Posted on 11/05/2012 6:20:53 PM PST by AmonAmarth
The debate about the value of electric cars just got another jolt.
In the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, unprepared electic vehicle owners in the Northeast were out of luck. With power grids and public charging stations down there was, and in some places still is no way to get energy into their cars.
According to automotive analyst Thilo Koslowski, the storm has revealed the one major vulnerability with electric cars: that a backup infrastructure is almost non-existent.
“If the outages continue, this will negatively impact consumer interest,” he told FoxNews.com. “We will need to address the issue of electricity shortages if we want to have a growing share of EVs.”
Technology analyst Rob Enderle agrees that the infrastructure problem with EVs is being called into question in the wake of the storm. Early funding for the EV infrastructure has focused on building charging stations at malls and offices, not on disaster-proofing them. If the grid goes dark, he says, there’s no back-up battery storage to keep your EV running.
ChargePoint, which runs one of the largest public charge station networks in the area affected by Sandy did not respond to requests from FoxNews.com to discuss it's contingency plans.
“EVs need infrastructure and low cost batteries to survive -- and they have neither,” he says. “We need some strong advancements in energy storage or generation to truly make electric competitive.”
The automakers themselves are looking for answers, as well.
“As more pure EVs hit the market, consumers will demand solutions to these types of dilemmas and the industry will have to respond,” says Jana Hartline, an environmental manager at Toyota.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No sympathy here.
Big paper weights.
All Bambi needed to do was skylift some solar panels in there.
Problems solved right?
Correction: "Yet ANOTHER vulnerability."
I live in an area of flash floods where motorists are frequently trapped on top their car. Seeing that parking lot of Fiskers that exploded when submerged by Sandy has got to be an eye opener.
That’s why every Pious...er...Prius should come with a bicycle taped to the roof.
It aint easy pushing a giant heavy battery around looking for a charger...
Ping.
You betcha! One way to start is to have the EPA accelerate the closing of those coal-fired electric plants they're planning to shut down. /s
“It aint easy pushing a giant heavy battery around looking for a charger...”
They should just drive....
Not if the battery is dead, or there is not enough juice to go far enough to the nearest charger.
I think everyone should purchase what works for them. Also, I think that the government should not pick and choose the winners in business.
However, to add one small point on EV’s side... I think we are seeing that having no electricity is a problem for both types of vehicles. Gas pumps work on electricity also.
I’ll never get an EV, but no option is perfect.
Gas pumps no longer have a manual back-up pump inside the case?
Gasoline is tough to compete with.
If a R administration got it back in the $2/gallon range via increasing supply, it’s even more competitive.
If nat gas starts taking a decent slice of truck consumption, that’s another drag on oil prices.
I do forecast that a significant percent of golf carts will remain electric powered.
Electric cars are NOT green!
They use electricity generated by a power plant nearby.
And 95% of power generation currently uses fossil fuels + Nuclear.
Wind power is also no good after a hurricane. They would be severely damaged by a direct hit. Another fact no one talks about.....more workers have died working on wind turbine towers than all the people killed in man made nuclear power accidents in the non-communist world.
Those went away when they went away from the mechanical dial type volume and price indicators.
I don’t think so... Isn’t that the reason there are so many issues in NY/NY? Unless I’m misreading, I thought it was lack of electricity more than lack of gas.
NOTE TO MINIMART operators. It would take a very small generator to run your register and gas pumps. Think about being the only guy that is selling gas. You would line up tankers nose to tale.
Nope. No power no fuel.
This disaster has caused me to consider a diesel engine for my next car. No lines at the diesel pump.
Prius don’t need electricity. They use the brake to charge the battery. You can also drive them under 20 miles per hour and not use any gasoline.
They are good cars to have when gasoline supplies are low.
Exactly.....Gas pumps need electricity as done EV’s. I just leased an EV because it was basically free to me if gas stayed around 3.50/gallon. I’m sure the EV’s enjoyed driving past the gas stations and their 4 hour lines, etc. Sure, they need to charge up, but I think I’d rather try and find a socket than a gallon of gas in NY right now....this is just trying to dump on the EV’s. I’m sure I’m the only conservative driving a Nissan Leaf in the country...But it is, what it is....
A steam car that burns trash, wood or coal sure would be. ;-)
All is not lost tho, hook up a hose and pump down to the main tank,fill your manual gas pump, and start selling gas again.
Indeed.
No issues about EV in general... In fact, I’ve read that the Leaf is probably the best one you can get right now. If it works for you, go for it. Gasoline doesn’t make someone a conservative... coal, nuclear, electric companies, etc., are darn good American industries also.
I guess you can’t carry electricity in a five gallon can.
Do you have a Romney bumper sticker on that thing? That would raise some eyebrows..lol
Partly right, but You might want to do a little more research on that.
Shucks. And I was hoping that they were going to come out with a pink Energizer Bunny Special Edition. LOL!
Not enough of it anyway....
They could jump start the car.
Thanks for the information. I recall seeing them when I was a kid (1970s and 1980s).
The Doltswagen
The electric car was invented a very long time ago. The vulnerability was well known for more than a century, and that was before electricity was universally available.
Over a dozen Fisker Karmas and three Toyota Prii caught fire in a New Jersey Port after being submerged in the storm surge.
http://jalopnik.com/5957866/three-toyota-prius-hybrids-also-burned-in-fisker-karma-port-fire
Some old school systems had a lot of value.
But the mechanical pumps were obsoleted when self serve gas came in and they wanted a single clerk to be able to monitor all the pumps from inside, also pay at the pump with credit cards.
Realistically is would not take a huge gen set to power the typical convenience store / gas station and it would give them a real competitive advantage vs those that didn’t have it.
Saw that story another site. The one thing that seems bogus is if those cars had been under 10ft+ of water like the guy claimed they wouldn’t all be lined up nicely like the pic shows.
They would be scrambled all over the place.
I swear steam IS the answer, but it will require another disaster or two to revive it.
Run it on pellet fuel, moonshine, coal for Christs sakes, even wood pallets and dirty baby diapers.
Anything but electric, gas or diesel.
But I would start with diesel, then a steam engine fueled by diesel....one step at a time, as they say, “How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time”
I want one. I love technology (I’m not an Enviro. wacko). I also like the quietness and torque. I have a Hybrid Nissan Altima. Great car!!! I’m just waiting for Obama to lose. Not going to buy one if he is President.
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