Quote:
Originally Posted by RawAlex
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.
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I understand where you are coming from, I could have swore I saw 300 miles range for the EV1 with newer batteries. The deal is, if more money was put into research then range and life expectancy would go up. Also as more and more cars started using the batteries the prices would come down because there would be more profit in it. So that's just a simple supply and demand thing.
So those are all things that would eventually be dealt with. As far as the distance issue someone posted a link to a car made by GM that will do 600+ miles but it's a mix of technology. Not just electric, so that's likely the future.
The power grid issues would be dealt with over time as more and more people started using them. So it's not like just all of the sudden a million EV cars would just show up out of the blue.
In regards to the coal burning power plants that is a problem, but with stricter rules and regulations they could be cleaner and eventually replaced with cleaner alternatives.
The thing I wonder about, is which would put out more pollution.. a million cars of current technology or the power plants used to charge a million EV cars.
Anyway these are all things that could be solved if we actually wanted too. However their is no support from the govt to make it happen. I always find it sad that there is always money going to big oil and gas companies to subsidize them but almost nothing is given to advance things like solar and wind power.