Electric Vehicles and Alternative Fuels

Domino's wants to introduce you to the future with their electric delivery fleet. Ordering Pizza and entering for their Chevrolet BOLT give away can be done here: Domino's Electric Delivery Domino's Pissa Inc. the largest pizza company in the world has chosen to standardize delivery on the 2023 Chevrolet BOLT electric vehicle. During the month of November, Domino's will take delivery of 100 customized Chevy Bolts that will arrive at select franchises and corporate locations throughout the U.S. During the following next couple of months, an additional 700 customized Chevy Bolts will be delivered to franchisees and corporate locations a…

Agility Fuel solutions is happy to announce their CARB certification approval of their updated GM 6.0 Liter V8 Engine for CNG applications. COSTA MESA, CA – August 16, 2018 – Agility Fuel Solutions, a leading global provider of clean fuel solutions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, announced today that it has received California Air Resources Board (CARB) certifications for its first natural gas-powered engine. The Agility 366NGTM, a General Motors 6.0L engine with an Agility natural gas fuel system, is certified to meet the CARB Optional Low NOx Emissions Standards and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards. In addition, Agility also received CARB Hea…

The 1938 Oldsmobile Automatic Safety Transmission started the greater adoption of auto driving and increased safety by keeping both hands on the steering wheel. This is what eventually morphed into the 1940 Hydra Matic automatic transmission. The last of this car known to exist is going up for auction according to the Hemmings blog. This is one of 475 1938 L-38 Convertible Coupes built which is also the last for Oldsmobile with a rumble seat. The AST was a $100 option. This car also had the optional dual side mounts $65, deluze radio, $66.50, electric clock $15, fog lamps $6.25 and optional heater $15. This car is expected to sell for between $55,000 and $75,0…

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Daimler has made this year many announcements about their electric auto program. China was a natural place to have a battery plant and of course due to the aggressive acts by the government to have an electric auto program. Daimler on Friday October 5th made what was an expected investment announcement of their Alabama factory to be upgraded to start production of their newest GLE model. What also was announced was that Daimler is going to build as part of a $1 billion dollar retrofit and expansion a massive new electric auto Battery production line. This comes as Mercedes-Benz launches their EQ product line. On Friday Board member Markus Schaefer stated “We aim to …

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com EVgo Partners with Nissan and BMW Again to Expand DC Charger Network According to the latest release this week by EVgo, a leader in EV charging systems for home, work or public use, they have partnered up with Nissan and BMW to expand coast to coast the DC fast charging network offering both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo (CCS) connectors allowing ALL EV types to charge on the fast charge network. These are 50 kW DC fast charging systems. EVgo currently has 668+ DC fast charging systems across the U.S. This partnership will allow them to expand across the US supporting all EV auto's…

Posting this for anyone else who is interested in learning more about Regenerative Braking. Really good info. https://chargedevs.com/features/regenerative-braking-a-closer-look-at-the-methods-and-limits-of-regen/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/paul-sr...-mys/#continued Badass bike. Lousy reporting. You decide.

It started with legacy OEMs trying to build and sell electric automobiles over the last 100 plus years. It took Tesla to actually grab the attention of the public and now with Rivian, GM, Ford, Kia, Hyundia, VW and so many others, we now see almost every day EVs driving all around the world. There is no doubt the future will be electric, yet the state of electric fast charging is for some a hinderance to buying an EV as vehicle purchases are one of the largest decisions households make other than buying a home. The federal government has started to release funds for installation of a nationwide network of Fast charging stations. We currently have Tesla's Superch…

Elaphe - Newest In-Wheel EV motors with Torque Vectoring Elaphe Website This Slovenian company has clearly stepped up to compete against Protean, the only other in-wheel EV motor company to date. Both have manufacturing in China and are aggressively going after OEM, but where they go divergent paths is that Elaphe is also feeling that their product can and should be used in older auto's where people want to replace the ICE powertrain with something new and better. Elaphe makes 7 different motors for a wide variety of applications, from cars to trucks / suvs, commercial trucks and marine applications. These motors go from 29 kW or 39 HP with 400 N…

