It has taken the major automakers around the world decades to catch on with electric vehicles. Where we should already all be driving electric cars, major electric vehicles will only start hitting the market in the next few months. Much attention has been paid to the Volt and Nissan LEAF, but there lots of other start-ups and contenders out there.

It has taken the major automakers around the world decades to catch on with electric vehicles. Where we should already all be driving electric cars, major electric vehicles will only start hitting the market in the next few months. Much attention has been paid to the Volt and Nissan Leaf, but there lots of other start-ups and contenders out there.

One of the most promising is Coda, based out of Santa Monica, California. They have just put a price on their electric sedan of $44,900, in the same ball park as the Chevy Volt. Is this the EV “sweet zone”?

The $44,900 price tag is before the Federal tax credit of $7,500, which would bring the cost of the Coda down to around $37,400. Not exactly chump change, but it isn’t the Tesla Roadster either. For your hard earned money, Coda promises a “real” 90-120 mile range. The press release aims squarely at the Leaf, which uses ambient air cooling for its batteries, whereas Coda uses a thermal management system to manage its batteries. As batteries as effected by how you drive, as well as by the temperature, the Nissan Leaf’s range could fall anywhere between 40 and 80 miles on any given day.

Coda seems to be promising 90-120 miles of travel consistently. When you do need to charge, it will take 6 hours from a 240 volt connection, though 40 miles of range can be restored in just 2 hours on a fast-charging system. The Coda has a 6.6 kilowatt on-board charger, compared to the Leaf’s 3.3 kw charger. The Coda also claims to have a 42% larger batter, thus more range.

Interesting is the strategy I would use to describe how Coda plans to market the car. They are accepting deposits of $499 starting today, and it will take anywhere from 45 to 60 days to receive your car. There also won’t be any dealerships, as car shopping will be done online via Coda’s website, Coda Automotive. Electric cars require very little upkeep, though Coda has announced it has signed with a large department store chain that has its own auto-service department to become a de facto service department for the EV. The Coda intially goes on sale in California, though if it proves sucessful, it will surely spread to other states.

So, what say ye? Yay or Nay for the Coda sedan?

Source: Green Car Advisor | Image: Coda

My first car ever was a Mercury Villager minivan. That lasted me about three months before it joined my ever-growing collection of “former cars.” After a summer of cleaning toilets as a janitor, my parents took me car shopping with a wad of cash in my pocket, and high hopes. My hopes were quickly dashed though, as I was told in no uncertain terms that I would not be buying a Mustang. Instead, I settled on a turbocharged Saab… which was probably faster than the Mustang I originally wanted.

I love Saab, and I’m happy they survived the Great Recession. Now it looks like the geeky Swedish brand is coming back in a big way, preparing to unveil an electric vehicle at the Paris Auto Show.

I was lucky enough to own a Saab 900 turbo, though I’ve always had a soft spot for the Saab wagons. Something about a turbocharged wagon really gets me revved up. The Saab electric vehicle, called the 9-3 ePower Sedan, will be based on their SportCombi wagon, and has a proposed range of 120 miles on a single charge. Not ground breaking, but enough for most people to get to work and back in a day. Saabs are known for their sportiness, and the 184 horsepower electric motor should provide decent enough “oomph”  to put a smile on my face, as well as get the wagon from 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds. Again, not a blistering pace, but not slow either.

Saab says it will test a fleet of 70 ePower sedans in Sweden, which should certainly help with cold weather testing. Is it a viable vehicle though? Spyker, who now owns Saab, seems to think so, and they aim to pump Saab production back up to 125,000 units annually. I like Saab, and I am hoping they can make a big comeback with an electric tint a few years down the road.

Source: Green Car Advisor | Image: Saab

I. Hate. Stoplights. I loathe them, despise them, and if I were king for a day, I would tear down every stop light in the country. Sheer anarchy would follow of course, but I think everybody could use a little anarchy in their lives. My biggest problem with stop lights is that most of them are mindless, or even worse, part of some overloaded computer that thinks it’s improving traffic flow, but in reality I’ve hit five red lights in less than two miles. How is that progress?

Perhaps we are going about it wrong. A new study suggests that traffic lights operating outside of a controlled computer system actually improve traffic flow. But how?

I live in a four-stop light town (I can remember when we had just one!), so stop lights aren’t as much of a problem for me. For city dwellers though, many cities have tried to organize their stop lights to improve traffic flow, with longer greens during peak hours and lights that change with each other. But these systems cannot adapt to changes in the environment, like a traffic accident, or random gap in congestion.

By modeling traffic like a fluid though, and roads like a series of pipes, two European scientists think they have a better way. They think each light should be able to adapt to its unique situation, while feeding information into a central computer system. The computer could then crunch the numbers and share that info with other lights in the system. The key here though is that the lights wouldn’t be pre-programmed. They adapt according to needs, relying on the immediate situation as well as information fed to them from the central system. Makes sense to me.

I still think we could get rid of stop lights and go to rotaries though. If Europe can figure it out, why can’t we?

Source: Popular Science

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt instructed 16 battleships and a fleet of escort cruisers to travel around the world. Called the Great White Fleet, it was a demonstration of America’s up-and-coming power. Powered by coal, these smoke-belchers spent two years at sea sailing from port to port. They went through a lot of coal, but what if a fleet never had to come in to refuel though?

I might be getting ahead of myself, but I have high hopes. The U.S. Navy has purchased 20,000 gallons of algae fuel from next gen biofuels pioneers, Solazyme, for testing in their ships. That’s a lot of green gas!

I’m a bit of a military history buff, but you don’t have to be a five-star general to know that without fuel, an army isn’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, America relies on oil from countries I wouldn’t exactly call “friendly.” The U.S. Navy wants to get half of its fuel from sources other than oil, and algae makes a lot of sense for the Navy. I am well aware that turning algae into fuel is an intensive process. But I also imagine that down the road, it could streamlined to fit on a large naval vessel, which could theoretically never need to be refueled again, save for driving through an algae bloom.

The Navy bought the fuel from Solazyme, who also delivered 1,500 gallons of algae-based jet fuel for testing. Apparently, the U.S. Navy liked what it saw. Can you tell I am excited about this? Nevermind the military implications… a fleet that never had to refuel would be a tremendous advantage, and it is something that could make its way into commercial shipping as well. I hope to hear about more of this type of stuff down the road. Can our Navy really go green?

Source: CNET | Image: Solazyme