I apologize for taking so long on this but I was busy at work. The gas and credit crunch is in the process of dismantling all the business in my industry

I, personally, would have severe reservations about purchasing from LionEV. Going through their site they make several umm…exagerrations or misrepresentations.

They are not bailment approved upfitters for Ford. They claim they are purchasing from a fleet account but this is false since fleet accounts and approved upfitters (conversion companies) receive and order their vehicles directly from Ford or GM. They are getting drop ship units from their local Ford dealer or other dealerships. This is a way to get around the quality controls that a bailment account requires. They are ordering them in 10 at a time to limit the amount of time the vehicle is in their possession before it gets titled to the end user in order to avoid being caught or poo poo’d by the dealerships floorplan finance company. This used to be a pretty common practice prior to bailment pools being implemented in the early 90’s. This is all speculation but there are enough oddities regarding ordering and purchasing from their website that don’t jibe with the capabilities a fleet account approved upfitter would be able to do (With a fleet account or bailment you can order as many vehicles as you want and in whatever flavor of package you want or color)

What this means for you…their warranty claim regarding full manufacturer’s warranty outside of the drive train is….iffy. It depends on the dealership. If the service department at your local dealer doesn’t mind the conversion he will implement the warranty on any of the interior components. If he sends a flag up Ford (or any OEM) will very likely come back that your warranty is void because you messed with major vehicle components.

Did you know that it’s possible to build a full sized electric vehicle (EV), freeway capable for more than 100 miles per charge with batteries that last the life of the vehicle, and with air conditioning and power windows, etc. (not the costly Tesla)? This is without research into Lithium or other exotic batteries (like the Tesla) but instead with proven Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries. This car has been on the road for 10 years now as an embarrassment to the entities that stand against the existence of an electric vehicle: It is the Toyota electric Rav4.

The “research required” line we always hear is a big lie, which unfortunately, most of us believe.

Who does not want EV’s in our driveways:

-Big Automakers, because they, and their dealer networks do not earn significant revenue by selling cars. A look at how large their service departments are (and our out-of-wallet experience with them) shows what’s at stake revenue-wise because EV’s never need service beyond tire changes. They don’t even need brake jobs due to electronic regenerative braking that does most of the work. Their ordinary friction brake pads and rotors thus last the life of the car (as shown on the Toyota electric Rav4).
The large car companies depend on their service department, like printer companies depend on sale of ink cartridges. Note: Why did Toyota sell the Rav4 instead of leasing and crushing as GM did? It’s a mystery, but I came across a blog that mentioned that a Toyota exec at a public speech mistakenly said that the cars would be sold, and so to save face, Toyota reluctantly sold the Rav4. Buyers, however, now post on blogs that they actually had difficulty in getting the dealer to sell them an electric Rav4. As a journalist, you can probably resolve this apparent contradiction of why Toyota would build the Rav4 EV but not want to sell it.

-Large oil companies, for obvious reasons. Note they are also major stockholder in auto companies and thus probably have influence over their board of directors.

-Kragens, Jiffy Lube, Smog Check Stations, muffler/brake centers, etc.

Final Comment: There is a viable battery, the “95 AH NiMH Large Format” battery. This powers the Rav4 EV.
This battery is no longer sold (why?), but instead a much smaller capacity battery, a 10 AH NiMH battery is sold to go into the hybrid cars we now drive. This smaller capacity battery insures the car still mostly runs on gas.

There are many web sites that explore these issues. Google: “Rav4 EV” or “95 AH Large Format NiMH battery”, or you can visit this amateur web site: http://www.evprogress.org/ which has various links and research that an investigative journalist will find intriguing.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_32/b4095040365207.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/21/chrisfarley1.jpg

At Ford, James Farley better be a good motivational speaker like Matt Foley or they might all be “sleeping in a van down by the river”.

My Answer:
If large solar farms can directly and efficiently produce hydrogen fuel which can then be later converted back to electricity by way of a low cost hydrogen/electric fuel cell converter, as proposed in the MIT article, then it may be economical and desirable to use such a setup as the range extender in an EREV. The advantage of hydrogen fuel cells is that they have no moving parts, can be made small and light, and makes no noise. In this regard, it trumps an ICE as a range extender. Admittedly there are some big “ifs” and would there would be several years of development required. I had earlier heard about this particular project from one of my smart VC associates but I shrugged it off as another blue sky wacky hydrogen project; now I’m intrigued after reading the published report.
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I say horray for GM, the Volt and the Team…..hit a home run guys and gals…..get it out soon, get them out in quantity and you’ll be in first place before you can swing your bat.