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This page last updated July 5, 2009
Howdy Folks, Iver here:
May 2009 Skowhegan Electric Vehicle Rally
This is my first blog article, and I have some great news. We are having a rally for electric cars in Skowhegan, and we’ll certainly have lots of fun, so don’t miss it!.
It is for anyone who’s interested in battery-powered electric vehicles, and we hope to have at least 4 or 5 electric vehicles there. We will meet on June 20th at 8 am at the Empire Grill for breakfast (with maple syrup provided by yours truly). Then the event will officially start at 9 am.
There will be at least 4 drive thru parking slots for vehicles with trailers reserved behind the Chamber of Commerce building right in the middle of Skowhegan. As you go around the rotary that is in the middle of town on the right. There is a big parking lot with the Chamber Building in the middle of it. Park behind it and walk over to the Empire Grill.
After breakfast we'll talk electric cars and try them out in the parking lot. People will get a chance to talk with Art Haines about his unique solar car kit, the SUNNev, and drive it around the parking lot.
There will also be a gas-to-electric conversion car and a Star Car which are all legal cars driving around now in Skowhegan.
Around 10:30 we'll head up the road and visit Gifford's Ice Cream by electric car, return and check out the Skowhegan Farmer's Market.
We'll return around noon and people can either go to the Old Mill Pub for lunch on their great riverfront deck or head home.
Here's a map of Skowhegan showing the location of the Chamber of Commerce:
www.skowheganchamber.com/contact_us.asp
This is a fair weather event. If it's pouring it won't happen..
For more info, call me, Iver, at 207-474-7370..
My next blog will be about my wife’s and my first thousand miles in our electric car. We have learned a lot, and had a lot of fun.
I hope to see you all in Skowhegan on June 20th, put it on your calendar now so you don’t miss it!
Iver the Electric Car Guy
June 2009 The First Thousand Miles
We are almost at 1000 miles now, so I feel that a thousand mile update is in order. We have used the car mostly around Skowhegan to go to school, go shopping and hack around. I have driven it a couple of days a week to school.
We drove up until December and put it in the shed for the winter, where it was charged occasionally. We took it back out again in April.
You have to drive super-defensively. Even though it's a low speed vehicle and it's bright green it has to be treated like you are driving a motorcycle or a scooter. We always watch other people and give them lots of space.
It's become a familiar sight in town and I notice that a lot of people smile and wave, but a lot of others don't even notice the car any more.
Another guy in town got an NEV, so maybe it's a trend now.
It is really fun to take it out for a spin. It makes driving a bit like taking the boat out.
We go to the ice cream shop and talk to people about the car. We made up a paper about it to hand to people when they ask about it.
We have had a few mishaps. The parking brake let go and the car went for a ride with nobody in it. Fortunately it hung up on a fire hydrant and the bumper was the only thing hurt.
We have had to get a new battery, new tires and fix the brakes, but besides that we have had pretty good luck so far.
It's an adventure, and like most adventures it has it's exciting parts.
I recommend it highly. I hope our second thousand miles goes as well as the first.
Iver the Electric Car Guy
July 2009 ANOTHER MAINE ELECTRIC VEHICLE
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Here is Art's latest vehicle. It is a 3-wheeler called the SPIRIT, and is a
solar/electric and pedaled vehicle that is registered as a moped by its owner in Florida. She is going across the country with it. She wants to
be referred to as "the Florida Lady". A former minister, she is very religious and doesn't
want to have the focus be on her. She prefers the focus be on Art and
the students from Skowhegan Area High School who helped create the vehicle
last fall.
She has just gotten back to Maine and is ready to take the car across
the country. She'll trailer it for the longer distances and use it for
local transportation as she moves across the country.
SPIRIT has pedals and an electric motor, so it is a pedal/electric hybrid. It will go about 25 mph
downhill, and can travel about 15 miles on a charge. It can power itself
continuously with the solar panel if driven under 5 mph on a flat
surface. That will increase the range substantially. It has a NuVinci
continuously variable transmission and absorbed glass matt, lead/acid batteries. It
holds one person and a bag or two and is bright orange for visibility.
(Orange is also the school color at Skowhegan Area High School, by the way.)
This car will be a fun way for people to see how to do things
differently. In these tough economic times it represents a ray of hope.
It's another legally registered vehicle from Art's shop here in Maine, which also makes two-passenger, Low Speed electric cars that include a solar panel.to help recharge the batteries.
The electric car is beginning to take a lot of different forms, and this
is yet another way to get around.
And it's a lot of fun!
See you next month...
Iver the Electric Car Guy
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