The Tour de Sol Reports, 2002
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Table of Contents
Report #1: Here Comes the Tour de SolReport #2: Particpants in the Tour de Sol
Report #3: Tour de Sol Categories: Solar Electric Vehicles
Report #4: Tour de Sol Categories: One-Person Vehicles
Report #5: Tour de Sol Categories: Hydrogen Vehicles - Fuel Cells
Report #6: Tour de Sol Categories: Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)
Report #7: Tour de Sol Categories: Heavy Duty Vehicles
Report #8: Tour de Sol Categories: Demonstration Vehicles
Report #9: Tour de Sol Categories: Battery Electric Vehicles
Report #10: Team Profile: Electric Blue
Report #11: Team Profile: Woodstock
Report #12: Team Profile: DC Cruiser
Report #13: Team Profile: E-STREAM
Report #14: Technical Testing in Baltimore
Report #15: Team Profiles: Climate Cooler II, La Clean Machine, Rocket Runner
Report #16: Interview with Topher Waring
Report #17: Team Profile: Zodiac
Report #18: Team Profile: rEVolutionaryride
Report #19: Team Profile: Electric Hog
Report #20: Team Profile: Driven to Work
Report #21: IBEW Local 18
Report #22: Team Profile: ParaDyne
Report #23: Team Profile: SunPacer
Report #24: Team Profile: Sungo
Report #25: Team Profile: TroutEV
Report #26: Team Profile: Twike
Report #27: On Display: Run A Car On Fresh Vegetable Oil?
Report #28: Team Profile: AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus
Report #29: Team Profile: Solar Black Bear, Phantom Sol
Report #30: On Display: The Spincycle
Report #31: Pace Car: Honda Civic Hybrid
Report #32: Team Profile: Hybrid Challenger II
Report #33: Photos - Photos from Sunday in Baltimore.
Report #34: Photos - More pictures from Baltimore.
Report #35: Team Profile: L3 Enigma
Report #36: Team Profile: The Olympian
Report #37: Photos
Report #38: What Was That EV Called?
Report #39: On Display: DaimlerChrysler Natrium
Report #40: Team Profile: Soljourner 1, Soljourner 2
Report #41: Autocross Results
Report #42: Photos - Photos from Philadelphia, Autocross
Report #43: Team Profile: Toyota Prius
Report #44: On Display: Chrysler Sebring Through-The-Road Hybrid
Report #45: On Display: Driving on Used Vegetable Oil
Report #46: Team Profile: Solectria Super Force
Report #47: Team Profile: Viking 23
Report #48: Tales from the Charging Trailer
Report #49: New Electric Buses in New York City
Report #50: A Couple of Repairs for Sungo
Report #51: Accident and Recovery
Report #52: The Volunteers
Report #53: Not Here
Report #54: Various Short Stories
Report #55: Pace Car Story
Report #56: Simon Hauger Receives the 2002 EV Teacher Award
Report #57: Tour de Sol 2002 Awards
Report #58: Comments from the Awards
Report #59: Teams That Dropped Out
Report #60: Interview with Rob Wills, Tour de Sol Technical Director
Report #61: Photos - Photos from the Trenton
For Tour de Sol Reports from 1994 through 2001, see
Report #1: Here Comes the Tour de Sol
The 14th gathering of alternative transportation enthusiasts, known as the Tour de Sol: The Great American Green Transportation Festival, is scheduled for the 12th through the 18th of May, which is also National Transportation Week and during Clean Air Month. Once again, the clan will bring together many variations on the theme of energy efficient and Earth-friendly transportation. The field will include "for sale" vehicles as well as of the one-of-a-kind vehicles that reflect the variety and originality of thinking presented at the Tour de Sol every year since 1989. The Tour has grown into the largest sustainable transportation event in the world, including options such as walking, biking, and mass transportation. Features this year will include Honda's Civic Hybrid making its on-road debut as the pace car for the rally, DaimlerChrysler showing its Natrium fuel cell concept van, and Advanced Vehicle Systems displaying an electric-drive bus. And just think, not so many years ago these were technologies were being demonstrated in research vehicles at the Tour de Sol.
Central to the Festival will be the Road Rally for which the Tour de Sol is famous. In the past, the Tour has featured solar-electric and battery-electric scooters, motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks and buses, research hybrid-electric vehicles of many stripes, using many different fuels and technologies, including the first fuel-cells every used in open-road competition. Everything from personal designs, through vehicles built at schools and colleges, through current commercial offerings, and futuristic dreams still taking form will be on display and in competition.
The Festival is actually 6 Festivals along the Road Rally route from Washington DC to New York City. Each stop will have its own feel and features. For example, a weekend festival at Baltimore MD's Inner Harbor will be the kick-off event and host the pre-rally testing. The official rally start will be the Capital Mall in Washington DC. It will then stop at Sandy Point State Park, Maryland, Philadelphia's City Hall, and Trenton's State Museum and Library. Finally, the weekend New York City's Hudson River Park festival will fly the Finish Line banner. Each festival will offer its own unique mix of exhibits, food, and entertainment.
Nancy Hazard, director of the Tour de Sol, is excited by the many green transportation and energy options that are now available to the general public. "We worked so many years towards what is happening today. It is tremendously exciting to showcase quality hybrid vehicles that are for sale, such as the Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, and Toyota Prius. We first saw hybrid technologies at the Tour de Sol 8 years ago. The public demand now keeps these cars on constant backorder. And the DaimlerChrysler GEM neighborhood vehicle, which grew out of many experimental battery-electric vehicles, is now a successful niche-market product."
Linking the Festivals together is the famous Tour de Sol Road Rally, which this year attracts teams from as far away as San Diego, Canada, Oklahoma and Maine. Some entries are old favorites with the habit of improving year-to-year. Others are first-timers bringing new ideas and fresh interpretations on the idea of energy efficient vehicles. The contestants will run between the festival sites and then be on public display. The teams always have interesting stories to tell, and children particularly enjoy talking to the school entries. Not a few kids got their first look at an electric car at the Tour de Sol and then went on to produce entrants while in high school or college.
Details of the events can be found at NESEA's web site:
www.NESEA.org
Your humble reporter will once again be there capturing the stories behind the teams and vehicles in this series of reports. I'll also be serving as announcer during the Road Rallies.
The entire set of Tour de Sol Reports will be available at:
www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/index.html
Report #2: Particpants in the Tour de Sol
The Tour de Sol is swiftly approaching, and the list of particpants (as of April 24, 2002) is found on the NESEA web site:
http://www.NESEA.org
The event is divided into two Divisions, PRODUCTION and PROTOTYPE, and the Prototype Division is subdivided into categories:
HYBRID-ELECTRIC VEHICLES HYDROGEN VEHICLES BATTERY-ELECTRIC VEHICLES SOLAR-ELECTRIC VEHICLES ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
Here is a quick summary of who and what is coming. More details will appear in future Tour de Sol Reports.
Vehicles with numbers are competing in the Road Rally.
OFFICIAL PACE CAR OF THE 2002 TOUR DE SOL
Honda Civic Hybrid
For Sale: '02 Gas-electric hybrid vehicle American Honda Motor Company
PRODUCTION DIVISION: VEHICLES BUILT BY MANUFACTURERS
#EO, AVS22 Hybrid Electric Bus
22' Bus, Diesel + Sonnenschein PbA AVS, Chatanooga, TN
GEM
For Sale: Purpose-built battery-electric neighborhood vehicle DaimlerChrysler
Natrium
Prototype fuel cell vehicle: Minivan with Millennium Cell storage, and Ballard fuel cell DaimlerChrysler
Dodge Ram HEV
Prototype gas-electric hybrid vehicle DaimlerChrysler
ToyotaPrius
'01 Toyota Prius: Gasoline + Panasonic NMH S&S Auto Sport, Tulsa, OK
Twike
1999 Twike: NiCad + pedal assist Twike Pioneers, S. Burlington, VT
#46, Honda Insight
'01 Honda Insight: Gas-electric hybrid Team Driven To Work, Bedminster, NJ
#31, Rocket Runner
PET Stand-up scooter: Quick-change PbA UNEP/IBEW Local 18, New York, NY#8, Climate Cooler
PET Quick-change PbA UNEP/PET, New York, NY
TH!NK city & TH!NK neighbor by Ford
Electric vehicles - TH!NK city for sale in fall 2002. Display in New York City and Washington, DC only.
PROTOTYPE DIVISION:
ONE-OF-A-KIND VEHICLES built by students, individuals, and component manufacturers etc.
HYBRID-ELECTRIC VEHICLES
#18, KINETICAR III
1989 S-10 Pick-up: LPG + Trojan, PbA NVCTC, Waterbury, CT
#9, Buckeyebird 2002
'02 Ford Explorer: Biodiesel + TBA Pride of the Buckeye, Columbus, OH
#65, The Hare
83 VW Rabbit: Gasoline + Trojan, PbA Falmouth Engineering Team, Falmouth, ME
#22, Soljourner 2
1995 Jeep Wrangler: LPG + PbA W. Philadelphia High School, Philadelphia, PA
#3, L3 Enigma
Purpose-built: Biodiesel + PbA L3 Research / SDSU, San Diego, CA
#17, Paradyne
1992 GeoMetor: E85 + Concord PbA University of Tulsa, OK
Hybrid Challenger II
1990 Chevy Lumina SUV, Gasoline + TBA Electronic Transportation Design, Yachats, OR
#14, SwiftR
'01 Suzuki Swift: Gasoline + Energizer PbA Swarthmore College HEV Team, Swarthmore, PA
#23, Viking 23
Purpose-built: Biodiesel + Saft NiCd Western WA University, Bellingham, WA
HYDROGEN VEHICLES
Electric Blue
1981 Ford Elvan: Hydrogen fuel cell + pbA Eco Living Fellowship, Willingboro, NJ
BATTERY-ELECTRIC VEHICLES
#19, Clean Wheels
1988 Suzuki Samurai, Electrovaya Li-ion Electrovaya Challenge, Mississauga, Canada
#25, Tiger FieroVolt
1984 Pontiac Fiero: Delphi, PbA UEHS FieroVolt Tigers, Endicott, NY
#16, The Olympian
1986 Ford Escort: GNB, PbA Pirates, Cinnaminson, NJ
#53, rEVolutionaryride.com
1986 VW Van: Trojan, PbA North Haven Community School, North Haven, ME
#66, Phantom Sol
1986 GMC S-15: Trojan, PbA UMaine Solar Vehicle Team, Orono, ME
#72, Sungo
Purpose-built: Ovonic, NMH NHTI SEV Club, Concord, NH
#15, E-STREAM
1991 VW Cabriolet: Exide, PbA Team EV, Princeton Jct., NJ
#21, Soljourner 1
Saturn SL2, Deka, PbA W. Philadelphia High School, Philadelphia, PA
#11, Solectria Super Force
1993 GeoMetro + trailer, PbA Team New England, Chelsea, MA
#28, Electric Panther
1996 GMC Sierra: Trojan PbA Panther Electric Vehicles, Pittsburgh, PA
#56, Woodstock
Conversion: Trojan PbA St. Mark's EV Club, Southborough, MA
#6, DC Cruiser
1985 Chevy S-10: BpA Maine Street Mainiacs, Brunswick ME
#85, Sundog
1995 Renaissance Tropica: Trojan PbA Sol Sarum Race Team, Salisbury, CT
SOLAR-ELECTRIC VEHICLES
#20, Solar Black Bear
1985 Chevy S-10: Trojan, PbA UMaine Solar Vehicle Team, Orono, ME
#75, SEVRX
1984 Honda CRX, NRG, Li Ion Clarkson University Solar Knights, Potsdam, NY
#92, SunPacer
Purpose-built, one-person commuter: Ovonic NMH Cato-Meridian HS Tech Team, Cato, NY
ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
#12, Electric Hog
Purpose-built motorcycle: Trojan, PbA Vogelbilt, New York, NY
#64, Trout EV
Purpose-built motorcycle, Deka PbA Electric Motorcycle Research Team, Millersville, PA
#7, Zodiac
Purpose-built, One-person commuter: Trojan, PbA IHS Tech Team, Rochester, NY#2, La Clean Machine
Prototype PET scooter, Quick-change PbA IBEW, Local 18/PET, Los Angeles, CA
Report #3: Tour de Sol Categories: Solar Electric Vehicles
The first Tour de Sols, both in Europe and America, were all about solar- powered vehicles. But the mission has changed over the years, and so the majority of the cars, trucks and buses that enter do not have much, if any, solar-electric energy sources. The rules state that all vehicles, except those in the Production category, must carry at least 1 square foot of solar panel and that it must power something. Many are used to run the radio.
But we still see entrants that get a significant fraction of their energy from the sun. (There will be future TdS Reports with the technical details of each of the vehicles.)
Here is some more info about this year's entrants:
Vehicle Name SEVRX
Vehicle Number 75
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category solar electric
Team Name Clarkson Solar Knights
Organization Clarkson University Solar Knights
City Potsdam
State NY
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.clarkson.edu/~solarcar
Program blurb The Solar Knights entered SEVRX, their 1986 Honda
CRX battery-electric conversion, in last year's
competition as a demonstration vehicle. This year,
they are back with a reconstructed battery pack,
aerodynamic changes to the body and a brand-new
solar array.
Vehicle Name Solar Black Bear
Vehicle Number 20
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category solar electric
Team Name UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
City Orono
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://ume.maine.edu/solar
Program blurb The Solar Black Bear returns for its fourth year
to defend its three consecutive first place
finishes in the Solar Category. New this year is a
completely new solar array, motor controller,
truck bed and dashboard system. The new designs
are aimed at improving reliability and
practicality, while keeping the Solar Black Bear a
cost-effective solar transportation solution.
Vehicle Name SunPacer
Vehicle Number 92
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category Advanced battery solar electric
Team Name Cato-Meridian HS Tech Team
Organization Cato-Meridian High School Tech Club
City Cato
State NY
COUNTRY USA
Program blurb Cato-Meridian H.S. Tech Team, Cato, NY. This is
Sunpacer's ninth straight year competing in the
Tour. During this time, Sunpacer has won its class
several times and has been honored with many
efficiency awards. This years team consists of
crew cheif Arron Kolb, driver Ashley Davenport,
chief navigator Tim Soine, backup navigator Amber
Ross and Technology Teacher Earl Billings. The
purpose of the Sunpacer was to design a one-person
commuter propelled by solar electricity.
Report #4: Tour de Sol Categories: One-Person Vehicles
At the other end of the spectrum from buses, trucks and cars are the very personal transports, those that carry just one person. In much of the world, the motor scooter is a major cause of polution, both because of the high ratio of engines to people and the common use of smaller engines without clean-burn technologies or maintenance. There are alternatives ...
Vehicle Name Climate Cooler II
Vehicle Number 8
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UNEP / PET
Organization Personal Electric Tranports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
Program blurb This is the first time that the United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) staff team is
participating in an event like the Tour de Sol.
The UNEP will ride a clean air scooter intended to
provide basic transportation for daily commuters
around the world, protecting the environment at a
cost that allows real challenges to Global Warming
causes. The LA International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local 18 is teaming with UNEP
to make this statement that the world can drive
environmentally friendly vehicles.
Vehicle Name La Clean Machine
Vehicle Number 2
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name IBEW/Local 18/PET
Organization Personal Electric Transports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
Program blurb For the first time, the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, Local 18, working at Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power will ride a
scooter with the most advanced quick change system
in the world. They are teaming with the United
Nations Environmental Programme to make the
statement that the world can drive environmentally
friendly, low cost vehicles made in the USA
Vehicle Name Rocket Runner
Vehicle Number 31
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UNEP / IBEW Local 18
Organization Personal Electric Transports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
Program blurb Entered by the United Nations Environmental
Programme and the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local 18, this three wheeled,
stand-up vehicle allows rider visibility in even
the heaviest traffic. It folds to half it's size
in 5 seconds! Quick-change batteries. $800 retail.
Vehicle Name TroutEV
Vehicle Number 64
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Electric Motorcycle Research Team, Millersville,
Organization Millersville University NAIT Club
City Millersville
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.millersville.NAIT.Org
Program blurb The Electric Motorcycle Research Team (EMRT) -
Millersville University of Pennsylvania is proud
to enter their electric super-cycle called the
TROUTev. The vehicle was designed to break the Pb-
acid powered two-wheel vehicle distance record set
back in 1995 by the Schiller Group (81) miles.
Vehicle Name Zodiac
Vehicle Number 07
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA solar electric
Team Name IHS Tech Team
Organization Irondequoit Tech Club
City Rochester
State NY
COUNTRY US
www http://www.ihstechteam.com
Program blurb The West Icondequoit HS Team currently consists of
15 students and 7 adults. Our goal is to provide a
safe after school club that focusses on problem
solving and real world engineering. This is the
Zodiac's second appearance in the race.
Report #5: Tour de Sol Categories: Hydrogen Vehicles - Fuel Cells
The promise and the theory of some technologies can take a very long time to mature into reality and practice. So it has been with fuel cells and hydrogen vehicles. The Tour de Sol was the event where the first fuel-cell vehicles competed, and we welcome each new entrant. This is how the future is made ...
Vehicle Name Electric Blue
Vehicle Number 01
Category HYDROGEN VEHICLES - FUEL CELLS
vehicle type category hydrogen
Team Name Eco Living Fellowship
City Willingboro
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.ecoliving.org
Program blurb Eco Living Felloship's truck represents both old
and new in electric drive sustainable
transportation. It was built by a team of New
Jersey college and homeschooled students using a
1981 Electravan 750 which has been restored,
updated and modified to include a hydrogen fuel
cell as an additional source of clean power.
Report #6: Tour de Sol Categories: Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)
Hybrid electric drive systems are all the rage, it would seem. I suppose that isn't particularly surprising since this is the technology that holds the greatest near term promise. Come to the Tour and see the great variety of approaches people, schools and manufaturers take to making HEVs.
Vehicle Name Buck Hybrid 002
Vehicle Number 9
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Team Q
Organization Ohio State University
City Columbus
State OH
COUNTRY US
www http://car.eng.ohio-state.edu
Program blurb The BuckHybrid002 marks Ohio State University's
first entry in the Tour de Sol, but the team has
competed in Future Car and Future Truck since
1996. OSU's current Future Truck, the
BuckHybrid002, is based on the 2002 Ford Explorer
platform. Its a bio-diesel electric conversion,
and entrant in the upcoming Future Truck
Competition.
Vehicle Name Honda Insight
Vehicle Number 46
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Driven to Work
Organization Team Driven to Work
City Bedminster
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.freedomfinancialplanning.com
Program blurb Team "Driven to Work" was formed by marketing
professionals who share an interest in alternative
energy and in promoting special events. We are
sponsored by FreedomFinancialPlanning.com, Spark
Communications and CTC Advertising. The "Driven
to Work" entry showcases how accessible green
vehicles have become to the consumer. Our team's
car is a rented Honda Insight.
Vehicle Name Hybrid Challenger II
Vehicle Number 33
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Hybrid Challenger
Organization Electronic Transportation Design
City Yachats
State OR
COUNTRY USA
www http://electrichybridvehicles.com
Program blurb Take the world's leading Hybrid drive engineer,
the world's leading heavy equipment manchanic, and
two of the world's greatest wifes, and you have
the world's greatest rally team. So why not take
the world's first hybrid SUV to the Tour de Sol,
The world's greatest clean energy rally. Clarence
and Betty Ellers, Earl and Eddie Ruthstrom will do
their very best to make this a fantastic event.
Vehicle Name KINETICAR III
Vehicle Number 18
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name KINETICAR
Organization CSERT-NVCC
City Waterbury
State CT
COUNTRY US
Program blurb The Kineticar III team under the leadership of
Bill Sforza improved our 2001 performance over the
previous year. This new team has been learning
about and making small improvements to our hybrid
vehicle. We expect to achieve better efficiency in
2002 and to accurately measure fuel usage.
Vehicle Name L3 Enigma
Vehicle Number 3
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name L3 Research/SDSU
Organization San Diego State University Foundation
City El Cajon
State CA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.L3research.com
Program blurb The award-winning L3 Enigma sports car is a pre-
production prototype parallel hybrid electric
vehicle. Using the best off-the-shelf
technologies, the L3 team has built the first of a
new breed of "lean" muscle cars. Performance meets
economy in the L3 Enigma. See www.L3Research.com
for more.
Vehicle Name Paradyne
Vehicle Number 17
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name University of Tulsa
City Tulsa
State OK
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.hev.utulsa.edu
Program blurb Veteran of four Tours, this hybrid vehicle
finished first in 99 and second in 98, 00, and 01.
A converted Geo Metro, Paradyne is a parallel
hybrid with a 20 kW, 144 V Solectria motor with
lead-acid batteries and a 1 liter engine. For
2002, Paradyne has been converted to run on E85.
Vehicle Name Soljourner 2
Vehicle Number 22
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name W. Phila. HS EV Team
Organization West Philadelphia High School
City Philadelphia
State PA
COUNTRY USA
Program blurb THE HYBRID ELECTRIC JEEP #22 This is the third
conversion for this once gas powered Jeep. Now a
hybrid, running on biodiesel, a DC motor, and Deka
lead acid batteries. The students also built their
own generator, and a whole new body (not pictured
here) with materials donated by Hexcel. This is
the third conversion for this once gas powered
vehicle. The hybrid electric Jeep is equipped
with a 36HP MTS brushless DC motor getting its
power from 34 Deka DCU1 batteries (408 Volts).
The students built their own generator with a
Yanmar 2V78 20HP diesel engine running on
biodiesel fuel and a high efficiency 20HP MTS
brushless DC motor. The students also gave the
Jeep a new body this year (not pictured here) with
materials donated by Hexcel.
