Evie electric car offers sturdier competition for G-Wiz

British company the Electric Car Corporation (ECC) yesterday launched a new electric car for city use, based on the small Citroen C1 hatchback, which it says is the first four-seat electric car to be sold in the UK.
Called the Evie, the car is externally identical to the Citroen on which it is based. At its Bedfordshire factory, ECC removes the petrol engine and fuel tank from completed C1 cars and installs a lithium-ion battery, electric motor and associated control electronics.
Sixteen of the battery's cells go under the bonnet, alongside the motor and gearbox, and another nine cells fit in place of the fuel tank, leaving the passenger compartment and boot unchanged.
The battery can be charged in around six hours from a domestic 240V supply at a cost of around £1, and according to ECC will provide around 75 miles of motoring at speeds of up to 60mph.
Because it is based on an existing car developed by a volume manufacturer, the Evie meets all current safety standards for conventional cars. The fossil-fuelled C1 was assessed in 2005 by the Euro NCAP crash testing organisation and was awarded four out of five stars for both adult and rear-seat child protection - a reasonable result given the car's small dimensions. The car also offers front and side airbags, seatbelt pretensioners and anti-lock brakes.
ECC argues that these features set the Evie apart from its electric car rivals, such as the popular G-Wiz, which by virtue of its weight and classification as a "quadricycle" is exempt from crashworthiness legislation.
At the launch event in London yesterday, BusinessGreen.com undertook a short test drive on London streets. The car has a single-speed transmission, offering just one forward and one reverse gear and no clutch. The petrol gauge registers remaining battery charge while the speedometer and all other controls remain untouched.
There is no air-conditioning option, but the existing heater has been modified to work electrically rather than from waste engine heat.
With three adults aboard the car felt quite sluggish compared to its petrol-powered siblings, and also noticeably slower to accelerate, although a lot less cramped, than the lighter G-Wiz electric alternative.
According to ECC, the Evie has a kerb weight of about 900kg, roughly 100kg more than the standard C1. The Evie is quite fast enough to keep up with urban traffic, however, and should be more at home on 50mph stretches than the G-Wiz, which can be unnerving to drive near its top speed.
In common with other electric cars, the Evie uses the motor as a generator when the car is slowing down. This regenerative braking effect is quite pronounced, and often makes it unnecessary to use the brakes when slowing for a junction. ECC says energy recaptured in this way accounts for about 15 per cent of the car's range in city driving.
With weight and weight distribution very similar to the donor car, the Evie rides well and, with the absence of engine noise, is very quiet - particularly from the outside. Drivers need to be more than normally aware of inattentive pedestrians.
The Evie is available to order from today and costs from £16,850. This is a substantial increase on the C1's base list price of £7,795 but is competitive with the £15,795 asked for the lithium-ion based G-Wiz.
In common with its rival, ECC points to the discounts that electric car owners can currently enjoy, including zero road tax, London Congestion Charge exemption, free or reduced parking in certain boroughs, and low running costs.
ECC offers a three-year warranty, plus the option of an extended warranty, and predicts that the batteries should last six to seven years.
Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, ECC chief executive David Martell said the Evie can be serviced by Citroen's network and should eventually be available to buy through Citroen dealers. He added that while Citroen has been supportive of ECC's project, it is currently a supplier rather than a partner of the company.
ECC has spent three years developing the Evie, and expects to sell 500 units in the first 12 months, rising to 2,000 to 5,000 the following year.
Martell said that the UK government was largely to blame for the wide variation in production estimates, arguing that it’s recently announced incentive scheme for electric cars could create a "sales vacuum" that sees potential customers delay purchasing until the subsidy is available in 2011.

Green Star to Demonstrate Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

(Business Wire) Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC: GSPI) announced today that within the next four weeks it plans to publicly test its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

The demonstration will take place in Corbin, Kentucky, where the vehicle will be test driven and evaluated by industry representatives. The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will be driven on a simulated city driving test route. The company expects to demonstrate that during an eight hour delivery day simulation this plug-in hybrid vehicle can exceed 150 miles while exhibiting an efficiency of over 75 mpg (miles per gallon).

Earlier this month, Green Star Products along with its International Consortium partner Global Green Cars had publicly tested its full electric vehicle version at tracks in Utah and Kentucky. Global Green Cars is a U.S. and International Consortium of automobile companies and associated supply companies which includes Green Star Products as an engineering and technology provider.

The previous successful public demonstrations incorporated test drives for a variety of people including legislators, government officials, race car drivers and other interested parties. Please see press release “Successful GSPI Electric Car Demonstration Covered by Media” (http://www.greenstarusa.com/news/09-04-09.html) dated April 9, 2009, and “Green Star Kentucky Electric Car Demonstration Covered by News Media” (http://www.greenstarusa.com/news/09-04-16b.html) dated April 16, 2009, for media coverage of the demonstration events.

