EV selection worldwide
Electric Cars are for Girls
NOVEMBER 11, 2008
This is the most comprehensive list of electric cars for sale I've seen yet! It's international, and covers past, present, future, American, European.awesome. Thank you, Jeroen!
November, 2008
229 
First week with a Tesla
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 27, 2008
Even I was surprised. In my rear view mirror I watched a Los Angeles Sheriff’s car pull out of the Chevron and turn on both its blue and red flashing lights to pursue me down Ventura Boulevard. It had only been hours since I eased out of the Tesla dealership in West Los Angeles and already I had a date with the police. This was not the Burbank police who arrested Alexandra and Colette in 2005 for trying to stop EVs from being crushed.
It's Alive! Updates coming.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 30, 2008
Okay, the cat is out of the bag. I've been working many hours a day over this four-day weekend to try and get the Civic running. As luck would have it, my internet connection went down Thursday morning and is still not back up (I'm typing this from work). I'll post all the progress and pictures when my connection comes back. Suffice it to say, I'm exhausted, but the wheels are spinning as of 12:15pm yesterday(Saturday).
Dodge EV bests Dodge Challenger
Plugs and Cars
NOVEMBER 16, 2008
We first heard about Chrylser's plug-in car plans at the end of September. Less than two months later Chrysler's EV guy Lou Rhodes held an impromptu drag race against his own best gasoline sports car. It doesn't surprise that the electric car outpaced the competition. That such a car was ready to show so quickly does. How about tying the billions of bailout dollars to EVs on the road by the end of 2009?
How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim
Advertisement
emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting
200AH LiFePo4 Battery Test Results
DIY Electric Car
NOVEMBER 5, 2008
A DIY Electric Car Member, david85, has been testing a 200 Amp-Hour LiFePo4 Battery for a few weeks now and has been keeping a public journal of the results. If you're not familiar with LifePo4, it's a fairly new battery technology that promises greater safety than Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer while still holding a good energy density and a decent discharge rate.
PIP Declares Victory
Plug In Partners
NOVEMBER 3, 2008
I t's pretty rare when you get to declare victory and bring the troops home. And those of us at Plug in Partners are grateful to our partners and friends who have made this announcement not just possible, but in a very real sense, a reality. Here's the press release: PLUG-IN PARTNERS DECLARES VICTORY In January 2006, Austin Energy launched the national Plug-In Partners campaign, a grassroots effort to demonstrate to automakers that there is sufficient demand to support the mass production of fle
Sign up to get articles personalized to your interests!
EV Driven brings together the best content on electric vehicles from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
More Trending
Here comes the Electric White Zombie!
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 20, 2008
Oregon Public Broadcasting recently aired a segment on John “ Plasma Boy &# Wayland’s White Zombie - an electric conversion of a 1972 Datsun 1200. Watch the embedded video below to see how quick this DC electric home conversion runs against the gasoline muscle car competition. Enthusiasts like John are showing the performance potential of electric vehicles and proving once again that “filling up&# on electrons is cool.
Arranging the Electronics
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 26, 2008
The next step was to figure out where to put all the control electronics under the front hood to minimize wiring. The Belktronix system comes with velcro attached to the underside of most of its components. I was able to fit the Integrator and Charge Controller in the passenger-side nook, next to the main charging unit. I attached the IsoBatMon circuit to the top of the closest AGM battery (right side of photo) to minimize cable runs.
Two More Teslas Delivered
Plugs and Cars
NOVEMBER 13, 2008
Chris Paine, director of Who Killed the Electric Car? and Linda Nicholes, President of Plug In America , took delivery on Wednesday of their Tesla Roadsters. Chris directed filming of the long-awaited event at Tesla's Santa Monica showroom. And, Chris blogs about it at on his Revenge of the Electric Car site. [Thanks to Paul Scott for the photo.
Electric Powered.Jerry Asher's Spirit of DC travels promote vehicles of the future
Spirit of DC - PHEV3A
NOVEMBER 27, 2008
Electric Powered Jerry Asher's Spirit of DC travels promote vehicles of the future By Gary Dickson -- Record-Bee Publisher LAKEPORT - Jerry Asher drove into Lakeport on Thursday, November 20. It’s doubtful anyone heard him pull into town, though. His car doesn’t make any noise. It’s electric. He is touring America with the Spirit of DC, a plug-in hybrid electric Toyota Prius.
