The green industry information resource website Ecofriend.com recently published an intriguing list of electric vehicle charging stations that help to circumvent one of the foremost complaints about electricity-powered vehicles: that electricity is not, in and of itself, a renewable resource, since it is ultimately derived from fossil fuels.

Be that as it may, numerous green companies have devised a wide variety of electric vehicle charging stations that seem to capture the best of both worlds, managing to support the popular usage of cleaner, more energy-efficient electric cars and trucks while taking advantage of renewable energy sources to charge them.

How do they do this? The answer is simple: solar powered charging stations.

Take, for instance, the solar fuel station manufactured by the firm Evergreen Solar and described on Ecofriend.com. Already in actual use in Frankfurt, Germany, reports indicate that the Evergreen Solar station is capable of furnishing battery power free of charge for an array of smaller vehicles, such as electric bikes, scooters, Velotaxis, and Segways.

But why quit when you’re ahead? If these green companies can find a way to make both electric cars and their fuel clean, why can’t they tackle some other major environmental problems while they’re at it?

That’s where the solar electric vehicle charger manufactured by the Beautiful Earth Group, a firm based in New York, steps in: the “off-grid modular station,” as described by Ecofriend.com, is powered by a 235W photovoltaic system constructed entirely of decommissioned, recycled shipping containers—large, rectangular sheet-metal boxes commonly stacked and used to transport goods on cargo ships. In addition, it’s also widely compatible with numerous electric vehicles, even the sought-after BMW Mini E.

Among eleven examples cited by Ecofriend.com as being at the forefront of innovation in the electric vehicle charging station industry, the Solar Forest stands out distinctly. Designed by Neville Mars, the Solar Forest concept envisions power stations for hotter climates that provide a “forest” of shade under which electric vehicles and their owners may park, while simultaneously harnessing the sun power heating up the solar panels not far above them.

To read more about these exciting examples, which showcase glimpses of the future in electric transport, please visit the original article on Ecofriend.com: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/11-charging-stations-designed-to-refuel-evs-with-renewable-energy/

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According to the automobile industry information website Edmunds.com, automobile manufacturer Audi has recently made public its intentions to invest 11.6 billion euros, or approximately 15.1 billion United States dollars, into the development of “new products and technologies,” roughly 80 percent (12.5 billion dollars) of which will be devoted to “developing new products and to technologies of the future such as electric and hybrid drive systems,” Audi stated in a press release.

The 15.1 billion United States dollars of investment in the aforementioned technologies—which many hope will result in more tangible and consumer-friendly electric and hybrid vehicles at more affordable prices—come in tandem with the 1,200 technicians and employees that will be brought into the company to facilitate their production and execution.

Information on Edmunds.com also explains that this investment, Audi’s biggest so far in its entire history as a company, will contribute to the rise of products such as the Audi R8 e-tron, which Edmunds.com dubs “the first electric sports car from Audi.” The company aims to begin selling the vehicle in late 2012 according to statements it has released on the subject.

The precise end results of this multi-billion dollar investment on Audi’s behalf remain to be seen, but Thomas Sigi, a member of the board of management for Human Resources at Audi, maintains an extremely positive outlook on the company’s decision—particularly in regard to the creation of 1,200 new jobs, many of which will be dedicated to hybrid engineering and production in Germany.

“Innovation requires people,” Edmunds.com quotes Sigi as saying. “For this reason, we want to hire around 1,200 experts in 2011 who will primarily bolster our electromobility and lightweight construction fields of competence, as well as the implementation of our growth strategy.”

To read more about Audi’s announced investment, please visit Edmunds.com: http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/12/audi-to-invest-151-billion-in-fixed-assets-mostly-green-vehicles.html

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As part of the internationally renowned San Francisco International Auto Show, AAA of Northern California will present a special selection of fuel-efficient and alternative energy vehicles as part of an ongoing effort to highlight “green” shifts within the automotive industry.

