theBike

Zenn to Put $2M to $5M More in EEStor, but Questions Linger

This is an old and tired article by the ever-unknowing Kanellos. Since it was first published a whole lot of additional infor has beeen release, including the surprising knowledge that the EESUs are operating in paraelectric phase, not he assumed ferroelectric phase. Poof! There go the claims of many skeptics who claimed EESTor devices would face dielectic saturation. I know Kanellos doesn't have a clue as to what I'm saying. Let that inform you as to his ability to make any comments about this emerging technology. And the slippage in development has ben well documented and is obviously yet another small but crucial detail about which Kanellos is unaware. To forestall anymore articles like this one, I note that this permittivity test was the final milesatone prior to delivery of production line units. Should occur before end of 09. As for brainless blogger baghead - Weir has never claimed to have tested a working prototype - if that were the case, there abviously would be no point in these interim tests, such as the one recently completed. So shut up, already.

Critiquing John Petersen´s `The Plug-in Vehicle Scam`

Odd that no one has realized that Obama's "dream" of a million EVs on the road in 11 years is more a fraud than anything else. A million EVS won't have any detectable effect, either on oil demand (less than 1/5th of one percent) or carbon emissions. In fact, carbon emissions, as per a recent British analysis by,, of all things, a wildlife
environmental group, even in the best current situation, will have virtually no effect on carbon emissions (1/10 of 1 percent).
These arguments show the folly of trying to make longterm predictions in an arena (battery development) that is so volatile. The DOE estimates were truly brainless - even the attempt indicated sheer ignorance of the subject matter. Recent advances by MIT in both power, recharge speed and lifespan (without any cost increase) of li ion batteries will be commercially available probably about the time the Volt comes to market. Then there's the EEStor factor. If those things wors, it's all over - the ICE is dead as a doorknob, strictly because of cost reductions. When one goes from an ICE design to an EV design, the difference isn't simply in the cost of the battery pack. EV designs have cost efficiencies all their own - no need for a transmission, cooling system, exhaust system, an engine with 1000 parts and extensive maching costs, a starter or a fuel system, fuel tank, etc. etc. An electric vehicle,with a
cost effective battery, is a far more cost effective architecture than the ultra complicated, 4000 part ICE design. .

Ousting Rick Wagoner Won't Solve GM's Problems

Rick Wagoner simply didn't fight for his company, but, then again,
nobody else in any of the Big Three was ever able to control the
exorbitant labor rates of the UAW, rates which Obama the Hyprocrite was praising just a few years ago. The best and only way to control the uato union is for there to be but one Big Three left - that way the union will be matched against a foe equally monopolistic with respect to American labor. Saving Chrysler years ago as an indepdendent company was obviously a big mistake by the Feds. It should have been rolled into the other two American automakers, paving the way for a means to control the UAW.
Make no mistake - the UAW is the reason that GMM is failing. And faulting GM for quality at a period over the past few years in which they have racked up an impressive redord indicates that this auto task board is simply out of touch. Also their brainless idea that building small (money-losing) cars would have been a good business strategy makes my laugh out loud. They are boobs, who now have reported to their main boob. As for the littany that GM has "too many brands" I'd love to hear an explanation of how eliminating some will bring about anything significant in terms of cost savings. Those "too many brands" were actually largely simply different models of the same vehicle, produced on the same assembly liones by the same workers, sold by the same salesmen and the same dealerships. Who cares whether a car is called a Buick Regal rather than an Olds Cutless? Does anybody really believe that GM is going to save anything beyond what they lose by eliminating a couple of nameplates? That about all those diivisions represent. Totally mindless people at work here.

Automaker Rebadging Revisited

I couldn't agree more - building better cars so you can build up the image of another company rather than yoor own is possibly the most brainless idea anyone ever came up with. And the idea that those who remember the bad old models GM produced years ago will forever be the car buying public apparently forgets that the population constantly ages and new youngsters come along who don't have any memories of bad GM products. Altogether, one of the lamest articles I've seen in quite some time. Alpha can be proud - you're number one in the idiot journalism hit parade.

The Electric Car Battery Battle

Toyota has NOT chosen NiMH batteries for its future plug-in hybrids
(awhich will crush the plain hybrids we have today). They will be using li ion like everone else - it's impossible to build a plug-in using NiMH batteries - Toyota has already tried and only managed an 8 mile driving range. NOBODY is using NiMH batteries for either plug-ins or battery-only electrics. I might add that they call a million plug-ins on the road by 2015 optimistic. Regardless, a million plug-ins, even if they use no gasoline whatsoever, will only reduce crude demand by less than 1/4th of 1 percent. And plug-ins use 1/10th the gasoline that plain hubrids use. A dose of reality amongst
the cheerleading fantasies that the media is engaged in. And 1/3rd of the fleet (commercial diesel trucks) won't be going electric for a long, long time.

Impact of GM Destroying the EV1

The author here sounds like an EV-1 salesman (although the car could only be leased because of safety regs and high price : it cost over 3 times more than the competition) I love the ficititious exaggerations also - the claim that the EV-1 required no tuneups and was ultra reliable. The fact is that the EV-1 was recalled more than once for reliability problems and my first "tuneup" for my 1996 Buick was at 100,000 miles and consisted of replacing the spark plugs, at a cost of ten dollars. These kinds of articles with their lies about how cheap it is to operate an electric car are should be considered pure fraud - not even the lowest used car salesman would stoop to such lies - take the battery pack of the EV-1, for example. At 1200 pounds (1) it cost over $20,000 and lasted about 5 years, which, if this author can handle the simple math, turns out to be equivalent of $36 per gallon gasoline for a 22 MPG vehicle. And California laughingly calls a battery-only electric a "zero emissions vehicle," despite the fact that not one electrical outlet in California can provide zero emission electricity that can be used to recharge the batteries. In the EV-1 that was a 8 hour period. And the EV-1 couldn't go anywhere - it had a driving radius of less than 40 miles, and even then it couldn't go there when you wanted to travel. The EV-1 was a total flop, as were those other "invisible" electric cars of the 1990;s : the Toyota Rav4 electric (program cancelled for lack of public interes) and the Honda EV (cancelled after 6 months for lack of public interest). Somehow, that totally
fictitious film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" a long succession of lies and half-truths, only sems to know about the EV-1. Why is that?
What deal did Chris Paine make with Honda and Toyota that led him to rewrite history and fail to point out that they killed their electric programs just like GM did and for the exact same reason? Why is
the American public so dumb about the problems with electric cars?
Well, folks, you all will have the opportunity to put your money where your mouth is - next year Mitsubishi will sell teir electrc car - it is cheaper, safer, and has a longer range than the EV-1 did, carries four times as many passengers and luggage and recharges in half the time and the battery packis cheaper ($19,000) and last about 5 years. It can travel 100 miles, which means a driving range of around 40 to 45 miles. Let's see you morons who think the EV-1 was a great car now go and buy a better and cheaper one. Now THAT would be poetic justice for all your lies.