Posts Tagged ‘electric car’

Auto-Mobi.info, July 22, 2010

While customers can already test drive the low-speed Wheego Whip at the Jim Ellis Saab Atlanta location at 5862 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Jim Ellis Automotive Group is taking greater strides to provide low-emission, fuel efficient vehicles to the greater Atlanta area.

As the sole dealer of the Wheego Electric Cars, when the Wheego LiFe rolls out in September, Jim Ellis will be the first dealer in Atlanta to offer fully certified highway-speed fully electric vehicles for commercial and retail consumers.

“We want to become the auto dealer expert in this emerging technology,” says Jimmy Ellis, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Jim Ellis Automotive Group. “Jim Ellis is proud to have been chosen as the exclusive dealer in Atlanta GA for the Wheego car line of electric vehicles. This is an exciting development in our green initiative – promoting sustainable energy options while providing stylish, cutting-edge vehicles for our customers.”

However, the Ellis group has been quietly moving toward greener, more sustainable brands and vehicles for some time. Of course, the group began as a single Volkswagen dealership on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in 1971, and VW has long been known for their clean diesel TDI brand. The high-demand Volkswagen Jetta TDI has been named the “Green car of the Year” for several years running.

The luxury Audi TDIs also win accolades for being fuel efficient, low-emmision cars and SUVs. Jim Ellis Audi Atlanta has been promoting the TDI’s sustainability via partnerships with other environmentally-conscious brands, such as the LEED certified Philps Arena and the Loews Hotel in Midtown.

With the addition of their new Buick GMC dealership in Buford, Georgia, the Jim Ellis dealerships have a total of three General Motors sales and service points. General Motors is already offering Hybrid and Flex fuel options of many of their trucks and SUVs, including models of the Chevrolet Tahoe, Silverado, the GMC Sierra and Yukon models. Of course, General Motors is also working on the much-anticipated Chevy Volt electric vehicle, too!

Earlier in 2010, the Ellis group opened a Mitsubishi dealership at their 1141 Cobb Parkway location in anticipation of the i-MiEV and other innovations coming from the manufacturer such as the 2013 Evolution IV, a hybrid model of the sporty Mitsubishi Lancer.

The Porsche Cayenne Hybrid will be available later this year, and other automotive manufacturers are also gearing up to produce and sell eco-friendly vehicle options.

In the weeks to come, the Jim Ellis Green initiative will be fully launched, including a searchable green inventory that isolates only the lower-emission, higher-mileage and alternative fuel options from among the inventories of all of the Jim Ellis dealerships.

About Jim Ellis Automotive Dealerships: The Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships are a family-owned and operated business with dealerships located in Atlanta and Marietta, Georgia. The Jim Ellis dealerships sell new cars from Audi, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Saab, Wheego Electric Vehicles and Volkswagen, as well as a wide selection of used cars. To learn more, or to browse a complete inventory online, please visit the Jim Ellis Family website (http://www.jimellis.com).

by Pamela Coyle, Coyle on Cars, Sunpluggers.com, July 17, 2010

We all remember parental warnings about mixing electricity and water. Those cautions are reinforced, at least in my case, by watching entirely too many accidental or homicidal death scenes on television that involve a small electric appliance and a bath, or in high-end settings, a hot tub.

Cars and water don’t mix well. I’ve managed to avoid driving through high floodwaters in both New Orleans and Nashville, but I’ve seen the results for those less fortunate. Inundated with cool water, hot engine blocks crack. The 12-volt electrical systems freak out. People get injured or killed – but by the water, not the electricity. And the carpet and upholstery never, ever recover.

PHOTO CREDIT: SOLAR HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL
The battery pack shown in a cutaway diorama of the Chevrolet Volt. Any loss of isolation within the electrical system shuts it down.

The 2010 hurricane and flood season is upon us. The U.S. rollout of some high-profile EVs is nigh. And a question nags at me: What about the water?

An electric vehicle is not a toaster. Toasters, at least the ones we use at our house, do not have sophisticated automatic shut-off and safety systems, and EVs hitting the U.S. market later this year will. Keith Schultz, GM’s senior manager of Global Vehicle High Voltage Electric & Battery Safety, and Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan Americas, talked to me about electric power systems in the Volt and the Leaf, respectively.

