37 replies to this topic

[sculptor]

addendum to the above

http://www.teslamotors.com/models

wowie zowie
50K for a 4 door 7 passenger zero emissions electric
maybe, when Teslamotors comes out with the under $30K model, I'll keep the old truck for when i really need a hauling beast, and get an all electric for the normal trips--------------really------------less than 5% of the time do i go anywhere over the lower end of their driving range,
and another 5% for when i really need a hauling machine------
------and, as Iowa's electricity goes more and more wind powered, with smart meters, ----charge the thing when the wind blows----cutting ghg emissions to near zero
hmmmmm

we live in an age of miracles
ok technological miracles,
but darned wondrous none the less

[SpiroFlo]

Anyone see that lawsuit against the Honda hybrid? I'd be angry, too, if my expected 50 MPG was 20 MPG short.

[SpiroFlo]

Also, doubt the new Fusion will snag that 100 MPG it's claiming either.

[Eiza]

I find the tax break highly attractive, especially when combined with the potential gas savings. Also consider that you'll be reducing your carbon footprint. Right now I'm driving a gas guzzler, but an electric car is definitely going to be my next car.

[eds]

[eds]

[Runi1024]

Once they become more popular the price will go down.  There is a company here in Israel called "better place" that is making electric cars.  They are very popular in the country and when I have to get a new car I intend to get one, partially for the environment and partiality for my wallet, gas here is just too expensive.

[eds]

Runi1024, on 25 January 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

Once they become more popular the price will go down.  There is a company here in Israel called "better place" that is making electric cars.  They are very popular in the country and when I have to get a new car I intend to get one, partially for the environment and partiality for my wallet, gas here is just too expensive.

I understand, that car rental companies in Israel, will be buying these vehicles, for customers to "try, before they buy."
Have they figured out the total cost, to buy the Better Place car, it's operating cost, and Maintenance, VS Oil based car?
The 100 new cars that took the road last week are all for Better Place employees, although a company spokesman says employees will pay to lease them just "like everyone else." About 70 cars were on the road already.
 kalmancar.jpg   56.5K   3 downloads  switchstation.jpg   45.06K   3 downloads

Source: Technologyreview

[brihooter]

I think I would own one.  They might not be the best looking cars but at least they are eco friendly.  I sure can't afford the price they are at right now though.  Once they go down I would love to get one.

[Runi1024]

I have not checked recently what the cars are going for, but I know that for Israeli standards atleast last year they were only a little bit more expensive than the regular cars. As of now I have not seen any of these cars on the road but many Israelis are switching over to hybrids. Those are not so cheap here either.

[tri-n-b-helpful]

Green Thumb, on 27 December 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

Why can’t they make it to be a hybrid car? Solar and electric. Or the electric charging station deriving their energy from renewable energy.  They are thinking out-of-the-box anyway.

As for the price… I guess it’s hard to sell economically when the product, however useful, is still striving at the top of the list. They are propelling substitute for the recent transportation that are run by oil. Would the transportation industry submit that easily? Not if they would earn from it. Anyhow, the costs of electric cars and gas cars are not at all different except that how it will affect the user and the environment. Besides, do you still need an electric car if you are feeding your gas car with biofuel already?  Oh yeah, why can’t they also have services to turn an existing car to an electric car or to simply install electric engine. I mean, like sanitary landfills, let’s also think of car junk yards jamming. I’m sure they can also apply reusing and recycling cars for better and beneficial usage.

Good point about the hybrid solar car. They've tried that one already on the Tuk-Tuk in India. Solar gives a very tiny output for the money as well as the area in panel space needed. A solar charging station would be extremely expensive and operating costs couldn't run the business at a profit without huge subsidies from the government.

In the USA you can already get an electric car conversion done for about $3000, depending what sort of car you have. That's an excellent idea to turn old or problem cars into full electric. If the car has a problem and it's going to cost $3000 or so to fix it, why not get an electric conversion?

[brihooter]

We see a good amount of them here in Arizona.  I have even seen a few charging stations.  Does anyone know how long you have to charge them for?  I assume people just charge them overnight?

[greenking]

Electric motors have very few moving parts and don’t need fluids such as engine oil, anti-freeze or transmission fluid, so they require relatively little maintenance and are far less likely to leak. Excellent reliability means down time is less likely, too. =)

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Good news!


"Around one million gallons of petrol and
8,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions have been saved by EVs in the United States in under three years.
The findings are among data collected and analysed from more than 24 million miles of journeys by Electric Vehicles
(EVs) and the total is rising by 100,000 miles a day.
The EV Project has been conducted by American clean electric transportation and storage company
ECOtality since October 2009.

The results are being included in more than 40 White Papers. These will be publicly available at the EV Project website."
More details here.

[SpiroFlo]

Hey, that Denver Zoo poop rickshaw can go 10 mph...

[dconklin]

I don't see an electric car being a vehicle that I could even handle.  There are way too many problems that I see.  For one, I don't drive my car everyday and a battery is not going to stay charged forever without being used.  What happens when I have to run out and my battery is dead? If I want to drive a long trip, I would have to stop to charge every so many hours and the batteries in these cars (at least did) cost way more then the gas engine of a car and are not guaranteed to last as long.

I know somebody whose hybrid broke down as soon as they pulled onto the busy highway with their child in the car.  Could barely get it out of the way of rush hour traffic after hearing something bang.  Here it was a little part that has to do with the trans and it was going to cost at least $7000 to fix (I was at the dealership with them when the guy came out with the quote.)  Sure it was a little part that would have been probably a simple couple hundred dollar fix in a gas car, but this small part was going to cost at least $7000!!! No gas car would ever cost that much to fix-ever unless you are fully "decking" your vehicle out with crazy add ons.

As much as I am about going green, I will remain a gas car owner over the electric or hybrid.

[katniss]

I like the idea, but until they can build a better battery that will hold up a long time, I'll keep driving my natural gas (methane) fueled car. It's much cleaner to run and cheaper to fill up (93 cents per gallon here in Utah) than gasoline cars, and they aren't expensive to buy, either. You can also get a decent tax credit, too, for buying one.

[aspen]

This one came through the Blog feed. Will it take off? It seems like a glorified electric wheelchair but why not. May as well stay dry and out of the way of car exhaust.