- and that's the problem !

When is a BMW not a DBMW ?    And why does DB - Deutsche Bank - sit on Kolibri-DBM's 'supervisory' Board ? Read on...

Wikipedia's Audi A2 pages now dedicate several refreshingly positive paragraphs to DBM Energy's record-breaking electric conversion. The succinct entry ends or rings out with the following concise, truth-screaming little 2010 quote from sidelined, maginalized, EVicted & EViscerated(since 2011) DBM CEO & founder Mirko Hannemann:
"The technology could be implemented today. It is up to industry to use this potential"

Let's begin our sincerity shake-down with the red-rag-to-a-bull incendiary invitation that heads up Gary Witzenburg's March ABG-BMW interview feature:

"Anyone who questions BMW's effort or sincerity on electrified vehicles should have a chat with Hildegard Wortmann, the German automaker's senior vice president..."

Unfortunately Frau Wortmann's sincerity was scarcely tested by AutoBlogGreen's disappointingly deferential, soft-ball exchange - although to his credit Witzenburg did vainly attempt to squeeze and press BMW's HW on the all-important and normally near-taboo question of long range. But she was simply too well-primed and prepared for her too reticent, respectful and perhaps intimidated, eager-to-please interlocutor.

Obviously the disarmingly charming Frau Wortmann would never agree to a cosy cross-questioning or casual "chat" with EVUK - even though we'd happily unleash each pertinent point in either German or English so that nothing would get lost, buried or forgotten in translation.

Wortmann's Wortspiel / Wordplay...
OK, we have tried for a fortnight to resist and wrestle against the temptation to dissect, deconstruct and demolish Frau Wortmann's still recent comments and more importantly her and Witzenburg's deafening selective silences. But the temptation has proven irresistible: someone simply and sincerely has to fill in the blanks. So here are a few of the questions and comments for both interviewer & interviewee(GW, HW & You) that we would have prepared, pre-loaded and sought/fought to discharge had we been granted a ballistic, journalistic joust with BMW's senior and sincere vice president:

Hildegard Wortmann: We have over a million kilometres driven by consumers in the Mini E and ActiveE and a fairly good understanding that those people are not driving that much. Putting a really big battery with all that weight into a car that is meant for urban mobility does not make sense".
"I think what we need to learn when do we use which car? But I think customers have a very good understanding. When they say, "I'm mainly going to use the car in the city" the i3 is perfect. And we offer mobility concepts for i3 customers so they can borrow an X5 if they go for a skiing weekend..." "They are our build-up in competence for learning and gaining experience in electrification. We will use those learnings(sic) for the total BMW brand. Technology-wise, we now have a really good understanding of what to do, what not to do, how to work with this and how to get a lot of learnings(sic) from the infrastructure and everything that goes with it."

EVUK: several points to pick up on:   by the same minimalist, ration-alist logic - given that at least 90% of cars on our roads are transporting just 1 or 2 people 90% of the time - BMW and the automotive mainstream should logically therefore have been primarily focused on selling 2-seater gasoline-powered cars for the past half century or more. And offering 4-7 seater "mobility concepts"(as with the i3 - book in advance - subject to availability) - on those infrequent occasions when more passengers need to be moved or,er, "mobilized".
Instead, our roads are teeming with supersized crossovers, 4-wheel drives, off-roaders, SUV's by another name - again for the most part occupied by just one or two people.
To use your words - does that make sense ?

Where's the consistency, BMW, Frau Wortmann ? Why is BMW after so many years and so far down the road still only prepared to offer - again in your words "a car that is meant for urban mobility" ?
Is it not the case that with EV's BMW is still intent on producing the short-range vehicles that the company  wants to sell - that suit its EV niche-market agenda? You say that it would be wasteful and not make sense to offer extra range that is only occasionally needed - yet BMW and the rest of the world's major carmakers are by contrast more than happy to satisfy almost every excessive, extravagant whim and fancy of their core crank'n'piston customers with barely a qualm or a scruple. A glaring example of EV v ICE double standards, surely ?

A timely word or two about the larger BMW i5(pictured). Rumours have been rife recently around the Detroit Motor Show that the i5 will soon officially be added to the company's electric line-up.
Will it also have limited all-electric range ? Many commentators say it is designed to compete with the Tesla Model S. So would BMW still consider it too wasteful and extravagant to at least offer a 150 mile battery range option ? You say that you have been disappointed by the lack of demand for the gasoline range-extended version of the i3 - do you not think or accept that this simply underscores the fact that most would-be EV owners want a completely clean break from oil and the internal combustion engine ? Which likewise indicates, does it not, that they would also baulk at the idea of having to pre-book a gasoline-dependent BMW X5 for longer journeys ?

Also - regarding your self-selecting "electronaut" Mini E field-testers(BMW Mini E, Wikipedia) -
- your own findings (as opposed to "learnings" ?) confirmed that almost all of those who applied to lease and "field-test" the 100 mile/charge Mini E were from the outset looking for a second car for short journeys and were therefore quite happy to live with that - in other words your "electronaut" field-testers originated and were drawn from a self-selecting small niche group or demographic that was clearly completely unrepresentative of the would-be electric car-buying population at large - the majority of whom want and have always wanted maximum range, normal stylish looks and plenty of interior passenger and storage space.
It is and never has been rocket science or even socket science.
Toyota needed little or no research or long-grass field-testing before they launched the long-range electric RAV4 in 1997 - whisking it from the drawing board to the street in under 18 months. The same was true of real-life rocket scientist and electronaut extraordinaire Elon Musk and Tesla when they designed and let loose the Roadster and Model S.

HW: (response pending..aber eher unwahrscheinlich !)

EVUK: Let's turn to range-record-breaking DBM Energy(name/identity now changed to Kolibri AG). Since the reshuffle and renaming as Kolibri AG in 2011 two eminent financial and automotive heavyweights have served as supervisory Board Members(link: Kolibri AG) :
1) Dr. Thomas Rueschen:
Deutsche Bank Group's serving - not former - Head of Asset & Wealth Management(Global Key Account Management Retail)

2) Richard Gaul:
Communications and investment consultant in Berlin, previously long-time director of Corporate Communications and Political Affairs for BMW AG.

Firstly, it is surely inconceivable or at least highly improbable that two such distinguished establishment figures would dedicate their valuable time and energy to - as most commentators would have us believe - a dodgey or unremarkable company producing a dodgey or unremarkable product.
There is presumably still ongoing contact between you, BMW and Herr Gaul ? Has he confirmed that Kolibri cells would indeed be capable of delivering 200 miles of affordable or even low-cost range(and 5000 charge cycles) if production volumes were to be significantly ramped up as Mirko Hannemann had hoped ?
Is it not ironic that Herr Gaul spent almost 22 years as Head of Communications at BMW yet he and his post-Hannemann Kolibri colleagues have so far resolutely refused or failed to communicate anything at all on the subject of electric cars ?
(Recall that it was Gaul who in 1998 famously declared:
'We can tell Rover workers your jobs are safe with us'  see 'BMW: The Lies' - Free Library)

Based on what was independently verified:
  - if the converted Audi A2 that was driven the 605 km between Munich and Berlin in 2010 (with 18% of its charge still remaining) were to be fitted with just half the weight in lithium batteries that powered it(300 kg) at normal traffic speeds(averaging 56 mph) on that record-setting night/morning it would inevitably achieve well over half that distance on a single charge - so around 350 km or 220 miles. Subsequent DEKRA / BAM tests confirmed (see video and pdf test results) that the full real range of the battery pack used on that occasion would have been 714 km(it arrived in Berlin only 82% discharged).

Another inevitable question for Frau Wortmann: was there not a clear and pleasant prospect or clear and present danger that DBM founder Mirko Hannemann risked becoming Germany's answer to Tesla's Elon Musk ?
Ironically, in his (rare) interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau Hannemann expressed his wish to expeditiously build battery factories - Giga or Mega or somewhere in between - in order to ramp up production and slash prices/cost. Has your former BMW colleague Richard Gaul given any indication as to why this has still not happened ?
Again, is it not ironic that Herr Gaul spent almost 22 years as Head of Communications at BMW yet he and his post-Hannemann Kolibri colleagues have so far resolutely refused or failed to communicate anything at all on the subject of electric cars ?

A few more inescapable questions - these for Autobloggreen's Gary Witzenburg, Wortmann and anyone else still on the fence or the ropes:   why would anyone who had developed radically disruptive game-changing EV batteries willingly appoint the likes of ex-BMW's Richard Gaul and Deutsche Bank's Dr. Thomas Rueschen as supervisory board members ?
Could you imagine Tesla and Musk ever willingly contemplating a similar move for even a fraction of a nanosecond ? Appointing Bank of America and GM grandees to the Board - to keep an eye and a lid on proceedings ?

Do you, GW, doubt the sincerity, credibility and integrity of the Roland Gutsch award body and its researchers ? Of all those independent experts who testified - some on camera - as to the Kolibri battery's authenticity and transformative potential ? Do you doubt the sincerity and credibility of the DEKRA and BAM test-engineers ?(see BAM video testimony and DEKRA pdf file test results)
Can you not accept the fact or even the idea that DBM was the almost inevitable victim of a classic Trojan horse takeover & take-down ?
Can you not live with the reality that Gaul's task was to slam on the brakes, EViscerate Hannemann's disruptive EV ambitions and steer the company safely towards stationary energy storage applications - as we had predicted ?

When has any BMW executive or salesman or owner otherwise EVER been interested in anything stationary or immobile ? Except in response to the prospect of real long-range EV progress and status-quo-threatening battery tech-advances ?

Hildegard Wortmann says - in familiar fashion - that BMW's EV "journey is just beginning" (!).

Oh boy! Incredible ! After so many decades. Are we still not there yet ? We've covered this ground and travelled this well-worn road so many times Volks - so please recharge and refresh your memory cells if need be with the following key links:

- "40 Years of Electric BMWs You Can't Buy" (Wired)

- "BMW Has Been Building Mediocre Electric Cars Since 1972" (Business Insider)
- including, in 1989, the 93 mile/charge 325iX .
Why did Witzenburg fail to jog Wortmann's and his audience's memories ?

- "BMW's high-priced, low-range carbon fibre carrot unveiled. But who wouldn't prefer a Kolibri- powered DBMW i3 - 200 mile/charge and far cheaper ?" (EVUK who else ! August 2013)

- " Cost-effective EV battery passes German tests, recharges in Minutes"(GM Volt.com report)

- BMW's Head of Communications for 22 years Richard Gaul famously and ever-so sincerely declared in 1998 :
'We can tell Rover workers your jobs are safe with us'  see 'BMW: The Lies' - Free Library . Kolibri/DBM's record-breaking cells are now strictly stationary and going nowhere fast thanks to Gaul & Co.

- In a rare May 2012 interview(Adlershof) conducted - candidly and sincerely - in one of the company's Kolibri-powered Audi A2's, sidelined CEO Mirko Hannemann let slip and confirmed with a wry smile and a weary wink one of the most perpetually and painfully clear EV truisms of all:

"I have understood that things are moving far too fast for car manufacturers"
("Ich hab verstanden, dass es den Autobauern viel zu schnell geht")

Do you agree Frau Wortmann ? Too fast and - more to the point - too far on each charge. Each and every 5000 charges ?

The Last Wort - a language footnote - for Frau Wortmann re: "learnings":  so much for the free EVUK EV lesson - now for the English lesson. The word "learnings" does not exist in English anywhere in the world - you confidently used it twice.
Instead use "findings" or "lessons learned".
Pedantic ? The fact is that poor English can seriously undermine credibility - especially of high ranking senior spokespeople for multinational corporations. After all the word "learning"(only the singular form exists) is a pretty crucial concept and word for all of us (as is "teaching") - especially as it relates to the autoindustry's willingness to act on their ostensible "learnings" - sorry - "findings" or "lessons learned"...
Sincerely Yours, PG, EVUK Editor/Co-Founder

---

March-Feb, 2014

- Just for the record(books?)
Tesla shares on fire, off the charts, a 619% one-year-leap

 
Pre-Occupying Wall Street. For Musk - Mr. SpaceX - the Sky's Not The Limit

But almost no-one is reporting - surprise surprise - that BYD shares have soared circa 240% in one year:

2014 - keep a watchful wolfish eye on the conspicuously under-reported Daimler-BYD Denza EV collaboration: if the two companies surprisingly announce that the strikingly stylish Denza is to break the range barrier à la Tesla - with a range of range options from 150-300 miles - BUY BYD & Daimler stock(and even EV's) like you're a Wall Street Werewolf !
(Otherwise hold or dump like it's the morning after the crash or the blood-fest)

February, 2014

Telegraph Feb 17 - freshly pressed news just squeezed in:  Green Tomato finally confirm 50 BYD deal dead
- just as we long suspected, expected and commented(despite the near-universal silence)

So, theoretically, red faces  all around at last. No explanation has been offered at all at this point. But we'll hope and assume that Thriev's fledgeling founders know the whole, juicy Tomato Truth - and can learn lessons from the failure.

Let's hope too that Green Tom chiefs will have cause to turn deeply green with envy  soon - as Thriev's BYD's thrive and drive ever onwards, upwards, outwards, skywards...

