Monthly Archives: December 2013
Envia Systems troubles puts cloud over GM’s 200+ mile range electric car claims
Nearly two years ago, Envia Systems wow’d the electric car world claiming to have developed lithium-ion battery technology that would slash battery pack costs, while giving a huge boost in energy density. Ever since, GM’s CEO Dan Akerson talked about how GM would be building a 200+ mile range affordable…
The dying oceans will doom humanity unless we make drastic changes, says Oceanographer Jeremy Jackson
ZENN buys large chunk of EEStor as old supercapacitor story lives on
Somehow the ZENN/EEStor story is continuing along after several years. A few years ago EEStor claimed it had developed supercapacitor technology that would revolutionize electric vehicles with its magical energy density and storage. The story was so amazing that ZENN, then a maker of low speed electric vehicles, switched their…
Formula E reportedly loses Lucas di Grassi as development driver
Lucas di Grassi has left his test driver post with the FIA Formula E organization, so that he can be a driver with one of the teams. The issue is that FIA rules don’t allow a series test driver to also be a participant in the series, and therefore to…
Hong Kong’s round in the Formula E canceled by local bureaucracy
There was a little bit of difference between the original calendar announced by Formula E, and the most recent calendar. Namely: Hong Kong was not to have a Formula E date, and was replaced by a date in Rio de Janeiro. When the calendar was announced, I went “ho hum”…
How will Formula E fill a whole weekend of track time during each race weekend?
This thought has been in the back of my mind for awhile – the Formula E electric car racing series will set up an FIA sanctioned race track in each of the host cities for a full weekend. The focus of the event is an electric car race, and presumably…
Sen. Baucus proposes eliminating electric car tax credit to simplify energy tax code
US Senator Max Baucus (D-MONT) wants to kill the federal tax credit for electric cars (section 30D) in favor of a system for “technology-neutral” tax credits for “clean fuels”. The proposal is part of a larger package of energy tax code reforms that Baucus thinks will simplify the tax code,…
Formula E gets $21 million investment from owners of Boston Celtics, holds launch party in Malaysia
Those of us who are fans of electric motorcycle racing are probably jealous of all the attention the Formula E electric car racing series is getting. In any case, the latest bit of news is that Boston Celtics managing partner Wyc Grousbeck and a dozen of his co-owners in the NBA…
Transit systems struggle because of low population density? Because rich people don’t use transit?
Is Silicon Valley’s mass transit system underfunded because the population density is too low, or because rich people don’t take mass transit? Last week I posted a couple items about the Google Buses – generally speaking, the privately operated bus systems run by several Tech Companies in the SF Bay…
Tesla Motors almost doubling Model S manufacturing capacity for sales in Europe and Asia
Radioactive water release from Fukushima may be inevitable
Officials in Japan are beginning to suggest the unthinkable at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant: releasing stored radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. On Tuesday, the China Post reported that a Japanese government panel studying the problem of radioactive water at Fukushima have agreed to postpone the problem of…
Video reports from anti-hydraulic fracturing battle-field in rural Romania
An intense anti-hydraulic fracturing protest is underway in a remote tiny Romanian village, Pungesti, where the Jandarmeria (military style police from the central government) were deployed to brutally put down protesters, and ensure that Chevron can go ahead with plans to begin fracking and drilling for natural gas. As I…
Chevron trying to buy shale gas rights in Romania by bribing children
The other day I wrote about Romanians in a tiny village fighting off Chevron’s plan to tap Shale Gas reserves, deploy hydraulic fracturing, while facing police violence because the Government is doing Chevron’s bidding. The story is an encapsulation of the whole globalized search for fossil fuel resources, and the…