SEVA EVUpdate Newsletter November 1995

SEVA EVUpdate Newsletter

November 1995

Presidents Message by Mark Bahlke

Greetings everyone! (I would say holiday greetings, but that will have plenty of time to get over-used in the coming months.)

Well, things are still moving forward with good momentum. I think we will have a good winter, followed by a spring in which EVs bloom from everywhere in Sacramento. I have recently completed (for now anyway) reviewing the EV project board, and the results of that effort are in this issue.

I was impressed that when I recieved this list (actually an Excel spreadsheet) there were 28 vehicles listed with owners. I had data at that time which showed about 6 vehicles in the club, and I was really excited that the actual number was so much greater. After calling everyone on the list, and discussing the status of their vehicles, I am happy to report that the number has again risen, to 40 member owned vehicles, and 2 non-member owned EVs, for a total of 42 privately owned EVs in Sacramento! This is great!

It's no wonder that we can have a summer picnic and see 14 vehicles lined up at the curb. Out of the 40 vehicles about 13 are listed as in progress conversions, with the remainder on the road, or in driveable condition. Additionally, I checked mileage stats where they were available, and totalled them up. In the last 2 to 3 years that members have kept records, SEVA has logged over 120,000 pollution free electric miles!

These figures will be updated on our EV project board, and also posted to the EV distribution list on the internet (and on our Internet Web HomePage). I am hoping that this will generate some enthusiasm on the part of other groups to put together the same kind of information. This could go a long way towards countering the anti EV movement which says that EVs don't work and aren't practical.

At the local level, look over the vehicles listed there, and see who needs help getting their car on the road. See if there is something you can do to help. Or, look for a vehicle which looks interesting, and contact the owner, to arrange a test-ride. With a membership of about 120 right now, SEVA has one EV for every 3 members! We could (almost) put the entire SEVA membership into our EVs, and drive them around town! Think of the possibilities. Ride and drives take on a whole new perspective with this kind of crowd.

Speaking of which, the first SEVA ride & drive (in quite awhile) was a success. Small, but successful. It was a good start, and showed the places where we can improve. The people there seemed to agree that we could put on this kind of activity once per quarter, and do very well. We will see what the possibility of a January-February-March ride and drive looks like. Keep watching these pages for more info. Better yet, come to a board meeting, and help us out.

Also, please remember that elections are coming up. It's time to get those nominations in. Look for the ballots in the December/January timeframe. This is the time to make a decision to make a difference. I will not allow cheezy campaign ploys to besmirch this hallowed column, but a certain high ranking officer of SEVA is a little curious as to the member sentiment towards his continued service in this -er- his position. Please send all feedback, positive, or neutral to me, and I will make sure that it gets forwarded properly. Thats all for now, see you next month!

Monthly Meeting Minutes by Tony Cygan

This months meeting consisted of presentations by local club members, Mike Simpson, Greg McCrea, Ed Brannon, and Rick Prestel.

These guys talked about what it took to get their EVs on the road. They hit upon the pitfall, as well as the joys and went from talking about designing an EV for a class project (Mike), to making sure you keep good notes about your project for later reference (Rick). This last one got a good chuckle from the membership when Rick showed how he had made up some nice diagrams, but didn't keep any notes on what they were for.

Everyone who attended this presentation liked what they had heard and so we will hold another one of these in the near future with more of our local SEVA members talking about their experiences, so keep an eye out in the newsletter for the date.

We also had a quick overview of the REDI conference from Phil Leen of Solar Depot. Phil was at the conference mostly for the Solar applications, but decided to attend the EV presentations that were being given. Phil had a lot of photos and brochures that he brought back with him and he let the membership look thru them and ask him questions.

Other items brought up during the meeting was a safety briefing on battery charging from Ruth MacDougall. Ruth hit upon the need for adequate ventilation when charging the EV batteries to prevent hydrogen gas building up and causing a potential explosion. Ruth was requested to write an article for the newsletter on the subject. A reminder of the next days picnic/Ride & Drive in Land Park was also made and finally there was some discussion on the CARB ZEV Mandate and the Battery Technology Review panel and their findings.

The meeting was adjurned a little after Noon.

