NBEAA Newsletter April 4, 2009 www.nbeaa.org UPCOMING EV CLASSES ------------------- Sunday, April 5, 2-4pm (sorry for the late notice) in Sebastopol Convert Your Bike to Electric Presentation by Steve Muscarelli, Hubbahubba Motors Presented by LITE Initiatives/Community Bikes Held at West County Revolution, 6731 Sebastopol Avenue at Morris Street. Come watch our local electric wizard do a bike conversion. Steve will explain the process step-by-step and bring you up to speed on the concepts. Free/Donation requested. RSVP to Portia - lite@sonic.net July 11, 2009 in South San Francisco Solar Living Institute's EV101 Electric Vehicle Basics (1 of 2). See http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=2107 for details. July 13-17 in Sebastopol Solar Living Institute's EV201 EV Concepts and Design Intensive (1 of 2). See http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=2025 for details. July 18, 2009 in Santa Cruz Electro Automotive's one-day classroom workshop on electric conversions. See http://www.electroauto.com/workshop-EA1day.shtml for details. October 3, 2009 in Hopland Solar Living Institute's EV101 Electric Vehicle Basics (2 of 2). See http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=2090 for details. October 5-9, 2009 in Sebastopol Solar Living Institute's EV201 EV Concepts and Design Intensive (2 of 2). See http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=2130 for details. UPCOMING SHOW-AND-TELL EVENTS ----------------------------- April 25, 2009 10-11:30 AM in downtown Sebastopol Apple Blossom Parade EV Entry Please contact Ross Randrup of eMotors at Blue Sky Center, 6791 Sebastopol Avenue, (707)490-5513, rossasaurus@gmail.com, if you would like to enter your EV, or drive another EV -- there may be a need for drivers. May 17, 2009 at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael First Annual Marin Sonoma Concours d' Elegance, benefit Hospice By The Bay. As part of the event, there will be a display of Alternative Energy Vehicles and Alternative Transportation Vehicles for public viewing and information. See www.MarinSonomaConcours.org for details. Contact Chris Jones at chris_b_jones@prodigy.net or (707)577-2391 if you are interested in showing your EV. May 22, 2009 in Santa Rosa EV Show and Tell at Santa Rosa High School Contact Chris Jones if you are interested in showing your EV. NISSAN SHOWS EV TEST VEHICLE AT SONOMA COUNTY WATER AGENCY ---------------------------------------------------------- By Stan Ireland, NBEAA Public Relations Director Santa Rosa, CA March 26, 2009 Amy Bolton of the Sonoma County Water Agency www.scwa.ca.gov, hosted a viewing of the prototype electric vehicle from Nissan at their Aviation Blvd offices in Santa Rosa this morning. The purpose was to introduce local government officials to the fully functioning electric vehicle. Transportation issues must be addressed by local government agencies if they are to meet the aggressive goals of reducing CO2 and green house gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. All nine major Sonoma county cities, the County and the Water Agency have signed on to this plan http://www.coolplan.org. Incorporating fully electric vehicles in their fleets will be a major step toward achieving the plan’s goals. At the time of our scheduled viewing, 8:30 am, present were Cordell Stillman of the Sonoma County Water Agency, Richard W. Burtt, Director of Public Works Town of Windsor along with Richard Bartlett Public Works Manager Town of Windsor, Susan Upchurch Administrative Aide to County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, Dave Hammond of Sonoma County Fleet Operations, Nissan’s Joetta Gobell, PhD Planner for Nissan-USA, technicians from Nissan. Mr. Stillman has been instrumental in getting 6 Toyota Prius PHEV conversions in the Water Agency's fleet. He said they planned to get 6 Nissan EVs which should arrive by October 2010. The Water Agency's farsighted programs to reduce its energy consumption and increase use of renewable energy marry well with reducing fossil fuel consumption within their fleet of vehicles. Dave Hammond of Sonoma County Fleet Operations was there to check out the EV. He wants to bring 50 EVs to the county fleet. Range is a huge consideration and was pleased to learn that the Nissan should get 100 miles per charge. Mr. Hammond said this type of range would allow 40% of the miles traveled by county employees