"Wir haben hart an unserer Leistungsgrenze gearbeitet, bis sich unser Leben schliesslich in der Nacht vom 26. Oktober mit einem neuen Langstreckenweltrekord schlagartig veraendern sollte.."
Yet the company fails/refuses at every turn to explain or even mention why Guinness World Record certification was not sought. And for the media herd(old & "new") the word "Guinness" remains equally taboo.
Sorry guys, jungs - but attempting, claiming, discussing and defending a world record - einen Langstreckenweltrekord - while refusing doggedly ever to utter the word "Guinness" is like pretending not to notice an unusually large black & white elephant in the room..with an enormous head on it.
On a positive note - DBM now report that a replacement range-record test-vehicle/mule will be ready by the end of February - which will obviously leave plenty of time to follow Japan EV Club's exemplary lead and organise the necessary Guinness World Record certification.
Nicht wahr ?
"Ein neuer Versuchstraeger wird nun zurzeit vorbereitet und wird schon Ende Februar fuer den Langstreckentest bei der Dekra zur Verfuegung stehen..."(DBM Energy)
Leaping from elephants & mules..to cats & pigeons:
...obviously we're all hoping - are we not - that DBM are quietly preparing to throw a very dangerously disruptive cat/mule among the "100 mile" pigeons with a Kolibri-enhanced, 200(-ish) mile-per-charge Ford Focus, MiEV/C-Zero, Nissan Leaf/Leap, Honda Fit etc.
Boy - would that ruffle a few fine-fettled feathers or what ?!
If DBM's claims are proven it will obviously represent by far the most important EV development of the last 120(approx) years - and it will be happening at a time when carmakers around the world are launching or preparing to launch pure electric vehicles...all with roughly the same battery-range as a 1997-2003 Toyota RAV4 EV.
Finally - just for the record :
Postscript I: Autoblog Green finally(Feb 3) breaks its silence - almost 2 months after we contacted them and many others in December asking(rhetorically) why they were saying nothing/nix, staying stumm (ie. like all of the countless copycat English-language websites that had eagerly and instantly reported the
original-ostensible October range-record run)
January, 2011
Exclusive: Audi A2 "record" - DBM's EVasive, belated New Year response
Exclusive ? How so, wieso ? Well - simply because the English-speaking media herd is still steadfastly refusing to cover this legitimate controversy. Moreover, all search engines(ie. Google, Bing, Yahoo) seem mysteriously and disturbingly incapable of detecting any English-language dissent on this subject (..sole exceptions Notrickszone & EVUK are being very deeply buried)
DBM Energy's long-awaited German-only(!) Jan 2011 response to a global audience - a month after the entire DBM website was summarily replaced by a single page of Xmas greetings - is sadly even more evasive, woolly and weak than we'd expected. They have for instance still failed to explain:
- why they did not seek or obtain Guinness Book of Records ratification. Compare & contrast the "Miracle of Berlin" with the Japanese "Miracle Mira" - the Guinness-verified record which the German -Lekker venture aimed to displace. AutoBlog Green's Daihatsu Mira headline really says it all:
"Officially Official: Japan EV Club Mira sets Guinness record with 345.23-mile trip"
So please - here's a little no-brainer, ground-rule aside to all EV World Record wannabees - please get yourselves Guinness-proofed if you wanna make it into the World Record Books !
Miracle of Berlin - or Miracle Mira ? When it comes to World Records, Guinness is the Only Game in Town - so the Japan EV Club's Daihatsu officially retains the World Book title ...
As we've pointed out many times, Guinness's track record when it comes to witnessing, validating and publicising EV records is second-to-none(cheers guys - esp. Norris).
And now of course the bitter-sweet irony with this latest record attempt is the fact that in 1999 the world's media refused - with no known exception - to report the Guinness-certified 2,142 km in 24 hours Mitsubishi FTO EV Japanese record in any language at all - despite being blitzed & bombarded by emails from EVUK's elusive "Jim Carlucci" (remember him ?)..
to mention
- so DBM: no Guinness Book representative ? And your initially appointed "Notar"/notary unacceptably AWOL to boot?
- and according to the reports we have read - see Die Zeit and the Financial Times (Germany) "DBM Energy Runs Out of Juice" - DBM's Mirko Hannemann disappeared from view several times for periods up to 40 minutes. Why ? Where to ? Wohin und warum ?
And why did he insist on driving alone ?
And just for the record: why in this ultra-hightech age was the car not fitted with readily available GPS tracking and tacho technology - or with a live "always on" webcam or two - with memory sticks etc to record it all ?
