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Yeah, that is a bicycle with a battery and a custom velo shell that isn't nearly as streamlined as your average velo.
I looked into buying one shortly after they started making them. I called with the price on their website and an offer of free shipping ON THEIR WEBSITE and was subjected to one of the most rude, obnoxious harangues in my life. The guy on the other end insisted I was trying to cheat them. Even when I gave him the URL of the page that said there was free shipping he still insisted on treating me like some kind of criminal/liar trying to take advantage of (I guess) him personally or something. According to him there was no free shipping and I was evil for even mentioning it EVEN THOUGH IT WAS RIGHT THERE ON THEIR WEBSITE.
Plus they can't be pinned down as to whether or not the thing is even street legal. It isn't, in some states, and figuring that out is not always a simple proposition. For one thing they INSISTED on advertising on their web pages that the thing goes like 50mph when vehicles of this sort are only allowed as human-powered vehicles (like a bike, which it actually is) topping out at 35 mph. It's awfully hard to convince the LEOs that its a bike and doesn't need to meet motorized vehicle safety requirements (which it does not) when they say right on their website that it exceeds the allowable speed for a human powered vehicle.
Yeah, I dropped that idea like a hot potato. Clearly when they insist that you are a liar/cheater even when you show them the live web page that says EXACTLY what you thought it did, they are not trustworthy. So if something goes wrong down the road you can't trust them to fix it either - or worse yet, their irresponsible advertising as pertains to speed causes the local gubmint to classify this thing as a motor vehicle not safe for use on public roads - and you just have an $8,000 piece of junk cluttering up your garage.
Shipping two years ago to FL was $600. There is a great bike trail system here, but no motorized bikes are allowed and the street legality is a very gray area. Those issues, along with the overall high cost and their payment structure helped me decide not to buy one. They still really appeal to me though.
I love the IDEA of electric cars, but battery replacement is a serious issue. The LEAST I've seen quoted is $7k - which, just for the batteries, is more than I have paid for a car for over 30 years.
Like anything eco-garbage I tried to find information concerning the typical battery life and replacement cost and all I found was blather and not facts at all.
If I have to spend $7,000 on battery replacement every 60,000 miles that's $.11 per mile simply for battery replacement.
My wife's Honda gets at least 30 mpg in the city so 60,000 miles will take 2,000 gallons which at $2.50/gallon will cost $5,000 and I can run the air conditioning in summer and heater in winter. Kind of important in Ohio. At our current rate we won't run 60,000 miles in 4 years.
The question comes down to do i really need to get rid of the suburban and its 16 mpg fuel consumption? I guess not because I just checked and in the last week I've driven a total of 11 miles because most of the time we take the Honda. I have to think a high use week would be maybe 40 miles. 10 weeks for 400 miles on 25 gallons and we are looking at maybe 5 or 6 fill ups for a total of maybe $450 in a year IF gas were to climb to $3.00/gallon?
I guess I wanted some adventure but maybe I would be better off to get my 25 year old Trek 310 bicycle looked over. I haven't ridden in a number of years so I need to have new tires, the bicycle looked over in a bike ship and I will need to purchase a helmet because somewhere my old one got lost. For adventure I can travel the bike trails I see around town.
25 years ago I would ride at least 100 miles/week and occasionally I would hit 100 miles in a day. While I don't see myself riding 100 miles per day at 70 whatever I do do is all good exercise.
Yep, skip the golf cart, forget about the electric car and go back to bike riding. I got a pouch in front that could carry a quart of milk and maybe a bag of rice. Make several trips to the store if I had to I guess.
The only way I could see getting a golf cart is by living in a community that has totally separate roads for cars versus golf carts. You park your car in the driveway, go through to the other side of the house, and get on your golf cart to go to the store, or the bank, or a restaurant, which all have pretty much the same setup with roads and golf cart paths separated. I am talking about not even have intersections where there is any possibility a car or cart can run a stop sign or traffic light. Pedestrian or bicycle pathways can also be incorporated. That, to me would be the ideal retirement community. I just wish I could afford it. If built, it would be in too much demand, driving up the cost.
