http://www.dannyscontentment.net Electric Car Videoblog Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:06:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/06/revolve-eco-rally-low-cvp/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/06/ford-tourneo-passenger-ev-talking-to-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. Click on the image to view video. Links:electric car vlogging Mitsubishi imiev ev imiev sport http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/05/mitsubishi-imiev-and-imiev-sport-video/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/05/renaults-electric-car-plans-and-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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/04/toyota-ft-ev-video/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/04/koenigsegg-nlv-quant-talking-to-christian-koenigsegg/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/03/tata-indica-vista-ev/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/03/opel-ampera-another-ev1/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/03/geneva-with-gm-talking-to-bob-lutz/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/03/geneva-with-gm-opel-ampera-preview/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/03/geneva-with-gm/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/02/talking-to-dale-vince-from-ecotricity-powering-all-the-evs/ 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) ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2009/01/talking-to-dale-vince-from-ecotricity-about-the-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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/12/lightning-gt-in-action/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/12/good-news-but-is-my-power-renewable/ httpv://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiS4t8TMlI&feature=email 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/12/tango-vs-tesla-drag-race/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/12/nice-car-company-goes-into-administration/ "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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/12/the-reality-of-charging-evs-in-london/ ..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. http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/11/california-switches-to-an-electric-future/ 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. Click on the image to view video. Links:electric car vlogging video podcast The Tango tango Tesla Motors Tesla http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/11/tesla-vs-tango/ 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. http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/11/apologies-it-was-the-traffic/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/10/grabbing-a-ride-in-the-tesla-part-1/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/10/tesla-ev-meets-tango-ev/ 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 ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/10/elektromotive-the-elektrobay-street-charging-posts/ Nissan invited me to Paris the other day to take a look at the NuVu Concept EV, ahead of it's debut at The Paris Motor Show. Blimey! That's a sign of the times. A major manufacturer ready to make claims about release dates on EV's. Things are looking up! It's ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/10/nissan-nuvu-concept-ev/ Talking to Honda's Environmental Manager, John Kingston, about the FCX Clarity Hydrogen car. Hmmm. Still no plans for a pure EV Honda? Click on the image to view video. Links:hydrogen car vlogging video podcast Honda FCX Clarity Fuel Cell http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/09/honda-fcx-clarity/ When he gets to work at Google, Jorg plugs his Tango into one of the many charging bays that are powered by solar panels. EV's are popular with Google. You may have heard about their rechargeIT scheme. Even Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Googles founders, drive Tesla's to the office. ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/09/the-tango-solar-recharging-at-google-hq/ Jorg's a lucky man. He gets to drive a Tango to work each day. I was lucky enough to get a trip in the car with him. The film is in 2 parts with the second part below. Part 1. First look at the car. Part 2. Take it on the ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/09/the-tango-a-trip-part-1/ Part 2. A Tango on the Freeway. Some specs for you. 0-60: 4 seconds Top Speed: 150 mph Width: 41 inches. Seats: 2. Wow. Click on the image to view video. http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/09/the-tango-a-trip-part-2/ Got some instruction on the way Hydrogen Fuel Cells work from Brian Johnston, Nissan's senior product engineer who looks after their hydrogen fuel cell projects in Sacramento, California. We also talked a bit about Nissan's plans with EV's. Click on the image to view video. Links:hydrogen car vlogging video podcast nissan ... http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2008/09/nissan-fcv-a-lesson-in-hydrogen-fuel-cells/