Conflict Resolution Network/South America-CONOSUR - Hosted by ACRIS

VERY interesting way to extend range of plug-ins without new technology:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/automobiles/13ULTRA.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=hybrid+trinity&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Toyota plan to get off its arse:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/business/14plug.html

Khosla drinks the biofuel kool-aid:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/1/14/02133/2988

good question
I'd relate this to green building then turn the question around.
If a company is building a workspace for its employees, is it legally or morally responsible to put them in a building that will make them sick, depressed, and put them at risk for long term ailments?
That 2% cost premium which may or may not happen suddenly looks like fiduciary duty. And that's before we begin to think about pricing carbon.

So we have the existing car stock, its burning petrol, the existing car stock will last a few decades.

The need is obvious: clean, affordable retrofits to existing cars.

Options:

Straight plug in EV. Pull out the gas motor and put attach an electric motor to the drive train. Use whatever battery you like.

Diesel conversion. Yanking the petrol engine and replacing it with a super efficient 2 stroke diesel engine. The trick here is to have a manual and attach a torque converter to engine. This solves the torque issue with the weaker engine and allows you to zoom around in 3rd without shifting. Could reasonably expect to see a small car get 60 mpg with this setup.

Range extended plug in EV. Same as the normal plug in EV but add a super efficient 1 or 2 stroke diesel engine attached to a generator to dump power into the DC bus when the batteries are running low.

Wheel motor EV. This is the whole reason I wanted to write this post. It is possible to build wheels with the electric motors inside them. Some companies have made prototypes, as you can build a frame that would accept any type of car body. This would have a large advantage in a retrofit situation because wouldn't have to mess with retrofitting an electric motor into the existing drive train. You wouldn't even need a drive train, or nearly any of the existing mechanical systems in the car. Just a battery pack and new wheels. Obviously the price of the motors is a huge issue, but if that were in line the rest of the conversion would be easy. Conceivable that you could add this to a car without yanking its petrol motor and make it a default hybrid. Would there be any issue with the wheels pulling themselves at the same time that the drive train is pushing them?

You could build a new vehicle with wheel mounted motors to take advantage of air resistance like the apterra. By lifting the vehicle and using only three wheels you can cut the drag coefficient of a car in half. Installing the wheel motor in the back wheel would reduce price by needing only one motor.

Either way, if you could make this conversion into a financially feasible investment, it can become a source of green collar jobs. The brand new fuel cell-hydrogen-luxury car is sexy, but its customer base is too narrow. Change needs to engage the middle 80%.

In response to John:
Good characterization of h2 as a battery. Because it truly isn't a fuel. This is a good distinction.
Let me expound upon why I think H2 is a "bad" battery. It is everywhere in the universe. But first, I don't give a damn about space, we have much more pressing issues up the block. Second, its everywhere and inaccessible. It is bonded to everything, that's why we have to put all that (fossil) energy into breaking those bonds to get the hydrogen. Dying of thirst in the ocean... Also, distributing and storing H2 is an issue because it is so small it literally moves through walls. You've always got a slow leak going.

As far as throwing the car industry a bone, in a word, no. They literally act like children, refusing to do what they know they should do. Why should we let them continue to burn fossil fuels to give us this new "clean" fuel? Giving them a pass on this licenses their power and actions, which are both reprehensible. But here's the upshot: for us to be powerless now means we'll be powerless in the future. If we do nothing now and allow them to engage in this greenwashing, what makes you think we'll somehow be able to change their behavior in the future?

I'm all for building bridges, pragmatism, and co-opting. But if you're looking at the data and the journalism, then you must realize the time for this action is now. This moment, your life.

Running out of oil will not be a peaceful moment. Our history and current dependence make that a foregone conclusion. I already called the car companies children. We have a child in the white house, and big oil bullies. When that last cookie of oil is sitting on the table, how will these children act?

Thanks for the post, keep the conversation coming.

Hydrogen is a load of bollocks.

Fuel cells need platinum: has to be mined, extremely expensive, cost doesn't decrease with production

Hydrogen for now has to be produced with water: a story on ecogeek.org shows that a large percentage of all water flowing in our rivers in the US would be needed to run a hydrogen economy, with droughts and water shortages, where is all that water coming from? Okay, it doesn't have to potable, but we've got a lot of shortages as it is
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1082/

No infrastructure: seriously, there's no existing infrastructure

Top down corporate hegemony: they get to keep selling us fuel rather than us getting it for free from our rooftops

Dangerous: well I'd rather not crash with a giant tank of compressed hydrogen in my trunk

To be fair, there is interesting stuff coming out about using compost to generate hydrogen: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1171/
But of course, I'm interested in the "yesterday" solutions

hydrogen is shyte, why do you think the industry is supporting it? look at the LA auto show, concept cars that have no chance of commercial viability, that's what the car industry wants, they have no plans to change so they show us this load of hairy bollocks and say "ready for the world when the world is ready"

the world is ready for something useful and practicable, ring me when my electrons are ready

Thanks for posting this.
I just watched a documentary called "Out of Balance." Its about global warming and exxonmobil. Has a lot of good information about exxon's past ecological crimes and their funding of junk science.

Being out of town (in chicago for greenbuild) during this spill was a bit a weird. I live in Berkeley and hearing about a spill just miles from my home was strange.
I was frustrated when I heard that they were turning volunteers away, I think its symptomatic of the structure of our entire economy under this administration. Homeland security starts in the homeland.
My frustration was slightly tempered, or at least put in context, after I watched a documentary this weekend. Its called Out of Balance and its about global warming and exxonmobil. Time was devoted to the exxon-valdez oil spill in prince william sound. The contractors that exxon hired used high pressure hot water to clean the beaches. This aerosolized the gas and chemicals and sent it right into the worker's lungs. A few years later they all developed weird ground-zero type lung deterioration. So we ought to remember that this stuff we deal with everyday (or not if you bike) is dangerous and toxic.
Protecting people's health is a good thing, stymieing the energy of volunteers is not. I think they are starting to begin to strike that balance, but of course after the crucible moment.

Our planet is in a crucible moment. But we can't seem to levy that disaster response either.

No worries on Facebook, I checked your event and its ten times better than what i put up

I'll send out press releases today and do follow up phone calls tomorrow. I've been holding out to try to see if we can get Kucinich confirmed, I'm not sure if it will happen. Kucinich agreed to attend but two days out still hasn't said where he'll be. Weird.

Awesome news on the fliers and email.

I got some stencils and the green finger ink pad from national yesterday. I'll take some 11 x 17 extra papers from work here and will get some stencils on them saying No New Coal and Green Jobs for All, then we can hand those out to people at the rally.

sounds good

Got an email reply from obama's scheduler and a phone call from Dodd's scheduler, they're each looking into getting representatives to the event

so today I've taken calls from these campaigns: dodd, obama, richardson

lets home we have at least a 33% success ratio

I also called Mayor Wilburn and left him a message inviting him