According to the San Francisco International Auto Show’s official website, the AAA Greenlight Showcase will exhibit a hybrid automobile specially engineered by the firm to manage a fuel consumption rate of over 100 miles per gallon and which obtains its electrical energy from an innovative ChargePoint Networked Charging Station, manufactured by Coulomb Technologies. As well, a dissected Nissan Xtrail fuel cell vehicle will be on display for the general public to peruse, as will be a “sneak preview” of another fuel cell hybrid vehicle produced by Toyota, with a model similar to that of the popular Highlander sport utility vehicle, made available courtesy of the California Fuel Cell Partnership.

“The auto show exhibit is part of AAA’s long term commitment to help promote and build awareness of the variety of alternative fuel vehicles that are entering the consumer market,” states the auto show’s website.

The San Francisco International Auto Show, sponsored by the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com, will see its 53^rd annual production this Saturday, November 20 through Sunday, November 28, with times of 10 o’clock A.M. to 10 o’clock P.M. daily. The auto show will showcase some of the most prominent manufacturers of automobiles worldwide, including advanced previews of 2011 models of many cars, trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles.

Besides AAA’s unique, environmentally-focused ‘Greenlight Showcase,’ many other exhibits of interest will be presented at the San Francisco International Auto Show. These include a variety of foreign sports cars, including the Aston Martin DBS, the Audi R8, the Bentley Continental, and classic American hot rods including the Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette Grand Sport, and the Ford Mustang GT Coupe and V6 Convertible. A race car exhibit sponsored by Infineon Raceway will also be included, as will a classic car collection assembled and maintained by the local Academy of Art University.

For more information on the San Francisco International Auto Show, please visit the show’s official website at: http://www.sfautoshow.com/

For more information about AAA’s Greenlight Showcase, please visit: www.aaa.com/greenlight/

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Start discussing Electric Cars with any group of people who don’t own one and sooner or later you’ll come up against this objection: it will run up their electricity bill.

You could say: Well, yeah ~ but even if it does, will it cost you as much in electricity as you’re now paying in gas and oil changes (to say nothing of the nasty oil stains on the driveway and garage floor)?

Then they might say, well, yeah, but the electricity from my house comes from coal, so it’s still not really a “green” electric car.

At which point, you may want to excuse yourself and leave, or ask them to go home, as the situation warrants.

Or you could point out the story on the Sierra Club website of Darrell Dickey and his solar powered life.

Dickey, of Davis, CA hasn’t put gas in his car in years. Besides that, he doesn’t pay for electricity in his house. In fact, my favorite quote from his story is this: “For $45,000 we bought a new car and fuel for the rest or our lives.”

And he’s not just talking about fuel for their electric RAV4. With his borrowed $45,000, Dickey bought the electric car “brand new” and the solar system now installed on his garage. That system now powers both the house and the car, and his payments on the loan are $120 less than what he paid for electricity and gas for the car, alone.

I guess you could say that his investment in solar started paying for itself from day one.

In the same article is the story of Stephen Weitz, and I love it’s title: “This Truck Runs On Sunshine.” It doesn’t get any cooler than that ~ or maybe it does, because Weitz, too, powers both his home and vehicle with a solar energy system installed on the rooftop of his house.

A PhD in Biochemistry, Weitz had multiple reasons for buying an EV and installing a solar system with which to power it: “1) global warming and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); 2) Albert Einstein; 3) nitrogen “overdose”; and 4) open habitat and species destruction.”

All excellent reasons ~ although I’ve got to say, Dickey’s main reason was particularly appealing to me. When he and his wife had a baby, he realized that it “would embarrass me to have to explain to my daughter why we continued to import and burn oil when we knew the consequences.” Good on ya, Dad. (You all know how I feel about babies. )

But Weitz didn’t find it as easy as Dickey to implement his plans for driving a totally clean green car ~ at least the part about buying the EV.

He searched the web for some time before he “was lucky and found one of the rare vehicles in the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” that hadn’t been crushed by the auto industry—a factory-built Chevy S10 pickup.”

