EEVC NEWSLETTER Published by the Eastern Club Peter Cleaveland, Editor Vol 30 No 12 Club Address: P.O. Box 134, Valley Forge, PA 19481-0134 DECEMBER, 2010 email: [email protected]. Web site: www.eevc.info President: Oliver Perry, 5 Old Stagecoach Turn Shamong, NJ 08088, (609) 268-0944 Copyright © 2010, Eastern Electric Vehicle Club, all rights reserved Now affiliated with EAA

EEVC MEMBER FIRST TO USE FIRST PA PUBLIC CHARGING STATION

On Wed, Nov. 9 EEVC member Don Auker The station is located at the South Port was the first person to use the first public Plaza, Liberty Service Station, 1600 South. charging station in the state of PA (Philadel- Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadel- phia) charging the first Tesla sold in PA. phia, PA at Tasker Street.

Dignitaries celebrating the first charge on the first Don displays an adapter that will mate the charging public charging station in Pennsylvania station's specific J 1772 plug to his Tesla's plug (which is not a J 1772 connector)

Step two: Connect adapter to Tesla charging plug Step three: Go to charging station and swipe a spe- cial card that will allow you to take the J 1772 charg- ing plug out of its holder Step four: Plug J 1772 charging station plug into the Step five: Read charging meter to see if the charge adapter is taking

BEFORE THE EV-1 CAME THE show. See last month’s Part I for a review.) IMPACT Keep in mind that Baker had once worked Accounts taken from the book : The on the failed Electrovette. To Baker the expe- Car That Could (Part II) rience had been a career stalling embarrass- Oliver Perry ment. The Electrovette, a converted Chevette, At the end of Part I last month GM’s Ken ran on zinc nickel batteries powering a DC Baker was facing a deadline for starting the motor. No solution had been discovered to first production models of the Impact. This lower the price of the battery pack. When oil month we actually take a few steps backward prices dropped in the late 70s the program in the story and review more of the problems died a quiet death. If the Impact experienced that Ken Baker initially faced in turning the a similar fate Ken Baker knew that his quest proof of concept Impact into a production for a VP position would be over. But with the vehicle. hope that this time GM might follow through on its commitment to produce a car that Review would make automotive history, Baker took In June of 1990, Ken Baker, high potential the position. GM engineer from Clarkson College in New Michael Shnayerson, writer of The Car York State, with over twenty years experi- That Could, describes Baker as a man suit- ence in GM, was summoned to the office of able for the assignment. If he were a car he the a newly appointed GM president Lloyd would have been a convertible roadster, mov- Reuss for a proposition. With the exception ing fast, open to the elements, with weak of his weight (Baker once topped 300 lbs) shock absorbers barely able to absorb the and lack of an MS degree, the handsome and occasional bumps. He was talented but sensi- middle-aged Baker hoped that he had the cre- tive and easily hurt. dentials to move to a VP level in the compa- Baker was told that his job was to launch a ny. As Baker entered the top office of GM test pilot program that could serve as models that day his appearance was greeted in shock for future GM projects. Only when the car by a vice chairman who asked Baker how he was ready for production would it be turned had lost 140 pounds. Faced with an early over to the , , Chevy, or other death, Baker explained, he just plain got seri- GM main assembly lines. Until then he had a ous about losing. pack of problems to solve. After they exchanged greetings Baker At that point in history some executives became equally shocked when he discovered within GM had begun to realize that the why he had been summoned to the 14th floor. world was changing. To remain in competi- Baker was asked to head up the GM effort to tion GM had to foster programs that would turn the electric Impact into a production produce new independent from the old vehicle. (The Impact was the electric show programs, away from engineers too afraid to car that Roger Smith had introduced to the try new programs, away from all the politics world at the 1990 January car that had plagued GM cars of the past, and

