After all the EV "space race" is now finally - letztendlich - all about affordable long range - not range claims - but independently proven and verified realworld range.

Would you not agree that you actually have a responsibility to back up sensational Tesla-teasing range (and rapid-charge etc) claims with independent realworld video'd verification ?

Compare and contrast GM and the Bolt EV - they by contrast have issued and Youtube'd a very convincing and short 6 minute video(see Youtube: Chevy Bolt range-test) in which the respected and initially slightly sceptical US motoring journalist Tim Stevens("Road Show") drives a pre-production Bolt 240+ miles on a single charge down the California coast's Highway One...with 17 miles of charge still remaining at his destination.

So:  why have Kreisel not put out a similar, easy-to-arrange 5-10 minute video ?
Until and unless you do so we still only have unverified - although very credible-sounding - range-claims and various vehicles with "350km range" impressively and very visibly emblazoned on their side-panels.
So we'd like to recommend that you contact the following two trusted, respected and renowned EV reviewers and long-time campaigners/activists:

1) Robert Llewellyn - presenter and host of Fully Charged.
(He's also an actor - see BBC's cultish "Red Dwarf")
Sci-fi and sci-fact specialist Llewellyn would almost certainly jump in a plane or a saucer to Austria tomorrow for the chance to put a 220 mile/charge Skoda Yeti or an e-Caddy or e-Golf through its paces.
(Editor's note:   Skoda is part of the VW Group and the Caddy - though not the e-Caddy - is also a Wolfsburg creation)
See Llewellyn's test-drive preview of the London Metrocab and his accompanied range-testing of a Nissan Leaf on a trip from London to Edinburgh.

Again - this would be very simple to arrange. All Kreisel would need to do is give Llewellyn the keys to the Yeti for 3-4 hours. (Obviously it would be good if you could also share the cost of a budget flight from the UK to Austria plus 1-2 nights at a budget hotel in Freistadt - less than 200 euros in total to banish critics' inevitable range-claim scepticism !)

2) Louis Palmer of the annual EV Wave Trophy and Solartaxi etc fame.

Why not invite them both(Llewellyn & Palmer) to Freistadt to verify the Skoda/VW Yeti's range and fast-charge capability ?   And perhaps one of the (camera-shy ?) Kreisel brothers could join them for part of the 350 km test ?

Personally we think you owe it to the international EV community to provide definitive independent video verification of both range and rapid-charge capabilities.
 And obviously Tesla share-holders and those tens of thousands of Tesla-believers who have pre-ordered a Model 3 - not to mention Musk himself - would like to know if Tesla's Gigafactories will be producing EV batteries that really are no longer the world's best in several key respects as Kreisel have so confidently claimed.

Note re Kreisel's (VW) e-Caddy conversion(also with claimed "350km range").
We have seen the in-car video review of the e-Caddy by Volker Adamietz of Elektroautor.com
- but bizarrely and frustratingly range/Reichweite is not verified and barely even mentioned in that video !

The other key unanswered question concerns the Mavero - your stationary energy storage answer to Tesla's Powerwall.
Why is its temperature operating-range so (relatively) limited compared to the Tesla offering ie. +5C to +40C versus the Powerwall's -20C to +50C ?

Do Kreisel's Panasonic laser-bonded EV battery-packs - like its stationary storage units - also have a narrower temperature tolerance than Tesla's Panasonic EV packs ?
Obviously a narrow operating temperature-range of +5C - +40C would not meet the needs of any major global car manufacturer and retailer.  So do your EV packs match Tesla's proven -20C - +50C capability ?  If so, do you have independent verification of that fact ?

Kreisel appear to believe that a collaboration with VW, BMW and Mercedes will enhance their own EV and green car credentials and credibility.
Hmm.
In late 2015 Germany's ARD(the country's BBC1 state TV equivalent) - briefly emboldened no doubt by the VW dieselgate scandal - aired a scathing documentary that thoroughly and fearlessly exposes the (continuing) foot-dragging fakery and insincerity of the German auto-establishment's proclaimed commitment to all-electric vehicles. It also reveals the continuing and widespread manipulation and massaging of fuel economy and CO2 emissions ratings for petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles.
One of many other low-down highlights is served up at 11m 10s when BMW's head of e-Mobility Julian Weber is asked why the i3 is so expensive despite being so much cheaper to assemble than conventional combustion vehicles.   His brazenly blunt response:
"If you want to drive an eco-friendly car and you want a premium, fully sustainable vehicle then that's the price you pay."

Unfortunately this unusually bold, gloves-off ARD state TV documentary is only available in German.  Fortunately - bzw. gluecklicherweise - this EVUK scribbler is more or less bilingual - so nothing is lost or buried in translation.
But even Austrians - perhaps even Australians - should by now have no problem understanding that German carmakers (still) simply can't be trusted to tell the truth when it comes to their purported and relentlessly re-reported dedication to EV's and "Elektromobilitaet" in general.
Watch:
"Das Maerchen von der Elektromobilitaet - wie Politik und Industrie e-Autos bremsen".
("The Electric Mobility Myth/Fairy Tale: how Politics and Industry are Braking/Slowing Down Electric Cars")

No surprise that Deutsche Post have chosen to shun or steer clear of German carmakers altogether for the design and production of their latest fleet of all-electric delivery vans - they built their own and saved a fortune !
VW bosses are not amused - see all Google News reports.

Meanwhile - let's switch seamlessly from Austria's 350 km range proclaimers to France and the Zoe's imminent and definite 350 km upgrade.
Here's the nub in a nutshell:
"The Zoe will now have a 41-kilowatt-hour battery pack, up from 22 KWh in earlier versions, giving it a range of 300 to 400 kilometers (185 to 250 miles) on the European test cycle" (Green Car Reports)
We're not demanding an independent range-test video from Renault since they'll soon be delivering the new Zoe just two months after announcing it - it's not just another empty VW- or BMW-style carrot-dangling, jam-tomorrow PR ploy.

Yeti footnotes:
- not only do we have no range-verifying videos - even more bizarrely the Skoda Yeti that Kreisel's Christian Schloegl describes as his favourite company car - especially for trips to Munich - has not been video'd in action at all !
Indeed persistent Youtube searching still turns up just one strange if not surreal short clip promoting hydrogen gas(!) from Ireland(!) and showing nothing but stills of the motor, powertrain, dash and charging socket of a stationary Kreisel Skoda(VW) Yeti EV.

Was soll das alles Um Himmels Willen, Jungs ?!

Unfortunately sightings and videos of Kreisel's electric Yeti are far more elusive than those of the mythical mountain Yeti.
So to fill the Kreisel EV video void (EVoid ?) here's a rugged off-road video review of a red gasoline-powered ICE-Yeti - a Kreisel lookalike but without the red wheels.

Conclusion:    what we have witnessed from Kreisel will, we fear, prove to have been little more than a mutually beneficial PR collaboration between the German auto-establishment and a company claiming - still without independent verification - to have laser-welded Panasonic-based EV battery-packs that deliver a range of 350km/220 miles and can be rapid-charged more quickly, deeply and efficiently than Tesla's Panasonics.

Kreisel seem to have primarily used all of that EV and range-related buzz and hype as a launch-pad for their Mavero stationary energy storage systems.
And Volkswagen are now talking about manufacturing EV batteries in China just a month after a new factory in Germany had been rumoured - and we're hearing no mention any more of Kreisel or Austria.
Oh - and the "e-Crafter" van that VW unveiled three weeks ago will have a range of - oh dear - just 200 km !  So the same old same old all over again.

Surely "Craft-e" would be far more fitting a name, nicht wahr ?

And all-too predictably no "journalists" or commentators are asking:
"So what the  ?#*!  happened to that Tesla-Trouncing, Tesla-Toppling, Tesla-Thrashing 350 km, superfast-charge VW-Kreisel collaboration ?"

Elektra-Flying ?
Perhaps the one "vehicle" that seems most convincingly to have publicly proven Kreisel's cells to their, er, upper limits is the sublime all-electric Elektra One airplane - a single-engined, battery-powered, solar-winged glider.
The fact that German auto giants aren't involved inevitably adds to the credibility of Kreisel's 500km Elektra range claims. (Video - Elektra One soars above Lake Zurich)

See also:  Cleantechnica:  "Kreisel - a New Battery Competitor In Home Storage & EVs ?".

September, 2016

'RE': Range-Extended, 100% biofuelled "series" hybrids
- Is it time for EV purists to look again at range-extended(RE) biofuelled EV's...aka "EREV's ?

Probably - if they can be powered or range-extended by sustainably produced, widely available 100% ethanol, 100% biodiesel.  And provided pure electric range is at least 50 miles/80km.
The reality of course is that 100% biofuels are still anything but widely available - except in Brazil.  And it's equally clear from our own research and experience that even E85/85% ethanol is available at less than 3% of the world's filling-stations.

If you're not already up to speed or still confused re RE & EREV's aka series hybrids here's a little cream of the crop selection of biofuel(100% ethanol/biodiesel) and RE-related facts and state-of-the-art or recent developments that may persuade some battery EV fundamentalists to ease up a little.
As always we've tried to join as many dots and explore as many taboo little truths as possible(eg. Re-Volt - Chevy's 'bi' secret, industrial hemp as fuel, fuel v food fallacies & myths etc).
Bon appetit:

- Nissan has promised to unveil a range-extended series hybrid this year - but why not simply offer "EREV" versions of existing best-sellers like the Qashqai(above left).

And given that everyone now routinely refers not to "Nissan" but to the "Renault-Nissan" alliance in the context of EV's and hybrids - the hyper-trending ubiquitous Renault Captur(video) - a dead-ringer for a GM Bolt on steroids - is just screaming to be unleashed in series hybrid and all-electric form:   an e-Captur / Capture EV and/or Captur EREV hybrid would trounce and trump a Bolt in any colour.

