March 2009 Archives

Ruf is a German automobile company that takes Porsche cars and tunes them up to even higher performance levels. The company was founded in 1939 and its most popular customization to date has been the CTR Yellowbird. With clean technology and green interest on the rise, Ruf has turned its attention to electric vehicles and produced one of the highest profile non factory electric cars around, the eRuf.

While still under production, the eRuf boasts several impressive performance statistics. With nearly 500 foot pounds of torque the car can reach 60mph in under seven seconds. It has a top speed of 160mph and range of 150 to 200 miles depending on conditions. The car chassis is almost completely filled with batteries weighing 1,200lbs and they're situated in the front, trunk, and where the passenger seats would be on a normal 997 (the model that the eRuf is based on). For this reason the car does not drive as consistently as gasoline powered Porche's and may be susceptible to accidents (as have been reported in some cases for the Tesla Roadster).

Regenerative braking helps to recycle energy and is set to 25% on the current prototype eRuf. The AC motor is being built by UQM technologies and is 15.9 inches weighing in at 200lbs. The only aftermarket AC motor we know of that is capable of similar performance is the tzero from AC Propulsion (the motor behind the Tesla Roadster) which also offers regenerative braking. The eRuf drivetrain is being fabricated by Calmotors out of Camarillo California and is still being fine tuned. In its current state the eRuf retains a clutch and six speed transmission which is unnecessary, high performance electric motors are capable of extremely high RPM's and can go in reverse with reversed electrical current. System voltage ranges from 300 to 420 volts at 550 amperes and the motor redlines at 5,200 RPM generating 200 horsepower.

The batteries powering the eRuff are 3.3V lithium ion phosphate cells, the standard in similar vehicles. Both light weight and high performance these batteries tend to be very expensive, making up about half of the total car value (as is the case with the $109K Tesla Roadster). The eRuf's batteries are being produced by Axeon of Great Britain and are said to have a life cycle of 3,000 charges which means replacement could be necessary within 10 years. The eRuf battery pack takes ~10 hours to fully charge at 16 amps.

 For those of you who are stateside and don't want to wait for the eRuf or want a different Porsche body style, we recommend Salida Conversions out of Colorado. The founder, Pete Hansen, has partnered with a team in Aspen to deliver custom electric Porche's with both AC and DC motors. While visiting their shop in Salida I saw six of these cars in various steps along the conversion process including one rally Porche complete with roll cage and racing mirrors. Depending on your budget and need for speed, Salida Conversions offers many different configuration options. Every job is custom. For more information on purchasing and prices you can contact us here at EV Authority.

The Tesla Roadster made headlines as one of the first normal looking electric cars. Beyond looks, the car delivers high performance acceleration, range and handling (although there have been several reported fender benders including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers). The new Model S has been highly anticipated as costing half the price of the Roadster which retails for $109K and potentially delivering better performance... although, it is a hybrid and not pure electric. 

Unlike the Roadster which is built on a customized Lotus Elise body, the Model S is a design completely unique to Tesla. There have been reports that the design was mimmicked by rival EV manufacturer Fisker who produces cars in Europe and has repeatedly hired away Tesla employees.

Earlier today the founder of Digg, Kevin Rose, leaked these first shots of the Model S to the world a mere two hours before the public release at a show in LA. Note the all glass canopy and extended rear end hatchback. Tesla's Elon Musk has stated that the rear end of the car will seat an additional two passengers giving the car a 7 passenger capacity which is unprecedented in the sports car and electric vehicle world.

The newest Tesla electric car (announced officially today in Los Angelas California) was packing one surprise that nobody expected. The vehicle seats up to seven passengers according to Tesla chairman Elon Musk. Pictures of the new model S are floating around the web but none of them show the additional rear seats that are creating so much buzz.

The Model S looks like a cross between a Masarati and an Aston Martin and is strikingly similar in design to the electric Fisker Karma which we explored last October here although the S is a hybrid. From what we've heard, Tesla was actually involved in a law suit with Fisker who reportedly stole their design after poaching a few engineers. Anyways, the new Model S has standard seating for five as many sports sedans do but also features a set of two additional rear facing seats in what would otherwise be a hatchback trunk shown below.

Rear facing passengers will enjoy a great view as the hatchback and roof of the vehicle are almost completely made of glass. The car we saw also has a sliding sunroof for those hot California days. It seems like the option to seat seven is targeted at Mom's who currently own Toyota Land Cruisers (or the Lexus equivalent) that might want the extra space for soccer games and play dates. Other cars that have featured rear facing third row seats include the uber-popular Ford Taurus Station Wagon, Mercedes Benz W123 and W124, and Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country introduced in the late 1950's shown below. These seats folded up out of the trunk space (almost like a flap to cover a spare tire) and were fairly rigid. Whiplash was a concern for larger passengers (at least with the Ford version that did not include headrests) but most kids wouldn't have a problem with that type of injury as they are too short to experience any trauma.