Vehicle Name SwiftR
Vehicle Number 14
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Swarthmore College HEV Team
Organization Swarthmore College
City Swarthmore
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/org/HEV/
Program blurb Swarthmore College's team has been known for their
CNG series hybrid Garnet One since 1997. They
return with an all-new 2001 Susuki Swift
conversion. SwiftR employs a parallel hybrid 4WD
system requiring only ordinary gasoline. SwiftR
demonstrates power and efficiency in a practical
hybrid vehicle.
Vehicle Name The Hare
Vehicle Number 65
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Falmouth Engineering Team
Organization Falmouth High School Engineering Team
City Falmouth
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.falmouthschools.org/tourdesol/
Program blurb The FHS Engineering Team has been active in the
past, and , after being absent for several years,
we are proud to announce our re-entry into
competition.
Vehicle Name Toyota Prius
Vehicle Number 70
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name S&S Auto Sport
Organization Robert Strattan
City Tulsa
State OK
COUNTRY USA
Program blurb The MY 2001 Toyota Prius is my daily driver, and
was the first Prius delivered to Tulsa, OK in
October, 2000. It also competed in the 2001 Tour
de Sol. I am a retired electrical engineering
professor and am also a faculty advisor to the
University of Tulsa's Hurricane Motor Work's HEV
project.
Vehicle Name Viking 23
Vehicle Number 23
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Western WA University
Organization Western Washington University
City Bellingham
State WA
COUNTRY USA
www http://vri.etec.wwu.edu
Program blurb The team from Western Washington University is
comprised of students working on an
extracurricular basis. Each of our ten team
members is involved for different reasons but
mostly it is a way to learn something that a book
cannot teach. Viking 23 is unique in that the
chassis and body are all composite, carbon fiber
to be exact. All materials have been donated or
graciously discounted.
Report #7: Tour de Sol Categories: Heavy Duty Vehicles
When most people think about electric and hybird-electric vehicles are thinking in term so personal transportation. However public and commercial uses of these technologies make a lot of sense. Two years ago an electric school bus was on the Tour. Ever see a school bus in an Autocross competition? We did! I wonder ...
Vehicle Name AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus
Vehicle Number E001
Category HEAVY DUTY VEHICLES
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name AVS
Organization Advanced Vehicle Systems
City Chatanooga
State TN
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.avsbus.com
Program blurb The AVS-22 is a quick, clean, and quiet 22' bus.
The hybrid technology enables the AVS-22 to
achieve "Ultra Low Emission Vehicle" status while
maintaining the performance of a conventional
diesel bus. 150 are in service around the world.
The bus is built by Advanced Vehicle Systems
(AVS), a recognized leader in Electric and Hybrid-
Electric Bus technology in the US.
Report #8: Tour de Sol Categories: Demonstration Vehicles
One of the exciting things about visiting the Tour de Sol year after year is seeing the technologies move from experimental use to practical use to commercial use. The Demonstration Vehicles are either currently for sale or pre-production prototypes of things to come.
Vehicle Name Dodge RAM HEV
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative)
Team Name DaimlerChrysler
City Auburn Hills
State MI
www http://www.daimlerchrysler.com
Program blurb The Tour de Sol offers an early prieview of the
Dodge Ram HEV, a hybrid version of the popular
Ram pickup, for sale in 2004. This truck was
designed with the contractor in mind. It is 20
percent more fuel efficiency, and it can be used
as a clean electric generator when parked to
provide power for the job site.
Vehicle Name GEM
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name DaimlerChrysler
City Auburn Hills
State MI
www http://www.daimlerchrysler.com
Program blurb DaimlerChrysler is bringing the GEM back to the
Tour de Sol for the third time. The GEM is the
leading neighborhood electric vehicle in the
nation, and a great crowd pleaser. It is designed
to meet the needs of people on college campuses,
corporate parks, and communities around the world.
Vehicle Name Honda Civic hybrid
Vehicle Number Pace
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative)
vehicle type category demonstration/exhibit only
Team Name American Honda Motor Company
Organization Honda
City Washington
State DC
www http://www.hondacorporate.com
Program blurb American Honda Motor Company's third consecutive
year as lead corporate sponsor of the Tour de Sol
demonstrates the company's commitment to
developing real-world, market-ready vehicles that
continue to reduce the impact of automobiles on
the environment. The Honda Civic Hybrid is
making its U.S. on-road debut as the pace car for
the 2002 Tour de Sol. On sale nationwide in May
2002, the Civic Hybrid, a five-passenger sedan, is
expected to achieve about 50 miles per gallon for
both city and highway driving - a 30 percent
improvement in fuel economy compared to other
Civic sedan models. The Civic Hybrid is also the
first hybrid to share the same body style and
platform as other mass produced models. The Civic
Hybrid will come off the same assembly line as
other conventional Civic models. Two years ago
at the Tour de Sol, Honda introduced the Insight,
the first mass-produced, gasoline-electric hybrid
on sale in the U.S. market. This year, several
Insight owners will also compete in the Tour de
Sol road-rally.
Vehicle Name Natrium
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative)
vehicle type category hydrogen
Team Name DaimlerChrysler
City Auburn Hills,
State MI
www http://www.daimlerchrysler.com
Program blurb The Chrysler Town & Country Natrium prototype fuel
cell vehicle uses New Jersey-based Millennium
Cell hydrogen storage technology---sodium boro-
hydride, which is made from borax, a common
component of laundry soap. The fuel is non-toxic,
nonflammable and can be recycled. Interior space
is not compromised.
Vehicle Name Th!nk city Vehicle Number demo Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative) Team Name Ford Th!nk Mobility State CA
Vehicle Name Th!nk neighbor Vehicle Number demo Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative) Team Name Ford Th!nk Mobility State CA
Vehicle Name Twike
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competative)
vehicle type category demonstration/exhibit only
Team Name Twike Pioneers
Organization TWIKE Club of America
City S. Burlington
State VT
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.twike.org
Program blurb The Twike (Twin Bike) is a unique 3 wheeled, 2
passenger, Swiss-made human/electric powered
ultralight vehicle. The optional pedaling provides
excellent exercise while extending the Twike's
range. The Twike Pioneer team includes the
Vermont owners of Twike #507 and two Twike
enthusiasts from Germany.
Report #9: Tour de Sol Categories: Battery Electric Vehicles
After the early years of only solar-powered vehicles, the Tour de Sol added the Battery Electric Vehicles. These are vehicles that plug-in to recharge their batteries. (A solar panel up to 100 Watts is permitted. A bigger solar panel puts you into the Solar Vehicle category.)
(Your Humble Reporter drives a battery electric Solectria "Force" as his every day car, so any hint of bias towards this category in these reports just might be real. In fact, I attended several Tours while figuring out which type of electric vehicle is wanted. You might want to do the same.)
Vehicle Name Clean Wheels
Vehicle Number 19
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category Advanced battery
Team Name Electrovaya Challenge
Organization Electrovaya
City Mississauga
State Ont
COUNTRY Canada
Program blurb The Electrovaya Suzuki Samurai tests the viability
of using Electrovaya's Lithium Ion SuperPolymerTM
cells as a traction battery for an electric
vehicle. The cells, which have an energy density
of over 200Wh/kg, are similar to the cells used in
our PowerPads, which are designed to run laptop
computers up to 16 hours. We are excited about its
potential to power ZEVs.
Vehicle Name DC Cruiser
Vehicle Number 6
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Maine Street Mainiacs
Organization Seth Murray
City Brunswick
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.geocities.com/electricboy01
Program blurb This conversion was built over the last year by
high school senior Seth Murray and his father,
Mark. The project was undertaken mostly for fun,
but also to demonstrate that anyone can easily
build a simple and practical EV.
Vehicle Name E-STREAM
Vehicle Number 15
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Team EV
City Princeton Jct.
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://TEAMEV2001.com
Program blurb Team EV is a private team from New Jersey composed
of four high school seniors and a college junior
with a large interest in engineering and the
environment. This is Team EV's second year as a
Tour de Sol entrant.
Vehicle Name Electric Hog
Vehicle Number 12
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Vogelbilt
Organization Vogelbilt Corp.
City New York
State NY
COUNTRY US
www http://www.vogelbilt.com
Program blurb We designed the Electric Hog because we believed
that a full size motorcycle could be made all
electric. What we created is a prototype vehicle
that has the feel, look and ride of a full-sized
motorcycle. The project was very challenging, a
lot of fun and a lot of hard work. We are proud
to be part of the Tour de Sol.
Vehicle Name Electric Panther
Vehicle Number 28
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Panther Electric Vehicle
Organization Panther Electric Vehicle Association
City Pittsburgh
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.pitt.edu/~elv/index.html
Program blurb The Panther Electric Vehicle Club has been
building EVs since 1998, but we are first-time
entrants to the Tour De Sol. Students at the U.
of Pittsburgh receive credit for their work. This
year we converted a GMC Sierra to electric power.
We hope to demonstrate that electric conversion
can be performed effectively on a heavy-duty
vehicle.
Vehicle Name Phantom Sol
Vehicle Number 66
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
City Orono
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.ume.maine.edu/solar
Program blurb Originally a GMC-S15 pickup, the Phantom Sol
dispels the stereotype that EVs are impractical,
weak and expensive. In its appearance this year,
the Phantom will sport a new interior and a new
frame design, both allowing for greater
performance and reliability. Finishing touches
have been added to the body as well.
Vehicle Name SUNDOG
Vehicle Number 85
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Sol Sarum Race Team
Organization Salisbury School
City Salisbury
State CT
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.salisburyschool.org
Program blurb NH--The Cinnaminson High School Electric Vehicle
Tour de Sol team has competed in 4 consecutive
Tour de Sol events, placing 2nd, 4th, 4th, and 3rd
place in the battery car division. Our converted
Ford Escort is one of the most reliable, all
around, great performers in the Tour. The car is
dependable, comfortable, and easy to drive at any
speed. It will travel 50 miles under any
condition, and 100 miles if you really conserve
energy.
Vehicle Name Solectria Super Force
Vehicle Number 11
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Team New England
City Chelsea
State MA
COUNTRY USA
Program blurb This vehicle demonstrates the versatility of a
pure EV, with detachable trailer filled with
batteries for long-distance travel. This vehicle
took first place in its category in the 2001 Tour.
Team New England is a group of experienced EV
enthusiasts from around the country who seek to
enter cutting-edge unique and competitive vehicle
designs in EV competitions.
Vehicle Name Soljourner 1
Vehicle Number 21
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name W. Phila. H.S. EV Team
Organization West Philadelphia High School
City Philadelphia
State PA
COUNTRY Philadelphia
www http://www.upenn.edu/ccp/access_science/soljourner
Program blurb The West Philly Electric Vehicle Team is back for
its third year. The students have made a number
of improvement to the electric Saturn and are
looking forward to a successful run. The
Soljouner2 is equipped with a 36HP MTS brushless
DC motor, Deka batteries, and Michelin low rolling
resistant tires. Boeing tested the improved
aerodynamics in their full size wind tunnel.
Vehicle Name Sungo
Vehicle Number 72
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category Advanced battery
Team Name NHTI SEV Club
Organization New Hampshire Technical Institute SEV Club
City Concord
State NH
COUNTRY USA
Program blurb NH-Sungo was built and has been continuously
imporved by the New Hampshire Technical Institut's
Sustainabel Energy Ventures Club. The two-seat,
purpose-built electric vehicle can rech 90 mph,
and has placed first an the Tour several times.
This year additional space has been created for
its Ovonic nickel metal hydride batterhies, to
gain added driving range.
Vehicle Name The Olympian
Vehicle Number 16
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Pirates
Organization Cinnaminson High School
City Cinnaminson
State NJ
COUNTRY US
Program blurb NH--A 1987 Ford Escort was converted in 1996 to a
clutchless electric vehicle under Robert Deats'
supervision. Oliver Perry and his studnets
provided par6s and technical support. Our largest
sponsor has been Eugene Lemieux of Valley Forge's
Eastern Electric Vehicle Club. The car is a strong
performer with a second, third, and two fourth
place finishes in four years.
Vehicle Name Tiger FieroVolt
Vehicle Number 25
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UEHS FieroVolt Tigers
Organization Union-Endicott High School
City Endicott
State NY
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.uetigertech.com
Program blurb Over the past two years the Union-Endicott High
School Technology Club has been converting a 1984
Pontiac Fiero to an electric with a 4' x 4' traler
that carries additional batteries. Over 30 club
members meet after school to problem solve,
develop CAD drawings, make vehicle modifications,
fundraise, and test the car.
Vehicle Name Woodstock
Vehicle Number 56
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name St. Mark's EV Club
Organization St. Mark's School Electric Vehicle Club
City Southborough
State MA
www http://www.stmarksschool.org
Program blurb The St. Markers who helped build our EV in their
free time are a coed group pf physics students,
alums and friends, drawn together by interest in
our environmental future, the application of
appropriate technology and enthusiam for project-
based education. "Woodstock" is a bright yellow,
recycled 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck. Special
features include an extensively modified 4X2
drivetrain, recharging from any 120 V outlet, high
ground clearance, a limited slip axle and
elecronic anti-lock brakes.
Vehicle Name rEVolutionaryride.com
Vehicle Number 53
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name North Haven Community School
City North Haven
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.midcoast.com
Program blurb A spunky group of junior and senior physics
students from the smallest public high school in
Maine (on an island, no less) have spent the last
18 months making a perfect island car- an electric
4wd Volkswagen Syncro 7 passenger van. This entry
has been an all-island effort, joining students, a
boat electrician, the town's welder, and island
artists.
Report #10: Team Profile: Electric Blue
The promise of fuel cell technology, which converts hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity, once again has a real expression at the Tour de Sol.
One of those expressions is this pickup truck began as a battery electric vehicle in the early 1980s; about 80 were built by Jet Industries in Huston Texas for utility companies. "They were born and registered as electric trucks," says Mike Skelly Sr. Eventually, after years of corporate and private ownership, it was donated to the Eco Living Fellowship. "We wanted to pick it up as a student project." They had help from Mike Stritzki, who as the principal organizer of the New Jersey Venturer fuel cell vehicle that was in the Tour de Sol in 1999 and 2000, and various sponsors, and students and volunteers. They are using the original GE SCR controller and the original GE DC series wound motor. It combines some of the oldest electric vehicle technology with some of the newest. A hydrogen fuel system recharges the battery pack as they drive. "A boost converter from Advanced Power Associates raises the fuel cell output, 43 to 63 Volts, to the charging voltage for the 144 Volt battery pack."
I asked why they stuck with the original controller. I guessed a modern controller would drop in pretty easily. "It was part of the mission. We wanted to stick with as much of the original equipment as we could, as the demonstration. We think it will add about 10% to the range." There are two battery strings in parallel.
The hydrogen tank is about 43 liters at 3600 pounds per square inch. "That gives us about 10 hours of 1 kiloWatt output; 10 kiloWatt-hours," said Ken Kleinfelter, another team member.
Rob Wills, Technical Director of the Tour de Sol made the comment, "Here we have a volume of about 3 car batteries which deliver about 1 kiloWatt-hour of energy. 10 kiloWatt-hours out of the fuel cell is 3 times that energy density. Not to mention the weight advantage."
Mike Skelly added that these fuel-cells, a pair of 500 Watt units manufactured by H-Power, are "air-breathers; they get their oxygen from the air. There is no cooling system, huge compressor, no humidification."
"This is an all volunteer effort. High school and college students from four New Jersey counties and volunteers from various companies and sponsorships have contributed to a show-string effort to show it to the world."
Vehicle Name Electric Blue
Vehicle Number 1
Category HYDROGEN VEHICLES - FUEL CELLS
vehicle type category hydrogen
Team Name Eco Living Fellowship
Organization Eco Living Fellowship
City Willingboro
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.ecoliving.org
No People in Project 15
Time to Build 2000 person hours, 6 months
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Ford/Jet Industries
Vehicle Model Year 1981
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Elvan750 / Hydrogen
sale price $30,000
motor manufacturer GE
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage System hydrogen PbA
Battery n/a/ hydrogen PbA
control system manufacturer GE
control system type EVJ
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger current 18 A
charger input voltage 208/230 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-20P
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
# seats 2
Weight pounds n/a lbs
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
fuel efficiency mpg
Fuel Type H2
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer DuroTour
tire model P100/80 R17-15H
Program blurb Eco Living Fellowship's truck represents both old
and new in electric drive sustainable
transportation. It was built by a team of New
Jersey college and homeschooled students using a
1981 Electravan 750 which has been restored,
updated and modified to include a hydrogen fuel
cell as an additional source of clean power.
I got a chance to speak with Mike Stritzki and ask where he had been since the New Jersey Venturer efforts of 1999 and 2000. "The technology in the Venturer is now sold by H-Power in their Eco units; one of the things that helped them go public. Partnerships do work and technology developed from research and educational projects do find commercial application.
"I am now with Millennium Cell. We make hydrogen generators for fuel cell powered vehicles. DiamlerChryler's Natrium uses that product and will be here at the Tour de Sol. It's pretty exciting."
So when Mike isn't working on fuel cell technology, he is helping the Electric Blue get running. He has hydrogen in his blood! "I want to see us get off the fossil fuel monkey, especially after 9/11. The world does not want to be a slave to oil and what oil we have I would like to leave for future generations. There are a lot better things to do with it than burn it."
Report #11: Team Profile: Woodstock
Ken Wells is a physics teacher at Saint Mark's School, a small private boarding school in Southborough Massachusetts, who is the faculty advisor to their Electric Vehicle Club. This high school project started about 2 years. "Energy is a very intangible concept. Our school teaches physics in the freshman year and I thought this would be an appropriate way to present concepts like energy in, energy out, measurement, how much work gets done and where did the rest of it go. What does efficiency really mean? I see the project going on several more years on this vehicle platform, adding a stationary photovoltaic array for charging and maybe wind power. Some of the kids are talking about building a bio-diesel conversion next year. It has already succeeded in firing imaginations and getting them thinking about energy." They have been experimenting with tires and air pressure and no- tailgate. "Kids look at these things and decide which configuration is best." The truck has been driven about 1000 miles on it.
Ken has been teaching about 20 years and cars and electrics runs in the family. "My father is the director at the Boyertown (Pennsylvania) Museum of Historic Vehicles which has the largest collection of electric vehicles in the United States." http://www.BoyertownMuseum.org "The museum is one of the sponsors and arranged all our transportation."
While most of the students involved are looking towards engineering schools next. For example a student who describes herself as a classicist has done the public relations. She organized the contest that named the 5000 pound truck Woodstock, after the little yellow bird in the Peanuts cartoons. (Three guesses as to the color of the truck.) "It's screaming electric truck yellow."
The school is about 325 students, 50/50 by gender, from about 20 countries. "The idea for the project started in late night conversations with a student from Hong Kong." Other projects have been things like magnetic levatators and a table-top accelerator.
Vehicle Name Woodstock
Vehicle Number 56
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name St. Mark's EV Club
Organization St. Mark's School Electric Vehicle Club
City Southborough
State MA
www http://www.StMarksSchool.org
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Ford
Vehicle Model Year 1994
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Ranger 4x4
motor kW continuous 25 kW
motor kW peak 86 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors FB1-4001 A
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA/T145
Battery 24 blocks/ series/ $2400
Battery 23000 Whrs/ 144 V/ 1700 lbs
battery voltage 144 V
battery blocks 24 blocks
battery watt hrs 23000 Whrs
battery weight 1700 lbs
battery cost $2400
control system manufacturer DCP
control system type Raptor 600
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 3 kW
charger current 30 A
charger input voltage 120 V
charger manufacturer Russco
charger on board? On board
charger type Trans/rectif
Plug Type 5-30P
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 16 ft/ 8 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 0 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 6 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 4090 lbs
Mfg GVW 4840 lbs
lbs of persons 180
lbs of cargo 390
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P215 R 75-15
tire type Radial
Range miles 70 miles
Program blurb The St. Markers who helped build our EV in their
free time are a coed group of physics students,
alums and friends, drawn together by interest in
our environmental future, the application of
appropriate technology and enthusiasm for project-
based education. "Woodstock" is a bright yellow,
recycled 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck. Special
features include an extensively modified 4X2
drivetrain, recharging from any 120 V outlet,
high ground clearance, a limited slip axle and
electronic anti-lock brakes.
Report #12: Team Profile: DC Cruiser
Mark and Seth Murray are the father-son team that built the "DC Cruiser". Seth told me, "We started about two years ago but didn't really seriously start working on it until 6 months ago. Our first test drive was April 7th. We've got about 1200 miles on so far; not bad for 5 weeks." The Chevy S-10 is a popular first conversion platform, especially if you talk with Bob Batson of Electric Vehicles of America. "He is totally right - it is the way to go." The truck was $350 with a blown engine but a good body and frame. Seth paid for about 1/3 of the project; the rest came from various family members.
Typical range has been 50 miles, "but I've driven it as far as 75 miles, driving very conservatively." He drives the car about 30 miles to his school, charges there and then drives home. "They gave me my own parking spot with an outlet."
Seth is already planning his next project. He would keep the clutch and get a better, solid-state charger.
This is not the first father-son project. "When I was in 5th grade we built a small electric go-cart out of bike parts, plywood, angle-iron and a little winch motor. The greatest day was when I drove it down the hall and into the classroom to give a presentation."
What is Mark's part in all this? "My dad is very handy. He builds boats for a living." They wanted to show that a father and son could build an electric vehicle that can be used every day.
