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 ...
No problemo! Honda makes a killer 1kw gas generator. Just the ticket for a amp eating sound system. Quiet too! ;-)
"If you're fed up with paying high gas prices..."
...then look down. There. At the end of your leg. Yes, that's foot. You have two of them. Simply begin by placing one foot out in front of you, and then follow by placing the other foot out in front of that one. Repeat as needed.
Not fast enough for ya? Then open that wallet and fill up your tank. Driving directions? Sorry can't help ya there, liability reasons you know.
Yes but it's Not imported from over there :0
I think you've summed it up well. The average commute for Americans is just a few minutes and a few miles. The vast majority of us could probably use an electric car with no problems for our daily commutes. I know the wife and I could - our commutes are about 20-25 miles round trip. A 70 mile range is more than enough.
But a 70 mile range is not enough for our trips, unless you can cut down recharge times (ultracapacitors, anyone?).
But there is no reason why we couldn't have one pure electric car and one standard midsize sedan for longer trips, other than the lack of options to buy.
Now, the electricity does have to come from somewhere, but that can be coal or nuclear - no need to depend on foreign sources of energy.
They may have to make due with reducing their increasing revenue projections and start settling for single or fractions of digit gains.
Eventually the technology always finds the public.
HAH! add a gas generator to power the accesories |-D LOL! good one!
One word: Nuclear Fission!
How do they accomplish that? There is only so much potential energy in water at elevation X+100 ft. That energy is dissipated descending to elevation X and must again be expended to pump the water back up again. Since generators are inefficient, it always takes more to pump back up than is generated coming down. Otherwise it would be a perpetual motion machine.
Suddenly I'm wondering if these electric jalopies have a/c or even heat.
whoa....we're importing Ethanol ? r we nuts ?
Like getting off of heroin with methedone and becoming hooked on methadone
I don't want an electric car. I've seen what drivers of electric cars look like, and frankly I don't mind spending 1/2 hour on personal hygiene every morning.
The more options to the table, the merrier. Electric, ethanol, biodiesel, whatever. Compete the price of gas down to where it belongs, and deprive third world dictators of their plunder. Everybody wins.
The idiot author is on a buzzword binge. This is an E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C car ONLY, there is nothing hybrid about it. And given the price mentioned, the total absence of performance and amenities (read: air conditioning) and the likely battery life, this is another rich man's toy with no true utilitarian market at all.
Now if it had an internal diesel generator (automatic, on-demand) and an air conditioner, perhaps it would make a little sense functionally, but then what would it cost?
So you are saying they have themselves a nice little(well, big in this case) perpetual motion machine on the Ohio/WV border. That's news to me.
They could incorporate solar cells into the roof and horizontal surfaces.
That would make sense for me and my wife. Yes, the electricity comes from somewhere, just like the gasoline. There's always a cost for transportation. Cutting down on reliance on imported fossil fuels seems a worthwhile endeavor to me, though.
As I said, I'm not going to buy one of these things right now. I have an aversion to new vehicles. I try to drive 10 year old vehicles, as a rule. They're very cost effective for me, since I drive low miles each year. I don't commute, since I work out of my home office. We don't take a lot of long trips. My 10 year old cars tend to stay with me for about 4 years, on average, with minimal maintenance costs. I sell them after that time, usually for almost what I paid for them. It all works out very well. Beyond that, having only liability insurance on them is a big savings.
So, I'll wait a bit, and buy one of these fancy electric cars in a few years....used.
Correct. You're no engineer. What you describe is a Perpetual Motion Machine, and there is no such thing on God's Green Earth. Discover, patent, and market it though, and you'll be the richest human that ever was.
I'd drive one if they had it rechargeable by solar panels.
The technology is out there if someone wanted to dedicate the time to make it work. American Ingenuity is far from dead.
"Suddenly I'm wondering if these electric jalopies have a/c or even heat.
"
Most likely not. That's not typical of small electric commuter or metro cars. If that presents a problem for you, then they're probably not for you.
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