I think for a family carrier / mini mine van it looks great. I would love to have that in stead of our XC70.
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the alternative personal transportation thread
Was at Mass. General Hospital and saw this in the parking garage. It was plugged in and Charging. looked very cool
that battery connector would make me think that must have a small/low power battery
Huh ? thats a Size 0 Andersen power pole, its what APC uses in there 30A/220V UPS's ( which is you ever need any ofthose connectors I have quite a few in my Basement )
oh, well it didnt look like that in the pic. and unless he had a lithium system in it, that would be overkill no?
Overkill Probably , But ease of getting the Part , since APC UPS are quite common , probably played a part in it.
Powerpoles are pretty common in the e-bike world. I used one--probably not that size--on my e-bike between the 48V battery (nominally, more like 55V in reality) and 35A controller. That's almost 2 kW, and I never had a problem with the connector heating up or anything like that.
Powerpoles are pretty common in any High Current battery application and you can order them from Mcmaster carr!
http://www.mcmaster.com/#battery-connectors/=b9zhym
http://www.grace.de/#/main/product/pro/
Expensive, but the specs look good and I like the fact that it's a ground up designed vehicle vs a kmart bike with a battery slapped on a luggage rack.
Components are nice too.
Doesn't look flexy enough!
I wonder if VW has made more of the Jetta available as it was difficult to find any last year.
When Energy Efficiency Sullies the Environment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&ref=science
When Energy Efficiency Sullies the Environment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&ref=science
Nice find.
In short, life takes energy. Take this thought process far enough and you get my futility of the Prius thread.
I like the article and the expanded perspective on human consumption and energy efficiency but do not agree with all the conclusions. I would not drive more with a more fuel efficient car. I do not wash more with a more energy efficient washing machine. In Denmark they use the taxation approach as mentioned in the article.
im guessing youre referring to the TDi Jetta? they still are hard to come by at dealers since once they come in, they seem to go out the door right away. we looked at last year's Jetta Sportwagen TDi and it was fantastic, especially with their DSG. i did have a hard time buying another VW product though, after our Audi was in the shop for electrical problems (go fig) numerous times.
the new Jetta is absolutely hideous too
looks like the Bulli actually might make it into production
I looked up a photo of the Prius v's interior today, thinking that it'd be very similar to the 3rd gen (2010+) regular Prius's layout. Sadly it's not, and it's actually pretty outrageously ugly.
I am not amused. WTF, Toyota
2nd gen Prius dashboard, which we like:
3rd gen Prius dashboard, which we don't like quite as much (jutty center console invading elbow room, cheaper textures, and busier "heads up display"):
Monstrosity of the Prius v's dashboard. I don't even know where to start to describe how it's many steps backwards
nice article on the Tesla S w/ factory tour
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/21/tesla-lets-us-peek-in-on-model-s-development/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/autoblog+(Autoblog)
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/21/tesla-lets-us-peek-in-on-model-s-development/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/autoblog+(Autoblog)
here is an Interesting trike
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/03/23/insane-creation-electric-drill-powered-trike/
Powered by 2 Battery operated Drills
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/03/23/insane-creation-electric-drill-powered-trike/
Powered by 2 Battery operated Drills
Ohes noes, I think I just became a bike hippy.... 
Picked up an old kiddie trailer for $20 so we can ride the 2.6 miles to the grocery store, at least when the weather's decent. It's an InStep DuoSport (no clue) that has a hard plastic base that means I don't have to try to jerry-rig a plywood floor in it. In it's inaugural ride it held a full case of New Glarus Moon Man, and should probably hold ~3-4 paper bags full of groceries. Won't be good for 200lbs of water softener salt, but should be good for just about any other grocery runs.
Mmmmmmmm, beeeeeer.
Picked up an old kiddie trailer for $20 so we can ride the 2.6 miles to the grocery store, at least when the weather's decent. It's an InStep DuoSport (no clue) that has a hard plastic base that means I don't have to try to jerry-rig a plywood floor in it. In it's inaugural ride it held a full case of New Glarus Moon Man, and should probably hold ~3-4 paper bags full of groceries. Won't be good for 200lbs of water softener salt, but should be good for just about any other grocery runs.
Mmmmmmmm, beeeeeer.
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Ok, is anyone else getting "content protected by owner" in the post, but the pictures showing up when you click on them?
yessum
Thanks. Put the pics in a protected folder, and then "unprotected" it. So not sure why the hot-links aren't working...
no more Autoblog Green. no surprise here
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovici/2011/03/22/aol-folds-30-brands-including-politics-daily/
Autoblog Green itself says otherwise:
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/03/26/autobloggreen-is-not-dead/
I test drove a Chevy Volt today.
It looks sharp, I'll grant it that. Hearing nothing but the faint electric motor whine when the dealer pulled it out of the garage was very cool, too. (For those of you familiar with Toyota hybrids, it sounded a bit like the high-frequency whine that the HSD makes when regenerating.)
Then I hopped in. Although it's a small car, based on the Cruze, it felt big enough inside in the front seats: plenty of legroom and headroom alike. The ergonomics were all fine, too, apart from the shifter being oddly smack dab in the center of the dashboard and the parking brake being this little, weenie electronic deal. The dashboard was unconventional, too, with a central, squareish LCD display, a "floating ball" to show power consumption/regeneration on the right, and a battery state-of-charge indicator on the left. Didn't look bad overall at all, however, and the center console, in grey in this particular car rather than the iPod-white of the showcars, was pleasant enough as well.