2 away from the finance guys. The auto indus- that their decision had been based more on try was being forced to depart from long instinct than facts. Ken Baker knew that assembly line, high volume production vehi- when he accepted the Impact production cles to creating smaller, faster, lower volume, position that GM expected him to succeed specialty made vehicles. In addition to even it was unrealistic. redesigning an for volume pro- Transforming the Impact, the Electric duction, Baker’s job would be to pioneer in a Show Stopper, a one-of-a-kind model, into an new approach to the car manufacturing pro- assembly line product within months was cess. According to the author, there was more Ken Baker’s challenge. Politically speaking to Baker’s assignment than producing the Baker wondered if he had been set up to fail. Impact for the market. (To those EV enthusiasts who feel that this task should be easy for a big company like Show car to Road Car GM to fulfill, keep reading.) As discussed last in last month’s article, the Impact show car as it existed had a lead Do We Remember ? acid battery pack that contained an equivalent The first Impact built by the AeroViron- of a gallon and a half of gasoline. The ment R&D team in , the (secret) AeroVironment team that developed the Project Santana, had two 50 kW three phase vehicle claimed the car could go 120 miles AC electric motors driving the front wheels. on that battery pack. But the proof of concept Alan Cocconi designed the inverter needed to Impact had few amenities that new owners change the DC battery current into AC. It would demand, a weak chassis and was not was the most complex part of the show vehi- crashworthy. cle. Shnayerson relates that Cocconi first Shnayerson points out that when AeroVi- designed the inverter on his computer screen ronmet’s whiz kid from Silicon Valley, Alan and then soldered every one of the 5000 com- Cocconi, met the GM Chiefs on the test track ponents to the correct circuit boards by hand. to give them their first ride in the Impact, that Cocconi had succeeded where years before although all were impressed, they found an engineer at GM by the name of Paul notable weaknesses. The car had a terrible Agarwal had given up in disgust when suspension, a harsh ride, no solid chassis, attempting the same feat for the Electrovette inadequate motorcycle brakes, and a gear project. In fairness to Agarwal, the electron- noise that would be impossible to muffle ics in his day were too crude and expensive completely with without engine noise to to be successful. mask it. The Impact as it appeared on the test It had taken months of home labor for track that day accelerated silently and Cocconi to built two 50 kW inverters, one for impressively in a straight line, but that was each motor. In order to convert DC current about it. (electrical energy flowing in one direction) to Somehow Baker was expected to correct AC (electrical energy vibrating back and the steering, braking, handling, and gear forth) one must switch the DC current rapidly noise, plus provide consumer amenities, on and off. The rate at which one turns the make the car crashworthy, and preserve (or current on and off determines the frequency hopefully extend) the 120 mile range using of the AC. Because the motors were three affordable lead acid batteries. All of this and phase AC, (similar to feeding three separate still provide consumers a sticker price that sources of AC power into the motor at once would sell thousands of cars. If he succeeded, at slightly different time intervals) each Baker was told that GM would produce the inverter needed three switching stations, each world’s FIRST mass marketed electric car. with 48 semiconductor transistors: 288 tran- John Williams a GM engineer who had sistors in all. The switching stations switched done a secret study on feasibility, and newly the 320 volt system 20,000 times a second. appointed president Lloyd Reuss, jointly Both were packaged in an attache-like case made the decision that the concept Impact with the net weight of only 61 pounds. No with improvements could become a prof- one had ever designed and built such an intri- itable production car. Later Baker discovered cate, compact, and lightweight inverter

