Henry Ford's Wife Choose Detroit Electric Over Ford Model T

1914 Detroit Electric

As TIME magazine recently wrote:

"Girls dig electric cars. At least that was the marketing message back in 1915, when petrol-powered autos were beginning to decisively pull away from electric ones. Battery-powered vehicles retained popularity among female drivers in cities, who valued them for their reliability — they wouldn't blow up, as gas cars were known to do on occasion — and ease of use."

"Clara Ford, wife of Henry, whose Model T all but decimated the electric car, drove a 1914 Detroit Electric. (What her husband made of the fact that she wasn't driving a Ford is lost to history.) The Detroit models could run 80 miles on a single charge, with a top speed of about 20 mph. Pokey, but this was before the age of Danica Patrick."

Apparently, Clara Ford knew what Henry Ford didn't: electric vehicles were and still are more reliable than gas automobiles.  Clara couldn't risk a break down, so electric it was.  Today, we'd prefer to avoid a break down, so electric it is.  Times may have changed the automotive landscape, but the truths that applied to electric vehicles a century ago still apply today.


1914 Ford Model T

Source: Inside EVs  + TIME

MyELifeNow : 2 years and 300,000 + visits, thanks ! What I did and what you can do too !

Started two years ago to talk about what I do to use less energy, pollute less, I hope I have reached many people and will reach even more in the future

Thanks to all of you, followers and one time visitors ...

You too can do all this:
- Change all your home light bulbs to LED
- Install an Energy Monitor to see how much Electricity you are using
- Change your ICE car for an Electric car, the LEAF is a very good one (3 years without a single battery problem)
- Get an Electric Scooter: Vectrix VX-1 or BMW C-Evolution (coming to market in May)
- Change your gas/fuel heating system for a Heat Pump, you will get Air Conditioning with that
- Install Solar on your Roof to use the Generated Electricity
- Use most of your Generated Energy by Storing it for later use with my DIY ESS Kits
- Use High Speed Train instead of Air Planes , TGV here gets you to French Riviera from Paris in 3h only
- .... there are many others ways to improve .... find your own

Who Killed The Electric Car ? (Full Documentary)

Global Warming, political conferences all over the world, politicians appealing and TALKING about stepping forward to the next era of clean energy...But did you know that there are already technological possibilities to achieve these goals with less costs and emissions ?
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 documentary film that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the mid 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the California government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.

After a premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, it was released theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics in June, 2006 and then on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on November 14, 2006.

During an interview with CBS News, director Chris Paine announced that he had started a new documentary about electric cars with a working title of Who Saved the Electric Car?, later renamed Revenge of the Electric Car, which had its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.

Nissan Looks Back at Developing Highways, Fueling Stations and Similarities to Today

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (Mar. 8, 2013) -- Charlie Yaeger is 97 years old. He has been driving for more than 80 years. He has driven everything from a Ford Model T to Nissan Maxima to a 1916 Baker

At that time, it was difficult to find a gas station, just it is difficult nowadays to find a fast charging station ...

Electric Cars Drive Through Gas Shortage In NY, NJ

Vehicle owners in New York and New Jersey have been struggling to find gasoline since super storm Sandy hit the East Coast.
But people with fully electric vehicles like the Nissan LEAF are having an easier time charging up and getting to where they need to go.

Vectrix or T-Max ?

I often hear people say that 8,000 EUR for the Vectrix is a very high price ! I am not that sure this is a good point because I see a lot of T-Max around and their price is even higher than this ....

I wanted to write a post about the Vectrix VX1 and the Yamaha T-Max few months ago, as my boss owns one, and we often discuss about our bikes ...
Here are pictures taken in the undergound parking at work as I was parked next to his for once  

This morning as I was parking at work, another T-Max owner came to ask me questions: "Is it electric ? How much time to charge ? Range ?" : all the questions I get all the time

But what surprised me is that, later on, as we were in line for an orange juice and chocolate croissant, we talked a lot more and he was really taken by this all electric change -he was willing to convert to electric scooter !- told me that the price of the T-Max was more than the Vectrix (8,000 EUR here for the NiMH version & 10,000 EUR for the Li-ion one) -I already knew that and that is a point of comparison between the two machines- and that all his gas expenses are becoming crazy (1,5 to 1,70 EUR / liter here !)

