First big piece of 'Electric Highway' gets juice

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 3/16/12 | Jeff Barnard

[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.

[married21]

How many people are there, exactly, who need to go from Cottage Grove, OR, to Portland?

They couldn’t pick a route that numerous people would actually use, could they?

[vette6387]

“Only a liberal would think this is “progress.”

What’s next, super long extension cords, or a “third rail”? Even electric golf carts are annoying! Oh, I know, let’s put a special car on Jerry Brown’s new high-speed train to haul electric cars. That will take care of the “middle” part of the trip between LA and SF, if you can wait ten years.

[Eye of Unk]

Time to build a special rollback tow truck with a powerplant on board to do “jump starts”.

Frankly I see a booming economy for ANY tow truck in CA.

[OneHun]

"In effect you then have a vehicle that is worthless at 100,000 miles."

Assuming that the owner did not use the battery often, the dealer still will go by mileage, year and assumed battery usage.  We are back to worthlessness.

[vette6387]

“Doesn’t TIME=MONEY to a liberal?”

Nah, they don’t even realize that they a using up their worthless lives driving these damned things. Maybe they are like Muslims in that they think that there will be 72 virgins awaiting them when they die, “for helping Mother Earth.”

[dalereed]

“Doesn’t TIME=MONEY”

No, time=time, the only commodity that once spent is gone forever and can’t ever be recovered!

[Nowhere Man]

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.

You must be in your mid 40's, I had the same Hot Wheels cars too, they were called "Sizzlers." They were not too bad, given the limitations. Still, point taken.


"Juice Pump"


Sizzler Firebird

[OneHun]

"...the government will have figured out some way for taxpayers to subsidize their loss too."

Please don't scare me!  I can imagine, that under Obama regime they will call it a human rights issue. But, the Chief-in-liar will have to pack and leave office after the election.  It is enough of clunker business and taxpayer subsidized rebates.

[Grizzled Bear]

That’s it! Those toys sucked, big time!

[yadent]

I have a friend who just leased a Leaf. The batteries have a 100,000 mile warranty. He was told by someone at the Nissan dealership that the battery pack replacement cost was between $30,000 to $35,000. A 110 home charge takes about 16-18 hours to fully charge the battery pack. At his work a 220 takes around 7-8 hours. There was a additional charge for the special adapter for the ‘quick charge’ that allows for a 20-25 minute full battery pack charge. His Leaf lease was based on a price of $39,000. He didn’t tell me if that was before or after incentives.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

An electric car is like a boat’s bow wave...always out in front and out of reach.

Basic electrochemistry tells us that a battery is never going to be able to store the energy in the same mass that a hydrocarbon fuel can and won’t ever be able to be charged at the same rate as pumping liquid hydrocarbons into a tank.

Liquid fuels are tailor-made for transportation.

If we had serious oil problems, the smart thing would be to make liquids from coal for a hundred years. Compressed natural gas makes a lot of sense, too — easy to transport and distribute locally via pipelines. Easy to pump up to high pressures for on-board storage.

Generating electricity a thousand miles away, taking the transmission and distribution losses, and “pumping” it into a battery is just plain nonsensical.

The original argument was to reduce city pollution due to tailpipe emissions, but that argument is gone due to automotive emission controls and cleaner fuels. There is NO justification for EVs. Not cost, not range, not convenience, not practicality. EVs are just a liberal wet dream.

[Trailerpark Badass]

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.

Well, if you're a homo, there's time for a "date."

[ProtectOurFreedom]

And to beat the long lines at the recharging stations, simply toss one each of these in the trunk...

[NavVet]

The Leaf may be fine for running errands around town (if you live in a small town), but I’m waiting on the delivery of my “S” car. When I stop to recharge after 300 miles of driving, and then burn rubber merging onto the interstate, people will say,

“Look at that SCarGo.”

http://www.teslamotors.com/models

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Gee...those look like fun! Snark. I was on these tracks in the late 60s. Now that was a blast.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Better link for those who don't have a clue!

Look at that S Car go!

[Kickass Conservative]

I had a Manta Ray and a Cobra.

The Cobra had big old slicks on it and would knock out the other guys on the corners when I swung the back end around with a little extra juice.

Man, I'm a old dude...

[Grams A]

We borrowed a customized van last year that had two tanks. Drove from KC to Denver with only one stop to empty our “people tanks” and still had gas left over. IMO if you have to drive, that’s the way to do it!

[NavVet]

1. Transportation and distribution losses are not unique to electricity. If you consider the amount of energy expended to get the energy from the ground and into your tank the distribution losses are greater for oil than they are for electricity.

2. Batteries will probably never achieve the energy density of liquid fuels, however, the most efficient gasoline engines still only transmit 25-30 percent of their energy to the wheels, whereas electric motors transmit around 90% of the energy to the wheels. So, batteries don’t have to achieve the same energy density to get the same number of miles on a charge as a ICE would on a tank. (Admittedly, they will have to improve to at least 400W/Kg. with a 50% reduction in cost) to make a 300 mile electric car practical for most Americans.) However, when that happens, and it will, the per mile cost of fuel 3 cents vs. 12 cents and the greatly reduced maintenance cost will make the electric car competitive for most applications.

[newzjunkey]

That's insane.

Coast-to-coast you're adding roughly a full day consumed entirely by time spent at charging stations every 50 miles one way. That's great for families planning a road trip vacation. /s

Americans average 15,000 miles per year. 15,000 mi / 50 mi between charge stops * 20 min per stop is 6,000 minutes or 100 hours. That's about 4 days 3 hrs 50 min out of your year charging the car.

Assuming 20 mpg and 16 gallon tanks that's about 47 refueling stops. At 10 min each, that's 470 min or about 7 hrs 50 min to keep your car filled.

If I figured right, let's see ... 52 "lost" hours or 8 "lost" hours ... Yup, looks like progress to me. /s