Posted on 04/08/2015 2:05:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
My wife was in San Antonio a few years back caring for her mother during cancer treatment and ended up in a traffic jam on US281. A SMART car had tangled with a 18 wheeler. When she got to the accident site, they were literally cleaning up the SMART car with a broom and dustpan. I don't want to think about what happened to the driver.
“The commission last year installed Level 2 chargers at four service plazas at a cost of $2.5 million.... 79 vehicles using the chargers over the past year.”
“Eventually, it wants to install faster Level 3 chargers at 17 plazas.”
I always like Rush’s comment about liberals in these situations — “It’s not the results that count, it’s the good intentions that matter.”
There’s no project in la-la land with results so bad to ever warrant killing the project. They just double-down on their crappy decisions and throw good money after bad. After all, the bad results are all the fault of the stupid consumers making dumb decisions that are “not in their own self-interest” according to the do-gooders.
“...subtile vibrators...”
Going after the Mom market who just remodeled their kitchens?
He was worried about gasoline prices ... so he bought a TESLA?!?!?!?!
BWAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Musk knows how to milk subsidies - play the “have taxpayers put money into my 3 companies and into my pocket” game.
“SolarCity, one of the world’s largest installers of solar panels, said today that SpaceX is investing in $90 million worth of its solar bonds.
In a blog post today, SolarCity said that the bonds are “issued — and backed — by SolarCity and powered by monthly solar payments from thousands of solar customers across the country.”
Added SolarCity, “SpaceX is effectively getting paid by the sun.”
Elon Musk, of course, is tied to both companies — as well as the electric car maker Tesla. Musk is the CEO of SpaceX (and Tesla) and the chairman of SolarCity’s board.
SolarCity also said that SpaceX bought the bonds in exactly the same way that any U.S. investor could — online. “After reviewing the investment materials,” SolarCity wrote in its blog post, SpaceX chief financial officer Bret Johnsen “took less than 10 minutes to set up an account and order the bonds.”
The rationale for investing in solar bonds is simple, the company said. It “offers investors like SpaceX the opportunity to earn significantly higher returns than those offered through comparable investments with the same maturities. At the same time, SolarCity is able to raise capital at lower cost.”
A true believer to the end. I think you missed the left turn on your way to the DUmpster.
“many would be buyers are delaying their purchase [waiting for EV 2.0].
LOLOLOL...yeah, that’s the reason. Keep believing that.
And windmills. Don’t forget we need a gazillion more of them to make up for the tens of GW of coal power being shut down by the EPA. Electricity doesn’t just come from the plug on the wall.
I got it, backup gasoline generators at each station. d;^)
Same here.
Amongst all the other drawbacks of operating an electric car is that they represent a significant added hazard to pedestrians because they make almost no noise. They are as noisy as a good quality bicycle.
I can see the usefulness for electric vehicles in larger Metro areas but definitely not in areas like W. PA. Doesn’t make mush sense to buy one in remote areas.
Natural gas fired combined cycle plant have very high efficiency (mid 60s compared to mid 30s for coal plants), have low capital costs and are very clean. There’s only one rub...you need a source of reliable natural gas. Governments all over the country are doing their best to shut down hydraulic fracturing that is responsible for the boom in NG. So even cheap NG fueled electricity is uncertain thanks to the same enviro-idiots that are shutting down coal plants.
Not to worry, though. Every enviro-kook KNOWS that power comes from the wall plug, not some far-away plant.
Engineering Economics be damed...full speed ahead.
Too funny. A nice line to use these days is that: Given the drop in gas prices, due to the President’s energy policies, and the much-improved economy, again due to the President, people now have the money to easily afford driving simple gasoline powered cars again.
Let them try to argue that.
It’s not just the lack of fast changing stations in W. PA that is the problem. It is the hills and winters, too.
“Assume the problem of fast charging is solved. Consider the power generating capacity behind the electric grid does not exist to provide power to charge even 10% of the motor fleet in the USA nor does the grid have the capacity to deliver the power to charge 10% of the fleet to all of the charging stations that will be needed.”
Not true. Because electric cars mostly charge at night, the grid could handle it today if 75% of cars were replaced with electrics. I made a lengthy post on this subject here, but I'll give the summary. From this article:
Don’t Worry: US Grid Capable of Supporting Up to 150 Million Electric Vehicles
The US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory calculated that the grid’s excess capacity will support over 150 million pure electric vehicles.
150 million means that nearly 75% of the vehicles on our roads today could be electric and the grid would have the capacity to support them all.
That 150 million number is also mentioned in this article, EVs generate new variables for power grids, and this one from MIT Technology Review, Could Electric Cars Threaten the Grid?. They go into detail about how the only real problem could be upgrading neighborhood transformers in case everyone charges at once.
“At the same time the federal government... is doing everything it can to force the shut down of coal generating capacity... This leaves solar and wind as the only acceptable power generating sources for progressive regulators and public interest groups.”
Coal plants are largely being replaced by natural gas which is now cheaper than coal:
Scheduled 2015 capacity additions mostly wind and natural gas; retirements mostly coal
“We haven’t even begun to cover the environmental issues associated with battery production and disposal.”
Automakers have battery recycling programs. Toyota has had one for their Prius for years and now Tesla does as well.
You’d be far better off buying a used Miata with a hard top. They are super reliable and also pretty cheap; not good for big people though.
Pull three hills on a typical morning commute around here and your battery will be dead.
How many chargers did they buy!? That price seems absurd.
“Dealers in Western Pennsylvania, hundreds of miles from the closest Tesla retail outlet, said sales of Nissan Leafs...”
The local Nissan dealer is almost giving away the few Leafs on the lot. You have to join a hippy cult to find out where the secret charging stations are hidden. When a Leaf owner pulls up to charge his toy car at the Nissan lot, he’s given free hot dogs, a pop and balloons for the kids.
We who are of years remember thinking/saying, back in the 60's ... "I'd never want to be in THAT thing in a wreck" .. at the time, Honda
And how much of ANYthing American is that "sense" ?
People just don't understand how deep the trauma of rape has gone ... and how long it's been there.
Lookit Sherman’s #11
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