How much range would you need to consider a electric car

[Big Black Dog]

What I would save in gas money would be spent on electricity so you couldn't give me one of those electric cars.

 

[American Horse]

I don't see a problem with the Chevy Volt only getting 40 gas free miles in a trip event. In a longer trip I would only have to depend on gas to a smaller percentage than 100%, say 50% gas in eighty miles, and I could manage that, and spend very little on gas.

Problem is, I don' really know how much my electric bill will be boosted by the charging costs, the safety of those charging times; it's not free, and Obama's EPA has assured that at least one third of our Indiana coal fired plants will be shutting down, and that will agravate those charging costs.

On the other hand, I drive a big engine GMC Savana van, but I need it to haul my tools, and it gets about 10 mpg with my type of driving, and I nurse it - it has a fuel efficiency reading at all times.

Why bother with a fuel efficiency gauge?? Just saying..

You could probably pay off a Hybrid Van with the fuel savings you would get..

MOFact ---

Chevy Express & GMC Savana Hybrid Van | XL Hybrids

THere ya go -- Same Savana --- 25% better mileage.
(((Geez -- does that mean 12.5 mpgal?)) Maybe not a good investment eh? Pushes hybrid tech a little too far me thinks..

FYI, In that situation I'm talking about my GMC 3/4 ton van, and I do everything I can to save fuel, even to turning off the engine when waiting for long traffic signals. I drive it because I have to, I don't do pleasure driving in it, though it is a pleasure to drive. But when I'm out on the highway I can see some high mileage efficiency at certain speeds (maybe 16mpg) and I try to attain them, as well as manage my hills and valleys, etc.


EDIT: note above I meant MPG not MPH (sorry about that)

 

[Trakar]

How much range(miles) on a single charge would an electric car need before you would consider one?

Me, 400 miles.
0 to 60 in 5 seconds
Under 3 hour full recharge
100,000 miles before replacement of the battery
Battery replacement under a few thousand dollars(tops)

LOL, the overwhelming majority of gasoline fuelled cars don't meet those standards.

personally, at least 100 miles (and I would prefer closer to 200) per charge. Really not too concerned about "dead to full" charge time so long as it doesn't climb over 6-8 hours and doesn't require anything more exotic than 110AC or solar panel DC trickle charge. Though I'd be more interested in a "swap out" module for the batteries where a minor fee would allow you to quick change swap out a discharged batterypack for fully charged batterypack. That would make cross country drives more convenient. Likewise, I'd prefer a longer battery lifespan, and cheaper replacement cost, but with swap out units these wouldn't be a major issue.

 

[flacaltenn]

THere's no way I'm gonna let a bumpkin mechanic in a roadside town lift out my power plant and give me his.. These battery stacks have finite lifetimes, they can be abused from improper charge/discharge cycles and they are TOO expensive to be swappable units.

Not to mention that by design -- they have to buried deep in the frame to prevent collision damage or leakage to the occupants in an accident.

Would be better to figure out how to embed "in-road" charging. So that you can pick up charge as you drive..

 

[lectricgenius]

How much range(miles) on a single charge would an electric car need before you would consider one?

Me, 400 miles.
0 to 60 in 5 seconds
Under 3 hour full recharge
100,000 miles before replacement of the battery
Battery replacement under a few thousand dollars(tops)

Tlready have such with both Tesla models. Plus with the advent of the zinc-air battery, we can now get a higher charge density than what gasoline offers! I say wake up America, we no longer have to be held hostage by the likes of Exxon etal. Just type this search into google and you can see we have known about the technology of zinc-air batteries for over 20 years now site:anl.gov zinc-air

WHAT??? Higher energy densities than GASOLINE?? What High School propaganda are you reading? Gasoline has about 25 TIMES the energy per weight of a zinc-air battery and 5 times the energy by volume..

You're new -- you really want to blow all your cred in your 1st few posts?

And here's a news flash -- Zinc air isn't designed to MAKE power to run vehicles -- Gasoline is..

Get real dude, get up on the technology. Envia was nearing the energy density of gasoline with their batteries. Furthermore a zinc-air battery is has down far greater than Envia's battery, and has more energy density than gasoline. Try reading up on this technology before coming on here and attacking me with your right wing nut propaganda-- but oh yea right, you will not learn any of this listening to the faux network! And so sorry to tell you I got much farther than high school and earned advanced degrees in electrical engineering. The problem is people like you with your false rhetoric, spreading lies and disinformation like you do.

 

[lectricgenius]

What I would save in gas money would be spent on electricity so you couldn't give me one of those electric cars.

The latest readings I have done on such is like this-- cost of driving an electric car for a day $0.02, cost of doing it with gasoline at say $3.50 is what. It is simple, just makes sense; and the technology is here today if you would bother to get your heads out of the sand!

 

[lectricgenius]

THere's no way I'm gonna let a bumpkin mechanic in a roadside town lift out my power plant and give me his.. These battery stacks have finite lifetimes, they can be abused from improper charge/discharge cycles and they are TOO expensive to be swappable units.

Not to mention that by design -- they have to buried deep in the frame to prevent collision damage or leakage to the occupants in an accident.

Would be better to figure out how to embed "in-road" charging. So that you can pick up charge as you drive..

Guess again, the zinc air battery that I talked about earlier in reply to someone already gets 2,000 charging cycles, but they are set on getting 10k cycles out of them before offering them to the public. Cost of driving an electric car-- windshield wiper blades; cost of driving your petrochemical powered car, infinite after you take into account that the pollution from them is killing us all!