Bosch newest Powertrain member - eAxle https://www.bosch-mobility-solutions.com/en/products-and-services/passenger-cars-and-light-commercial-vehicles/powertrain-systems/electric-drive/eaxle/ Bosch has introduced their newest powertrain system available in performance from 50 to 300 kW power output or for the Americans, that is equal to 40 to 402 HP. Bosch full details of their electric drive components can be found here: https://www.bosch-mobility-solutions.com/en/products-and-services/passenger-cars-and-light-commercial-vehicles/powertrain-systems/electric-drive/ Bosch makes the following components available today: eAxle - The main power…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Faraday Future and Lucid Motors, Newest EV Automakers in America! Tesla as well as the Detroit, European and Asian auto companies have new competition. Tesla has seen in the last few years, engineers leave that had alternative dreams / plans that conflicted with Musk. As such this fall 2016 we are seeing coming out of the skunk works mode two new EV auto companies based in California is Farady Future who is already big in F1 E-Racing with over 1,400 employees world wide and Lucid Motors. Both companies have broken ground in Arizona for auto production lines. While there is little spec…

The ministry of Energy in Israel made the announcement that in 12 years, Israel would be fully reliant on Natural Gas, Solar and Wind power to support the nation for electricity and transportation. 2030 is the year all gas / diesel ICE auto's will be banned. Companies that need medium and heavy duty trucks will have to buy Natural Gas trucks and for consumers all choices will be electric or natural gas. This is on top of stopping all importation of Coal from the US and changing their energy plants to 100% Natural Gas and adding wind turbines off the coast and solar throughout the country. The goal is 83% natural gas and 17% renewable energy production for the country…

Why A Hedge Fund Manager Thinks Tesla's Model 3 May Put Elon Musk Out of Business "Tesla has to double the Model 3’s advertised price or it will lose tons of money" Tesla Motors customers are lining up to wait as much as two years to own the company’s eagerly anticipated cheaper electric car, the Model 3. But while the new car has created a lot of buzz for Tesla TSLA -0.23% , one high-performing hedge fund manger says the Model 3 will end up being a total wreck for the company. In fact, he says it will likely put Tesla out of business. Put another way: His price target for Tesla’s stock: $0. Mark Spiegel, founder of hedge fund Stanphyl Capital Partners, sa…

One could say that LG marketing tag line of "Life's Good" might be not so good right now. According to the Korean news site "thelec.net" GM is following recent announcements by BMW, Volvo, Stellantis and others that have chosen to dump the use of pouches and focus on cylinder cells using the 4680 format that Tesla has brought to market. The 4680 according to Tesla is five times more energy than the current smaller cells that Panasonic builds for them, increases range by 16 percent and is six time more power when you compare equal to equal size battery packs. This change in direction has thrown a wrench in the talks for the 4th Ultium C…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com EV Trucks, What are your options? Last week, Ellen Musk, CEO of Tesla start his normal dog n pony show about his company and the future and touched on Semi Trucks and an electric pickup. While there has been plenty of photo shopped images of a tesla pickup, this made me think about what are the current EV options for pickup trucks today on American roads? We will start with one of many startups that is now in production. EV Fleet has started production of their 100 mile range pickup. Considered to be one of the best in slipping through the air. EV Fleet has a multitude of …

Bollinger Motors came onto the scene in 2017 with their 4 door AWD Sport Utility Truck. This truck designed on cad and then built and tested all over the US on road and off trail has proven itself so that the company has 20,000 plus reservation and growing for the 2020 production launch. Yet as they near engineering completion, they kept hearing from customers that asked if the truck could be built with a normal pickup size bed. Bollinger Motors Answer is the B2 Pickup Truck. Built on the outstanding work done for their shorter B1 Sport Utility Truck, the B2 was developed on the same DNA, using the same AWD dual motor, hydropneumatic suspension, in-wheel portal gear …

Let's get to the core of why Infinitum is a company to watch, possibly invest in if you are comfortable with risk and how it could influence the Electric Vehicle movement of the global automotive industry. First, understand that electric motors have been around for over 100 years. They are made up of an iron core, a ton of wrapped copper wiring and can be very heavy. In this regard is the biggest reason for the change coming with a company like Infinitum. Example of traditional electric motor installed versus Infinitum All-in-one solution. Here you can visually see the difference between a traditional electric motor and Infinitum All-in-one solution. …