Monthly Board Minutes by Bill Dean

The SEVA board failed to get a quorum for the October meeting due to other board members prior commitments, so the meeting was held to discuss issues that did not require any voting.

Ruth McDougall and Michael Simpson gave a report about the monthly meeting. Michael and other club members were speakers at the meeting. Mark Bahlke suggested that it would be good to feature presentations from SEVA members again in the near future. Tony Cygan reported that the attendance was about 30, with about 20 who attend regularly and 10 others. Mark suggested that people with EVs for sale should get a chance to make anannouncement at the end of the meeting. Mark mentioned that the project board needs updating and correcting. He suggested putting a picture of the car on the board. Tony wants to put photos of each car and owner on the SEVA Web page. Mark suggested that someone call the various EV owners prior to SEVA EVents, to encourage them to attend with their vehicles.

Bill Dean agreed to chair the Nominating Committee for the upcoming Board elections. The Board can promote this cause by having some Board members stand up at the monthly meeting and describe their experiences.

Everybody left at 845pm.

Editors Corner by Tony Cygan

The weathers a changing. That's what I've noticed lately.

In fact we had a 'chance' of rain a couple of days ago and it got me to thinking that I still have alot of things I need to do to get my EV ready for the winter driving season. I don't want to have to be working on it in the cold & rain, or worrying about what might happen beacuse I didn't do something while the weather was still nice enough to work on the car.

For those of you with EVs, nows the time to make sure you clean your battery terminals and connectors and re-tighten all your connections so that you get all the juice possible out of your batteries (don't forget that cold weather will take some of your range away). Check your tire pressures, fill up the window cleaner fluid and check the wiper blades, replace as needed. For those of you with a heater/defroster, it's a good time to make sure it's all in working order. And finally, keep your batteries fully charged by opportunity charging as much as possible (the batteries can handle the cold better when fully charged).

I'm sure I've forgotten something, so just take a minute and make your own list of things that need to be done to your car before the weather turns bad. You'll be glad you did.

Bogus Article Knocks EV Safety Reprinted from ZEVolutions Newsletter

The articles scream of fire and explosions, toxic leaks and danger to emergency workers. are they reffering to gasoline cars? No! They're reffering to electric vehicles.

The articles are part of a series of oil and auto industry-funded hit pieces full of inaccuracies. Unfortunately, they appeared recently in several California newspapers.

Of course, the stories failed to mention conventional gasoline vehicle haszards. For the record, 103 people died in fires in conventional gasoline vehicles in 1991, according to the state fire marshall. Automobile fires caused $85 million in property damage in 1991.

No one questions the need to assure EV safety. The problem with so many of the articles being pumped out by the opposition, is that they purposely mislead the public. If you come across similar critical articles, you can bet they were probably written by an employee at one of the high-priced PR firms working for the three primary opponents: American Automobile Manufacturers Association, Western States Petroleum Association or the California Manufacturers Association.

Please write letters to the editor in response to these articles when you come across them.

Electric Cars at BART Stations Reprinted from San Francisco Chronicle, 10/25/95

For many would-be BART riders, the biggest drawback is the hassle of getting to the office or the occasional meeting across town without a car. For a handful of commuters, a solution may be at hand.

Under a pilot program unveiled yesterday, small electric cars will be available at BART stations, starting with the Ashby station in Berkeley, for use around town by rail commuters. Electric charging stations installed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will allow the cars, and any other electric vehicles parked at the station, to recharge, free of charge. Colma, Lafayette and Walnut Creek (are scheduled for) next summer.

Sybase, the Emeryville software giant, has leased the first nine cars for use by 13 employees.

Ultimately BART envisions hundreds of cars in use between homes,offices and its stations. Questions such as how much they would cost to rent and who would be responsible for recharging them haven't been answered. Among the collaborators are PG&E, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and Sybase, which is the first U.S. company to offer free use of nonpolluting electric vehicles to its workers. The only comparable program is in Boston, which last year made 16 electriccars available to commuters.

The lightweight cars, which resemble oversized golf carts, hold two passengers comfortably with plenty of storage in the back. Built in Norway from recyclable aluminum and plastic to U.S. and Europeansafety standards, they have a top speed of about 55 miles per hour and a city range of 65 miles on a full battery charge.

The Norwegian manufacturer, PIVCO, says the cars will sell for less than $10,000.

