Battery-powered trucks, trains, and airplanes?

I've got internet service again for now, so I'll write in.

Our Petrophile Overlords (the Navy) have generously offered to share their off-grid power and communications capability, but they're strictly rationed. I've got an hour, since I've got a business. Most people get ten minutes a day. God help you if you've got dial-up.

I've never been so glad I let my friend Rob talk me into solar panels a while back. We can't afford them, of course, but he's with a company that installs THEIR panels on YOUR roof at their own expense, and then sells you the electricity for CHEAP - cheaper than grid. This doesn't help with the internet connection, since those guys are still on grid; but thanks to Rob, nothing's gonna get between me and my go-juice unless the sun goes out.

And hey, even if I can't pay my electric bill (to Rob's company), are they really gonna come take the panels back?


People are dropping money into my paypal account just to have a conversation, if you can believe that. Oh, they're just supporting the cause, they reassure me - but then they want me to help them lay hands on increasingly scarce electric cars, conversions, or parts so they can convert their gas-gobbling Lexus.

Now, the truth is, I DO know where to find electric cars, and I do have contacts at most of the major manufacturers. It's just that we're having the same supply problems everybody else is, because it takes DIESEL to ship electric motors, controllers and batteries from one end of the country to the other, same as any other freight.

Steve and Mark over at MCEV in Seattle say they can't keep Zenns and ITs in stock; every time they get a new shipment, and that's really often these days, they get several competing buyers for each car. Steve told me the last Zenn he sold went for 80 thousand bucks.

I'm driving their demo. I sort of hope they've forgotten about it; )

The ITs are built by Dynasty Motors up in BC, which isn't too far away. Tangos are coming from Commuter Cars over in Spokane, and they're selling them as fast as they can build them, funny-looking or not. Zenns are coming from Ontario, but they've got more capital to lay out for the exorbitant shipping costs. Trouble with Zenn is that they're heavily dependent on shipping right now, because their base car comes from France. Ditto with Miles, getting their base car from China. I can see those two types of cars becoming scarce, and good luck getting replacement parts.

The smart money's in conversions these days, I think.

Myself, I'm pulling for Rod Wilde's company, EV Parts, based in Sequim - just up the peninsula from me. He's got a conversion shop, and sells components and kits to remake gas cars into electric ones. This is why I favor Rod, and companies like his: We've all got these (increasingly useless) gas-guzzlers laying around anyway. Why not rip the guts out and replace them with an electric drive system? These guys have been doing this as a hobby for years, and can build an electric vehicle out of bailing wire, spit, and a few paperclips. The convenience of having an S-10 conversion, for example, is that you can get Chevy brakes, Chevy floormats, Chevy headlights, etc. at the local auto parts store (or the junkyard). Not true of your Zap, which gets all its special replacement bits from China.

Speaking of Rod...

...he's got some wild (Wilde?) ideas these days. He's been applying his considerable intellect to the problem of using batteries to haul freight. In fact, he says trains would be ideal. He's got that look in his eye again.

The reason Rod can still get EV parts when nobody else can is that he's been using his electric Postal-truck hotrod, the Gone Postal, to go GET parts from his suppliers. He thinks he can set up an alternative shipping service, if we can keep them in batteries.

And about batteries...

...the guys down at Altair Nanotechnologies in Reno say their new Nanosafe lithium batteries will work just fine in an airplane! See, the problem with electric-powered airplanes has mostly been the COLD. When it gets cold, batteries as we know them get more and more sluggish...and pretty soon, down goes your plane. Well, get this: the new Nanosafe lithium battery, same as the one they supply to Phoenix Motorcars, just LAUGHS at cold: all the way down to -6 F (Ed: My bad. Altair website says all the way down to -30 C. That's brisk, baby.) Maybe the bush pilots in Alaska won't want them, but they're good for just about everybody else, including commercial airlines.

Oh, and of course, electric-powered planes won't be emitting ANYTHING into the upper atmosphere.

Food for thought; )