So far only the Daily Telegraph is reporting the confirmation("5 hours ago") - see "Britain's Largest Electric Taxi Deal Collapses".

Note re Daily Telegraph's (perhaps) surprisingly bullish lead on this BYD breakthrough: it's worth noting that the newspaper has just appointed a new dynamic youngish web-savvy Stanford-educated American editor-in-chief - 'change agent' Jason Seiken.
So when can we expect Seiken and his fearless fellow 'change agents' to start using, testing, video-reviewing the Thriev/Buffett taxis - presumably telling drivers to "keep the change" ?

February, 2014

Thriev promise 20 BYD e6 taxis - sorry 'chauffered private hire cars' - in London this month
- but only seeing will be believing this time

Following Green Tomato's 50 BYD taxi fudge and no-show we have contacted Thriev to seek reassurances that this time we really will see a potentially game-changing fleet of 186 mile/charge e6 'chauffeured private hire cars'(definitely not taxis or cabs or minicabs, Thriev ?!) on the streets of London. We'll keep you posted when or if we hear back from them.

See all recent press reports - and take a look at the company's Linkedin pages...which at the moment are infinitely more lively, buzzing and informative than their - thus far - very sparse and spartan website.

BREAKING Breakthrough News : Confirmation(Tues 11th Feb) : the first 10 BYD e6's were officially launched and unleashed today, Tuesday ! (but only reportedly). What's more, Warren Buffett - again reportedly(FT) - is attending the London launch this very day.
See - among others Automotive World. This time around a remarkable off-the-charts number - thousands - of media outlets worldwide have been reporting this latest BYD e6 EV/minicab/taxi(whatever) range-busting, consensus-crushing venture.
The Financial Times(10 Feb) even now dares to refer to Thriev's cars as "cabs" in its headline. Can we all now safely do likewise, please, Thriev ? Can we simply book or call for or even hail a thrifty Thriev cab or taxi from here on in ? Without the costly-sounding chauffeur ?

No official launch videos at the time of writing - but we're keeping our eyes - though not our Green Tomatoes - peeled.

( It possibly goes without saying that anyone thinking of buying a low-range/high anxiety keep-it-niche EV from any of the major carmakers(BMW, Nissan etc) would be well-advised to first head for London for a quick low-cost test-ride in a long-range e6 - a Buffett BYD taxi or 'chauffeur-driven private hire-car')

February, 2014

Formula E Street Wolf Wrecks Ferrari Fugazi. Or does he ? Watch (excl.) Oscar-worthy carnage.

Ferrari ? Lamborghini ? Ferrari ? Lamborghini ?
Even Belfort didn't know or care what he was driving or destroying...so why should we ?
(Note: we've now swapped our original fuzzy footage for a crystal clear clip - even Scorsese's stoned Strattonites might just see the light and the joke)

Apologies for the low-def quality of this EVUK exclusive clip - we hope this will :
a) persuade Youtube enforcers not to block and bar it ...and
b) encourage as many ethical *EVUK'ers as possible to go out and buy the ever-so ethical official hi-res XXX-rated DVD or very Blu-Ray disc a month or two from now after DiCaprio and friends have deservedly bagged a sackful or s!*t-load of Oscars - not least for Scorsese's selfless services to the (high-class) hooker trade.

*The Wolf of Wall Street(WOWS) now holds the all-time cinematic record(at least 506) for the use of the 'F' word.
No - not 'F' as in Ferrari or F1.  FU is what we're talking about here. Fugazi says it best of all - but you'll need to buy, nick or click the flick to find out why...or just watch Leo's tantric mantric money-making mentor Matthew McConaughey spell it out for you...with a little hazy fugazi 'fairy dust'.

Of course we shouldn't only be ridiculing and F-ing with Ferrari. DiCaprio's/Belfort's phallic fantasy ride - his wrecked Testostarossa(or Luded Lambo)- symbolizes financial fakery and fiction as much as his character's..er..unsinkable titanic yacht-without-sails.
A pixie-dust Porsche Chimera(cf. Panamera) would drive home the message just as well. When they crash or sink they cost lives and a 'fairy dust' fortune to repair or salvage.

In 2014 the global economy urgently needs a radical powershift - from Formula One-track-mind  to Formula E. To quote DiCaprio and co-star Rob Reiner:
"The chickens have come home to roost".

So now's the time to swap the 'F' word for the 'E' word.
'E' as in EVolution, Extraordinary Entertainment, Extreme Excitement, Ecology, Economy, Energy Efficiency, Earth-Friendly ...
Yes, we could easily pack the page with E's - the way Scorsese filled his film with F's.
But just give us a thousand more lion-hearted leaders like Leo and Elon to show a million or billion Jordan Belforts(not wolves - but parasites, hyenas, vultures, bloodsuckers) that prosperity without the F1lth and the greed is within humanity's reach.

Backtrack - see:
- DiCaprio enters all-electric Formula E race series with ex-Fetish Venturi...who also hold world electric vehicle speed record.
- green car and EV EVangelist Tyre Co CEO Edouard Michelin dies in F1shy fairweather F1shing accident following acrimonious bust-up with F1 fossil-fuel diehards - think Ferrari, Ecclestone etc. Michelin exits Formula One.
- Ferrari vows, once again, never to produce all-electric cars.

 
Turns out he didn't drive home unscathed..and that it wasn't his white Ferrari(right). Click Quaaluded Lamborghini(left) for pristine quality clip. Can we all blame it on the drugs please ?

OK, our headline should perhaps have read "Wolf Leo Lobotomizes Lamb" or "Leo (Quaa)Ludes Lamborghini" etc. But frankly, who gives a flying fugazi which Italian mob-job got wasted...?

Buy let's not solely single out Italian dinosauri - a classic pre-Tata, British-not-Indian Jaguar also features prominently in the film. What's more, that company's latest "Bad Is Good" TV ad campaign fronted by Gandhi / Sexy Beast Ben Kingsley might have made a good/bad alternative WOWS film title.
But to return to where we started: what would Gandhi drive ? Well, Mahindra's Formula E race car of course - in a fast & furious face-off against Team DiCaprio.

January, 2014

A Lone Long-Ranger test-Rides again
CNN - alone again CNN - tests 186 miles/charge BYD taxis in Bogota

...while London loses its (green) Tomato Mojo(Youtube)

Recall that it was CNN - and still only CNN - that tested the long-range Bolloré Bluecar in Paris. CNN's Nick Parker or Jim 'Bluecar' Bitterman would certainly prefer to be testing the disruptive, game-changing, consensus-flouting BYD e6 in London.

See EVUK report(Sept, 2013): " Backward' 'basket case' (!?) Bogota shames London with record BYD taxi launch"
plus:
"EVUK exclusive: London's Green Tomato Cars confirm further dithering delays"

Red-faced Green Tomato chiefs / taxidermists owe the waiting world an apology and honest explanation - scores if not hundreds of media outlets faithfully reported the original BYD taxi announcement in 2012. Unless we hear otherwise we will assume that the company and/or BYD have surrendered to the usual external pressures from the usual infernal suspects.
Sorry guys, but as long as you refuse to communicate we will have no choice but to (intelligently) speculate.

January, 2014

US Military: "EV's pay for themselves"
Anti-EV 'militants': "EV's worthless after 5 years".

2014 - and yet another Groundhog/Roadhog Year of ICE v EV Street Wars to Wage ?

An old priustoric joke:  now - in 2014 - the (almost) bomb-proof, armour-plated all-electric Tesla is a car worth fighting for..

We'll try to keep this short and bitter-sweet.

A familiar, revamped and regurgitated "study" by USA Today / Kelley Blue Book is once again claiming that all electric cars are destined and doomed to be virtually worthless after 5 years of ownership. As before, said stir-it-up study fails to mention what is by far the most important factor affecting any electric car's residual resale value:
- ie. battery life expectancy or life-span.

And as we've pointed out many times already - BYD claim that their e6 batteries are good for over 350,000 miles and for 20 years of life...and DBM's Mirko Hannemann(outrageously ousted by ex-BMW Trojan Horse Richard Gaul) remains confident that his range-record-breaking, award-winning Kolibri cells can be fully recharged 5000 times.

So to recap on the simple maths for the nth time:  battery life-span is primarily a product (A times B) of:
                 battery range x charge cycles
- although time/age and other variables obviously play a decaying role too(curious that no-one ever thinks that their smartphone, iPad, Tablet, netbook etc batteries will ever die or need to be replaced..)

Life expectancy and resale value are range issues too...

At 150,000 miles for example - the normally, perennially accepted end-of-life, end-of-the-road scrap-value point for almost all gasoline-powered cars - a BYD e6 EV's batteries would deliver at least another 200,000 miles - exceeding many owners' personal life-span or expiry date.
And a DBM/Kolibri-powered, 200 mile per charge Audi EV subversive conversion could and just might - if treated right - run for 200 x 5000 miles.
The million-mile maths is amazing. And truly too terrifying - electrically shocking - for the world's furiously fuming fossil-fuel fundamentalists, combustion canutes and our headlining alliance of die-hard anti-EV media-militants.

But batteries aside - don't let's forget and keep conveniently 'forgetting'(like those USA Today/Kelley "researchers") that when it comes to residual value and life expectancy EV's crucially contain around 600-800 fewer expensive-to-repair parts than their Heath Robinson(pictured), dino-tech equivalents. Ah yes - and today's EV electric motors are good-to-go for anywhere between 1 to 5 million mechanic-miffing miles.
Crank and Piston, Clutch, Gearbox, anyone ?

Finances exhausted by gargantuan garage repair bills ?

In aggressively defensive contrast to USA Today's studied pessimism the US Military - especially its Air Force - is bullishly confident that grid-interactive or vehicle-to-grid leased electric cars - even short-range Nissans and Fords - can more or less pay for themselves ie. cost virtually nothing in areas where power companies have been politically or popularly persuaded, pressured and otherwise incentivized to pay householders and EV owners/drivers fairly for all surplus energy fed back into the grid.

Yes - as unlikely as it may seem to many - the US and its military are way ahead of green-sheen Brits and electrically static Europeans when it comes to both low-cost EV-leasing and grid-interactive payback(Spain's lame-tame, corporately-controlled government is even planning to charge not pay consumers for feeding or "storing" electricity back into the grid !   Spain-bound Tesla be warned - Spain ain't no Norway. You may need to enlist the help of the 'green = strong' US military for your upcoming Spanish invasion !)

See National Defense Magazine :
"Plug-In Vehicles Could Generate Revenue For the Military"

"B***dy eco-warriors - make ya sick, right ?"

December, 2013

DiCaprio enters formidable Formula E
- but will he champion 2 wheels too ?

   While electric cars and 4-wheeled Formula E pull in the stars(in the US at least) no celebrities worldwide have so far come forward or 'come out' as electric motorcycle converts or believers. But without stellar support the deafening deadly global media silence looks set to continue.

The inaugural 2013 electric motorcycle eGrandPrix race series proved to be (US heats excepted) a pre-programmed media wipe-out, wash-out - a fizzling flop finished off with a FIM fiasco as the grand world final face-off in India was unceremoniously cancelled for reasons which were - surprise, surprise - reported by almost no-one anywhere on planet earth.

But Motorcycle.com's resilient resident rebel blogger Dennis Chung did offer this semi-plausible explanation:
"The final was originally scheduled to take place Nov 17 as a support race for the World Superbike Championship round at India's Buddh International Circuit. That WSBK round was cancelled in August, however, causing eRoad Racing organizers to scramble for a new venue for the finale. Those efforts proved to have been in vain, forcing the organizers to call off the final. Organizers had previously also canceled the third and final round in the North American series, originally scheduled for Aug 31-Sept 1 at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah."

From Left to Right - or Wrong to Right:

- DiCaprio in 2009 on petrol-powered motorcycle
- DiCaprio in 2008 on petrol-powered Yamaha moped
- DiCaprio and Jay Leno ride A2B electric bicycles in 2011
- No DiCaprio, Leo-less:   the electric green-wheeled Brammo straddled by unsung US eGrandprix heat champ Eric Bostrom. Without help from the stars there'll clearly be no fame, no glory no media coverage, no audience for electric motorbikes - and no choirs singing "Gloria" à la Repsol TV ad(watch below).

French connections - connect the circuit:
Leo - 007/Roger Moore - French Fetish - Venturi beat Tesla - one fishy French death* - Formula E formidable.
Sadly though electric motorcycles and the world race series are yet to be wired into the DiCaprio's or any celebrity circuitry.
(* Fishy French death:  the pre-Tesla Venturi Fetish was presented at the 2006 Bibendum Challenge - just 2 weeks after the fairweather fishing death of the event's founder and EV/green car evangelist Edouard Michelin - see 2013 EVUK report "RIP - Race In Peace"(Michelin lost F1 contract to Pirelli but won FE prix instead)

The Future - Electrified or Fossilized ? Two conflicting clips:
  
Left: "This is the Future" raves US eGrandprix racer Shane Turpin
Right: Repsol ("Invent the Future") sings a rapturous, ridiculous sacrilegious(surely ?) choral "Gloria" unto itself and to business-as-usual, oil-fuelled motorbikes, MotoGP, SuperMoto. TV Ad Nauseam.