Chrysler rear seat image source, Tesla Model S image source. Elon Musk quotation on seven seating option provided by Laura Burstein of CNET "Tesla Motors unveiled its Model S sedan prototype today at a rocket factory in Southern California. The four-door will seat seven and start at a base price of $57,400 ($49,900 after a $7,500 federal tax credit)." here.

Coulomb Technologies (the company behind ChargePoint) today announced its expansion into Europe, the Middle East and Africa with the opening of Coulomb's European headquarters represented by 365 Energy Group, a venture of Estag Capital AG, in Berlin, Germany (http://www.365-energy.com). Additionally, Coulomb named Scott Saffian as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Coulomb's family of products and services delivers a smart networked charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles worldwide. The formation of Coulomb's European headquarters now gives Coulomb an international presence including European specific product versions. Having already launched seven active charging stations in the San Francisco Bay Area (four in SF and three in SJC) ChargePoint is the clear leader in EV charging stations for current gen cars requiring 110V outlets.

Below is the press release with more details. For more information on Coulomb's expansion into EMEA or for artwork please contact Anne Smith public relations, Coulomb Technologies at 408-313-8089.


Coulomb Technologies announces EMEA sales distributors and International headquarters

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Leader, Coulomb Technologies, Names Scott Saffian as Senior Vice President of World Wide Sales and Announces the Formation of Coulomb European Headquarters.

CAMPBELL, Calif., - March 23, 2009 - Coulomb Technologies, the leader in electric vehicle infrastructure today announced its expansion into Europe, the Middle East and Africa with the opening of Coulomb's European headquarters represented by 365 Energy Group, a venture of Estag Capital AG, in Berlin, Germany (http://www.365-energy.com).  Additionally, Coulomb named Scott Saffian as senior vice president of worldwide sales.

"Electric vehicles and their infrastructure will be deployed throughout Europe in 2009 and the ChargePoint™ Network will play a significant role in transforming the landscape. We examined the marketplace and determined that Coulomb has developed the right business model and the right technology to transform our region with networked charging stations," said Hong Thieu CFO of 365 Energy Group. "Our focus is on electric vehicles and we intend to become an enabler in the e-mobility industry by providing a totally new approach to charging infrastructure. 365 Energy Group will introduce its executive team in a next press announcement."

Coulomb's family of products and services delivers a smart networked charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles worldwide. The formation of Coulomb's European headquarters now gives Coulomb an international presence including European specific product versions. Coulomb's ChargePoint Network addresses needs of electric vehicle drivers, utilities, governments, and parking space owners. Consumers subscribe to the ChargePoint Network and receive a ChargePoint Smart Card that allows them to charge their car at any Smartlet™ Networked Charging Station worldwide. To locate available charging stations, visit www.mychargepoint.net and click "Find Stations". A Google Maps interface allows users to see which stations are in use in real time.

"Opening our international headquarters and partnering with 365 Energy Group gives Coulomb a distinct advantage in our geographic strategy rollout of networked charging stations," said Scott Saffian, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Coulomb. "Our products are available today and are designed to adhere to EMEA specific standards. Resellers throughout EMEA can now work with 365 Energy Group to leverage the innovative architecture from Coulomb with our smart networked charging stations that give us a unique competitive leadership advantage going into this market."

With more than 30 years of sales experience, Scott Saffian has generated significant revenue and built sales teams for a wide variety of technology organizations. Most recently he was vice president of academic sales at Xythos Software a leading provider of Internet-based document and file management applications. While at Xythos he helped grow the company from 50,000 users to more than four million licensed users today. He was also vice president of worldwide sales at Xippix a virtualization software company. Saffian holds a degree from the University of Pittsburg.

About Coulomb Technologies, Inc. Coulomb Technologies (http://www.coulombtech.com), headquartered in Campbell, Calif., offers a family of products and services that provide a plug-in vehicle charging infrastructure, which includes Smartlet Networked Charging Stations ranging in capability from 120V 15A to 240V 80A AC charging to 120kW DC charging.  Coulomb applies networking technology to the challenge of charging electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in order to fuel the electric transportation industry. Coulomb's ChargePoint Network (http://www.coulombtech.com/products.php) addresses the needs of drivers, utilities, governments, and parking space owners. For more information, please visit http://www.coulombtech.com.
 