- Nissan's Carlos Ghosn has said that the company's eBio fuel cell series hybrid(below right) will "provide opportunities" for regional decentralized biofuel(ie. ethanol) production.
Well why not help create even more local ethanol businesses and incentives by ensuring that not just the e-Bio fuel cell concept but also the company's more imminent, conventional Volt-like series hybrids can also be flex-fuelled by 100% or 85% ethanol ?
But Nissan and other major car manufacturers will also have to engage in some seriously aggressive lobbying of governments worldwide to ensure that non-corn ethanol production (eg. from industrial hemp, switchgrass, tall wheatgrass, szarvasi, waste - see below) becomes an attractive small and medium-sized business proposition.

- Neil Young's biofuelled and beautifuelled 1959 Lincvolt Continental conversion was the first EREV to hit the road and the hybrid headlines - the Volt followed and now Nissan's teasing at least two range-extended hybrids.
(OK, OK - the Volt is not strictly speaking a 100% pure-as-driven-snow series hybrid - its onboard ICE can mechanically, directly drive the front wheels via a clutch - on rare 'parallel' occasions)

So will Nissan be the first company to offer 100% biofuel, flex-fuel or multifuel capability ?   100% ethanol ?   100% biodiesel ?
Unlike GM's Volt, BMW's i3, Fisker's Karma and Bob Lutz's Viamotors ?
None of the above series hybrid manufacturers ever mention the idea or prospect of gasoline-free, biofuelled range-extenders let alone the notion of replacing their good 'ole on-board ICE generators with a microturbine of the Wrightspeed Fulcrum, Capstone or Bladon Jets(UK) kind.

And Nissan's years-away, post-petroleum eBio Fuel Cell EREV(above right) - appears to be little more than an unproven exploratory, exotic and faraway concept at this point but it would definitely be 100% gasoline-free with a battery-pack coupled to a fuel cell stack which in turn is fed by 100% ethanol or ethanol-blended water(not from corn please - see below) .

Secondly and more imminently, Nissan is promising to launch an extended range EV aka series hybrid in 2016(AutoNews) that will hopefully - unlike the GM Volt - be equipped with a fully activated flex-fuel RE generator. Ideally of course we'd like to see flex-fuel or multi-fuelled series hybrid options being offered in every market ie. 100% biodiesel and 85-100% ethanol. (E85 or 85% ethanol as opposed to E100 might partially placate many EV purists - given that most EREV/Volt owners or drivers report rarely using fuel at all)

- So just why are BMW, GM* etc really refusing to offer anything other than gasoline-powered range-extenders - why not 100% biodiesel, 100% alcohol, e85 ethanol..multifuel or flex-fuel ?
*Why did GM quietly cancel and bury its plans to offer bi-fuel capability - deactivating the relevant software ?   We know the predictable official excuses and alibis - but we've always preferred truth to transparent PR fiction.

*Which brings us - sssh - to GM's little "bi" secret:

Even now very few people - including most GM/Chevy Volt owners - seem aware that their vehicle carries unactivated flex-fuel software ...that can be activated in 5 minutes by an expert with the right gizmo...like John Brackett aka the "Fuelverine"(right).
See Fuel Freedom:  
"John Brackett Made a Chevy Volt Run on E85, and It Was Easy"

- But why is it that - despite Brackett's best endeavours - most proponents of max-percent biodiesel and alcohol/ethanol rarely if ever actually mention range-extended EV's aka series hybrids like the BMW i3 and GM Volt which typically reduce fuel use and filling-station visitations by a whopping 80-90% but still force drivers to pump gasoline into an otherwise green lean machine ?   Will alcohol and 100% biofuel campaigners join us in urging Nissan to equip their upcoming range-extenders with up-to-100% biofuel flexibility ?
Consider actor/environmentalists Ed Begley and Daryl Hannah(Video).

A few years back the world's leading alcohol-as-fuel expert and campaigner David Blume("Alcohol Can Be a Gas" - Book/Video) converted Begley's non-RE first generation Toyota Prius (parallel) hybrid to run on 100% alcohol/ethanol. A laudable fix to be sure - but Begley could stir things up far more now by acquiring a 2016 Chevy Volt(53 miles in EV mode) and flipping it to sip 100% alcohol if/when the battery needs recharging on the road.

And Daryl Hannah's 1979 erstwhile "Kill Bill", climate-killing Pontiac Trans Am was given a similar alcholic-ICE makeover - though it'll still only average around 18 miles/gallon unless it's given the full Neil Young Lincvolt treatment and fitted out with an extended-range multifuel series hybrid powertrain. (ICE or microturbine).

Left: "Daryl Hannah Takes her Ethanol-powered "Kill Bill" Trans Am On the Road"
Right: Ms. Hannah - Neil Young's heart-of-gold(?) companion for the past few years - used to drive a pretty basic biodiesel Chevy el Camino conversion but switched to the alcohol-fuelled Trans Am in 2010.
Alcohol with ICE, so to speak.
So the combustion engines in both vehicles have remained well under 25% efficient.  But Hannah will be well aware that any green fix that still wastes most of a fuel's latent energy is not acceptable or sustainable on a grand scale. She's forgiven though, right guys ?   She's possibly just a fallible green superhero with a faiblesse for growling engines..although she has said she rejected a pure EV conversion on weight-watching grounds.   Satisfied, Neil ?

- So to recap:   the answer to our opening question as to whether EV purists should reconsider range-extended series hybrids..is yes or probably.   Provided they're 100% biofuel-able and flex-fuelled and the ethanol/alcohol and diesel aren't derived from biodiversity-destroying mono-cultures like corn. In other words:

Think industrial Hemp, switchgrass, tall wheatgrass, szarvasi grass, biofuel from waste and from infertile or marginal land.

- Alcohol aka 100% ethanol engines burn so clean and coke-free that they can last for a million+ miles.  Obviously if range-extending ICE/microturbine generators are likewise powered by 100% or even 85% alcohol/ethanol they should last for decades - since they're so relatively rarely used and thus do very little work week-in, week-out, year after year.

Watch:
- David Blume: "The Alcohol Conspiracy and the Road Map to Energy Independence" (video) & "Alcohol Can Be a Gas" (video / book)

- Carey Burns "Hemp Fuel v Corn Fuel" (video)    "600-1800 gallons/acre" - low production costs, healthily profitable, cultivation still widely banned or opposed.
So:  yes to highly destructive, unproductive fracking - no to wickedly disruptive, versatile, high-yield, hippy hemp, right?
(Remember kids - always treat 'grown-ups' with the same respect they've shown your fracked planet)

- Giulio Sica(UK Guardian) asked:
   "Why Has Hemp Been Ignored as a Biofuel ?"
 - that was eight years ago !  It's not been innocently "ignored" of course - but proactively wiped from the political and media radar.

Note:   industrial hemp unlike recreational marijuana contains very low levels of the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
It is one of the fastest growing plants, will grow almost anywhere, enriches the soil, needs no pesticides and can be refined into a vast variety of commercial items including biodegradable plastics, food, vitamins/mineral supplements, paper, textiles, clothing, paint, insulation, biofuel, animal feed...
News Alert:  Sept 23-24-25: "Bio Logic"  - major 3-day Industrial Hemp Expo/Festival. Gela, Sicily.
See ya there, Neil/Daryl ?

So to return to that fundamental(ist) question posed at the beginning - sure, we EV purists should now cautiously welcome or at least encourage range-extended, max-bio series hybrids/EREVs - but our primary, continuing concern is that carmakers will always try to use any form of hybrid as a pretext to stall or shelve long-range pure EV and battery advances.

Bottom line:   what most battery EV purists surely really seek - for themselves and for the planet - is maximum liberation from petroleum and from petrol-station dependency, optimum energy efficiency, maximum all-round sustainability and minimum cost:    sadly, so far those few car manufacturers that do offer range-extended hybrids/EVs have refused to completely severe the oil-umbilical by offering biodiesel/alcohol/multifuel or "fuel agnostic" range-extenders as used in Neil Young's exemplary biodiesel-boosted Lincvolt. (a jet-like microturbine charges its batteries - not an Internal CE as in the Volt, i3 etc)

- But wait !   Let's repeat this for everyone suffering from chronic ADD and/or acute short-term memory-loss(ie. we covered the issue just ten paragraphs ago..) :
    RE:   the Lincvolt v the Volt and the latter's ostensible lack of flex-fuel capability...
...most people still seem unaware that the GM/Chevy Volt carries inactive unadvertised bi-fuel software which when activated allows it to run on e85 ethanol - not just petrol.   Indeed even the most alert Volt-owners seem unaware that the Volt(aka Vauxhall/Opel Ampera RIP) was originally designed and primed to be a bi-fuel or flex-fuel series hybrid.
See:
Fuel Freedom:  
- "John Brackett Made a Chevy Volt Run on E85, and It Was Easy"
- "Next Step for Volt Green Car of the Year should be E85 Capability"
Green Car Reports:
- "Why Isn't The 2016 Chevy Volt A Flex-Fuel Plug-In Hybrid That Can Use E85 Ethanol ?"

_______
Neil Young - a few tracks from the album
  "Fork in the Road" - dedicated to green cars, green energy and most of all to his beloved biofuelled 1959 range-extended Lincvolt Continental..

