Is Harper Killing the Canadian Electric Car?
There are two electric car manufacturers in Canada - and the government is killing them both. The one in BC has already shut down operations and is moving elsewhere, and the one in Quebec says they may soon go, too. Is this the Avro Arrow all over again? Canada comes up with world-leading technology, and our government caves to American corporate pressure to kill off what could be an entry for Canada into the new green economy of the future?
The story of the car manufacturers is carried on CBC, here:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc....
They are shutting down because the government won't let them sell in Canada - even though they can sell in the United States, which has the same standards. And they're selling in other countries, and the cars have won awards, and the cars cost thousands less than fossil fuel burning cars. The government is preventing Canadians from being able to buy Canadian designed and manufactured cars - that are less expensive and much better for the environment.
No wonder Mr. Harper says we can't meet Kyoto - he's doing what he can to sabotage our chances, and to keep us forever subservient to foreign corporations.
This is a signature issue that the Green Party should be for, and we should be very loud and clear about it. So much of the time, we are painted as lacking economic solutions, as being a protest party, yet here is an issue that will show Canadians what we stand for, not just what we're against. It will also force Mr. Harper to show his true colours, namely that he is hypocritical and flat-out wrong about economy and environment.
UPDATE January 8, 2008: Shortly after this story hit CBC and the blogosphere, the Conservative government magically approved the Zenn for sale in Canada. It is now up to provincial governments to approve the car locally. So far, only BC has laws for these types of vehicles, so they are 'street legal' in BC.
UPDATE: February 10, 2008: Well, well, it appears the government is changing the rules to ensure that the Zenn cannot be driven in Canada, after all. See here: http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3879. In short, the rules are being rewritten to keep these cars off the streets. So much for Mr. Harper's "Made in Canada" solution to the climate crisis (or much of anything).
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Comments
Stand up for Canada's Electric car , I want one !!
Maybe a Rally to help bring some attention to this silly ridiculous situation?
I agree something must be done.
juror.ca
endprohibition@telus.net
Gas cars,electic cars and trains yes trains.
Orangeville On. own the train staition here in OrangeVille all the way to Streetsville On. right behind my work(55k to and 55 k back again) and after 20 years of driving down there I can see something needs to be done! The gas,tires,oil ect i realy dont know how our children are going to keep up.
High way 10 now looks like the 401 did 20 years ago and the 401 is just a over grown parking lot in morning ( 3 minute ideal bye law lol).
I would love to hop into a small electric car in the morning drive over to the train station pull into a box car or some how hock up to a bunch of other small electic cars,maybe plug into some kind of power source being generaded from the turning wheels of the train and wake up in Streetsville an hour later, I could sleep , ladys could put on their makeup or what ever, something has got to be done to get all these cars off the roads.
I phoned the Ford car company a week ago telling them to get their butts up here to Orangeville and fill up some of our empty buildings and work with Orangeville and our train station!
When I was younger,all the schools were involved in designing a space craft that could go to outer space and come home again, we now need the children of today to help with this problem .
Shawn T.G.Crockatt
Here is a link to the Zenn
Here is a link to the Zenn Car website's petition urging all provinces of Canada to adopt electric vehicle friendly legislation that would allow the ZENN to be driven on-road...
http://www.zenncars.com/letsgo/
Being from Windsor Ontario, all we ever hear from the local CAW is "Buy local, buy local, buy local"... here is a local car I would consider buying and the Canadian government is acting as an obstacle. Open up our local markets to this vehicle, and the jobs are sure to come as a result.
John Esposito
Founding President of the Young Greens of Windsor
Zenn looks like old technology
Zenn uses lead acid batteries that charge in 4-8 hours.
If you're going to buy an electric car, get one with the new batteries that
charge in under 15 minutes.
http://www.a123systems.com/newsite/index.php#/home...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/business/yourmon...
Also, Zenn cars cannot keep up to cars on a normal street (50-60 km/h).
But neither of these are valid reasons for Harper to ban them.
Even if the Volt comes out in 2009, I'd be happy to see some Canadian competition, even if they don't have research budget of GM and can't quite reach the performace levels of other electrics.