Why would a company that has purportedly developed such revolutionary lithium polymer storage technology potentially worth hundreds of zillions of Euros/dollars - ie. more or less priceless - cut so many corners when finally driving for glory ?
- and we repeat: why did DBM Energy - again bizarrely - never report or make any reference whatsoever to the Audi A2 record on its own website ?!! And incredibly, even now, even after this latest belated German-only January 2011 press statement, the words "Audi A2" still do not appear and have never appeared anywhere at www.dbm-energy.com .
And yet despite all of this, alarm bells of scepticism are apparently still not ring-a-ding-dinging in the ears of 99.999% of English-language media sources.(As mentioned earlier - whilst hundreds of old/new media outlets reported the original "record" run - none of them have since uttered a word re this ensuing controversy)
- DBM: German-language only ! As extraordinary as any other failure is the company's refusal to offer an English-language version of this latest PR rescue effort - despite acknowledging that they have been overwhelmed by the international response. Sorry guys - but you claim to possess a more-or-less priceless technology - yet you can't spare a dime or the time for a face-saving translation ? Given that at least 95% of your global audience neither speak or read German and the Google translation is beyond abysmal ? So exactly what game are you playing ?
Realworld Range - that's what we all want !
Bottom line: the fact is that most of us - most would-be EV owners, most long-time EV campaigners, most sceptics & refuseniks - are no longer interested in one-off range records that fail to translate into the real world. As of 2011 we simply don't want or expect 605 km per charge or even the 589 km that DBM ostensibly achieved on the initial Berlin-Munich leg.
Nein, nein, nein! We don't even need or expect a "mere" 400 km / 250 miles per charge !
Here's what we would happily accept:
A realworld (min-max), regularly recorded range of 280-360 km / 175-225 miles - so just over half the distance claimed by DBM for the Audi A2.
And forget 2,000 recharge cycles - 1,500 cycles at 200 miles per charge would easily deliver the Quantum Leaf - sorry, Leap - that we've campaigned for for so many years. OK - obviously at some point the impact of head-on collisions with trees and other vehicles in petrol-fuelled cars(ie. fireball, fireball,fireball) will need to be compared to the DBM-powered crash-test equivalent - but in the meantime a relatively(by DBM's standards) modest 200 mile range and 1500 charge cycles would suffice to silence all but the most rancid of EV refuseniks.
So how's about it guys ? Hand over the keys of the Audi A2 EV to a trusted, highly informed third party for a week or two ? To German-based Solarmobil.net or Extraenergy.org for instance ? And by all means seal, nail, bolt or otherwise lock down the bonnet/hood if necessary to protect priceless patents & secrets from prying/spying eyes.
Just 200 miles of realworld range, recorded repeatedly, consistently, independently, verifiably.
Serve up that - and we might even pass on the Guinness ...
(See GuinnessWorldRecords.com - and choose between 17 languages...DBM please note !)
December, 2010
Germany's "RAC"(ADAC) & Die Zeit rubbish range record
- have we all been taken for a ride(auf den Arm genommen) ?
From Munich to Berlin - 370+ miles/600+ km - but was it all just an elaborate hoax, a crass publicity stunt by DBM & Lekker Energy ?
Lost in Translation:
Unless you happen to be a German-speaking blogger or de.Googler you will almost certainly be hearing this here & now for the first time:
- all of 16 days ago Germany's historically and inEVitably EV-hostile German Automobile Association ADAC launched a bilious, savage attack on the Audi A2 EV range record set, set up, engineered, orchestrated on October 26th by Lekker Energy and celebrated(prematurely?) lithium cell miracle workers at Berlin-based DBM Energy.
All smiles - after 370+ EV miles ? Click for post-record clip
For more than a month (..most of November) Germans marvelled at the remarkable feat - dubbing it the "Miracle of Berlin"..until that is the still largely lost-in-translation ADAC attack of Nov 28th.
Note: in early December EVUK successfully contacted DBM Energy by phone and email seeking clarification - were these all just,er, empty charges ?
And would DBM at the very least be issuing a sorely needed, surely urgent press release defending themselves against ADAC's scathing criticisms and accusations ? We were politely asked to submit our questions via email. Ominously though, within 48 hours DBM Energy's website was removed and replaced with a single page of multi-tongued Yuletide greetings.
