I had the opportunity to attend the Plug-in 2010 conference at the San Jose McEnergy Convention Center yesterday by volunteering for Plug-in America.  Sherry and Marc of PIA reignited my interest in EVs back when Sherry’s book came out, so I was eager to contribute and get to catch up on the latest in the EV world.

Well, the biggest news to come out of Plug-in 2010 was the Chevy Volt pricing.  GM was planning on releasing the pricing at about 10am on Tuesday, but Bloomberg had already leaked it by 8:30am when attendees were finishing up breakfast and coming into the exhibition hall.  Oops.

Nissan scored the best spot in the hall right in front of the entrance, with Chevy to the left.  Even before attendees came in, there were at least half a dozen people hovering around the Leaf.  The Volt– well I saw two camera men setting up for the GM press conference.

There had been speculation that the Volt would cost about $45,000.  This was correct.  The Volt’s MSRP will be $41,000 with another $4k in options.  The other choice is a $350/month lease– not sure what GM will require down.  The Leaf is about $33,000.  GM had one ace up it’s sleeve to beat the price difference and perceived better reliability of the Nissan offering: an 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty.

Except that right after the GM press conference, the head of Nissan North America announced that Nissan would match Chevy’s warranty.

The GM Volt team members walking around looked rather dejected, versus the Nissan employees, who were giddy.  To be fair, the Volt looks like an all right car, and for those who need the range, it offers something the Leaf doesn’t have.  But the Leaf looks really good inside and out, and it’s a whole lot cheaper.

The big news for me was the explosion in charging options.  At least half a dozen companies– consuming at least 1/3 of the floor– were offering some sort of charging solutions.  Several of these companies also overlap home and industrial automation, angling for a position in the coming smart grid.

The conference was much bigger than two years ago and definitely more interesting.  However, it is tiny compared to something like the SF International Auto Show.  Then again, it costs a whole lot more too.

I ran into David Herron, owner of the visforvoltage.com forum, and also Kane Fortune and Colin from Fortune-Hanebrink, makers of the Hanebrink All Terrain Electric Bicycle.  I’d been wondering how Hanebrink had managed to use a hub motor for a bottom bracket drive.  I couldn’t find a reasonably powerful hub motor that could fit in between a set of pedals.  Well, the answer is, neither could Hanebrink, because they had to increase the spacing between the cranks (called Q-factor) by, well, quite a lot.  The hub motor axle was shortened on the non-drive side and beefed up on the drive side.  It was a little hard to make sense of all that’s going on, but there are some free wheels, sprockets, and bearings in there… take a look at the photos below.

I also had fun talking to the folks from EETrax in Boulder, Colorado.  They sell parts for EVs but in their spare time build crazy electric vehicle and drink beer.  My kind of fun.

FYI, parking at the convention center is $20– but you can park on the street just a few blocks away for free.

100727 Plug-In 2010 Conference23 pictures San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CAJul 28, 2010

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The City of San Mateo is developing a 5 year Bikeways Master Plan aimed at increase bicycle usage and is currently accepting feedback from the public.  The primary goals are to reduce automobile usage and increase bicycle/pedestrian mode share for trips less than 1 miles to 30% by 2020.  I attended the San Mateo Bickeways Master Plan meeting last Wednesday, July 14th to participate.  I expected a dry, boring event, but I was completely wrong.  I walked out excited about the city’s plans for cyclists.

The meeting started in the council chambers where a group of consultants hired by the city introduced the background and goals of the Master Plan before taking us over to the atrium to speak with city representatives at several stations about possible changes.

Afterwards, the attendees broke into five groups of ten for sessions covering our bicycle usage habits, problem areas within the city, and solutions to those problems.  Back in the council chambers, representatives from each group spoke about each teams best recommendations for the city.

My group was extremely excited about our first suggestion– a “bicycle superhighway” paralleling the Caltrain tracks proposed by one of the city board members in our group.  Not only does Caltrain serve the critical North-South route, but it cuts through the center of the city, making access from most locations in the city to the “highway” convenient.  Although it sounds like a daunting task, most bicycle improvements are funded as attachments to other public works and California recently approved a high speed rail system which may use the Caltrain right of way.  The rail line would be enclosed and a bicycle path could be incorporated into the design on the outside.  This would extend the whole system along the peninsula!

The idea of being able to cruise, without stop lights or signs, from San Francisco to San Jose excited everyone.

We all agreed that the existing system of bike lanes and routes has many short comings.  Many patches of accessibility are not connected and there is too much emphasis on bicycle facilities on major roads.  Delaware, for example, is a major North-South route, however, nobody feels comfortable taken inexperienced riders on Delaware and the condition of the road is very poor, especially around 92.  Additionally, access across 101 is poor, especially the total cluster at 3rd Ave.

Other popular ideas were development of the city waterways to include bicycle paths; consistent, visible parking in downtown; and a proposal for a trial to remove a car parking space on the corner of each block in downtown and addition of raised bicycle parking.  This would make parking easy to find and also solve one of the major issues downtown: the sidewalks are not wide enough for bicycle parking.  Currently, there are places to lock bicycles in the parking garage.   However, few participants were even aware of these and most didn’t want to park in the dark, uninviting (and seemingly unsafe) the first level or walk up to the second level.

Another interesting idea was to re-purpose parking meters after conversion to an electronic parking system.  The posts left over from the meters could be used for locking bicycles.  A nice addition for electric bicycles would be to install electrical outlets on some posts.

Finally, the city must coordinate with neighboring cities as, at least in our group, no one bicycled exclusively within San Mateo.

A survey on cycling habits was open until recently; it’s still possible to post free form comments and also map the routes you commonly use within the city.

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