အခ်စ္ေရးကံမေကာင္းေသာ ဝန္ထမ္းေတြအတြက္ ရည္းစားေၾကာင့္ အသည္းကြဲရင္ခြင့္(၂)ရက္၊ လင္မယားကြာရွင္းရင္ ခြင့္ (၃)ရက္ ေပးသတဲ့

ကမၻာ့အလုပ္သမားေလာကမွာ နာမက်န္းခြင့္၊ ကိုယ္ဝန္ေဆာင္ခြင့္၊ လုပ္သက္ခြင့္ စတာတို႕သာ က်ဳပ္ၾကားဖူးခဲ့ေပမဲ့ ခု ၂၀၀၉ခုႏွစ္
ထဲမွာေတာ့ ကမၻာ့အလုပ္သမားေလာကမွာ အဆန္းဆံုးခြင့္ေတြကို တရုတ္ႏိုင္ငံရွန္ဟိုင္းၿမိဳ႕ရွိ ကုမၺဏီတခုက စတင္လိုက္ၿပီလို႕ပဲ
ေျပာလိုက္ပါရေစ။ အဲဒါကဘာလဲဆိုေတာ့ အဲဒီ့ကုမၺဏီႀကီးက အခ်စ္ေရးကံမေကာင္းၾကတဲ့ ဝန္ထမ္းေတြအတြက္ အထူးအဆန္းပဲဆိုပါေတာ့။ Xinaus 18-11-2009 ထဲမွာ ဘယ္လိုပါသလဲဆိုေတာ့ အဲဒီရွန္ဟိုင္းၿမိဳ႕မွာ ခုလို ဝန္ထမ္းသက္သာေခ်ာင္ခ်ိေရးပရိုမိုးရွင္း အစီအစဥ္ႀကီး လုပ္လိုက္တဲ့
ကုမၺဏီႀကီးရဲ႕ အႀကံေပးပုဂၢိဳလ္ မစၥတာေဖာင္ဆိုသူက ဘာေျပာသလဲဆိုေတာ့ သူတို႕ ကုမၺဏီက ဝန္ထမ္းေတြအေနနဲ႕ သက္ေသျပစရာမလိုဘူး။ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ဒါမွမဟုတ္ ကၽြန္မကေတာ့ ရည္စားပစ္သြားလို႕ ရည္းစားပ်က္လို႕ စိမ္းကားသြားရင္ အသည္းကြဲေရာဂါခံစားရပါၿပီလို႕ ေျပာလိုက္တာနဲ႕ ကုမၺဏီက ခြင့္(၂)ရက္တခါတည္း ေပးလိုက္မွာပဲ။ ဒါေပမဲ့ ဝန္ထမ္းတေယာက္က ခဏခဏအသည္းကြဲလို႕ေတာ့ မရဘူး။ တႏွစ္ကို တႀကိမ္ပဲ အသည္းကြဲခြင့္ရွိသတဲ့။ ၿပီးေတာ့ လင္မယားေတြအဆင္မေျပလို႕ ကြဲကြဲ၊ ဘယ္လိုပဲ ကြဲကြဲ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ဒါမွမဟုတ္ ကၽြန္မတို႕ လင္မယားကြဲသြားၿပီဆိုတာနဲ႕ ကုမၺဏီက ခြင့္(၃)ရက္ရမွာ ႀကိမ္းေသပါပဲ။ ကုမၺဏီဝန္ထမ္းတဦးျဖစ္တဲ့ ေဂ်ာင္ဆိုတဲ့လူက အဲဒီအမိန္႕လည္းထြက္ေရာ ဒီခြင့္ေပးတာဟာ အလုပ္ခြင္မွာ ေတြေဝေနစရာ မလိုေတာ့ဘူး။ ေႏြးေထြးစြာအလုပ္ကို
ေပ်ာ္ရႊင္သြားလုပ္လို႕ရၿပီး ခုလို လုပ္ငန္းခြင္မွာ ေႏြးေထြးမႈရွိတဲ့ ပါတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ျဖစ္ေအာင္ စီစဥ္ေပးတာဟာ လစာ တိုးေပးတာထက္ေတာင္ စိတ္ခ်မ္းသာေစပါသတဲ့။ ဒီလိုအခြင့္အေရးမ်ိဳးက ကမၻာမွာ ဒါဟာပထမဆံုးပဲ
ထင္လိုက္သလို အဲဒီအခြင့္အေရးအတြက္လည္း လက္ခုပ္တီးေပးလိုက္ ပါတယ္။
ေမာင္ယဥ္ေက်ာ္
FWD Mail

Motto

အဂၤလိပ္ ဆရာမ နဲ႔ ဆရာႀကီး တို႔ ကရင္သီခ်င္းကို ဆိုသြားလိုက္တာ တစ္ကယ့္ ကရင္လိုပါပဲလား !

