I’m beginning to think the real future of electric vehicle charging has to switch to a filling station model. Today most public electric vehicle charging uses a parking lot model, because the typical charging rate (Level 2 AC at 6 kilowatts) gives 20-25 miles of range per hour of charging.…
There’s a movement afoot aiming to drastically reduce driving, the need for driving, and the need for parking, all in the name of environmental goodness. The theory is that reducing vehicle miles traveled will reduce the negative environmental impact (like greenhouse gas emissions) from transportation, and there will be additional…
The Killacycle Racing Team just set a new speed record in their class (three wheeled streamlined electric motorcycles) and for the first time in history an electric vehicle had the fastest speed at the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials event. I don’t know much beyond a couple postings from the Killacycle…
Renters and other multi-unit-dwelling occupants have a huge barrier to electric vehicle ownership – the access to electricity needed to charge their car at home. I call this “level 0 charging” to differentiate from level 1 (120 volt AC) and level 2 (240 volt AC through a charging station). We…
Do you know the pain of living on “level 0 charging”? That obtuse question is preventing those who rent from buying plug-in electrified vehicles. Level 1 (AC) charging is a 120 volts connection that’s barely suitable for EV charging, while Level 2 (AC) charging is the typical 240 volt 30…
We as a people are transitioning into a fundamentally different society than previous era’s of humanity. This multi-faceted transition is based on new capabilities given us by the new technologies bursting every day into our lives. The key transition making everything else possible, is the shift from burning stuff to…
Electric car drivers must have access to electric vehicle charging spots. That means we, the community of electric vehicle drivers, have developed an etiquette for sharing charging station access. Not everyone knows or follows the etiquette, making for friction and anger. Usually it’s a gasoline car blocking access to a…
Historical streamlined race bike – the NSU SportMax from 1955 History is about to be made at the upcoming eMotoRacing event near Salt Lake City. For the first time in decades a streamlined motorcycle will race in a sanctioned event. If you’re scratching your head and going “why’s that important”…
Taking the shape of a muscle car from an earlier era, Renovo Motors has unveiled the Renovo Coupe all electric supercar. The car, based on a factory-modified Shelby American CSX9000 rolling chassis (“Cobra Daytona Coupe”), has a 0-60 miles/hr time under 3.4 seconds and a top speed over 120 miles/hr.…
Today Tesla Motors released quarterly results for Q2 2014, said they’re on track to exceed the goal of 35,000 Model S sales during 2014, verified that they’d broken ground on a potential Gigafactory location in Reno Nevada, and several other things. Let’s take a look. To start with the news…
Tesla Motors and Panasonic today announced the expected agreement for joint operation of the Gigafactory. Under the agreement, Tesla will own the facility and Panasonic will be the primary partner occupying about half the space. Several companies will be on site manufacturing precursor materials, that Panasonic puts together to make…
Those of us wanting to practice self-sufficiency, to grow our own food, and generally live a low-tech lifestyle, will find Practical Projects for Self-Sufficiency a good guidebook. This is a book that’s not only chock full of ideas for living a low-tech self-sufficient lifestyle, growing your own food and all…
The PlugIn2014 Conference has come to San Jose, and I managed to snag a press pass, so expect to see a few reports over the next couple days about conference sessions. The activity today was getting to do test drives with a few electric vehicles. I got to drive…
BMW today joined the ranks of automakers demonstrating seriosity about electric vehicles. The way I measure this is if the company is not just building an electric car in significant quantity, but is working to support build-out of electric car charging infrastructure. We have a “chicken and egg” situation between…
It’s clear to me that hydraulic fracking, or acidizing, or any of the similar techniques to break up shale deposits, extract oil and natural gas, continuing the age of oil, all that’s a bad idea and we collectively need to stop the practice and instead, as a society, embrace renewable…
