CARazed

It’s exciting and a little spooky to see so many big automakers announce near production ready electric vehicles. The latest announcement of the Nissan LEAF and it’s sudden arrival on the playing field seems like real evidence that we will be seeing a lot more electric cars on the road in 2010/2011 than previously expected. That should also coincide with the strongest part of the economic recovery which will help to fuel their quick adoption.

But it seems ironic that at virtually the same moment the government is throwing billions at clunkers. I suspect many people that jump on this recovery money carrot will also sadly choose to lock themselves into another 60 months of car payments. Forget for a moment that we might be sitting on a Peak Oil Plateau; committing to five years of car payments when super efficient cars are now just a couple years away just seems like questionable financial planning.

If you do have a clunker and want to to take a bite of the carrot try to get the most efficiency for the least amount of money. Also consider downsizing your ride to an efficient inexpensive used car.  If you think we’re sitting on a Peak Oil Plateau avoid putting any more money into petroleum powered cars not matter how sweet the carrot looks.

You know we’re nearing peak oil trouble when oil companies start building electric cars. ExxonMobil has launched the Maya 300, a fully electric car powered by lithium-ion batteries and can drive 120 miles on a single charge. Best of all it can run at highway speeds and feels and looks like a normal economy car. Read more at gas2.0.

Now this gal is definitely CARazed and yes that IS a good thing. She runs a blog called A Minor Journey which is all about electric vehicles. The car below is Velma, a plug-in hybrid Prius she modified. Be sure to bookmark her website and RSS feed.

I first saw this on Make.

I’m actually not going to pick on this little car at all… in fact I really admire the spartan low-cost approach of the Tata Nano for a lot for reasons. It has surprisingly low emissions ratings and if all the cars in the world were replaced with Nanos the world would be a better place. The problem is it will probably be an amazing success and simple add significantly to the number of cars in the world.

At the incredibly low price of a Nano, ($3,000 in India, $6,000 in Europe and America (estimate)), millions upon millions of people will be able afford to finance one. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s wonderful that more people will have more mobility and be able to access more opportunities but at the same time we’ll be adding millions of new cars to clog our over-taxed infrastructures and burn up more gas.

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It feels great to see news like this. It looks like Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have co-developed a nickel-hydrogen battery that recharges in less than 10 seconds (reports thetruthaboutcars.com and Nikkei).

The primary impediment to electric cars becoming real competition for petroleum powered cars is the lack of really good battery technology. While automakers and governments wasted their time with hydrogen fuel cells, battery technology took a back seat. Now that most have realized that hydrogen isn’t a viable near-term solution advancements in battery technology is beginning to get the R&D money it needs to move forward. Continue Reading »

It seems like every automaker has a slightly different technology solution and uses different terminology to describe similar things. The terms are also very confusing. It helps to remember that generally speaking the words hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and range-extended just ways of saying that a gasoline engine is helping the partially electric car travel a little farther.

Plug-in hybrids and range-extended electric vehicles carry a small combustion engine which can provide the additional power when the batteries run low. Generally speaking the combustion engine in hybrids and plug-in hybrids help move the car by driving the wheels through the transmission. In range-extended electric vehicles the combustion engine usually charges the batteries and electric motors drive the wheels. Continue Reading »

The electric Mini, a.k.a. the MINI E, has arrived and is now being delivered to customers in New York and California who have signed up for the special lease. There will be only 500 of these cars initially but they have some impressive sounding statistics like a 95 mph top speed, 156 maximum mile range, and 3-hour charge time (if plugged into a powerful 240-volt 48-amp socket).

The cost of early adoption is a bit high; it will cost customers $850 a month for the special one-year lease. On the bright side collision coverage, maintenance, and roadside assistance are included. On the even brighter side electric cars are much lower impact and less expensive to drive (dollars per mile) than comparable gasoline cars.

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Let me show you why I think today’s hybrids, like the Honda Insight, might just be a greenwash. Honda has been building super efficient cars for decades. The emissions of the older cars was slightly higher than today’s cars but it seems fuel economy has remained relatively stagnant.

A 1988 Honda CRX HF was rated at 37 MPG City and 47 MPG Highway and it put 4.5 tons of greenhouse gasses per year. [source]

A 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid is rated at 40 MPG City and 45 MPG Highway and pumps out 4.4 tons of greenhouse gasses per year. [source] Continue Reading »

An electric Hummer is completely stupid! Actually it’s not even really electric, it’s a range extended Hummer. But it doesn’t stop there, now there’s this U.S. Senator pushing this green washed Hummer like a used car salesman. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) thinks that Americans “need” big trucks.

Yes some people need big trucks… absolutely… no argument there… but a greenwashed Hummer? Dude, get real! If you give one tiny ounce for the environment a Hummer, even an H3, is not on your list of preferred choices no matter how efficient it looks on paper. Continue Reading »

The folks at AutoblogGreen have the scoop on the this little electric Spyder built by BRUSA. I agree with them it has a strong family resemblance to the old Porsche 550 Spyder. Beck Spyders make great electric conversions. They sell these replica cars with or without motors and the layout is perfect for placing batteries front and rear. The original 550 Spyders are extremely rare, collectible, and very expensive so building one from a replica like a Beck makes a lot of sense.

BRUSA Spyder (above) Continue Reading »