Chrysler EV prototype

Here is a look at what is happening with the electricdrive around the globe.

• Volvo’s C30 Battery Location.  Volvo is wondering where to put the batteries for its C30 EV, according to Just-Auto.  The tunnel shaft seems like a natural place, once you have sealed it enough away from nature.
• Geo-Thermal Mergers.  We did not have to wait too long for the results of mergers in the alternative energy field, and especially in geo-thermal.  Smaller geo-thermal companies have merged to create bigger ones and thus become more relevant, according to an interview of Steven Li, Senior VP of Technology & Cleantech at Raymond James on Seeking Alpha.
• Mercedes Plans S-class PHEV By 2012.  Mercedes is working on a plug-in hybrid, PHEV in no less than its S-class series, according to the CarConnection.  The new PHEV should be ready by 2012.
• Happy New Year Zero Motorcycles, Here Is $5.6 Million.  Not a bad way to start off the year for the electric motorcycle maker with a fresh flow of $5.56 million in funding, according to SantaCruzSentinel.  This is especially important as this year promises to be an epic battle for EV makers to once and for all establish the dominance.
• 2010 Green Energy First Week.  The first week of 2010 has been favorable for the green energy sector with $113 million into green tech companies, via Earth2Tec.  Who? The list is not exhaustive but Clean Power Finance, Innovalight, Coda Automotive and Zero Motorcycles as you have read above.

That’s it for now, stay tuned for more.

Moto Czysze

2009 has given us tantalizing motorcycle concepts, previews and prototypes.  Here are the ones we believe are not only the most important but will define 2010.

The gist is that if you want to have an idea where the future is going, look at what concepts and prototypes have to offer today.  The years winners are the electric two-wheelers.

2009 Most Promising Electric Motorcycle Award goes to… Mission One.  OK, before you get on the comment section, hear us out.  Mission One is the Tesla Roadster of the the electric motorcycle world.  Yes, Brammo won the TTXGP but Mission One promises unadulterated torque, power and speed.  In the world of electric motorcycle, it is enthusiasm at it best.  We hope to see more from them in 2010.

2009 Electric Two Wheel Award goes to…  Brammo for their Inertia.  Winning the TTXGP, Brammo edges out the competition.  With a brilliant twist on the distribution front, selling their bikes through Best Buy was nothing short of a genius.  The bike is good looking, will be easy to check out and offers great performance for the cost.

Inertia Brammo, picture Nick Zart

2009 Electric Two Wheel Best Growth Award goes to… Zero Motorcycles.  Now here is a new company that wasted no time.  Zero Motorcycles has 4 motorcycles to choose from, from the original dirt X, DX, MX and S.  It has any and all electric motorcycles you would ever need.

Zero Motorcycles DS

2009 Most Tantalizing Electric Motorcycle goes to…  MotoCzysz.  And yes, we still do not know how to pronounce it but what a stunning beauty!  Promising performance, a drop dead design, this bike has all in the making to even trump Mission One.  Let us hope they actually make it.

Moto Czysze

This was probably the hardest awards to make this year.  The electric motorcycle world is jam pack with fantastic products, amazing teasers and bright promise for the future.  One easy prediction we can make for 2010 is that the electric motorcycle will continue to impress us all.  Great job in that department!

Tesla Motors shop

Plug In America has kept busy the last few months with a successful AASHTO meet in Palm Springs, California as well as the result of its bumper sticker game, according to their newsletter.

AASHTO What? AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials works to preserve the nation’s transportation infrastructure and is a nonprofit advocacy organization representing every U.S. state’s department of transportation.  Some of its members got to drive PIA board member Linda Nicholes’ very own Tesla Motors Roadster.

Plug In Amarica’s newsletter, shows Randell Iwasaki, director of the California Department of Transportation, Caltrans got to experience a Tesla and was thrilled.  He now understand what we mean by an “EV grin”.  It said that he now thinks Caltrans needs some Teslas for its fleet.

SolarCity was there with their solar carport, as well as BMW MINI E, a Zero Motorcyles Zero S street bike, a Boulder Electric Vehicle delivery truck, a ZENN and a plug-in Prius converted by A123.  Clipper Creek showed off its charging station.

UPDATE: Toyota and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  More than 1,600 Plug In America supporters responded immediately to the call to tell Toyota to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  You can visit Plug In America to read some of the coverage and subscribe to their newsletter.

Bumper Sticker Winners Picked.  PIA chose the top three vote-getters in their bumper sticker contest!  Ranging from: Electric Cars – OPEC Free (Kip Meeboer), to My Electric Car Pollutes Less than Your Honor Student (Stephen Weitz) and End the Addiction – Drive Electric! (Jon Hellam), the honorable mention goes to long-time supporter and EV driver Darrell Dickey, of EVNut.com, for Let’s Play: Find the Tailpipe.

Source: Plug In America, click here for the newsletter.

Zero Motorcycles DS

Zero Motorcycles is now reaching out to municipalities and making a strong case.

