Posted on 01/12/2015 6:23:09 AM PST by Olog-hai
General Motors Co on Monday showed its Chevrolet Bolt concept car with an electric driving range of more than 200 miles and a $30,000 price tag, offering a view into where the U.S. automaker is pushing in development of electric vehicles (EV).
The all-electric Bolt is a concept car not currently slated for production, but Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said the company is committed to developing an affordable long-range EV, and GM said they could develop the car in as little as 18 months.
“This is a real game changer,” Barra told reporters at the media preview at the Detroit auto show. “Trust me, this is no stripped-down science experiment.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Better looking than the Bolt. but that is not saying much.
I routinely get close to 100 miles per charge in mine for city driving. On the interstate I get about 70 miles. Cold weather below 32 degrees is the only thing that seems to lower that much (A combination of the cold affecting the battery and the inability to efficiently heat with a heat pump below freezing.)
And those accessories draw electricity. And what about the more typical traffic jam when rather than literally sitting still for an hour, the traffic crawls at 5 mph?
I think 200 miles is enough to cover 99% of most people's driving. Beyond that, a few brain cells will prevent you from getting caught without juice.
If you are that worried about it then a Volt, with a 40 mile (50 mile in the 2016) electric range followed by a 340 mile gas tank, solves the problem.
The real, and unreported, issue is not the vehicles range.
But, how long does it take to recharge the battery pack so it can move again? A 200-mile range is nice; but, if it takes 2, 4, 6, or 8 hours to fully recharge the battery pack of what use it is?
I am looking at a 600-mile trip at the end of the week to visit my son. That’s three “recharging stops” human and gas or electric. A gas stop is what 20 minutes? An electrical recharge is going to be?
BTW - even Robert Heinlein knew this to be an issue back in 1972 when he wrote “Time Enough for Love”. There were electrically powered cars in the novel powered by a “shipstone” that could easily, and apparently, quickly swapped out. Until the current generation of electrically powered vehicles achieve this capability inexpensively (time and dollars) electrical vehicles will be limited to urban transportation ONLY.
The golden age of electrical cars was in the 1910’s where they were used as city cars to compensate for their limited range. Hmmm. A century later and we are again playing with electrical cars for many of the same reasons as a great-grandfathers. And they are still failing for the same basic reason - impractical outside urbanized areas.
Even moreso. Like others have noted, if you are absolutely stuck in a gasmobile you can just turn off the engine. But at 5 mph, stop and go, then that is not really a solution. An electric car is at its highest efficiency at low speeds, unlike a gas engine which is at its lowest.
...30 minutes to get 80% charge using a Tesla Supercharger. These are positioned along interstates throughout the country.
Of course, the vast majority of your charging will take 10 seconds: 5 seconds to plug in when you get home in the evening, and 5 seconds to unplug it in the morning.
An electric car uses very little juice on its accessories. Crawling at 5mph doesn’t hit the batteries that hard. In fact, 25-35 or cruising at low speeds is ideal. And with regenerative braking it helps extend the range on stop and go drives.
Why some of them came up when searching for "ugly russian car" I'll never know...Google's image search algorithm is not yet perfected...here's a sampling...
Very funny!
I find this thread interesting in several ways, one of them being how there seems to be resistance to electric vehicles themselves. I agree that government intervention to 'corral' the mass market into a different mindset is obnoxious, to say the least, however I hope that the actual technological advances can be disassociated from bureaucratic manipulation of consumers.
Consider this- If the federal government introduced legislation to restrict the use of alternative fueled vehicles, for the purpose of making us dependent on a single source of fossil fuel, how would that change our perception of the newer technology
I can assure you that it will be made of metal.
To be socially acceptable to the masses of greenies, they must be made of recycled 2 liter plastic bottles and aluminium drink cans. (: More of the former and less of the latter to reduce the weight.
Since we don't make electricity from oil in this country, electric cars have the potential to reduce our consumption of Jihad Juice by 90%.
Our electricity is generated from nuclear and conventional natural gas/coal fired, and wind generators in our area. A good deal of the energy generated is wasted in the distribution process. Electric cars and batteries just add another wasteful link in the distribution of that energy. Vehicles powered by petroleum products will be around for a while longer based on their scientific and economic merits unless outlawed by the EPA and legislation. Nevertheless, we can still produce a lot of plastics and other synthetics from our oil.
I'm not anti-electric cars but they are not a must-have for me at this time. As long as social engineering attempts to influence the laws of science and economics in their favour, there will be people who believe them to be a solution to a non-existent problem.
From Volt to Bolt. Next will be the Watt, as in Watt were they thinking?!
“Now you can be twice as far away from home when you battery dies.”
Okay, so my 57 Bel Air runs out of gas on occasion (broken fuel gauge). So I walk a couple blocks with my gas can, come back and I’m back in business. With an electric, I guess you need a tow every time you run out of charge.
What is left out is the math of battery replacement.
100,000 miles and you must spend $10,000 for a new pack?
So 10 cents per mile. If you are selling your used electric car with original battery, with 30,000 miles on it; you have to deduct $3,000 from the price.
In other words, at 100,000 miles your electric car is worthless. While my Honda Civic is still worth $8,000 or so.
Driving range of more than 200 miles so much of seeing the USA in your Chevrolet.
“In case you haven’t heard, the latest version of the electric Tesla Model S has the fastest 0 to 60 mph time of any four-door production car in the world.”
That’s cute. Now let’s talk a drive beyond the neighborhood and in a car people can afford.
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