Unsurprisingly Spain's thoroughly consumerized, commodified, media-conditioned, and largely eco-comatose yet catholic populace did not take to the streets to protest - and no outraged catholic 'protestants' demanded the ad or anuncio be withdrawn.
They've clearly learned little from gospel-green EV-believer (ex-)Pope Benedict*/Ratzinger.
For whilst the Spanish famously claim to adore - almost worship children - judging from their actions, inaction and unconcerned consumer choices they would appear to care little for the desecrated, depleted planet('His Creation' ?*) that their children's children and a zillion species of flora and fauna* will inherit and inhabit.
*Agnostic note:  All Things Bright and Beautiful...All Creatures Great and Small ? Ironically this EVUK scribe ascribes to no faith - but this is surely a hymn with lyrics to live by, God or no God. Even on the Costa del Repsol.

It's surely high time that anti-car, two-wheels-good Bardem(Javier) and biker Banderas(Antonio) proved their green or racetrack credentials and cojones by following heroic Leonardo's lead. Indeed '5-bikes' Banderas briefly owned and ran a Moto2(vroom,vroom) race team for all of six months in 2010 but got his fingers pretty badly burned. Well Hell - Infernal Combustion - what d'you expect Antonio ?

__________
From Formula E to Formula 3 - a high-performance F3 racing car made from and powered by recycled waste - including carrots, potatoes, chocolate, plastic bottles. Not electric - but as eco-eclectic as it gets - especially given that almost half of the world's food
goes to waste(Reuters etc) :
  
Refreshing to hear harsh comments from many speakers - including Formula E's Lord Drayson - regarding, among other things, climate-killing carbon fibre and the auto industry's chronic failure/refusal to transfer breakthrough technologies from the track and from university research departments to vehicle showrooms. Thanks though to Lola who helped the Warwick Uni team with the race car's powertrain and overall design.
Top, tastiest clips: 1, 2, 3. Total: 25 minutes. (But infinitely more edifying than a trillion hours of recycled trivia-trash-tripe TV)

__________
A Heads Up Footnote to Wikipedians : Lola Cars' Wiki pages make no reference at all to Formula E or to the company's revolutionary collaboration with Drayson Racing, Lola-Drayson.
Please race to update - SOA and ASAP !

December, 2013

The Weight-Loss Waiting Game:  from BYD - Build Your Dream - to GYD - Grow Your Dream ?
BMW v BYD, 90 v 186 mile range: with nanotech-bamboo/carbon fibre/super-strong graphene - less weight and drag - the BYD e6 would easily and inevitably achieve over 220 miles per charge.
(NB. whilst BYD have not announced any plans to lighten up the long-range but weighty 2380kg e6 - EVUK has always been unapologetically dedicated to making crucial EV news happen)

And if Vauxhall's Stuart Harris is right(see below: "the need for lighter cars is quickly going to become urgent") the world's carmakers - including BYD - will soon have no choice but to shift en masse towards smart, lightweight, exotic/disruptive alternatives to heavy steel and even aluminium...

Here are a few kerb weight comparisons to weigh up:

Tesla Model S 7-seater 2100kg, BYD e6 5-seater 2380kg, Nissan LEAF 5-seater 1474kg, BMW i3 4-seater 1270kg(a pressed-steel i3 would weigh about 1500kg - see D.Telegraph review)

To put it another way - if China's BYD were to trim the e6 down to below 2000kg with a variety of SOA weight-saving materials and improve the vehicle's aerodymics(drag) the EV's battery weight/size(and therefore cost) could be reduced by around 30% and still deliver over 150 miles per charge ie. still circa 50% more range than the lightweight BMW i3. As we pointed out in our previous February 2013 EVUK article on the same theme this would also improve the car's acceleration and handling and free up interior and boot/trunk space.

As mentioned above, Vauxhall marketing director Stuart Harris recently spoke about the pressure on carmakers to reduce weight - and in the process nimbly avoided mentioning electric vehicles or even the company's own semi-electric Ampera. Here are a few extracts - courtesy MSN Cars:

" "If interior packaging efficiencies can be found and vehicle crash safety technology can improve, said Harris, future models may be launched that offer the same interior space as the cars they replace, but with smaller overall dimensions and a lower overall kerbweight.
Harris is so confident in his claim because the need for lighter cars is quickly going to become urgent. Vehicle manufacturers must cut the weight of their cars in order to reduce emissions, because otherwise, the financial penalties from legislators will be punitive.
"The secret to reducing CO2 is cutting weight," he explained. "New engines are already coming, which are helping, but the only way to achieve a fleet average 95g/km CO2 will be to make vehicles lighter."
But although even hitting this ambitious fleet average emissions figure will be a huge achievement, the work for car manufacturers doesn't stop there - cutting the weight of vehicles is only the start of it.
"Making lighter cars may take you to 95g/km but then physics and aerodynamics take over."
Vehicle engineering centres are going to be busy places in coming decades "(MSN Cars, Nov,2013)

__________
Here are a few more bedazzling, bamboozling bamboo bullet-points and a little pulp non-fiction to chew on :

- Nanotubes are also known as "bamboo nano" because of their tubular structure and strength. So - bamboo and nanotech
- a natural automotive synergy just waiting, waiting, waiting to happen.
So why the weight-slashing wait ? Clearly the challenge here - as with oil and the infernal combustion engine - is as much corporate-political as it is technological - bamboo inevitably being the bane, a bête noire or bête beige of yet another Canute-like corporate colossus, namely the steel industry - one of the heaviest of the so-called "heavy" industries.

- Bamboo is widely used in Asia as an alternative to steel scaffolding(right) - even in the building of high-rises. But it does not augur well that mainland China for whatever reason - in contrast to Hong Kong - has banned its use in the construction of full-blown skyscrapers.

- Bamboo " lighter and stronger than carbon fibre and steel" (Science Ray)

- Wood Pulp "stronger than carbon fibre or Kevlar" ..and far cheaper, greener (Slashdot)

- Bamboo and wood pulp composites are not only stronger than steel they have been shown to have significantly superior impact resistance, shock absorbency

- 'Mighty oaks from little acorns grow' - forget that old acorny adage, that tired old chestnut:   instead try 'from tender, tiny, tasty bamboo shoots does the mighty bamboo soar skywards' - averaging a growth rate of over 2 metres a month...although an amazing 2.5 metres/98 inches in 24 hours have been reported(see Wiki, Bamboo and "The Book of Bamboo", D.Farrelly, Sierra Club Books)

- Bamboozled by bamboo:   try telling any financial advisor or fund manager - preferably a China or Asia specialist - that you're intent on investing in a uniquely versatile and super-strong natural product offering spectacular, unrivalled, infinitely sustainable, renewable, guaranteed growth potential.
No, not a hedge fund but a bamboo fund - without the boom and bust.
Expect blank, bamboozled looks or outright derision.
For although "Growth! Growth ! Growth !" continues to be the universally parroted political, economic, corporate and media mantra - disruptive, transformative growth-redefining bamboo remains almost as taboo, underreported and marginalized as EV's were until the advent of the Tesla and the LEAF. Go figure.

To reiterate:  we would obviously all be applauding rapturously if European, Asian, US carmakers - including BYD and BMW - were to take a leaf from Rinspeed's bamboo book and announce the successful development, road-testing and imminent mass-production of lightweight and therefore longer-range electric cars constructed using a whole new generation of genuinely green, stronger-than-steel, 21st century materials coated or impregnated with the latest nanotech-based, water-repelling, life-extending resins, nanoclays, composites - ingeniously combining all of the best that bamboo, wood-pulp, graphene and good old carbon fibre(invented half a century ago) have to offer.

__________
From nano plastics to nano bamboo ? Here are a few salient quotes from Professor Hai Wong Kang's "A Review of the Emerging Nanotechnology Industry" (dtsc.ca.gov) :

" Nanoclay and carbon nanotubes are the key nano-elements used in polymer nanocomposite materials. Current major applications of plastic nanoclay composite materials include automotive parts, such as automotive body panels and under-hood components, and packaging. In packaging, nanocomposites decrease the permeation rate of gases and moisture vapor into plastic by creating a "tortuous path". Nanocomposites can also provide materials of high stiffness and impact resistance(...)Toyota produced the first commercial nanocomposite materials on the market, a timing belt cover and food packaging. After that, many other companies produced plastic nanocomposite materials for packaging and automotive parts. "

Add this quote re bamboo-epoxy nanocomposites from Techpedia and Vivek Kumar - Project Associate in the Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Delhi:
" Bamboo as a fiber with different polymers and fillers is a good option for high performance structural applications ".

But if you're still not blown away by bamboo - look to graphene instead. Or combine the two. With wood pulp. See Gizmag: "Graphene Remains The Strongest Known Material"

__________
From weight loss to dead loss :  a lone-voice EVUK reminder that Green Tomato Cars' 50 BYD e6 taxis/minicabs have yet to hit London's streets. Is it time to prepare the rotten tomatoes ?
Originally scheduled to launch in April, subsequently postponed until July(-ish), then "not until the end of October". Claiming suddenly and unconvincingly that charge-points needed to be put in place, the company has yet to explain - among other things - why a partial, gradual roll-out would not be possible, even preferable. Maybe - just maybe - they've decided to wait for a light-weight bamboo-graphene-nanotech version to show up..

December, 2013

Tesla accelerates Model E debut - by more than a year - to 2015.
- yet another spooky EVUK coincidence ?!

Less than two months before this latest Tesla forward-thinking rethink we posted this constructively plaintive little plea:

"Thus far the Californian upstart and startup have been tolerated and occasionally even celebrated and congratulated by the US media and motor-making mainstream - in part thanks to Musk's glittering billionaire Paypal legacy and track-record but mainly because the company's EV's - the long-range Model 'S' and Roadster - remain safely unaffordable to at least 95% of the car-buying public. If, on the other hand, Tesla had ever threatened, promised or attempted to roll out its low-cost, long range and thus truly disruptive Model 'E' last year or even earlier it would have seriously rattled the cage, lethally ruffled feathers and a far bloodier cock-fight would have ensued. What a pity Elon lacked the élan to fast-track that master-plan".

OK - we would still have preferred to see the 'E' in the streets yesterday - but 2015/16 still beats 2016/17.

December, 2013

Tesla latest: no blazing news is good news. Is FED probe having a mysterious dousing and deterrent effect ? After three Tesla Fires in 6 weeks - between late September and early November - none, touch timber or wood, have been reported since CEO Musk called in the FEDs.
We'll just leave that question hanging and smouldering - suffice to say that it is blazingly amazing how an official probe can appear to prevent mysterious fiery accidents or "accidents" from happening.
Have the FEDs finally mastered precog, Minority Report-style accident or foul-play prevention ?

November, 2013

A result ? Tesla asks FED's to probe fires(just a week after our last lonely little piece re sabotage/foul play - see below)

Obviously just another possibly purely coincidental response to a lone-voice silence-breaking EVUK article or two(pity the major carmakers still refuse to coincidentally respond re real range).

So when at long last can we expect that official and formal job offer, please - on our knees - Elon ?

See 1000's of Google News reports detailing Tesla's slightly belated request for an official FED probe(thankfully before we are forced to witness the first fatally mysterious accident or "accident")

November, 2013

Third Tesla "freak" fire - at last someone else dares to talk sabotage/foul play

And you can bet your bottom dollar that Tesla's Elon Musk and the FED's are also quietly but actively investigating the real or more likely causes and culprits..

Tesla clearly fear that any mention of the possibility or likelihood of sabotage would likely trigger a far worse outbreak of wildfire panic and fear amongst investors and existing or would-be Tesla owners than freak accidents purportedly/reportedly caused by a bit'o'debris flying up from the road and magically, miraculously penetrating the car's armour-plated underside.
And given that the Model S was recently independently proven to be the Safest Car in the World - sorry, but au contraire, guys - it is in fact extraordinarily far-fetched to believe that all of these fires - which have all occurred since those safety test accolades - are the result of penetration caused by nasty sharp objects.

(We'd sure love to see a skilled stuntman or fully Tesla-tricked driver attempt to reproduce one of these allegedly freak accidents...)

So at last we're not alone - Breaking Energy have now joined EVUK in Breaking the Silence re the possibility or likelihood of sabotage:

Here's a key silence-breaking extract from Breaking Energy - including a blazingly graphic and handily fortuitous little roadside Youtube clip:

" It's quite simple actually.

-Hire an actor.

-Buy a Tesla.

-Sabotage the car and film it at the side of a road.

-Post it to Youtube and arrange the homepage ad fee. (How do you think it got to the front page with over a million views within 2 days.)

-Short TSLA stock making all the finance back + more.

-Let the news machine do what they do best.

