The problem with building an alternative fuel infrastructure such as electricity charging is that there is a greater perceived need than actual need.
For instance, if you can plug your car in overnight to charge it up then how often are you going to get caught out doing a 200/300+ mile trip? For some people this will indeed be an issue, but for the masses such trips are a once a year thing or less.
The problem then is providing the infrastructure to support the long trip just to reassure people, whilst knowing that for the most part it isnt going to get much use.
Charging points are not the solution, it needs battery replacement to be of use for consumers, so there is no fear of being caught short. The way to do that is with a transfer hire agreement on batteries a bit like we have with wooden palettes, which requires a standardised battery.
Some very interesting points, but i do not that think the electric cars would get cheaper if more people bought them. I think its more down to the technology. Currently, there is no commonly shared technology and products (batteries, motors etc.) shared between companys that are actually making electric cars. For example, alot of petrol cars (over this side of the pond at least) share alot of diesels and petrols between different companys. This then makes the car cheaper to buy. As for electric's, none has been shared as its all independently made between each company. Hence why there so expensive as the technology is unique to each car.
As for me, i do not think the electric car is the future. Sure, were still a long way off until petrol runs out completely but i believe that something like japans public transport system (as someone stated before) could work...or maybe we could have something like the tube system off of futurama.
Japans public transport system only works because a train being a minute late is a matter of family honour. Over here if a train arrives on time the platform staff say to the driver, "Steady on mate". With a government target of 95% of trains being less than 5 minutes late, it's a bit of a different set of expectations.
I dont think there is really much resistence to nuclear fuel over here, we have plenty of plants in the UK, France is about 70% nuclear already. Fussion fission power could well be the future and with that in mind there is a good future for electric cars, but whether it happens within 10 years or 60 years I have no idea.
In fact some major car manufacturers are looking into this right now. (finding a standardized size and shape of their batteries to allow for easy replacement) Electric cars today often have their batteries in inaccessible places, and this needs to be improved as well if this is going to work. At least it's good that they're working on it!
I did a google search, but I couldn't find the link I was looking for.
It still takes a massive amount of energy to obtain hydrogen and you're probably burning a lot of fossil fuels too while you're at it. At least for petrol, its efficiency values are much greater than hydrogen.
Did you guys watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" It's a pretty good documentary on how GM and oil companies practically tried to get rid of electric cars (even though it was GM's own creation). It probably didn't sell because when those EV cars were released, gas was not very expensive yet, hence no one cared for it. Those cars can go for 120+ miles per charge and were fairly quick (though ugly).
It was also explicitly stupid that the US gov't took away the zero emissions mandate and created a $100,000 tax write off for buying hummers. It didn't make any sense at all
Are you referring to clarkson and the tesla roadster and how it caused them problems? If you are then let's see how reliable the honda is if it was driven hard like that. The tesla stopped running because it was being driven so hard that the regenerative brakes blew the fuse, it was a safety feature of the car.
And how many hydrogen filling stations have you seen? I've seen zero over here and you can charge your car whereever there is an electric socket.
Which is likely charged from the running of the hydrogen fuel cell, so I don't see a problem.
Of course, that's why I mentioned James May and Honda.. seriously, some people. :doh:
What's more, it's MARKETED as a high performance sports car. If my Ferrari blue a fuse because I was doing a track day I'd bloody well want my money back!!! May did do some 'spirited' driving and found it fine, but being a Honda I'm sure it would be fine regardless.
And the point is? I'm sure many many many years ago you would have said the same thing about petrol and diesel. Again, electric cars are a means to an end. Alternatively, you can fill your car with petrol or diesel, as there's more than enough of those!!!
When will people see that electric cars are NOT the future.. no-one wants to leave their car plugged in overnight.. fire risk, vandalism, not to mention it takes about 10 hours and you can travel for about 40-100 miles? I'd rather ****ing walk.
Which, the electric socket? But see we're going to have to waste a ton of resources just building more hydrogen fueling stations. It's not too hard building an electric charging station because electricity runs all over the place.
A well-built electric car only takes about 3.5 hours to charge with a charging station at home and barely anyone drives more than 40 miles a day on a daily basis. Fire risk... you can say the same thing about your fridge being plugged in 24/7. Vandalism? every car has a risk of vandalism, regardless of the fuel source. As i said before, the reliability of these cars are going to get better, as this technology gets better.