"Fuel Line" - (click for lyrics & song - Youtube):

Her engine's running and her fuel is clean
She only uses it 'cause she's a machine
She don't need it though, just to cruise around town
Keep filling that fuel line
Keep filling that old fuel line
The awesome power of electricity
Stored for you in a giant battery
She runs so quiet, she's just like a ghost
The world is ready for a whole new game
Some old timers just wanna stay the same
But they still advertise how clean and green they are
But she don't listen to what they say
She burns domestic green fuel instead
She don't use much though and that's smart for a car
She's not the car that she used to be
She wants to take you and she wants to take me
Into the future that's her destiny
Keep filling that fuel line
Keep filling that old fuel line

___
"Johnny Magic" - (click for lyrics & song - Youtube):

Johnny Magic has a way with metal
Has a way with machines
One day in a garage far away
He met destiny
In the form of a heavy metal Continental
She was born to run on a Proud Highway
Then the whole world started running out of money
People losing their jobs right here in Wichita
The home of the heavy metal Continental
Now she goes long range on domestic green fuel
100 miles per gallon is the Continental Rule
The Motor-Head Messiah went to Washington
To show them what he'd done
The senators and congressmen came down In Washington
And they rode in the heavy metal Continental
She was born to run on a Proud Highway
Johnny Magic, Johnny Magic
(a tribute to Lincvolt's magical main-man mechanic Johnathan Goodwin)

___
Neil Young "Just Singing A Song Won't Change the World" - (click for lyrics & song - Youtube):

You can play my guitar
See it where it'll go
Send this song
To a distant star
While the rhythm explodes
Just singing a song
Won't change the world
You can drive my car
Feel how it rolls
Feel a new energy
As it quietly rolls
Just singing a song
Won't change the world
Just singing a song
Won't change the world
You can sing about change
While you're making your own
You can be what you're trying to say
On a big wheel road
Just singing a song won't change the world

August, 2016

Fun in the sun ?   Caribbean carousin' ?   Beach party spirit 24/7/365 ?
Live and Let Drive.
  - for less than £10,000...

As summer scorches and sizzles ..the question has to be asked:
- can eMokes, EVs and and a de-fossilized Bond help save a World That's Not Enough ?
Never Say Never, right ?

Recall:   Moore in a Moke. Undercover(ie. canvas - blue and white striped).
Recall:   Voodoo magic and mystique in San Monique.
Come on - who needs a straitlaced Tesla(what - no sun roof ?) or a biz-exec Bolt when £8000-£10,000 will buy you an electric Moke or a stretchy, champagne* shuttle bus ?
(*guaranteed to pop-fizz a sparkly, bubbly beach-mood wherever it goes)

 
Life's a beach - then you drive.  A beach buggy.
Watch our exclusive(yes indeed) "Live and Let Die" Moore-in-a-Moke clip.
("Exclusive" clip ?  Surprisingly there appear to be no publicly posted clips of Bond in his sky-blue striped beach buggy - so our best voodoo-video and search skills were needed to chop and crop out this one.)

 
Left:  Shandong New Energy Vehicles - a reliable manufacturer and not just a dealer or supplier says Loglio(see below)
Right:   video of International Moke meet-up and street rally

 
Left:   low-power Chinese NEV eMoke - this specimen requires no driving licence in most countries.
Right: you gotta love that authentic Australian-Californian Black Cab look. Sadly not electric. Chinese eMoke-makers please note !

 

And returning (gratuitously) to the Bond-Moke-Bus theme - here's Roger almost losing his head in a downsized (last)resort bus.(sliced bus clip)
Shaken - but not deterred.
(Should have stayed with the Moke, mate)

Most of the electric beach buggies and buses pictured here are available via Alibaba and are "EEC" or EU-approved.  The sub-£10,000 price-tag includes taxes, import duty and shipping.

Our Shenzhen-based EV/solar specialist and Italian expat Marco Loglio(Linkedin) particularly recommends Shandong New Energy Vehicle Co and its pleasantly communicative CEO Jason Zhang - not least because the company is an EV manufacturer not just a middle-man, dealer or supplier.

And for an extra €1500-€3500 former ThunderSky Vice President Loglio will add a variety of solar/PV roofs or extendable canopies for you - providing between 30-100km of free driving every day.

NoSmoke - Electric Mokes for the Mediterranean.
Assembled in France - but delivered to Spain(including Balearics) and Portugal. Has some NICE fun-in-the-sun sales slogans:   "It's Always Summer",  "The Fun Is Back",  "Cool Clean Economical Easy".   On the negative side:   they're still only using lead-acid(!) batteries..yet a range of 100km/62 miles is claimed. Price:   €14,000

__________
Best-of Beach, buggy and bus links:

- Roger Moore's San Monique Moke is not electric of course - but he did eagerly try an emission-free Fetish in Monaco earlier this century. See Fifth Gear video.

- Boom-time's coming ("2016-2026") for take-it-easy, slower, cheaper micro EVs, NEVs, e-scoots, ebikes and ergo eMokes - according to this IDTechEx report(July).

- International Moke street convoy meet-up - racey video.

- NoSmoke eMoke - based(quite surprisingly) in France but delivers to Spain, Portugal and the Balearics.

- EV West California: at present - to the best of our knowledge - this is the only other electric, smokeless Moke-creator operating outside China(great EV West demo videos).  OZ-based MokeMotors teased an electric version in 2014 but that promise, like so many EV promises, seems to have EVaporated.
The fact is there is unsurprisingly no demand for expensive electric Mokes - affluent, free-spirited Californians are always the exception to the rule of course...

- Formentera(8 miles S. of Ibiza) heralds EV sea-change with a fleet of e-Meharis and ambitious all-electric island plans.  (The e-Mehari is Citroen's up-market, up-priced alternative to the cheap and cheerful Moke)
So how come attitudes and politics in Spanish Formentera are so diametrically different to the rest of Spain (aka the Costa del Repsol) ?
Can we expect e-Meharis to hit Mallorca soon ?   E-Mokes electrifying E-biza ? All naturally powered by the sun ?

- "Al fresco fun in an anodyne world" - even J. Clarkson(quoted) likes or liked Mokes(video) - though he'd obviously detest anything electric and green ie. anything that doesn't waste the planet and oil the wheels of the fossil-fuelled military-industrial war machine.   Here's Clarkson in Iraq 8 years ago.

- Car restoration TV show "Wheeler Dealers":  the Moke in this classic double episode is petrol-powered - but the two hosts' enthusiasm is infectious and un-Clarksonesque..

- Bondage artefacts:  a 1/43 scale die-cast Moore-in-a-Moke  "Dinkey Toy"  can be bought on eBay & Amazon. And a special edition Bond-in-a-Buggy magazine is also up-for-grabs.
So if even the most cheap-and-cheerful eMoke is beyond your means just dangle a Dinkey from your rear-view mirror, hide the Moore-mag in a glove-box and dream of mythical San Monique in an almost mythical Moke...

July, 2016

French connections - joining the dots...
Nice.
N.I.C.E. = "No Internal Combustion Engine".
Oil and ICE - the root cause(s) of terrorism.

"Internal Combustion - How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives"

- by New York Times best-selling author Edwin Black.  In this Miami Herald interview Black confirms that it was terrorism that motivated him to write the book. (Amazon).

Flashback and Blowback:
- on July 2nd more than 300 people were killed in yet another bombing in Baghdad.   The massacre was allocated the customary 1-2 minutes or so on TV News and as much as half a page in many newspapers in non-Muslim countries.
But the story was dead, buried and forgottten by the next day - in most non-Muslim minds.

Yet despite the crystal-clear pipeline-to-petrol-station connection the public and the old/new media refuse to join the dots...from Iraq and the Middle East..back to the gasoline-powered cars that they now addictively drive almost everywhere and anywhere.
Even when filling up at the petrol/gas-station - the total disconnect continues.
The manufacture of consent and the engineering of denial and amnesia - Chomsky's paradigm propaganda model is surely nowhere more lethally apparent than in the public's blind, guilt-free, defiant addiction to the internal combustion engine.

So just why is it that so many relatively bold, well-meaning campaigners, greens, church-leaders and even a smattering of journalists and politicians are more than happy to call for "divestment from fossil fuel" - yet still religiously refuse to utter the words "internal combustion engine" let alone demand that this politically and environmentally devastating, dinosaur technology be finally phased out and replaced with green, peace-promoting zero emission alternatives ?

"Ditch Oil and de-ICE" - why not try pitching that clarion call catch-phrase in your next sermon, Reverend ?   Afraid perhaps of losing an ICE-addicted congregation ?

Let's end once again with a self-answering rhetorical question - but one that's worth constantly repeating nonetheless:   if oil-dependent Norway can de-ICE by 2025(News, June) - why are EU countries so silent, so intransigent, so reluctant to make the same commitment ?
OK, Germany has rather feebly pledged to probably stop sales of new ICE-powered cars by 2030 - yet many governments and countries - Spain, Italy and Greece for example - will never enforce a combustion-ban without an EU-wide "N.I.C.E" mandate.

July, 2016

Ghosn's "Realm of Possibility"

2016: Ghosn: an electric Juke is a possibility, eventually.
2015: Ghosn: an electric Qashqai / Rogue is a possibility, eventually.
(Still).
2013: Ghosn: an electric Qashqai / Rogue is a possibility, eventually.
2013: Ghosn: a low-cost electric Dacia is a possibility, eventually.
(Renault-Nissan owns Dacia - Romania's low-cost car manufacturer: the Duster and Sandero are international budget best-sellers.)

Reality v Possibility in 2016:
- you can have any Nissan EV as long as it's a Leaf.
No *Juke, no *Rogue, no *Qashqai, no Dacia *Duster or *Sandero - just the limply named , take-it-or-leave-it Leaf.
Or an effeminately-named Renault Zoe.
(*That's right - whilst gasoline car buyers get to choose between vehicles with swaggeringly strong or macho names like the Juke, Rogue, Sandero, Pulsar and X-Trail - would-be EV-owners are still limited to the stereotype-reinforcing, limp Leaf or the female Zoe)

But wait a minute ! What's this ?! .....
 

 
2012 Dacia Sandero - 500km / 312 miles per charge - at normal traffic speeds. Interior space not compromised. Driving the Future and Born Electric over four years ago.  (Watch clip)
It's not Ghosn's baby obviously - but the work of Andrej Pecjak and his Slovenian village team-mates at the Metron Institute.  Conceived five years ago and very thoroughly road-tested in all weathers and conditions since then.

The original 2011 Sandero Metron conversion "only" managed 400km/charge so Pecjak & Co. added solar panels to the roof to achieve 500km in 2012.

