EVLN(Fast and Fumeless, TZero wiped the floor with a Corvette)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
informational purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
--- {EVangel}
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/24/01/motion-payne.php
Fast and Fumeless
Spare juice and speed: the new electric car
by John Payne
THE BAY OF SMOKES: WHEEZING DEATH BE NOT PROUD
WE�RE ALL GOING TO DIE. AND PERHAPS YOU�D PREFER A GHASTLY,
agonizing, corroding, hawk-pooing doomsday death. But why
rush it? And why not pass peacefully, in a field of flowers,
with fresh, fragrant air tickling your nose?
On this hot, coppery Los Angeles day, step outside, stretch
a bit and breathe. Over the horizon, you see one of those
fantastic gray orangebrown cummerbund sunsets wrapping the
hills, looming toward you, like you could carve out a chunk
of that funky air and set it on the ground. Interesting:
Like a Quentin Tarantino movie, somehow, it has its own kind
of appeal, that Southland locked-in openness. Inhale sunset.
Your lungs hurt. We�re all going to die.
Long before we deliberately decided to make our atmosphere a
putrid purgatory with internal-combustion cars and manure
factories and smog-producing trees, we had some pretty lousy
air to breathe in L.A. It�s even true that the air quality
has improved steadily in the L.A. area over the last 20
years. But we have yet to implement the most basic of smart
technologies to bring our air-quality standard up to the
level where it won�t potentially kill us.
The evil air that we breathe is but one small part of the
big picture, which concerns energy and how to produce it
cleanly, safely, efficiently and cheaply. But energy issues
involve American hyper capitalism, doing battle with
entrenched powers like major oil companies and auto
manufacturers, which have every incentive to maintain the
status quo while draining your personal finances and
damaging your health.
A SMALL, DIM BULB APPEARS OVER THEIR HEADS
UNTIL AMERICANS CONQUER their fear that mass-transportation
systems, like a national health policy, hint of communism,
we�re going to have cars. But that doesn�t mean we have to
drive gas-guzzling, toxic monsters. Ten years ago,
California passed an initiative mandating the creation of
zero-emission vehicles by the year 2003. New York and
Massachusetts have adopted similar measures, and it�s
predicted that one-fifth of the auto market will soon be
affected by zero-emissions standards. Recently, the state of
California took the idea even further, requiring automakers
to achieve "maximum feasible" reductions in carbon dioxide
emissions by the model year 2009. So the major auto
companies have had to spend billions developing alternative
combustion systems in order to do any business at all in
these states. And a number of individuals have concerned
themselves with cars running on something other than
high-emission gasoline.
[...]
Just imagine, though, a day when you could say, "I no longer
depend on the oil industry." Doesn�t that feel good?
Electric-car pioneer Alan Ciccone tells me it�s been one of
his motivating forces in the establishment of his AC
Propulsion Company, which conceives, builds and supplies
electric/hybrid technologies to companies including Volks
wagen and L.A.�s own MTA: AC Propulsion recently facilitated
the hybrid retrofitting of L.A.�s downtown Metro buses.
AC Propulsion has built something much more exciting than a
VW or a bus, though: the TZero, a tricked-out, totally
electric vehicle that�s not just transportation, but a
200-horsepower fun machine. The low- slung, aerodynamically
designed body is built on a stainless-steel, ultrarigid
tubular space-frame chassis (stronger, lighter, corrosion-
free), and sits on an adjustable four-wheel double-wishbone
suspension.
Damn, you can feel the difference: Zooming around in the
hills behind the company�s headquarters in San Dimas, I am
completely buzzed with the speed and power of this
all-electric car, which is definitely quicker and faster
than any gasoline-fueled car I�ve ever driven. The
instantaneous response to the accelerator pedal, and its
regenerative braking system, turns me into Speed Racer, a
far better one than Jason Priestley � why, I�m accelerating
from 0 to 60 mph in 4.07 seconds. Then this young twerp in a
Camaro actually leans out his window and says, "You wanna
race?" I ignore him, hang a U-y and disappear. (This really
happened.)
In test races, the TZero simply wiped the floor with a �96
Corvette, easily outgunning the �Vette with loads of time to
spare. Interesting how easy it is to decelerate � when you
let off the accelerator, the TZero immediately slows down,
well before you hit the brake. "Floor it," says Ciccone. I
do, and we are off again like birds in the sky.
Again, though, as we weave and jet through the hills, I�m
wondering how long it can hold out before running out of
juice. Ciccone tells me the TZero can go for 100 miles at 60
mph, but the range will vary depending on how you drive. If
you�re hauling ass at up to 100 mph, which the TZero can
easily manage, the range might drop to around 50 miles.
The TZero, like other electric vehicles, can accelerate
faster than conventional cars owing to its power-to-weight
ratio � the peak power rating of an electric vehicle is
available over a broad speed range, and there�s no time lost
to shifting gears. GM�s 2,950-pound EV1 (a project the auto
manufacturer discontinued as of last February) gets to 60
mph in 8 seconds with only 125 horsepower. The TZero, with
200 hp and only 2,450 pounds, gets to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds.
Because the TZero is so light, Ciccone was able to beef up
the drive system to increase torque and power without
risking diminished durability. With continuous electric
torque, the TZero can out-accelerate virtually all other
street cars at legal speeds, though it�s best at midrange
acceleration � 30 to 50 mph in only 1.4 seconds, again
faster than any other car on the road. And it holds the road
superbly: All you hear is the squeaking of the rear tires as
they grab the ground and roll.
POWER SHIFT, HERE WE GO
AT A COST OF A LITTLE OVER $100,000, and a battery-pack life
of 15,000 to 20,000 miles (a replacement goes for about
$3,000), the TZero isn�t what you�d call a budgetmobile, so,
you might ask, what�s the point of daydreaming about owning
one? While the TZero�s speed makes me glad to be alive, I
feel so much better when Ciccone tells me about the car�s
pioneering reductive charging system, which can plug into
any grounded 100-to-240V socket and recharge in about an
hour. That means you could pull up at one of those RV rest
stops and plug in there; for one hour you could read a
book.
And that�s kind of the point � the dreaming, the
possibilities. Like this one: The TZero�s reductive
electrical system soaks up a hell of a lot of juice during
its one-hour charging time. Let�s say you then take it for a
short spin around the hills, or to your office a few miles
away and back, or to the 7-Eleven or whatever. Fine. But
what about all that electrical power? Is it going to waste?
"No," says Ciccone. "Why should it?" He then enlightens me
on a whole other and conceptually broader aspect of the
electric-car concept: that the electric car of the near
future could be a mobile, self-contained and super reliable
source of energy for your home, for your city, for the
state. [...]
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'@----- @'---(=
. http://geocities.com/brucedp
. EV List Editor & RE newswires
. (originator of the above EV ascci art)
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