Book Description
This hardbound volume covers Symposia J 'Light-Weight Materials for Transportation' and E 'Material Aspects for Electric Vehicles including Batteries and Fuel Cells' which were presented at the combined 1997 International Conference on Applied Materials/European Materials Research Society Spring meeting (ICAM'97/E-MRS'97) held in Strasbourg (France) from 16-20 June 1997.

Modern materials are the basis for further progress in industry and in our life.Among them the light-advanced materials with desired ratios of weight/properties and cost/properties are of special value for transportation for almost all applications. Progress in this area depends on cooperation and development of metallurgy, casting and solidification techniques, plastic and superplastic deformation, heat and surface treatment. When dealing with common alloys there are well-defined materials with a wide data base available. However, designing materials based on composites still requires thorough research in order to establish data bases to avoid not only high costs, but also inefficient designs and less than optimal structures. But, however difficult and problematic the composites are they bear the inherent potential of new materials.

Materials science in the field of light materials is now transforming from an empirical approach to a more quantitative scientific stage. The revolution in materials has begun with the emergence of supercomputer simulation and computer-enhanced quantitative microscopic image analysis.

The advanced materials applied previously in the defence and aerospace area should expand over the commercial market including air transportation and civil engineering.The new generation of modern cars and trains as well as aircraft (Boeing 777) are good examples for the application of new materials. ... Read more

Book Description
Modern Electric Vehicle Technology covers multidisciplinary aspects of electric vehicles (EVs), and is written for a wide coverage of readers including students, researchers, engineers and administrators.This book is probably the first comprehensive reference book on electric vehicles that includes the following distinct features; It concisely and precisely reviews the state of the art of EV technology and the historical development of EVs, presents the engineering philosophy of electric vehicles. Identifies new configurations, concepts and classifications of modern EV and hybrid EV (HEV) systems. Provides in-depth discussions on electric propulsion systems, emerging EV energy sources and latest EV auxiliaries. Presents the concept of system level simulation and a dedicated EV simulator for system optimisation. anddiscusses the key issues relating to commercialisation and implementation of EVs. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The story of General Motors' first mass-produced electric car, the EV1 (at first, unfortunately, named the Impact). This project was decades in gestation, the early dreams of pollution and noise-free vehicles taking a long time to progress beyond visionary prototypes. This was partly because of opposition to the concept from oil companies and the automotive industry. Eventually a combination of government prodding and technological advances in battery design made it possible. Schnayerson describes the supportive role of GM chairman Robert Stempel and the tenacity of a group of true-believing engineers who kept the idea alive after Stempel was ousted.Book Description
Unprecedented secrecy surrounded the early development of General Motors's Impact. Shnayerson watched the story unfold from a position of access never granted a reporter before--literally from the inside of the pace-setting GM Impact program. This is the first book to penetrate the silence surrounding GM's risky and successful decision to become the world's first mass producer of the electric car. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

The Sunraycer
The dream of the electrical vehicle was first inspired by the success of the sunraycer, a vehicle capable of 41 mph and able to traverse the US on five gallons of gas.EV technology faced two signicant barriers: the DC to AC inverter and the 100,000 mile battery life.AC motors were lighter and but the electricity had to be chopped or inverted.Alan Cocconi had built a inverter for his SunRaycer and also designed and built regenerative braking. At Aerovironment, Brooks used the Sunraycer power design and built an EV with a more power inverter and AC motors and battery pack. Cocconi built two inverters which each powered a 50 kilowatt motor.

The GM impact prototype solved both of these problems.Alec Brooks was assigned to study Paul MacCready in the offices of AeroVironment and his efficient motors.MacCready had built an Electric Vehicle prototype for GM - with its streaming lines; the initial idea was too make the rear wheel base shorter than the front creating a tapering effect.The car was to be built from aluminum rather than steel.The Impact had a fiber glass body.

It was Baker's job to bring the EV car to market.Baker reluctantly took the task, a task he dreaded because of early failure with the electrovette.

