In the News - Finally: The Political Charge Towards an Electric Car Movement

We have not been gradually altering our format. I want to have some news chat at the beginning of every episode. But it kind of has to BE news and frankly we just haven't had any. This week there was some and so we kind of partied down.

John Hardy's book ICE FREE is now available from Amazon.com and if you'll click here and buy it I think I get about eleven cents from his efforts. Not a bad deal. He's sent me the book but I haven't received it and can't say much about it one way or the other. But I like the title and concept.

But much in news. Let's see. Nissan is pushing a $9,900 ChaDemo level III charger. They are also rolling out their cars in the remaining 21 states and you can order now. Like all ever confused Nissan press releases, this one is again nonsense. You cannot order the car and you cannot order the charge station, but we love the talk.

The head of Envia took exception to our characterization of their work as derivative from Argonne National Laboratory. He did admit it was derivative but professed much effort in furthering the cathode, the anode and the electrolyte. Fair enough. No, they still are not going to produce them but they hope someone does.

We did talk about the Chevrolet Volt actually increasing sales in February to slightly over 1000 units. AFTER we edited the show on Saturday it came out that they have announced a shut down of the Volt production line from March 19 to April 23 to align output with market realities. We would be more sympathetic if these people EVER told the truth. Last June, they shut down for a month to INCREASE capacity to be able to meet demand. Or was THAT a shutdown to meet market realities.

If they shut down March 19, and don't restart April 23rd, what - another press release? These people have forfeited all credibility to a public that is contemplating the second large expenditure of their life after a house. How can you set yourself up in an adversarial relationship BASED on lies and expect to thrive at $42,999 a pop? I just don't get it. I know these guys went to college and learned how to dress and all that. Clearly they GET to work somehow, either finding their own way or perhaps with the aid of a spouse or child. I don't know. How hard can it be with billions in resource (from us) to NOT look stupid in public at least while failing.?

BMW is looking more serious all the time. We loved their i3 and i5 commercial shot in Chicago. This is some creative thinking. What if an electric car did NOT try to mimic the look of an ICE car but looked like itself? Carbon fiber?

Barrack Obama gave a speech where he started to sound like he understood part of the energy thing so I ran it. We got some heat on YouTube, which doesn't really contribute much to our viewership frankly although now I am hosting the BLOG version on YouTube and it works pretty well. Probably do 900 views or so per week on Youtube and about 6000 on the blog and about the same 6000 on the web. The complaint was that we were becoming political.

Ahem. WE always WERE political. We announced at the outset that I ALREADY HAVE A CAR thank you but that we were launching a global movement and looking for 100,000 guys to join us. What part of this do you fail to comprehend? I want YOU to go to your garage, sweep out a space about the size and shape of a car, build one there, and get in and drive it away. Then show it to everyone who'll listen while you tell them how cool the thing really is. WHAT PART OF THIS HAVE WE BEEN COY ABOUT? And if you don't want to do that, get off my blog and quit watching my videos. It's expensive for me.

Lest you be confused, we are ALL ABOUT political. Oh I don't go on to much about particular elections or candidates as it is generally polarizing and rarely has anything to do with OUR political movement, which is of course to take over the world with electric cars one freakin car at a time. I guess I think some of you do not believe this can be done or don't believe I can do it or are pretty sure there is some other agenda. There isn't.

Yes, we are trying to find oxygen to make it go. And we assumed that those who would be most eager to help us would be the component vendors who we were naturally and indeed directly helping them sell their products. False economy is not thrift. It is just the stupidity of the lame and the halt. Had an interesting if negative conversation by e-mail with one vendor I found shocking and so for the moment, I've fired them all. No more advertising.

Still not sure where that leaves us, but you can lead a horse to water, if he just won't drink it, drop him with a bullet to the head and get a REAL man's horse that drinks WHISKEY.

Of course the main theme this week is the Escalade. Brain has removed the front clip and the intake manifold and we're actually ready to pull the engine. The week before last, Brain was out ALL WEEK with a horrible viral stomach flu that is going around here in Cape. This week it looks like its my turn on the throne. So I don't know what we'll be getting done this week.

We did get a dozen of our meters out this week. I have 20 more supposedly arriving the week of the 12th. You can now sign up on the web site store to receive an e-mail notification when they arrive.

The flatenem series continues and I have two layers done. Ordered some aluminum angle and so forth to try to put some of this together. Haven't' known exactly where I was going with this. Received an e-mail yesterday from our friend Brian Andersson at B&B Manufacturing in Granby. Recall that he was making a SECOND eCobra for Aptima motors out of molytube and carbon fiber. Claims the body is 30 lbs total and the frame is about 200 lbs instead of 500.

Better, he tells me he is going to try to put together a carbon fiber bodied speedster with molytube frame. I don't know what it is going to cost, or what it is going to weigh, but I've provisionally told him to put us down for one if it is at a cost that would make any sense at all to our viewers. I'm picturing a super lightweight speedster with the A123 flatenem series underneath as the SOLE battery pack. If the car is much lighter and we mate it with a 180 lb pack, then the overall weight and thus energy requirements should go down. I'm aiming for a flatenum series car with 35 mile range to 100%, only it actually goes FIFTY miles on a charge with a per mile energy usage down around 150. Probably not doable. But we'll see. It would be a whole new thing for us in minimalist electric car.

Jack Rickard