Vehicle Name DC Cruiser
Vehicle Number 6
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Maine Street Mainiacs
Organization Seth Murray
City Brunswick
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.geocities.com/electricboy01
new this year? new team and car
No People in Project 2
Time to Build 200 person hours
Who Built father/son teaprivate groupm
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Chevrolet
Vehicle Model Year 1985
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model S-10
motor kW continuous 19 kW
motor kW peak 75 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 60 cells/ series/ $1900
Battery 24000 Whrs/ 120 V/ 1400 lbs
battery voltage 120 V
battery blocks 60 cells / 20 blocks
battery watt hrs 24000 Whrs
battery weight 1400 lbs
battery cost $1900
control system manufacturer DCP
control system type Raptor 600 Amp
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 3-5 kW
charger current 19 A
charger input voltage 208-240 V
charger manufacturer Lester
charger on board? On board
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer Astro Power
PV watts 30 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 3 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 3 in
# seats 3
Weight pounds 4000 lbs
Mfg GVW 3769 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 550
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire model P205 175 R14 95S
tire type Radial
Range miles 60 miles
Program blurb This conversion was built over the last year by
high school senior Seth Murray and his father,
Mark. The project was undertaken mostly for fun,
but also to demonstrate that anyone can easily
build a simple and practical EV.
Report #13: Team Profile: E-STREAM
On the Saturday before the first day of tech testing I ran into the E-STREAM: Scott Monsees, Justin Gresabage, Josh Robison and Drew Gaylo. The car was entered last year. Scott was in college and Josh, Drew in high school when they built it. "We came in 6th out of 8 in the Battery Electric category and 26 out of 35 overall." Over the past year it has been Drew's every-day car. "It's registered to my dad."
During last year's Tour de Sol and afterwards they discovered they had a bit of a transmission problem. When they replaced the power steering with manual steering, they used an earlier 1986 Rabbit. It was just a little bit different in the shift linkage. When they thought they were in first gear, they weren't. They were in 3rd. "When we finally figured it out we started getting better range."
Justin is new to the team. "I've been getting into the electronics and stuff like that. I still am impressed when people turn on their electric cars and there is no sound. We've been talking about starting a new project and I _will_ be there."
"When we were building the car, every day we made an entry on the web site, from the first piece to the last connection. We did daily entries for the Tour last year; they are still there. We did a history of the tune up for this year and will do daily entries for the Tour de Sol 2002." Plus bios, pictures, etc.
"We are ready for a good time; can not wait."
Vehicle Name E-STREAM
Vehicle Number 15
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Team EV
Organization Team Ev
City Princeton Junction
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.TeamEV.com
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 5
Time to Build 3 months
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Volkswagen
Vehicle Model Year 1991
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Cabriolet
motor kW continuous 15 kW
motor kW peak 30 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Exide
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Exide/PbA
Battery 16 blocks/ series/ $1600
Battery 21000 Whrs/ 96 V/ 1040 lbs
battery voltage 96 V
battery blocks 16 blocks
battery watt hrs 21000 Whrs
battery weight 1040 lbs
battery cost $1600
control system manufacturer Curtis
control system type PWM
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger current 20 A
charger input voltage 120 V
charger on board? On board
Plug Type 10-30P
PV cell type Polycrystalline
PV manufacturer EPV
PV watts 100 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 7 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 6 in
# seats 4
Weight pounds 2975 lbs
Mfg GVW 3029 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P175 R70
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 60 miles
Program blurb Team EV is a private team from New Jersey
composed of four high school seniors and a
college junior with a large interest in
engineering and the environment. This is Team
EV's second year as a Tour de Sol entrant.
Report #14: Technical Testing in Baltimore
The first day of the Tour is at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore Maryland, near the Maryland Science and Technology Museum. Here the entrants are looked over to determine the technical specifications of the vehicle as it will compete and to be run through a series of safety inspections. The threatened rain did not arrive until late in the afternoon, so most of the day was sunny and pleasant.
I came across the E-STREAM car pulled off to the side. Drew Gaylo said, "We have more current leakage from the battery pack to the frame than we should." The specification is 1 milliamp through a 10,000 Ohm resister between the most positive battery terminal and the chassis; likewise between the most negative terminal and the chassis. "We had 6 milliamps. I think it's because we have some dirty battery terminals." The dirt that accumulates on top of the batteries can provide enough of a leakage path to cause this problem. "We'll get some baking soda and water and clean it up."
Report #15: Team Profiles: Climate Cooler II, La Clean Machine, Rocket Runner
Tony Locricchio is the CEO of Personal Electric Transport (PET) and he is back with his one-person vehicles. This year PET has teamed up with the United Nations Environmental Programme and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "We were invited to LA to develop and manufacture vehicles. That has resulted in a close relationship with the union. In fact we will be partnering with them to manufacture the vehicles in the United State and reduce dependence on Arab oil. It will the first time a union will have joint ownership of a business. The union members who are here will be driving electric vehicles from the Pentagon to Ground Zero to pay their respects. They lost members in the World Trade Center collapse."
There are 3 different PET vehicles registered. "Climate Cooler II is different in the way that it is fueled. We will have here the first prototype of our quick-change station that would be along the highway." A standardized battery pack will allow for quick change into scooters, cars and buses. The larger vehicles simply take more battery packs. "Change takes 30 seconds for the scooter; 5 minutes for the bus. Everything is on rollers."
"The Rocket Runner, our standup vehicle is probably the biggest breakthrough, a short range commuter vehicle. It is very much like the `Segway' that rocked the world a while ago, except you can buy about 10 of ours for the price of one of theirs. It uses 3 wheels with a very innovative front wheel, direct drive system."
Vehicle Name Climate Cooler II
Vehicle Number 8
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UNEP / PET
Organization Personal Electric Transports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
www http://www.PersonalElectric.org
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 2 years
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer PET Prototype Moped
Vehicle Model Year 2002
Vehicle Reg Moped
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Production
sale price $2,500
motor kW continuous 4.15 kW
motor kW peak 10 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Personal Electric Transports
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries parallel
Battery Personal Electric Transports/PbA
Battery 18 cells/ parallel/ $150
Battery various/ 36 V/ 150 lbs
battery voltage 36 V
battery blocks 18 cells
battery watt hrs various
battery weight 150 lbs
battery cost $150
control system manufacturer Curtis
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger on board? Off board
Conversion Pre-Prod Prototype
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 6 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 2 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 0 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 330 lbs
Mfg GVW 305 lbs
lbs of persons 250
lbs of cargo 150
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 2
tire manufacturer Not Available
Range miles 50 miles
Program blurb This is the first time that the United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) staff team is
participating in an event like the Tour de Sol.
The UNEP will ride a clean air scooter intended
to provide basic transportation for daily
commuters around the world, protecting the
environment at a cost that allows real challenges
to Global Warming causes. The LA International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18 is
teaming with UNEP to make this statement that the
world can drive environmentally friendly
vehicles.
Vehicle Name Rocket Runner
Vehicle Number 31
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UNEP / IBEW Local 18
Organization Personal Electric Transports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
Vehicle Manufacturer PET Prototype Moped
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Production
motor type Brushless DC
Battery n/a/
Length both L: 3 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 2 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 5 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 60 lbs
Program blurb Entered by the United Nations Environmental
Programme and the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local 18, this three wheeled,
stand-up vehicle allows rider visibility in even
the heaviest traffic. It folds to half it's size
in 5 seconds! Quick-change batteries. $800
retail.
Vehicle Name La Clean Machine
Vehicle Number 2
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name IBEW/Local 18/PET
Organization Personal Electric Transports Inc.
City Kailua
State HI
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 2 years
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer PET Prototype Moped
Vehicle Reg Moped
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
sale price $2,500
motor kW continuous 4.15 kW
motor kW peak 10 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Personal Electric Transports
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Personal Electric Transports/PbA
Battery 18 cells/ series/ $150
Battery various/ 36 V/ 150 lbs
battery voltage 36 V
battery blocks 18 cells
battery watt hrs various
battery weight 150 lbs
battery cost $150
control system manufacturer Curtis
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger on board? Off board
Conversion Pre-Prod Prototype
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 6 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 2 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 0 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 330 lbs
Mfg GVW 305 lbs
lbs of persons 250
lbs of cargo 150
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 2
Range miles 50 miles
Program blurb For the first time, the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, Local 18, working at Los
scooter with the most advanced quick change
system in the world. They are teaming with the
United Nations Environmental Programme to make
the statement that the world can drive
environmentally friendly, low cost vehicles made
in the USA.
"Last year the Micronesians took home the Greenest Vehicle award. It was a big thing back home. In Washington that vehicle is going to be presented to the Ambassador from Micronesia. It will be installed in their national museum."
PET is also working on what they call the "Sparky Bus", which will use the quick-change station. The drawing I saw had the seats lined up back-to-back down the middle, on top of the battery box, and a line of 4 doors on each side to make entry and exit easy. "It will also be able to run over an inductive power-way in the road, and it will have a trolley pole so it can operate as a trackless trolley."
Report #16: Interview with Topher Waring
Topher Waring was the heart of the fondly remembered "Helios the Heron" vehicles of past Tour de Sols and last year's winner of the George Bradford EV Teacher Award. He now teaches at Lake Region Union High School in Orleans Vermont. He has two projects in progress.
"We stole the athletics department's golf cart, and ripped the internal combustion nasty lawn-mower type engine out of it. We returned it to them a couple of months later as a battery powered golf cart. They were very suspicious. But it is twice as fast and grades their baseball diamond in half the time. So they are now total converts. We used 6 8-Volt Trojan batteries and a simple Curtis controller and a 5 horsepower electric motor.
"Project number 2 is a Renault LeCar EV conversion done commercially in the 1970s. I can never remember the name. We simply cleaned out all the wiring and started again. We went from a 48 Volt system with a stepper controller to a 96 Volt system with Curtis controller. We should have it on the road by the end of the school year.
"For next next year I've located a VW chassis and fiberglass kit-car shell that looks like a 3/4 scale Corvette. Hopefully that will attract some attention. I'm going to take the components of Helios the Heron and stick those in as a high school project." Maybe Helios needs to be renamed Phoenix. "Helios' body got so rusted that it won't past inspection."
Report #17: Team Profile: Zodiac
David Marshall teaches technology and engineering at the Irondequoit New York High School and advisor to the Technology Club that build the "Zodiac". It was entered in last year's Tour de Sol.
"This year they totally rewired the electrical system to shorten wires and place components in better locations. We went totally to digital-link meters, replacing the analog meters. We lightened the car by replacing the bottom pan with graphite. The rear swing arm (off a motor cycle) has been rebuilt. A dual air-shock lets us adjust the ride height and dampening rate. The solar panels are rewired and now give us about 3.5 Amps at about 62 Volts," which is charging voltage for their 48 Volt battery pack. "We have a sensor to monitor the motor temperature."
They worked on the car all year since the last Tour de Sol. They now have an enclosed trailer which is getting solar panels so they can recharge the car, laptop computers, and cell phones. There is 120 Volts AC on the workbenches.
"The kids can get credit with this if they go through the guidance department and put in the hours and activities that meet ciriculum standards. We get a lot of kids in that don't play sports, are not into music. It's a great place to go after school, get dirty and have some fun."
Vehicle Name Zodiac
Vehicle Number 07
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA solar electric
Team Name IHS Tech Team
Organization Irondequoit Tech Club
City Rochester
State NY
COUNTRY US
www http://www.ihstechteam.com
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 30
Time to Build 3 years
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Reg Motor Cycle
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
motor kW continuous 5.2 kW
motor kW peak 5.2 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors Inc.
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 8 cells/ series/ $560
Battery 1752 Whrs/ 48 V/ 512 lbs
battery voltage 48 V
battery blocks 8 cells
battery watt hrs 1752 Whrs
battery weight 512 lbs
battery cost $560
control system manufacturer Curtis PMC
control system type 12098-6402
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 2500 kW
charger current 30 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer Zivan NG3
charger on board? Off board
Plug Type 6-30P
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer Siemens
PV watts 55 W
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 11 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 7 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 7 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 1440 lbs
lbs of persons 250
lbs of cargo 50
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 3
tire manufacturer DuroTour
tire model 100/80-17-52H
Program blurb The West Irondequoit HS Team currently consists of
15 students and 7 adults. Our goal is to provide
a safe after school club that focuses on problem
solving and real world engineering. This is the
Zodiac's second appearance in the race.
Report #18: Team Profile: rEVolutionaryride
Liz Lovell said, "North Haven is a 7-by-12 mile island 12 miles off the coast of Maine. We live in the town of Rockland. We converted a VW Vanagon Microbus into battery-electric vehicle. It will be used at the school for picking people off the boat and bringing them to the school, or transporting kids for projects. It matches our needs exactly."
Neil Thayer added, "We picked it for it's functionality, it holds a bunch of people and has 4-wheel drive. It is great for island life. We get snow that gets pretty packed down on the roads and gets icy." The 4-wheel drive will help then.
I asked how they would charge on the island. Wind power? Liz said, "I think a wind tower will be built as a project next year."
Neil has been working on the project for two years and has already graduated. The rest of the team is juniors. "We only have one senior. She didn't come." 17 people did. (The high school class is 27 students.) The van has been drivable for a couple of weeks.
The idea originated with Phil DesLaurius, an electrician on the island. "We work on it and he comes in to check the wiring, give us new ideas, and make sure that it is safe." They have had help from other people on the island. Two students made the steel battery boxes with the help of the welder on the island. I could see the metal box which would support the first bench seat. While we were talking, a pair of students were working in the battery box. Both were wearing rubber gloves and safety glasses.
A 100 Watt solar panel on the roof helps maintain the 12 Volt battery for lights radio and such.
I was particularly impressed by the control wiring. It is laid out with super- neat care. Every wire color coded and ever connection clearly visible. The charger, DC-to-DC converter, traction controller, contactor and relays were all easy to inspect. A clear plastic cover kept fingers away. It had originally been intended just for display, but they are now going to add forced ventilation so it can be left in place during operation.
Lifting the cover that held all the circuitry revealed the motor mounted on the rear transaxle, with both a first gear and a low gear, and a locking rear end. All wires to the motor and solar panel are in flexible conduit.
License plate: E-Van
Vehicle Name rEVolutionaryride.com
Vehicle Number 53
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name North Haven Community School
Organization North Haven Community School
City North Haven
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.midcoast.com
new this year? new team and car
No People in Project 26
Time to Build 18 months
Who Built class
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Volkswagen
Vehicle Model Year 1986
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Vanagon Synchro
motor kW continuous 17 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan T-105
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan T-105/PbA
Battery 18 blocks/ series/ $1300
Battery 24300 Whrs/ 108 V/ 1152 lbs
battery voltage 108 V
battery blocks 18 blocks
battery watt hrs 24300 Whrs
battery weight 1152 lbs
battery cost $1300
control system manufacturer Curtis
control system type 1231C
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 2 kW
charger current 20 A
charger input voltage 120 V
charger manufacturer K & W
charger on board? On board
charger type Transformerless
Plug Type 10-30P
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer Siemens
PV watts 75 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 14 ft/ 5 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 6 ft/ 6 in
# seats 6
Weight pounds 4502 lbs
Mfg GVW 5511 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 109
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 3
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Firestone
tire model P205/70 R14
tire type Radial
Range miles 80 miles
Program blurb A spunky group of junior and senior physics
students from the smallest public high school in
Maine (on an island, no less) have spent the last
18 months making a perfect island car: an
electric 4WD Volkswagen Syncro 7 passenger van.
This entry has been an all-island effort, joining
students, a boat electrician, the town's welder,
and island artists.
Report #19: Team Profile: Electric Hog
Carl Vogel has brought is project of many years, the Electric Hog, to the Tour. "It started 3 or 4 years ago, and has been up and running for about a year. Unfortunately today it is not running. I think it's the controller, but did not have time to get into it." (Carl must have fixed it. He was able to ride into the display area in Washington DC.)
The 10 12-Volt battery blocks are packed where the engine would go on a normal motorcycle, with the control electronics under the `gas tank'. A 4-speed Harley transmission is fed by the electric motor. There is a hydraulic clutch and the bike can back up. "The top speed is over 80 miles per hour. The motor is one of Advanced DC's smaller one. There was no `original' bike. It is a completely ground-up construction. The front end is a Harley wide-glide front- end. The rear suspension is my own design. I use Harley after-market shocks for that."
Carl is a mechanical engineering. "This originally started out as a college project, years back. Instead of doing something for other companies as a senior project, I did something I wanted to do."
Will he use it after the Tour as a day-to-day vehicle? "I'll use it. The design is going to change; this is a prototype. I will change the frame and lighten it up. I'd like to manufacture them."
Vehicle Name Electric Hog
Vehicle Number 12
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Vogelbilt
Organization Vogelbilt Corp.
City New York
State NY
COUNTRY US
www http://www.vogelbilt.com
new this year? new team and vehicle
No People in Project 1
Time to Build 3-4 years
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Vogelbilt
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Reg Motor Cycle
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Motorcycle
sale price $18,000
motor kW continuous 12 kW
motor kW peak 58 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 10 blocks/ / $800
Battery 14000 Whrs/ 120 V/ 560 lbs
battery voltage 120 V
battery blocks 10 blocks
battery watt hrs 14000 Whrs
battery weight 560 lbs
battery cost $800
control system manufacturer Curtis
control system type PWM
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger current 19 A
charger input voltage 230 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? Off board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-30P
PV manufacturer IPP Global Technologies
PV watts 5 W
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Composite body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 8 ft/ 2 in
Width both W: 2 ft/ 6 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 9 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 1220 lbs
Mfg GVW 1050 lbs
lbs of persons 200
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 2
tire manufacturer Contin/Metzeler
tire model P140/90 R16 P180/55-vb18
tire type Radial
Range miles 75 miles
Program blurb We designed the Electric Hog because we believed
that a full size motorcycle could be made all
electric. What we created is a prototype vehicle
that has the feel, look and ride of a full-sized
motorcycle. The project was very challenging, a
lot of fun and a lot of hard work. We are proud
to be part of the Tour de Sol.
Report #20: Team Profile: Driven to Work
Scott Pfluger and Lorraine Margolies have a story. "We are Driven to Work. And we are driving this rented 2001 Honda Insight. During the September crisis most of the people on my team lost their jobs. We all have a background in marketing and advertising and promotion. We are pooling those resources to make up for what we don't have in technical ability to bring this car and prove that anybody anywhere can get this car. That proves the point that the Tour de Sol has had an effect; the general now has these hybrid vehicles available to them."
The car is rented from EV Rentals in California, through Budget in Washington DC. "We have it for a month, to allow time to put the singage on, and take it off before we return it."
Other team members are:
John DeBellis
Andrew Pfluger
Janet Bailey
"When business died after 9/11, we met at a career group that meets every week to develop job hunting skills. Around February we started thinking if we just took all the talent in this room we could form our own company. Scott was interested in alternative energy sources." Scott had done promotions for teams in past years. And the idea grew from there. They then just used all the skills from their former jobs to pull the team together and get into the Tour.
"Our goal is to practice our skills while promoting better milage. It gives us an event to talk about to future employers.
To get in touch with any of the Driven to Work team, call 908-781-7756.
Vehicle Name Honda Insight
Vehicle Number 46
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Driven to Work
Organization Team Driven to Work
City Bedminster
State NJ
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.freedomfinancialplanning.com
No People in Project 4
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Honda
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Production
Vehicle Type Model Insight
sale price $21800
motor kW peak 10 kW
motor manufacturer Honda
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Panasonic
Energy Storage System Gas Electric Hybrid NiMH
Batteries series
Battery Panasonic/Gas Electric Hybrid NiMH
Battery 120 cells/ series/ n/a
Battery 900 Whrs/ v/ 45 lbs
battery blocks 120 cells
battery watt hrs 900 Whrs
battery weight 45 lbs
control system manufacturer Honda
control system type AC
regenerative braking? Regen
Conversion Pre-Prod Prototype
body material Aluminum body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 11 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 7 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 0 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 1837 lbs
Mfg GVW 1878 lbs
lbs of persons 200
brake front type Front disc
brake rear type Rear drum
engine size 995
fuel effeciency 57 mpg
fuel tank capacity 10.6
Fuel Type Gasoline
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Bridgestone
tire model P165/R14
Range miles 600 miles
Program blurb Team "Driven to Work" was formed by marketing
professionals who share an interest in
alternative energy and in promoting special
events. We are sponsored by
FreedomFinancialPlanning.com, Spark
Communications and CTC Advertising. The "Driven
to Work" entry showcases how accessible green
vehicles have become to the consumer. Our team's
car is a rented Honda Insight.
Report #21: IBEW Local 18
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, is here with the PET scooters (Climate Cooler II, La Clean Machine) and will be the drivers. Steve Leyva from Los Angeles. So asked why the union was here.
"We are looking to have our brothers and sisters manufacture, at some point, some of the componentry involved here. Since this is an electric vehicle, we can be involved with everything, the batteries, the harness, the motor. Clean energy is something that needs to be done in the future and this is a step, hopefully a step in the right direction."
Steve has been interested in electric vehicles for some time. "The California State University at Northridge is close by. They have had some very interesting vehicles out there. I've always been interested in solar power, and attended the SunRayce."
Steve and several other union members will be driving the PET vehicles all through the Tour.
Back in Los Angeles Steve is an electrical mechanic for the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "I repair all kinds of good things, like electrical stations. We work on voltages all the way up to a million Volts DC and our AC lines are about 500,000 Volts."