We interrupt this blog for a musical number…
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 21, 2008
Dr. Electric Car’s Sing-a-long Musical Blog. We received this link and our first singalong musical blog posting from Bo Brown and the gang at Hogmolly. Hi folks, Heard you were gearing up for another documentary on the electric car. I saw the first one, it had enough impact on me that I wrote a song on the subject. The song came to me almost complete in a dream, (got up at 4 am to record it) my band Hogmolly recorded it in a live studio performance the day after we learned it.
Voltageville, USA
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 26, 2008
Sacramento’s News 10 reports on the electric cars of Vacaville, CA. In 2003 Vacaville, also known as Voltageville , was miles ahead of other cities with over 100 electric cars on the road in both GM EV1 s and Toyota RAV4-EV s. The California Air Resources Board’s 1990 Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate would have required 10% of all vehicles sold in California to be zero emissions.
Chris Paine on the Ron Reagan Show
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 24, 2008
Air America’s “The Ron Reagan Show&# aired an episode on November 24th, 2008 about what to do about “The Big Three&# automakers. Chris Paine joined Ron live with his views on the bailout for “The Big Three&# , along with thoughts on future innovations in the industry. You can listen to the entire half hour show below. Chris’s interview begins at minute 10.
Recharging the Dream
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 25, 2008
Electric car and renewable energy enthusiast Gerry Gaydos shares his thoughts during a recent trip to California in the nicely narrated video short below. Gerry’s pursuit of renewable energy and electric drive began in the summer of 1997 when he spent time with some engineering students preparing a solar electric race car for the World Solar Challenge.
CNN namechecks ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 23, 2008
Check out this CNN segment from Nov 20th 2008. What next for GM, the Volt, and the director of ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’ … Tags: EV News Inside Track Who Killed the Electric Car GM Chevy Volt Detroit.
Solartaxi visits AeroVironment
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 20, 2008
Stefano readies for a Solartaxi test drive. This summer Swiss visionary Louis Palmer and his friendly team made several stops in Southern California on their global whirlwind tour with their spectacular Solartaxi Electric Vehicle. One of the stops was at AeroVironment in Simi Valley. Solartaxi parked at AeroVironment - Simi Valley, CA. The Solartaxi is a realization of one of Louis’ childhood dreams : to drive a zero emissions solar powered electric car around the world.
Buying Heavy Battery Cable
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 21, 2008
I spent last night visualizing how I could most effectively connect all the traction batteries with the least amount of welding cable and the shortest distance to the controller and motor. This morning I took some thick rope to serve as a fake battery cable and used it to measure the long cable lengths needed to connect the front and rear batteries.
Hacking the Final Hold-downs
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 19, 2008
I installed the remaining hold-downs for the 12V auxiliary battery and the extra battery in the rear trunk this evening. I hadn't designed these hold-downs before I sent all the pieces off to powder-coat, so I'll have to paint them with POR-15 protectant before I finish. Here's a picture of the 12V aux battery hold-down. The battery is a smaller motorcycle battery.
Charger, Controller and Contactor Mounting
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 16, 2008
Today involved trying to mount the major electrical components to the car. Before covering up the transmission, I thought it would be a good idea to fill it with transmission fluid. The Honda Civic specifies 10w-30 oil for the transmission. Since the fill hole is really hard to access, I used a funnel attached to a plastic hose to get the oil in. Before mounting the plastic panel to mount the EV components on, I drilled two 3/16" holes, 6 3/4" apart on the passenger side battery support.
Component Placement on Plastic Control Board
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 14, 2008
With all the components under the firewall rack installed, I put the four remaining batteries in the rack and started figuring out the placement of parts on the control board. Here is the tentative placement of charger and controller. The contactor is off to the far right. I purchased a piece of black "UHMW" plastic (28" long x 8 1/2" wide by 1/2" thick) to mount the components on.
Re-Using Computer Wires
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 15, 2008
The Belktronix system instructions call for attaching all the Batmon boards with twisted pairs of wires. I couldn't find a spool of twisted wires at the hardware store, but it dawned on me that most desktop computers use twisted wires to connect the motherboard with the switches/LEDs on the front panel. So, I went over to my friend non-profit computer recycler FreeGeek and picked up a handful of twisted wires out of their wire recycling bin for $1.
Charger/DC-DC Arrives
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 14, 2008
The last piece of equipment from Belktronix arrived today. Here's the charging system from Belktronix. The 1200 watt charger is combined with the DC-DC converter on the right. The small black box on the left is the charge controller box which interfaces with all the Batmon units that monitor the voltage on each battery. I'm psyched that I finally have all the critical pieces and nothing left is holding me back.
