Green Options » Karen Pease

Aptera’s Troubles: Get the Full, Inside Story Here

Karen Pease — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:49:26 +0000

[Editor's Note: Karen Pease has developed many personal relationships with people inside and out of Aptera over the years. She's been able to get the best picture we've seen so far of the quirky EV manufacturer's troubles from her inside sources. In most cases names and identifying specifics have been withheld at the source's request to protect their livelihood.]

How did a woman who the Securities and Exchange Commission says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors?

It’s just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleaguered manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles (see the posts here, and here if you don’t know what’s going on).

When a business is running smoothly, there are strong incentives for everyone to be a team player and hide any signs of internal strife. However, as the rate of layoffs and “vacations” has increased over at Aptera, so has the potential for leaks. And sometimes a simple name can take you places you never thought you’d go.

Read more of this story »

Aerovironment Unveils 800kW EV Charger

Karen Pease — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:35:53 +0000

Talk about rapid charging! Aerovironment today unveiled a near-megawatt scale electric vehicle charging system for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).

The AV-800 delivers DC current at 800 volts, up to 999 amps in single-channel mode and 500 amps in independent dual channel mode. The bi-directional unit can also return power to the grid, with an efficiency of over 90%.

Read more of this story »

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Aptera’s Electric Car (Almost!)

Karen Pease — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:21:04 +0000

As we speak, the TED 2009 (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference is well underway, and one of their star contributors, as far as green transportation goes, is Aptera Motors.

Normally a secretive company, Aptera chose this venue to be the first public debut of their new, pre-production “2e” electric car and gave attendees who signed up test rides (the list filled up quickly). At the same time, they released detailed feature sheets, discussed performance specs, toured the onboard software, and on and on down the list.

Where to start? After the jump!

Read more of this story »

Silicon Nanowire Batteries, Take Two: The “Core Shell” Approach

Karen Pease — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:18:40 +0000

Since the late 1800s, the primary impediment to the adoption of electric vehicles has been battery technology. And while the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last decade or two (compare your cell phone with one from the early 90s), with a threefold improvement in energy density and more than an order of magnitude improvement in power density, it still lags behind gasoline.

Some have argued that current technology is sufficient — that the ability to drive 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours nonstop is good enough for the overwhelming majority of trips, and that paired with a range extender, rapid chargers, or battery swapping, you have a viable means of replacing the gasoline car. However, there still is a great deal of pressure to get electric vehicle range up to that of gasoline.

Enter Yi Cui. Again.

Read more of this story »

The Skinny on Aptera: Top Aptera Execs Chat With EVCast

Karen Pease — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:52:42 +0000

It seems there’s always a hunger among electric-vehicle enthusiasts for new information about the Aptera 2e, that composite-skinned energy sipper that looks like the future, where everyone’s wearing jumpsuits and has numbers as last names and crystals embedded in their palms that turn black on Lastday.

Unfortunately, the company tends not to be very talkative, so it’s those rare events where they go public that offer the most details. With their recent appearance on EVcast, they certainly didn’t disappoint. A transcript of the show follows.

Read more of this story »

Aptera Electric Car Available in “Volume” by October 2009

Karen Pease — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:25:40 +0000

For those who haven’t heard of it, the Aptera 2e is the first vehicle from Aptera Motors, a Carlsbad startup with funding from Idealab, Google, and other sources. (Also for those who hadn’t heard of it: it’ll look great in your cave.)

The all-electric, three-wheeled 2e weighs in at around 1,500 pounds due to high-strength composite construction, has a small fraction as much aerodynamic drag as a Prius, goes 100-120 miles with a top speed of 85-90mph, and boasts normal car safety features, impressive crush test results, and crash testing (TBA).

With a price ranging from the mid $20s to the mid $40s (depending on options), Aptera is aiming to produce 10,000 a year in 2010 and 100,000 by 2015, including a subsequent four-wheel, four-seater code-named Palomar.

Now, they’ve announced what many have been long awaiting: a basic production schedule.