But New York WTN award-nominee Andrej and his minuscule-but-mighty Metron Institute haven't stopped there or rested on their laurels or their awards.
Since 2012 their all electric powertrains have continued to incrementally improve:  in 2015 they set a well-witnessed world range-record of 826km driving at normal traffic speeds - again with no loss of interior space.

Ghosn again:   "If there was a demand for it we'd make it".

Hmm, an all-too familiar cop-out and inversion of basic production-demand logic - and a favourite phoney alibi for inaction that Elon Musk has never resorted to :   if the Tesla Model 3 had been conceived and born as a curvaceously compact SUV with Juke-like funkiness instead of a relatively sedate sedan it would still have been universally applauded and massively pre-ordered following its March 31st unveiling.
And thankfully at no time has Musk ever insulted the intelligence of his unusually bright audiences with a fob-off of the Ghosn or Carlos kind  ie. "if there's sufficient demand we'll think very long and very hard about the possibility of producing it, eventually."

Sorry Carlos - but it's time for Nissan to grow and branch out beyond the Leaf and serve us up a far tastier basket of fruit.
Time also to evolve away from the traditional corporate (or political) conviction that...
...PR is all about exploiting and reinforcing the ignorance of the many whilst (knowingly) insulting the intelligence of the few..

So if Ghosn genuinely wanted to stimulate public demand and wake up the masses the solution is cheap, simple and self-evident:   emulate what Pecjak did 4-5 years ago and have a small team of Renault-Nissan engineers create a 200 mile/charge Juke, Qashqai, Rogue, Sandero and Duster. With Renault-Nissan's resources and manpower it should take less than a month to convert all five. Ask Pecjak and friends to help out, Carlos, and they'll be ready to strut their stuff in three weeks.

Then hand that impressive panoply of Pecjak'ed prototypes over to the likes of Top Gear, AutoExpress and Autocar for a few days of testing, filming and reviewing - and thus, very inexpensively and quickly, you'll have opened the eyes(yikes!) of millions of dormant, semi-comatose or "EVs-are-for-wimps" petrol-heads and ICE-addicts in Britain and around the world.

And if that's not quite enough - then hand that swaggeringly macho assortment of long-rangers - Jukes, Qashqais, Sanderos, Rogues, Dusters - over to the valiant multinational convoy of EV cognoscenti and crusaders at 80edays.com who're currently attempting to circle the globe Phineas Fogg-style in Teslas, a Daimler-BYD Denza - and arguably best of all - a very long-range Hungarian electric bus.

As a result the media and the masses will be demanding - not just timidly suggesting - that Renault-Nissan and Ghosn finally - not eventually - convert EV possibility into EV reality.

So - let's ask a stupid or semi-superfluous, rhetorical question:  why on Earth(three guesses) would Ghosn never have thought of doing what Pecjak did 4-5 years ago - and take a leaf out of a Slovenian villager's book ?   For a Goliath like Renault-Nissan it would be so simple, so cheap, so quick, so effective.
So dangerously disruptive.

But major carmakers would still rather wait until cocked, loaded guns are held to their heads - or until quality Chinese EV manufacturers like BAIC and BYD finally tear down the barricades, break through global anti-China trade-blockades and begin flooding the world's markets with what consumers really need.

Bring it on, China !    The West is askin' for it !

Carlos's latest carrot - an e-Juke.   As always the "e" stands for "EVentually".  Possibly.

---

On a lighter note:    in 2011-2012 Romania's University of Pitesti built a not particularly cutting-edge or compact hybrid version of Dacia's low-priced Duster SUV.   The vehicle was/is memorable first and foremost for its name - "The Grand Hamster"(video).
A few wicked wags have suggested that the odd nomenclature was a sardonic side-swipe at Renault-Nissan's very own "Grand Master" Carlos Ghosn and his rodent-like features - although the official explanation is that hamsters store food and batteries store energy.
"Grand Squirrel" would surely have been a more fitting name given that hamsters are far more famous for their short lives and sudden deaths than for their food-storing skills.

Also worthy of a mention is Marc Areny - a half-Spanish Frenchman and low-cost EV creator who moved to Romania out of frustration at French red-tape(ie. anti-EV-DIY) in order to build and promote his dream EV conversion: an all-electric Dacia Logan.
At €15,000 the car's price is low enough to forgive its shortish range - just 150km/95 miles. See The Long Tail Pipe and Youtube.

June, 2016

Singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews MBE*:   is her new-born-electric, ex-Catatonia EV-angelism just another elaborate BMW (i3) PR production ?

Left:   Cerys and band perform and record "Float on Down to Monte Carlo" in-car for the UK Govt's BMW-dominated, Tesla-less Go Ultra Low / ULEV initiative.
Right: the "Making of" the "Float on Down..." video.

Go Ultra Low v Go Ultra Large

Cerys's Confoundingly Confusing Contradictions - quote (Daily Telegraph) :
"I have 5 kids - I'd like a large EV - so my ideal car hasn't been built yet". (!!)
"I'm in the process of buying a BMW i3"(!!)

You cannot be ceryous Cerys !
Why no mention of the 6-7 seater Tesla Model S ?  Or the X ?
And exactly how is having five kids and wanting a very large car consistent with your concerns about mankind's environmental impact on the Earth, CO2 footprints, resource depletion etc ? A case of "have your cake and eat it" ?  An extra-large slice of the pie for me please ?

So given that the large Tesla Model S..er.. "hasn't been built yet" and doesn't exist for Cerys - she's instead decided to get(or perhaps even buy) the least suitable alternative - the small, high-priced, low-range i3 !!
Perfect for any affluent city-loving family of four.
Note that Matthews grew up on a farm in Wales and loves driving through wide open countryside with her 5 children or fellow musicians - so the BMW i3 would be the perfect choice for someone who doesn't resemble her at all.

Extraordinary.  Is it really conceivable that Cerys Matthews has never heard of the (6-7 seater) Tesla Model S ?

And why does the interviewer in this recent Daily Telegraph article likewise not mention or ask her about the Tesla ?

NB:   The 2016 7-seater Tesla Model S entry-level '60' version costs around £59,000. For that you get 248 miles of range, a 130 mph top speed, 0-60 in 5.5 secs.
(See AutoExpress, June 9th review)

And any suggestion that Cerys Matthews(MBE) couldn't afford a Model S is hard to believe given that she's on a v. generous BBC payroll, hosts her own BBC radio show "Cerys on 6", presents BBC documentaries, acts as a roving reporter for the BBC's "The One Show" and has a successful singer-songwriter career in the bank.
So the Tesla Model S would surely be her ideal electric car/mobile recording studio - unless of course her five kids are all six-foot-plus, grotesquely obese teenagers - or don't like the fact that the rear-most 2 seats face backwards.(But think panoramic views, pulling faces at tailgating drivers, being invisible to your mother-at-the-wheel - what's not to like guys ?)

And waddayaknow - the above-mentioned D.Telegraph Cerys Matthews piece contains a handily embedded link to...the undersized, short-range, high-priced (range-extended) BMW i3.

Hmm - now there's a thing.
The same BMW that Top Gear's Richard Hammond was persuaded to endorse and 'buy' (or accept as a gift - who knows ?)

And the same offer-you-can't-refuse i3(minus the REX) that the LAPD were persuaded to buy by the hundred a few weeks ago.

And the very same 81 mile/charge i3 that the once respected, independently creative, concept EV-creators Rinspeed were persuaded to dress up and phallicly hyper-sexualize with a roof-erected, extendable camera for last year's Geneva Motor Show(see video @2mins 58secs).  This year they sank even lower into BMW-servitude with a cosmetically camouflaged revamp of the BMW i8 hybrid).  This from the company that had previously given us the subversively submersible Squba and the beautifully organic Bambu.

The moral of the tales ?  Never say "No" or "Nein" or Verpisst Euch to BMW's vast armada of persuaders and enforcers - if ya know what's good for you, your career and your kids.

So Cerys - if you want a large EV - remember that Tesla have not signed up to the BMW-dominated Go Ultra Low/ULEV initiative - so why not have an overpriced, diddy i3 city EV instead ?
OK - it's the polar opposite of what you say you need - but it's a BMW !  Think brand !  Think image !   Think what's best for BMW !  Think offer-you-cannot-refuse - not what's best for you and the planet.

To sum up - here's what Cerys Matthews should surely have told the Telegraph and others if she expected or hoped to draw unqualified applause from genuinely informed EV truth-seekers:

"I have 5 kids so the 7-seater Tesla Model S '60' will be the perfect fit for me and my large earth-friendly family. And £59,000 pounds for the 2016 7-seater Tesla is easily affordable for someone like myself - especially given the cost-savings on petrol, parking, road-tax, maintenance - not to mention recording studios. The BBC is (in)famous for paying even minor celebrity presenters very well indeed and I obviously have had a successful and lucrative career as a recording artist, singer-songwriter with and without Catatonia.
Obviously none of the much smaller, low-range EV's featured in my latest in-car video come close to meeting my needs as a would-be earth-responsible mother of five. None can match the Model S - especially not the highest-priced, shortest-range, undersized BMW i3."

So the Model S it is, Cerys.
Better still - if money's no object - why not spread your wings in a gull-winged 7-seater Tesla Model X ?
For £76,000.  That's £25,000 less than the extremely cramped 4-seater BMW i8(Carbuyer Review).  And far cheaper, more liberating and inspiring than a window-less, vista-less padded-cell recording studio. The Model X P90D Ludicrous version(0-60 in 3.2 secs) is also faster than a Ferrari over a quarter mile face-off(see DragTimes head-to-head video) - so will leave any BMW for dead.

(Recall or note that the Tesla-spawning TZero from AC Propulsion also thrashed a Ferrari(F355)...16 years ago in 2000 !
Here's the original video and Electrifying Times text report.)

The BBC of course would much prefer Matthews to be waxing lyrical about BMW not Tesla - so here's your chance Elon !
Why not settle a sore old score once and for all - the lawsuit against Top Gear and Clarkson - and fly a falcon-winged Model X over to Cerys at the Beeb ? A special delivery and livery ?