to be driven in electric vehicles. He also informed me of the goal to install about 200 charging locations throughout Sonoma County. Coulomb Technologies http://www.coulombtech.com/ is being considered as the provider of public charging stations, among others. The hold up to standardize chargers for all current and future EV manufacturers according to the Nissan tech Brian is waiting for SAE to decide on the "plug". A general consensus among the major EV players, manufacturers, utilities and government agencies and the SAE has been reached that the charging be done conductively. Once the design and specs for this are agreed upon, all manufacturers can incorporate this plug and connecting hardware into their EVs. No longer will an EV driver need to plan trips according to what charging infrastructure is available particular to his vehicle be a hindrance. Mr. Burtt and Mr. Bartlett expressed interest in the vehicle for the Public Works Department of Windsor. In the recent past, members of the Windsor town council have expressed great interest in acquiring EVs for the town fleet. Now, let's get to the car itself! Lisa (Ireland, treasurer EAA and NBEAA) and I (Stan Ireland PR NBEAA) arrived in our 2002 Toyota Rav4 EV before the Nissan had been freed from its trailer. Minutes later, the Nissan EV techs drove silently through the SCWA parking lot, past the agency's plug in hybrid electric vehicles; converted Toyota Prius(s) charging on this beautiful day. The cubed shape, snazzy black and white painted Nissan sidled up to the curb and silently came to rest. The platform used for this EV prototype is the Nissan Cube, a vehicle that looks like a cross between a Scion XB and a Honda Element. The prototype is one of only two in the world from Nissan using this technology. Cube EV 01 is in Japan and Cube EV 02 was waiting for me to hop in! The interior was roomy with good visibility. This is a right hand drive vehicle, a first for me. The accelerator and brake pedals are still in the standard positions thank God! With the Cube EV fully loaded and my Nissan Tech beside me, we smoothly navigated the parking lot serving as our test ride circuit. Acceleration was very quiet and smooth, handling, visibility all very comfortable and the regenerative braking I felt as soon as I lifted my foot from the accelerator. It very much reminded me of the feeling the AC Propulsion T-Zero has when decelerating. We pulled up to the curb and exited for the next group of officials. As the car drove away, I spoke with the Nissan EV Tech Brian who remained to answer questions. I asked him the same questions I am asked about my EV, “How far will it go? How long does it take to charge? How much does it costs?” and “When and where can I buy one?” He answered; 100 miles per charge, 26 minutes with a level 3 charging (fast charge 50kw), 4 hours level 2 charging (220-240v charging), and much longer 8-10 hours level 1 charging (110v), he said the car would be affordable and wouldn’t give a number, but responded in the affirmative when I asked if under $30,000 could considered affordable. He said the cars will be available in 18 months. The first to receive the Nissan EVs will be the agencies like the SCWA which signed on early with Nissan to lease (not sure if they could be purchased) the cars as fleet vehicles. The production body style is likely to be a four door sedan, newly designed from the ground up, not reconfigured from an existing model. Nissan reps were pretty tight lipped about specifications and performance figures when asked, but did say the batteries are a Li Ion Manganese chemistry. I could not get life cycle expectations from Nissan, but they were confident the customer will be pleased with the longevity of the batteries. No hardcopy information from Nissan was available this morning, but this link to the Nissan Green Program: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/ENVIRONMENT/GREENPROGRAM_2010/CO2/p02.html does provide information on their battery technology. Nissan will go on a 30 city tour of the US from Torrance to Tennessee with the Cube EV 02. They may be headed to San Francisco early next week. Try and catch them if you can. With the announcement from Tesla www.teslamotors.com today giving 2011 as delivery date for their new Model S sedan with up to a 300 mile range, Nissan setting a late fall 2010 production date, Aptera setting late 2010 as their release date