3 before. Hughes, on the other hand, continued to The total cost of the electronics in the con- maintain that the Cocconi inverter needed cept show car had been $100,000. And, enormous refinement and might not be repro- although these electronic parts were expected ducible at all. The plan was for Hughes to to work day after day, year after year, early replicate a number of Cocconi’s inverters tests demonstrated that after twenty hours with the help of AeroVironment engineers one of Cocconi’s power switches, called a and Cocconi. Cocconi, known to be difficult, MOSFET (metal oxide semi-conductor field at first was pleased to be invited to work in a effect transistor), would blow, taking out the top secret military clearance only lab. But whole string. even with his help and cooperation the repli- Cocconi was not a GM employee, but cation proved to be a nightmare. Cocconi had worked for AeroVironment. When Baker only taken notes on 2% of his work that he assumed the role as project manager of the had created in his own home. Hughes engi- Impact project he hired Jon Bereisa to super- neers had to take pictures of his work and try vise the electronic development of the to reverse engineer the box. The circuit Impact. Jon Bereisa was a brilliant engineer boards were nearly impossible to map, much who had worked formerly with Baker on the less reproduce. Electrovette program. When looking at Coc- In addition to having MOSFETs, Coc- coni’s inverter Bereisa claimed that IGBTs coni’s inverter had a built-in controller which (insulated gate bipolar transistors) were supe- used an analog system rather than digital. Its rior to the MOSFETs that Cocconi’s had drawback was that the signals began to drift used. and wander, requiring constant frequency At that time MOSFETs were about the size adjustments. As far as Hughes was concerned of a postage stamp limited in size to the deli- it was time to bring the Cocconi inverter into cate amount of silicon crystal that industry the digital age. could produced. Each chip could only pass a Eventually a showdown meeting was limited amount of current. So Cocconi had called for at the Hughes site in California to strung enough MOSFETs in a series parallel make clear who would eventually control the combination to accommodate the current production of the Impact inverter. Baker’s required. Unfortunately when one transistor appointee, Jon Bereisa, presided at the meet- burned out a chain reaction took out the rest. ing. Bereisa, set the tone by telling everyone The newly developed IGBTs came along that he was going to be the boss and an abso- at just the right time. Up to then there had lute tyrant. He told them that he had all of the been little demand for high current transis- money and everyone had to dance to his tune. tors. The IGBT, was according to Shnayer- Cocconi was present at the Hughes meet- son, a beautifully compressed piece of solid ing along with AeroVironment’s Alec state circuitry about the size of a pack of Brooks. Cocconi heard Bereisa say, “The sec- cigarettes. It contained four silicon chips ond thing is that you are not going to get instead of one, providing greater area to pass around me technically. You’re not going to current. It had fewer parts than a clump of wiffle up some conjured excuse…and sell me equal MOSFETs and proved to be more reli- some rotten meat in the case.” able. A single IGBT could replace 24 MOS- Cocconi years before had been selected as FETs. Hughes engineers, assigned to find a a GM scholar and only one of a handful of way to mass produce Cocconi’s inverter, dis- students around the country to be awarded covered that his inverter had over 7000 parts full two year tuitions for working summers in in all counting nuts and bolts and took over advanced development GM facilities. Coc- eight man-weeks to construct, at a cost of coni had actually worked under Bereisa for a hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Coc- spell. Both men were brilliant, proud, strong coni disagreed with their assessment, arguing willed, and a generation apart. At the meeting that in time the cost of MOSFETs would Cocconi was beginning to see Bereisa as an come down. He objected to having Hughes ethical and corporate sellout, squandering his aerospace engineers mess with his elegant talents for job security and a big pay check. creation. In Cocconi’s mind Bereisa would never be

4 able to work for the common good. Coc- helping to make the first Impact concept car, coni’s inverter was still a “one of a kind.” He in January 1991, Cocconi said he needed to didn’t want Bereisa having anything to do clear his mind. He had made enough money with it. to last for a while. With a few possessions he If Cocconi had wanted to become a part of got on his racing bike and rode out into the the GM corporate world he could have California desert. signed on years before. But he had not. And he could have asked to work with Baker’s The story continues….. next month. team as a GM employee but he did not. (Nei- ther did any of the AeroVironment engineers who built the first Impact.) Without commit- ment to GM Cocconi and other engineers PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE from AeroVironment were beginning to take Oliver Perry the position that GM now owned their cre- ation. They sensed that after they had turned The Wall Street over their work and all of their secrets to GM Journal, Nov 29th they would no longer be needed and would 2010 be scrapped. Energy: The As Baker’s department began planning the Journal Report transition from concept car to production, Hughes engineers continued to find fault with How to Change AeroVironment’s creation. They felt the the Global Ener- range of the Impact had been inflated and gy Conversation that the whole car was somewhat of a sham. The article Based upon making dozens of replicates of begins by stating that it is time for a rethink Cocconi’s inverters they concluded it was on climate change. It does not matter whether underpowered. It continued to blow out you believe carbon dioxide from emissions is MOSFETs, especially in warm weather. creating drastic changes in our weather and Hughes engineers thought that Cocconi’s climate or not. The world is NOT going to “smart pole” clusters of MOSFETs were hammer out a workable deal on attempts to merely tricky mechanical assemblies with a reduce global warming. The same issues couple of low-tech circuit boards attached. A have been kicked around for years with no bad assembly done six times and a nightmare workable agreeable resolution. We are stum- to build. How could Hughes ever build these bling over the same roadblocks year after things for $2000 each? year. At the heart of the issue is MANDAT- For the Los Angeles car show the AeroVi- ED emission cuts. These cuts result in paying ronment team had painted the Impact silver a whole lot more for green energy. Although to indicate that it should be built out of alu- some greens deny it, green energy still costs minum. GM argued that aluminum would be more than fossil fuels. The problem, say writ- too easily dented and too expensive to use. ers Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, AeroVironment used air cooling for the elec- co-founders of Breakthrough Institute, a pub- tronics for simplicity but GM claimed that lic policy think tank in Oakland California, is liquid cooling was needed. Hughes also that forcing countries to agree to emissions decided that they should abandon Cocconi’s caps will never work. Instead they maintain onboard charger because it constantly tripped that the focus should be on technology inno- the ground fault systems and added unneeded vations. weight. Cocconi in response accused Hughes “Until clean energy becomes much less of trying to corner the market on EV off costly there are relatively cheap fixes we can board chargers, making people purchase their make to curb emissions, such as closing the charger at inflated prices. most inefficient coal plants. And, in poorer It was only a matter of time before Alan countries we can focus on fixing highway, rail- Cocconi walked into AeroVironment’s office way housing, sewage, and electrical systems. and said he was quitting. About a year after “Our highest goal should be to make clean

