Posted on 07/07/2013 9:36:14 AM PDT by ckilmer
Tesla Motors unveiled a system that will let drivers swap out the battery in a Model S in about 90 seconds,
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
LOL, not always, but thanks.
Thanks Moltke. No problem...
Wow, 1000 ibs for a battery. Too bad you couldn’t have a spare or lighter batteries.
There are 300 million cars in the USA 2012
According to the US Bureau of Transit Statistics for 2004 there are 243,023,485 registered passenger vehicles in the US. Out of these roughly 243 million vehicles, 136,430,651 (56.13%) were classified as cars, while 91,845,327 (37.79%) were classified as “Other 2 axle, 4 tire vehicles,” presumably SUVs and pick-up trucks. Yet another 6,161,028 (2.53%) were classified as vehicles with 2 axles and 6 tires and 2,010,335 (0.82%) were classified as “Truck, combination.” There were approximately 5,780,870 motorcycles in the US in 2004, which accounts for 2.37% of all registered passenger vehicles.
http://www.howmanyarethere.org/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-usa-2012/
QUESTION:
If 33% ( 80 Million plus ) of the registered passenger vehicles ( 243,023,485 ) had to be RECHARGED 1 to 2 times per day HOW MUCH ELECTRICITY would be needed and WHERE would it come from?
>>How does the car know if you’re at a light or just stopping at a stop sign? Do you save enough on gas to pay for a replacement starter?
Because its that freakin’ smart!! :-)
Seriously, it stops the motor when the wheels stop rolling and the brakes are held on. In a fuel-injected car, the engine computer knows exactly which cylinder to fire to start pushing the crankshaft (like a piston-driven steam engine). The starter might not even turn, but I’m not certain about that. Obviously, you wouldn’t attempt this with a carburetor that needs to develop engine vacuum to feed fuel. You can disable the feature, and most people do, for the reason you list. Habitual thinking is hard to break.
Where I live it is 100 miles roundtrip to a bigger town to shop and for services. The Tesla would do that. I’m more concerned about the state of California. One question I have is I always see the price at so much a mile for plug in cars. is this based on the baseline price per KWH and if so do they up your baseline usage allotment in California’s tiered system. I live alone and it is hard to stay in the baseline as it is. If I got a plug in all of the increase would be above baseline. California seems to want to lead in promoting electric cars but in order to do that they are going to have to pull their heads out of their rear ends and update the electrical supply to make that happen.
Yesterday there was a thread about the EPA wanting our refrigerators tied to the smart meter grid so the utilities could restrict your use during peak times. I would have to assume the home charging would also be at the whims of the people that want to control our electrical usage.
Whoa! Improve appeal? Maybe.
But....I'm going to take a relatively new electric car in and take pot luck on whatever age battery may be charged up for swap at that moment?
We're talking about roughtly a $10,000 part of the automobile. And I'm going to exchange a new one for whatever?
Forget it.
>>For a second car, an electric can be a great idea. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons not to use them, but if you like gadgets and want to go for it, I say go for it.
For a “second car” that has limited utility, I expect it to cost much less than than my primary all purpose car or truck. There’s a new motorcycle/car called the Elio that serves the short-range commuter niche much better than a $40k-80k electric. It uses gas, but gets 80 mpg and has a lot more range. And it is supposed to cost $8k (but I doubt that is entirely true since they haven’t delivered one yet).
I’d pay $15-20k for an electric that gets me back and forth to work, but no more than that. I’d get a Prius or VW TDI if I wanted to save fuel and pay more than my primary car cost.
I’d think that hybrids and electric cars would be excellent for around the town grocery getters. Not so much for anything more than that.
For instance, I could see my (retired) parents having one for cheap local transport, and a regular car for trips. Makes sense to me.
However, I’ve not heard anyone...pro or con... Satisfactorily answer me the question “what happens to our electric infrastructure when everyone plugs in their hybrid?”. Heck, we get brown outs from AC usage in the summer. That, plus hybrids, plus the current clown in charge working to shut down power plants left and right, leaves us literally in the dark.
Those are good questions. I laugh at the idea of them turning our refrigerators and freezers off too.
What happens when you turn a freezer off? Are they going to reimburse everyone for their hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of lost food?
Maybe Letourneau will enter the car market. they have been building diesel-electrics for years.
Diesel and gasoline power technologies already exist, as does the infrastructure. With oil becoming extremely abundant, all the government subsidies for creating new technology is just jerking off.
Consumer vehicles will continue using gasoline, with diesel taking a greater share, while fleet vehicles will continue using diesel, with natural gas taking a greater share.
It's called the market place.
I address this the same way I would a top line luxury car vs a more mid-range family car. You buy what suits you best. If the price is a prohibitive factor out of necessity or simply reasoned outlook, then go with the vehicle that is more reasonably priced.
I’ve seen some of the three wheeled motorcycles (if you want to term it that, and this may not be what you are referencing), and they are quite appealing.
The Prius brand never appealed to me. Obviously they do appeal to a lot of others. More power to ‘em.
What kind of utilization are they expecting? Forget the cost to build the station. What about the cost of keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory at each of these stations? They’re going to need an exponentially larger customer base to make this workable, in my opinion.
It could happen, but it seems a little unrealistic.
>>I’ve seen some of the three wheeled motorcycles (if you want to term it that, and this may not be what you are referencing), and they are quite appealing.
Google the Elio. It’s a 3 wheel tandem-seat enclosed vehicle with an A/C.
If I had to buy a hybrid, it would be a Prius. I’ve driven one and they aren’t bad for a tiny car. But, again, if it came to that (i.e. $8/gal gas), I’d go with something small and cheap that costs under $20k and gets 40 mpg (the small Kia, for example). But, even at $4/gal, its just not worth the trouble.
About seven to ten years ago, I saw something like that out here in SoCal in a few independent auto dealer show-rooms.
The ones I saw were rather flimsy. These may be put together more sturdy.
The problem for me is that I need something that I can take on the freeway, and I don’t think I’d really feel good in that Elio in that situation.
>>The problem for me is that I need something that I can take on the freeway, and I don’t think I’d really feel good in that Elio in that situation.
Me too, but I wouldn’t ride a motorcycle either. I’d have to test-drive one to see how it feels and handles before I’d take it on my daily commute, which includes 20 miles on I-295 at 75-80 mph.
A Tesla blew past me on the interstate a while back. I was doing 70 and was passed as if standing still.
Tried to catch up to it and after a couple of minutes of doing 90+ backed off and never saw it again.
Ooo, you’re a brave one. LOL
Hey, I hope it works out for you.
Do the diesel-electric hybrids have a large (and expensive) battery? Some of the ones that found had large batteries just like the gas hybrid, so I can see that the cost would be quite high.
The diesel powered VW Jetta is about $5,500 more than the gas powered version. So it seems to me that if the transmission was eliminated (replaced) by a generator (directly attached to the engine) and fed current directly to the electric motors on the wheels, the cost should be relatively low since there would be no need for the large and very expensive battery.
Maybe I am call my idea a hybrid. I am suggecting a diesel powered car that has no large battery or transmission (diesel/electric).
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