Indeed it was primarily because the world's media (outside of California & Japan) totally refused to report Toyota's RAV4 EV(eSUV) that we actually set up EVUK around 1999-2000.
The RAV4 was also the first EV we ever drove. But even when it was used for three years by the police, fire services and a car rental company exclusively on the island of Jersey 50 miles south of the UK(near France) - the media refused to talk about it.
Despite the fact that the police and holiday-makers LOVED it. We contacted many major media outlets in the UK/Europe at the time(BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent, Der Spiegel..) - all refused to mention or report Toyota's RAV4 EV at all. Despite even the fact that for years it was Tom Hanks' favourite car(video). And California's/Hollywood's favourite EV. Still scandalous and still largely blanked out after all these years.
Plus ca change - plus c'est la meme putain chose.
Deja SUV VU.
Anyway Marco - are there any plans to produce the Yema EV500 in ever-so macho-male-masculine black at all ?
Astonishing how neither Edmunds.com or their colluding chorus-line failed to reach the self-evident conclusion that (wannabe) EV owners are clearly screaming out for the obvious green option that is still being proactively denied them: ie. an affordable, long-range SUV or crossover like the Yema EV500.
Carmakers as sure as hell know that's exactly what consumers want and what the market needs right now. Globally - beyond spoilt-for-choice China.
Remember too that 2015 was declared "Year of the SUV" by many of the world's car manufacturers - including Mercedes.
I have visited this company(Baoqi) and we are now also working on a project to create the first long range EV that also sports a prototype portable and foldable or expandable solar roof of my own design that can feed about 50-100 miles worth of "free" solar energy back into the car's batteries whilst for example the car is parked at the owner's workplace.
Obviously the problem with having solar panels (only) on the roof of your house is that if - like most people - you park your EV at your workplace most days you will need a substantial battery storage system at home to charge your car overnight and to power your home.
Also: this solar car version is set to get a lithium ion battery pack engineered by my company MLCA Ltd.
As I said, this roof solar system is still at the prototype stage and we're still looking for angel investors from anywhere in the world.
It is really a green and clean EV charging option for enthusiasts - for people who for environmental or ethical reasons want to charge their cars as far as possible directly from the sun and avoid using electricity from coal, nuclear, natural gas etc from the grid.
Attached are some pics of the car in the company show room.
But it is odd, to say the least, how relatively fragile non-Chinese EV's like the Morgan EV3, the G-Wiz and even the good 'ole Corbin Sparrow had no problem sailing through every safety, road-worthiness and homologation test out there - yet if any of those vulnerable pint-sized lightweights were to be hit by any one-tonne-plus vehicle on the road at 35+ mph their poorly protected EV-owners could surely kiss goodbye to life as they once knew it.
Who wouldn't feel a whole lot safer in the Yema and Baoqi EV's which after all are based on, inspired by or copied from the VW Tiguan and the now discontinued Suzuki Alto.
Ah yes- imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - so if any non-Chinese carmakers - Fiat, BMW, VW, Ford, Toyota, Kia etc - are similarly just itching to roll-out long-overdue affordable long-range EV's like the Yema SUV-crossover and Baoqi's versatile 5-seater/cargo EV - they should feel free to imitate, emulate and copy these two range-breaking, price-busting companies Yema and Baoqi asap. Their Chinese chiefs or CEO's would feel sincerely flattered for sure, right Marco ?
Elon Musk and his cousins who together run "America's No.1 Solar Provider" - solar-leasing specialists SolarCity - would certainly agree with Scheer.
January, 2016 Two 2015 EV
Awards/Nominations that DO deserve applause(and crowd-funding !) now and in 2016 :
Award ONE: New York: Andrej Pečjak(826km Mazda5/Metron 7) World Technology Network Finalist(video) ...

New York show-time: a Slovenian villager tells it like it is and like it needs to be told. A vital video.
English may not be Mr. Pečjak's mother-tongue but integrity, credibility and truth generally transcend and penetrate most language barriers. Listen carefully for AP's scathing use of the word 'cannibalize'.
Yep - this movingly modest, gloss-free NY presentation surely slam-dunks even Messrs Musk and Jobs' applauded and lauded platform performances.
(If anything Pečjak undersells his 826km record when he quips that Americans would likely call the car "small". No Andrej ! The Mazda5 is a very roomy and flexible/variable 7-seater - even by supersized US standards !)