Report #22: Team Profile: ParaDyne
Matthew Olson has just graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the University of Tulsa, going on to graduate school. I asked him about ParaDyne, which has been at the Tour since 1998. "The major modification this year is we converted it to run on E85 ethanol." That's 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline. That change required changing the compression ratio. "More software for the control system should detect more situations to improve our fuel economy overall. In the past we just looked at miles-per-hour to decide which power plant to use. This year we've added code to do more blending of the power plants by implementing a power curve. We read in gas pedal position, vehicle speed, brakes, plus inputs from both power plants. From those we try to find a position on the curve and then determine where to get our power from; the motor or the engine." I commented that those sorts of multi-variable functions can be tricky. "Yes. It is turning into quite the beast of a function, especially since we cannot do long division. It's only a 16-bit real time embedded processor. We're limited on how much computing power we have for complex mathematical functions."
"In addition to trying to fitting the car to the power curve we try to look at what the car has been doing over the past 5 minutes. If you are clearly in stop-and-go traffic, it retards the time that it turns the engine on and off. If we see the car in hard, continuous acceleration we assume you are getting onto an on-ramp (or the like) and turn both power plants on. We try to match the peak efficiency performance with the least driver input."
"We replaced the batteries. Concord came out new batteries with a few more Amp-hours per block. It all helps!"
ParaDyne is a front-wheel drive parallel hybrid. Either motor or engine or both can drive the front wheels.
"We have also spent a lot of time on the Proxima, our next generation car. We almost brought it this year. It does drive under its own power, but it is not quite finished, thought."
Vehicle Name ParaDyne
Vehicle Number 17
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name University of Tulsa
Organization University of Tulsa
City Tulsa
State OK
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.hev.utulsa.edu
Who Built class
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Geo
Vehicle Model Year 1992
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Metro
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Concord
Energy Storage System PbA
Battery Concord/PbA
Battery 12 blocks/ / $600
Battery 6000 Whrs/ 144 V/ 480 lbs
battery voltage 144 V
battery blocks 12 blocks
battery watt hrs 6000 Whrs
battery weight 480 lbs
battery cost $600
control system manufacturer Univ of Tulsa
control system type HPCM
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 1.8 kW
charger current 19 A
charger input voltage 230 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? On board
charger type Trans/rectif
Plug Type 6-30P
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer Uni Solar
PV watts 10 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 3 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 2 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 4 in
# seats 4
Weight pounds 2400 lbs
Mfg GVW 2447 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 88
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
Hybrid Architecture parallel
engine size 1 liter
fuel effeciency 50 mpg
fuel tank capacity 10 gal
fuel tank type Steel
Fuel Type E85
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P175 R14
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 500 miles
Program blurb Veteran of four Tours, this hybrid vehicle
finished first in 1999 and second in 98, 00, and
01. A converted Geo Metro, ParaDyne is a
parallel hybrid with a 20 kW, 144 V Solectria
motor with lead-acid batteries and a 1 liter
engine. For 2002, ParaDyne has been converted to
run on E85.
Report #23: Team Profile: SunPacer
There is a sticker on the side of this one-person Solar-Electric Vehicle that lists all the years it has participated in the Tour de Sol. I think it started in 1992! At first blush it looks pretty much as it always has: a wedge-shape, point to the rear, with a wrap-around windshield on the front that lets the driver see pretty easily. But this year there are some differences.
The first thing I noticed was the dashboard has 8 Volt meters, the plus-minus type with zero in the middle. There were also 4 temperature gauges and a bunch of switches. I asked Tim Soine what that was all about. "We got 8 new nickel metal hydride batteries and we have a voltage meter for each one of them. The temperature meters are for the batteries, plus the motor temperature. We watch everything. If it gets too hot we turn on the cooling fans. We ran four tunnels with fans between each battery to keep them cool."
"We also put a new set of solar panels." The old set was from way-back. They lost 60 pounds by putting on 80 of the little panels sold for the Junior Solar Sprints. The Solar Sprints provide a kit of a solar panel and an electric motor to middle-school classes and then challenges them to create string- guided sun-powered racers. "We rewired almost the entire car."
Tim said that working on SunPacer was part of his independent study class with teacher Earl Billings. Earlier Tim built the website for the school and the car.
I asked Mr. Billings how he uses SunPacer as an instructional vehicle (pun intended). "I teach a course called Principles of Technology, which is really an applied physics course. For example we just did a 4 week unit on power and the SunPacer was perfect. I showed them the Watt meters, Amp meters and Volt meters and how we were calculating power. It helps their comprehension because they can see the real thing. And they like working on it, planning new things and then testing them out."
This year the car's level road speed has increased from 30 to 50 mph. The steep hill climbing speed rose from 20 to 40 mph. The range has increased from about 60 to 80 miles.
Vehicle Name SunPacer
Vehicle Number 92
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category Advanced battery solar electric
Team Name Cato-Meridian HS Tech Team
Organization Cato-Meridian High School Tech Club
City Cato
State NY
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.CMHStech.org
new this year? returning team and car
Time to Build 2000 person hours / 14 months / 1.5 years
Who Built class
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Purpose built
Vehicle Reg Motor Cycle
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
motor kW peak 4.5 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Deka Ovonics
Energy Storage System PbA NiMH
Batteries series
Battery Deka Ovonics/PbA NiMH
Battery 6 blocks/ series/ $1000
Battery 5000 Whrs/ 36 V/ 450 lbs
battery voltage 36 V
battery blocks 6 blocks
battery watt hrs 5000 Whrs
battery weight 450 lbs
battery cost $1000
control system manufacturer Sev Con
control system type Solid State
charger capacity .9 kW
charger current 25 A
charger input voltage 36 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? Off board
charger type Transformerless
Plug Type 5-30P
PV manufacturer Hoxan
PV watts 250 W
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Aluminum body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 4 ft/ 10 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 6 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 1050 lbs
Mfg GVW 1080 lbs
lbs of persons 190
lbs of cargo 50
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
Hybrid Architecture parallel
engine size 1 liter
fuel effeciency 25 mpg
fuel tank capacity 4.5 gal each
fuel tank type Removable
Fuel Type LPG
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 2
tire manufacturer Cheng Shin
tire model P 2.75x17 4 ply nylon tube type
Range miles 70 miles
Program blurb Cato-Meridian H.S. Tech Team, Cato, NY. This is
Sunpacer's ninth straight year competing in the
Tour. During this time, Sunpacer has won its
class several times and has been honored with
many efficiency awards. This years team consists
of crew chief Arron Kolb, driver Ashley
Davenport, chief navigator Tim Soine, backup
navigator Amber Ross and Technology Teacher Earl
Billings. The purpose of the Sunpacer was to
design a one-person commuter propelled by solar
electricity.
Report #24: Team Profile: Sungo
True confessions. I first saw Sungo in 1993 at the Tour de Sol and thought it was the neatest thing on 4 wheels then. It still makes me smile.
Nick Kosko from New Hampshire Technical Institute told me the story of this year's version. "It's four inches taller. We redid the whole interior. We have real seats this year, out of a 1988 Honda Civic. We redid our center console; the switches are away from the steering wheel and now at a very accessible place. There is a new high-tech speedometer, and a new E-Meter.
"We stripped the entire car this year. We added 4 inches to the frame, redid our side-impact beams. The shocks are now adjustable. All the wiring is new and the wires to the motor controllers are much larger."
"But the main deal this year is the batteries. We stepped up from 14 to 24 nickel metal hydride blocks, which added 600 pounds." The pack voltage is actually lower because they went to a pairwise-parallel wiring. Two blocks are wired in parallel, with a fuse, and then in series with the next pair, and so on. They also replaced their old BADICHEQ battery management system with Power-Cheqs. "It levels off the entire pack and it works. Very impressively. We are usually within 0.01 Volt between every battery pair in this car." The Power-Cheqs are remoted from the battery boxes to the passenger's dashboard. That way they can see the indicator LEDs. "The green means one is on and actually transferring energy. The red light means the voltage is low or there is an open circuit. If we blow a cell we will know right off because it will flash red."
They have redesigned their battery pack ventilation. Air from the center column battery pack is sucked rearward, and air from the battery pack over the rear wheels is sucked forward. Both are then exhausted down to the underside at a very high rate. "Since we have had this system the highest temperature we have seen during charging was no more than 70 degrees F."
"Another thing that has helped our efficiency is replacing our head lights with HID lights donated by Osram Sylvania and all LED lights in the rear. We only draw 1.5 Amps with all our lights on. It used to be 10-12 Amps."
The body has been repainted. It is now a burnt orange color.
One cool thing about this car has not changed. It is still one of the very few we have seen where each rear wheel has its own motor and motor controller.
Vehicle Name Sungo
Vehicle Number 72
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category Advanced battery
Team Name NHTI SEV Club
Organization New Hampshire Technical Institute SEV Club
City Concord
State NH
COUNTRY USA
new this year? ret. team and updated
Vehicle Manufacturer Purpose Built
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
motor kW continuous 21 kW
motor kW peak 128 kW
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Ovonics
Energy Storage System NiMH
Batteries pairwise-parallel
Battery Texaco Ovonic/NiMH
Battery 24 blocks
Battery 23160 Whrs/ 144 V
control system manufacturer Solectria
control system type Networked CD
regenerative braking? Regen
charger current 10 A
charger input voltage 230 V
charger on board? Off board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-20P
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer Astropower
PV watts 100 W
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Aluminum frame
Length both L: 7 ft/ 9 in
Width both W: 4 ft/ 9 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 7 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 1600 lbs
Mfg GVW 1600 lbs
lbs of cargo 430
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Continental
tire model P135/R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 180 miles
Program blurb NH-Sungo was built and has been continuously
improved by the New Hampshire Technical Institutes
Sustainable Energy Ventures Club. The two-seat,
purpose-built electric vehicle can reach 90 MPH,
and has placed first an the Tour several times.
This year additional space has been created for
its Ovonic nickel metal hydride batteries, to
gain added driving range.
The brochure that the Sungo team is handing out contains this sentence: "In 2003, the SEV (Sustainable Energy Ventures) Club will build an entirely new vehicle."
Report #25: Team Profile: TroutEV
I spoke with Dr. John Wright of Millersville University of Pennsylvania about their electric motorcycle with the full faring that makes it look like a fish, hence its name. "This is our third year of designing and building the TroutEV for the Tour de Sol. The first year we built the frame and drive. Last year and this year we have been retrofitting this shell, that total encloses the driver, and the pair of stabilizer gear that comes down for low-speed stabilization." The driver has a switch on the handlebar to drive the electric ball-screw actuators that lower small wheels on either side. The side supports can keep the vehicle from falling over. "If it on its side, there is enough power to bring it right back up."
There is a little Sony Watchman monitor in front of the driver that is connected to a tiny "lipstick" camera on the nose of the faring. "That gives the driver total vision in the front. There used to be a bit of a blind spot because the drive sits so low in the vehicle. It has the same function as a rear view mirror; useful in `am I close to the curb' type of situation or while driving around a city."
"The bike started as a Honda 1100 Shadow. We chopped it, extended it. The Lynch motor that drives the shaft delivers about 65 horsepower."
"The aerodynamic drag coefficient is about 0.1, compared to a sports car which would be 0.3 or 0.4."
The faring includes a wrap-around-and-over windshield. It struck me that the driver might bake in there. "We are working on an air conditioning unit. We have the hole cut in the faring, which will get a scoop and a fan blower system. It does get a little warm right now, and we'll tint the windows."
The TroutEV won't be in the competing this year. "We are displaying, promoting our program and supporting the Tour de Sol."
Vehicle Name TroutEV
Vehicle Number 64
Category ONE-PERSON VEHICLES
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Electric Motorcycle Research Team
Organization Millersville University NAIT Club
City Millersville
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.millersville.NAIT.Org
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 3 years
Who Built class club
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Purpose built scooter
Vehicle Reg Motor Cycle
Vehicle Type Class One Person
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Shadow Scooter
sale price N/A
motor kW continuous 21.2 kW
motor manufacturer Lynch (LEMCO) LM67 Supermotor
Energy Storage Manufacturer Deka
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Deka/PbA
Battery 6 blocks/ series/ $950
Battery 6150 Whrs/ 72 V/ 414 lbs
battery voltage 72 V
battery blocks 6 blocks
battery watt hrs 6150 Whrs
battery weight 414 lbs
battery cost $950
control system manufacturer Sevcon
control system type Power Pak (fully programmable) 72-80 V, 600 A
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 2 kW
charger current 20 A
charger input voltage 105-125 V
charger manufacturer K & W
charger on board? Off board
charger type Transformerless
Plug Type 10-30P
PV cell type Amorphous
PV manufacturer ICP Global Technologies
PV watts 4 W
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 9 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 2 ft/ 7 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 6 in
# seats 1
Weight pounds 1100 lbs
Mfg GVW 970 lbs
lbs of persons 200
lbs of cargo 0
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 2
tire manufacturer Avon
tire model P 40/90-18, R 140/90-15
tire type Radial Low roll resist
Range miles 90 miles
Program blurb The Electric Motorcycle Research Team (EMRT) -
Millersville University of Pennsylvania is proud
to enter their electric super-cycle called the
TroutEV. The vehicle was designed to break the
Pb-acid powered two-wheel vehicle distance record
set back in 1995 by the Schiller Group (81)
miles.
Report #26: Team Profile: Twike
The last time we saw a Twike at the Tour de Sol was 1996. Then as now it was a two person, electrically assisted, fully enclosed, pedal powered, 3-wheel vehicle that turned heads.
Ron Manganiello lives in Burlington Vermont, where he works for the Burlington Electrical Department. He does energy efficiency work for small commercial customers. "I've always had an interest in bicycling and electric vehicles. For 4 years I commuted to work, just a few miles, and to customer sites that were relatively close." About 1997, as he approached 50 years of age he got tired of the winter commute, which was mostly difficult because of cars and slush. He started searching on the world wide web for enclosed bicycles and there was the Twike. He eventually located the Twike that was in the 1996 Tour, visited the owner, T. B. Woods who makes the inverter/charger for the Twike. The next stop was Electric Vehicles Northwest in Seattle that sold Twikes. There he took a longer test ride and really fell in love with it. "My wife asked, `If you were living alone would you have a Twike?'" The answer was `yes'. "She said, `Then let's do it.'" And they did. They were able to go to Switzerland and participate the the building of their Twike. "It was a wonderful experience!" The vehicle was delivered in June 15, 1999. "We had to pretend it was a moped for two weeks until the new Vermont law came into effect that allowed registration. It has been on the road ever since, year round. I've got 13,400 kilometers on it. It's my main transport."
The vehicle is 3-wheels. The front wheel steers, the rear wheels are powered both by the people peddling and the electric motor. The people sit side-by- side. The pedals are out in front, like a recumbent bicycle. The steering control is between the people, so either person can steer.
The electric assist is controlled by a sophisticated computer system that adds torque to your pedaling. The electric drive system includes regenerative braking.
"It has been very reliable in all weather conditions."
There are about 700 Twikes world wide, but just a few in the United States.
They doubled the battery pack for the long runs required by the Tour de Sol.
The other two members of the team are Martin Moeschaid and Bernd Werner. They are Twike contractors in Germany. "We have assembled 130 for German customers since 1995." They are also Twike owners.
Web sites:
http://www.BurlingtonElectric.com Twike FAQ, Switzerland trip
http://www.TwikeKlub.ch Information, links
Vehicle Name Twike
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competitive)
vehicle type category demonstration/exhibit only
Team Name Twike Pioneers
Organization TWIKE Club of America
City S. Burlington
State VT
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.twike.org
new this year? new team
Vehicle Manufacturer Twike AC, CH
Vehicle Model Year 1999
Vehicle Reg Motor Cycle
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Production
Vehicle Type Model Twike 99
motor kW continuous 3 kW
motor kW peak 5 kW
motor manufacturer Landert AG Nominal 3 kw
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Twike AG Sanyo
Energy Storage System NiCad
Batteries series
Battery Twike AG Sanyo/NiCad
Battery 1400 cells/ series/ $7140
Battery 5040 Whrs/ 336 V/ 295 lbs
battery voltage 336 V
battery blocks 1400 cells
battery watt hrs 5040 Whrs
battery weight 295 lbs
battery cost $7140
control system manufacturer TB Woods
control system type B-trac WSC 1000
charger capacity 3.5 kW
charger current 16 A
charger input voltage 230 V
charger manufacturer TB Woods
charger on board? On board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-20P
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Plastic body
frame material Aluminum frame
Length both L: 8 ft/ 10 in
Width both W: 3 ft/ 11 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 11 in
# seats 2
lbs of persons 165
lbs of cargo 20
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 3
tire model P2.25/2.5 R16
tire type Radial
Range miles 65 miles
Program blurb The Twike (Twin Bike) is a unique 3 wheeled, 2
passenger, Swiss-made human/electric powered
ultralight vehicle. The optional pedaling
provides excellent exercise while extending the
Twike's range. The Twike Pioneer team includes
the Vermont owners of Twike #507 and two Twike
enthusiasts from Germany.
Report #27: On Display: Run A Car On Fresh Vegetable Oil?
Gavin Watson is here with a "Zero Fossil Fuel Vehicle" that he runs on straight soybean oil. "Any kind of vegetable oil will work. I've had the car a little over a year and it now has 22,000 miles of nothing but vegetable oil on it." He calls it The VolksVegan.
"I get my oil at work. I work for a food company. A couple of years ago we were buying the vegetable oil at work for 98 cents a gallon and that's the same price I was paying for diesel fuel for the boilers. That got me wondering if it would work.
Since this is food-grade oil, it can be just pumped into the car. (Using used cooking oil requires filtering and processing before using it as a fuel.) "The only thing I do to it is keep it warm. At 130 degrees Fahrenheit it has the same viscosity as diesel fuel. The engine then cannot tell the difference. It runs just as smooth, without any smoke." An insulated tank with a heating pad underneath powered by 3 12-Volt batteries and a thermostat keeps the fuel at temperature. The 3 batteries are charged by the car. "A timer turns it on a couple of hours before I get in the car in the morning and an hour or so before I leave."
Since vegetable oil does not contain paraffin, there isn't a `cloud point', "but oil will crystallize at 28 degrees F. so you definitely have to keep the fuel warm. I ran it through the whole winter with the heating system. The coldest it got at my house was 16 degrees F. It was fine."
"Economically it's a was as far as gasoline is concerned. It costs the same amount per mile if you bought the vegetable oil at $2 per gallon" which is a common bulk price.
"I first thought about it 5 or 6 years ago, but at that time vegetable oil was 2 or 3 times the price of diesel fuel. But, a couple of summers ago, because of the mad cow disease, the Europeans needed to feed their cows another source of protein, so they bought US soy protein. That left all the soy bean oil behind. There was this massive glut which drove the price down to 98 cents per gallon. That was the same as diesel fuel then. So I tried it on the boilers at work. It was fine. I then had the emissions tested and they were much lower on the vegetable oil."
A nice thing about this is since the vegetable oil does not contain sulfur it does not contribute to acid rain. And since it simply releases the carbon dioxide that was absorbed by the plants as they grew, it doesn't add to global warming.
This has been done in Europe for a long time. "They are very proud of what they have done so their designs are out there."
Report #28: Team Profile: AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus
To my knowledge, we have had 3 full-sized buses participate at the Tour de Sol (I'm not counting buses that showed up for only one or two displays):
An US Electricar bus in 1995
A Bluebird electric school bus in 2000
And this year we have an AVS Hybrid - Electric Bus from Advanced Vehicle Systems in Chattanooga Tennessee. I asked Kirk Shore, Marketing Representative for AVS, to describe it.
"AVS is a privately held manufacturer of electric and turbine-hybrid electric transit buses. This is a series hybrid-electric vehicle (which means the fuel is used to generate electricity, that in turn runs the electric motor). It has the ability to drive 25 to 45 miles, depending on the terrain, in zero emission mode, just on battery power. The there is a small `jet engine' in the back, a Capstone micro-turbine, that puts out 30 kiloWatts to charge the batteries while you drive. The turbine comes on and off during the day as needed, automatically. The turbine is a unique breakthrough technology in that it is combusting fuel at 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. A `recouperator' then combusts the fuel 8, 9, 10 times before it ever hits the air. The exhaust is 500 degrees F. The result is 98% complete combustion, with very, very low emissions. For example, this vehicle on diesel fuel is as clean as or cleaner than some internal combustion engines are on compressed natural gas. It's even cleaner on propane and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)."
A brochure gives a comparison table:
Engine / Fuel NOx HC CO PM
Diesel engine running CNG 1.5 0.8 2.2 0.01
Capstone Turbine Diesel 30kW 0.75 0.30 0.40 0.01
I presume the columns are:
NOx Oxides of Nitrogen
HC Hydro Carbon
CO Carbon Monoxide
PM Particulate Matter
An added benefit is that the bus delivers the low emissions of CNG using the existing diesel infrastructure, which allows for quick adoption without the added investment of CNG pumps, etc. And since it has a significant electric range, plugging it in at night can also save money.
When fully charged and with a full 53 gallons of fuel the bus has a range of 250 miles. A normal bus would probably go 120-150 miles on the same fuel. As they say, "Your mileage will vary."
And the vehicle is less complex. There is no transmission. The two electric AC motors drive the rear wheels through a reduction hub. The turbine uses air bearings, so there is no lubrication there. It does have 3 injectors and an igniter.
"The high maintenance item is the reusable air intake filter. It needs to be taken out once a week and cleaned because the turbine sucks in a lot of air. That's pretty easy; just pop the panel, clean it and put it back in."
There are currently 150 of these vehicles in service around the world. "If you write me a check, I can hand you the keys."
Vehicle Name AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus
Vehicle Number E001
Category HEAVY DUTY VEHICLES
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name AVS
Organization Advanced Vehicle Systems
City Chattanooga
State TN
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.avsbus.com
new this year? new team and bus
Vehicle Manufacturer Advanced Vehicle Systems, Inc.