Mr. Joseph LaStella, President of Green Star Products, stated, “This demonstration is the next in a series of public demonstrations on advanced electric powered and hybrid powered vehicles that the company intends to offer to the public in the near future in the $25,000 price range.”

President Barack Obama's New Energy For America program calls for deployment of 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015, and on March 19, 2009, he announced programs directing $2.4 billion to electric vehicle development.

About Plug-In Hybrids

The general public does not realize that the hybrid vehicles produced by the major auto companies today are not plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Today's hybrids have small battery packs and cannot be recharged from the utility grid system. Therefore, they have extremely limited range on their small battery packs and are usually only used at very low speeds (below 15 mph). Presently there are no plug-in electric hybrid vehicles offered by any major car company in the U.S.

The advantages of a PHEV with a larger battery pack with ranges up to 40 miles or more is that it gives you the ability to recharge this battery pack from the electric utility company at night, utilizing inexpensive clean electrical energy which is abundantly available during night time hours.

Additional advantages of PHEVs are as follows:

1. Reduces the use of foreign oil since the electricity in the United States is primarily produced by domestic non-oil resources (97% by natural gas, hydro, coal, nuclear and other alternative energy sources).
2. Night time electric power is available from many renewable resources therefore reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many utility companies, including PG&E (NYSE: PCG), are offering incentives for PHEVs to utilize inexpensive night time energy.
3. Utilizing domestically produced energy also helps the U.S. balance of payment deficit from oil producing nations and promotes U.S. energy independence.
4. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has estimated that 85% of the vehicles in the United States drive less than 30 miles per day. If these were plug-in electric hybrid vehicles they would not utilize any petroleum fuels at all for these short trips.

There are more than twenty international environmental organizations supporting PHEV including World Wide Fund for Nature, National Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Alliance for Climate Protection, Set America Free Coalition and the Rainforest Action Network.

Green Star Products is targeting to replace in-city delivery trucks which are the highest polluting vehicles in use today. These delivery vehicles are in-city, slow moving, stop-and-go vehicles which do not travel more than 35 miles per day and pollute more than any other vehicle on a per mile basis.

Green Star Products is not in competition with Toyota or any other major automobile manufacturer because it is targeting a different market. Toyota is presently planning to modify its Prius model to be a plug-in hybrid in the near future.

Cuyahoga Heights High School students taking charge with electric car

Anyone concerned about the younger generation keeping up with technology should visit Cuyahoga Heights High School technology education teacher Chris Croftcheck's class.

Students busy themselves with remote-controlled miniature vehicles while Croftcheck answers another student's question about steering columns. It's all looks like an amateur inventor's paradise to the untrained observer, but you can tell they have had spent plenty of time pouring over textbooks and diagrams since the class started.

Sitting center stage in the basement lab/shop is Croftcheck's junior class project: an electric vehicle that looks like a go-kart.

"We never did anything like this before," Croftcheck said, "but they were gung-ho about building something and learning to solve problems."

In the process, the students learned to deal with everything from electronics, brakes, steering systems and drive trains to working with different types of building materials.

"They're all juniors," Croftcheck said, "and I've had them (as students) since they were freshmen. Next year, we might try and make this thing totally remote control."

Croftcheck gives a tip of his cap to the school administration, which was completely behind the project. Next year, he would like to enter the Electrathon America Electric Vehicle Competition.

"We're looking to be the first school in northeast Ohio to bring about the Electrathon with other schools," Croftcheck said. "That's what my goal would be for these guys next year. Who knows? We may start looking into solar power. I'll leave it up to them.

"Everybody hears a lot about 21st century learning skills, and these young men will need to go out and adapt to these situations and problem-solving in the workplace.

"I think that a project like this -- where they get an idea and then put it down on paper and design it -- is invaluable to young students," Croftcheck said. "They've come a long way, and I'm proud of them."

Electric cars on display in Hanover

The New Jersey Electric Auto Association will be holding its monthly meeting on Monday at the Morris Country Library

Sai Sankar will be speaking about AC current electric vehicle applications and DC current electric vehicle applications. Sankar has engineered, fabricated and built four electric vehicles.

Douglas Stansfield, president of the NJ Electric Auto Association, will be speaking about the Electric Vehicle Stimulus provisions and a basic overview of what it will take to convert a vehicle for the average consumer and whether or not it should be a Hybrid Conversion or an all Electric Conversion.

Electric vehicles will be on display outside prior to the start of the meeting starting at 7 p.m.

Darling will offer £2,000 reward to scrap old cars

ALISTAIR DARLING, the chancellor, is set to end months of speculation by announcing a “scrappage” scheme to encourage people to trade in old cars for new in his April 22 budget.

The policy has been urged on the government by the crisis-hit motor industry, which is facing an alarming collapse in output. It says that without a new sales incentive, the sector will face tens of thousands of job losses.