Battery-like Device Could Power Cars By Grant Slater, Associated Press posted: 07 September 2007 12:59 pm ET AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine. An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries,'' meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline. Go to full article by clicking here.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Personal Mobility Redefined along with Auto Sharing Seems in today's society we have clearly two camps, those that believe in change for the future and those that see no reason for change from what already works. GM has committed to diving into personal mobility by redefining what it should be. GM say right now has never been a bigger disrupter than ever in the Auto industry with EV's and plug in Hybrids. GM is pushing forward with their Drive NYC car sharing program and their Multi Model EV transportation system on Jiao Tong University China. More can be read here at: "Redefin…

China Leads the market in EV sales and now they have decided they cannot allow anyone to lead in self driving autos. pony.ai is an autonomous technology startup that is raising funds to push science fiction to reality not just in China but around the world. Recently they just raised $102 million in funding to expand their testing. They currently are a Level 4 autonomous vehicle startup with the HQ in Beijing and remote offices in Fremont California and Guangshou, China. This company founded in 2016 by Tiancheng Lou who worked previously at Baidu an AI company and James Peng a programmer who was part of Googles autonomous program started the company to build systems that c…

BP Buys Chargemaster to Electrify BP UK Stations According to this Reuters story, British Petroleum (BP) has agreed to buy Chargemaster for $170 million US dollars. This will give BP the leading position in the UK for established EV auto charge points around the country and allow them access to Chargemasters Ultra-Fast Chargers which they will spend $500 million over the next year on installing at their BP stations around the country. BP in competition with Royal Dutch Shell, VW and Daimler who are all investing in their own charging systems or teaming up with other station companies to install ultra-fast chargers wants to lead the nation in the growth mar…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Alternative Fuels & Propulsion in the News So the news has had some interesting stories this past few weeks in regards to GM and Honda getting closer as they co-develop Hydrogen auto's and self driving: http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/honda-and-gm-seek-to-expand-partnership-on-hydrogen-fuel-cells-and-driverless-vehicles/8525101/?utm_source=WW+Clean+Cities+News+Digest+--+October+20%2C+2015&utm_campaign=WW+Clean+Cities+News+Digest+--+October+20%2C+2015+&utm_medium=email According to the story, 2020 is the year that both GM and Honda will release for public purchase Hydrogen au…

Welcome to learning about EC Power, a team of researchers from Penn State that started in 2011 as a lithium-ion battery modeling software company. The need for real data to validate battery use in EVs led this team to build a small prototyping facility focused on software development. During this manufacturing process and testing of cells for model validation, EC Power realized that temperature is everything to a lithium-ion cell. Modern EVs from Tesla, GM, VW, Ford, Kia, and Hyundai all have a fast-charging option in that when you select this mode, it preps the battery to a certain temperature to ensure maximum speed of the battery pack. EC Power wonder…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Faraday Future Teaser, Pre-order, Reveal and More! Faraday Future emailed out yesterday Dec 6th 2016 confirming that they will at the Jan 5th - 8th CES show in Las Vegas reveal their production ready EV auto. They have also tweeted this and posted to their web site pictures and video's. Interesting is the pictures from Autoblog where you can see their first EV will be more CUV style I think than car. Better yet is that they are clearly using Tesla as a Bench mark.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com 20 years from EV1 to Bolt EV Green Car Reports did an outstanding job on reviewing the last 20 years from the GM ev1 to the Chevy Bolt EV. This is a very solid read for anyone that is interested in knowing where we started and are at today with the EV. Good writeup and some very interesting news about the EV industry and reconfirmation of what is being done.

http://biodieselreport.com/

The current biggest cost to electric vehicles is the battery pack. Current battery technology is all focused-on Lithium-ion cells either in hard case cells like Tesla uses or soft case pouches like GM is using. There are positive and negative aspects to either cell type, yet the one thing all these cells have in common is an Anode and Cathode construction with a separator in between. As a battery is charged you have power move from the cathode to the anode moving through the separator and as the battery discharges, the reverse happens move from the anode side to the cathode side in a very simple explanation. Our Next Energy (…

Sundrop Fuels believes it can combine wood chips with sun power to make gasoline and diesel fuel. http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/2010/01/29/sundrop-fuels-looks-to-combine-sun-wood-chips-for-gas/?ana=e_pft check the link to read page 2