As for VW's Jan 5th, "as early(!!) as 2019" Budd-e unveiling in Vegas - well, is it really worth wasting yet more time and space on incurable Boy Cried Wolfsburg time-wasters and procrastinators - given that their electric campervan-of-the-future was first unveiled in Geneva in 2011 as the 'Bulli' ?
( OK, OK - there are now reliable reports from VW at January' s CES 2016 in Vegas that the e-Golf's range will be increased by 30% 'soon'. But for VW an EV-related 'soon' appears to mean...2017 !! )
Pečjak offers the perfect antidote to VW's/BMW's never now Neverland - he clearly has more integrity, honesty and green credibility in one gifted little finger than a thousand Big Auto execs possess - from their immaculately coiffed scalps down to manicured big toes via very sharp suits and ties.
Witness: we are forced to endure no 'charismatic', smart-suited inanity or fantasy fugazi-futurism from Pečjak. No Silicon Valley bubble-hyperbole or Volkswagen-esque manana make-believe.
What's more, Andrej P. dares to trash traditional taboos on a New York stage - at an event very prominently and corporately sponsored by TimeInc(since 2014 no Warner - see Wiki). Pečjak focuses primarily on what he and his Slovenian
Metron Institute have already achieved and are now honing towards sustainable integration and perfection.
But EVUK has a little more to exclusively tease. Be prepared for yet more EV deviance and defiance from Croatia's creative little neighbour in the coming months...
That's right - in the past week or so Pečjak has told us - semi-confidentially - about new projects he and his team are currently working on and what's probably inevitable in the very near-future.
So here's our very own exclusive little carotene tease for the year ahead(as opposed to the year-after-the-yawn-after-maybe-manana) :
- the Slovenian village people - aka the Metron team - may or may not be targeting 1000km on a single charge this year(at normal traffic speeds, vehicle interior space not compromised) ...
...and they also may or may not be collaborating with China-based rival and former(2012) EV range record-holder Marco Loglio.
And the vehicle in question may or may not be a Fiat Ducato.(Fiat's anti-EV Marchionne may or may not be thrilled to bits - or in fits)
Remember: although Loglio's record-breaking cells do deliver slightly less range than Pečjak's Kokams - they are significantly less expensive - and good for circa 3000 charge cycles.
So is our exclusive Pečjak-Loglio speculation and titillation for real - or just a VW-style tantalizing tease ?
Here's the real truth - in Slovenian :
Vse to je 100% res! Vključno s sodelovanjem med Loglio in Pečjak! Test-vozilo je že vožnja na dolge razdalje.
See also: the Metron Institute's own WTN New York Award coverage.
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Award TWO: Bolt M-1 Motorbike - GQ Magazine "Best of 2015"

Bolt M-1 Motorbike gets GQ Best Stuff of 2015 Award
We contacted Josh R. and his radical crew at Bolt MotorBikes a week or so ago to ask why their own BoltMotorbikes.com website made no mention of the GQ accolade.
Response: "We're busy right now preparing for CES in Las Vegas. It kicks off on Jan 5th. We'll update the website as soon as we get back".
Our rapid riposte: "Wow ! Both Bolts in Vegas. GM's semi-fictional prototype plus your own buy-it-now, two-wheeled wicked world-beater. So can we expect a name-claiming, name-calling show-down in Vegas between your lawyers and GM's ?"
Memory Jolt I : in early 2015 GM announced that the Bolt EV would begin rolling off production lines in October 2016. We oh-so-cynically predicted that they would procrastinate and obfuscate yet again. Now, sure enough, in 2016 in Vegas they've re-labelled it as the "2017 Bolt EV".
And the world's 70-plus RHD countries - Britain included - still won't be getting "a long-range, affordable EV for the masses".
As for our stock-marketed media - the self-censoring silence is once again deafening...
Memory Jolt II : make that THREE Bolts...
Let's finally join the Bolt dots back to Slovenia and 2009. Recall that it was none other than Andrej Pečjak who beat both of the above relative latecomers with his long-range(220 miles) "Bolt" Mazda RX8 conversion(right) 6 years ago.
When it comes to electrifying vehicles there seems to be no trumping the slick, suit-less but unslovenly Slovenian.
_
Stop Press: VW to unveil new EV at CES in Las Vegas on Tues,Jan 5 - will it Beat the Bolt ?
(CES, Wed 6: GM CEO Barra talks Bolt EV - will it still be LHD-only, not GB-bound ?)
January, 2015 Musk chides VW: has he never heard of the eMii, the IBE - or the Na-ion VWision of Prof S. Passerini !!?