Somebody is making a lot of money off the decline of TSLA stock whilst trying to kill the electric car industry all in one blow, again ! "

*** But even the well-meaning guys at Breaking Energy are missing the obvious far simpler, cheaper and infinitely less self-endangering option - ie. the standard or traditional accident-engendering modus operandi. As we've mentioned several times already:  simply track down a supplier of matchbox-sized(or smaller) magnetic or stick-on explosive-incendiary devices - remotely detonate-able of course.
Select any conveniently parked/stationary Tesla...take two seconds to reach down and plant device. Follow car when driver reappears. Hit remote at opportune moment. To maximize likelihood of fatality, wait until Tesla is taking sharp bend at speed - ideally with plenty of off-road trees to explode into. Far cheaper, simpler and screamingly obvious than purchasing your own Tesla, hiring a fearless kamikaze actor(?!) etc.

Penultimate inflammatory thought:  odd, is it not, that we never hear reports of sharp objects penetrating the undersides of non-armourplated(unlike the Tesla Model S) Ford Fiestas, Renault Clios etc. If Tesla's account is to be believed, we'd surely be hearing hundreds if not thousands of horror-stories every year. Ugly, vicious pointed objects would be penetrating the floors of unarmoured, average, normal vehicles like knives through Kevlar-free butter...slicing through seat-cushions and piercing the fleshy undersides of drivers and passengers alike.
And let us(unlike America's many enemies) also hope that the US military ain't using the same armour-plating source as Tesla in any of its many war zones where rough terrains and roads are so often littered with IED's, stray cluster-bombs, land-mines: "Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Driver Speared by Nasty Pointy Bit'o'Debris " is a headline the Pentagon can probably live without.

Ultimately, whilst it may be possible to deter would-be saboteurs by fitting some type of precision, laser-based, pricey intrusion or motion-detection alarm system - active only when the car is stationary - beneath the floors of range-busting, disruptive EV's, the only realistic, immediate big picture solution is for major carmakers to stop isolating these consensus-breaking companies(hitherto leaving Tesla, BYD etc to take the flak, literally and otherwise) and to flood the streets and showrooms with long-range(150 miles), affordable electric cars. Only then will EV opponents finally be forced to hand over their weapons(so to speak) and accept that the game is up.

October, 2013

BMW i3 - radical ad hits UK TV. Great green PRimetime PR - but who wants just 90 unradical miles / charge - in 2013?

"The time to become electric is now. Are you ready ?" asks the narrator.(Watch video)
Hmm. To paraphrase Albert Finney's canny Kincade character in Skyfall:
"We were ready before you were Born (Electric), BMW."

So first the Negative Charge:    while there's no denying that it is mind-flippingly surreal to hear the words "all-electric" in a TV car commercial anywhere in the world - especially on this side of the pond - the fact remains that BMW could instantly and totally eclipse Tesla, steal all of Musk's thunder and quite righteously and rightfully rain on His parade if the i3 now boasted an electric range of 150 or even 142 miles(228 km). Then all bets would be off(and firmly back on BMW) and the world would be finally off to the long-range races.
Until that happens BMW will be knowingly and expensively flogging(in both senses) another high-tech doped or dead horse - the same old donkey dazzlingly dressed up for a Derby.

Sure, the usual motley assortment of eager-to-please fleet operators and image-focused, post-Smart business-owners will be publicly persuaded to sign up - but private buyers(non-Californians at least) will continue to stay away until BMW (and the rest) really get real on range.

Finally the Positive Charge:   millions of electrically discharged, dormant TV-gogglers will be seismically startled, astonished and shaken awake from their sofas & settees by BMW's(let's be fair) outstandingly and astoundingly radical ad - and millions of gagging gogglers will Google "electric car" for the very first time in their lives.
Hallelujah - all despairing EV campaigners will be hellishly grateful for that.

BMW are definitely on the right road, even the high road - but not yet the long road. With the i3 we're still stuck in the city and trapped by the cityscape - when a far-flung escape from the city and the 'city EV' cliché is what most urbanites and suburbanites want.

See :  becomeelectric.co.uk/tv (when will the rest of Europe be "ready" ie. you won't yet see or find becomeelectric.es/tv, becomeelecrtic.de/tv, becomeelectric.eu etc)

TV Addendum / Corrigendum:
- sorry BMW, but "the time to become electric" was circa 15 years ago, 1997, the late 90's.
Toyota's still largely taboo, blanked-by-the-media, 90-125 miles/charge RAV4 EV had been recently launched in the US and Japan(sadly, lease-only), and an EVangelically, inconveniently green Al Gore appeared destined to become the next US president. The now (likewise) buried-by-the-media Nobel Peace Prize Laureate-to-be was crucially dedicated to reducing America's dependence on (foreign) oil and on the dictatorial, feudal Middle Eastern regimes that supplied it. Unfortunately - tragically even - and contrary to most exit-poll predictions, fossil fuel fundamentalists George Bush and Dick Cheney were somehow(is this how ?) installed and re-installed in the White House and all-too predictably both battery and fuel cell vehicle development came to a virtual standstill.
If major carmakers like BMW had followed Toyota's defiant(then not now) electric lead instead of conspiring - with the help of a compliant media - to isolate them and quietly pull the plug on EV progress we would now inevitably be a decade and a 100+ miles ahead of where we are currently stalled in terms of battery range.

______________ Compare & contrast :
US Nissan LEAF TV ad: polar bear heads to the far-flung Big City from the Arctic to hug and thank LEAF owner:
 
Obviously if Nissan and BMW were to increase range to 150 miles globally or pole-to-pole our furry friend would have considerably more EV owners to bear-hug and wouldn't need to trek thousands of miles to find one...

October, 2013

Alert/Memo to VWikipedians / the VWorld / VW :
e-Golf was unveiled/launched in 2010 in Shanghai - not in 2013 at Frankfurt Motor Show.

Watch exclusive 2011 video:  German sci-tech TV team given VIP chauffeured e-Golf test-ride in 2011.

Automotive and media alliance attempts yet again to rewrite EV history and selectively bury or blank out the past..

Boy-oh-Boy - this is becoming an almost full-time EVUK occupation:  once again every single e-Golf-related copy-cat press release or repeat-report we have so far sped-read(scores of them) has gone out of its misleading way to portray one more recent, supposedly significant EV-related initiative, pledge, event, vehicle unveiling as out-of-the-blue brand-new news(Autocar UK provides a typical example).

This 2011 (EVUK) exclusive excerpt from Germany's excellent 3Sat Hitec/Nano TV team proves otherwise:

How many zero emission e-Golf's were ever or are ever likely to be sold or leased in China is anyone's guess. We'd wager somewhere in the vicinity of a very round and clean zero total sales volume - despite generous Chinese government subsidies. And for the usual reasons: low range, high price.

From the horse's mouth - www.volkswagenag.com - anno 2010: VW discuss the unveiling of the e-Golf and e-Lavida at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

So to sum up and for the record :   contrary to the 2013 Frankfurt Show PR script - universally and obediently regurgitated by the world's old/new media - VW did not "unveil two new electric cars - the e-Golf and the e-Up!" but only one - the e-Up! The e-Golf was re-unveiled.

Bitte:  if Volkswagen would kindly like to tell us / the VWorld / VWikipedians if or how the e-Golf has been modified or improved since its (theoretically) high-profile, memorable unveiling at the Shanghai Expo more than 3 years ago - well, we're all eager ears here.
But of course if Volkswagen(GM, BMW et al) really want to make EV history that's genuinely worth recording and applauding - not just Wiki-footnote-ing - they simply need to increase or gee-up or e-up their EV battery range by circa 50% to match the 142 miles that Nissan's Japan-only LEAF officially delivers(see 2012 Youtube'd announcement).
Ultimately though it's up to consumers - particularly here in the so-called 'West' - to Wake Up!  Gee-up!  and collectively e-Up!  the pressure on major carmakers to do the already do-able.
Sadly, it's still All too Quiet on that Western Front.

October, 2013

Tesla fire was "contained,controlled..kept from passenger compartment"
- cf. 150,000 gasoline car fires/year in US

Below:   a perfectly normal par-for-the-course petrol car fire in Islington, London, a few days ago - September 30. Nine people injured:

We'll keep this brief - we've covered this ground exhaustively many times before of course so here just for the record are the key facts and a few of those rarely uttered uncomfortable home-truths re the 100's of thousands of deadly gasoline-fuelled fireballs that occur worldwide every year ie. high-speed head-on collisions and cars hitting trees or other immovable objects are globally frequent, unsensationalized, conspicuously underreported, normal or 'normalized-by-the-media' (cf. lead in petrol, NOx emissions etc), and ergo generally shoulder-shruggingly accepted daily events. Yet carmakers have had well over a century to solve the problem and/or to be pressured by the public/media/politicians to solve the problem.

Key links:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/04/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-defends-model-s-safety-after-companys-review-of-fire/

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-fire

Key Quotes:

" ..there are 150,000 car fires per year according to the National Fire Protection Association, and Americans drive about 3 trillion miles per year according to the Department of Transportation. That equates to 1 vehicle fire for every 20 million miles driven, compared to 1 fire in over 100 million miles for Tesla. This means you are 5 times more likely to experience a fire in a conventional gasoline car than a Tesla.. "

"A curved section that fell off a semi-trailer was recovered from the roadway near where the accident occurred and, according to the road crew that was on the scene, appears to be the culprit."
"Had a conventional gasoline car encountered the same object on the highway, the result could have been far worse. A typical gasoline car only has a thin metal sheet protecting the underbody, leaving it vulnerable to destruction of the fuel supply lines or fuel tank, which causes a pool of gasoline to form and often burn the entire car to the ground. In contrast, the combustion energy of our battery pack is only about 10% of the energy contained in a gasoline tank and is divided into 16 modules with firewalls in between. As a consequence, the effective combustion potential is only about 1% that of the fuel in a comparable gasoline sedan."

Finally, any commentator, pundit, hack or "journalist" worth his salt/salary should clearly have asked and be asking Tesla if they have categorically ruled out sabotage and on what forensic/evidential grounds eg. could some kind of magnetic matchbox-sized or smaller incendiary-explosive device have been (sadly all-too easily) planted under the vehicle ?
Remember - Tesla have only stated that the suspected semi-trailer curved section "appears to be the culprit"(see quote above). All-too predictably the word "sabotage" has been extremely conspicuous by its absence from Tesla's subsequent press releases and interviews with CEO Elon Musk.
And yet it is no trivial or trifling truth that Tesla and CEO Musk now represent the greatest threat yet (think David v Goliath) to the pathologically protected, preserved, promoted prehistoric primacy of the fossil fuel/combustion colossus, leviathan, behemoth - a (literally) dinosaur-driven duopoly with deeply despotic instincts. It is therefore extraordinarily naive if not dangerously delusional to believe that this uniquely transformative/disruptive/subversive company will not be targeted every which way by its many enemies or adversaries.

Thus far the Californian upstart and startup have been tolerated and occasionally even celebrated and congratulated by the US media and motor-making mainstream - in part thanks to Musk's glittering billionaire Paypal legacy and track-record but mainly because the company's EV's - the long-range Model 'S' and Roadster - remain safely unaffordable to at least 95% of the car-buying public. If, on the other hand, Tesla had ever threatened, promised or attempted to roll out its low-cost, long range and thus truly disruptive Model 'E' last year or even earlier it would have seriously rattled the cage, lethally ruffled feathers and a far bloodier cock-fight would have ensued. What a pity Elon lacked the élan to fast-track that master-plan.

September, 2013

GM re-presents, repackages, recycles 2012's 200 mile per charge pledge as new news
(..and our obligingly amnesiac or reliably ill-informed media dutifully report it as out-of-the-blue new news..)

See our 2012 EVUK article: "GM fails to Spark rumoured 200+ mile range revolution at LA Show" (includes links to 2012 Forbes and EVWorld pieces on the same old GM/200 mile theme)

So what about now, GM ? The unpromising present ?
Instead of re-pledging 200 miles  'n'  yawning years down the road - how's about - in the lean and meantime - equipping the 82 mile damp-squib, short-changing Spark EV with a still relatively meagre 150 miles of range ? Now or expeditiously ? OK, OK ! We'll accept 140 miles. Even 130.
If Nissan Japan can offer Japanese customers a 142 mile per charge Leaf why are you and the rest of the West's auto giants still so conspicuously unable/unwilling to follow their lead now ?

Gee Up, GM !   Please present us with some Present Tense Relief from Range Anxiety !

Indeed why are you refusing to do what patently GM-free Tesla are intelligently, logically and naturally already doing with the Model 'S' and offering the Spark EV with a range of range options - now ?
82 to 142 miles would relieve the present tension, the anxiety.
Why not spark a sales surge and ignite a relative range revolution now or imminently ?

 
Old news renewed loses sparkle - different cart, same old carrrot, more mañana bananas...

Recommended reading: Jim Motavalli's latest piece also puts GM's repackaged promise in perspective and context(NY Times blog - not mass-audience mainstream print, obviously)

September, 2013

- BMW Frankfurt: fuming BMW M6 owner sledgehammers car at Motor Show
- BMW Paris: BMW-Bluecar spy spat - espionage, sabotage, perverse PR stunt - feel free to speculate

Story 1 - BMW in Frankfurt

Youtube: Fuming €120k BMW victim sledgehammers his own car at Frankfurt Motor Show - perhaps Bolloré should head for Frankfurt for a similar tit-for-tat stunt(see below).
Obviously this BMW M6 muggins(selbst schuld !) could have saved himself 20,000 Euros and tonnes / gallons of grief if hed been smart enough to buy a top of the range(in both senses) Tesla Model S. The ultimate mean lean green Machine with dramatically lower running and maintenance costs and at least 600-800 fewer parts or components to expensively replace and repair and Rage Against.

