Electric Vehicles and Alternative Fuels

GM States Desire to be First to Profit from Mass Selling EVs. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110469_gm-goal-profitable-affordable-electric-cars-built-in-big-numbers Seems GM is focusing on lower the cost of the batteries sooner rather than later and to turn a profit from EVs. This brings up the question: With China pushing for such high numbers of EV to be sold in that country, could we see a faster decline of ICE auto's and a rapid rise of EVs?

BOLT Ad and Deals Seems California is not the only place that has gone over on big deals. Based on looking up this dealership, Maryland has starting July 1st. a $3,000 credit that can be applied at time of purchase to reduce the cost of the EV along with the feds $7,500 benefit. Not so sure about the special effects though!

Ultra-fast Charging of America In Europe they call it XFC or extreme fast charging, yet in the US, the agreed term is UFC or Ultra-fast charging. No matter what Electrify America, the company created to spend the VW settlement dollars on building out the US EV charging infrastructure has signed contracts with two well known companies (Black & Veatch and SAI Group) that are experienced in building charging systems. By June 2019 we will have 484 locations with 2000 UFC charging stations. This build out will cover a majority of the most common traveled roads allowing EVs to go long distances. SAI group will cover 16 states and Black & Veatch will cover 24 state…

Very Cool Tech

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Bollinger Motors Pure EV SUV So you like the look of a traditional Land Rover or the brick G-Wagon and wish you could have an American made Brick SUV that was Green? Welcome to BOLLINGER MOTORS who this summer introduced their PURE OFF ROAD EV the Bollinger B1. Check them out Bollinger wanted to show off their testing of their new EV SUV. Autoblog did a video covering the internals of this bad ass American Made EV SUV. AutoBlog Video

Seems some flattery is in order for Tesla, as Chargepoint showed off at the Elevate Summit conference in LA a new 2 Megawatt charging connector that has similarities to the Tesla Semi charging connector. This new connector utilizes 4 pairs of liquid-cooled 500A DC charging pins. The goal is to have a standardized connector for EV Class 8 trucks and airplanes. This would allow you to have chargers that could handle from 100 to more than 860 volts of power quickly. The benefit of getting this standardized soon is so that all auto makers could plan to support this much higher level of charging even on normal cars. Imagine charging 600 miles of rang in about 5…

Interesting article at Motortrend MotorTrend

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com 2015 GM Bi-fuel CNG pricing! This week GM released the 2015 pricing for their Bi-fuel options on Silverado and Sierra 2500HD and 3500HD trucks as well as the Chevy Express and GMC Savana Cargo and Passenger Vans. Chevy and GMC Trucks Bi-fuel CNG option starts at $9500 for the option. Chevy and GMC full size vans can be purchased with the CNG option in a 3 tank ($10,825) or 4 tank ($12,090) configuration. GM Warrants the Bi-fuel auto's on their current 5 year or 100,000 mile powertrain warranty which ever comes first. These auto's are serviced at all dealers nationwide in the United State…

New China TV showed off China's first self driving all electric farm tractor. This tractor is able to plow the field and return to the barn and plug back in for recharging. The tractor is completely computer controlled so you can set the pattern of plowing, area to be plowed, etc. China sees this as a great advancement in helping to feed the people better with less labor wasted. The torque of electric motors is perfect for this type of work were consistency is required over speed. https://www.youtube.com/user/ChinaViewTV/videos

Linkity Virgin Puts Biofuels On Maiden Voyage February 26, 2008; Page D1 Ever a showman, Virgin Atlantic Airlines President Richard Branson opened a vial of jet fuel made with oil from coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts and drank it, forcing a stiff smile. "It's more appropriate for the engine," he said before TV cameras. Later, he said privately that he had been told he could drink it, "but my god, it was horrible." Sir Richard hopes that he and airline passengers will have a much better taste for "biofuel" in a few years. On Sunday, Virgin flew a Boeing 747 from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam with one of the four engines burning a…

I'll be brief, but think a topic with a list of links that can assist someone with determining their vehicle's impact on the environment would be valuable to the members here. I know several have been mentioned and linked to in the past... some better than others. If you'd like, please post them here. My personal reasoning behind this is a Bill that's been proposed to Washington State Legislation - SB 6900 - 2007-08. I suspect other states will be introducing something similar over time... It will add to the annual vehicle registration the following fees: Vehicle%20Engine%20Displacement%20Fee%20" target="_blank">Vehicle Engine Displacement Fee Vehicle%20…

Every automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has their own platform, or they have signed an agreement with another OEM to use their EV platform. The following chart lists all of the current North American Automotive OEMs and the platform details that they have released. While there are a few oddball platform voltages such as the Toyota/Lexus/Subaru platform with a 355-volt system or the Lucid with a 924-volt system, the bulk of the OEM auto manufactures have gone with a 400-volt or 800-volt system. Many of these OEMs are already planning or have moved to an 800-volt platform such as Tesla with the production start of their Cybertruck that is base…

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com Ever here of BYD? Do not feel bad if you do not know this 38 Billion conglomeration business that is based out of China and builds everything from Solar panels to electric auto's. Warren Buffet owns 10% and has stated he feels they will be a major player in the the world wide push to Electric Autos. So why would people easily forget all the rage that Tesla is you might ask? Try an Electric Bus that will travel 155 miles on a single charge. That is right, BYD bought a defunct RV manufacturing plant in California and is ready to roll off the first pure electric bus that will be delivered to …