Getting any vehicle to hit 300 mph in less than 5 seconds during a quarter mile drag race does not happen without a lot of time, effort and planning. That’s something that only the best Top Fuel dragsters are capable of. But getting a solar powered electric racer to go that fast? Naah, never gonna happen.

Don’t tell that to Australian Michael Fragomeni and his Top EV Racing team, which includes engineers, aerodynamicists, fabricators, and robotics experts. They have been working on just such a car for the past 5 years. They estimate it will take the equivalent of 2500 horsepower to get the job done. If successful, their electric dragster, Are’d Up, will be setting elapsed times at the drag strip equivalent to the best modern Top Fuel machines. Maybe even better.

Fragomeni is not only the lead engineer and project manager, he is also the team’s primary driver. According to Dragzine, the first goal of his Arc’d Up dragster is to smash the existing world land speed record for electric powered vehicles, currently held by The Buckeye Bullet, a car built by the Center For Automotive Research at Ohio State University. It went 307.7 mph record earlier this year at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It would also surpass the record attempts of drag racing legend Don Garlits and his Swamp Rat EV dragster. Garlits came up short of reaching 200 MPH earlier this year, leaving the door open for someone else to snag the record..

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of Fragomeni’s dream.

Photo: Top EV Racing

America’s city governments continue to embrace bike rental programs as safer, healthier transportation options for “last mile” commuters, and the latest city to embrace the European-style trend is the Emerald City of Seattle.

Seattle’s “Pronto” bike rental program claims to be “the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest”, and will start off with 500 bikes and 50 stations in downtown Seattle. For its part, the city’s government seems thrilled with the launch. “This is an important day for the city of Seattle as we introduce new, progressive transportation options for residents and visitors alike,” explains Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. “I am proud that the city could help make this milestone a reality. We look forward to expanding the program to additional Seattle neighborhoods next year.”

You can read more about Seattle’s new pronto bike rental system below, in an article by Cynthia Shahan that was originally published over at our sister site, Cleantechnica. Enjoy!

Seattle Bike Share Starts, Supports Seattle Bicycle Master Plan

Day 1 of the years-in-the-making bike-sharing program for Seattle started last week with 500 soft green bikes. But this is just part of Seattle’s big bike push. The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan stipulates adding more than 400 miles of cycling facilities. This gradual addition over the next 20 years will expand the 135-mile network already in place.

Pronto Cycle Share (map of stations) welcomed a happy crowd to the opening, complete with the program’s first round of 500 bicycles hitting the streets thanks to a combination of public and private financing. King County and the City of Seattle provided grants, as well as the corporate sponsors providing some of the funding.

The event included an inaugural ride from Benaroya Hall to Pioneer Square and speeches by local leaders and program officials. Seattle’s new program sports 7-speed commuter bicycles with a pedal-powered headlight. The lightness of color matches lighter bikes compared to cycle share bikes used in other cities. The bicycles are similar to a bicycle manufactured by Arcade Cycles, a French company.

A key fob is used by participants. The key fob unlocks the bike at any of 50 stations that are located in downtown Seattle. These neighborhoods are Capitol Hill, First Hill, Belltown, South Lake Union, the University District, Eastlake, Pioneer Square, and the International District.

Seattle Pi shares that this Seattle bike share starts a first (in the US) for bike shares — helmets are included in the rental. They are found in cabinets at the rental station. The helmets are cleaned when they are returned there and inspected before being reused.

As is often the case with these, the bike share seems to be aimed at short rides. The first 30 minutes are free for an unlimited number of rides. If the bike is gone 24 hours, it will be reported as stolen and you might be charged $1,200.

The Puget Sound Business Journal notes that Alaska Airlines is the main sponsor of Pronto. The company is contributing $2.5 million over 5 years to the program. Group Health is sponsoring 15 docking stations. Other sponsors include Seattle Children’s Hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Vulcan, REI, and Spectrum Development Solutions

Seattle natives seem to have that environmental zest for community and outdoor activity that separates those “doing” and “living” from those watching life passively. This is another beautiful note for a city set on reducing carbon footprints and enjoying community. As Seattle encourages bicycling in everyday life, it encourages an upward spiral for energetic health.

Bouncing easily along on a bicycle balances the right and left hemispheres of the brain and makes a commute a boon to brain chemistry. Cycling increases circulation and balances endorphins, those magical happiness chemicals that synthesize in one’s bloodstream. It is no wonder that bike shares doubled in 2013 and continue to grow.

After bitter courtroom battles and a brutal stare-down of dealership lobbying groups across the country in a bid to establish a unique (in the auto industry) direct-to-customer sales model, it looks as if Elon Musk has blinked first, if his comments on Autoline Detroit last week are to be taken at face value.

“We may need a hybrid system,” explained Musk, in answer to an Autoline question about scaling up his fledgling car company. “… a combination of our own stores, and some dealer franchises.” (emphasis mine).