ကမၻာ့ ပထမဆံုး အာကာသ Beer

ဘီယာလို႕ေျပာလိုက္ရင္ လူလတ္ပိုင္းေတြ အမ်ားစု အႏွစ္သက္ဆံုး အရည္တစ္ခုျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အခ်ဳိ႕ေသာဘုန္းၾကီးေတြဆိုလဲ ဘီယာေသာက္ျပီး အစာေရွာင္ရင္ (အဖတ္မစား) ပံုမွန္ထက္ အခ်ိန္ၾကာၾကာပိုျပီး ေနႏိုင္ၾကလို႕ ဘုန္းၾကီးေတြအတြက္လဲ အဆင္ေျပသေပါ့။ သေဘၤာသားေတြ အတြက္က်ေတာ့ လနဲ႕ခ်ီျပီး ပင္လယ္ထဲမွာ ေနရတဲ့အတြက္ ဟင္းသီးဟင္းရြက္ေတြ မစားရလို႕ ျဖစ္တတ္တဲ့ေရာဂါေတြဆိုရင္လဲ ဘီယာေလးသာေသာက္လိုက္ ျဖစ္ပါဆိုရင္ေတာင္မျဖစ္ေတာ့ဘူး။ တရက္ကို ႏွစ္ခြက္ေလာက္ေသာက္ရင္လဲ ေသြးေလလည္ပါတ္မႈ႕ကလည္း ေကာင္းျပန္ေရာ။ ေနာက္ျပီးေတာ့ မက္ဂနီဆီယမ္၊ ပိုတက္ဆီယမ္၊ ဗီတာမင္ ၆ (B6)၊ ဗီတာမင္ ၁၂ (B12) အျပင္အျခား ဗီတာမင္ဓါတ္ေတြကိုလည္း ဘီယာေသာက္ျခင္းျဖင့္ ရရွိႏိုင္ပါတယ္။ ထို႕အျပင္ အသက္ၾကီးလာလို႕ ဦးေနွာက္မွတ္ဥာဏ္ေတြက်ဆင္းမႈ႕ကိုလည္း ၄ဝ ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္းေလာက္ကို ကာကြယ္ေပးတယ္လို႕ Clinical & Experimental သုေတသနအဖြဲ႕ၾကီးက ၂ဝဝ၁ ဒီဇင္ဘာလမွာ ေဖာ္ျပခဲ့ဘူးပါတယ္။ အသဲလုပ္ေဆာင္မႈကို ေကာင္းေစသလို Insomnia ဆိုတဲ့ အိပ္မရတဲ့ ေရာဂါကိုလည္း ကုသႏိုင္တယ္လို႕သိရပါတယ္။ နယူးကာဆယ္ တကၠသိုလ္ကပါေမာကၡၾကီးOliverJamesကလည္းဘီယာေသာက္ျခင္းအားျဖစ္ဆီးအိမ္မွာေက်ာက္တည္ျခင္းႏွင့္
ေက်ာက္ကပ္မွာ ေက်ာက္တည္ျခင္းမ်ားကို ကာကြယ္ေစႏိုင္ပါတယ္တဲ့ဗ်ာ။

အခုေတာ့ ဘီယာကိုလူေတြဘယ္ေလာက္ ရူးမူးတန္ဖိုးထားၾကလဲဆိုရင္ေတာ့ 4 Pines စားေသာက္ကုန္ ကုမၸဏီက ၾသစေတးလ်မွ Saber အာကာသယာဥ္မွဴးမ်ားနဲ႕ ပူးေပါင္း အကာသထဲမွာထုပ္လုပ္လိုက္တဲ့ ကမာၻပထမဆံုး အာကာသဘီယာ ကို ထုတ္လိုက္ျပီးျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ဒီမွာလာဖတ္တဲ့သူေတြထဲမွာလည္း အိမ္ရွင္မေတြ ပါမွာပါ။ ကိုယ္ခင္ပြန္းသယ္ေယာက္်ားကို ခ်စ္တယ္ ဆိုရင္ ကိုယ့္ခင္ပြန္းသယ္ဘီယာေသာက္တာ က်န္းမာေရးအတြက္ေသာက္တာလို႕ နားလည္ေပးလိုက္ျပီး မကန္႕ကြက္ၾကနဲ႕ေပါ့ေနာ္.. :D

