Posted on 04/08/2009 4:22:32 AM PDT by Scanian
Isaac Martin pointed out in yesterday ’s American Thinker some of the problems with the new technology behind the proposed switch to electric cars -- there are many other issues as well.
A few of a multitude of problems are the high cost of the batteries, $25,000.00 for the Tesla’s (6,831 batteries) pack, the pollution problem of replacing and disposing the packs, and the relatively short life span of the batteries. (For example, the life of a lithium ion cell phone battery seems to be about a year and a half. Finding exact information on the actual useful battery life is difficult.)
Let's give the battery manufacturers the benefit of the doubt and say the useful life is four years. The cost per year is $6,500.00 before the cost of charging the car. Add to this, four dollars per charge. Let’s say you use the car to commute to your job and tool around on Saturday matching the mileage in Martin's article of 100 miles per day. This equals 31,200 annual miles. That is $24.00 per week times fifty-two = $1,250.00 in additional costs. Therefore the annual fuel and amortization cost is $8,000.00.
Battery packs are very susceptible to temperature extremes both high and low, thus making their use impractical in the northern and southern halves of the country. This limits their use in these areas to spring and fall when temperatures are moderate. So, you will need another (evil gasoline) car for cold winter and hot summer days. Another problem with the batteries is that the charge/ length of their use cycle gets shorter and shorter with every charge/use cycle.
Next it the problem of heating and cooling the passenger space. This will significantly affect the range of the vehicle. Lithium ion’s energy density is significantly degraded in hot
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
As long as the nations electricity production capacity is completely unable to meet the needs of a large number of electric vehicles, relegating EV's to impractical toys for rich boys status is fine.
Essentially, you charge the battery pack at home, then get 30-50 miles of operation on battery pack power before the vehicle runs like a conventional hybrid car. This allows for much smaller battery packs, so even the Toyota Prius or the current Ford Fusion hybrid just needs an upgraded battery pack to achieve full PHEV capability.
That's darn near most of us...
THAT's the ticket!
Has no one considered the costs of re-charging all these batteries?
The laws of physics can’t be broken. It takes power to move a vehicle. If that power is to come from batteries, then the batteries have to be re-charged.
Re-charging takes electrical power. Power costs money and it makes pollution.
We ain’t going get enough power from windmills and solar panels. So air pollution will increase.
Nuclear might help, but who’s going to allow nuclear plants to be built in their states?
My God, we’re so screwed by these bastards running our country...
That’s what the Chevrolet Volt does.
Mark
Yikes!
I thought I was making up a silly situation.
Isn't that the worst of both worlds?
Not really. If you need to drive less than 40 miles between charges, you’re all-electric all the time.
If you need more than 40 miles, you fire up the gasoline engine and you’re not dead on the side of the road wishing you had a place to recharge.
Not really - most people would be recharging at night, when there's a lot more available power.
I see. Does the generator drive the vehicle, or just recharge the batteries?
That I do not know.
My guess would be there’s some sort of electronic controller which directs power to the drive-motor to the extent it’s needed to respond to the “gas pedal”, and whenever excess power is available charges the batteries.
Or, maybe the batteries are disconnected entirely when the aux engine is running.
The latter would be far simpler/cheaper.
Let’s not forget something else.
Many people don’t have garages and/or driveways so they have to park their cars on the street some distance away from their dwelling. Can you say extension cord!
Now imagine a city like New York where many live in condo/apartment complexes and picture thousands of extension cords hanging out of windows to these electric cars.
Not very practical is it?
I think you will find that most here are well aware of the many issues surrounding EV's.
If that's the case, then it seems like any quoted limit (e.g. "40 miles") is meaningless since it totally depends on what kind of driving you're doing.
Anyway, that makes more sense than what I envisioned: you drive 40 miles, then pull over and fire up the engine to charge the batteries for an hour. Yuck.
If you need more than 40 miles, you fire up the gasoline engine and you’re not dead on the side of the road wishing you had a place to recharge.
But you're dead on the side of the road WAITING for it to recharge?
Yeah, I gotta have one of THOSE.
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