The main take-away The Solar and Wind Expo representatives got from attending the 2010 Washington (D.C.) Auto Show this week was how big, diverse – and exciting – the green vehicle world is getting. (Perhaps this is what it was like 100 years ago, when there was everything from gas to electric to steam vehicles at the start of the automotive age.)The majority of the green vehicles at the show are clustered along what was called the “Advanced Technology Superhighway”, while some other renewable energy vehicles are sprinkled throughout other areas of the show.
The first thing we noticed is that everyone’s getting into the act, from Ford, Chevy, Nissan and Honda, to BMW and Fiat. A bevy of small car companies devoted solely to electrics (such as Wheego, Think, and Columbia) to automotive suppliers such as Magna Powertrain (which is making the powertrain for the all-electric Ford Focus, among other things) also have good representation.
The next item of note is the sheer variety of electric and other green vehicles and the many
ways they can be used. Small, two-passenger full electric cars (Wheego Whip Life, Think City, Mini-E), 4- or 5-passenger full electrics (Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, BMW Active-E), fully electric vans (Boulder) and utility vehicles (Columbia), plug-in hybrids (including Bright Automotive’s van) and non-plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell vehicles (Honda), and a system for running a vehicle only on waste (Novozyme).
Another very interesting and innovative aspect of the show is the idea that green automotive technology can be applied to other forms of renewable energy. For example, Think’s Richard Canny suggested using batteries that are no longer strong enough to power electric vehicles but still have some life left to store energy from small solar or wind installations. And Magna’s John Zalewski said their gearboxes could be used in wind turbines or as a component of solar arrays. This kind of cross-fertilization of alternative energies represents an exciting, outside-the-box example of how different forms of 
renewable energy could complement each other as well as extend the life of supposedly used-up components.
Now that we’ve seen the exciting and varied display of green vehicles at an industry event as important as the Washington Auto Show, we think it’s even more fitting we’re including electric vehicles in The Solar and Wind Expo. Come and see our lineup in May.
Make green a reality!
http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/
The next item of note is the sheer variety of electric and other green vehicles and the many
ways they can be used. Small, two-passenger full electric cars (Wheego Whip Life, Think City, Mini-E), 4- or 5-passenger full electrics (Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, BMW Active-E), fully electric vans (Boulder) and utility vehicles (Columbia), plug-in hybrids (including Bright Automotive’s van) and non-plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell vehicles (Honda), and a system for running a vehicle only on waste (Novozyme).
Another very interesting and innovative aspect of the show is the idea that green automotive technology can be applied to other forms of renewable energy. For example, Think’s Richard Canny suggested using batteries that are no longer strong enough to power electric vehicles but still have some life left to store energy from small solar or wind installations. And Magna’s John Zalewski said their gearboxes could be used in wind turbines or as a component of solar arrays. This kind of cross-fertilization of alternative energies represents an exciting, outside-the-box example of how different forms of 
renewable energy could complement each other as well as extend the life of supposedly used-up components.Now that we’ve seen the exciting and varied display of green vehicles at an industry event as important as the Washington Auto Show, we think it’s even more fitting we’re including electric vehicles in The Solar and Wind Expo. Come and see our lineup in May.
Make green a reality!
http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/
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