Posted on 03/11/2012 10:59:59 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Apples and Oranges. The Volt is a PHEV. It is designed to run in electric mode for 40 miles as that is the average daily commute for an American. Anything over the electric range is supplemented by the ICE generating power for the batteries running the electric motor. This keeps the price of the batteries lower than a pure EV with a 100 or 150 mile range. They are still very expensive. Turning a $15k car into a $35-40k car. But a pure EV with a 150-200 mile range would be upward of $100k for the batteries.
Also the Volt can make the trip from NOLA to Atlanta without stopping to recharge the batteries; as someone else pointed out above. The EV1 probably could not make that trip.
Didn’t Tesla just file for bankruptcy?
Actually, they have already sold out of this year’s production and are expected to be profitable starting next year. They have had profitable months already, but expect it to be a regular occurrence if all goes well with production of the S car. You might be thinking of their IPO, which happened fairly recently.
I might be thinking of Fiskar.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=TSLA+Key+Statistics
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=TSLA+SEC+Filings
Fiskar did just file I believe.
One thing the author doesn’t consider in the “Why Tesla investors should be worried” article is that even after EV batteries reach the point where they aren’t fit for continued EV use, they would still have years of usable life left for other less demanding applications. I have read that experts anticipate a considerable industrial market for used EV batteries. Still it is a legitimate concern and that is one reason, I haven’t signed up for a Tesla yet. However, it appears that battery technology could be on the cusp of a considerable breakthrough in terms of price and energy storage capacity. If this pans out, it could change the equation dramatically.
The result is a battery that stores 400 watt-hours of electricity per kilogram, compared to the 100-200 watt-hours/kilogram for todays lithium-ion batteries. Envia says its battery cell costs could be as low as $125 per kilowatt-hour. It’s difficult to get accurate prices automakers pay for batteries, but it’s thought to be in the neighborhood of $5-600 per kilowatt-hour. Together this means Envia has achieved a breakthrough of over twice the energy density of todays batteries, at 1/4 or less the cost.
If Envia’s battery development works out, and is commercialized, the dramatically higher energy density would mean a dramatic jump in electric car range without sacrificing vehicle weight, size or cargo capacity. It would also represent a dramatic decrease in battery pack cost, letting automakers reduce vehicle prices. However it’s not quite as dramatic a jump in energy density as the 1000 watt-hours/kilogram announced hoped for by PolyPlus.
“Envia’s cells have undergone Verification & Validation testing by the Naval Service Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) under the ARPA-E program. According to a summary released on Envia’s website, the NSWC was able to verify the cells have a capacity of 46 amp-hours and an energy density of 400 watt-hours/Kilogram.”
This would represent a 2X increase in power and the company is anticipating a 3/4 reduction in current prices per kilowatt/hour.
Maybe you are thinking about the Waverly.
http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad158/FrankRob/Electric-Car-1902waverly.jpg
Big problem for steam is the amount of time it takes to warm it up and the energy lost after walking away from a warmed up engine. Parking lots in strip malls would have to be twice as large, since customers would take as much time warming up their engines as they do shopping (unless they left them running while making purchases.)
Do you really want to warm up your engine for 15 minutes to pick up a pizza?
And the result would have been chaos! ;)
Stop it; both of you!
Betting on the come....has been over time, not a good plan.
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