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Type Class Heavy Duty
Vehicle Type Division Production
Vehicle Type Model AVS22
sale price $260,000
motor kW continuous 34 kW
motor kW peak 78 kW
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Sonnenschein
Batteries series
Battery Sonnenschein/
Battery 576 cells/ series/ $14,000
Battery 57.6 Whrs/ 288 V/ 6000 lbs
battery voltage 288 V
battery blocks 576 cells
battery watt hrs 57.6 Whrs
battery weight 6000 lbs
battery cost $14,000
control system manufacturer Solectria
control system type UMOL
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 10 kW
charger current 30 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer PEI
charger on board? On board
charger type Line Charger
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 22 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 8 ft/ 6 in
Height both H: 8 ft/ 6 in
# seats 22
Weight pounds 19050 lbs
Mfg GVW 4400 lbs
lbs of persons 200
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
Hybrid Architecture series
engine size ? liters
fuel tank capacity 53
fuel tank type Diesel
Fuel Type Diesel
No of Passengers 3
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Michelin
Range miles 150 miles
Program blurb The AVS-22 is a quick, clean, and quiet 22' bus.
The hybrid technology enables the AVS-22 to
achieve "Ultra Low Emission Vehicle" status while
maintaining the performance of a conventional
diesel bus. 150 are in service around the world.
The bus is built by Advanced Vehicle Systems
(AVS), a recognized leader in Electric and
Hybrid-Electric Bus technology in the US.
Report #29: Team Profile: Solar Black Bear, Phantom Sol
This is Ceara McNally's first year with the UMaine Solar Vehicle Team. She is a year from finishing up her Engineering Physics double major at the University of Maine.
First we talked about the Solar Black Bear, a pickup truck that carries a large solar panel on top. "Last year we had a 1 kiloWatt array but we doubled it to a 2 kiloWatt array." 12 panels are wired as 2 strings that are then wired in parallel. The main string is permanently attached to the truck, mounted on a framework that starts at the cab roof and runs back over the bed, sloping down towards the rear. (In previous years the array was parallel to the road and mounted a bit higher. I suspect this layout reduces drag.) The second string panels are removed and stored on the bed of the truck when not in use. Setting up the second string panels is a multi-person job, requiring holding them in position while quick-release pins are inserted. The panel runs at 216 Volts.
The team is disappointed that the Tour de Sol eliminated the Commuter category. "The Solar Black Bear won that for the past 3 years. I think that MIT won that 3 years in a row. We were hoping to get 4 years in a row to beat them."
We then went on to look at the Phantom Sol. It also started life as a pickup truck, but you wouldn't guess that by looking at it now. It is low, low to the ground with an aerodynamic body that just slips through the air. She opened the rear battery access panel. "We use to have foam box covers. Before you couldn't access the batteries without taking the whole body off." The car has 2 strings of 20 8-Volt blocks, wired in parallel. They feed a Raptor 1200 Amp controller. "At full open it draws 600 amps from each pack," said Jeff Bartosiewicz.
Jeff told me that getting to the Tour had its exciting moments. "Two weeks before the Tour the Solar Black Bear had a voltage leakage that proved to be in the motor. So we had to run out, get a new motor, replace it, had trouble getting the clutch back in right, and the drive 200 miles before coming here." The 200 miles is a Tour requirement. "It was a week of no sleep, right before finals."
Vehicle Name Solar Black Bear
Vehicle Number 20
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category solar electric
Team Name UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
Organization UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
City Orono
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://ume.maine.edu/solar
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 2 years
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Chevy
Vehicle Model Year 1986
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model S-10
motor kW continuous 19 kW
motor kW peak 75 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 27 cells/ series/ $2700
Battery 3600 Whrs/ 160 V/ 1917 lbs
battery voltage 160 V
battery blocks 27 cells
battery watt hrs 3600 Whrs
battery weight 1917 lbs
battery cost $2700
control system manufacturer DC Power
control system type Raptor 600
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 5 kW
charger current 23 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? On board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 10-50P
PV cell type Monocrystalline
PV manufacturer BP Solar
PV watts 2000 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 10 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 1 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 10 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 5000 lbs
Mfg GVW 3042 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 500
brake front type Front Drum
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P205/65 R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 100 miles
Program blurb The Solar Black Bear returns for its fourth year
to defend its three consecutive first place
finishes in the Solar Category. New this year is
a completely new solar array, motor controller,
truck bed and dashboard system. The new designs
are aimed at improving reliability and
practicality, while keeping the Solar Black Bear
a cost-effective solar transportation solution.
Vehicle Name Phantom Sol
Vehicle Number 66
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
Organization UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
City Orono
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.ume.maine.edu/solar
new this year? returnign team and car
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 2 years
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer GMC
Vehicle Model Year 1983
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model S-15
motor kW continuous 19 kW
motor kW peak 225 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries combination par/series
Battery Trojan/PbA/T-875
Battery 40 cells/ combination parallel/series/
Battery 4500 Whrs/ 160 V/ 2530 lbs
battery voltage 160 V
battery blocks 40 cells
battery watt hrs 4500 Whrs
battery weight 2530 lbs
control system manufacturer DC Power
control system type Raptor 1200
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 5 kW
charger current 23 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? On board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 10-50P
PV cell type Amorphous
PV manufacturer Uni-Solar
PV watts 100 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Composite body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 16 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 2 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 7 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 5000 lbs
Mfg GVW 8000 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 400
brake front type Front Drum
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P205/65 R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 120 miles
Program blurb Originally a GMC-S15 pickup, the Phantom Sol
dispels the stereotype that EVs are impractical,
weak and expensive. In its appearance this year,
the Phantom will sport a new interior and a new
frame design, both allowing for greater
performance and reliability. Finishing touches
have been added to the body as well.
Report #30: On Display: The Spincycle
Not all the vehicles that show up at the Tour de Sol compete in the rally. For example Josh Kerson is a student at the University of Massachusetts who has brought along a personal project. It is a human-electric hybrid tricycle that he designed and built himself -- actually the second version.
It looks like a heavy-duty recumbent cycle with the pedals way out in front and a long chain back to the derailer hub on the rear wheel. "The boom that supports the pedals is adjustable and the seat can move back and forth to accommodate different people's body types." The chain is guided from the front to the rear and back in plastic tubes. That's temporary, "but I've seen it work before. We'll run it this way this week." Later he'll put in guide pulleys.
Three 12-Volt Optima yellow-top batteries are under the seat and an electric motor behind the seat the drives a sprocket on the opposite side from the derailer. I thought the motor might be a "pancake" type, such as Lynch makes. "Close. It's Briggs & Stratton's new VTAC. It is a four-quadrant, rare-earth permanent magnet motor that is really efficient." Nothing was wired up on Saturday morning. "I'll probably get it wired up today."
"This is my own personal project at U-Mass; my second one. I'm interested in opening up a category for short-range commuters at the Tour de Sol. People could travel maybe 45 miles at 20 miles per hour, get a moderate amount of exercise and carry a substantial load. This is an exercise bike that can really take you places.
"I drew it up and wrote a grant proposal. I got a lot of these parts and then started cutting tubes, fitting angels and welding." The core frame is made out of square or rectangular cross-section 4130 chromally steel tubing, but the rest is round tubing, most bent into graceful curves. "That for me was a substantial, beautiful step forward. The last one was almost all rectangles and cut angles. Getting a hydraulic tubing bender let me reduce the amount of metal and give it a very pleasing look."
"We are going to try to make 10 of these this summer. We're going to the Netherlands for a semester abroad. We hope to go into production in about a year or two and we are looking for any helpful information."
Report #31: Pace Car: Honda Civic Hybrid
I asked Deedra Huzzard of American Honda about the new Civic Hybrid. "It went on the market in April. It's a hybrid car that runs off of gas and electric. It is always running off the gas engine with an assist from the electric motor when it is accelerating or needs additional horsepower."
The car is quite different from the Honda Insight. "The Insight was only intended to sell 5000 a year. It's a two seater coupe. It has an aluminum body. And it gets about 60 miles per gallon.
"The Civic Hybrid they are expecting to sell between 20,000 and 30,000 a year. It is a five seater. It has a steel body. And it gets 50 miles per gallon; that's about 600 miles per tank. The battery is behind the back seat, on the driver side, and doesn't take up too much of the trunk space. The interior has 10 cubic feet more space than the gas Civic. It is a Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) which is an 84% reduction in greenhouse gases. The gasoline Honda Civic is also a ULEV, but not with the mileage. The Civic Hybrid gives a 30% increase in mileage using a 1.3 liter, 85 horsepower engine. The electric motor assists with an additional 13 horsepower.
"The top of the line gasoline Civic LX is $17,000. This is $20,000, but it has features that are not offered in the LX such as upgraded suspension, inside trim, a phenomenal stereo system, automatic windows and locks, air conditioning -- all standard. There is one option: automatic or manual transmission.
"They have sold 1500 so far. I expect them to sell 2000 a month. People are really excited about it."
Vehicle Name Honda Civic hybrid
Vehicle Number Pace
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competitive)
vehicle type category demonstration/exhibit only
Team Name American Honda Motor Company
Organization Honda
City Washington
State DC
www http://www.hondacorporate.com
new this year? US on-road debut
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Production
Program blurb American Honda Motor Company's third consecutive
year as lead corporate sponsor of the Tour de Sol
demonstrates the company's commitment to
developing real-world, market-ready vehicles that
continue to reduce the impact of automobiles on
the environment. The Honda Civic Hybrid is
making its U.S. on-road debut as the pace car for
the 2002 Tour de Sol. On sale nationwide in May
2002, the Civic Hybrid, a five-passenger sedan, is
expected to achieve about 50 miles per gallon for
both city and highway driving - a 30 percent
improvement in fuel economy compared to other
Civic sedan models. The Civic Hybrid is also the
first hybrid to share the same body style and
platform as other mass produced models. The Civic
Hybrid will come off the same assembly line as
other conventional Civic models. Two years ago
at the Tour de Sol, Honda introduced the Insight,
the first mass-produced, gasoline-electric hybrid
on sale in the U.S. market. This year, several
Insight owners will also compete in the Tour de
Sol road-rally.
Report #32: Team Profile: Hybrid Challenger II
We last saw this vehicle at the Tour de Sol in 1996, but it had many difficulties. "I don't even want to talk about it," said Clarence Ellers. "We found a lot of bugs and worked them out."
This conversion of a Chevy Lumina is a parallel hybrid. The rear wheels are driven by a 1987 Volkswagen Vanegan engine and transaxle and the front is driven by a brushed DC motor. "There is a knob under the dash that sets the change-over speed. You run on electric at all speeds under that. When you get up to highway speeds it switches automatically over to gasoline."
"There are 26 Optima Yellow-top batteries, wired as 13 pairs in series. That gives a 196 Volt system." A set of flexible solar panels are glued to the roof and are used to keep the 2 12-Volt batteries charged.
"I bought the car in 1990. About 1992 I converted it in about 6 months. I've been driving it for 12 years. It has accumulated about 4000 miles since it is mostly a prototype."
The car and the patent it is based on are for sale. "I would like to sell the patent rights for $100,000, non-exclusive. I'll consider any offer for the van itself."
Vehicle Name Hybrid Challenger II
Vehicle Number 33
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Hybrid Challenger
Organization Electronic Transportation Design
City Yachats
State OR
COUNTRY USA
www http://electrichybridvehicles.com
new this year? ret after 6 yrs, new car
Vehicle Manufacturer Chevrolet
Vehicle Model Year 1990
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Lumina SUV
motor kW continuous 25 kW
motor kW peak 19 kW
motor manufacturer GE
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Optima
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries parallel series combination par/series
Battery Optima/PbA
Battery 69 cells/ parallel series combination
par/series/ $2300
Battery 100 Whrs/ 156 V/ 1183 lbs
battery voltage 156 V
battery blocks 69 cells
battery watt hrs 100 Whrs
battery weight 1183 lbs
battery cost $2300
control system manufacturer Curtis PMC
control system type Mosfet PWM
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 12 kW
charger current 100 A
charger input voltage 120 V
charger manufacturer ETD-Me
charger on board? On&off bd
charger type Trans/rectif
PV manufacturer UNI-Solar
PV watts 100 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Plastic body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 16 ft/ 2 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 8 in
# seats 7
Weight pounds 5000 lbs
Mfg GVW 4741 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 0
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
engine size 65 hp
fuel effeciency 50 mpg
fuel tank capacity 10
fuel tank type Chevy Love
Fuel Type Gasoline
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P195/70 R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 500 miles
Program blurb Take the world's leading Hybrid drive engineer,
the world's leading heavy equipment mechanic,
and two of the world's greatest wives, and you
have the world's greatest rally team. So why not
take the world's first hybrid SUV to the Tour de
Sol, The world's greatest clean energy rally.
Clarence and Betty Ellers, Earl and Eddie
Ruthstrom will do their very best to make this a
fantastic event.
Report #33: Photos - Photos from Sunday in Baltimore.
Photographs from the Tour de Sol:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_001.html
Photos from Sunday in Baltimore.
rEVolutionaryride. No, the picture is not backwards. The text on the nose is mirror-imaged.
The motor comparment in rEVolutionaryride. All the cables and connections are protected by flexible conduit and covers.
SunPacer. Removing the side panels gives eash access to the motor and batteries. The solar panel is the sloping surface at the rear.
SunPacer's cockpit with the new dashboard.
Report #34: Photos - More pictures from Baltimore.
Photographs from the Tour de Sol:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_002.html
More pictures from Baltimore.
The first two days of the Tour de Sol, before the road rally actually begins is spent testing the vehicles and collecting data. These pictures are from those two days, Sunday and Monday, 12 and 13 May 2002.
The display and testing area at Rash Field on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
Hybrid Challenger II
Woodstock
Electric Blue
The hydrogen tank is in the center of the pickup bed. One of the two 500 Watt fuel cells is visible tucked under the rear quarter panel. The other fuel cell is in the same position on the other side. The curved bars support the Gore-tex bed cover.
Another view of Electric Blue's hydrogen tank.
Electric Blue gets some of its charge from this solar array. It also plugs in and gets electricity from the hydrogen fuel cells.
Zodiac
Zodiac
This large solar panel is both for show and generating electricity.
Spincycle
The Olympian
The Super Force has a trailer with an extra battery pack to provide additional range.
The Super Force with the trailer. The cover for the trailer is made from a kids plastic sandbox.
ZFFV stands for Zero Fossil Fuel Vehicle.
Twike
E-STREAM
Honda Insight driven by Team Driven To Work.
Soljourner 2
Soljourner 2 shows its electric half.
Climate Cooler II
La Clean Machine
The solar array on SunPacer.
TroutEV
Toyota Prius
Detroit Electric, displayed by the Boyretown (Pennsylvania) Museum of Historic Vehicles.
AVS Hybrid Electric Bus
Sungo, with its "doors" open.
Electric Hog
L3 Enigma
Report #35: Team Profile: L3 Enigma
Rhonda Hill is with the L3 Team. I asked her to describe it. "It is an hybrid electric, parallel, car. There is a 60 horsepower, 1.2 liter engine out of a VW Lupo. The electric side is a 200 horsepower 150 kiloWatt AC motor from AC Propulsion. Both couple through our custom-built transmission that lets both provide power to the wheels."
The goal of the project was to create a solution to some of the transportation problems we have that would prove functionality and deliver efficiency, but would look good and would be fast and would be appealing. Most of the components are off-the-shelf. The custom designed items were the transmission and suspension.
"I was a master student at San Diego State College. I had done some theoretical research into the application of a fuel cell as the auxiliary power unit instead of the diesel engine." She then was away from the project for a while but returned in December 2001. "Our control platform is Lab View running on Windows XP. Since these are off-the-shelf solutions we are dealing with all the problems that people are dealing with on their home computers; crashing and stuff."
Lying on a table near by was a heavy cylinder, maybe 16 inches long, 12 inches in diameter. "That is one of our two super capacitors from a Russian company named Tavrima. 220 Volts, 2.3 Farads, 28 kilograms." It will be part of the car to help with capturing energy from regenerative braking. It should double the life of the batteries and improve acceleration.
"They would like to manufacture these for the sports car market someday."
Vehicle Name L3 Enigma
Vehicle Number 3
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name L3 Research/SDSU
Organization San Diego State University Foundation
City El Cajon
State CA
COUNTRY USA
www http://L3research.com
new this year? new team and car
Time to Build 3 years
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer L3 research
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Enigma
sale price $95,000
motor manufacturer AC Propulsion
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Hawker
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Hawker/PbA
Battery 28 blocks/ series/ $2000
Battery 8700 Whrs/ 360 V/ 650 lbs
battery voltage 360 V
battery blocks 28 blocks
battery watt hrs 8700 Whrs
battery weight 650 lbs
battery cost $2000
control system manufacturer L3 Research / SDSU
control system type Proprietary
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 30 kW
charger current 80 A
charger input voltage 400 V
charger manufacturer AC Propulsion
charger on board? On board
Plug Type 10-50P
Conversion Pre-Prod Prototype
body material Composite body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 14 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 6 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 6 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 2400 lbs
lbs of persons 300
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
Hybrid Architecture parallel
engine size 1.2 liters
fuel efficiency 80 mpg
fuel tank capacity 8 USG
fuel tank type Aluminum
Fuel Type Biodiesel
No of Passengers 1
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer BF Goodrich
tire type Radial
Range miles 600 miles
Program blurb The award-winning L3 Enigma sports car is a pre-
production prototype parallel hybrid electric
vehicle. Using the best off-the-shelf
technologies, the L3 team has built the first of
a new breed of "lean" muscle cars. Performance
meets economy in the L3 Enigma. See
http://www.L3Research.com for more.
Report #36: Team Profile: The Olympian
I asked Keith Erickson who is a former student of Cinnaminson High School, a current computer engineering student at New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a current team member. "It is running the Advanced DC FB1-4001A Motor, which is very popular because it has tremendous amount of torque, very good efficiency. We are running at 144 Volts. We have two packs of 12 batteries each, which we run in parallel to reduce the current draw across a single pack, and that increases efficiency. On top of that we have Power-Cheqs running across each of the batteries." They experimented with them last year and liked what they did to keep the charge balanced across all the battery blocks.
"This car has always been a trouper. It has never broken down, never had any problems. It has always made it through. Other people have a lot of advanced high technology that does nowhere real fast. We've been the tortoise against the hare, making it to the end."
Vehicle Name The Olympian
Vehicle Number 16
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Pirates
Organization Cinnaminson High School
City Cinnaminson
State NJ
COUNTRY US
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 24-30 in past 6 years
Time to Build 2 years
Who Built class
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Ford
Vehicle Model Year 1986
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Escort
sale price $depreciated value $10,000 with used batteries
motor kW continuous 21.3 kW
motor kW peak 36.5 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer GNB (part of Exide)
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries combination par/series
Battery GNB (part of Exide)/PbA
Battery 24+ cells/ combination par/series/ $4800
Battery 900 Whrs/ 144 V/ 1368 lbs
battery voltage 144 V
battery blocks 24+ cells
battery watt hrs 900 Whrs
battery weight 1368 lbs
battery cost $4800
control system manufacturer Curtis
control system type PMC 1231C solid state
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 4.8 kW
charger current 30 A
charger input voltage 230 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? On board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-30P
PV cell type Amorphous
PV manufacturer EPV - Energy Photo Voltaics
PV watts 8-10 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 13 ft/ 10 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 8 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 3600 lbs
Mfg GVW 3140 lbs
lbs of persons 180
lbs of cargo 140
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P 155/80 R 13
tire type Radial
Range miles 100 miles
Program blurb NH--A 1987 Ford Escort was converted in 1996 to a
clutchless electric vehicle under Robert Deats'
supervision. Oliver Perry and his students
provided par6s and technical support. Our largest
sponsor has been Eugene Lemieux of Valley Forge's
Eastern Electric Vehicle Club. The car is a strong
performer with a second, third, and two fourth
place finishes in four years.
Report #37: Photos
Photographs from the Tour de Sol:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_003.html
Solar Black Bear with 1 kiloWatt of its solar panel deployed. The other kiloWatt is still folded on the truck behind the cab.
This truck provides the electricity for the Tour de Sol displays sound system and other uses. The energy from the solar panels on the roof is stored in batteries in the truck. Inverters deliver 120 Volts AC.
"I've found the loose wire!"
"Now if someone will just pull on my feet, gently ..."
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_004.html
The Road Rally portion of the Tour de Sol officially started on Tuesday, 14 May 2002, on the Capital Mall.
The GEM neighborhood vehicle sold by DaimlerChrysler.
There were two events with students racing their battery-powered car designs. This is the drag-race ...
and this is the hill climb.
A lot of pictures like this one were taken on the Capital Mall.
Visitors on the Capital Mall.
This bus promoted the use of soy bean oil as a fuel ...
and publicized its milage.
Nancy Hazard, Director of the Tour de Sol, speaking with the press.
Eugene Beers brings his one-man solar powered band to the Tour. He has been to several past Tours and will be along for the entire week.
Environmental Protection Administrator Christine Whitman visited and spoke at the Tour. She and her staff arrived on bicycles.
In this photo of AVS hybrid-electric bus you can see the Capstone micro-turbine generator unit on the left.
Warren Leon, Executive Director of NESEA.
The DiamlerChrysler "Natrium" on display. Mirrors on the ground let you see the components underneath.
Here you can see the Millennium Cell components. At the middle of the picture are the reactor and related components. There are two plastic tanks visible at the bottom of the picture. The one on the left contains the sodium borohydride solution. The one on the right collects the "exhaust", a mixture of borax and water.
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_005.html
After leaving Washington DC on Tuesday, the Tour overnighted at the Sandy Point State Park, near Annapolis Maryland.
