EVUK recognition: over 50,000 websites/pages now link to/like EVUK.co.uk. Check current count.
February, 2013 "50,000 LEAF's Sold etc" - but what of the genuinely new longer-range(143 miles), cheaper, lighter version ?
Remember, Remember the News from November ?
Worldwide media silence surrounds Nissan Global's 2012 range-busting announcement as not-so-new 75 mile per charge, increasingly laggard, lack-lustre LEAF launched in the US/EU.
Odd isn't - ask a hundred, a thousand, a billion consumers(aka people,humans, earthlings) if "consumers should make informed choices" - and the almost unanimous universal response will be an emphatic, unequivocal "Yes, obviously ! What a dumb question, dimwit !"
But what exactly is generally understood and meant by the word "informed" ?
For us (and surely you too ?) it means not just being aware of what is currently available in shops and showrooms - but also being equally informed as to what's in the pipeline ie. what, if any, major new developments and imminent technology or price breakthroughs etc have been signalled or promised by manufacturers and retailers.
This is after all the accepted consumer awareness and alertness norm in the context of just about any other consumer product. And researching present and future-focused facts - independently of the mainstream media - has (theoretically) never been easier. Ignorance has never been less excusable.
What's more, a car is probably the second most painfully expensive, important, life-supporting and possibly life-changing purchase that most consumers/earthlings etc will ever make. And refunds of the "Ooops - I've changed my mind" kind are rarely granted by new or used car-salesmen - on this planet at least.
Yet in the past month or two - despite an almost continuous flurry of LEAF-related news stories - almost all media outlets - old and new - have now seemingly unanimously decided to bury November's almost seismically sensational announcement from Japan that Japanese customers are to be offered a genuinely new, 143 mile charge, $6000 cheaper, 80kg lighter fully revamped version of the LEAF later this year.
And while scores of media outlets did recently and confusingly announce that a "new" cheaper LEAF with marginally enhanced range(just 75 measly miles, folks) is to be launched in the US and Europe - none of these reports(and we've scanned 'em all) refer back to Nissan's "142 mile per charge"(to be precise..) tree-shaking LEAF announcement.
To repeat: the simple fact is that the not-so-new 2013 US/European stop-gap LEAF will only offer marginally more range than the current high-anxiety short-range version - and is not to be (very easily and conveniently) confused with the dramatically improved, re-engineered(root & branch), 80 kg lighter, rare-earth-saving, long-range version that the Japanese are scheduled to be offered later this year for roughly the same price.
So just how many genuinely informed prospective LEAF purchasers would nevertheless still be happy to buy a short-range, soon-to-be overtaken, run-out version now for more or less the same price as Japanese drivers will be asked to pay for the significantly superior 143 mile/charge version later this year ?
Do US and European LEAF dealers seriously, sincerely hope that their prospective customers will be fully informed as to what is currently available and what is on the near-horizon in Japan ?
Can we really rely on LEAF-retailers to bring customers up to speed on range and other imminent breakthroughs to be enjoyed by the Japanese ?
Will dealers seriously expect to receive many or any inquiries from forensically, fearsomely informed, consummate EVUK'ers, for instance ?
And of course no-one is asking the most fundamental and inconvenient question of all: just why are Japanese consumers to be treated to the radically revised version (long) before the rest of the world ?
Especially given that from this year the LEAF and its batteries are to be produced globally at three manufacturing centres: Sunderland(UK), Oppama(Japan) and Smyrna(USA,Tennessee - which has the greatest production capacity of all).
See Wiki re LEAF Production.
Coming Soon - Hertz & Minds: we recently put most of the above highly-charged points to Hertz UK who last month launched a LEAF-based Hertz On Demand carsharing scheme in Milton Keynes(of all places? See reports). Extracts from that correspondence - including the company's unexpectedly encouraging, bullish, range-focused responses from both sides of the pond - will appear here shortly ...
February, 2013 Carmakers & media play the fuel-cell fools' game - yet again..
- See latest, curiously well-coordinated, anti-battery, pro-fuel cell(FCV) global news blitz (February - Google EV News)
So here we go again - the same old, same old refrain that was used to help kill off the CARB EV mandate and the
growing threat posed by
long-range, charge-at-home battery EV's(BEV's) in the late 90's and early 2000's ie:
"We don't need battery EV's because fuel cell cars are just around the corner and will -
really-honestly-truly - be appearing in showrooms in 2004..2006..2007. And after all fuel cell cars are also electric cars..."
So yet another deja vu trip down memory lane..back to the future all over again. 12-15 years ago Mercedes, Ford, Honda, Toyota and even GM
were all pledging to have their endlessly hyped fuel cell prototypes in dealerships circa
2006(whilst - as always - conspicuously and predictably failing to focus on or mention the still unresolved/unresolvable question of hydrogen production, transport, storage etc)
Apologies in advance - please wince at will - but "fool-sell me once - shame on you, fool-sell me twice & thrice and till the cows come home - shame on me and on our mealy-mouthed media"
A few key quotes from Wikipedia and "Who Killed the Electric Car":
".. according to former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph Romm, "A hydrogen car is one of the least efficient, most expensive ways to reduce greenhouse gases." Asked when hydrogen cars will be broadly available, Romm replied: "Not in our lifetime, and very possibly never." The Los Angeles Times wrote, in February 2009, "Hydrogen fuel-cell technology won't work in cars. ... Any way you look at it, hydrogen is a lousy way to move cars..."
More than anything else, the public need to understand that
hydrogen-powered cars will enable the monopolistic, mob-like - and occasionally mafia-linked - fossil-fuel fraternity("Don Petroleo" and friends) to maintain control over the
whole fuel-supply chain - in stark contrast to the freedom and independence that 200+ per mile pure EV's would obviously provide by enabling most drivers to
recharge primarily at home - possibly, in part at least, from their own or locally produced photovoltaic / green
energy sources.
And please note too that it requires 3-4 times more electricity/energy to produce hydrogen, compress
it, transport it and store it than to charge an EV directly from the mains or from your own
solar power system.
Yes sure, hydrogen fuel can be produced in many ways - from crude to exotic and
reasonably green - but have no doubt that the "natural" gas-to-hydrogen lobby is now
frantically, frackingly keen to once again kill off the disruptive, transformative threat posed by
increasingly long-range, increasingly liberating battery EV's.
It's sadly abundantly clear that the "natural" gas PR & party-funding pipeline reaches right to the very top - Wiki again:
"..Steven Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, stated in 2009 that hydrogen vehicles "will not be practical over the next 10 to 20 years". In 2012, however, Chu stated that he sees fuel cell cars as more economically feasible as natural gas prices have fallen and hydrogen reforming technologies have improved."
And if you think you'll be able to produce your own hydrogen at home, on the cheap - think again. It'll cost you around
3 times as much in electricity costs alone..and anyway governments will almost certainly move to
legislate against DIY production and home-storage of hydrogen - compressed or otherwise.
Two years ago we were assured that 200-300 mile per charge, cost-slashing,
ultra-long-lasting, DEKRA & BAM-tested, award-winning DBM/Kolibri EV batteries were ready
for mass production.
So where are they ? Why is the media so deadly silent ?
Similarly - just 5 months ago - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York issued press releases clearly stating that their
superfast-charging graphene anodes were likewise "ripe for commercialization".
So where are they ?
Where is the media interest, curiosity and coverage ? Why are carmakers not rushing to fast-track graphene anode/cathodes and range-record-breaking DBM/Kolibri batteries into
production ?
Why is our lame-stream, tame-stream, same-stream media once again joining the corporate
chorus and leaving it up to the likes of Chris Paine to get the truth out there - belatedly, post-mortem, after the
fact ?
Oh boy - what title can we expect next time, Mr. Paine: "Electric Cars - Dead Again ?" "Fossil Fooled Again" ?
And will the film-maker
finally have the courage, integrity, credibility - and commercial independence - to fully implicate the corporate media ?
As for the neverending barrage of EV-related public opinion polls and surveys: all these ever do is confirm and reflect what a "great" job the corporate media has always done at keeping the real EV news and the colour green off the radar - and as far removed as possible from the pubic's - the consumer's - consciousness and conscience.
Result: most people remain as proudly and proactively ill-informed, uninquisitive, self-focused and eco-hostile as they ever were.
They are in other words - as far as the corporate chorus-line is concerned - perfectly conditioned consumers.
January, 2013 BMW+VW 's carbon fibre carrots
Postscript update (Aug,2013): BMW i3 or a DBMW i3 ? Powered by DBM Energy (rebaptised as Kolibri - after ex-BMW PR place-man and all-round fixer/fire-extinguisher/threat-eliminator Richard Gaul(see below) moved in - in a Car Giant's Trojan Horse).
Compare & contrast: the newly unveiled BMW i3 - a paltry 81+ miles per charge - and absurdly overpriced to boot at almost $43,000. A DBMW i3 on the other hand could easily achieve 200 miles a charge and, according to 'exiled' ex-CEO Mirko Hannemann, would soon cost the same as a gasoline-powered car if production of the Kolibri/DBM cells were to be ramped up.
- more manana 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 "manana 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 produced - 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 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(below) 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)
With Gaul on board DBM Energy quickly morphed into EV-EVading Kolibri AG after relocating to Munich 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)
January, 2013 2013 News ? When will Boris "I need a 7-seater EV" Johnson say "Yes" to a mayoral Model S ?
- or a majestic (or prime ministerial) Model X ?
Boris needs to move people : "I need a people carrier"
The London Mayor has had conspicuously little to say about Tesla since his droolingly enthusiastic test-driving of the Roadster in 2009 when he proclaimed emphatically and repeatedly(not least in the Daily Telegraph - see links below) that from now on he would only be buying electric cars - but that what he really needed was a 7-seater family sized car...
So now must surely be the time for Johnson - who has himself odd-jobbed in the past as an automotive journalist - to put his mayoral money where his eclectic and pro-electric motormouth appears to be motioning.
But will the thus far Ballistically Ballsy Boris now, finally, in 2013 really have the put up or shut up courage - the cojones the chutzpah - to raise a fearlessly frolicking finger(or two) to the automotive establishment and to the armies of fossil-fuelled fundamentalists who still so destructively dominate, contaminate and manipulate the political and media machine at the local, national and global level ?
Since 2009 Boris has championed the short-range Citroen C-Zero and also notoriously capitulated to BMW's short-ranging, short-changing, nought-selling, i-concept confidence artists at last year's Olympics - but given the recent relative fanfare surrounding the launch of the Tesla Model 'S', Boris and 7 seater EV's really should be the Talk of The Town as we speak - and talk.
So 2013 is definitely EV Capital Crunch Time for Boris - a Major Moment of Motoring Truth.
Elon Musk: "We're fracked" - without electric cars and sustainable solutions. Watch the PayPal co-founder's "Steve Jobs-style" on-stage presentation of the Model 'X'. And don't miss this glittering gull-winged Model 'X' test-drive.
So which is it to be, Boris, Good Sir ? The Model 'S' or the Model 'X' ?
Or both ? ie. The 'S' as your new official Mayoral Motor - the 'X' for your personal use - your private posse possession - a "people carrier" and "people mover" in any and every sense ?(..and you know, in a spookily strange way, all mayors and politicians serve as people carriers and people movers, n'est-ce pas, Cher Borisse ?)
But why not go the whole Right Honourable Hog 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)
Borisian Base Notes:
See (all relevant links sadly date from way back in 2009) :
"EV NV" ? ("EV Envy" - if that's just way too cryptic for you...)
(Daily Telegraph and Tesla Club).
Johnson gushes gallantly, gleefully, greenly:
"My car was innocent. It was an electric car, made by Tesla in California, and though it is currently just about the only one on British roads, I believe it marks the beginning of a long-overdue revolution" "..sometimes the best way to make people green is to make them green with envy".
"What I really want is a people carrier" (Motor Torque)
Boris Johnson commits to only buying EV's (Green Autoblog)
Inside view: Boris Johnson - Emission-free motoring (WhatCar)
Tesla Model 'X' - see full 7-seater specs and pics at Tesla Motors.com
Contact the Mayor, impersonally: mayor@london.gov.uk
December, 2012 Model S: Ninety high street, high-end gas-guzzlers that'll cost you (far) more than Tesla's all-electric game-changer
(our thanks to Brad Pitt for providing a priceless punchline)
Tesla Model S and Lexus LS600h Hybrid - read Autoblog & Edmunds reviews. (The Tesla is far cheaper to buy, to run, to maintain and much faster from 0-60 - but the Lexus beats the Tesla's 130 mph top speed..)
This is not intended to be an exhaustive listing of exorbitantly priced exhausted, exotic vehicles - we've omitted Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and the like - but is merely meant to serve as a fact-focused, realworld reminder that expensive and pricey are very relative automotive terms.
Key Notes:
- No conventional car of its size - it's a 7-seater - comes close to matching the Tesla Model S's 0-60 mph acceleration time of 3.9 seconds.
- And its ultra-low running and maintenance costs likewise leave the competition for dead.
But if you are a die-hard fan of expensive antiquities, pricey obsolescence and cumbersome, highly inefficient Heath Robinson museum artefacts - then please stick with what you know. You're welcome.
And if your character, "personality", masculinity or manhood shrink or shrivel to nought without the thought or aid of thrusting, pumping pistons and petrol-head props - enjoy the delusion, cling to the cliché. Vroom Vroom Viagra.
No-one is forcing you to EVolve.
So here's our far-from exhaustive listing of Tesla's price-performance rivals(55K upwards/skywards)
Prices are specified only for vehicles costing more than 100K..are given in euros and correspond to approximate EU averages. Hybrids are highlighted in green - another very relative descriptive/adjective - and also show 0-60 mph times:
Audi : S4 Avant 3.0 TFSI, S5 Coupe 4.2, S5 Cabrio 3.0 TFSI, S6 5.2 FSI V10, RS 6 5.0 TFSI V10 (123,400), RS 6 Avant 5.0 TFSI V10 (125,860), S8 5.2 V10 FSI (112,420), TTRS Coupe 2.5 TFSI, TTRS Roadster 2.5 TFSI, R8 4.2 FSI (124,250), R8 5.2 FSI (157,900), R8 5.2 FSI (166,020), Q5 Hybrid Quattro
BMW : M3 Coupe, M3 Cabrio, M5 (117,500), Series 5 Gran Turismo, Series 6 Coupe, Series 6 Cabrio, Series 7, Series 7 Active Hybrid (4.7 secs, 116,800), X5, X5 M (125,650), X6, X6 M (128,500)
Jaguar : XF AWD , XFR (109,214), XK Coupe (106,350), XK Convertible (115,809), XKR Coupe (123,274), XKR Convertible (132,734), XKR-S Coupe (149,197), XKR-S Convertible (158,656), XJ AWD (104,612)
Lexus : RX 450h Hybrid (69,600, 7.6 secs), GS450h Hybrid (70,700, 6.0 secs), LS600 (122,700), LS600h Hybrid (151,550, 5.6 secs)
Mercedes : C63 AMG, C63 AMG Coupe, C63 AMG Estate, SLK 55 AMG, E63 AMG (120,009), E63 AMG Estate (123,359), CLS Class, CLS 63 AMG (122,648), S Class, S 400 Hybrid (93,972, 7.3 secs), S63 AMG (159,910), S65 AMG (254,028), CL Class, CL 63 AMG (177,170), CL 65 AMG(254,028),
SL Class, SL 63 AMG (172,702), SL 65 AMG (257,886), SLS AMG (204,075), ML Class, ML 63 AMG 4M (120,719), GL Class, G Class, G 55 AMG (141,939)
Land Rover : Discovery, Range Rover Evoque (aut), Range Rover Sport
Porsche : Boxster S , Boxster Spyder, Cayman S, 911 Carrera Coupe, 911 Carrera Cabriolet (109,217), 911 Carrera S Coupe (111, 208), 911 Carrera S Cabriolet (123,819), 911 Carrera 4 Coupe (104,172), 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet (116,783), 911 Targa 4 (113,597), 911 Targa 4S (128,200), 911 Carrera 4S Coupe (118,775), 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet (131,386), 911 Turbo (168,689), 911 Turbo Cabriolet (181,565), 911 Turbo S (194,442), 911 Turbo S Cabriolet (207,053), 911 GT3 (137,086), 911 GT RS (168,689), 911 GT2 RS (265,975), Cayenne , Cayenne Diesel , Cayenne S, Cayenne S Hybrid (85,971,7.2 secs), Cayenne Turbo (130,488), Panamera, Panamera 4, Panamera S (107,139), Panamera 4S (116,697), Panamera GTS (131,831), Panamera Turbo (155,480)
Toyota : Land Cruiser 300 (3 variants: Elegance, Executive, President)
Volvo : C70 2.5 T5 230 Summum (aut), S80 2.4 T5 241 Executive (aut), S80 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Executive (aut), S80 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Momentum (aut), S80 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Summum (aut), XC60 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Momentum (aut), XC60 3.0 T6 AWD 304 R-design (aut), XC60 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Summum (aut), XC70 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Momentum (aut), XC70 3.0 T6 AWD 304 Summum (aut), XC90 2.4 D4 163 R-design (aut), XC90 2.4 D4 163 Cv Summum (aut), XC90 2.4 D5 AWD 200 Executive (aut), XC90 2.4 D5 AWD 200 Momentum (aut), XC90 2.4 D5 AWD 200 R-design (aut), XC90 2.4 D5 AWD 200 Summum (aut)
VW : Phaeton
***
Tesla v High Cost, high-end, high street gas-guzzlers(cont'd) ...
The Big Picture cost: whether to Cost the Earth or Save the Planet(plus pounds & pennies) - that is the question.
Drive the change or stick with the Merc and the marketing mythology.
Brad Pitt(right) sums up the dilemma - as clearly and concisely as Chomsky - in this feisty Fight Club clip: "You'
re Not the Car You Drive" (hit Pitt image to view)
Finally though - avoid the Tesla at all costs :
- if you believe that real men don't give a dime or a damn about the emissions that they spray and spread or who suffers as a result...
- if you're totally (TV-)programmed not to care for or about the planet that your beloved & cherished children will inherit and inhabit(that's their problem, innit?)
Fought for the Day :
- and you're not your (bleeping) car-keys either ...
November, 2012
GM fails to Spark rumoured 200+ mile range revolution at LA Show(Nov 30-Dec 9)
(Click here for all GM Spark / LA Show -related Google News items)
The Spark EV concept/prototype may well have grown a little funkier, chunkier and spunkier in appearance in the last umpteen years - since its ill-fated short-lived collaboration with G-Wiz's REVA in Bangalore - but track back if you will just three months to August and Jim Motavalli's optimistically speculative piece in Forbes - here quoting GM CEO Dan Ackerson - ie. from the very horse's mouth :
"I think we've got better than a 50-50 chance to develop a car that will go to 200 miles on a charge (with Envia batteries). That would be a game changer.."
See also:
- NYTimes Blog "Envia Claims "Breakthrough" in Lithium-Ion Battery Cost and Energy Density"
- EVWorld: "Is 200 mile per charge Electric Car Coming From GM ?"
But now brace yourselves for the familiar damp-squib, jam-manana range reality-check(Washington Post-Bloomberg, Nov 27):
"An industry analyst with IHS Automotive, test-drove a Spark EV and said her car had an estimated range of 55 to 75 miles...'that was not hyper-mile usage so I'm thinking they will push for the 100-mile-range mark' she said in an e-mail".
Push !? Push for all of 100 miles ?! A near-pushover already for Bolloré, BYD, Nissan & Co !
Definitely no Spark plugs from us. Not until this Chevy EV's range flares up to 150 mile mark(cf. Paris's Autolib Bolloré Bluecars, the new LEAF, BYD's e6...not to mention Colonel Gaddafi's 160 mile/charge Fiat 500 EV - providing twice the battery-range of the just-unveiled Fiat 500e)
Final Flaming Footnote:
Range is still the burning issue - or should be.
In Europe - and especially Germany:
- So is the EV flame still flickering at Kolibri/DBM Energy ?
As outrageously emasculated, EViscerated and EV-EVading as the company has become over the past 18 months or so, it has thankfully not completely erased all references to Mirko Hannemann's 600+ km record-breaking Munich-Berlin Audi A2 trip from its website.
Nein - two entire understated paragraphs(read English version) are still quietly dedicated to Hannemann the man, his Gutsch & Burda awards and the 2010 Audi record in the company's History pages.
History ? How should we interpret this half-hidden 'historical' footnote ? RIP ? Dead and buried ? Snuffed out ? Hannemann and Kolibri's EV applications are history - or that they made history ? Or both ?
Is a resurrection still possible ? Is a range insurrection still possible ? Will Hannemann's mile high hopes be re-ignited at some point after all ?
Will GM and the short-rangers ever want it ?
November, 2012
Range Relief + Belief at last:
New Nissan Leaf - 142 miles / 228 km per charge, $6000 cheaper(but only in Japan - for now)
Nissan Leaf Leaps Into Lead - see all Google News reports - including Edmunds.com.
Watch Nissan Global.com video report(Note appropriately leafy backdrop)
In our recent October piece re London's 50 BYD e6 Green Tomato taxis(2013) we posted the following provocation:
"Nissan et all will surely be shaking like a LEAF.
Or a whole tree-full."
And the next day we posted this prediction to a respected, select few :
"..the fifty 185 mile-charge BYD e6 cabs that Green Tomato have ordered for London will finally focus the minds of the major carmakers. The likes of Nissan will finally magically/miraculously "discover" in early 2013 that they CAN increase the range of the LEAF and the MiEV etc to 150 miles+ without increasing the sell-price".
Well the LEAF and the tree have been visibly shaken and and the tree-growers stirred into action.
No - we've not quite hit the magical 150 mile mark yet - but next year, and not before time, that leafy and well-shaken tree will at last bear ripe fruit worth picking.
So here's our perhaps unlikely advice to all wannabe EV owners - and we say this as entirely independent, widely resented and even respected EV advocates of 13 years' standing:
Boycott all short-range electric cars forthwith !
Please don't buy a MiEV or a Leaf or a Zoe or a Czero or a Smart EV or even a Fluence until major automakers finally deliver real range - worldwide(ie. not just in Japan)
And now - leaping from battery-range anxiety to battery-life anxiety:
Is life too short to worry about (battery) life-expectancy ?
So - you may wonder - has BYD's tree-shaking thunder been suddenly stolen by Nissan ?
This leads us inevitably back to the question of Unique Selling Points and to the thorny, near-taboo yet crucial issue of battery life-expectancy, battery-life anxiety and charge-cycles. As we've mentioned in our piece "Elon Musk Laughs at BYD e6", very few old/new media outlets and commentators choose to touch the subject - so let's reach for that megaphone once more...
- BYD claim 373,000 miles and 2000 charge cycles for the e6(they originally claimed 6000 cycles). What's more - to quote BYD.com/HelpCenter: "...the battery lifespan of e6 can last almost 20 years".
Meanwhile Nissan offer a 100,000 mile battery guarantee with the Leaf.
Tesla on the other hand - quietly and vaguely - promise just 500 charge cycles(100,000-150,000 miles ? The jury's still out) for the otherwise sensational, spectacular, stunningly slam-dunkable Model S.
So obviously the ultimate battery acid-test for the BYD e6 will be in the warranty that is offered overseas: prospective owners and green taxi-cab operators will have every right to expect at least 150,000 miles - though 250,000 would be more consistent with the claim and promise.
November, 2012
Postscript: Wind VAT's - Vertical Axis Turbines - are not 'bird-mincers' - Caltech responds to EVUK Q... 
A no-brainer for the twittering bird-brained ? As expected animal-loving, altruistic eco-refuseniks and Clarkson clones have wasted no time blogging and emailing with the familiar and favourite barrel-scraping assertion that wind-turbines slaughter birds(wipe away those crocodile tears)..
We had obviously fully anticipated this inevitable tribal response - so earlier this month we sent the following email to lead engineer and head of VAT research at
Robert Whittlesey(California Institute of Technology - see article below)
"We first became fully aware of your work on Vertical Axis Turbines (VAT's ?) after watching an excellent report on German TV s(www.3Sat.de) daily sci/tech/green-tech show Nano.(www.3sat.de/nano)
But we do have just one key, rather pressing "Achilles Heel"-type question for you (it hopefully doesn't qualify as a tiresome FAQ - though we're not 100% certain at this point !)
As you may know, anti-green, anti-environmental critics like to dub conventional turbines "bird-mincers". So a key question for us is therefore simply: how *do* you guard VAT's against birds ?
Can we - as non-specialists - speculate a little?
1) Obviously when/if blades are 100% idle/still birds will be tempted to see VAT's as trees on which to perch. They would also obviously foul the blades and the area below. We presume therefore that all types of bird-repelling technologies and strategies are being considered and/tested for a variety of potential bird-related reasons.
Could small motors be used to ensure that the blades are always at least rotating slowly(3-4 rpm) and in the direction that they most often or most recently have rotated - ie. they are never 100% idle and birds won't perch ? This is primarily designed to deter birds but perhaps it would also provide faster pick-up and resumption of momentum when wind returns ?
2) When blades *are* rotating: could for example strategically located bird-alerting LED's be deployed and built in - flashing or not and not necessarily visible from below or from the ground ie. in order to minimize light pollution ?
During the day the bird-deterring challenge is presumably is even greater.
Would some kind of wide-mesh, chain-link type fencing inevitably need to be used to surround the entire VAT area ?"
Here's Caltech's concise response:
"Succinctly: The faster a vertical axis wind turbine spins, the more solid it appears to the eye. To date, I actually haven't heard of a vertical axis wind turbine being responsible for the death of a flying bird, but also there aren't that many vertical axis wind turbines compared to the vast number of horizontal axis wind turbines."
Robert Whittlesey
Ph.D. Candidate, Aeronautics, Caltech
November, 2012 UK PM David Cameron: we need more offshore wind to power electric cars(Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail)
.. and he said it this week to a group of students in - of all places - the United Arab Emirates. The home, incidentally, of the out-of-the-headlines MASDAR green city project.
But what we wonder is David Cameron's informed opinion regarding vertical axis wind turbines and the fact that a recent research project by the California Institute of Technology(Caltech) shows them to be significantly more efficient than the conventional variety ?
Why are we not yet seeing a dozen or three 10-20 ft high vertical axis turbines erected atop apartment & office blocks, skyscrapers ? Or on any and every flat-roofed building ? Especially given that vertical axis turbines have been found to thrive on turbulence...
Roof gardens, roof (wind-)farms and solar arrays. Providing for a far more constant, sustained energy supply night and day, all seasons.
And as always - why is almost no-one even talking about vertical axis turbines ? Initially for small or medium-scale decentralized micropower generation ? Expanding to full-scale, full-sized turbine powerplants later - when the challenge of developing large and sufficiently robust* blades has been overcome to everyone's satisfaction(*see blade Base Note, below).
What we wonder is David Cameron's view on "verticals" ? Or that of his Energy Secretary Ed Davey and his controversial anti-onshore-wind junior minister John Hayes(see Carbon Brief) ? Exactly whose beautiful view or vista would be spoiled by vertical axis turbines located on skyscrapers, apartment and office blocks etc ? In London, Birmingham, Bradford, Luton ? Or Chicago ?
Base Notes:
- See German Nano(3Sat TV) report "Vertical Turbines Produce More Energy". Click here for Google translation.
- See Enviro News article "US Wind Turbine Efficiency Report"
- And yes, even the BBC(online - not TV, obviously) have reported on this extremely promising breakthrough technology: "Schools of Fish Help Squeeze More Power From Wind Farms"
- *Blades robust enough ? There seems to be some disagreement and contradiction on this key point: whilst American researchers and study authors specifically state that vertical-axis turbines are "significantly more robust and probably less expensive" - Prof Loughhead of the UK Energy Research Centre comments that(BBC ONline) "...vertical-axis turbines face a lot of stress. It's difficult to make a tall turbine light enough to spin but rigid enough to stand up to the forces and vibrations that they're exposed to..".
- Bags of Wind ? Re: Cameron comment: "As we move to from petrol to electric vehicles we are going to see a big increase in electricity demand"
Like most politicians, pundits and blokes-down-the-pub, David Cameron fails to mention that energy conservation technologies and policies could reduce electricity demand by 20-30%. He also fails to mention that Plessey's soon-to-be-manufactured 60-year, 100,000 hour, low-cost gallium nitride LED's have the potential to reduce global electrity demand by around 15%.
*****
The truth is that most politicians - and the utility companies they serve - have sadly and self-evidently never been genuinely interested in reducing electricity demand. (And the same is true of most our corporate media of course ...)
Likewise, Cameron et al also remain cripplingly conflicted when it comes to promoting any significant and serious shift away from decentralized power production to domestic, local, independent electricity generation - ie. literally devolving power to the people away from large multi-national corporations and switching from vertical Trickle Down to vertical Power Up.
Power up - a risky precedent. The people might just get a taste for it..
October, 2012 LONDON: Green Tomato's 50 BYD taxis - or: EVUK's Email Plea Pays Off(?!)
- Britain set to become the 'Real EV' Test-Ride Centre of the World - the hub, the magnet, the long-range driver.
(Read circa 150 Google News reports from the unwonted and unlikely likes of CBS, ABC, the Washington Post. See Green Tomato Cars homepage)
 