Similarly pleasant was the powertrain part of the driving experience: despite a nominal curb weight of 3800 lbs it didn't feel heavy. In fact it had a bit of a kick, with a nice shove in the back on throttle tip in, no doubt thanks to electric motors' max-torque-at-0-rpm characteristic. My entire, brief test drive was spent in EV-only mode so I can't comment on how raucous the engine is or isn't.
All was not fun and games, however: the A-pillars are mammoth and the roofline low. It doesn't feel airy at all in the interior. Its ambience, if you will, is actually more similar to a sporty car like a current-gen Mustang, in that the roof feels pulled down tight. The front valence scrapes pulling out of driveways. The rear legroom is fine but headroom, thanks to the sloping aero-friendly roofline, is tight. There's no rear center seat: this is a strictly 4 passenger vehicle.
Finally, it's not cheap at all: The one I test drove, with leather and a backup camera as extras, was just shy of $44,000. Even with the $7,500 Federal tax credit for cars with sufficiently large battery packs--I hesitate to call them EVs due to semantics--that's still far from cheap.
So what's the verdict? I commend Chevrolet's engineers on making such an unconventional vehicle so thoroughly normal feeling: for all the world it feels like a muscular version of a Prius when in EV-only mode, with the same no-shifting-necessary seamless feeling of "thrust." The compromises made to styling, namely a swoopy roofline and high beltline, and safety, what with the overly robust appearing A pillars and thick C pillars, make it less inviting to drive than it could be, on the other hand. The price is the final killer: Even on affluent Long Island the salesman said he's sold all of 4 so far.
1 Volt per month. Sounds about right. Good luck, General Motors.
It looks sharp, I'll grant it that. Hearing nothing but the faint electric motor whine when the dealer pulled it out of the garage was very cool, too. (For those of you familiar with Toyota hybrids, it sounded a bit like the high-frequency whine that the HSD makes when regenerating.)
Then I hopped in. Although it's a small car, based on the Cruze, it felt big enough inside in the front seats: plenty of legroom and headroom alike. The ergonomics were all fine, too, apart from the shifter being oddly smack dab in the center of the dashboard and the parking brake being this little, weenie electronic deal. The dashboard was unconventional, too, with a central, squareish LCD display, a "floating ball" to show power consumption/regeneration on the right, and a battery state-of-charge indicator on the left. Didn't look bad overall at all, however, and the center console, in grey in this particular car rather than the iPod-white of the showcars, was pleasant enough as well.
Similarly pleasant was the powertrain part of the driving experience: despite a nominal curb weight of 3800 lbs it didn't feel heavy. In fact it had a bit of a kick, with a nice shove in the back on throttle tip in, no doubt thanks to electric motors' max-torque-at-0-rpm characteristic. My entire, brief test drive was spent in EV-only mode so I can't comment on how raucous the engine is or isn't.
All was not fun and games, however: the A-pillars are mammoth and the roofline low. It doesn't feel airy at all in the interior. Its ambience, if you will, is actually more similar to a sporty car like a current-gen Mustang, in that the roof feels pulled down tight. The front valence scrapes pulling out of driveways. The rear legroom is fine but headroom, thanks to the sloping aero-friendly roofline, is tight. There's no rear center seat: this is a strictly 4 passenger vehicle.
Finally, it's not cheap at all: The one I test drove, with leather and a backup camera as extras, was just shy of $44,000. Even with the $7,500 Federal tax credit for cars with sufficiently large battery packs--I hesitate to call them EVs due to semantics--that's still far from cheap.
So what's the verdict? I commend Chevrolet's engineers on making such an unconventional vehicle so thoroughly normal feeling: for all the world it feels like a muscular version of a Prius when in EV-only mode, with the same no-shifting-necessary seamless feeling of "thrust." The compromises made to styling, namely a swoopy roofline and high beltline, and safety, what with the overly robust appearing A pillars and thick C pillars, make it less inviting to drive than it could be, on the other hand. The price is the final killer: Even on affluent Long Island the salesman said he's sold all of 4 so far.
1 Volt per month. Sounds about right. Good luck, General Motors.
I'm still an overall skeptic due to their incremental nature, but it turns out that the charging infrastructure for EVs is already much better than one may have thought:
EV Owners Increasingly Get a Charge at U.S. Campgrounds
Yep: the 240V 50A RV hookups can be used as EV charge stations with the proper adapter. The two "rates" quoted in the article were $8.50 and $10 for a 4h charge, in which one's car could suck down a maximum of 48 kWh. (Of course, only a Tesla has batteries that capacious.)
EV Owners Increasingly Get a Charge at U.S. Campgrounds
Yep: the 240V 50A RV hookups can be used as EV charge stations with the proper adapter. The two "rates" quoted in the article were $8.50 and $10 for a 4h charge, in which one's car could suck down a maximum of 48 kWh. (Of course, only a Tesla has batteries that capacious.)
thanks for the review - I drove an imiev a while ago (late '09) and they've finally started 'selling' them here.. for NZD60k. No sales figures are available, but I expect it's somewhere south of 1 per month.
I really doubt it'll look as hot by the time it goes into production (IF it goes into production), but the diesel hybrid from Peugeot looks HOT to me! 
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/14/peugeot-reveals-sexy-sxc-crossover-concept-for-shanghai/
Especially love the tail light treatment.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/14/peugeot-reveals-sexy-sxc-crossover-concept-for-shanghai/
Especially love the tail light treatment.
Just saw this vid of the new Dresden VW factory, even if you get all hater on the VW's this is pretty f*cking cool! 
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nd5WGLWNllA?rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nd5WGLWNllA?rel=0
record setting lap for a EV vehicle at the 'Ring. 9mins 1.338 seconds
I walked home today, 5.5 miles according to trailguru. Weather was awesome.