EVents/2006 02 09

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Radio interview with Clear-Channel KJR-FM Public Affairs

Feb. 9th 9 am : 1/2 hour Radio interview with Clear-Channel KJR-FM Public Affairs at 95.7 mhz FM. Airing of this program will be some time in the near future, and we will let everyone know. On the Show with me will be representatives from Seattle-Bio-Diesel.

Your President

Steven Lough

Till Then...

Post Interview

Per SEVA_Maillist:2006./2./9

As always it went Very Well, but even at a Half Hour... time seemed short.

My partner panelist, Martin Tobias, of Seattle Biofuels, Inc and I got along just Fine. Both giving each others perspectives Positive Comments. Matter of Fact, seems Martin has a DATE to Drive the WrightSpeed X1 super sports electric later on this week.

His background is in computers and Microsoft, and seems to know some of the folks down south, round Silicon Valley.

The Public Affairs program is called "Connected" with DJ - Angela Kirby

They Air on Sunday Mornings, 7 to 7:30 am And unless there is a big change... it will be Sunday Feb. 26th !

I will remind you all... before 2/26 roles round....

OTHER NEWS:

Looks like Ryan Fulcher and I will both be driving over to Wenatchee to talk about PHEV's with the good folks at their Economic Development Council, with his "Prius with E-Button" , and Schematics on CalCars work In-Hand.... They are HOT to get something going. See EVents 2006 02 13.

Can You Get More out of Your Hybrid

A response to NPRs All Things Considered boradcast, You ain't seen nothin yet.

Thank you NPR, I look forward to some in depth and probing spots from you and perhaps PBS and other new and media outlets. Do you think CNN, FOX, BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and such are listening, go ahead guys. It's gotta happen sooner or later, I promise it will be a whole lot more fun.

The administration should immediately shift all "old school" hydrocarbon subsidies to short term solar and waste combustibles, even shorter term wind or hydro, and even simple clean direct solar resources. Build new industries with dedicated sustainable energy resources. Initiate regional production and recycling plants to, through economy of scale, create affordable and reliable best of breed battery technologies, encourage our neighbors to do the same. If car companies could turn out tanks and planes then they can surely produce electro-mechanical systems ranging from wind generators to vehicle traction motors, after all we are at war. If an economies health correlates with the availability of cheap energy then what happens when an abundance of free local energy becomes accessible and economically viable?

To all my fellow drivers, these types of cars will be just like any other car but with less maintenance and potentially far more power and all that other essential stuff that you need. Safety will remain primarily a factor of speed, mass, design, and the nut behind the wheel, and could very well be enhanced by the versatility such power trains would enable. At the same time they are simply a number of times more efficient so you can burn out and road race guilt free all you like. It's not a mater of the ability to build and offer such products, historic and modern electric propulsion has always been quite capable if not superior from time to time to it's thermo-dynamic cousins.

ps. It's about smeggin' time... more, more, more! Call up Commuter Cars (Spokan), ACPropulsion (PHEV starting from the Battery EV side of things), John Wayland (Portland, performance aspects), SEVA...

Reactions from elsewhere

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199197
• http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/286

Sample of blog responses

http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/power/did-toyota-blunder

Jonh Davi

My favorite comment from the Wired News story in November made in response to their article:

"So let me get this straight. After seeing people wait
in line in order to get gas a few cents cheaper,
I'm supposed to believe they won't plug into an outlet
to pay the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon?"

John Davi Feb. 10, 2006

Michael Slavitch

Look, Toyota is a huge corporation. They have a process. They have a story. This is causing grief to their story, and they can't stop it. Subsequently this is the only way they can react. You are getting the corporate response because that its the only response that is possible under the circumstances. Show some patience, but please whatever you do don't stop what you're doing. It is the only available method for affecting real change. This is a classic case of what is commonly called "Mead's Maxim" (but really should be called "Mead's Axiom"):

"A small group of committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

The Calcars initiative and the resulting commercial derivatives are to the automotive industry what open-source and open-standards are to the information technology industry, a reality completely out of their control and out of their business model, a reality that cannot be controlled, spun or lobbied out of existence. It takes a while for any an organization to recognize that such things are not a threat but an opportunity, and the larger the company the harder the effort. The once-mighty IBM, a onetime virtual monopoly that built its business on expensive proprietary equipment, now embraces Linux, open standards and open source. It had no choice as the alternative was oblivion.

Think about this. Think about companies in the automotive industry that now face oblivion. One or more may turn around, much like IBM.

There is cause for optimism, as long as calcars e t al do not stop. Never stop, because you have the advantage. Run with it. An individual tinkerer has limited liability. This is not so for any large corporation, which must assume downstream risk. As soon as you stop Toyota wins. It can decide what to do next including do nothing.

Toyota just can't slap together a plug-in hybrid and put it on the market, without asking itself about downstream issues including safety and liability. It requires questioning conventional wisdom. It requires the ability to admit that a mistake was made, at the executive level this is usually a career-limiting move. In a large corporation such work takes time and requires diplomatic skills.

In the meantime they have to say what they are saying.

Toyota will soon become the Microsoft of the automotive industry, facing similar problems. Like Microsoft they will have every option available them including ignoring good advice, as there is no perceived competitive threat. The curse of great success is that the downstream consequences always appear to be low, at least from the inside.

In the meantime another company, another giant, may well realize there is a risk but has little to lose and much to gain. It can look at what is happening and run with the ball, stealing the lead from Toyota. It has happened before. It can happen again.

What company that is I don't know, but it won't be a company that is comfortable in its own skin. Look for one that needs to save itself

That is your quarry, not Toyota. If you want a company to run with this at a commercial level, find one under stress with nothing to lose.

Regards

Michael Slavitch Feb. 10, 2006

Engineer-Poet

As an engineer, you understand that 100K priusses will not
even make the tiniest dent in any problems we might have. 

As an engineer, I understand the concept of rate of change. Building 10 million a year would, ceteris paribus, require another 2.7 GW of generation every year. If I recall correctly, the US installed about that much wind capacity in 2005 and the world manufactured a similar amount of PV.

As an engineer, you also understand that all of our
CLEAN generation capacity is over 96% utilized.

As an engineer, I understand the value of interface compatibility between today\'s not-so-clean generation and future generation.

To wit, we can \"clean up the cars\" long after they\'re built by changing the source of electricity, as long as they\'re using that instead of liquids.

Engineer-Poet Feb. 11, 2006