The high-voltage wiring is under the car and not within the passenger cabin. In general, an impact automatically shuts down the high-voltage system that powers the car. Air bag deployment shuts it down. The battery pack itself is completely sealed. Any loss of isolation within the electrical system shuts it down. A manual shut-off exists for first responders who may worry that the juice is still flowing.

Both General Motors and Nissan are providing information and training to emergency personnel in their EV target markets. The Volt training begins next month in Chicago during the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire-Rescue International Conference.

Although the Volt has a small internal combustion engine that keeps the battery charged longer, both it and the Leaf incorporate high-voltage power that is engineered differently than the familiar vehicle 12-volt batteries that power the lights, stereo and other auxiliary systems.

A jolt from a 12-volt can give you a bad buzz. An electric shock from a damaged high-voltage EV can kill, or can ignite stray gasoline. A regular car battery produces shocks because it is not a closed system and is grounded in the vehicle structure itself. In an EV, the electrical system is isolated and self-contained in its own circuit. “Any loss of isolation, the battery sucks down and the control system will open the main contactors and contain the energy in the battery pack,” Mr. Schultz says. “If there is a crash, sensors also instruct the computer to open main contactors.”

These cars also have manual electric system shut-offs. In the Volt, a module attached to the battery pack is pulled out and separated. Access to a similar manual disconnect in the Leaf is through a panel in the floor, under a piece of carpet.

Mr. Perry of Nissan describes it as “three-layer protection.” The charging port has similar safeguards. “If damage to the port, then no power,” he says. And all major EV manufacturers have agreed to use a standard plug port.

High-voltage wiring also looks different. It is orange. This is not an arbitrary designer choice. Because electric vehicles are, well, electric, they must conform to electrical industry standards for wiring, and those rules dictate orange wrapping for the high-voltage stuff.

Gas-electric hybrids already follow these rules and carry some mighty powerful battery packs, ranging from about 150 to more than 300 volts of direct current. The danger zone for DC power can be as low as 55 to 60 volts, compared to 110 volts for alternating current.

EVs will face the same federal standards for crash testing, and the manufacturers have put the battery packs through some special ordeals to test their integrity. At Nissan, for example, engineers have dumped the battery pack into swimming pools, frozen it and hit it with high-pressure hoses, Mr. Perry says.

Safety is not a frivolous concern, and countering consumer misperceptions and wariness about new EV technology is part of the industry’s challenge. “A lot of myths out there we are trying to dispel up front so we can get ahead of it,” Mr. Schultz says.

So the bad news is that floodwaters still can quickly consume a vehicle and its occupants. The medium news is that it doesn’t much matter how the vehicle is powered. The good news is that the weight and location of battery packs may give EVs an edge because they create a lower (and heavier) center of gravity but also permit ground clearance that is higher than a typical sedan and closer to that of an SUV.

And honestly, we drive around now in vehicles with internal combustion engines, which get really, really hot, and many gallons of highly flammable liquid. Cue up any episode of “Burn Notice” or the James Bond theme music, please.

Odds and Ends

Wherever Wheego. Wheego started taking orders for the full-speed Wheego LiFe on June 14 and the first cars will ship to U.S. customers in September. This generation of Wheego will be highway-ready and last about 100 miles on a charge; the Wheego Whip LSV is limited to roads with posted speed limits of 35 mph.

Wheego, based in Atlanta, took eight Whip LSVs to Bonnaroo in early June for the festival staff to use behind the scenes transporting themselves and the artists. With temperatures hitting 100 degrees in Manchester, Tenn., for this year’s party, the Whip’s air conditioning proved quite popular. And unlike golf carts, the Whip has a lock.

The General Services Administration in late June approved the Whip LSV for government contracts, allowing the company to sell the cars to federal agencies and U.S. military installations, where, as it happens, posted speed limits are 35 mph or less.