If it happens, it would be a stunning turnaround for both Tesla Motors and Elon Musk, who have built a rabid following and loyal customer base in part because of its radically different approach to selling cars and the transparency and customer access afforded by the lack of a franchisee/middle-man. You can read more about Musk’s apparent surrender in the article, below, which originally appeared on Cleantechnica.

Tesla Going The Way Of Franchise Dealerships? Elon Musk Hints, Yes!

Elon Musk touting the idea of franchise Tesla dealerships? Sounds about right, doesn’t it? Wait- what!?

In a rather surprising comment — but, I guess he makes those a lot, doesn’t he? — Musk recently noted that as Tesla continues to expand it may need to utilize franchised dealerships, in addition to its Tesla Stores.

That’s a bit of a turnaround for Musk — and a bit humorous considering how hard the dealerships have been fighting against Tesla — but I guess that there’s some logic there. Once Tesla begins selling the Model X, and more importantly the Model 3, the potential is there for huge growth — perhaps a mixture of franchising and direct sales would be the right choice?

The comment was made in a recent face-to-face interview with Musk conducted by Autoline Daily’s John McElroy. Here’s McElroy’s summation of the question: “When I asked him if he could really scale up his retail model in all 50 states of the US and asked how they would handle maintenance and repairs. Musk admitted that relying exclusively on company stores probably was not enough.”

Here’s Musk’s exact words: “We may need a hybrid system, with a combination of our own stores and some dealer franchises.”

Some ambiguity there, but the comments do square up with those made by Tesla’s Legislative Director Jim Chen last year at an industry meeting.

“In a closed door regulatory meeting in fall 2013, two witnesses cited Tesla’s Legislative Director Jim Chen who told a room full of industry stakeholders Tesla only means to sell factory direct until it reaches an undefined minimum volume threshold,” Hybrid Cars notes. “At the time it was unclear whether Chen/Tesla meant such a thing, but this otherwise confirms what dealer associations have said, namely, that Tesla cannot likely grow the whole business to support Model 3 and beyond to the scale it wants with all that on its shoulders.”

With the release of the Model X fast approaching, I guess that we’ll probably find out sooner rather than later if there’s anything to these comments.

We love IndyCar here at Gas 2, and that has as much to do with the series’ emphasis on clean, renewable ethanol biofuels as it does with 240+ MPH wheel-to-wheel racing speeds and some of the closest competition this side of- well, anything! And, with the 2014 season over, news about the 2015 season of IndyCar racing is starting to slowly emerge, and the most exciting news of 2015 is bound to be the appearance of visually distinct aerodynamic packages for Chevy and Honda-powered teams.

Last week, a sharp-eyed observer caught this (somewhat blurry) look at a Chevy-powered Penske undergoing road course testing at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.

@marshallpruett rumor has Penske at COTA with this…watcha think? pic.twitter.com/4Msp8qJA8H

— John Sabol (@JohnJohnSabol) October 14, 2014

Veracity of the photo was proven by IndyCar commentator Marshall Pruett …

@JohnJohnSabol Yep.

— Marshall Pruett (@marshallpruett) October 14, 2014

… and which was followed up by still more “spy photos”.

@JohnJohnSabol @marshallpruett @jonathanlparker @jonathon_klein Here’s a few more close ups. Shot from a mile away. pic.twitter.com/IKAIBQwwEL

— Vance Facundo (@vfacundo) October 15, 2014

The move to unique aero PKGs for Chevy and Honda teams will bring a new dynamic to the series, which has relied on spec chassis for the last few “recovery” years, and should, also, make the series more exciting for casual fans who will more easily be able to tell what engine is powering their favorite drivers. Whether or not one PKG will give a team a huge advantage on any given track remains to be seen.

You can check out the pictures from the Tweets above, below, which I’ve “pulled” in case they get deleted from Twitter down the road. Enjoy!

IndyCar 2015: Chevy Aero PKG Caught Testing at COTA

The rise of plug-in vehicles brings with it many benefits and opportunities to improve industries beyond the automobile. Ford has joined an effort with seven other automakers to develop a universal language between cars and utilities that will let the two communicate via the cloud for a variety of purposes.

Ford is joined by Honda, BMW, Chrysler, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, GM, and Toyota, along with power companies across the United States in develop a method for all cars and utilities to easily communicate. The two-way communication could, for example, be used to stagger the charging of plug-in vehicles so as to not overload the grid around dinner time. The opt-in program will offer financial incentives to participants as the companies try to encourage being part of a bigger electrical ecosystem.

Smart homes equipped with integrated air conditioning systems already do something similar, alternating use during periods of high demand to prevent an overload. Another potential benefit to this system down the road will be the ability of utilities to store and draw-upon energy stored in the big battery banks of many electric vehicles. This would make storing green energy from wind or solar power a lot more feasible with careful regulation, and studies have shown that connected smart homes use as much as 88% less electricity than the average dwelling.

Of course there are those privacy advocates who don’t like the idea of the power company determining when they plug-in, and for now there’s the option to decline the utility’s request to pause charging.