Mike McQuary on the "Moving America" show on Fox Business

September 7, 2010

Wheego CEO Mike McQuary was interviewed live on Fox Business. Watch the interview here.

Jim Ellis Autos donated the use of a Wheego to UGA’s Athletic Department. WNEG-TV’s Rachel Garrett covered the event:

(view the film at the KHON2 website) 

A new electric car was introduced in Hawaii.

But this one could change the landscape when it comes to how drivers think about the future.

How would you like to park downtown for free? How would you like to drive in the zip lane with just one person in the car? How would you like the government to give you a tax break?

All these things are possible with the right electric car.

Meet the Wheego, made in America, ready for sale right now.

“The two cars you see here are equipped with lead acid batteries which is the same technology the battery in your conventional car has, so they are fully recyclable just like your conventional car battery is now,” said Mark Piscioneri from Green Energy Outlet.

These are commuter vehicles – 50 miles per charge, 35 miles per hour.

But next month, Piscioneri expects delivery of the next Wheegos similar to these.

“But it is a 65 mile per hour vehicle. It has air bags and all the safety features that conventional cars have so it can be driven anywhere in Hawaii and it also has a one hundred mile range,” said Piscioneri.

Wheego is simple to drive – there’s forward and reverse. No transmission, no noise and no emissions. Hawaii is 90 percent dependent on petroleum imports – one third for aviation fuel, one third for energy production and one third for ground transportation.

“Of those three petroleum uses, the ones that we can affect, meaning private citizens and businesses, we can affect the ground transportation part. That’s something that we can do,” said Piscioneri.

In the future, virtually any mall or shopping center could set up a re-charging station by using photovoltaic energy produced from the sun and charging a small fee to customers.

“And that money makes their business more profitable, they’ll hire more of our friends and neighbors, and we will begin to create a sustainable economy for the future.” Said Piscioneri.

HONOLULU – Hawaii Green Energy Outlet, a business that markets green building and energy products, on Aug. 14 demonstrated two upcoming all-electric vehicles manufactured by Wheego Electric Cars, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported.

The Wheego LiFe travels about 100 miles on a charge and retails for $32,995. The car also qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

The Wheego LiFe’s 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 U.S. It is available in red, white, blue, black, silver and green.

Hawaii will be among the first markets for the LiFe, which is set to ship in September.

The Wheego Whip LiFe is a two-seat subcompact car that can reach speeds of 35 mph and travels about 40 miles on a single charge. It retails for $18,995.

The cars are available for test drives and pre-orders. 

A J1772-standard charging station, manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, was also unveiled last week at Green Energy Outlet’s location in Kakaako. 

Wheego Electric Cars, headquartered in Atlanta, is led by CEO Mike McQuary. The cars are assembled in Ontario, Calif. 

Wheego Hawaii Unveiled Cars At Green Energy Outlet

HONOLULU — Hawaii’s first 240-volt electric cars are set to debut in Honolulu.

Wheego Hawaii unveiled the two cars at Green Energy Outlet on Saturday.

The low-speed “Whip” will be available for a test drive, as well the “LiFe,” which looks exactly like the “Whip” but is a full-speed car that is crash-tested and approved for highways. The LiFe can be ordered at the event.

Both cars support the 240-volt standard announced in January by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Wheego officials said using that voltage cuts charging times by more than half.

The event also unveiled ChargePoint charging stations.

The movement to make Hawaii’s roads greener passed a milestone yesterday.

The first high-voltage electric car that supports the 240-volt international charging standard J-1772, the Wheego, and its dedicated charging station were unveiled at the Green Energy Outlet’s location in Kakaako. The cars were available for test drives and pre-orders.

The low-speed version of the Wheego, called the Whip, can go up to 35 mph and as far as 40 miles on a charge. The Whip and its full-speed counterpart, LiFe, are front-wheel-drive cars with power locks, remote-control doors, power windows and air bags for both the driver and single passenger.

“They didn’t sacrifice anything,” said Ron Hansen of Wheego Hawaii. “It has all the amenities you expect out of a vehicle.”

The Whip retails for $18,995.

The Wheego LiFe looks the same as the Whip, but differs in performance. It is a crash-tested car approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation for highway driving that can go up to 65 mph with its 115-volt lithium battery.

Hawaii will be among the first in the nation to receive the LiFe when it ships in September. It retails for $32,995.

Coulomb Technologies developed the charging station for the cars, the ChargePoint, which offers three levels of charging the electric vehicle.

