Hybridfest 2008 Report

A tour of the Saft factory next year would be awesome! I spent a while at the show talking with their Senior Electrochemist, Ron Miles. They have some promising LiIon cells in the works - hopefully they'll sell them to end user customers not just OEM's, or develop their own PHEV conversion.

This year I went to HF on short notice, but next year I'm going to plan to take a few extra days and visit some friends near Chicago so may make it a week long trip. I was busy all 3 days of the show but if we could get a carpool group together either on Thursday or Monday to see Saft that would be great. Maybe next year one of the Madison locals can also put together a half-day tour of the city and we could have a sightseeing Prius caravan!

 

I am happy to set stuff up if people are willing to be there. Don't want to have a party with only me!

Hobbit, I wish I would have known ahead of time that you planned on hanging around Madison, I could have set you up with plenty of things. Unfortunately I ended up bailing out of town on Tuesday early morning to head for California otherwise I could have taken you around, too.

The SAFT building is a very cool place. You guys would really get a kick out of it.

Plus there are plenty of things to do around Madison. Keep the discussion going.

 

If you could set this up, I don't think you would be alone! I'd definitely want to be part of a tour. It would probably have to be a weekday (Thursday or Monday) to see things in operation while their plant is running. It would be great to show SAFT how much interest there is in PHEV conversions and get them on board with the enthusiast/DIY community. They already did the FEH conversion they had at the show - next year I want to see them at HF with a converted Prius. If I'm going to spend a big chunk of $$ on a PHEV conversion I'd rather purchase from a battery manufacturer that is based in the US rather than China.

As far as sightseeing around Madison, I wish I had more time to see Minona Terrace and maybe take in a Michael Feldman Wadd'ya Know? show - only problem is the time conflict with HF! Maybe next year...the weekend went by so fast as it was.

 

Old thread, new input: I have *finally* finished my pictorial /
writeup on Hybrifest and way beyond, as it turned into an 8000+
mile cross-country jaunt and learning experience for me.
Here's the start page, and there are plenty of ancillary links
to chase and a few surprises in the big-pictures here and there.
.
Hopefully this could provide more entertainment today than getting
deluged with ads for beer and big cars with abysmal fuel economy...
.
_H*

 

Hi Al;

Awesome pics and great narrative.

I totally agree that the mosquitoes were nasty at the campsite and if I go there again this year... I will be taking huge amounts of real bug repellent. The stores in Madison only seem to stock the wimpy stuff.

Cheers

MSantos

 

Too much to read too little time.
I have been reading a long time, way past bed time. Thanks for a very well written review Hobbit, very entertaining and informative.

 

I just stumbled across another bit of coverage of HybridFest 2008 that I had not seen before, on Popular Mechanics' website.

4 Wild New Cars for Mega MPG @ HybridFest 2008

 

Fixed.

Thanks.