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Better Place Bringing $1 Billion Electric Auto Grid to California – First in America

Nerd Grind — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:44:43 +0000

Palo Alto’s Better Place company has vowed to bring a $1 billion electric vehicle grid to the Bay Area, California. The company has already set up similar grids in Australia, Denmark and Israel.

The plan has just been endorsed by the San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco mayors. They’ve also agreed to offer incentives to companies that install plug-in stations. The plan will result in 250,000 charging ports, 200 battery-swap stations and a driver service center. Everything should be up and running by 2012. Network planning and permitting will begin in earnest next year and infrastructure deployment will kickoff in 2010.

Here is how it is planned to work: You will receive a discounted price on an electric vehicle when you subscribe to drive a certain number of miles. Better Place will own the batteries. You’ll be, in a sense, renting. This will be America’s first infrastructure of the sort.

Watch the inspirational video below from Better Place to get excited about shedding your old-fangled gas guzzler:

Tesla Motors Receives $40 million Cash Influx to Avoid Insolvency

Nerd Grind — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:07:18 +0000

Tesla Motors has been promised $40 million in financing in order to avoid bankruptcy and insolvency. The electric car manufacturer has had a tough couple of months. First, there was a pretty huge round of layoffs and then their Detroit office closed down. So, any good news is a welcome change of pace.

Elon Musk, the owner of the company, admitted just a few weeks ago that Tesla Motors had as little as $9 million in the bank, so this new investment will go a long way to making sure orders get filled and employees get paid. Here is to hoping they see brighter days in the future.

Audi Releases Information Regarding the A1 Sportback Hybrid Electric Car

Nerd Grind — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:34:40 +0000

Audi has announced another green vehicle based on it’s A1 hybrid concept. The five-door A1 Sportback will go from 0-62 MPH in 7.9 seconds, reach a top speed of 124 MPH and manage up to 72.4 miles from a gallon of fuel. The vehicle will also take you more than 60 miles on just one charge. There’s also an adjustable drivetrain / drive shaft / shock absorber system, which allows drivers to choose between two modes: sport mode (for better acceleration) and efficiency mode. The latter takes your route and altitude into consideration when managing the on-board navigation system.

The A1 also allows certain cellphones to act as a mobile control unit for WLAN access and a series of other functions. Click the link for more photos and information.

Photo of Tesla 4-door All-electric Model S Sports Sedan Revealed

Nerd Grind — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:58:51 +0000

Tesla has revealed a finalized photo of their 4-door, all-electric Model S sports sedan, shown above. The car was designed completely by Tesla and will get around 240 miles per charge. It will also go from zero to sixty in approximately six seconds. The Model S will be released sometime in 2010 and will cost about $60,000.

Click this link to read a writeup about the car from Road & Track Magazine.

Australia commits to huge electric car grid – 600,000 stations by 2012

Nerd Grind — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:25:24 +0000

Australia, location for the classic film "Kangaroo Jack", is building over 600,000 electric car stations. This gigantic ongoing infrastructure project won’t be done until 2012, at which time Australia will point and laugh at us Americans as we wait angrily at ever-increasing gas lines. Don’t worry, we’ll deserve it.

Most of the stations will be spread out to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. A paltry 150 stations will be spread out to outlying areas of the country. The outback may produce great steaks, but your car will run out of juice there.

There will also be battery swap stations scattered about, where drivers can trade junked juice for the new stuff.

This is pretty great news for the land downunder. However, it’s not all rosy. The government is suggesting contracts to use the stations be instituted. These contracts resemble cell phone plans. Don’t they know not to make Australians angry? Come on, we’ve all seen Crocodile Dundee 2 haven’t we?

Click the link for the AP article.

Rolls Royce CEO talks up electric Phantom

Nerd Grind — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:23:07 +0000

It’s easy to imagine electric Honda Civics or Chevy Malibus, but electricity powering the creme de la creme of automobiles? A bit harder to imagine. Not for long, says Rolls Royce CEO Tom Purves. The bigwig has been considering making some batteries very, very happy by including them in the Phantom line. He says "many of its customers do small mileages exclusively in the city," and for these customers, "an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal."

He didn’t give a release date or price but don’t worry, the latter is probably out of your reach. If it’s not, shoot me an email. I have a business proposition I’d like to go over with you. (Cue evil laugh.)

Click the link for more information, Richie Rich.

BMW’s MINI E readies for lease

Nerd Grind — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:06:43 +0000

BMW is readying the all-electric MINI E automobile. The motor offers 204 hp of pure electric power. The auto boasts a 150 mile range off of it’s 35 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. It can hit 62 mph in 8.5 seconds and completes a full charge in just 2.5 hours. In other words, it’s perfect.

BMW plans on leasing 500 of these bad boys in California, New York and New jersey sometime in 2009. We should wait in line like it’s 1985 and we are trying to snag some Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Sources indicate that the car may get a public unveiling at the upcoming LA Auto Show next month.

Green Delivery

Nerd Grind — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:43:57 +0000

Hand it to the Brits – a British chain of supermarkets, Tesco, won an award for using Modec EV vans in their home delivery fleet.

These have a 100-mile range and are especially useful in cities because they do not idle (wasting electricity – or fossil fuels) so traffic congestion is no problem.

Great idea – who else will utilize it – UPS? FedEx? DHL? How about the good old US Postal Service?

Electric Car War

Nerd Grind — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:33:08 +0000

Toyota has stumbled in the all-electric car race and now GM thinks it sees the finish line.

Because battery-safety problems, Toyota is delaying the plug-in, lithium-ion-based model until 2011.

Meanwhile, GM has just solidified a deal with Massachusetts-based A123 Systems to produce flat lithium-ion batteries for use in their future plug-in electric vehicles, like the Chevy Volt.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said, "I think that our No. 1 competitor has some problems with their technology, and I do think that it very definitely opens a window of opportunity for us to be first to market with a genuine plug-in hybrid."

May the best car win!

Electric Car by Edison/Ford

Nerd Grind — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:33:19 +0000

The electric companies want to keep their fingers in the consumer pie and continue to push for electric cars. Ford and Edison are embarking on this very project — in the creation of vehicles capable of being plugged into a power outlet. The new cars will use a combustion engine in a hybrid mode.

Details are forthcoming soon from a press conference in California.

NerdGrind - How-to Computer Help - Tutorials - Tech and Gadget News » electric car

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