We Are the World (25 FOR HAITI) - Instrumental

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ထရပ္ကားျဖင့္ တုိက္မိသည့္ ကေလးငယ္အား ေဆးကုသစရိတ္ မေပးလုိ၍ ထပ္မံႀကိတ္သတ္

တ႐ုတ္ႏိုင္ငံသားတို႔၏ လူသားခ်င္း စာနာစိတ္ႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္ၿပီး
ေမးခြန္းထုတ္စရာ အေျခအေနမ်ိဳးသည္ တျဖည္းျဖည္း ႀကီးထြားလာေနၿပီ ျဖစ္သည္။  ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ လပိုင္းက (၂) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ မိန္းကေလးငယ္ တစ္ဦးကို ကားႏွစ္စင္းက ျဖတ္ႀကိတ္သြားၿပီး ထြက္ေျပးခဲ့သလို လမ္းသြားလမ္းလာ မ်ားကလည္း ျပင္းျပင္းထန္ထန္ ဒဏ္ရာရေနသည့္ ကေလးမေလးကို မိမိတို႔ႏွင့္ မဆိုင္သလို
ျဖတ္ေက်ာ္သြားၾကသျဖင့္ အင္တာနက္တြင္ အုတ္ေအာ္ေသာင္းနင္း
ေဝဖန္မႈမ်ား ထြက္ေပၚခဲ့သည္။

ယခုအခါ ပိုဆိုးေသာ ကိစၥတစ္ခုအျဖစ္ ထရပ္ကားသမားသည္ (၅) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ ေယာက္်ားေလး တစ္ဦးကို ဝင္တိုက္ခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ ေဆးကုသစရိတ္ မေပးလိုသျဖင့္ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ရွိရွိ တမင္ေသေအာင္ တက္ႀကိတ္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သိရွိရသည္။ ေၾကာက္မက္စက္ဆုပ္ဖြယ္ အဆိုပါ လုပ္ရပ္ကို လုပ္ေဆာင္ျခင္းသည္ မိမိအေနႏွင့္ ကေလးအတြက္ ေဆး႐ံုစရိတ္ထက္ စာပါက ေသစရိတ္ ေပးရျခင္းက ပိုမို သက္သာမည္ဟု ေစ်းတြက္ တြက္မိျခင္းေၾကာင့္ဟု ထရပ္ကား ဒ႐ိုင္ဗာ အိုယြန္းက ပြင့္ပြင့္လင္းလင္း ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။ ၎သည္ တ႐ုတ္ႏုိင္ငံ အေနာက္ပိုင္ လူဇူးတြင္ ေက်ာင္းတက္ရန္ အိမ္မွ ထြက္လာသည့္ ခ်ာတိတ္ေလး ေဇာင္မိုကီကို ကားျဖင့္ ဝင္တိုက္ၿပီးေနာက္ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ရွိရွိ သတ္ပစ္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

(ထရပ္ကားအနီးတြင္ ေတြ႕ရသည့္ ႀကိတ္သတ္ခံထားရေသာ ကေလးငယ္၏မိခင္)

 မ်က္ျမင္သက္ေသ တစ္ဦးျဖစ္ေသာ ဇန္ရွီဖန္းက “ကားတုိက္မႈ ျဖစ္ၿပီးေတာ့ ထရပ္ကားက နည္းနည္း ေနာက္ဆုတ္လုိက္တာ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ သတိထားမိတယ္။ ၿပီးမွ ေရွ႕ကို ျပန္တိုးလိုက္တာပါ။
အဲဒီက်ေတာ့ ကားေနာက္မွာ လဲေနတဲ့ ခ်ာတိတ္ေလးကို ႀကိတ္ပစ္လုိက္ၿပီးသား ျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ ေနာက္ၿပီး ကားက (၁၀)ကိုက္ေလာက္ ဆက္သြားၿပီးမွ ရပ္သြားတယ္” ဟု ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။ အျခား ျဖတ္သြားျဖတ္လာ မ်က္ျမင္သက္ေသ တစ္ဦးက ယြန္းသည္ ကားေပၚမွ ခုန္ဆင္းလာၿပီးေနာက္ “ဒီကိစၥအတြက္ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ေလ်ာ္ရမလဲ မသိဘူး” ဟု ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ရဲမ်ားထံ ထြက္ဆိုခဲ့သည္။ ရဲတပ္ဖြဲ႕က လူဇီအန္းတြင္ ေနထိုင္သည့္ အသက္ (၃၅) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ ယြန္းသည္ ကေလး၏ မိသားစုႏွင့္ ေလ်ာ္ေၾကးကိစၥအတြက္ ေစ်းဆစ္ကာ (၇) နာရီၾကာမွ် အခ်င္းမ်ားခဲ့ေၾကာင္းလည္း ဆိုသည္။ ေနာက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ရဲႏွင့္ စံုေထာက္မ်ား ေရာက္ရွိလာၿပီး ယြန္းအား ဖမ္းဆီးခဲ့ရသည္။

