Sacramento EVUpdate |
December 2001 |
"Would you drive your
car... if the exhaust pipe was in the middle of the steering wheel?" |
Volume 6 Issue 1 |
A New
Beginning by Tony Cygan Welcome to the Sacramento EVUpdate! It's been quite some time since I've had the pleasure of talking about our beloved EV's (electric vehicles for those new to the term). I'm starting a new quarterly on-line newsletter to help inform local Sacramento area EV owners of what is going on in the world of EV's, the environmental issues surrounding them, and the technical aspects of the cars. I'm also going to be covering other related technologies such as Fuel Cells and Hybrid vehicles. Since my initial introduction to electric vehicles came in the form of converting a gas car to electric power, I will continue to talk about this form of EV. But since many people out there don't have the time or skills to go this route and look towards the major manufacturers to provide their transportation, we need to look at all the options. This month I'm heading over to the EVAA Electric Transportation Industry Conference here in Sacramento. The conference is an industry trade show of sorts that has both mainstream and independent technology providers showing off their ideas. It's also a training ground with classes for the attendees to see and hear about some other technologies in the field of electric transportation. So look for my conference notes in the next issue. See you then.
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Sacramento EV Parking The City of Sacramento has updated their EV parking program. The basic program allows for those people who want to park (and in some locations charge) an EV in a city owned garage, the city provides free, yes free parking. They plan to allow this until 5% of the vehicles parking in any garage are electric, at which time they will implement a fee structure. Currently program participants must take a parking ticket upon entry to the garage and then go thru the normal toll booth on exit. They must sign the back of the ticket and write the EV parking pass number on it. The parking attendant then lets them thru the gate after you show your pass. The new program provides the EV with an electronic pass like those who pay monthly. So getting in and out of the garage you just place the pass against the card detector and away you go. No more waiting in line and you can use other garage exits. All city garages should be updated to the new system by early 2002 and the pass is good at all of them. Contact Leslie at the City Parking office
for more information at (916) 264-5110. Or write her at -- |
What
About The Sacramento EV Association?
For those of you wondering what has become of the Sacramento EV Association, well...the club as it stands now is in limbo. We need new blood to take on the officer duties. All of the previous officers have gone on to other things in their lives and can no longer do the normal tasks that a membership organization requires (ie: finding speakers for the meetings, organizing and holding regular EVents, doing the newsletter, etc). Back in July most of the past board got together and put out some ideas on what the club could morph into. One idea that was the most popular was a working club. The main idea was that we would get together and work on each others EV's or some other EV project. We would also work to hold EVents, but no normal monthly meetings. Those of us with EV's wanted to do something with them other than our once a year drive to UC Davis for the Clean Air Commute and our club picnic. If you're interested in joining us, either in taking on organizing a new club for monthly meetings and newsletter, or to work on our cars, send me an email. Hopefully once the weather clears up we can start getting together and get this new aspect of the club going. Send you ideas and comments to me at tonyc@144volts.com
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Copyright © 2001 |