We can compare the Vectrix with the T-Max because they are both very powerfull maxi scooters, high-end machines made with quality in mind and using top components, also in the same price range. 

The thing is, once you paid your Vectrix, you do not have to spend anything else than electricity which is 10 times cheaper than gas; You do not have to go to a gas station anymore, to the a garage to have your oil & filter changed, etc; So in the end the Vectrix is a lot cheaper than the T-Max

But for me, the most important is that I do not rely on oil anymore, and I do no pollute, to me this is number one, and number two, I get a lot of pleasure riding this Vectrix, and I am always looking forward to use it ... it has been two years like this :-)

More pictures of the 2 machines side by side following this link

Daikin Inverter Heat Pump on the building roof mounted on a chimney stack

My Daikin Inverter Heat Pump

In 2008 when we did major construction in our apartment, merging 3 small 1-bedroom into one big duplex 3-bedrooms, the heating systems had to be renewed: each apartment had its own natural gas heating system, and two out of three were more than 20 years old and really needed to be changed

That's when I looked into having an Inverter Heat Pump installed to replace all these individual systems

That was a good opportunity to change to a system that is clean and more flexible: it uses only elctricity (can be made from renewable sources like wind and solar), two thirds of the energy to heat up comes from the calories in the ambiant air, and it can heat up and cool too, and this room per room, pretty fast on top of it

I thought the best place to mount the main external unit was on the roof, onto a chimney stack (all chimney stacks are sealed because unused)

Discussing with a colleague who had done that, he told me that Daikin was a very good brand, with good reputation for the quality of their products

I contacted them in Paris and they gave me only two contractors in my district qualified by them to do the job; I contacted both and got two quotes, close to each other, and hired the one I liked best

They did great job in only one day and a half:

- They installed this exactly like I wanted: they used the chimney stack I told them to use, passed the cables and fluid conducts through the chimney stack and made them run in the attic, going down through the ceiling right on top of each unit, no piping is visible at all :-)

- And most important for me, nothing shows from the street, you have to look from above to see it

I had the gas supply cut off for good and was happy about it (gas prices are always going up, following petrol prices), and if natural pollutes less than coal, it's still not good for in my opinion

The external unit is securely mounted onto the chimney stack, on the most discret side (hidden from the street)

As I asked the cables and conducts are running down through & inside the chimney stack

Here is a view from the sky (taken by a plane)

We have 5 internal units, with the same capacity, one in each bedroom, and two in the dining room / family room that is much bigger than a bedroom

These units are independent from each other, meaning, I can turn on the heating in the dining room only, for example, closing the kids rooms, and use the energy to heat up only the room where I would spend the day alone if working from home during the week let's say. When the kids are back from school, we turn their room units back on. We usually stop the heating completely (all units off) when going to bed, because it would be a waste anyways; Then when we get up in the morning, I turn the heat on in the dining room only to have breakfast, and we go up from 16-17°C to 20°C in 10 or 15 minutes ! it is very quick, because the hot air is blowed everywhere and fills up the room fast

White on white, very discret, they open up to let the air in and out, their fan is very silent, and we no more  have radiators taking space on the walls

Upstairs in the dining room/family room

Downstairs in the master bedroom

This unit is practically invisible when you enter the room because hidden behind this leftover part of wall

Now the costs:
External unit was 5000 EUR
Each Internal unit was 1000 EUR
Labor & parts was 2500 EUR
Total was then 12,500 EUR, but an incentive on 50% of the External unit was credited back to me :-) so the whole system cost me 10,000 EUR => not bad at all I think :-) and now I am saving everyday ... 

Oh nooooooo ....... !!!!! ????

Oh nooooooo .......   !!!!! ????

(it's not me)

If can't plug in ... a clip featuring a Chevy Volt by Plug in America

All time high record for a liter of gas in Paris today : 2 Euros !!

I just saw this in the news during lunch:

The price for a Liter of gasoline has reached 2.02 EUR this morning in Paris

With this kind of prices, I guess people are going to look at EVs in a different way, considering that the price of electricity is really going to make them save a lot of money ...