Who knows - she might well then feel inspired to follow her debut EV track "Float on Down to Monte Carlo" with something even more uplifting and spaced-out - with a tease of a title to suit:

"Winging it to Wales On Tesla's Trail".

And if Tesla fans Kanye West, Will.i.am, Jay Z and even Neil Young(see Bass Notes below) could be persuaded to join the jams, the jaunts and the jive-drive with the Cerys crew they might well succeed in topping the 10-40 million Youtube views/hits that James Corden's in-car celebrity karaoke smash-hit mash-ups are currently notching up on Youtube/CBS.
Note: James "Jimbo" Corden OBE* is the new-ish British host of America's Late Late Show. He uses his gas-guzzling Tata Range Rover Sport for his smash-hit "carpool" singalongs.
Cue a brief compare-and-contrast in-car detour - from C. Matthews MBE to J. Corden OBE...

...with a few recent(June) comments Corden has demonstrated extraordinary "have it both ways" clunk-headedness - some might call it crass hypocrisy - on the related issues of EV's and the protection of the planet:
 - in an appearance on Stephen Colbert's Late Show Corden told the host :
"..it's just the Earth and it's ours to look after.."  (Youtube clip)
Yet less than a week later - on his own show - he couldn't resist a cheap, trite below-the-belt stab at noiseless electric motorbikes with a pro-Ferrari variant on the "EV owners have small penises" smear.
And yes kids - he did use the "P" word.(Youtube clip)

Perhaps Corden and his team of ever-so edgey, earth-friendly writers should now take a fearless poke at Jay Leno's (obviously) microscopic cojones - given that the former talk-show stalwart has tested and approved countless electric motorbikes, ebikes and EV's in his long-running "Leno's Garage" series.  Jay is even the proud owner of a 1909 Baker electric.  What a girlie-man, eh Jimbo(OBE) ?
Much like that renowned sissy Schwarzenegger in his sexlessly-silent Tesla.

But let's terminate this Corden slap-down with a testosterone-testing little teaser:

- what terrifically macho cars did Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone need in order to project or to fake masculinity in the films "Enter the Dragon", "A Few More Fistfuls of Bad Ugly Dollars"(is that right?) and "Rambo" ?

a) a Ferrari Testosteronearossa(is that right?)
b) a Lamborghini Viagra
c) a BMW Big Balls
d) an Aston Martin Machismo
e) a Bugatti Butch-Boy
f ) none of the above

Let renowned wussies Brad Pitt("You're not the car you drive" - Fight Club clip) and Stephen Seagal(right - with ebike) explain...

Ah yes, Mr. Corden - as you so sincerely say, mate:  "It's just the Earth and it's ours to take care of".
Vroom vroom.  It's the way he tells 'em...

(Enough already ?   One Last Blast. Here's Corden shamelessly product-placing a Ferrari and Pepsi Cola - with a certain Cindy Crawford)

___________
Bass Notes:
- Red Green Alert ! (Sunday, June 19, 'Cerys on 6')
Don't miss:   long-time EV Apostle and eco-political boat-rocker Neil Young(he's still Canadian) talks to Cerys Matthews about his new album "Earth".

Does Cerys know that Neil made an entire concept album about electric cars called "Fork in the Road" ?
(Click here for all Youtube'd tracks)

- like so many too-long catatonic(see below) late-awakeners, Ms. Matthews tells us that ...
"It's time to wave goodbye to petrol and diesel".

No Cerys !  Not quite. 1997-1998 was undoubtedly the right time to wake up, speak out, get behind vehicles-for-change and kiss goodbye to gasoline-powered cars - long before it became safe, fashionable and almost mainstream(in a few countries) to do so.
In '97-'98 the Kyoto protocol had been signed and ratified, the should-have-been game-changing but scandalously underreported all-electric Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Altra had been launched in the US and Japan, California's CARB emissions mandate was having the desired effect and Al Gore was clearly set to become the next US President.

The fact that the media and the masses for the most part didn't want to know or couldn't have cared less led to 15+ more years of war-fuelling business-as-usual, fossil-fuelled foreign policy, the inevitable explosion of Middle East terrorism and what is now - possibly or probably - an irreversible environmental meltdown.

Better late than never ?  Let's bl©©dy well hope so, Cerys.

- Catatonic - definition:   "an immobile or unresponsive stupor"
- Catatonia - Cerys's band from 1992-2001

- James Corden OBE v Cerys Matthews MBE.  Who outranks whom ?   Corden is an "Officer of the British Empire" and outranks Matthews who's a mere "Member" of that now long-defunct (in)glorious superpower.
It goes almost without saying of course that Matthews would almost certainly have neither an MBE or employment at the BBC if she'd woken up to EV's and begun speaking out publicly, fearlessly and knowledgeably on the subject 15+ years ago.

June, 2016

StoreDot's 2015 "come May 2016" pledge-that-never-happened:  5-min recharge and that Tel Aviv to Beersheba(and back) drive-demo.
(Remember ?  300 miles/charge, low cost, green, organic, revolutionary, "already here" - Abramovich the angel investor ?)

 
Chutzpah ?  Bah Humbug ?   A bit or a lot of both ?

You may recall that even BBC TV covered the seemingly sensational StoreDot story in August 2015 with an interview with CEO Doron Myersdorf in Tel Aviv.   (That BBC interview appears to have been disappeared in the interim )

Here's an extract from the Times of Israel(May, 2015 - the Gospel Truth ? ) :
"Come next May(2016) we will present a technology to recharge an electric car in five minutes. Using an array of 7,000 cells, we'll take a car that has a zero charge and recharge its batteries to 100% capacity."

"Then, while next year's ThinkNext(2016) is going on, we'll send it on a trip to Beersheba and have it come back at the end of the event here to Tel Aviv" - Myersdorf said in May of this year(2015), to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd."

But - ssshucks- it never happened.

As it turned out :
a) ThinkNext 2016 took place not in May of this year but in February Herr Myersdorf !

b) the entire old/new media, EV blogosphere and comment-posting cosmos has yet again remained obligingly silent - noone anywhere - as far as we can detect - has visibly reminded Myersdorf and StoreDot of their failure to deliver on the 2015, headline-grabbing, cast-iron promise(no May-be's) to drive a 5-minute, StoreDot-charged EV from Tel Aviv to Beersheba and back either in May 2016 or during this year's ThinkNext back in February.

The public surely must by now grasp that it is precisely and primarily because companies like StoreDot know in advance that the media will stay obediently silent  if/when they fail to deliver on their throwaway promises that they make those throwaway promises in the first place.

StoreDot = Power Japan Plus almost all over again ..?
Although almost all would-be game-changing EV pledges quickly dissolve into silence and compliance and disappear into the ssshadows - it has to be said that there is a striking similarity between StoreDot's promises, claims, subsequent rapid retreat etc and the Power Japan Plus(PJP) phenomenon.
PJP similarly claimed and still claim 20x faster charge times, 300 miles per charge, optimum recyclability, "organic" raw materials and reduced cost.

But unlike StoreDot, PJP sought umbrage, protection and incubation under a "UN-linked "umbrella" not long after they first hit the headlines and threatened the status quo in 2014. (See PRWeb: "World Association of Former UN Internes and Fellows Agrees Memorandum of Understanding with Power Japan Plus" )
Also unlike StoreDot, Power Japan Plus have always responded to our questions - and what's more - quickly and courteously.
For instance:   we recently asked PJP why there was now - ominously - no longer any mention of electric vehicles anywhere on their new-ish website but only references to electric bikes and solar energy storage.
PJP's reply was instant and moderately encouraging - to the effect that EVs will be re-instated in an upcoming updated version of the website - although no specific date was stipulated.
StoreDot, on the other hand, have opted not to respond to our enquiries at all.

So let's go public with those stored-up, stir-it-up queries !   Here are a few exasperatingly fantabulous quotes from the company's website and the Times of Israel again - followed by our own EVUK-flavoured ripostes which we believe will resonate with EV believers, sceptics and agnostics - even those of the Jewish persuasion:
From Store-Dot.com :
"5-min charging is already here.  Charge your electric vehicle in 5 minutes - same experience as fueling, but without the fumes! "
EVUK riposte:   can you please define the words "already" and "here" please !

From The Times of Israel(again):
"Its new EV FlashBattery, the company says, charges fully in 5 minutes, providing 300 miles (480 km) of driving distance. "
"This fast charging technology shortens the amount of time drivers will have to wait in line to charge their cars, while also reducing the number of charging posts in each station, and considerably cutting the overall cost of owning an electric car."
"Because it charges so quickly, a battery using StoreDot technology can be smaller, making vehicles lighter and batteries cheaper to make, as well."
"Not only will the system save time but allowing for less frequent battery replacement due to its increased number of cycles, EV Flash Battery results in a 50% cost reduction per mile over the electric vehicle's lifetime, compared to existing battery technologies."

EVUK riposte: all of the above is worded as if it's all a fait accompli - most of it is comfortably couched in the present tense or the "future-is-now" tense. Why ?   Please justify !

From Store-Dot.com :

"Read more about EV needs in China in our blog "

EVUK riposte:   no thankyou StoreDot !
China's "EV needs" ?   Who cares ?   Why does StoreDot - like almost every other would-be EV disruptor - seem now to be shifting its focus to China ?
Please StoreDot - your audience is largely non-Chinese - so kindly tell us instead about how soon you'll be meeting the affordable, long-range, quick-charge "needs" of (would-be) EV owners - NOT in China - but in Europe, the UK , America North & South, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Korea, Africa, India...
Not to mention Israel.

- Final Flashbattery Flashback:    recall that Chelsea's game-changer Roman "Norma" Abramovich and Samsung among others have invested $18 million in the Israeli company's rapid-recharge Flashbattery venture.

May, 2016

No Nissan - Madrid does NOT now have the world's largest electric taxi fleet:  110 Leafs v 2800 BYD e6's in Shenzhen, 4000++ e6's in Taiyuan ...
- yet again hundreds of copycat news sites wilfully or cluelessly ignore the facts...