 

[flacaltenn]

Tlready have such with both Tesla models. Plus with the advent of the zinc-air battery, we can now get a higher charge density than what gasoline offers! I say wake up America, we no longer have to be held hostage by the likes of Exxon etal. Just type this search into google and you can see we have known about the technology of zinc-air batteries for over 20 years now site:anl.gov zinc-air

WHAT??? Higher energy densities than GASOLINE?? What High School propaganda are you reading? Gasoline has about 25 TIMES the energy per weight of a zinc-air battery and 5 times the energy by volume..

You're new -- you really want to blow all your cred in your 1st few posts?

And here's a news flash -- Zinc air isn't designed to MAKE power to run vehicles -- Gasoline is..

Get real dude, get up on the technology. Envia was nearing the energy density of gasoline with their batteries. Furthermore a zinc-air battery is has down far greater than Envia's battery, and has more energy density than gasoline. Try reading up on this technology before coming on here and attacking me with your right wing nut propaganda-- but oh yea right, you will not learn any of this listening to the faux network! And so sorry to tell you I got much farther than high school and earned advanced degrees in electrical engineering. The problem is people like you with your false rhetoric, spreading lies and disinformation like you do.

How many degrees in Electrical Engineering do you have? I've got a few degrees myself. Including EE..

Make ya a deal Sparky.. I know Envia has doubled energy density in LITHIUM batteries, not Zinc-Air.. You get me a link to a zinc-air ((or any viable EV battery tech)) that "has more energy density" than gasoline or even approaches it --- and I won't neg you for arrogance and misusing your EE degree.

 

[Politico]

How many degrees in Electrical Engineering do you have?

More importantly. Why do all the people who claim to have them and say they know how to make it work never build anything and prove it to us?

 

[flacaltenn]

How many degrees in Electrical Engineering do you have?

More importantly. Why do all the people who claim to have them and say they know how to make it work never build anything and prove it to us?

I'm always up for a fun project.. Whaddya need? A cat cam? A radio controlled pizza delivery copter? What do you have in mind?? I don't mess with stuff above 60V or so..

Actually -- if you've used a hospital or clinic lab lately or used Point of Sale equipment - or been in a simulator or called up a doppler weather radar you've used some of my work...

 

[Trakar]

THere's no way I'm gonna let a bumpkin mechanic in a roadside town lift out my power plant and give me his.. These battery stacks have finite lifetimes, they can be abused from improper charge/discharge cycles and they are TOO expensive to be swappable units.

Not to mention that by design -- they have to buried deep in the frame to prevent collision damage or leakage to the occupants in an accident.

Would be better to figure out how to embed "in-road" charging. So that you can pick up charge as you drive..

Nothing at all against a viable charge as you drive system, but to a population that gets the willies imagining brain cancer from cell phones, I'm not sure how such would play out. That said modular swap out battery systems have long been considered and are integral to at least one current production EV model.

Battery switch technology demo - YouTube​

Test Drive Renault Fluence, Better Place Denmark - YouTube#!​

 

[flacaltenn]

THere's no way I'm gonna let a bumpkin mechanic in a roadside town lift out my power plant and give me his.. These battery stacks have finite lifetimes, they can be abused from improper charge/discharge cycles and they are TOO expensive to be swappable units.

Not to mention that by design -- they have to buried deep in the frame to prevent collision damage or leakage to the occupants in an accident.

Would be better to figure out how to embed "in-road" charging. So that you can pick up charge as you drive..

Nothing at all against a viable charge as you drive system, but to a population that gets the willies imagining brain cancer from cell phones, I'm not sure how such would play out. That said modular swap out battery systems have long been considered and are integral to at least one current production EV model.

Battery switch technology demo - YouTube​

Test Drive Renault Fluence, Better Place Denmark - YouTube#!​

Heck -- just sell the Worry Warts a can of black Krylon and tell them to paint the undercarraige and the shield will protect them...

And I could see a group like AAA issuing battery insurance and doing certs on the swappers. But it's gonna be hard to determine who wrecked one of these batteries from misuse with so many hands on it...

 

[Trakar]

Heck -- just sell the Worry Warts a can of black Krylon and tell them to paint the undercarraige and the shield will protect them...

If only it were that easy! The conspiracy minded perceive plots within plots within plots, and generally aren't ameniable to reason, rationality or evidences.

And I could see a group like AAA issuing battery insurance and doing certs on the swappers. But it's gonna be hard to determine who wrecked one of these batteries from misuse with so many hands on it...

Provided such is necessary, with production/remanufacture high enough and costs low enough it may not matter that much if the occassional unit rotates through its life-cycle prematurely. The refurbishment, even if it meant replacement of, or remanufacture of, the individual charging cells, should still be much cheaper than complete manufacture especially if the units are designed with refurbishment and remanufacture in mind.

I would imagine that there would be a strong interest in tracking and retaining a charging history which could be used to identify issues of malfeasance vs. age and accident. Perhaps, in order to qualify for some of the swap services the customer has to agree to only use specific types of approved and monitored charging services.

If the units could be made to handle 200 miles of charge, most people would only need to recharge once a week or so. It might be better to simply make the units only rechargable in the swap out shops after they've been pulled from cars. Paying 20 bucks to lease a fully charged battery pack until it's discharged or until you want to lease a new fully charged one.