2018 Q2 Report to CARB.pdf Electrify America website Electrify America City Fact Sheet Electrify America City Info Graphs Electric Vehicle Awareness campaign As posted above for your reading pleasure Electrify America is running behind schedule, yet they have signed leases on 71 of the 162 highway / community DC charging station locations that will open in 2019 around California. This is mostly due to confusion among permit granting officials regarding the requirements for installation. Electrify America is working with the state and has brought in partners to work in parallel to get the program back on track by the end of the year. Ele…

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G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com 24/7 Wall St reports Tesla Loses in Safety Test to Chevy and Toyota For 2017 electric / hybrid auto rating, Tesla looses to GM and Toyota the safety crown. Tesla has stated that they have already corrected the safety issues but were unable to deliver an updated auto for testing. It will be retested later this year. Errors happen, be interesting to see how the BOLT tests out. 24/7 Wall St. Story

Secret "ALEC" in Big Debate between Oil and Electric for Subsidies! Not many of us have heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), yet this group of Utility companies clashed recently with the oil industry that wants to kill all EV subsidies and yet Oil takes in billions in subsidies from the federal government now. This group has clearly been an ultra conservative group till recently where it has split into two camps, those that are backed by big oil and their desire to kill subsidies and those utilities that have gone very green and want to increase offering subsidies to buyers of all things electric. At the spring meeting, the new Green U…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com $1.4 Billion incentive to go Electric Auto in Germany According to CNN Money, Germany's government has joined forces with Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW to offer up to $1.2 Billion Euros ($1.4 Billion US) as rebates to purchase electric auto's. $4,000 euros ($4,500 US) for pure EVs and $3,000 euros ($3,400 US) for Plug-in Hybrids in today's conversion of currency. Germany has announced that they are also inviting all US and Asian auto companies to take part in this rebate program to sell electric based auto's. Germany lags behind the U.K, France, Italy and Spain in electric auto sales. Curre…

EV Battery War Heats UP, Asia Versus America! Seems America, Tesla and the department of energy have created the next war. This is the Battery war, Lithium Ion versus Solid State batteries and Japan is behind. As such according to the story in the Nikkei, the Japanese government is funding research by leading Japanese manufacturers to develop what they believe will power the EVs of the future. This group brings together the Japanese Consortium for Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center (Libtec) with Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Honda Motor, Panasonic and battery maker GS Yuasa to develop rapid charging solid-state batteries that are easier to manufa…

We here at Cheers and Gears have covered plenty of battery companies in existing or startup form. We even covered places where one could invest some spare coin if interested in taking high risks with these battery tech companies. After all the Golden Goose is the battery company who delivers ICE like charging to an EV battery pack. Every University has groups of people working on their PhD, Doctorate, Masters, etc. in one field or another. Harvard University had a team of scientists that took on the challenge and have now moved from thesis / conceptual theory to working prototype in founding Adden Energy. This team of scientists have developed a solid-state battery …

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Oregon DOT starts first in Nation Charge per mile program! The new MyOReGO program kicked off July 1st with a 1.5 cent per mile charge for driving on Oregon roads. This new program allows people to sign up and receive a credit for state gas tax paid at the pump. Quoting per their web site OReGO covers the following: OReGO volunteers will pay a road usage charge for the amount of miles they drive, instead of the fuel tax. The OReGO road usage charge is set at 1.5 cents per mile. Volunteers will get a credit on their bill to offset the fuel tax they pay at the pump. Volunteers will have thei…

Breakthrough Could Mean 40-Hour Laptop Batteries http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/57832

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com Reviewing other green sites, I came across this story by Green Car Reporters about their experience with a Chevy Volt and Tesla in the same household. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1094260_life-with-chevy-volt-3-years-35000-miles-later-its-over To quote the story: "After three years of ownership, I've concluded that the Volt is a splendid vehicle. It's the only electric car I recommend to virtually everyone who asks." The writers story about never wanting to own an American auto and trying to buy a Nissan Leaf and ending up with a Volt is good reading. His first year of …

