Capital Area Nissan LEAF Owners Group & Meetup

I've been looking into setting up a meetup for all you Northern Virginian, Washington D.C. and Southern Marylanders to gather and talk shop about their brand-spanking new Nissan LEAFs.  Although I considered using Meetup.com for this like I do my Reston Writers Roundup where I share my work on Project Kronosphere, I decided that since Facebook would give this too me for free, that's the best place to begin this organization.  So hop on down to the Capital Area Nissan LEAF Owners group and help me plan our first official meeting!  Not on Facebook?  We also have a Yahoo! discussion and planning mailing list at Capital Area LEAF Owners!

Of course, if you don't want to do this through the behemoth that is Facebook, please suggest another site in the comments as I'm truly agnostic about the how or the where save that we'll typically meet in Northern Virginia since my beloved EVA/DC typically meets in Southern Maryland.

Affordable Electric Time Machine Yesterday!

Back To The Future: Electric DeLoreans Coming In 2013

My old, Montréal friend and former leader of the High Council of Gallifrey Andrew Gurudata recently retweeted a link to this news article at BoxOfficeBuz:

During the International DeLorean Owners Event in Houston, Texas last week, DeLorean Motor Company announced a partnership with [an] electric car company called Epic EV.  The goal is to mass-produce a full electric DeLorean called DMCEV.  The news is coming from Jalopnik.com.

The original Jalopnik article is by Kevin McCauley and reads as follows:

This is a brand-new, all-electric DeLorean

For several years, DeLorean Motor Company of Texas has been reconstituting the fruit of John Z.'s troubled loins (phrasing!). Now it's working with electric-car startup Epic EV to put an all-electric DMC-12 into production by 2013. You know what that means: Onboard power for the Mr. Fusion.

Humble, Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company not only owns the DMC brand name, but it also maintains a huge stockpile of original, factory parts. The company's primary business has been restoring, servicing and selling DeLorean cars and merch, but it's also been using those parts to assemble new cars to order, using 80% original parts and 20% modern engine and suspension tech. These new models are, in effect, pro-touring versions of the original DeLorean cars.

The new car the two companies unveiled today at the International DeLorean Owners Event in Houston, Texas is no run-of-the-mill electric DeLorean conversion. It's a development model of a car, called DMCEV, which DeLorean plans to launch into production in two years.

The companies haven't released any specs yet, but if it's anything like Epic EV's Torq Roadster, it'll get a 200 hp+, 44V/156V electric motor, powered by a 24-30 KWh lithium ion phosphate battery. Sure, it's bit low on jiggawatts right now, but the companies have two years to get that sorted out. Though I guess they never did, or else they'd have come back to let us know.

Finally, last but far from least, this ABC News story gives further details about the future car release including the following critical piece from DeLorian's current vice-president James Espey:

So far, said Espey, the company has retrofitted one car with an electric motor.  If all goes well, he said, the company would start selling built-to-order electric DeLoreans around 2013.  The sticker price (if a custom-built car can have a sticker): about $90,000.

Emphasis mine.

Still no news of a fully-electric Time and Relative Dimension In Space vehicle, though we do know the Type 40 ran on Artron Energy derived from the Eye of Harmony at the heart of the Gallifreyan Panopticon.  However, I can confirm that the Kronosphere does run on electricity, even though it won't be invented until 2020.

All joking aside, this is seriously making me rethink my investment into the Nissan LEAF, if only the price wasn't so out of reach.