A full charge on the Wheego takes about eight hours on level 1, which accommodates a standard AC plug at 120 volts and 20 amps. Level 2 is the triple-phase alternating current at 240 volts and 80 amps and would fully charge the Wheego in two hours.

The fastest, level 3, delivers electricity at 300 to 500 volts and 100 amps and can charge the Wheego in 30 minutes.

Michael Leone, president of Green Global Communities, said it is essential to have charging stations available before selling electric vehicles to the public.

“The cars were out there, but people were hesitant to buy them because there was nowhere to charge them,” he said. “What a dream it would be to have all electric cars.”

He said he hopes to have 5,000 charging stations installed in homes and businesses islandwide within the next year.

ChargePoint also offers an application for smartphones to see locations of unoccupied stations and will send charging status notifications via text messages. The ChargePoint application is free from the iTunes app store.

“We can’t continue to live on petroleum anymore,” said Mark Piscioneri, energy vehicle consultant for Pacific Energy Vehicles. “Oil gets harder to find and more dangerous to get.”

“When we get into the Wheego — we go everywhere,” he said. “Well, there’s one place we don’t go, a gas station.”

The Wheego vehicles are assembled in Ontario, Calif.

Wheego Electric Cars is a small company with a big, green vision. Wheego hopes to be the first car company in the U.S. to offer an affordable, all-electric car across the country. President Obama has committed to buying the first 100 cars off the assembly line from any company who can accomplish that goal, and Wheego is determined to bring that prize home to Georgia.  Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, just west of the Georgia Tech campus. CEO Mike McQuary was previously the president of Georgia-born Internet company MindSpring Enterprises.

Wheego’s home state is a great place to introduce Electric Vehicles. Georgia has some of the most progressive tax credits in the country for EV drivers: in addition to the $7,500 Federal tax credit, Georgia residents are entitled to up to $5,000 in State Tax Credits for a full-speed electric vehicle, and can drive alone in the HOV lane in their all-electric car. The problem is, up until this summer the only all-electric car widely available in the U.S. that qualified (fully crash tested and highway-ready) was the Tesla, at a hefty $100,000+ price tag. I haven’t seen one of those in the HOV lane of I-75 yet! That all changes this summer, as Wheego rolls out its highway-ready all-electric car in September, followed by the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt later this year. So while the tax credits have been available for years in Georgia, this will be the first time anyone has actually used the deduction. Why is this important? Well, a “theoretical” tax credit doesn’t actually take any money out of the state coffers. Oklahoma offered a whopping 50% State Tax Credit on electric vehicles in 2009, and were caught off guard by the number of drivers who took advantage of the credit – in Oklahoma, some electric golf carts qualified. The state budget took a huge hit, and the tax credit was discontinued, just as the cars it was meant to encourage are ready to hit the road. Now that Georgia residents will start taking that $5,000 deduction, we need to make sure our state legislators are prepared and supportive of the “green” investment the state is making.

Georgia also offers a tax credit to businesses for buying (or leasing) and installing a charging station: 10% of the cost of the charging station, up to $2,500. This is important because it opens the EV ownership door to city dwellers who don’t have a garage. The Wheego LiFe electric car is a 2-seater with a range of 100 miles per charge, perfect for commuting to and from work. Most drivers will plug the car into the charging port in their garage at night and be good to go for another 100 miles the next morning. But a huge, young, and enthusiastically green slice of Atlanta’s population live in areas that are perfect for an EV – within a 50-mile commute of work – but don’t have a garage. Apartment and condo dwellers, and residents of older intown neighborhoods are perfect candidates for an at-work charging station. They’ll drive their car to work, charge it while they work, and be good to go for another 100 miles. Over the next few years, we’ll see more employers offer charging stations as part of a benefits package, and we’ll see additional charging stations pop up as retailers embrace this new way to attract consumers to stay longer. Anywhere that currently offers wi-fi is a good candidate for a charging station, since the theory is the same: offer a service that brings the consumer in, make them comfortable and hopefully they’ll drink more coffee, stay at the same hotel next time, buy more books. The charging technology is evolving.  When “rapid-charge” stations are the norm and you can fully charge your car in 20 minutes, retailers will jump on this chance to offer a valuable service to their shoppers. You’ll be able to charge while you’re in the grocery store, getting a haircut or watching a movie … not just sleeping or working

What has to happen for all of this to become a reality? You’d be surprised how far the technology has come. Coulomb Technologies is making a charging station that companies or municipalities can purchase and install on a stand, like a parking meter. As an EV owner, you join the “club,” and get a credit card that can be swiped at the charging station. The charge port door pops open, you plug your car in, and you (or your company) are billed for the charge.  A web page and an I-phone app will help you find an available charge station.

