Welcome to the Electric Car Weblog. In addition to links, news, and tips about electric cars and other forms of alternative transportation we are publishing an on-line diary of our current EV project. Started in August 2005 the chronicle follows the conversion of a gas powered Ford Probe into an Electric Car.
You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
- Larry’s 1982 Mazda B2000 electric pickup, along with wiring schematic. Here’s his EVAlbum entry (I really appreciate EV journals that provide schematics)
- A few more details on the upcoming Myers Motors’ NmG commercial electric vehicle. It’s a three wheeled commuter and it’s funtelligent (their words, not mine)! Here’s the specs.
- Someone posted in the comments a while back wondering about building our own Lithium batteries. I happened across a wikipedia article yesterday on lithium batteries. Maybe one reason we won’t be cooking our own lithium batteries is because the metal is also used in making methamphetamine! (scroll to bottom) Lithium batteries are certainly PRICED as if they were a rare drug. Here’s a wiki article on lithium ion polymer batteries.
- GreenTomatoCars.com – an environmentally friendly private hire service in London (extensive flash website, lots of little “info” things). More info from the Guardian.
- Transcript of remarks by Ford President of the Americas to U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- A couple stories about Gordon Cooper’s Ford Ranger Electric Car: KLTV and News Journal.
- Red Herring has an interview with Martin Eberhard, the founder of Tesla Motors, about starting a new car company to make electric vehicles.
- Lumina launches a new warm light LED. Designed to be “a super-bright, very long lasting and energy efficient alternative to halogen and incandescent lamps but with the same warm, eye-appealing glow.” They also have a LED “light engine” designed for automotive technicians, called CentraL.E.D..
- Comedian Robert Newman’s take on the history of oil.
Comment [4]
- Sony has put up a new information center to promote their movie, Who Killed the Electric Car. Nicely done flash with a bunch of information. They even have a “Go Green” section that would make Darin at MetroMPG proud with a few tips on how to get better mileage with your existing car.
- Thanks to Richard for mailing a link to this turning orange peels into ethanol story.
- A anonymous reader emailed a link to Electric Vehicle Concepts.
- Congrats to the Cleveland High School Seniors and their recently completed a Solar Car project. “Equipped with a Global Positioning System and wireless communications, data can be sent from the car to the pit area. The information collected is conveyed to the pit crew.” Anyone have a link to some pictures?
Comment [1]
- MIT has been working on using carbon nanotubes to create capacitors that are, essentially, super batteries. And, no, they aren’t using M&Ms, this is just a model to illustrate the concept.
- Make Magazine has contracted with MakingThings to create a new, relatively low cost controller kit. Looks like a nice design.
- Ran across the AC FluxDrive on the EVAlbum the other day in Bob’s Electric Minivan.
- Maybe if you hurry and get a job at the Bank of America you can get in on their new hybrid incentive program?
Comment [5]
- Valence is shipping four new models of their lithium batteries. “Three of the four new models are conveniently packaged in standard lead-acid sizes and operate at standard lead-acid voltage ranges.”
- The Governor of Pennsylvania wants to double hybrid rebates
- Speaking of hybrids, PC Magazine seems like an odd place to find this mini article about hybrid myths being debunked.
- Short review of some automotive breakthrough technologies.
Comment [3]
- David emailed earlier this week about this four bank charger from Dual Pro. Completely independent chargers that can charge individual batteries (lead: flooded, agm, or gel) in a string. Looks like there’s a variety of these multi-bank chargers. Would love to hear from anyone with experience using them. Bruce Parmenter didn’t like them for his electric blazer.
- Going from gas to electric a short news story about Reverend Gadget and Left Coast Conversions
- The Hydrogen Hoax. Speaking of this, a few folks sent a link to the news-clip making the rounds about the “water powered car.” A quick search of the internet shows that the claimed tech sounds remarkably similar to Brown’s gas. You’ll note in the news videos that they aren’t actually running the car on the HHO gas, just adding it to the existing gas fuel. There’s also no mention of how much energy was used to produce the HHO vs. how much it improved the mileage.
- BP is expecting solar cell production to double by 2008.
- Purple electric Ford Probe.
- Close out with a great photo collection of the Wrightspeed X1 Prototype. Not your Sunday-go-to-church electric car by a long shot.
Comment [6]
- Constructing the Electric7 electric car. Also a nice collection of photos and a couple of movies on the homepage. (p.s. nice battery pack!)
- Bryan’s 1997 Honda Accord Electric Car. Looks like he didn’t have much luck with Thundersky Lithiums.
- Yeah, yeah, I know you can’t drive 55. Remember, the faster you go, the more fuel you use (w/charts).
- The Ergosphere does some back of the envelope calculations on the cost of getting more oil through drilling vs. conservation.
- The Sakura Battery Co.’s Maranello electric car.
Comment [2]
- Darin passed along this link to one of the winners of last week’s Tour de Sol. This was in the Plug-in Hybrid competition and is a completely unique approach. I think Darin liked it because it’s close to the EV Pusher (or is that Pusher EV?) that he’s talked about before. It’s a Honda Insight with an EV Wheel. Lot’s of information, pics, and totally technical all of the way. Also information on their MIMA (Modified Integrated Motor Assist).
- I’m still trying to find someone that wants to sell batteries to me for Eve. In the process I’ve been using the EV Calculator quite a bit. One thing that I’ve been kind of winging was the percent incline, putting in 2% thinking that’s a good average. Well, yesterday I ran across this Grade Percent Incline and Downgrade Calculator and put in the elevation gain (~600 feet) for the last mile to our house: 11% incline! I can tell you from experience that it’s not the kind of hill you want to climb when your pack is feeling blue…
- Toyota and Aisin Seiki are making dye-sensitized photocells for homes and cars.
- Maybe some good news for more widespread wind power. Knight & Carver’s Wind Blade Division has developed adaptive low speed wind turbine blades.
Comment [5]