Posted on 06/26/2010 5:17:22 AM PDT by Jack_1
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Maryland is using more than $500,000 in federal stimulus money to build at least 64 charging stations for electric vehicles.
The stations will be located in parking garages in Baltimore and elsewhere along Interstate 95.
Another $500,000 will go toward wiring truck stops so truckers won't have to rely on their diesel engines to provide electricity while parked.
General Motors Co. is preparing to roll out the Chevrolet Volt later this year, with automakers following with their own electric vehicles soon after. Maryland officials hope public charging stations will encourage consumers to buy the cars.
The General Assembly has approved a $2,000 tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles only make sense if wired like the trolleys of the early 1900s.
Batteries for cars are stupid. How long do they last? 5 years? How much for a replacement battery? $10K?
The materials of construction are an environmental nightmare. Smelting the nickel kills everything for several miles around the smelter.
And yes, you better be building nuke plants to supply the power and the present wiring/distribution system won’t handle it.
It you think California has brownout now, just wait until all the socialists plug in their electric cars.
Automatic Transmission Re-builders Association. Transmissions are still worked on and rebuilt
http://www.piertransmission.com/ here is a transmission shop I have known about for 24+ years. Excellent reputation in that area
It is they that will not miss you, since they will both be around long after your are gone.
I’ll probably keep one stick shift gas engined car
If we can just over come this one little detail electric cars will be all the rage. That little detail is the immutable laws of physicist physics, which render battery powered cars toys. They just don't work, and there's no reason to believe they will anytime in the near future.
Thousands upon thousands of people can fix automatic transmissions. Not a single one can make a battery capable of carrying it's own weight like a tank of gas can.
Your call...but save your money, lots of it, for the first time you have to replace those batteries...we’re talking thousands.
It'll be intersting to see what happens when the NIMBY's run out of somebody else's back yard.
I have driven GM Suburbands and Tahoes all my adult life. I saw the hand writing on the wall about them being fazed out due to the gov. forcing smaller cars on us. I bought a new Tahoe in ‘09, I did not see the takeover by obozo of GM. My next vehicle, if I outlive this one, will be a Ford.
I'm convinced all the way around liberals flunked algebra and geometry, the subjects that teach logic. They couldn't possibly have made it to trig or calculus. That would require thinking.
My Grandfather told me that back in the 60's when tranny fluid still had whale oil in it(good stuff btw.).
In 2001, I bought my couisins 1986 Toyota for $800 because he thought the tranny was going.
I flushed the tanny with new fluid, and then again 6 months later.
Still going strong now almost a decade later, clean, comfy, payment free transportation.
let the truckers keep those those big ol' diesels turning in truck stops ... and have the little 'lectro cars plug into them for a charge
Electrically powered mass transit gets its electricity from the grid while it's moving.So Green One, you support this Md madness too? Along with your socialist train dreams, you think electric cars are deserving of tax subsidies too?
If the appointed sites are “in” and “around” locations in Baltimore, you will not want to be seen recharging your vehicle there ~ it will be too dangerous for even the police to refuel in such spots.
These things will be obsolete and growing weeds before they are complete. Oh, the insanity.
...............it’s not just the 500 thousand you know ,, there will be 50 thousand jobs added ,,, boy that stimulus is really something ,,,, and 0’mally swallows .
Electric cars make a lot of sense if:
* You can recharge in 10 minutes
* You can drive 350 miles between charges
* The batteries don’t contain toxic materials
* The battery packs last 100,000 miles
The raw physics, chemistry and engineering of storing energy in batteries vs. hydrocarbons is all in favor of hydrocarbons.
LOL! The ONLY test in which the “Smart” car came out on top! I’m surprised they didn’t pit it against a go-kart. Or maybe a kid’s scooter.
You mean the same kind of subsidies that gasoline-powered cars get?
My friend, the era of the gasoline-powered private automobile is drawing to a close, whether you like it or not. The time is not far off when retail gasoline will cost $20.00 per gallon, or (more likely) will be "for official use only". One Middle East atom bomb is all that will be required to bring this about. When that day comes, the suburbs (and the socialist highway system that supports them) will begin to wither and die. Over the next 25 years, the American landscape will revert to its traditional form of densely-populated cities surrounded by empty farmland (reclaimed suburbia). At that point, you'll have the choice of three forms of transport: TBF (electric train, electric bus, or foot). Bearing this in mind, we should begin public investment in rail infrastructure now; we may not have the capital with which to do so after the Crash comes.
Please note that I'm advocating public investment in infrastructure, not in service. Train and bus service should be provided by private operators, not by government bureaucracies. Tax money should be used to build track, bridges, signals, etc., not to buy or operate the trains themselves.
We've all been wanting the middle east to 'go away' since before Chris Columbus tried to avoid the place in 1492.
We have more oil right here, but Sneakyman Inc. likes wars on foreign shores & the sand snaggers need to have $ to buy our weapons, hence Mideast oil.
We'd be drilling here before that precious and beautiful mushroom cloud dissipates.
Due to Mass Wind and the giant turbines they plan on building in the ocean off Ted Kennedy’s house our electric bills are slated to triple over the next few years.
I’m sure these new electric cars are going to go over real well here in MA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.