The Electric Duds

I don't need to, bankrupt is bankrupt.

 

No, electrification of freight railroads does not address individual transportation. For individual transportation, IC engines will rule for the foreseeable future.

But electrified railroads will take a bite out of America's thirst for oil. That is the purpose of the idea.

 

Wrong again. IC engines that use fossil fuels are on their way out. Electric vehicles are far more efficient and cheaper to operate. Battery technology is improving by leaps and bounds and will soon be taking cars 400 miles or so on a single charge at a fraction of the cost of the gasoline that would be needed for such a trip. Internal combustion engines using hydrogen may continue to be part of our transportation systems but gasoline and diesel engines will almost completely disappear in the foreseeable future.

 

Envia: lithium batteries at 3x the energy density, and cheaper than lead-acid:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-lithium-ion-battery-cost-and-energy-density/

 

The worst of possible worlds (given the ad hominem atmosphere here): A NYT blog.

 

Yeah, but it's a car blog. You know. NASCAR?

 

300 veyrons sold, 900+ Tesla's sold another 6,500 presold...do you ever tire of being wrong...

 

the only thing preventing me from buying electric/hybrid is price and that's coming down quickly...mileage is already adequate, Mrs wyly could easily commute to work for a week before needing to recharge, with an overnight recharge once a week she would never need to buy gas again...with fuel somewhere around $1+ per liter now and may rise to $1.50 per liter by summer electric/hybrids are going to become cost effective very soon...

 

Nope, they are getting better and better and since we have over 200 years of oil at present usage they aren't going anywhere for a LONG time to come.

It's not much better than it was 50 years ago. Short range long charging times.

When you add it the additional cost it is not that much cheaper. When we finally start taxing them for road use the difference will almost go away completely.

Bio-diesel will be here forever. In the US alone we have over 200 years of oil at present use rates.

 

I see where GM halted production of the Chevy Volt and laid off 1,200 people.

Who would want a car where the desin process was dominated by Nancy Pelosi?

 

wrong once again...a 5 week pause in production to allow sales to clear off inventory....


Bragman said "inventory corrections" like the one GM announced are "not unusual at all." He said the buzz surrounding the Volt makes routine decisions newsworthy.

"The only reason this is making headlines," he said, "is because it's the Volt."

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-gm-volt-20120303,0,5159035.story

 

Where did you get that number? Wikipedia says 64 years.

 

Ford paused production of the Excursion and they made Excursions at eight times the rate of Chevy Volt AND made a good per unit profit.

But cars...for the most part is a volume biz. Gotta have volume to justify that factory.

 

The price of gas is going to continue to rise. The world does not have "over 200 years of oil at present usage". That's complete nonsense. Internal combustion cars are going to be replace fairly rapidly by the much cheaper to maintain and operate next-generation electric vehicles that are about to come on the market within a few years.

I guess it's obvious that you haven't actually read this thread or you would know better. Try reading this if you want to know the current facts on EV batteries. Long range, short charging times, much cheaper.
The Future of Transportation

Ignorant BS. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Bio-diesel from algae or something may well stay in use for some time, particularly for some specialized applications, but electric vehicles will still be cheaper to run and maintain and will be preferred for most uses.

 

Because it hasn't even come close to projections.

 

As long as Obama is in office it will.

The US does and more to be found.

Not in your lifetime if ever.

Yeah where can I buy one that will give me 300 mile range and a 5 minute recharge? And be cost competitive.

Let me know when it goes into production and is affordable.

You are ignoring reality, and we WILL have to find a way to tax them, why should they be using the roads for free? How do you propose to collect their road use taxes? Either we place a heavy tax on the batteries or we eliminate gasoline taxes and just put excise taxes on tires.

As they all go bankrupt.

 

You are entitled to your opinions even if they are ignorant and disconnected from reality.

In reality, the electric vehicle market is about to explode as the new batteries go into production and will be starting to appear in cars within a few years. For reasons of cost, air pollution and the effect on the climate, fossil fuels are on their way out. Solar and wind are already cheaper and are capable of meeting all of our energy needs.

