Ford, which bought Norway-based Think in 1999 for $23 million and invested $100 million in electric vehicle battery technology since then, will instead focus on developing fuel cell and hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles to meet environmental regulations for cars and trucks, spokesman Tim Holmes told Reuters.

"The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environmental transport for the mass market," Holmes said...
Other automakers have also backed away from pure electric vehicles. Ford's rival General Motors Corp. , the world's largest automaker, spent over $1 billion to develop the GM EV1 electric vehicle in the 1990s. But the EV1 also suffered from a limited range of less than 100 miles before it needed hours of recharging time, and GM stopped building the EV1 a few years ago.
"Battery electric vehicles are not there yet technologically," said Jim Kliesch, a research associate with the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and co-author of "The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks."

"Nobody has found a way to build a battery that is cheap, can quickly recharge and allows you to drive long distances," he said.
.....

Well, one thing is clear; Tilley and Kibbey want to prove them wrong. I hope they do! (Vlad)

http://www.remnantsaints.com/AlternativeUtilities/Transportation/Tilley/index.html

Tilley Electrical Vehicle and Generator
Our team is putting forth a proposal to manufacture and market the generator .
', 'Endless charger cranks out up to 10 kw to keep battery pack fully charged. Can be applied to an electric automobile, a house, a shop, a store, a hospital, a truck refrigeration system. The possibilities are endless, the market is ready and waiting.

See tilleyfoundation.com

The transformed 1981 DeLorean, a TEV charger-supported electric car, runs in excess of 130 mph, optimal speed being 70 mph. The TEV keeps the batteries fully charged at all times. The road tested car can accelerate from 0 to 95 MPH over one quarter mile distance, outperforming a Corvette. It can burn rubber coming off the starting block. It will be publicly demonstrated at the Nashville Super Speedway stadium Sept. 7, 2002 to a crowd estimated to be 10,000 people.

The shop in which the car was made was run on energy from the TEV. Units can be added for cumulative power output. Two units would produce up to 20 kw; three would crank out 30 kw, etc.

Six units have been made. The bugs are worked out. It weights about 27 pounds.

Our Role
August 30, 2002: I spoke with inventor, Carl Tilley for about an hour by phone. He said he would be willing to have our team manufacture his Tilley Electrical Vehicle charger, if we can present to him a viable proposal.

If you are interested in helping, please contact us.
', 'Sterling D. Allan

Related Sites
Electric Vehicles of America - conversion kits with electric motor, cables, wiring, controller, instructions, video -- everything but the car and the batteries. Add a TEV to it for the ever-present charge source and you don't have to worry about recharging. ", "Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas - list of electric vehicles now on the market. Add a TEV to it for the ever-present charge source and you don't have to worry about recharging.

Regards
Svein Utne

BREAKING NEWS

Bobbie Allison will attempt to set a world distance record for electric vehicles at the Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday Sept 7th starting at 8 am. Bobbie will be driving Carls electric DeLorean (converted recently) at speed up to 120 mph.

I called and talked to Carl Tilley the inventor of the TEV(Tilley Electric Vehicle) and principal of the Tilley Foundation and asked him whether it
was Tesla technology that was powering the electric DeLorean and he said Tesla was his idol.
', 'Naturally he would not go into detail. Carl indicated he has been perfecting the technology for 18 years and finally broke the code this year and made a crash program to convert a DeLorean to electric power do demonstrate this revolutionary technology.

He is using an Advanced dc motor, a DPC Controller - a local friend Damon Crockett is the producer of the DPC controller http://www.dcpowersystems.com - and he is using Wal-Mart Batteries.

The Tesla Black Box will keep the batteries charged at all times. In other words it will supply all the energy when needed. Their electric converted DeLorean model will weigh only 2 1/2 lbs over the origional curb weight or about 3,000 lbs.

It has done 102 mph in the quarter mile and should go continuously around the Nashville Super Speedway any where from 80 to 130 mph for and
unspecified distance, baring any parts failure.

