Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
The US (and canada for that matter) are huge countries full of people who love long road trips, living in the suburbs far from the inner cities, want to be able to do these things whenever they want and will need a vehicle that can reasonably accommodate these things. Electric cars need to be plugged in, not for minutes at a station, but for HOURS!
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Not exactly right.
To charge your car at home at 110 Volts takes 8 hours, but you can buy 220 volt charging stations (expensive though) that charge your car in 30 minutes. There are now even solar chargers available (wow!)
The charging stations are already available and being sold to service stations already in California. It is also a business opportunity because the amount of electricity required is much less than the cost of gas, so there is a much greater profit potential for the service stations.
The average person travels less than 25 miles a day to and from work. Most of that time is spent in traffic. Gas is being burned. The money you spend on gas is being converted directly into heat and pollution.
For long distance travel the Tesla's get 300 Miles on a single charge. The Chevy Volt (A Hybrid) and the Nissan Leaf get only about 75 miles on a charge. This is still pretty good however as much as I love electric, I too would suffer "distance anxiety" if I thought I could "only" drive 75 miles even when I never do. I as a consumer feel much better with a 300 mile range as it is actually better than most gas cars and suv's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
Batteries need to be replaced every few years??? Those things don't cost 100 bucks, it would equate to replacing your engine block every 3 years. How cost effective is that?
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Not true. The batteries are guaranteed for 8 years (see
http://www.teslamotors.com/models/facts) .
Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
Do i even have to mention the waste that this would cause disposing of these toxic sludge batteries as well?
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While there might be some, most of the battery components can be recycled. The pollution from batteries is far less than gas and oil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
They are ideal for short trips, small commutes so they aren't useless,
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Not true at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
but they are long from being the norm in this contenant. Not in our lifetime anyway.
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Are you planning on dying in the next 3 years? You can already buy electric cars at Telsa, Nisan and Chevy. BMW has an electric car coming out next year. I bet that 10% of the cars on the road will be all electric within 6 or 7 years, hopefully sooner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
Although they may be more useful in Europe, especially with gas prices out there.
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What you pay at the pump for a gallon of gas is only a part of the overall cost. Add pollution, rising health costs due to lung based illnesses, destruction to the environment ($20 Billing in damage and counting to the Gulf coast and other places.
Electric! Yay!