When the time comes, I'll buy the car that has good safety design (especially important in a tiny light car) and reliability records.
Keep an eye out at http://www.iihs.org/ to see which electric cars do best in the crash tests.
Join James Brooks' Facebook group on the Zenn
Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=18952236632
This is an issue that we can and should be pinning Mr. Harper on - it clearly shows where his priorities are - with Big Oil.
Agreed, the Zenn is not a gas-powered car replacement for all purposes. However, for a short distance commuter or car-about-town, it works. And it is Rev. 1 - presumably the next generation would have more features. And...this doesn't could the BC electric car company that recently moved elsewhere.
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Agree, it is silly that we
Agree, it is silly that we don't accept international safety regulations, especially for low speed vehicles. I drive a scooter and sometimes a bike around town, which are no less safe than a low speed vehicle.
We should put in special provisions for vehicles with a top speed of under 80/km.
And accept international safety standards for vehicles that run under standard conditions.
The challenge is when you have to prove a dozen cars to be destroyed for safety testing, it really makes it unfeasible for small manufacturers. Its not that we want less safe cars, its just that we have to let some vehicles qualifiy for more flexible standards.
Dan Grice
Candidate for Vancouver Quadra.
www.VoteGrice.com
604-725-8913
These opinions and ideas are my own, but I grant you the right to implement them.
Zenn not appropriate to Ontario just now.
Lambton Kent Middlesex EDA (SW Ontario)
Zenn by being a plug in vehicle would not be appropriate to Ontario unless its owner is prepared to have its batteries charged on solar or wind power that the owner or a group of Zenn owners provide. We might even think of charging them on the grid only when we are not running coal plants to provide the power, if only we had the intelligence in the grid to let the cars know when to charge.
I think that the same would be true in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. anywhere that electricity is still largely fossil fuels.
It might at first blush appear that one is saving the planet by running electric in Toronto until one looks across the lake and down to Nanticoke to see where the extra power is coming from, coal.
But part of many days we do actually run on nuclear and hydro if we could only know when that is happening. But would we buy a car to run on electric knowing that there are periods as long as 12 to 14 days in summer that we are using coal steadily? Would we leave the plug in car unused for that long?
Very valid points Donald.....
McGuinty is supposedly trying by 2012 to phase out coal... so maybe beyond then, it would be advantageous to own an electric vehicle , especially in TO. Especially if they changed their batteries to faster charging ones, AND especially if harper let them market and sell them in Canada... if they could reach 100 km/h.
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Richard Belshaw
Wellington-Halton Hills EDA
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Math is necessary to fully understand reality.... but it is not sufficient! pick up a 250000 word dictionary preferably oxford, and learn context and generatio
Even if power is from coal, it's still 98% less polluting!
Even if power is from coal, it's still 98% less polluting than typical gas cars,(less heat loss, regenerative breaking, etc.) and at least it moves the pollution outside the city. I do agree that we need to get off Coal as quickly as possible, but let's not knock a great thing just because some of our electricity is still dirty.
Also, generally speaking, electric cars charge at night when the electricity supply is at it's highest and no coal power is being used. Hence, they are extremely efficient and good for the environment now. I can't wait to buy one.
Coal is Still Worse Than Gas, Though it is a Minor Player
Coal powering wheels (via steam powered generator, power lines, transformers, rectifier to DC, chemical conversion in a battery, and finally through an electric motor) are still more polluting than a 21-century internal combustion engine. The upside of coal it that due to economy of scale it is fairly efficient (about the same as an internal combustion engine at around 40-45%) and outside of the city. The downsides are many. Coal is a dirtier hydrocarbon than gasoline (having relatively more carbon than hydrogen), and each step in the transmission process strips away energy (whereas a gas engine is right where you need it).
That being said, only 16% of Ontario's electricity is coal fired. For reference:
http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/index.cfm?fuseaction=e...
76% is from hydroelectric and nuclear energy and that is about the same proportion of nonGHG gas emitting sources we see in other provinces. Ontario is perhaps better suited to electric vehicle use than other provinces because it gets 54% of its power from nuclear plants. Hydroelectric power has almost ideal utility, since you can adjust the gates to the power demand. However is a limited (though renewable) peak load power source. Nuclear power works best when it is on all the time as a base load power source. Some of its power is wasted at off-peak hours. Plugging vehicles in at night improves the economy of nuclear power plants by usefully using surplus energy at essentially no cost.