I know this sounds impossible with present knowledge of power systems and basic laws of
conservation of energy. He is apparently is drawing energy from the Zero Point to the black box, what ever that is. ie energy particles in a the vacuum of space. Tesla used similar technology to Power his electric Pierce-Arrow in 1931.', '
We did an extensive story in our recent print edition of Electrifying Times Vol 8 No 3 on this technology.

They just took the electric DeLorean on to the superspeedway yesterday and both Carl and Bobbie Allison drove the car and according to Bobby Allison it handeled fine with plenty of power. Carl said: "it was scary on the steep banked turns which one needs to go at least 80 mph to keep from tumbling to the inner rail".

All the major motor car zines will be there and Electrifying Times will have a representative covering this potentially ground-breaking demonstration, which if allowed to proceed to production could free us from fossil fuels
and hopefully save the planet.

Carl indicated he has been flooded with calls from DeLorean owners for him to convert their DeLoreans to electric power.

He is getting around 1500 emails a day.
cktilley@b... cktilley@ bellsouth.net

They have invited all the major car mfgs and the demonstration is free and open to the public.

All the press will get box seats on the main straight away.

Stay tuned to www.electrifyingtimes.com for the latest information and of course their website that has all the history in the making information, as well as up to date stories and directions on how to get to the Nashville
Superspeedway on the 7th of Sept.

http://www.tilleyfoundation.com

Bruce Meland, editor and publisher Electrifying Times, etimes@teleport.com

I wish "godspeed" to the Tilley Foundation for the record run in Nashville on 2002-09-07. http://www.tilleyfoundation.com/

Dipl.-Ing. B. Nurnberger, Yokohama, Japan

This shows again how important is to properly prepare such important events. On the other hand, with only about 200 people in attendance (expected about 10,000) they should better try again, with two cars and much better media coverage, if they realy have something to show. Here is a press release about the event:

Tilley Demo Prematurely Terminated by Wheel Bearing Failure
Press Release
Sept. 8, 2002 1:35 am MST
', 'by Sterling D. Allan

Anticipating 10,000 spectators to see his "back to the future" DeLorean converted to an electric car with endless charger, inventor Carl Tilley met with massive disappointment when a wheel bearing gave out after a few warm-up laps Saturday, Sept. 7 at the 80,000-seat Nashville Superspeedway, attended by a meager 200 people, mainly consisting of regional die hard fans of alternate energy technologies.

"DeLorean's are notorious for this," commented a DeLorean owner in attendance. "I had two bearings go out in one month once."

The failure was unrelated to the technology being demonstrated, but was enough to scrap the heavily promoted event.

"Mr. Tilley seemed pretty discouraged," reported Ken Rumminger, who drove from Greenville, S. Carolina to attend the event and report on behalf of Greater Things News Service, who appear to have been the only ones to provided continuous reporting so that there would be some kind of live coverage of the Tilley demonstration. http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Tilley/

Channel 5 from Nashville was on hand to document the event, but they were not sure they were going to mention this except perhaps briefly in their ten-o-clock news. "We've cried 'wolf' too many times on this kind of thing," they said. "We'll wait until there is a successful demonstration to give this more prominent coverage."
Tilley's DeLorean is fitted with a proprietary on-board endless charger that works on principles not acknowledged by the currently prevailing models of physics. An array of twelve batteries in series runs the 170-volt electric motor; and the motor runs the charger, which keeps the batteries topped.
Conceptually, the car could be driven continuously, never stopping, for even thousands of miles, until something mechanical gave out - such as a wheel bearing.

Jan Roos, a mechanical engineer who flew down from Massachusetts as a freelance consultant for Channel 5 news in Nashville, commented that even with this demonstration of 19-20 miles, the car traveled two-thirds the distance expected to be achieved by twelve 12-volt batteries powering an electric vehicle, taking into consideration the 6,000 pound car, with its aerodynamic shape, going at 60 mph. According to Roos, computer modeling says that the car would need to go 52 miles before surpassing the "max" point, given existing battery and motor capabilities.