Uh, I had a Chevy S10 pickup about 12 years ago ~ it wasn’t electric. I live in the midwest ~ I didn’t know there were any. Turns out GM was already making electric cars back then, more than 15 years ago ~ and doing so successfully ~ so why aren’t we all driving electric cars already?

The more I find out about the history of EVs in this country, particularly GM’s testing and discarding of the Impact and EV1 and 2 models out west ~ with no publicity or opportunity for anyone to try them east of Phoenix ~ the angrier I get, and the more I want to know why.

In fact, to be straight up honest with you, this is my second attempt at writing about EVs powered with solar energy ~ because I found out so much about the early GM electric cars that were collected up and destroyed that, combined with what I already know about GM (what anyone who’s been paying attention for the last couple of years knows), that first article took off in an entirely different direction of its own. And if I want to finish this article about solar powering your electric car, I’d better leave it at that.

Except for one thing: watch the move Mr. Weitz mentioned above: Who Killed the Electric Car? You can get it at the Plug In America website or rent it from Netflix. Then you’ll know at least part of why I’m so ticked off.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programing.

As I was saying (before I so rudely interrupted myself), one of the coolest ways to really go green with your electric car is by generating the electricity it runs on with renewable energy technology like solar panels and wind generated energy offered by the local power company, discussed in yet another story in the same article, this one about Alex Beamer’s experience.

Beamer also searched the internet for his truck, also a survivor of the EV massacre, a “1997 production vehicle made by Chevrolet . . . They made about 1,500 of them. Most were leased vehicles that were collected at the end of the leases and crushed.”

But let’s not go there again . . . easier on your eyes and my blood pressure.

See you on the green ~
Rebecca

Read the original Sierra Club article, which, as far as I can tell, is 3 years old ~ at http://www.sierraclub.org/wecandoit/home/electric_cars.asp#dickey

Rebecca Longster is a writer, editor, and lover of words. She believes passionately that people can be healthier, wealthier, and happier living and working in harmony with the earth, and that doing so is a practical as well as a moral imperative. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction, both for the web and for print publication, she currently teaches writing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. (and, apparently, she has a temper.)

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In a linguistics class, long ago, the professor (for reasons that escape me now), asked the students to list, in 5 minutes, as many names for “car” as they could come up with. You’d be amazed at the number there were ~ everything from “automobile” to “Fairlady Z.”

Whatever he may have been trying to teach, the exercise more than anything else, illustrated America’s love affair with cars. From American heavy metal to low-slug European sports cars to “eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus,” it’s a love affair that has gone on since the first Model T rolled off the assembly line.

Marketers make use of it when they imply that this car is a status symbol and that one a chick magnet. Songwriters write about having “no car, and it’s breaking my heart” to everybody meeting “down at Cadillac ranch.” Storytellers who assert that “cars are girls,” and moviemakers whose cars are characters, from the Bat-mobile to Greased Lightning.

The newest car on the block ~ or soon to be ~ is the Electric Car or EV (Electric Vehicle) ~ a more environmentally responsible car, powered by a rechargeable battery. The technology isn’t new ~ one only has to watch the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? to know that ~ and it isn’t clumsy or cumbersome or hard to adjust to ~ unless you think it will be hard to adjust to driving past gas station after gas station without having to stop and shell out money every 100-300 miles.

Who killed the electric car? Mostly big oil companies and car companies themselves, particularly GM, because they hadn’t yet squeezed the very last drop of money they could get from you with their gas guzzlers in yuppie car clothing.

Unfortunately, some of the more fervent car owners think they love those gas guzzlers ~ because they’ve been sold a bill of goods made up of nostalgia for cruising a la American Graffitti, the wholly fictitious measure of urbanites success being determined by their SUVs or Hummers, and/or the car owner whose virility is apparently illustrated by how loud, flashy, and fast his street rod (no pun intended).

There are some whose dismay is legitimate, not marketing-driven, like my son-in-law, who races stock nearly every weekend in the summer in a car he built and knows from the ground up. (Andy has been able to take apart and put back together, improved, any part of a stock car, practically since he could walk ~ if he lived on an island, he’d be dismantling and rebuilding faster and faster speedboats.) To these people, the electric car seems a threat to an integral part of American culture, the end of an era.

