Plug in overnight electric cars poll

[navychop]

Thanks for the link. I suggest folks read the comments, too- especially the ones on April 23 & 24.

 

[tomcrown1]

Here is another link to a fast electric car it will sell for $250,000.00

Japan Creates The World's Fastest Electric Sedan

 

[Tyralak]

100 miles? Try 220.

Tesla Motors

 

[navychop]

I love it! Less than 2 cents per mile- after you pay the $100,000 up front!

But it's a start. I'm just saddened that they seem to think they need to start with a competitor for high end gassers. They don't. Just give us something we can commute in. Start small and build up. Even though it wouldn't be for everybody, I can't help but think a $30,000 electric would sell well. It doesn't have to go as far or as fast as a gasser. Just enough to get to work and back with a reasonable margin, and recharge overnight at home.

But I repeat myself.

 

[jayn_j]

Have we mantioned this one yet?

Welcome to Myers Motors : Transform Your Driving. Transform Your World

I kind of like it, but $29k with a 45 mile range and batteries that need to be replaced every year or two just doesn't cut it.

They had a quote I absolutely loved in the manual. They said that you could discharge the battery, but it would lower the number of charge cycles you get. For example, if you had a 30 mile daily commute round trip, you would get about 250 charge cycles before you needed to replace the batteries. However, if you could recharge at work after 15 miles, you would then get 500 recharge cycles. Uh, 250 recharges once a day vs 500 recharges at twice a day??????

 

[riffjim4069]

Back in 1969 I thought we would be jetsoning about in our hovercraft vehicles by the year 2020...if man is still alive, if woman can survive. Ok, so I was only six!

 

[jayn_j]

Back in 1969 I thought we would be jetsoning about in our hovercraft vehicles by the year 2020...if man is still alive, if woman can survive. Ok, so I was only six!

To be fair that was "In the year 2525", not 2020. I know for a fact that THIS man won't still be alive

 

[navychop]

Hovercraft are great. Until you need to turn. Or worse, stop! :haha

 

[NpaulTodd]

how bout 2010 , boys & girls

Ford plugs Escape Hybrid into Southern California Edison - Auto News - Motor Trend

 

[Bob Haller]

Have we mantioned this one yet?

Welcome to Myers Motors : Transform Your Driving. Transform Your World

I kind of like it, but $29k with a 45 mile range and batteries that need to be replaced every year or two just doesn't cut it.

They had a quote I absolutely loved in the manual. They said that you could discharge the battery, but it would lower the number of charge cycles you get. For example, if you had a 30 mile daily commute round trip, you would get about 250 charge cycles before you needed to replace the batteries. However, if you could recharge at work after 15 miles, you would then get 500 recharge cycles. Uh, 250 recharges once a day vs 500 recharges at twice a day??????

deeper discharge damages most batteries.......

cost of replcing batteries is going to be a major issue

 

[jayn_j]

deeper discharge damages most batteries.......

cost of replcing batteries is going to be a major issue

Yep, the 250-500 cycles is mighty expensive given that the thing uses 15 Optima spiral wound batteries at $120/ea. Lets see.
15*120= $1800 in battery replacement cost.
30 miles/charge*250 charges/battery = 7500 miles/ battery set.
$1800/battery set / 7500 miles/battery set = $.24/mile.
Then you need to add the $.02 they claim in electricity cost for $0.26/mile.

Compare that with $4.20/gallon and say 20 MPG
4.20/20 = $0.21/mile.
To be fair, you need to add in an oil change every 3k miles for $50.
40/3000 = $0.0167, so it is $.23/mile.

Thus the gas car is more efficient as well as more flexible and practical.

 

[jayn_j]

reviving an old thread:

Premier Hybrid and Electric Vehicles Business Intelligence

Here is a press release from Tesla. It says they achieved over 300 miles range on a single charge during some Australian competition for EVs. Their statement is that the tesla could be used as a primary vehicle. Especially interesting were their cost/mile claims, although they fail to mention the six figure price tag for the car.

Anyway, it is coming, and fairly quickly.

 

[bhelms]

What would put the "brakes" on a quick adoption of this technology when it becomes feasible and affordable? Like others here I have concerns about the readiness of the current grid, and viable alternatives are apparently years away. Perhaps strong incentives for "offpeak" recharging is part of the short-term solution, but that itself creates another "peak" period.

Also - Given that so much of our electicity comes from fossil fuels, are we merely exchanging one problem for another? Which has the greater carbon footprint, elec.- or gas-powered cars? I don't want to change this into any kind of political dscussion, but I think there are "barriers to entry" beyond the practicality of the vehicles themselves...

 

[Ramy]

We just need to start making people have solar panels on their houses and that would almost eliminate the call for buying oil from other countries......after those cars are more prevalant of course.

 

[bhelms]

Agreed, but I include options like that in my "years away" comment above.

The whole exterior of the vehicle should be made from solar panels. Plenty of nascent examples of that already including aircraft. Sometime down the road increased efficiencies and power densities could make the vehicles essentially self-powered. Like Benny Hill says - "Cut out the middleman...!"

 

[jayn_j]

Agreed, but I include options like that in my "years away" comment above.

The whole exterior of the vehicle should be made from solar panels. Plenty of nascent examples of that already including aircraft. Sometime down the road increased efficiencies and power densities could make the vehicles essentially self-powered. Like Benny Hill says - "Cut out the middleman...!"

Two things.

First, there is this quote from the article:

That's not all. The 3000-km road trip cost only US$126 using Greenpower electricity. And that was with peak power. If the car drivers had charged with off peak power, it would have cost them US$69 (2.2 cents per km). In gasoline terms, that amounts to using 1.22 litres to run 100 km.

That would imply that this is going to use less power than is generally thought. The Tesla uses more efficient (and costly) Lithium Ion batteries, and a lot of the power calcs were made using the older lead Acid technology. I am not trying to minimize the problems with smart grid, but lower tech solutions can be applied, such as limiting hours for the charging, kind of like watering days using separate meters.

The solar panels wil come, but they are not ready yet. They made that whole fuss about the panel for the Prius this year and all it accomplishes is to run the circulation fan so the interior stays cooler. Panels simply don't produce significant power yet. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't start down this road. There are a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome before this becomes common. Those very obstacles will limit acceptance right now. Thus I don't worry too much about overloading the grid yet.

We need to get efficiency even higher. We need to get costs down. We need to deal with sub zero temperatures. Also 120 degree temps. We need better real-time energy monitoring. Need to work on regenerative braking. The list just goes on and on.

 

[bhelms]

At 34mph. I wonder how much the efficiency changes at realistic speeds one would normally drive on a 300 mi. trip. We're obvoiusly a large step closer however. Let a major manufacturer buy-out Tesla and watch the price plummet as well.

I hope to see all of this becoming reality in my lifetime. We cannot remain energy dependent much longer...

 

[harshness]

Such cars already exist. The question is whether or not they can come up with some way of making them less undesirable.

 

[jayn_j]

At 34mph. I wonder how much the efficiency changes at realistic speeds one would normally drive on a 300 mi. trip. We're obvoiusly a large step closer however. Let a major manufacturer buy-out Tesla and watch the price plummet as well.

I hope to see all of this becoming reality in my lifetime. We cannot remain energy dependent much longer...

I really hate to say this, but let a major manufacturer buy-out Tesla and watch the efficiency drop like a rock, have it put on weight like Kirstie Alley on a binge, and all that advanced technology be traded out for a ball bearing ashtray.

 

[Bobby]

And 6 cup holders...