Continuing our Tesla Model S UK test drive with the very knowledgable Mark. We get into the nitty gritty of really trying to use an EV as an only car here in England. Something that was mostly unrealistic until now.
Category: Electric Supercars
I love this car, but I do go a bit gaga when I get near it. The kind of gaga where you find yourself spending £80k you don’t actually have. Bring in someone with a proper head for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to EV’s and cars in general – aka Lizzy, my wife.
Many thanks to Mark, the European Sales man for Tesla who really know his onions!
This is part one. I’ll continue it episodically.
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Lightning GT interview
The Lightning was on show at the Ecovelocity show recently. Heres an interview with one of the Lightning designers. Click on the image to view video.
Now here’s a nice one. Built by guys who use Formula 1 drivers to race electric vehicles on ice! Here’s a conversation with the people from Exagon. Click on the image to view video.
Forgive me but I’m trialling ads. Seeing as I work in the industry, I thought it was time. I’ve been getting over 40,000 video views per month for a while so lets see if it makes anything once all the commissions gone… It can go in the Leaf fund!
I made it to the second press day of Paris Motor Show ’10 on Friday. Wow – a huge amount of EV’s there. I got as much as I could in limited time which I’ll post as quickly as I can. And I came across this, the Jaguar C-X75 Concept. Capable of 205mph. Electric motors on each wheel. Gas turbines for range extending and extra ooomph. I talked to this extraordinarily young guy who’s the electrician and knows and has driven the vehicle. Mind blowing. Click on the image to view video.
I was at LCV2010 this week. It was a great gathering of much of what is going on with Electric Vehicles here in the UK. Whilst I was there I stumbled across the Wind Car that Dale Vince from Ecotricity is building. The cars out and about now and I got the chance to grab Jim, chief engineer for a chat.
Click on the image to view video.
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Ticket that Tesla
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 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.
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
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Lightning GT in action
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.
Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast lightning lightninggt lightning car EV
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 “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!)”
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
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The Tango. Solar Recharging at Google HQ.
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. And I thought us Londoners were doing well with the odd street charging point….Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast The Tango Tango RechargeIT Tesla
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The Tango. A trip. Part 1.
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 freeway and open it up.
Thanks Jorg. It was a lot of fun. Click on the image to view video.
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The Tango Electric Car. A trip. Part 2.
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.
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Opel Flextreme
A look at the Opel Flextreme – Europe’s version of the Chevy Volt. 40 mile range on the battery and a small engine purely for recharging purposes. They say we’ll have it by 2010. Gosh, that’s only 2 years away. Doubt we’ll even have the Smart ED and Subaru R1e by then, but there’s always hope….
I’m back to posting some of my remaining BMS footage. I have a ton of content to cutdown and upload (including a trip in a Tango and a Tesla. Yeeeeehaaaa!).
Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast flexstreme Chevy Volt Tango Smart tesla Tesla Motors Subaru R1e EV
The Venturi Eclectic runs via solar panels on the roof or an optional wind turbine. Here’s a film I made with Venturi, shot earlier this summer. Special thanks to Simon at Final Cut for his fine editing skills.
Click on the image to view video.
Darryl Siry. Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Marketing, and Service at Tesla Motors. Nice bloke. I got the chance to have a chat with him in the EV Village at the British Motor Show. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast tesla Tesla Motors Darryl Siry EV
Lightning unveiled the GT, their EV super car at the Motor Show today. I got a chance to talk to Chris Dell, from Lightning, and watch the launch. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast lightning lightninggt lightning car EV
While the blogosphere buzzes with rumours of problems at Tesla, enter the Venturi Fetish. At a cool €300,000 you’ll need a bit stashed away, but what a car! Whilst I was visiting Venturi yesterday to do a piece on the Eclectic, I came across this Fetish under wraps. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast venturi fetish eclectic tesla
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Morgan Life Car
I went to the Sexy Green Car Show at The Eden Project in Cornwall recently. The Eden Project was brilliant, but I’m not sure about their car show. They had very little of interest – just the usual major manufacturers rolling out their low emission models. But they did have the Morgan Life Car there on it’s UK debut. This is a Hydrogen fuel cell prototype that has four individual electric motors linked to each wheel. Top speed of 85mph and a 0-60 of 7.5 seconds. I’m hoping there might be something in these hydrogen fuel cell cars powering electric motors… could be a long wait though. Click on the image to view video.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast morgan life car hydrogen
Good News. Tesla are coming to The UK Motor Show this year. It’ll be on show in the ‘EV Village’ where there will be around twenty battery electric vehicles. Joining it will be the new Super Light from Nice (pictured) aswell as GWiz, Elektromotive (those great charging posts) and a new manufacturer known as Quiet Cars….
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Five Teslas driving by…
Here’s a nice little video of 5 Tesla Roadsters out for a drive. The first one, apparently, is production car number one belonging to Elon Musk.
While I’m waiting to test drive the Venturi Fetish (could be a long wait…) I thought I’d show some footage of the Eclectic. Powered by solar panels on the roof, it’ll run for 31 miles on a full charge with speeds of up to 32mph. If you live where I live you can even plug it in to the mains during downpours.
It’ll be released in June 2008, when 200 units will be released. Prices are expected to be around 24000 Euros. Thanks to Venturi for the footage. Click on the image to view video (6.9 meg QT).
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The Tesla (Part 5)
Seeing as some of you won’t be getting your Tesla’s for a while yet, I thought I would dig out some more of the Tesla files. Here’s where I got to take a spin in it. Click on the image to view video. (4.7 meg QT)
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The Tesla (Part 4)
Tesla’s test and validation manager discusses driving the car in the arctic circle. Tesla, please, just listen, we need this car in the UK, it’s our only hope, don’t send it over the pond, please Tesla, please….Click on the image to view video (4.4meg QT)
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The Tesla (Part III)
Here’s where I get to meet Brian from Tesla. Brian was great – he took the time to really show me the car. The video would have benefitted from some editing (birthday parties going on around us etc..) but seeing as it’s not every day you get to meet Tesla’s test and validation manager I thought I’d leave it all in. Click on the image to view video (18meg QT).
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The Tesla (Part II)
So here’s the second part of the Tesla showcase, where I got to see the car in more detail and took a look at the motor. Click on the image to view video (8.8 meg QT)
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The Tesla (Part 1)
Thanks to autoblog green I had a tip off that the Tesla was going to be on show for a limited number of hours today at the "green wheels motorshow" in Norwich, where the car is built. The show has been organised by Cred and carbon connections, very useful departments of the University of East Anglia. Time to take the afternoon off and leg it up to Norwich. I got a really good chance to cover the car extensively, and meet the people behind it. I’ll be posting episodic clips so that my bandwidth doesn’t go too mental and I can show plenty of detail. Click on the image to view video (10meg QT)
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast tesla autoblog green carbon connections Cred
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Wrightspeed
Us Reva drivers get a bit of flack for crawling along at times. You get the odd impatient car sending you towards the verge as they accelerate past, safe in the knowledge that electric cars are just another milk float. Time to roll out the Wrightspeed video. An electric car beating a Ferrari 360 Modena and then a Porsche Carrera GT hands down. YES PLEASE. Click on the image to view video -its a windows media file for a change (10meg wmv). Thanks to Wrightspeed for the footage.
Links:electric car vlogging video podcast vlog wrightspeed ferrari porsche ev
People sometimes ask if I’m associated with Goin Green in any way. I’m not. I just thought it might be fun to start vlogging and sharing my experience of electric vehicle ownership with anyone who might be interested. Having said that, I’ll happily take a Tango from Prodrive for a while….
Links:electric car