CalPIRG and Set America Free/Tesla Motors

Set America Free

THE SET AMERICA FREE COALITION brings together prominent individuals and non-profit organizations concerned about the security and economic implications of America’s growing dependence on foreign oil. This coalition, organized by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), promotes a blueprint which spells out practical ways in which real progress toward energy security can be made over the next several years.

TWO THIRDS OF U.S. OIL CONSUMPTION IS DUE TO THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR. SET AMERICA FREE believes that by spearheading a global effort to transition the transportation sector to next-generation fuels and vehicles that can utilize them, the United States can deny its adversaries the wherewithal they use to potentially harm us. Doing this will also protect our quality of life and our economy against the effects of cuts in foreign energy supplies and rising costs of oil.

Since America consumes a quarter of the world’s oil supply while holding a mere 3% of global oil reserves, it is forced to import over 60% of its oil, and this dependency is growing. Since most of the world’s oil is controlled by countries that are unstable or at odds with the United States this dependency is a matter of national security. The petrodollars we provide nations with radical extremeists who foment hatred against the United States contribute materially to the terrorist threats we face. In time of war, it is imperative that our national expenditures on energy be redirected away from those who use them against us.

This coalition believes that even if the underwriting of terror were not such a concern, our present dependency creates unacceptable vulnerabilities including economic implications, higher costs and of course, environmental implications.

With appropriate vision and leadership, Set America Free believes that we can make major strides in a positive direction by exploiting currently available technologies and infrastructures to greatly diminish oil consumption particularly in the transportation sector.

Mr. Eyal Aronoff does background research for Set America Free policies, many of which have been implemented. Mr. Aronoff is also the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Quest Software, a well known author in the software development field, conference lecturer and keynote speaker.

Guy Negre and MDI Air Car
Shiva Vancat is vice president of MDI and represented Mr. Guy Negre, the CEO and founder of the France-based MDI group, the inventor of a break through compressed air vehicle technology.

Mr. Negre is an aeronautics and automotive and engineer who began his quest to make an eco-friendly engine that ran on compressed air in 1993. He currently has several protypes of the compressed air vehicle operating and is poised to roll out the manufacturing of the vehicle worldwide. The vehicle will achieve a 100 miles per gallon equivalent, cost less than $20,000 for a six-seater with a maximum speed of 90 mph. What’s more, it will emit practically zero pollution.

But the technology has applications beyond vehicles, one as a power generating source and another in agriculture as an alternative to ethyl bromide, a chemical banned by the UN b/c of it’s effect on global warming.

Negre has also devised a radical new way of manufacturing and shipping: Instead of building a gigantic plant in China, Malaysia or Brazil, costing one billion dollars that manufactures 250,000 cars annually, and then ships them to dealers around the world, he devised a far greener, planet friendly concept of small manufacturer/dealer plants that produce 4 – 8000 vehicles a year and serve local markets.

With this concept, Mr. Negre has achieved several goals:
1) To introduce this technology on a global level without a billion dollar investment
2) To reduce the CO2 footprint on the shipment of the vehicles from production to market
3) To reduce the MSRP on vehicles by over 30% from the savings on the transportation and dealership costs.

Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors designs and sells high-performance, highly efficient electric sports cars — with no compromises. Tesla Motors cars combine style, acceleration, and handling with advanced technologies that make them among the quickest and the most energy-efficient cars on the road.

Tesla Motors' first production vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, is an all-electric sports car with a top speed of 125 mph (and that’s limited for safety). The cost of powering the vehicle – an estimated at 2/100ths of a cent per mile.

Prototypes were introduced to the public in July 2006, and the Tesla Roadster was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in December 2006 as the recipient of the magazine's "Best Inventions 2006 - Transportation Invention" award. Demand has been high for the first "Signature One Hundred" set of fully equipped Roadsters, which sold out in less than three weeks. As of May, more than 600 Tesla Roadsters have been reserved and 400 more are on the waiting list.

Tesla also plans to offer home roof mounted solar-photovoltaic systems, that will offset power used by the home charger, allowing 50 miles of travel per day without burdening the power grid, thus making the package "energy positive" for a driver whose average daily mileage is less than that.

Tesla is also currently working on an announced but unrevealed sedan, code-named "WhiteStar", which may be introduced in 2009 as a 2010 model. It is being designed as an alternative to cars such as the BMW 5 Series and the Audi A6, with an estimated price of $50,000-70,000.[9] WhiteStar is to be built in a new plant in New Mexico.

When Tesla set out to build a high-performance electric car, the biggest challenge was obvious from the start: the battery.

The Tesla Roadster's battery pack represents the biggest innovation in the Tesla Roadster and is one of the largest and most advanced battery packs in the world combining basic proven lithium ion battery technology with their own unique battery pack design to provide multiple layers of safety.

It's light, durable, recyclable, and it is capable of delivering enough power to accelerate the Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. The battery stores enough energy for the vehicle to travel about 220 miles without recharging, something no other production electric vehicle in history can claim.