The gist is that municipalities could save a pretty penny and make their tax payers even happier in the long run if they switched their vehicle to electric power.  Steps into center stage Zero Motorcycles.

By making its electric motorcycles available to municipalities, small businesses and organizations, the company opens it up for sales and rentals.  Rentals is probably the smartest way to show how effective electric motorcycles are and for companies not have to worry about maintenance.  For most fleets, the switch to the electric drive is daunting.  They will need to recruit mechanics and implement an electric drive department.

Click here for the Press Release.

AltCar Expo

The gist is that anyone from GM with its Volt from local electric car converters is there and ready to talk to anyone with questions.

Brammo And Best Buy.  Brammo is showing its electric motorcycle along with Best Buy who has taken a stake in the company.  Even if Best Buy sells electric scooter, the Brammo is the only electric motorcycle sold in the electronic store.

Zero Motorcycles.  Zero Motorcycles was showing its new street bike, the Zero S next to its dirt version the X.  The motorcycle is sleek and apparently very sturdy.

Commuter Cars, Tango.  Cannot say enough of the interesting looking Tango.  More to come on the ride.

AC Propulsion.  When it comes to electric vehicles, EV, pretty much everyone owes something to AC Propulsion.  Josh Allan was there again to give test rides of the incredible eBox.  It still is my reference.  More to come on that.

Stay tuned for more on the test drives and rides.

• Review Of The SAE 2009 Conference.  Our friends at GreenCarCongress have done a superb job rationalizing everything that happen at the SAE 2009 conference.
• Phoenix Motorcars Bankruptcy.  It would appear that Phoenix Motorcars is filing for bankruptcy according to AutoBlogGreen, but issued a press release saying they are still working on their EV pickup trucks.
• Face-To_Face Zero Motorcycles vs Quantya.  How does the best U.S. electric motorcycle company fares against the best European electric motorcycle company, Quantya?  According to our friends at Zero Motorcycles and their press release, they duke it out yesterday in Las Vegas Orleans arena at the AMAMaxxis Mini Moto Supercross avent.  And the results…
• Tesla To GM, You Shouldn’t Have Done It.  As much as we like the Tesla Roadster and now the Model S, we are starting to feel the cheap shots at GM are not helping the situation.  Elon Musk states the obvious that GM should have never pulled the plug on the EV-1, which the company has acknowledged already.  Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, why don’t we work on what’s right?  Let’s just get the electric cars out the door without reintroducing the cheap shots that overpowered the auto industry’s last decades.  Source: InternationalBusinessTimes.
• Brammo Hires Industry Leaders.  Apparently Brammo wants things to work out well and have hired a new Director of Marketing, John Farris, Adrian Stewart as the Director of Channel Development and Roger Gerson as the Electrical Engineering Manager, according to PRNewsWire.
• Tips For Saving Fuel, No Matter What Car.  Here is a good interview with Gil Portalatin from the Ford on testing the Fusion Hybrid.  What stands out from the tips he recommends on how to save gas is not only a no-brainer but it makes us realize how people still gun it for green lights and have very little anticipation of traffic patterns.  A good read from CNN for anyone who drives a car, regardless of it propulsion means.  We still think gas is too cheap in the U.S..  People are still not conscious enough… yet.

More to follow later today.

The gist is that electric motorcycles surprise even the most veteran riders. The instantaneous torque of an electric motor is always surprising after being used to the slower revving internal combustion engine, ICE.

After A Dirt Bike, A Street Bike.  After coming out with a crowd pleasing Zero X dirt bike, Zero Motorcycles realized they were onto something and decided to start working on an electric street bike.  And the word from PopularMechanics is that it is: “the first full-size, highway-legal electric motorcycle to go into mass production. Yet its guilt-free low emissions are almost an afterthought. This thing is fast. “

Technically Speaking.  With the same torque as a Suzuki GSX-R750, this little EV motorcycle is the street version of the initial Zero X.  It is slightly upgraded with a 4 kilowatt-hours battery pack, which rates the 22Kw electric motor at 31 hp with 62.5 lb-ft of torque.  With a low center of gravity and a light weight frame, the bike weighs merely 225 pounds and does 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds.

Light But Tough.  Don’t get fooled equating light with dangerous, that’s so last century.  According to Neal Saiki, the founder of Zero Motorcycles and designer of the S: “Supermotos and dirt bikes just get crashed a lot. One of the things our customers have been surprised about is how hard you can crash our motorcycles and just pick them up and ride off,”

In fact the Zero S is so potent that inexperience electric riders will find themselves doing wheelies if they go full throttle from a standstill.  With an electric motorcycle as this one, you best gently roll the throttle up to 20 mph before asking for a full does of what it can do.

At less than $10,000, you’ll be able to keep up with the big boys without polluting under 60 mph.  The Zero S is what the Tesla Roadster is to electric cars.  We’ll try to get our hands on it soon.

