Electric cars and trucks

The San Francisco EAA chapter (sfeva.org) today had Coda Automotive show up to present the car and give a chance for test rides. The presenter was their VP of battery pack development and hence it was a very deep dive technical talk. I enjoyed every minute and this guy really knows his stuff -- he'd been on the EV1 program and has worked for several battery companies.

I got to sit in the car for a short ride around the block.

It's a typical average sedan except for some fancy in-cabin features. From the outside there's nothing to make this look anything special. The performance is great, handling seemed to be great, etc. All in all I think they've done a great job bringing this vehicle together and they should do well.

First impressions of the Coda electric sedan

Coda specs and technical stuff

Trexa is launching a lithium iron phosphate-powered all-wheel-drive platform for people and start-ups to use to develop their own electric cars. Cool beanz!

Here's a post about it on AutoblogGreen.

A Future That Doesn’t Guzzle
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/automobiles/autoshow/12electric.html

The world’s automakers unveiled, at the Detroit Auto Show this week, a number of hybrid gas-electric and battery-powered models, several of which might not be available for years to come.

The vehicles on display include the forthcoming Nissan Leaf...the 39-inch-wide Tango,...Toyota..a family of hybrids that would carry the name of its Prius sedan..Honda showed the CR-Z, a plug-in hybrid version of the CR-X....General Motors is betting on its Chevrolet Volt... Ford Motor Company plans to build an electric version of its compact sedan, the Focus...

Myers Motors has announced their new 2-person NmG and that they're taking pre-orders with expected delivery ... well, they don't say when. The price is $29,000+ but will drop the more preorders they get.

Details: http://myersmotors.com/preorder.html

We designed a pricing structure for pre-orders to reward you, the buyer, with savings as you help develop the supply chain for American-made, highway-speed Electric Vehicles with an early EV purchase! We need 1,000 pre-orders to reach volume pricing to reach our goal price of $24,995 for the base model with a 60-mile range. We need to start the pricing at $29,995 until we can commit to that volume, but Myers Motors will drop the retail price for everyone by $1000 for every 200 pre-orders on the books.

History lesson: Myers Motors bought the assets of Corbin Motors several years ago. Corbin was a sister company to the Corbin that makes (made?) custom seats for motorcycles. Corbin Motors had designed a single person three-wheeler electric named the Sparrow. It looked like it came straight from Toon Town or else like a jellybean. They sold several hundred of them before the company ran into some financial problems (that are rather controversial). The company shut down and then sold their assets to Myers.

Myers has been selling the Sparrow under the name NmG (No More Gas) for awhile. Interestingly Myers' price for the NmG ($30k +) was about 2x the price Corbin sold it for ($16k or so). I wonder if Corbin's price was too low.

Corbin had also designed a two-seater but I recall it being powered with a gas engine and having an open top.

This really caught my eye today....a story on CNN and FOX NEWS about a free NEV because of the government tax rebate on some nevs. Is this for real? You get the entire purchase amount listed back as a tax credit? Course I would not get the shipping cost and since I'd want a different color there's a $100 charge for that, both these cost above and beyond the selling price. But that still would mean it would only cost me a few hundred dollars!

https://www.freeelectriccar.com/default.asp

Has anyone on here taken advantage of this deal? I'm not really looking for people's ramdom opinion...but would like to hear from someone who really knows if this is as presented. I'm very interested. It certainly seems valid according to the stories on FOX and CNN. But, you do have to purchase (not get delivery) by the end of this tax year (12/31) and really you're just buying a souped up (maybe) golf cart. But, boy how I'd like to get one of these and experiment with it. Any info that anyone has (please only verifiable info) on these would be greatly appreciated!

Gus

Saw this note from RandyB on the yahoo!groups Triac mailing list. He's been reporting in on occasion about the excuses Green Vehicles have been giving for this or that delay. His latest report is he's had his Triac for 3 weeks and it sounds good.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/TriacClub/message/33

China’s BYD Eyes SoCal for Its U.S. Electric Car Ambitions
http://earth2tech.com/2009/12/09/chinas-byd-eyes-los-angeles-for-electric-car-rollout-whats-so-special-about-socal/

As far as China’s BYD Co. is concerned, Los Angeles has at least five markings of a prime launchpad for electric vehicles: high population density, air pollution problems, a large car market, affluent consumers, and a yen for new technologies. That’s why the battery giant and automaker has named the L.A. area as the region “at the top of the list” of potential lead markets for its electric vehicle and inaugural U.S. offering, the five-seat e6 scheduled to launch next year.

The article goes on to explain they're looking for specific US markets in which to launch. Not a nationwide launch, but specific markets.

A couple months ago TH!NK had announced yet another rebirth from bankruptcy (see: TH!NK to resume making electric city cars soon). Their based in Norway and have gone through bankruptcy at least twice before. For a period they were owned by Ford who imported some of the TH!NK City cars to the US back in the mandate era. Ford almost killed the company back then but investors rescued them from being killed by Ford. Today other investors are rescuing them from bankruptcy.

Think's electric cars start rolling off lines again
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10413006-54.html

These cars are for European sales. I've been seeing articles indicating TH!NK will set up a production plant in the US for sales in the US. The plant is in Finland and happens to also be producing the Fisker Karma, and one or more Porsche models.

An (Almost) Affordable Electric Car
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/12/09/almost-affordable-electric-car

It's an article about Coda Automotive - a startup led by Kevin Czinger.

Coda’s impressive array of backers includes Hank Paulson, the former treasury secretary and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Thomas “Mack” McLarty, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, whose family owns auto dealerships; John Bryson, the former CEO of Edison International; and Tom Steyer, the well-respected founder of Farallon Capital Management....Standing in the way of his goal is the problem confronting everyone in the electric car business: How to make a powerful battery at a price that won’t put the car out of the reach of most buyers. That, Czinger says, has been the focus of Coda. “All of our R&D and all of our capital expenditures went into the battery system,” he says. “We finally have the chemistry we need.” Coda developed the battery and owns the intellectual property.

This was debuted at the LA Auto Show. Obviously the SF Auto Show, which I attended, is too far from the beaten path to have major announcements. Sigh.

The car itself is built on a kit car platform, the Factory Five Racing GTM supercar. It has a lithium-polymer battery pack big enough to give an 80 mile electric only range, and on-board is an 30-kw diesel turbine generator made by Capstone. Capstone cites performance figures of 3.9 seconds to 60mph and a 150mph top speed.

They're apparently not going to be selling these to the public. It's more of a technology demonstrator vehicle rather than an attempt to have something to sell.

Microturbine-powered hybrid supercar to debut in Los Angeles
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10406217-54.html

EA's "Need for Speed" Creator Designs CMT-380, an Actual Hybrid Supercar
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/cmt-380-hybrid-supercar-jet-powered

Capstone unveils CMT-380 electric car in LA Auto Show