East (SF) Bay Chapter
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Chapter Meetings for 2002:
- January - NEVs, with GEM, Neighbor and Lido
- February - Annual EAA National Meeting, Palo Alto
- February - Tour of ThunderStruck Motors, Santa Rosa
- March - EV Motor Selection
- April - Earth Day Events
- April - no regular meeting
- May - EV Bikes and Scooters
- June - EBEAA Chapter Projects and EVents
- July - 4th of July Parade, Alameda
- July - Hands-on EV repairs
- August - EV Drive/Ride Distance Rally, Concord
- September - Silicon Valley Chapter Rally, Palo Alto
- September - no regular meeting
- October - CommutaCar Brake Repair and EV Update
- November - Electric Vehicle program in Vacaville
- December - Analysis for the TH!NK [City] Electric Car
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Ed Huestis, Electric Vehicle program manager
the City of Vacaville
Saturday, November 9, 2002
Meeting Location: Napa Premium Outlets, 629 Factory Stores Drive, Napa
Visitors welcome, open to the public.
Meeting coordinated and hosted by the North Bay EAA Chapter
Ed Huestis will be describing the remarkable achievements of his electric vehicle program in Vacaville, including over 70 EV1s leased to residents, as well as some of his own experiences driving the EV1. Other successes to be outlined will include the extensive public charging infrastructure already installed and planned for the near future; also the recent installation of photovoltaic panels to generate electricity at various sites in Vacaville. ------------
CommutaCar Brake Repair and EV Update
Saturday, October 26, 2002
Location: Alameda, First Baptist Church
We had a lively discussion about the current state of EV production - basically that the Toyota RAV4 EV is the only production vehicle available this year. We don't know if there will be any new RAV4 EVs available in 2003 (probably not) but it looks like the automakers' pressure on CARB is taking its toll.
Fuel cell (aka fool cell) vehicles are being hyped up left and right. Even Scientific American had a spread, with an unbalanced comparison of ICE to a fuel cell. Really it needed to be like propulsion systems - ICE vs. Electric. Fuel cell is only a fuel storage system, like the batteries in a Battery Electric. Looks mostly like the auto makers and the media are pushing any proposed propulsion changes another 10 years down the road, which Detroit and others produce the same gas-guzzling, smog-belching cars; the status quo.
Warren arrived with the two front brakes from the CommutaCar completely cleaned and functioning again. Major effort, and what a great job! Even cleaned and painted the two springs in differing colors. It was a major challenge to loosen the pistons because of the ~120 degree bend in the piston chamber. (Need to capture some photos to post - wonderful workmanship.)
Warren postponed his Ford TH!NK City presentation until next meeting (actually rescheduled for Dec).
Annual SVEAA Electric Car Rally
Saturday, September 21, 2002
Location: Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
30th Annual EV Rally, sponsored by the Silicon Valley EAA Chapter.
Some pictures of the event.
Annual EV Distance Rally
Saturday, August 24, 2002
Location: Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill
15th Annual EV Distance Rally
We had a fair participation at our annual EV Rally. Great opportunity to expose the public to EVs, with school just starting up at the community college, and families out shopping at the mall. Rally route is a 3.2 mile loop around the shopping areas on either side of busy I-680. Wonderful exposure.
Rally Results for the 2002 Rally:
| # | Driver | Vehicle | Class | Voltage | Batteries | Distance | Comments |
| 1 | Scott Cornell | Karmann Ghia | Conversion | 90V | Lead Acid | 38.4 miles | |
| 2 | Ed Thorpe | EV Plus | Production | 288V | NiMH | 35.2 miles | started after lunch |
| 3 | Various | Kewet | Production | 48V | Lead Acid | 12.8 miles | entered by Scott Cornell |
| 4 | Jack Swartz | EV1 | Production | 326V | NiMH | 9.6 miles | long drive to/from Rally |
| 5 | Anna Cornell | Rabbit | Conversion | 96V | Lead Acid | 6.4 miles | |
| 6 | David Raboy | Ranger | Production | 300V | NiMH | 3.2 miles | (non-member) |
Some commentary about the Rally by Scott Cornell, Rally Coordinator:
Several seeds were planted, and a good time was had by the few that showed up for the 2002 East Bay rally. Although this was intended to be a distance competition, most of the drivers spent most of the time at the staging area answering questions about their cars and just having good conversation. Just to keep up the spirit of competition, Scott and Ed quickly ran a number of laps on the 3.2 mile course, mostly to make the results board look like we were really competing. All of the cars that showed up made it to the staging area under their own power (none were towed in), and all the cars headed home under their own power, some as far as 60 miles away, and all with lots of power left in their batteries.