New digs, new states. It is no surprise that ECOtality Inc., the charging infrastructure folks, located its new headquarters in San Francisco. The Bay Area is an EV epicenter and California is expected to be the largest electric vehicle market in the U.S. The company’s offices for Innergy Power and the ECOtality Store will stay in their San Diego locations, and the offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and Tennessee will stay put. ECOtality North America will continue in Phoenix.

On Thursday, the company added Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston to the EV Project, bringing the total to 16 cities in six states: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Tennessee and Texas, plus the District of Columbia. Overall, The EV Project will include the manufacture and installation of more than 15,000 chargers in residential and public locations throughout the United States.

Volt ramps up. General Motors estimates annual production of 10,000 Volts in 2011, and 30,000 Volts in 2012. The company says Volts will be available in all 50 states 12 to 18 months after the initial retail launch. The first Volts will be sold in California; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; and the New York City metropolitan area later in 2010. Dealerships in Michigan, New Jersey and Connecticut, plus the remaining Texas and New York markets, will be next up in the first quarter of 2011.

Chevy also announced on Wednesday it will warranty the Volt battery for eight years or 100,000 miles.

Blame it on gas. With relatively low summer gas prices, U.S. sales of hybrid cars fell by 17.5 percent in June, compared to June 2009. Overall car sales, however, increased 14 percent. The numbers, from hybridcars.com, suggest 2010 will be the third consecutive year of declining hybrid sales.

Pamela Coyle, a freelance writer and editor based in Nashville, Tenn., was an assistant city editor at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and a member of the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Katrina coverage team. Most recently, Ms. Coyle was an assistant city editor at The Tennessean in Nashville. She has a master’s degree in the study of law from Yale University and is a regular contributor to EnergyBiz magazine. Contact her at pcoyle@sunpluggers.com

Wheego was added to the ElectricOnWheels.com site, July 15, 2010

Wheego All Electric Car - Atlanta USA

NEWS RELEASE

ATLANTA (July 15,  2010) – WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS, manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, today announced it has appointed Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships as its dealer throughout the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area.

“We are headquartered here in Atlanta,” said Wheego President Jeff Boyd, “so we are very familiar with the reputation of the local dealerships. In Atlanta, the Jim Ellis name is synonymous with excellent business practices and top-notch customer service. We are very pleased that Jim Ellis has chosen Wheego Electric Cars as part of their portfolio as they launch Georgia’s preeminent Electric Vehicle dealership.

“Wheego Electric Cars is about to beat all the major auto manufacturers to market with an affordable all-electric car,” said Jim Ellis Auto’s COO, Jimmy Ellis. “We will launch our EV initiative with the Wheego Whip LSV, a low-speed all-electric car that is particularly suitable to neighborhood driving and fleet usage. Customers can take the low-speed car for a test drive at our dealership in July and get a sense of the engineering, styling and overall quality of the Wheego brand… and, they can also reserve the first highway speed, crash tested, all electric car on the Wheego website for delivery beginning in September. When Wheego rolls out the highway version, called the LiFe, we’ll also have the car available at our dealership for our Atlanta area customers to test drive. It’s a great fit for anyone who commutes under 50 miles each way because you can drive the car 100 miles on a charge; and, then, just as easy as a cell phone, you can plug it in every night to recharge. You’ll zip right by the gas station every day. Plus, you can drive this car in the HOV lane in Georgia by yourself.”

The highway-ready Wheego LiFe goes approximately 100 miles on a charge, and retails for $32,995. The Wheego LiFe qualifies for a $7,500 Federal tax credit, and a $5,000 Georgia state tax credit, dropping the effective net price in Georgia to under $21,000. In addition, Georgia drivers will be able to drive the Wheego LiFe in the HOV lane (with no additional passenger in the car) by obtaining an alternate fuel vehicle license plate.

The Wheego LiFe comes fully-equipped with driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, and power windows and locks. The 115V lithium battery pack can be charged from a standard 120V outlet, a 240V outlet or any of the J1772 standard charging stations being installed in public locations throughout the US. It is available in red, white, blue, black, silver, and green. The Wheego Whip LiFe is a two-seat subcompact car with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. 

