Posted on 10/19/2010 7:12:38 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
Heck the Leaf is such a dinky car I bet that you could do a gas conversion for it with a two-stroke motor. Heck, use the engine from a Citroen 2CV.
Ah, so we can millions of appliances plugged-in sucking up juice all night.
To me the only electric car worth buying is one that can be charged solely for free, either its by solar cells on board or through a landline or it has some form of fuel cell that converts water to hydrogen and then to electrical.
I have no problem with an electric vehicle, the problem is that its like becoming a heroin addict, you will be forced to keep up the habit of battery replacement and electrical usage, you become a slave to its needs.
There are ways to get free electricity with proper planning and some investment.
Ultimately I think electric cars will be disposable vehicles, nobody will buy one for its classic value, and its options later in life may be limited to just what a person is willing to do to keep it on the road, I have several old power tools that are nearly useless now because their battery packs are now obsolete, the same will happen in a few years with these cars.
I like the internal combustion engine. It is very reliable and powerful and runs on relatively cheap and abundant fuel.
When you mentioned “two stroke motor” I think you made at least a dozen green zombies have a stroke.
I remember the good old days of interstate busses using Detroit Diesels which are two stroke, personally I think its possible to create a pretty clean large two stroke engine for automotive use.
I agree on this: the only electric vehicle I like is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
>>Current industry estimates say the battery pack in the all-electric Nissan Leaf compact car coming out in December costs Nissan Motor Co. about $15,600.<<
If you’re looking to recoup your financial losses, design a cheaper battery pack. Or buy coal stock.
Nothing, it will cost the person disposing of it a considerable amount IMHO........
Problem is the amount of lithium mined annually will support enough large lithium ion batteries for 40 to 60 thousand vehicles per year. Lithium mines are in South America and Western Africa. Most of it is owned by China. Can we say OOPS!!!!!
I used to have a lawn mower with a Clinton two-stroke motor on it. There was a spool on the end of the crankshaft that you had to wrap a rope around for starting.
Major companies say otherwise. There will be a strong market in recycling used ev batteries.
My Dad had one back in the 50s, I remember mowing with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5USNqweOpbw
Yeah it’s kind of a myth that cold weather kills batteries.
HOT weather is what kills batteries.
Of course under the hood in Arizona it gets pretty darn hot.
only about 50% of the US juice is from coal
so a lot of places will charge with hydro, nat gas, or nuke juice
(not that I’m advocating this but wanted to correct the point)
$15,000 will by 5000 gallons at $3/gal. That’s 150,000 miles at 30 mpg. Doesn’t really sound very cost effective at all, especially when you consider the thing has to be recharged and electricity isn’t free, and that most of these cars are also gasoline assisted.
100% of the world's automotive engineers disagree.
But there's always room for breakthroughs.
So the power producers (who, for decades, have been generating 'baseline' power at night and 'peaking' power for daytime increases) will just generate daytime levels 24/7.
What could possibly go wrong?
Sadly, there is no Moore’s Law for chemestry.
I want to see the look on the face of a EV owner when he goes to trade it in and the dealer tells him it has ZERO trade in value...
Or the dealer tells the owner that there is a $2000 HAZMAT fee for dropping it off.
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