Pretty neat, huh?
Posted on 07/18/2006 12:05:31 PM PDT by LouAvul
If you're fed up with paying high gas prices, Hybrid Technologies says it has a solution for you.
The company is out with an "electric smart car" that runs on a lithium battery.
The company's co-founder, Richard Griffiths, pointed out to The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler Tuesday that that's the same type of battery you'll find in cell phones, PDAs, computers, "pretty much anything we use now that's a portable electronic device."
Griffiths showed Syler how you simply plug the car in, literally, to a conventional 110 volt outlet.
"If you completely drain the battery," Griffiths said to Syler, "it's like your cell phone, if you drain the battery, a full charge is five to six hours. Normally, people won't drain the entire battery, so maybe one to two hours at night. Basically, it's like, 'Honey, did you take out the garbage and plug in the car?' It's kind of a new way of thinking. It's a plug-in hybrid. It uses absolutely no gas.
"On a single charge, you can go up to 120 miles and, depending how you drive, 150 miles."
"It's very, very small, though," Syler observed. "I am thinking safety. How does it crash test?"
"It has a three-star crash test rating," Griffiths responded, "and it has air bag systems, five air bags, three in the front. It's like a walnut. It's actually a very safe car. This is a city commuter car, so it's not a car that you'll necessarily be driving on the highway every day. So we're not looking at high speeds, necessarily."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Pretty neat, huh?
It is kind of shocking. I would not have guessed the electrical bills would have shot up that much. I would have guessed $100 bucks, which would have been a huge savings over gas probably per month.
But needless to say, in your neighbor's experience, gas was cheaper.
By the way, there is no air-conditioning in it but there is a fan.
It would make a neat "stealth" vehicle as unless it's really quiet outside, you'll never hear it coming until it's within maybe 10 - 15 feet.
"They could incorporate solar cells into the roof and horizontal surfaces."
Ok, well now I want one. How many solar panels do you think it would take to get me to work 5 miles away, and to the gym every other day?
LOL
yep :)
It would be a supplement, not the main charging system, just something to keep the battery topped off during the time it is parked outdoors.
But will it go from Minot to Williston ND on a charge, when the weather is -35 F and blowing snow, with the heater going?
Y'all keep these things where the weather stays nice, but don't foist them on us up here where they will kill us, and we'll keep drilling for American oil.
"Wouldn't there be some way to install generating devices in a portion of a stream or river that would not block the entire river.
"
Sure. There are still folks using waterwheels to generate power, either mechanical or electrical. They're not very efficient at taking energy out of moving water, but that energy is free for the taking.
Even a small stream can generate plenty of power for a home, using a simple waterwheel. It's pretty easy, and can be homebuilt. Mother Earth News published numerous small stream generating plans over the years.
"Also, older cars cost less to insure.
"
Also, in many states, annual registration fees are based on the vehicle's value. Another plus for older cars.
"But will it go from Minot to Williston ND on a charge, when the weather is -35 F and blowing snow, with the heater going? "
Oh, my! I mean, I'm a Minnesotan, and still cannot understand why anyone would care to drive from Minot to Williston under any circumstances, much less on a -35 day. I just say no to all that, thanks.
Maybe the system could be tweaked to extract the energy from his fall when he jumps. Then he could climb again and repeat the process indefinitely.
Have a relative in the Cardiac care unit in Minot, live in or near Williston is reason enough. It is only 130 miles, but I wouldn't rely on one of these rigs to get me there.
Most of the oil rig crews out here would not make it from home to the oil rig and back on one charge, either.
But as a Minnesotan, (assuming you are from the Northern part of the state) would you trust one of these cars to keep you warm and get you where you were going in the winter?
"Have a relative in the Cardiac care unit in Minot, live in or near Williston is reason enough. It is only 130 miles, but I wouldn't rely on one of these rigs to get me there.
Most of the oil rig crews out here would not make it from home to the oil rig and back on one charge, either.
But as a Minnesotan, (assuming you are from the Northern part of the state) would you trust one of these cars to keep you warm and get you where you were going in the winter?"
It's Okay, we know where the low pressure system is that works with the high over Montana that makes it so darned windy here, too...(8^D)
All joking aside, It would be dangerous to rely on something like this when the weather outside could kill you. I imagine that would go for areas where temps get murderously hot as well as winters here.
I wonder what plugging one of these in at every house on every block all over would do to peak load power consumption, too. (tune in for the 6 PM ET rolling brownout...)
I'm still waiting to find out what kind of vehicle his neighbor has/had.
There were only 4 production plug-in vehicles available to my knowledge. The GM EV1, Toyota Rav4EV, Ford Ranger EV, and Ford Th!nk City. The EV1s and Th!nks were all removed from service and destroyed or shipped overseas. There are about 200-300 Rav4EVs and Ranger EVs left combined. Both had about 30 kWh battery packs good for 65-80 miles.
Lets assume you have a Rav4EVand you give it a full charge every day. The battery has a 27 kWh capacity, but required about 30 kWh to charge. I pay about $.10 per kWh (plus a flat customer fee) for electricity. That's $3 per day. Assume for the sake of argument you pay $.15, more like the nationwide average. Thats $4.50 per day, or $137 per month (average month length). Also assume a 40 mile drive per day, only half of the full range of a Rav4EV. That's $.1125 per mile.
Of course, the standard Rav4 got 26 mpg EPA combined. For the same 40 miles per day, you need 1.54 gallons of gas. At $3 per gallon, that's $4.62 per day, or $.1155 per mile. Even assuming extremely poor range, the Rav4EV was a virtual tie on cost per day as the standard Rav4. It also wouldn't have cost anywhere near $400 per month to charge.
Where the comparison really falls apart, though, is on battery cost. Hybrids charge/discharge batteries carefully to maximize life (typically never fully charging or fully discharging). These EVs didn't do that, so battery life was MUCH, MUCH, MUCH shorter. And they no longer make the batteries, so you have to buy one used at auction. They can run $25k, over 10 times the list price of a hybrid battery (Toyota claims 0 hybrid battery replacements to date).
The battery price is where an EV would have cost a fortune - not the recharging.
But a car that runs on pasta....
Now THAT would be cool. :)
My van is supposed to be able to run on E85. The owner's manual says I should expect a 30% drop in mileage. E85 costs about 5% or 6% less in my area. So looks like I won't be running E85 in my car.
so......we still need to generate the juice to run the car.
It's got to run on something.
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