Atlanta drivers can reserve a Wheego LiFe by visiting www.wheego.net and making a fully refundable $100 deposit. The highway-ready LiFe will be available through Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships beginning in September. For more information or to locate a Jim Ellis dealership, visit http://www.jimelliswheeego.com.

About Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships

Jim Ellis is a family-owned business with twelve sales and service locations and almost 40 years’ experience in the Atlanta area. Jim Ellis was honored in 2008 as Time Magazine’s Dealer of the Year, and has won the Consumer’s Choice award for Business Excellence for the past six years. For more information about Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships, visit the company website at www.jimellis.com.

About Wheego Electric Cars

Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs).  Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components.  Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal all-electric cars for everyday consumer use. The Wheego line of electric vehicles is emission-free, making them an ideal choice for consumers and businesses who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The cars are assembled in Ontario, California.

For more information about Wheego, and to view the list of Wheego dealers, visit the company website at http://wheego.net

Go To Wheego Website

ATLANTA (July 15,  2010) – WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS, manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, today announced it has appointed Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships as its dealer throughout the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area.

“We are headquartered here in Atlanta,” said Wheego President Jeff Boyd, “so we are very familiar with the reputation of the local dealerships. In Atlanta, the Jim Ellis name is synonymous with excellent business practices and top-notch customer service. We are very pleased that Jim Ellis has chosen Wheego Electric Cars as part of their portfolio as they launch Georgia’s preeminent Electric Vehicle dealership.

“Wheego Electric Cars is about to beat all the major auto manufacturers to market with an affordable all-electric car,” said Jim Ellis Auto’s COO, Jimmy Ellis. “We will launch our EV initiative with the Wheego Whip LSV, a low-speed all-electric car that is particularly suitable to neighborhood driving and fleet usage. Customers can take the low-speed car for a test drive at our dealership in July and get a sense of the engineering, styling and overall quality of the Wheego brand… and, they can also reserve the first highway speed, crash tested, all electric car on the Wheego website for delivery beginning in September. When Wheego rolls out the highway version, called the LiFe, we’ll also have the car available at our dealership for our Atlanta area customers to test drive. It’s a great fit for anyone who commutes under 50 miles each way because you can drive the car 100 miles on a charge; and, then, just as easy as a cell phone, you can plug it in every night to recharge. You’ll zip right by the gas station every day. Plus, you can drive this car in the HOV lane in Georgia by yourself.”

The highway-ready Wheego LiFe goes approximately 100 miles on a charge, and retails for $32,995. The Wheego LiFe qualifies for a $7,500 Federal tax credit, and a $5,000 Georgia state tax credit, dropping the effective net price in Georgia to under $21,000. In addition, Georgia drivers will be able to drive the Wheego LiFe in the HOV lane (with no additional passenger in the car) by obtaining an alternate fuel vehicle license plate.

The Wheego LiFe comes fully-equipped with driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, and power windows and locks. The 115V lithium battery pack can be charged from a standard 120V outlet, a 240V outlet or any of the J1772 standard charging stations being installed in public locations throughout the US. It is available in red, white, blue, black, silver, and green. The Wheego Whip LiFe is a two-seat subcompact car with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. 

Atlanta drivers can reserve a Wheego LiFe by visiting www.wheego.net and making a fully refundable $100 deposit. The highway-ready LiFe will be available through Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships beginning in September. For more information or to locate a Jim Ellis dealership, visit http://www.jimelliswheeego.com.

About Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships

Jim Ellis is a family-owned business with twelve sales and service locations and almost 40 years’ experience in the Atlanta area. Jim Ellis was honored in 2008 as Time Magazine’s Dealer of the Year, and has won the Consumer’s Choice award for Business Excellence for the past six years. For more information about Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships, visit the company website at www.jimellis.com.

About Wheego Electric Cars

Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs).  Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components.  Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal all-electric cars for everyday consumer use. The Wheego line of electric vehicles is emission-free, making them an ideal choice for consumers and businesses who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The cars are assembled in Ontario, California.