Details of the scheme are still being finalised in discussions between the Treasury and the business department, headed by Lord Mandelson. It is expected to involve a £2,000 allowance for people trading in for scrap a car more than nine years old against the purchase of a new or nearly new vehicle.

Ministers and officials are said to have been impressed by the impact of such schemes in other countries. A similar scheme in Germany, involving a €2,500 (£2,250) scrappage allowance, has reversed its slide in sales. New car registrations in Germany last month were up by 40% on a year ago. In Britain, in contrast, they were down by more than 30%.

Whitehall sources dismissed reports that Darling and Mandelson were at loggerheads over the issue. “It is completely wrong to say Alistair and Peter have fallen out on this,” said one. The sources said it was recognised in government that while help was on the way for the industry in the medium term, including loans from the European Investment Bank for the development of greener vehicles, help was needed in the short term to pull the industry out of its slump.

Officials have been negotiating with the car industry about sharing the cost of the scrappage scheme and about ensuring that any allowance does not take the place of existing discounts by motor manufacturers, which would defeat the object.

Industry sources said cash-strapped manufacturers were reluctant to share the cost of the scheme and warned that anything less than a £2,000 Continued on page 5 Continued from page 1 allowance would be ineffective in boosting sales. But they insisted that firms would cooperate fully to ensure that it succeeds.

Britain’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has been pushing for the scheme for months and has criticised the government for dragging its feet in comparison with other countries.

Austria, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain, as well as Germany, had all introduced scrappage schemes with a significant impact on car sales. China and Brazil had boosted car sales to record levels last month with tax incentives for buyers.

“A scrappage scheme will provide the incentive needed and the evidence is clear that schemes already implemented across Europe do work to increase demand,” said Paul Everitt, chief executive of the SMMT. “The UK is the only major European market not to implement a scheme.” The SMMT calculates that a one-year scheme would cost £160m.

Last week Gordon Brown signalled a £2,000 allowance against purchases of electric cars but critics pointed out that these were impractical for many road users at present and few were made in Britain.

Some environmentalists oppose a scrappage scheme, arguing that it is more environmentally friendly to run old cars until they cease to function because a significant part of their emissions occur during manufacture.

Friends of the Earth has backed the policy, saying it would persuade motorists to “swap gas-guzzlers for fuel-efficient models”.

Allen Alley's Troubling Start

Allen Alley, apparently, is formally launching his campaign for Governor in a couple of weeks, at the offices of EcoMotion. His invitation contains some rhetoric that I find rather confusing and disturbing:

EcoMotion sells "Earth Friendly Vehicles" but even a great green establishment like EcoMotion cannot survive in this economy. EcoMotion is the right business in the right place at the right time, but even they are failing. Allen is running for Governor to help good companies like EcoMotion all over Oregon, thrive in our new ultra-competitive world. He believes government needs to create a great environment for growth, not take money from successful businesses and individuals and redistribute it to failing ones. EcoMotion is just one example of a very good business idea that struggled and ultimately did not survive in this economic environment.

My question: What does Mr. Alley mean when he talks about “tak[ing] money from successful businesses and individuals and redistribut[ing] it to failing ones”? Does he mean that he opposes the Federal bank bailouts and the AIG bonuses? If so, what does that have to do with being Governor? Or is he playing to the far right, implying that most of your Oregon tax dollars are redistributed to the ‘undeserving poor’?

Mr. Alley should be aware that it is thoroughly misleading to imply that a significant portion of Oregon tax dollars are ‘redistributed’ to ‘failing businesses and individuals.’ The largest portion of Oregon tax dollars is spent on public schools. Does Mr. Alley regard Oregon’s students and teachers as ‘failing’? Another large portion is spent on health care for poor children and families and long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities. Does Mr. Alley consider poor children and families without health insurance, and seniors and people with disabilities who cannot afford long-term care, to be ‘failures’? The third largest portion of Oregon tax dollars is spent on prisons, state police and the courts. I suppose it’s possible that Mr. Alley might consider people in prison to be ‘failures,’ but spending money to keep them locked up doesn’t really count as ‘redistributing’ it to them, I don’t think.

Ironically, EcoMotion’s own web site promotes the value of Oregon tax credits for individuals and businesses that could benefit buyers of its “Earth Friendly Vehicles,” and Alley’s own kickoff invite describes EcoMotion as 'failing.” If Alley's rhetoric means anything at all, you’d think it would have to be an indictment of tax credits that benefit 'failing' business.' (The tax credits go to the purchasers, not EcoMotion itself, but EcoMotion definitely benefits from their existence.)

I know good people who like Mr. Alley and consider him a “different kind of Republican.” But it seems that his gubernatorial campaign is going to rely on the same old tired, vague, divisive, misleading Republican rhetoric. Sigh.