KQED QUEST: Who Will Revive the Electric Car?

[doug]

Who Will Revive the Electric Car? - KQED QUEST Radio Report

Who Will Revive the Electric Car? KQED QUEST - a set on Flickr

 

[TEG]

I hope they show it as a Quest TV show.
So far it looks like just an audio show with flickr images to go along.
They must have HD video ready to produce into a TV show, but I don't see it listed on the upcoming schedule.

 

[doug]

I hope they show it as a Quest TV show.
So far it looks like just an audio show with flickr images to go along.
They must have HD video ready to produce into a TV show, but I don't see it listed on the upcoming schedule.

I think they just produced it for the radio. The Tesla images were apparently from a Lehrer News Hour report, while the RAV4EV images were pictures they took for the report.

Here's a supplement:

Reporter's Notes: Who Will Revive the Electric Car? | QUEST Community Science Blog - KQED

One of the best parts of working on this story was stumbling upon a subculture of electric car fanatics, like Darell Dickey, many of whom drive incredibly rare, full-size all-electric cars that were available for a blink of an eye in the late 90s and early 2000s. There are just hundreds of these cars left today and they’ve become collector’s items. One EV enthusiast I interviewed flew out to Arizona at his own expense so that a car dealership could interview him to decide whether he was worthy of a 1998 GM electric truck...

 

[TEG]

KQED Quest: The State of Electric Cars

KQED finally showed an episode of "Quest" they filmed a while back.
QUEST | KQED Public Media for Northern CA

Who Will Revive the Electric Car? KQED QUEST - a set on Flickr
http://www.kqed.org/quest/radio/who-will-revive-the-electric-car

http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/11/25/producers-notes-waiting-for-the-electric-car

I gather some of the material was shared with PBS Newshour.

 

[doug]

You can see the video here: Waiting for the Electric Car - KQED QUEST Television Story

Links to the News Hour segment are here: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/news-articles-events/1300-pbs-news-hour-electric-cars.html

 

[vfx]

You can see the video here: Waiting for the Electric Car - KQED QUEST Television Story[

Interesting combination of fluff and tech. At the very end there is a shot of an orange Tesla charging. I wonder what that was.

 

[doug]

At the very end there is a shot of an orange Tesla charging. I wonder what that was.

Not certain what you mean, but the orange car was VP13.

 

[vfx]

The very last 3 seconds of the video.

 

[doug]

Umm... It's just a static image to act as a background to the "share this video" options.

 

[vfx]

Umm... It's just a static image to act as a background to the "share this video" options.

But it's a TESLA!!!!

Sigh...

 

[TEG]

I found it interesting/odd that VP13 was plugged into an old style level 2 (typically avcon) type charging station, not Tesla' own charge controller.

The PCS in the video looked like this one (on the left):

 

[TEG]

Found another picture of that ICS-200 / TS-90 charging station Tesla is using:

(Who can read the little print on that label? "Report all Failures to Proper Personnel?")

http://www.evchargernews.com/miscfiles/evii/ics200ug.pdf

... Tesla Motors, at first, did their own in-house designing for charging. ... {later}, they hired Clipper Creek (they used to be called EVI, ev infrastructure, and did all the conductive AVCON chargers during the ZEV mandate era) to do work on the Tesla charging system. ...

http://et.epri.com/documents/E229630_05_Scholer_June_2008.pdf
http://et.epri.com/documents/E22963...aseDevWorkshop_0203Jun08_Mtg_Minutes_JCMa.pdf
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2008_energ...op/presentations/Energy_Storage-Schainker.pdf

 

[graham]

So we know the high power charger from Tesla is made for indoor use only. Do we know if a Tesla can take a charge from a different outdoor charger in the rain? I assume it can, but do they ever claim it specifically?

 

[Joseph]

"...do they ever claim it specifically?"

I don't think Tesla is allowed.

I don't know the details, but I've been told that it is basically illegal to charge an EV in public. I'm sure it's okay for converted cars (since it's not an OEM making the car) but for OEMs (like Tesla!) they need to comply to laws. And my impression is that some sort of standardization is required.

And the last time there was "standardization" was during the ZEV mandate. Everyone knows what happened: conductive vs. inductive, chargers breaking down etc.

I don't know if CARB has passed any legislation; I really don't know what's happening exactly but it's something among the lines of what I'm saying.

But I do know there is no SAE standard for EV chargers (there is one for PHEVs however).

As far as I'm concerned, it's a bunch of fuss over people getting electrocuted by chargers. All the while gas stations are lined up on every block, posing an enormous flammable hazard.

 

[vfx]

I heard that Tesla is working on an outdoor charger for next year.

 

[TEG]

And the last time there was "standardization" was during the ZEV mandate. Everyone knows what happened: conductive vs. inductive, chargers breaking down etc.

For what it's worth, there are lots of those ICS-200b charging stations in semi-public places (including outdoors) with Avcon connectors around here. I plug my truck into them at various city halls, airports, and some large "big box" stores. They have been working for a decade now, although some grassroots volunteer groups have done some work to maintain them.