Hmmm ... a little footnote of the happy happenchance / sheer coincidence kind (or as in: 'some credit where some credit may be due'):
In January this year - nine months ago - we (EVUK) emailed the following wishful-thinking, pithy little "try BYD" plea to "pre-BYD" Green Tomato Cars - and a slightly modified version to Climate Cars a few weeks later(both had announced plans to add Renault Fluence EV's to their fleets) :
"Hi Green Toms,
- you may remember us - we corresponded a few times in the almost distant past and wrote quite a few near-rave articles about Green Tomato around 2006-8 - here's one from 2006 - "Plug-in Taxis Head for London"
In an upcoming EVUK piece we'd like to mention the latest news re Green Tomato and the Fluence - but we would also like to hear your thoughts regarding BYD and their e6 taxis and cars - proven range circa 200 miles with air-con full on ..
..and also your general comments please on how taxis/cars with a range of 200 miles might help increase the appeal and versatility of your current all-electric line-up(we're referring not just to BYD's long-range e6 - but to cars/taxis powered by DBM Energy's independently tested range-record-breaking & cost-cutting cells...and not forgetting the 250km+ Bollore Bluecar currently proving extremely popular in Paris of course) .
Here's the link to our piece (with exclusive video) of a highly-regarded German TV crew's 305 km test-drive/ride in a BYD e6 Taxi last year.
As you may know, Rotterdam city authorities imported 75 BYD e6's last year - so we were wondering if you have at least considered the possibility of following their lead(not with 75 cars - just a couple !)
At the moment a familiar media silence(not just from motoring journalists) has descended over both the range-busting BYD e6 in Rotterdam and the Bluecar in Paris - so it looks as if the only way to persuade the press to continue to mention* both cars will be to bring them to Britain..and hopefully to the neglected "provinces" - not just to "spoiled-for-choice" London,
Anyway - if you do have a few comments on any of the above points for the next EVUK piece we'd obviously greatly appreciate it..."
(End EVUK Email to Green Tomato Cars , January 2012. *Read resounding response by global media nine months on - as presaged in our email - to October's Green Tomato / BYD e6 News )
We were not surprised to receive no reply from Green Tomato at the time.
But the company has now certainly answered the call loud and clear. This latest overwhelming, defiant and resounding response - the prospect of seeing and being seen in one of FIFTY trend-setting, pace-setting BYD e6's in chilly-cool hip, hip-hooray London - is sensationally, supremely irresistible and the vehicles' uniquely high-visibility presence and low-cost availability and test-ability will change the game and tear up the rule-book for good. (Time to invest in BYD ? And will Climate Cars ketch up - sorry - catch up with Green Tomato ?)
Yes - not before time the gloves have come off, the gauntlet has been thrown - and thrown a very long way. The bar has been set as high as a kite (but at the relatively low price of a taxi fare) and a warning shot-across-the-bows signal has been sent in the general direction of the automotive establishment and all who so slowly sail with her.
But this is about far more than just real, long-range EV's - as we've said many times since the year dot: long-range, (almost) affordable electric cars like the e6 will act as highly visible mobile billboards for green technology, green energy and the green economy as a whole. In an e6 taxi you will be driving and experiencing realworld change - for less than a tenner or two.
Think mindset mind-flip. Think infectious. Think viral. Think tasty Green Tomatoes. Think Real EV Capital of the World - Think London 2013.
Oh - and maybe even think credit where credit's due.
Nissan et all will surely be shaking like a LEAF.
Or a whole tree-full.
October, 2012 Loremo promises mega-REVvival & Revolution
- read EVUK English-language exclusive
Geronimo ! Loremo ! Back from the Dead - The Come Back Kid ?
 
