Nissan's EV Strategy

This article on Nissan's plans for moving towards electric vehicle and zero-emissions vehicle production, and their maneuvering for the creation of infrastructure necessary for such a proliferation, is pretty damn interesting:

• Nissan is bringing the first of their electric cars to market by 2010 in many locations around the United States. According to Alan Buddendeck, Nissan’s VP for North American Corporate Communications, this car will be priced between $22-$25K and have at least a range of 100 miles.

• By 2012, Nissan will be bringing an entire lineup of affordable electric cars (sedans, minivans, compact cars, and sports cars) to the world market. This isn’t just some limited roll-out, and they’re beyond serious about it. Their overarching business plan has been re-written to focus on zero emissions vehicles.

• Nissan has rolled out a rather ingenious plan of collaboration with as many state, local and federal organizations that are willing to cooperate with them to develop the infrastructure needed for an electric car-based society.

• They have taken much of their top-level engineering and marketing talent and fully diverted them into the electric car project. Besides allowing Nissan to reach their goals, this strategy seems to have energized and remoralized the company as a whole — you can see it in the way they present themselves.

• In addition to diverting huge amounts of resources to the project, Nissan has made the conscious decision to open otherwise proprietary information to their partners. Essentially it seems that Nissan has gone mildly “open source” in their approach to Getting Things Done. Power to the people.

It's a good article, you should read the whole thing.

EDIT: Here's some more info on Nissan's partnership fo bringing charging station infrastucture to California and Oregon.

Electric Interceptor Motorcycle

Though it looks red, this bike green in at least two ways. First it is an electric motorcycle, and second it was recycled from a 1984 Honda Interceptor.
Even better the owner/creator has posted an Instructable of his process.
Sweet!

Yamaha dual fuel motorcycle revealed - Motorcycle News

Yamaha dual fuel motorcycle revealed



A conventional full-sized fuel tank is fitted above the engine like any other bike, but tucked tightly behind the cylinder and below the fuel injector body is a second tank designed to contain either ethanol or a petrol/ethanol mix such as E85 (which is 85% ethanol mixed with 15% petrol).

Fox Mulder's Vespa

Stories about celebrities riding scooters are almost as common these days as the boilerplate fluff pieces linking rising scooter sales with rising gas prices. In other words, not really worth me commenting on. But this story about David Duchovny purchasing a Vespa to fill the holes left by electric car is worth checking out.

"I’ve had my RAV4 EV [Toyota’s all electric 4x4] for the last four years,” Duchovny says. “It was supposed to be a prototype for the next generation of cars. But the problem is that the car needs charging every night and the most you can do in a day is 80 miles. It is like being tethered.”

He has become so fed up with it that since moving back to New York from Los Angeles he has bought a Vespa scooter.

I also like the fact, mentioned later in the article that he didn't have a drivers license until he was 27.

Why the USA is Losing the Energy Race

Unless we get our act together, the US is going to find itself left behind in the 21st century. There is no denying the current energy crunch, and those who would rather debate the possibility of global warming, rather than seek solutions are short-sided and irresponsible. Yet as this perfect storm of an energy crisis is ravaging the pocket books of average Americans, our leaders are cutting spending on research into alternative energies and public transportation.
At one time we could have been world leaders in renewable energy, now we will be lucky if we start playing catch up. At this point it seems more likely, that we will soon be consumers of renewable energy technologies, rather than also being innovators and purveyors. Some nation or nations will reap considerable economic windfalls from developing and marketing these technologies. Too bad, it won't be us...

Portugal, without its own oil, coal or gas and with no expertise in nuclear power, is pitching to lead Europe's clean-tech revolution with some of the most ambitious targets and timetables for renewables. Its intention, the economics minister, Manuel Pinho, said, is to wean itself off oil and within a decade set up a low carbon economy in response to high oil prices and climate change.

"We have to reduce our dependence on oil and gas," said Pinho. "What seemed extravagant in 2004 when we decided to go for renewables now seems to have been a very good decision."

He expects Portugal to generate 31% of all its energy from clean sources by 2020. This means lifting its renewable electricity share from 20% in 2005 to 60% in 2020, compared with Britain's target of 15% of all energy by 2020. Having passed its target for 2010 it could soon top the EU renewables league.

...

It is the start of a potentially giant global industry with Portuguese firm Enersis planning to invest more than £1bn in a series of farms that together would power 450,000 homes.

Pinho dismisses nuclear power. "When you have a programme like this there is no need for nuclear power. Wind and water are our nuclear power. The relative price of renewables is now much lower, so the incentives are there to invest. My advice to countries like the UK is to move as fast as they can to renewables. With climate change and the increase in oil prices, renewables will become more and more important.