 

Let me know when it comes to market in a competitive vehicle

Controversy, skepticism surround DBM 375-mile battery

"Say a company claims it has a battery pack that has set an amazing range record but then the vehicle that the battery powered ends up destroyed in a warehouse fire. What would you think? Well, this is the exact scenario that DBM Energy GmbH is facing.

DBM and Lekker Energie, using funds from Germany's economy ministry, converted an Audi A2 to run on a Kolibri alpha-polymer technology battery pack. Last October, the A2 traveled 375 miles from Munich to Berlin, depleting the battery only 80%. The trip took 7 hours, resulting in a 55 mile per hour average speed.

In December, just a two short months after the impressive journey, misfortune struck and the A2 was destroyed in a warehouse fire still under investigation. According to DBM the vehicle did not have the would-be (if verified) world-record-setting battery installed at the time of the fire. Further, they intend to continue conducting "confidence-building" tests and proceed with plans to bring the Kolibri battery to market.

Adding fuel to the skepitcism are some estimates that put the cost at $1,100 to $1,400 for a mass produced 98.8 kWh version, which DBM expects to last 2,000 charge cycles or ten years. If DBM proves the skeptics wrong, their battery pack will set the bar quite high.
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/02/14/controversy-skepticism-surround-dbm-375-mile-battery/

Might be like Obama's investments that are rarely what they seem, in fact never what they seem. They are mostly bankrupt.

But let's for a minute accept your prediction of the future and electric cars explode. Gas powered cars pay fuel taxes to pay for the roads they use. How do you propose we tax electric vehicles that use the same roads and cause the same wear and tear?

 

this max distance requirement on battery alone is a smoke screen...the Chevy Volt has enough charge to complete the average daily commute with no problem and backup internal combustion engine, total range 379miles...really how often do the vast majority of people drive 300miles per day ? very, very few so the market will focus on the daily commuter...and those commuters will be laughing at those insisting on paying incredible fuel costs of 4,5,6 dollars per gallon while they pay pennies...

the new ford focus will offer a 100miles per charge that's enough for a weeks commutes for me, plug it in 4 hours one night a week and I'd never need buy fuel for commuting again...

electric and electric/hybrid are the way of the future and the technology improving fast...

 

the Volt did well, sales projections were effected because of fire/safety issues that impacted sales, Volt unit sales fell 2,400 units short of projections in 2011...fire issue cleared up and GM reports Volt sales this past January 2012 were nearly double that of January 2011 ...and February 2012 sales are up 400 units over January 2012 total...


auto sale projections for all manufacturer's regularly fall short of projections for many different reasons...

 

Real world use highly limits the range and extends the charging time. Plug it in when it is 32 degrees and the charge time is going to be longer. Of course you could pay to heat your garage at night and pay the added expense of insulating it too. Even high temps are bad for the batteries. And what do you do when you want to go on a weekend trip to someplace a couple of hundred miles away?

The public ain't buying this Edsel.

 

It has done horrible

"General Motors said Thursday it won’t be able to sell 10,000 Volts this year................But Nissan still leads in overall sale for 2011 so far: 8,720 LEAFs versus 6,142 Volts." it barely made 60% of it's target sales number and even with the huge government purchases and the huge GE purchases and mandates their employees use them else not get their travel expenses reimbursed it is STILL doing horrible not even coming close to it's 45,000 project sales for 2012.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/gm-wont-meet-its-chevy-volt-2011-sales-goal/

That had little if anything. It is too expensive for what you get.

 

weak economy, fire issues, and disinformation by you taking info from a website dated dec 1st, making the information used even older, total volt sales in 2011 was 7,600...you deliberately downplayed sales info by 15%...

 

once again deliberate disinformation by you or you can't comprehend what you read...379 mile range, the Volt is a hybrid for daily commutes, the combustion engine easily supplies the extended range you wanted (300 miles) but conveniently ignore because it destroys your argument....

and as any Canadian will tell you a charging battery negates the need for a heated garage even at -40

 

The Leaf isn't and you brought up other electric cars, but even the so called advantage of the Volt the 25 miles on battery are severely effected by cold AND hot temps so that you are running off the weak gas engine getting mileage you could get with a conventional vehicle with more power and carrying capacity.

And spending $40,000 for a vehicle that is for daily commutes makes even less since when there are many options that cost half that much. You'll never make up the cost difference.