Think 'eSalt' / 'Tesla', Elon ! A handy anagram mnemonic for you...
VWerdad ?!
It seems that the incorrigible Boy-Cried-Wolfsburg pretenders may be itching to ditch the affordable long-range Lithium carrot that now dangles ever closer to the donkey's mouth: to replace it they've reached yet again into the rabbit's hat and magically conjured up a much saltier carrot to tout'n'tease - at a comfortably safe tantalizing distance(phew!) once more.
So if we're lucky - who knows - an all-electric "Na-ion"-powered Green León / Lion could be hitting the streets as,er,early as 2030 !
But Musk doesn't appear to be up to "ludicrous" or "insane" Spanish or SEAT speed salt-wise. Quick, schnell and bloody hell - tell Panasonic to panic !
(See mid-December's many "Musk v Volkswagen reports: "", "Musk Urges CARB To Be Smart About VW Sanctions", "Dear VW: Ditch Diesel and Make Electric Cars" and here are all Google News Musk v VW reports)
)
So take this all, if you will, with a pinch, a grain or a mountain of salt - we'll let you be the judge.
Yes, sure - there have been several promising breakthroughs in Na-ion battery research in the past year - most recently - surprise surprise - in nuclear-powered France - but all of these advances have been presented and reported with one yawningly familiar manana-banana caveat - here's the latest French Na-ion variant:
"Chemist Jean-Marie Tarascon, who helped develop the battery, says it will probably be about 5 to 10 years before this model is on the market."
(December 1, Fortune.com)
NB: "5-10 years" almost always sleepily stretches - for whatever real reason - to 10-15 years or quite possibly-probably never...
Is SEAT sincerely seeking Salt Solutions...or just playing for (yet more) time ?

The IBE & e-Mii: TWO short-range Spanish EV concepts that almost no-one(Elon ?) will recognise...least of all in Spain - aka the Costa(s) del RepSol.
But for us, it's the last sentence of the GreenLion.eu project's Na-ion summary brief that really takes the biscuit:
"Another GREENLION member, who shared their view about EV business, was SEAT, who summarized the wide experience of
the company in EV development".
Reality: (VW-)SEAT have teased TWO not-for-sale, short-range(130km approx) compliance concepts or prototypes in the past 5 years - the IBE in 2010 and the e-Mii in 2013(see above pics). So they do certainly know how to choose and use naff, nerdy, niche-cementing EV names, if nothing else.
Talking of silly names: while it's true that parental VW did actually serve up the e-Up! and e-Golf! - make that e-Golf - to underwhelmed(!) consumers, the German Goliath, unlike the Nissan-Renault alliance, still religiously refuses to incrementally e-up range or cut prices.
But let's be possibly-more-positive for a moment: if either or both of (VW-)SEAT's admittedly eye-catching EV's - or even an electric green León or e-Ibiza - had actually materialized and been delivered at the right price, with the right range and in the right place(ie. showrooms, the street) - SEAT might indeed be deemed qualified to speak with credibility and authority about "EV business" - as it is, "EV EVasion" and perpetual prevarication remain the name of their game(the company's diesel die-hard "deciders" at VW - and Repsol - wouldn't want it any other way...).
__________
Some Salient Saline links:
- Dec 20th 2015: American researchers are also getting a taste and appetite for salt - see Cleantechnica "$3 Million Awarded To Solid-State Sodium Battery Project By ARPA-E"
(the abundant reader comments are well-informed and well worth ploughing through)
- "French Researchers' First Attempt at a Rechargeable Competitor to Lithium-ion Batteries Could Be On the Market In 5 to 10 years".
Developed by a team of researchers based at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission .
Report also contains a "Limited Li" video which is also viewable directly here at Dailymotion.com
- even the Daily Mail reported the French breakthrough. But for us mere mortals the gratuitous use of the word "soon" (5-10-15 years ?) smacks of wanton sensationalism : "Phones Could Soon Be Powered by Salt"
- see all Google News 2015 Na-ion reports.
Professor Stefano Passerini (Ph.D Rome Univ, now based in Germany)...
A Salt and Battery VWisionary ? Only ions and aeons of time will tell.
From Musk's recent VW-chiding comments you could almost imagine that he's never heard of the e-Mii(eMii ?) or the (possibly) visionary Prof Passerini - or even the EU's VW-sponsored GreenLion Project...