"Countries that do not invest in renewables will pay a high price in future. The cost of inaction is very high indeed. The perception that renewable energy is very expensive is changing every day as the oil price goes up."

He added: "Energy and environment are the biggest challenge of our generation. We need to develop a low-carbon model for the world economy. The present situation is dangerous."

Steampunk Recumbent Trike

Proving that personal vehicle experimenters are just a hair away from Steampunk mad-scientists is this gorgeous trike, complete with leather trunk. Lots more drool-worthy photos over at Jake Von Slatt's blog.

Man, love those white tires, nothing says turn of the century like skinny white rubber!

Individual Energy Independence

Came across this story recently about a few folks who are using full electric vehicles in conjunction with solar panels.

Darrell Dickey regularly commutes to work 24 miles, one way, by bike. But when it's too cold or wet for the bike, or when he and his family travel long distances from their home in Davis, California, he drives a battery-powered electric vehicle that he charges with photovoltaic (PV) panels mounted on his garage roof.

"Five years ago, I spent about $45,000 and got a brand new car (the RAv4EV) and the solar system," he says. "We're still driving the car every day, and the solar system will continue to make fuel for whatever EV we drive in the future. For $45,000 we bought a new car and fuel for the rest or our lives."

...

Dickey says the inspiration to drive electric comes from having a child. "It would embarrass me to have to explain to my daughter why we continued to import and burn oil when we knew the consequences," he says. "Having no tune-ups and no trips to the gas station ever is just icing."

By installing a solar system atop his garage, Dickey took the next step in driving a totally clean car. "Now," he says, "I can deflect the comments that my 'electric' car is just a 'coal-burning' car. EVs are the ultimate flex-fuel vehicle. You can make electricity out of just about anything: sun, wind, natural gas, coal—even gasoline! Your fuel can be totally domestic, or in my case, totally local."

Asked how long it will take for the PV system to pay for itself, Dickey replies: "If we think of everything in terms of what it costs us in the short-term, we're screwed. It's the same argument people use against the Prius: When will it pay back in gas savings? But that only accounts for the money paid at the pump. What of the billions of dollars that leave our economy for oil, or the billions of our tax dollars that go toward tax incentives for oil companies? What of the cost of the military and the lives lost to protect our oil?" But the short answer for the solar pay-back, he says, was "the instant I turned my system on." Dickey had been paying $75 a month for electricity. He took a loan out to buy the PV system, and pays $70 a month toward that loan. "My electricity and gasoline bills are now zero, and next year when my loan is paid off, this investment will be paying me probably for the rest of my life. My PV system covers the power for my home and my car. It displaces $90 worth of electricity and over $100 worth of gasoline every month. So my estimate of how long until the system pays for itself is no time at all!"

Dickey says the Rav4EV is the best car he's ever owned. "My wife commutes in it 40 miles a day, five days a week. We drive it for our weekend outings and it does errands that are too far or too bulky for the bicycle. It has never been tuned up, and I've spent about $50 total on it for maintenance. My wife has not been to a gasoline station in seven years and 70,000 commute miles—not once!"

This story really got me thinking about how our oil dependance and internal combustion engines are like those check cashing places. On an economic scale, most of us don't have to face the endless cycle of pay-day loans to enable us to pay our bills, we are able to comfortably shake our heads at plight of the working poor who are raked over the coals of usury just to continue their hand-to-mouth existence.

But when it comes to energy, almost everyone is stuck in the same hand-to-mouth cycle. Do the math of your transportation and energy costs, and think about how long it would take you to see savings from a $45K loan like the Dickeys took out. Then think about the "collateral damage" costs of our world-wide dependence on fossil fuels.

Strange how one story can make me hopeful and enraged at the same time...

I know energy independence is possible, but right now it is as out of reach to me as a 401k and health insurance for migrant farm worker.

The Rezistor DIY Vespa Conversion

The Rezistor - World's Quietest Vespa | V is for Voltage Community
A member of the V is for Voltage EV community has converted a 1970 Vespa 50S Special to a DIY electric scooter. Apparently he recently won best Rat scoot at a Portland scooter rally.

Very Impressive!

A Hummer I'd actually consider...

A 400cc Hummer scooter?!?
What?! What!?

OK, so it's just a Design exercise, but it has some interesting features, and I know I'm not the only freak out there dreaming of a dual-purpose scooter. I also like the fixed front fender, which looks like it could be made to sport quite a front rack. But come on folks, a scooter is supposed to be step-through! Step-Through! Not just some lame indentation in the middle like some sway-backed nag.

