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As a man thinks, so he is. Some people are never. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Alternate RouteTurn off the nav system, crumple up that MapQuest printout, and let's find out where the next random turn may take us! Jan 24, 2008 - Jumper Cables
Chevy's Volt, Renault and Nissan anouncing plans for an electric car network in Israel, so there must be room on the bandwagon, right? Chrysler Corp. and India's Tata Motors reportedly have signed a development deal for Chrysler's neighborhood electric car unit to import and market a new vehicle based on the Tata Ace mini-truck. I just find it fascinating that Renault hopes to sell 10,000 to 20,000 electric cars a year in Israel and now we have a report said that Tata is gearing up to initially ship 10,000 vehicles a year. This reminds me of the guy that everyone knows. If you have a cold, he had the flu. If you broke your leg, he broke his in three places. Being seen as green and going electric seems to be the fashion of the day. Read the rest of the story from John O'Dell at Green Car Advisor
Dec 30, 2007 - Any Color As Long As It's Green
Evidently they've found a way to make paint that's used to paint vehicles green. The solvent-borne paint contains more pigment than conventional water-borne auto paint, which allows the color to be applied using less paint. Nothing can ruin a car's good looks like a lousy paint job, so time will tell if this new green paint will stand up to the disccerning eye of auto enthusiasts! Be sure to check out the full story at the Green Car Advisor
Dec 20, 2007 - Is Not, Is Too
Now I know you should sit down for this because you'll be shocked, but you know the energy bill that was just passed and mandates a CAFE average mileage of 35mpg? That really doesn't mean 35mpg. In fact, an analysis by Edmunds' chief test engineer shows that a car -- or truck -- would need only to achieve 26 miles per gallon combined highway and city mileage in the new Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy tests to turn in the equivalent of a 35 mpg CAFE rating. Isn't that just wonderful? Pass the duct tape so I can keep my head from exploding.
Be sure to read and comment on the full story from John O'Dell at the Green Car Advisor
Dec 3, 2007 - High Power Show
The International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition (EVS) attracts business, policy, industry, and academic leaders from around the world who are interested in exploring and understanding the technical, policy and market challenges of electric transportation technologies. If you'd like an insider's look at the show, be sure to check out John O'Dell's Green Car Advisor. Some highlights: The guys at HST Automotive, K2 Energy Solutions and Ronaele have a deal, or two, for you: a pair of muscle cars - a Shelby Cobra and a Mustang - that run fast, but silently and with zero tailpipe emissions, on battery-powered electric motors. A three-wheel electric scooter that features a unique dual-wheel front suspension that locks into a stable position for low speed maneuvering – under 3 mph – and unlocks to operate the same as on a single wheel model at speed. So if EV's are your thing, Anaheim is the place you want to be. Just humming along
Nov 21, 2007 - Charging Up
But the concept that was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show and got everyone worked up isn't exactly turningout to be a practical body design. Seems GM engineers put it in a wind tunnel to get some numbers and found that it has the drag coefficient of a brick. Wind resistance would have been better, quipped GM vice chairman Bob Lutz , if the engineers had "put it in the wind tunnel backwards." Beyond the aerodynamics, the biggest hurdle still remains battery technology. With the problems of heat management and durability still remaining to be solved, that target date of 2010 for the Volt hitting the market seems highly ambitious to say the least.
Experimental Read the full story at Green Car Advisor
Nov 15, 2007 - LA Auto Show Green News
One day one, the super-fast Nissan GT-R and the hulking hybridized Cadillac Escalade SUV captured a lot of media attention. And Honda is showing the FCX Clarity, a ready-for-production fuel-cell vehicle. Always a lot of excitement surrounding the auto show season, and if you can't make it to LA, the stop by the Green Car Advisor for John O'Dell's take on all the emerging greenery. Auto show season
Sep 15, 2007 - Chill Out
In a piece on the brand new Green Car Advisor, Edmund Senior Editor John O'Dell reports that GM's line director for the E-flex electric vehicle platform told Green Car Advisor that they've found a way to ease overheating in the big arrays of lithium-ion batteries that will propel the Volt and other models. It's a brute force solution that involves running liquid coolant lines through the battery packs. GM says that they're still on schedule to have Volts on the market by 2010. This isn't exactly the leap in battery technology that's going to put an electric chicken in every pot in my view. My gut is telling me that the breakthrough in batteries is going to be something we're really not even contemplating right now. After the EV-1, this may be GM's last shot at this. Will the added expense and weight of a cooling system be outweighed by the benefits of battery packs that don't overheat? Can liquid cooling of the battery packs do enough to make electric vehicles a practical reality? Will Mr. Freeze actually turn out to be a good guy? Chill out until the next episode. Same Bat time. Same Bat channel. Practical EV's
Aug 13, 2007 - Surprise!
From my recent visit to the Edmunds offices... Since my 2001 Altima goes "under the knife" shortly, after my wife discovered that some contractor's trucks are longer than others in the parking lot at the bank, I though it appropriate to focus the Alternate Route's Haiku Corner on the cost of body repairs. The bumper cover popped back out nicely, but incredibly, the photo shows the massive damage that lead to a repair estimate of... Fourteen Sixty Six
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