So in similar seasonal spirit - if anyone would like to reciprocate and wish DBM Energy a Merry Xmas, inquire about New Year resolutions etc etc - here are the company's telephone & email contact details:
Tel: Thomas Reckermann
("Publiplikator") +49 030 - 200 898 22
Mobile: +49 170 - 791 999 3
or try +49 30 7007 2890
Fax: +49 30 7007 2898
Email: presse@dbm-energy.com, office@dbm-energy.com
Lekker Energy:
Telefon: +49 (0) 180-11 50 111
or +49 (0) 30 / 430 949 101
Telefax: +49 (0) 180-10 01 176
E-Mail: energieinfo@lekker-energie.de
We've also asked why DBM's erstwhile pre-Xmas website never at any point carried a single reference to the Munich-Berlin "record-breaking" run - the most recent entry in its Presse/Media section was a few months old and concerned DBM Energy's allegedly world-beating yet somehow terrifically unexciting lithium-powered fork-lift trucks.
So - from the Miracle of Berlin(and Autobahn E51) to the Miracle on 34th Street - who believes in Santa Claus now ?
Sorry guys, but - ADAC's charges aside - if you have genuinely conjured up a game-changing energy-storage technology - a lithium Lekkerbissen(ho,ho) - with the potential to revive, resuscitate and recharge the world's auto industry and flat-lining economy - why(in contrast to every common-or-garden 1000lb pumpkin grower, super-fat cat owner etc)
did you never seek Guinness Book of Records validation ...and again...why did you never report or even mention the Munich-Berlin "achievement" on your own website ??(Lekker Energy still does - DBM Energy never did..)
Links:
The ADAC attack of November 28 - German only.
NoTricksZone breaks the English-language silence(Dec 10) - 3 days after EVUK's own inconclusive phone & email contact with DBM Energy.
Die Zeit - "Superbattery - Dubious Record"
Clean Thinking(!): in January 2010 DBM Energy received the "Innovation of Reason" award in Berlin. According to Clean Thinking, DBM Energy had been finding it difficult to attract the attention and interest of major automakers(Quote/Zitat: "Bislang hat DBM Energy allerdings Schwierigkeiten, die Autobauer auf die eigene Technologie aufmerksam zu machen").
Breaking Tidings ! Festive EV* slated to shatter Round The World EV* Record - in "late December"... (*EV = Elf or Elves Vehicle)
(Donner & Blitzen Newswire/Yuletube)
(Dec 27) Well - did Rudolph really "go down in history" - or was it all just pure fantasy ? Red faces all round ? Let's hope not. Click here...oder hier...for latest ...
*************************************
Postscript & post-mortem(below): Paul - R.I.P.
Postscript II: Benediction ? Pope's condom & EV pleas - see our infinite economic/population growth delusion ref below
Postscript III: Rinspeed plans bamboo EV - see our bamboo bike ref below
Postscript IV: St. Paul unveils electric fleet vehicle, charging stations
(St. Paul ?! The Octopus ?!)
October, 2010
60% of new cars sold by 2020 will be electric(pure battery or range-extended) says real EV expert
...with a long, proven track-record of pretty prescient prediction & prognostication
Balls, footballs, crystal balls, 2020 e-Vision: EVUK's own pretty prescient, star-gazing Paul(above,right) takes a startlingly subversive 360° look at the EV universe & ever-spinning space-time continuum in 2020 and beyond.... ("Paul, Paul - We Love Paul!" - click pics & singalong .. with tongue firmly wedged in cheek)
60 % ! Wait a minute guys - you can't say that !
That's outrageous! Haven't you read the agreed "less than 10%" talking points?
Haven't you memorized the script ?
Come on now - let's stick to the safe, corporately correct, approved narrative shall we ?
ie. "2%, 3% ...less than 10% of all new cars sold by 2020 will be all-electric ..less than 25% will feature electric power .."? - as for example Ford CEO David Mondragon predicts or more likely hopes - consult Sept 17 report whilst recalling perhaps Bill Gates' stupendously memorable:
"640k of RAM ought to be enough for anybody"
But 60% electric ? Do you really want to scare the world's crank'n'piston Canutes(yes!), parts suppliers(yes!)* and all those off-the-shelf macho mechanics(yes,yes,yes!) etc out of their highly sensitive skins ?
Thankfully though one auto parts giant - Magna - does seem determined to capitalize eg. via cheaper batteries, E-Car Systems, Ford Focus EV etc.
Click pic for video of race-readied electric Ford Focus on Jay Leno Show ..
Q: When is a Ford not affordable..or available ? A: Yep - when it's electric, obviously.(Exception: Ford Ranger EV..but not the Ford e-Ka)
(Ford - message received & appreciated ! November News update)
Darn it, EV refuseniks ! It seems the "EV's will Slaughter the Blind " ploy didn't wash, guys..