For more information about Wheego, and to view the list of Wheego dealers, visit the company website at www.wheego.net.

by Jim Motavalli for bNet, July 9, 2010

Why should predictions be restricted to the end of the year? I make them all the time, and this is such an interesting crossroads for the auto industry that I’d like to offer some now for 2011, right here in the dog days of summer:

1. A Slow Start. Although Ford, Chevrolet, Tesla, Fisker, Coda, Nissan, Wheego, Think and many more are preparing new battery and plug-in hybrid cars for late this year and early next, a manufacturer that sells 10,000 of any of these cars should count itself lucky. EVs are a really new concept for people, and there will be a lot more tire-kicking than contract-signing.
2. Zip Code Rules. As I reported earlier this week, sales will be concentrated in California. But it’s more than that – early EVs for 2011 will be expensive, so they’ll be heavily represented in certain affluent zip codes on both coasts. Praveen Mandal, president of charging company Coulomb, calls this “clustering.” That is one of many challenges that utilities have to face as they try to figure out how to build out the grid to accommodate EVs. Scott Simons of the Detroit-area DTE Energy told me that his company is working with automakers to try and identify those neighborhoods and beef up infrastructure there with bigger substations and more.
3. Winners and Losers. The entry market strongly favors established players, and they’ll be the ones that will see the most action in 2011. Nissan, for example, has huge built-in advantages in promoting its Leaf battery car. These include a name recognition, a national dealer network and money to pay for TV advertising. Chevrolet has the same for the Volt “range extender,” and Ford for its electric version of the Focus. Newcomers like Think, Coda and Wheego will have credible cars, but they’ll really have to be clever about the guerrilla marketing and publicity to get their voices heard.
4. Subsidies Matter. Many states are now offering tax incentives for EVs, but California rules with a $5,000 cash rebate (that could run out quickly). By offsetting steep purchase prices, these credits will really make a difference. A Nissan Leaf for $20,000 instead of $32,000? Yes, but only in California. EV sales could take off past 10,000 per carmaker if the feds pass pending legislation called the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, which has bipartisan support. In the wake of President Obama’s appearance at the Smith Electric Vehicle plant in Missouri this week, the Electrification Coalition’s Robbie Diamond pointed out that Obama has said he would sign it, but “now is the time to move that legislation forward.” The bill would give EV buyers in select “deployment communities” incentives worth up to $10,000.
5. “Range Anxiety” Will Fade. The fear that EVs will run out of juice halfway home will keep a lot of people from buying them in the first half of 2011, but such nail biting will evaporate in the third and fourth quarters. Few people really need more than 100 miles of range –- they just think they do. Good word of mouth from EV early adopters should clear that up.
6. Cities Will Lag in Setting up Charging Networks. I went searching for a Manhattan-based EV plug-in, but found only one. The bigger the city, the longer this will take, especially in the early days of 2011. Although EVs are really more city than suburban cars, charging them will be a headache in New York, Chicago and other cities where space is at a premium and most people live in apartments. Los Angeles? The city is already set up for cars, and so gung-ho about EVs they’ll find a way to get ‘em plugged in.

Jim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.

July 7, 2010  Atlanta Business Radio invited Wheego VP-Marketing Les Seagraves to guest on their show:

Listen in here!

by Seth Rowe, Sun Newspapers, Minnesota Local News – June 26, 2010

St. Louis Park vehicle salesman Jay Sitter has a smooth ride.

Sitter sells and uses ultra-quiet all-electric vehicles at a store simply called The Electric Vehicle Store, located at 4419 Excelsior Blvd. On his way to a meeting, he smoothly and noiselessly exited a garage in the back of conventional automotive shop Auto Motion.

The Electric Vehicle Store sells short-range electric vehicles like pickups, small cars and scooters. The store began as a part of Edina Bike and Sport through the work of owner Carl Gulbronson. The electric vehicles became popular enough that they fueled the opening of The Electric Vehicle Store in St. Louis Park, which has been in business for three years.

The vehicles sold at the store are all low-speed vehicles. A Zapino electric scooter similar in style to a Vespa travels up to about 30 miles per hour, according to its manufacturer, and runs up to about 30 miles on a charge. Like the other all-electric vehicles the scooter does not make noise and does not create emissions through exhaust. The Zapino scooter and most other electric vehicles plug into a standard three-prong 120-volt wall outlet. A full charge typically takes six to eight hours.