(ထရပ္ကားဘီးေအာက္ ေရာက္ေနသည့္ ကေလးငယ္အား ခ်က္ခ်င္းဖယ္မရခဲ့)

ထို႔အျပင္ ကားဘီးေအာက္တြင္ ညပ္မိေနဆဲျဖစ္သည့္ ကေလးငယ္ အေလာင္းကိုလည္း ႐ုတ္တရက္ ဖယ္မရခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ရဲမ်ားက ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။ အဘယ္ေၾကာင့္ဆိုေသာ္ ေဒသခံ ရြာသားမ်ားက ဒ႐ိုင္ဗာကို ခ်က္ခ်င္းလက္ငင္း မတံု႔ျပန္ရမခ်င္း ကေလးအေလာင္းကို ယူခြင့္မျပဳဟု ဆူပူေနျခင္းေၾကာင့္ဟု သိရသည္။ ကေလးငယ္၏ မိခင္သည္ သူမ၏သားငယ္ကို ပံုပ်က္ပန္းပ်က္ ေတြ႕လုိက္ရခ်ိန္တြင္ ခ်က္ခ်င္း Shock ရကာ ေမ့လဲသြားခဲ့သည္။ ယခုျဖစ္ရပ္သည္ တ႐ုတ္ႏုိင္ငံတြင္ ႐ုပ္ပိုင္းဆိုင္ရာ တိုးတက္မႈမ်ား ရွိလာသေလာက္ စိတ္ဓာတ္ပိုင္းႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ပိုမိုရက္စက္ ၾကမ္းၾကဳတ္လာေၾကာင္း ခုိင္မာေသာ သက္ေသမ်ိဳးဟု ျပည္တြင္းဝက္ဘ္ဆိုက္မ်ားကပင္ ျပင္းျပင္းထန္ထန္ ႐ႈတ္ခ်ခဲ့သည္။
ကမာၻေပၚတြင္ ဒုတိယ အင္အားအႀကီးဆံုး စီးပြားေရးအင္အားစုႀကီး ျဖစ္ေနေသာ ကြန္ျမဴနစ္ ႏုိင္ငံသည္ ႏုိင္ငံသား (၁.၃) ဘီလ်ံအတြက္ လံုေလာက္ေသာ က်န္းမာေရး ေစာင့္ေရွာက္မႈ စရိတ္ကို မေထာက္ပံ့ေပးႏုိင္ေခ်။ ယြန္းက မိမိကပါ ကေလးအတြက္ ေဆးဝါးစရိတ္ မေပးလိုျခင္းေၾကာင့္ ယခုကဲ့သို႔ ရက္စက္ေသာ နည္းလမ္းတစ္ခုကို ေရြးခ်ယ္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ရဲမ်ားထံ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးသြားသည္။
***************************************************************************

(ေသဆုံးသြား႐ွာသည့္ အသက္ ၂ ႏွစ္အ႐ြယ္ ယူယူ)

 မၾကာေသးခင္ကလည္း တရုတ္ႏုိင္ငံအတြင္း လူ႐ႈပ္ေထြးေသာ ေစ်းလမ္းတစ္ခုတြင္ ယူယူအမည္ရွိ (၂) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ မိန္းကေလးကို ကားႏွစ္စင္း ဆင့္တိုက္ကာ ေမာင္းေျပးသြားၿပီးေနာက္ ျဖတ္သြားျဖတ္လာ လူ (၁၈) ဦးက ေသြးအိုင္ထဲ လဲေနေသာ မိန္းကေလးကို တစ္ခ်က္ပင္ ေစာင္းငဲ့မၾကည့္ဘဲ မျမင္ခ်င္ေယာင္ ေဆာင္သြားခဲ့သည္ကို လံုၿခံဳေရး ကင္မရာမ်ားက မွတ္တမ္းတင္ႏိုင္ခဲ့သည္။