Pictures soon to be uploaded on a Rally 2002 Summary page.
Pictures soon to be uploaded on a Rally 2002 Summary page.
2001 Rally results - 3 categories, 9-52 miles traveled
2000 Rally results - several categories, 5-75 miles traveled
1999 Rally results
Chapter Meetings for 2002:
- January - topic
- February - topic
- February - Data Acquisition
- March - Conversion Basics
- April - Earth Day Events
- May - Public Charging Standards
- June - Station Car & Shared-Car Programs
- July
- August - East Bay Chapter Rally
- September - Silicon Valley Chapter Rally
- September - PIHEV & Fuel Cell Field Trip
- October - EV Meters
- November - Chapter Planning
- December - NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicles)
Previous Meetings:
September 28, 4th Friday (special event)
Topic - Tours of Hybrid EV and Fuel Cell efforts in the Sacramento
area.
Tours of HEV Lab at University of California at Davis
and Fuel Cell Partnership Facilities in West Sacramento.
Date: Sept., Friday 9/28
- 10:00 -11:30 am - lecture and tour on the plug-in HEV concept at UC Davis Transportation Dept.
- 1:00 - 3:00 pm - orientation and tour of California Fuel Cell Partnership Facilities in West Sacramento. Have several FCEVs on-site for viewing and refueling station.
September 15, 3rd Saturday (special event)
Silicon
Valley EV Rally at Stanford, Palo Alto (sponsored by SVEAA).
August 25, 4th Saturday (standard meeting)
Annual East Bay
EAA Rally
Traditional distance rally (50-75+ miles) (our EVent!). Will meet at
Rally site rather than our usual meeting place (4th Sat).
Rally Location: Sun
Valley Mall, Concord
We will meet in the lower parking garage next to Macys, where the EV
charging stations are. Have a 2-mile loop of cities streets for participants
to drive their EVs, demonstrating distance and drivability while giving
visibility to the public and allowing the uninformed to even ride as passengers.
Results reported by Scott Cornell
Chuck Hursch's EV VW Rabbit, with new battery pack and upgraded internals.
The vehicles and drivers participating in the event were:
| Veh # | Category | Driver/Owner | Vehicle Description | Batteries | Pack Voltage |
| Conversion | Scott Cornell | VW Karmann Ghia | |||
| Commercial | Ed Thorpe | Honda EVplus | |||
| Conversion | Anna Cornell | VW Rabbit | |||
| Conversion | Robert Richert | VW Sciracco | |||
| Conversion | Chuck Hursch | VW Rabbit | |||
| Bicycle/Motorcycle | Michael Saari | Skeeter 2 Recumbent Bicycle |
- Also present at the event, but not competing, was Scott Cornell's Kewet EL-Jet 3 - Lead/acid 48V (a cute little neighborhood EV great for attracting the public to the event site).
- The longest distance traveled was 58 miles by Ed Thorpe's Honda EV plus, which is very impressive considering that he drove to the rally from his home in Alameda (30+ miles), ran in the rally, and drive home that evening with only a short charge at the mall before leaving.
- Another impressive run was by Mike Saari on his Skeeter 2 electric recumbent bicycle - he ran 52.2 miles with very little pedaling, and with only 50 pounds of batteries the number of miles per KWhr for this vehicle is very large!