Mike Sherrard, P. Eng.
2001 Study
An actual life cycle study from 2001 says its not.
http://ilea.org/lcas/taharaetal2001.html
Bullfrog Zen---
The Zenn driver could recharge his vehicle with Bullfrog power, which is 100% wind and hydro electric.
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." H.L. Mencken
New Facebook petition for Zenn
James is directing people to a larger petition: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3004080446
I encourage everyone to sign it...and to write a letter to the editor. This is the sort of issue that reveal the Conservative's (and Liberal's) hypocrisy and ties to polluting industry.
Donald - we cannot wait until the perfect, systemic changes are made. We must change each piece as quickly and rapidly as possible, because the Liberals and Conservatives are unlikely to make holistic changes. Only the Greens would do so, and we are not (yet) in power.
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Bullfrog not an answer for Ontario.
Lambton Kent Middlesex EDA (SW Ontario)
While we applaud deployment of wind power, introduction of further power demand in Ontario will just remove from the grid power that would otherwise be replacing coal sourced power. We need that wind power to replace coal more than we need electric cars that force us to go on using coal power.
It does not matter that you happen to be buying wind power, you are preventing me from buying it if we are still forced to run coal fired plants. As we approach the ability to power Ontario with wind, water, nuclear, and solar power, leaving the coal fired plants closed, it will become a solution for us. Just not yet.
If you buy your own green electrical generating facility, and I applaud that decision, you can do more good by selling the power to the grid than consuming it in your electric car while others are buying power from coal.
When we get off coal completely, we still have to consider whether we want to commit to continued use of nuclear power. Developing more power-consuming applications than we have clean energy does commit us to stay with nuclear. We have one awfully long road to build to get off both coal and nuclear. Let's not make it longer.
when fusion arrives......maybe then or bullfrog.
I really agree, we must not ramp up nuclear to bring online electric cars.
I think we must develop them with continuous product improvement until fusion , nuclear or hydro or solar /wind can take over....all this takes time... and effort and quality and engineering and science and planning and marketing.
So they need a market to sustain the improvements. If the market can be contained to just the right size until we are off coal... then i see no problem in going ahead now and just break even until then. When it really happens and we are off coal... then it will really take off.
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Richard Belshaw
Wellington-Halton Hills EDA
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Math is necessary to fully understand reality.... but it is not sufficient! pick up a 250000 word dictionary preferably oxford, and learn context and generatio
Bullfrog is about additionality
My understanding is that Bullfrog Power works on a theory of additionality. Which is to say, when you buy green electricity from Bullfrog, they are using your money to fund new renewable projects that otherwise wouldn't have taken place. So you are not using up existing, limited renewable power. When someone buys wind from Bullfrog, they are not preventing you from also buying wind power because Bullfrog's is new. (At some point, grid capacity will become an issue, but that's pretty far off).
Since OPG seems resistant to increasing their renewable mix, one of the most practical ways to increase renewables in Ontario would be if everyone switched to Bullfrog. And there is more efficiency in a company like Bullfrog investing in efficient renewable energy projects at prime locations than in buying your own mini wind turbine or such, since they have very low efficiency (in many cases, below embedded energy).
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins
Barrie, ON
The views I express on this blog are purely my own and should not be construed to represent the official position of the Green Party of Canada - the same goes for all other people's posts & comments.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca
Electric is the answer
Donald, Respectfully I disagree for many reasons.
The Thermodynamic efficiency of a automobile is not as good as that of a powerplant. A powerplant can achieve a thermal efficiency nearing the upper 30s%. A Car engines barely get 30%.
Electricity is efficiently transported across existing infrastructure and you can fill up your electric car virtually anywhere. Conversely gasoline must be transported from the refinery using a tanker trailer which further uses up fuel. Also I have yet to see a powerline spill emptying harmful energy into our groundwater.