5 energy radically cheaper and truly competi- “All Aboard For Energy” tive with fossil fuels through innovation.” WSJ Nov 29th page R 9 “Emissions cuts have overshadowed tech- A new energy company called Kinetic Trac- nology innovation for so long in part because tion Systems, a spinoff from an energy storage of a widespread myth that today’s clean ener- company Pentadyne Power Corp has a $4 mil- gy sources are either ready or almost ready to lion contract to install flywheels on the Long replace fossil fuel. They are not. It will take Island Railroad. When a train pulls into a sta- much more innovation to make them cost- tion the braking energy goes into the flywheel competitive.” system absorbing as much as 3 megawatts. It (My personal view is that as electric vehi- then releases its energy 20 or 30 seconds later cle enthusiasts we must continue to temper to help the train to reaccelerate. our desire for wider spread use of the electric (The article had no comment regarding car with the reality that they still cost more to cost effectiveness of the system.) manufacture, own, and drive than conven- tional vehicles. Experts in manufacturing, The End of Deep-Water Drilling? Not in sales, and finance see no quick and easy route Brazil. to achieving mass acceptance of the electric WSJ Nov 29th page R3 car as long as plentiful and cheap oil and gas (If you believe we are going to run out of exist. If we have some technical break- oil tomorrow or that the cost of getting it will through in developing cheap and plentiful become prohibitive, think again.) electric energy onboard storage that may Although deep-water drilling may have change things.) temporarily come to a halt in the Gulf of Mexico in other parts of the world the same Old vs. New Approach to Change industry that was shut down in the Gulf is The old route to change was setting a high moving full speed ahead at a frenetic pace in tax on carbon to make alternative energy places like the Gulf of Guinea, the Mediter- more competitive. The new approach should ranean, and the Turkish Black Sea, and even be to invest in making new clean energy faster off the coast of Brazil. Petroleo technology cheaper. Brasileiro, known as Petrobras, last month The old approach was to impose strict con- began production in one of the largest oil trols on carbon dioxide emissions. The new fields discovered in the Western Hemisphere approach should be to focus on MODEST in thirty years. And a recently discovered emission reductions such as replacing old field nearby could contain the equivalent of inefficient diesel generators. 15 billion barrels of oil, say Brazilian regula- The old approach was to force wealthy tors, equal to almost two-thirds of the total countries responsible for most of the emis- proven deposits of crude in the U.S. sions to send money to help poorer ones “Petrobras and companies such as Chevron adapt to the effects of climate change. The Corp, Statoil ASA (Norway) and Tullow Oil new approach encourages helps countries to of the UK are racing to drill thousands of feet deal with the effects of drought or flooding below sea level because that is where the last no matter what the cause. remaining undiscovered resources of oil are The old approach was to use the United located. Companies can derive huge profits Nations to work out comprehensive agree- from tapping these fields and countries can ments. The new approach is to focus on an gain long-sought energy security.” agreement among the world’s 20 largest Although Petrobras suffered the loss of a countries. The United Nations is a powerless large deep-water platform drilling rig in 2001 institution bogged down in political warfare. the company moved on to tap large sources The world’s biggest economies have more of of crude captured under salt domes deep a realistic clout to make a difference and a beneath the surface. They now field more better chance of reaching some kind of work- deepwater rigs than any other oil company able agreement than the U.N. and have raised $67 billion (the largest equity offering in history) to further pursue deep water drilling.

