[Oeva-list] Re: EV Awareness Day

[Theoldcars at aol.com]

Hello everyone
 
A lot of good points and thoughts about the EV awareness day. 
 
I just got back from California on a family vacation. I missed this months  
meeting but not all the emails on the above subject. I used more gas on  
vacation last week than I have used in over a year. I drove a loaded  SUV with a 
trailer at 15 miles per gallon. Gas prices in California  was 2.89 a gallon and 
that is pumping it yourself. 
 
Last week while on vacation I dropped the trailer at SMUD  (Sacramento 
Municipal Utility District) and picked up on the way back filled  with S-10 EV 
chargers. I also got to meet and spent a few hours with Dwight  MacCurdy from their 
Energy Efficiency & Customer Research & Development.  Dwight is a really a 
nice person and SMUD has been a  leader in promoting electric vehicles. The car 
manufacturers pulling  the plug on electric vehicles was a real set back for 
them. They are in the  process now of obtaining the new Cal Cars plug in Prius 
with Valance  batteries. 
 
This would not be possible without having a hybrid. It is not  affordable to 
get a plug in Prius from Cal Cars because of the cost of the  batteries. 
However if this is done by a car manufacture the price of the  new battery 
technology would drop. This would go a long way in providing  what all of us want 
better batteries for reasonable prices. Better batteries  that could power a BEV 
for 100 to 300 miles or a PHEV that would  get 125 miles to the gallon of gas.
 
At three dollars a gallon I think a lot of people would see an advantage of  
being able to plug at home and would like it if they could plug in other 
places.  Then we would all have a common goal of the need to be able to plug  in 
vehicles. The Northwest needs places you can plug in and plug in hybrids  would 
help make that happen. So helping the car manufactures sell hybrids  is a step 
in the right direction. Gary's point about the Prius is correct.  I have 
talked to Marc Kohler at Valence the only thing keeping their battery  prices up 
is the fact they do not have a market to mass produce them for.
 
If Toyota started making a plug in Prius with Valence batteries it  would 
outsell the current Prius.  Other car manufactures could not  ignore this and the 
plug in hybrid race would be on. They would want to be able  to advertise 
their hybrid travels the longest using less fuel. This  would appeal to a lot of 
people because it would allow them to have one car with  electric as the main 
power source without limitations.
 
Hybrids are helping people to warm up to the idea that an  electric can 
replace an all gas vehicle. For most people it is very hard to  accept or 
understand that most all their everyday driving can be done with  a BEV. I agree the EV 
Awareness Day focus should be on  plug in electric vehicles but not everyone 
has the time, money or space to build  an electric vehicle. To have a few 
hybrids would help keep them thinking  electric is the way to go even if they 
don't really understand the difference of  a BEV and Hybrid which is most people.
 
I was dropping someone off at the Chevrolet service department. In a  
conversation with the service person he did not understand my  truck was a BEV. At 
first he said we get them in all the time of  course he was talking about the 
hybrid pickup. It was only when I  opened the hood did they get it. Then they 
started asking all the  normal questions. 
 
An EV Awareness Day can add more people to the EV movement that just will  
not accept a BEV. Letting them know the battery technology is here  now for 
Hybrids and they need to contact Toyota to request a the Prius  be a PHEV. A 
Toyota Prius PHEV would have the other manufactures  scrambling to have theirs as 
well. 
 
Looking across Portland today I could not believe all the  pollution. Being a 
weekend makes me believe it has to be from all the  vehicles driving around. 
Burning so much dirty fuel for just local personal  transportation is such a 
waste.
 
Don Blazer
 
1997 & 1998 Chevrolet S-10 E Factory EV
1998 Factory Ford Ranger EV
1997 Solectria Force EV
 
 
 


 
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