{"id":3526,"date":"2015-07-10T06:09:31","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T10:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2026-07-13T21:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:55:04","slug":"this-umes-car-uses-no-petrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/this-umes-car-uses-no-petrol\/","title":{"rendered":"This UMES car uses no petrol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Friday, July 10, 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRINCESS ANNE, MD<\/strong> – (July 10, 2015) – UMES’ eco-friendly portfolio now includes a solar-powered Cruise Car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel J. Christian, a Washington-area attorney, donated the vehicle as a gift for the university’s Department of Technology to support instruction in the expanding field of alternative energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal is to build a course around this vehicle,\u201d department chairman Derrek Dunn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen McDaniel, UMES’ vice president for Institutional Advancement, said Christian’s unique donation shows \u201cpeople are now beginning to realize that gifts come in a variety of forms. It’s not always money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From afar, the all-white vehicle resembles a giant Jurassic World-inspired egg, or perhaps a smaller version of the one used by the Pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear the vehicle is much more than a golf cart on steroids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equipped with four individual seats (and seat belts), brake and headlights, turn signals, drum brakes, a windshield wiper and a radio, the vehicle is designed to be used on public roadways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dunn said no firm decision has been made on whether to limit its movement to UMES’ 745-acre main campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe important thing is we have something to provide our students with some hands-on experience in learning how we are moving from reliance on fossil fuel driven mechanics to green energy sources,\u201d Dunn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newest addition to UMES’ motor pool is a 2008 model of a KUDO solar electric hybrid, among the first manufactured by Sarasota, Fla.-based Cruise Car Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s fitted with a solar panel on the roof that charges eight 6-volt batteries and also can be plugged into an electric source as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spec sheet says it weighs about 1,500 pounds, can do up to 20 miles-per-hour and can travel roughly 37 miles on fully charged batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Kalin, Cruise Car’s marketing director, said universities are among the company’s clients because many use them for instruction as well as for practical applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery customer has a different application,\u201d Kalin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the 10 years it has been manufacturing alternative-energy vehicles, Cruise Car has incorporated redesigns, such as using lightweight aluminum frames, to make them even more efficient than the one given to UMES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When McDaniel was a fund-raiser for Alcorn State, people occasionally donated farm equipment to the land-grant university in Mississippi. The solar-powered Cruise Car, he said, is a first in his 30-plus years working in higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having the Cruise Car as a teaching tool \u201copens a door for research by faculty and students. Everybody is looking for ways to reduce reliance on fossil fuels,\u201d Dunn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology students recently built rotating solar panels adjacent to the Thomas & Briggs Arts and Technology Center, and plans are in the works to install a small, demonstration wind turbine to augment instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re constantly looking for ways to update and improve our curriculum so it is relevant to our students,\u201d Dunn said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bill Robinson<\/a><\/strong>, director, Office of Public Relations, (410) 621-2355<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, July 10, 2015 PRINCESS ANNE, MD – (July 10, 2015) – UMES’ eco-friendly portfolio now includes a solar-powered Cruise Car. Gabriel J. Christian, a Washington-area attorney, donated the vehicle as a gift for the university’s Department of Technology to support instruction in the expanding field of alternative energy. \u201cOur goal is to build a course…Read more This UMES car uses no petrol<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-3526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}