EV's and the non-stop PR el Alamo - el Loremo is still alive - watch Loremo on comeback track & trail. (right: a real man ? With just One Horse Power ?)
(Watch all Youtube'd Loremo videos - including the shamelessly sexist "How to get into a Loremo in a miniskirt")
- Yes siree, it's the Wild West out there with EV's and all things green being used and abused - to mix metaphors - like so many political footballs or whipping boys strapped to punch-bags while custard pies, poisoned arrows and silverado bullets fly through the air in America's eternal electoral slugfest. And it's a similar story almost everywhere else on the planet for that matter.
As for the latest Revival & Revolution announcement from Loremo - obviously extreme caution or scepticism bordering on cynicism is inevitable and necessary:
Loremo of course promised almost everything they're promising now way back in 2006. And according to Wiki Loremo are still defunct, deceased, very past-tense and "inactive".
But despite the eye-rolling déjà-vu-squared scepticism, this is precisely the kind of ultra-bullish, braggish PR statement we'd have loved to have seen from (now) EV-EVading DBM-Kolibri over the past few years..
...but wait, what's this Loremo - you're pledging a Kolibri-like battery range "revolution" ?!
Is anyone(not) thinking what we're thinking ?!
Remember..please join the dots..Loremo is traded on the Berlin & Frankfurt stock exchanges..DBM is based in Berlin..Kolibri AG in Frankfurt.
Speculation and stock markets aside, we've recently received a lengthy press release from the newly-formed Loremo Holding(no 's') AG - completely out of the void and out of the blue(we hadn't contacted them and newswire radars had not shown anything) - here's our translation of the two most tantalising paragraphs:
"For March 2013, we have an extra surprise in store: together with a business partner who has introduced a ground-breaking innovation in the field of electric vehicles in our company we will be unveiling a revolutionary solution to the EV range problem to the public worldwide."(Hmmm..humming - do you hear what we're hearing ? Tell it to the birds ! EVUK Ed)
"Before December 2013 we will introduce 10 electric and 10 diesel Loremo pre-production vehicles ..these will sell for between €9,990 and €19,990."
Geronimo !
Read Google English translation of Loremo's October announcement. And here's the German original.
October, 2012 - RrrEVvolutionary(sic) Canada:
 
- if you're a disruptive, subversive, range-busting battery EV pioneer looking for a little Wild Life - avoid the Wild West( see above) - and head instead to quietly / politely radical, revolutionary Canada.
(But not if you're an American wrestling fan who doesn't know the difference between the WWF and the, er, WWF)
See October 17 News:
"WWF Canada Aims for 600,000 Electric Vehicles by 2020"
Quote:
"WWF's Transportation rEVolution(sic, EVUK Ed) will work to provide accurate and useful information to help Canadians make informed decisions about their transportation choices.."
"..WWF will work with governments, businesses and individuals to:
"..achieve competitive pricing with conventional vehicles, expand travel freedom for EV users with infrastructure and travel partnership options, provide Canadians with positive EV information and experiences(..)"
"Electric vehicles are part of a suite of sustainable transportation options necessary to reduce GHG emissions, including improved public transportation and urban design, as well as a shift to increased walking and cycling."
"WWF is creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature thrive."
Link: WWF Canada & WWF Canada - Join the rEVolution .
- Revolution the film: Best Documentary at Atlantic Film Festival.
(OK - it's not specifically about EV's or the "rEVolution" - but wide-lens-focused on the Big Green Picture for the Big Screen Picture)
To be unleashed/released in 2013 - see WWF Canada blog. Click image to watch trailer.
EVUK Ed - sic and rEVolting little footnote:
- WWF's "rEVolution" Now they really are literally speaking our language - and it's clearly more than just wordplay.
(On the WWF downside - we see here as elsewhere - a dogged refusal to mention or to acknowledge that EV range clearly and urgently needs to be increased to 150 miles+ for almost any EV initiative to survive - let alone rival the success and popularity of the Bluecar in Paris or BYD's e6 taxis in Shenzhen - see below)
September, 2012 EV Website of the Century ?
BYD e6 - EU unique car-showroom is ready to sell...
Ready and waiting. (Sadly).
Cobo Concessionary - a Barcelona-based(no surprise there !) family-run, hitherto conventional car-dealership. Established in 1929. Great heritage - now also firmly focused on the future.
And what's more, they're not afraid to use the "R" word: Revolución - Revolutionary in any language.
Yes, it all looks pretty darned EU-nique and extremely/radically newsworthy from we're sat.
(Translate site - English)
A BYD Dreamscape ? At least Europe now has at least one supremely inspiring showroom and green gateway for the BYD e6 whenever BYD decide - or are finally permitted - to begin exporting to Europe and the rest of the world - unleashing "una auténtica revolución eléctrica".
NB: the BYD e6 has an independently verified(EVUK excl. taxi video - German film crew) range of over 305 km - with air-con full-on. And batteries that will reportedly last for well over 350,000 km.
Is Tesla's Elon Musk still laughing? Watch our "Musk Laughs at BYD e6" video(Nov, 2011)
Read recent and (still) relatively rare UK-US BYD e6 test-drive reviews: 1."BYD E6 Hatchback"(Autocar UK, 21 Sept - sorry guys but range has been verified..), 2."We drive the first Chinese car expected in the U.S - the BYD e6", 3."BYD e6: First Drive Of Chinese Electric Crossover", 4."Coming To America: the BYD e6"
Note: the fact is that all of the minor flaws and quibbles cited by these and other commentators could all be fixed in a flash or a leisurely fortnight by any reputable EV converter, constructor, customizer etc. None of them justify neverending e6 launch delays.
As for that alleged 'knees-up' rear-seat sitting position(due to the raised underfloor battery block) - begin, BYD, by simply adding another inch of cushion-height..and drivers - encourage your taller back-seat passengers to do what most of us do anyway. ie. avoid the rigid church-pew sitting position. Sit instead at a slight angle to the seat(and to the universe), lay back, relax, raise a leg slightly and rest it against the cushion-edge, chill out, and enjoy the silence, the calming karma, that inner/outer EV Smile.
*Knees Up, Leg-room, Footnote: odd that John Voelker - the "knees up" critic cited - tells us in the preceding paragraph that
"rear seat passengers will find good legroom even with the front seats pushed back". Confused, anyone ?! Of course it depends on what kind of "knees up" you're talking about Mother Brown, right ?(let Wiki & Bing Crosby explain..Elton John, Cockney Rubble sing it..)
Note too that almost all motoring journalists tend to massively understate or omit to mention the fundamental advantages that EV's - especially long-range EV's - have over conventional vehicles - ie. adieu, adios and good riddance to petrol-station anxiety, petrol-price anxiety, hello and hola to low running and maintenance costs and to vehicles that could and should deliver twice or thrice the life-expectancy of their fossilized predecessors.
Finally, it's not often that we suggest a company offer a shorter range version of any vehicle but in this instance we would plead with BYD to seriously consider offering a circa 165 mile/260 km per charge e6 option : this entry level e6 would also inherently be slightly lighter, slightly faster-charging, have slightly improved acceleration and cost slightly less(a couple of "k" at least). Extra batteries - perhaps even next generation lithium - could be added later if desired.
September, 2012 Revolting Prols -
- please help spread this Revolution Francaise
(avec cette template communiqué to Bluecar / Bolloré, par exemple)
*******
Bluecar contact details(English):
Bluecar
27, rue du professeur Victor Pauchet
92420 Vaucresson
Tel. : +33 1 46 96 17 04
contact@bluecar.fr
Link to Bluecar "Contact" page - English
http://www.bluecar.fr/en/pages-accueil/contact.aspx
*******
Alors - we(EVUK) have sent the following email to Bluecar several times over the past few weeks - if any perplexed and frustrated EVUK'ers should feel at all tempted to dispatch something similar - or even lazily identical - then please feel free to fire away !
EVUK Email to Bluecar / Bolloré :
Re: http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index9.html#Bluecar_Blackout_continues
EVUK article (with video of Mayor speech etc) "Bluecar Blackout continues" May 2012
Hi / Salut !
- we at EVUK are (very) long-time friends, followers, promoters of - and believers in - the LMP Bolloré long-range 4 seater, genuinely smart EV project - so perhaps you could please respond to the following STBAQ' s("Screaming To Be Asked Questions") that surely millions must now be asking:
- where is the Bluecar "revolution" that the Mayor of Paris so confidently & defiantly predicted or promised at the Autolib launch last year ? Where is the "international impact" (again his words) ?
Can you please at least confirm that you have been contacted since the scheme's launch by many city/local authorities around Europe and the rest of the planet ?
Could you give us some idea of when other large towns and cities anywhere in Europe will be rolling out Autolib / Bluecar car-sharing projects ? Why the silence - why the delay ?
There appears to be a total media / reporting silence or blackout with respect to the long-range, 4-seater Bluecar.
Headlines such as "Bluecars for Barcelona/Berlin/Belfast" are surely simply screaming to be written - yet we have still seen no test-drives by any major or minor media outlet in 2012 - apart from CNN in 2011 and of course France24.
This is quite extraordinary, even scandalous, given the popularity and success of the project and despite the wilfully perpetuated global/EU financial/economic crisis AND despite the perpetually soaring petrol/gasoline prices that our "outraged" corporate media DOES eagerly report on an almost daily basis...
So when will this French Revolution finally spread to the rest of Europe and to the rest of the world ?
When will the global media silence - this 2012 "Bluecar Blackout" - be broken ?
Is this the Quiet/Silence Before the Storm-ing of the proverbial automotive Bastille - or the fizzling & fading away - deja vu all over again - of yet another long-awaited EV range-rebellion ?
Your comments on the above points would be greatly appreciated !
(End of EVUK Email to Bluecar/Bolloré)
Blackout & Wipe-Out ?
It ain't paranoia when they're really out to get ya' - see:
"Paris Judge Backs Europcar Name-Game Lawsuit Against Autolib" - various reports.
So a new name may possibly be required for the Autolib enterprise - why not include suggestions in your emails to Bluecar ?
We've proposed "ReVive!" "Respire!" "FlairShare" (as in French Flair, Fair Share, Fresh Air..)
Sept, 2012 Another EV Benediction / Blessing -
- by Pope Benedict
- though sadly not yet as pictured below
(Note: this now fully updated and redrafted EVUK article was originally posted in December 2010)
 