You think a super expensive, complicated, and resource heavy alternative fuel source, such as hydrogen, is the future?
And btw, I was only confirming if you were referring to that, you don't have to be a jerk about it.
No, the battery on the Honda will likely be charged just as a battery is on a normal car nowadays. So you'll need no outside input. As for building charging stations how about just refit fuel stations with Hydrogen tanks, similar to what happened with LPG.
Funny that everyone thinks I'm a jerk, when it just seems that people see one thing and think another!! (completely unrelated, I may add!!)
And no, if you have electric cables spewing out onto your street, some hooded youth will come along with a stanley knife and cut it, as has been said before.
As for fire, well who leaves a fridge out in the rain, sleet, snow, frost, and the summer heat..?
Taking the wonderful G-Wiz as an example, it takes :
Even G Wiz themselves say that it needs to be fully charged regularly and that the 80% charge is only an "occasional practise"
Oh great so I have to leave it charging overnight!!
But that's not a worry, because after a while it will have paid for itself!
Ok so that's basically £2000 every couple of years.. (at best!)
Oh, but that's not a problem is it, really. No, but this is.
So not only do I have to leave it on charge overnight, I have to give it a drink as well..
But, let's not worry. It won't need charging often.
Wow, that means I'd be unable be able to travel into Reading from here.. a typical route of commuting, it's about 24 miles either way. So 48 in both, bearing in mind most of it is stop/start town work! Try more like 30-35 miles as an average range
(Bearing in mind as the batteries age they will hold their charge less well and distance will dramatically decrease!)
Maybe other electric cars are better, but I like the evocative sound of 8 cylinders breathing through de-catted pipes, thankyou very much.
I do not consider the G-wizz a well built electric car. I am putting my trust on tesla motors to do well in this industry (they are releasing an affordable car that does 320 miles and is still fairly quick).
You're right about the charging part, I forgot that not everyone has a garage because I'm so used to everyone in my neighbourhood having one. However, tesla said that their chargers are all-weather. Remember, internal combustion cars weren't well built either back then and were not very effecient either, so it's fair to give electric cars time to develop.
And sure the electric car requires some maintenance, but oil-driven cars requires a lot of maintenance too (oil changes, filters, spark plugs, etc.) and for hydrogen cars? who knows what kind of things you have to do to keep it well maintained.
And who doesn't like the roar of a V8? I'm an environmentalist, i guess i care more about the environment and the earth than an awesome sound.
Electricity can be powered by many alternatives (everything here is hydropowered) and EFFECIENCY is key here. It takes 1/10th of the energy required of a petrol car to power an electric car. Plus, you can always sell energy back to the grid with a solar panel. Also, if you use petrol you would be contributing more to our greenhouse gases (70-80 percent of it comes from transportation)
Maybe you need to buy a better car. I put fuel in mine, apart from that it needs no attention between each yearly service. So far in five years it has had four oil changes, a new set of spark plugs, and two new tyres. I suggest that this is by no means a "lot" of maintenance. Not in anyone's book.
If you can quote some sources for the various random facts and assertions you're throwing around, then I'll believe it. As it stands, cars do not come anywhere close to producing 70-80% of our greenhouse emissions. I don't know the true percentage, but it's tiny compared to industry, homes, and even cows.
Sorry i meant that 70 percent is fossil fuel consumption and a big portion of that is transportation. Remember, industry uses a lot of transportation too to transport goods (this includes via ferry, truck, plane, etc.)
Didn't they say that about the roadster, how it would do like 200 miles and actually did 40?
Most cars have services every 12,000 or every year. Some high performance ones may have them every 6,000 or 6 months, or perhaps every 4,000, as in the case of the 400bhp Evo 8 FQ400 thing. Then again it's pushing 200bhp per litre so what do you expect.
FWIW this GWiz wants servicing every 6 months or 4000 miles, about that, I can't remember.
So on that basis it's a fairly high performance vehicle!
It only did 40 because the fuse blew. It might be the only thing crappy about the car. And it doesn't take 16 hours to charge (maybe with the mobile one), it takes 3.5 hours from 0-100%.
Maybe over there but let's say in the US the root of all pollution is fossil fuel combustion. That's why there's so much smog in California. And since it goes all around the world, it can affect you too.
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