Sunday, November 29, 2009

Mini-E meets a cousin

My wife and I stopped for bagels this morning at the Bagel Pantry in Metuchen, NJ and when I pulled into the parking lot I noticed a man and a woman stare at the car and walk right over as soon as we got out. "All electric right?" he asked, followed by "how much power?" I told him 205 horsepower, but he quickly responded, "No, how much battery power" This wasn't just a casual EV fan I was dealing with, these were experienced EV owners and knew all the right questions to ask like what kind of batteries, what's their weight and so on. He told me he owns a Corbin Sparrow and loves it. I wasn't 100% sure what that was, but it sounded familiar and I figured I'd look it up when I got home so my wife and I went inside and had our bagels. When we got out we saw that they had gone home and brought back the Sparrow to show us. I took one look and said to myself "That's a Myers NMG". I then asked Phil and Jen, the owners "Isn't that a Myers?" Phil explained that the original company was Corbin and when they went bankrupt Myers bought the assets and continued the line. They recently introduced a new two seat version that looks much more modern and refined both inside and out. Anyway, this car has three wheels and only one seat. It has lead acid batteries that weigh over 800lbs and can take the car about 40 miles per charge. Just as a quick comparison the MINI-E's lithium ion battery pack weighs only 600 lbs and can take the much bigger and heavier MINI about 100 miles per charge. We chatted for a while more, took some pictures and we all agreed this is exciting times for electric vehicles. I know I've said it before, but one of the best parts of being in the Mini-E trial lease is that I keep meeting new and interesting people that want to talk about the car and the EV industry in general. That's been a bonus I really didn't expect when I signed up.

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