The gist is that Los Angeles and most of Southern California is pretty active with the electric drive and alternative energy.  There are always interesting things to see at any car gathering.

Electric Cars Are Everywhere.  Every time we go to a car meet, usually for collector cars, there will be a few alternative drives that will sneak in.  This GP has a few.

Remember the Electric Cutie, Mary Lou Long’s electric Miata we wrote about?  Mary Lou and her husband are here, next to a reproduction Porsche Speedster, all electric.  Just off behind is another reproduction, this time of a beautiful Daytona Coupe, all electric and all decked out for racing.  Next to the Electric Cutie is the original Zero Motorcycle dirt bike.   Lastly, we met the Tango folks, from Commuter Cars and owner, Rick Woodbury.

And guess what?  Interviews are to follow very soon.  On Sunday the Tango and a few other electric cars will take a few spin on the track with a few burn outs and other spectacular things in order to catch the public interest.  Hey, you have to grab their interest if they are to understand the potential of the electric motor.

Finally, we go on Fridays, because it is still a fairly quiet day when we can speak to everyone and see the new technologies.  Sunday will be the big races.

Last and final thoughts.  We had some very interesting conversations with the Patron Acura LMP1 team who told us there might be an all electric sports prototype that should be racing next year.  Exciting news and we can’t wait to follow up on that.  Lastly, speaking to car restorateur FastCars from Redondo Beach, who specializes in Ferraris.  When we asked one of their technicians and engineer what he thought about the electric drive, he clearly said it was the future.  And this is in the midst of a see of Ferraris, a 250 GTO worth multi-millions, a 1958 and 1967 F1s, an Abarth 200 racer (ultra rare) and some extremely rare 250s.  Coming from them, it was good to hear.

So by tomorrow, we should have more stories on these interesting projects and cars at the GP.  We’ll cover the Toyota Prius, and the plug-in hybrid, PHEV version of it.  There are also a Fuel Cell SUV and the CNG Hybrid.  Ford is showing its Fusion Hybrid.

• iMiEV In The U.S..  This time Mitsubishi has confirmed that their iMiEV would be sold in the U.S., according to AutoBlogGreen.
• MDI Strikes A Deal With Air France-KLM In Nice.  Remember that little compressed air vehicle, CAV called the AirPod?  It seems MDI, the company behind the CAV has inked a deal to support the Air France-KLM alliance starting at the Nice airport and moving on to Paris, according to AirCargoWorld. The CAV uses only compressed air and does not pollute. More to folow on this.
• The Mercedes S 400 HYBRID Cometh!  The Mercedes S 400 hybrid, HEV is finally coming.  It will be the world’s first standard production hybrid drive with a lithium-ion battery, according to FinChannel.
• PHEV And Fuel Savings.  GreenTechMedia takes a stab at the tricky topic of how much fuel does a plug-in hybrid, PHEV really save you.  As we have said before, it all depends on how, where and the state of traffic you deal with.  A feather foot and smart commuting will always make the difference in any cars.  Google’s analysis of converted Prius to PHEV showed their average at 93.5mpg, 115 for city trips.
• Zero S Is Coming.  Zero Motorcycles is readying its Zero S we mentioned here before.  The gist, $9.950 before tax break, a range of 60 miles, top speed 60 mph, 31 peak horsepower with 62.5 pound-feet of torque, according to FastCompany. 

That’s it for now but stay tuned for more.

• Zero Motorcyles EV Race.  According to our friends from CNET, Zero Motorcycles is pushing forward with their EV motorcycle race.  Dubbed the 24 Hours of Electricross, 10 teams participated and raced in 1-hour shifts for 24 straight hours, at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds, CA. this passed weekend.  Click here for more news.
• Volt, Phase II.  Their are more hints on the next phase of the Volt, as GM is asking the government for more money, according to EV World.  Thousands of dollars cheaper, ultracapacitors could pop up and E85 ethanol.  Can’t wait for version 2.0.
• Lessons From Europe.  The NY Times talked about potential points U.S. car manufacturers could learn from Europe, which we mentioned plenty of times here, higher fuel taxes reduce consumption, curbing petroleum lobbies grip, and finally oil use in the U.S. rose by over 20% between 1973 and 2007 but Germany and France cut their oil demand by 25% over the past 25 years and Japanese has not risen.  Simple and effective.
• GM Wants More Money. GM went back to Washington to ask for more and came back without Wagoner, but what are the details?  According to Freep, $2.6 billion were asked in low-interest government loans for 2 spin-offs of the Volt with a third hybrid vehicle, which makes the total GM has asked for $10.3.
• Seoul Auto Show Recap.  Hyundai’s Blue Will concept, is a large plug-in  hybrid, PHEV with a 152bhp 1.6 direct injection internal combustion engine, ICE and 134bhp electric one, according to AutoCar.
• Japan Entices Hybrid Buyers With $3,000.  If in the U.S. some hybrid, HEV and EV buyers can get up to $7,500, in Japan it’s $3,000, according to Reuters.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more.