For the individual who likes to be protected from the elements, the store offers a car called the Wheego Whip. The technical specifications state the vehicle can be programmed to top out at 25 miles per hour. During a test run, the vehicle quickly and easily achieved about 35 miles per hour, though. The “real world driving range” is listed as 40 miles.

“It’s the perfect car for the teenager,” Sitter said. “You can’t go more than 20 miles from home or more than 35 miles per hour, and there’s no backseat.”

The store refers to the cars as neighborhood electric vehicles. They are more appropriate as a second car for many drivers, but would meet the needs of many commuters traveling 15 miles or less to work.

“One of the biggest deals about our electric vehicles is they’re not golf carts that have evolved into cars,” he said. “They are cars.”

A new Wheego electric vehicle would further fit the capabilities many associate with cars. The new two-seater Whip LiFe cars would travel up to 65 miles per hour for up to 100 miles on a single charge. They are expected to hit the market, including The Electric Vehicle Store, in September and have a listed retail price of about $33,000 before a federal tax credit of $7,500.

The chassis of the Wheego vehicles come from a modified Chinese vehicle but the motor and electric components come from North America. Although two-seaters, they feature plenty of headroom and a fair amount of trunk space. The life of the battery charge in the vehicles is extended through the use of regenerative braking, which captures and stores energy when the driver brakes.

Electric vehicles cost less than $1 per day in electrical costs to operate, Sitter said. With only about 25 moving parts in an electric car and no oil to change, maintenance is relatively simple, he said. No parts become hot from use, so they’re relatively easy to work on, added employee Jim Courteau. He noted a friend’s electric bill increased just about $10 per month as a result of charging an electric car.

The store’s website also features a space age styled three-wheeled vehicle expected to arrive later this year. The Alias would have a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour with a range of 100 miles per hour. The unusual-looking machine resembles a sleek ultra-modern sports car from the front but contains just one back tire.

Most of the cars are available with a weather management system that heats batteries during charges to help the vehicles start in cold weather.

The store sells to individuals but their biggest clients are colleges, municipal governments and other organizations, Sitter said. A truck with the brand name Miles is one of the more popular. Nice Ride Minnesota, a new bike-sharing program in Minneapolis, purchased two of the electric Miles trucks with which to move bikes to various stations in the city. Several University of Wisconsin campuses have also purchased electric vehicles.

“It’s for anyone who wants to have a green image and show a progressive image,” Sitter said. “Electric vehicles have evolved and continue to evolve very rapidly. I’m excited about the direction the industry is going in.”

The store focuses on providing public education through trade shows and in conjunction with community partnerships, Sitter said. Representatives of the store also seek to promote infrastructure, such as charging systems. The city of St. Paul is considering adding charging stations to some of the city’s parking ramps and along streets.

“We get a lot of positive response from the public in general, like this is great and yeah, that’s what we need to do,” Sitter said.

The Electric Vehicle Store is not the only commercial enterprise in St. Louis Park, either. The only Segway dealer listed in Minnesota on Segway’s website is B2B Segway, 5500 West 36th St. in St. Louis Park. The company is famous for its two-wheeled electric vehicles operated by standing on a platform and leaning forward or backward to move. The Segway Personal Transporter can travel up to 24 miles on a single charge.

To learn more about Segway, visit segway.com. For information about The Electric Vehicle Store, check out PluginMN.com.

by Lynne at Electric Cars Are For Girls, July 1, 2010

The Wheego Whip has gone on a diet, lost a little weight, and is now officially a hottie.

This cute little NEV, in case you’ve never met, looks quite a bit like a Smart ForTwo, and it’s a two-seater just like the Smart. It’s got an AC motor, and the NEV version comes with 96 volts, so that’s quite a lot of power and weight for a neighborhood electric car, don’t you think? (It doesn’t take 96 volts to move a small, light car peppily up to their legally-governed speed of 25-35 mph…so most NEV manufacturers go lighter.)

