[Missouri-l] Fw: [acb-l] SFGate: Nissan electric car: silent, quick off the line

[Jeanne Fike]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Welte" <frank-welte at sbcglobal.net>
To: <acb-l at acb.org>
Cc: <ccb-l at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 12:00 PM
Subject: [acb-l] SFGate: Nissan electric car: silent, quick off the line


> The article shown below my signature clearly states what blind 
> Californians
> all ready know.
> Electric cars are dangerously quiet. That's why congress needs to pass
> H.R. 734 and S 841.
>
> Frank Welte
> Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
> California Council of the Blind
> 1510 J Street, Suite 125
> Sacramento, CA 95814
> Work Phone:  (916) 441-2100
> Fax: (916) 441-2188
> Cell Phone: (650) 576-4177
> Web Site: http://www.ccbnet.org
> Work Email: frank.welte at ccbnet.org
> Personal Email: frank-welte at sbcglobal.net
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.
> The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/04/27/MN0B174PL1.DT
> L
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Monday, April 27, 2009 (SF Chronicle)
> Nissan electric car: silent, quick off the line
> Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
>
>   Nissan's prototype of a mass-produced, all-electric car drives much like
> a
> mass-produced, gasoline-powered car, with a couple of major exceptions -
> there's no drive-train noise and there's no lurching from gear to gear.
>   Nissan recently brought its car to San Francisco and showed it off to a
> handful of reporters, letting them drive it around the big parking lot at
> Fort Mason. (The car is a right-hand-drive demonstration model and is not
> licensed to be driven on public streets in the United States.)
>   The car looks much like Nissan's Cube, a conventional car that is
> squarish, small, with upright, slab-like sides and windows. When Nissan's
> all-electric car goes into production sometime in the next year, the drive
> train will be in a different car, but Nissan hasn't yet revealed what that
> car will look like.
>   The prototype handles like many other cars. It has accelerator and brake
> pedals, turn signals, headlights and air conditioning.
>   The advantage it has over many gasoline-driven cars, in addition to the
> fact that it uses no petroleum-based fuel, is that it is very quick off
> the line.
>   Gasoline-driven cars lose some of their horsepower because energy is
> absorbed by the transmission's operation. In an electric car, all the
> power goes directly to the wheels. Press on what looks like the gas pedal,
> and the car just takes off, silently.
>   Nissan declined to reveal the car's top speed. But Mark Perry, Nissan
> North America's director of product planning, said, "You can get a
> speeding ticket in all 50 states and probably lose your license."
>   The car will have a gauge with a "distance to empty" warning, but some
> driver is bound to become distracted and not notice until the car stops
> running. What then?
>   Call a tow truck, Nissan says, and it will take you and your dead car to
> a
> charging station or a dealer, where you could call a cab while your car is
> getting charged up.
>   Perry added that there are "other solutions we are still studying."
>
> E-mail Michael Taylor at mtaylor at sfchronicle.com.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Copyright 2009 SF Chronicle
>
>
>
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