Lead Acid batteries were a problem, but they were cheap and they worked.Lead acid batteries needed water replenishment; engineers tried to devise methods and these batteries could not be 100% discharged and recharged for a 1,000 cycles. Heat and cold affect the electrical output of the battery.The batteries weighted about 900 pounds.Nickle Metal Hydrid was proven but not used immediately; Baker didn't want any delays; Baker needed to get the EV quality to production status: heater, air conditioner, radio, and suspension system.

The impact could accelerate from 0-60 seconds in 7.9 seconds reaching a speed of 75 mph; it could travel 124 miles at 55 mph and in city reach 300 mile range.

Great book, but the story ends prematurely
This is a great book. The author follows the tangled story of how GM developed the first production electric car... but he went to press just a year or two before GM sent it to the crusher. See the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? for the sad end to this story.

For contrast, google for the on-line copy of "The Prius That Shook the World". While Schnayerson was following GM he was totally unaware of the development of the Toyota Prius. Like Shnayerson's book, the Prius book takes the development of a new car from a clean sheet of paper to production. From reading both, Toyota seems to have much longer term plans and much less in-fighting. GM changed it's mind with every new CEO.

By coincidence, neither book has a single photo in it (aside from the cover) and lots of personalities. But from 2007 looking back the Prius story has a much happier ending.

The real story of GM's EV1 (as opposed to the film Who Killed The Electric Car?)
The book "The Car That Could" tells the story of GM's EV1 much better than the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?".The book tells the story of the EV1's birth.That is of course a more hopeful story than the EV1's death, which the film covers.And that fact alone makes a big difference in the impact of the story that is told.

But there is another difference."The Car That Could" tells the inside story of how the EV1 came to be.People within GM make a huge effort to give birth to the car.This was no sham attempt to live up to the California Air Resources Board mandate to put electric cars on the road.GM clearly had its technical and marketing people do their best work.And they did build a great little car, a car that could.

As we know now, though, GM's EV1 did not live very long.The passion of those who put their money down to lease the cars could not make up for the fact that they were few in number.When the California Air Resources Board's mandate went away, that spelled doom for the EV1.

No new EV1s were made.Those that had been made were crushed.A sad end for the car that could.

But though the film "Who Killed the Electric Car" implies that GM killed the EV1, the reasons for its death were more complex than that.And the real story of its death has not, I think, been told.Certainly not as well, and with so much insight, as the story of its birth.

But the story of the electric car has not ended.And there may be some hope for a happy ending.Recently GM's CEO Rick Wagoner has said that he regrets the decision to kill the EV1.And GM promises to come out soon with a new series hybrid electric car.That may put GM back into competition with Toyota and Honda, and their parallel hybrid cars.If so, maybe we will see another, more successful version of a GM car that could.

Michael Shnayerson did a great job researching and writing about the birth of the EV1.Many of the insights written into the book will help those thinking about electric cars today.

So in my mind, "The Car That Could" should be required reading for anyone who wants to participate in the electric vehicle industry.Copies are hard to find now.But if you are interested in electric cars, find a copy and read it."The Car That Could" makes the must-read list; "Who Killed the Electric Car?" does not.

Did GM really want to build an electric car? Here's your answer.
This is a fascinating inside story about the development of electric cars in the early '90s.

GM unveiled a prototype electric car in 1990 and conveyed the message to California (and other states) that they could develop such a vehicle for consumer use. California shortly thereafter adopted standards requiring the top 7 car manufacturers to sell emission free vehicles totalling 2% of sales in 1998, increasing to 5% in 2001, then 10% in 2003.

GM proceeded to lose enormous sums of money in the early 1990s. But they still worked to develop the electric car for two reasons. One was to be able to meet the California standards. The other was hoping they would be ahead of the curve and make money on the new technology.

But many technical issues needed to be resolved to bring the car to market, the biggest being batteries. Developing batteries capable of providing adequate storage capacity for a reasonable amount of driving was (and remains) a monumental problem.