(ယူယူအား ကားျဖင့္ႀကိတ္သြားစဥ္)

သို႔ေသာ္လည္း အမိႈက္ေကာက္သူ တစ္ဦးက မိန္းကေလးကို သယ္ယူကာ မိခင္ျဖစ္သူထံ သြားေရာက္ ပို႔ေဆာင္ခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ ေဆး႐ံုသို႔ တင္ပို႔ေပးခဲ့သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း အစာနာမဲ့စြာ မ်က္ကြယ္ျပဳခံရေသာ ယူယူေလးသည္ တစ္ပတ္အၾကာတြင္ ကြယ္လြန္သြားရွာသည္။ သူမအား တိုက္ၿပီး ေမာင္းေျပးသည္ဟု ယူဆရေသာ မသကၤာစရာ လူႏွစ္ဦးကို ရဲမ်ားက ဖမ္းဆီးထားလိုက္ေၾကာင္းလည္း သိရွိရသည္။

(ယူယူအား အမႈိက္ေကာက္သည့္ အမ်ဳိးသမီးက သယ္ယူလုိက္စဥ္)

(ယူယူ၏ မိဘတုိ႔အား ေတြ႕ရစဥ္)

VW’s Golf Variant twinDRIVE Undergoing Testing in Europe

Volkswagen will market several plug-in hybrids in 2013-2014 as well as a pure electric VW up! It recently unveiled the Golf Variant twinDRIVE prototype. Twenty of these PHEVs will be used in VW's ‘Fleet Study in Electric Mobility.’ VW, with six partners and the German Ministry of the Environment, is investigating the use of renewable energy sources for electrically powered vehicles. Initiated in July 2008, the project runs until July 2012.

This parallel hybrid has a 114 horsepower electric motor, a 1.4-liter TSI gasoline direct-injection engine supplying 114 horsepower, and a 30 kilowatt generator, all housed in the engine compartment. The battery pack and high-voltage power distribution unit are located in the rear. A DC/DC converter converts high voltage from the battery pack to 12 volts for the regular electrical system. Engine heat assists the electric heating system in cold weather.

Two different lithium-ion battery systems are being tested. Ten Variant twinDRIVEs are equipped with batteries from the American-German manufacturer GAIA and 10 use batteries from Korean-German joint venture SB LiMotive (Samsung and Bosch). The GAIA cathode type battery consists of 86 cells and a capacity of 11.2 kilowatt-hours. The SB LiMotive cathode type battery has 84 cells to supply 13.2 kilowatt-hours. Both high power and energy density batteries weigh about 330 pounds. A battery management and monitoring system keeps the batteries cool.

The Golf Variant twinDRIVE has three operating modes. In urban driving, it operates on the E-Motor with an electric-only range of 35 miles and a top speed of 75 mph. When more power is needed, the internal combustion engine is started. The TwinDRIVE features a single-speed transmission and an electronically actuated ‘separation’ clutch between the TSI engine and E-motor. At speeds above 31 mph, the separation clutch closes and the TSI is directly coupled to the drivetrain for efficient driving with the internal combustion engine alone. With the gasoline engine, the total range is 558 miles with a 105 mph top speed. VW claims 112 U.S. mpg (2.1 liters per 100 kilometers). When maximum acceleration is required, the E-Motor and TSI together provide up to 161 horsepower so it can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in under 12 seconds.

The internal combustion engine can be started by the driver whenever needed to charge the battery via the generator or provide additional drive power. The driver can manually choose the pure E-MODE provided the battery is sufficiently charged. During regenerative braking, the TSI engine is turned off and the separation clutch is open so braking energy is recouped by the generator to charge the battery.

Volkswagen is developing a ‘Charging Manager’ to optimize charging so the battery is charged cost-effectively and with electricity generated from renewable sources whenever possible. When the battery is fully charged, the strategy is to maximize the share of pure electrical energy used for driving. On mid- to long-range drives, the intelligent hybrid management system automatically optimizes load distribution between the E-Motor and gasoline engine to minimize fuel consumption based on the current route and situation. The vehicle could also feed electricity back into the electrical grid to temporarily offset fluctuations in the grid.

What’s the Real Story with NEVs? No Great Success After Many Years.

Neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) have been around since Bombardier tried to market one in the mid-1990s, and even earlier if you include electric cars of the 1970s like the CitiCar and Elcar. The Detroit Electric, the Baker Electric, and other electric cars driven by fashionable ladies in the early part of early 20th century were also really low-speed NEVs .

Since then many other NEVs have appeared like the CT&T, The Kurrent, ZENN, REVA, and ZAP XEBRA, all of which have been sold in small numbers. Only the GEM, at one time part of Chrysler, has sold in any significant numbers. Conclusion: NEVs have found a small measure of use with consumers and have fared a bit better with fleets, but overall have been a failure, especially in one of their primary target markets – gated communities.

In contrast, ordinary golf cars used as NEVs have been very successful in many gated communities. For example, in the age 55+ community in which one of our Green Car editors lives, about 60 percent of the households have a golf car, with many of these replacing a second car. In the case of some very senior citizens it is their only means of transportation. For full dsclosure, many of these are driven to, from, and on the two golf courses in this community. Most all are driven around this large community’s roadways and many that are street legal are driven to nearby shopping centers. Conclusion: golf cars used as NEVs are a success in gated communities.

The main reason for this contradiction is a simple question: “Why buy a NEV for $15,000 or more when a $5,000 golf car will do?” For about $500 it’s possible to make a golf car street legal and license it through the Department of Motor Vehicles, allowing it to be legally driven in most states on roads with speeds of less than 35 mph. When traveling only short distances, mostly in residential environments with lots of starts and stops, the difference in trip times is really only a few minutes.

In most cases the range of a NEV or golf car is not limited by battery capacity. Rather, it is limited because many destinations are out of range, since traveling over roads with posted speed limits no greater than 35 mph are required to get there. Many public roadways have higher speed limits and the use of NEVs or golf cars on these roads is illegal.

While a true NEV might provide greater weather protection in northern climates, most are used in warmer sunbelt regions like Arizona, California, and Florida, the prime locales for retirement communities. Many golf cars are fitted with side curtains for wind protection and some have heaters and even air conditioning for all-weather comfort.

Another consideration is that there’s often little demand for new golf cars. Being simple and not subjected to demanding driving conditions, they last a long, long time with batteries being the only major maintenance item. Thus, golf cars go through several owners. Only the few who want the latest and greatest versions or those wanting the fanciest golf car at the country club and the bragging rights that go with this are apt to buy new ones. The difference in these high-end golf cars is in appearance and a few creature comforts. The basic technology for golf cars, however, is decades old with few innovations

More Mobile Charging Services Planned for Stranded Electrics

The million EVs promised by President Obama by 2015 would have a greater impact on our infrastructure than the huge number of charging stations and sufficient electricity needed to keep batteries charged, if such a hopeful number of EVs actually appeared on our roads by then. Mobile chargers would also be needed to assist stranded EVs with dead batteries.

AAA will be deploying its EV Assistance Trucks in Portland and Seattle in Washington; the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in California; Knoxville in Tennessee; and Tampa/St. Petersburg in Florida to coincide with Nissan Leafs and other EVs hitting the streets. Other companies plan to offer mobile charging systems not exclusively dedicated to charging and towing EVs. They are less expensive and can be mounted in a small trailer or in a tow truck. These can provide sufficient charge in 15 to 30 minutes to enable a stranded EV to reach a nearby charging station.

Cross Country Automotive Services' EV Mobile Charger is mounted in a small trailer or in the tow truck itself. A two-stroke engine, running on clean burning propane, powers a generator to provide the charge. Club Assist's trailer mounted mobile unit uses a lithium-ion battery to do the charging.

While Nation-E has installed its mobile charging system in what it calls the Angel Car, the technology could be installed in about any larger vehicle. The system uses a large battery pack and a high voltage charger. Nation-E will offer the Angel Car as a completely installed package or as a separate system that can be dropped into a new or existing vehicle.

Realistically, it could a long time before there are enough stranded EVs to warrant large investments in mobile charging systems, even small ones. Until there are tens of thousands of EVs on the road these charging service vehicles probably would see seldom use. Most EVs drivers will never experience getting stuck on the side of a road with a dead battery. Even if there are a relatively large number of EVs, they will be dispersed over large areas like Los Angeles or Phoenix. If there are only a few EV rescue units in a region, it could be hours before they could reach a stranded motorist, especially in rush hour traffic. Finally, they are not needed for extended range electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt or other plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which have gasoline engines to provide power should the battery become fully discharged.