The thing is ~ it isn’t.
If anything is sure, it’s that the electric car as it exists now is not how all electric cars will be, forever and ever, world without end. I mean really ~ how many Model Ts are there on the road or race track today, outside of car shows? Model A’s? Nash Ramblers? Edsels? Corvairs? And that’s just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Why should Electric Cars be any different? People have already converted combustion engine cars into high performance electric cars, and some with astonishing results.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out an association called NEDRA ~ the National Electric Drag Racing Association, one of it’s founding members, John “Plasma Boy” Wayland, and his White Zombie ~ a 1972 Datsun 1200 he converted into one of the fastest street legal electric cars in the world.

NEDRA was founded in 1997, when “ampheads from around the country gathered in the Wilde Evolutions’ offices in Jerome, Arizona for two days of intense meetings to iron out the bylaws and class divisions. Present were John “Plasma Boy” Wayland from Portland Oregon who became NEDRA’s first President, Roderick “Wildman” Wilde who became Vice President, Lou Tauber from Portland Oregon, who became the Secretary/Treasurer, Bill Dube, an engineer from Denver Colorado who became the National Tech Director who wrote all the safety rules, and Dean Grannes and Stephanie Matsumora from [here’s a surprise!] Fremont, California who took on the duties of webmaster and membership secretary.” (parenthetical text and emphasis added)

I’ve been to the website and it certainly doesn’t look like they’re missing anything.

In truth, the entrance of EVs into American culture isn’t the end of anything, including America’s love affair with the car ~ it’s simply the next step, the next iteration. In fact, EVs may eventually give us back some of the romance of the car in American culture ~ actually giving new life to the love affair ~ long may they run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run,
Although these changes
have come.
With your chrome heart shining
In the sun,
Long may you run.

–Neil Young

See you on the green ~

Rebecca

Rebecca Longster is a writer, editor, and lover of words. She believes passionately that people can be healthier, wealthier, and happier living and working in harmony with the earth, and that doing so is a practical as well as a moral imperative. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction, both for the web and for print publication, she currently teaches writing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

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Americans love their cars ~ always have ~ since the very first mass produced Model Ts rolled off the assembly lines, and there have been many to love between then and now.

The newest entry into this love affair is the EV, short for Electric Vehicle, and unlike it’s cousin, the hybrid, whose reception by the American public has until recently been rather tepid ~ the cars themselves are kind of conservative looking, not sexy enough for the younger crowd, and perceived as too expensive for the gas savings promised ~ this first generation of the EV in the U.S. is strutting her stuff with different makers and models offering something for everyone.

As with every other field of human endeavor, once a good idea catches on ~ once the public has made it known that this is what they want ~ designers and manufacturers are falling all over themselves to see who can be first to roll out the prettiest, sexiest, and most affordable models.

Right now, the Chevy Volt and the Nissan LEAF are leading the pack, just by virtue of the fact that these are the first models under mass production and the earliest entries into the electric car market ~ both promising availability for purchase here in the states later this year.

GM’s Chevy Volt will have a price point of $41,000, which GM hastens to add, will actually be much less with the government tax incentives. It has a nice, sleek design, and will run a total of 340 miles on one battery and a tank of gas, the first 40 miles of which will be gas-and-emissions free, powered by a “16-kWh lithium-ion battery.” After 40 miles, when the battery runs low, the gas generator will take over “seamlessly,” according to a GM press release, generating the electricity that the car will run on.

Not bad. But will the Volt be enough to repair the broken trust of the public in GM and it’s products? Time will tell.

For the present, GM’s main worry should be the Nissan LEAF, which outstrips the Volt in attractive features in several different directions. The LEAF is a sleek yet practical four-door coupe, but it’s design has that sexy car-of-the-future look, especially in front. Nissan expects to release the LEAF for sale in select markets in December, and then nationwide early next year.

