Automakers gearing up for electric cars

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ^ | December 5, 2008 | Renee Schoof

[2ndDivisionVet]

Now that automakers are all busy gearing up to make electric vehicles, consumers should be getting a choice of roomy, speedy, gasoline-free models that charge up at a standard 110-volt socket.

So when will those cars roll out of factories so plentifully that prices drop to what ordinary people can afford?

That was the question at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference and exhibition in Washington this week, and on Capitol Hill as well, as the Big Three automakers made a pitch for aid. The recession, the credit crunch and the dominance of oil-driven transportation will make it difficult.

However, automakers see the future — more gas price spikes, diminishing oil resources, the need to cut carbon dioxide to prevent climate catastrophe. They also see an incoming president, Barack Obama, who as a senator co-sponsored a plan to give tax credits for electric vehicles and now calls for 1 million plug-in, hybrid, made-in-America cars that get up to 150 miles per gallon.

As part of their pitch to Congress, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors promised to push ahead with electric vehicles, even though they’re money-losers now. Ford this week, for the first time, announced details of what it has in the works for electric-drive vehicles, including a battery-electric van slated for commercial fleet use in 2010 and a battery-electric sedan in 2011.

Japan is going electric, too. Mitsubishi, for example, plans to launch its small iMiEV electric car next summer and test it in California, Europe and in New Zealand. Nissan plans a Real Car with a 100-mile range that it promises will meet all highway safety tests and offer all the hot gizmos such as GPS and heated seats.

[verklaring]

While we are at it, when do they make electric: trucks, Semi tractors, farm tractors, harvesters, dump trucks, road graders, airplanes, ships etc. For that matter, when do they come out with an electric RV motor home, or fifth wheel tow vehicle

Also what do they make oil derivatives from, or related components, such as tires, nylon, plastic etc. You know, the saline bags in the hospitals, surgical tubing. or for that matter aspirin and other pharmaceuticals. Do they make this out of (thin) air through a wind turbine or from solar panels.

I think I will keep my gas engines for a while, I can always get parts from the junkyard, sort of like how they kept 1950's vehicles running in Cuba. The alternative, which I would not prefer, if this is going to be come a third world country, may be to immigrate to a place like Brazil where Ford still makes real cars.

[gleeaikin]

“when they forget to plug the piece of junk in overnight.”

I don’t see how this will affect excitement for electric cars, as the idiots who will forget to plug in overnight will be the same idiots who forget to fill their gas tanks now.

[gleeaikin]

For trucks, Semi tractors,dump trucks and other large vehicles, I am interested in the Pickens Plan idea of wind harvesting producing compressed natural gas for use in those larger vehicles.

You ask about the oil derivatives products. Another good reason for not using up all our oil reserves. What will we make our plastics, etc from if our oil is used up in 60 years?

[mvpel]

And as for me, last tank I averaged about 30mpg on my eight-year-old Acura 3.2 TL, with a V-6 engine, mostly highway. Even at $4.50 per gallon, that’s only $1.10 more expensive per 100 miles than a Prius at 45mpg.

Toyota’s hybrid price differential is about $2,000, I gather, so in order to save the extra money for the hybrid drivetrain would take about 20,000 miles worth of highway driving. And that’s at $4.50 per gallon!!

[mvpel]

For trucks, Semi tractors,dump trucks and other large vehicles, I am interested in the Pickens Plan idea of wind harvesting producing compressed natural gas for use in those larger vehicles.

Are you ready to put money straight into Nancy Pelosi's pocket with that project? She's a major shareholder in the company. If it was such a good idea, why do they need Nancy Pelosi to push the government to force YOU to pay $100 billion to that company in order to get it done?

[dalereed]

I don't want anything with less than 300hp that runs on gasoline only, weighs at least 3,500# and is either a truck or seats 6 comfortably and cruises at 75-80 with muscle to spare!

[gleeaikin]

I thought that the money for the Pickens Plan was coming from the state of Texas to build transmission capacity from the wind farms in the west of the state to the gas producing areas in the east of the state.

[verklaring]

There is enough oil in recent discoveries in Alaska, oil shale in the Continental USA, not to mention Canada to last a lot longer than 60 years. There are new discoveries off the coast of Brazil, the Arctic and if worse comes to worse of the cost of Iran to keep us going for centuries. We are not running out of oil.

The advantage of a gas engine is that it can be converted to propane, including your RV and there is presumably plenty of methane which would also work. The cows will help since they replaced the plains bison. ( Note: we did not enter a new ice age when the bison were exterminated in virtually a decade by people like Wild Bill Cody and his Ilk.)