2012 Fiat 500 Delivers Very Cool Italian Style and a Fun Ride

The 2012 Fiat 500 is a milestone car in many ways. It signals Fiat’s return to the U.S. market after a three decade hiatus, and it signals it in a big way – ironically, with a vehicle of small stature.

It’s been said that timing is everything, although one could argue the point with examples of products that seem well-timed but miss the mark. The Fiat 500 has clearly aimed true. Here is a car that’s right for the times, small but stylish in a decidedly European sort of way, bringing Italian charm to the streets of America amid a growing array of like-minded small cars from domestic and import automakers.

But this one…it draws attention without even trying. Drive it downtown and heads will likely turn. Park it and, maybe not all the time but often enough, people will stop by to ask about the car and chat you up. It all but shouts ‘ciao’ as it turns heads along its journeys.

The four-passenger Fiat 500 is available in two configurations – a coupe starting at $15,500 and a 500c cabriolet at $19,500. Both have their merits, but we’ll take the cabrio hands-down. It offers an absolutely delightful multi-position, power-retractable cloth top. At one position you have a nice sunroof-size slice of the sky, while another provides a full roof opening. Hit the switch for maximum lift-off and the soft top slides back to the trunk lid. Since our test was during summertime in California that top was never closed.

There’s no lack of personalizing available for the 500. Buyers can choose from 14 exterior colors and 12 interior material and color combinations. Three soft top colors are also available on the 500c. You want yours different? You’ve got it.

Besides the distinctive soft top, the 500c is differentiated from its hardtop sibling with a windshield design that’s slightly longer to enhance rear passenger visibility. The windshield elegantly conceals a reinforced upper crossmember required to make up for the loss of a solid top and ensure a rigid body structure. At the rear, an interior-mounted (and removable) wind deflector is strategically positioned to minimize wind buffeting with the topside opened up and the sky upon you.

A roof-mounted spoiler at the rear of the 500c aids aerodynamics and serves as the site for integrating the car’s center high-mounted stop lamp, enabling it to function with the top up or down. When access to the trunk is required with the top all the way back, a tap of the trunk release prompts the top to move upward out of the way and opens the trunk lid.

As an exercise in going retro, the Fiat 500 wins the prize. The iconic Fiat Cinquecento model that debuted more than a half-century ago is clearly emergent in the 500, especially so with the soft top opening all the way to the stops in this pint-size car. Yet, even as the 500 looks fondly back at the past it embraces the best of today’s technologies.

Proof of this is in the car’s 1.4-liter, 16-valve MultiAir engine, an all-new powerplant incorporating multiple fuel efficiency and emissions reduction technologies. MultiAir, the first fully variable valve actuation (FVVA) system on a production engine, uses four electronic solenoids that replace the conventional overhead cam with hydraulic actuation. The result is the ability to deliver immediate air-fuel adjustments throughout the engine cycle to optimize power and efficiency.

This engine provides 101 horsepower at a rather lofty 6,500 rpm with 98 lb-ft torque at 4,000 rpm. While it’s no muscle machine, the MultiAir engine does provide a fun driving experience plus best-in-class 30 city/38 highway mpg fuel economy in the Fiat 500 equipped with a five-speed manual. Fiat 500 coupes featuring the six-speed automatic with driver-selectable gear changes net 27 city/34 highway mpg. EPA rates the automatic 500c test car we drove at 27 city/32 mpg highway mpg.

Our thoughts? The Fiat 500 is small in stature but big in the fun-to-drive category. Its stylish design is evident by the attention it generates on the road. While we found that rear visibility is less than ideal with the top dropped in the cabrio, we can live with that as an acceptable tradeoff. The 500 coupe is an affordable vehicle for the masses and, if you’re like us, you may find the $4,000 step up to the cabrio could prove to be irresistible.

While it’s no muscle machine, the MultiAir engine does provide a fun driving experience plus best-in-class 30 city/38 highway mpg fuel economy in the Fiat 500 equipped with a five-speed manual.

Check-is-in-the-Mail Approach to Vehicle Standards is Wrong

Imagining new vehicles in 2025 should be exciting: Electric vehicles with long ranges, high-mileage hybrids as the norm, and the idea of buying gas guzzlers is a dim memory.

Setting strong fuel economy standards for new cars through 2025 gives the long-term certainty the auto industry needs to drive technology and innovation, while delivering the vehicles that will help reduce demand for oil and cut carbon pollution. Strong standards will cut carbon pollution by six percent per year every year starting in 2017 to deliver the most benefits to consumers and the nation.

