RideLust

If you’ve ever flown into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) then you know that it was designed to be a monumental pain in the ass. Transportation is a nightmare and parking, as with most big city airports is ungodly expensive, unless that is, you own an electric car. Apparently if you own an electric vehicle you get the wonderful perk of parking for free for up to 30 days – that’s right I said free! Not only does it not cost you a nickle but they provide you with charging stations as well. That means if you go away on extended business travel that you could save up to $900.00 depending on where you used to park in the airport. Not to shabby right? Originally there was some talk of cars like the Chevrolet Volt not being allowed to park in these designated lots due to the fact that they weren’t 100% electric, but apparently the folks at LAX have let them slide.
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Leave it to BMW to finally get me excited about an all electric vehicle. This is the ActiveE, a car that’s based on BMW’s stellar 1-Series Coupe. It’s set to debut at the Geneva Auto Show this March, and in my opinion is exactly what is needed to get people interested in driving an EV. If you look at the current crop of all electric vehicles on the market, you’d see they’re actually quite dismal. The Tesla Roadster for example is extremely impractical and too expensive and the Nissan Leaf is stodgy and boring to look at. The BMW however is actually pretty cool and makes consumers comfortable right from the get go as it’s based on an already existing platform. According to BMW, the ActiveE, “is the first electric vehicle from the BMW Group to combine the space and comfort of a traditionally powered BMW with a fully electric drive train. Intelligent packaging ensures that the driver and all three passengers have the same head, leg and shoulder room as they would in a standard BMW 1 Series Coupé.”
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Let’s see now… 0-60 in under 5 seconds, two seats and a range of 150 miles. Hmm… it seams as though Nissan is getting the idea that if you want to sell electric cars to enthusiasts you’d better make them fun. Meet the Nissan Esflow, a concept car for those people who actually like to drive cars. The Esflow is based on the same technology that is found in the all electric Nissan Leaf. It’s got two motors that independently drive the rear wheels as well as the same laminated lithium-ion battery packs as the current Leaf. In the Esflow however, the packs are placed along the axis of the front and rear wheels thus centralizing the cars mass which helps it achieve 150 miles per charge. The idea behind the Esflow is to give the public an idea of what future electric sports cars might look like (umm.. Tesla?)
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Last week we brought you the first of four short films that BMW is releasing as part of a documentary series about The Future of Mobility. Part I talked about how the residents of our new mega cities (populations of 15 million or more) will have to adapt to smaller living quarters, vehicles and lifestyles that are somewhat scaled down from what most of us experience today. Some people believe this is a good thing and a way to be more efficient, which at the end of the day it probably is. What I want to know however, is where is the line drawn between ultra efficiency and quality of life?

Part II of the series takes us to a society, that according to old science fiction, was going to be filled with flying cars, teleportation and mobile jet packs. The truth of the matter is though that we human beings are still using the same methods of transportation that we used 80 years ago. Planes, trains and automobiles still operate essentially the same way they did all those years ago and while the technology has changed, our basic modes of movement are exactly the same. So what are your thoughts, how do you think we will be getting around in the future?

Source: bmwactivatethefuture.com

Chevy's Volt is the best selling EV in the U.S.; nearly 650 have been sold to date. Image: © GM Corp.

If the current administration has their way, there will be 1,000,000 electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015. Starting in February 2011, that means that consumers will need to buy around 21,718 EVs per month, and that’s nowhere close to happening. In January, for example, Nissan sold just 87 Leafs and Chevrolet sold just 321 Volts. Granted, this is due largely to supply chain and distribution issues, so the numbers really don’t reflect an accurate portrayal of consumer demand. Still, there’s a big leap between a few hundred per month and 21,718 per month; to put it in perspective, that’s about 2/3 the number of Ford F150s sold each month and about 3/4 the number of Chevy Silverados sold each month. Something will need to happen to create additional demand for electric vehicles. Read More…

*Photo Credit: cars-wallpapers.net

Aside from the Tesla Roadster most electric cars are about as exciting as a piece of dry toast. Bland styling is generally overlooked by the fact that the cars are good for the environment and supposedly make you feel good. The environment part I agree with, but the feel good part, well… that’s questionable in my opinion. Sales of new EV’s are off to a slow start this year which is partly due to a lack of usable recharging stations outside of the owners home. Combine that with the fact that range figures are still low and you can see why people are hesitant to buy these cars. Keep in mind that we also have extended range vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt. These are electric cars that use a gas generator to keep the batteries in a constant state of charge. Vehicles like this are a great compromise for those looking to be environmentally friendly, but need the range of a conventional petrol driven engine.
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Remember back in the early 1990′s when import cars first came onto the scene. Films like The Fast and the Furious brought them into the mainstream and in the process gave birth to a whole new type of hot-rodder. Gone were the 7.0-liter big blocks that roamed the streets in the 1960′s-1970′s and in their place came pint sized, 2.0-liter mills that were smaller, lighter and turbocharged. At first these little imports were laughed at, but over time their owners proved that they could not only be fast, but could in fact, bring some serious heat to drag strips around the world. It’s now 2011 and the hot-rodding world is changing once again, but this time around the speed is silent and the cars are not what you’d expect. Read More…

Volt demonstrators, en route to dealerships. Image: © GM Corp.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard to date on the Volt is that so few people, aside from journalists and celebrities, have actually had the opportunity to get behind the wheel. Chevy ran a 12 city tour that brought the car to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Antonio, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago, but the tour couldn’t accommodate everyone who was interested. In many areas, the tour wasn’t promoted well, so even potential buyers were unaware that they could get behind the wheel of a Volt on a short test drive. Now that deliveries have begun, it’s hard to sell customers on the prospect of an entirely new automobile if you can’t give them a decent test drive. Read More…

Image: © GM Corp.

Chevy has announced their intent to begin deliveries of the extended range EV Volt to all 50 states by the end of 2011. This apparently comes at the request of dealers in non-Volt markets, who are claiming to see an increase in demand from their own customers. Said Harry E Criswell III, owner of Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg, MD, “We are seeing 10 to 15 customers a week who are seriously considering buying a Volt. Many of them own competitive brands and now have a Chevy on their shopping list because of the Volt.” Read More…

If you’ve ever been to San Francisco then you know that these people ride their bicycles. They take them on the train, into restaurants and even into the stores with them. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people using pedal power as their main transportation than in this City by the Bay. I mean I thought that New Yorkers rode their bikes, but these west coast granola crunchers take it to a whole new level. One thing that you won’t see in San Francisco however are bicycles that are powered by anything but human legs. That hasn’t stopped the 2011 PiCycle from hitting the market though. The PiCycle is an interesting machine for a few reasons. First off it’s electric, second it’s two-wheeled drive and third, it has a built in theft recovery system that updates its location on your smartphone. Personally I don’t believe in bicycles that power themselves, but I do believe in getting back at the bad guys that stole them. The PiCycle is currently being sold through Best Buy for $2,495.00. It’s not cheap, but with up to 20 miles on a single charge and a way to get it back if it gets nicked, it’s actually not a bad way to get around.

Source: PiCycle.com