I had a total of 109 people enter into this competition and using TwitRand I was able to select a winner from my Twitter followers at random. The computer chose Dan Morril (@morrildl) of San Francisco as the lucky winner. Congratulations, Dan! A copy of Sherry’s book is winging it’s way to you very shortly.
For those who weren’t lucky enough to win a copy of Sherry’s book then don’t despair. Next months’ giveaway is equally as cool. Details after the jump!
It wasn’t until I spent some time reading my .rss feeds today that I even heard of a new EV company which launched today. It almost seemed too good to be true. A London-based company, full of really creditable names from the Auto Industry, who are offering brand new, fully converted Citroen C1s. And at a price tag of £16,850 it’s actually not that much more expensive than the lithium ion powered G-Wiz. But a whole lot more impressive, if the specs can be believed.
There’s only one thing which concerns me. Is it actually available today, or do we have another car company scrapping for attention with a promise and a prayer?
And what’s this suspicious looking ‘photoshop’ artifact on one of the photographs on the company’s website, just about where an exhaust would be? The Electric Car Corporation's C1 which launched today. But is it vaporware?
A few weeks ago I announced the first prize giveaway on www.aminorjourney.com. Anyone who followed me on Twitter was automatically entered into a free prize-draw to win a copy of Sherry Boschert’s excellent book, Plug-In Hybrids: The cars which will recharge America .
I had a total of 109 people enter into this competition and using TwitRand I was able to select a winner from my Twitter followers at random. The computer chose Dan Morril (@morrildl) of San Francisco as the lucky winner. Congratulations, Dan! A copy of Sherry’s book is winging it’s way to you very shortly.
For those who weren’t lucky enough to win a copy of Sherry’s book then don’t despair. Next months’ giveaway is equally as cool. Details after the jump!
Twenty-Seven days ago I tagged along with a friend to London, where we picked up a very rare and historic EV – a 1984 VW Golf City Stromer. For the next few weeks this car sat on my driveway while my friend worked hard to get it back on the road after over two years…
Twenty-Seven days ago I tagged along with a friend to London, where we picked up a very rare and historic EV – a 1984 VW Golf City Stromer. For the next few weeks this car sat on my driveway while my friend worked hard to get it back on the road after over two years…
I’d like to proudly announce that I’m going to become the regular Wednesday host of EVcast! If you heard last week’s show you’ll have an idea of what is to come over the next few weeks and months, but hopefully tomorrow will be the second in a long-running series of Wednesday EVcasts, with yours truly…
I’d like to proudly announce that I’m going to become the regular Wednesday host of EVcast! If you heard last week’s show you’ll have an idea of what is to come over the next few weeks and months, but hopefully tomorrow will be the second in a long-running series of Wednesday EVcasts, with yours truly…
Honda, the company who likes to brag about being the first to sell a commercially available hydrogen car, has done a complete U-turn on it’s future plans to manufacture a plug in electric or plug in hybrid electric vehicle. After many years of claiming that there would be no other electric vehicles from Honda after…
Honda, the company who likes to brag about being the first to sell a commercially available hydrogen car, has done a complete U-turn on it’s future plans to manufacture a plug in electric or plug in hybrid electric vehicle. After many years of claiming that there would be no other electric vehicles from Honda after…
Last week at the 2009 SAE World Congress the final plans were bashed out for a new way to charge plug in vehicles. Sadly it’s not an inductive one like the oh-so-simple charge paddles which were used on cars like the EV1 and RAV4EV to name but a few. No, this new standard is a good old-fashioned mechanical plug. You plug your car in and up to 30 Amps at either 120 or 240V flows into your car. Neat.
The latest version of the charging standard, called J1772, will include a five prong plug, capable of allowing communication between the external charger and the car charging. The Volt is rumored to be using it and Tesla have already signed up to make it standard on their cars. But it’ll only be used in the USA. Europe, in it’s own special way, has gone a different route, with a three-prong design capable of up to 80Amps at 240V. Unfortunately, the European standard is three-phase, meaning that it is unlikely to work in most European domestic situations without a complete home re-wire.
Yazaki aren't new to charging plugs. This is their previous plug, used on the early Toyota RAV4EVs
Fast charging is great, but does this spell the end for the DIY converter, or those of us who already drive cars with standard domestic plugs? And when you scratch the surface we risk looking at a future where charging plugs are far from standard. With the European standard and US standard finalized, are car companies now going to play nice and only ever use one of two EV charging plugs. What about cross-continent imports? And will those of us with cars now be able to retrofit our cars?