Holy Smoke ! Simply raise the roof - the divine dome - of the 115 mph Zooop(right,2005), bullet-proof it, scale it all up a notch ... it could easily have been created by Tzero-Tesla's AC Propulsion 6-7 years ago. 
Sept 2012 Papal EV Benediction News Update : Pope Gets Renault EV...
Sept 2010
Papal Benediction "Pope Is Keen On Solar-Powered Popemobile"(USA Today).
Re the Pontiff's - aka Joseph Ratzinger's - electric vehicle & condom pleas. Quote "Evolution not Revolution" re condoms not EV's. See our article re infinite, unsustainable economic AND population growth, the Dual Delusion, Blind Spot documentary, Lithium + Rare Earth + resource depletion etc.
It's worth noting that soon after Pope Benedict first went public with his desire to make the switch to EV power, Vatican advisors/henchmen put out press releases stating that electric cars were too slow..had poor acceleration etc.
The Gospel Truth of course is that the Pope could have been speeding away from dangerous, threatening situations in a wickedly(ooops!) fast, sinfully Zooop-souped,long-range lithium-powered AC Propulsion-powered Pope Mobile for at least the past 6-7 years. Remember AC Propulsion's Tzero begat the Zooop followed by the F1-designed Venturi Fetish as well as the Wrightspeed X1..and last, but definitely not least, it miraculously begat the Tesla Roadster, the Tesla Model 'S' and indeed Tesla Motors itself.
Yet, true-to-form, Mercedes and their crank'n'piston co-religionists are reportedly still insisting(various reports) that the highly visible, primary Popemobile be a hybrid. What a surprise ! The usual corporate narrative, the familiar script and scripture for the masses and for the media's primetime papal audiences.
But it's a glorious Testament to Pope Ratzinger's Teutonic, forensically-informed persistence that "Don Petroleo" and the infernal crank'n' piston mafia have been unable to block his path thus far.
Of course that might change - and it might well be considered a
car-dinal sin(ouch?) - if the Pontiff were to fearlessly ordain that the primary Popemobile be all-electric à la Tzero-Tesla-Zooop or that all Vatican staff drive EV' s with a minimum range of 200 miles - powered obviously by teutonic Hummingbird batteries from Germany's record-breaking and now(2012) sadly emasculated EV-evading Kolibri AG.(founder Mirko Hannemann should perhaps have relocated to the Vatican or to the Ecuadorean/Assange Embassy in London).
August, 2012 Summary of Summery news, views, taboos
- plus: Hypocrites a-Hoy ! When will turn-coat media return to (post-Olympic) bicycle-bashing & lycra-lashing ?
- Ah yes, for 3 years and 50 weeks we have to endure a neverending, ethically/environmentally AWOL War of Words from petrolheads and Clarkson Clones against non-medal-winning "Lycra Louts" - click here for 1000's of examples including :
"Media Wages War on Lycra Louts"
"Roads Are For Cars Not Lycra Louts"
- Now though for some sensational long-range EV news: Horlacher Sport achieves 541 km on a single charge !
Oops ! What do you know ?! That was in 1992. Almost exactly TWO decades ago. So not so much a News Flash..more of a
News Flash-back.
But obviously still hot fresh breaking news to 99.99%-plus of the world's population thanks to the media's neverending War of Silence & Misinformation...
Note: the Horlacher Sport was one of the vehicles that persuaded Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek that an electric or hybrid smart car could be produced by the end of the millenium: he was right of course. It should have been and could have been.
- as for any summary of summery long-range EV news - sadly, the truth is that there is unsurprisingly almost nothing to report.
Any company or individual who dares to deviate from the corporately prescribed short-range, niche-market narrative has been frozen out, ICE-ed out, wiped from the media radar(BYD, Bluecar,DBM Kolibri).
And if the public continue simply to shrug their shoulders or robotically/obediently mutter "Wot, are you sayin' there' s some kinda conspiracy ?" - then that' s how things are likely to remain as major carmakers focus on perfecting their famous "EV multitasking" skills ie. dragging their feet whilst kicking the can down the road/into the long grass. A defeatist feat, for feet.
Footnote: EVUK was established circa 12 years ago as a campaign/info website whose primary aim was to break the silence - especially this side of the pond - surrounding transformative, long-range, 4-seater-plus real EV' s and battery technology: in 2000 100 miles was deemed long-range for a "normal" electric car - as exemplified by Toyota' s electric RAV4.
Now, in 2012, 150 miles+ is where the major automakers should be and could be.
July, 2012 London: Dark Knight Rising
Will London's pastel-green Mayor take F1's £43 million .. or make the switch ?
- Who can't imagine Foppish Borish staging a photo-op victory lap in this ultimate Mean Green Race Machine ?? Accompanied by I.Am.Auto founder Will.I.Am, naturally(video,Huffington Post)
- 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 ??
Forget Hollywood fiction - in the real world an unprecedented and increasingly unreported Clash of Civilisations, War of the Worlds is being waged by the People against the Old Order.
And Bluebird's (anything but..) EVil, game-shattering, phantom menace - Bernie's Ultimate Nemesis - says it all ..with perfect timing and superlative symbolism. Let them eat cake ? Non ! No, merci ! The Knights' Knives are out, the guillotines sharper and quicker than ever - move over Ecclescake - the dinosaurs' days are numbered and the final countdown has begun.
So Boris - the people are Rising Up Darkly and demanding radical change - if not revolution - in the streets and in the corridors of power.
This is the moment - now IS the time for real-life heroes and for revolutionary Bluebirds (not to mention Bolloré Bluecars) and for a gargantuan Green Revolution on the Streets of London.
Bluebird, Batman & Boris v Bernie Base Notes:
- Ecclestone and F1 Bribe-Tribe Push F1(F1lthy variant) for London
- Bluebird official website. So - Sir Colin Campbell and Lord Drayson versus the surly and sir-less Ecclestone..surely no contest.
- "Bluebird returns to its roots with GTL Formula-E" (The Charging Point)
- Dark Knight Rises - watch Bat-flick film trailers. Plus: who's lost the plot ? Who can't tell Good from Evil, hero from anti-hero ?
Hollywood Inc. attempts to redefine both: the poor, disenfranchised (and copyright-infringing ?) majority are the guilty, wicked terrorists..the greedy, filthy rich are their oppressed, innocent victims.
- Eccles Cakes(Wiki) - millions of non-faddish foodie fans, discerning devotees worldwide. Boris surely must be one of them...
- Audi Acoustics(E-Tron) - among others - are developing a range of engine sounds. Watch/Listen
- Bluebird GTL Formula-E Videos - none yet known/found(?) Watch this space...literally
- Formula E News Update Sept 17: Rio confirmed - New York, Los Angeles(& Gotham, Ed ?) next ? NY Daily News
June, 2012 EVUK exclusive: Renault EV's to be powered by Hummingbird(="Kolibri" in German)
The full range ? Which would YOU choose ?
- Whilst our headline is 100% true, real and accurate - it is sadly designed and destined to deeply disappoint.
What you ask - a 200 mile per charge, range-anxiety-free Renault Fluence or Zoe ZE ? A Kolibri Kangoo, can do ?
With low-cost, high volume Kolibri-DBM batteries that last for many 100's of 1000's of miles ?
A chorus of Hallelujahs at last? (like this - Youtube must-see)
Oh dear - what we clearly urgently need right now at the helm, at the reins, at the wheel, in the driving seat at Kolibri AG is a Mirko Musk. Mirko Hannemann appears to have thrown in the towel without much of a fight after all.
Yes - the dire news is that the company is equipping four Renault Twizy g-wizzy, wussie EV's with one version or other of their EV lithium cells.
Here's the relevant German news piece - click here for Google translation.
Crank'n'piston die-hards, fossil-fuel fundamentalists, petrol-station and showroom operators will no doubt once more breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Another of our worst-case-scenario fears has also seemingly been borne out - the new(-ish) Kolibri / Hummingbird management has indeed decided to focus for the foreseeable future on non-automotive renewable energy storage applications.
It all points to total, Trojan Horse-driven capitulation from where we're sitting - at a time when we urgently need Trophy Horses, thoroughbred stallions and resolute race-winners.
But let's try to end with a positive spin or twist :
- If Kolibri prove willing and able to tweak the Twizy's range north by 50%-plus - most free-speaking observers WILL surely be itching & twitching to ask :
So why just the Twizy - an EV that the general public don't want? Give us a long-range Fluence or Zoe ZE -
- or heh, why not ditch the titchy Twizy for a twice-the-size Twingo EV now ?!
Why wait and yawn(Zzzzze) till Twenty Fourteen / 2014 ?
Note re Twingo EV conversions to date: the Renault Twingo, as it happens, has served as a long-time top-choice donor vehicle at leading British converters AVT UK - not least due to the car's relatively wide, spacious and easily accessible engine compartment(..and they do a Ford Ka / e-Ka for much the same reason).
Back-Track:
1) EVUK piece in which we express our fear or suspicions that new - but former auto-establishment - appointees to the Kolibri board may be hiding a familiar Trojan Horse agenda and attempt to steer the company away from transformative, game-changing automotive applications towards green energy storage and silly cliché / gimmick EV's ...
Delay,divert,distract...diffuse, defuse,disarm...and if necessary, discredit, dismantle, disgorge. As long as the lame-stream, tame-stream media stays silent the public can always be duped.
2) Frankfurter Rundschau interview with Kolibri / DBM's once so bold and bullish Mirko Hannemann - read our exclusive English translation. Here're two key extracts:
"Whilst the industry is aiming to supply batteries by 2015 that can run for 200-300 km under normal day-to-day conditions we've proven that that much and more is already possible today."
"I do get a kick from making people feel nervous. Nervousness is a sign that something isn't right, isn't as it should be.."
Hmmm. No, somethin' definitely ain't right.
From a radical 600+km Audi A2 to four twerpy Twizzies in less than two years - the Big Boys will be sh-sh-shakin' in their boots, for sure.
What on earth should we expect next from this race to the bottom(in reverse), this shrinking spiral south ? Segways on steroids ? Street-scooters and skateboards on 'acid' ie. electrolyte(to quote Will.I.Am - video) ?
And whatever happened, Hannemann, to those fait accompli plans(full FR interview) for an electric DTM race series for 2012 ? Your four Twizzies will sure need some tweaking for that gig.
Or should we now expect a scaled-down Scalextric version of the race..??
We don't want to frighten the horses now, do we ?
*****
Ditch Deutschland Kolibri, DBM ! Why not dump the treacherous Old Order and the perennial PRocrastinators - Look East and follow the bold and inspiring example set by CODA & Great Wall Motors - Great Wall is also the first Chinese Car Co. to set up a manufacturing base in the European Union(Bulgaria): Inside Line).
Remember: in his June 2011 Frankfurter Rundschau interview, DBM's Mirko Hannemann reveals how economic head-hunters from America had made it clear to him that the company's future did not lie in Germany: and how right they were ie. we're still waiting, waiting, waiting for that long-range, low-cost "future" to arrive in car-showrooms..
June, 2012 BYD e6 blaze v 1000's of petrol-powered fire-deaths every year worldwide (Click links for a zillion news reports) 
Again - blazing amazing, is it not, how few commentators have alluded to this infernal everyday petrol-fuelled car-nage when reporting the BYD e6 or Chevy Volt fires...
"Fire Could Have Happened To Anyone" - BYD has had little choice in the end but to state the obvious themselves - given the fact that most commentators still completely lack the integrity, independence and cojones to point out that thousands die horrifically every year around the world in petrol-fuelled fireballs resulting from high-speed collisions with trees and other vehicles..
- It' s also worth noting that the car-exhaust suicide(or indeed murder*) option is still an extremely popular, painless choice globally.(Plus or minus a bottle of whisky, aspirin, sleeping tablets etc). Whilst it is very difficult indeed to find exact figures - it is surely no exaggeration to say that electric cars could eventually help prevent 1000's of tragic, lonely, easy-way-out deaths annually.
Right - Clarkson, Hammond et al ?
*Murder Made Easy footnote: wife slips sleeping tabs into 'suicidal' hubby's cocoa...she and lover carry snoring victim to hose-piped car...new man gets to enjoy wife AND life insurance. Scrummy. ("He was so depressed, officer")
So guys - either avoid the cocoa and keep checking over yer shoulders for sleeping tablets etc - or demand that major carmakers finally ditch the BS & the Bluff and deliver real, long-range sleep-easy, suicide-proof EV's for your garage like the Kolibri-powered Audi A2 that DBM Energy drove from Munich to Berlin(605 km) on a single charge in October 2010. Oh - and as pointed out earlier - the Kolibri/DBM cells also have an extremely long life-expectancy - which is what we all want, right? See related EVUK article re EV Smile and anti-depressant lithium.
*EV's and Electrocution / self-execution footnote: to all ye witless wags(yep, thanks for your inevitable emails) - just dying to quip à la Letterman about death or suicide by battery - it would obviously be much simpler - though diabolically painful - to shove a mains cable down your throat whilst drying your hair in the bath.
Don't forget the wet sponge - see the appropriately-named film "The Green Mile"(watch shocking wet sponge electrocution clip) - just as appropriately starring long-time, long-range EV fan and advocate Tom Hanks(owns original electric RAV4, AC Propulsion eBox - click to watch Tom's EV videos).
May, 2012 2012 Bluecar Blackout continues..
250+ km - "a revolution" with "international impact" - Mayor(Parisian - not Borisian, sadly)
 
