[ausev] A/C

Fri Jun 22 03:02:44 GMT 2007

It's great to lament about what we don't have right now, "an EV or other
alternative that goes as far as we want as fast as we want."  We have become
pretty spoiled.  No insult intended, I really miss all of the atributes of
my Ford Escape.  But, I am happy to find out that I have the choice to drive
a vehicle with no emissions if I want, as much of my time as I possibly can,
and then use the ICE for the rest.  Until a few months ago, I didn't even
know that cars like mine existed (besides the EV1).  I thought the only EV's
left were conversions.  I am finding more and more factory made EV's that
are still being restored, bought, maintained, and driven (on the streets and
on the freeway).  They may have destroyed the EV1, but they didn't destroy
all the others that are still out there.  So, that just doubled my choices.
I am in the process of buying another factory made EV.  I am as happy with a
conversion as a factory made EV, but I just don't have the time to work on a
conversion.  I finally don't have to wait for "some day," when I finally
realized I can make a difference now.  All I see on the news is that
"Electric (or some other alternative fule) is the future."  So we wait and
wait for something to happen, what a joke.  I just wrote an article to the
New York Times and challenged them to give as much coverage to the EV's that
are currently on the road as to those that might be on the road "some day."
The Electric Auto Association lists more than 1,000 EV's on the road.  I'm
sure that the list is not complete.  As I recently began to do more
research, I was shocked (even angry) to find out that electric cars were the
first cars ever made and put on the road, not ICE's.  The technology is over
90 years old.  Hybrids are not new either and are almost as old as the
electrics.  Most of the major car manufacturers made EV's in the 1980's and
1990's.  And yet those same companies are now trying to convince us that all
of this is new technology and that it will take time to get them on the
road.  I think it is pretty cool that there is one place where the average
person is making more headway than the big car companies.  We are converting
ICE cars, restoring existing EV's, they are affordable, and we are driving
them every day.  I am a trained biologist, and environmental educator, and I
had become pretty discouraged with peoples apparent lack of interest in
environmental issues.  This is the first time in many years that I am
inspired by what I see people doing with the EV's.  No more bitching and
moaning, pointing fingers, and wanting "someone" to do something.  People
are taking action, quietly and steadily.  When the large auto makers are
finally willing to make cars that don't pollute and are affordable for the
masses, I will be happy to buy one.  But, meanwhile I think you all are
doing a great job.  Grass roots movements do still exist.  Hurray for ya'll.

CS Unlimited
Claire Sorenson
Ph: 512-689-5911
Fax: 512-282-9942

-----Original Message-----
From: ausev-bounces at austinev.org [mailto:ausev-bounces at austinev.org] On
Behalf Of Gil Dawson
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:19 PM
To: John Rumsey
Cc: ausev at austinev.org; ev1-club at cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: [ausev] A/C

Hi, John--

My apologies for my rant about none being made.  I was irrevocably burned
when GM took my EV1 away with no reasonable reason given.  The only reason
that makes sense to me is that it would reduce oil company profits.  The
possibility that oil profit might drive auto manufactureres' decisions,
coupled with GM's arrogant silence when the question has been posed, gave me
an insight into the tremendous power at play in this economic system.  It
eventually became clear that automobile manufactureres are not responding to
the demands of their customers, but to something else.  What that something
else is, I do not know nor understand.  It is certainly nothing like what we
were taught in Civics class.  The arrogance and silence together engender a
feeling of powerlessness and betrayal I have never before 
experienced.   I take consolation in the works of Howard Zinn and 
Noam Chomsky, but neither they nor I have any clear idea where this
political economy is headed.

Nonetheless, we have to try.  Your ideas may well catch fire in a culturally
significant way.  Let us hope so.

I completely agree that we as a culture could use a large selection of
differently-fueled vehicles to great advantage.  Oil will run out. 
There are a couple of important transportation systems that EV-only
technology probably cannot supplant: airplanes and interstate trucking.
Long-distance vacations in a personal car may be another.

But for commuting and getting around the city -- and its freeways -- for our
daily routines, we need no oil at all.  Electric vehicles -- fueled entirely
from your wall outlet or your PV array -- absolutely work.  It's stupid to
keep paying for oil when we don't need it.

Yet we have no choice.  The start-up cost for a vehicle manufacturer is
huge.  As an ante, you have to crush several fully functional cars to prove
that they meet federal collision survival requirements. 
Making and selling a new kind of car requires a huge investment -- the size
of a Google or a PayPal.  That's why the Tesla may have a chance.

In the interim, you can build your own or hire someone to build it to your
specifications.  You just can't take advantage of mass production to spread
the nonrecurring costs over many units.  That would be against the law.

There are a dozen companies who have made some beautiful machines. 
AC Propulsion has since 2003 made a wonderful car -- the TZero.  It comes
with an internal combustion engine-generator on a trailer you can hook up
for long trips -- pretty close to what you have in mind
-- with computer-steered wheels to make backing up a breeze:

    http://www.acpropulsion.com/videos/backtracker.mov

But can you buy it?  No.

What you can buy is a Prius or a Scion and then pay to have them converted.
Or you can buy a souped-up golf cart, called a "neighborhood" electric
vehicle.  But you cannot buy a production-line manufactured freeway-capable
electric car anywhere in the US today.  Even though I and about 600 others
like me own one. 
And that's a darn shame.

--Gil

At 11:43 P +0100 6/20/07, John Rumsey wrote:
>Thanks for answering. There are people building experimental vehicles 
>all around the world. I doubt any major automaker would change, but I 
>am hoping to inspire some dreamer with enough money and a machine shop 
>to actually build a car similar to my idea. Who knows, if it works well 
>he may find backers and start making them. I want someone to build a 
>car that will be competitively priced compared to standard cars yet be 
>better on mileage, carry the same number of passengers and get more mpg 
>of fuel. I think EC is more flexibly fueled than IC and less polluting. 
>I had hoped the attitude of the EV group would be flexible enough to 
>see that EV's are not perfect. It is great that for over 90% of your 
>driving and EV works fine, but there usually is a time when a person 
>wants to drive a long distance quickly without having to buy an extra 
>IC car or rent one. My main problem with the EV purist is that an EV 
>won't just drive for 1000 mi with only 5-10 min stops every 400 mi like 
>an IC car. Even using an IC engine instead of a steam engine to keep 
>the batteries charged would improve mileage.
>
>Load up your EV truck and drive it to Canada to fish.
>You'll make a lot more stops than if you used one like my idea. Put a 
>12 hp Honda generator in the bed with a big fuel tank, then try the 
>same trip. All I want is for people to think about other ways of doing 
>things and to not be closed minded. I think EV's have a definite place 
>in our future mix of vehicles, but so do other types. I will keep 
>putting forth my ideas in the hope of finding someone who will try them 
>and hopefully prove them to be better.
>
>
>       ___________________________________________________________
>Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. 
>Try it now.
>http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/

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