This blog, Scooter Design is going to be one of my new favorites. It's in Italian, but who cares, when the pictures are so pretty! Like this gorgeous concept for an electric update to the classic Moto Guzzi Galleto. It's electric and it looks very DieselPunk!



via Sethwas and Badpenguin on Modern Vespa

Flying Car (ver)

Long time readers know I've got a soft-spot for the Carver and it's green Yank cousin the Venture One.
While we are still waiting to see these fantastic toys.... er, uh, I mean engineering marvels stateside, another Dutch company has taken the basic Carver design, and well...
The only way I can think to explain it, is the designers were in an Amsterdam "coffee" house and they took the Venture One's tagline of "Fly the Road" a little too literally. Because the PAL-V has rotors which unfold and turn it into a small autogyro.

That's right kids, it's the 21st century, and HERE is your flying car.

For many decades people have been dreaming of a flying car to enable fast and easy door to door transportation. Until 2004/2005 this has not been possible because of the following reasons:

1. Flying regulations sofar did not allow certification of standard technology, resulting in a cost price which is far too high to make a solution affordable.
   

2. Flying regulations sofar made licensing complicated.
   

3. To make a flying vehicle its body needs to be narrow but narrow vehicles are unstable in the corners while driving.
   

4. Governmental bodies in many countries were not in favor of personal flying.

But this is now solved:

1. New certification rules in the US (2004) and in Europe (2005) allow for easy certification with standard components enabling a drastic cost breakthrough for airplanes under 600kg.
   

2. Since 2004 (US) and 2005 (Europe) new licensing rules enable easy and affordable access to personal flying.
   

3. This stability problem has recently been solved by Carver Engineering (see www.carver-engineering.com) by using the unique DVC(TM) technology for which patents have been granted. PAL-V Europe BV has an exclusive right to apply this technology for their application."
   

4. In the US the “High-way In The Sky” (HITS) -program is being developed to allow extensive personal air traffic. In Europe initiatives have been initiated to develop a copy of this system. Air regulation and certification bodies in Europe have been reorganized to change into enabling bodies instead of blocking bodies.

-from the PAL-V "why is this possible now" page.

image © 2006 Spark Design Engineering
via Glowguy on ModernVespa

The Sea is Our Shake-Up Flashlight

OSU is working on a new system for harnessing Poseidon's limitless energy. Their website is short on details, but the basic concept is ... well pretty basic, and you'll the get the gist from the above graphic. Pretty heady stuff.

The New York Times has an article about the technology and concerns it raises with fishermen and environmentalists. I have heard previous concepts for wave energy which center around submerged turbines which would be powered by ocean currents. That technology I could see unacceptably effecting sea-life. In fact in discussing the wave-turbines with Jes, she proposed a solution almost exactly like the illustration above.

via Slashdot

Catch the EV Bug... (VW Bug, that is...)

This is from a classified listing for a VW Beetle which has been converted to a full electric vehicle. As such, it's not really a step-by-step tutorial, but it is quite inspirational, and there is some good information in the listing:

Top speed 75 MPH, range 70 miles. New tires, new batteries, new seat covers and new brakes. The battery pack is 144 Volts, controller 600 Amps. Total acceleration power 86,400 Watts, with 0 to 40 MPH in 6 seconds.

Stinking Gas report;
11/11/07, San Jose, CA $3.49
My GMC Sierra pick-up has a 32 gallon tank, total cost to fill the tank is $112
Electric car distance for $112 of electricity is 5,600 miles.

Drive from San Francisco to NY and back for the cost of one tank of gas.

When the batteries run low, FREE charging stations can be found at many businesses including some Ralphs grocery stores, Costco stores and Hilton Hotels. Maps of FREE recharging locations, http://www.eaaev.org/eaaevcharging.html

Roll into the parking lot of Costco and pull up in front of two chargers. Bright green signs read "Electric Vehicle Parking Only." Nearly every Costco store has a pair of chargers in its lot, or plans to install them soon. The company is committed to creating an unbroken string of chargers up and down California for electric car drivers.

Some day we'll see a lot more of these:


via the Make! magazine blog

$10 DIY Passive Solar Room Heater

Life Hacker has an excellent little instructional video posted today on a DIY solar window heater. The vid details how you can turn a couple sheets of foamboard, some pennies, some flat black spray paint, and a sheet of plexi-glass into a unit that could save you $30 to $40 dollars a month on your heating costs.
The concepts are simple, and the construction looks like it could be managed by any child old enough to be trusted with a hobby knife and spray paint. I'm thinking seriously about trying to slap one of these together in the next few days, since our new house has oil heat, and I doubt the price of heating oil is dropping this winter.

The Smart Car's Grandpappy

After that cool peek of the new Smart Car, provided by the Scooter Scoop, I figured some of you might be interested in small scale personal transportation with decidedly more retro styling....

