Okay help me understand this..?

Question

okay help me understand this..

Back in the early 90's there were electric cars with limited range (60-70 miles) and reliability in the first EV-1s to ship, but better (110 - 160 miles) later.

Research says the average driving distance of Americans in a day is 30 miles or less and that 90% of Americans could use electric cars in their daily commute.

However, the cars did not become available beacause? GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss argued it was lack of consumer interest due to the maximum range of 80–100 miles per charge, and the relatively high price oil companies were afraid of losing out on trillions in potential profit from their transportation fuel monopoly over the coming decades..Fearful of losing business to a competing technology, they supported efforts to kill the ZEV mandate. They also bought patents to prevent modern NiMH batteries from being used in US electric cars.

So we're using what? 70 year old technology? getting charged 3-6 dollars per gallon,and have global warming to worry about..umm yeah have we been asleep?

Answer 1

What you are forgetting is that electric cars are outside the price range of the average American family. That is why they have not succeeded. Not saying that this absolves those who can afford them and still don't buy them, but until there is a massive price drop in the electric car market, they can not, and will not, succeed.

Answer 2

You watched who killed the Electric car eh?

Good movie.

The problem is the government is so deeply rooted in oil that they withdrew from the funding of EV1's and had GM motors take all of them off of the road. Then putting hydrogen on the road (way more expesive and still a pollutant) they can make money off of that because it is still oil based. Government is still making money.

And we have been asleep.

The problem is wed have to get an independent car company to do it, wich takes a lot of money. But no worries. Sometime next year theere is a hybrid car coming out that is supposed to get 72 miles per gallon

Answer 3

We'll be waiting a long time for the Big Three to produce an electric car.  In the meanwhile, Mitsubishi (i-miev) and Subaru (R1e) and Nissan (Cube) appear to be the next production electric cars available in the US, hopefully in 2010.  The i-miev, R1e and Cube are based on an existing IC cars available in Japan.  The New York Times has an article about Subaru testing a couple of i-miev's in Manhattan.

There are smaller companies producing electric cars (I'll stick to freeway capable for now) but essentially they are conversions, not 'factory' cars per se (based on another manufacturer's platform, i.e. the Tesla = Lotus Elise, and the xBox = Scion xB for example)

These vehicles are supposed to have top speeds above 65 MPH, so they will have freeway capability.  As with all EVs, range is still the issue to some people.  I drive five miles to work in my electric car, and use my gasoline car from time to time on weekends.  (I used to ride a bike, but there are too many distracted, dangerous drivers around these days).

For me, the electric car serves over 90% of my driving needs.  It makes sense for my personal situation, just as a Suburban makes sense for some people.  In my case, parking a Suburban would create problems due to parking space availability for that length of vehicle.  If I traded my electric car for a 12 MPG Suburban, it would cost me about $3.00 a day to drive the 10 miles round trip.

The electric car costs me about sixteen cents a day for 'fuel' (2.5 kWh electricity at 6.5 cents a kWh).  A high-MPG fossil fueled car (at 50 mpg) would cost 73 cents, and the 'average' 25 MPG car would cost about a buck fifty.  "Affordability" is relative.

As electric vehicles become more mainstream, the range will increase, and the price will go down.  Sort of like HD TV's - they were thousands of dollars just a year or two ago, and today you can buy them at Costco for about $500.  Economies of scale, and all that. They could easily produce an EV with 100+ miles range (yes, they have heat and air conditioning...) as they have in the past, but just don't have the will or a long enough view.

The Big Three US automakers will eventually produce electric cars, but for now they are comfortable with business as usual.  They said the Prius wouldn't ever sell because it was a Hybrid and no one wanted them.  Guess who's selling Hybrids now...

Answer 4

The fault lies with YOU.  You can buy an electric car.  There are many choices.

GM was right.  No one wants a crappy car with no heat or air when gasoline is so cheap and plentiful,

You are selling the 'greedy' capitalists short.  If people would buy it, they would build it.

Answer 5

Do you really think it's a conspiracy?  Could it possibly be that maybe there's no way to build an electric car that (1) works and (2) someone can pay for?  

Let everyone know about it when you actually see a Tesla roadster coming down your street.  We wait with anticipation: they're about a hundred thousand bucks, and they won this year's Vaporware award.  

Electric cars are still impractical because there are no batteries with anywhere near the required power density.  Compare the energy contained in a shot glass of gasoline with that of a Size D battery, and you'll get an idea of the difference.  

While computers and electronics in general have taught us to expect exponential progress in technologies, the reality is that most products--batteries, especially--develop far more slowly and incrementally.  Batteries are certainly better than they once were, but not a great deal better, and there's no reason to expect the sort of ten-fold improvement that you've come to expect from, say, cell phones or microprocessors.  

Note also that the tiny costs of recharging an electric car ("runs on 34 cents per day") presumes that someone else is paying for the maintenance of the roads, for law enforcement, and all the rest of the infrastructure that's supported by fuel taxes.

Answer 6

It is all because Big Oil, and countless other oil companies have deals and/or are friends with the CEO's and high ranked bussinessmen and women.

That is also the reason why the federal government doesn't sponsor as many bills involving alternative fuels, cars, or resources. It is all about greedy lawmakers and lobbyists.

That is also why hemp farming isn't allowed in most states, because it is so plentiful that it would damage all of the other materials in the industry and make the Gov. look bad..

We have such a fantastic government.

Love the country, hate the gov.!