Pushing Hybrids To The Electrical Side Of The Road
from the battery-schmattery dept
Automakers in the US don't want electric cars on the road. You may remember that there were a bunch in California for a while, but GM and Ford tried to do everything possible to get them off the road and destroy them, pretending they had never existed. After some protests that got publicity, it sounds like a few people got to keep the vehicles they had leased (originally, the car companies said no one could buy the leased vehicles and they had to give them up). However, the last thing carmakers want to do is make electric vehicles again. Instead, all of the focus is on "hybrids" where you don't have to plug them in to get electrical power. Some people, though, want to plug in their vehicles to get more electrical power running their vehicles, which has created something of a "plug 'em in" vehicle modding trend, where people buy hybrids and then modify them to make them plug-ins. The automakers, obviously, are trashing the idea (voids the warranty! pollutes just as much!), but clearly it sounds like there's a market for such vehicles.
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No Subject Given by BatteryBoy on Jan 28th, 2005 @ 3:13pm
Eh, the person writing the article seems to
have an axe to grind I think.
For many years there was a fat pot of money available for developing electric cars from
caltran but not one cent for those evil fuel
burning hybrids. Even though hybrids make
good sense for many people. This short
sighted policy stunted the development some
truely practical vehicles.
That being said, the option to plug the
hybrid car into the grid for some opportunity
charging is a good idea.
Electric, non-hybrid, cars have proven time
and time again to be impractical for the
majority of drivers. And they will probably
continue to be so, due to battery technology limitations, for the fore seeable future.
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Barking up the wrong tree… by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 2005 @ 7:44pm
“Automakers in the US don't want electric cars on the road. You may remember that there were a bunch in California for a while, but GM and Ford tried to do everything possible to get them off the road and destroy them, pretending they had never existed.”
The auto manufactures could not give less of a shit what the car you buy from them is powered by - just so long as you buy it from them… What the automakers are interested in is selling you a CAR.
On the other hand… there IS a group of people with a vested interest in making sure that your car continues to be powered by gasoline…
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fl rates by kuros on Jan 29th, 2005 @ 4:06pm
rates for electricity in florida are sky high
all i need is one of these
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Technology Scaring the Hell ouf of Car Companies by Anonymous Coward on Jan 29th, 2005 @ 8:30pm
Assumptions about the unfeasiability of a truely electric car are in danger of evaporating due to the march of technology. It will take exactly three things to change the tide:
1 - solar cell efficency above 50%
2 - easily integrated regenerative breaking
3 - battery technology at .5 wight and 2x energy density (theortically possible without violating any laws of thermodynamics)
Now, before you start thinking about the unappealability of traditional electric cars, I want you to sit back and think for a moment about having a 150hp electric motor on *EACH*WHEEL*.
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