NEV News by Ruth MacDougall

A new publication is available for those who have a fondness for NEVs, otherwise known as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. NEV NEWS is put out by some of our friends up north in Seattle, Olof Sundin and his son Matt. I received their first issue with some great articles about this type of "appropriate technology".

The 8-page October issue will feature articles such as:

"The Small Electric Car: Vehicle for the New Urbanism" by Tim Andersen;
"NEV Driving in Woodinville, WA" by Cictor Munoz;
"The FREE-WAY Restored" by Dave Cloud;
"The Trike Configuration" by Matt Sundin; and
"NEV News from Europe" by Olof Sundin.

I'll bet that the publishers would also like to hear reports from NEV drivers here in Sacramento. You know who you are. Maybe an article submitted now would make it into the December issue.

NEV NEWS is a bi-monthly newletter for $12 a year. Published by Matt & Olof Sundin, 4506 Bagley Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103, Phone/fax206/634-0263.

I also received a brochure of "EVs for Sale" by ElectriCar Seattle. Look for copies of that at the next meeting.

EV Car Rentals From Press Release

National Car Rental To Rent EVs to State Workers in Sacramento On Business

Subcompact or compact? Extra insurance? Natural gas or electric? State employees on business trips to Sacramento will have a new question to answer at the car rental counter, with the addition of two Honda electric vehicles and two Honda Civic natural gas-powered prototypes to National Car Rental's fleet at Sacramento Metropolitan Airport.

The environmentally friendly Honda vehicles will be placed in limited rental service by National Car Rental for use by selected State of California employees traveling to Sacramento on business. The program, designed to study the use of alternative-fuel vehicles by rental fleets, is a joint effort among American Honda Motor Co., Inc., National Car Rental System, Inc., the State of California and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

The Department of General Services, Office of Fleet Administration, which manages the State's fleet of vehicles, first conceived of the program and approached the California Energy Commission for assistance in bringing the parties together.

"The State represents 8 percent of the car rental traffic at the Sacramento airport, so this is an excellent way to help clean the air and to study the real life application of electric and natural gas vehicles," said Tim Bow, Chief of the Office of Fleet Administration.

The program will operate for one year, beginning this month. "We see this project as an opportunity to learn about alternative- fuel vehicles from an operational point of view and from our customer's point of view, " said Roy Finsterbusch, Western region fleet manager for National Car Rental. "This project will help us understand the potential for these vehicles in the competitive daily rental car business."

Honda is currently conducting product evaluation programs for electric and natural gas-powered vehicles with utilities throughout the United States.

"This is one more niche market that can benefit from the Honda alternative-fuel vehicles," said Robert Bienenfeld, manager of Honda's alternative task force. "The project will be an interesting test for electric vehicles because the travel patterns from the airport to downtown and back are very predictable and well within the EV's range."

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) will provide two charging stations for the electric vehicles at the airport. State employees participating in the program also can take advantage of the 30 additional charging sites SMUD has installed throughout Sacramento.

"This is an ideal use of electric vehicles and an excellent example of how several parties can work together successfully to bring alternative-fuel vehicles to the marketplace," said Michael Wirsch, manager of SMUD's Electric Transportation Department.

EV For Sale

Some details: 1987 Yugo 2 door, white with biege interior.
About 5,000 miles in the car since converted about 3 years ago.
Prestolite 84V motor
Curtis 1221B controller and potbox
13, 12volt DieHard batteries.
Built in charger for both the propulsion batteries and the 12V auxilliary battery.
Please contact Mark Bahlke for any further information at: 916-988-8368, or email at mbahlke@mcd.intel.com.

Upcomming EVents

SEVA Activities
o  General Meeting, Saturday, November 11th at 10am.
o  Board Meeting, Monday, November 13th at 7pm.
o  General Meeting, Saturday, December 9th at 10am.
o  Board Meeting, Monday, December 11th at 7pm.
o  General Meeting, Saturday, January 13th at 10am.
o  Board Meeting, Monday, January 15th at 7pm.

Bay Area/Modesto EAA Activities
o WESCON, December 7-9 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center

National/International EV Activities
o  North American EV Infrastructure Conference, Dec. 12-14
o  Phoenix APS Electrics, March 1-3, 1996.