ZED Engines – Power to change the transportation paradigm

Automotive News. February 2, 2012. Los Angeles | A car owner who sued Honda Motor Co. over allegations the automaker overstated gas mileage for her 2006 Civic Hybrid said she won $9,867 in small claims court in Los Angeles.

“I am absolutely thrilled at the reports that I won, even though I won’t see the actual judgment until it comes in the mail,” Heather Peters said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. “It’s a victory for Civic Hybrid owners everywhere!”

The award couldn’t be immediately confirmed in court records. Peters, who is a lawyer, opted out of a proposed class action settlement over claims the Civic Hybrid doesn’t get 50 miles per gallon as the carmaker says and filed her own case in small claims court, where plaintiffs and defendants represent themselves.

The class-action settlement offered as little as $100 in cash and a $500 coupon toward a new car, Peters said before a Jan. 25 hearing.

ZED COMMENT: Hybrids use batteries. Battery performance deteriorates rapidly in real world conditions, especially being affected by temperature, as well as age and the number of service cycles. As a result, it is impossible for them to attain the fuel economy rating when new, under controlled conditions. In contrast, ZED engines, powered by fuel, consistently deliver the same consistent performance in real world conditions. For more information, contact corpcomm@zedpower.com

Bloomberg News | 2011/12/20. As smog grounded hundreds of flights from Beijing last week, emergency doctors at Peking University People’s Hospital faced a rush of patients.

Lungs weren’t the problem, says Ding Rongjing, the hospital’s deputy head of cardiology. Five people were admitted for heart attacks from Dec. 4 to Dec. 6, compared with one or two a week typically. One 60-year-old male patient died.

The illnesses are an unwanted consequence of the economic growth that helped spur a 32 percent jump in China’s car sales last year. Outdoor air pollution kills 1.3 million people globally each year, the World Health Organization estimates.

A growing body of evidence shows dirty air not only triggers asthma and other respiratory conditions, over time it may damage heart and blood vessels, and even cause birth defects.

“Whenever we have days with bad pollution, we get significantly more patients with symptoms like high blood pressure, feeling of suffocation, and chest pains,” Ding said in an interview at the hospital, where she’s worked since 1996.

On days of extreme pollution, heart and stroke cases at the 1,450-bed center can increase as much as 40 percent to 280 patients, she said.

ZED COMMENT: The ZED engine reduces pollution from 50-99% depending on the fuel. According to the World Health organization the reduction in pollution would save lives. For more information contact: corpcomm@zedpower.com

Automotive News January 30, 2012 | Pity the poor Midwestern Chevrolet dealer trying to sell a Volt.

Of course in November and December, cold winds blow across the Midwest, the Northeast and other points North. Battery range takes a hit when the outside temperature is in the 30s, 20s or lower.

Randy Fox, a GM spokesman, said an electric vehicle’s range depends on driving technique, terrain and temperature.

The winter cold decreases the Volt’s range to 27-29 miles, Fox added. I saw that Chevy dealer a few weeks ago. I asked how many Volts he sold.

I could tell his answer even before he responded.
“Not one,” he said.

“They told me the range was too short — 27 miles wasn’t impressive. If it was in the 30s, mid-30s at least, I would have sold at least one,” he said.

ZED COMMENT: Welcome once again to “real world” conditions, and the adverse effect on EV range. Turn on the rear window defroster, radio, wipers, heater, with some ice or snow and freezing temperatures for perhaps a drive around the block, but nowhere near an “up to” advertised 250 mile range.

The EV cannot meet conventional engine performance despite billions being spent on research. This is why the dealer said, “None” were sold.  In contrast the ZED engine can replace any engine in any vehicle, making it a real replacement for the conventional engine.  For more information contact corpcomm@zedpower.com. 

Associated Press Posted: Jan 29, 2012. Tehran | The head of Iran’s state oil company said Sunday that the price of crude will reach $120 to $150 per barrel, as officials in Tehran prepare to discuss a ban on crude sales to European Union countries in retaliation for an EU embargo.

Iran says the EU accounts for only 18 per cent of its output and that it can find new customers. It says the embargo will hurt the West more than Iran, in part by causing a spike in prices.

With some 3.5 million barrels of crude production, Iran is the second largest OPEC producer.  Some 80 per cent of the country’s foreign revenue comes from exporting around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

ZED COMMENT: Once again, petroleum energy is being withheld from industrialized countries as a political bargaining tool, and worse, in a fragile global economy.  With most petroleum being used to power industry and transportation, the repercussions can be serious.  In contrast, ZED engines are AFC (all-fuel capable). They can be fueled with plentiful inexpensive natural gas, or even in the long term with non-carbon hydrogen. Aside from the technical advantages of a ZED engine, reducing the cost of imported petroleum would help the economy.  It would also reduce the political influence of unreliable suppliers. For more information contact: corpcomm@zedpower.com

January 26, 2012. New York. Automotive News. Ener1 Inc., which received a $118 million U.S. Energy Department grant to make electric-car batteries, filed for bankruptcy protection today after defaulting on bond debt amid heavy competition from Asia.

