# Electric Cars?



## zraupp10 (Mar 2, 2009)

Electric cars.
anyone been driving one for over a year ?

how are they in winter?
how are then in summer?
how long do the batteries last? ( how often do you need to get New batteries? how much are the batteries? $100 a pop? and how many batteries are in car? [I know this is not the same on every car])

how long does it take to charge? ive seen them say 5-8 hours and some say 10minutes ...


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Every manufacture will be different. Range will very by make, some cars are batteries only, many have a gas engine back up.

Battery packs should last 100,000 or so. Cost? can exceed $3000.00 USD

BG


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Tesla currently has totally electric cars, so does Nissan. not sure about GM I still see that tell tale gas cap panel, and Ford has a concept. But so far for the research I have done I like the Tesla cars, they "should" be the same winter and summer.


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## Scottg1 (Jul 30, 2011)

There are a couple driving around in my area and they seem neat. A tesla and two little off brand micro cars. The guy with the tesla drives it a lot, it's his daily driver. He has driven it in all seasons now and I see it often. I know battery performance is diminished in really cold weather but the major automakers have compensated for that. I have never driven or even been in any electric cars so just what I have read and seen. They are pricey,tesla is $100k or so, but you can find used cars on e-bay for $10-$15k but they have regular car batteries not the lithium ion. The automotive batteries don't last as long in electric cars, maybe 2 years and cost $1,500 to replace.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Kind of the chicken or the egg problem with these. There aren't many charging stations because there aren't many electric cars... and conversely there aren't many electric cars because there aren't many places to recharge them. Still, I don't believe any pure electrics except maybe for the very expensive (like Tesla) will have much use beyond very short commutes, esp in cold or hot weather that requires powering climate controls. Better choice would be a hybrid like the Volt. But with the price of gas I don't think any of thes technologies are viable yet. And the oil companies are good at keeping the price low enough that folks won't adopt alternatives en masse. There are also many factors that keep the oil "market" volatile so that anyone aiming to market a new technology will have no idea what oil price they will be competing in 6 months, let alone several years. Hard to come up with a business case for electrics. It will happen sooner or later but it will be a choppy ride to get there.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

they still need to sort out issue with recharge points and make cars that are fully electric and actually clean to the environment which most are not especially the toyota prius.


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

I had a postal Jeep once that was electric, it laster all day on a charge but I had to plug it in every night.


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## Scottg1 (Jul 30, 2011)

Sorry but it has nothing to do with oil companies that are keeping electric cars away. It's electric cars. The majority of people don't want the limitations that electric cars have. In Germany and the uk, gas is over $8 a gallon and they would rather drive less powerful petrol and diesel cars. As said, the hybrid is really the better option to coax people to electric power in a car. The electric car has been around for over 100 years and is still limited by the same problem, people just don't like to be tethered to home. Gas could be $20 a gallon and a large population will still drive gas powered cars. An electric car can be a great transportation for a lot of people and if you want something different go ahead. Some day we may all drive electric cars but it's going to be because of government regulations and mandates, not the oil companies.


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

Might be good for local use......unless hotels/motels offer recharges or recharging stations are available. Don't think it will catch on for long distance travel if the range is too limited.....even with my gas hog I can go ~350 miles and take only minutes to fill the tank. How many hours does it take to charge the batteries in an electric car??

I don't know if the motor generates much heat but it could be used to heat the car in the winter.....maybe. Summer will be a drain on the batteries unless you use 440 Air Conditioning.....4 windows open @ 40 mph. 

I have only seen one hybrid in action.....very odd to see a car take off with 0 noise.....:laugh:


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Agree, electrics will probably always be too limited for anything much beyond short urban commuting. And they have their own enviro issues. Of the current alternatives only hybrids make much sense.

But oil companies and oil producing countries are good at making sure alternative technologies and fuels have a tough time gaining traction. They keep prices high enough that we complain but low enough that we do little to change our usage patterns. And the built-in price volatility from all the world's conflicts and natural disasters, and recovery from same, makes any progression to develop alternatives even tougher.

Sooner or later, with air travel expected to fully double by 2035, and I don't know hom many 100s of millions more cars on the road in China, India, etc, they won't be able to keep the lid on the price of the remaining/dwindling oil and there will be hell to pay if we aren't ready... and it will be our fault for not having a more robust selection of reasonably priced alternatives.