- Robert Richert also drove to and from the rally (10 miles each way with no additional charging) with car full of people and equipment and still managed to run 8.7 miles on the course.
Here are the official results:
| Veh # | Driver/Owner | Vehicle Description | # Laps | Miles | Finish | Category |
| Ed Thorpe | Honda EVplus | Commercial | ||||
| Mike Saari | Skeeter 2 Recumbent Bicycle | Bicycle/Motorcycle | ||||
| Scott Cornell | VW Karmann Ghia | Conversion | ||||
| Anna Cornell | VW Rabbit | Conversion | ||||
| Chuck Hursch | VW Rabbit | Conversion | ||||
| Robert Rochert | VW Scirocco | Conversion |
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks go to Ron Maynard and Milt Stultz from East Bay EAA
for help with setup, tear down, and lap counting, and to the management,
facilities, and security offices at Sun Valley Shopping Center for letting
us use their property and charging stations for the event.
July 28, 4th Saturday (standard meeting)
Planning for Annual EV Rally for next month. And joint meeting with
North Bay EAA to discuss/plan group efforts through end of year.
June 23, 4th Saturday (standard meeting)
We unfortunately had a small meeting (due to difficulties with meeting
reminder cards) for an excellent prevention by Mr. Martin J. Bernard III,
Executive Director of the National Station Car Association, headquartered
in Oakland, CA. He discussed the history and current operations of the
Station-Car and Shared-Car Programs. Currently there is a new Shared-Car
Program in San Francisco, which is working well. And the Station-Car Program
is presently only active at the Fremont BART stations. Great concepts.
Leasing is through Hertz for hourly/daily/monthly rates, up to one year. The car is also available for lease for longer periods through S&C Ford
Ed shared about Alameda Power and Telecom's EV loaner program, to expose
Alameda residents to the use and practicality of EVs. The program allows
people in Alameda to sign up for a 2-day free usage of a Honda EVplus or
Toyota RAV4EV. Both drive very well and response has been positive. We
had the Toyota at the meeting.
Member's EVs in the parking lot, after the meeting.
May 19, 3rd Saturday (special meeting)
Group meet a week early at our meeting site in Alameda because standard
meeting falls on Memorial Day weekend.
Discussed various standards of charging standards - from the regular
110V (NEMA 5-15 - Level 1), which only delivers a maximum 1kW/hr, to the
more widely accepted 220V outlets (also known as Level 2), which provide
4-6+kW/hr. Most conversions use the 4 wire NEMA 14-50 plug which can be
found at many older EV charging stations and typical RV sites (Like KOAs).
Old charging stations are typically EVI ICS 600 series, which include 110V
and 22V connections.
The plugs look like this: 
110V 15A (5-15) 
220V 40A (14-50)
Reviewed the two manufactured EV standards of Inductive vs. Conductive
220V connectors. The Inductive MaganaCharge requires a heavy amount of
computer communications to check on number/ type/ capacity/ performance
of batteries - limited to GM EV1, Toyota RAV4-EV, Chevy S10 EV and Nissan
Alta EV vehicles. Not for consideration with conversions. Note that the
CitiCar actually uses another type of Inductive paddle - not compatible.
Inductive - old large & new small Conductive Avcon-paddle
Other type is Conductive, based on the Avcon-paddle. This connection is used on Honda EV+, Ford Ranger EV and even Selectria Force vehicles.
Conversions can be outfitted with a paddle inlet receptacle or adapted
using the EAA adapter box to interface Avcon-paddle to NEMA 14-50 receptacle.
Avcon inlet receptacle Adapter box
Most of the group drove to Alameda Power and Telecom (the local power company for the city of Alameda) to look at actual charging stations. Found they have 4 EVI ICS stations: one Conductive Avcon-paddle and 3 with combination 110V NEMA 5-15 / 220V NEMA 14-50 outlets. We were rather disappointed to found out through testing that only the Avcon-paddle stations has power. Not good for EV usage. Many of the EV charging stations sites are inaccurate and out of date. The CALSTART hanger out at Alameda Point with two EVI ICS 600 stations is inaccessible due to fencing and change of ownership. The only other charging stations on the Island is at the Bank of Alameda has 2 charging stations - one EVI Avcon-paddle and one MagnaCharge Inductive - both alive/powered. Score for Alameda = 3 for 8, not very EV friendly.