The company has been affected by competing battery developers in China and Korea, “which generally have a lower cost manufacturing base” and lower labor and raw material costs, interim CEO Alex Sorokin said in the petition. The company makes lithium-ion batteries for plug-in electric cars.

ZED COMMENT: More taxpayer money sucked into the electric black hole? If a green technology cannot stand on its own as being economically viable, then it is not a solution. Period. The ZED engine is the only  economically viable green-tech solution for transportation, because it delivers equal power for the same cost of manufacturing, and can replace any engine in any vehicle. No other engine can make this claim. For more information contact: corpcomm@zedpower.com

Dateline: December 21, 2011. Detroit. Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

If you thought that the subcompact electric Chevy Volt was overpriced at an MSRP of $40,000 — which after a point-of-sale tax credit comes to $32,500 — you haven’t seen anything yet. According to a Mackinac Center study of government subsidies throughout the manufacturing and distribution chain, the actual cost of the vehicle is almost $300,000 — with a quarter-million dollars of taxpayer subsidies going into every vehicle.

Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government. …

GM has estimated they’ve sold 6,000 Volts so far. That would mean each of the 6,000 Volts sold would be subsidized between $50,000 and $250,000, depending on how many government subsidy milestones are realized.

If battery manufacturers awarded incentives to produce batteries the Volt may use are included in the analysis, the potential government subsidy per Volt increases to $256,824. For example, A123 Systems has received extensive state and federal support, and bid to be a supplier to the Volt, but the deal instead went to Compact Power. The $256,824 figure includes adding up the subsidies to both companies.

The $3 billion total subsidy figure includes $690.4 million offered by the state of Michigan and $2.3 billion in federal money. That’s enough to purchase 75,222 Volts with a sticker price of $39,828.

ZED COMMENT: Do taxpayers have a right to call this “gross fiscal irresponsibility”, and demand a stop to it? As of now, 8,000 Volts have been sold at a cost of $3 BILLION.  This is a flagship vehicle? How can it ever break-even, let alone make a profit? Do the math. As opposed to the Volt, a ZED engine vehicle has more power, just as little pollution, a greater range, and costs the SAME as a conventional vehicle on the showroom floor right now, because it can be built for the same cost. Which would you choose? For more information contact corpcomm@zedpower.com

Automotive News — January 23, 2012. DETROIT — General Motors seriously considered — but ultimately rejected — a plan to develop lightweight versions of the redesigned Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra that are scheduled to arrive next year.

Engineers were searching for ways to boost the fuel economy of the full-sized pickups. But Mark Reuss, GM’s president for North America, said the plan was scuttled after an analysis determined it would be too costly.

He also said the pickups would have failed to reach GM’s fuel economy target and would have been less capable than the existing Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

Instead, GM decided to replace the current compact Colorado with a mid-sized pickup, which will keep the Colorado name, that will debut in 2013.

Speaking of the plan for lighter full-sized pickups, Reuss said GM “studied this extensively.” He said the key was going to be using lighter materials.

But Reuss said: “if you look at profit on this, if you look at what it takes to actually do this, what it does to the cost of materials, and what it does to the real fuel economy of that vehicle,” the effort fell way short of GM’s targets. He did not elaborate.

He said the end result would be a less capable pickup — a problem, since “there are people who use that to make a living.”

Reuss said: The mid-sized Colorado will provide “90 percent of the size and 120 percent of the efficiency because of the powertrains.”

ZED COMMENT: The internal combustion engine has come to the end of its design life, with no prospect of measurably improving fuel economy or reducing emissions. As a result, companies like GM are looking to lighter vehicles, but finding that solution is not financially viable either. The only solution is the ZED engine, which is lighter more powerful and cleaner burning, and can be installed in current vehicles. ZED is the only economically viable solution to reducing pollution and improving fuel economy into the next century. For more information contact: corpcomm@zedpower.com

Autopia | Detroit. November 28, 2011. General Motors staunchly defended the Chevrolet Volt on Monday, even as it offered to loan replacement vehicles to any Volt owner concerned about a federal inquiry into the safety of the car’s battery pack.
GM responded assertively and candidly to what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called “a formal safety defect investigation” into the Chevrolet Volt’s lithium-ion battery.

