What ever happened to HUMMER?

Hello ACDC friends,

October was a great month for my wife Deb. She is fine and took this picture of me at Automechanika in Frankfurt, Germany.  ACDC was invited to speak about the American experience with hybrid and electric cars.  You may know that the Hummer brand was for sale during GMs bankruptcy and a Chinese car company made an offer.  The government in China nixed the idea as “it will be bad for our reputation”. REALLY! What reputation are they referring to? Back to the picture. This pint sized (and you thought I was short!) car was on display. It really is for sale. So Hummer is back, only it is tiny. Miles Per Gallon might be pretty good now.

The month of October was a good month for ACDC. We have added more data into our classes. The online classes sell well and we have a discount program for schools that get federal funding.  Sales of HEV and the VOLT are up as the price of gasoline got close to $4.00 a gallon. Deb and I took some time off after a week and a half teaching in Germany. We rented a Citroen D3. This was a fun car about the size of a Civic Hatchback.  The autobahn really allows driving based on fast you car can go. Well this car did manage 170 kph (105mph) but what a shame as I was ready for 200mph (Deb was not). I was reminded what you pay at the pump at those speeds. Gasoline as about 8.50 per gallon in Belgium so a fill up was a bit over $100.00. I did that 2 times in a few days. HEV is some parts of Europe are still a rare sighting but when you get into the cities there they are.  Prius and Insights and Auris (a British built small Prius). October is the annual trip overseas that Deb and I look forward to every year.  This year was better and more fun that the last few. Hope to see you on-line or in class soon.

Craig Van Batenburg, CEO