When Michael Ernhard, creator of the Tesla EV sports car spoke at the Marin County Fair in July 2008, he made a lot of sense. (See http://teslafounders.wordpress.com ). As a result I became interested in the Electric Vehicle field, and took Santa Rosa Junior College's first ever course in Electric Vehicle (EV) Conversion (see blog under).
After 16 weeks I came away with one strong realization. The change from an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to an EV moves the individual vehicle's complexity from the engine to the energy storage system.
That is: An AC electric motor is a wonderfully simple thing - just one moving part compared to hundreds of moving parts in an ICE. However, the energy source of an ICE is simple a tank of liquid, while the "energy" source for an EV is a complex High Voltage battery system.
While I still believe that EV's are the way to go, the course gave me a healthy dose of respect for the engineers who are working to make it a common event. If you are interested to know more - see the DET-193 Class blog below.
LOCAL ELECTRIC NEWS
July 1st - 5th, San Rafael Marin Fair: Peter Oliver of Make Mine Electric of Sebastapol, CA, and teacher of a course in vehicle electrification at Santa Rosa Junior College, showed off his electric 1956 Porche 356C replica along side a Tesla presented by Tesla Motors, an electric 1965 Daytona Coupe replicar by new comer Electric Marin Wheels, of San Anselmo, two Tangos presented by Commuter Cars Corporation of Spokane WA, one Ebox by AC Propulsion of San Dimas, CA, an electrified 1992 Mazda Miata, a conversion by EV Miata, and a few other exihibitors.ABC's local affiliate KGO TV, San Francisco did a spot on the exhibitors with Peter Oliver and the Blue Sky Center getting special attention.
For full size photo album on Picassa, click on the images under then click the play ">" button to start the slide show.
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Electric Wheels of Marin's 1965 Daytona Coupe Replica ____ Make Mine Electric's 1956 Porche Replica
Grand Opening of the Blue Sky Center, Sonoma. A cooperative venture of a number of individual business owners and mechanics working under the one roof to bring electric vehicles of all kinds to the general public. As soon as we know their official website is up we will post in in the links under.
Biofuels of Marin congratulates the founders of the Blue Sky [EV] Center in Sonoma - see pictures of the opening day ceromony
ELECTRIC CAR CONVERSION LINKS:
http://www.makemineelectric.com
(Sebastapol)
http://www.electricmarinwheels.com
(San Anselmo)
http://evalbum.com Images and descriptions of projects
http://www.nbea.org: North Bay Electric Auto Association
Gav's EV conversion Video #10 installing the motor (New Zealand) from You-Tube. Click on "more from cant7think7clearly" to see all 30 of his conversion videos.
http://evdl.org EV email discussion list.
http://nedra.com National EV Drag Racing Assoc.
http://electroauto.com Retailers of EV kits/equipment
http://www.ev-america.com EV Compent retailer
http://www.kta-ev.com KTA EV component retailers.
http://evtech.org Technical EV email list.
http://www.evparts.com Retailers of parts for EV
http://www.kennedyeng.com Retailers of Adaptors ect, for EVs.
http://www.go-ev.com Makers of Electric Motors.
http://www.uqm.com Makers of Electric Motors - high end.
Public Scales in California: Places to weigh one's car
http://teslafounders.wordpress.com Blog of Michael Ernhard, creator of the Tesla EV sports car.
Santa Rosa Junior Colleges' first ever class on Electric Vehicle Conversion ran from August to Dec 2008. I took the class in an effort to better understand the possibilities. You can read the archives at:
DET -193: EV CONVERSION CLASS BLOG
(See photos of the SECOND EV Conversion class of 2009)
The class was taught by Peter Oliver of Make Mine Electric. Peter realised that the US may be trading it's reliance on foriegn oil for reliance on foreign made batteries, so was pleased to see the proposal in the Dec 18, '08 edition of the Wall Street Journal for a US battery consortium.
Peter also gave a 5 day intensive course at the Solar Living Institute, Santa Rosa, Oct 20 to 24
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times weighs in on the Big Three bailout and contrasts it to Agassi's Better Place EV business model.
Wired Magazine interviews Shai Agassi about his Better Place EV business model:
