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[Lifetime]

http://detnews.com/article/20101211/AUTO01/12110329/1148/rss25
 
 
I read and reread this article and " ZERO EMISSIONS"?
 
It seems we are forgetting.... How in He!! is electricity even produced... less than 20% nuclear...soooooo that leaves coal and petrofuels. Hmmmmmmm So we drop off the Gasoline Grid and add more coal and petro. I don't get Government money back on an uto...new or used since cash for clunkers struck the pits. So now we want to give people thousands of dollars to buy an overpriced, underpowered and limited transport weight and distance, human sized RC vehicle. Am I the only one who is wondering? The Emission footprint of every Leaf, Volt and Tesla has to be started at the manufacturing of it's fuel, not to mention the infrastructure. I think I have another migraine and looking for my Colt pill dispenser  ... If our grids can't take the load of all of our bigscreens and AC units now..... we are in for a serious additional layer of hurt in the future.

[NightmarePatrol]

I remember seeing an interview with a woman who bought one of the first Leaf's. She stated "I'm so happy to finally be off the grid" which gave me a belly laugh or the same reason.  I can honestly see auto recycling facilities being a cottage industry altogether. Someone is going to have to deal with the batteries and the materials they are made with. Someone asked about the environmental footprint of these cars. The answer was "about four houses."  Of course with USF's new breakthrough with their spray on solar material the new cars may get a tad more life, but not by much. 

Like it or not the internal combustion engine is still the most efficient means we have.

[Jayhawk]

yeah, the car itself costs about 10 grand more, you probably need a grand or so in electrical work to put a 220 outlet in your garage, and the dial on your electric meter will spin faster than a windmill.

so many of these people talk about this as charging it is free, apparently because there isn't the immediate connection between filling up and paying for the fuel.

[lifefeedsonlife]

That's because some folks are just fuckin' stupid.

[Zipper]

#1)   

The first person in the United States who ordered an all-electric, battery-powered Nissan Leaf car will be the first to get one.
 
(Really? ... as opposed to being the 1st person to order the car and being the 5th one to get one. ??)
 
#2)
How many miles does it get per charge while stuck in endless California freeway traffic? I ws in a lock-up so bad once I thought I would run out of gas just trying to get to the next freeway exit.
 
#3)
Once "everyone" converts to electric, they'll just jack the rates on electricity sky high(er) too... there's no winning anymore.
 
 
 
 
 

[TiFeMb]

That's because some folks are just fuckin' stupid.

   hot coffee spit through the nose...ow..haha..ow
 
Dude...you crack me up.

[beanie]

yeah, the car itself costs about 10 grand more, you probably need a grand or so in electrical work to put a 220 outlet in your garage, and the dial on your electric meter will spin faster than a windmill.

so many of these people talk about this as charging it is free, apparently because there isn't the immediate connection between filling up and paying for the fuel.

The administration of the university campus that I work for is seriously considering installing 2 charging stations, at roughly 10k a pop. The money for install would come from a new "sustainability" fee that the students (bless them...) agreed to charge *themselves* to pay for "sustainable technologies and inititatives". I have yet to have a manager actually give me a satisfactory explaination of what they think "sustainable" actually means. I asked how many people on campus - faculty, staff, students and frequently visiting affiliates - own electric vehicles, or even hybrids. We have no data on this. The management states that they believe that once we have the charging stations, the cars will follow. I asked if there will be a time limit on the charge, if there is too much demand for the stations. And how to minitor the usage, so that people from the larger community aren't using them. And how the electricity generated will be paid for by the university (because we will be billed for that). No answers to any of my questions. They're just jumping on a bandwagon, which they've written into our institutional "Master Plan".

[NightmarePatrol]

Given the climate all over the eastern half of the country, I wonder how the range of these vehicles is affected by the use of heaters? Was that part of the test or did they test the range with the windows up, radio off, no heat or A/C.  A range of 75 miles will get me to work and back with a very short side trip on the way home. If I had to run the A/C I might me pushing it the last few miles home.

[lifefeedsonlife]

The management states that they believe that once we have the charging stations, the cars will follow.

Oh! So they're like seeds then!
 
I stand by my previous statement.

[Jayhawk]

Given the climate all over the eastern half of the country, I wonder how the range of these vehicles is affected by the use of heaters?

I don't know how it works for electric cars, but in general batteries also temporarily lose strength in both extreme hot and extreme cold.

[NightmarePatrol]

I don't know how it works for electric cars, but in general batteries also temporarily lose strength in both extreme hot and extreme cold.

How true. Batteries don't last worth a crap in Alaska and Florida. If you get three years out of one you got lucky.

[Jayhawk]

An early fear was that eventually the batteries will wear out, necessitating a major replacement cost in the thousand$. However, hybrids have been out for about 10 yrs now, and i haven't seen anything lately. So maybe they last far longer than originally believed.

[NightmarePatrol]

An early fear was that eventually the batteries will wear out, necessitating a major replacement cost in the thousand$. However, hybrids have been out for about 10 yrs now, and i haven't seen anything lately. So maybe they last far longer than originally believed.

I wonder what percentage of those hybrids built ten years ago are still on the road.
My F-150 is 13 years old and it's still on the road.

[Lifetime]

http://blogs.edmunds.com/karl/2006/06/gms-ev1----who-killed-common-sense.html
 
GM ?? WTF
 
Is strike 2 coming up?
 
Bought new...1992 Chevy Work Truck...still on the road...AND it still looks pretty good.  I even have a 1986 Fiero tucked away for the winter...waiting for spring. Fun to drive and it has the Pontiac "Iron Duke" 4 banger. It can jump into traffic and yet give me 32 MPG on a bad trip. It corners better than my 1975 Corvette.
 
Oh and when my batteries go bad..... I don't have to worry about a replacement cost of much more than $80 or have EMTs worry about doing something that might get them fried if I do wreck them.
 
I am still trying to figure out why Honda never perfected their Civic to a point of 50 mpg like those they built a few decades AGO?
 
Oh well..............

[Puffin]

Batteries don't last worth a crap in Alaska and Florida. If you get three years out of one you got lucky.

My wife used to remark "why can't you guys make a laptop that has a battery that last longer than 3 hours" and that her battery in her pacemaker would last 10 years. My explanations were never successful
She recently had those same pacemaker batterys replaced after 11 years.

The bill came in last Friday for $44,000.