6 A large, developing country with massive NEWS UPDATE energy needs, Brazil for a long time was a major importer of oil. Brazil’s crude produc- Volt Named Motor Trend Car of the Year tion totaled 2.5 million barrels a day last year, Motor Trend’s recognition of the significance enough to meet all of its needs. of the Volt can be interpreted as a signal that the EV community was right all along, and Stepping on the Gas that, finally, EVs have gone from being the WSJ Nov 29th page R3 cars of the future (“The Future is Electric”) to Natural gas vehicles are taking off in some the cars of today. surprising places. The following countries “We expected a science experiment, but have the most natural gas vehicles. this is a moon shot,” Motor Trend editors 1. Pakistan 2,300,00 wrote for the January 2011 issue. “The Volt 2. Argentina 1,897,186 delivers on the promise of the vehicle con- 3. Iran 1,665,602 cept as originally outlined by GM, combining 4. Brazil 1,632,101 the smooth, silent, efficient, low-emissions 5. India 935,000 capability of an electric motor with the range “Experts say that one of the reasons natu- and flexibility of an internal combustion ral gas vehicles haven’t caught on in the U.S. engine. It is a fully functional, no-compro- is because the U.S. lacks a widespread net- mise compact automobile that offers con- work of refueling stations. (And, gasoline is sumers real benefits in terms of lower run- still relatively inexpensive, providing little ning costs.” incentive to switch.)” Compressed natural gas vehicles are con- And its drive system gets its own award sidered cleaner than gasoline vehicle equiva- Ward’s AutoWorld magazine has selected lents but lack equivalent driving range. the Volt’s propulsion system as one of the winners of the ’s “10 Electric Cars Make Sense Now, Their Best Engines.” Selection criteria included Future is Bright noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), fuel WSJ Letters to the Editor, Oct of 2010 (I efficiency, new technology and comparative lost the page number and date) data for similar systems. Editor-in-Chief Mark Reuss, President of Drew Winter called it “Brave. Inspired. Bril- Co. in a letter to the editor makes the follow- liant.” Not bad. ing statement. “Holman Jenkins’s skepticism of electric cars (VolteFace Business World, More good words for the Leaf Oct 20) ignores the fact that electric cars are Ward’s Auto World also had some good in their early stages of development. As bat- things to say about the Leaf. In a tery technology matures and the infrastruc- December 1 piece Christie Schweinsberg ture is built, price, performance, and accep- wrote that “The Leaf delivers on Carlos tance of electric vehicles will inevitably Ghosn’s promise to build an EV suitable for improve.” the majority of everyday drivers,” and added “Mr. Jenkins also ignores the fact that that with instantaneous torque, it’s “a blast to petroleum is not infinite and gas prices are drive.” On the other hand she considers the likely to rise over time. Electric Vehicles are car’s 100 mile range a huge drawback, but not the only answer, but they will be a big doesn’t seem to think it’s fatal. part of any solution, and it takes an invest- Also of note: Nissan says the Leaf gets 99 ment by many players, including auto mak- mpg equivalent. ers, utilities and government, to help this industry grow.” Ford announces first Focus markets “More than 120,000 potential Volt cus- Ford has announced the first markets into tomers have already signaled interest in the which it will sell the Focus Electric when it car and orders have flowed since the sum- comes out in 2011: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, mer.” “This gives us confidence that the Volt Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Ange- will succeed on its merits.” les, San Francisco, San Diego, New York,