Note: NEMA stands for National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
April 28 - not meeting due to Earth
Day events
Group didn't meet because of various local Earth Day events.
Previous Saturday was Earth Day at College of Alameda, at the North end of the island. Turnout was good for the small event, with a Toyota EV-RAV4, a Ford EV Ranger and a new green Corbin Sparrow displayed by Alameda Power and Telecom (our local power provider for Alameda City). Also an instructor from a local school displayed two EV go-carts and material to encourage kids to see how clean power can transport people.
Earth Day at the end of April at the Concord Pavilion was fantastic,
with over a dozen EVs, 3 HEVs and one Fuel Cell car, and many e-bikes and
a electric minibike.
Many thanks to Andriko Zavadell for gathering the EVs together and
Terry Wilson for the pics! (click on pictures for larger images)
Lots of talk about EVs but unfortunately all of the production EVs are not available. Need to plan to display and talk about conversions next year. Many manufacturers are coming out with NEV (Neighborhood EVs) to satisfy California ZEV requirements - top speed of 25-30 mph, range of 40 miles. Not really going to resolve the commute smog problems. But that means that conversions will out-perform the production vehicles!
March 24 (standard meeting)
Group met at our new meeting site in Alameda - the First Baptist Church
meeting room.
The meeting focused on experiences among members who have converted
ICEs (gas car) to EVs (electric car). We started with the basic components
and how they compare in size and weight to a conventional gas car - motor
vs. engine, batteries vs. gas tank, controller vs. carburetor, etc.
Several EVs were on hand for examination after the meeting. (click
on pictures for larger images).
February 24 (standard meeting)
Group met at Carrows Restaurant in San Leandro to review how our joint
meeting went with the North Bay Chapter earlier in the month.
Scott Cornell presented and demonstrated how to get started with Data Acquisition using some simple tools. Using an inexpensive mulimeter with an RS232 (such as from Radio Shack), Scott demonstrated how voltage levels can be monitored and recorded by connecting to a simple Windows computer.
February 10 (special meeting)
Joint meeting with the North Bay EAA Chapter at the Fair Issac Conference
Center in San Rafael.
We had a detailed presentation by Andriko Zavadell and Mike Ramirez of Curtis Instruments about the current line of Curtis EV controllers, including a new sep-ex controller.
Large turnout (over 40 people) and excellent PowerPoint presentation. Had several controller examples, even without the case and heatsink, to describe the features and performance of the Curtis line controllers. Lots of Q&A as members who have converted/built EVs shared about experiences with the controllers.
The popular 1221 and 1231 series 
and the new sep-ex 
January 27 (standard meeting)
First meeting of the new year. Since CalStart is no longer managing
the Alameda Point Hatcheries and the facilities have been transferred to
another tenant, we met at Carrows Restaurant in San Leandro.
Ed Thorpe introduced the new Chapter officers and the new challenges for this year. He reviewed the impact of the recent CARB (California Air Resources Board) Hearing on Jan. 25 where the Board amended the requirements for Automobile Manufacturers for implementing the California Zero-Emission Vehicle Regulations. Basically, the CARB caved in to the Manufacturer's pressure and relaxed the requirement from 20,000 to less than 5,000 new ZEVs to be sold to the California public in 2003. The EV supports managed to win the confidence to CARB to enforce a growth policy towards 14,000 new ZEVs/year by the year 2014.
Chapter Members EVs:
Will expand as members list their EVs with the EValbum.
For more information: email to EAA-contact-at-excite-dot-com
The EAA is a non-profit organization for the promotion of clean, quiet electric vehicles (EVs) for personal transportation. Check for the EAA Chapter near you on the National EAA page: http://www.eaaev.org
SF Bay area EAA Chapter Web pages: