Quote:
Originally Posted by crockett
Where did 30 miles come in? The EV1 with todays batteries could go 300 miles on a charge. Hybrid cars of today are supposed to have I think it's a 7 year battery life. Most people don't own a new car 7 years.
I also don't think the newer batteries have the same issue with cold as older lead based batteries. However I'm not 100% on that. I agree with the power grid issue and the travel out of state aspect but over time the power grid issue would be updated. The long distance traveling is the only major disadvantage I can see with them.
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Sorry, all good arguments, but they fail the stink test.
Current hybrid batteries aren't high power - in the case of Toyota they can run the car for a short while, in the case of Saturn, not at all (they just assist and restart the car from a stop). The best pure electric cars that would be actually sellable right now are still running max at about 100 miles per charge.
Batteries by their nature has issues with cold, with time... newer batteries may have less of a memory issue, but they do lose peak power over time (thus why they have to be replaced sooner or later, they don't live forever). Replacing a battery pack in a Toyota Hybrid is a fairly pricey deal, from what I hear.
Most importantly: Where the heck do you think the electricity comes from? Many states make their electricity by burning coal, natural gas, or even oil, which is then sent down the wires. it is incredibly inefficient to distribute power to cars in this manner, as much of the power is lost as the power goes over the grid.
Then there is the subject of availability of "spare" electricity. Already California (and many other states) are in the shit, maxing out their available supplies. What do you think would happen if a million EV cars suddenly got plugged in a 6PM for a recharge? The power grid would melt.
When you look at the overall start to finish about putting pure electric cars on the road, you realize that they are very, very ineffecient.