Starter Blockoff Plate Template
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 14, 2008
I took some time this morning to finish all the vacuum pump connections and installing the wiring harness discussed a few posts back. Before installing the batteries in the firewall rack, I needed to measure the starter block-off hole to make a cover for where the starter motor used to be. Here's the engine compartment with the engine wiring harness plugged in and tie-wrapped to several locations.
My Tesla arrives in Los Angeles!
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 12, 2008
It’s alive! It’s alive! It’s alive! My brand new silver all-electric Tesla Roadster sportscar (#23) arrived by truck in Los Angeles yesterday. Shrouded in plastic and tucked into the back of a semi with three other Tesla’s, it waited to be rolled onto the streets of Los Angeles. My nervousness turned to pure joy as it eased down and I got to drive it into the showroom for its final set of checks.
Preparing the Engine Wiring Harness
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 9, 2008
Before I can put in the firewall batteries and start hooking things up, I need to finish cleaning up the engine wiring harness. Here's what's left of the wiring harness after I removed all the things I didn't need. In the middle of the harness on the right is a nine-foot long loop of 4-in-1 automotive wire (16 gauge) that I'm going to attach to several wires as an extension so that I can easily route everything to the EV controller board in front of the firewall batteries.
Partying with Plug In America
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 8, 2008
Saturday September 27th, 2008 : Immediately after the Santa Monica 2008 AltCarExpo , “ Who Killed the Electric Car? &# Director Chris Paine graciously hosted Plug In America ’s very first fundraiser at his PV+EV residence in Culver City, CA. GM's amazing Chevy Volt - A 100% electric drive (range extending) plug-in hybrid. Mmmmm.Tesla.
Installing the Circuit Breaker
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 8, 2008
Remember that huge Airpax circuit breaker that I got in the mail? Well, it's time to install it. I learned how to remove the center console cover by reading the Civic shop manual. Here I've removed the cover and am holding back the driver's seat to show a better view. In hindsight, I had to remove the driver's seat and it would have been a good idea to do it right at the start.
Installing the Vacuum Pump
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 9, 2008
I installed the Gast vacuum pump and pressure tank next. First, I installed rubber motor mounts underneath the Gast vacuum pump. Since I'm mounting this on uneven pieces of metal, I needed to add two 1/16" thick 1"dia. fender washers to the two feet on the front. The rubber feet serve two purposes: keep the motor vibration from rattling the chassis and raising the pump to clear the supporting angle iron.
Kick Gas 2008
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 7, 2008
“It’s gonna be Earth Day on STEROIDS !&# That’s how EV fan Paul Thomas lured us to the sun-scorched Barona Drag Strip to film this year’s Kick Gas Festival. Barona has seen many grudge matches over the years, but this was one we couldn’t miss; the first head to head between electric dragsters and old school gas guzzlers.
Installing the Powdercoated Racks
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 8, 2008
The past two days have been productive. I went to Class Act to pick up the powder-coated angle-iron and installed most of it. Here are the powder-coated pieces all nicely wrapped up to prevent damage. Here are the pieces unwrapped. Yep, all 39 pieces are there and in good condition. I started by installing the rear battery rack. The two cross pieces of angle-iron sit on top of the two square tubes.
Installing the Potbox
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 8, 2008
The Belktronix system tries to make installing the potbox a no-brainer by allowing the user to put it right under the accelerator pedal. For the Civic, this works out quite well. Here are the heavy-duty Velcro pieces that come with the Belktronix kit. The intent is to put the "hook" side of the Velcro on the rear side of the potbox and simply stick it to the rug under the pedal.
Battery Monitoring Parts
Open Source Civic EV Kit
NOVEMBER 6, 2008
I received several more critical items in the mail this past week. Here are several components from the Belktronix battery monitoring system. In the upper left is the "batmon" unit (one for each battery) that monitors each battery. The black/white wire coming out of the top is a temperature sensor which adjusts the final shunt voltage based on the environment.
We Love Electric Bikes
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 6, 2008
0 to 20 in seconds, pedaling optional. Three weeks ago we spent the day shooting at the Kick Gas Festival in San Diego. One of our favorite diversions was testing the electric bikes. I’ve always been skeptical about e-bikes. Why waste electricity when you can just pedal? Well, that day changed our minds. Electric bikes could well be the secret weapon of the EV revolution.
Postcard from Iceland (2 of 2)
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 3, 2008
Shooting in a rain storm at the Blue Lagoon. It’s really hard to beat a week in Iceland. With the conference over, we went on a tour tracking down electric cars and the clean electricity to power them. With our Icelandic Camera Operator Bjorn Helgason. Highlights the second half included an unlikely interview in the spectacular black lava “Blue Lagoon&# hot springs.
Let's personalize your content