For the record:

 

- if you can handle the truth, watch the TV report(above left) and read the following understandably irate email recently shot to us by Dr. Marco Loglio(again) our main man in China  ie. where the real EV action is.
Loglio, incidentally, escaped to China a decade before BMW's latest batch of disillusioned EV-specialists turned their backs on the Bavarian  i-Wash-fabrication specialists in yet another Great Escape to the East.

_______________
From M.Loglio in Shenzhen
To EVUK:

" Can I draw your attention to the numerous ridiculous news reports that have appeared on many news and EV sites around the world about the order for 110 Taxi Nissan Leafs for the city of Madrid by the company Ciudad del Taxi.
Nissan and the Western press are (very) erroneously or deliberately and dishonestly claiming that this is the biggest electric taxi fleet in the world.
("Nissan convierte a Madrid en la ciudad con más taxis eléctricos del mundo")
And the world's China-blind or China-blanking media has once again uncritically repeated this false claim.

The statement should be immediately withdrawn by Nissan and by the taxi company Ciudad del Taxi.

Here in Shenzhen there are now 2,800 BYD e6 taxis in operation which eclipses the 110 Leafs in Madrid.

And of course the 190 mile/charge e6 not only has far greater range than the 107 mile Leaf - it is also much more spacious.

BYD began by introducing a fleet of 800 electric e6 taxis in Shenzhen in 2011, on the occasion of the Univerisade Games.
Subsequently another 2000 were added giving today's total of 2800.

The current version of the BYD e6 taxi has a real proven range of 400 Km in urban use, based on a battery pack whose capacity has now reached 82Kwh - so almost triple that of the Nissan Leaf.
A perfect infrastructure for the recharging of the taxis all over the territory of Shenzhen make this vehicle the best solution for clean transportation within the city.

And here's another record-breaking update for you about BYD taxis in another Chinese city:
Taiyuan will have a fully and exclusively electric taxi fleet within the year with a total of 8929(!) BYD e6 taxis.

So to emphasize and clarify:  this large city Taiyuan will only have electric taxis. No petrol, no dirty dinosaur diesel cabs.
Already 3000 e6's have been put into operation in the first 4 months of 2016 while the others will be delivered before the end of July this year.

Another key reason for the success of BYD e6 taxi fleets apart from its now well-proven technical specification (82 Kwh battery pack with more then 400 km range ) is the price which after subsidies from the central and local government is only €12.000 or 89.000 Yuan
Youtube Video:   record-breaking Taiyuan only has electric taxis:   over 4000 now - 8929 by the end of July.

Nissan and so many other car manufacturers really should focus on improving their mediocre battery pack capacity rather than wasting time with triumphalistic and baseless announcements that seem designed to treat China and its ahead-of-the-game EV innovation as if it doesn't exist or doesn't count or can't be believed(unlike, say, VW !!).

As you know the BYD e6 is also used as a taxi in many other Chinese cities and around the world - Brussels, London, Rotterdam - so BYD definitely and objectively has to be rated number one in the world.  "
Marco (Shenzhen)

_______________
It's a pity that Ciudad del Taxi and the world's media still either can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes researching simple EV truth or are intent or hell-bent on deceiving the public and themselves.
Qué lastima !  If this otherwise relatively bold Madrid initiative had been launched with a modicum of informed honesty and modesty we'd be applauding almost ecstatically - although the question "Why Leafs - and not BYD e6's as in Brussels etc" still begs to be asked and honestly answered.

The average daily distance covered by London minicab drivers is 120 miles(see FT re BYD/Thriev). There is no reason to think that Madrid's Leaf taxis won't be travelling similar distances each day - so recharging and range-anxiety will likely be a constant niggle.

Over the last week we've emailed Ciudad del Taxi twice asking why they are misinforming the public - but the offending "world record" headline has still not been removed from their homepage or corrected.   So this is by definition now a clear case of deliberate deception.( info@laciudaddeltaxi.es )

Website Elektrek also points out that Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport operates 167 Tesla Model S taxis - so it's a pity and a pena that their Madrid Leaf report's headline fails to include the word 'wrongly':   "Nissan (wrongly!) Claim The World's Largest Electric Taxi Fleet".
And Elektrek, like the rest of the media, also fails to mention the BYD e6 - or China.

All of this though is about more than just the BYD e6(taxi) versus the Nissan Leaf(taxi).
BYD and an ever-increasing number of agile, cutting-edge, style-savvy Chinese carmakers continue to expose and lay bare the half-hearted, foot-dragging fakery of the rest of the world's automakers.
Just take a look at this Forbes/CarNewsChina collaborative report from April/May's Beijing Auto Show:   "10 New Electric Cars from China".
 
Left:      BYD EV300: range 300km/190 miles, $23,000
Right:   Brilliance V3 EV: range 250km/155 miles, $16,000.

Amusing to note that BMW has a joint-venture with Brilliance.   i3 anyone ?  Surely even the most gullible of born yesterday  (BMW)brand-victims would prefer the brilliance of the bargain V3 to the low-range, high-priced i3.
(Photos: Tycho de Feijter, Editor-in-Chief at CarNewsChina   ie. where the real EV news and action is.  Beijing-based expat-Dutchman Tycho, by the way, is also well-acquainted with Shenzhen-based expat-Italian Marco Loglio.
Funny old small world, ain't it ?)

May, 2016

BMW's "i3 range increased" tense-trick:  "BMW has increased"..." "BMW increases range...".
Reality:   BMW will not increase the i3's range until 2017.

Remember that in 1987(!) BMW presented the all-electric lightweight 325iX with a TUV-tested range of 93 miles. Over 25 years later it launched the super-lightweight carbon fibre i3 with an EPA-tested range of 81 miles.
See Wired "40 Years of Electric BMW's You Can't Buy"

So - BMW is clearly determined to avoid - and have the media avoid - the use of the jam tomorrow future tense - the words "will" and "won't".
So they have once again resorted to that familiar, neat, time-warping, back-to-the-future trick-of-tenses to disguise yet another not-now, not-this-year promise.
And thanks to a media that is only too willing to obediently parrot a prescriptive PR statement that cunningly avoids the use of the future tense - the public are unlikely to notice that BMW "have" in actuality increased nothing at all.

"Zukunftsmusik" - the German term means "Future Music" ie. empty, endless jam-tomorrow promises.
So how do you avoid being accused of issuing yet more "next year BMW will.."  Zukunftsmusik press releases ?
Simple !   Ganz einfach sogar !   Rely on a meekly uncritical media that sticks to your script, artfully avoids the use of the future tense and have almost every commentator misleadingly trumpet to the world that "BMW has increased the range of the i3 by n%" or "BMW increases the range of the i3 by.. "

Oops, sorry !  The i3 obviously needs to be renamed or rebranded "the 2017 i3" for this cunning linguistic, future-tense-dodging trick to work - thus:

"BMW has increased/increases the range of the '2017 i3' by n%"

And thus it is that dozens of carbon-copy chorus-line media outlets have yet again fallen over themselves to please the Bavarian Behemoth in the past fortnight by telling it like it isn't.
Repeat:   the fact is that BMW have actually done absolutely nothing in the present tense, or the past tense or the imperfect tense - except release yet another jam-tomorrow, Zukunfstmusik press statement craftily replacing the future tense with those "fait accompli" present and past tenses.

So when you read that "BMW have increased the range...." - please remember to substitute the deceit with the same old unspun truth:
"BMW and the rest of the world's carmakers WILL not deliver or allow disruptive giant-leap affordable range increases until 2017-2018".

Perhaps other large corporations should consider using the carmaker's ruse - the not-so-fast food industry for instance:

"McDonalds today announced that it has increased the size and egg-iness of its 2019 McMuffin by 27%".

But why stop there ?   Maybe people - individuals - not just giant corporations - should start making similar big deal PR announcements about themselves...
Here for instance is John Smith breaking a little hot exciting news to his boss:
John : Charles - I just wanted to announce that I have increased the productivity, performance and efficiency of the 2018 John Smith by 41%.

Charles : Great news John. But can I ask the obvious question ?   Why not do it now - straightaway ? Why not five years ago ? Also - you've been promising more or less the same thing for the past three decades.

John : It's very different this time Charles. These things take painstaking preparation, research and development.
One more thing Charles - given that I have improved the performance of the 2018 John Smith by 41% I will naturally be expecting a commensurate salary increase.

Charles : Naturally John. Whatever you say, John.
Oh, by the way - where's that sales report you promised me ? It was supposed to be on my desk yesterday...

John : It'll be ready tomorrow Charles - or the day after at the very latest..that's a promise. I'm obviously very busy right now working on the 2018 John Smith. Not to mention the even more disruptive and productive 2020 John Smith.

We can hardly wait....

*********
Re-read Wired: "40 Years of Electric BMW's You Can't Buy"

The media tells it like it isn t:
1) BMW "has increased" the range etc:   all Google News reports
2) BMW "increases" range etc :       all Google News reports

---

FinePrint:
As stated many times - you now have to look not to payrolled "journalists" but to comment-posters and occasionally bloggers if you're desperately seeking informed, fearless truth-telling on almost any corporately contentious subject.

Pedro's unpaid, "unprofessional'" comments at InsideEVs(March 2016) re the "2017" BMW i3's range pithily hit the bullseye:
"BMW could introduce a 200 EPA miles range i3 right now if they were serious about EVs."

Similarly, GM could have begun producing and selling the 200 mile/charge Bolt in late 2015/early 2016 if guns had been held to CEO heads - figuratively or otherwise. Recall that in April 2015 the Financial Times confirmed that:
"General Motors Has Resolved the Bolt's Technical Challenges".

A reminder too that EV's typically contain anywhere between 600-1200 fewer parts than their gasoline-guzzling Heath Robinson equivalents - parts that therefore don't need to be designed, sourced, tested, transported, stored, assembled etc.  Time and money saved. And even fewer excuses for endless pre-production procrastination.
And again - as far as the world's combustion-addicted carmakers are concerned, one major unspoken advantage of dangling that huge 200 mile/charge carrot for far too long ahead of time is that demand for and interest in the current crop of short-range EV's like the Leaf and Zoe can be significantly sapped or zapped for two or three years - as in:
"I'll stick with gasoline until the Bolt and Model 3 or the longer range i3 etc eventually arrive"

---

May, 2016

On sale in 2016: a 500km/charge affordable electric SUV/crossover.
Beating the Bolt and the Tesla Model 3/Y.
Why ?
- Because Chinese consumers just don't have the patience for year-after-next promises, dangling carrots and manana-bananas...

So the inevitable bad news once again..is that the EV500 aka Ev500 will naturally only be available in China.

  
Take a close look at that 'registration' name-plate.  E500 ?  Not quite:  the 'v' may be barely visible - but please don't confuse the Yema EV500 with the Fiat 500EV or 500e or 500-e(whatever).

That's right EVUK'ers - our favourite Italian-exile-in-China Dr. Marco Loglio - Marchionne's nemesis - has contacted us with the it-had-to-happen news that he's currently helping Yema develop and road-test the aptly-named EV500 - a long-range(500km), $30,000(after incentives) successor to its slow-selling, short-range E70 crossover eSUV.

So - to save ourselves the effort, the grind, the graft and the time of drafting up yet another jocular journalistic joust on the subject of long-overdue long range, we'll instead simply serve up our recent unexpurgated email exchanges with Loglio for your delectation and delight.
After all, the NSA, CIA and countless corporate/automotivated troll-hackers have doubtless snooped, sneaked and stored said emails already(right guys?) - so why not share our deviantly disruptive correspondence with an even wider audience ?

But first !  A few words in defence of medium-not-monster-sized crossover SUV's and even minivans..
It's all about ride height:  higher seats are simply safer and healthier.
Safer  because higher seats provide a more commanding (over)view of the road, of potential hazards, pedestrians, cyclists.
Healthier  because higher seats mean that thighs and knees are more or less at a right-angle to the torso, the upper body - whereas in normal low-slung sedans the knees are higher than the coccyx - the base of the spine. The "coccyx crease" is more pronounced - ouch !
As a result, in low-to-the-road seats the nerves and blood vessels that pass through the base of the spine and the thighs are more stretched upwards - ergo under greater tension. Numbness and poor circulation can result.

In fact non-automotive ergonomic seats(eg. office chairs) are usually designed to ensure that the knees are positioned slightly below the base of the spine...which also means that back muscles are forced to work harder to keep the spine erect and vertical. Not very relaxing but very posture-pedic !

So no - higher or superior SUV/crossover ride-height is not necessarily (all) about "I look down on you" snobbery and snootiness - it can really also be seen as a distinct health and safety advantage.

***
Loglio - EVUK email exchanges(April-May) - Yema EV500:

Loglio :  I have attached some pictures of the final street-legal version of the Yema EV500 SUV crossover that now has 500km of range.   The car has a quite traditional powertrain with a maximum power of 75 Kw, max speed of 140 km/h and acceleration from zero to 100km/h in about 9 seconds.
The battery can be recharged from a 220V outlet in 8 hours and fast-charged in 30 minutes with a DC charger.
The battery pack has been developed with my personal contribution.   It boasts high energy density and low cost. The final price of the car is yet to be announced but it should be around 40,000 USD before incentives. More news for you as soon as I'm authorized to release it.

EVUK :  It's worth noting of course that the EV in recent history that SHOULD have been disruptive was the original Toyota RAV4 EV - a mid-sized SUV(1997-2004).
Plus ca change...

Indeed it was primarily because the world's media (outside of California & Japan) totally refused to report Toyota's RAV4 EV(eSUV) that we actually set up EVUK around 1999-2000.
The RAV4 was also the first EV we ever drove. But even when it was used for three years by the police, fire services and a car rental company exclusively on the island of Jersey 50 miles south of the UK(near France) - the media refused to talk about it.    Despite the fact that the police and holiday-makers LOVED it. We contacted many major media outlets in the UK/Europe at the time(BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent, Der Spiegel..) - all refused to mention or report Toyota's RAV4 EV at all.  Despite even the fact that for years it was Tom Hanks' favourite car(video). And California's/Hollywood's favourite EV. Still scandalous and still largely blanked out after all these years.
Plus ca change - plus c'est la meme putain chose.
Deja SUV VU.
Anyway Marco - are there any plans to produce the Yema EV500 in ever-so macho-male-masculine black at all ?

Loglio :  Sure, colour is no problem. The real challenge is the ability of a small company like Yema to effectively introduce any electric SUV to a wide, regional or nationwide market.
Even in China and with a much-needed long-range SUV like this it still involves a lot of marketing effort and after-sales service.
It will probabaly initially be sold locally in Sichuan province where Yema is based and in some other city where there are already efficient distributors in situ.
Anyway this car really does deserve to be successful.  It looks and feels nice and is very well-equipped. Previous versions have received mostly positive reviews(apart from their lower range).

 

EVUK :  Marco - you may have seen that Edmunds.com put out a report in April claiming that EV owners are switching back from electric and green cars to gasoline-powered SUVs and crossovers.   The report was of course eagerly repeated and regurgitated by dozens of echo-chamber and largely pro-ICE media outlets.

Astonishing how neither Edmunds.com or their colluding chorus-line failed to reach the self-evident conclusion that (wannabe) EV owners are clearly screaming out for the obvious green option that is still being proactively denied them:    ie. an affordable, long-range SUV or crossover like the Yema EV500.
Carmakers as sure as hell know that's exactly what consumers want and what the market needs right now.  Globally - beyond spoilt-for-choice China.
Remember too that 2015 was declared "Year of the SUV" by many of the world's car manufacturers - including Mercedes.

And recall that Nissan has dangled and re-dangled the possibility of a leafy-green all-electric Qashqai twice in the past two years(but sadly no e-Juke) :   firstly in October 2013(see Autocar UK) - then again in March 2015(see Autoexpress UK).

***

Part II of Loglio-EVUK Email Exchanges re the Yema EV SUV-crossover(.. and another low-cost mystery range-breaker - read on)

Loglio :  While in the rest of the world long range and low cost electric vehicles are still a promise or a dream, in China things really are moving now.
I have more exclusive news for you today that a company called Baoqi, based in Tianjin city is soon - this year not next year - going to launch a compact but inside very roomy and versatile 5-seater electric car with a range of up to 500 km(300-500km) and a cost after incentives that will start at just 8.000 Euro.

 

  Remember that I am 1.90cm tall(6ft 3in) but this vehicle looks and feels more spacious and taller inside than it looks from the outside.  I have driven the car personally several times and found it very comfortable not least because the square or straight-sided design means you have a lot of width and space at shoulder height.
The car's dimensions are 348x157x167 cm - wheel-base 233 cm.
There is also a very practical cargo version - see photos.
 

  I have visited this company(Baoqi) and we are now also working on a project to create the first long range EV that also sports a prototype portable and foldable or expandable solar roof of my own design that can feed about 50-100 miles worth of "free" solar energy back into the car's batteries whilst for example the car is parked at the owner's workplace.

Obviously the problem with having solar panels (only) on the roof of your house is that if - like most people - you park your EV at your workplace most days you will need a substantial battery storage system at home to charge your car overnight and to power your home.
Also:  this solar car version is set to get a lithium ion battery pack engineered by my company MLCA Ltd.
As I said, this roof solar system is still at the prototype stage and we're still looking for angel investors from anywhere in the world.
It is really a green and clean EV charging option for enthusiasts - for people who for environmental or ethical reasons want to charge their cars as far as possible directly from the sun and avoid using electricity from coal, nuclear, natural gas etc from the grid.
Attached are some pics of the car in the company show room.

EVUK :  Marco - I'm guessing you'd need the help of a billionaire or Impossible Magician to export, import or teleport a Yema or Baoqi long-ranger to Europe or America given all of the anti-Chinese automotive protectionism in place around the world ?
Or maybe a wealthy Qatari or Dubai-based EV-owning oiligarch might be up for it - the country and region seems to be developing a genuine taste for electric mobility and solar energy - PV, concentrated solar(CSP) and geothermal.

But it is odd, to say the least, how relatively fragile non-Chinese EV's like the Morgan EV3, the G-Wiz and even the good 'ole Corbin Sparrow had no problem sailing through every safety, road-worthiness and homologation test out there - yet if any of those vulnerable pint-sized lightweights were to be hit by any one-tonne-plus vehicle on the road at 35+ mph their poorly protected EV-owners could surely kiss goodbye to life as they once knew it.
Who wouldn't feel a whole lot safer in the Yema and Baoqi EV's which after all are based on, inspired by or copied from the VW Tiguan and the now discontinued Suzuki Alto.
Ah yes- imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - so if any non-Chinese carmakers - Fiat, BMW, VW, Ford, Toyota, Kia etc - are similarly just itching to roll-out long-overdue affordable long-range EV's like the Yema SUV-crossover and Baoqi's versatile 5-seater/cargo EV - they should feel free to imitate, emulate and copy these two range-breaking, price-busting companies Yema and Baoqi asap. Their Chinese chiefs or CEO's would feel sincerely flattered for sure, right Marco ?

Loglio :  Firstly - regarding exporting cars from China:  to start with you need a special export license that is very difficult to get and especially for homologated EV's that are subject to incentives from the government. Some of Yema's gasoline-powered cars are probably going to be sold in South America and Africa. The USA and Europe ban the import of Chinese made cars, if they don't comply with their many regulations and requirements.
So yes - you really would need a billionaire to start the legal export/import of this car.
He would need to change a lot of components and pass the European homologation test which would cost around a million Euro.