The probe, announced Friday, was prompted by two fires that followed crash tests. The agency said it is not aware of any real-world crashes causing fires but is “concerned” that tests “explicitly designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios” led to fires.
Company execs insisted the Volt does not pose “undue risk” during normal operation or immediately after a crash. It vowed to take “every precaution to assure the driving public of GM’s commitment to the safety of the Volt” and offered loaner vehicles to Volt owners pending resolution of the inquiry.
The problem came to light in June when a Volt caught fire three weeks after a side-impact crash test at a NHTSA testing facility in Wisconsin.
A test on Nov. 16 did not result in a fire. A test on Nov. 17 resulted in a temporary increase in the pack’s temperature. During a test on Nov. 18, the pack began to emit smoke and sparks after being rotated 180 degrees within hours of the impact. On Thursday, the pack tested on Nov. 17 caught fire.
“In each of the battery tests conducted in the past two weeks, the Volt’s battery was impacted and rotated to simulate a real-world, side-impact collision into a narrow object such as a tree or a pole followed by a rollover,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency is still assessing the cause and implications of the fire, and GM stressed that none of the fires started immediately after the crash, but days or even weeks later.

ZED COMMENT: The Volt 425 pound battery has to be replaced at 100,000 miles at an estimated cost of $8,000. The real danger of the high powered batteries are still unknown even as electric vehicles are being sold to the public. Will passengers be electrified in an accident involving water? GM is now offering owners non-electric replacement vehicles with full credit for what they paid for their Volt. In contrast, a ZED powered vehicle is what you are driving now, only with a different engine. No battery packs, just clean powerful engines. For more information, contact corpcomm@zedpower.com

Fledgling electrical vehicle-maker Aptera Motors has closed and will liquidate, CEO Paul Wilbur said today.

Aptera’s inability to raise money signals a cooling of investor attitudes toward EV startups, Wilbur said. Venture capital firms earlier indicated a willingness to invest if Aptera received the federal advanced vehicle technology loan. But in the interim, the difficulties of launching EVs became apparent, he said.

Wilbur worked in product planning at Chrysler Corp. and managed the Jeep and Dodge car brands. He led Saleen Performance Vehicles. He also tried unsuccessfully to make ASC, of suburban Detroit, a builder of specialty vehicles.

STATEMENT BY PAUL WILBUR

After years of focused effort to bring our products to the market, Aptera Motors is closing its doors, effective today. This is a difficult time for everyone connected with our company because we have never been closer to realizing our vision. Unfortunately, though, we are out of resources.

We were so optimistic that the company would move forward that we were in discussions to reactivate a mothballed automotive plant in Moraine, Ohio. In the past months we had engaged with the labor union that operated that facility to discuss the hiring of 1,400 new job opportunities. These jobs would have reactivated talented workers who had been dismissed when the facility was closed.

During the same time, we continued development of our patent-pending composite manufacturing system that enables energy efficient vehicle production by drastically reducing vehicle weight (by as much as 30%) while tripling its strength. This same patent pending system allowed us to finish the surface of our composites without manual finishing and without the high capital cost of a typical automotive paint shop. In all, the process would save nearly $750-million versus a typical volume auto assembly plant start-up.

ZED COMMENT: Who wants to drive around in a light-weight three-wheeled vehicle that crumbles like a soda cracker if its in an accident? Weren’t three wheeled ATC vehicles banned from North America for being too unstable? Drive from New York to San Francisco on vacation an Aptera? Not likely. A green-tech engine will only be successful if it has the same power as a conventional engine, can be built for the same cost in existing factories, fits in all conventional vehicles and does not require government “loans” to produce or sell. Aptera didnt meet any of these requirements. ZED meets all of them. For more information contact corpcomm@zedpower.com

BBC News, Beijing 16 November 2011

Chinese people are paying for the country’s heavy pollution with their health, the head of the UN Environment Programme says.

Achim Steiner said hundreds of thousands of people were affected by premature death and respiratory illnesses because of poor air quality.
But the government is planning policies that could result in a cleaner, greener China, he added.

It is now the world’s biggest investor – spending $49bn (£31bn) last year – on renewable energy, a figure that will grow over the next five years.

The city authorities said the air was only “slightly polluted”, but at least one Chinese official believes this monitoring system is “rather lax”. The US embassy in Beijing, which measures air pollution in the Chinese capital using a stricter standard, said the pollution was “hazardous” at some points on Wednesday.

“They are paying a price first of all individually by premature deaths… Respiratory diseases and premature deaths in the hundreds of thousands,” he said.

“China as a society also pays a heavy price in terms of healthcare and lost productivity.”

ZED COMMENT: ZED engines produce 30 – 99% less pollution (depending on the fuel) than the best conventional engines. For Beijing, as with many large cities globally, the ZED engine choice is literally a matter of life and death.