And given that the Model S has recently proven itself to be the safest, most resilient, robust, crush & crash-proof production car on the market(Wired) - bellicose Thomas Brunner and irate Iranian Hadi Pourmohseni would likely need something even more robust and brutal than a sledgehammer or pick-axe to demolish an electric car built like a proverbial tank. A hand-held rocket-launcher would probably do the job. (There - a new challenge for Elon the Invincible/the Perfectionist/the realworld Rocket Scientist)

Story 2 - BMW in Paris

Paris Punchline: BMW Bolloré Bluecar spooks arrested, detained for 24 hours but released without charge(Boom boom - BMW ?)

As always it's what ain't mentioned that interests most.
Whilst BMW admit that the August incidents did involve the company's operatives/engineers they deny any link to the Sept 5 encounter.
It's also worth mentioning that any would-be Bluecar battery spies - as opposed to charge-point spooks - or would-be saboteurs could simply park the vehicle away from prying eyes - in a driveway, hidden behind high walls, in a garage, warehouse etc and tinker and tamper at will unseen, unarrested, uncharged.
As we've stated many times any EV company(Bolloré, BYD) with the audacity, the gall, the b*lls, the sheer impudence to deviate from the prescribed short-range, niche market consensus will find themselves squarely in the cross-hairs of a 1001 rivals and infernal fossil fuel foes. Espionage with a view to sabotage or tech/intellectual property-theft are to be expected. As are anonymous death threats and un-refusable offers. Pity that BMW have shown so little legitimate and credible interest over the past 30 years in developing next generation, long-range batteries.

À propos espionage, sabotage, death threats - no surprise that this unashamedly enthusiastic Hong Kong BYD taxi driver and gushingly keen convert has chosen anonymity - hiding his face and disguising his voice for this on-the-job interview:

BMW Frankfurt - all videos, all Google News
BMW Paris - all Google News

September, 2013

'Backward' 'basket case' (!?) Bogotá shames London with record BYD taxi launch

- Plus EVUK exclusive: Green Tomato Cars confirm further dithering delays...

Watch Bogota BYD launch video:

Oh dear - genuine South American revolutionaries put Britain, Europe, North America, "advanced" nations to shame once again.
And just days after we received the latest fizzle & fade news from Green Tomato: the launch of London's 50 BYD e6 186 mile / charge taxis has been unconvincingly delayed yet again - this time "until the end of October". Originally pledged/promised for the "second quarter" of this year ie. from April 1st.(We kid you not - talk about taxis arriving late !!)

Que lastima ! An all-too familiar moveable feast of illogical, untenable excuses, postponement and prevarication from London's Green Tomato Cars. Deja Vu squared. Deja pas apparu all over again.

Oh dear - it must be bad - we're suddenly speaking in tongues...but thankfully none of them forked.

Yes, just 2 days after we contacted Green Tomato Cars for an excuse update, ever-so primitive, backward Bogota "Launches the Largest All-electric Taxi Fleet in South America" (see dozens of reports including the suddenly revolutionary or positively revolting Wall Street Journal !)

August, 2013

A Special Tweet: (excl. latest) London's BYD taxis ARE now charged up and ready to launch "v. soon".

Forget BMW - the BYD range revolution will change EVerything...
Click for an especially tasty Green Tomato Tweet

(Click here for all the latest Green Tomato tweets)

August, 2013

BMW's high-priced, low-range carbon fibre carrot unveiled for the nth time
But who wouldn't prefer a Kolibri-powered DBMW i3 - 200 mile/charge and far cheaper ?

 
BMW i3(left !) - yet another very high-priced, low-range,
niche-cliche city/urban vehicle. Yes - despite having significantly reduced the weight of the long, long-awaited EV, the Bavarian Bellied Beast still doggedly refuses to increase all-electric range to where it clearly needs to be and could be ie. at circa 150 miles. Note or recall that almost 25 carrot-dangling years ago - in 1989 - BMW proudly PResented the 93 mile/charge 325iX hi-carotene concept(see links below).

_____
A DBMW Postscript Update to our January 2013 article :
- a BMW i3 or a DBMW i3 ? Powered by DBM Energy - rebaptised as Kolibri after ex-BMW PR place-man and all-round fixer/closer/threat-eliminator Richard Gaul snuck in - aboard a Car Giant's Trojan Horse(see below).

In this rare and barely known 2013 Adlershof interview, Mirko Hannemann confirms - with understated sarcasm and the wary and weary wink of an eye - everything that we have said all along about BMW and the rest of the world's wilfully de-ranged automakers. And he says it while driving an all-electric DBM/Kolibri-powered Audi A2:
"I have understood that everything was/is moving far too fast for the major carmakers".
(Far too fast - and far too far would be more to the point of course)

_____

Compare & contrast: the newly re-unveiled BMW i3 - a paltry, anachronistic 81-99 miles per charge - and exorbitantly overpriced to boot at around €40,000(before grants). A DBMW i3 on the other hand could easily achieve 200 miles a charge and, according to award-winning and now 'exiled' ex-CEO Mirko Hannemann, would soon cost no more than a gasoline-powered car if production of the Kolibri/DBM cells were to be seriously ramped up.(See our exclusive report plus Frankfurter Rundschau interview translation)

Here's our original January carrot-dangling piece in full to munch, gnaw and chew upon once again:

_____
- More mañana PRomises from the world's top EV time-wasters, teasers, fake-believers
(For those with a sweeter tooth, perhaps we could hereby officially invent the phrase "mañana bananas" ?)

BMW & VW's carbon vision: but will the donkey demographic keep believin' that they ain't deceivin' ?

Yes - even VW's Audi ain't or weren't swallowing it: Absprung und Rücksprung durch Technik ? (See"Audi Attacks BMW's Carbon Fibre Eco-Car" - GoAuto)

Note: We're dangling and teasing and time-wasting a little too with this first draft: a full-on EVUK article will appear..manana ..or thereabouts
PRomise !

Second wind - draft two, as promised :
It is - as so often - almost impossible to know where to begin..or why to begin. So much dangling needs untangling. Is it really worth the candle or the carrot ?
But here anyway are a few salient points, in roughly reverse chronological order, to munch, chew and gnaw - eee-aaw - upon:

- "VW Buys into BMW's Carbon-Fibre Dream" (Economist, but blog only)

- "40 Years of Electric BMWs You Can't Buy" (Wired)

- "BMW Has Been Building Mediocre Electric Cars Since 1972" (Business Insider)
In 1989 BMW conceived and flaunted - but of course never sold - the 93 mile/charge 325iX concept. Yet another still-born electric, if you will. Reincarnated and reborn for the next century, BMW have been dangling the ActiveE, i3, i8 prototypes and concept-carrots at countless motorshows for umpteen years. Range ? Roughly identical to the 1989 325ix - between 80-100 miles.

- from donkeys and carrots to classic Trojan Horse takeovers and take-downs: in 2011 ex-BMW PR & communications specialist/star-illusionist Richard Gaul(pictured) was ominously appointed to the board of range-record-busting battery developers DBM Energy after 22 years of high-octane, petrol-head-pleasing PR for BMW - see track-record above. Right: Gaul goes for a non-electric spin.

(BMW-Rover footnote: in 1998 Gaul famously declared:
'We can tell Rover workers your jobs are safe with us.' ('BMW: The Lies' - Free Library)
Let's repeat that - for the chronically ADD-afflicted and the hard of hearing/learning/believing:
'We can tell Rover workers your jobs are safe with us.'
And we can assure EV-watchers everywhere that DBM Energy's range-record-shattering, cost-slashing, transformative, disruptive, genuinely game-changing Kolibri cells will be safely buried and obediently ignored by the world's media ...

With Gaul on board DBM Energy quickly morphed into EV-EVading Kolibri AG after relocating philosophically to Munich but physically to Frankfurt from Berlin. And as we predicted at the time, Kolibri have since resolved or been persuaded to focus exclusively on stationary, non-automotive, non-disruptive and expensive energy storage applications. What's more, the words "electric car" have been entirely erased from the company's vocabulary and former DBM director and audacious Audi A2 EV creator Mirko Hannemann has effectively (been) disappeared or EVaporated into thin air.

- Wood Pulp "stronger than carbon fibre or Kevlar" ..and far cheaper, greener (Slashdot)

- Bamboo " lighter and stronger than carbon fibre and steel" (Science Ray)

- we would obviously all be applauding rapturously if BMW had announced the successful development, road-testing and imminent mass-production of lightweight and therefore longer-range electric cars constructed using a whole new generation of genuinely green, stronger-than-steel, 21st century composites - ingeniously combining all of the above materials and more eg. wood pulp, bamboo, carbon fibre, graphene ..coated and impregnated perhaps with the latest nanotech-based, water-repelling, life-extending resins ...(und,und,und)

- historical carbon footnote: the first high-strength carbon fibre was produced in 1958. In 1963 - 50 years ago - the Royal Aircraft Establishment unveiled a new, improved version. Unfortunately their Rolls Royce-powered carbon fibre compressor blades later disintegrated at high revs. (Wiki - Carbon fibre/fiber)

- pre-historical carbon footnote:
"The Dawn of the Carbon Age"(from BMW's i Concept/Born Electric pages)
Surely only the most dyed-in-the-wool of die-hard dinosaurs would ever dream up a slogan and strapline eulogizing carbon ?
Yummie and Yippee ! Carbon footprints, carbon emissions, carbon futures, carbon-dated.

A new twist on an old adage springs to mind: when the only tool you have is a hammer..and the only fuel you can see is carbon, everything looks like a carbon fibre nail.

 
Bamboozled by BMW ?  Check out these genuinely green, brown Bamboo EV's from Kenneth Cobonpue/Albrecht Birkner and Rinspeed(Switzerland)

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NB: GPM - the Roland Gutsch Award body have always stood 100% solidly behind their extensively researched decision to award the 2010 prize to DBM Energy's Mirko Hannemann. Here is their final re-affirmation of that award decision (Pressw0rds: "Details zu Roland Gutsch Award") - and here' s a passable Google translation.
Sadly, scandalously, it is clear that almost no English-speaking journalists or editors have read it, know of it or want to know.
GPM stress that many experts close to DBM Energy, its technology and its people were consulted and interviewed - and in a few instances filmed - by their highly-respected award research-team before the 2010 decision was made. In other words many of those testifying were more than willing to go on record and put their reputations on the line. DBM Kolibri cells: 600+ km record Munich to Berlin 2010. BAM and DEKRA tested. Life expectancy: 5000 charge cycles.

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_____ Credibility & ethical integrity: BMW v DBM/GPM - who ya gonna go with, Volks ?
- in 2009 the GPM Roland Gutsch Award went to the team behind the Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System(GPM details. GPM = German Project Management Association)
- Audi have just overtaken BMW in the adulterers' favourite car choice stakes(see various reports July 2013)

Seitensprung durch Technik ?! (Wir sind ja auch auf deutsch urkomisch, nicht wahr BMW ? Feel free to use it Audi - but credit us copiously, bitte)
Oh dear, unser lieber Herr Gaul worked for two decades to create and consolidate BMW's image as the wannabe Bad Boy's (and girl's ) favourite ride. A brand notoriously beloved of home-wreckers, fatherless kid-creators, cheats, consummate liars, con-artists, egotists of every description - cowboy builders, Russian racketeers, mafia thug-heads...you name it.
Schnell ! Hurry back to BMW full-time Herr Gaul - before Audi take the top slot across the board. And let the Hummingbird battery fly once more.

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August eRoadracing Update from Indianapolis:
"This Is The Future" - says rider Shane Turpin(Youtube)
See eRoadracing.com for latest news

July, 2013

eRoad's US heats out-sizzle Valencia and Green Tomato squibs(not squids - sizzled, fried or otherwise - but squibs as in damp, disappointing)

Home-grown trailblazers Lightning, Brammo and Zero Motorcycles battle it out at squib-less Laguna Seca(see eRoadracing.com and TTXGP's eGrandPrix for latest)

Watch the very latest clips fresh from the FIM eRoad Racing World Cup courtesy eGrandPrix.

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"Electric racing is a means to an end: the fun and games are not the endgame. FIM's eRoad Racing World Cup and the FIA's Formula E will serve to accelerate change, unite like-minded, long marginalized, atomized individuals and renew hope that a much wider green transport, energy and mindset revolution really is just around the corner. Most importantly and pragmatically electric racing at the highest FIM/FIA level will inevitably serve to speed up the production and introduction of long range, lighter next-gen battery technologies. Race teams want that crucial weight and range edge now, before next season, before the next race, before their rivals get there - not fifty motor shows from now after 6-7 years of BMW-style i3,i8,iwait 'trialling & testing' .."
- EVUK The Unvanquished

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Postscript Alert:  top TTXGP electric racing site eGrandPrix tell us that Motors TV(SKY Ch 447) will begin (very) time-lapsed coverage of the eRoad Racing championship from 25th July with delayed/retrospective 11-days-later highlights from all venues. They have just sent us the full TV schedule - see below.

