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Wally E. Rippel is a long-time developer and advocate of
Wally E. Rippel is a long-time developer and advocate of battery electric vehicle
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, ...
s.
Wally has a prominent role, labeled as himself, "Research Engineer, AeroVironment," in the 2006 documentary movie ''Who Killed the Electric Car?
''Who Killed the Electric Car?'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that explores the creation, limited commercialization and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the ...
'', including two brief scenes in the official trailer.
In 1968, as an undergraduate student, he built the Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
electric car (a converted 1958 VW microbus) and won the Great Transcontinental Electric Car Race against MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Rippel worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
on electric vehicle battery research, among other things.
Around 1990, Rippel joined AeroVironment and helped to design the GM Impact, later named the EV1; he had worked on the induction motor for the car before joining AeroVironment. In 2003, he was one of the participants in the mock funeral for the EV1 as GM prepared to collect the last few for crushing.http://qofv.com/ev1/
Rippel left AeroVironment in 2006 and joined Tesla Motors
Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...
, where he continued his lifelong work on the battery electric car. He left Tesla in 2008.
See also
*Battery electric vehicle
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, ...
(BEV)
* ''Who Killed the Electric Car?
''Who Killed the Electric Car?'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that explores the creation, limited commercialization and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the ...
''
* Tesla Roadster (2008)
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle (BEV) sports car, based on the Lotus Elise chassis, that was produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors (now Tesla, Inc.) in California from 2008 to 2012. The Roadster was the first highway ...
Further reading
Books that discuss Wally Rippel include: * Bob Brant, ''Build Your Own Electric Vehicle'', McGraw-Hill, 1994. * Ernest H Wakefield, ''History of the Electric Automobile: Hybrid Electric Vehicles'', Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1998 * Michael Shnayerson, ''The Car That Could: The Inside Story of GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle'', Random House, 1996.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rippel, Wally California Institute of Technology alumni American electrical engineers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people