Tata just bought the Land Rover and Jaguar brands from Ford for $2.3 billion.

How Tata will make it work:

• Utilize Ford technology and combine with partners such as Fiat to further improve mutual quality
• Relaunch quality image with a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty or ten year warranty. Hyundai did a similar act when they turned around from having some of the poorest quality cars to being the #1 non-premium brand in JD Powers Quality Surveys.
• Consolidate chassis and focus on the luxury image and establish strong reputation before extending down into lower-priced cars.
• Share platforms with Fiat and lean on Fiat to establish distinctive styling.
• Concentrate all your efforts on the engine and transmission, sourcing Fiat’s best and selling them Land Rover/Jaguar’s best.
• Sourcing even a small percentage of mundane parts from India will save hundreds of millions in cost.

Tata and India in general has a general flair that is more in line with Europe than America. As a result, I would expect Tata to forge a strong alliance with Fiat with whom it already has a joint-venture plant in India building engines. Fiat plans on bringing the Alfa Romeo brand back to the U.S. and the Land Rover/Jaguar dealer network could help Fiat quickly establish a

I believe Tata will improve the brands distribution and market share in Europe and domestically in India as well as nearby China. India and China have growing luxury appetites and this purchase will eventually feed those markets.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Tata bought for $2.3 billion what Ford paid $4.5. Ford improved the brands somewhat, but otherwise mismanaged them. Tata with its smaller portfolio of vehicles will be able to focus and give these brands the attention they deserve.

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While doing my online research, I realized that the battery and the drive are the two most important components. The battery is where the real cost adds up. Range, cost, and weight are the 3 important factors that batteries dictate for an electric vehicle project. It turns out that 10 years ago we had a very good if not perfect battery to jump-start the electric car. It was the Ovonic NiMH. It had 70wh/kg capacity, 1,750 cycles to 100% depth of discharge. Discharge ability is important for EV’s. Energy Conversion Devices quoted them at $150/kWh for a production run of 20,000 cars.

General Motors didn’t wish the electric car to compete with their main-stream gas cars and trucks and sold the patent to Chevron Texaco. Chevron Texaco vigorously protects this battery technology and even sued Toyota for making a similar design. Further with the oil company winning that case, it was able to win a restriction on the maximum AH size of the batteries to 10AH. This prevents them from ever being used in a road EV. Further Chevron Texaco is responsible for about half the price premiums on today’s hybrids. They charge $1,200/kWh for the battery when it could be $150. How well do they control NiMH technology? Well every NiMH battery has to be licensed from a company – Cobasys, wholly owned by Chevron. Manufacturing is limited to consumer electronics size batteries. This explains why Tesla Motors is using thousands of small consumer-grade batteries in its electric vehicle.

These batteries could last 300,000 miles, but is unavailable. It would allow EV’s with a 200-300 range and make EV conversions with 150 mile ranges a possibility. It is such a shame that we developed the technology right here in the U.S.A. to lead the world in the next phase of automotive systems.

I have found some promising companies such as 123 Systems making Lithium Ion batteries that are quite expensive now. Unfortunately I see many references of them “partnering” with Cobasys. I can only believe that there will be some sort of collusion to keep battery prices high. I see the Cobasys link time and time again. If I were a battery startup, I would say the way to make big bucks if you don’t give a damn about society is simple. Build a better battery. Advertise your technology. If you don’t violate oil company patents, then sell out to big oil. Sad to say the least.

I recently came across a battery startup using high capacity capacitors in Austin called EEstor. There is a consumer screwdriver that uses similar technology. Unfortunately the EEstor technology is exclusively licensed to a Canadian electric car maker – Zenn Motors. What’s the play here? Well if I was a gambling man I’d say Zenn Motors will get bought out the moment EEstor’s batteries are proven. Big oil has the bucks. I hope the EEstor battery story does not become a story that was never heard.

My research continues, but boy does this tick me off! Batteries seem to be the key to any potential project. So the question is this… do I do a conversion with a small range of 50 miles (enough to get to work and back) and wait for battery technology to advance? or do I spend $10,000 to get a 150 mile range?

Note: The creater of the Ovonic battery now makes solar panels. The engineer/founder of the company truely is a pioneer in environmental engineering. It is sad that his technology was sold to an oil company.

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My cousin, brother, wife, and I went to the Taste of Lexus event this past weekend. Taste of Lexus is an event that Lexus holds once a year across 16 cities in the U.S. where you get to eat good food and drive most of the Lexus lineup.

I drove the following cars:

• IS 350
• GS 350
• GS 450h
• LS 460
• LS 600h
• RX 350
• RX

My brother whipped the LS600H around the track with no problems. The rest of us went along for the ride. He didn’t hit a single cone! That is a very impressive limo of a car Lexus has built and it gets 24mpg to boot.

Hybrid = More HP not MPG

One thing I did notice with all the hybrids is that Lexus seems to go for total hp rather than actually give you significantly more mileage. For example the GS450H gives 23mpg. My wife’s GS300 non-hybrid by comparison gives 22mpg (per rating). In reality we are experiencing around 27mpg mixed which is consistent with what other drivers are reporting. By comparison other individuals are reporting close to 25mpg with the GS450h. I think it is unfortunate that the emphasis is on adding more power for a given car rather than increasing its mileage.