-
watch EVUK's Bluecar best/rare clip collage.
- but only one TV/media test-drive this year(2012, English, France24 TV - watch)
Bluecar Base Notes - Caveats - Riders:
- à propos that half-buried nuclear agenda: unfortunately it is hard to imagine that Vincent Bolloré's 2 billion Euro long-range, genuinely smart(cf. Daimler/Hayek/Swatch) EV dream could have survived the usual external pressures without the protection, cover, funding and backing afforded by France's fully politically embedded nuclear industry/lobby(eg. EDF). Mais que faire ?
Or que sera sera(clip) - as they used to say and sing..in philosophical Fukushima.
- "Oxford Streets Ahead of Paris and Amsterdam"(hmm?) - with a truly absurd surfeit of charge-points..sadly - like the rest of Britain/Europe/Planet Earth - it's still way behind Paris and Rotterdam(75 BYD e6's) when it comes to the anxiety-free, long-range, 4-plus-seater EV's that the public actually want to drive, to rent, to share or to own(..and to charge up largely independently at home, at night, off-road and at off-peak, even off-grid rates in their driveways - so not just in pampered cherry-picked cities but throughout the neglected, range-needy provinces, suburbs, countryside....).
- "EVentually", says CNN's Jim Bitterman, Bolloré would like to sell the Italian/Pininfarina-designed Bluecars to the general public - not just car-share them with us. Unfortunately the words "EVentually" & "EV" have become virtually synonymous over the long jam manana years and thru the déjà vu decades.
So why - yet again - only "eventually" ?
Just imagine if the likes of Steve Jobs or Mark-my-Words Zuckerberg had ever leapt on stage to announce that the company's even smarter, slicker i-gotta-grab gimmickry might possibly be made available some day...eventually. Whoopie!
- Top Gear's contact page: why not ask 'em, ever-so innocently, why they and 99.99% of the world's media seem so remarkably reluctant to go test-drive a disruptively long-range, far smarter-than-a-Smart, 4-seater Bluecar EV in Paris and its environs ? Un long weekend avec un long test-drive ?
Sacré Bleu Car - pourquoi pas ??
- "Bubble Car" ? Amusing to see how many copy-cat news outlets have dutifully used the dismissive bubble car epithet/slur-spin to describe the range-busting 4-seater Italian-designed Bluecar - a label which we've never seen applied to the tiny 2-seater, corporately-approved Daimler far-from-Smart.
(And no - we're not referring to the decade-late, still-not-for-sale electric Smart - which would finally give us the car originally envisioned by Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek in the mid 90's ie. 17+ years ago. But even he would probably now prefer the 4-seater Bluecar)
-  "We wanted to build a smart car" says Bluecar creator
Vincent Bolloré - with deliciously mute, side-swiping irony..tactfully/tactically omitting the word "genuinely".
- CNN & EVUK. Ah yes - we go way back, don't ya know: in 2001 for instance, CNN contacted us for help in preparing an EV-related story which not only plugged EVUK.co.uk - but at our insistence uniquely and unexpectedly broke ranks and referenced Toyota's electric RAV4 and the Jersey trials. Here's the still-intact link to the CNN article in which Moira G and EVUK are cited.
Sigh - those were the days - before the corporate rot killed the spirit of founder Ted Turner completely. Well, almost: stalwart Jim Bitterman - the only non-French-TV Bluecar test-driver so far - is one very rare remnant - worldly, thoroughly Europeanized, refreshingly/defiantly de-insularized, de-Americanized, de-stupified.
Bolloré Breaking News - Bluecar to be leased to public for 330 euros/month. No petrol to buy. Revolution still confined to France.
May, 2012 Range Rebel exclusive:
Prepare for take-off - it's the real deal:
Hummingbird-Phoenix-Kolibri(aka DBM Energy) rises from the arsonists', naysayers' and naught-sayers' ashes - with new English-German website: www.kolibri-ag.com/en
Unsurprisingly, this latest range-busting(ie. 200 miles-plus) news is again being studiously/dutifully ignored by 99.99% of all old/new media outlets(thanks once more to Pressw0rds for alerting us...)
May, 2012 EVUK-Olympics 2012 coincidence postscript...
By sheer eerie happenchance - following the posting up of our April 1st "Who...Won't Be Fooled Again ?" piece & plea for the long-overdue provision of all-electric road-race support vehicles and camera (motor-)bikes...
1) Keith Moon - The Who's legendary drummer who died 34 years ago from a prescription pill overdose - has/had  been invited to "play" at the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. (See all April press releases).
Sadly, the invitation appears to have been declined(Who Knows Why) - but the Greek and Spanish people(ie. Athens,Barcelona), among others, might have especially enjoyed the bitter-sweet irony if Moon had indeed helped close the 2-week "Olympics=Economic Prosperity" moon-shine fantasy(cf. record-breaking austerity + debt + banking fraud) with an insanely explosive, dangerously de-hypnotizing, psycho-psychedelic rendition of "Won't Be Fooled Again".
Mr.Moon would surely be rocking and drum-rolling in his grave(if he had one) at the prospect: "Moon returns from the grave to wake the dead. And The Living Dead".
2) BMW to provide green and all-electric support vehicles and camera cars for 2012 Olympics(see all April Google News reports).
See EVUK's plea ("Imagining the EV Headlines", February) for all-electric camera/support vehicles for 2012 London Olympics.
No indications however that all-electric motorbikes - camera bikes - will be deployed.
Odd is it not, that electric motorcycles can happily race round tracks and/or the Isle of Man TT Zero circuit at 100+ mph - yet major manufacturers are still unwilling/unable to produce all-electric,
'un-exhausted' m'bikes or agile zero-emission tilting 3-wheelers to film fresh-aired, human-powered road races.
April, 2012 Exclusive: DBM Energy have now "transformed" to Kolibri Power Systems AG.(eMobility/Tagesspiegel to EVUK)
In response to our enquiry to Der Tagesspiegel as to whether Mirko Hannemann had confirmed that he would indeed be speaking at the upcoming eMobility Summit in Berlin(see below) we received this reply from Nadja H. on the 19 April:
"..Regarding Mirko Hannemann from DBM Energy I have new information: DBM Energy has transformed to Kolibri Power Systems AG. Therefore Mirko Hannemann will not attend on our summit. Richard Leitermann, managing director, Kolibri Power Systems AG will take his place."
(We have asked, among other things, in subsequent correspondence, if we could go ahead and post up this latest development. So we are, rest assured, publishing this without being damned by the source..)
April, 2012 I quit !? EVUK's 'Clarkson Clone' nominee Brian D. leaves paper
Hold the Front Page - from New York..to Newport Pagnell !
Yes - news has reached us from the sun-drenched yet shamefully solar-less Costa Blanca(ie. < 1 in 100 homes have PV) - that Snr. Brian Deller has moved - or been removed - and replaced with a radically revamped, markedly more enlightened/progressive(thus far!) motoring column promisingly titled "Life Cars" - the first edition of which being dedicated entirely to alternative-fuelled cars with special emphasis given to CO2 emissions and fuel economy. No references to EV's, Bluecars, BYD taxis or DBM Energy yet - but a clear gear-change for the better nonetheless. An unexpected precedent - and another very small grain or acorn of hope.
In fact the entire paper appears to have undergone something of an ethical editorial makeover with a host of new features all bearing the "Life" signature rubrik eg. "Life Books", "Life Food", "Life Health" etc.
On second thoughts, perhaps Round Town News could have retained the (climato)logically challenged & delusional Deller and simply thematically retitled his weekly oevre as "The Meaning of Life, of Brian and of Cars".
Just for the unintentional comedic, clone-clown hell of it.
April, 2012 April Fuel Fool 24/7/365
As oil prices surge, EV TV/media coverage soars. Obviously.
NOT !
April Fuel-Fool me once, twice, 24/7 - I'm in TV heaven.
(The) Who..Won't Get Fooled Again ? Watch Roger Daltrey and friends ram home the history lesson...
Sadly the public - or at least the Who-Gives-A-S*ck, Clarkson-adoring majority- do indeed still get the media, the politicians, the oil prices+crises they deserve. Foresight is a wonderful thing : in the late 90's the public had a green & golden opportunity to demand and wake up to the reality of real EV's like the(at the time) game-changing all-electric RAV4 and to actively push for the construction of kow-cost, low-energy - ergo low mortgage/debt, low energy-bill - eco-homes.
Instead the Me-Now masses by and large either eagerly backed or shrugged their shoulders - in their SUV's and people-carriers - at Bush's trillion dollar Wars-for-Oil, were keen to believe, at least privately, Murdoch & Cheney's confident prediction that oil prices would drop to $20 a barrel post-Saddam, and unquestioningly accepted the official, smart-suited, expert establishment mantra that 'consumer confidence' - nay, human happiness itself - was and would forever be implicitly dependent on perpetually soaring house-prices - sorry - 'property values' ...
Yep , every day is April Fool's Day as far as our political, media, financial corporatocracy is concerned.
So shame on who ? You too ?
(The) Who ..Won't Get Fooled Again ? Watch Roger Daltrey and friends ram home the history lesson...again, twice, thrice...24/7/365 ?
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get f***ed again
Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed ...
(Full lyrics here)
March, 2012 Envia v DBM Energy v the rest: Der Tagesspiegel's lithium overview
Plus: 500 v 5000 charge cycles - who cares about life expectancy ?
Der Tagesspiegel re DBM Energy: 'what are carmakers waiting for ?'
Writing in Der Tagesspiegel earlier this month(see our exclusive translation below) Tong-Jin Smith asks almost the same question with which we ended our last F1 & DTM/DBM-related piece(EVUK News, January).
But whereas we asked or desperately exclaimed "What are we waiting for ?", Tong-Jin wonders "What are carmakers waiting for ?"
This recent & rare Tagesspiegel article also presents one of the best overviews of current leading lithium battery technologies and research we've read over the past few years - not least for the fact that - unlike every other report or news item on the subject - the author does not conspicuously refuse to mention DBM Energy - on the contrary Tong-Jin leaves the best till last - concluding with DBM Energy and with that ever-pressing, heavily hanging question re major carmakers' extraordinary DBM/Kolibri blind spot.
(sadly though, Tong-Jin makes no reference to the shameful silence of the media - or at least his editor, like most editors, would likely never sanction such a slanderous, self-evident home-truth).
Note re Envia v DBM Energy and life expectancy / charge cycles:
- although Der Tagesspiegel's Tong-Jin also refers to Envia Systems' latest 300 miles/charge GM-backed EV lithium cells (see all press releases/news reports) - he unfortunately does not go the whole hog, the whole distance, and point out that whilst DBM Energy claim
5000 charge cycles, Envia's cells would deliver just 500 ...
Here's EVUK's exclusive translation of that all-important final paragraph from Tong-Jin's Tagesspiegel piece:
"By contrast DBM Energy's Kolibri cells have been tested and are ready-to-roll. The company's polymer-based lithium technology can deliver a range of up to 600 km as multiple tests have shown. But still no car manufacturer is using this innovative technology even though it is judged to be safe and reliable. What are they waiting for ?"
(by contrast, Envia's GM-backed cells are unsurprisingly - what else would we expect from a major automaker - 3-4 years from production)
Here's the Google translation of the entire Tagesspiegel article.
Stop Press:
German MP Jan-Marco Luczak to make official visit to DBM Energy in Berlin(26 March, Monday, 13.30)
And here's the secondary sensation: he's a Conservative(CDU) - not a Green or a Socialist ...
(thanks to Pressw0rds again - here's the official confirmatory CDU diary link)
February, 2012 Make some news/noise ! We The People must make the news ...
Imagine headlines like these - and please help make them a reality at long last using any and every (strictly non-violent) means of communication at your disposal:
"Nissan to cut Leaf price & increase range to 160 miles"
"MiEV, Fluence, C-Zero, BMW i3 to follow Leaf lead"
"2012 Olympics: Road Race camera motorbikes & support vehicles will be all-electric, pledges Mayor"
(Hyper-aerobic athletes breathe sigh of relief: "It's about bleeping time they got tailpipes out of our windpipes" says top triathlete/exhaust'ed marathon man/walking woman)
"Top Gear, The Guardian/Telegraph/Independent/Sky News confirm Bluecar & BYD e6 range in Paris, Rotterdam test-drives"
"DBM Energy drive electric VW/Audi/Mercedes from Berlin to BPC Electrification HQ in Munich - and back to Bundestag"
- Let us know (editor@EVUK.co.uk) what YOU're doing to break the "long range" silence, the inertia..to counter the collective corporate consensus/compliance/cowardice.
Given that knowledge is power only if communicated(twittered/texted/telephoned) to others and converted into action and/or activism - please tell us what YOU are doing to kick back, to get the truth out - EV Truth - to local, global, virtual news/propaganda providers, blogging bigots'n'brick-heads, public house petrol-heads, Clarkson Clone (and Clonette) columnists etc etc.
***
- Clarkson Clone Corner -
(..a new, possibly permanent EVUK feature - send us your best/worst contributions)
We've just been alerted to a recent typically toxic Opposite of the Truth Clarksonite composition - poisonously penned(and with no pause-for-breath paragraph spacing) by a certain Brian Deller(above & below), Motoring Correspondent for
Round Town News(rtnmail@roundtownnews.com) ... on the Costa Blanca in Spain:
"I know that we are all going to be forced to buy electric cars in a few years' time with the lies about them being less polluting. They only are in cities as the power stations run on gas and coal are still spouting out pollutants, and power losses between the power stations and homes also cause a loss of efficiency, but you cannot argue with politicians only vote them out. Sadly most people seem to believe blindly what they are told without considering all the arguments such as man-made CO2 whereas history shows that the biggest problem is the periodical natural solar heating problems. This is being disproved now as man-made and scientists are agreeing that the real cause is the Sun."
And here's Blessed Brian again(bjdeller@spainvia.com) - in an earlier edition of the same free, floor-mop rag:
"But the immediate future looks as though we are all going to be coerced into buying cars with about 50 to 80 kg of batteries in them to reduce CO2 emissions even though the scientific community is now casting big doubts on the man-made global warming that has caused us to be subjected to many more taxes in recent years . Hence my often written principle "Trust Nobody" .
Especially in the last 20 years people have been subjected to propaganda by those that wish to control the masses as suggested by Karl Marx and his ilk. But we all know what happened to the Soviet Union: it just did not work."
Scary stuff, Brian. We feel your pain, from Spain. Lie down - take a siesta...
Brian spells it out - in black & white. And from the gut..
February, 2012 "BPC Electrification" -
- recruitment drive - or more EV PR & PR-EVarication ?
(Email BPC ? See below..)
BMW i3 .. circa the same range(80-100 miles) as the 1997(!) Toyota RAV4 EV. For the nth time.
Just disconnect: BMWi(sic) - Munich-Berlin - DBM Audi A2(605 km)
BPC : BMW-Peugeot-Citroen Electrification. Based in Munich.
For anyone just emerging from winter hibernation - BPC Electrification have been running an extraordinary, maximum publicity, high visibility recruitment / novel EV PR campaign over the past couple of months. The Google ads are everywhere - it's gone global / virtually viral.
So why the scepticism ? Well, again, all we can do is lay out the evidence, load up the barrel, fire off the bullet points and urge you to join the dots yourselves..to spot the disconnects, the screaming inconsistencies, the confounding contradictions and the deafening silences :
- BPC are based in Munich. Recap: Munich to Berlin 600+ km range record set by DBM Energy 16 months ago.
It's been right under their noses, yet BPC - BMW-Peugeot-Citroen - appear obtusely oblivious to DBM Energy's charging elephant / gift-horse: witness the BMW i3 and Alexei Sayle's Citroen C-Zero - both offering just 80-100 miles/charge.
- whilst the BPC electrification PR narrative or script repeatedly begins or opens with the words "transition now", within a few sentences the word "now" is quickly, seamlessly and safely replaced with the words "tomorrow" and/or "the future". Here are a few examples :
BPC's Electrification recruitment/EV PR video begins promisingly with the words "The transition is now".
But elsewhere on the same BPC website we are offered this:
"Working at BPC Electrification means contributing to the vehicle technologies of tomorrow." ( BPC source page)
"Setting the standards for tomorrow's mobility" (BPC source page)
"The new hybrid components will equip both partners' vehicles from 2015 onwards". (BPC source page)
- Now Compare & Contrast that BPC "by 2015" comment with the following bullseye pre-emptive remark made by DBM Energy's Mirko Hannemann in his June 2011 Frankfurter Rundschau interview:
"Whilst the industry is aiming to supply batteries by 2015 that can run for 200-300 km under normal day-to-day conditions we've proven that that much - and more - is already possible today." (Note: "today" was in fact 16 months ago in October 2010 - or 16 months earlier than "now" , 16 months earlier than BPC Electrification's "transition now" and 5 years earlier than their "2015" delivery date quoted above)
 
- BMWi - not to be easily confused with BMW-i and the BMW i3, i8.
BMWi = Bundes/German Ministry of Economics and Technology.
In December(see EVUK report) the BMWi's parliamentary State Secretary Hans Joachim Otto spoke(clip extract) at the Roland Gutsch award ceremony in honour of Mirko Hannemann and his team at DBM Energy.
Hans Joachim Otto and the BMWi claim to be full-square behind DBM Energy - so why are Germany's BMW, BMW-i and BPC Electrification cold-shouldering Germany's BMWi(the Ministry..) and DBM Energy ?
Confused ??! Born electric, BMW ? Born to confuse !
Why do we not have a unified electrified Germany ?
Otto, Hans Joachim - tear down these Walls of Silence !
(And replace them with DBM battery-factory walls !)
BPC / Bavarian Bottom-line: Why expensively recruit countless EV Engineers and "Professionals" to produce short-range 80-100 miles/charge electric cars that the public patently and understandably don't want to buy in significant numbers - let alone in droves ? Unless of course - and here's the awfully obvious truth - BPC and the rest of the automotive establishment simply don't want pure EV's to escape beyond niche for yet another 3-5 years.
Cynical ? Yes, they most certainly still are...
(and they get away with it largely because our selectively silent, compliant, complicit, compromised media allows them to...)
*******
Email BPC Electrification - get involved, get active, get even, get angry even(channelling it positively of course..)...
- contact@bpc-electrification.com
- recruiting@bpc-electrification.com
- Needless to say, we have contacted BPC Electrification several times over the past few months with a selection of pertinent, not impertinent, comments and questions (as outlined in our almost angry article above) - for example with these tastily barbed Q's:
- "Do you not share parliamentary state secretary Hans Joachim Otto's belief or confidence in DBM Energy's range-redefining Kolibri cells ?"
- "Would not prospective BPC recruits prefer to be designing and developing the long-range, state-of-the-art electric vehicles that consumers actually want to buy - rather than the unnecessarily short-range vehicles that all major automakers still insist on selling ?
Would they not, as a consequence, enjoy far more secure and satisfying careers than would otherwise be the case ?"
January, 2012 Cher Alexei(Sayle,Telegraph): more Bolloré - less Boll**ks please !
(Daily Telegraph: daily readership - over 1.5 million. That's why this matters...)
Alexei Sayle shows off his acting range: as short-lived artful dodger & all-round black marketeer Fedor Golodkin in a scene from Gorky Park. (NB: The car depicted boasts absolute zero battery-range and is possibly powered by black market black gold..)
Yes - once again a mainstream media outlet allows one of its proudly arty-pharty dinner-party greentech-refuseniks to test a woefully short-range EV - the 100 miles max C-Zero - from a major automaker(Citroen) - and to wilfully mis-inform its selectively incurious readers that(quote) :
"..because of issues with range and charging, electric cars are not quite there yet." ("the low-charge warning light came on after 60 miles")
No Alexei - it is the major automakers and legions of self-preserving, conveniently compliant commentators, editors and up-for-sa(y)le / sold-out "satirists" that "ain't there yet" !
Allez, Alexei(what's in a name, Trev ?) avec le Eurostar à Paris, why don't you, and take a ride - with or without un chic clique of arty-pharty Parisian passengers - in one of the capital's wildly popular 160+ miles per charge Bolloré Bluecars. Sortez Sayle - Storm the Bastille in a Bolloré and join the revolution*...don't oppose it !
Or are you - and the Telegraph - still "not quite there yet" ?
To its credit The Telegraph did report the launch of the Bluecar Autolib scheme.
Which begs the question, Cher Alexei - do you not read your own newspaper ?(OK - we're with you on that particular refusenik front..)
And après Paris, why not head for Rotterdam to try one of the City Authority's 75 BYD e6 EV's(range circa 200 miles - air-con full on) ? 
Or perhaps Castagna's new 160 mile per charge stretch limo Fiat 500 would be more up your street, Sayle ?
(Obviously, when you or your unequally Telegraph'ed comrades have checked out or test-driven any or all of the above - we'd sincerely appreciate a formal correction / humble apology eg. "Turns out all EV's aren't equal after all etc.." )
Alexei "Art" Sayle - so full of art: a few more fluffily luvvlie extracts from "Alexei Sayle: My Electric Car" :
"My friend Oscar, an Argentinian graphic novelist, took to calling the Citroen "Coche Patito" - Little Duckling - because of its friendly appearance and vibrant yellow paint."
"On hearing this, my friend Siobhan, herself a well-known actress and therefore someone who understands the psychology of the profession, thought that the C-Zero might thus be the perfect actress's car...act like a damsel in distress, in order to borrow people's charging sockets."
***
Laugh ? To cringe or to cry - that is the question here, surely ?
*Revolutionary footnote - from the Bastille to Bolloré to (more) Boll***s :
- a petit coup de grâce / pièce de résistance from (now) fully paid-up Telegraph pundit Alexei's Wiki pages:
"In the aftermath of the May 1968 French uprising, he joined the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)..".
Ah yes, luvvlie Lenin ...
January, 2012 Racing world champions pure electric drive(FIA, Le Mans, Lola-Drayson, Damon Hill, ex-Top Gear 'Stig' ..)
- as Big Auto backs 'extended' PRocrastination / prEVarication
Time - high time - for a quantum lordly leap from one sorry heap'o'sheep masquerading as wolves(='cheatahs' !?) - to a soon-to-be race-ready Lola Le Mans leopard - the thoroughly UK born & bred B12/69EV ...
Note from EVUK Ed: we interrupt this Race World v Big Auto work-in-progress to bring you the following late-breaking, ground-breaking, must-see(and listen) video...
Red Hot ! Just in from Birmingham NEC Low Carb Event !(Jan 12) Lola Drayson Le Mans race car(video newly submitted by Richard Burden MP) :
Watch : Lord Drayson - Paul Rudd Drayson - recent Labour Minister for Science & Innovation - talks passionately about pure electric racing, the burgeoning British EV-tech industry, the urgent need for speed and expertise (Paul Drayson, Wiki)
Click here for all Lola-Drayson Youtube videos. Drayson Racing homepage/news. All Google News re Lola Drayson B12/69EV Jan 12 unveiling at Birmingham NEC
And so to our topical top selection of related quotes, links, announcements etc:
- Ben Collins, formerly known as The Stig on BBC television's Top Gear:
"Motorsport still offers the purest research and development platform to deliver the true potential of electric power and dynamic energy recovery - perhaps to a level that will shame the carbon combustion engine the way rubber tyres did the wooden cartwheel." From Celsias.com - Climate Change Is Not A Spectator Sport - "Electric Cars on the Race Track".
- Damon Hill from "Damon Hill on Going Green"(D.Telegraph):
"..and what about the world of electric cars? "You'd expect me to say that I like the sound of a petrol engine, and that's true, but I've also driven completely electric cars and they're fantastic - the silence is really enjoyable, it's like cycling, you can hear everything else going on, it's a totally different experience. Fundamentally, I'm a great believer in technology, in mobility, in ingenuity being able to overcome new challenges."
Damon Hill again:
"The wider question is whether racing can drive on electric car development. Former Formula One world champion Damon Hill is a supporter of the EV Cup.
"Racing electric vehicles should convince the wider public of their potential. Racing was initially used to develop and prove a new product called the motor car. I see no reason why electric vehicle development will not benefit in the same way."
Again - from Celsias.com - Climate Change Is Not A Spectator Sport - "Electric Cars on the Race Track".
- American Le Mans & Quimera to launch EV Race Series(Jan 12, PRNewswire)
Click to watch pure electric Quimera AEGT on track.
"Quimera, the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) will form a joint venture combining their respective areas of expertise in 2012.." Add this from Quimera RR: "The championship is also looking to include motorcycles as part of its event roster."
See also: Quimera Project.com
- FIA Embraces Formula E Championship (Motorsport.com, Dec 21)
Watch Formulec EF01 racing through the 'Bavarian' streets of Moscow
- DTM & DBM Energy. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
In his June 2011 interview with The Frankfurter Rundschau DBM's Mirko Hannemann expressed his hope or expectation that an all-electric DTM series would be launched "next year" / 2012.
But no signs so far that DTM are likely to be changing their religious racing stripes any time soon - perhaps Hannemann should just join in the fun with the Formulec EF01(above) on the streets of Bavaria, Moscow, Rotterdam - or consider a friendly tête-à-tête or competitive head-to-head with Lord Paul "Lola" Drayson ..
.. or even more enticingly, perhaps, with Belgian race-ace Vanina Ickx(Le Mans Series, DTM / Touring Cars, Lola-Aston Martin..). Watch Youtube hit - is Vanina the victor in the Citroen Survolt ? See :
Supercharged Showdown: Electric supercar v electric superbike
Watch : Citroen Survolt v Agni Z2. Two furiously fast, fiendishly feisty females face off on the track
Vanina Ickx(Le Mans Series & Touring Cars) in the Citroen Survolt - Jenny Tinmouth(TTXGP Series) on the Agni Z2
Come on DTM, DBM, Hannemann & Co - what are we waiting for ? Worauf warten wir noch ?
January, 2012(still 2 minutes to midnight) DBM Award/Fish Bowl video (courtesy EnergyTV24/Pressw0rds)
..and yet another English exclusive, obviously
No exploding firewalls, fireballs, fireworks this time: but behind these Berlin Walls a  near-silent revolution is being celebrated by a host of unlikely-looking revolutionaries & rebels masquerading as mild-mannered men-in-suits.
Make no mistake - this time it's the suit that's the mask, the disarming disguise, the double-cuffed bluff.
Don't be fooled, these guys are the real deal - wolves wrapped for show in sheep's clothing, 24/7 rebels without applause or a pause. Forget all those Easy Rider recreational "rebels" with their wars-for-oil-powered Harleys ...and your carbon-copy tribes of tattoo'd, oil-slicked, fake-macho mechanics in souped-up vroom-vroom gas-guzzlers with regulation boom-boom sound-systems
- the likes of BP, Bush, Cheney, Chevron, Exxon and Shell will love your "rebellion" to the very last drop of other people's blood...
But what's this - no video subtitles, no translated highlights ?
No - the highlight is the event and the award itself - and the fact that it was in part hosted by Daimler Benz defector/deserter Helmut von Grolman.
Again it is and was abundantly clear that DBM are determined to let the product - and the independent testers - do the talking. Nothing provocative or incendiary or inflammatory was uttered by anyone present at the ceremony. References were made to the company's courage and willingness to take risks and stay firmly focused on achieving fixed goals on a "just in time" basis(stifle that yawn ?) - and it was also reassuring to see that von Grolman(ex-Daimler) not only showed up but stayed on stage to host the pragmatically low-key, self-censoring, non-inflammatory Fish Bowl discussion - or diplomatic damp squib Q&A.
It's worth noting that explicit use of the words "electric car" and "electric vehicle"( "Elektroauto") was/is conspicuously and consistently avoided by all GPM/DBM representatives - the fuzzier, woollier, more sheepish term "Elektromobilitaet" is clearly still the preferred, talking-point prescription even in the company of roaming packs of radical innovators, revolutionary upstarts and (lone) wolves ...
Of course - it's only when the cameras stop rolling, the mikes are switched off, walls have been signal-swept and the audience has left the building that the gags and masks come off - only a fly-on-the wall or wire-tapped chat(or NSA/CIA/Wikileak leaker) could fill in the blanks and answer the many DBM-related non-FAQ's that we've loaded up over the past 14 months or so.(eg. "what do you guys really think and know about the automotive establishment's EV agenda ..15 years after the launch of
the 100(-ish) mile-per-charge Toyota RAV4 EV ? Please spill the beans, fill us in. Tell us something we haven't known for 15+ years ..
But hey - at least it's only the product that's on trial - not the revolutionary guy(s) who created it.
Although most global auto execs - as fork-tongued as ever(see News Just In below) - still see the flagrant promoting and reporting of price-busting, range-blasting, renegade electric cars as fawk-tongued high treason, heresy - or at the very least, assault with battery.
News Just In ! Hold the front page !
- from defiance ..... baack to compliance :
 