At the same time GM was developing a marketable electric car, they (along with Ford, Chrysler, and Big Oil) lobbied hard to eliminate the emission free mandates, claiming the technology and consumer demand wasn't there. What did GM want to happen? It seems that they didn't really know, in part because they were bleeding money.

California blinked in the 4th quarter of 1995 and eliminated the mandate. Then, in January 1996 GM unveiled the EV1, a 2 seat electric sports car.

For a follow-up on the "success" of the EV1 and other EVs, I recommend the movie "Who killed the Electric Car?". Disturbing.

The Story Behind the Most Successful Modern Electric Car
Shnayerson tells the story up to when the GM Impact was introduced.The film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" got me interested in electric cars.The GM Impact (EV1) was the most successful modern electric car, but it disappeared into the crushers shortly after its introduction.

His story is that of a dedicated crew inside GM working against budget cuts and management changes to make the car.It is a good read.

A shortcoming is that there are so many major characters-- A new one on each page in some chapters.One is Ken Baker, who runs through the whole narrative, as do Roger Smith (yes, that Roger) and Robert Stempel, one a former GM Chairman.

Another major character doesn't appear until chapter 20:Stan Ovshinsky.The 12 pages describe his career and the Ovonic 12-volt NiMH battery, and the test on the track at Mesa, Arizona, where his batteries powered the test Impact EV 201 miles on a single charge.

All of these 100+ GM execs and engineers were heart-and-soul dedicated to making the EV succeed.One cannot read this book and feel that GM was against the electric car.Shnayerson is an outsider, and was in no way a mouthpiece for GM or an industry apologist.When he tells of GM execs moving their families to Lansing or to Troy so they can work more on the Impact, you get a strong feeling that GM wanted this car to happen.GM sunk a few billion dollars in it.

I could have done with fewer pages of office drama and a new character on every other page, all of whom "exuded midwestern charm," and less about whether so-and-so was "on the fast track to a senior vice-presidency."

I would have preferred line drawings of new assemblies, for example, regenerative brakes-- a first by GM.I wanted more technical details!Cut a couple dozen pages of drama and give us line drawings!For example, in one of the few technical discussions; Setting a standard for EV chargers, page 223, after 3 years and $10 million, GM accepted Hughes's inductive 220 volt charger.Ford stayed with the basic prong-and-socket conductive charger.I wanted a line drawing of each, a photo of each, a short description of each.

Shnayerson gives an objective account of politics, noting the reelection of California Governor Pete Wilson in 1994, and Republicans unseating Democrat governors, and Republicans making huge gains in Congress in Nov 1994-- as a factor in reducing the auto industry's motivation to push the EV.That political revolution is missing in explaining the death of the EV in California in "Who Killed the Electric Car?" where the government villians are made out to be Bush, Cheney, and Rice.Shnayerson suggests that a Republican sweep in 1994 may have been the bigger factor, with a repudiation of 25 years of environmental legislation.

We humans may be incapable of analyzing economic factors, but we always emphasize political factors.This mental shortcoming has to do with the Availability Bias, from cognitive psychology:We overestimate factors easy to imagine or remember (like political figures we don't like) and ignore factors difficult to imagine or remember (like anything to do with economics).So when GM cuts funding in 1992 for the Impact, everyone, like director Chris Paine of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" screams out that there is a giant conspiracy by bad guys in Oil, but few recognize that when a company has a loss of a billion dollars, they need to cut back somewhere.

Shnayerson spends only a few pages on Japanese electric cars:All four major Japanese carmakers had cars to show at the Anaheim California December 1994-- EV Symposium 12.Mazda had an EV Miata.In France, residents were paying for the privilege of test driving 50 Peugeot-Citroen ZX and 105 model prototypes.If Big Oil, Autos, and the U.S. Gov killed the GM EV, who killed the French and Japanese EVs?Which brings up the Big Red Cars in Southern California.

