Forrest North
June 29, 2011 Past blog posts
No comment I had the pleasure of meeting Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, on June 13th. Mr. Ghosn was at Stanford for his daughter’s graduation. While there, he toured several places on campus, including the site of the Stanford Solar Car Project, the project that consumed most of my college years. Back then, we worked out of a dusty shack at the edge of campus, unfit for VIP visitors. Now the project is in a clean, faculty-supported modern garage. Mr. Ghosn’s visit seemed natural, and the students weren’t the least bit flustered. One of them told me Germany’s PM had just visited a few weeks back. Wow, times have changed. So have the solar cars–check out the latest one in progress:
I enjoyed watching Mr. Ghosn’s reaction to the solar car team. He seemed impressed with how advanced the student’s projects are, and he barely touched the surface. I am amazed at what these brilliant kids are doing, and it was awesome to see Mr. Ghosn shares my feelings.
I was one of only a few alumni who showed up to meet Nissan’s visionary, and the only person to drive up in a Leaf. Mr. Ghosn talked about how advanced the drivetrain is, but acknowledged that the body has not caught up yet. Funny, that is my only criticism of the Leaf. Mr. Ghosn also said he does not believe there is a range problem, only a charge point issue. Apparently, he hasn’t checked out PlugShare!
Nissan, under Ghosn’s lead, took a $5 billion bet that the world is changing, and I think it’s paying off. There is room for improvement, but Nissan (along with GM) has done a nice job of leading the charge.
-Forrest
No comment We recently sent out anonymous surveys to 1000+ members of our PlugShare user base to get a feel for who are users are and what they want. A lot of it was generic demographic stuff, but I wanted to share some of the more interesting questions.
Here’s an interesting look at the common use case for electric vehicle enthusiasts and purchasers:
This reinforces a lot of the research out there that shows electric cars will likely be the second or third vehicle in the household. I think this especially makes sense for families who may often take long road trips and don’t wish to make sacrifices by limiting themselves to a 100-300mi range.
The next question aimed to find out why our users were interested in electric cars:
So it looks like the majority of our users are interested in electric cars for reasons around global warming and oil consumption. A surprisingly large chunk of users are interested simply because they love technology and want to see new cars on the market.
Finally, we posed a trust question to see who our users are looking towards for answers:
Interestingly enough, PlugShare edged out all participants in this survey (undoubtedly a bit of selection bias there). Perhaps even more interesting is the disparity between Nissan and General Motors among electric vehicle enthusiasts. While GM may have captured a larger audience with the marketing campaign for the Volt, it seems like the early adopters are looking towards Nissan for answers in this new era of transportation.
That’s it for now. Will post more responses when we send out our next round of surveys!
-Armen
Comment No gasoline has numerous advantages. The most important to me are decreasing dependence on foreign oil and minimizing environmental impact by preventing both carbon emissions and drilling. Those are probably the primary reasons most people purchase or want to purchase electric vehicles. Another obvious reason, saving money at the pump. Of course I appreciate that, too! Yet, there are so many more reasons to love electric.
No gasoline means I am no longer supporting gasoline companies. They are the richest companies the world has ever seen, yet still receive billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies. And don’t get me started on the spills.
No gasoline means less maintenance. No oil changes. No smoking engines. No wear and tear at every start. I cringe when I start internal combustion engines thinking about the starter grinding against the flywheel, the solenoid sliding the pinion forward on a soft bushing, the cylinders compressing air and fuel under tremendous pressure with very little lubrication until the oil is warm, pumping through hundreds of pathways to hundreds of bearing surfaces.
No gasoline means no grimy gas station stops, no waiting at the pump, and no gasoline smell. Also no gas station junk food, a regularity of mine while waiting for the tank to fill.
No gasoline means a more relaxing ride. I do not mind red lights anymore because I am no longer idling, polluting and wasting money. I had no idea the stress that added to my drive until it was no longer there. Now I let people cross the street in front of me when I have the right of way because I do not mind sitting still in my car. Without wasting money and polluting, being polite has no cost, only the upside of positive feelings.
No gasoline means less noise pollution. The start is silent. My music is clearer (and I can nap in the car listening to music without running down the battery significantly). Another recently discovered advantage, no one can tell I’m in a car when I’m talking on my speakerphone.
Finally, I drive electric because it’s fun! I am effortlessly the first car off the line, and by the halfway point to the next light, I have the road to myself. Running errands is a breeze because the car is so zippy. I’ve also met some nice people curious about the car, including neighbors who stopped by to ask questions. And I love the smiles I get driving down the street, and the happy wave exchanged with other EV drivers.
-Forrest
No comment Hi everyone! Welcome to our new website.
Xatori has made a lot of progress since our founding 6 months ago, and we want to share news about our company and the electric vehicle (EV) movement. We promise to write in the blog periodically with exciting happenings.
Here is a picture of our CEO Forrest North taking delivery of our first Nissan LEAF a few weeks ago:
The EV rollout is happening quickly and we are ready to ride the wave!
-Armen
No comment As a $1.6 trillion energy market transitions to renewable energy sources, the value is moving from fuel to management of intermittent free energy. By increasing transparency about our electricity supply and usage we can enable a cleaner grid.
No comment Worldwide mobile web usage increased by 148% last year, and smartphone sales continue to grow year over year. We envision a platform-agnostic approach where anyone with an internet-enabled device can access our tools and services.
No comment In recent years, electric drivetrain and battery technology has advanced tremendously; today’s EVs (electric vehicles) have clear advantages over fossil fuel powered vehicles in the areas of performance, ease of use and emissions.
No comment Armen Petrosian graduated from Stanford where he was a subteam leader on the Stanford Solar Car. While at Stanford, Armen built web and desktop applications for a number of clients ranging from government agencies to start-up companies. Armen formerly worked at Chint (one of the largest power companies in China) as they built out their solar renewable division, as well as Amprius, a battery startup in Menlo Park working on next-generation Li-ion batteries.
No comment Forrest North graduated from Stanford where he was a team leader for the Stanford Solar Car. He worked at Tesla Motors in the early days of battery production and then founded and ran Mission Motors, a high performance electric motorcycle and drivetrain company. At Mission Motors, Forrest raised $3m, launched the product at TED, filed patents and raced internationally. Mission Motors is now expanding and taking in revenue from major OEMs.