Solo: Life With an Electric Car [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Noel Perrin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Challenged by a student in his environmental studies class at Dartmouth to do something rather than just talk about lowering pollution levels, Perrin went to Santa Rosa, Calif, and bought an electric car. The vehicle had the drawbacks common to many EVs: powered by a combination of batteries and solar panels on the roof and hood, it had to be recharged frequently (but could use any household outlet); its range was only 40-65 miles, depending on the flatness of the teain; and its top speed was 65 mph, although it used less electrity at lower velocities. Perrin (Fist Person Rural) hoped to drive the car from Santa Rosa to his Vermont home, but the Rockies proved an unsuperable obstacle; he had to have it towed to Illinois. Reading and visits to auto museums taught him that at the turn of the century electric cars vastly outnumbered those with internal combustion engines, a ratio he considers almost certain to return as agitation grows for non-polluting vehicles. (All the major manufacturers in the U.S., Japan and Europe, Perrin notes, will soon be marketing EVs.) A helpful epilogue gives names and addresses of EV manufacturers, dealers, consultants and associations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1 edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393034070
• ISBN-13: 978-0393034073
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,355,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noel planted a seed and left us the manual, who will make it grow?, June 10, 2007

By	Reuben Gathright "rgathright" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up this book from the public library shelves in 1993 on my way home from high school. Fourteen years later, I find myself making the final preparations to building my own electric vehicle. In an era of $3.30 a gallon for gasoline, electric vehicles have finally become cost effective as commuter vehicles. If you have ever been curious about EV's and how they behave in the real world, Solo is a book for you. My review of this book is not a traditional epinions review, I have made an effort to offer some counter points and give you the reader a 2007 perspective on the building and use of electric vehicles (EV's).

The book is about Noel's efforts to acquire and use an electric vehicle in the early 90's, years before the big three automakers even thought of mass producing their own. Since Noel could not buy a commercially manufactured EV he had to purchase a conversion. Conversions come in extensive varieties, from pure solar vehicles to hybrids (combination of a gasoline engine and an electric motor).1 While, I feel Noel's obsession with the environmental impact of EV's a tad obsessive, he does make several other good points towards the ownership of such a vehicle. The story weaves around the attempt to drive the car, Solo, from California to his home in Vermont. Sprinkled throughout, Noel discusses his own efforts to charge the car using solar energy and provides a brief history of these vehicles in the process.

As you read the book you will discover that Noel was an accomplished chatter box. He managed to hitch several rides from strangers who were interested in his car. His social gift also helped him convince business owners to let him charge his EV. The charging of the car required several kilowatts of electricity. Even though he was prepared to pay, the novelty of the car and Noel's charm seemed to give him several free charges. Predictably, gas station owners gave him the most trouble. He had to pay outrageous rates for the electricity to charge his car and once he was expelled from a gas station by the owner! Noel, by the end of his journey across America, was carrying 100ft of power cord so that he could charge his EV. He found himself throwing cord from second floor hotel rooms, plugging into bedside lamps and even using a nail to suspend his power cord on the side of a wooden building!

In Louisiana, we have hot weather all the time, up north Solo and Noel did not. Solo ran into range problems in colder weather. Noel describes his hassles with working around cold weather EV driving like a seasoned veteran. I have yet to read another candid discussion about EV's in cold climates. Future Vermont EV owners, should take notice and read the book!

The book does a great job of discussing the weakest point of electric vehicles today, hills and mountains. Noel's original intention was driving the car from California back to Vermont, but this dream was cut short when he tried to drive the car over Donner Pass, California. The main reason is the 1,000lbs, or more, of batteries the vehicles must carry to provide a suitable range for city driving. Another simple reason is the amount of current required for uphill climbs, 300Amps, compared to 100Amps for driving on flat roads. Lead based batteries tend to lose their rated capacity faster when discharged under high amperage load. As a result, while your ammeter says you are discharging 300Amps climbing a hill, the battery is losing 325Amps. The excess capacity is discharged as thermal energy and through a chemical process called sulfication. The foothills of Donner Pass made Solo travel approximately 25 miles, compared to the estimated 62 mile range the car got in the city. While my explanation is plain, a government report on the testing of the electric S-10 is a great resource to see how hills and battery heating affect the range of EV travel.2.

The most interesting political feature of the book is the support Noel received from the American automotive industry. On the back cover of the book, Sean McNamara wrote a glowing review of the book, he is a member of the Advanced Engineering Staff Electric Vehicles for General Motors. Within the book, Noel ran into a man named Robert D. King. Bob, as he prefers to be called, built his first EV in 1972. He then built several other EV's with features like regenerative braking and weight reduction to allow the EV to climb Mount Washington in the summer of 1978. So what did he do for a living? Bob turned out to be an electrical engineer for General Electric. He was working on an electric car concept for the Ford Motor Company. Leslie Nielsen gave the book a glowing review as well: "Solo by Noel Perrin is a delightful book. It is filled with information, even for those who have already experienced life with an electric car, most enjoyable! The alternative of a future without electric cars is a sorry prospect indeed. Like its star, Solo, the book is quietly moving. Oops!

Summary
In my opinion, Solo Life With An Electric Car is still the book to have for the EV thinking car builder. The core focus of the book, charging and driving, is still the focus of every EV owner. We now have low cost sealed lead acid batteries, but these batteries still charge just as slow as they did when Noel was burning kilowatts. The only worthwhile technology that has been developed since Solo, is the PowerFilm solar panel. Hydrogen Fuel Cells require $1,000 of platinum per KWH and require even more energy to refine the materials during production. Battery charging is still in the dark ages, only one manufacturer, Xantrex is making battery chargers that monitor the temperaturate as well as voltage.

Compounding the efforts to bring EV's mainstream are profiteers. They develop technologies to make EV's better but charge over-inflated prices for their products. For example, batteries. West-Marine has a line of AGM's that would fit perfectly in a converted EV. The batteries retail for (...), yet their wholesale cost is just (...). Anyone can buy the batteries if they sign up for an account at a marine wholesale distributor, but no one knows this. I have found other examples, but that is not the point, we must expose these people as fraud's by producing our own solutions into the public domain.

I gave the book five stars because the subject of EV ownership is not covered in print by anyone else, yet. As a work of non-fiction, I found the book very educational and filled with yankee wit that is sometimes more valuable than a room full of engineers.

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