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Chevy Adds 3500HD Chassis Cab to CNG Lineup GM anounced quietly back on 5-7-2015 that they would be adding their Silverado 3500HD Chassis Cab Bi-fuel truck to the CNG lineup. This truck will be available in either 2WD or 4WD and comes with a 24.5 gallon CNG tank and a 23.5 Petrol tank. They have launched this new bi-fuel option with Southern California Gas Co who will take delivery of 5,000 trucks between now and the end of the year. Southern California Gas has committed to making their fleet CNG by 2020 per the Press Release. These CNG trucks will come with GM's standard 5yr 100,000 mile warra…

Green Auto Sales Up Gotta love it when you can find stories of research that shows the growth of the GREEN AUTO movement. Autoblog just posted their review of the September numbers and I just love this section from the story: "GM once again was buoyed by demand for the Chevrolet Bolt EV, which resulted in 2,632 units sold. That more than offset the 28 percent decline in Chevy Volt extended-range plug-in sales. Overall, GM green-car sales jumped 56 percent from a year earlier." So the highlight numbers are as follows: Hybrids / Plug-ins up 8% from a year earlier at 44,000 units. Plug-in sales were robust advancing 18% from a year ago at 14,500 unit…

According to a story by Autoblog, Kalashnikov is showing off a retro Soviet era electric car. Yes this is the AK-47 gun builder making something a bit more peaceful and silent in their newest venture. Using a 90kWh battery pack, this bad boy is good for 215 miles and a 0-60 mph time of 6 seconds. What are your thoughts? LIke it, pass,???? https://www.autoblog.com/2018/08/24/kalashnikov-electric-car-prototype/

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Daimler Scales back Hydrogen, Focuses on EV! According to the story from Autoblog, Daimler has chosen to scale back R&D into Hydrogen auto's and focus on EV auto's. This will not stop them from rolling out a Hydrogen GLC in select markets around the world where Hydrogen fueling facilities are available according to Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. According to Daimler, pushing out 10 EV models by 2022 will help with reducing the emission pressure on their ICE product line allowing them to minimize the pressure and costs of transitioning from an ICE product producer to one of a…

https://media.jaguar.com/news/2018/08/jaguar-i-pace-sets-production-ev-record-lap-time-weathertech-raceway-laguna-seca-ahead To quote Jaguar's press release: Jaguar has set a production EV record lap time of 1:48.18 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the new all-electric I-PACE performance SUV ahead of its display at the 2018 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Back in 2016 I wrote a piece about in-wheel hub motors and listed options of this technology that would cover medium duty commercial auto's. The start up company was doing great work here in the US yet no one seemed to really notice or pay any attention to the possible performance options with an AWD auto that would have 800 hp / 4,000 lb-ft of torque where they had proven the technology in a Ford F-150 pickup converted. Fast forward two years and I highlighted another startup that was building an in-wheel hub motor size on par with traditional drum brake units that had great possibility also for efficient fast EV torque monsters. Since that time both companie…

So the building I work in took away 4 spots on the 1st floor of parking for gas auto's and installed chargers and designated them EV only. I decided to keep an eye on them, empty all day, not a single EV in the spots. Wonder how much we will loose to dedicated EV only parking with chargers before we see this take off and they are always full? Will the Chevy BOLT drive more use of dedicated EV parking and chargers? How about all the other members here, have you seen more and more regular parking converted to EV only parking with chargers?

Hertz is leading the auto rental push into the EV space with GM. Here is the nuts and bolts of this agreement. Hertz plans to order up to 175,000 EVs from GM over the next five years Hertz will offer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop EVs across multiple vehicle categories Deliveries of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV are expected to begin first quarter 2023 This EV agreement between Hertz and GM makes it one of the largest to date of an EV expansion among fleet customers and the broadest as it covers from compact to Fullsize EVs. Hertz will offer from trucks, SUVs, and cars from basic entry level…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com OneWheel, Inner City's Newest Transportation! Today, I was introduced to the newest fun way of moving around a city, seeing places and pretty much taking a skateboard, snowboard with a Segway approach of auto balance to a new level. OneWheel, the go anywhere and have fun personal transportation. Gotta say, this does change how one could get around a city quickly plus get to places saving your energy for your sport. OneWheel web site. Check out these additional videos on the product. vid1-v3-HD.mp4

