Electric Car Blogging

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Renault, Paris Motor Show

Renault on Thursday revealed the third generation C-segment Megane at the Paris Motor Show. The sedan version of the old Megane will be replaced by a new sedan in 2009 called Fluence. The Fluence will start off using conventional drivertrains, but two years after introduction, it will go electric. Renault EVP Patrick Pelata told a summit in Paris that when the electric Fluence launches in 2011 the company expects to start with 20-40,000 units. A year after the battery-powered Fluence arrives, a smaller compact electric car will also arrive. That second car will be built at a plant in Flins, northwest of Paris. Both cars will use lithium ion that may well be manufactured in France as well. Just as Tesla learned when it shifted battery production from Thailand to California, it makes sense to build battery packs closer to the car assembly plants in order to reduce shipping costs of the heavy packs.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Legislation and Policy

When Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson first proposed last week that Congress should give him 0 billion to do with as he pleased in an attempt to save Wall St, the plan ran a staggering two and a half pages. That’s because the plan essentially consisted of “Give Hank the money, and then go away and he’ll take care of everything without supervision.” Congress, of course, was going to have none of that and set about writing a bill in more typical congressional fashion. That means lots of extra stuff added, bringing the bill that passed in the Senate the other day to a more Congressional 451 pages. All the extra stuff, including pet projects, got added on, for example a reported 0 billion in extra spending.

One particular billion chunk of that extra money has been earmarked to provide cash back to American drivers who opt to buy plug-in vehicles. Tax credits starting at ,168 (there’s a nice round number for you) will go to people to buy a vehicle with a battery pack that has at least 4 kWh of capacity. From there the credits ramp up to ,500 for vehicles with a 16 kWh pack. For those that haven’t been paying attention, that just happens to be the size of the pack in the Chevy Volt. Medium and heavy duty trucks with plug-in capability are also eligible for credits of -15,000.

[Source: Detroit News]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Chrysler, USA

If you want an electric car with some serious style, you could either fork over a ton of dough for an electrically-converted DeLorean or you could convert an older muscle car of some sort. We advise the latter. Take the early ’70s Chrysler A-Body, like the Plymouth Duster, for example. It’s relatively lightweight, has lots of room for batteries and has the easy-to-convert front engine, rear-wheel drive architecture with a full frame. Perfecto! And, you can even see an example of the work done rather nicely in a blog format.

Electricity storage comes by way of 26 six-volt Trojan T-125 batteries wired up to deliver 156 volts to the Netgain Warp 9 DC motor. A Logisysystems controller is capable of sending 550 Amps to the motor, which should make this machine move pretty smartly. The original three-speed manual transmission has had its clutch and flywheel removed and the motor is mated up. Batteries are now being installed. Check out all the progress here.

[Source: Electric Mopar via CarDomain]

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