7 Orlando, Phoenix,Tucson, Portland, Raleigh The car is envisioned as a thoroughly-con- Durham, Richmond, Seattle, and Washing- nected thing, even to the point that “a user ton, D.C. Sorry, Philly isn’t mentioned. could summon an autonomous vehicle to his Selection criteria included existing hybrid or her location using a smartphone applica- purchase trends, utility company collabora- tion and then sit back and relax while they tion and local government commitment to are whisked off to a destination,” says GM. electrification. In August of 2009 we ran College team complete 16k mile EV trip a news item On Novem- on a low- ber 16 a speed two- team from passenger Imperial vehicle called College the Whip, London cel- from Wheego ebrated the Electric Cars. end of their Now a 26,000 km November 22 story on Greentech Media (16,000 mi) reports that the Wheego Whip LiFe, which journey after driving their all-electric super- claims a top speed of 65 mph and a range of car down the length of the Americas. The 100 miles, will be shipping to dealers this SRZero started in Alaska in July 3, went month, with full production scheduled for down the Pan-American Highway and fin- March. The writer, Michael Kanellos, took ished at Ushuaia in Argentina, the world’s one for a test drive and reported that it was most southerly city, having passed through 14 sparse inside, hesitated on acceleration and countries in 140 days. The car, from UK- had “mushy” brakes, but cost only $32,995. based Radical Sports Cars, Ltd, has a top speed of 124 mph, a range of 250 miles or Fleet purchases of EVs more, and peak power of 400 hp. Both General Electric and Hertz have announced that they plan to buy large num- How about a few oddities? bers of electric cars. On November 11 GE The EV field announced that it will purchase 25,000 elec- attracts some tric vehicles by 2015 for its own fleet and free thinkers, through its Capital Fleet Services business. and sometimes The company will initially purchase 12,000 those free GM vehicles, beginning with the thinkers live Volt in 2011, and will add other vehicles as inside big and manufacturers expand their electric vehicle supposedly- portfolios. stodgy compa- On November 22 Hertz announced a joint nies. A case in partnership with Automotive to bring, point is a cre- in 2011, its new four-door, five-passenger all- ation from electric CODA Sedans to Hertz’s California General Motors locations as part of the Hertz Global EV pro- called the EN-V, which was first shown at the gram. 2010 Expo Shanghai. The vehicle looks like As announced in September, Hertz Global a Segway with a pituitary condition: two EV will be the first company to provide a wheels, side-by-side, and two upright seats range of all-electric vehicles and charging also side-by-side. The idea, says Chris Bor- stations on a rental and car-sharing basis at roni-Bird, General Motors director of global scale. The CODA Sedan will join Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts, is vehicles from Nissan and other manufactur- to reduce the physical footprint a a vehicle ers as part of Hertz Global EV’s diverse fleet. meant to be used in a crowded urban setting. With a range of 90 to 120 miles per charge

8 during all seasons, the CODA Sedan is EVS ON DISPLAY IN CALIFORNIA designed to be plugged straight into a stan- By California Pete dard household unit, among other charging Several good-size auto options, for a seamless experience. shows took place in Cali- fornia this past month, one A different kind of hybrid bus in L.A. and one in S.F, and On December 2 the hybrid systems both showed a fair number research team at GE Global Research demon- of EVs. strated a dual battery system on a zero Greentech Media’s tailpipe emissions hybrid transit bus that Michael Kanellos attended pairs a high-energy density sodium battery the L.A. show and report- with a high-power lithium battery. GE ed that Fisker displayed its researchers believe a dual system with high first production hybrid Karma, with full pro- power and energy storage capacity could duction scheduled for the first quarter of achieve the optimal electric driving range and 2011; a very limited production of the Volvo acceleration requirements at a more practical C3 EV by 2011; an all-electric FIAT in 2012; size scale and cost for larger vehicles. The and both plug-in and an all-electric Hondas in research is being done as part of a $13 mil- 2012. lion research project GE is engaged in with The San Francisco show had a respectable the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and number of alt-en vehicles, including the Volt, Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium, the Leaf, a plug-in Prius, a cut-in-half demon- funded under the National Fuel Cell Bus Pro- stration model of the Nissan XTrail FCV, a gram. Toyota Highlander fuel cell hybrid, and The idea is that lithium batteries can pro- hybrids from multiple makers. vide heavy currents for acceleration, but sodi- um batteries can hold more energy. “In addi- Selling some actual U.S. products to China tion to optimizing performance,” says GE, “a On Nov. 23 the San Francisco Chronicle dual system can reduce the cost of a battery reported that Santa Rosa-based Zap “has just by up to 20% compared to a single battery signed a deal with Shanghai officials to pro- system for vehicle applications like transit vide charging stations, battery swap facilities buses and delivery trucks that require signifi- and maintenance depots for the city’s commer- cant power and energy storage capacity.” cial Yangpu district. Years ago (back when lead-acid batteries “Zap will also develop a pilot Electric Vehi- with about it for EVs that anybody could cle Eco-City program involving the use of Zap afford) EEVC co-founder Guy Davis sug- vehicles in Yangpu’s bus, taxi and government gested equipping a car with two sets of bat- fleets. Sales and marketing offices and R&D teries in parallel: a set of deep-discharge centers will be located there.” modules for bulk energy storage and a set of SLI (starting, lighting and ignition) batteries Erin Brockovich where are you? (aka regular car batteries), with the elec- The 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich” told the trolyte gravities adjusted as necessary so the story of a difficult fight to get Pacific Gas & voltages would match. He didn’t get around Electric to acknowledge, and do something to doing that, but there came a time that he about, a plume of toxic hexavalent chromium put a set of computer backup batteries into an that had polluted groundwater beneath the EV, and because they were smaller than the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, resulting in a golf cart modules then in general use he $333 million settlement and the buyout of a wired several sets in parallel. The first time number of landowners. Well, the Cr(6) just he hit the accelerator he left a trail of smoke keeps spreading, and in November PG&E pro- and burnt rubber, showing the benefit of posed buying up 100 additional properties. lower per-module current and resistance for improved performance. Tesla still in the red On November 9 Tesla Motors reported that its third-quarter loss had increased to $34.9