(Oddly, the recently and keenly reported - eg. by the BBC - absurd Car for the Blind drew no sardonic comment at all from the Clarkson/Hammond BBC tribe...)
So let's kick around and crush that other consensus spin-ball currently so popular with so many Rip Van Winkle /Johnny-come-lately EV "experts", RAV4 denialists, EV-hostile PR parrots and lobbyists - namely:
"Second-hand EV's will be virtually worthless within 5 years"
- or 5 minutes down the road - the moment in fact that you drive them out the showroom - and long before you've silently/recklessly mown down your first blind or blind-drunk jaywalker! In other words:
"Please - we're begging you - please stay loyal to oil, to the Infernal Combustion Engine, to real cars for real blokes, folks !"
These are of course just two of the latest increasingly(and encouragingly) desperate anti-EV refrains - spinsults-to-the-intelligence - being eagerly and more or less uncritically trotted out by our (still) chronically compliant corporate chorus-line of PR puppets : as always we're seeing no reference in the mainstream media to:
1) the Inconvenient Fact that over the past 5-6 years many Toyota RAV4 EV's - quite a few of them having clocked well over 100,000 miles on their original batteries - have changed hands on eBay and elsewhere at prices ranging from $50,000 - $100,000 or ..
2) the Inconvenient Fact that an EV's electric motor will run for at least a million miles.
Buy a used EV in, say, 2018 with 70,000 miles on the clock and you will not be inheriting a declining, post mid-life petrol/diesel engine about to spring any number of nasty costly surprises at any time....indeed it's fair to say that an EV with 70k on the clock has barely run itself in - as comparatively fresh in fact as a petrol-engine with just 5-10k under its (fan-)belt.
And of course when you do take your newly purchased used EV for its first service in... 2018 you will NOT - repeat NOT - be faced with anything remotely resembling the following familiarly painful patter from your head-shaking, tutt-tutting local mechanic:
"Bad news I'm afraid ..there's a whole load of work to do on this one - the clutch is pretty hammered ...to be honest you'll be lucky if it survives more than another 6 months...and the exhaust will obviously need replacing before the next MOT.
Oh yes - it looks as if the alternator's given up the ghost.
And the the oojami-flipkjacks(ie.whatever..) for your differential bolt phlanges(whatever you say mate...who am I to argue?) are going to need replacing too - that's quite a BIG job. All-in all I 'd say you're looking at about £1500 worth of work. Apart from that, the engine's had some pretty rough treatment and needs a full retune and there seems to be some overheating - it could be the radiator but I suspect a problem with the oil flow further down the line. The car's in fairly good nick - it should make it to 120,000 maybe another 3-4 years or so before it heads for the scrapheap."
EV's on the other (or indeed second) hand will be a whole lot easier and cheaper to "renew" and rejuvenate: basically it's gonna be all about tyres & brakes folks - plus "normal" corrosion prevention.
Simply replace batteries with next generation lithium every 100,000, 150,000, 200,000++ miles. No nasty, complex, lucrative(for some) surprises. Or to put it another way:
... if Cubans have managed to keep rust-prone classic cars cruising around Havana for more than 50 years - despite tough sanctions and rough roads - there is surely no reason(horrified vested interests aside) why EV's - which are being increasingly designed using smart light composites -
should not outrun & outlast Duracell rabbits by a decade or five. The (m)ad-men should have a field day - and EV's could eventually come to redefine cars as moving metaphors, mobile billboards or shining symbols of eco-longEVity, minimal resource-use, maximum recyclability.
Perfection ? No. 
Will EV's ever be as green as bamboo bicycles ?(Watch video) Probably not. But they may well be a whole lot greener than the PC's, laptops, servers, mobile phones etc that extreme anti-car activists(yes, we hear you) would so hate to live without.
EVUK's 360°, 2020 EVision:
"60% of all new cars sold in the EU and US are now pure battery or range-extended. Battery range has typically now increased to around
250 miles thanks to the silicon clathrate("soccer balls") anodes & cathodes successfully developed by the SWRI in the US(see below).
Even more dramatic range advances are expected in the next 2-3 years as revolutionary long promised lithium air and nanowire/nanotube cells come on stream. Lower cost, 300+ miles charge, 100,000+ mile guarantee, manufactured in China, India, Indonesia..
In 2020 Tata's 1 lakh battery pack ...leads the pack.