What those extra volts should give you is acceleration, hill-climbing ability, and the gumption to carry around two full-sized Americans. The trade-off is that every time you add another battery, you add weight. The Wheego Whip with lead AGM batteries is heavy; 3600 pounds with batteries, according to this Autopia Wheego Whip review. It wasn’t all that peppy from 0-35 mph, according to the review, but it was respectable, solid, and decently-appointed.

Wow, a grown-up urban commuter with bigger muscles than the Zenn. Okay.

But don’t they still make their NEV version of the Wheego Whip? Yes, they do. There are two models now, the Wheego Whip and the Wheego Whip LiFe with lithium.

[Virtual Wheego Test Drive]

So why would I prefer the Wheego Whip to the Smart electric car (which is limitedly available in the US for lease only)? Oh, yes; because the Smart EV is limitedly available in the US for lease only. Right. You can BUY a Wheego Whip, take it home, plug it in, paint daisies on the side, and smoke in it if you’re so inclined. It’s YOURS.

Um, that Smart EV lease will cost you a pretty penny, too, if you can even get one now. The Wheego Whip is 11,500 USD after all the tax incentives.

And the best part: now the Wheego Whip is also getting crash-tested and fitted with a 115v set of lithium batteries so it can be a freeway-flyer. They’re calling it the Wheego Whip LiFe (that’s short for lithium iron phosphate).

Essentials of the 2011 Wheego Whip LiFe

• Air conditioning.
  What? I’m going to start with the stuff that’s most important to ME first. Get used to it. Now, air conditioning might drain the battery pack, but so what? This is CRUCIAL. These guys were actually listening to us when they built this electric car.
• Stereo.
  AM (who needs that?)/FM, CD, MP3, USB…absolutely.
• Cabin heat.
  Obviously. No, I’m not going to throw on an extra coat. Give me Real. Proper. Heating. Thank you very much.
• Defrosting.
  Both front and rear, just like a regular car.
• Remote keyless entry.
• Power steering.
• Power windows and electric mirrors.
• Safety rated (on-board) charging.
  All the electrical bits won’t bite you, no matter how absent-minded or sleep-deprived you are. Non-scary charging works for me.

More Wheego Whip LiFe Features

• Regenerative braking.
  Absolutely predictable with an AC motor system, but nice to see. This will both save on brake pads and increase battery range. Nice.
• AC brushless motor.
  I guess I sort of let the cat out of the bag with that last item, but it’s got an AC motor. It’s not your usual 3-phase induction AC, it’s more like a per-mag. A little different. 95 ft/lbs of torque.
  Because I know you like that sort of thing. What this means is that it will get up and move when you put your foot down, and honey, we all like THAT.
• Front wheel drive.
• Anti-lock brakes.
• Air bags.
• Unibody frame.

[Wanna look underneath?]

The Long and the Short of it…

AutoBlogGreen heard it called the Cadillac of NEVs when they test-drove it at Marc Korchin’s Green Motors electric car dealership, and I have to agree: it’s more Zen than Zenn and smarter than Smart! This pocket-sized electric car has quietly shot all the way to the top of my “gotta have it” list.

For a list of Wheego Whip dealers in the US, click here.

by Jim Motavalli for bNet, June 30, 2010

The excitement over the Tesla Motors IPO is contagious. But the giddy would-be investors who sent the stock soaring to $23.89 on Tuesday, its first day of trading, might want to consider what happened to the only other electric-car-related stock to go public in recent years — battery maker A123.

Although, like Tesla, it was losing money, A123 was nonetheless riding high in 2009. It had a recently signed deal as battery supplier to Chrysler’s hot new ENVI division, which was showcasing a sexy electric sports car along the lines of the Tesla Roadster. Plus, A123’s batteries could boast of nanotechnology engineering that gave them a cutting-edge sheen.

If you were smart, getting in and out early, you made money trading A123 stock. Launched at $13.50 in September 2009, it quickly soared to $20.29. But ENVI was a victim of Chrysler’s bankruptcy and never plugged in. Today you can again buy A123 stock – for $9.50. The company’s batteries are going into the Fisker Karma, a high-stakes gamble that launches early next year.

