Team EV World

Known in the United States as Buckeye Bullet III, Venturi Automobiles, based in Monaco, funded the University of Ohio 800 hp electric streamliner, which officially traveled the one mile timed course at 495 kph in the first pass and 515 kph on the second run. It joins the FIA World Record set by Venturi in September 2009 for a hydrogen-powered vehicle at 487 km/hr.

The team plans to return again in 2011 and 2012 to break even more records. More information on the record-setting electric vehicle is available at EV World.

This cartoon completely mischaracterizes the emissions of the Chevrolet Volt. While 50% of the electric power in the US comes from dirty coal, the rest comes from far cleaner sources. It also misses the point that the power is generated from American energy sources with huge economic benefits, as well as national security.

A comparable cartoon would have to depict oil tankers and petroleum refiners being pulled behind a gasoline-powered automobile.

With respect to the emissions of the electric power that charges the Volt’s batter pack, CO2 emissions will be at least half that of a gasoline-powered car of comparable size. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) studied this issue last year and concluded that NOx, CO2 and SO2 emissions will be reduced by the deployment of electric-drive vehicles like the Volt.

Mossy Nissan Kearny Mesa, reporting on MyNissanLeaf.com web site, that only 3,300 of the initial production run of 10,000 LEAF electric cars will be distributed to its North American dealerships, with the remaining 6,700 vehicles to be dedicated to the Japanese home market.

More information on about electric cars and other electrically-powered vehicles is available on EV World.com.

ZERORACE, involving tour contestants, kicked off in Geneva, Switzerland, with goal to drive around the world, some 30,000km, in over 80 days. All the vehicles are electrically-powered. Early this summer, a French couple drove from Shanghai-to-Paris on an all-electric car engineered by Venturi Automobiles of Monaco. A second team is driving from Alaska to Argentina down the PanAmerican Highway, again in an all-electric vehice.

The Power Systems Engineering Research Center did a study last year that indicates the more grid-connected, plug-in electric cars that start to appear in neighborhoods, the more rapidly the power transformers in the community will age. Most transformers will last 17-20 years, but just three Chevy Volts or Nissan LEAF electric cars can reduce this to less than 10 years.