December, 2015
The Dumbest(or most pernicious ?) Headline of The Year
...and the award goes to ..the Daily Mirror:
"New Car Battery Could Make Electric Motors Just As Efficient As Petrol and Diesel(!!!)"
(Note: all exclamation / desperation marks here are ours !)

Firstly: electric cars are - in un-reversed un-mirrored reality - around 3 times MORE energy efficient than diesel/petrol vehicles. Period.
(See Wikipedia)
Secondly: at best only around 25% of the energy stored in gasoline and your tank is converted to kinetic energy/motive power at the wheels - the rest is mostly lost as heat. That's the nature of combustion - Internal, Infernal or Eternal.
Flames, sparks, light and heat.
So a gazillion or so gas-guzzling, un-electrified drivers are blissfully - and quite possibly ignorantly - torching a tonne of money by the minute at the pump and in the streets.
Or to put it another way, as you're cruising around in yer terrifically macho, non-leafy-green Nissan Qashqai(or whatever) you're burning Qash or cash to literally heat the street...as well as fouling the air and of course oiling the wheels of our belovéd fossil-fuelled military-industrial war machine. A glorious energy-wasting cash-cow or Qash Qow for Big Oil, Saudi princes, fuel-tax collectors - the usual benificent beneficiaries.
But why should anyone be overly concerned about an absurd, opposite-of-the-truth Looking Glass tabloid headline ?
Well - just take a weary or wide-eyed look at the Daily Mirror's circulation / readership statistics(NewsWorks): around 5 million paper and online unique viewers per day - plus an alleged and astronomical 14 million Smartphone* visitors(*a morons' oxymoron if ever there was one...)
By contrast, most EV truth-telling websites - there are one or possibly two of us - will count themselves lucky to notch up a few hundred thousand hits a month - so this all-too familiar example of dumb or deliberate misreporting and misinformation can seriously undermine or undo years of hard graft and provide millions of gasoline addicts and combustion junkies with yet another guilt-zapping excuse to continue blissfully dissing and dismissing electric cars for yet another 5-10-15 years ie. until that long-promised Holy Grail miracle battery is finally delivered(in this case we're talking about li-air or lithium air...for the umpteenth time in 15 years...)
And is it really conceivable that this "error" was the result of innocent ignorance ? Do seasoned, comfortably well-paid professionals - editors and scribblers - at the Daily Mirror(founded in 1903, contact details) genuinely believe that petrol/diesel vehicles are more efficient than EV's ?
Sorry - but once again we have to more than just strongly suspect mischievous or mendacious intent. What we surely have here is yet another seemingly positive, pro-EV report which in reality is designed to persuade readers that EV's won't be worth buying for another 5-10-15 years - or until they're as..er..wonderfully energy-efficient(!!!) as the eternal, infernal combustion engine.
_______
Li-air links to look at - but one of them is probably best read with a fairground mirror or through a Wonderland looking glass :
- Cambridge University breakthrough research "New Design Points a Path to the Ultimate Battery"
- The Daily Mirror's truth-reversing, fact-distorting reporting of the same "Revolutionary new car battery could make electric motors just as efficient as petrol and diesel(!!!)"
(Again - all exclamation / exasperation marks here are ours)
- and here's one we made - posted up not made up - earlier. Eight years earlier to be precise: (re-)read our exclusive 2007 interview with Professor Peter Bruce of St. Andrew's University a few months after he and his department had successfully secured substantial government funding for lithium air research.
_________
footnote: so who'd like to see an electric - ergo energy-efficient - version of the above-mentioned energy-wasting combustion cash-cow ?
Well, ironically, Nissan has dangled and re-dangled that very leafy electric Qashqai carrot twice in the past two years(but sadly no e-Juke) : firstly in October 2013(see
"Since I am having problems sleeping - due to my continued state of bewilderment - I'll continue with Part 2.
I believe everyone should know what took place on the 24.04.2015 even though there is a long time-interval between the company's formation in 2011 and the 24th of March 2015.
What was not mentioned in the FAZ article - or deliberately forgotten and not communicated - is that on the 24.03.2015 a meeting was called by Helmuth von Grolman and James Astorian. In this meeting a heated argument took place between myself and Grolman/Astorian.
The reason - and this is really the crux of the matter - was that Kolibri Power Systems AG, with a core valuation of almost 100 million euros, was to be handed over - or from my point of view - sold to an Asian investor who was demanding conditions which would have allowed him total control over the company while effectively excluding me from the decision-making process.