A popular student activity and sport is to build these electric cars and race them.
Here is one with its skin off.
Another, with its skin behind it. I think that driver is a bit old for high school.
Another popular student activity is the Junior Solar Sprint races. Students are given a solar panel and electric motor, and must construct a car that runs on sunlight. We had plenty of sunlight most of the day.
The GEM vehicle is particularly popular in the sun-belt states. It is easy to see why that would be.
Sungo starting the next leg of the Tour. Note the earth-flag waved to start the rally.
The AVS bus on its way to Chesapeak City.
A series of students each got to wave the starting banner at Sandy Point.
Carl Vogel is smiling because the Electric Hog decided to start working again. He won't be able to compete in the rally since he was unable to go through the Technical Testing. Still he has decided to come along for the whole Tour and display his creation.
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_006.html
Thursday, 16 May 2002 saw the Tour in Philadelphia.
This variation on the theme of rickshaw has an electric assist.
And this variation on that variation does also.
This is another take on the small racing electric vehicle.
You have to get down low to see into the Viking 23 from Western Washington University.
Report #38: What Was That EV Called?
One of the wonderful things about the EV community is that people are so willing to share what they know.
In my interview with Topher Waring, neither he or I could remember the name of one of the early commercial EVs. Tullio Falini of the Eastern Electric Vehicle Club sent this along ...
You made a comment in report # 16 that you can never remember the name of the converted Renault Le done commercially back in the 70's. It was the Letric Leopard; I drove one for 12 years. It was done by US Electricar of Athol, MA. whos founder was Chandler Waterman. They were bought out by Solar Electric Engineering in California, who changed their name to US Electricar, who is now Enova. Their EV sales never really worked out, so now they do engineering work. The Boyertown Museum has a Letric Leopard. Your in Philadelphia as I write this so I wish you a great rest of the tour.
Tullio Falini Jr.
Report #39: On Display: DaimlerChrysler Natrium
There was quite a bit of activity around the Chrysler Town and Country Van on the Capital Mall. This is the "Natrium" hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that uses the Millennium Cell reactor to extract gaseous hydrogen out of sodium borohydride solution. Using a mirror laid on the ground, one could see the twin pair of plastic tanks under the rear floor of the van. One thank holds the borohydride solution before it is used; the other holds the borax "exhaust". Just forward of that is the reactor cylinder where the solution passes over a ruthenium catalyst, which releases the hydrogen and creates the borax. Associated components lets only hydrogen go to the fuel cell and manage the chemical process.
Al Jaynes told me some more details. "The out put of the fuel cell charges a 65 kiloWatt-hour battery." The driver doesn't control when the Millennium Cell is working. When the battery begins to become discharged, the system starts pumping the solution through the reactor which in turn generates more electricity.
"This is the same electric drive system as was in the Chrysler Epic electric minivans. The difference is that we are generating our own electricity."
"We first presented the Natrium in December, but it actually ran the first time in April."
Vehicle Name Natrium
Vehicle Number demo
Category DEMONSTRATION VEHICLES (non-competitive)
vehicle type category hydrogen
Organization DaimlerChrysler
City Auburn Hills,
State MI
www http://www.daimlerchrysler.com
new this year? New Prototype FC van
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Production
Program blurb The Chrysler Town & Country Natrium prototype fuel
cell vehicle uses New Jersey-based Millennium
Cell hydrogen storage technology---sodium boro-
hydride, which is made from borax, a common
component of laundry soap. The fuel is non-toxic,
nonflammable and can be recycled. Interior space
is not compromised.
Report #40: Team Profile: Soljourner 1, Soljourner 2
The team from West Philadelphia High School are back. This year they have both their pure electric, Soljourner 1, and their hybrid-electric, Soljourner 2. Each has been in a Tour de Sol, but not both together.
Paul Silberschatz is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania. "I was a mentor to the team, to help them design and build Soljourner 2." It is an extra-ciricular activity with some classroom work. "There are two of us who come in and are paid through a grant from the National Science Foundation. We help them with the hands-on work, being there with them, and showing that this is not just a high school thing. That colleges do the exact same thing and that they can do it just as well if not better. We try to show them the thinking process they need to go through if they want to build something like this. It is a big project.
"Most of our team are 9th graders. There are some upper-class members, but the 9th grade really stepped up and did a lot of the work. When you are freshman, how do you go about designing your own body for a car? It is a long process. It took us about 9 months to do everything. How do you decide where you are going to put the windshield? The seats? How do you design molds? You build a lot of mock-ups, sit in them, try them out. Because if you mess up you don't have a spare nine months."
For liability reasons, the high school students don't drive the cars. Instead the college mentors do.
Paul has some prior experience with EVs. "I have an electric Karmen Gia back home that I built with my dad."
Anesha Ali-Hunter is a former West Philly High student, currently at Penn State, who has come back to be part of the Soljourner 1 team. "I finished school about 2 weeks ago. The first day I was home I was up at West Philly working on the car. I missed it, after being with the program for 2 years. We weren't able to bring Soljourner 1 to the Tour last year because the controller failed the night before the race. It was actually working 2 days after we got home afterwards. It is in absolute perfect condition now. This is the best it has ever been!"
Simon Hauger, math and physics teacher and principle advisor to the West Philly team, has been presented the George Bradford EV Teacher Award this year. "He deserved every bit of it. He is the best teacher I've ever had. Even in college now I compare every professor to him. He's taught us so much. He grades my English papers. He does it all and cares so much about the students on the team. He bends over backwards to make sure we get done what needs to be done." Is that love returned? "Definitely. Definitely."
Parting thought: "Penn State should enter the race next year so I can be on their team."
Cyndi Wise and Ismail Nmakki are seniors who were at last year's Tour de Sol with Soljourner 2. It was obviously a Jeep Wrangler back then, with a generator on the back to charge the batteries in the vehicle. What is it now? "It is a student-built body. It's better! The body is made of fiberglass and honeycomb." They created a mold from wood and foam. They then shaped the fiberglass and honeycomb around the mold and then lay another sheet of fiberglass on top.
Last year the generator used propane. This year the generator is a diesel, running bio-diesel fuel. The battery pack has grown from 24 blocks to 34 blocks.
"We started about October, and we finished a week ago. It is running great."
Vehicle Name Soljourner 1
Vehicle Number 21
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name W. Phila. H.S. EV Team
Organization West Philadelphia High School
City Philadelphia
State PA
COUNTRY Philadelphia
www http://www.upenn.edu/ccp/access_science/soljourner
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 20
Time to Build 1000 person hours
Who Built class club
Vehicle Manufacturer Saturn
Vehicle Model Year 1993
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model SL2
motor kW continuous 27 kW
motor kW peak 50 kW
motor manufacturer MTS Automation
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer East Penn - Deka
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery East Penn - Deka/PbA
Battery 28 cells/ series/ $2800
Battery 25,000 Whrs/ 336 V/ 1400 lbs
battery voltage 336 V
battery blocks 28 cells
battery watt hrs 25,000 Whrs
battery weight 1400 lbs
battery cost $2800
control system manufacturer MTS
control system type automation
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 2800 kW
charger current 21 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? Off board
charger type Trans/rectif
Plug Type 6-30P
Conversion Conversion
body material Plastic body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 6 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 4 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 3650 lbs
Mfg GVW 3650 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 300
brake front type Front Drum Front Disc
brake rear type Rear drum
engine size liters
Fuel Type Biodiesel
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Michelin
tire model Proxima RR 15(205-60-15)
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 350 miles
Program blurb The West Philly Electric Vehicle Team is back for
its third year. The students have made a number
of improvement to the electric Saturn and are
looking forward to a successful run. The
Soljourner2 is equipped with a 36HP MTS brushless
DC motor, Deka batteries, and Michelin low
rolling resistant tires. Boeing tested the
improved aerodynamics in their full size wind
tunnel.
Vehicle Name Soljourner 2
Vehicle Number 22
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name W. Phila. HS EV Team
Organization West Philadelphia High School
City Philadelphia
State PA
COUNTRY USA
new this year? returing team, new car
No People in Project 20
Time to Build 1000 person hours
Who Built class club
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Jeep Wrangler
Vehicle Model Year 1995
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
motor kW continuous 27 kW
motor kW peak 50 kW
motor manufacturer MTS Automation
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer East Penn - Deka
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery East Penn - Deka/PbA
Battery 34 cells/ series/ $3000
Battery 500 Whrs/ 408 V/ 680 lbs
battery voltage 408 V
battery blocks 34 cells
battery watt hrs 500 Whrs
battery weight 680 lbs
battery cost $3000
control system manufacturer MTS Automation
control system type Brushless Drive
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity n/a kW
charger current 45 A
charger input voltage 200 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? Off board
charger type Trans/rectif
Plug Type 10-30P
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Composite body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 8 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 0 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 3750 lbs
Mfg GVW 5000 lbs
lbs of persons 150
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
Hybrid Architecture parallel
engine size 500 liters
fuel effeciency n/a mpg
fuel tank capacity 10 gal
Fuel Type Biodiesel
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Michelin
tire model P205/R15
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 180 miles
Program blurb THE HYBRID ELECTRIC JEEP #22 This is the third
conversion for this once gas powered Jeep. Now a
hybrid, running on biodiesel, a DC motor, and
Deka lead acid batteries. The students also
built their own generator, and a whole new body
(not pictured here) with materials donated by
Hexcel. This is the third conversion for this
once gas powered vehicle. The hybrid electric
Jeep is equipped with a 36HP MTS brushless DC
motor getting its power from 34 Deka DCU1
batteries (408 Volts). The students built their
own generator with a Yanmar 2V78 20HP diesel
engine running on biodiesel fuel and a high
efficiency 20HP MTS brushless DC motor.
Report #41: Autocross Results
After the display in Philadelphia the teams retired to a parking lot at the Garden State Race Track for the autocross competition and acceleration tests. Members of the Sports Car Clubs of America (SCCA) set up the course and provide the timing equipment and spotters.
Success in autocross depends on the handling of the car and the ability of the driver. A route is laid out on a parking lot using traffic cones. The score is the time, in seconds, it takes to driver the route, plus 2 seconds for each cone knocked over or knocked aside. Lower scores are better. "DNF" stands for Did Not Finish which usually means the driver did not stay within the defined course.
Hybrids
Time Vehicle
38.361 Vega, driven by SCCA member
44.128 46 Honda Insight
44.541 22 Soljourner 2
44.664 17 ParaDyne
45.493 23 Viking 23
48.450 70 Toyota Prius
66.602 4 AVS Hybrid-Electric Bus
Battery-Electric
Time Vehicle
42.860 11 Solectria Super Force
45.331 21 Soljourner 1
45.984 16 The Olympian
47.079 1 Electric Blue
48.142 15 E-STREAM
52.196 53 rEVolutionaryride
DNF 6 DC Cruiser
DNF 20 Solar Black Bear
DNF 56 Woodstock
DNF 66 Phantom Sol
Report #42: Photos - Photos from Philadelphia, Autocross
Photographs from the Tour de Sol:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_007.html
Photos from Philadelphia
The Tour de Sol stopped in Philadelphia on Thursday 16 May 2002 at the little park between 16th and 17th Streets on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Bicycles with electric assistance.
Practical electric transportation for people who have difficulty walking.
DiamlerChrysler's Sebring Hybrid, with TTR (Through The Road) technology.
Bob Rice's VW Rabbit conversion, which he uses daily.
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_008.html
Photos from the Autocross
A large parking lot at the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill New Jersey was the site of the Autocross and acceleration testing.
Charging and keeping cool.
The DC Cruiser suffered a rear-ending while participating in range testing. A driver of an SUV trying dial cell phone slammed Number 6 from behind. Seth and Mark Murray's heads hit and broke the rear window, but they were treated and eventually released at the hospital.
While at the hospital they got a call from the other teams asking if they could help put the DC Cruiser back on the road. Early the next morning the truck was back in running condition, even if it was not pretty. It was reinspected and allowed back in the competition.
Here's something you don't see every day: a turbine hybrid-electric bus running an Autocross course!
A local chapter of the Sports Car Clubs of America set up and ran the Autocross. Here a first time driver is given a few pointers.
Team Driven to Work's Honda Insight on the Autocross.
Solar Black Bear in a hard turn.
The Charging Trailer under its tent.
The AVS hybrid bus "on the plug." Since the bus has a significant electric, zero-emission range, it often makes sense to charge the grid.
The charging plug on the AVS bus.
Report #43: Team Profile: Toyota Prius
Last year and this Bob Strattan has driven his 2001 Toyota Prius as an entrant in the Tour de Sol. He is also an advisor to the University of Tulsa team.
"I enjoy coming to the Tour. This is my fifth one. Our team was coming and I was coming with them. Although I am retired, I am an adjunct professor associated with them. Plus I want see a Prius compete in the Production HEV category."
After a year of ownership, have there been any surprises? "The best part is that it has lived up to, and perhaps exceeded, my expectations of how well the hybrid technology has been engineered into the automobile. In 18 months, 21,000 miles, I haven't had any maintenance problems. It hasn't needed one bit of unscheduled service."
"It is more in its element in city driven. But it is very comfortable to drive on long trips and has no trouble keeping up with traffic, doing the mountain grades or whatever. I got over 50 miles per gallon on the trip from Oklahoma into Baltimore. And I get 46-48 miles per gallon in city driving. I think the display that gives a mile-per-gallon number every 5 minutes provides a feedback mechanism to make you more conscious of your driving habits.
Vehicle Name Toyota Prius
Vehicle Number 70
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name S&S Auto Sport
Organization Robert Strattan
City Tulsa
State OK
COUNTRY USA
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 1
part of school curriculum? Production, Purchased
Vehicle Manufacturer Toyota
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Production
Vehicle Type Model Prius
sale price $20,420
motor kW continuous 33 kW
motor kW peak 33 kW
motor manufacturer Toyota
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Panasonic/Toyota
Energy Storage System NiMH
Batteries series
Battery Panasonic/Toyota/NiMH
Battery 228 cells/ series/ unknown
Battery 1500 Whrs/ 274 V/ unknown
battery voltage 274 V
battery blocks 228 cells
battery watt hrs 1500 Whrs
battery weight unknown
battery cost unknown
control system manufacturer Toyota
control system type Toyota Hybrid System
regenerative braking? Regen
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 14 ft/ 1.6 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 6.7 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 9.6 in
# seats 5
Weight pounds 2765 lbs
Mfg GVW 2265 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
Fuel Type RFG
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Bridgestone
tire model P175/65R-14
tire type Radial/low roll resist
Range miles 500 miles
Program blurb The MY 2001 Toyota Prius is my daily driver, and
was the first Prius delivered to Tulsa, OK in
October, 2000. It also competed in the 2001 Tour
de Sol. I am a retired electrical engineering
professor and am also a faculty advisor to the
University of Tulsa's Hurricane Motor Work's HEV
project.
Report #44: On Display: Chrysler Sebring Through-The-Road Hybrid
A couple of years ago Chrysler brought a Dodge Durango hybrid prototype to the Tour de Sol to display. It's front wheels were driven by the fuel engine, it's rear wheels were driven by the electric motor, and electric generation could be accomplished using the rear wheels.
We had expected to see a Dodge Ram hybrid-electric vehicle, but instead ...
This year we have a prototype Sebring passenger car with the same kind of Through-The-Road (TTR) hybrid system. Phil Benjamin told me what we were looking at.
"It started as a 2.7 liter, V6 Sebring. We substituted a standard 2.4 liter engine and matched that with a TTR system. The motor is 55 kiloWatts. The batteries are 2.5 kiloWatt-hours of liquid cooled nickel metal hydride, in a 216 Volt pack. The torque couple for managing the acceleration and deceleration is the road, itself."
All the management of engine and motor power are handled automatically.
"The way this particular car is tuned we have the fuel economy up and the performance to 0.7 seconds faster than the V6 version. It's become a sporty- hybrid version of the original car." They expect the hybrid's mileage numbers would be 20% to 25% better than the non-hybrid car.
"We have affordable technology to apply to different applications. If hybrids prove to be popular, we can incorporate it into a lot of our vehicles quickly. The TTR gives the benefits of an all-wheel-drive application. And the kinds of technologies we use for the motor designs can be used with fuel cell technologies when they happen."
Report #45: On Display: Driving on Used Vegetable Oil
I have heard of driving on used vegetable oil, but always thought there had to be a chemical process to make the raw oil suitable for diesel engine use. Justin Carven of Vegetable Fuel Systems tells me otherwise. His car is labeled the GreaseCar
"This is a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit with a standard, non-turbo diesel engine. It has been modified with one of our systems, which we are marketing now, to run on used cooking oil. We can pull this vehicle up to the kitchen door of a restaurant and pump out of a waste oil container right into the vehicle, and drive away. All the processing is done on board. There are no chemicals added, unlike bio-diesel. With bio-diesel you modify the oil to burn in the car we modify the car to accept the oil. It is a simple system. We use the waste heat from the engine, the hot coolant water, to warm up the oil. Because of that we keep the standard diesel tank and start up with diesel and then switch over to vegetable oil when the oil is up to temperature, about 160 degrees. Then the fatty acids have broken down into a lipid state and it is light enough to inject properly. A heat exchanger in the vegetable oil tank, the fuel filter and the fuel line are heat jacketed."
What about the salts and bits of food that are usually in frying oil? "We filter down to 10 microns which gets the particulates and a lot of the salt matter out. Also, when it is stored, the salt tends to sink to the bottom of the tank with the water and most of the heavy materials. So the only treatment we give it is filtration, although I have heard of people washing it with water to `rinse out' the salt and sugars." And how often do you have to drain out those residues? "The end of our suction tube has a strainer that keeps most of the heavy material out. So we are just filtering the light material with the polishing filter. We are able to pump about 200 gallons through that without changing it. So the maintenance is pretty infrequent. I haven't changed our prefiltering filter in over 200 gallons, over a year, and the onboard filter generally gives 10,000 miles or more. I would recommend that people change these filters when their in there changing the normal engine fluids and filters, but it generally is not necessary until about 10,000 miles."
"We have very little contact with the corporate chain restaurants. They are generally so caught up with protocols that the don't know what to do with us. We find locally owned restaurants and find that their oil is of higher quality and changed more frequently. Dealing with those people is usually easier."
The GreaseCar is not competing in the evaluated road rally. Instead it is serving as the "sweep vehicle" that picks up the plastic signs that help the rally teams find their way from place to place. "We drove the vehicle down from Florence Massachusetts, our base, and are driving the entire Tour route." And as they go they visit restaurants and ask for 15 gallons of waste oil. "This is pretty much a short-range trip as far as this car is concerned. We get about 500 miles per fill-up. We filled up in Baltimore," and they'll have to fill up a couple of times before they get home.
"We are marketing this to any one who wants to do this on a vehicle. Right now we have 30 of our systems on the road in the last year. About half are in the Northeast and half in the Northwest. A couple are stationary applications.
The system sells for about $800, and they are looking to produce a $500 version.
Report #46: Team Profile: Solectria Super Force
Olaf Bleck is one of the perpetual entrants in the Tour de Sol. He and Team New England have had several different vehicles entered over the years. The "Super Force" with its trailer of batteries for extra range is here again.
"It was running pretty good last year. We've fixed a few things that should make it incrementally better. The turtle over the trailer battery pack gets the kids and their parents to come over and look at the car."
A sign on the car says, "Drive it away! $14K" including the trailer.
Does Team New England have any plans? "We have a design on the drawing board for a Swiss Tour de Sol class car, except using today's technology, which is 1000 pounds, 30 kiloWatt-hours nickel metal hydride. Two people sitting one behind the other. It would have easily 900+ mile range at highway speeds. We have also talked about having an event running across country, DC to LA, in 54 hours with 3 1-hour quick charges. The project would cost a million dollars."
It sounds like an improbable dream. But at one time many people thought the hybrid cars we can buy today were improbable dreams. I suppose every new idea starts as an improbable dream ...
Vehicle Name Solectria Super Force
Vehicle Number 11
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Team New England
Organization Team New England
City Chelsea
State MA
COUNTRY USA
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 400 person hours
Who Built private group
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Geo Metro
Vehicle Model Year 1993
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Metro-Solectria Force
sale price $35 k
motor kW continuous 35 kW
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Delphi
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries combination par/series
Battery Delphi/PbA
Battery 19 x 2 blocks/ combination par/series/ $2000
Battery 27600 Whrs/ 152 V/ 1604 lbs
battery voltage 152 V
battery blocks 19 x 2 blocks
battery watt hrs 27600 Whrs
battery weight 1604 lbs
battery cost $2000
control system manufacturer Solectria / Brusa
control system type solid state ACgtx325
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 3 kW
charger current 15 A
charger input voltage 120 V
charger manufacturer Solectria/home
charger on board? On&off bd
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 5-20P
PV cell type Polycrystalline
PV manufacturer Kynocara
PV watts 90 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel/composite body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 16 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 8 in
# seats 5
Weight pounds 3300 lbs
Mfg GVW 2450 lbs
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 30
brake front type Front Disc Rear drum
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P 155/80 R13
tire type Radial
Range miles 190 miles
Program blurb This vehicle demonstrates the versatility of a
pure EV, with detachable trailer filled with
batteries for long-distance travel. This vehicle
took first place in its category in the 2001
Tour. Team New England is a group of experienced
EV enthusiasts from around the country who seek
to enter cutting-edge unique and competitive
vehicle designs in EV competitions.
Report #47: Team Profile: Viking 23
The University of Western Washington has brought hybrid electric vehicles to the Tour since forever, it seems. I saw Viking 21 in 1993, I remember, when I didn't quite understand what hybrids were all about. Viking 23 has been here several times, and it is back with some major differences. For one, it used to be painted a deep blue. It is now "screaming electric yellow", the same as the entrant known as Woodstock.