GM gets Hydrogen on the Go Quantum to Supply Transportable Hydrogen Refueling Stations to General Motors IRVINE, Calif., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., today announced that it is supplying three transportable hydrogen refueling stations to General Motors. These units will be used to refuel GM's fuel cell vehicles, which are equipped with Quantum hydrogen fuel systems, at various locations, from vehicle proving grounds and public ride-and-drive events to fleet demonstrations. "Our transportable hydrogen refueling stations are designed to support our customers as they advance their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle initiati…

Are YOU Eligible to drive the Fuel Cell Equinox? Click here to see if you're eligible If you live or work in metropolitan New York City; Washington, D.C.; or southern California, you may be eligible to test-drive an Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle in the fall of 2007. You must be at least 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen and have a valid driver’s license.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Seattle's Aggressive EV Plan by 2017 / 2025 Living in Washington state where the state has chosen or forced based on your take of the political people in Olympia, the state's capital to move the population from petrol to EV auto's and drop all support for alternative fuels this comes as no surprise to me. Seattle mayor announced yesterday a huge push to triple the number of fast fill charging spots by 2017, only 1 year away as well as cut in half the amount of green house gas produced in Seattle by 2025. How you might ask is he doing this? The city starts with the private residence …

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com $1,500 Vello Self Charging Fold Up Bike! Vello Bikes According to the Bikes web site, it can do 15 miles in pure electric self charging mode or up to 30 min in Turbo mode. The battery pack is in the frame and can regenerate when you brake, coast down hills or pedal. They offer a smartphone app to allow you to lock up your bike, monitor the functions of the bike to customize it for your style of riding.

Largest Source of Greenhouse Gas? Transport Sector In 40 years of tracking, the biggest source of greenhouse gas pollution is no longer power plants. Transportation has this distinction covering boats, planes, trains and automobiles. According to the latest government data, the U.S. has made a massive switch from Coal powered electricity, the dirtiest form of power generation to natural gas, wind and solar reducing since 2000 this sector leading our greenhouse gas production to making it equal to the transportation sector in 2016 and finally having the transportation sector surpass it in 2017. Health being one of the biggest benefits of this switch as …

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Right-of-Way, to give Power to the People in Seattle! Seattle in moving forward to address climate change is using their easement rights all over the city to expand their charging program. Seattle reserves the first 8 feet around your property as an easement that they can come on and pretty much do anything they want. With Seattle DOT EVCROW program, seattle is hoping to push beyond the few thousand charging stations around the city and make it 10's of thousands of charging stations by allowing public and private EV charging infrastructure providers to install EV charging stations on n…

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Electric G-Class for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Nye the Science guy! This info come via the Green Car Report, seems two things of notice have happened in Hollywood. First, Bill Nye the Science guy who was one of the original lessors of the GM EV-1 from 20 Years ago and has been a strong proponent of everyone going EV is the proud new owner of a 2017 Kinetic Blue Chevrolet Bolt EV. Besides driving an EV-1 and was not happy to have to turn it in and have it crushed, Bill says GM has redeemed themselves with the BOLT. To quote the story, Bill told GCR that th…

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com 440 Mile Cascade Loop Scenic Byway is the First fully Electrified highway of the Top 10 Drives in the Country! Thanks to businesses and home owners the 440 mile Cascade Loop Scenic Byway is fully electrified from the south end of Whidbey Island up and over Deception pass, east to Liberty bell pass, down to Winthrop, over to Wenatchee and back over Highway 2, Stevens Pass to Everett. This expansion of the Electric highway continues to open up this beautiful country to everyone especially those that want to minimize their carbon footprint. Cascade Loop Story & Video …

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com BP in talks to Electrify Service Stations Globally! BP has opened talks with all global automakers to about offering EV charging stations at it's global network of service stations, Chief Executive Bob Dudley told Reuters on Tuesday. The BP CEO says the change by governments in banning ICE auto's and the move to EV's will threaten the traditional ICE service station and they will die if they do not change to support the future needs of customers. BP is looking to take a slice of this growing market early in comparison to their competition. The only other Oil Company to do this is their…

UPS going Green in a BIG way! Paris and London, both these cities have stated by 2040 all auto's, delivery vehicles, etc. that are powered by ICE or internal combustion engines will be banned from the streets. This has especially package delivery companies in a pickle on how to honor the law and still deliver the packages. UPS has stepped up to the plate to figure this out by buying a fleet of EV package delivery vans from Arrival LTD. Based on their web site, a fairly new company out of skunk mode in 2017 as they sold and are delivering 35 EV vans to UPS for use in London / Paris. Under heavy load these vans will supply 150 miles of range. More than enoug…