While cars have emission control equipment, they are ineffective until the catalytic converter comes up to operating temperature and the engine is inefficient until it comes up to operating temperatures. Short 5 minute trips are definitely bad with a IC Engine. There are no warm up problems associated with electric cars. Additionally the emissions of a powerplant can be treated as well, and I am sure that one big piece of equipment is not only more effective than 100s of thousands of small ones, but you know it will be maintained regularly. Additionally all electric cars use regenerative breaking whil very few gasoline cars put on the road are Hybrids currently.
Also this may not be a popular argument here but it still definitely holds true anyway. It is much better to burn fuel outside of a large metropolitan area like Toronto than it is inside it. Electric cars will reduce smog in mega cities to the benefit of millions of people while burning coal far away will have not only a smaller effect but also on way less population creating health benefits as well.
A few points that need to be made--
I've looked at this discussion and there are a few points that need to be made:
1 The problem is that of electric cars, per ce, not the source of the electricity. I am assuming that Donald Fletcher meant to put as the headline to his post "ZEN is not an answer for Ontario", not "Bullfrog is not an answer for Ontario".
2 Electricity is not "efficiently transported" as Dean Carnduff says. When it comes from highly centralized power generation mega-stations, as much as 30% is wasted in transport. That is part of the reason why the Ontario government is paying a premium for solar power---a kilowatt hour of solar power produced in a city is worth more because almost none gets lost in transmission. (This is also why I think that it is a bad idea to generate electricity using natural gas---which does transport efficiently to people's homes for use as a heating fuel.)
3 While I agree in principle with the idea that the electric car is a wrong-headed approach to the issue of emissions, the ZEN car in particular does have---again in principle---some merit. The reason why is the same reason why it is so low-priced, easy to charge and currently illegal. Because of its low top speed, they use a lot less energy because they are not accelerating to very high speeds, slowing down again, then accelerating again. I suspect that the ZEN is not a terribly good idea if it is conceived of as a substitute for public transit. But as a truck for local delivery, tradespeople, taxis, etc, it could be a very cheap and useful addition to the mix.
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." H.L. Mencken
A few more points
Bill Hulet,
I am not sure where you are getting your numbers for electric transport losses but I could tell immediately that they were a factor of 2-3 times higher than they should be. I pulled up the corporate report for SaskPower, my electric utility and you can see:
http://www.saskpower.com/aboutus/corpinfo/anreport...
Download the link for SaskPower Annual Report 2006
Page 61 of the report (P.69 in PDF File) gives the complete breakdown of generation and usage for the Utility. Losses and internal use are a very steady 10% over the last 5 years reported.
Page 67 of the report (P. 75 in Adobe) shows the generating locations and type of each plant in Saskatchewan, you will note that the bulk of the generation is Coal in the South and Hydro in the North that are distant to the major centres of Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert. Saskatchewan definitely represents a centralized generation scheme with a decentralized user base.
Electricity is purely clean (after generation) and I cannot think of an energy source that transports more efficiently or has a system that is comparable to our current grid system that is already in place for our homes and businesses that would be better suited for powering our cars.
Yes, the number was too high
I did some quick research and it appears that you are right. I was writing from memory, which probably was off or may be the result of a faulty article that I read in the popular press. I would suggest, however, that a 10% loss rate is far from negligible. One would have to understand what the comparable loss rates are for natural gas pipelines, fuel oil tankers, etc.
I still stand by my other two points, however.
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." H.L. Mencken
Sometimes simple solutions are not obvious and they are the
Sometimes simple solutios are not the obvious ones and they may be the correct ones.
They are never neat , always plausible, and maybe not wrong.
Mencken is a bit too trite in this case... too simple and neat himself to be worthy of the issues here...
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Richard Belshaw
Wellington-Halton Hills EDA
Without constraints it is unlikely that anything of any value will ensue
Math is necessary to fully understand reality.... but it is not sufficient! pick up a 250000 word dictionary preferably oxford, and learn context and generatio
Zenn Versus Playing it Safe
Zenn is a good example of absolute safety versus maintaining our environment. A Zenn vehicle is less safe than an SUV or a typical subcompact, but more safe than a motorcycle, a scooter, or a bicycle (which are all legal). This comparison is from the driver's point of view only. Reverse all of this for the pedestrians and other drivers that share the roads with the Zenn. Externalities get surprisingly little consideration when is comes to vehicle safety.
