A chance to look at the car electric car intended for Project Better Place. Quite Nice, Actually!
Click on the image to view video.
Just back from a whistle stop tour of Renaults EV range including a look at this, the new Twizy ZE Concept. Reminds me of somewhere inbetween a BMW C1 Moped and the good old crazy Tango EV. But a great little urban runabout for that busy executive that hates getting wet. Here’s a chat with Thierry Koskas, Renaults head of Electric vehicle development about it. Renault are also onto the whole social networking thing with this sustainable mobility site, which is worth a look.
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Having chased these halfway across the UK and the US, I was pleasantly surprised to see a Tesla parked in the road next to my office right here in London’s West End. Us EV drivers enjoy free parking in Westminster. I see the Tesla’s already catching out the good old parking wardens who had slapped it with a ticket. Just shows you should make your cars much uglier Tesla!
I got a chance to take a ride in Nissans hydrogen FCV. Very smooth, very responsive, very quiet…even goes a long way on a tank full. Now all we need is a few hydrogen filling stations. I think we’re up to three in the UK now..
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I got the chance to take one of the Zytec powered Smart ED’s for a spin recently. This is the Electric car everyone wants to buy but cant get hold of. Well, hopefully that’s going to change. Smart have announced that they will be upping the trial and extending it to the public. If you want to get your name down follow this link.
Click on the image to view video of the drive.
Sian Berry. Green party candidate for Mayor of London 2008 and co-founder of Alliance Against Urban 4×4’s Sian has interesting opinions on the future of transport and is often seen to be endorsing the EV. I got a chance to talk to Sian and her partner Blake Ludwig about transport, EV’s in general and We are Futureproof, their new venture. Riversimple is worth checking out too. They have an ‘open source’ proposition that could really help shape the future of car design..
Click on the image to view video. Thanks to Sian and Blake.
There was the Revolve Brighton to London Eco rally today - a range of low carbon cars ending up at City Hall, along with an interesting conference organised by the Low CVP. I dived down there at lunchtime and grabbed some footage. No desperate stories of searching for a power socket or a hydrogen filling station, I’m afraid.
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Here’s Dan Jenkins from Smith Electric Vehicles talking about their first foray into electric passenger vehicles with the Ford Torneo Connect EV. Smith Electric, as you may know have been building excellent commercial vehicles here in the UK and Dan knows his ‘electric onions’…Could be the start of some great passenger EV’s!
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Links:electric car vlogging Ford torneo connect ev ev Smith Electric vehicles
Here’s a video of a chat with a well informed man from Mitsubishi about not just the imiev but also the imiev sport.
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I know, I know, time’s against me at the moment but I’m planning to get the rest of my Geneva interviews up as soon as poss… This one’s a discussion with the head of electric vehicle development at Renault. Talking about the upcoming ZE Concept (Kangoo..) technology and project better place.
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Links:electric car vlogging Renault ZE Concept Kangoo Project Better Place
Toyota have been showing off their pure electric FT EV. Phew, I was beginning to think Toyota were going to miss the boat on that one… It’ll make a nice little city EV. Bring ‘em on Toyota! Here’s a chat with Dirk from Toyota Germany. Click on the image to view video..(5 mins)
Links:electric car vlogging Toyota FT EV
I got to have a good chat with Christian von Koenigsegg about the NLV Quant. Solar paint charges this thing up! When it’s not resting and charging it’ll reach 100km in 5.2 secs with a 275kmh top speed. 512 BHP. Seats 4 adults and as much space as an S class…Click on the image to view video.
Finally… Got to take a look at Tata Motors Indica Vista EV, and the chance to have a chat with a representative from Tata. 200km range on lithium Ion batteries. 110Kmh top speed. Pretty impressive, until you get an idea of the price in Norway…. Click on the image to view video.
A look around the new Opel Ampera to be badged Vauxhall in the UK with GM’s head of Electric Vehicle development, and a chance to ask him whether this could be another EV1.. Click on the image to view video.
inks:electric car vlogging GM Ampera opel Range Extender Chevy Volt EV1 Vauxhall Vauxhall Ampera
Here’s where Bob meets the bloggers…! It’s coming in at 20ish minutes, and I’ve left most of it in for you. Broadly speaking the subject matters were in the following order;
State Of the Automotive Industry / Bobs views on Formula 1 / The Volt / Gas prices / The Opel GM Split / The future for cars and the hydrogen/electric debate.
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A load of bloggers (and a vlogger!) were invited to the Vauxhall Ampera launch at the Geneva Motor show… The car will run on battery alone and run 60km on plug in only, but it also has a range extending engine built in that charges the batteries, similar to the Chevy Volt. Nice idea…great looking car…but can it save GM? Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging GM Ampera opel Range Extender Chevy Volt Vauxhall Vauxhall Ampera
Today was preview day in Geneva. Tomorrow is the first press day. It’s a whirlwind of interviews for the GM execs and they’re spending a lot of time fielding questions about the state of their business. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging GM Ampera opel Range Extender Chevy Volt
Here’s part two of my conversation with Dale Vince from Ecotricity.
10,000 windmills could power 30 million cars over 250 billion miles per year. That’s it. A fully sustainable transport solution for the UK.
Click on the image to view video of the rest of our chat.