Folks, the Peel P50, circa 1963

The Scooter Scoop Test Drives the Smart Car

In the latest episode of The Scooter Scoop TV, Steve Guzman has a test drive in the new Smart Car. Pretty neat stuff, and Steve asks all the questions I'd had about this vehicle.

The 21st Century Hybrid Solar Log Cabin

Hybrid Solar House > Science > How It Works

Came across a link to this North Carolina builder in a recent interview with Steve Wozniac on ECNMag.com that's worth checking out.

Apparently he was a judge for the History Channel's Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge (dang, that's a mouthful). The winner, a home built by Enertia combines passive solar energy, with the heat retention and release properties of solid wood construction as well as designing the entire house to be a heatpump. The result is a kit-house that is energy efficient to manufacture, assemble, and inhabit. They're easy on the eyes, too.

Just how does a house, or office, or any ground-based structure get turned into a natural energy machine? The secret is an air path, or "Envelope" just inside the structure's solid wood skin. It is a heat path on a sunny Winter day, a continuously recharging convection loop. A heat source, and extra insulation for a cold Winter night. A miniature biosphere, oxygenated by Sunspace plants. A fresh air-to-air exchanger with walls that breathe. A buffer zone to noise, wind, and outside pollution.
It is a ventilation path on the hot Summer day and on the cooler Summer night, when it is open to the atmosphere. It is the dehumidification system when its permeable outer wall is hit by the sun. And always, an access channel to otherwise unreachable parts of the house when it comes time to update, add new wires, cables, pipes, or technology.
The Enertia® House works because the walls have the ability to gain, hold, and release heat. They do double-duty as structure and storage. Their thermal mass and thermal lag leads to "Floating," where stored daytime energy cancels out night-time need. Floating can last for days, keeping the house comfortable during periods of little or no sun. Massive houses experience seasonal "Float" as well, and can coast a month or longer when lightweight houses need artificial heating or cooling. Enertia® Houses float right through heat waves and arctic blasts that would endanger occupants of other buildings.

This page on their site shows some detailed shots of constuction, and more information on the nature of their kits. Basically the pieces are notched laminated timbers of Southern Yellow Pine, a highly renewable resource. It's a pretty cool idea, with environmental advantages from several angles.

Enertia Electric Motorcycle

The quest for the perfect electric motorcycle continues, and the Enertia is an interesting new contestant. Nice styling, (it's not a scooter, but hey, wachagonnado?) and a fairly resonable price point, as far as these things go. It has a range of 45 miles, a top speed of 50mph, and can be fully recharged in 3 hours. A version with a carbon fiber frame will be available the first quarter of 2008 for about $15k. A standard version (steel chasis? how will this effect weight/range/topspeed?) will be available third quarter of 2008 for about $12k.

The title link will take to the manufacturer's site.
A story from Kneeslider is also out there.

Sumo Electric Scooter

Cool Japanese concept electric scooter, reminiscent of the bike from Akira.

(Yet another discovery from the Brass Goggles Forum. Thanks SkeletonRobot!)

Italy Attempting to get Rid of 2-Stroke Scoots

Gary Norris, of Dag Scoot, commented on a recent post about scooters as green transportation, regarding how un-enviromentally friendly vintage scoots are. And he's right. Old school two-strokes are pretty bad news in the emissions department.

Italy's realizing this too, and implementing some cash incentives to scooterists for trading in vintage Vespas for electric scoots or bicycles.

Italy's environment ministry, which has set aside £10 million for the project, will pay as much as £680 towards the cost of an electric scooter, or £170 towards a bicycle. Smaller incentives are on offer for the latest eco-friendly petrol scooters. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the environment minister, said: "We are doing our best to combat carbon emissions and the fine dust that these scooters create. This will all help us live better."

Reaction from hard-core Italian scooterists?

"Why would anyone want to scrap a classic Vespa for a discount on a bicycle?" said Gianni Massa, of the Vespa Club of Italy. "It would be an offence against humanity."

Silly though it sounds, this is a great dilemma for me. Vintage scoots are such an elegant transportation solution, except for that whole emissions thing. And an average Joe, with little mechanical skills or experience could do maintenance and repair on them. Modern four-stroke automatics? Not so much.

I got nothing against modern scoots, heck, I even think CVT is pretty freaking elegant as an engineering feat. But it is sad, that soon two-stroke manual scooters are gonna be like classic cars, only pulled out of the garage for sunday rides and shows.

Maybe this will prompt Piaggio to really make an electric Vespa a reality?

Tricumbent Hybrid - Part 1 (Apr 2007)

Tricumbent Hybrid - Part 1 (Apr 2007)

Check out this online article, the first part in what looks to be a fairly indepth documentation of one guys project to build an electric assist recumbent trike. Lots of good detail here on the planning and electronics that go into a project like this.
I'm looking forward to the rest of this article.

via the Make Zine Blog