Did Standard Oil and GM and B. F. Goodrich destroy Henry Huntington's Pacific Electric, the world's best electric car system, with its more than 1000 miles of standard gauge track?Or rather than a giant conspiracy, is the fault in the hands of my mother and father and thousands like them who destroyed the Pacific Electric-- they purchased a shiny new 1949 Nash, instead of spending that money on tickets to ride the Red Cars.We blame the "greedy" oil companies, but we don't think about tens of thousands of Southern Californians ready to buy that status symbol, their own auto, after years of rationing during and after World War II.
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Book Description
When Berkeley graduate Eric Ryan was sent by Teach for America to a hardscrabble high school in the heart of North Carolina's NASCAR country, he didn't count on Harold Miller - a big guy with a big laugh and a tarheel accent as thick as sorghum syrup - sticking his head into his class one morning and announcing, "Hey Mr. Ryan, we're gonna build an electric car." Two regional utilities had challenged a group of elite schools throughout the South to design and build battery-powered electric vehicles to be judged during a final contest at NASCAR's Richmond International Raceway. Although Ryan's underprivileged high school was not on the list, Miller managed to squeak them in. With a Ford Escort rescued from the compacter, a few hundred pounds of scavenged golf cart batteries, a local minor league NASCAR driver as coach, and the local constabulary looking the other way as the reborn "Shocker" began careening over back roads on test runs, the kids get their pasted-together dark horse to the big contest in Richmond. Electric Dreams offers drama built on marvelous small-town characters, and a story of never-say-die invention which would make North Carolina's other pioneers, the Wright Brothers, proud. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Awesome Book
This was a wonderful book. She portrayed Miller & Ryan perfectly. I had the wonderful opportunity of being a member of the NEAT the year after the events in her book took place. She captured every detail perfectly and I was able to relive a wonderful part of my life. Once you pick up this book you will not be able to put it down until you have read the last page!!

An Awsome Read
As a member of the EV team at Northamton-East, Caroline Kettlewell made me feel the whole adventure all over again. It was like she took what I saw and felt and put words to it. I am so glad someone told this story, that other people get to read our stugale to the top. If you like to cheer for the underdog you need to read this book. Bryan T Ferguson "the man who drove to the record"

What a wonderful story!
I was sent the book by family - maybe because of the NASCAR connection. I started it on a plane trip to the east coast and finished it, with tears in my eyes, on the way home 2 days later. You start pulling for the kids in the story from the start and share all the ups and downs as they meet each challenge that faces them. What we need is more teachers like Eric Ryan! I highly recommend the book for anyone who likes pulling for the underdog.

Synchromesh:Perfect match-up of story and writer
How can a story about electric cars bring tears to your eyes, even when you're reading it for the sixth time?Not only is the story riveting, but the writing is a pleasure.As in the works of Tracy Kidder and John McPhee, some authors and stories are made for each other.But neither of those Pulitzer Prize winners ever made me cry.This is a book to be read multiple times - for the inspiration, for the use of words, for the drama, for the joy.

An exciting and true story of determination and true grit
Berkeley graduate Eric Ryan's journey to North Carolina to an improvised high school where his encounter with Harold Miller would lead to an electric car's design and development would change his life. Electric Dreams: One Unlikely Team Of Kids And The Race To Build The Car Of The Future documents how an unlikely band of kids would build the car of the future in the heart of NASCAR country, beating the odds to win a high school competition. An exciting and true story of determination and true grit - and fast cars.
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Book Description
The history of electric freight and inter-urban commuter locomotives in the U.S. begins with their development in East Coast urban centers and continues their service in the present day. Railways that used or continue to use electric motive power in cities, suburbs and even over mountain passes - including the BO, Pennsylvania, New Haven, New York Central, Norfolk Western, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, and Amtrack - are depicted in period and modern color photography. The book also covers legendary electrics like the S-motors that towed steam powered trains through tunnels and into busy urban stations and several more. The text includes discussion on the roles played by GE and Westinghouse, specialized equipment, and how technology laid the groundwork for the development of diesel-electric locomotives prior to WW II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A good treatment of the electric locomotive.
This book specifically treats the titled subject. The photographic record is well done. An excelent primer, one might want more information and diagrams illustrating some of the technical information. It lacks an additional reading list of books where further information is available. (This unfortunately is not unusual for this type of book.) Overall an excellent book covering the subject.