Scottg1 said:


> Sorry but it has nothing to do with oil companies that are keeping electric cars away. It's electric cars. The majority of people don't want the limitations that electric cars have. In Germany and the uk, gas is over $8 a gallon and they would rather drive less powerful petrol and diesel cars. As said, the hybrid is really the better option to coax people to electric power in a car. The electric car has been around for over 100 years and is still limited by the same problem, people just don't like to be tethered to home. Gas could be $20 a gallon and a large population will still drive gas powered cars. An electric car can be a great transportation for a lot of people and if you want something different go ahead. Some day we may all drive electric cars but it's going to be because of government regulations and mandates, not the oil companies.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

I just don't see all electric cars ever catching on, at least in my life time.

100 mile range just isn't long enough for all my driving needs, sure most of time 100 range is enough. Can't afford to have two nice cars, one for the occasional trips and one for every day use.

I see a big future for hybrid cars, one that can do both.

BG


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## Scottg1 (Jul 30, 2011)

Seems like everyone is concerned with the limitations of the range and recharge times. Not the price if fuel, if the oil companies were really worried about alternative fuels they would be the first take over those industries after all they have all that money, not some crazy conspiracy theory ideas, they are only companies. Battery technology is not limited to transportation, researchers have been trying to extend the energy capacity of batteries in all devices for dozens of years and tons of money thrown at it.
For local second car use a fully electric car could be a neat idea, just remember where your electricity comes from if your trying to be green. At night or at highway speeds (even for shorter trips) you batteries will drain faster too. A hybrid is probably the better buy these days. And you get any luxuries the little electric cars do without


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I think it will be 20 years before electric cars are mainstream and reliable..


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## Scottg1 (Jul 30, 2011)

I could see that, if they get the range down just think, your laptop may run for days on a single AA sized battery in 20. 
Personally I don't think to push electric cars to the masses quicker, we are going to have to do battery swaps, where your whole pack just gets exchanged for a fully charged unit at the fuel stations. But even that is going to take some effort and a few years. Who knows, will be interesting to see


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

I was watching the discovery channel last night and they showed one that could do everything a gas car can do, for the life of me I don;t remember the name of it though


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

wolfen1086 said:


> I was watching the discovery channel last night and they showed one that could do everything a gas car can do, for the life of me I don;t remember the name of it though


the tesla although only has a range of 200 miles or something, but 0 - 60 in 3 seconds is pretty fast.


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## Scottg1 (Jul 30, 2011)

And $100,000, nice little car. I want to try one out. I hear the range is worse than that in practical use.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Scottg1 said:


> And $100,000, nice little car. I want to try one out. I hear the range is worse than that in practical use.


yep more like 120 miles especially if you use its power.


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

I dunno about them but I DO know that electric power is more powerful than gas or diesel. When I was in the Navy our C130's had hydroelectric controls on the props, the hyd system changed the pitch of the blades, the electric part ran the hyd part. simply because electric power has more power


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Even if the charging stations become more available actually getting a recharge will present problems. Here is an article about the Japanese quick charge gear that is being placed in Cali. 20 minutes for an 80% charge. Great if you are at home or work but if you stop at a charge station enroute and are, say, second or 3rd in line you are talking about an hour or more to get going. And widespread installing, maintaining, and powering such equipment at workplaces would be expensive and require upgrading power grids.

So I just can't see how pure electrics will ever make a lot of sense except in limited circumstances and even then users will need to plan very carefully. I can see the tow truck guys salivating as they get called to pull dead electrics out of the traffic lanes. Hybrids like Volt can avoid that but at the expense of considerable more complexity and cost.

I dunno how all this is going to fall out but it will be interesting....




Ecotality's Fast-Charging Units: Good News for Leaf Owners and (for Now) Nobody Else - NYTimes.com


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

The time it takes to charge is the main problem with electric vehicles. I remember when I was a kid we had a man who was a self proclaimed "Inventor" He had a bicycle that pedaled up and down instead of in a circle and ran a electric generator which ran the wheels, it went up and down hills with ease every day, and we lived in Mountains, before I moved here to Virginia, he had a car that he had put some weird sort of solar collector panel on top, we knew about solar power, but I ( being a science freak at the time) had never seen even in a magazine, but it ran an electric motor in his small Toyota, and he never plugged it in. He said the sun powered it totally. of course he had no radio and couldn't drive it at night unless he strapped flashlights to the fenders, but he DID drive it


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## akinorhan5 (Nov 12, 2011)

I dont want that electric vechiles will come because i study auto mechanics and if the diesel and the petrol engine's are not used anymore and electric vechiles will come everything will be changed for me so i dont want electric vechiles hydrogen engines will be better because the working pricipe will be same


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Personally I would rather see vehicles run on use deep fryer oil, or some sort of synthetic fuel that electric or hydrogen, Bu the of those are way too expensive around here, and since synthetic is too expensive I say we do like Sara Palin said and drill baby drill. But at the same time ...drill...yes...sell the oil wells to another country....H no


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