by Ben N on January 27, 2012
For those of you who don’t know, REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR is now out on DVD.
As soon as I found out, I ordered a copy, and just watched it now.
For me, it did NOT have the same emotion to it that WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? had. WHO KILLED was such an amazing story, especially all the heart from the owners of the EV-1 when it got recalled. I both cried and got angry during that film.
REVENGE really was just a documentary focusing on the current mainstream electric cars coming to market, plus the drama of Tesla, and a little color thrown in by Reverend Gadget.
Maybe it’s because for me, the electric car has been alive ever since I saw WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR. I’ve worked on my electric bicycle, motorcycle, Electric Geo Metro conversion, bought a Citicar, fixed up an Electrak mower, and have been around the blog-0-sphere and back. I’ve MET Chelsea Sexton (at the first time she drove an EV-1 SINCE the film!) and Chris Paine and Ed Begley, Jr. I even got to scream like a girl, riding shotgun in a Tesla Roadster.
Nothing in the film was really that new or exciting for me (although I hadn’t heard about Gadget’s place burning down!)
I really think a much more interesting film would be JUST about Dave Cloud, Bob Beaumont, Bob Rice, Lee Hart, Cal-Cars, and all the other “little people” that are secretly changing the world.
My wife’s car – which she has had FOREVER – is just finally dying. Time for something new. I e-mailed a couple friends asking for car advice. One response was from my oldest brother, the traditionalist of the family. He recently bought a nice used Prius. In part of his response, something caught my eye – he said “I personally will probably never buy a pure gas vehicle again“.
Now THERE’s a sign of a changing world. Not what car manufacturers are building or not, but changing the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of what our world should be.
by Ben N on January 25, 2012
(Pre-Show)
Right now, I’m pretty excited to be a guest just a little later today on THE ORGANIC VIEW. I met the host a while back at the Mother Earth Fair, and we had a good long chat.
If you are looking at this web page right now because of that program, thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to search this blog or rummage about for whatever your interest in DIY clean transportation. I also have some projects shown off on the sister blog – EcoProjecteer.
If you didn’t get a chance to hear the show, here’s a link for you.
(Post Show)
A couple things I mentioned during the show. Ecomodder.com - a great web forum for anyone wanting to get better fuel economy in the car they already drive. Also a good “Fossil-Fuel Free” section where I originally posted all the info on building my electric car. Also home of the Forkenswift, a very inexpensive home EV conversion.
http://www.electric-cars-are-for-girls.com/ – A good all-purpose source of information on converting a car to electric.
Great listing of home-converted electric cars can be seen at: http://www.evalbum.com/
As a special thank you I’m giving a discount to the audience of the show. We are doing $10 off the cost of the BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR instructional DVD. To get that deal, click HERE and then type in the secret password that I say during the show. Hurry, as we are only going to have this deal available for a few days.
You can see all my YouTube videos at: http://www.youtube.com/BenjaminNelson
Find me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=866440164
I’m on Instructables.com at: http://www.instructables.com/member/bennelson/
By the way, here’s the photo that ended up on the front page of what seemed like every newspaper in the county.
It was cropped in such a way to make my head look even larger and more comical.
Here’s the heater I use in the car in the winter, along with a heated steering wheel. It’s pretty nice to hop into the car with it already being toasty warm.
And here’s just a plain view of the car – my 1996 Geo Metro, home converted to electric for $1300 total.
Thanks for listening to the show! I hope you enjoyed it!
by Ben N on January 22, 2012
My Rocket Grill in the weekly Instructables E-mail.
Hi Everyone,
Instructables.com recently featured me as one of their FEATURED AUTHORS!
If you are here from following a link from that article, THANK YOU for swinging on by!
I am NOT a web designer, but with blogging sites and templates, even somebody like me can put some information out there. That’s really the main thing that I am trying to do – educate, inspire, and get people off their butts and out there DOING something!
If you scroll down on the lower right, you can find a “search bar” and use it to look through this site. If you are generally interested in how to build an affordable EV, you might want to start with video of a presentation I gave at one of the Mother Earth Fairs.
I also have plenty of instructional videos on my YouTube Account and even made instructional DVDs teaching people how to build their own Electric Car and Electric Motorcycle.
You can also hit the SUBSCRIBE button in the upper right corner, so that you stay up to date on the upcoming DIY OPEN SOURCE HYBRID project and the LOOP-THE-LAKE DIY Fuel-Economy competition!
I also have information on DIY eco home-imrovement project at the sister-site blog – EcoProjecteer.
In other upcoming events, I’m going to be on the radio this week – Wednesday, January 25th, on The Organic View. Even if you miss it, I’ll post a link to the recorded pod-cast later.
So, until next time, keep up the good work – learning/building/teaching!
-Ben