"Global Auto Execs Don't (Want to..) See Spark in Electric Vehicle Sales for More Than a Decade: KPMG Survey"(Jan 5, 2012 - have KPMG ) -
- that's right, sheepish global auto execs - even now - just don't want to see the charging elephants in the room - let alone the wolves in sheep's clothing who've put them there ...
(Tip re: anti-real-EV's-now 'surveys', 'polls', 'studies', 'research' - for the real message, simply replace the keywords "don't expect" with "don't want".. )
December-January, 2011-2012(2 minutes to midnight)
DBM's Vision - "will be realized in the near future".
So one very sorely needed revolutionary resolution for the New Year (and another EVUK English exclusive)
 V for Vision, V for Vindication, V for Victory ?
As opposed to V for Vengeance, V for Vendetta - or even R for Revenge ...
Whilst it's still too early to celebrate victory or revel in revenge - the gauntlet has been cast down by three serious contenders(not pretenders) and the world's automakers(the 100 mile-per-charge brigade) will find it difficult to ignore DBM's, Bolloré's and BYD's genuinely long-range EV technology for yet another year.
But ironically, DBM's uniquely reassuring and recently revised Vision (under)statement is easily ignored since it is NOT visible or directly displayed on its website's homepage(take a look - click on "Unternehmen" to reveal a tiny-fonted, low-key link to the half-hidden "Vision")
And given that this revelatory, confirmatory and coolly matter-of-fact text remains largely unseen and unreported - even in Germany - we'd like to take this opportunity to bring it to the full attention of the English-speaking world as economically vision-less 2011 draws to a close - and yet another year of austerity for the many & prosperity for the few fades into the next..
So here's our in-house translation of two Vision extracts:
"It is our stated aim to deliver a key gateway technology with our Kolibri AlphaPolymer technology - which was developed and produced in Germany - and to do so in such a way that the realisation of our vision of a clean energy future is achieved in the near future("zeitnah") and in a focused, targeted fashion.
DBM Energy is committed to promoting/advancing the marketing of the Kolibri technology from Germany and in Germany.
Fundamental core research is complete and products in the areas of Transport, Logistics and Renewable Energy are now available on the market.
In the next few years DBM will establish itself as one of the largest producers of high capacity energy storage systems in its market sector and Germany will thus become a leading producer of high-performance energy storage technology."
*****
Reading between the lines, you could perhaps populistically paraphrase this for das Volk(and for all would-be arsonists, saboteurs and spoilers) as :
"We're coming - whether you like it or not! DBM's products will speak louder than words, PR or press release hype. You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Read DBM's Vision in original German - and here's the passable Google translation. (Note: Google's German translation tool has noticeably improved since our blistering-blitz attack last June on its miserable mangling of the Frankfurter Rundschau DBM/Hannemann interview )
And now - why not follow up that Vision statement with this equally unique and inspiring Chinese television report - in English and introduced by an Australian newsreader - in which even Germany's post-attack ADAC(cf.RAC/AA) has something positive to say about DBM and EV's..
 
 
Ah yes,
New Tang Dynasty TV - funny how an obscure but highly professional and polished Chinese TV company can do what UK/US/EU/Western broadcasters so adamantly refuse to do - despite the distance that separates China from Germany and despite the fact that DBM will compete head-to-head with China's own dream battery builder - BYD.
An illuminating lesson in free speech(TV) and free market capitalism from China.
So - Happy New Year & Hogmanay, Guys, Folks.
Click exploding Midnight Big Ben to watch fawking fabulous firework fusillade ..
Finale: the EV Revolution is coming. Ready or not. And whether the usual suspects like it or not. The Knives & Fawkes are out. Ignore us at your peril. The little people - and smaller companies - are revolting.
In the guise - most noteably - of Mirko Hannemann & his humongous Hummingbird.
Verily - all Ye xenophobic Little Englanders - Germany's done it again !
Can canny Scotland's revolutionary rivals at St. Andrews - catch up, close the gap, overtake ? Will the university's 1000 miles-per-charge lithium air researchers now feel impelled or pressured to redouble their efforts and leap into the fast lane...at a 1000 miles an hour ? Let's hope so ..
But for now DBM Energy quietly leads("Leitproduzenten") the charge, the pack, the ReVolt - but don't expect a dozen DBM press releases a month ...and don't expect this ReVolt to be televised(except perhaps on China's New Tang TV) - unless audiences open their eyes wide and vote en masse with their remotes.(Or with their sharpened Knives & Fawkes ..)
(By sheer coincidence - whilst typing this piece in an "Irish" bar the author overheard this sobering little gem from a few tables away (quote):
"..don't forget - 'Remember, Remember the 5th of December' "
So is/was the glass half full or half empty? Are the customers half asleep or half awake ?)
*******
Compare & Contrast :
Two trailblazing trailers: Revenge & Vendetta
This Guy - plus smoke & mirrors - feature in both films
See : Open Your Eyes & Look in the Mirror
Postscript: sundry bright sparks have suggested that this 'guy' may be Robespierre not Fawkes. Frankly, who cares / why split hairs ? Similar guys, same guise, different demise ..
Click above/below for Before & After pics/clips
*******
December, 2011 Radical Redefined: Get It Done !/Stop the BS ! speech
(Anjali A,Durban, DN! December 9,2011)
Talking the talk, walking the walk..and e-biking..on treacherous, deadly ground.
Watch both classy classic clips in tandem - for maximum, stereotype-confounding, X-demographic, beyond-the-choir impact.
But for the record and in the name of balance, here's the alternative, equally popular perspective - ie. down the pub and as viewed, brewed and skewed by Britain's gutter-sewer-cesspit press and by almost everyone infected by it - including tribal armies of BBC Clarkson clones and Hammond/May/Murdoch mutants:
"b****y eco-freaks.. bunch of overgrown b****y students, wussies, peaceniks, politically correct b****y do-gooders.. make ya sick...gotta live in the real world, kiddo...get a proper job, ya dunno what real work is, b****y PC brigade and their b****y global warming conspiracies - get a life.."
(so that's Seagal sorted then..)
And on the same wavelength - savour this toxically tasty US Senatorial Video Nasty(scratched & half-rapped - with viral potential ?) -
- "Durban: You are Being Ignored !" :
 
- click Sen Inhofe or Deadly Caine to experience the message & the mantra from Washington, Big Oil and most of the world's media re: this month's Durban Climate Summit and for that matter re: any transformative, revolutionary green technology or innovator or initiative that threatens to seriously disrupt the fossil-fuelled status quo(eg. long-range, low-cost EV's, ultra-low-cost/energy 60 year £2 LED's, low-cost, low-electricity-bill eco-homes, low cost, 94 mpg, 4-seat & fast Fiat Ecobasics etc etc)
Democracy Now - watch full "Get It Done/You Are Being Ignored" Durban broadcast(Fri,Dec 9,2011) - which also includes an impressively impromptu corridor Q&A with suddenly green Greek ex-PM Papandreou(out of office & out of the closet)
December, 2011 DBM - a non-anonymous post-award posting :
Berlin-Bound or Gagged ? Is the DBM Berlin Wall of Silence about to crumble ?
Battering or (better)battery-rammed into EV history ?
Sadly no - although Hannemann himself has just(28. Nov) broken his own latest media silence - and at some length in the German Auto Gazette's "Electric Mobility" section : here's the English version traduced by Google's new and now slightly improved Deutsch-Englisch translation tool. (Again - thanks to Pressw0rds for the unique heads-up)
 
Well - as in 1989 it is of course ultimately up/down to the people, das Volk(as opposed to Volkswagen & Co.) to storm the barricades and tear down those walls(cf. the ongoing Siege of Wall St. ).
This time round and in the context of a green, EV-driven revolution/revolt - it should theoretically at least - thanks to the internet, the blogosphere and social aka surveillance networks be happening far more rapidly than was the case in web-less 1989 and that other Fall of a Wall. (So much for theory, freedom of speech and web-empowerment ..)
A little (a)side note: in 1989 EVUK's own pimpernel-provocateur Paul G - the Royal We if you will - was gainfully freelancing in Germany amongst German-only fellow employees - most with car-crazy East German relatives - and 'we' have to tell you that at that time - with the Wall's Fall imminent - the day-to-day revolutionary Office, Stammtisch and Canteen Conversation on both sides of the Deutschland-Divide was dominated not by 'intangibles' such as freedom and democracy - but by constant car-talk and the words "Mercedes", "BMW", "Opel" ...and "Trabi/Trabant". It was - on the ground - as much a car-driven materialistic, media-enabled revolt as a political/idealistic one(a lesson/truth not lost on Chinese leaders of course):
- the Burning Berlin question now is - can electric cars, das Volk and disruptive upstart-startups like DBM Energy help drive the next political, material, ethical-capitalist Green Revolution/ReVolt - despite the media's Wall of Silence ?
As for last Monday's eagerly anticipated Roland Gutsch award ceremony and, alas, damp squib Fish Bowl forum - well the Royal Editorial We has decided in its not infinitesimal Wisdom that.. we will post up our award/forum highlights when and only when our mainstream, same-stream, tame-stream, lame-stream media finally breaks its ongoing post-ADAC-attack silence - or to spell it out and specifically shame tame names: when any two of the following self-censoring yet still widely respected media outlets finally begin to (re-)acknowledge the existence and persistence of DBM Energy and its award-winning, record-breaking, transformative Kolibri cells - then and only then will "we" give out our version of what did or didn't transpire on Montag 28. November at the ceremonial "Berlin Bowl".
Again - it is ultimately up to the people, das Volk - to bombard or battering-ram mainstream media outlets with "end the silence" emails, tweets, blog comment and good old-fashioned Letters to the Editor. Call us 'sanctimonious'(à la Al Gore press-assassination..) - but silent Shoulder Shrugging and hoping that others will rise up from their car-cushioned rear-ends to demand change is a strategy that didn't work in 1989 in Berlin and, Mensch, it sure as hell won't work now.
So to repeat - just as soon as any TWO of the following self-gagging news providers break their self-imposed sheep-ish (2011) silence we'll carry on where we left off (ie. see DBM/GPM pre-award piece below). So here's the "we're waiting" list:
J.Clarkson's BBC, Channel 4 TV, CNN, the Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The (fairly)Independent, Murdoch's Tarnished Times and clouded Sky News...and Germany's very own state-funded, silent 3Sat TV, ZDF, ARD/Das Erste  (click any of the above to see/search 'total' DBM coverage by each to date ..). For slightly less in-action - watch this similarly barren Tumbleweed animation.
Finally - let's see if we can topically connect Berlin to Brighton via BBC bigotry, hypocrisy, cowardice :
Nov 16, BBC News: Breaking News in Brighton - new EV charge-points installed !
Hmm, vaguely newsworthy perhaps - but surely far less remarkable than the fact that if DBM's record-breaking Audi A2 were to compete in the annual 53 mile Brighton to London Eco Rally it could comfortably cruise from the beach to London and back 3-4 times with no need for a single charge-point pit-stop - though it would almost certainly grind to a halt and/or  mysteriously burst into flames after just 50 miles if driven by the BBC's / auto-industry's / fossil-fuel fraternity's favourite Egotist-Bigot Jeremy Clarkson.
Amusing, is it not, that the BBC 's Jonathan Ross was fired for offending just one person - yet when the oh-sooo adorably, heroically, manfully, sexily and (so far) un-sackably un-PC £million-a-year Clarkson 'jokingly' insults millions of public sector workers("line 'em up, execute 'em, shoot 'em in front of their families etc" Youtube) - it is the BBC who obsequiously apologize on his behalf.
So there you have it: connecting Berlin..via Brighton..to the shell-shocked, Shell-sponsored BBC's bigotry, hypocrisy and corporate cowardice: the fact is that most unprotected journalists would now face the firing squad, the axe, the chop or career suicide for just daring to join such dissident, disparate dots as we've just joined ...
**************************************************
Q for the Ladies: a tricky little teaser for the girls, las chicas, las señoritas ..
(Click pics for a little pre-decision revision)
- if forced to choose between:
a) a simple walk on the beach, stroll in the park, bike ride with Oscar-winner Javier Bardem(doesn't drive, hates cars, has no driving licence..)
OR
b) a jaunt in a Jag and a politically/terrifically incorrect tête-à-tête with "Babe Magnet" and corporate media-darling Jeremy Clarkson - who would it have to be ?
Q 2: who most deserves the sack ?
Q 3: Corporate Incorrectness(Bardem) v Political Incorrectness(Clarkson) - which really requires the greater courage/cojones/chutzpah ?
**************************************************
November, 2011 Six 'o' the Best: Q's for DBM Energy Award "Fish Bowl" forum(Mon, 28 Nov, Berlin)
EVUK Anonymous/Incognito : EVUK's PG or MG may or may not be attending the Roland Gutsch award event Berlin this coming Montag, 28 November.
But(sssh!) we may know someone who is...
So - here're six non-FAQ questions for the elusive-reclusive mysterious Mirko Hannemann that we - or an anonymous EVUK stand-in or surrogate - may or may not be pitching :
1) Samsung would surely not have offered you 600 million Euros unless they had thoroughly tested the Kolibri technology and verified your performance claims - esp. as regards 5000 charge cycles and of course range/energy density.
So are you able to confirm that Samsung did indeed test the Kolibri cells - if not, on what evidence or basis did they make that extraordinary offer ?
Or was it a conditional/provisional offer that you turned down - ie. made along these lines:
"If our tests confirm your performance, charge cycle, range claims we would be prepared to pay 600 million for the patents, intellectual property rights etc.." ?
On the same Samsung theme - are you confident Samsung were acting alone and not perhaps as part of a consortium of €-contributing companies or vested interests(the usual prime suspects) hoping to buy up and bury the technology or shelve it indefinitely in order to protect existing product lines and said vested interests ?
2) Following the ADAC & arson attacks the German and international media is steadfastly refusing to report or reference DBM Energy at all (with very few exceptions - most notably the Frankfurter Rundschau and more recently the Wall street Daily).
DBM Energy has become what we have called the invisible charging elephant in the room.
Have for example any German* or global TV networks covered ongoing DBM-related developments since the start of this year ? (*Correction - see rare, obscure, fluffy 2-Part Berlin TV interview, May 2011, I & II)
3) For a while BYD were claiming 6000 charge cycles for the e6's batteries - they have since quietly cut these claims to 2000 - but that still gives a potential life expectancy of around 373,000 miles. Can you confirm again the Kolibri's 5000 charge cycles and describe how you yourselves have proven that capability ?
3000 charge cycles would be more than ample for most of us - for a car with a range of around 200 miles, for instance, 600,000 miles seems sensational enough.(And again - did Samsung test, confirm, prove the 5000 charge cycle capability ? If so - how ?)
4) In your Frankfurter Rundschau interview you said:
"I do get a kick from making people feel nervous. Nervousness is a sign that something isn't right, isn't as it should be.."
Do you feel nervous, intimidated - especially following the arson attack ? Do you fear for your personal safety at all ?
5) As far as we can tell, ADAC have not had the good grace to applaud your unexpectedly robust one-two punch response to their not unwarranted criticism of the Munich-Berlin record run. In retrospect the BAM & Dekra tests are probably more convincing from an engineering perspective than a Guinness World Record Book entry - though BAM, Dekra and Guinness would arguably have been the tastiest mix. So the question is: have ADAC been in touch or made any comment anywhere - congratulatory or otherwise - regarding the successful BAM / Dekra tests ?
6) Your own DBM Energy website has also failed to report most company-related news and developments this year apart from the BAM/Dekra test results. For example - the intriguing high-profile appointments to the Kolibri board, the testing of three shortish-range Audi A2's by Next Energy and even this Roland Gutsch award itself - none of these newsworthy stories have been reported/mentioned on your own website ! Could you please explain the silence ! (eg. "We'll let actions speak louder than words or hype or PR.." perhaps ?)
Obviously - our own six questions aside - DBM FAQ Nr.1 continues to be "Mass production - when/wann ?"
- but unless we know or at least ask why journalists(and therefore investors) are not flocking to Berlin and why the charging Kolibri elephant is still being internationally ignored we can't possibly understand what needs to happen, what needs to be done in order to break the silence, the roadblock, the deadlock - and help get DBM factories financed and built and Kolibri production lines rolling..
GIGA OM(Nov 23): "25 battery breakthroughs for gadgets, electric cars & the grid
"
- the latest in a long line of "we need a battery breakthrough" reports that completely ignore DBM's record-breaking and now award-winning Kolibri cells.
November, 2011 DBM's Hannemann to receive top Project Management award (2009 winner: the German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System - GITEWS)
Berlin: 28 November - all interested parties are invited to attend: gpm-hauptstadtbuero@gpm-ipma.de. See below or click here for exclusive EVUK English translation of GPM's press release and impressive Pressw0rds pressing Nov News Alert.
 
Elon laughs at BYD on Bloomberg TV - but would a question re award-winning, record-breaking DBM Energy have wiped the slightly smug smile from Musk's face, Betty Lu ?(Click Musk or Lu for our cropped clip. Or watch full Bloomberg TV interview.
Google all "Elon Laughed At Reporter" articles.
Mirko's Mirth - the laughter's contagious..
 
Be there ! Jump in a jet !(Elon, Betty Lu, Buffett, Bloomberg ?)
DBM Energy's elusive-reclusive Mirko Hannemann & Co will reportedly be happy to take your "Fish Bowl" questions(28. Nov, Berlin, GPM Award ceremony)
GPM/DBM - please post up video of the EVent - esp. the Fish Bowl Q&A !
6-5-4-3-2 degrees of separation - let's try once more to join the dots and draw a few lines - laughter lines, fault lines, knock-out punch-lines - between long-range lithium leaders Tesla, BYD and award-winning, record-breaking, independently/govt-validated and outrageously un(der)-reported DBM Energy/Kolibri.
And let's not forget or leave out, last-and-least, the LEAF:
- just 8 months ago BYD were pitching the long-range e6 against the short-range Nissan ...not the Tesla Model S..see links and comment below.
- BYD's e6 technology is "not very strong" guffaws Musk...but,um,er, what's with battery life expectancy Elon, Betty Lu, Bloomberg et al ?
How many charge cycles can we expect from the top three leaders in the current long-range lithium race ?
Yes - forget range anxiety for a moment - what about lithium "life expectancy anxiety" ?
"End-of-life anxiety" ? "Depreciation anxiety" ?
Who will get the last laugh - a million miles or so down the road ?
Here's the relative & rough break-down/low-down:
- DBM: 5000 charge cycles/1,250,000 miles(projected, independently verified)
- BYD: 2000 charge cycles/373,000 miles(projected, not yet verified)
- Tesla: 500 charge cycles/150,000 miles(projected, not yet verified)
That's right - only DBM's Kolibri cells have been independently & rigorously tested by state-certified technicians and only DBM's cells are being rigorously, ridiculously, laughably ignored by 99.999% of old/new media outlets..
A few more seismic fault lines, laughter lines, punch lines to chuckle over:
- BYD e6 v Nissan Leaf v Tesla Model S(continued) : as recently as January of this year(2011) BYD were wisely pitching the taxingly-tested 187 miles/charge 5-seater e6 pricewise & otherwise against the now significantly less expensive 100 miles/charge, competitively crushable Nissan Leaf - NOT as now against the 7-seat extravagantly/deliciously ostentatious Tesla Model S(an ideal televisual VIP luxury limo for image-conscious politicians forever gathering at ski & sea-resort summits to impose austerity measures on the rest of us - green PR not greed PR you understand..)
Here's what BYD's Michael Austin told Brad Berman of Plug In Cars in January this year ("BYD Announces Breakthrough U.S. Pricing for Chinese Long-Range Electric Cars") :
"BYD's all-electric e6 sedan with a huge 60 kWh battery pack will sell in the United States for $35,000 before incentives(..) On the eve of the 2011 Detroit auto show, Michael Austin, the Chicago-based BYD vice president of marketing and public relations duties, confirmed these prices and told me that BYD will sell 'tens of thousands' of both models in the United States by 2012."
$35,000 / $27,500 for the BYD e6 just 10 months ago - that is/was
$200 less than the short-range Nissan Leaf which is/was priced at $35,200...$27,700(confirmed still at Nissan USA.com )
So why has BYD now quietly decided to up the price and pitch the e6 up-up-up against the Tesla sedan - not the Leaf ? And why are commentators failing to mention those lower, Leaf-focused e6 price pledges ?
- Musk tells Bloomberg's Betty Lu that Tesla isn't sourcing components from 'expensive' China.
But will Musk confirm that the Model S's next generation Panasonic batteries won't in fact be Made in China for Panasonic ?
We all know how unusual it is to find any non-antique Panasonic or Japanese-branded electrical item that doesn't bear the small-print "Made in China" tell-tale tag. And given current trends the odds must surely be that by 2012-2015 Panasonic will be sorely tempted to go that extra mile and shift, outsource, sub-contract production from China to even cheaper Vietnam/Indonesia. So Elon - please precisely define the words "not sourced from China", "country of origin" etc
************
Courtesy
Pressw0rds Award Alert - EVUK exclusive English-language translation:
"Mirko Hannemann of DBM Energy is to receive the 4th Roland Gutsch Project Management(GPM) Award in Berlin on the 28.11.2011 - the GPM's 9th Parliamentary Evening."
"GPM is honouring Mirko Hannemann as head of this Research & Development project in recognition of the innovative nature of the work, the observable/visible achievement of ambitious goals in a short time-period and in view of the not untroubled but ultimately successful and sustained commitment to real world viability. With his EV single-charge world record trip from Munich to Berlin in October 2010 the prize winner has proven that battery research here(in Germany) is on an encouraging path."
The award will be presented by parliamentary State Secretary Hans-Joachim Otto(German Ministry of the Technology & Economics - BMWi - NOT to be easily confused obviously with BMW's "i" EV concepts the i3, i8 etc)
The presentation will be followed by an open forum "Fishbowl" discussion with Hannemann and a range of experts and specialists from the world of politics, economics and EV battery development(..)
All interested parties are invited to attend - contact:
gpm-hauptstadtbuero@gpm-ipma.de
Note: Hannemann finds himself in unusually exalted, ethical company: in 2009 the GPM Award went to Dr. Jorn Lauterjung and Dr. Sri Woro Harijono, project leaders of the joint German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System - GITEWS.
But will even that be enough to break the deafening media silence ?
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"Anxiety" footnote - fuel cost "anxiety":
The E6 will cost $672 a year in power bills, compared with $1,571 in fuel costs for an equivalent family sedan that runs on gasoline, according to BYD projections based on annual mileage of 15,000 miles. BYD's self-developed iron-phosphate battery takes 40 minutes to fully charge at public stations and as long as six hours when plugged in at home.
Similar low-anxiety running costs can be expected from almost any EV of course - Tesla Model S's and DBM Audi A2's included. But imagine the sheer Absence of Angst if your batteries deliver a million miles..of EV Smiles(smugness optional).
************
Official 454 - 714 km range: 2011 DBM Audi A2 BAM/DEKRA pdf test summary
Frankfurter Rundschau interview with DBM's Hannemann - exclusive EVUK English translation: Samsung's 600 million offer..decoding battery DNA, mass production possible within a year etc
************
October/November, 2011
Bardem - Bond Villain Elect has
- no Licence to Drive
- no car
...but gives TWO contradictory explanations (ie "I'm ethical" v "I'm frightened")
..depending on the demographic/dumb-ographic of his audience.
- So to pre-empt the tabloid take - we ask:
Bardem - is he green or just plain yellow ?
So which is it Javier ? Ecological/political Big Oil concerns(Charlie Rose interview) or "Fear ..of other drivers"(Jay Leno) ?
Click image to watch our combined clips(Rose-Leno, 3 mins)
Type-casting - or (mis)judging a bloke by his cover ?
Bardem, a fuzzily anti-car, car-dependent non-driver(no real hardship in major cities like Madrid, Berlin, London, New York) has been cast once again - twice again - as the Evil Villain of the piece:
Firstly as Bond's next nemesis: an intriguing choice now that Bond movies so often resemble Top Gear product placement specials - vroom vroom - with fossil-fuelled espionage sub-plots.
Secondly as the voice of "El Macho" in the animated
"Biutiful Me 2" - sorry, make that "Despicable Me 2".
Q: You may be asking "Why does Bardem matter..what's this got to do with EV's ? Is it news or even EV newsworthy ?
A: Again it's tempting to say "the dots join themselves...draw your own pictures & conclusions"
- but here's our point: like most activist-led campaigns - the campaign to get real, long-range EV's into showrooms and onto streets has been perhaps primarily about demolishing stereotypes, shattering silences, exploding media-fed myths, redefining and finding role models, redefining or un-defining what our same-stream media promotes/prescribes as "normal" -
- nonetheless, like it or not, the masculinity, virility, normality of non-driving, EV-driving, cycling(as transport-not-sport) males is still seriously doubted by the easily manipulated masses - male and sadly female(ah yes - so much for Nature/Nurture/Earth Mother/Mother Earth/My Kids' Kids etc)
But Bardem smoothly shatters almost every stereotype - and is surely just a nudge and a nod away(in LA ..with Jay) from full-blown EV conversion / liberation(not least from - to use his words to Rose - "Big Oil Empires" ).
And if El Macho makes the switch, millions more males may plug in - on both sides of the pond and way beyond China & Chile.
My Car is My Manhood ?
- The following Bardem & Bicycle clips should puncture those tiresome macho preconceptions for good:
- Bardem family bicycle trailer ..
- La Bicicleta : beautiful, 'biutiful' 2006 film homage to bicycles and lives without cars - starring(relatively speaking..) Javier's brother Carlos and mother Pilar. Watch trailer & read reviews.
But ex-Spanish national rugby team player Javier himself does not feature. (The Ox-like Bardem on a bicycle - a bison on a bike ? Even in "Eat Pray(Pedal?) Love" it's only Julia Roberts - not Bardem - who rediscovers cycling karma: watch trailer)
- Bicycle Race : Freddie Mercury - another macho-softie illusionist - subversively singing and ring-a-ding-dinging "I want to ride my bicycle".
It's Queen's most political jingle: Nixon's Vietnam, pro-war John Wayne, Watergate are fleetingly slammed. But even Queen rarely risked playing this live - audiences simply prefer the strutting Mercurial Macho ..
Back to car-less, car-dependent Bardem & Cruz in LA ...
- Let's see if we can once again anticipate, pre-sense and perhaps even influence EVents and EV developments and help create or precipitate a Hollywood headline or two - 3-6 months or so down the road.
In the form of a few hopeful, hypothetical headlines that are surely begging to be written now that BYD have opened an HQ in LA - and given California's / LA's erstwhile status as pioneering EV capital of the world.
Come on Jay & Javier - the novelty of the "I don't drive" confession is wearing thin - think of the talk-show mileage that could be squeezed from Bardem bombshells like these:
"Bardem Buys BYD e6 Taxi - Engages Driving Safety Instructor as Chauffeur"
"Bardem & Leno Create EV-based Car-Pool"
"Revenge's 'Gadget' Guy to Build Bardem EV"
"Bardem Buys eBox EV" (Watch Tom Hanks in his eBox )
In other words - Bardem/Cruz championing genuinely oil/gasoline-free alternatives to petrol-car-sharing. Infinitely more convincing, positive and practical than their hush-hush LA reliance on chums' cars(incl.SUV's), studio limos and taxi cabs:
Click inconvenient "in-car" images of Bardem/Cruz - for stories and talking-points that Leno and Rose chose not to probe..
No (EU) Country for Bold Men - or women :
- One final Q for U - or one more question you won't hear in any Pub Quiz/TV Quiz(ie. where all things green are taboo):
- Please name one British or European showbiz celebrity who has ever dared to come out as an EV believer, EV driver, Tesla-owner etc ? (Postscript! Victoria Wood Nov News )
A: Um. Well Clooney has a house and a Tesla near Lake Como..and Schwarzenegger's still Austrian at heart - do they count ?
But seriously - just where are 'green' Europe's answers(m/f) to Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Tim Robbins et al?
¡Vamos Javier y Cruz ! What are you waiting for ? A word in the ear of Queen Sofia perhaps - your country's most illustrious EVangelist ?
Leno at (premature ?) premiere of "Revenge of..".
Sadly no sign of 'vengeful villain' Bardem - who cites and indicts 'Big Oil Empires' - but never refers to EV's - and is never asked to by the likes of Leno & Rose(video).
October,2011 EV TV ads: e6 / EV1 / Bulli / RAV4
- the best, worst, old, new, now ..
Plus: how Enemy of the State's EV ad got Lost in (German) Translation
Zukunftsmusik ('Future Music') - the German word for innovation, inventions, ideas that are constantly trumpeted but rarely delivered ... or to put it another way :
Muzak to our ears...
VW Bulli etc - Watch English version above - Spanish below,,,
- Bulli: odd that VW is still(October) running its Bulli-bragging Think Blue(not green ?) Symphony spot in Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries. (Watch English & Spanish versions).
Note the irony-free opening line of its butchered Beach Boys soundtrack:
"VWouldn't it be nice if VWe VWere older / Then VWe Vwouldn't have to VWait so long"
No VW ! Time travel and wishing to be 5-10 years older so as not to have to wait for you to deliver on your countless concept PRomises isn't, hasn't been and "VWouldn't be nice"...
So what's the score ? Has VW changed its tune re the electric Beach Boyish Bulli ? As mentioned in our earlier piece - recent reliable rumours report only that a petrol-powered(yawn) version of the Bulli might possibly be produced in Mexico - exclusively for the US market(double yawn) - so why then is the company currently running this Bulli-boasting ad on primetime
TV in Spain, Europe, S. America ?
Is this just another blue-rinsed greenwash PR offensive(two words that sit so well together..) - or is VW at last for once(to re-quote Edmonds.com's Alistair Weaver) considering "putting its money where its mouth is" and delivering on its exceptionally well-received, unconventional Geneva concept - the long-range li-ion 6-8 seater Bulli Car-or-Van / Campervan ?
All we can do of course is keep up the collective pressure and pray figuratively for EV Deliverance or Delivery.
So click here : www.volkswagen.es/thinkblue -
but NOT here: www.volkswagen.es/thinkgreen
Music to our Ears...
 
- Above left video: BYD e6 TV ad - with Taylor Swift soundtrack "Fearless" and the refrain "I don't know how it gets better than this.." (cf. VW's lame lamentable lyrics..)
- Above right video: BYD e6 on Chilean TV in Spanish - from "China to Chile"(to cite our reply to the BBC's Tim J. re EV's in Spain)
- Verdad: this is without doubt one of the best and most fearless TV EV reports we've ever seen - focusing on the e6 and BYD Chile.
In contrast to the self-censoring, formulaic EV narrative and e6 silence now in force almost everywhere else, this primetime Chilean TV report freely explores all of the many advantages and benefits of long-range EV's in general and of the trailblazing BYD e6 in particular.
Compare & contrast: in Britain, Europe and the US, EV reports invariably focus almost exclusively on
a) petrol/gas prices and b) CO2 emissions
- whereas these Chilean free-speech champions have happily ditched the script - eagerly EVoking and applauding the EV-enabling elimination of (local) air pollution/traffic stench and noise (which most in-denial drivers are oblivious to and insulated from) - whilst fearlessly highlighting both the e6's low-running and maintenance cost as well as the recyclability and relative low-cost of the car's ferrous lithium battery packs. In short - a breath of very rare fresh air-time ...we sure "don't know how it gets better than this".
So why is this report important and worth highlighting ? Well - let's not forget that Spanish is spoken, twittered, texted in and between 18 countries and throughout California, Texas and many other US states - which makes it the second most widely used and potentially the second most influential language globally.
And quite simply: we know of no other TV EV/e6 report in any language to rival or trump this one in terms of free-wheeling, spin-free, fearless honesty - Spaniards, Brits, Europeans should ask themselves why they are being denied their own BYD Spain, BYD UK, BYD Europe - with free-speaking Chilean-style TV EV/e6 media coverage to boot. As we recently told Michigan journalist Garret Ellison("What Does The EV Industry Need To Succeed") - it's not range anxiety that's stalling EV's in the UK, US, EU ... but long range reporting anxiety. (BYD e6, DBM/Kolibri's Audi A2 now - the RAV4 EV, Solectria Sunrise then..)
Fearless journalism, Garret, is what the EV industry AND, for that matter, the global economy both urgently "need to succeed"..
BYD Chile-China latest: e6 & e-Bus agreements signed with much fanfare - but even BYD Chile is still not selling EV's of any description...
Taxi tip: why not begin by creating a fledgeling fleet of e6 taxis à la Shenzhen in order to rapidly maximize EV visibility, accessibility, public awareness ?
"Enemy of the State", Staatsfeind Nr.1 - the film's TV EV ad gets lost in translation(German version) ...
Click for cropped clip : "The Electric Car is Here" - but scandalously NOT in the German version of the film !
- EV1 TV commercial - the electric car - the GM EV1 - that was quietly Lost in (German etc) Translation - from Enemy of the State" aka "Staatsfeind Nr. 1" (Will Smith/Hackman,Voight).
Yes, that's right - this ever popular, ahead-of-its-time Hollywood classic may well have been made 14 years ago(1997) but 
this long overdue EVUK exclusive rEVelation will still come as silence-Breaking News to all but a tiny handful of forensically-informed film-buffs(English or German-speaking). So brace yourselves - please put away those reflex "conspiracy nut/wacko" put-downs - and at least try to swallow and digest yet another awesome EV truth :
- Recall or picture the scene, 18 minutes into the film: birdwatcher & activist Daniel Zavitz sits at his computer in his apartment.
On his TV a car's headlights briefly appear, a male & female voiceover is clearly heard but not seen.
In fact the film's EV TV ad is directly drawn from an original 1996 GM EV1 commercial(Watch, Youtube) - with the keep-it-simple strapline "The electric car is here".
And here's the key English film transcript extract - followed by the 100% EV/EV1-less German rewrite:
***
"All new, designed for today. The electric car is here. A sedan for you."
German lost in translation rewrite - Staatsfeind Nr.1 :
"Der N-Trigue - die neue Definition der Sport Limousine. Der Wagen fuer die aktiven Fahrer."
(= "The N-Trigue - the new definition of the sport limousine. The car for active drivers".)
***
- Ironic, nicht wahr, that German censors and synchron studio (self-)censors had no problems at all with the other hotly controversial themes and content of the film ie. the semi-secret surveillance techniques/technologies employed by the NSA/CIA etc - yet they clearly did shudder at the idea that German cinemagoers and subsequently endless TV audiences could be suddenly and repeatedly awoken from a carefully maintained state of EV ignorance & incuriosity ...
A shout-out to owners of French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili etc versions of "Enemy of the State": please let us know if the electric car was likewise lost in your translation ..
New: Watch our freshly Youtube'd snip-clip - English version - straight to Zavitz's apartment..)
 
Left: EV headlights - in "Enemy" and original EV1 TV ad.
Right: EV1 in original TV ad. Click images to run "Enemy" or original ad
NB: There is/was no lip-synch imperative or requirement or excuse here - ie. the words 'electric car' etc are spoken by unseen off-screen male/female TV ad voiceover artists
NB 2: no 'product placement' excuse - ie. no company name, no vehicle name or product/brand name etc is specified in the film's EV TV ad - what's more the car is glimpsed only once - 100% unrecognizably eclipsed behind the glare of its own headlights - see image / clip above left. No - it is clearly 'idea placement' - generic electric cars per se - that German censors, self-censors and the usual corporate suspects so strongly and scandalously objected to. German audiences - and the film's producers/director for that matter - should even now be outraged - and demanding that the EV ad and the words 'electric car' be reinstated 14 years on .. let's just call it Revenge of the Electric Car - Enemy of the State-style.
Base Notes: 
- Fact not fiction: in 2005 US EV owner and activist Josh Connole was wrongfully arrested, jailed, chained to the floor, acquitted and eventually awarded $100,000 in compensation/damages. See EVUK report and Grist Magazine's : "Electric Car Driver was not an Eco-terrorist, FBI Admits"
(More Grist/Connole reports here).
See & hear Gene Hackman('Brill') re conspiracy fact
- Toyota RAV4 EV commercial(Watch,Youtube). But no record of where or how many times this ad was actually aired on TV screens - or cinema screens. (Never in the UK/EU - or Jersey ie. UK Channel Islands of course !)
********
Postscript - a month on - to our critical BYD content/comment above & below: BYD opens HQ in US - but still no EV's/e6's for sale(only buses!!!!)
..and now by sheer "post-EVUK" coincidence - this:
"BYD Starts Sales of E6 Electric Car to Individuals in China" (Bloomberg online - not TV) &
"Buffett-backed BYD shuns electric vehicle sales to consumers"(USA Today)
September, 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show no-Shows: BYD, DBM, VW Bulli
Plus: German TV tests & confirms BYD taxis' 305+ km range - with air-con full on !
(ironically they flew from Frankfurt to China to do it - video below)
Update : BYD trip clip(7 mins) now Youtube'd - see below
The most taxing test of all - 24/7 ..
Click pics to view exclusive blue BYD e6 scenic taxi trip(Youtube - 7 mins -Hi Res version here). 305 km covered comfortably on single charge with air-con full-on.
(Note the e6 taxi paintjob/respray from stressful red-eye'd red to tranquil sky blue. As of Sept 2011 we can find no other images - let alone video - of the new cool blue e6 taxis in action..so another virtual global EVUK exclusive)
Just Juxtapose:
A few barely reported dots to join:
- Sept 16th: German TV's 3Sat Nano/Hitec renowned innovation-tech shows confirm BYD E6 taxis' 305+ km range in special report from Shenzhen, China. (Play key BYD trip clip excerpt or click here for full 28 minute 3Sat video)
- in the same breath-of-fresh-air broadcast BYD's head of Export & Marketing Paul Lin tells 3Sat that BYD will be exporting to Europe "sooner than you might think" (hmm- sorry BYD - but we'd like to know - after 3-4 years of highly-Buffetted EV hype and this 2010 "BYD HQ in Germany" PRomise - why you are not already exporting the 300+ km taxi-tested E6 to Europe and the US - why just the 75 vehicles to Rotterdam ??
Big Auto bullies shutting you out ? Making offers that can't be refused ? Surely not !
The demand is clearly there when awareness is - so where's the "free market" supply ?
And just as importantly - why are (motoring) journalists not flocking to easily-reachable Rotterdam to test-drive and rave-review the subversively, disruptively long-range BYD E6 ?
As so often: Mum's the Word.
Don't Ask - Don't Tell - Don't Sell. A shameful rerun in-the-making of the continuing decade-old "RAV4 EV in Jersey" reporting blackout & burial..)
Alistair Weaver(Edmunds.com,clip) :
"VW has a history of showing us fantastic-looking concepts and then never ever putting them into production - so please VW for once put your money where your mouth is.." (Amen Alistair!)
- VW Bulli: Déjà VWu & Boy Cried VWolf .. from Wolfsburg. Yes, it's just 6 months since the capacious, versatile, retro-stylish 6-seater VW Bulli Car-or-Van / Campervan / Microbus was presented and universally applauded at the Geneva Motor Show(Edmunds, Youtube).
But how has VW all-too predictably responded to that popular demand and acclaim? Well, with the absolute antithesis of the pluralistic, beach-party-packing Bulli - the single-seater "NILS" - an extraordinary, entirely unsolicited, unwished-for single-digit gesture to the global EV community. "NILS" - yet another last-ditch attempt to revive that age-old, divisive EV comedy staple and cliché - the archetypal "Nerdy Introvert Loner Stereotype".
Or: Back to Square One - albeit on Steroids. Another segway to nowhere..
- ex-VW design chief Murat Gunak bullishly presents the latest version(on sale now, above right) of the MIA Microbus in Frankfurt(debut near VW Bulli microbus in Geneva, Youtube).
- A valiant, heroic effort by yet another disillusioned Big Auto defector - but the MIA's acceleration, range and unsubsidized price still leave a lot to be desired - we'd all surely prefer the (claimed) 186 miles/charge li-ion VW Bulli - "The People's Car-or-Van".(To add further insult to injury, VW are vaguely promising/threatening to produce - by unpopular demand - a petrol-powered version only...for the N.American market.)
- e-WOLF - continuing the Wolf/Wolfsburg theme: the impressive lightweight li-ion e-Wolf(not a VWolf !) is also appearing at the Frankfurt show
- DBM Energy - for several months the company's website has indicated DBM's intended presence at the Frankfurt IAA Show.
But they've not shown up(or are appearing safely incognito). And frankly - who cares and who can blame them ?(Tesla and BYD are similarly shunning the show ..)
In any EVent(so to speak) the key message to the media is clear: for inconvenient real-world EV/e6 truth why not take a leaf(confused ?) out of 3Sat TV's book ie. flee Frankfurt and race to Rotterdam or Shenzhen.
 
 
BYD blues: when will the taxi show up - in Frankfurt, Barcelona, Athens, Rome.. Croydon..?
Note the e6 taxi paintjob/respray from stressful red-eye'd red to tranquil sky blue. As of Sept 2011 we can find no other images eg. Google - let alone video - of the new cool blue e6 taxis in action..so another virtual global EVUK exclusive(courtesy 3Sat)
Two other key points mentioned in 3Sat's BYD taxi and Shenzhen HQ report:
1) the e6 taxi is by far the most popular attraction amongst public visitors to the BYD HQ
2) the e6 car itself costs the same in China as an equivalent gasoline-powered car - with government subsidies
September, 2011 Red Hot: Wall Street Daily(not Journal!) breaks English-language DBM/range silence
"This Breakthrough Will Soon Slash EV Prices Drastically"
(so no - please don't confuse the Wall Street Daily with - disgraced & discredited - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal..)
..as stated below - EVerything else - EVery other truth-avoiding, water-treading, corporately correct EV-related PRess release and news item - is as significant as synchronized swimming...
- Thanks, Danke and Big Up etc to Pressw0rds(who else, wer sonst!?) for the this all-eclipsing, wickedly subversive, almost exclusive little heads-up...
In case you still haven't heard:
Official 454 - 714 km range: 2011 DBM Audi A2 BAM/DEKRA pdf test summary
(Compare & contrast: Motor Show con-cept EV's - the range/performance claims made by major carmakers are rarely if ever officially tested or verified by the likes of BAM or DEKRA or any independent third party - yet 1000's of old/new media outlets readily & uncritically report them to the world ...)
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