Golf Challenge

They also had a tee off competition using a golf simulator. I got 22ft from the hole! That’s pretty good for a beginner. I’ve been to the driving range 4 times, and had 1 class. That’s the full extent of my golf experience. Unfortunately someone else tee’d off and got within 2 feet of the hole. None-the-less I was very proud of my showing in the contest. I can’t wait to hit the real golf course. That’s not me in the above picture by the way. I have a better swing. )

With as many tires as I go through, you’d think Michelin would give me a free ride in their blimp. Folks this is what happens when you eat too many donuts in the morning.

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Monday I plan on doing something I’ve never done in my life… Ride my bike to work. Actually I will be riding my bike to the light rail station, riding the train down, then biking it the final leg to work.

Yesterday I timed the trip to the initial train station. It is 3.3 miles and it took me 25mins to get there. I needed to make sure that I am physically able to do it. I didn’t have much difficulty. I don’t normally do cardio so I honestly wasn’t sure about this.

I will definitely be adding some time to my commute. It normally takes me 45mins by car. I am expecting the new bike/train method to take 1 1/2 hr (hopefully).

The Route

leg 1: Biking it from home to the light rail station [3.3 miles]

leg 2: Riding the train with my bike [? miles]

leg 3: Biking it to work from the train station [2.3 miles]

Why am I doing this?

• I complain about public transportation not being viable all the time. I should make an honest effort to see how it is, how plausible it is, and just experience it.
• It is good for the environment. I will be using 0 of my own car’s gas, using mass-transit and a bike.
• It is good for my health. Unless I get hit by a car or get caught in the rain this is a good thing for my body.
• It is cheaper. Though this does not really register as a motivation, I’ll save around $2-2.50 in gas.

My Normal Drive
Below is my normal drive (16.5 miles and 35-45 mins)

Preparing for the Worst

I need to email my manager and let him know that I may be late if I have “difficulties” in my commute. Hopefully I will be able to withstand the Texas sun and not pass out. I have Google Maps on my Treo 650 now. I’m glad they finally released the app for Treo’s. [Go to www.google.com/gmm from your phone to download it.] That will help me if I get lost. I will be a newbie and carry some water with me and some granola bars. Its no Tour ‘de France, but its more than I normally do.

Leave a comment and tell me how easy/difficult it is to commute by bike in your city. Any tips for us newbies? Leave a comment. I’d be happy to hear from you.

Wish me luck readers!

Update [7/28]:

I was able to get the exact distance I’d have to bike from the train station to work using gmap-pedometer. My brother pointed this site out to me a year ago. It’s a cool Google Maps mashup that allows you to manually track your trail on a Google map. This can be useful for joggers, bikers, etc.

Update [7/30]:

I have a scheduled task right after work at 6:30 so I chose not to experiment today. I will be biking it tomorrow -7/31

Update [7/31]:

Rain ( Will try again tomorrow. I’m not up for venturing through rain on my first go at this.

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Yet another reason Iran is evil – They pay only 33cents/gallon at the pump. I guess Toyota won’t be selling many Priuses there.

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Just like the weekend journal edition of the WSJ, daxdesai.com will post some random items for you to peruse. I came accross an article about gas prices recently. Apparantly we (U.S.) have finally passed the $3/gallon mark for gasoline. To my international readers, this means gas in the U.S. is about .79/litre. As a solutions-oriented professional I thought I’d present some suggestions as well as a nice toy.

That’s where this gas-sipping rocket comes in. If it makes it to production it is worthy of a look. It can achieve 100mph while getting 100mpg. It has been approved for production and is slated for late 2008 production. This should give you plenty of time to start saving.

Price will range from $18K-20K. All 3 models will achieve 100mpg and offer a range from 120-350miles.

The Venture One is a 3-wheeler/2-passenger vehicle. It tilts as you turn just as you would on a motorcycle. The tilting is computer controlled and it has drive controls like a normal car. The fully enclosed cockpit claims safety 30x that of a motorcycle. The Venture One is based on the Carver vehicle designed by the Dutch. Check out the video yourself of the inspiration for the Venture One.

Check out the Venture One website. It is full of videos. Looks like a fun commuter.

Related Website Resources:

• AAA Trip Calculator
• Fuel Economy.gov
• Edmund’s Fuel Economy Guide
• Gas Buddy

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“The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. Pound for pound, it will also pack 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company.”

Silicon Valley venture firm, Kleiner Perkins, has apparently invested in $3 million in EEStor Inc., the start-up from Austin, TX. Here are a few highlights of the battery:

• Its a ceramic powder coated with aluminum oxide and glass battery capacitor so there are no chemicals. This makes it extremely safe and clean
• Estimated Range – 500 miles
• Fully charge in 5 minutes
• weighs 400 pounds – 10 times the energy density of a lead-acid battery
• Out performs lithium-ion batteries in power output (better pedal to the metal)

This is awesome. American ingenuity at its best. This has great implications globally to many industries, not just the automotive. Imagine your laptop battery lasting 25x longer and cheaper at the same time. This is an economic and technologic breakthrough with some big and smart money behind it.

Read the full article at Technology Review.

Also check out this nice article from Treehugger.com.

Looks like it is a Kleiner Perkins investment according to Businessweek.com

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Damn son.

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I wonder what Al Gore would say about all that chrome. I’d hate to be driving towards this mirror on wheels.

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• 0-60 in 4 secs
• 135 MPG equivalent
• All-electric
• 100% Sexxxxy

Say hello to Tesla Motors.

p.s. the first 100 cars are sold out and I wasn’t one of them (

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