EV Report

Inspired by the documentary ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’ Steve Solarazza converted a Chevy S-10 Truck into silent electric sweetness!
This rig’s got $2,500 in 16 batteries and $7,500 in parts invested into it. Steve’s truck gets 50 miles per charge which isn’t a whole lot but we are talking about a truck here. All in all the project took 6 weeks from start to finish. Not too bad considering the typical project can easily take a few months if any snags happen or funds dip during the project.

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Could this be the missing link? A pyramid shaped car named the ‘Zanis 1′ developed by a father and son tinkerers. At full speed this triangular head-turner tops out at 45 Mph and can be seen driving around in Kane County IL. Weighting in at 4 tons this beast of a tank has 80 batteries and 4 electric motors. So far $60,000 has been sunk into this project and another project is already in the works that will house 480 batteries! Damn…we can’t wait to see that one.

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I guess energizer’s fuzzy little bunny can’t help with this one. Apparently all of the major car companies are looking for better battery technologies. The article at Business Week talks about how lithium ion will be on its way to the car soon but they are still very expensive and potentially hazardous.  They also briefly discuss the Honda FCX’s Fuel Cell technology with an electric drive system and a hydrogen fuel cell as the storage. They say that many car companies are expected to follow the fuel cell model instead of pure electric. So if anyone has a new battery technology that we don’t know about that is ground-breaking well uhh this is your chance to make your billions and become very rich.

Click Here to read more on this article at Business Week

It looks like Los Angeles has initially approved a proposal by American Maglev Technology Inc., to build a maglev train from ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles and run through downtown Los Angeles to Ontario. Word has it that American Maglev Technology will be fronting the 26 billion to build the train line for a stake in the profits for moving cargo and people. Few other details are available. If you live in Los Angeles and sit in traffic every day this is like an angel coming out of the sky. Trains have been mostly non-existent in this city except for a few short runs. It will be interesting to see more details on these plans as they unfold. It will certainly be a warm welcome for a city that is world renowned for its migraine inducing traffic.

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U.S. electric car pioneer ZAP and China Youngman Automotive Group have announced they are reviving the 100-year-old electric car brand Detroit Electric for their automotive joint venture. The companies plan to introduce electric cars and electric buses in 2009. We always get excited to see american car companies get into the electric car biz. Maybe they’ll put some ‘american detroit muscle’ into the new electric cars. During its time Detroit Electric cars were among the most popular cars of its kind. Some of its famous customers were Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Henry Ford’s Wife Clara, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Detroit.

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The Spanish supermarket chain Veritas has purchased electric cars - Reva (Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Alternative) - to equip its fleet for business visits in its outlets.Reva is the first full electric car in spain. Designed for metro areas this vehicle has a range of about 70 miles. The Reva costs about 12,000 euros and was first introduced in 2001 and is sold to the UK, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Sri Lanka.

If you can read spanish then you can get more info at their website - http://www.veritas.es/

Tata Motors said to be brining an Electric Vehicle to the U.S. via Chrysler. The car which is actually a truck which is based on Tata’s popular Ace mini truck. No details on price or specs yet, only that they plan to ship 10,000 by years end and ramp up production to 50,000. It looks like it’ll be a nice addition to our conjested cities.

EV Rental Cars will be supplying electric rental cars for FOX Sports. FOX employees will have the privilege of driving the most technically advanced EV hybrid electric vehicles on the road. It would be nice if they could throw in a 30 second spot for the folks over at EV Rental Cars.  The company has been around since 1998 and now have a fleet of over 350 green vehicles. Check out EV Rentals Website for more info

Two friends constructed a street legal electric geo metro from second hand parts and fork lift parts. The top speed is only 40Mph and the range is about 15-25 miles but hey its still pretty cool for a car that was probably going to end up in the junk yard anyway.

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