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http://www.tennessean.com/business/archives/02/09/22041880.shtml?Element_ID=22041880
Friday, 09/06/02 Middle Tennessee News & Information
Midstate inventor to unveil his 'Back to the Future' car
By KATHY CARLSON Staff Writer
The rubber meets the road tomorrow for a Middle Tennessee
inventor and his car, an all-electric version of the Back to
the Future, stainless-steel DeLorean.
Carl Tilley of Lebanon has developed a device that an
associate, Doug Littlefield, likens to ''a rather elegant
battery charger.'' Tilley's innovation allows the
gull-winged '81 sports car to run on 12 car batteries
without gasoline, Littlefield said.
The promotional material, meanwhile, claims the car can
drive ''hundreds of miles without recharging'' and can reach
speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
The electric DeLorean will debut at the Nashville
Superspeedway, and auto racing great Bobby Allison will take
it around the track. The event, which begins at 8 a.m., has
intrigued some, including devotees of the Serbian- American
electrical inventor Nikola Tesla, and drawn skepticism from
others.
''Our goal is to prove the technologies and market them to
entities large enough to market and sell them,'' Littlefield
said in a telephone interview from his Vermont business.
Telephone messages left yesterday for Tilley, whom
Littlefield describes as a ''self-taught doer,'' and with
Bobby Allison Racing in Alabama weren't returned.
The Tilley vehicle event comes on the heels of the Ford
Motor Co.'s decision last week to walk away from a $123
million investment in electric cars. A spokeswoman told The
New York Times there wasn't enough demand for the vehicles,
which are limited in size and in how far they can go between
recharges.
Other major auto companies also are skeptical of the
feasibility of an all-electric car that doesn't require
recharging.
''I'm speechless,'' said Max Gates, a communications manager
with DaimlerChrysler in the Detroit area.
''In general, we found the challenge of electric vehicles
quite difficult.''
If Tilley's invention succeeds, he will have surmounted a
technical challenge that has stymied others who have labored
to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream.
''Electric vehicles are still the only way to get zero
emissions,'' said Dan Holt, technical editor with the
Society of Automotive Engineers.
''The biggest constraint on a pure electric vehicle is the
power source,'' Holt said, adding the problem is getting a
battery with enough power at a reasonable cost.
Batteries, he said, ''tend not to last very long and are
expensive to replace.'' Companies are working on lithium ion
batteries that are efficient but very expensive.
Car manufacturers have shied away from electric-only
vehicles for the same reasons, plus another � a driving
range that tops out at slightly more than 100 miles, said
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Gates.
Bruce Meland, editor and publisher of Electrifying Times
magazine, acknowledges that many doubt or are even hostile
to Tilley's vehicle. He has interviewed Tilley, who has
started a foundation for inventors and investors.
In a posting to the Electrifying Times Web site last week,
Meland wrote that Tilley wouldn't go into details about his
innovation although he said he admired Tesla's work. From
that, Meland concluded that Tilley may have replicated a
Tesla process and created an electromagnetic vacuum that
draws heretofore untapped energy from the atmosphere.
Tesla technology has been suppressed, Meland said in a phone
interview from his Oregon offices, but didn't give details.
He said others' skepticism is to be expected as with any
potential innovation.
''I don't think the oil or car companies understand what a
significant breakthrough this is,'' Meland said.
If Tilley succeeds, it ''completely changes our whole
picture on energy, how to use this energy to free the planet
from fossil fuel.''
Kathy Carlson can be reached at 259-8047 or at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] � Copyright 2002 The Tennessean
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