Something For the Layman
I found this an excellent scource of information on the developement of the Electric Locomotive in North America .An overview is provided from introduction of the technology to the present day utiliisation of this form of traction .
As a person with a technical background a more profound explanation of fonction would have been appreciated. I.E.Block Diagrams ,photos of rectifying diodes, and resistors used to control starting currents in D.C. locomotives . They must be, "whoppers" .Blessings Paul Coliton ... Read more

Book Description
Far from being a modern conception, electric cars were among the first vehicles on the road. In the formative days of the automobile, a third of cars were electric, and they challenged internal combustion engine-driven vehicles for primacy. Economic and environmental concerns have periodically revived widespread interest in electric cars and hybrid vehicles, and the quest for a non- or less-polluting vehicle that meets consumer's performance demands continues today. The story of the electric car is a long one, and it is still being written.

This illustrated history of electric and hybrid vehicles covers the companies that produced various models; the politics that have surrounded them; the environmental aspects of electric and hybrid vehicles versus internal combustion engines; efforts to overcome technological challenges associated with electric vehicles; marketing strategies through the decades; and public attitudes towards these vehicles throughout their existence. An appendix lists important dates in the history of electric cars, and a glossary defines associated acronyms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An illustrated history of electric and hybrid cars
Electric cars are typically seen as a modern invention: in fact, they were among the first vehicles on the road: in the car's early days a third were electric, and they competed strongly with gas cars. In Electric And Hybrid Cars: A History, Judy and Curtis Anderson collaborate to provide the reader an illustrated history of electric and hybrid cars, surveying not only the history of their construction and promotion, but the political and social controversies which have surrounding their development and use.
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from High Tech Ceramics News, published by Business Communications Company, Inc. on April 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1117 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Who'a Who in Ceramics Ceramic-powered electric vehicle Prototypes 12 to 24 months off.
Publication: High Tech Ceramics News (Newsletter)
Date: April 1, 2006
Publisher: Business Communications Company, Inc.
Volume: 17Issue: 11Page: NA

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Customer Reviews (1)

Noel planted a seed and left us the manual, who will make it grow?
I picked up this book from the public library shelves in 1993 on my way home from high school.Fourteen years later, I find myself making the final preparations to building my own electric vehicle.In an era of $3.30 a gallon for gasoline, electric vehicles have finally become cost effective as commuter vehicles.If you have ever been curious about EV's and how they behave in the real world, Solo is a book for you.My review of this book is not a traditional epinions review, I have made an effort to offer some counter points and give you the reader a 2007 perspective on the building and use of electric vehicles (EV's).

The book is about Noel's efforts to acquire and use an electric vehicle in the early 90's, years before the big three automakers even thought of mass producing their own.Since Noel could not buy a commercially manufactured EV he had to purchase a conversion.Conversions come in extensive varieties, from pure solar vehicles to hybrids (combination of a gasoline engine and an electric motor).1While, I feel Noel's obsession with the environmental impact of EV's a tad obsessive, he does make several other good points towards the ownership of such a vehicle.The story weaves around the attempt to drive the car, Solo, from California to his home in Vermont.Sprinkled throughout, Noel discusses his own efforts to charge the car using solar energy and provides a brief history of these vehicles in the process.

As you read the book you will discover that Noel was an accomplished chatter box.He managed to hitch several rides from strangers who were interested in his car.His social gift also helped him convince business owners to let him charge his EV.The charging of the car required several kilowatts of electricity.Even though he was prepared to pay, the novelty of the car and Noel's charm seemed to give him several free charges.Predictably, gas station owners gave him the most trouble.He had to pay outrageous rates for the electricity to charge his car and once he was expelled from a gas station by the owner!Noel, by the end of his journey across America, was carrying 100ft of power cord so that he could charge his EV.He found himself throwing cord from second floor hotel rooms, plugging into bedside lamps and even using a nail to suspend his power cord on the side of a wooden building!

