Posted on 03/11/2012 4:13:44 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid car that seems to have everything the rich and famous — and environmentally correct — look for in a set of wheels. Sleek silhouette? Check. Green cred? Check. Six-figure price tag? Check.
Reliable battery? Not so fast.
In a test conducted Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine, the niche-market $107,850 sports car conked out completely, after a short ride at 65 miles per hour on a Connecticut test track.
“Our Fisker Karma … is super sleek, high-tech — and now it’s broken,” Consumer Reports wrote on its website late Thursday.
“We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer … We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Occasionally, when I am in traffic, I see a woman driving a car which has bumper stickers saying she is a witch/wiccan or some such and one that reads, “My Karma ran over Your Dogma”. It seems to me as if Obama’s Bad Karma has run over Obama’s Bad (Envirowacko) Dogma with no help from the outside world.
If it’s a hybrid, does that dead battery also run the conventional electric functions that regular cars take care of? Why can’t a hybrid start from the gas function if the battery is dead?
I WANT electric vehicles or hybrids to succeed. It IS true, that we can’t go on like this forever. 150 years from now, people will be driving electric vehicles powered from fusion or thorium based power plants or super-efficient solar power systems, or they will be walking and foraging from area to area. The RIGHT way for the government to promote this is by putting money into basic research and science, not in funding manufacturing plants for cronies that produce products that just don’t work very well.
It’s annoying that the EPA won’t let the best possible hybrid system, diesel-electric (ask people who build and use locomotives), operate here. They do in Europe.
Confucius say man who buy Karma car get goes-around comes-around run-around.
I am a builder, so i use power tools a lot.
How many battery operated tools do I use now?
NONE.
Problem? The batteries. They die. They lose power. They don’t hold a charge. Charge it. Use it a week later? Good Luck.
I used to keep the 3/8 chord drill as backup for the battery operated “screw guns.” Not any more. They are the primary now. The cordless tools are for very light duty jobs like removing screws from electric cover plates.
Now, here is a difference. These tools were not promoted by any government program that I am aware of. They were well received and sold well. They still do, judging from the multitudes of offerings. But now, those of us who really do the work, and lots of it, use the old fashion chord tools. Power and reliability have won. but, will the government ban chords? maybe, when their fund raisers start companies that want to replace chords with green goo.
Home owners with small jobs can buy the 5 tool 18 volt ion razzle dazzle sets. I use power.
Another way to see this question.
You are driving across the vast soybean fields of Central Illinois in you hybrid.
You run out of gas but continue on the battery until it runs out.
A friendly farmer brings some gasoline.
Will it spin the starter motor?
Let’s test the electric cars on Highway 50 across Nevada. There’s nothing between Fallon and Ely except one small service station and a sign that reads “Next services 187 miles!”
Or what about Interstate 10 between El Paso and San Antonia—nothing but sand and scrub brush for 400 miles.
“Its like my battery powered drill at home.”
You need to throw away whatever you have and buy one of the new M12 or M18 Milwaukee’s They are in a class by themselves. I won’t ever buy another corded tool again if I can get a cordless of the same type from Milwaukee!
Maybe it can be recycled.
I know those areas well, I was an over the road trailer puller for many years.
I below people will still be discussing peak oil 150 years from now.
Below=believe
ALL of the wasted money for these “new batteries” should have gone to perfectng fuel—cells....as they COULD become the “dream power” source——with a little more work.
Basically fueled JUST like a gas car.
No real “range limit” since one could get more “fuel” whenever the “fuel tank” (methanol, most likely) gets low.
Since a fuel—cell does not “store anything”, but makes it “on the fly”,(from air and a hydrogen-rich fuel source), there is not as much as an explosion risk.
All one would need in a 50kw/h. or so fuel—cell, fueled by maybe 10 gallons for methanol, maybe a 5kw/h lithium battery pack for acceleration good enough for maybe 8 miles flat—out or so(since the fuel cell could not(at this time anyway),provide “surge power”) with a 200HP. or so motor in as 3000Lb car—THAT might be NICE!!
Fuel cells are the answer...IMHO.
How long was the extension cord for this plug-in electric car?
I have the DeWalt 14.4 volt and 3 dead batteries, I just had one battery rebuilt for $34.00, I don’t believe I have ever finished a job without changing batteries. Like you I have pretty much given up on the battery tools.
Add the COST of the new battery to your list of questions. My understanding is that a new battery is in the $5000 range. And the cost of a charge. Another question: will employers be required to provide charging stations at work? Who pays for the electricity?
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