OK, now let's backtrack and unpack that sizzingly cryptic mixed grill of a damp squib headline - for the uninitiated :

- 14 July: The inaugural European FIM eRoad Race in Valencia turned out to be a largely Chinese affair - a remote off-the-radar, non-EUphoric non-event and damp squib - both in terms of media coverage and public awareness/interest and despite the potentially Repsol-rattling fact - unreported by the Spanish press - that Spaniard Oscar Pena now leads the European series following the surprise exit of the weekend's favourite Hoi Chi Fung in the second race.
Yes - Europe's and America's top rival tech & team contenders were ironically absent from what should surely have been an inaugural European showcase event. Instead the race was populated and dominated by admittedly outstanding Chinese bikes and(with a few notable exceptions) Chinese riders.

So while we're certainly not criticising the excellent Chinese Zongshen bikes or teams - they all performed to the max - FIM organisers must surely have known in advance that a brand-new European FIM eRoad Racing World Cup event would inevitably fail to attract European media or public interest without the involvement of Europe's and ideally at least some of America's top performing bikes and riders eg. and ie. Isle of Mann TT Zero winners and runner up Michael Rutter and John McGuinness on their Motoczysz and Honda Mugen machines and America's Lightning, Zero, Brammo rivals - all of these are clearly way ahead of the battery pack in Europe and the US so - sorry, disculpe FIM Europa - but in our view it is quite extraordinary that none of the top European or US contenders were competing in Valencia for the crucial, kick-start audience-grabbing opening FIM eRoad debut event.

Again - we're not criticising the Chinese Zongshen bikes or riders - but there was clearly never any chance that any m'bike race event dominated by Chinese teams & technology could attract deeply electrically illiterate European or global audiences to this potentially ground-breaking game-changing electrifying championship. So the question has to be asked: how genuinely committed is the FIM - especially its European arm - to this all-electric "World Cup" race series ? If Chinese teams could fly half way round the world to appear at the Valencia circuit - why could Europe's and America's top contenders not make far shorter trips to be there ?!
To put it another way - here's one helluva home-audience killing headline you'd never hear:  "US Inaugural eRoad Racing Event Dominated by Chinese".  Unthinkable in America - but that's precisely what transpired, as if pre-programmed, in Europe, Spain, the Costa del Repsol. Go figure...

Spanish Sign of the Times from Valencia - the Costa del Repsol. Repsol versus eRacing, Repsol v The Future(onboard clip). (And no - Spain's 'Invent the Future' oil giant was not co-sponsoring the event - the banner-ad is a permanent fixture. But for how much longer ? The writing's on the wall)

__________________
- Green Tomatoes - another July damp squib - this time on four wheels(times 50).  London's second largest minicab company have yet to roll out the now long-awaited fifty range-busting 186 mile/charge BYD e6 taxis or minicabs originally promised for the "2nd quarter" of 2013...which then became(y-a-w-n) the 3rd quarter(see recent EVUK exclusive). The world's 3,597th(approx) would-be range revolutionaries suddenly, belatedly and implausibly decided to blame the delay(y-a-w-n) on the lack of charge points(y-a-w-n)...(see InsideEVs.com and London's Evening Standard - a healthily sceptical side-swipe).
So don't call a clean cab or book a Green Tom in Greater or Lesser London just yet - the elusive forbidden fruit sadly still ain't ripe.
Y-a-w-n.
__________________

Instead, let's race back to the track - where the need for speed is of the essence and where last-minute excuses don't wash.
Plug in, switch on and tune in if you can :
                   

July, 2013

Lightning (photo) incinerates petrol-powered rivals at Pikes Peak
  ..and peaked at 218.6 mph / 351.8 km/h at Bonneville
- powered by the sun
(you can buy one - if you're as loaded as the bike)

NB: July 14, Valencia, Spain...aka the Costa del RepSol* :
- Lightning due at new FIM eRoad Race World Cup series start.
Expect zero coverage and total omission from Spain's and the world's still loyal-to-oil corporate media(esp. TV). Be there or scan Youtube, Daily Motion etc daily. Please upload and share if you do get there. Hasta la Vista y Pista !

(*Repsol are currently attempting to re-ignite their preposterous and vacuous old "Invent the Future" greenwash ad campaign - involving toxically trendy tattoos.
Inventing the future ?! No Repsol ! You and the world's Combustion Canutes are Preventing the Future and have been preventing it for decades)

Meanwhile, don't miss this uplifting and enlightening Lightning test-ride and interview. Takeaway message:  savour speed - but think lean and green. A superb antidote to yer typical tattoo-headed or Top Gear tunnel-vision:

The production or street version of the Lightning SuperBike is identical to the record-breaking 218 mph / 351 km/h bike - apart from a few accessory and cosmetic/visual details.
The bike also boasts 100-150 miles of proven and tested range with rapid-charge capability.
See Lightning Motorcycle's homepage, Ultimate Motorcycling and Motorcycle USA for price and other technological plus philosophical details. (OK - circa £26,000 if you must know. And last year a sub-£8000 Sportbike was promised by mid-2013 - here's an update)

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   More re FIM eRoad Race from Valencia, Spain, the Costa del RepSol and a loyal-to-oil media that is very happy to dedicate limitless air-time and print space to fossil-fuelled Moto GP, Formula One, FIA GT, and in Spain, even to the resurrected Dakar Rally - yet will steadfastly refuse to even mention the all-electric eRoad Race championship(cf. Manx TT Zero=Zero coverage).
As a direct result of this systemic media silence and compliance at least 99% of the human race have no idea at all that high-performance motorbikes even exist - let alone that several theoretically high-profile races and tournaments have been up-and-running for several years already. And that's just the way the world's infernal Combustion Canutes and fossil fuel  force-feeders want things to stay, thanks very much.
Optimists - please see FIM's eRoad Race 'TV Broadcasters' link at http://www.FIM-LIVE.com/en/sport/eroad-racing/tv-broadcasters.
TV broadcasters ? We'll believe it when we see it.

*Repsol are currently attempting to re-ignite their preposterous old "Invent the Future" greenwash ad campaign(clip) - involving toxically trendy tattoos flaunted by flocks of floosie fashion-victims masquerading as skin-deep rebels-without-a-clue.
  ¡ No Repsol !  Repeat:   you and the world's dinosaur die-hards and Combustion Canutes are preventing the future and have been preventing it from happening for decades.
Re:  flocking birds of a feather...
Q: what is  black  and as difficult to remove from feathers as tattoos are from skin ?

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July, 2013

Speed is a range issue too:
- Drayson's FIA 204 mph sub-1000kg record, the Isle of Man TT Zero Top Two, Buckeye Bullet's FIA 307 mph
- watch best onboard & trackside clips

  McGuinness and champagne(left) - but running on empty. Or the runner-up who ran out of juice...

Let's start with a little speed-reading:

Yes, it's almost embarrassingly true - way-ahead race leader John McGuinness ultimately lost the nail-biting but (as usual) barely reported (and thus almost unknown) Isle of Man TT Zero race in the final stages by just 1.6 seconds because he simply ran out of range aka available stored energy, excited electrons. The coasting-home Honda Mugen rider was forced to cut speed and ride conservatively only because his Shinden ('God of Electricity' in Japanese) Mugen bike was loaded with 20 kg less lithium ion than last year.
So much for 'God's speed' ! Shucks Shinden - with just 5 kilos more battery to tap, sip and guzzle McGuinness would surely have held on and nicked victory.
Here's how Gizmag gizzed it:

"For the entire race, McGuinness was going to win. In the early splits, he was running at faster than 112 mph pace, more than three mph faster than Rutter. When they announced the standings at the Bungalow, McGuinness was 9.8 seconds up, having added nearly five seconds to his lead from the previous split. Towards the end of the 37 miles though, Rutter's MotoCzysz had more battery capacity in hand, and by increasing the speed available from the reserves, it clawed back more than ten seconds from the Mugen's lead and crossed the line just 1.6 seconds ahead of McGuinness."

 

 
ADD ? Adrenalin Deficit Disorder ? Why not get up to speed and kick the brain into gear with a lightning trip aboard four freakingly fast record-wreckers(Clips clockwise from top left):
1) the Honda Shinden Mugen ridden by TT Zero runner-up John McGuinness(a fine Scotch-Irish blend of a name - but please win next year for once Honda Mugen - it's far trickier to spell and memorize MotoCzysz than Honda, Mugen and McGuinnesczsz ...)
Clip tip: be sure to keep eyes peeled for strays and other suicidal maniacs eg. Manx cats, blind(-drunk) jaywalkers, pub-crawling or brawling McGuinness fans - all far more deadly than hair-pin bends. Remember - you're moving at 60+ metres/second so you'll be heard coming from no more than 150 metres / 2.5 secs away...

2) this year's(June) Isle of Man TT Zero race-winning, record-breaking MotoCzysz bike straddled by three-time victor Michael Rutter who peaked on the Isle at 142.2 mph / 228.85 km/h.

3) Drayson Racing's FIA sanctioned sub-1000 kg 204+ mph record-breaking Formula E prototype. See Drayson Racing home

4) the eclectic-electric, French-American-Italian etc 307 mph FIA World record holding Buckeye Bullet 2.5(See homepage & Wiki) developed by Venturi and Ohio State University. Recall a mature demure Roger Moore - not as Bond sadly - driving the pre-Tesla, F1-pedigree'd Venturi Fetish around Monte Carlo many moons ago on Channel 5 TV's Fifth Gear with race-pro-driver presenter Jason Plato - watch our exclusive video here.

Too much boy-toy TT testosterone ? Then why not take a(nother) look at these furiously fast women in an elecrifying Agni m'bike v Survolt face-off:

..Brit Jenny Tinmouth(left) also finished 4th on the Agni in the 2010 TT Zero - but will more battery-powered women dare take on the men on the Isle of Man ? Every man is an island so it's claimed - especially on a bike, in a car, on horseback. And every woman is an island fortress - so never should the twain compete. Or so the chauvinists still bleat. (We aim to stoke and provoke - will more empowered ladies take the bait ?)

Say another prayer for lithium air. And to Shinden - God of Electricity.

It probably goes without saying that most long-suffering EV-watchers and EVUK'ers are infinitely more interested in realworld range record-breakers(like DBM's 605 km Audi A2) and far more impressed by range consensus-wreckers - such as BYD's London-bound 186 mile e6 and the 142 mile Japan-only new LEAF or the 165 mile Bolloré Bluecar(500 of which, incidentally and sensationally, are headed for Indianapolis - home of the Indianapolis 500).

To break EV sales records we need just 150-250 miles of range - but only the genuine fast-tracking of superlight, 1000 mile per charge lithium air cells to the race circuit and circuitry will enable pure electrics to stealthily overtake and gracefully annihilate their petroleum-powered rivals.
(If that's OK by you - Exxon, BP, Repsol, Shell, Rosneft, BMW et al...not to mention - but we must - the US military who may well be several Li-Air light-years ahead of their long-range enemies and the world's painfully slow-laned civilian researchers such as IBM, MIT, St.Andrews etc.
Are we really waiting for an elusive Eureka breakthrough - or for an 'All Clear' permit from the Pentagon ?
It's simply impossible to know where the Truth Lies given the,er, redoubtable track-record of the military guys. Close brackets )

June, 2013

Toyota's  coal-fired 'No' to EV's
- but 'Yes' to Gasoline Gunslingers and TV child ad-abuse
- Toyota Verso TV ad - acted and voiced by innocents

So on the one hand Toyota now claim(see June press releases/reports) to be too ethically/environmentally troubled, torn, tormented and tortured by the fact that the Grid Ain't Green enough - yet have no qualms whatsoever airing this ethically toxic, Verso TV ad in which wide-eyed kids visualize Daddy as a superhero, an astronaut and a gung-ho gasoline gunslinger - a macho quick-draw at the pump.

The propaganda disconnect : Toyota blank out the oily truth
while exploiting and targeting children and their baby-brained, eco-comatose mamas and papas :



- Shoot to Fill. Bang Bang, you're dead ! Gi'us your barrels of oil or get a barrel-load of lead. In the head.
The punch-lines almost write themselves...(click pics for 31 secs of unadulterated child ad-abuse) We've got y'all over a barrel...

And of course Toyota are also implicitly confirming - with this age-old EV-EVading shift-the-blame alibi - that even if they had or have 200-300-500 mile/charge breakthrough batteries ready to roll now - they'd refuse to use them.
Because the grid ain't green enough, you see.

That's right, business-as-usual and the oil-spilling, exhaust-belching, bloody-warring status quo are still the best way to go, don't ya know.
Hmm - tell it to the (oil-soaked) birds - and to the EV & PV-powered maverick Musk brothers..and their very happy shareholders.

So inevitably then, even if Toyota were handed production-ready 1000 mile/charge lithium air tomorrow, their selectively ethical, green, clean collective CEO conscience would prevent them from recommitting to pure battery EV(BEV) production.
Because electricity from coal is dirty. And what is, is.
Come on, be realistic, right ? Just what on earth could one humble little Car Giant possibly do to drive change ?
Apart from transforming and diversifying its dealerships into green energy/energy-savers' One Stop Shops, tie-in eco-discounters, green advice and help hubs, green job creators ..?
Let's call it Socket Science - not Rocket Science(you heard it here first..)