EVUK :  So maybe an EVangelical Dubai billionaire or a very talented magician would be the best bet.  But then again - even Warren Buffett has failed or refused to export the 200+ mile/charge Chinese BYD e6 worldwide despite the burgeoning success of London taxi company Thriev's thriving fleet(video).
But again - it still seems bizarre that the likes of the Morgan EV3, the G-Wiz and the Corbin Sparrow managed to sail through all of the road-worthiness regulations and homologation requirements whilst clearly far safer Chinese EV's are globally blocked and blockaded by insurmountable barriers and hurdles.

---

Finally, and once again:   to all those who have been successfully programmed and propagandized to view most news out of China with scepticism, cynicism or outright sino-phobia - a reminder that range-busting Marco Loglio is a former VP of ThunderSky - the Chinese company that supplied the long-range, robust batteries for Imperial College's almost legendary 26,000km Pan-American SRZero EV odyssey - one of BBC World's all-time most popular serialized documentaries.

Renowned UK company Frazer Nash helped prepare the battery management system for the SRZero's ThunderSky cells - see video.

More recently in 2012 Loglio - together with Global Vantage Power - set a (then) range record of 801km driving a converted all-electric Chinese Zotye version of the Fiat Multipla at normal traffic speeds from Shenzhen to Nanning - see our exclusive TV video report.
Contact Dr. Marco Loglio via his Linkedin pages.

---

April, 2016

Formula E(DF) - Aquafuel taboo continues in pre-ePrix Paris.

"Who's the Silly Billy, Daddy ?!"

Confused ?  You're meant to be...

Picture the scene:   Sitting room. Anywhere. N'importe où.
TV dinner on laps(appropriately). Formula E(DF) ePrix in progress in Paris.
Date:   April 23rd aka April Fools' Fuel Day - don't believe everything you don't  read...

Billy(aged 71/4) learns where the truth lies.
From Daddy:

Billy : Daddy - what's EDF ?

Daddy : It makes the electricity that charges the race cars Billy. The batteries.

Billy : But my friend Jamie said that they use something you can drink !

Daddy : What ?  Don't be silly Billy !  That's complete nonsense ! Where did Jamie see that ?

Billy : On the internet. On Youtube.

Daddy : Oh dear !  I've told you loads of times you need to be careful about all that silly nonsense you read on the internet Billy. Lots of it's just made up rubbish. Daddy would know about it if it was true.
The cars use nice clean nuclear power - but you can't drink it ! Look - there's a big banner by the track that says "EDF". That's nuclear - not a drink !
Now eat your dinner and drink your Kool-Aid...I mean lemonade !

Billy : Dad !  Fuku...Fuku...Fukushi..wasn't that a nukulear disaster in Japan Daddy ?  In Fuksushi..Fukshinobill or summfing ?  Or was that in Russia ?

Daddy : No Billy - that was a tsunami and an earthquake and a great big wave that killed lots of people.
Now eat your dinner, fill your face and watch the race.

Billy : Dad !  Look - my tablet says that a man called Agag drank some of that nuckulear energy on Youtube out of a glass.

Daddy : I told you it's internet rubbish Billy !   Agag ?  It sounds like a made-up name !   A gag more like !  Get it ? A gag means it's just a big joke !  Probably an April Fool !

Now enough silly questions Billy - finish your dinner. And don't forget Mummy uses nice clean nuclear power to cook our food too - just like the race cars !
So - it's good enough to eat - not just drink, right ?    Remember - Daddy knows best - not the internet or Youtube or your smart tablet.   Your dad's a lot smarter than all of that lot !    I went to college, remember ? !

______________ Refresh your memory with a refeshing energy drink:

Recall that in March a Formula E source(an anon FIA-FE Facebook administrator..) emailed EVUK to say that our "please re-publicize Aquafuel in Paris" plea had been officially deemed "a good idea". Officially in the office, at least.
EDF have obviously officially disagreed.
And what's more - they hold political office   ie. they're 85% government-owned.
(See "EDF Partners with the Visa Paris ePrix- Formula E", April 11th)

More Kool-Aid, anyone ?

---

FE Paris postscript:   deeply green viewers and fans were treated to a surprisingly robust, nuclear-free Earth Day & Race Day response from Agag, Todt & Co(even Aquafuel got some rare air-time)

After the ominous above-cited April 11 press announcement most of us had fully expected to see a circuit, a podium and media-rostrum festooned with "EDF : VISA" ads - but in the event almost nothing nuclear caught the eye and this extremely divisive hot-button issue was very sensitively, sensibly and stealthily dealt with by race organisers.  Respect !
So can EVUK claim some of the credit or blame, please, VISA ?   Is a debt of gratitude not owed ?
All of our research and searching indicates that no other commentators, journalists or even bloggers have dared to touch the EDF-FE-EV nuclear question at all and of course none - excuse our French - have risked positively P!$$ing on the Paris Parade.

- Aquafuel gets honorable mention in Formula E's "Earth Day Top 21 Eco Inventions" video (at 1m 38s).
(But why on Earth does Youtube prelude even this video with ads for petrol/diesel cars ?!)

April, 2016

France's(Fessenheim) Nuclear Site Offer to Tesla:  Musk must be surely tempted - or sorely torn..
- he's not yet said no...and yet to say yes.

By Royal Invitation...

From Fessenheim to Phénix to Superphénix - could a superchaEV-PV Phoenix rise from the nuclear ashes?

"Tesla has been invited by Ségolène Royal, France?s Minister of Environment and Energy, to transform the Fessenheim power plant into a European factory." (Newsweek, Europe)

It is spookily intriguing - even gratifying - to note that this offer to Musk came just a month after we posted up our cage- and sabre-rattling pièce de persistence titled:
"Nuclear Powers France's EV Prowess - but FE Race Cars are Positively Nuke-Free"
- juggling and juxtaposing France's EDF, nuclear power, Formula E's Aquafuel, the upcoming(April 23) FE ePrix race in Paris as well as Tesla, renewables, solar and Solarcity.
And that timely pot-pourri of hot or taboo topics also - by sheer spooky coincidence - included caustic criticism of the seismically senseless and foolishly fault-lined Fessenheim reactor located on the French-German border - ie. slap-bang-wallop in the centre of Europe.

Alors Elon - Allons y ?

The problem for Musk of course - the toxic PR trap - is that a move to Fessenheim(right) would almost inevitably force him to publicly and unequivocally state his (evolving ?) position with respect to nuclear power and more importantly to nuclear waste - a personal "coming out" that is far more likely to divide than conquer his fan-base and his new-found but fickle corporate/financial/political backers, enablers, protectors.

But if Musk does accept the Royal invitation - why stop at Fessenheim ?
What about the abandoned fast-breeder SuperPhénix and Phénix sites 150-250 miles S.West of Fessenheim ?
Could not new "fast-breeding"  green industries - successful, sustainable and profitable - rise out of those atomic ashes ?

And we're not just referring to EV and battery factories.  Why not establish both EV and PV ventures ?
Solarcity - which Musk co-manages with his cousins - could for instance be rapidly expanded into nuclear-dominated France and throughout sunny central and southern Europe along with Tesla's many other job- and hope-creating Giga-enterprises.

What say you, Ségolène ?

Although Solarcity is not a solar/PV manufacturer per se, the company - "America's Nr. 1 Solar Provider" - could serve to re-energize and re-monetize France's decommissioned or dodo-dead nuclear sites by transforming them into solar/PV installation, training, warehouse and distribution hubs - creating a nationwide network of Superphénix Solar Centres.

Or perhaps Tesla could build a Super-Giga-Factory to produce "SuperPhoenix Superchargers" for the European EV+PV market.

And at last the mythical (plutonium-free) Phoenix could soar proudly skywards once again - and the shambolic ?5 billion-plus shame of the Phénix and SuperPhénix fast-breeder fiascos could be powerfully redressed, remedied and redeemed.

But is this all pie in the sky - as in 'pigs might fly' ?
Maybe - but anyone who thinks the sky's the limit for Mr. SpaceX has obviously been living on another planet.   Musk is clearly as keen to preserve and improve life here on Earth as he is to bring life to Mars(or to green the Red Planet) - so the more potentially life-destroying or life-threatening Damoclean nuclear sites he can reclaim and reincarnate the better.

So who wouldn't want Musk to accept Royal's request ?   If there's anything - short of a miracle - that could help restore the legend of the Phoenix to its former, pre-EDF glory and sanctity - it has to be the spirit of Tesla.
(California's and Croatia's)

April, 2016

Formula E:   DS Virgin Technical Director Sylvain Filippi Bemoans Better-Battery-Ban..on Chat-E live TV to a global audience

Watch Chat-E clip collage

Yes, of course, Mr. Filippi(a "petrol-head turned electric-head") treads carefully and speaks very diplomatically in a predictably guarded, professional, job-preserving fashion.
But the underlying, understated frustration is palpable.

Clearly - if one FE team's Technical Director aka Chief Technical Officer is willing to let slip this much and speak this candidly on air - and let the batt-cat out of the bag if you will - then just imagine how much more un-broadcastably truthful his and his colleagues' battery-related remarks are likely to sound off-air, behind closed doors, off-the-cuff and off-the-record.
Time to Revolt guys.   Rise up and down tools. Swap 'em for cutlasses, mount a mechanics' mutiny and hang the planks overboard.
The usual suspects, the permanent procrastinators, long-range refuseniks and carrot-danglers can sink or swim - but please, me 'arties, set the ePrix free and overturn this retrograde "not till season five" back-tracking, better-battery-ban...
(Does Formula E really still need BMW's and VW's sponsorship now that so many infinitely more credible companies are backing the event ?  And who on earth wants that hybrid interloper - the BMW i8 safety car - intervening in an all-electric race series ?!)
Breaking News(Bloomberg, 19 April):   Three more BMW EV / i8 execs jump ship - quitting Germany(Bavaria) for China !

_______________
- Watch full FE Long Beach Chat-E
- Petrol-head turned electric-head - see Eureka magazine interview with Virgin's Sylvain Filippi.

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