A wonerful story of survival!

I'd really like to see a story about Shell's annual Eco Marathon. Team Microjoule of france holds the record for MPG with their 2006 entry which got 11,800+ miles per gallon. There were hydrogen and electric cars there too...

I always think of Sun Tsu's art of war, when I think of the Shell Eco Marathon. "Keep your friends close, and enemies closer..."

The Solectria Sunrise was ahead of it's time. James Worden and Solectria now make some of the best Solar inverters and systems in the world. I've heard he and his wife still drive their private owned sunrise total electric vehicles.

I'd love to see a major company start making composite light weight vehicles like the Sunrise. The closest one is aptera with it's total electric. Very nice.

James Woden is and will always be ahead of the world and will get his recognition as other catch up and see how advanced his is. His company also does adanced drive systems for plug-in hybrids and many other projects. He's a hero of mine and I often tell about his when I speak about renewable energy and plug-ins.  

Solectria also converted a number of [Geo/Chev] Metros  and S10 pickups. For moderate range and road speed, they were fine--even in cold climates...Again, we have a case of a neat vehicle offering only a complex, expen$ive prime mover...They shud of- fer a value-leader version with the moderate motor, 4-5 speed grinder, boat-batts [96 VDC system]...Minus batts [about $600-$700 at 'BigBox Stors'], this car shud cost less than an ICE version!..Aaron Allen..

 I was so happy to see this article. The Sunrise was the few designed from the battery up car at that time.  Pall Haffer's electric step van that had the first electric controller and motor integrated drive system(Siemens/GE) in the Forty's was the first since the 1900"s. The tall battery cell he designed for his step-van could be quick changed out from roll up panels on the side is still the industry standard for industrial EV's to this day.  AeroEnviorment First EV0 was in the same category where the battery and its health and welfare was the starting point of the car design. 

James vision was amazing,  I had the pleasure of watching the bright yellow Sunrise roll out of our car bay after we worked night and day to install that record breaking NiMHx battery pack. That car chassis was designed to be made the same way as a modern powerboat is made in production. On the east coast it made perfect sense. A proven high volume production method that was radically different from any of the Big 3/4 that it must of scared and threatened the Big shot Auto Execs. They were telling the world that it was impossible to make an EV go much over 150 miles, and here was the physical contradiction.

A sad part of all this is that James truly believed that one of the Big auto Co.'s would just step in and buy his dream car and then put it in to production. He put it on a silver plater for them to jump forward into the EV future. They just saw him as a threat and as an embarrassment. If they had spent the money on the Sunrise that they spent on lawyers to fight the Calif mandate. would we be living in a world where GM did not go bankrupt???