Jeremiah Jewell said, "We are running the same chassis as last time, but with completely new drive train, brakes and body. The front transaxle is mated to a 50 horsepower Unique Mobility liquid-cooled brushless electric motor. That runs off two nickel-cadmium battery stacks running through the side rails of the car. The controller is also liquid-cooled and it runs off 180 Volts DC. In the back we have our bio-diesel engine. It's a 1 liter, 3-cylinder Diahatsu turbo-diesel that drives the rear wheels. In the past we ran on natural gas and reformulated gasoline, so the car has run on three different fuels now.
"The body was just finished weeks ago. The complete mold for the body was machined with a giant CNC (computer controlled milling) machine by Janicki Industries as a donation. It was accurate to 0.005 inch, based on a computer model of the body we wanted. The windshield is off an Acura NSX. It was scanned into the computer for making the mold.
"Then we had We laid up the carbon fiber body with closed-cell PVC-core foam to make the entire body, the doors, the nose, and the backend of the car. It went relatively quickly, not having to make the mold. a friend paint it the screaming Ferrari yellow."
The electric drive is used for low speed operation. "We will take it from zero to 20 or 30 miles per hour in electric, where most internal combustion engines are the least efficient. Then, as we start gaining speed the IC engine becomes more efficient and we turn on the biodiesel and turn off the electric. For pure acceleration we turn on both and it really goes!"
This car has no rear window. There used to be a little TV camera on the rear of the car tied to a monitor in the cockpit, "but for now we are running just on our side mirrors.
Viking 23 is low, low to the ground. It is only 44 inches tall.
Vehicle Name Viking 23
Vehicle Number 23
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Western WA University
Organization Western Washington University
City Bellingham
State WA
COUNTRY USA
www http://vri.etec.wwu.edu
new this year? ret. after 3 yrs, updated
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 9 years
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Purpose built
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
motor kW continuous 14 kW
motor kW peak 32 kW
motor manufacturer Unique Mobility
motor type Brushless DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer SAFT
Energy Storage System NiCad
Batteries series
Battery SAFT/NiCad
Battery 144 cells/ series/ $5500
Battery 5184 Whrs/ 246 V/ 301.2 lbs
battery voltage 246 V
battery blocks 144 cells
battery watt hrs 5184 Whrs
battery weight 301.2 lbs
battery cost $5500
control system manufacturer Unique Mobility
control system type Inverter
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 3000 kW
charger current 14 A
charger input voltage 250 V
charger manufacturer Xantrex
charger on board? Off board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 14-30P
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Composite body
frame material Carbon Fiber Frame
Length both L: 14 ft/ 7 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 2 in
Height both H: 3 ft/ 8 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 1984 lbs
lbs of persons 200
lbs of cargo 0
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
engine size liters
fuel efficiency mpg
Fuel Type Biodiesel
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Firestone
tire model P135 R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 400 miles
Program blurb The team from Western Washington University is
comprised of students working on an
extracurricular basis. Each of our ten team
members is involved for different reasons but
mostly it is a way to learn something that a book
cannot teach. Viking 23 is unique in that the
chassis and body are all composite, carbon fiber
to be exact. All materials have been donated or
graciously discounted.
Report #48: Tales from the Charging Trailer
As the Tour de Sol travels from place to place, the electric vehicles need to plug in. The Charging Trailer is a large electric panel with the plugs and current capacity to handle all the EVs at one time. A large tent over the panel helps protect it and its tenders.
It was very, very, very windy in Arlington Virginia on Monday night and there was a bit of excitement. Richard Ritter told me, "We had high winds, the front came through and took the tent off the ground and folded it in half. This was at 9 o'clock at night. By 11 o'clock we had it back together, up and running again." Six of the tubular members the support the tent bent, but cutting 6 inches off was sufficient to reassemble them.
It was windy on Tuesday night also, "but we were prepared for it last night. Notice how we are in a box canyon?" They parked large trucks and recreational vehicles on three sides.
"Everyone last year that had Zivan chargers that didn't trip (the Ground Fault Interrupter breakers) are tripping like crazy this year. We haven't figured out why." Instead of staying up all night resetting breakers they take out the GFI breakers and replace them with regular breakers. The Zivans have their own built in GFIs. (I recall hearing that having double GFIs can cause this problem.)
Steve Kurkoski told me that they did find a 120 Volt charger wired with the neutral and hot leads reversed. For the 20 Amp chargers we have the GFI separate from the breaker. They are not having any problem at all. When the GFI is incorporated into the breaker they seem more sensitive. "My guess is that the Zivan create a high frequency on the return line that cause the combination breakers trip."
Steve also told me that the generator's frequency had been a little unstable, moving from 58 to 62 Hertz and back. It turns out that the Twike's charger has a light that comes on when the line frequency is off. Apparently their charger is sensitive to that.
Report #49: New Electric Buses in New York City
Two years ago Patrick Centolanzi, Transportation Systems Engineer for the New York Power Authority drove a Bluebird electric school bus on the Tour de Sol. I met him at the Tour Finish line in New York City on Saturday. He had some interesting stories to tell about recent EV activity here.
"We competed in the Tour with a 1997 Bluebird all electric school bus that used the Solectria drive system. Since then we took an older Bluebird school bus that used a Westinghouse drive system that was problematic and repowered it with the Solectria. They are both now in service in Queens New York."
"We are working on buying a hybrid-electric school bus for use in New York City from Bluebird and Solectria."
"And the New York Power Authority in partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Alliance for Downtown New York has purchased eight AVS all electric shuttle buses for use in lower Manhattan. They will have ultra- capacitors for high efficiency. And we are talking about having a high-speed charging that will charge a bus in 4 hours."
"And we have a Ford Th!nk City car here which is part of our station car program. We have 75 Th!nks in the hands of private commuters who purchased them. They get free charging in their home. They get free charging at the train station. When they do that their commute is all electric and all emission free. This program is in place in West Chester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. We started about 3 months ago and expect to put another 25 in service in the next couple of months. Commuters have stepped up big time, especially on Long Island."
"And NYPA has also leased another eleven Toyota RAV4-EVs."
"It just shows that there are a lot of programs going on in New York for energy efficient and low emission vehicles."
Report #50: A Couple of Repairs for Sungo
I've been at each Tour de Sol since 1993 and am continually amazed at the way the teams solve problems that I would expect would stop them right in their tracks. Topher Waring told me to check out this pair of stories from Sungo, which illustrate the point.
Sungo was first entered by New Hampshire Technical Institute in 1993, and while there have been some major changes over the years, some things have remained the same. For example, Sungo has always had separate motors and controllers driving each of the rear wheels. A special circuit coordinates the controllers so the motors act as if there was a limited-slip differential between them.
Eric Ives was driving when suddenly he noticed he didn't have regenerative braking in one rear wheel. "That was actually how we figured out there was a problem since unbalanced regen tried to twist us on the road. So we limped in on one motor (actually passing cars on one motor)." The evidence implicated the controller which is at least 5 years old and no longer manufactured. "So we tore it all apart, and Kurt took out all the modules and circuit boards." Nick, the electrical engineer on the team, was getting nowhere trying to isolate the problem, so he went for a walk to try and clear his head. "I was looking at it with one of the students' father. We found a broken pin. It turns out it was a power-in/power-out for the Field Effect Transistors. The FETs were not seeing a signal on one side so the controller was going crazy and shut off on thermal overload. That actually saved it. Soldering on a new pin made it all good."
So careful inspection, and a `that doesn't look quite right' observation, identified a broken connection.
The next story involves a mechanical problem. Kurt Bastian said, "We have loaded up our car about 600 pounds heavier this year. We noticed a camber change in the right front wheel, but every thing was fine, it wasn't rubbing or anything. But the day after the range event in Chesapeake City we noticed it was worse. We had bent the bracket that holds the spindle to the wheel on. So we pulled over a mile into that leg, took it off and found a crack in it. At a gas station we called up a local welder, got it welded up, put it on and made it in. But it was still bent. That night we heated it up, extremely hot, bent it into place, and let it cool. It should be strong enough. The mode of failure now that it has been cooled slowly like that is that the metal is a little softer. Instead of cracking like it was it will just bend. That means it is not as dangerous. We won't loose the wheel, but it might go cockeyed and we'll see it coming."
Report #51: Accident and Recovery
Mark and Seth Murray, the father and son team of "DC Cruiser", number 6, had a fairly serious accident while driving the "range laps" near Chesapeake City Maryland. These laps are intended to determine the maximum mileage on the battery-electric vehicles. I caught up with them on the morning after the Autocross.
Son Seth was driving at the time. "We got in from Sandy Point in good time and were very happy. We were going out to do some short laps and hoping to break 80 miles range. Half way through on our first lap around we're on a nice straight stretch of road, just under the speed limit, about 30 MPH. I glanced up to the rearview mirror and saw this big red Chevy pickup as it plowed right into our rear. He had to be going at least 60. He claims he was looking at his cell phone, dialing."
"The bumper got pushed up into the bottom of the truck bed and into our rear- most battery box. All the batteries in the truck are in boxes underneath the bed. The one behind the rear axle holds 8 blocks, about 500 pounds. That got pushed forward about a foot and hit the differential. A number of blocks got deformed a little bit, some with cracks in the cases in the joint at the top. One fuse blew. I think the battery boxed absorbed a lot of the shock of the impact. I think without it we would have been hurt a lot more."
Mark said, "As it was we were hit hard enough that our heads snapped back and broke the rear window."
Seth continued, "We were able to drive back to the Tour site, breaking 80 miles. We then went to the hospital.
"When we get back from the hospital and there's a bunch of folks standing around the truck. They've got the bed off, they got their welders out and their cutters. The batteries are coming out of the truck. Just about everyone on the Tour de Sol helped at some point. We had little teams: one working on the batteries, one on the battery box, one on the steel in the truck. Big halogen lights, welders, grinders all going. We were up until 1:30 or 2 in the morning, totally re-did the back battery box and fixed up batteries. So we are back on the road. We don't have a bumper and have some major dents but the truck is running well. I had some fun yesterday in the Autocross even though I couldn't complete a successful run. I was just a bit worn out."
Mark added, "I want to talk about how incredible the Tour spirit is. We got a phone call, in the emergency room, asking for permission to start taking the truck apart. `Yeah guys; go for it! This is great.' We were pretty loopy at that point; tired and banged up. Tom from PET stayed up all night welding for us. Team PET has turned into our guardian angles, along with TeamEV, North Haven, UMaine, everybody. Good humor, a lot of support, a lot of fun. Once we got over the initial disappointment of having all that work knocked down half- a-dozen notches it was easily replaced by the pleasure of just being with great folks. What a difference it makes. And we are the beneficiaries of that big circle of people holding hands; we are in the middle. It is a remarkable feeling."
Wrapping up, Seth concluded, "I'm really glad we came through it all OK. All the extra work, time and money we spent to make this a safe vehicle paid off." They acknowledged Bob Batson (Electric Vehicles of America's) help and guidance in creating a safe vehicle.
Report #52: The Volunteers
The Tour de Sol events work because of a herd of volunteers that do myriad of jobs. Allyson Chase, the Volunteer Coordinator, figures we had about 75 different people this year. The jobs range from marking the routes with signs to help the teams, setting up and decorating the Starting line site, setting up and decorating the Finish line site, directing the public to the sites and site-parking, providing the solar-powered sound system, providing on-site food for the volunteers, technical testing, data collection, getting people to where they need to be, making sure all the trash is picked up, making sure all the hotel reservations are OK, the race jury, and collecting the route signs after all the vehicles have passed.
Allyson has been the Coordinator for three years, fourth year on the tour. The volunteers usually have very long days. "Last night I had to lay down, fully clothed and take two hour a nap before I could clean up and go to bed. Our first 3 days were very long, 18 hours. On the third day, Washington, in the afternoon we all got to sit down and be normal people and talk with each other."
And the key volunteers, like Allyson, are always on call. "Sometimes we get calls from teams at 11 at night asking where they need to be in the morning."
I has just asked her if she had any interesting stories, but she was needed.
Report #53: Not Here
The following vehicles originally scheduled to be a the Tour did not show up.
Vehicle Name Buck Hybrid 002
Vehicle Number 9
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Team Q
Organization Ohio State University
City Columbus
State OH
COUNTRY US
www http://car.eng.ohio-state.edu
new this year? new team and car
No People in Project 25
Time to Build 1 year
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Ford
Vehicle Model Year 2002
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Explorer
motor kW continuous 35 kW
motor kW peak 55 kW
motor manufacturer Ecostar
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Hawkins Genesis NiMH: Sanyo
Energy Storage System PbA NiMH
Batteries series
Battery Hawkins Genesis NiMH: Sanyo/PbA NiMH
Battery 27 cells/ series/ $1200
Battery 192 Whrs/ 324 V/ 167 kg
battery voltage 324 V
battery blocks 27 cells
battery watt hrs 192 Whrs
battery weight 167 kg
battery cost $1200
control system manufacturer Ecostar
control system type High Speed 1GBT
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 5 kW
charger current 25 A
charger input voltage 208-220 V
charger manufacturer Tecsup
charger on board? Off board
charger type Trans/rectif
Plug Type 10-30P 10-50P
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel/alumin body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: ? ft/ in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 0 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 11 in
# seats 5
Weight pounds 4990 lbs
Mfg GVW 1984 kg
lbs of persons 150
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
Fuel Type Biodiesel
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P255/70 R16
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 250 miles
Program blurb The BuckHybrid002 marks Ohio State University's
first entry in the Tour de Sol, but the team has
competed in Future Car and Future Truck since
1996. OSU's current Future Truck, the
BuckHybrid002, is based on the 2002 Ford Explorer
platform. Its a bio-diesel electric conversion,
and entrant in the upcoming Future Truck
Competition.
Vehicle Name Clean Wheels
Vehicle Number 19
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category Advanced battery
Team Name Electrovaya Challenge
Organization Electrovaya
City Mississauga
State Ont
COUNTRY Canada
Vehicle Manufacturer Suzuki
Vehicle Model Year 1988
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Model Samori
motor kW continuous 18 kW
motor manufacturer Net Gain Tech
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Electrovaya
Energy Storage System Li-ion
Battery Electrovaya/Li-ion
regenerative braking? Non-regen
Conversion Conversion
Length both L: n/a ft/ in
Weight pounds 3000 lbs
brake front type Front disc
brake rear type Rear drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
Program blurb The Electrovaya Suzuki Samurai tests the viability
of using Electrovaya's Lithium Ion SuperPolymerTM
cells as a traction battery for an electric
vehicle. The cells, which have an energy density
of over 200Wh/kg, are similar to the cells used in
our PowerPads, which are designed to run laptop
computers up to 16 hours. We are excited about its
potential to power ZEVs.
Vehicle Name Electric Panther
Vehicle Number 28
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Panther Electric Vehicle
Organization Panther ElectricVehicle Association
City Pittsburgh
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.pitt.edu/~elv/index.html
new this year? new team and car
No People in Project 40
Time to Build 3 years
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer GMC
Vehicle Model Year 1997
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Sierra
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 24 cells/ series/ $2500
Battery 35000 Whrs/ 144 V/ 1800 lbs
battery voltage 144 V
battery blocks 24 cells
battery watt hrs 35000 Whrs
battery weight 1800 lbs
battery cost $2500
control system manufacturer DC Power Systems
control system type Raptor 1200
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 36 kW
charger current 100 A
charger input voltage 208 V
charger manufacturer Zivan - NG5
charger on board? On board
charger type Trans/rectif
PV cell type Amorphous
PV manufacturer UniSolar
PV watts 5 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 18 ft/ 3 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 0 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 10 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 7500 lbs
Mfg GVW 8600 lbs
lbs of persons 250
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer General
tire model P 120 R 116
tire type Radial
Range miles 75 miles
Program blurb The Panther Electric Vehicle Club has been
building EVs since 1998, but we are first-time
entrants to the Tour De Sol. Students at the U.
of Pittsburgh receive credit for their work. This
year we converted a GMC Sierra to electric power.
We hope to demonstrate that electric conversion
can be performed effectively on a heavy-duty
vehicle.
Vehicle Name KINETICAR III
Vehicle Number 18
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name KINETICAR
Organization CSERT-NVCC
City Waterbury
State CT
COUNTRY US
new this year? returning team and car
No People in Project 6
Time to Build 3 months
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Chevy
Vehicle Model Year 1989
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model S-10 Pick-up
motor kW continuous 24 kW
motor kW peak 48 kW
motor manufacturer Advanced DC Motors
motor type Series Wound
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 12 cells/ series/ $1100
Battery 13200 Whrs/ 72 V/ 840 lbs
battery voltage 72 V
battery blocks 12 cells
battery watt hrs 13200 Whrs
battery weight 840 lbs
battery cost $1100
control system manufacturer Curtis
control system type 1231C
regenerative braking? Non-regen
charger capacity 4.6 kW
charger current 18 A
charger input voltage 115 V
charger manufacturer Lester
charger on board? Off board
charger type Ferro-reson
Plug Type 6-30P
PV cell type Amorphous
PV manufacturer UNI-Solar
PV watts 25 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 15 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 5 ft/ 0 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 3900 lbs
Mfg GVW 3598 lbs
lbs of persons 160
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
fuel effeciency 26mpg
fuel tank type Suziki
Fuel Type LPG
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Firestone
tire model P195/R15
tire type Radial
Range miles 300 miles
Program blurb The Kineticar III team under the leadership of
Bill Sforza improved our 2001 performance over the
previous year. This new team has been learning
about and making small improvements to our hybrid
vehicle. We expect to achieve better efficiency in
2002 and to accurately measure fuel usage.
Vehicle Name SEVRX
Vehicle Number 75
Category SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
vehicle type category solar electric
Team Name Clarkson Solar Knights
Organization Clarkson University Solar Knights
City Potsdam
State NY
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.clarkson.edu/~solarcar
new this year? new team and car
No People in Project 30
Time to Build 15 months
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Honda
Vehicle Model Year 1986
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model CRX
motor kW peak 144 kW
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer NRG Cells
Energy Storage System Lithium Ion Batteries
Batteries combination par/series
Battery NRG Cells/Lithium Ion Batteries
Battery 1680 cells/ combination par/series/ $33100
Battery 11200 Whrs/ 144 V/ 148bs
battery voltage 144 V
battery blocks 1680 cells
battery watt hrs 11200 Whrs
battery weight 148bs
battery cost $33100
control system manufacturer Solectria
control system type UMOL 425T
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 3 kW
charger current 3 A
charger input voltage 208-240 V
charger manufacturer Zivan
charger on board? On board
charger type High freq/ss
Plug Type 6-20P
PV cell type Polycrystalline
PV manufacturer ASC
PV watts 370 W
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 8 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 4 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 3 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 1700 lbs
Mfg GVW 2240 lbs
lbs of persons 200
lbs of cargo 100
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Drum
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P155/80 R13
tire type Low roll resist
Range miles 100 miles
Program blurb The Solar Knights entered SEVRX, their 1986 Honda
CRX battery-electric conversion, in last year's
competition as a demonstration vehicle. This year,
they are back with a reconstructed battery pack,
aerodynamic changes to the body and a brand-new
solar array.
Vehicle Name SUNDOG
Vehicle Number 85
Category BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES (BEV)
vehicle type category PbA
Team Name Sol Sarum Race Team
Organization Salisbury School
City Salisbury
State CT
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.salisburyschool.org
new this year? ret. after 6 yrs, new car
No People in Project 40
Time to Build 4 years
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? No
Vehicle Manufacturer Renaissance
Vehicle Model Year 1995
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Tropica
sale price $25000
motor kW continuous 21 kW
motor kW peak 168 kW
motor manufacturer Solectria
motor type AC Induction
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries parallel
Battery Trojan/PbA
Battery 14cells/ parallel/ $1000
Battery 11000 Whrs/ 168 V/ 700 lbs
battery voltage 168 V
battery blocks 14cells
battery watt hrs 11000 Whrs
battery weight 700 lbs
battery cost $1000
control system manufacturer Solectria
control system type UMOC44OT
regenerative braking? Regen
charger capacity 3 kW
charger current 20 A
charger input voltage 220 V
charger manufacturer Solectria
charger on board? Off board
Plug Type 10-30P
Conversion Purpose-Built
body material Fiberglass body
frame material Aluminum frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 0 in
Width both W: 6 ft/ 2 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 8 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 2400 lbs
lbs of persons 200
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire model P 205/60 R 15
tire type Radial
Range miles 100 miles
Program blurb NH--The Cinnaminson High School Electric Vehicle
Tour de Sol team has competed in 4 consecutive
Tour de Sol events, placing 2nd, 4th, 4th, and 3rd
place in the battery car division. Our converted
Ford Escort is one of the most reliable, all
around, great performers in the Tour. The car is
dependable, comfortable, and easy to drive at any
speed. It will travel 50 miles under any
condition, and 100 miles if you really conserve
energy.