People are now making money on Tesla stock, which trades above $27. But Tesla is also a gamble — if the fact that the company has never made money (it lost $29.5 million in the first quarter) is relevant. The stock is trading on the Nasdaq Global Market as TSLA. Investors got in line to buy the 13.3 million shares offered (initially at $17), giving Tesla a market value of $2.22 billion. I had expected Tesla’s shares to perform much as A123’s did, and it’s possible that they’ll come back down to earth just as quickly as reality sets in.

The Motley Fool describes Tesla’s IPO as “blazing hot,” but it still recommends against buying the stock, urging investors to wait until the company is headed into the black.

I am ultimately bullish on Tesla. The company’s partnership with Toyota is very promising, and a $465 million federal loan for the Model S will be a big help.  The company’s $109,000 Roadster is not vaporware, it’s an exciting, innovative car that singlehandedly created buzz for EVs. (See my test drive of the Roadster here.) To date, it’s the only plug-in car to have sold in any numbers.

But Roadster’s sales — 1,063 had been purchased as of March 31 — appear to have slowed, and the company will finally face competition in the coming months from Fisker, Nissan (the Leaf) and Chevrolet (the Volt). Coda, Wheego, Think and others will also soon have plug-in cars on the market.

A lot rides on Tesla’s more mainstream four-door Model S, which will sell for $49,900 when the $7,500 federal tax credit is factored in. The Model S has the potential to make Tesla a more mainstream automaker, and the company is describing it as a “platform” from which it can launch cabriolet, crossover SUV and van variants.

There’s also an as-yet unnamed third model that promises to bring the company’s glamour to entry-level buyers. But for now the Model S launch is soaking up all available cash, and that means profits will remain thin on the ground for the foreseeable future.

If I were the investing sort, would I put money on Tesla? Sure, why not – a little of Elon Musk’s risk-taking gene has probably rubbed off on me. But I think I’d wait until the dust settles before committing my cash.

The all-electric Wheego Whip LSV is available on the General Services Administration Schedule 23 for Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs).

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) June 29, 2010 — WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS today announced the Wheego Whip LSV is available on the General Services Administration Schedule 23 for Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs).

The GSA contract facilitates Wheego Electric Cars selling LSVs to Federal Agencies, affiliated companies and military installations across the U.S.

“The Wheego Whip LSV is an excellent choice for government fleets,” explains Wheego President Jeff Boyd. “It is one of the few all-electric vehicles on the GSA schedule that is a ‘real’ car and not a golf cart. It is street-legal, with an all-steel body, enclosed cabin, heater and radio, plus available air conditioning. It’s all-electric and produces zero emissions, so it will help government agencies meet their federally mandated energy conservation goals. We anticipate our highway-speed car, the Wheego LiFe, will be added to the GSA Schedule after it launches in the U.S. in September.”

Executive Order 13423 – “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management,” signed by former President George W. Bush, mandates that federal agencies (a) improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the agency, through reduction of energy intensity by (i) 3 percent annually through the end of fiscal year 2015, or (ii) 30 percent by the end of fiscal year 2015, relative to the baseline of the agency’s energy use in fiscal year 2003.

The initial Wheego offering is the Whip LSV, which is available now. The Whip LSV is an all-electric low speed vehicle which can be driven on roads with posted speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less, including streets on military bases across the U.S. The Wheego Whip LSV is now listed on GSA Schedule 23 for LSV’s under contract number GS-30F-0036W.

The next Wheego offering, the Lithium-based full-speed Wheego LiFe, will begin shipping to customers across the U.S. in September. It will go approximately 100 miles on a charge, and will be fully crash-tested and highway-ready. Wheego is taking reservations for the Wheego LiFe now at Wheego.net.

About Wheego Electric Cars
Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components. Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal all-electric cars for everyday consumer use.

The Wheego all-electric cars are sold through a nationwide dealer network. Dealers interested in representing the Wheego brand should contact Jeff Boyd at jboyd(at)wheego(dot)net.

For more information about Wheego, visit the company website at www.wheego.net.

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