The car has been test driven in various settings over the past month including a 201-mile stint, just short of the 220 mile record for an electric vehicle. The TilleyFoundation.com website features a video of their DeLorean out-performing a Corvette.

Tilley intended to drive his car for a continuous 700 miles before thousands of witnesses at the Nashville Superspeedway that he rented for a large sum. He did not charge an admittance fee to those who came.

"At 200 miles, we can definitely say that we have something extraordinarily efficient," commented Roos. "At 700 miles, we would know that we are dealing with a power plant that operates better than anyone would have imagined possible, indicating an entirely new technology."

"It looks like a closed system," said Roos, who scoped out the car from top to bottom for any possible cheater mechanisms. "There is no room for anything else, such as a hidden engine or extra batteries," he concluded.

However, the stresses of race track driving exacerbated a problem waiting to happen in the 1981 DeLorean. Race cars are built with a suspension specifically tailored to the racing environment. Though the DeLorean looks sporty, it is not designed for race track driving.

About ten minutes into the warm-up laps, having completed some 13-15 laps in front of around 200 people in attendance, Tilley heard a "pop" as he was rounding a corner at 95 mph as the bearing in his left, rear wheel began going out.

"This car is not going to move again today," came a rumor from the pit.

After a brief look-over in the pit, Tilley headed back out on the track to complete three or four more laps, when the bearing gave out all together. The DeLorean had to be towed from the track.

Jerry Atkins, who has invested in Tilley Foundation technology, seemed unphased by what happened, because it was completely "unrelated to the technology" - an unfortunate fluke. "I've seen this car run many times. I've seen it tested. I'm confident that it works."

Tim Ventura, who has reproduced a lifter technology, commented that this "free energy" technology in general seems to be camera shy. As strange as that sounds, another inventor who claims to have a device that draws energy from the aether, said that his machine that has been operational for six years will stop working at times when certain people come near.

Several comments coming in through the website were not so forgiving, such as this one from an anonymous source. "The TEV is an obvious fraud. The only folks that DeLorean will be taking for a ride, is Mr. Tilley's investors. The batteries will last just long enough to take them to the bank."

At one point, spectators rumored that Tilley would try to repair the bearing and commence the demonstration. Tilley was also reported as suggesting that "next time" he would have two cars running at the same time and that he would use a more robust car that could handle race speeds over and extended period of time.

While the car was in the pit prior to its final run, a volt meter was put on the batteries. The spectators watched in amazement as they saw the voltage go up even as the car was just sitting there. "It is as if is recharging from the sky or something," reported Rumminger.

In an interview a week prior, Tilley said that the electricity behaves differently in this system than usual. He calls it "cold electricity." "700 amps can go through a cable the size of a pencil." The unusual properties of the electricity in this system may be in part responsible for the ability of
the batteries to handle the large charge-discharge pressures being put on them, which normally would cause them to rapidly deteriorate. Additionally, in order to keep the batteries from being charged too quickly, he runs the energy through a "charge controller." "I blew up a lot of batteries when I was figuring out how to do this," said Tilley.

A check of the Tilley Foundation website throughout the day did not reveal any information about the events of the hitherto much-touted day, except earlier when "Updates Today Saturday September 7th" appeared on their "validation" page, with the first entry: "8:00 am" left blank. As of midnight after the event, nothing had been reported.

"Despite this setback, one of the highlights of the event was the networking of people that took place," said Rumminger, who spent seven hours talking with Roos after they left the stadium.

Atkins spoke of several other technologies that the Tilley Foundation has developed or that they plan to develop, such as the business power unit that provided ample electricity to the 1800-square-foot shop where the car was converted. He also anticipates a smaller version that could power a laptop computer or a cell phone. "Maybe even a watch," he added.

The components in the charger device are mostly "off-the-shelf" types of items, and inexpensive. Tilley uses regular automobile 12-volt batteries.
The Tilley Foundation has contingency plans of what to do in the event of Tilley's death; or what to do if the board of directors are all killed. Ultimately, the blueprints would get posted on the internet for all to see and build, as the final resort.

I will keep you informed.

Respectfully,

Carl Tilley