And here are just two recently announced range-boosting lithium battery breakthroughs that Toyota - and other fork-tongued EV-EVaders - may conceivably buy up to put on ice/I.C.E. - but not into electric cars(until loaded guns are held to their heads by a gallant and green superhero...):

1) Wollongong University (50 miles from Sydney) researchers have more than doubled the range of EV lithium cells - circa 240 miles - using Germanium and are now focusing on commercialization(Green Autoblog and many others report)

2) Oak Ridge National Lab scientists quadruple lithium ion energy density and overcome earlier barriers to commercialization (Green Car Congress)

The Toyota-Tesla RAV4 rEVival - Killed Off or Kicked into the very long grass ?

Toyota's Toytown EV unveiled - more greenwash and mixed messages for the kids and the baby-brainers..

So:   "EV - or not to be, that's still the question".
Come on guys, make up your minds already !

Please stop toying around and kidding about ! Spare us all this two-faced, bare-faced,  coal-faced fakery. Toss a coin, throw a dice, brainstorm in the boardroom.

Or just ask any innocent, intelligent child...
(ie. a child you've not groomed with a script and a pay-cheque...)

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In a related story:
  - from puny Pale Driver to heroic Pale Rider ...
..and One Horse Power :
      
Watch genuinely superheroic preacher-shooter dispatch band of Wild West business bullies & trigger-happy hoodlums hell-bent on stealing and controlling a small community's natural resources ...
(And in related taboo news - 2000+ killed in oil-rich Iraq in last 2 months - a 5-year high. At least 120,000 since 2003. See Truth Out, Medialens, Democracy Now, TruthDig - if you can handle the grown-up, non-Toyota truth).

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June, 2013

RE: Autocar's positively erroneous recent headline:
"BYD Launches Electric Taxi Fleet in HongKong & London"

Oops - only in Hongkong so far, guys. Sadly.

  ( Postscript update, June 03: late breaking EVUK exclusive-elusive e6 news ! Green Tomato have just confirmed to us that their 186 mile/charge e6 taxis will be arriving "by or during the third quarter of this year" - ie. from July. Got that, Autocar ? )

The "Wow" Factor - an amateur filmer's one-word exclamation says it all as the world's and HongKong's TV companies and media correspondents either take cover and head for the hills - or churn out their familiar brand of corporately correct, anti-EV negativity and hostility(NTD.TV for instance - Youtube)..

So one usefully fallacious headline from Autocar - but by no means based on false hopes.
And we certainly understand and share Autocar's apparent impatience. Who knows, maybe this was simply a cunning editorial ploy designed to gently turn up the heat on Green Tomato's BYD e6 taxi/minicab commitment and the company's "by the second quarter of 2013" launch pledge or "expectations".
If as a result of this half-true headline London's second largest, Boris-backed taxi operator has been inundated with calls from would-be Green Chinese Tomato tasters and test-riders - well, hats off to all at Britain's erring but ever-popular high street print & online auto-mag.
This is the kind of over-zealous journalistic carelessness / wishful-thinking we need loads more of...
Indeed, next up, how's about: "142 mile/charge Japan Version of Nissan Leaf to be Launched Globally - even in Sunderland" ?

Back to Green Tom's 50 BYD's and those "by the second quarter of 2013" expectations or aspirations.
While the e6 Green Tomato cabs can't yet be described as late arriving, by the end of June they really should be hitting the streets and the headlines and generally scaring the living daylights out of the world's infernal combustion / fossil fuel fundamentalists and their loyal legions of media promoters, thug-enforcers and apologists.

News Flashback - Green Tomato's October press release:
"London Mayor, Boris Johnson: 'It is my aim that London's minicabs and taxis will be zero-emission by 2020, which will have a major impact on air quality. Every year the fleet is getting cleaner, making our city an even more attractive place to live, work and visit. Encouraging many more electric vehicles is a key part of this transformation, so it is great news that Green Tomato Cars has committed to operating 50 of these super clean machines from next year.'

From the same press release:
"Jonny Goldstone, managing director of Green Tomato Cars added: 'We are very pleased to be working with BYD on this project. As a partner company, BYD has shown great leadership to challenge the status quo, innovate and electrify mass transport - principles which go to the very heart of Green Tomato Cars.' ".
"The BYD e6 features a 75kW motor and the company's own Fe battery (Iron Phosphate battery), which gives the car a range of up to 186 miles on a single charge in urban conditions with a top speed of 87mph and instant torque providing excellent acceleration. The Fe battery can be fully charged and discharged for more than 4,000 cycles."

Again - please do the maths - not the rocket science - for yourselves ie. 186 x 4000 miles.
That's right - batteries and motors could routinely outlive their owners. And speaking of longevity, wear, tear and tear-jerking repair bills - it's again worth repeating another of those trifling little EV-factoids so rarely mentioned by the corporate media - namely that EV's typically contain anywhere between 500-800 fewer parts than their ICE/gasoline equivalents. More tearfully bad news for you know who, obviously.

Tomato Trackback:
- EVUK News(Oct,2013): "LONDON: Green Tomato's 50 BYD taxis - Britain set to become the 'Real EV' Test-Ride Centre of the World"

- Autocar(UK) - BYD e6 test-drive. A near-rave review. To date only half a handful of the world's mainstream media news sources have had the gall and cojones to get behind the e6 wheel and get the word out.

So Green Tomato Cars may not be in the media spotlight just yet - but they will certainly be in the cross-hairs. So we would humbly but earnestly advise management to:

1) maximize/optimize security and surveillance procedures wherever the company operates
2) avoid fishing trips and fishing boats - no matter how fair or fine the weather
3) urge or instruct e6 drivers to regularly check beneath the car's underfloor battery compartment for...foreign objects.
For instance: magnetic, matchbox-sized explosive-incendiary devices.
If we should witness just one more unexplained mystery EV/e6 blaze or accident - a fatally flambé'd and Fried Green Tomato if you will - the company's game-changing, long-range EV ambitions would almost certainly go up in smoke and flames in the wreckage and aftermath.
It could also mean BYE BYE to BYD - and hello to bankruptcy.
Not so much "Build" as Burn Your Dreams - a re-baptism of fire.
And of course the media would inevitably whip up one almighty anti-EV, anti-Chinese, anti-Buffett, all-you-can-eat feeding frenzy that could negatively impact EV progress for many years to come.

Sorry, but paranoia ain't paranoia when they're really out to get ya(see Shenzhen hit-and-run e6 fireball incident, DBM Energy Audi arson attack).
To put it another way: hope for the best - prepare for the worst.
The stakes are just too sky-high to be a Bad Boy Scout.

May, 2013

Pop Chart Car Wars:
Will.I.Am's secret Tesla v #thatPOWER v Hey, Porsche v Live Earth v Earth Song v Top Gear(Will-full but EV-less)
  - six conflicting, competing, colliding car-war clips to compare & contrast as the Green v Gasoline, fossil-fuelled feud is furiously and famously fought on almost every fracking front and flank.

Will.I.Am shows up/off at Barney's in his (sssh!) Tesla Roadster:

According to Jalopnik the next custom car from the I.AM.Auto stable will be an EV(#battPOWER ?). That's straight from the horse's mouth - Will himself. So bye bye and good riddance to redundant $700k dino-tech, dodo, won't fly DeLoreans - totally eclipsed by the gull-winged Tesla Model X. Where there's a Will there surely must be a way..

Just Juxtapose. For the moment we'll let the lyrics and those collision-course clips (1,2,3,4,5,6) speak (volumes) for themselves....

Here though - in black or blue and white - is a little corporate hip hop of the crudest, lewdest, lowest kind. Yes - whet your poetic appetites with these scintillating little sex+drive dreg-lines scraped from the very bottom of the ICE & Oil barrel - we're referring to Nelly's current, #WillPOWER-challenging Top 10 hit "Hey, Porsche" ... easily confused with "Hey, Portia" by the mercenary macho's(and Porsche's) tiddly-brained, telly-trained target audience:

Hey little Porsche, I wanna try ya
Crazy baby girl, there ain't nothing like you
Hey little Porsche, so right I had to get ya
Girl let's go
You sexy thing, you turn me on
I need a private show, here on the lawn, in my garage
I'll take you on the road, hey Porsche girl
You know what I wanna do
Come on let me slide under so I can work on, work on you
I wanna take your top off, celebrate this champagne pop-off
Girl you know,
Damn I've been dreaming about the day you let me take you home
Just for a weekend, maybe more, just sayin'
See, I've never seen an ass like that
You gon' make a nigga crash like that
I wanna see how fast you can go
See how you handle as I'm cruising control
Hey Porsche
na-na-na-na-na-na
I, I want you
- Full lyric video here - for any 5+ year old to play with and download. Child's Play. (Now just who are the real child abusers ? )

Hmm - just juxtapose and just suppose.
 Just imagine what a very different (musical,black,white,hip hop) world we (and our young ones) might be living in were it not for the very convenient death of Will.I.Am's close friend - a certain
Michael "Heal the World" Jackson ...

But Hey, Nelly, "Do we give a damn ?" (MJ - Earth Song)

We'll let Will.I.Am(or Will.I.Was ?) have the last word(Live Earth, SOS Help Us Out/Mother Nature):
And here they come chopping down, chopping down our rainforest
F#cking up the air for us, they don't really care for us
But we can't complain, because the only one to blame is us
The gas is rising up but we keep on filling up
CO2 levels got the whole planet heated up..
(Will the real Will please step up..)

May, 2013

RIP - Race In Peace: Edouard Michelin's (posthumous) 2013 Formula E victory -
- time to dredge up the very fishy tale of an unexplained death

Michelin is awarded Formula E tyre contract - by fortunate default as rivals Pirelli bag the fossil-fuelled F1 booby prize. (A Pyrrhic Pirelli victory ? A poisoned chalice ? We can only hope...)

A little Edouard Michelin 'remembrance' or memorial for you - from GreenCar.com(2006):
"We are each increasingly responsible to the other and we are all responsible to future generations" Michelin wrote in the pages of our print magazine, Green Car Journal. He added: "We know the condition of the world we inherited, but our children will judge us on what we leave behind."
(spoken not long after Michelin's acrimonious exodus/expulsion from Formula One - see below)
  It may seem like the driest and dullest of news but to those of us who refuse to bury recent significant environmental/EV history it's at least as newsworthy as the April announcement that Los Angeles is to host one stage of the upcoming - and now truly global - Formula E championships ...

Edouard Michelin - tireless establishment EV campaigner and EVangelist extraordinaire - died in mightily mysterious and fishy circumstances in a fair-weather fishing accident or "accident" in 2006 - just days before that year's EV/green car Michelin Bibendum Challenge(Edouard's brainchild) was due to take place.

We've covered this several times already(see EVUK article, 2006) - suffice to say or to add, seven years on, that most informed insiders & outsiders we talk to readily agree, off-the-record, that it would - at the very least - be no surprise to learn that Michelin's death was no accident - that he was targeted by rivals or foes(oil, infernal combustion, F1 - take your pick) and quite literally liquidated.

The fact is that the Michelin boss and his angling companion Guillaume Normant were - or would have been - almost literally sitting ducks.
Unarmed - no bodyguards.
(Picture this: passing speed boat suddenly steers and veers towards them, assailants leap out brandishing weapons, chloroform or syringes are swiftly applied to mouth/neck, unconscious victims are thrown overboard, death by drowning, boat holed/sunk..job done in under 60 seconds, Dead. Easy)

Then consider this from the Guardian(2006) - feel free to read between the lines:
"Michelin's death is the latest tragedy in a family with a history of losing its firm's leaders young. His grandfather died in a plane crash, and his great uncle in a car accident in the 1930s."
"Following the controversy at last December's US grand prix - when Michelin-equipped teams did not race - the company announced it was pulling out at the end of this season, leaving Bridgestone as the only tyre company working in F1. "The decision, said Michelin, was "the result of the realisation that there is a profound disagreement between the sports philosophy that has been driven by Michelin and the management practices of the F1 authorities."
Two key questions remain unanswered:
- did the company jump - jump ship if you will - or were they pushed ?
- was their sudden exit from F1 enough to appease their many profoundly disagreeable adversaries ?

Well, fate or divine intervention have just delivered exactly what Edouard Michelin would have wanted. One thing is for sure: if Mr. Michelin is up above & beyond observing the human (rat-)race from some serene celestial vantage-point, he will certainly be rejoicing in spirit right now with his many earthbound admirers and soulmates.
Michelin have accidentally, unintentionally won the Formula E contract, the main prize, Le Plus Grand Prix - so crack open some more champions' champers or cava or cheap, cheerful cider.

Cheers, bon santé and a toast to "The Revenge of the Electric Race Car" - and to avenging angels, wherever they may be lurking and working (heaven knows we need all the otherworldly help we can get to save this endangered world...)