Read more of this story »

Steven “Coal is My Worst Nightmare” Chu: Obama’s Energy Secretary Shows Deep Understanding of Biggest Issues of Our Time

Karen Pease — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:56:02 +0000

It’s been widely reported that President-elect Obama is preparing to announce his selection of Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Chu to serve as his Secretary of Energy. The pick has been hailed by environmental groups, scientists, and even Chinese newspapers. Indeed, looking over one of his old lectures, you can get a good sense of what we have to look forward to under his tenure.

Read more of this story »

Pressure To Bailout Big Three Grows, But What About Startups?

Karen Pease — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:00:57 +0000

The net is buzzing with discussion about the fate of the Big Three automakers. The American auto industry is in the middle of a meltdown of epic proportions. As the New York Times reports:

Whichever path they choose, Democrats could be headed for a confrontation with Mr. Bush and were setting the stage for a dramatic lame-duck session

The confrontation in question is a proposal from Senate Democrats, with backing from President-elect Obama himself, to bail out the Big Three, under the premise that they are too big to fail and that if they went under, the ripple effects would be devastating. Curiously absent from the discussion, however, is the fate of a host of cleantech startups making extremely efficient vehicles powered by electricity, electricity plus gasoline or biofuels, and so forth.

Read more of this story »

EcoSaver IV: AltairNano, Microturbines, and Mass Transit

Karen Pease — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:27:24 +0000

What do you get when you combine some of the most advanced pieces of green technology in the marketplace today? It might look something like the new EcoSaver IV hybrid buses from DesignLine.

First, the basics. The buses in question are built by North Carolina-based DesignLine International and feature wide entry doors, super-low floors, and room for 42 passengers. Earlier versions of the EcoSaver hybrid system have been powering these buses for the past ten years. As far as mass transit goes, not a bad start. However, it gets even better when you peek under the hood of the latest generation.

Read more of this story »

Lithium Counterpoint: No Shortage For Electric Cars

Karen Pease — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:32:31 +0000

Editor’s Note: This post is a response to Anthony Cefali’s recent article “Where We’re Going We Won’t Even Need Lithium: A Neurotic Look at Our Energy Future.”

Recently, fellow Gas 2.0 author Anthony Cefali wrote an excellent post questioning the sustainability of lithium-ion batteries into the future due to concerns over the supply of lithium.

In this world, it’s easy to argue that one can never be too neurotic about our future, as our species has repeatedly shown a lack of foresight into the consequences of its actions. However, in this case, I must argue against his views on lithium’s sustainability. Lithium-ion batteries will only be superceded by superior technology, not by lithium shortage.

Read more of this story »

Rapid Charging Electric Cars: From Oahu To You

Karen Pease — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:33:58 +0000

Editor’s Note: This topic was also covered on Gas 2.0: Hawaii to Get Electric Car Battery-Sharing Program

Perhaps nothing has been perceived as a greater weakness for electric vehicles than charge times — spending 6 hours recharging every hundred or two miles is enough to readily ruin the idea of taking a cross-country trip.

To work around this, some groups such as Project Better Place propose to standardize battery packs and pack-replacing infrastructure. On one hand, it seems an easy solution to the problem; yet battery technology is an ever-moving target, as anyone who has witnessed the dramatic shrinking of cell phone and laptop batteries in the past decade can attest. But, as the stereotypes go, batteries can’t really take a charge as fast as you’d need, and you couldn’t deliver it that fast if you wanted to.

Or could you?

Read more of this story »

Toshiba’s Super-Charged Battery: Nearly Full in 5 Minutes

Karen Pease — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:06:53 +0000

A while back, Toshiba unveiled their first foray into advanced lithium ion batteries — the Super-Charge ion Battery, or SCiB. Over the past few days, new information about their cells has emerged. With a 5-minute, 90% charge time and 5000-6000 charge cycles with minimal loss of capacity, it seems a solid competitor to AltairNano’s much vaunted nano-titanate cells.

Toshiba has already demonstrated a laptop that does just that, charging to 90% capacity in 5 minutes. This compares favorably to lithium iron phosphate technology, which should not be charged faster than 15-20 minutes. A partnership with Schwinn is to ship an electric bicycle (”Tailwind”) early next year using an SCiB pack to give a 30 minute recharge time (assumedly slower to avoid the need for a cooling system on the larger pack).

Read more of this story »