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/07/02/mercedes-benz-electric-vans-fuel-cell/ Mercedes-Benz is planning to have a fuel-cell delivery van in 2019, yet the BIG NEWS is that starting in the fall, August to October time frame, they are going to start selling their pure electric delivery van globally. These vans will have a top speed of 75 mph with a 150 kilometer range or about 95 miles. 112 HP, 221 Lb-ft of torque and can carry 2,365 pounds of payload. There is also a Luxury Class A camper from Mercedes-Benz now. https://videos.vidible.tv/prod/2016-06/16/5761c5ace4b07a81b865387b_853x480_v3.mp4?rZ4uYOYDEQxcX2N8jJxdvxM1fQfWLPwqIaRF0tQ0aUYAvKcIlBn_rjo6a0…

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/16/694303169/as-more-electric-cars-arrive-whats-the-future-for-gas-powered-engines

click here This is a simple to understand explanation (with additional material at the end of the story) of Solar Thermal Energy.

Penn State Research Penn State Nickel foil fast charging battery diagram To quote their abstract with significance: Significance Range anxiety is a key reason that consumers are reluctant to embrace electric vehicles (EVs). To be truly competitive with gasoline vehicles, EVs should allow drivers to recharge quickly anywhere in any weather, like refueling gasoline cars. However, none of today’s EVs allow fast charging in cold or even cool temperatures due to the risk of lithium plating, the formation of metallic lithium that drastically reduces battery life and even results in safety hazards. Here, we present an approach that enables 15-min f…

EPA - Fuels New Standard - Premium? Current administration has been doing everything they can to gut the EPA even though Auto companies have stated just push out the MPG standard till 2030 or so giving us time to delivery the results. Yet with that, the auto industry is trying to get onboard with Europe to a single standard. In Europe, 95 RON is their baseline fuel standard. This is equal to our 91 octane and while we have a 40 to 50 cent premium standard for 91 octane fuel, this only makes up 11% of the gas produced in the US. Making 91 the new base standard would increase gas creation resulting in lower prices for that gas and cleaner running engines along with a 3…

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/california-mayors-call-for-100-zero-emission-buses-by-2040/ Charged EVS is reporting that the mayors of California cities have proposed to the state transit agencies to convert 100% of public buses to zero emission by 2040 as part of their Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) initiative. 39 transit agencies in the state currently have over 130 buses that have over 200 mile range that run successfully showing that they can remove all emission polluting buses from city streets. With this push, it will pull along other states that want cleaner mass transit and ignore the push by a current administration that is more oil based support…

Perceptions and Concerns about Diesel, Electric, Hybrids and Plug-in Hybrids. G. David Felt Alternative Energy writer for www.CheersandGears.com In todays auto industry, it is becoming more and more an issue of cost and long life that people will consider moving to new technology. Yes we all have a friend, family member or know of someone that jumps on every new gadget that comes along. Yet, what would it take to have a person change from their traditional petrol auto to a Diesel, Electric, Hybrids or Plug-in Hybrids? Here is just some of what was found by this survey: Shoppers top motivators for moving to they types of autos: Better Fuel Economy 70% Gas savi…

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Self Driving Auto's Hacked, Results Can be Deadly! Thanks to the researchers at University of Washington, University of Michigan, Stony Brook University, and UC Berkeley we now have proof that self driving autos can be easily hacked and the results deadly. The researchers have released a paper Robust Physical-World Attacks on Machine Learning Models in which they have shown 4 different ways that disrupt the way machines read and classify signs using a camera and color printer. To quote the original story, "The most troubling part about these experiments is that they all appear very subtle …

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com $100 Million IPO and New Auto Price for Elio Motors! According to Autoblog, Elio Motors is planning to raise $100 million dollars in an IPO that would allow them to finally start construction and delivery of Elio Motors three-wheeled bikes. Elio Motors made a big splash when they first initially showed off their concept with a purchase price of $6,800. Since that time a few years back, the price has crept up to $7,450 as of the SEC filing. Original depositors will still get their promised bike as the stated price but new depositors will have to pay the higher price. Considering how th…