In Louisiana, we have hot weather all the time, up north Solo and Noel did not.Solo ran into range problems in colder weather.Noel describes his hassles with working around cold weather EV driving like a seasoned veteran.I have yet to read another candid discussion about EV's in cold climates.Future Vermont EV owners, should take notice and read the book!

The book does a great job of discussing the weakest point of electric vehicles today, hills and mountains.Noel's original intention was driving the car from California back to Vermont, but this dream was cut short when he tried to drive the car over Donner Pass, California.The main reason is the 1,000lbs, or more, of batteries the vehicles must carry to provide a suitable range for city driving.Another simple reason is the amount of current required for uphill climbs, 300Amps, compared to 100Amps for driving on flat roads.Lead based batteries tend to lose their rated capacity faster when discharged under high amperage load.As a result, while your ammeter says you are discharging 300Amps climbing a hill, the battery is losing 325Amps.The excess capacity is discharged as thermal energy and through a chemical process called sulfication.The foothills of Donner Pass made Solo travel approximately 25 miles, compared to the estimated 62 mile range the car got in the city.While my explanation is plain, a government report on the testing of the electric S-10 is a great resource to see how hills and battery heating affect the range of EV travel.2.

The most interesting political feature of the book is the support Noel received from the American automotive industry.On the back cover of the book, Sean McNamara wrote a glowing review of the book, he is a member of the Advanced Engineering Staff Electric Vehicles for General Motors.Within the book, Noel ran into a man named Robert D. King.Bob, as he prefers to be called, built his first EV in 1972.He then built several other EV's with features like regenerative braking and weight reduction to allow the EV to climb Mount Washington in the summer of 1978.So what did he do for a living?Bob turned out to be an electrical engineer for General Electric.He was working on an electric car concept for the Ford Motor Company.Leslie Nielsen gave the book a glowing review as well:"Solo by Noel Perrin is a delightful book.It is filled with information, even for those who have already experienced life with an electric car, most enjoyable!The alternative of a future without electric cars is a sorry prospect indeed.Like its star, Solo, the book is quietly moving.Oops!

Summary
In my opinion, Solo Life With An Electric Car is still the book to have for the EV thinking car builder.The core focus of the book, charging and driving, is still the focus of every EV owner.We now have low cost sealed lead acid batteries, but these batteries still charge just as slow as they did when Noel was burning kilowatts.The only worthwhile technology that has been developed since Solo, is the PowerFilm solar panel.Hydrogen Fuel Cells require $1,000 of platinum per KWH and require even more energy to refine the materials during production.Battery charging is still in the dark ages, only one manufacturer, Xantrex is making battery chargers that monitor the temperaturate as well as voltage.

Compounding the efforts to bring EV's mainstream are profiteers.They develop technologies to make EV's better but charge over-inflated prices for their products.For example, batteries.West-Marine has a line of AGM's that would fit perfectly in a converted EV.The batteries retail for (...), yet their wholesale cost is just (...).Anyone can buy the batteries if they sign up for an account at a marine wholesale distributor, but no one knows this.I have found other examples, but that is not the point, we must expose these people as fraud's by producing our own solutions into the public domain.

I gave the book five stars because the subject of EV ownership is not covered in print by anyone else, yet.As a work of non-fiction, I found the book very educational and filled with yankee wit that is sometimes more valuable than a room full of engineers.

(...) ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Battery & EV Technology, published by Business Communications Company, Inc. on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 489 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ELECTRIC VEHICLES: ALABC Tests Lead Acid Batteries on HEVs.
Publication: Battery & EV Technology (Newsletter)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: Business Communications Company, Inc.
Volume: 25Issue: 7Page: NA

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Fleet Equipment, published by Maple Communications on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 711 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Growing up: medium-duty hybrid electric vehicles come of age.(Light And Medium-Duty Trucks)
Author: Seth Skydel
Publication: Fleet Equipment (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Maple Communications
Volume: 31Issue: 2Page: 8(1)

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