But the two main differences in the LEAF’s favor are price and the “all electric” milage. At a much more affordable $33,000 before tax incentives, LEAF will be attractive to a broader customer base, and with a total range of 100 miles (instead of 40) on electricity alone, the LEAF will appeal to short range commuters and soccer mom’s who drive more frequently but shorter distances.

Both the LEAF and the Volt will be rechargeable at home via 120 or 240 volt outlets, and at higher-speed charging stations, the new-age services stations that will eventually replace gas stations, that are springing up all over the country.

Just last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City demonstrated the simplicity  of recharging at a public car charging station ~ by charging his electric Smart Car at a station installed on a Manhattan parking lot. And that station is just the first of many, with 100 charging stations set to be installed all over the city over the next year.

Smart, the makers of the distinctive ForTwo (which is the next car my husband and I are buying ~ though now we may wait for the electric model) has been test running 100 electric ForTwos in the UK since 2007, and 1000 more have been or are being released in Europe and the US for the same purpose this year, according to the Smart website. The first electric ForTwos for sale to the public are expected to be released in 2012.

Smart has been researching and testing electric cars for some time, but now several other car makers are joining Smart, GM and Nissan, hopping on to the electric car bandwagon, including manufacturers like Toyota (who has partnered with Tesla and Panasonic for this endeavor), and Mitsubishi, to name just two.

As Mayor Bloomberg observed: “The electric vehicle is not just a pipe dream or a scene from the Jetsons . . . It is here and it is here right now.”

And it’s about time ~

See you on the green.

Rebecca

Rebecca Longster is a writer, editor, and lover of words. She believes passionately that people can be healthier, wealthier, and happier living and working in harmony with the earth, and that doing so is a practical as well as a moral imperative. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction, both for the web and for print publication, she currently teaches writing at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

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On Tuesday, General Motors announced pricing on its highly-anticipated Chevrolet Volt, marking the Detroit automaker’s official entry into the increasingly competitive U.S. hybrid electric car market.

The company’s first plug-in hybrid car comes with a sticker price of $41,000. It features an all-electric battery capable of providing power for 40 miles, while its built-in gasoline “range extender” engine can provide fuel for an additional 300 miles.

According to an extensive blog posted Tuesday on GM’s official Volt website, the net cost to buyers, after the federal $7500 tax credit, is $33,500—including a $720 destination charge. Yet even with the federal tax credit, the newly announced sales price tag for GM’s plug-in hybrid is already raising eyebrows among some market experts.

In a July 27 article by Mark Clayton of The Christian Science Monitor, Bradley Berman, the editor and owner of the electric car review website HybridCars.com, shared his reservations about the Volt’s sale price.

“I do have some questions about the long-term market reaction to that sticker price,” Berman said. By contrast, he seemed to express more confidence in GM’s self-described “much more aggressively” priced leasing options, saying “the news is really the lease, which is very attractive.” The Volt site described leasing payments of $350 per month with $2500 down payment for 3 years or 36 months.

Nissan is also joining GM in the burgeoning electric car market. The Japanese automaker unveiled details on its anticipated all-electric car, the Nissan Leaf, at this week’s Plug-In 2010 electric car technology conference in San Jose, California.

The 100 percent electric powered Leaf reportedly requires no gasoline and has zero tailpipe emissions. Based on data listed on the Leaf website, the five-door car has an MSRP of $32,780 before the federal tax tax savings. Leasing payments are set for $349 per month, with due $1,999 at signing.

Nissan’s competitively priced new vehicle runs on an 80 kW AC synchronous electric motor, powered by a 24 kWh lithium-ion battery. The five-passenger car also comes equipped with a 3.3 kW onboard charger. According to Nissan, the Leaf can drive 100 miles on a single charge and reach speeds up to 90 mph.

For additional information on the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, HybridCars.com and the Plug-In 2010 Conference and Exhibition, please visit:

http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.print.GMCOM.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/July/0723_volt

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/index

http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/316498

http://www.hybridcars.com/

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