33Nick

Energy Watch: Solve for California

Living in California makes me think the system needs to implode once and for all in order for those elected officials to be ousted and rework a more efficient one.

Right now, what I see are people making sacrifices and elected official continuing their business with the same salaries, opposing one another as they have done in the past.

This has to change.

Dow’s Solar Shingles: A Solar Product People May Actually Buy

We covered this ingenuous company and product a while back tinyurl.com/yg8sos7, but seeing the government become wiser and pushing the back bone of our economy, i.e. small companies and their innovations, hints toward a more sustainable economic model.

This is smart capitalism at work. Indeed, rather them bother taxpayers to consume less, give tax breaks. Great article.

The Electricnick.com team with the Electric Car Examiner.com

Will Windows 7 Resurrect IT Spending?

If I had a dime for every time a new Windows was supposed to rekindle the industry and truly be the "best" one yet, I would be rich. I don't see Windows 7 making much of a dent. Unlike the Apple switch to Unix, Windows 7 is yet another Windows on top of Windows.

IT spending will go up a bit because most of the front IT infrastructure is tied to Windows. As new computers need to be bought, they will come with Windows 7, as was the case for XP. Not too many shops will rush to upgrade to 7.

The next Windows would need to be truly innovative to rekindle an industry that is more interested than ever on ROI and allocating budget to more important projects than OSs. Companies, like investors are skittish with investments, rightfully so. Maybe the next Windows could be like what Apple did with OSx? It would be a welcome upgrade to finally have a worthy, trusty, secured and finally robust Windows. That would be a revolutionary step forward.

Like most people, I got burned too many times with Microsoft to even look at SP1, 2 and 3. Microsoft knows we won't bother with SP1, so it will rush out SP2. Sorry, been there, seen that.

Is the Auto Industry Stuck in Reverse?

We have met with many officers at Ford and found them to not only understand their situation, but also grasp how they were seen by consumers as pickup truck builders. Ford is doing a 180 turn around in order to instill the image of an efficient car builder. To this day, Ford produces the most frugal SUV hybrid that gets 34mpg in city driving.

What impressed us most is their will to fight, how they have updated their entire portfolio of cars and their desire to change their image. We feel they are on the right track. If they continue this way, people will buy their products which will help the financial situation they are in, i.e. paying back of the loans they took out 2 years ago.

The Electricnick.com team with the Electric Car Examiner

Google Aims to Halve the Cost of Solar Power

No really sure how you are tying Microsoft in this. Google has been ver active since last decade on alternative energy and lowering its datacenter energy costs, much before Microsoft. Granted, MS' research departments are very good, we don't see too many of it trickling into their products.

Thanks for a good post.
The Electricnick team with the Electric Car Examiner.

Maxwell Technologies: A Stock Pick for Solar, Wind and Hybrid Lovers

We believe ultracapacitors will play a big part of hybrids, HEV and pure electric vehicles, EV. We test drove AFS Trinity's famous XH-150 and were impressed at how well both lithium batteries and ultracapacitors blended well together.

Great article.

The Electricnick.com team.

Auto Sharing Boosts Green Industry

It will be interesting to see how this develops, especially in congested cities, where it makes most sense. We are hoping it will involve more pure electric cars in the short term future so that it drastically reduces pollution.

p.s., the notion of car sharing is an old one. The French author/singer Boris Viand thought of a similar strategy in Paris where people would leave cars open to anyone with a box to put money for fuel whenever needed. OK, so it isn't exactly ZipCar's business plan but outrageous ideas eventually come about.

The Electricnick.com team.

Why Ford Is a Goner

Mayb part of the answer could come from France that is subsidizing Renault and has the Peugeot/Citroen group on its own. Somehow they both manage to operate.

Ford could become the U.S. Peugeot and continue its lead, IF it reworks intelligently its business model and finds the right investors.

The Electricnick.com team.

Auto Manufacturing - An Industry Whose Time Is Up

Unfortunately, most modern big businesses have no contingency plans, a reality we all too often see. It shouldn't be too shocking to see that happening with the likes of GM and Chrysler. It is not surprising to see their business plans not having backup plans. What is surprising is why then did we have financial and business man run these car companies then?

Yes, the 2000s are for more nimbler companies that have exit strategies and contingency plans.

The Electricnick.com team.

The New Detroit Isn't in Detroit

It seems it will have to be a joint venture whereas the startups will bring innovations to the table and hopefully the mainstream companies will use their mass producing infrastructure to create them. It will have to happen this way.

In the meantime, California has been the hotbed of automobile innovations for decades. Just look at the skunworks neatly tucked away in hidden hangars there.

The Electricnick.com team.

Toyota Far Surpasses GM When It Comes to EV

It goes back to the same point many people are making, there are many types of batteries for EV, depending on your needs.

Although, we would like to point that Toyota is no angel when it comes to EVs, having quoted some of its top managers saying when they built the RAV4 EV, they built too well and couldn't make money off of them. Indeed, there was very little maintenance cost. What did Toyota do, instead of "developing" this great technology? It simply yanked out the vehicles, despite a very strong following.

In the end, we believe lead-acid and their derivatives are great for city dwellers and heavy equipment, NiMH is a good compromise for performance/range/price and when it comes to pure performance, lithium tops it, albeit at a price premium.

The Electricnick.com team.

The Great Driving Reduction: Consumers Spend Less on Gas, With No New Legislation

Brilliant. Does this mean consumers are taking things into their own hands and not surrendering to what politicians think is right for them? Striking!

Ultimately, consumers have the real power in something as innocent as a rectangular plastic card called, the credit card. By choosing not to consume, it sends a much bigger and stronger warning than having to be forced by laws that never fully answer the underlying problem.

Great point.
The Electricnick.com team.

China Inks Deal with Siemens for World's Largest High Speed Rail Network

It reminds us that there is nothing worse than differed maintenance. We have to catch up with the rest of the world by building new rail infrastructure, overhead centenaries and high-speed train signaling. In the end, it costs more to catch up than to maintain and improve, much like our revamping of the grid systems will cost.

The Electricnick.com team.

Will Green Cars Make Detroit Profitable?

One of our staff member has a 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider with a supped up engine that gets 25mpg and can still hold its own next to bloated Beemers. And who needs AC anyway? We've grown to become such softies.

Electricnick.com


On May 04 09:11 AM john s. gordon wrote:

> i have a small green car (green paint was redone a couple yrs ago).
>
> it has a 2 litre engine.
> it gets 33 mpg if i keep rebuilding the carburetor.
> it has a 5-speed manual xmission (automatics waste gas).
> it has no a/c (they waste gas too).
> i bought it new in 1974. i had to fight off other would-be buyers
> because the dealer couldn't get product from the factory (he would
> have sold it to someone else for 500 over list).
> it was built in japan.
> i think i'll keep it.
> am i ahead of a trend somehow?

Another Look at Geothermal Energy

Geo-thermal is the ideal energy source, plenty available at all time with minimal environment impact. We hope to see it evolve and help the quick evolution of the electric car.

Electricnick.com