We'll leave you with this - again from GreenCar.com:
"Michelin's work to encourage greater environmental performance by the world's automakers, energy suppliers, and component developers through the Challenge Bibendum set a benchmark for what can be done by industry, when there is a commitment to bettering the world around us. Edouard Michelin epitomized this with his actions, and we will always appreciate him for his thoughtful leadership."

"Death of Edouard Michelin, Bibendum is an orphan":
"Edouard Michelin's body was found a few kilometers from the island of Sein. Adverse weather conditions? Rough Sea? Mere accident? An investigation was initiated in an attempt to elucidate this sad affair."
(Elucidate ? Unfortunately this merely "sad" affair - as opposed to "scandalous" or "suspicious" - was quickly turned into yet another
Open & Shut Up case)

It's always worth re-stating that media coverage of Michelin's death in 2006 was predictably scant, unsceptical and short-lived. Even the Guardian closed or buried the case after its relatively risqué obituary cited above.

Ferrari Electric Shocker !
.. in related belated red-hot breaking(May 8), far-from-shocking news - Ferrari boss Montezemolo says the company will never produce electric cars under his leadership. Now there's a surprise..

April, 2013

It's not SpaceX rocket science(vid) -
- auto giants still refusing to deliver the long-range, stylish EV's consumers want..

One rocket and an EV Space Program to planet Venucia please !
The eye-popping Nissan Venucia Viwa(Shanghai Show, April 23).
By unpopular demand ..only for the Chinese market, don't you know. 'Cos we'd all rather drive a Leaf than a Viwa (from Venucia), obviously, right?

Elon Musk(Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX) has said several times in various ways that "Carmakers should admit they have failed to produce the electric cars the public want to buy."
Well, the prolific, prodigal billionaire rocket designer is almost right of course: the real and far less diplomatic truth is that major carmakers - and a gazillion crank'n'piston/fossil fuel-dependent vested interests - remain chronically incapable of accepting the idea that electric cars could succeed beyond niche(especially in Europe and the US) by virtue of:
a) real range
b) stylish design
c) affordability.
- a max two out of the "abc" three being the perpetual tease ...

It ain't rocket science and requires no blue sky thinking, zero cloud-cuckoo computing capability: if Nissan et al were seriously committed to mass-appeal EV's they'd already be producing 150 mile/charge EV's like the Venucia Viwa and electrified Jukes(cf. Musk's Model X) for a global market.

Launch 'em and global EV sales will take off ... skyrocket.(..and there's the rub)

Chetan Maini and Mahindra Reva get it too - almost. If they could just go that extra mile or two or sixty two and cross-breed their GM-free, sparklingly stylish, funky e20 with Bolloré's unsurprisingly popular 4-door, 165 mile/charge Bluecar - now there's an EV that would easily eclipse Nissan(-Fengshen)'s curiously & competitively-named  E30...

April, 2013

142 mile Leaf - time to "target" Sunderland Echo, Nissan dealerships ?
- time to turn over and turn out a new Leaf
(Green Car Congress and many more sources - safety in numbers - got the truth out in November eg. "Updated Nissan LEAF available in Japan" - but now remain compliantly silent. Who cares about rare earth and range, eh ? )

   Making the headlines - can we get them quaking in their boots and shaking like a leaf ?

The Sunderland Echo enjoys UK-wide name recognition: so why not ask them and the nation why they too have made no mention of the 142 mile Leaf (Email: echo.news@northeast-press.co.uk Tel: 0191 501 5800). Click image for all of their very recent LEAF plant-related news stories - including "Nissan Defends EV's After Critical Report".

Yes - the anti-sales, anti-jobs, counter-productive, counter-production silence continues unabated. From Sunderland to Smyrna. High time therefore to urgently propose some constructive, productive, leafily green, grassroots action, activism. Using the potent power of words and knowledge.
No sticks or stones. No broken windows please - let's just unite to shatter this shameful silence.

So here's our simple plea, with a simple script to go(come on folks, we've done most of the draft-graft and hard work for you..):

- Walk or slyly saunter into any Nissan showroom from Sunderland to Smyrna, from New York to...(Hertz's) Milton Keynes and anywhere in between with November's Nissan Global "142 mile Leaf" news+video page displayed on a smartphone, netbook, iPad etc - or simply printed out and spelled out in clear black & white.
Then - to rapidly attract the keenest attention of sales staff - begin by loitering misleadingly and hungrily around an ever-so hunky, funky, Nissan Juke or a terrifically manly cash-cow Qashqai.
Next - with the dummy trap set and salivating salesman surely lured and snared, it's time to spring the sting - the surpise question and the pre-scripted interrogation.
Kick off by courteously, casually and "innocently" asking the billion dollar or zillion quid question: namely, why it might possibly, conceivably be that Japanese customers are to get the vastly improved , genuinely new long-range Leaf whilst the rest of the world is being sold yesterday's short-changing, short-ranging technology dressed up as new ?

Be in no doubt of course that 99.9% of Nissan dealership sales staff will have not the faintest inkling, idea or clue what you're referring to. Not the slightest shimmer.
That said of course, professional pride and (male) ego will compel many manful sales staff to mask their EV-related ignorance, apathy, antipathy - but don't let any of this disturb you or prevent you from asking even more clear concise constructive questions ! Such as:

Nissan themselves have said many times that Leaf sales worldwide have been "disappointing" .
So would you not prefer to see the new long-range, re-engineered Leafs flying out of showrooms - un-disappointingly ?

Do you not agree with Hertz UK and their EV spokesman Jack Hidari who recently told EVUK that Hertz hopes the new long range LEAF will be rolled out globally as soon as possible ?

Sunderland's factory management and PM David Cameron have described the production facilities in Sunderland as amongst the most modern and advanced in Europe. So the LEAF plant, so to speak, is obviously easily capable of producing the new, 142 mile / charge LEAF.
The Japanese clearly understand that the solution is to literally turn over and turn out a new Leaf. So how can you or anyone disagree ?

How many short-range, old-tech(that's right Mr. Cameron) Leafs do you sell per month compared to say Qashqai's and Jukes ?
And is it not the case that most of the Leafs you do sell are bought not by individuals and private buyers but by organisations, local authority departments and businesses keen to be seen to be green - only too happy to spend other people's money to that end but who rarely choose to splash out on short-range, high-anxiety Leafs for themselves and from their own savings ?

How many politicians, local and Westminster MP's - or PM's for that matter - have bought a Leaf for themselves ie. put their own money where their "Buy (semi-)British" mouths are ? Voted with their own wallets ?
How many Nissan sales staff and how many Sunderland Echo journalists have taken a Leaf out of their own books - and purchased one ?

How many customers have so far actually asked you about the new model that the Japanese are to get ?  Zero ?
And a general question: do you prefer prospective customers to be fully informed and ask razor-sharp questions ? Or is it far easier to make the sale and seal the deal when customers don't have a clue and believe too much of what they do and don't read in the papers - local and national ?

Spin Balls - another prime example:
Nissan executive vice president Andy Palmer, (Echo, April 5):
"The Nissan LEAF is our most technically advanced car yet and the launch of this new model, built along with its batteries in Sunderland, is a huge boost not only for the plant but for British manufacturing."

Ssssh - don't mention range and the genuinely "technically advanced", 142 mile/charge, rare-earth-saving, 80kg lighter, roomier Leaf that informed, enlightened, technically advanced Japanese consumers are demanding and getting ...

March, 2013

Boris beats off Bernie -
London to host FIA all-electric Formula E Grand Prix
- Mayor delivers green, game-changing championship

EVUK Trackback - 1(Jan,2013): it's just 9 weeks since we needled & nudged the Mayor with the following testy taunting little teaser - and 9 months since Ecclestone proffered $55 million to stage his beloved fossil-fuelled F1 in the capital:

"..why not go the whole Right Honourable Hog(Boris) by feistily following Rome and Rio's lead and announcing that London too will be hosting the forthcoming and long-awaited electric F1 series ? See December 3 2012 "Formula E" video & report
- again from the radical-yet-reactionary D.Telegraph...whose ulterior motivation may be a little unclear or nuclear "

EVUK Trackback - 2(July,2012):
"...it's the Burning Borisian (post-Olympic Blues) question - or should be:
   - will Jolly (Mr.) Johnson grab the F1lthy lucre from the ethically & vertically challenged, un-beknighted,er, Ernie Ecclescake and the faustian F1 bribe-tribe - or bow to Lord Drayson(Lola) and give the green light to F1 FIA Formula-E for London ?? "

See Autoguide(June,2012) "London Formula One Race Pushed by Bernie Ecclestone"

..and the Burning Bernie question:
- just how could anyone - let alone any politician, newspaper owner or media magnate - possibly resist the pint-sized Ecclestone's Winning Smile and immeasurable, ineffable, gargantuan, larger-than-life charm, charisma, cash ?

Congrats to Mayor Johnson and team-mates - at last a rousing reason to leap onto a victory rostrum or podium, crack open a celebratory Magnum of Moët et Chandon champions' champagne and quaff - not squander & squirt - (almost) every drop till you drop.
And come 2014 - well it would surely now be downright unseemly and unsporting of Boris to turn up trackside in anything but a 7-seater Tesla Model S or X ...

And one more closing comment for the home-straight ..

How to electrify audiences - not just the cars ?

If Formula E's Agag, Drayson or their people should happen to be listening, lurking in the wings or shadows ... we do seriously hope, guys, that the event will be organised and presented on a clearly defined nation v nation basis so as to maximize audience and media interest - with spectators and global audiences cheering on their country's easily identifiable home-grown driver, team and car.
And let's please see and enjoy a truly global, open Olympic-spirited line-up of teams:
  GB v France v Germany v USA v China v Japan v Korea v S. Africa v Hungary etc.
What ?! America in a Grand Prix you ask? Why ever not ? The uncomfortable truth is that without America's - especially California's - indomitable, pacesetting commitment to pure battery EV's over the last two decades the world would have seen virtually no mainstream EV developmemt, progress, movement or momentum at all.
And Formula E itself would also simply not exist. Period.

*** Youtube - view all Formula E clips

March, 2013

Hertz-EVUK Q&A exchange re range and Japan's 142 mile/228 km 'carrot' LEAF
(Key quote - from Hertz's Jack Hidary(more below): "We hope that Nissan will make its longer range LEAF available globally to meet the requests of our corporate and individual customers.")

So as promised: here are a few choice extracts from our recent unexpectedly heartening correspondence with Hertz UK's International PR & Communications Director Zoë White following the launch in January of the company's LEAF-based "Hertz On Demand" carsharing scheme in Milton Keynes(of all places? See reports).

EVUK: Hertz will presumably be aware that Nissan recently (November) announced that they will be producing a longer range, significantly cheaper, and lighter successor to the current version of the short-range, relatively high-priced all-electric electric LEAF. (142 miles/228 km, $6000 cheaper, 80kg lighter - here's the link to our EVUK article on the subject - including video of the announcement from Nissan in Japan)
Our key heart-of-the-matter question is inevitably as follows: given that the principle barrier blocking the more widepread roll-out and adoption of all-electric EV's (and of the Hertz EV carsharing scheme) is the continuing limited range of most models and the consequent need for public charging points (often funded or subsidized by taxpayers from local government funds) - can we hope and assume that Hertz will be adding its voice and joining with other influential and interested parties to apply collective pressure on Nissan to bring the 228 km LEAF to Britain, Europe and the rest of the world sooner rather than later ?
Sadly, Nissan have initially indicated that this new - and at last highly desirable - longer range LEAF will initially only be available in Japan. Obviously, given that the Sunderland(UK) and Smyrna(US) LEAF plants(!) have more or less the same production capacity, capability, flexibility etc as the Oppama factory in Japan it does seem very odd that this new breakthrough version is not yet to be manufactured and sold in Britain, Europe,the US, worldwide.

Hertz UK:  In answer to your question, here is a comment from Jack Hidary, Global EV Leader at Hertz:

"Hertz is the car rental industry leader in supporting electric vehicles. We were the first car rental company to rent an EV and have now deployed EV's on three continents. We were the first to use EV's in car sharing clubs including our operations in London, Milton Keynes, Rome and Milan."
"We have always encouraged our automaker partners to produce EV's with the longest range possible to meet the needs of our customers. We hope that Nissan will make its longer range LEAF available globally to meet the requests of our corporate and individual customers. I believe we are at the inflection point of EV range and will soon see many EV models with ranges that compete with gas cars."

EVUK: thankyou for that - you and Jack (Hidary) are definitely winning Hearts & Minds here at least. You will appreciate how difficult it is to get anyone from any major EV-linked entity to publicly break the entrenched near-taboo and silence regarding the ever-pressing need to move the media and political debate and focus away from charge points and charging infrastructure to long range. We first drove Toyota's 90-120 mile /charge RAV4 EV in 1998 - and have driven them several times since: 16 years down the road and a range step-change is long, long overdue and logistically/technologically easily do-able in the very near future/yesterday. Nissan know it - but many still don't want to know it.
As always, we simply need genuinely informed consumers and a media that is willing and able to inform them. Only when carmakers feel irrestible pressure from informed and vocal consumers worldwide will they finally deliver or be compelled to deliver.

Video:  Jack Hidary, Global EV Leader for Hertz, talks to Edie Lush in Davos about Hertz's move into EV car sharing:

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