9 million on weaker sales and unexpected costs COMING EVENTS for developing the Model S. The loss in the previous third quarter was $4.6 million. It’s a 10X Advanced Battery R&D lousy time to start a car company, but the share Jan 10-12, Santa Clara, CA. For informa- price hasn’t suffered much: It was $29.36 the tion go to www.infocastinc.com/ day after the announcement and closed at index.php/conference/413 $31.34 on Tuesday. Networked Solar: The Convergence of Smart Grid and PV More S.F. Lunacy Jan 25–26, Jersey City. Info: www.electric- Here’s your monthly installment of Left vehicle-charging-infrastructure.com/ Coast Follies: EV Charging Infrastructure USA 2011 On November 24 San Francisco’s Board of Feb 28 - Mar 1, San Francisco. www.electric- Supervisors overrode the mayor’s veto of leg- vehicle-charging-infrastructure.com/ islation to bar fast food restaurants “from giv- Green Truck Summit ing away toys in kid’s meals sold in San Fran- March 7-10, 2011, Indianapolis, IN. Contact cisco unless they have reduced calories, salt, Susan Romeo, [email protected], 626- fat and sugar and also include fruit and vegeta- 744-5600 bles,” said the Chronicle. The new law goes EVs in Macungie into effect in a year. April 30, Macungie Memorial Park. Contact Wonder what these people would think of [email protected]. cheesesteaks, which include, according to the Solar 2011 old Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Clark May 16-21, Raleigh, NC. For info go to DeLeon, all four major Philadelphia fast food www.ases.org/index.php?option=com_con- groups: bread, meat, dairy and grease. tent&view=article&id=18&Itemid=147 11th Challenge Bibendum Closing a Haight Ashbury Institution May 18-22, 2011, Berlin, Germany. Go to For 36 years the Haight Ashbury Neighbor- www.challengebibendum/en hood Council has operated a recycling center in Golden Gate Park, where people have trad- MEETING SCHEDULE ed in cans and bottles for enough cash for a Meetings are held in Room 49, - meal, a drink or a fix. But in recent years there Whitemarsh High School, 201 East German- has been considerable pressure to close the town Pike in Plymouth Meeting, PA, and place because “it is incompatible with the begin at 7:00 p.m. park, creates noise and serves as a magnet for homeless people and crime,” says the Chron- Jan 12 icle. Since many of the cans and bottles recy- cled come from the recycling bins the neigh- Feb 9 bors put out for city collection, they may have a point. Mar 9 Anyway, despite protests by the left wing, the place is scheduled to close in a few months Apr 13 and be replaced by community gardens. And we move ever farther from the Summer of Love. ADVERTISEMENTS *** FOR SALE *** No cutting here Numerous electric vehicle parts, various Finally, a group in San Francisco who call lengths of cable, battery chargers, gauges, air- themselves “intactivists” are pushing to have craft starter/generators and two electric Ped- circumcision made illegal — even for reli- alpower bikes. gious reasons. Oy gevalt! (or Holy Mohely). Ed Kreibick 215-396-8341 [email protected]

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