Perceived threat often trumps real threat. Parents fret more about child abductors than swimming pools. Americans worry more about terrorists than hand guns.
Real threats often are grandfathered into acceptance. If gasoline were invented today, it would be illegal (its vapours are heavier than air and they combine with air to form mixtures with a very wide explosive range).
Safety concerns often trump other important considerations (economic and environmental). Far beyond the reasonable point of diminishing returns, they dictate how much asphalt lies between you and your neighbour across the street. Residential streets in North America are the width of European highways. Speakers at a local town hall meeting suggested more stop signs and lower speed limits in town (evoking environmental concerns). Stops and starts and low speeds that require lower gears create more pollution than steady moderate speeds.
As for the debate at hand, on average, electricity in Canada is far more environmentally friendly than petroleum power. As the link (http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Canada/Electricity.html) shows, more than half of Canada’s electric power comes from hydro, and a significant part of the rest comes from nuclear power (another GHG neutral energy victim of fear gone wild).
Mike Sherrard, P. Eng.
Zenn Not the Only Answer, Just One
We need to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, period, just as we need to reduce (to zero) the amount of energy consumed by our buildings. However, we will still need some vehicles, and as Bill Hulet points out, the Zenn can be useful for some roles.
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Two more advantages to ZENN
Slower vehicles are safer and no noise is divine!
In my opinion, everyone should drive slower to stop pedestrian and animal fatalities and injuries.
As a person who is sensitive to noise, if all of the vehicles made less of it, we would have more peace in the world. In Vancouver, we have had car-free days in a couple of neighbourhoods, and it makes a huge difference to the ambience. Everyone involved agreed that this would be the ideal to not have the constant vehicle noise.
Bravo to ZENN! They can work on improving the batteries and the rest of us can work on making them legal.
Drina A. Read
Vancouver-Centre
Drina A. Read Vancouver-Centre
Thank you diggers. :)
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Zenn car approved by federal government
The Zenn car is now approved by the federal government. Its now the turn of the provinces.
I can't give you the link, since the *whole* site is using Flash - really unsustainable when it comes to web sites.
----
http://www.julienlamarche.ca - julien.lamarche@gmail.com
The 4 electoral systems: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5hzoxl
ZENN plans to release a highway-legal car next year
FYI, last month ZENN issued a press release that it is planning to release the CityZENN, a car that goes up to 125km/hr and sounds comparable to the Tesla Roadster in range (Tesla's a high-end electric sports car that just started production in the USA). So the issue of the existing low-speed-vehicle ZENN being too slow and not having the same safety requirements of a regular car will soon be a moot point. Also, they are going with a 5-minute-recharging supercapacitor system that is apparently much better than batteries.
Here is the (rather exciting, I must say - especially the part about converting gasoline cars to 100% electric) press release:
ZENN MOTOR COMPANY DETAILS PLANS FOR
HIGHWAY CAPABLE ZENN POWERED BY EESTOR!
Toronto, Ontario – March 28, 2008 – ZENN Motor Company Inc. (TSXV: ZNN; the “Company”), a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, held its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders at which time management updated shareholders with Company progress in 2007 and detailed future plans for EEStor implementation including specifications around a highway capable, fully electric cityZENN!
ZENN Motor Company’s business will expand to include highway capable vehicles and international markets:
Target Launch of the cityZENN, powered by EEStor: Fall 2009
The cityZENN is planned to be a fully certified, highway capable vehicle with a top speed of 125 KPH/ 80 MPH and a range or 400 kilometres/250 miles. Powered by EEStor, the cityZENN will be rechargeable in less than 5 minutes, feature operating costs 1/10th of a typical internal combustion engine vehicle and be 100% emission-free! The Zero-Emission, No-Noise cityZENN will be designed to meet the transportation requirements of a large percentage of drivers worldwide.
”EEStor’s game-changing energy storage technology is in the advanced stages of commercialization”, stated Ian Clifford, Chief Executive Officer. “EEStor has publicly committed to commercialization in 2008 and their first production line will be used to supply ZENN Motor Company.”
