I think your best bet would be to PM him. If he's doctoring somebody, he cannot respond to personal calls, and if he's not, he'll probably get your PM reasonably soon.
Try 1-800-Efu-sco1 I have his cell number. For the sake of not giving it out, I'll tell him to call you.
Will post a link to pictures sometime tomorrow afternoon, but just wanted to say that I and my son Heath had a wonderful breakfast and a thrilling 'test' drive in Nate's Rav4EV. Got the full tour and history lesson of the Rav and other EVs and all it cost me was a breakfast! I really appreciate Nate coming out and meeting me while I was in the neighborhood. It's really amazing to see not only what has been done, but to see how much better it can/could be using today's technology and batteries and hybrid experience. If the fairly small space the NIMH take up can move that RAV4EV 100 miles I just can't imagine why a much smaller Li pack couldn't take a Volt or PHEV Prius 40 miles easily. The time is here...or even past.
I wonder though, what if they used regerative braking to recharge the batterys? Im guessing you could go farther on a charge that way.. There should be a away to extend the 100 mile limit to like 200 miles.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 18 2007, 05:25 AM) [snapback]514192[/snapback]</div> There is no mass produced PHEV because there is no suitable battery that can supply electrical energy for the Prius to go 40 miles. I read where Toyota's Li-ion battery vendor has failed to deliver. GM has Li-ion development contracts with two companies. I believe there is an unbelievable hugh market for PHEV-40 four passanger family vehicle, like the Prius, for $30K or less. With the price of crude oil going out thru the roof($80+/barrel), doesn't the price of gas have to follow? The Telsa is a 2 seat sports car, a niche market, for $100K--not the mass market.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jtmhog @ Sep 20 2007, 12:50 PM) [snapback]515342[/snapback]</div> That's the word from the car makers...thing is that many of us don't buy it. When you look at a vehicle like the Rav4EV and the remarkably small amount of space that the batteries occupy, their outstanding performance and durability, and the fact that the technology is almost 10 years old. Considering the known advancements in battery management and design that have occured it seems ludicrous that they couldn't have a 40 mile...or at a minimum 20 mile PHEV on the road today. Now, getting them to maintain baseline performance for 150k miles as would be required by the California standards could be the rub...I'm willing to accept that. And the fact that cost is going to be outside the range for the public at large, at least initially, I can partially accept as well. The car makers may need to accept a loss on the product, much like Toyota did, initially to get these into the main stream, but once that happens they'll take off too. I'm convinced. Here's the full set of photos long ago promised: http://www.flickr.com/photos/efusco/sets/72157602090400018/
Excellent! It became clear to me while reading some of the Techinfo service stuff for the '02 Rav4EV that many lessons were carried from its development path into the Prius. One more aspect of the many fun technologies that come together in a hybrid. . _H*
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! Thought this ol' dinosaur thread deserved to be resurrected. And, shouldn't it have been stuck in "other cars" ?!? Anyway, a lot of folks on PC (especially the flyover states) have never even seen (nor probably ever will see) a Rav4-ev. Here in CA, Edison owns a bunch of them, so they're pretty easy to spot, with the giant "EV" letters on the back and the sides. Our electric Edison meter-reader people use them. While picking up some depositions today, I noticed THIS one, owned/leased by Edison in the building's parking lot: The white ones are / were way more common than the silver ones like nates. THIS one only had (GULP !! ) only 21,571 miles on it. Don't know what year it was, but I couldn't help but be disgusted at the thought . . . once Edison turns it back in? Off to the crusher. Sure, they'll pull the good Panasonic batteries out of it, and save other goodies for the remaining Rav4-ev's still on the road ... but still, it's just sickening, that the owners simply CAN't get a new battery pack. And SO WHAT if it cost $15,000 for a new set?? How much do you think gas costs, after driving 100,000 miles? I believe owners can get a set of "reconditioned" batteries from a shop somewhere either in CA or one of the neighboring states. Maybe Nate should have charged more than just breakfast, for the demo
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! They Do have regenerative braking. Where to you think they got the idea for our Prius' system
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! I had a chance to buy one from the city of Kingsburg, CA last October 07. But the idiot City Manager would not sell it to me, or put it up at auction which I begged him to do rather than turn it back into Toyota for certain destruction. What a dumbass the remainder on the lease was $21K and he could have sold it easily at auction for $40K plus. Netting his small town almost $20K of revenue. I even offer him $38K. I think it was an 03 with 12K miles on it IIRC. Still pisses me off to this very day. Grrrrrr Wildkow
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! So, are you a happy doctor (as opposed to the mad one in the other forum)? You seem happy.
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! Despite having to moderate the FHOP, yes, he is a good natured doctor!
Re: Calling the good doctor Evan Fusco! Darwood, the quote you added to the bottom of your posts still cracks me up. It's even funnier now because you left it there...
