Death to the Electric Car (buying, batteries, costs, Ford)
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Cost means nothing.. You can buy a gas car for the sky is the limit... $300,000 + if you got the jingle.
I am missing any point you are trying to make, honest.
Maybe on the Internet. In the real world, if you can buy the same or very similar car for half the money, it's far from irrelevant. On the Internet, everyone has a million bucks to spend on a car. Or at least they pretend they do.
I'm not saying everyone has to. In fact, point out where I said anything of the sort. I'm saying that most people don't NEED to. And that if they looked at their daily useage realistically, most people would do fine on less total range and plugging in every night. Kind of like we do with cell phones now.
If ya cell dies you don't talk, if your car dies ya walk.. Not the same thing. MOST people that commute to work commute too far for an electric car. I can only think of a few cop works who could use an electric car. The rest of us travel way too far, + you may have other responsibilities to do after work like taking the kids to a sporting event, shopping, caring for a family member etc etc adding more miles. Elect. cars just wont work for most people. Period
You don't buy any new car to save money. You buy a new car because you want a new car. You're not going to recoup the cost of a new $25k car vs a $500 used Geo metro that ALSO gets 45 mpg.
When I replace my MINI it will be with a Volt (probably the Gen II Volt) for daily driving and commuting with, so that my Mustang can be used for fun. I like the techy features and the fact that I can do 90% of my driving using no gasoline at all.
And batteries can be recycled. So far there is a 10 year warranty on the batteries on most of these new EVs, which is longer than most people will keep a new car anyhow. And if you LEASE a new EV, you'll NEVER have to deal with it. Id' lease a Volt because it costs the same as my MINI per month to lease, but I'd save money on gasoline vs the MINI or other new gas car that is comparably sized and equipped.
the bottom line. ..$40k electric car that has a range of 40 miles = major fail..
Hurricane Sandy presents another argument for EVs/Hybrids. I was stuck at my sister's house in Queens for a few days because I couldn't get gas. If I had an EV or PHEV I could have at least been able to drive around town. Or course if the power goes out or your house is destroyed it doesn't help but most people's power didn't go out and suffered minimal damage. The great thing about a car like the Volt is at least you have an option.
On the other hand, the people who lost power for a week were car less. At least you could find a station open with a full tank of gas.
You argument actually says an electric car is WORSE under this conditions.
The Volt is an EV with a gas generator on board to extend the range. That makes it something the Prius is not.
From an operator perspective, the newer "plug-in" Prius is pretty similar. It goes 17 or so miles, at 60 mph, without the gas engine kicking on. After that that the gas engine comes on and the battery gets recharged running down the down road and while braking.
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I could commute all week in a Volt and never use a drop of gas. Can't say that about the Prius. They are completely different tech. The Volt is also more 'fun to drive" than the Prius is.
Again, the underlying hardware and methods are below the surface. If folks commute is less than 17 miles, one way they could avoid gasoline. Another bigger difference is the Prius can seat 5, while the Volt can only do 4, and Chevy refuses to fix that. Dunno about fun -- the Volt was No-Go-ed by us for having only 4 seats and requiring Premium gasoline.
fuel: water with staged filtration and electric rapid heating system. Most steam engines are piston engines, a steam turbine uses too much steam and would need to be bigger to equate the same efficiency and performance as the v6 i want to use. Itll have waste steam scavaging. That increases the range past what they've been able to reach. It wont just dump it on the ground as exhaust. Also jay lenos stanley steamer, which is a two cylinder can reach 120mph.
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Originally Posted by Philip T
I am not clear on your heat/fuel source.
But steam -> to pistons ?
I am thinking that is pretty lossy on the heat path, no?
Have you looked at combustion turbine for the big spin, and capturing the waste heat for your steam?
Newer Prius now goes over 60 mph before the gas engine kicks in.
And has a Plug-In pre-charge option.
Put an extra battery pack on that, and you pretty much have everything the Volt is not.
The economics behind electric cars remain lousy. The electric motor, I think, is the wave of the future. They can be immensely powerful and generate gobs of torque that could put shame to even the most powerful high-performance V8's of today. But that doesn't change the fact that battery technology remains terrible. Batteries are rubbish.
Think about it, take a look around your house. Your remote control, your computer, your cell phone, your wall clock, your flashlight, etc. I guarantee that in at least one of those appliances, the batteries are completely flat - or they're quickly going flat.
And until the technology improves, electric cars will remain a curiosity - it's simply not practical to have a car with less than a hundred miles of range and take a day or more to charge. And of course, don't forget that the majority of the world's electricity comes from non-renewable sources such as coal.
Hi all--
Quoting myself for truth. In fact, the batteries on my wireless keyboard died as I was in the middle of posting on my blog not ten minutes ago.
fuel: water with staged filtration and electric rapid heating system. Most steam engines are piston engines, a steam turbine uses too much steam and would need to be bigger to equate the same efficiency and performance as the v6 i want to use. Itll have waste steam scavaging. That increases the range past what they've been able to reach. It wont just dump it on the ground as exhaust. Also jay lenos stanley steamer, which is a two cylinder can reach 120mph.
So if I am following . . . you are using electricity to heat the water to steam . . . on board the vehicle, while running or do you pre-heat it?
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Just to background you a little -- a Combustion Turbine does not operate on Steam. It is like a Jet Engine. As fuel is burned the expansion spins a turbine. They are considered relatively light and portable, as they used on aircraft.
The Steam portion is from the waste heat exhaust from the Combustion Turbine. That second stage takes water to steam and then the steam can be used -- either as heat, or pistons in your case, or in current fashion as an additional turbine that operates on steam.
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