For further information contact:         
Anne Smith
Anne Smith Communications
Tel: (408) 313-8089
E-mail: anne@annesmithcommunications.com

This past December at the bi-annual Electric Drive Transportation Association summit in Washington DC we had the opportunity to hear Shai Agassi speak about his company, A Better Place. His charismatic words painted a beautiful picture in our minds about what the future of sustainable transportation could look like. Cars that are part of the Better Place family are full electric vehicles that have swappable battery packs. Instead of going to gas stations and filling up on oil as people do today, A Better Place customers will hot swap batteries at Better Place garages around town. Additionally, there may also be simple charging rods allowing customers to top off low batteries that don't require a full swap. Shai is well liked and highly respected worldwide, which makes this article tough to manage because we're about to poke some holes in the concept. Maybe there really can be a better place... but is it a model that will work on a global scale, or even in the top major cities? We don't think so, at least not in its current form.

Cal Berkeley has provided us with an updated list of their Electric Vehicle charging stations located on level 1 of the upper Hearst parking structure. The chargers are restricted to central campus parking permit holders Monday through Friday from 7am to 5pm.

The parking structure is located at the corner of Hearst Ave and La Loma Avenue in Berkeley, California 94709 and can be seen on our EV Charging stations map here.

The Hearst parking structure offers public parking after 5p Mon-Fri and all day on weekends with the purchase and display of a dispensing machine ticket on the vehicle dashboard. These can be purchased from the dispensing machine located on level 3 of the same parking structure. The machine dispenses hourly parking and the rates are posted at the machine and are subject to change. Also note that the machine only accepts $1 and $5 bills.

Unique to the Berkeley campus charging facility is that it offers three charging formats. The three types of charging terminals in the U-Hearst Electric vehicles charging stations are as follows:

1. EVI - Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (ICS-200)
2. Magne Charge (used for the EV1 and older Chevy vehicles)
3. Regular electric outlet 120 Volt

The pictures below were taken at the Berkeley Hearst parking structure and show the three different charger types listed above.

Recently EV Authority was featured on CNET for the work it has been doing to construct an interactive collaborative Google Map listing of EV charging stations nation wide. At some point we assume that most gas/fueling stations across the US will include this type of "fuel" but as it stands, the number and location of chargers is very limited, even in California which has more than any other state.

There seems to be an interesting trend at work in the world of EV car chargers and battery powered electric vehicles (BEV's). This trend resembles the format wars we have become so accustomed to in the world of consumer electronics; Betamax vs VCR, MiniDisk vs. Compact Disk, and recently Blue Ray vs. HD DVD. In 1996 when General Motors introduced the EV1 for testing in California the local government set up a sprawling network of Magne Charge stations (built by a subsidiary of GM) equipped with special paddles designed specifically for this new generation of vehicles. Even within the Magne Charge product line there was a quick charger and a slower more natural speed version. In 2003 the EV1 program was officially canceled and all cars were recalled and subsequently destroyed by GM (see Who Killed the Electric Car for more information). Since that time there have been other EV's out roaming the streets, many home made, and all with different charging requirements. The most recent "standard" was announced at the EDTA bi-yearly conference in Washington DC and is called the J112 but many of the newest concept cars are being setup to charge directly from a standard 120V wall outlet.

The instability of the electric vehicle industry (including the recent struggles of Tesla Motors who is caught up in law suits with Fisker over the design of their Karma model as well as a funding hiccup thought by some to be intentional on the part of the last administration) and the lack of standardization has caused many consumers to be wary, especially when considering the $109K price tag of the Tesla and other high performance cars. In the case of one charging station at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, we were told that the station was never being used, in fact, we were told it wasn't used even once by a real customer, only during promotional events. As a result that station has subsequently been transformed into an RV refueling and basic charge station not designed to facilitate EV's.

With all of this commotion it isn't surprising that many of the electric vehicle chargers that do still exist are either at city buildings or universities. As a prime example, the University of California Berkeley has three different charger types at its facility. This approach is designed to accommodate experimentation and work for as many types of cars (past and present) as possible but certainly isn't as efficient or affordable as we would all like. It's not exactly the model a small town gas station would use, but someday we may see a "multi charge" EV station equivalent to the R+-RW CD players of today. Things are looking bright however, as companies like ZAP and Aptera roll out consumer level EV's priced around $30K towards the end of this year. As entry level cars like these gain critical mass a dominant format is sure to emerge.

Stay tuned to EV Authority and keep an eye on our car charging map; add your own locations and tips for charging, and keep an eye out as new charging models introduced by A Better Place and ChargePoint offer battery swap and token systems in the coming years.

Just above is pictured one of the old MagneCharge paddle systems still in place at UC Berkeley dating back to the General Motors EV1.