for his own EV. Now his own electric car is done and he’s already put 2,000 miles on it. Looks like he did a great job!

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Links for 22 August 07

• Not an EV related story (although they did announce plans for a Plug-in Hybrid Vespa last year) but Vespa is holding a Vespanomics contest with Vespas as the prizes. If you won one, you could always convert it to electric!
• Zap just got a million dollar order for their electric vehicles from a distributor in Canada.
• Speaking of scooters and electric vehicles, ran across a couple mentions of the Motorino HTH electric scooter. Here’s the specs. The site offers other electric scooters and bikes.
• Great news from Nissan, all of their new models will include a fuel efficiency gauge. I’ve found with our first EV and even our Prius, that knowing how much “juice” a given driving style saves or wastes makes it much easier to optimize than trying to aggregate mpg over a tank of gas. Darin’s metrompg.com has proven that time and time again.

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Bob's EV Part III · 21 August 07

We’ve posted a few entries on Bob’s EV so far. It’s a 1957 Citroen and if you haven’t read about it and checked out the pictures, be sure to do so.

His son Jim sent along a new batch of photos showing their new batteries being installed. Click on through to check them out.

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Links for 20 August 07

• My Mom ran across the following handy guide to the care and maintenance of Lead Acid batteries (478KB PDF). She has four Trojan T-105 (6 volt) batteries running the “electricity” at her house. I’ve installed an Air 403 (Southwest Wind Power) generator and a single solar panel on the roof, yet it is usually enough to power a few lights, her laptop, and even a small color tv from time to time.
• James sent along a link to the BBC article on the new paper battery technology. Nothing for EVs any time soon though, “I’m a strong enthusiast of electric vehicles, but it is going to take time to bring the costs down,” said Professor Sperling.
• Congrats to the Ohio State team on their speed record of 201MPH in their hydrogen powered vehicle. (GCC)
• Maybe you’ll insulate your car or batteries in the future using aerogel? They’ve got big plans for it and are trying to think up others. You can even buy a sample.
• Google funded electric cars?
• Not everyone is buying into GM’s electric car buzz.

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Links for 9 August 07

• Interesting news in the battery world: Ovonics/Energy Conversion Devices has licensed their NiMH Patent technology to a Chinese battery maker. The story doesn’t mention if there’s a size limit: i.e. is it only for small portable devices or can they make EV sized batteries? (p.s. I own a little of their stock)
• Tesla motor’s all-electric Tesla Roadster is still scheduled to roll out to buyers late this fall. I read in one article that the car is using around six thousand lithium batteries…wow! I’d love to get a peak at their control and charging electronics. Here’s a few other stories on the Roadster: CNET Crave, Portfolio.com, UK Telegraph.
• Speaking of lots of batteries in an Electric Car, Panasonic has set a record. Nice battery pack. It is certainly a strange approach to promoting their AA batteries, even so I don’t understand the comment in this post questioning why anyone would want more efficient electric cars.

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Links for 3 August 07

• Snagged this link to ZEVA (Zero Emission Vehicles Australia) from Shaun’s EV Weblog, which I hadn’t checked in a while. Sounds like Shaun is getting Lithium fever again…
• Thanks to Matt for sending over a link to the weblog covering his wife’s Vanagon EV Conversion Class.
• Natural gas civic beats Toyota Prius in fuel economy and air cleanliness. Only a couple drawbacks to that approach. Btw, US sales of hybrids up 12% in July.
• And the, uh, best for last: Toyota’s plug-in hybrid may have less range than GMs vapor-ware Volt. Who comes up with this stuff? Let’s compare an unknown plug-in hybrid (although we do know much about the existing hybrid part) with a totally fictional, still in development electric car (from the company that killed their last one).

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Links for 1 August 07

• More news on the Think City electric car, this time a whole thread on slashdot (which isn’t always a good thing). Some interesting comments if you can wade through the noodleheads.
• The Think story also brings Dean Kamen’s stirling engine back into the news. Stirling engines run off of temperature differentials and while not able to provide quick surges of power (think lumbering) they are good at slow and steady output. If you consider all of the hot surfaces (i.e. pavement, the roof, ALL of Phoenix, AZ!) it doesn’t take long to envision places to use them.
• Martin Eberhard will be speaking at an MPG Luncheon on August 7th about what’s up with Tesla Motors and their electric car plans.
• A story on Tim Moore’s electric Ford Escort that he converted himself. Their EV club (FVEAA) has the process of converting a car down to one month: I should go see them!

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Links for 30 July 07

• For the electric motorcycle fans out there: Bill Dube’s fantastic Killacycle is in the news again.
• Interesting article on Think’s electric car plans. Includes a segment with Dean Kamen’s stirling heat engine and how he’s integrating it into the electric car to extend its range.
• After a few other companies started their own after-market versions, Toyota is starting to seriously consider a plug-in Prius. Oddly they seem to be planning on sticking with NiMH batteries.
• Oh, sure, your electric car may go 350 mph but how many cup holders does it have?

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