EVcast #103: Interview with S.T. Tripathi of ElectricCityMotors.com

Haha, you smart arses! Welcome back to reality. I sent the DVD on Thursday, you should have it soon but thanks for the plug guys. The DVD's are for sale here at $15 each (includes airmail anywhere). Your second accent attempt was better Bo, there's a chance you wouldn't get arrested here with that accent - you'll get a few confused faces though.

And my apologies to the other listeners out there, I'm taking up far too much valuable EV Cast time.

That's an expensive altair battery pack. I'll stick with a lead-sled for now. The "AH" you refered to means amp-hours, or how many amps a battery can handle for a set time in hours.

EVs consume too much water? In that case, perhaps on Mars the formula could be a problem, but here on Earth (over 70% water) I can't see it being a problem. If anything, with the oceans apparently rising then EVs could be the answer we're all looking for. The whole thing sounds like "creative rounding" by some anti-EV people with too much spare time.

The Colorado Auto Connection car looks a bit like a converted Daewoo or similar but heck, I'd buy one just for the cassette player!

Good show today, thanks again for the plug, and apologies for putting you into therapy and I'll dye my hair black if it helps...

:)

Gav

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   I am blown away by the Electric City Car.  It sounds like the real deal.  So $28,000 and you can have one in 30 days. Very nice.  I can't wait to see a third-party review of the vehicle.

  I am a little skeptical of the 4.9 Seconds 0-60MPH.

  The Tesla has a 185 KW motor and does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds

   The Electric City Car has 45 KW motor and does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds???? That seems a little surprising.

    But the other things make sense.  Lead acid batteries with 75 mile range seems reasonable.

    I think Dr. Fred should be a frequent guest on the EV Cast.  That was so funny.

    Regarding water and power generation, I think that the water is used to cool the power plant.  Electric power plants are only 30 to 40% efficient.  The rest of the energy is dissipated as heat.  You have only two choices, dump the heat into the air (not easy to do) or dump it into the water (river, ocean, whatever).  

   I guess the problem could be that some of the water could evaporate, however I think a bigger problem is that there is now hot water where the fish expect cold water.  This can kill off the local fish.  Even if new species of fish (warm water fish) move into the area, whenever the plant shuts down for maintainance, the fish will die from the cold.

   Last summer in France, some of the nuclear power plants were forced to shut down because they were overheating the water in the rivers.  Basically the water in the river was naturally getting hot due to the unusually warm summer, then the power plant added more heat, and the output temperature of the water from the plant exceeded agreed limits and the nuclear power plants were forced to shut down.

Later
John C. Briggs 

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Oh no!  Accent wars with Gav and Bo.  Well, Bo may know electric cars.  Bo may know Software Programming.  Bo may know Ryan.  But Bo does not know didley about New Zealand accents;-)  But very funny with ‘Dr Fred!’

Hmm- the ‘Current’ from Electric City Motors could be intriguing- but $28,000 for a car with lead-acid batteries that is not a conversion seems a bit high.  Wasn’t that converted Yaris made in Arizona only about $20,000?  If he is able to sell a car for $28,000 that has Li-Ion and a 300 mile range…now that would be something else!  And I believe the 60mph reached in 4.9 seconds- it is not just the battery size- that is just the size of the ‘gas tank-‘ but how much of that battery energy you can pull at one time, and one of the advantages of an electric engine is that instant torque- of course, you will burn thru your range pretty quickly with such fast starts.  As John says- it will be interesting to see the reviews on this car when it arrives- and I hope it does- the more EV’s being produced and sold will only push the industry as a whole forward.  Their web site is at:  http://www.electriccitymotors.com/Default.aspx

As for the water issue- perhaps it is not such a big deal in the Northeast, but it is in the West- and it will become bigger.  There are many reports out there concerned with US and world-wide water shortages, and that a lack of water will be the next big issue.  The world’s surface may be 70% water, but the vast majority of that is salt water, and that is not real easy to convert to water that can be used for things like drinking and growing food.  Desalinating salt water to usable water is very energy intensive, and it is hard to do enough to make a dent in our water usage- not impossible, but very hard.

