EVWORLD:This Week -- Bombardier NV & European EV Report
EV World
EV World:This Week
19 January 1998
NEV's FINALLY COME TO LIFE
In 1994 Daniel Sperling coined the term "neighborhood electric vehicle" or
NEV to describe a new class of automobile designed for short urban or
suburban commutes under 10 miles.
Bombardier (pronounced "bomb-bar-dee-ay") in Canada, makers of a whole
spectrum of transportation systems from the Canadair jet to the SkiDoo
snowmobile spent nearly 4 years on R&D to create their first generation
NV. Now availabe in the US through a 50 dealership network in the south
and southwest, the vehicle appears to be a cross between a golf cart and a
volkswagen beetle. But beneath its fiberglass unibody chassis is a quiet,
responsive 72volt DC drive train complete with regenerative breaking and
rack and pinon steering.
EV World takes a closer look at this remarkable new vehicle in this week's
editon. As part of our coverage, you'll find a RealAudio interview with
Marcel Boutin, the company's vp and general manager recorded at EVS14 last
month, on EV World:This Week. There's also a short RealVideo clip of the
NV in action, in the rain Disney World. To watch the video or listen to
the audio,you'll need to download and install the RealPlayer 5.0 plugin,
available free from http://www.real.com.
EUROPEAN REPORT -- Part 1
Also this week is the first in a four part series written by EV World's
contributing editor in Asia during his recent trip to Europe. Raymond
Tribdino reports on EV industry development on the Continent.
SHOPTALK GET'S NEW MISSION
Next we've decided to convert our ShopTalk section from an online "chat
feature" -- which we hadn't yet installed -- to focus instead on EV
industry news featuring the latest official, as well as unofficial, news
of happenings in the EV industry. If you're company has any news or press
releases it wishes to distribute, make sure you send EV World a copy and
we'll be sure to add it to
our publication. And if you got any juicy tips or industry gossip, drop
us a line about that as well.
TALE OF THE KENNEDY TAPES (Continued)
Finally, Ford Motor Company's VP of Research, John Wallace has agreed to
see if he can help expedite formal permission for the public release of EV
World's audio and video tapes of Robert J. Kennedy, Jr's closing speech at
EVS14. Susan Fancy, an engineer with Ford volunteered to talk to Mr.
Wallace to see if he could use his influence with the EVAA and Mr.
Kennedy's agent. Miss Fancy reports that Wallace agreed to see what he
could do. The reason for the stalemate is that while Mr. Kennedy gave EV
World verbal approval to publically release the tapes, the EVAA had
previously signed an agreement with Kennedy's agent to not record
Kennedy's speech, something I was unaware of when I set up my video camera
and audio recorder on the media platform at EVS14, the only media rep to
do so. Ignorance is sometimes bliss.
If and when the tapes become available, I'll put excerpts of them on EV
World:This Week. Complete versions of the speeches will also be available
on VHS video tape, as well as on audio cassette.
Until next week....
Bill Moore
Editor in chief
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