Posted on 09/29/2014 7:29:45 AM PDT by LogicDesigner
Electric cars aren't selling nearly as well as many predicted. Why is that?
Research suggests a host of reasons—including a basic lack of familiarity, a high price tag, misconceptions about the cars—and ineffective government incentives.
Consider the lack of familiarity. In a survey by researchers from Indiana University and the University of Kansas, respondents couldn't correctly answer basic factual questions about plug-in electric vehicles more than 60% of the time. Some 75% of wrong answers underestimated the beneficial aspects of the vehicles.
The survey, the most exhaustive on consumer perceptions of electric cars in recent years, was published in the journal Energy Policy last year, and was based on field work conducted in several U.S. cities in 2011.
Key Differences
Many respondents didn't realize that all-electric cars require less maintenance than gasoline-powered cars. Oil changes aren't necessary, for example, and there are fewer breakable parts. The study also found that people often underestimated the fuel savings electric cars offer.
"The lack of accurate information about electric vehicles certainly [has] contributed to their small adoption," says Rachel Krause, an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas, and a co-author of the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I wish that more people realized that an electric car will likely NOT help them fight the dreaded global warming.
Why?
Because the electricity to recharge the batteries in an electric car, in many places, comes from coal fired power plants.
While the car itself is pollution free, if the energy needed to charge it up comes from a fossil fuel operated power plant, a good liberal has NOT done anything to save us from global warming and reduce greenhouse gases.
Actually, if we suddenly had millions of electric cars on the road, we would find ourselves far short of needed electric generating capacity.
The capacity which Obama wants to reduce in his zeal to fight global warming and take allegedly gross polluting power plants off line.
Liberals should pick another vehicle besides electric cars to make their case of what we can do to reduce greenhouse gases.
Too expensive. And the car companies lie. They roll in mileage from gas and electric to give a higher MPG rating. Not withstanding of course is the lousy gas mileage when on the gas engine and replacing the batteries every three years or so and recharge stations are practically none existent and in the winter battery life is much lower and you go what, 40 miles on a charge and .....
and ineffective government incentives.
Reminds me of the old story. Pet Food company has it’s annual meeting and the President gets up. We have the most modern manufacturing plants, we have the best research staff of anyone on the planet, we hire and train the best salesmen, NOW WHY AREN’T WE SELLING ANY DOG FOOD?
An old timer stand up in the back and says with a southern drawl, “The doooooooooooooooogs don’t like it.”
The way I understand it the negative impact on the environment by producing toxic waste to mfg the darned things far outweighs any positive impact to help the environment.
Can you imagine driving down the highway when suddenly your car shuts down, although the battery shows that it's almost fully charged?
No thanks. An internal combustion engine is a bit more reliable.
“Research suggests a host of reasons—including a basic lack of familiarity, a high price tag, misconceptions about the cars—and ineffective government incentives. “
Yeah, that’s it.
Maybe it's the fact that they
They neglected to mention that you might BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN while charging your electric roller skate.
1. It depends on your driving habits. You can pay off the initial price premium with reduced fuel and maintenance costs. Electric companies in some places offer discounted or even free nighttime charging to make it even easier.
2. Actually a lot of people don't realize that electric cars have better acceleration at city driving speeds. They are pretty fun to drive.
3. A gasoline engine is only about 20% to 30% efficient. Most of the energy is wasted as heat. Whereas an electric motor is over 90% efficient.
Man, is that useless.
The same vermin oligarchs who are pushing this faux issue so they can profit bigtime from collecting 'carbon credits' are enabling the ultimate demise of the major lifeforms on the planet by heightening the poisoning of the environment in order to keep their owned industries running at capacity.
I suppose the global oligarchs will sell fresh water when they have poisoned the rivers and lakes sufficiently ... they always have a plan to profit from their caused disasters.
i'll go out on a limb and take a super wild azz guess here and say NOBODY WANTS THE DAMN THINGS!!! but i may be wrong...
So true, plus in a small town like ours we can save between 10% to 40% by shopping in Eugene at an Asian market (40%) and Trader Joe’s (10%). All we can get here at less cost are vegetables. Of course the Asian market is 140 miles round trip. My concern is that under Elisabeth Warren, electric cars will be mandatory for families.
Imagine a gasoline powered car with a three gallon tank which gradually shrank over the years, could only be refilled at your home or a few other select places, took hours to refill and needed a $10,000 tank replacement after five to seven years.
The heater might be fixed with a heat pump system rather than the less efficient resistive heater.
Until those are fixed, electric cars will be efficient commuter vehicles for those with short commutes, but will in general be a second car for people who can afford them.
10 other stupid hippie questions (whiny voice)(inferred stupid statements as prefaces not included):
1) Why can’t everyone in the world just be friends?
2) Why do we have nuclear weapons?
3) Why do we use any fossil fuels at all?
4) Why do people belong to religions?
5) Why should some people have more money than other people?
6) Why doesn’t everybody eat “organic” food, not that junk that’s full of chemicals and molecules and atoms and stuff?
7) Why do we even have police and prisons and an army?
8) Why do people want to eat meat instead of tofu?
9) Why shouldn’t we outlaw all guns?
10) Why can’t anybody and anybody or anything get married if they want to?
But you are ignoring how the electricity gets to the motor. Go through the variable speed drive, inverter, battery, charger, local transformer, distribution lines, substation, transmission lines, step-up transformer, generator, steam turbine, boiler and furnace. Then we can have a discussion of efficiency.
Must have free cars for all entitled people.
I leased a Leaf on Saturday. The dealer had sold/leased 24 of them before I got there.
This technology isn’t going away....but hey....flame away if you’d like. I’m paying ZERO for gas now, and charging for free at work...
What is the price of a new battery? And what will we do with the old ones?
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