ZENN Motor Company also plans to expand its low-speed product lineup for the 2009 model year with a four-passenger and a utility LSV (Low-Speed Vehicle). Both products will dramatically increase ZMC’s available target audience and potential market for LSVs.
The Company also plans to work with strategic OEMs to offer a ZENNergy drivetrain, powered by EEStor, in various vehicle platforms as ZENN branded vehicles. ZENNergy drive systems will also be developed for the retrofitting and conversion of existing internal combustion vehicles to electric drive. The Company’s initial target for these retrofit kits will be large, high-profile fleet opportunities.
In order to capitalize on all future growth opportunities, the team has been diligently working on building awareness of the ZENN brand – with overwhelming success. ZENN Motor Company has garnered an impressive amount of international media coverage, and it is clear from both its customers and retailers that the Zero-Emission, No-Noise message resonates clearly with its target market. The current ZENN LSV is recognized as a leading, cost-effective, zero emission vehicle for urban travel.
The team has been assessing the relative merit and opportunities of different key markets globally and is defining the planned roll-out sequence including discussions with established dealer networks in major markets around the world.
The growing electric vehicle market represents a dynamic, truly global opportunity and ZENN Motor Company is excited to be a key player. In addition to the Company’s exclusive technology agreement with EEStor for new vehicles up to 1400 kg (curb weight), and the global rights to ALL retrofit conversions of existing internal combustion vehicles to electric, the Company is also an equity investor in EEStor. EEStor's energy storage technology is THE key enabler of many clean technologies today: renewable energy; grid load-leveling; consumer electronics and security applications are ALL looking for a ‘better battery.’ EEStor is the enabler.
“I founded ZENN Motor Company with the vision of it becoming the global leader in zero emission vehicles, and that vision is being made a reality by the entire team at ZENN Motor Company and our energy storage partner, EEStor,” stated Ian Clifford, Chief Executive Officer. “We have laid the foundation of a sustainable business with explosive growth opportunities. We are well-positioned to capitalize on the global imperative for zero-emission vehicles.”
An archived podcast of the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders meeting may be found at www.ZENNcars.com and www.newswire.ca
"Live simply so others can simply live."
New ZENN would be great news!
Canada could be leading at something green, despite the best efforts of our government! While we all know that swapping all the gas and diesel cars for electrics is not the solution, it will help the many people who do have to have a car.
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Congratulations on being 1st to garner 50,000 blog reads Brian!!
Dear Brian,
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations on being the first Green to break 50,000 reads on your blog!!!
I remember when we first launched our test blog site for the GPC and the most read blog had 100 reads! We've come a long way.
As Greens we all have to reach out to our friends, family and like minded individuals in society and build traffic to our blogs and the GPC web site.
Thank you for your leadership in this area!
Jim
www.solartaxi.com
www.solartaxi.com
Greeting Greens,
I just received this ...........maybe some of you others did as well?
Hi there
I just found your blog entry in the green party blog from last October http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3045
We are soon going to arrive with our solartaxi and cross the American continent, from BC to PQ, via the States.
This is the first world tour of a solar car, and we have received a warm welcome and great media attention in 26 countries so far. In all countries we try to promote their solutions to combat global warming. In Canada we could make it a protest tour to allow electric cars. What do you think? We are ready and open for any idea.
Duration: 1. July to end of September. See www.solartaxi.com
Let me know if you can assist us or connect us with people who could be interested.
kind regards from Beijing
Louis
Louis Palmer
tour director
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/20080...
What do you all think? Can we help?
I haven't read the whole site yet but they are doing it in China right now and power to them.
The EV-1 in California in the 90's showed then that the electric was obviously very plausible and only being denied because of corporate power abuses.
How do we convince the voters to change the power structure of this country away from an over riding corporate control?
Its not technology stopping our advancement to cleaner choices.
I again look forward to the upcoming election just for some important dialogue to happen and now no where to be heard.
Cheers
(disclaimer:do not be confused and think shavluk is the green party talking...hahha)
http://ridings.greenparty.ca/article285.html?&MMN_...
juror.ca
endprohibition@telus.net
Electric car tour in Canada a great idea
I would love to see these guys tour Canada with the solar taxi. Why not have the Canadian EVs accompany the solar taxi. The Canadian electric cars could be on a truck and driven across Canada that way - with US license plates - seeing as they are legal in 40 US states but not Canada....
