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News Archive
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Finally on the roads: Venturi Fétish
Press Release from Venturi, via autocorse.it:
Presented as a World Premiere at the 2004 Paris Motor Show, the Venturi Fétish is the first production electric sports car in automobile history. Fétish demonstrates, with ease, that it is possible to make today what the big automobile manufacturers are only proposing 20 years from now.
Where public opinion considers an electric vehicle to be ugly, Fétish is the first electric car to be beautiful and desirable. Where public opinion believes that an electric car lacks performance, Fétish offers a remarkable acceleration and a maximum speed of 170 Km/h, well above the maximum speed limit.
Finally, where electric cars are thought to seriously lack autonomy, the Fétish offers 350 Km of autonomy and a rapid battery recharge (with 80 Amps) of 1,6 Km a minute or 10 minutes recharge for every 16 Km, easily covering the needs of daily urban transport.
Read the full article...
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Golf 'cars' custom in Sun Lakes
News from Arizona Republic:
by Betty Beard
Electric golf carts, also known as cars, are widely popular in Sun Lakes, not just to get around the five golf courses but for whirring to stores or restaurants.
Salesmen estimate that from 50 to 80 percent of Sun Lakes households have one or two golf carts. It's getting more common for husbands and wives to each have their own or for kids to buy golf carts for their parents who can no longer drive full-size cars.
The three main brands of golf carts are Club Car, E-Z-GO and Yamaha, and they come in electric or gas-powered versions. Related to golf carts are Neighborhood Electric Vehicles that are made by several manufacturers and equipped with enough safety equipment to allow them to be driven on roads where the speed limit is up to 35 mph.
New golf carts generally cost from $6,000 to $9,000 and with all the options and designs, prices can run up to $14,000 or more.
[...]
Sun Lakes only allows the quieter electric golf carts, and their maintenance is simple. Owners mainly need to watch the batteries, keeping them recharged, making sure they have water and that corrosion doesn't build up.
In general, electric motors last 10 to 12 years, and batteries are now lasting four to five years, said Wes Whitfield, general manager of the Horner Group golf cart store in Sun Lakes.
Read the full article...
Saturday, September 25, 2004
New Energy Movement presents "New Energy: The Courage to Change", Portland, Oregon, Sept 25-26
In the first ever public conference devoted to the societal impacts and policy issues of new energy, NEM will host a dramatic dialogue between renowned new energy pioneers and other citizens. Compelling presentations and panel discussions with active audience participation will highlight topics such as:
- The state-of-the-art of new energy technologies
- Overcoming the suppression of new energy technologies by mainstream science, media, government, and vested corporate interests
- Societal impacts and transition strategies to new energy
- Criteria for selecting new energy options
- Strategies for strengthening the public and private movements to develop new energy
- Public oversight vs. privatization of new energy development and distribution.
By attending this unique and unprecedented symposium, you will meet leading experts in the field of new energy and have a say in how this vital movement progresses. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to be one of the first to embrace the greatest technological revolution of all time!
The 2-day conference agenda will be split between two college campuses in beautiful Portland, Oregon:
Part I - Saturday, September 25 at Reed College's Kaul Auditorium, 9:00 am - 8:00 pm. Lunch, Evening Wine Reception, and Dinner will be available with a meal ticket ($40).
Part II - Sunday, September 26 at Portland State University's Smith Auditorium, 1:00 - 6:00 pm
To reserve your space, please purchase your 2-day tickets early:
Advance purchase: $75
At the door: $85
Meal ticket available at door.
Order tickets on-line at http://www.newenergymovement.org
Mail your check to
NEM, c/o
Alden Bryant
1442A Walnut St., #57
Berkeley, CA 94709.
Toll-free phone
1-866-585-2344
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Electric rickshaw on the way
News from Deccan Herald (Bangalore, India):
by BY L K SHARMA
The autorickshaw that switched from petrol to CNG may go electric!
Such news snippets have appeared frequently, giving a temporary cheer to environmentalists and a shock to the powerful automobile industry wedded to petrol.
However, this time the talk of an electric rickshaw seems serious as a small innovative American company has joined hands with India’s Bajaj. If the anti-petrol three-wheeler starts plying, it will be the most significant product coming out of the Indo-US business partnership. The Washington Post has flashed a photo of a production model of the electric rickshaw. The Post writer wonders whether the unimposing Bajaj-New Generation Motors vehicle holds the secret to powering American automobile for years to come. The innovators should pray for the petrol prices doubling! Having played havoc with its polluting two-stroke scooter engine for years, Bajaj has given up its old ways in the face of a tough competition.
[...]
Read the full article...
Monday, September 20, 2004
Summer 2004 electric land speed record attempt
News from New Scientist, UK:
A vehicle powered by 52 lead-acid car batteries and using components from factory machinery will attempt to break the world land speed record for electric vehicles 9 June 2004.
The "ABB e=motion" car will have to surpass the existing record of 396 km/h (245 mph), and the British Primetime team behind the car believes that 480 km/h (300 mph) could be achieved on further runs.
The needle-shaped car is 10 metres long, but just 60 centimetres high and 75 cm wide. Thanks to the batteries, it weighs 1.6 tonnes. The car is propelled by a drive inverter and two spindle motors like ones used in industrial tools worldwide."
Read the full article...
News from Brand Republic, UK:
by: Joe Lepper
LONDON – Data services firm IXEurope is to sponsor the latest attempt to break the electric land speed record.
IXEurope's sponsorship package for next week's attempt, by current British land speed record holders Primetime Land Speed Engineering, includes branding on the car and backboards at interviews as well as use of the vehicle and team at corporate events.