Major cities in five states (Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington) are part of the federally-funded EV Project. The Department of Energy is spending $100m to build out the charging infrastructure in targeted cities in these five states. In order to get a free charging station installed in their home, EV drivers agree to provide data on their driving habits and EV usage. The information gleaned from this 3-year project will help the rest of the country prepare for widespread use of EVs. It’s coming!  A community’s rewards for encouraging EV use are great: no emissions, less noise pollution, less dependence on foreign (or domestic!) oil.  As a Georgia resident, you can be an active participant in your community’s EV planning, encourage your employer to install a charging station, and let local businesses know you’d support their initiatives to offer EV charging. Encourage Georgia lawmakers to push for our state’s inclusion if and when the EV Project expands.

It’s time to evaluate your driving habits and see whether an EV would work for you. On average, do you drive fewer than 100 miles each day? Do you have an enclosed garage to charge your car? If you routinely pile five people in your car and drive 500 miles, the Wheego LiFe would not be a candidate for your only car. But if you use your car primarily for commuting each day, Wheego could be a great fit. To learn more about Wheego and reserve your LiFe, visit www.wheego.net.

Barry Bernsten tried to launch a battery electric car company, but says he didn’t have the right friends in Washington.

Barry Bernsten, a Philadelphia-based steel wholesaler, launched his electric car company BG (“Be Green”) Automotive Group with high hopes in 2008. The time had come, he said, to take the energy crisis seriously, and the domestic auto industry remained addicted to the high profit margins in large trucks and SUVs–even as the public was saying no to them in droves.

Bernsten’s mission: bringing “reliable, safe, and affordable electric vehicles to the North American consumer.” The route of “three-wheeled vehicles that look like moon rovers” or high-performance $100,000 sports cars was not for him either–he wanted to take low-priced Chinese cars and electrify them.

But BG was a non-starter, and the reasons why make a cautionary tale. “I am exhausted and throwing in the towel,” Bernsten said. “I’m going back to selling steel.”

For his steel business, Bernsten is a frequent visitor to China (both as a buyer and a seller), and several years ago he got approached about importing gas-powered Chinese cars to the U.S. “I visited six plants, and though I saw some where the paint was peeling off the plastic bumpers, and the wheels and hubcaps were rusting, one of them made high-quality automobiles,” he told me. “In fact, its cars were better built than many U.S. and Japanese cars on the market now.”

Working with that gasoline vehicle as the base, Bernsten developed the BG-C100 electric car. Like the forthcoming Coda sedan and the Wheego Whip Life, the car used a Chinese body but incorporated many Western safety and engineering refinements, including the complete electric drivetrain. Still, if Coda and Wheego are guides, BG could have brought a credible battery car to market in North America for $30,000 or so.

The big hurdle is getting a factory up and running, and for that Bernsten–and every other electric vehicle maker–asked for up to $150 million in federal Department of Energy (DOE) funds. He didn’t get it. Hundreds of millions of dollars did flow, but the recipients were, in addition to such established players as Ford and Nissan ( NSANY – news - people ), Tesla Motors (maker of the celebrated $109,000 Roadster and the coming Model S sedan) and Fisker Automotive (another high-performance car, the Karma plug-in hybrid, plus the more affordable Nina). Tesla got $465 million, and Fisker $528 million. (See “Fisker Automotive Gets Crucial Funding.”)

“The well-connected guys with the lobbying teams got the loan guarantees,” Bernsten said. “I’m not disillusioned with the Chinese, I’m disillusioned with the DOE and their evaluation process. I’m frustrated that we couldn’t even get partial funding.”

State and local governments were eager for Bernsten to locate what he envisioned were as many as six plants in their regions, and they offered available land, and generous tax incentives. But that’s also true of many other companies, including Coda, that have applied unsuccessfully for DOE loans and lined up U.S. factories. (Coda is looking at Ohio, where the state government did everything but promise the company wouldn’t have to pay its workers.)

Coda is going ahead without government money, but BG is over and done, and Bernsten says he wants to donate his one prototype to a Philadelphia museum. When electric cars rule the land, maybe we can all visit the museum and think about the electric vehicle revolution that had winners, and losers too.

Jim Motavalli blogs about the auto industry for the Mother Nature Network.

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).

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