Links:electric car vlogging wind power Dale Vince ecotricity Wind Car Renewable Energy
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, a very successful wind energy electrical power company here in the UK, is building an electric car in 7 months flat. You can follow it’s progress on Dales blog over at Zero Carbonista. I filmed this interview with him last month. The first part (above) is a discussion around the ‘wind car’ and electric cars in general. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast Dale Vince ecotricity Wind Car
Amidst the misery of Think and Nice disappearing, let’s celebrate a fully blown EV sports car in action. The Lightning GT. The people that sent me this video say that because the wind noise on the day was so much greater than the car they’ve made most of the film mute, so dont worry if you dont hear anything…! Merry Christmas everyone. Reckon there’s still plenty to look forward to in 2009.Â
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Links:electric car vlogging video podcast lightning lightninggt lightning car EV
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Good news from Camden Council. I was wrong about them not doing anything - they just hadn’t told anyone about it. They’ve introduced free parking for electric vehicles along with more charging points. If you charge your car from a renewable source you don’t even have to pay for the permit, otherwise they are £50 per annum! It got me thinking about my power from juice. I was on the phone talking bills with them on Saturday (as everyone is these days) and they told me that they “guarantee” to replace any electricity drawn from the national grid with energy drawn from renewable sources. Great! Thing is, there seem to be some questions out there over whether the green power we are being sold actually is green power. Take a look at this recent article.
I’m going to talk to some of the people involved in power generation to find out more. Whilst we are all gearing up to rush into the showrooms to buy all these electric cars, we may as well know they are being powered in the most efficient way.
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Jorg, my Tango owning friend has posted this great video of a drag race between a Tango and a Tesla EV. Not any old cars, but the fastest production electric vehicles in the world. Check out these times;
“In this race, the Tango got 92.15mph in 14.480 seconds, beating its 14.7 “dial” handicap and thus losing the competition; the Tesla got 101.23mph in 14.666 seconds, slower than its 14.5 “dial” handicap and allowing it to proceed to the next round. (Two rounds later, the Tango’s driver got behind the wheel of the Tesla and also beat its “dial” handicap… and thus lost!)”
I’ve heard that Nice Car Company are going out of business. I sincerely hope this isn’t the case. I’ve been following their fortunes along with those of goingreen who sell the GWiz since I started this vlog in spring 2005. If it’s true then it’s a huge blow to the electric car industry here in the UK. Whilst the major manufactures are asking for bailouts in the UK and US, smaller innovative businesses are left to go broke. We’ve had empty promises for years from the larger car makers and the Government. All in the same week that the climate change report states that electric cars are the only way for a sustainable transport solution…
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast gwiz nice megacity
“Motorists will have to drive electric cars for UK to meet climate change targets.” So runs the Telegraph headline today.
The reality of driving an electric vehicle here is getting harder as time goes on. There are more than 1000 vehicles on London’s roads now. Charging facilities are extremely limited, and most people do not have the luxury of a garage or off street parking. Since my local car park closed, Â I can never guarantee a charging space in the west end as the bays are permanently full. Â This makes life difficult in a limited range car such as the GWiz. The City of London has started to charge for EV’s to park in their garages and they haven’t added any further charging points. Camden Council who promised to bring in free parking for electric vehicles more than 2 years ago have still done nothing… and so the list goes on.Â
I’ve had to resort to charging at home. Not ideal as I have to run a cable across my pavement. If the Government is serious about getting Electric Vehicles on the roads here then lets start with a proper infrastructure now.
Click on the image to view my charging routine.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast GWiz Lord Turner Charging EV
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..and continuing our Californian theme, here’s a big better place announcement. Come on London. You’ve some catching up to do. Don’t forget, Elektromotive already have an infrastructure here.
The Tesla zips along at a fair old pace, especially when a Tango turns up.
I want to live in California - the sun shines and (a few) people get to drive great EV’s.
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Links:electric car vlogging video podcast The Tango tango Tesla Motors Tesla
Apologies to anyone trying to access my site recently and found nothing here. It went down due to a surge in traffic. Everything’s fixed now, so it shouldn’t happen again.
On my visit to their showroom in Menlo park, I got a chance to go out in a Tesla and talk to one of their (impressive) sales people. I’ve been seeing these cars stationary for a while now on stands at various motor shows, and I was beginning to think it didn’t move. Well, no worries, it does!  Keep an eye out for that flying Tango too. Here’s the first part. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast The Tango tango Tesla Motors Tesla
Whilst in The Tango, we stopped by the Tesla showroom. Yeah, right….and then I woke up….Actually, I wasn’t dreaming.
Here’s a look around the Tesla Showroom in Menlo park. I got a go in one too and I’ll be posting that soon. I know Tesla have been having trouble recently (along with everyone else in the credit crisis), but hats off to them. To walk into a proper electric car showroom with no sign of an internal combustion engine is a real accomplishment, and something I was beginning to think would never actually happen.
Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast The Tango tango Tesla Motors Tesla
Calvey Taylor-Haw is a man with a mission. He runs Elektromotive, a company that produces The Elektrobay street charging posts. They’re very popular around the West end of London where I work. You get free parking and a chance to grab some much needed juice. Whilst there is much talk of Project Better Place and the like, this is one scheme that’s up, running, and proving that electric vehicles are a viable transport alternative. Keep ‘em coming Calvey! I got a chance to catch up with him at The Motor Show back in July. Click on the image to view video.
Links:Elektromotive Elektrobay video podcast Project Better Place
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