How much longer must we wait for an Electric Car?

[alfredo]

It's not like it's a new idea. Electric cars have been around since the 1800's. Twenty to thirty years after our civil war, people could buy electric powered vehicles. There were even hybrids.


Here's a 1905 Woods. It's a thing of beauty.





The City of Asmara Ethiopia (now Eritrea) had electric garbage trucks back in the sixties.

[bunnies]

1. Screw electric.

Japan just made a car that runs on water. WATER!!

[silverojo]

14. In case you haven't heard

Water isn't exactly in endless supply, either. Live in the West for a while....

[Tesha]

22. It doesn't run on water. It runs on marketing bullshit. (NT)

[NewJeffCT]

29. They have them here in the US, too

Just saw a hydrogen fuel-cell powered bus in downtown Hartford at lunch time today...

[Dogmudgeon]

2. A long, long time

You can't rev an electric car.

And to keep that, we'd turn every arable square inch of land into ethanol-producing area, and live on snack food.

--p!
Snack food doesn't come from farms, it comes from machines.

[sharesunited]

3. Hey, check this out:

http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/

[alfredo]

7. Will there be models for the average driver?

[onehandle]

4. When the oil industry can no longer afford to pay off the automobile industry.

We're not there yet.

[HughBeaumont]

5. Until consumers stop thinking that the act of driving . . .

. . . is some goddamned beauty pageant/size competition meant to be won or lost.

Until ostentatiously wealthy oil barons start giving up greediness.

Until we start getting leaders who care about "WE" and not about "ME".

Until humans in general change their Reagan way of doing things and not treat every better and more effective alternative to what they've been taught with scorn, derision and, unbelievably in 2008, "socialist/communist".

Until automakers start understanding that the future of transportation is in deep shitto unless something's done, and that right soon.

[spag68]

17. Don't hold your breath

It's just not likely that this generation of robber barons is going to grow a conscience anytime soon.When I see Trump pushing for solar panels on his hotel roofs, and Krauthamer promoting solar, then it may indeed be happening.Of course Grover Norquist would want to be sure that the government got out of the act and let his private cronies steal all the profits. I wish there was a way to get some of these creeps deported to getmo, or at least renditioned to Syria.

[HughBeaumont]

21. Oh, I'm FULLY convinced none of the above scenarios will ever see fruition.

I looked at that GOPtroll Grover Norquist's book over the weekend at Borders. He's such a damned delusional tool. Even his inside photo has "tool" written all over it.

[Kutjara]

6. We'll have an electric car when...

...it's in the financial interests of some extremely wealthy and powerful people to let us have one. Once they decide oil is no longer worth the bother, they'll dust off all the electric motor and battery patents they've been sitting on for the past fifty years, fund a burst of R&D and, as if by magic, we'll suddenly have convenient, reliable, and economic electric cars.

Since it seems to be the big energy companies that own most of the patents on non-petroleum-based power generation, it could well be that, by 2030, our grandchildren are driving to the unemployment office in their Exxon Lightnings or Chevron Sparks.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. The Air Car is a kind of electric car

Instead of storing electrical energy in heavy batteries, it uses electricity to compress air into lightweight chambers and they power the engine. Supposedly, the prototypes are getting 1,000 miles per charge. It's scheduled to enter production in 2009-2010.

[baldguy]

9. 10 yrs ago GM had a choice.

or




Guess which one they chose?

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

[alfredo]

10. Guess which one's got the last laugh. When bush gave tax incentives to

buy Hummers and other land frigates, he knew what was going to happen to the price of fuel. Now people are stuck with vehicles they will never be able to sell.

[DerekJ]

11. I've a question, what are the benefits of an electric car?

See electricity has to be produced from something, and currently it's coal or oil. So the electric car is nothing more than: burn oil, store the energy in a different looking container, and re-sell it.

HYDROGEN is the way to go. Period.

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. It takes electricity to get the hydrogen.

[greenman3610]

13. actually, no

electric cars will by and large charge at
night during off peak times, allowing the substitution
of currently wasted "spinning reserve" power from
thermal plants and night time wind power.
According to DOE, we could go to 80%
electric cars right now, with no need for new
generation plants, and a net reduction in
greenhouse gas.


start here


http://www.greencarcongress.com/v2g/index.html

http://www.udel.edu/V2G/

of course, its our job as citizens to steer the
future grid toward wind, solar, geothermal, and other low
or no carbon solutions.