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Solartaxi World Tour in Canada - an opportunity for us Greens!!
Hi Brian,
Thanks and maybe you have some ideas about how we can help or join them with their powerful electric message.
I just received this reply showing them being here in Vancouver for July 1
Then going mostly through the USA but have stops in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
Cheers
Solartaxi World Tour in Canada - an opportunity to promote electric cars and ZEN in Canada
Hi John
Many thanks for asking what help we need! I am preparing some events together with the Swiss Consulate and the Electric Vehicle Association in Vancouver. I will keep you updated about our plans, may be you can also join us or help somehow out in the field. Any idea is also welcome.
We also have some more basic needs. If you have a list of online-groups across Canada (and US) that we could inform to visit/join/meet/help us, that would be great. What we need in every Canadian (and US) city is a safe overnight parking for the car, someone to organize the media and also a place to stay for the team would be most welcome. I also hold presentation to groups, schools or whoever about our adventure and renewable forms of transportation. Your help is very much appreciated!
See the attached our draft route plan.
Talk to you later,
kind regards from Beijing
Louis
(disclaimer:do not be confused and think shavluk is the green party talking...hahha)
http://ridings.greenparty.ca/article285.html?&MMN_...
juror.ca
endprohibition@telus.net
Yet another Canadian electric car is here!
There is a new manufacturer of electric cars in Canada, in Quebec. This company removes the internal combustion engine from standard cars and replaces it with all-electric components. The cars are relatively low-tech: lead acid batteries and a range of 100 km.
(However, apparently "95% of the population drives less than 30km per day," so this is hardly a limitation. (Unless you insist on buying a car for the rare occasions you take a road trip. Unfortunately, this same reasoning often drives people to buy a much larger car than they ordinarily use, for the few times per year they need to haul something home from Home Depot. Even one of the Treehugger staff recently bought a (non-hybrid) SUV using this lame justification.)
An upside to this new EV is that the cost is $20-25,000, which definitely makes it affordable for many people. They currently have a 2004 Mazda 3 electric for $21,500 - but the year takes on less significance without a gas engine.
And finally...these cars cost $1,80 to recharge (Quebec hydro rates). Not bad, not bad at all.
http://www.voitureselectriques.ca/en/produits/prod...
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Cost of converting entire U.S. to electric cars? Zero.
So says Philip Greenspun, and his reasoning is well worth exploring. Even if you can pick holes in some of his ideas - like selling the US fleet to developing nations - Greenspun deflates the idea that going green will wreck the economy.
Here's a sample:
Instead of sending $400 billion each year to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, we could spend it on electric car production in the U.S., Mexico, and China. At current oil prices, it wouldn’t cost us a dime extra to stop importing and burning oil for passenger cars. In fact, if the goal were to end up with the same number of cars on the road, we would have a few trillion dollars left over. One or two trillion dollars would be sufficient to build nuclear, solar, or wind electric power plants to replace all of our plants that currently burn coal and oil (note that less than 1 percent of current electricity generation in the U.S. is from oil (source); most electricity that we use today is from coal, natural gas, or nuclear).
So… simply by stopping our purchases of oil we could finance the construction of power plants that emit no CO2 and electric cars that emit no CO2.
Sounds like a "Made in America" solution. Didn't we have a PM who promised a "Made in Canada" solution for global warming? Whatever happened to him?
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2008/05/27/cost...
Brian Gordon
Nominated Candidate, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Green Party of Canada
Trained Presenter
An Inconvenient Truth
People - Planet - Prosperity
The New Green Economy
Rick Mercer in the Zenn & other electric cars
Rick took a tour of the factory and a test drive in one episode.
http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/#597178200
How's that for some publicity!
Also Randy Holmquist has been converting cars to electric for years. http://www.canev.com/
There is also the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association to help people get hooked up, and get more info.http://www.veva.bc.ca
It's time for a Liberal Bloc NDP coalition government
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I would buy an electric car if it was available