Vehicle Name SwiftR
Vehicle Number 14
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Swarthmore College HEV Team
Organization Swarthmore College
City Swarthmore
State PA
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/org/HEV/
No People in Project 10
Time to Build 1 year
Who Built club
part of school curriculum? Yes
Vehicle Manufacturer Suzuki
Vehicle Model Year 2001
Vehicle Reg Car/Truck
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Swift
motor kW continuous 14 kW
motor kW peak 20 kW
motor manufacturer Briggs & Stratton (LEMCO design)
motor type Brush DC
Energy Storage Manufacturer Energizer
Energy Storage System PbA
Batteries series
Battery Energizer/PbA
Battery 4 cells/ series/ $300
Battery 2400 Whrs/ 48 V/ 200 bs
battery voltage 48 V
battery blocks 4 cells
battery watt hrs 2400 Whrs
battery weight 200 bs
battery cost $300
control system manufacturer Briggs & Stratton
control system type Mosfet 4
regenerative braking? Regen
charger manufacturer Not yet determined
charger on board? Off board
Plug Type 5-30P
PV manufacturer TB determined
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 12 ft/ 6 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 3 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 7 in
# seats 2
Weight pounds 2100 lbs
Mfg GVW 2624 lbs
lbs of persons 180
lbs of cargo 140
brake front type Front Disc
brake rear type Rear Disc
engine size 1298 liters
fuel effeciency 45 mpg
fuel tank capacity 10 gal.
fuel tank type stock
Fuel Type Gasoline
No of Passengers 2
number of tires 4
tire manufacturer Goodyear
tire model P155/80 R13
tire type Radial
Range miles 500 miles
Program blurb Swarthmore College's team has been known for their
CNG series hybrid Garnet One since 1997. They
return with an all-new 2001 Susuki Swift
conversion. SwiftR employs a parallel hybrid 4WD
system requiring only ordinary gasoline. SwiftR
demonstrates power and efficiency in a practical
hybrid vehicle.
Vehicle Name The Hare
Vehicle Number 65
Category HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES (HEV)
vehicle type category Hybrid electric
Team Name Falmouth Engineering Team
Organization Falmouth High School Engineering Team
City Falmouth
State ME
COUNTRY USA
www http://www.falmouthschools.org/tourdesol/
new this year? ret. after 4 yrs, new car
Vehicle Manufacturer Volkswagen
Vehicle Model Year 1983
Vehicle Type Class Light Duty (car, truck, van)
Vehicle Type Division Prototype
Vehicle Type Model Rabbit
Energy Storage Manufacturer Trojan
Energy Storage System PbA
Battery Trojan/PbA
Conversion Conversion
body material Steel body
frame material Steel frame
Length both L: 14 ft/ 2 in
Width both W: 5 ft/ 2 in
Height both H: 4 ft/ 4 in
# seats 5
Weight pounds 3000 lbs
Mfg GVW 3000 lbs
Fuel Type Biodiesel
Range miles 75 miles
Program blurb The FHS Engineering Team has been active in the
past, and , after being absent for several years,
we are proud to announce our re-entry into
competition.
Report #54: Various Short Stories
Michael Tebo from Honda noticed that the kids that visit the Tour are often well informed. "Kids come and say, `Bio-diesel. Oh yeah, that's vegetable oil.' A seventh grader yesterday was saying, `Hybrid: It runs on an engine; has gas with an electric assist'." He added that the adults that attend also tend to know about the technology.
- - - - - - - - -
Viking 23 had a broken drive components that they repaired along the way. Apparently they broke one during Autocross that was unrepairable and they went home.
- - - - - - - - -
Rhonda Hill told me in Trenton that the L3 Enigma "had some little computer problems, small things that are solved now. The car is running!" The car drove onto the Trenton display area in the early afternoon and left, under its own power, after the contestants.
- - - - - - - - -
I found 11 members of the rEVelotionride team in the vehicle, trying to keep warm on a very, very cold Saturday morning in New York. I asked this team from the island of North Haven Maine what the tour was like for them. "Highly educational. I learned more about this car by looking at everybody else's car. It was pretty great." "It was fun traveling from place-to-place and state-to- state." "Being a volunteer giving school tours helped to get to know the other teams." "We are happy to be here, even if we didn't do very good."
- - - - - - - - -
Tom Crick of the PET team showed me the Quick Change trailer used by the Climate Cooler II and LA Clean Machine scooters to get fresh batteries as they drove the Tour de Sol. The trailer is a demonstration of how a stationary Quick Change Station would work.
The concept has been refined and the battery change really was quick:
The door on the side of the scooter is flipped open.
A cart with a couple of rollers is put up next to the opening.
A spring holding the 36 Volt battery in the scooter is released.
The battery is rolled out of the scooter onto the cart.
The cart is rolled to the trailer.
The battery is rolled from the cart onto the trailer.
A fresh battery is rolled from the cart from the trailer.
The cart is rolled from the trailer to the scooter.
The battery is rolled off the cart and into the scooter.
The door on the side of the scooter is closed.
Total time, I guess about 80 seconds. The act of rolling the battery out of the scooter disconnects it and rolling it in connects it. Very simple.
- - - - - - - - -
Report #55: Pace Car Story
American Honda Motor Company is a gold sponsor of the 2002 Tour de Sol and their Honda Civic Hybrid is the official Pace Car of the road rally. Usually that means it's the first car under the banner at each Start and at each Finish line. But on Thursday things didn't work out that way.
I heard the first part of the story on Friday morning from Lorraine Margolies of Team Driven to Work. "After we left Chesapeake City, we were all going along Interstate 95, the long route, and there was a huge backup on the road." A diesel tanker truck had upset and spilled on I95 south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and morning commute traffic became a mess for miles around. As the Pace Car came upon the stopped traffic, Michael Tebo, the driver, pulled into a rest stop that just happened to be there. A flashing light bar on the roof of the Pace Car made it very visible to the following rally cars, so they all pulled in also. He called the local police and found out that the roads were closed ahead. The teams then had a meeting and negotiated a new route to Philadelphia. "I was really impressed at how people pulled together and made sure that all the teams on the long route were there." Then Michael decided that the Pace Car would be the last vehicle in line instead of first, so the flashing light would protect the trailing cars and any cars having difficulties would be noticed. After the parade was on the new route and away from the traffic jams, the Pace Car resumed its position at the front of the line.
Michael gave me the rest of the story. "I let the police know we were in the rest area and that we didn't want to create a second situation. In a great example of how the teams all work together, we all looked at the map and figured out how we could go up two more exits, get off, and catch an alternate route." The West Philly High School team was having trouble getting their car to start, so the group waited until they were able to run. Only then did they leave. Since the rest area was in the center of the highway, they had to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get to the exit. That was when the Civic Hybrid ran at the back of the group.
"Honda works like that as a company and that is why we are on the Tour. Sometimes you need to innovate on the spot. It was team work, which is the whole point of the Tour," said Michael.
Report #56: Simon Hauger Receives the 2002 EV Teacher Award
The Tour de Sol awarded the 2002 George Bradford Electric Vehicle Teacher Award to Simon Hauger, one of the advisors to the West Philadelphia High School Team that entered "Soljourner 1" and "Soljourner 2". He teaches math and physics and has helped the students compete successfully at these past three Tours. I caught up with him at the final finish line.
"It is a real honor to win the award and a privilege to be associated with such a great the event. Everyone here makes it an excellent experience for the participants. We had a blast two years ago, and last year, and again this year.
How did this all get started? "It has along history. 5 years ago, 3 students made an electric go-kart for a race sponsored in Philadelphia that was canceled. They turned it into a science fair project. The following year they converted a Jeep Wrangler to electric power for a science fair project. The next year they wanted to do something bigger. So, we got a Saturn and brought that to the Tour de Sol.
Simon was involved from the beginning. "I was big on science fairs because it pulls together a lot of disciplines in teaching. After the go-kart I kept challenging them to take it farther. Their interest was definitely there."
Another teacher had heard about the Tour de Sol from when it was in Philadelphia in 1996 and planted the bug that led to their entering.
As I was thanking Simon for the interview, I asked some of the West Philly team how they thought they did. "You just wait and see!" was the answer.
Report #57: Tour de Sol 2002 Awards
AWARD DESCRIPTION
VEHICLE TEAM
NESEA Saftey Award
6 DC Cruiser Maine Street Mainiacs
Blue Sky Award (for team spirit and sportsmanship; voted for by the teams)
6 DC Cruiser Maine Street Mainiacs
3 L3 Enigma L3 Research/SDSU
99 Twike
555 Grease Car
Most Innovative Vehicle
4 AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus AVS
Autocross
1st Place
11 Solectria Super Force Team New England
2nd Place
23 Viking 23 Western WA University
3rd Place
46 Honda Insight Driven to Work
Acceleration
1st Place
66 Phantom Sol UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
2nd Place
46 Honda Insight Driven to Work
3rd Place
70 Toyota Prius S&S Auto Sport
Range
1st Place EV w/ PbA Batteries
11 Solectria Super Force Team New England
2nd Place EV w/ PbA Battries
16 The Olympian Pirates
1st Place EV w/ Advanced Batteries
72 Sungo NHTI SEV Club
Reliability & Range
1st Place
17 ParaDyne University of Tulsa
2nd Place
22 Soljourner 2 W. Phila. HS EV Team
Most Efficient Light Duty Vehicle
1st Place
21 Soljourner 1 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
2nd Place
11 Solectria Super Force Team New England
3rd Place
15 E-STREAM Team EV
Most Efficient Vehicle Per Passenger
11 Solectria Super Force Team New England
Most Solar Miles Driven in One Day
7 Zodiac Irondequoit HS Tech Team
The Greenest Light Duty EV
21 Soljourner 1 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
The Greenest Light Dute HEV
23 Viking 23 Western WA University
The Greenest Production HEV, tied
46 Honda Insight Driven to Work
70 Toyota Prius S&S Auto Sport
The Greenest Light Duty Vehicle
21 Soljourner 1 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
The Greenest Vehicle
2 LA Clean Machine IBEW, Local 18 / PET
Renewability
1st Place
8 Climate Cooler II UNEP / PET
2nd Place
7 Zodiac Irondequoit HS Tech Team
3rd Place, tied
92 SunPacer Cato-Meridian HS Tech Team
2 LA Clean Machine IBEW, Local 18 / PET
Prototype Solar, One-Person
1st Place
7 Zodiac Irondequoit HS Tech Team
Prototype Solar, Two-Person
1st Place
20 Solar Black Bear UMaine Solar Vehicle Team
Prototype One-Person, Quick Change
1st Place
2 LA Clean Machine IBEW, Local 18 / PET
Production One-Person, Quick Change
1st Place
8 Climate Cooler II UNEP / PET
Prototype Battery-Electric PbA
1st Place
21 Soljourner 1 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
2nd Place
11 Solectria Super Force Team New England
3rd Place
16 The Olympian Pirates
Prototype Advanced Battery-Electric
1st Place
72 Sungo NHTI SEV Club
Prototype Battery-Electric Overall
1st Place
21 Soljourner 1 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
Prototype Hydrogen Category
1st Place
1 Electric Blue Eco Living Fellowship
Prototype Hybrid, Ethanol HEV
1st Place
17 ParaDyne University of Tulsa
Prototype Hybrid
1st Place
17 ParaDyne University of Tulsa
2nd Place
22 Soljourner 2 W. Philadelphia HS EV Team
Production Heavy-Duty
1st Place
4 AVS22 Hybrid - Electric Bus AVS
Production Hybrid-Electric
1st Place
70 Toyota Prius S&S Auto Sport
2nd Place
46 Honda Insight Driven to Work
Report #58: Comments from the Awards
NESEA Safety Award was awarded to the "DC Cruiser". Gary Carr spoke to the teams as he presented the award.
"We want everyone to go home safe and happy. I am going to remind you of a little yellow booklet that we start off with." He held up a Technical Testing folder that includes all the sign-offs that the teams must acquire before they are allowed to compete. "This is very important to us. Seth Murray and Mark Murray got their booklet signed off on the first try. And I would like to read some of the things in this booklet:
Are all Energy Storage System (ESS) packs fused at the most positive and most negative terminals?
Is the ESS located within the chassis or frame of the vehicle?
Is the ESS restrained by an insulated material?
Is the ESS enclosed within an insulated material to prevent accidental contact?
You could keep going down this list.
We give the NESEA Safety Award to a car that, yes, had an incident along the way. But because of the design of the car, which was very well done, and because they followed all the rules very nicely there was no accidental spill of any materials, the battery pack stayed intact, the frame and structure absorbed the energy it supposed to, and nobody was seriously injured in this incident." Seth rubbed the back of this head, which had hit and broken the rear window of the truck cab. "Serious injury! So, teams, next year when you come and attend the Tour, these things do happen. They put a lot of effort into their vehicle and that vehicle really saved them.
- - - - - - - - -
Rob Wills, the Technical Director of the Tour de Sol, had these comments as he handed the Most Innovative Vehicle Award to AVS22 Hybrid-Electric Bus. "There is little doubt in my mind that the AVS22 bus with the Capstone micro-turbine is the most innovative technology in the Tour. It's practical, it's fully integrated, it's running really well. A big hand to the AVS team."
- - - - - - - - -
As "Electric Blue" was given it's award for "Prototype Hydrogen Category", Rob Wills said, "We don't have a category for externally solar-charged vehicles. This vehicle did 44 miles in the first two days of the Tour using their charging station photovoltaic array. We want to acknowledge that really great effort."
Report #59: Teams That Dropped Out
"Hybrid Challenger II" had to drop out of the Tour after the stop in Sandy Point State park. Rob Wills told me that "Clarence Ellers is one of the grand old men of electric vehicles, with a lot of interesting ideas. But he had a lot of trouble with technical testing. His vehicle is like 12 years old. He had some problems with contactors in the system that failed. He could not find replacements. So he decided to pack up and head home. He tried really hard but it was just too much."
- - - - - - - - -
"Viking 23" had several occurances of broken parts during the Tour. Rob Will said that Michael Seal, director of the Vehicle Research Institute of WWU, "likes doing that in some ways. Their technology is always astounding. Did you see the photographs of the engine their making with a carbon-fiber composite crank case? They have joy with making things where every is of their design. It's astounding work they do."
"They realized they had a few design flaws in the car, but they also said they had never pushed it as hard as they did in this Tour de Sol or the Autocross. That's the place to learn these things, rather than have something happen on the road. What a great place for students to learn things!"
Report #60: Interview with Rob Wills, Tour de Sol Technical Director
Every year I look forward to an interview with Rob Wills. I learn some details I missed and a few behind the scenes stories.
"It was a really great Tour. We did a lot of miles, saw a lot of cities, a lot of EVs. It was a small crew this time, but I think everyone came together and got to know each other more."
The Tour gave the Most Innovative Vehicle award to the turbine hybrid-electric bus from Advanced Vehicle Systems. How did that come about? "I think the AVS bus was great. It is a very clean, series hybrid with the micro-turbine generator running into the battery, and then the battery running the drive system. I think that's a model for lots drive trains for the future. The best thing about it is that it is running on conventional (diesel) fuel and could be widely adopted quickly. It has very good performance. It looks like it works very well. I could see that some people could complain about the turbine whine." Is it true noise level? Or is it that the bus is so quiet that relative to everything else it is noticeable? Traditional diesel buses are horribly noisy. "It's probably lower sound pressure, but it's around 3 kiloHertz pitch which tends to go right through you if you are near it for a long time. You don't notice it when you are walking by." And since the bus has significant pure-electric range, the turbine would tend to be used on the highway more than in stop and go traffic.
Another noticeable entry was the "Electric Blue" from Team New Jersey. "Their fuel cell system was good to see. That was a very good demonstration. Let's hope we have more development on that front in the future. I think most people in the fuel cell industry agree that the fuel cell is not the hard part. The hydrogen infrastructure and storage is the hard part. Whether you do a reformer, high pressure tank, or a Millennium Cell type of device, it's still a lot of extra work and equipment that's needed. When I started working with the hydrogen community 10 years ago John Bockris at Texas A&M and others who identified the benefits of the `Hydrogen Economy', it seemed like it would be 50 years in the future. But the government is saying that hydrogen looks like the answer. That is the quantum leap that we saw was needed but thought was unlikely to occur. With a little luck we will have systems like Millennium Cell and other methods of storage that are safe, eco-friendly, and earth friendly."
Rob was surprised that there were not more private entrants driving the commercial hybrids. "For most people it comes down to time and money. To take a week off and do this event is asking a lot. So something that I have been considering is to have a weekend drive-in for hybrid owners. That would be a really exciting thing." Maybe they could do an Autocross? An efficiency run with checkpoints and predefined leg times? Large groups can watch and it happens in one place. "Maybe have the cars come in on a Friday night, doing something mainly on Saturday and then have folks leave on Sunday to drive home. That would make it very practical for many people in the Northeast to do in, say, Washington or Annapolis. Most hybrid owners have a strong ecological ethic and might go out of their way to make their message known." They voted with their feet and wallets already. This would just be another step.
"Summing up."
"What makes a good Tour de Sol? The cars go from the beginning to the end and everyone comes in safely. For the first time in a Tour de Sol we had an accident where a vehicle was damaged, not due to the team. They were rearended by someone else driving at considerable speed; purely operator error on the other person's part. The vehicle was not badly damaged. There was no acid leakage from the batteries. The folks driving the EV were OK. We can be thankful for that. In the end it showed the robustness of their vehicle. They had done a really good job in their design and construction."
"We also had good team spirit. A number of times I saw people pitch in. One case was when the rearended car came back to the charging area. There were about 10 people working on it until 1 o'clock in the morning. Another one like that was when the tent over the charging trailer blew away in Washington. There were 15 people, mainly the NHTI (New Hampshire Technical Institute) team, that just hoped in. The tent was reconstructed and up before you knew it."
"The West Philadelphia team was just brilliant and so much fun. And `Soljourner 1' beat out the `Solectria Super Force' in efficiency. Some were convinced that the Soljourner numbers were wrong and they could not be achieving less than 190 Watt-hours per mile. But the third day results, with 190 Wh/m again, clinched it." Is it possible the high-voltage pack has something to do with it? I-squared times R? "Yes. I think that is good for 5 to 10 percent, especially at higher loads. And the controller can be more efficient. It turns out that 400 Volt batteries can work ideally with 600 Volt IGBTs (Integrated Gate Bipolar Transistors). If you go to lower voltages the chances are you have different technologies in the controller."
"Finally is the educational aspect. You only have to look at our stop in Philadelphia which I think was the highlight from that viewpoint. Lots and lots of people learning about electric vehicles and a cleaner environment."
Report #61: Photos - Photos from the Trenton
, etc., etc.Photographs from the Tour de Sol:
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_009.html
Photos from the Trenton
The Tour de Sol stopped at the Trenton State Museum and Library on Friday 17 May 2002.
A portion of the display area.
The chemical equation for the Millennium Cell reaction. 1 molecule of sodium borohydride + 2 molecules of water, in the presence of a catalyst, creates 4 molecules of hydrogen + 1 molecule of borax + heat.
The Honda "Civic Hybrid", Pace Car of the Tour de Sol.
The Olympian
Zodiac
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_010.html
Photographs from the Finish Line
It was pouring rain at the Finish Line of the Tour de Sol on Saturday when the vehicles arrived. As the morning progressed the rain stopped and eventually the sun came out. As the weather got nicer, people and the press started to show up and talk to the teams on display.
The West Philadelphia High School Team with "Soljourner 1", which took home a bunch of awards.
The "rEVolutionride" team. (Due to a typographic error, this team was called "rEVolutionaryride" in the program.)
Team mates "Phantom Sol" (foreground) and "Solar Black Bear"
Some electric scooters on display ...
and electric bicycles.
Personal Electric Transport (PET) had a wide variety of vehicles to display. I think this one is called "Rocket Runner".
PET's "LA Clean Machine"
Also from PET.
The PET Quick Change trailer, used by the scooters during the Tour. Swapping a battery pack took about 80 seconds, without rushing. "Climate Cooler II" is strapped on top.
PET's "La Bomba". The rear wheels lean when you turn, and you can strap your feet in, something like ski bindings, in case you "get some air." This is seen as a sporting bike, for down-hill runs.
The Capstone turbine in the AVS bus. The turbine is the larger silver cylinder, and the generator is the gray cylinder on the left.
A Ford "Th!nk City". The New York Power Authority has a "station car" program for commuters in West Chester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. About 75 are already in use.
http://www.AutoAuditorium.com/TdS_Reports_2002/photos_011.html
Photographs from the Awards Presentation
Mark (left) and Seth (center) Murray receive the NESEA Safety Award from Gary Carr.
Team New England received the Most Efficient Vehicle per Passenger prize from Mark Simon (right) of the New York Department of Transportation.
Team Driven to Work get an award from Garry Carr.
University of Maine's "Phantom Sol" took 1st place in Acceleration.
"The Olympian" team.
"Sungo" came in first in Battery Electric Range with Advanced Batteries.
The "Zodiac" took the Most Solar Miles Driven in One Day Award.
The "E-STREAM" team with Chris Hebb (right).
The team with the "AVS22 Hybrid-Electric Bus" are given the Most Innovative Vehicle Award by Rob Wills (right).
"ParaDyne" from the University of Tulsa took the first prize for Range and Reliability.
The West Philadelphia High School Team ("Soljourner 1" and "Soljourner 2") with Simon Hauger, George Bradford EV Teacher of 2002(front row, right). "Soljourner 1" was the first place Most Efficient Light Duty Vehicle.
"Soljourner 1" all decked out in its trophies.
The PET "LA Clean Machine", driven by IBEW Local 18 members, won The Greenest Vehicle Award.
Team New Jersey took the Hydrogen Category prize with their "Electric Blue" pickup truck. They also had a large solar panel for charging, which contributed 44 miles.
Warren Leon (left), Executive Director of NESEA, awards the first place Production Hybrid-Electric to Bob Strattan and his 2001 Toyota Prius.
Nancy Hazard, Director of the Tour de Sol thanks the teams for a great event.
Koichi Miyashita (left), from Naruto University in Japan, is the Director of Shikoku EV Challenge. He was on the Tour de Sol Jury last year and this. Topher Waring also served of the Jury, and, as his students said, was the Heart of fondly remembered "Helios the Heron" teams. He plans to bring a high school team to the Tour someday. Maybe next year?