Posted on 03/17/2012 9:02:15 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Electric car drivers hit the road Friday to inaugurate the first major section of a West Coast "Electric Highway" dotted with stations where they can charge up in 20 minutes.
The stretch of 160 miles of Interstate 5 served by eight stations marks the next big step in developing an infrastructure that until now has been limited primarily to chargers in homes and workplaces.
The stations go from the California border north to the Oregon city of Cottage Grove and are located at gas stations, restaurants and motels just off the nation's second-busiest interstate. One is at an inn that was once a stage coach stop.
Spaced about every 25 miles, the stations allow a Nissan Leaf with a range of about 70 miles to miss one and still make it to the next. Electric car drivers will be able to recharge in about 20 minutes on the fast-chargers. The charge is free for now.
"I would say range-anxiety with these fast chargers will be nearly a non-issue for me," said Justin Denley, who owns a Nissan Leaf and joined the caravan. Inspired by the stations, his family is planning a trip from Medford to Portland, a distance of about 280 miles. Last summer, he took the family on a 120-mile trip to the coast and had to include an overnight stop at an RV park to charge up.
He expects the trip to Portland to take perhaps three hours longer than in a gas car, because the only chargers available for the last 100 miles are slower, level 2 chargers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
You don't have to stop for that. ;)
/johnny
When I drive cross country, I stop at every rest area. Even when I don’t need to dispose of kidney filtered coffee.I make a point of walking a lap of the parking lot. With all the heart trouble I have had I don’t need a DVT sneaking up on me.
Drive a Leaf?
Bring a Box Lunch - or Three
You’ll be travelling all day
Rush Hours? - Break out the MRE’s
Just wait until he rolling blackouts start in summer.With the way power plants are begin closed you know it is going to happen.
As a small child, I had a track set with a car that ran on electricity. The “charger” looked like a fuel pump.
I could play with my car for about twenty minutes, but it seemed the charging time took longer than the play time. When charging the “vehicle,” I could sit for about thirty minutes pressing down a button, or place a large can of vegetables on top of it.
This toy sucked. So does the “Volt.”
Screw you, progressive bastards.
If that happens then they deplete their battery and they cost about $25K to replace and are not covered under the extended warranty.
I can fill up my Hyundai Santa Fe and drive the 120 miles, drive back home and drive another 127 miles until I need to fill up with fuel.
You should also note that the electric car's batteries become less efficient with each recharging and thus the range decreases with each recharging until the batteries reduced range necessitates a change of the power batteries.
Per Nissan their battery pack is good for 100,000 miles until it needs replacement. Current cost for this is 18,000 dollars. In effect you then have a vehicle that is worthless at 100,000 miles. A vehicle that you probably paid at least 10-15 thousand extra as it is electric.
When Air Force One takes off from Washington and lands in Los Angeles using electric power I will buy an electric vehical.
I read somewhere that the batteries are only good for so many miles which IIRC worked out to be average driving of 3-4 years.The replacement cost of the batteries are about $25K so more than 1/2 the price of the car.I doubt seriously any of them will get any trade in if the battery at a cost of $25K isn’t replaced before taking it in.
Doesn’t TIME=MONEY to a liberal? It’s simply not worth my time sitting around at a charging station for 20 minutes doing nothing, going nowhere. Gas up and go in 5 minutes. Maybe buy a Slimjim and a Mountain Dew, but I’m 15 minutes down the road. And somehow I suspect the charging stations will be located at rest stops. Not a whole lot you can do there, besides poop and pee.
Of course all that electric power for recharging will have to come ONLY from windmills, solar panels and unicorn farts!
My thought, too. What a blithering idiot. He sure doesn’t value his time very well.
“The charge is free for now.” That means soon it will not free. I see a new revenue stream since people are not
smoking as much and those fees always go up an never down
I know exactly what you’re talking about!
Well, in this case the dealers won't touch it. The owners are doomed!
Doesn’t everyone stop for 20 minutes every 50 miles?
Don't worry-by the time trade-in time comes I'm sure the government will have figured out some way for taxpayers to subsidize their loss too.
So we're back to this, eh? Is the time to travel and "refuel" comparable?
Does it cost the same amount of money today to own a car as does to own a horse? A horse in every garage instead of those wicked automobiles. Of course it's against zoning laws to own "farm animals" in the suburbs.
If it all came from Liquid Thorium Fluoride Reactors i could live with it.
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