Guy Willner, IXEurope Ceo, said: "Our support of the event demonstrates IXEurope's commitment to the use of ecologically sound technologies."
The attempt to pass the current 245mph record takes place in Tunisia on 9 June. Other sponsors for the event include advertising, PR and design firm Publicity Matters and manufacturing publication Fastening News.
Read the full article...
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Farms Cultivate Market for Electric Vehicles
News from The Washington Post:
by: Jason Ukman
On a sprawling horse farm southwest of Frederick, Staci Penrose plunged a metal hook into a bale of hay and yanked it off an eight-foot-high stack, letting it tumble to the floor of the riding arena.
Then she heaved the bale not onto a tractor or the bed of a pickup but into what resembles a space-age golf cart, a neighborhood electric vehicle. It hummed so quietly as she drove her load into the barn that the horses hardly turned their heads.
The little electric car, which has no internal-combustion engine, uses no gas and plugs into a standard outlet to charge its battery, has long tooled around the gated communities of Florida and Southern California and, more recently, in suburban subdivisions and retirement villages across the country.
In this area, they are making their way out to the country.
Neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs, are sold in very limited numbers here -- and sales representatives say many of them end up in rural developments or on horse farms in Maryland and Virginia. The result is a distinctly modern touch to the pastoral landscape.
Kim Stewart, who owns the farm in Jefferson where Penrose works, bought two NEVs in December and sold the gas-powered golf cart she used previously for hauling. One of the new vehicles has a flatbed and carries 500 to 600 pounds, she said, allowing the two women to crisscross 200 acres, moving hay and bedding -- and even leading horses -- between barns.
Read the full article...
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Europe's 'smart' cars coming to U.S. - in 2 sizes
Importers promise 60-mpg coupes; carmaker itself eyes SUV
News from MSNBC
By Miguel Llanos:
The tiny car that won over Europeans with its cute looks and very high mileage is finally coming to America, just not in the way you might expect it to.
The 60-mpg, two-seat coupes are made by a European company called smart, but the DaimlerChrysler division is not the one selling them here anytime soon. True, they will be sold in Canada starting in September, but not so in the United States.
Instead, smart USA is betting Americans won't want the small smarts, at least not yet, and has taken a different strategy: a smart SUV, available here in 2006. The first press release touts not the mileage but that it's "loaded with adrenaline — both off road as well as on."
While that might run counter to smart's origins as a nifty, thrifty machine, it also has left the door open for third-party importers to bring the small smarts into the United States.
And that's exactly what several importers plan to do.
Read the full article...
Friday, September 10, 2004
Electric Vehicle Drivers Reluctantly Turn in Their Cars
News from KXTV-10
Not long ago it appeared electricity would be the fuel of the future for cars in California. Now, General Motors is taking all its electric cars off California roads.
G.M. produced more than a thousand electric vehicles to meet tough air quality standards in the Golden State, and the cars were an instant hit. As of next weekend, however, the vehicles will be gone.
In the early 1990s, California passed a law mandating that by 2003, 10 percent of all new cars sold must would have to be zero emission vehicles. General Motors jumped on the bandwagon and built hundreds of electric vehicles called the EV1, much to the delight of the people who drove them. "It's peppy, it's snappy, very convenient," said loyal EV1 lessee John Minkler.
Now, however, electric cars have fallen victim to competition from other fuel alternatives, including hybrid, natural gas and fuel cell technology. California has abandoned the zero emissions requirement. Consequently, two years ago G.M. decided to stop making the EV1.
Read the full article...
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
BCAA introduces "electrifying" way to see Vancouver
News from CNW Telbec (press release) - Canada:
BURNABY, B.C., June 30 /CNW/ - Looking to do an auto tour of Vancouver this summer without having to search for gas stations or contribute to summer smog? The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) has a way you can do both - a Vancouver summer sightseeing tour in an electric car, debuting July 1.
From $180.00 plus GST per person, the "Electric Green" self-guided tour package includes two nights' accommodations in one of three Vancouver hotels, a sightseeing discount book, and, of course, the use of a Dynasty 'IT' electric car provided by Electra City, which will be dropped off and picked up at the hotel daily.
Read the full article...
Saturday, September 04, 2004
Electric Power In Kansas
News from the Newton Kansan - Newton, KS, USA:
by Chad Frey
WALTON -- Wayne Alexander, mechanic at JMM Ag in Walton, does a lot of oil changes. He flushes a lot of radiators, and charges labor to replace a lot of hoses in cars, trucks and tractors.
Working on cars is paying the bills, and business is pretty good right around harvest. If electric-powered vehicles ever take off as a viable option to gas power, it could put shops like his out of business.
"I hope it does," Alexander said.
Alexander is nearly complete converting a 1983 GMC pickup to electric power.
"I'm not a tree hugger," Alexander said. "It's just different, and I'm fed up with paying for gas."
Read the full article...
Friday, September 03, 2004
Two city employees fired for refusing to drive an electric car
News from WOOD-TV - Grand Rapids, MI, USA:
(Portage, June 22, 2004, 5:45 p.m.) Two city employees in Portage have been fired after refusing to drive a city-issued electric car. It happened when city officials started using what's called a "GEM" car on its mail run.
One side of the story tells 24 Hour News 8 it's about safety, while the other side says it's about saving money in tough economic times. Either way, a long-time city employee and a former co-worker sit home without jobs.
The life of Mattie Lash, a 12-year Portage city employee, changed when she was told to drive an electric car on the mail run. The car was bought to save the city money. It looks like a Volkswagen, complete with seat belts, a horn, even cup holders. But none of that mattered to Lash. She and another part-time employee didn't want to drive it, and both were fired.
[...]
Read the full article...
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