Since we cannot produce any new electricity, it takes 10,000 wind turbines according to one estimate to replace one coal fired power plant, an electric car which plugs into a non existent power source is useless.

[johniegrad]

Slot cars were great. Does anybody do that anymore?

[Spktyr]

Yup. If you’re looking buy a new car in that price range anyway, the hybrid may make sense... but for most people, once you sit down and crunch the numbers, it just doesn’t.

For those that sit in traffic more than drive, a hybrid can be *very* good.

[Right Wing Assault]

That's where you're wrong, my friend. It comes out of the wall.

So who's going to be building all the new walls we're going to need?

[mvpel]

Unanswered Questions about the Pickens Plan

According to Susan Berfield of Business Week, Pickens owns the rights to more water than any other American through his firm Mesa Water, “and is looking to control even more.”116 He hopes to sell about 65 billion gallons of water to Dallas every year, but must first construct a 250-mile pipeline through 650 private properties to do so.117 If he fails to gain access through just one of those properties, the entire pipeline will fail.

When the Texas Legislature convened in January 2007, Mesa Water hired lobbyist J.E. Buster Brown.118 Brown helped secure an amendment to a piece of water legislation that allows “a water-supply district to transmit alternative energy and transport water in a single corridor, or right-of-way.”119 If Pickens builds a pipeline to deliver water, he can use it to deliver energy from windmills.

Berfield summarizes for Business Week what happened next: “Pickens still needed the power of eminent domain if he was going to build his pipeline and wind-power lines across private land. And by happy coincidence, the legislators passed a smaller bill that made that all the easier.”120

The bill eased the requirements for creating a water district.121 Originally, five registered voters living within the water district had to be elected as its supervisors.122 But now, the five voters only needed to own land there.123

Pickens sold eight acres of his ranch to five of his employees that summer. Mesa Water then filed a petition “to create an eight-acre water-supply district with those five as the directors and sole members.”124 The water district was created, so Pickens’ employees can now use eminent domain proceedings and issue tax-exempt municipal bonds. In April 2008, Mesa Water sent letters that informed landowners in the area that their lands could be condemned by eminent domain if they refuse to sell.125

The same could happen across America if the Pickens Plan is adopted.

Don't be fooled. The Pickens Plan is about the naked brute force of government at the service of millionaires and their crony politicians.

[Right Wing Assault]

At 1.8kw max coming from a 120 vac wall socket it would take 2-3 days to charge.

Part of the automaker/union bailout will probably be that everyone will have their house rewired to give them a 500 amp car outlet.

[Does so]

Illegal immigration costs us energy.

[EGPWS]

Now that automakers are all busy gearing up to make electric vehicles, consumers should be getting a choice of roomy, speedy, gasoline-free models that charge up at a standard 110-volt socket.

Will they come with a free scraper for those -20 day's or an extra battery for heat?

[cyberslave]

Yes, Virginia, they do..and they also believe in Santa Claus which more and more seems to be them for Wall Street and the Fortune 500.

It would be nice for them to declare a tax amnesty for all the people who owe back Federal Taxes, and give them a chance to start over just as they've done for the Mortgage market, the Investment Banks, and now the Big 2 1/2 (I don't consider Chrysler a really viable manufacturer which is a shame as their recent products appear to be excellent automobiles).

The Chevrolet Volt is going to be failure just as the Corvair, Vega, Chevette, and Sprint were.

Ten years ago GM tried to produce through a subcontractor a car called the Solectria.

It was based on the GEO Prizm platform. Sold to utilities and government they largely ran well with many limitations, such as limited range and expensive batteries. You can still buy one for about $15k or more on Ebay as well as the Ford Ranger electric trucks.

The problem will be infrastructure to support the Volt when it makes it to work. Where are you going to plug it in ?

[gotribe]

I don’t want an electric car. Does anyone know if there is a ranking of countries by Freedom? I’d like to know which countries offer me the most financial freedom - lowest taxes, smallest government, lowest government debt, fewest penalties for spending money on whatever I want.

[Cronos]

American coal, not Saudi or Venezualan or Russian oil

[Thermalseeker]

Spend a lot of time idling in traffic?

Either that, or he's running gas with ethanol in it.....

[Cronos]

Yes, but the Land Rover Defender is a true off-roader. It’s used in safaris in Africa, india and by farmers in the UK. This is no soft-roaders like the Cadillac Escalade