In fact it's now possible for cash-strapped carbuyers to buy an entry-level EV fitted with a lithium starter-pack - a slim sandwich providing just 120 miles of range - then gradually over time adding one or two extra "Magna modules" or slim sandwich layers as required. Many are predicting that by 2025 90% of all new cars sold will come with a plug and induction charge capability.
And here's the good-news-from-bad: due to the lack of crank'n'piston maintenance/obsolescence work, repair shops have had to - or cheerfully chosen to - diversify:
- since circa 2015 mechanics have been spreading their wings and training up as full-blown "Energy & Mobility Engineers" - in response to the fact that so many EV owners and prospective buyers now routinely ask car sales staff and mechanics how they can cut their EV-inflated electricity bills - despite saving £1000's on petrol. Clean-clothed mechanics - some now bling & tatoo-less - now spend at least half their working week out and about installing solar systems and providing domestic energy audits. Sales of fully off-grid systems have gone through the roof. In 2020 discounts and tie-in deals on green energy solutions are now often offered as part of an overall EV purchase package.
What's more in 2020 most people - esp. the under-25's - are opting to learn to drive and take their tests in electric cars.
Studies unsurpirsingly confirm that first-time pass rates are significantly higher in EV's - and learners typically require far less road time. No messing about with gear sticks and clutches - a major source of stress and anxiety for young, inexperienced drivers - and arguably as distracting and dangerous at times as talking on a mobile. This is one distinct EV advantage that you won't hear being discussed by our corporate media or by the "EV's will slaughter the blind" brigade.
By 2020 the long awaited, long-resisted influx of price-breaking, high quality EV's from China, India and Russia(see Michael Prokhorov, oil billionaire/Yarovit/Onexim/Putin EV + hybrid, Business Week) have long since forced reluctant US/European carmakers to slash prices. As expected, EV's are proving far simpler and cheaper to design and build(80%+ fewer parts than petrol vehicles). Second-hand EV's are highly sought-after.
..and in 2020 petrol prices are peaking at almost 3 euros/$5 a litre: China, India and other semi-Emerged Economies are draining global reserves as never before. Peak oil panic is palpable. Speculators are cashing in. Fortunately - in contrast to the world's oil wells - the eco-optimist's green glass is half-full. Russian oligarchs, savvy Saudi Roils all know the score:
in 2020 The Color of Money is Green.
And a decade from 2010 even CNBC and Bloomberg TV have seen the green light/given up the fight.(OK - maybe that's one prediction too far, too pie-in-the-sky - where pigs* might fly)
(*not to be confused - ever - with scapegoat P.I.G.S. of course..)
Finally, here are a few more currently & predictably popular, strawman spin-balls to watch out for:
"EV's Are Not a Silver Bullet","EV's Are Not the Answer", "Where will all the Copper/Lithium/Rare Earth etc Come From ?" etc
Yes, apparently - "experts say" - electric cars will not solve all of the world's ills.
They will not for example break the most deafening silence of all and finally force the business world, the political right and left - humanity as a whole - to seriously and publicly address the overarching issue, the fundamental threat, the great Two-Tiered Taboo, the Double Bubble, the double-edged Damocles' Sword.
That's right - we're talking - daring to talk - about
The Dual Delusion of ..
1) Infinite Economic Growth and
2) Infinite Population Growth
.... in a finite world
So: will there be enough copper, lithium, rare earth for all those EV's ?
Given a world population of .. how many exactly did you have in mind ?
15 billion by 2050 ? 25 billion by 2100 ?
So rather than narrowly, deliberately and selectively focusing on the micro challenge - EV's and the raw materials required to build them - the world's increasingly desperate army of EV debunkers need to urgently begin risking their necks - and possibly their careers - by openly and freely discussing and tackling that most macro of all macro challenges:
- the Dual Delusion of Infinite Population/Economic Growth.
See Amazon books:
The Growth Delusion Exposed and The Growth Illu$ion(Richard Douthwaite)
The Constant Economy(Zac Goldsmith)
Rare Earth indeed !
But wait! News just in! Japanese scientists may have discovered an alternative to rare earth !(And no - they're not astronomers !)
Postscript & post-mortem: just a week after British-born Paul posted up the above Pavlov-flavoured EVUK-reflex piece it has been reported that British-born Paul(the Octopus) has been found dead at the Sea Life Aquarium in Germany.
Thanks Paul for surviving just long enough to help flesh out & embellish our own collection of first-thru-sixth sense prognostications.
(Conspiracy theories/spoofs abound...has he faked his own
death ? Did the real Paul - never a beetle - die in July..?)
September, 2010
DOE, SWRI aim to quadruple EV range
by 2014 