www.aptera.com, noise from Ford about seriously getting an EV on the road in the next two years www.ford.com , General Motors still promising the Chevy Volt www.gm.com, local, state and federal government agencies and the general public can be excited about having the option to purchase and drive fully electric vehicles. Here are some pictures of the event: http://www.nbeaa.org/new_jan_07/20090326a.jpg http://www.nbeaa.org/new_jan_07/20090326b.jpg Here is a Wired article about the Nissan EV: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/we-drive-nissan.html POWER OF 1 SOLAR POWERED CAR VISITS SANTA ROSA ---------------------------------------------- Marcelo da Luz drove the Power of 1 Solar Powered EV through Santa Rosa on February 3rd. He stopped by Proctor Terrace Elementary School and showed the students the vehicle on his 11,000 mile journey around North America without refueling except for sunlight. See http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090204/NEWS/902040319 for a Press Democrat article about the visit. See http://www.xof1.com for more details on the vehicle and its mission. NBEAA PROVIDES PUBLIC CHARGING INPUT ------------------------------------ In advance of the arrival of the Nissan EV, the Sonoma County governments are working with other Northern California governments to pursue AB 118 grant money to install public electric vehicle charging stations. The NBEAA was invited to provide recommendations. See http://www.nbeaa.org/new_jan_07/charging_locations.pdf for our reply. Thank you to all who provided input. LOCAL EV BUSINESS ACTIVITIES ---------------------------- Peter Oliver of Make Mine Electric, Brian Hall of Thunderstruck Motors and Ross Randrup of eMotors have purchased and are moving in to the former Sebastopol Ford dealership. They are not open yet but hope to be soon. The site is called Blue Sky Center and it is located at 6791 Sebastopol Avenue, on the left side of Highway 12 just as you enter Sebastopol from Santa Rosa, past the first light and across from the Delicatessen. See the March 4th Press Democrat article at http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090304/NEWS/903040307. See http://www.makemineelectric.com, http://www.thunderstruck-ev.com and http://emotors.biz for more information. SVEAA members Bill Ferguson, Jerry Pohorsky, Sean Bradshaw and Stan Greschner have formed eeVee motors in San Leandro to convert late model Honda Civics to electric with AC drive systems and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. See http://eeveemotors.com for details. HELP NEEDED WITH SMART CAR CONVERSION ------------------------------------- Does anyone know anything about evaluating a Smart Car for an electric conversion? If so, please contact Chris Jones. THE FIRST AND THE LATEST ------------------------ By Don McGrath, NBEAA Secretary I feel very privileged. In 1997, at the EV Symposium in Orlando, FL, I was privileged to have the chance to drive the first Toyota Prius in America. It had a right hand drive, but otherwise was almost indistinguishable from my 2001 Prius, which I am still driving. At the time, I was a Special Correspondent for EV News Magazine. I ventured the opinion, in the article I wrote, that "the Prius drive train was the best piece of engineering to be shown at the convention." Today, I was privileged to drive, here, in St. Helena, CA. the 2010 Prius. My good friend Bill Moore, editor of EV World, which is, in my opinion, the best online source of EV news available, was invited to attend Toyota's rollout of the 2010 Prius for the American press corps. The event took place here in the Napa Valley yesterday and today, Feb 25 and 26. Bill called me about 3:00 PM and said he would be at my house in ten minutes, if I was available. I, of course, responded with an enthusiastic "YES!". Bill arrived on time, and after we sipped some of our Napa Valley Tesouro port and reminisced a bit, Bill asked me if I would like to drive the 2010. Of course, I was delighted to accept the invitation. The 2010 Prius is larger, heavier (by 150 pounds) than the model it replaces, but gets even better gas mileage. My 2001 gets about 44 MPG. My 2004 gets about 48 MPG. The 2010 gets about 50 MPG! It feels like a really large car to drive. Toyota has tweaked and optimized this car so well that it will be hard to beat. I can't wait to see what they do once they decide to market and sell their PHEV.