Moreover, I would be required to disclose all of the technology's secrets, hand over all intellectual property rights etc and maintain complete no-name non-disclosure confidentiality. All of these conditions have been insisted upon until the present day.
I was also repeatedly subjected to - what I felt to be - intense pressure from Helmuth von Grolman and James Astorian and it was also repeatedly stressed that the prospective investor was the best hope and last chance for Kolibri - the only other option being insolvency.
Finally, in a nutshell, the 24.04.2015 dispute escalated around the issue as to whether the investor's demands could not be met, the argument being that everything would be in good hands and that the Asia-based investor - who happens also to be a close family relative of Herr von Grolman - would only sign up and get on board if all of these conditions were met. Additionally, during those discussions on the 24.03.2015 I was offered personal payments amounting to almost a million euros - an offer which I am still gratefully declining !
In my view this is all nothing other than a comprehensive, concerted action on the part of public authorities, the media and business people with financial ambitions. "
Much more to come from us - this is just a taster to hopefully whet your appetites: in the meantime - until we unleash our next abrasive little blast - here's the defamatory (and surely libellous ?) article in the Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung/FAZ that once again targeted Hannemann with a shameless salvo of wild and woolly allegations and accusations - essentially of raiding company coffers - and based almost entirely on unsubstantiated hearsay, hear-tell and purported rumour.
(We won't dignify the FAZ attack with a translation - and the Google translation is even more outlandish than the German original)
In 2010/11 Hannemann was as determined to fast-track affordable, long-range EV's into showrooms as Elon Musk once was. But in one key respect the exiled, evicted DBM-Group CEO still beats Musk hands down: he actually invented a record-breaking, award-winning technology that could have changed everything.
All of that said, we have to selectively disagree with ex-GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz's recent comments(11. April, MTR) that "
Motor Racing Is Now a Waste of Money", Yes, fossil-fuelled motorsport and transport are both fast becoming yesterday's yawn for the younger iPod/smartphone generation and for enlightened evergreens of any age.
But Formula E and ITV's generally superlative race-coverage and commentary team(s) are serving up the ultimate ICE-free icing on the cake.
Bread and circus with champagne on one level - but also with a much higher and nobler purpose than any other motorsport or race series has ever aspired to or inspired in global audiences.
All of this seems to be lost on Lutz.
Despite the refreshingly low-key, nul-hype nature of the announcement, this week's action-not-words move has to rank as one of the boldest, most genuinely disruptive EV developments of the last 15 years...
Spooky synchronicity or simple coincidence -
if it's OK with you, we'd like to fondly imagine that Renault have hurried to heed our recent pleas to GM, Ford and the rest of the long-distance carrot-danglers and ditherers that they rediscover incrementalism and deliver a "mere" 150 miles of range now instead of forever promising 200+ miles the year after next or thereabouts.
OK, in truth Renault did signal a ZOE/Zoé upgrade in Geneva three weeks or so ago but the news was inevitably drowned out by the usual tsunami of teases and make-believe pledges that plague all motor shows.
But Alors or even Chic Alors - the revolutionary gauntlet has been quietly, exquisitely thrown down and a grand surprise sprung in Paris in the Spring - it will be entertaining to say the least to see how the rest of the 100-ish mile/charge manana-banana bunch respond to this massively momentous and daring overtaking manoeuvre by Formula E force majeure and now long-range provocateur Renault.
Will Renault's "strategic alliance" partner Nissan now leap to take a leaf out of their French ally's livre ?
Will France's BMW neighbours and i3 rivals stop stubbornly stalling at 81 miles a charge ? Can they afford to stand still ?
It's suddenly champagne and crunch time at the EV crossroads - almost two years sooner than expected. The world's carmakers will now surely have no choice but to rise to the challenge and hit fast forward if they're to avoid being thoroughly thrashed and Flash-Fried by the French.
But despite the applause and the plaudits from the pundits, we'd urge Zoe-fanciers not to rush out and buy the quietly revolutionary 149 mile EV just yet - hold on for another month or two if you can - the low-range automotive consensus may be about to crumble at last - almost 2 years earlier than tacitly agreed / decreed.
1) What's in a name ? Far more than there should be. So why call a car "Clio" or "Zoe", "Zoé" or even "Zoë" ?
Why choose such gender-specific, market-limiting, divisive names ? Names designed and destined to appeal disproportionately to females and repel (wannabe) macho males, petrolheads, die-hard Clarkson clones(who'd still choose an i3 over a Zoe even if BMW were to slash the range by 20%).