[spag68]

16. Electric car

Don't be silly, almost everyone's yard is big enough to erect a freestanding PV array. The motorized units follow the most efficient angle of sunlight to charge battery packs. When one is being used {about 40 to 50 miles I hear}, an alternate set of batteries is on charge ready for the nest morning. Of course there are limitations now as with any new technology,but Im sure it will be worked out.The 150 mile battery pack a about two years down the road, but most of us do our daily business in 50 mile area anyway.We can't let the 6 chinned bastard of exxon lay a downer on this e-car Lets see, no waste but water, no fumes to caugh on,I would miss the v-8 sound,but I can listen to Nascar and it would be fun to be the first one in town to wave to the hummer drivers The number i salute seems appropiate.If this sort of thing gets rolling,we would not be able to produce them fast enough. Here's hoping some of the pols favorable to us get elected.I sure wuld be fun to be looked at by the rest of world, as smart and productive.This stuff is not a pipe dream, it's here now. we only need to get it and build the infrastructed.Cleaan coal, as much as that is possible. A plant built in western Pa. in the early 70s was nearly polution free and produced a very pure form of methane, an extremely clean burning fuel. We're a long way from all the answers,but the path has beenmarked by those that went before. We have the ability to do this and we don't need a bunch of money grubbing simiofficialstearing the money and contracts. Hold their feet to the fire people are starting to see that solar can be done people, if they see the votes are there they will stop pushing and start pulling. I've been trying this idea for 20 or 30 years, but it seems to have much morelegs this time around.This same idea should have been done for New Orleans. Good Night and Good luck.

[AdHocSolver]

18. Hydrogen keeps the oil companies in control and able to make unseemly profits.

Short answer why electric vehicles save fuel. Gasoline engines waste most of their energy producing heat, and getting rid of the heat to prevent the engine from destroying itself.

Electric motors shut off completely when the vehicle is stopped. They require no energy wasting complex transmission systems. They require no energy wasting cooling systems, nor mufflers. Electric motors are near zero polluters so they require no complex energy wasting antipollution systems.

Gasoline engines are low torque devices, and need to rev at high RPMs to produce any significant power output. That is why cars need complex, energy wasting transmissions. Electric motors can produce high torque at low RPM so they don't need complex transmissions.

Gasoline engines only work well when they are "warmed up" so they use a lot of gas just to keep themselves at proper operating temperature. However, when running, gas engines produce way more heat than is needed, so that they need a cooling system to take away the excess heat to prevent the engine from destroying itself. Most of the energy in gasoline either goes out the tail pipe or is radiated from the radiator.

Hydrogen as a fuel will use more fuel to manufacture, transport, and store it than the energy you could get out of it. You will still be tied to "hydrogen" stations, and dependent on oil companies who will control the infrastructure and charge a fortune for their product. And problems that need to be solved to use hydrogen as a fuel will take several years to solve.

The technology for viable electric cars is here today. Methods for charging the batteries are several and don't tie you down to the oil companies. Maintenance costs for electric vehicles are far less than for gasoline cars.

[alfredo]

31. Honda has released a Hydrogen car today.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/16/autos/honda_zev.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

[ileus]

32. Hydro and Nuclear....

[Efilroft Sul]

15. It depends. How long will it take for you to raise $110,000?

And then how long will you be on the waiting list?

http://www.teslamotors.com/

[AdHocSolver]

19. Mass production of electric vehicles can bring the price down.

Actually, electric vehicles would be cheaper to produce and maintenance costs for electric vehicles would be far LESS than for gasoline engine cars.

No cooling system, no muffler, no oil changes, no complex transmission system to service. An electric vehicle would have dozens of parts, where a gasoline engine car has hundreds of parts.

[Efilroft Sul]

25. Amen to all you said.

All I know is that I wants me some Tesla Roadster!

[alfredo]

26. And they could possibly be made with off the shelf components.

[IDemo]

27. Here's the EV for me, at $3,000 (plus some elbow grease)

http://www.electricmotion.org/

[and-justice-for-all]

20. Some time after November...

Have to wait for the Cooperate Rethug senators to be evicted from their seats. Did you read in AP what the Rethugs did for their Oil buddies? They voted down a Windfall taxation bill that would have taxed Big Oils profits and AP was not exactly on our side about it either.

[Eurobabe]

23. There is a company in California

http://www.greenvehicles.com

But you can only use them at 35mph or less.

CAVEAT: these cars are made in China, buyer beware.

[Honeycombe8]

24. Hybrid cars are half electric. Prior electrics weren't consumer friendly....

they could go only a certain # of miles before needing a recharge. They could only go a certain # of mph....not fast enough to safely transport down a freeway.

BUT I read an article that new electrics were coming on the market in 2010 in the U.S. Honda has one that will supposedly go 80 mph. There should be others, as well.

I'm very interested.

[IDemo]

28. This one is worth a look -->

Phoenix Motorcars, powered by Altairnano lithium titanate batteries:

http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/index.php

[alfredo]

30. That's pretty.