Like anything eco-garbage I tried to find information concerning the typical battery life and replacement cost and all I found was blather and not facts at all.
If I have to spend $7,000 on battery replacement every 60,000 miles that's $.11 per mile simply for battery replacement.
The battery pack replacement on a Nissan Leaf is about $5,500 and is done at around 8-10 years - although the battery packs improve with each generation and supposedly that time line is expected to get longer with newer packs.
My Chevy Spark EV is on a 3 year lease, $110 a month. Lease ends fall of 2018 and I will probably buy it outright. Current leases ending indicate the buy-out is about $8,000-$9,000 and it will probably go lower as more companies come out with the 200 mile range EVs. Unlike the Nissan, the Spark has a battery cooling/conditioning pack and that is supposed to give the pack a longer life, but since they only started making them in 2011, so there isn't much data.
Even in a small community with little traffic, you still have to worry about the local teenager whipping around and not paying attention.
For the same reason I wouldn't generally want to drive a scooter, I wouldn't want to be in a golf cart. Even at low-ish speeds, a small car hitting you can do some damage. My grandmother was in a bad car accident in her late seventies. While not a direct cause of her death, it really hastened her decline. She died several years younger than her siblings, all of whom seem to have made it many years older than she did, despite no real differences in lifestyles.
There's got to be something in between a Suburban and Golf Cart...golf carts are fine for community living to drive around there, but on highways...ugh.
My sil bought himself a Charm vehicle (think that is the name), it mostly open on both sides and there are 2 seaters and maybe 4 seaters. He drove it around our town and he had owned a Suburban for many yrs...got rid of it. I think the Charm has closed sides too....If somone finds a picture of the Charm please post it. I think it is calling Charm.
It was a cheap man's corvette.
Here are some Charms. I remember my grandgirl saying how embarrsed (sp) she was to be seen in it with her dad.
I say keep the Suburban for long drives and get a small car for getting around. A golf cart seems fine on a golf course or neighborhood streets, but not busy highway or roadway.
I'd give up my 92' 1/2 ton long-box/ext-cab pickup & upgrade to a Suburban in a NY-minute, if I could afford it. I need the storage/cargo-space, the 4x4 AND the horsepower to get me over the mountains & through the winter-months, here in Wyoming...
..but I totally saavy the hatred towards 'luddite-gas-guzzling-mindsets' from all of you fast-paced/busy-lifestyle metro-suburbinites in the higher-populated areas...truly I do...
...but when the 'grid' goes down ?
Hmmmmm....I can forsee alot of you lying down, crawling into the fetal-position and...
...well...I'm sure YOU all can see where this is going.
I agree, Hybrids are probably better for the environment...but...so is 'abstinance'...
(from sex...cuz....OVERPOPULATION ?)
Anyways...
Can anyone translate this for me?
To the OP, I think you'd be better off just getting a cheaper car with good gas mileage.
There has to be a good medium between a Suburban and a golf cart.
To the OP, I think you'd be better off just getting a cheaper car with good gas mileage.
There has to be a good medium between a Suburban and a golf cart.
I think they are saying that gas will still work when the power grid is down, therefore gas cars will still run. That's great...if you have back up fuel at HOME, as pumps will be down if the grid goes black. From Google (bolded part is not mine): "Gasoline pumps are powered by electricity, so they are knocked out of service whenever there's a blackout. ... Louisiana also passed a law after Katrina, requiring all new or rebuilt gas stations near hurricane areas to have access to backup power in case of an outage."
Also many people who have electric cars also have solar panels...so no "Crawling" needed as he said, they can still charge their cars at home.
I think I translated that correctly As for the rest of it, I can't translate that well...lol
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As for the rest of it, I can't translate that well...lol