Can we not have gender-neutral names please Renault ? Too late ? Not necessarily ! Why not tear up the rule-book altogether and offer the same car with a choice of names - the Zoe or the Joe, the Joey ?
A Renault Joe would certainly sell and work well in the US where the Zoe still isn't sold -
despite eager pleas like these from CleanTechnica's Zero Emission sleuth Zach Shahan .
But if it's a 'No' to a Joe or a Joey then why not cut a deal with Moët ?
After all, Citroen purloined Picasso's name and fame sans problème. (thankfully Toulouse Lautrec didn't make the short-list..)
3) Why 149 and not 150 miles of range ? Why did Renault literally not go that extra one mile ?
As we said in our post-Beijing piece in September - if FE cars and batteries can safely, flamelessly and famously somersault through the air, crash down onto hard tarmac from a height of 3-4 metres and regularly smash into walls and barriers - then clearly at the very least each driver's first car could be rapidly and safely cell-swapped while he/she is out driving car number two - giving spectators and growing global audiences an extra 12-lap full-throttle flat out finale. After each 6-8 week wait between races it's the least we all deserve.
And ITV's FE commentator Dario Franchitti reassuringly repeated that expectation in Uruguay. So there's one fellow Scot who'll find it hard not to slam this sneakily under-reported, can-down-the-road cell out and U-turn...
The few modifications that are being permitted are peripheral, tokenistic, cosmetic: EV progress and performance - in terms of both range and speed - is almost all about the battery.
So yet another extraordinary example it seems of the automotive and motorsport establishment's collective determination to postone real EV and range progress until 2017-18.
So much for FE's "Driving the Future" and "Visionary Thinking" pretensions. Such slick over-slugged slogans should always conclude with the words "but not in showrooms..any time soon".
In the real world you'll still need a Tesla or a race director's Rimac or just a China-only Daimler Denza to experience those long-denied long-distance dreams.
So a 48-hour Formula E jamboree for Britain - but still not a single schedule-entry for Agag's oiligarchical Spain...
So, as promised in our recent Mazda Metron 7 article, here is another EVUK exclusive cage-rattling close-up and Q&A - including two first-time-ever, virtually virgin video Chinese TV reports.
- please propagate and disseminate freely/virally and help us break this record-breaking silence and inertia!
So for all of its positives - the excitement, the thrills and the spills - Formula E is still fuelling the fallacy that EV's lack staying power and can't go the distance.
So come on Agag, Andretti, DiCaprio & Co - time to call or thunder skype the likes of Loglio...
Below: the team takes a break at the 605km point to mark the 2010 record set by Mirko Hannemann(DBM Energy) in a converted Audi A2 :
)
* Update: exclusive EVUK Q&A with Marco Loglio re 801 km record coming soon ..
Andrej P: - I did not know about that 801 km record - seems not much has been published, also cannot see the exact route in the article.
EVUK: - I'm guessing that, like us, you are no great fan of regenerative braking ? It's proving to be mighty challenging for Formula E drivers - but causing no end of entertaining incidents, crashes, drama for the series' rapidly swelling worldwide audiences. PV panels are far less complex and intrusive than regen, right ?
Andrej P: - actually the Metron 7 has very good regeneration due to the low internal resistance of the batteries and IPM motor with very high reg. efficiency. The PV panels on Metron 7 are just to top up the 12V system and give the car a good look. I have not built a DC-DC converter to charge the main 355 Volt battery from PV.
EVUK: - it's a pity, don't you think, that the Slovenian government or EU can't help you find Asian or Chinese partners. Has any Slovenian or Croatian or Eastern European company successfully mass-produced cars of any description in recent history(post Trabant/Trabi) ?
Andrej P: - we will get Asian partners if we find them by ourselves - without government. Slovenija has a long car manufacturing history, buses and trucks of own brand TAM were produced in Maribor, now this company is owned by the Chinese and their buses are produced there. We had a company here called IMV in Novo Mesto that produced its own delivery vans and Austin cars as licenced cars. They also produced caravans. Later the company split up, one part produces the Renault Twingo and is owned by Renault, the other makes mobile homes and caravans - well known Adria Mobil.?For other east EU countries I do not know, but for sure Tatra(not Tata) and Skoda in Czech republic were big names in the car industry. Serbia produced cars Zastava, partly their own designs, partly Fiat ones.
Letrika made the propulsion system for this car and it is a prototype HV motor/controller being built to be offered to "big players". Letrika is?now owned by Mahle Gmbh.
________________
Finishing Lines ...
See also: