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Valery Miftakhov, Founder of Electric Motor Werks of Palo Alto, a new company providing high-performance EV conversions, with his prototype BMW Series 3 conversion, and Felix Kramer with his Nissan Leaf, at an Electric Vehicles Entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley meeting in Mountain View, CA. November 17, 2011. Full-size image.


The Electric Motor Werks team and their converted BMW at the EV Rally of the Silicon Valley EV Association, Palo Alto, September 24 2011. Full-size image.


Two and a half years after Raser Technologies showed its Hummer 3 converted with GM's cooperation (seen here with in June 2009 with Felix Kramer in San Jose; see Spotlight on Conversions: 70 MPH Prius and Hummer PHEVs in Cal-Cars-News Archive), its successor company, Via Motors, is working with automakers to create series PHEVs of trucks and other large vehicles. Full-size image.


After a day showcasing the converted Ford F-150 in Sacramento, the ALTe team brought its pickup truck to Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park on April 7, 2011. Shown are CEO/Co-Founder John Thomas, VP-Sales & Marketing Dennis Baranik, CTO/Co-Founder Jeff DeFrank, and Electrical Engineering Director Scott Sabin. Full-size image.


Felix Kramer from CalCars with his Volt, and Ron Freund, Electric Auto Association Chairman and Plug In America Director, with his Toyota RAV4 EV, at the 2011 Los Altos High School Earth Day event. Hear a 2008 eight-minute interview with Ron at pluginamerica.org/podcasts/interview-ron-freund. Full-size image.


Catherine and Peter Fox became the happy second owners of Felix Kramer's 2004 Prius in April 2011. This car, which in 2006 became the eight hybrid converted to a PHEV, was seen by untold tens of thousands of people personally and many more in photos and videos; you can see many high-profile influencers with this car in links from this page. Full-size image.


Longtime CalCars Director of Projects Carol DiBenedetto helped demo Felix Kramer's new Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt to key audiences starting in January 2011. Full-size image.

CSAA representatives with Pat Cadam of greengears.net at the SF Auto Show, Nov 2008
From the American Auto Association of Northern California, Nevada and Utah, Transportation Policy Specialist Deborah Wong and Spokesperson Matt Skyrja, with an AAA Prius, just before its conversion by Nick Rothman and Pat Cadam of Greengears.net. Shown in front of Moscone Convention Center Nov. 21, as the San Francisco International Auto Show was opening, and where AAA's Greenlight program features this public conversion and the display of a previously converted CalCars Prius during the entire run of the show, Nov. 22-29. Full-size image.

Electradive's Frasier Smith and Ray Jenks win Transportation Prize at California Cleantech Open, November, 2008
ElectraDrive CEO Fraser Smith (holding the company's ElectraMount) and CMO Ray Jenks (a long-time CalCars Advisor and volunteer) at the November 2008 California Clean Tech Open. At the third annual event, ElectraDrive's "rapid inexpensive conversion of existing vehicles to electric drive" solution won the Transportation prize. Full-size image.

Attorneys Rooklidge and Ghajar, who successfully defended a naming-rights suit against CalCars, October, 2008
Bill Rooklidge and Bobby Ghajar, attorneys at Howrey LLP, the Southern California firm that successfully defended CalCars pro bono from a lawsuit by American Calcar and Calcar Inc. in 2007-2008 (see October 2008 CalCars-News). Photo taken in front of Los Angeles Federal Courthouse in March 2008. Full-size image.

CalCars and Greengears checking out PLX's new Kiwi dashboard display, September, 2008
Checking out the "Kiwi", a new dashboard display: Pat Cadam of Greengears, Paul Lowchareonkul, CEO of PLX Devices, Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban of CalCars and Nick Rothman of Greengears, Sunnyvale, CA, September 2008. Full-size image.

GM and CalCars at Greengears in San Francisco, August, 2008
CalCars sponsored an August 5, 2008 briefing/demonstration/brainstorming session at Pat's Garage in San Francisco, designed to offer feedback to General Motors from PHEV and EV drivers, owners and fleet operators, focused on the successful development and commercialization of GM's Chevy Volt and Saturn Vue. Representing GM was Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director, Chevrolet VOLT. Shown in photo left to right are front: CalCars' Technology Lead Ron Gremban, GM's Posawatz; rear, CalCars' Felix Kramer, Pat's Garage/GreenGears' Pat Cadam, Plug-In Supply's Robb Protheroe, Google.org's Alec Proudfoot and Rolf Schreiber, Electric Power Research Institute's Marcus Alexander, City of San Francisco Department of the Environment's Bob Hayden, Silicon Valley Leadership Group/OurPower.org's Sass Somekh, Plug In America's Marc Geller, diy-mpg.com's Darren Overby, and CalCars' Randy Reisinger. For more on this event see http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/984.html.
Full-size image.

Felix with Ali Emadi of IIT, Andy Grove and Andy Frank a Plugin2008 in San Jose, July 2008
At the July 2008 Plug-In2008 Conference after former Intel CEO gave his keynote address, calling for converting 10 million PSVs (Pickups, SUVs and Vans) in four years, he posed with Prof. Ali Emadi, founder of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies and his Ford F-150 PHEV conversion, CalCars Founder Felix Kramer and Prof. Andy Frank, founder of Efficient Drivetrains Inc. and his Chevy Equinox PHEV conversion. Also see another view of this photo at Top Pix. Download Grove's PowerPoint presentation and watch Auto Channel or EVWorld's 30-minute video.
Photo: Mike Kahn/Green Stock Media. Contact Green Stock Media to purchase these images.
Read about Media coverage at Andy Grove Turns Spotlight on Conversions at Plug-In 2008.

Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies, providing the charging infrastructure for plug-in cars, in Woodside, June, 2008
Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies, providing the charging infrastructure for plug-in cars, in Woodside, June, 2008. Full-size photo

Maker Faire 2008, 3 PHEVs outdoors
At MakerFaire2008 in San Mateo, in addition to the two cars converted inside, CalCars and its partners parked several PHEVs outside the hall. Full-size photo

Maker Faire 2008 Team, Indoors
Part of the technical and education team at the fourth MakerFaire, May 2008 in San Mateo, CA, this time in partnership with Plug-In Supply of Petaluma and Luscious Garage of San Francisco. Full-size photo

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and Pat Cadam of Pat's Garage inspect the city's new plug-in Priuses
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom with Pat Cadam from GreenGears/Pat's Garage at the February press conference where the city received delivery of three Hymotion cars. Full-size photo

CalCars GreenEST team at the LA Auto Show, Nov 2007
At the LA Auto Show, November 2007, the CalCars team receives the GreenEST Car of the Year Award after converting a Prius at an event co-sponsored by Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange, Plug In America and CalCars. Pictured: Kim Adelman of Pluginconversions.com, Randy Reisinger, Ron Gremban and Felix Kramer of CalCars, Sarah Connolly of RAN, Nick Magel of Global Exchange (photo credit: Rainforest Action Network) Full-size photo

Carl Lawrence of Hybrids Plus of Boulder, Colorado, at PHEV2007 in Winnipeg,
			Manitoba, November 2007
Carl Lawrence of Hybrids Plus of Boulder, Colorado, at PHEV2007 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, November 2007 Full-size photo

Andy Frank with Kim Adelman of Plug-In Conversions
UC Davis Prof. Andy Frank with Kim Adelman, founder of Plug-In Conversions of Poway, near San Diego, at Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, October, 2007 Full-size photo

Felix with new PHEV-owner and driving.is organizer in Iceland Sept 2007
Iceland's first PHEV: Amberjac Projects UK converted the car belonging to University of Akureyri graduate student Gudmundur Arnason (at right), with the sponsorship of the National Energy Authority, in time for it to be shown at the first conference on Driving Sustainability September, 2007. Felix Kramer (at left) spoke at the event; also shown is conference organizer Teitur Thorkelsson. Since the Icelandic language generally doesn't adopt foreign words, it's a "tengiltvinnbifreithin"-- roughly, a "plug-twin moving ride." Full-size photo

Tami Prochorchik and Carolyn Coquillette opened Luscious Garage in San
			Francisco in September 2007
Tami Prochorchik (manager) and Carolyn Coquillette (lead technician) opened Luscious Garage in San Francisco in September 2007 to provide "intelligent, cutting-edge and environmentally responsible" services to hybrid owners. They've welcomed the plug-in community to their shop and meeting space. Full-size photo
LG's blog reported on our visit.

Mike Sommer and Will Huggett from Alten Energy Solutions visiting California, Aug 2007
Mike Sommer and Will Huggett from Alten Energy Solutions drove their Smart car from British Columbia to meet with potential California partners on vehicle-grid projects. They also blogged about the trip. Full-size photo

CalCars hosting Visionary Vehicles in Silicon Valley, July 2007
CalCars hosted startup carmaker Visionary Vehicles at meetings in Silicon Valley in July 2007. Those pictured include: CalCars advisor Dave Bagshaw, Richard Mayer, Real Spirit, Roy Clauss, Seabury Group, Felilx Kramer, Malcolm Bricklin, George Caffrey, Libertas Partners, Marianne McInerney, Visionary Vehicles, Randy Reisinger, CalCars and Ron Gremban, CalCars. Full-size photo

Ron Gremban with Dr. Ali Emadi of IIT, June 2007
CalCars' Ron Gremban with Dr. Ali Emadi, Professor and Director, Electric Power and Power Electronics Center, Illinois Institute of Technologies, and Co-Founder of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc., on Alameda Island, June 2007. Full-size photo

Armand Ramirez, a generous CalCars donor, handing Felix a $500 check in May 2007
Armand Ramirez of The Ramirez office, a Coldwell Banker affiliate real estate broker in Petaluma, CA, delivered a $500 check to CalCars at the Maker Faire in May 2007. It's the first installment on a $5,000 donation for 2007 with contributions each time he closes a property sale. Full-size photo

Two protesters holding posters in front of San Rafael's GM/Hummer dealership, April, 2007
Two participants in Step It Up 2007 in San Rafael gave automakers loud-and-clear messages. Full-size photo

Step It Up campaign beginning in San Francisco
The San Francisco Step It Up 2007 started near the Golden Gate Bridge, ended up at a GM dealer in San Rafael, where demonstrators, polar bears and media all encouraged GM to build PHEVs. Full-size photo

1st PHEV mechanic training at Pat's Garage, S.F.
In San Francisco, March 2007, at CalCars' Valence lithium-phosphate prototype conversion are: front: Nick Rothman, videographer Chris Baldwin, Felix Kramer (CalCars), battery box, John Peters (Pat's). Rear: Randy Reisinger (CalCars), Pat Cadam (Pat's Garage owner), Ron Gremban (CalCars) and Richie Young (Pat's). Not shown: Carolyn Coquillete, Dave Bagshaw (car owner). Full-size photo

1st PHEV mechanic training at Pat's Garage, S.F.
Over a dozen professional automotive technicians from diverse backgrounds came to the world's first PHEV training session at Pat's Garage in San Francisco on February 10, 2007. Jack Rosebro of Perfect Sky and Carolyn Coquillette were the presenters. Full-size photo

Step It Up supporters at Crissy Field
CalCars and plug-in cars supporters assembled in late December 2006 at Crissy Field to promote the launch of Step It Up, a new campaign on global warming, which will feature gatherings of people at precious scenic spots globally on April 14. The theme of the campaign was on the sign: "Step It Up Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050." This was the first time the four converted Priuses in the San Francisco Bay Area gathered in one place. Full-size photo (Credit: May Boeve/StepItUp2007.org)

Step It Uppers with Rav4s
CalCars and plug-in cars supporters at Crissy Field in late December 2006. In this second photo, you can also see two Toyota RAV4Es and a Ford Ranger EV. Full-size photo

2006 Santa Monica Alt Car Expo gang
Thousands of people saw our car and talked to Plug-In Partners at the Alternative Car and Transportation Expo in December 2006 in Santa Monica. From left, are Jodie Van Horn of Plug-In Bay Area, Felix Kramer of CalCars, Marguerite Jones, Jamie Mitchell and Lisa Braithwaite of Plug-In Partners. Full-size photo

Crew of 12 who assembled PRIUS+ #4
This is the group that assembled Nov 4-12 in Corte Madera to build CalCars PRIUS+ #4 (the 21st conversion). First row: Tom Driscoll, Jack Wiren, Chuck Hursch, Carolyn Coquillette
Second row: Ron Gremban, Felix Kramer, "little" Jim Risinger, "big" Jim Philippi, Doug Crowder, Randy Reisinger, Greg "Big Bird" Gilmores, Walt Ferris.
Participating but not shown: Dave Bagshaw, Donald Crane, Tony Ferro,Casey Hartman, Kevin Lin, Mike Sasnett, Eric Simon, Darren Suprina, Doug Widney.
For more details, see the eaa-phev site.
Full-size photo

Felix Kramer at the September 2006 Air Resources Board Zero Emission Vehicle Symposium
CalCars #1 volunteer and founder, Felix Kramer testified at the California Air Resources Board's Zero Emissions Technology Review, September 2006.

Andy Frank and Ryan Fulcher
Professor Andy Frank and owner Ryan Fulcher, in Seattle in June 2006, explore Ryan's PHEV, converted at the 2006 Maker Faire. Full-size photo

Maker Faire conversion team
Conversion team at the April 2006 Make Magazine Maker Faire in San Mateo. Full-size photo


A stop at South Seattle Community College in November 2005 shows the growing interest in plug-in hybrid technology from a jobs perspective. Full-size photo


Greg Hanssen from EnergyCS, Seth Seaberg from Clean-Tech (EDrive Systems co-founders) with Felix Kramer from CalCars at the Clean Cities Conference in Palm Springs with the third plug-in Prius, May 2, 2005, the day EDrive announced its launch. Photo by Bill Moore, EVWorld.


Longtime CalCars volunteer Tom Driscoll, midway through the original PRIUS+ conversion in Marin County, September 2004. Full-size photo

Battery crew with the world's first plug-in hybrid, the PRIUS+
PRIUS+ team: we built the first PRIUS+ conversion Sept 11-22, 2004, starting with a low-cost lead-acid battery pack. Pictured are (L-R) Ron Gremban, Felix Kramer, Marc Geller, Kevin Lyons, Andrew Lawton. See About CalCars for names of those who helped but are not pictured. Full-size photo

CalCars founding meeting
After over a year of informal discussions and evolving strategies, CalCars got started at a knOwhere Design Shop® brainstorming session in Palo Alto, 29 July 2002.



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