Posted on 07/04/2010 9:18:53 AM PDT by Willie Green
Dozens of electric-vehicle charging stations will spring up around Charlotte by this time next year, shortly after the first plug-in consumer electric vehicles hit the streets. Duke Energy is advising local governments and employers that want to install charging stations. Duke expects about 100 to be ready in its N.C. service territory, most in the Charlotte area, by next summer. Sixty to 80 public stations will go up in its S.C. territory.
The research hub of Raleigh expects about 200 public charging stations. The charging network, to be built over the next two years, will turn the Triangle into a Southeastern testing ground for electric cars. Now, there are fewer than a dozen public recharge outlets in North Carolina.
The stations - expected in parking decks and shopping centers and at curbsides - are the first of about 350 planned throughout the state, financed largely by the federal stimulus. The pods will be concentrated in urban areas, the preferred habitat of electric cars, which are mostly used for short commutes and quick errands.
The first recharging stations will be activated toward the end of this year, coinciding with the planned commercial release of the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid electric car and the Nissan Leaf all-electric auto. Expected price estimates on the vehicles range from $32,000 to $40,000, and buyers would get a $7,500 federal tax credit.
By the time the statewide network of charging stations is complete in late 2012, most of the nation's automakers are expected to be selling electric models.
And it takes what... 6 hrs to fully recharge a Chevy Volt?? (3 hrs @ 220v??)”;”””
I still need to know the range in miles of that 6 hour ‘recharge’.
For those of us who are challenged by the calculations of electricity—can anyone convert the 6 hours at 220 volts to Kilowatt Hours, which is how my electric bill is printed.
I am trying to calculate how much it would cost in my area to recharge an electric car at the current rate of about 15 cents per KWH.
I also am very concerned when will happen when people get converted to these cars & then cannot make a trip because of range/recharge limitations.
Do we want people calling AAA from the middle of Montana or Nevada or New Mexico because they are stranded?
Is it gonna look like this, people waiting for a charging space to open up ???
And who has 1-2-3 spare hours to waste waiting for a hookup ???
Put recharge stations using generators at Bush’s closed ethanol plants.
I'd love to have an electric car! I like the idea of it being more quiet, and less polluting of the local air. I have no illusions my actions would be 'saving the planet', since nothing humans do can help or hurt the overall climate. My hubby, and our youngest son are thinking of building one for me, from the body of a small SUV, and we'll power it with a solar array, using it, in effect, to store the electricity the house isn't using, at any point in time. It would be nice to know that I could plug the car in somewhere, so I could make longer trips in it, than just around town jaunts.
I suspect it wouldn't take that much time to 'juice up' the car in one of these stations, because both the car and station would be built for that need.
Of course they are doing it all wrong, but it is all about money and power.
I have an electric car design I want to build, it will be more efficient, have greater range, and be cheaper by less than half of what the Leaf and the Volt will cost.
In my design, recharging is as simple as reloading a fresh battery pack, you rent the battery from the charging station by the month and they load it into your car as needed (think super-sized cordless drill battery pack and a full service gas statioon) with an added fee per reload.
So why haven’t I built it?
No money.
But I will build it in the next two years.
Yeah, and the electric car types are going to find gasoline equivalent federal and state taxes (or greater) on the electricity they use to charge their little green monsters.
Great idea!!!
Wonder how that will compete with Gravedigger & the other monster trucks??
I like the idea of it being more quiet”
That is also a problem, it seems.
There are actually bills floating thru Congress requiring electric cars to MAKE MORE NOISE because people don’t hear them coming & have had accidents.
Just plain nuts!!!!
Looks pretty peaked.
Having endured summers in Oklahoma in the pre-air conditioning era for most of my lifetime, one of my first requirements in a vehicle is a splendid climate control system.
Thus far, I conclude that these pure electric horseless carriages will be useful only in the far north (if anywhere), since there seems to be no air conditioning reckoned in the “200 mile” range.
What good is this if there is no standard for the charging plug. Most that I have seen are propriatary.
“At the core of modern liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats .”
(PJ O’Rourke)
Charlotte electricity comes from several nuke plants. But we did close all our libraries because we are out of money. Then we bought some million-dollar rocks to sit beside the road ... picked out by some artist.
Well that's no fun, you can't sneak up on people that way! ;o)
Any idea what replacement costs will be on these car batteries? How long are they expected to last, 5 years?
I don't think these batteries are going to be very cheap considering a 12 v replacement for a DeWalt cordless will run you a minimum of $35.........I wonder what the resale price of a four year old Volt that hasn't had its batteries replaced is going to be?
Not goin' anywhere for a while??
Well, there ya go: a business idea for the electric car multi-plug... which would be great if there was any actual demand for such a thing.
ROFLMAO!
Note to fellow FReepers; You gotta watch this video! What a scream!
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