But if the auto industry has its way, the cars of 2025 will still have a hefty oil appetite.

Why? The auto industry favors a ‘check is in the mail’ approach to standards. Their plan would be to make small improvements in the early years of the program with the promise to do more later. Add to this other ‘flexibility’ – such as credits for improving AC systems; ignoring emissions from charging electric vehicles; and credit banking, borrowing and trading – and the auto industry will have its weak program.

Strong standards shift billions of dollars from oil. According to a study by CERES, a Boston-based green business group, we can save $152 billion at the pump in 2030 with a strong 60 mpg standard – pumping more than $150 billion into other places in our economy. Of these dollars, $59 billion go to the auto industry through purchases of cleaner cars and $93 billion for the rest of the economy. We could see a net gain of 700,000 full time jobs with 60,000 of those in the auto industry.

The strength and integrity of these standards will determine oil savings, job creation, consumer savings, and whether President Obama meets his goals of cutting oil imports by a third or having a million EVs on the road.

We should not compromise or accept a promise of a check in the mail. Only a strong standard that leaves the loopholes on the roadside can deliver.

Opel Teases With Early Details on its Battery Electric ‘One Euro Car’

GM’s European Opel brand aims to shake things up at the 64th Frankfurt International Motor Show with a battery electric concept it dubs the ‘One Euro Car.’ It’s so-named because of the claimed ability to travel 100 kilometers (62 miles) for the cost of a single Euro, the equivalent of about $1.38. That’s pretty cheap driving to be sure.

The brand’s motivation is said to be inspired by its success with the Ampera extended range electric vehicle, the Opel variant of the Chevy Volt. The revolutionary One Euro Car concept is quite unlike the Ampera, though, with its tandem driver/passenger placement and exclusive battery powered propulsion.

Opel’s goal was to develop a new class of lightweight electric vehicle to promote zero-emission urban motoring. It has certainly accomplished this with its new two-seat concept.

The One Euro Car would use 10 times less energy than a typical small car and weigh in about a third less. It would also offer full functionality and a top speed of 75 mph (120 km/h). The automaker envisions a low-speed variant limited to 28 mph, or 45 km/h, which could be driven by drivers as young as 16 years old.

Volvo Concepts Show Three Approaches to Extended Range Electric Vehicles

Extended Range Electrical Vehicles (EREVs) offer most of the advantages of battery electric vehicles. EREVs also eliminate one of their biggest disadvantages – ‘range anxiety,’ or the fear of being stranded if batteries are completely discharged with nowhere to recharge, Following in the footsteps of the Chevy Volt, the first EREV on the market, other automakers are developing EREVs as well. This includes Volvo, which has shown three different EREV concepts. All three use a small three-cylinder flex fuel engine that can operate on gasoline and E85 ethanol. Testing of these concepts will begin in the first quarter of 2012.

Technical Concept I is series-hybrid with range extension much like the Chevy Volt. The gasoline engine is located beneath the rear compartment floor in a C30 Electric coupe, which is now in limited volume production. The 60 horsepower engine drives a 40 kilowatt generator that either supplies the 114 horsepower (82 kilowatt) peak electric motor driving the front wheels or charges the battery pack. The latter increases all-electric range beyond the 68 mile range provided by the battery pack without recharging. With a 10.5 gallon fuel tank, range extension gives this version an additional 621 miles, for a total 688 mile driving range.

Technical Concept II features a parallel hybrid configuration using the C30 Electric. A more powerful 190 horsepower, turbocharged three-cylinder engine primarily drives the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission for long distance highway travel. The engine and transmission are positioned at the rear. The 114 horsepower electric motor drives the front wheels to provide four-wheel-drive. The two propulsion sources provide over 300 horsepower, sufficient to accelerate the car to 100 62 mph in seconds. The 40 kilowatt generator keeps the battery charged to give the car increased range beyond the 47 miles provided by the battery pack alone, up to as much as 728 miles.

Technical Concept III uses the larger V60 Sportwagen so the entire drive package fits under the hood. The battery pack is located beneath the rear floor. This parallel hybrid is similar to Technical Concept II in that it uses the 111 horsepower electric motor supplemented by the 190 horsepower, supercharged three-cylinder turbo engine. Power from both the motor and engine drive the front wheels via a two-speed automatic transmission. This version can travel up to 31 miles at up to 31 mph on battery power alone. The combustion engine starts at higher speeds and charges the battery pack when its charge drops below a predetermined level. The Concept III has a total range by more than 621 miles.