Electric Cars (Sioux Falls, Ethan, Chancellor: co-op, how much, luxury)

[Chris19]

With the advent of hybrids and recent problems with oil, it leads me to believe that electric cars will be an option to be considered as an alternative way powering our vehicles. With the potential for energy to come from alternatives such as wind, solar, biomass, ethanol (corn, sugar,and cellulosic-when successful is the way to go), North American oil, nuclear energy, and cleaner burning coal, there would be diverse ways to provide additional power and keeping our dollars in the US instead of being coerced in a "highway robbery" fashion to the odd ducks in the OPEC countries in the Middle East and other unstable areas of the world.

The downfall would be the disposal of the charging battery and the distance issue with the conventional electric car. This leads me to think that more research needs to be done to address these issues. Going to a hybrid system, which improves mileage, is a good first step. We can build from that.

Electric could take off with gas stations/convenience stores replacing some if not all of their pumps for charging stations. This will take some experimenting and innovation, but is possible. With some foresight, research, and a "can do" attitude, we can make electric cars work.

If we can put a man on the moon, we certainly can come up with a solution or multitude of solutions to our energy woes, even if it takes time and patience.

What are your thoughts on the electric car and how it would work in South Dakota?

[Jammie]

Interesting. I guess I don't know enough about them to know how they'd work up here. Would they start when we have our cold temps? Do you know how much the cost of one is? Do you know how long a battery would last or how expensive it'd be to change them?

I've seen a few things about them on tv and I'd be all for it, but at one time they were extremely expensive. But you're right~we've really got to do something.

We were just talking along these subject lines yesterday. (with our neighbors) We wondered if people would use public transit around here.

[yamahastar]

I have seen that right now the only true electric car costs $104,000.00. Do not recall the name of the company, but they said in the next few years they hoped they could build a more afforable electric car. It will only travel about 70 miles before charging would have to occur. I do not think it would be feasible for South Dakota unless you stay close to town.

[ElkHunter]

There is an outfit that is currently taking orders for cars that will be delivered this fall. I'm very interested in one of those cars.

It has a little 1 cylinder engine that kicks on automatically to charge the batteries when they get low. The car is a little sluggish in that it will do 0-60 in 11 seconds. Not what you'd want in LA traffic, but certainly fine in South Dakota. Top speed on this car is 100 mph. It only seats 2 people but has airbags and all the luxury's needed.

So far, during the testing faze, they've achieved over 300 miles to the gallon. The car runs completely on Electric. The gas engine only charges the batteries, nothing more. Car even has AC.

By the way. Ethanol is a joke. It's government subsidized. Think about this. As it is currently made, it takes 4 gallons of fossile fuel to produce one gallon of Ethanol fuel from corn. Boy, is that a deal or what?

[yamahastar]

Recently

[Chris19]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

There is an outfit that is currently taking orders for cars that will be delivered this fall. I'm very interested in one of those cars.

It has a little 1 cylinder engine that kicks on automatically to charge the batteries when they get low. The car is a little sluggish in that it will do 0-60 in 11 seconds. Not what you'd want in LA traffic, but certainly fine in South Dakota. Top speed on this car is 100 mph. It only seats 2 people but has airbags and all the luxury's needed.

So far, during the testing faze, they've achieved over 300 miles to the gallon. The car runs completely on Electric. The gas engine only charges the batteries, nothing more. Car even has AC.

By the way. Ethanol is a joke. It's government subsidized. Think about this. As it is currently made, it takes 4 gallons of fossile fuel to produce one gallon of Ethanol fuel from corn. Boy, is that a deal or what?

Very good comment on the cars, ElkHunter. I would like to see electric cars get to the point where they can be in the sedans such as Chevy Impalas, SUVs, minivans, and trucks. I think we can get there, but will take more tinkering.

Ethanol from corn is not as efficient as other sources of ethanol, especially sugar ethanol that is common in Brazil. Brazil has done a very good job with cutting out its need for foreign oil and built a solid ethanol industry. It has about half of what US has in population. I do not think we should abandon ethanol, but focus on developing cellulosic ethanol along with improving what we have now. When cellulosic ethanol becomes economical to make, it will be much more efficient than corn-based ethanol. It will still be good for farmers. It leaves the edible part of the corn alone and use the waste from corn along with wood chips and even switchgrass for ethanol. Switchgrass would be good for areas that are too dry for growing corn. There is hope for the future with ethanol, but we have to start somewhere and improve.

A boost in research and education in the math and sciences will help give our country an edge with developing new techonogies to be competitive in the world and improve life for ordinary people and open up new opportunities for society and business ventures.

As for energy sources, we will need a diverse mix of energy sources to power our industries, commerce, and societies. We can get there with foresight, education, and hard work. A diverse mix of energy in the US will be good for local economies and open up an avenue for good jobs. Also, this allow us to find cleaner energy sources and free us from the tyranny of unstable oil countries and allow us to be competitive with emerging countries such as India and China. And perhaps setting a good example for them for finding better ways for power than relying exclusively on the dirty fossil fuels.

[ElkHunter]

I think we need to look real hard at Nuclear energy and straight electric cars.

The ethanol kick is going to kick our butts.

Here in Sheridan the Co-op is selling E-85. Ethanol made from Pine trees. But again, it's taking 4 gallons of fossile fuel to produce one gallon of Ethanol. So we gain nothing. Yet.

[Chris19]

I agree with the first part, especially with the electic cars. Nuclear energy is a lot safer and better than the days of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (late 1970s and 1980s). To be honest, I am biased towards ethanol, with my grandfather being a farmer in NW Iowa and growing up in the corn belt and having an ethanol plant six miles away. It runs fine in my car and have not noticed any differences when compared to regular unleaded. Some cars are that way. If we can figure out how to make ethanol using less fossil fuels and to make it from non-edible ag byproducts such as corn cobs and stalk along with switch grass.

The POET ethanol plant out by Chancellor, SD will use waste from the landfill west of Sioux Falls to heat the plant instead of using natural gas. This will save the ethanol plant money, allow it to use less fossil fuels, and allow the landfill to have more room available for waste. Also giving the City of Sioux Falls some income. The use of garbage for heating is a win-win.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Chris19

I agree with the first part, especially with the electic cars. Nuclear energy is a lot safer and better than the days of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (late 1970s and 1980s). To be honest, I am biased towards ethanol, with my grandfather being a farmer in NW Iowa and growing up in the corn belt and having an ethanol plant six miles away. It runs fine in my car and have not noticed any differences when compared to regular unleaded. Some cars are that way. If we can figure out how to make ethanol using less fossil fuels and to make it from non-edible ag byproducts such as corn cobs and stalk along with switch grass.

The POET ethanol plant out by Chancellor, SD will use waste from the landfill west of Sioux Falls to heat the plant instead of using natural gas. This will save the ethanol plant money, allow it to use less fossil fuels, and allow the landfill to have more room available for waste. Also giving the City of Sioux Falls some income. The use of garbage for heating is a win-win.

The problem with Ethanol being made by corn is my loaf of bread has doubled in the last year. They say there are enough farms raising corn that it won't make a difference. But it has. Grocery prices have went sky high. Due mainly to transportation costs. However, anything using Corn Meal has really gone sky high. So we pay for what we get and right now, we're getting screwed.

[DannyBanany]

That is very true EH. I stopped at a bagel shop on my way to work the other day and they had a chart showing how the price of flour has risen from $5.00 per bag in 1998 to $40.00 per bag today! I got a poppyseed bagel sandwich with a small coffee and it cost me $11!!!