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Euro EV Truck, Not for the US 59 horsepower, 167 pound feet of torque, 22 kilowatt battery pack, and a 100 mile range a Ford F150 this is not. Yet as I have stated in other forums and auto threads, I truly believe inner city folks as well as city governments would love to have a true mini pickup, not a mid or full size, but a true mini pickup truck that seats 2 people and can still carry a decent amount of weight. In this case, 1,400 pounds. Kolle, a conversion company in France is taking the Renault Kangoo Z.E. electric delivery van and converting it into a pickup truck. Clearly …

EV Charging NorthEast Strategy Electrify America, the multi billion dollar investment in the US charging infrastructure turned on their first fast charging station in Massachusetts as part of their 4 year investment in North America not including their $800 million California investment. EA will be building out an extensive network of fast charging stations that will support people wanting to go on road trips with efficient, fast and reasonable charging of their EV auto's from coast to coast. Up till now, while the northeast states have signed onto California's move to a cleaner auto environment, the installation of charging stations have been haphazard at…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Nissan: Introducing the Fuel Station of the Future Per Nissan, 54% of the world population lives in cities. The need to not waste space for traditional gas stations makes the power companies your new station by having inductive charging in the streets and having the auto's self charge and self park to free up the charging space for others to use. Zero emission where the world will eventually end up at is the belief of the Engineers and Nissan corporation and as such they are looking at the Fuel stations of the Future and how they can be implemented for better use by the population. Nissan belie…

BYD has opened up the world's largest battery plant in the world with production at 24GWh of battery production and will ramp as demand needs to 60 GWh of production by 2020. The plant is the size of 140 football fields and is open in China's lithium rich province of Qinghai. This is BYD's 3rd battery plant and biggest to date but also could be the map for an equal size plant that they are looking to open in Europe to supply Europe's battery needs. BYD is backed by legendary investor Warren Buffett. Currently starting capacity of battery packs for the auto industry is that by 2019 they will be able to produce enough to support 1.2 million EVs. To quote the…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com EV Auto's in B.C. Canada more Like California Laugh if you will but could it be that British Columbia of Canada is more like California than the rest of Canada? B.C. has recently not only endorsed the CARB of California much like the west coast but now they are allowing special passes to EV owners to drive in all HOV lanes. According to CBC News of Canada, EV auto owners are now allowed to travel all of B.C. Provinces HOV lanes passenger free. Premier Christy Clark announced a series of initiatives to get the population to go green. The following is being done starting now to get B.C. a…

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com Chevy announced this past week the pricing on the bi-fuel 2015 Chevy Impala. Starting price of $38,210 including the $825 destination charge before tax, title, license, dealer fees and optional equipment. 2015 bi-fuel Impala comes standard with a hardened 3.6L V6 engine and a combined range of 500 miles. 150 of the 500 mile range being CNG. Warranty is the standard 3yr/36K miles bumper to bumper and 5yr/100K miles power train. Further Details at GM: http://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/May/0506-impala-pricing.html

Back in October 2017 Toshiba announced their new SCiB lithium-ion battery packs with 200 miles recharging in 6 mins and 400 miles in 12 minutes coming to an EV in 2019. Toshiba is on track to have their new auto battery packs in EVs starting in 2019. Toshiba has now moved forward with their 2nd generation SCiB battery pack using a new titanium niobium oxide composite anode TiNb2O7 (TNO) which allows Toshiba to go from a 177 Wh in their current producing SCiB batteries to a 350 Wh battery pack still charging to 90% in less than 6 minutes. The benefits of the TNO anode is that you get high-density, long life over a long cycle-life, and high volumetric capacity. W…

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - CheersandGears.com Gaining little attention in the main stream news but giving a nice bump in stock price to Chrysler, GM, Honda, Fiat and a few energy companies. Chrysler showed off a new RAM 2500 that had a pair of CNG tanks that are in the shape of lungs storing CNG in many different compartments. The new tank design in the RAM truck gave it a 255 mile range on CNG. With the 35Gallon Petrol tank, this now gives the RAM Bi-Fuel Truck a 745 mile range when configured in Bi-Fuel form from RAM. The longest range currently available from an OEM for a CNG/Petrol Truck. The idea is it would allow the ease of making various sha…