Here are a couple of random links on this:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/73-worldwide_water_worries.html

http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/dec99/Feature2.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21494919/

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070625_desalination_membranes.html

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I'm not sure if it was this show that you mentioned you weren't sure if the Tesla had been crash tested but I dug up a little video for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2b9aW1qE9E

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   Awesome video of the Tesla crash.

   I guess I still cannot understand S.T.'s comments about crash testing.  S.T. suggests that only simulated crashes are needed as long as the car sells less than 10,000 units.

  So I did some looking around on the web.  This NHTSA site is revealing.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/comply/Mission/1_ovsc_1.html

  The key may be this

 In order to provide certification, the manufacturer takes whatever actions it deems appropriate.

 and this

"The (NHTSA) approach used is to develop an annual compliance test program which includes an average of 30 of the 44 testable FMVSSs (30 vehicle standards and 14 equipment standards) and to randomly select test samples from the marketplace and test them to the minimum performance requirements of the applicable standard. "

  The program is listed as a "self-certification" program.  So the car manufacturer decides what testing needs to be done, not the government.  To assure compliance, the NHTSA tests only a few vehicles per year.  

   So if the Electric City EV is built well, perhaps there is no need to crash test it.  They can just claim that it works and start selling them.  If people get into accidents and survive, then there will be no complaints and no NHTSA investigation, and no crash test by NHTSA, and no problems.  If NHTSA does crash test one, and it survives, then no problem.  If it fails, there will be a complaint filed against Electric City and possibly a civil penalty.  So I think if you are confident in your design, crash testing is not needed.

    Perhaps the bigger players (GM, Ford, Tesla?) are just playing it safe.  They are doing testing to assure themselves that the car works properly.  This probably gives them good legal coverage if they are ever sued.

   There is also a sales issue here.  People want to buy safe cars.  So good crash test results may be needed for good sales.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does crash testing of cars and publishes the results for consumers to look at.  It is not a legal requirement to pass this test, but your sales may be lower if you fail these tests.  I think the IIHS program has been MORE effective than the NHTSA program at improving the car crash worthiness.

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Electric Mini Cooper

Well it is only a 2 seater, but they are going to make 500 within early 2009 and with have a range of "up to 150 miles".  Sounds pretty good to me.  Price ??? Any guesses???

http://industry.bnet.com/auto/1000292/mini-brand-from-bmw-unveils-an-electric-car/

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Yesterday I visited Electric City Motors.  It is "real".  They had three cars in their facility.  At the time none of them had motors or batteries mounted, but there were some motor/transaxel assemblies and batteries there ready to be installed.

ST is very confident.

To see pictures from my visit, go to my profile and on the left click on Photo Gallery.

Tom

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The CNT battery that will extend the range of THE CURRENT from 60 miles to 400 miles and recharge in 6 minutes (and last 4 times longer than a regular lead acid battery)  and willl cost

less than twice the cost of a regular lead acid battery sounds like a major breakthrough in

electrical storage costs for electric vehicles....

Will EVcast be interviewing Mr. Siegel of Micro Bubble Technologies (the creator of the CNT battery)  in the near future?

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Well the government is doing something to produce ecofriendly cars, which will help lessening the pollution in the atmosphere for a cleaner environment. Ever hear of Bright Automotive?  Well, most people haven't, but Bright Automotive has something you might be interested in. The Scoot Coupe is a three wheeled vehicle that gets almost 80 mpg, and goes up to 55 mph.  You won't need credit repair if you get one either – it retails for under $7,000.  It's manufactured by Panther Motors in Florida, but it doesn't register as a car.  It registers as a motorcycle, and it's perfect for moderate distance transport.  If most of your driving takes place in town, then a Scoot Coupe is right up your alley.  It's set to revolutionize the scooter industry, and it might have a legitimate shot.  It might be worth a no fax cash advance to order a   Scoot Coupe.

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Bright Automotive does look interesting.  It is a PHEV, perhaps an EREV van designed for tradesman or business use.
http://www.brightautomotive.com/

But I don't see the relationship between Bright Automotive and the 3-wheeled "Scoot Coupe".  Also, the Scoot Coupe is not an EV at all.

But Bright Automotives' EREV van looks very nice.

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It is interesting to look at some of the older inverviews- the Electric City Current is still "coming soon," 7 months later, and there is no mention of the CNT battery as an option, though they still have links to the CNT site.

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