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Non-Tech : The Tilley Electric Vehical Revolution (TEVR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frederick Smart who wrote (41)	9/6/2002 5:09:55 PM
From: Tim Davies	Respond to of 91

This just in on the news from tennessee By KATHY CARLSON Staff Writer The rubber meets the road tomorrow for a Middle Tennessee inventor and his car, an all-electric version of the Back to the Future, stainless-steel DeLorean. Carl Tilley of Lebanon has developed a device that an associate, Doug Littlefield, likens to ''a rather elegant battery charger.'' Tilley's innovation allows the gull-winged '81 sports car to run on 12 car batteries without gasoline, Littlefield said. The promotional material, meanwhile, claims the car can drive ''hundreds of miles without recharging'' and can reach speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. The electric DeLorean will debut at the Nashville Superspeedway, and auto racing great Bobby Allison will take it around the track. The event, which begins at 8 a.m., has intrigued some, including devotees of the Serbian-American electrical inventor Nikola Tesla, and drawn skepticism from others. ''Our goal is to prove the technologies and market them to entities large enough to market and sell them,'' Littlefield said in a telephone interview from his Vermont business. Telephone messages left yesterday for Tilley, whom Littlefield describes as a ''self-taught doer,'' and with Bobby Allison Racing in Alabama weren't returned. The Tilley vehicle event comes on the heels of the Ford Motor Co.'s decision last week to walk away from a $123 million investment in electric cars. A spokeswoman told The New York Times there wasn't enough demand for the vehicles, which are limited in size and in how far they can go between recharges. Other major auto companies also are skeptical of the feasibility of an all-electric car that doesn't require recharging. ''I'm speechless,'' said Max Gates, a communications manager with DaimlerChrysler in the Detroit area. ''In general, we found the challenge of electric vehicles quite difficult.'' If Tilley's invention succeeds, he will have surmounted a technical challenge that has stymied others who have labored to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream. ''Electric vehicles are still the only way to get zero emissions,'' said Dan Holt, technical editor with the Society of Automotive Engineers. ''The biggest constraint on a pure electric vehicle is the power source,'' Holt said, adding the problem is getting a battery with enough power at a reasonable cost. Batteries, he said, ''tend not to last very long and are expensive to replace.'' Companies are working on lithium ion batteries that are efficient but very expensive. Car manufacturers have shied away from electric-only vehicles for the same reasons, plus another — a driving range that tops out at slightly more than 100 miles, said DaimlerChrysler spokesman Gates. Bruce Meland, editor and publisher of Electrifying Times magazine, acknowledges that many doubt or are even hostile to Tilley's vehicle. He has interviewed Tilley, who has started a foundation for inventors and investors. In a posting to the Electrifying Times Web site last week, Meland wrote that Tilley wouldn't go into details about his innovation although he said he admired Tesla's work. From that, Meland concluded that Tilley may have replicated a Tesla process and created an electromagnetic vacuum that draws heretofore untapped energy from the atmosphere. Tesla technology has been suppressed, Meland said in a phone interview from his Oregon offices, but didn't give details. He said others' skepticism is to be expected as with any potential innovation. ''I don't think the oil or car companies understand what a significant breakthrough this is,'' Meland said. If Tilley succeeds, it ''completely changes our whole picture on energy, how to use this energy to free the planet from fossil fuel.'' Kathy Carlson can be reached at 259-8047 or at kcarlson@tennessean.com.