Posted on 12/29/2014 10:14:10 AM PST by Red Badger
Forever, if your electrical power is out. Last week during a storm, we lost power for several hours while the utility company repaired the problem for the neighborhood. That could suck if you only had so many hours to recharge your car for your morning commute - you won't make it to work and back on a partial charge. No problem if you have a gasoline-powered vehicle.
A breakthrough, or an exaggeration designed to attract more government funding?
Then I obviously was not talking about you.
I was talking about the religious zealots who mock scientific advances in battery and electric car technology, as though all other technological growth went from start to fruition in one step.
OneWingedShark said it well in post 25.
“mock scientific advances in battery and electric car technology”
We mock not actual scientific advances but these pseudo-advances. The idea that our tax money is being used to prop up commercial enterprises in electric cars, yet, they are no better off than they were before. Their range isn’t that much different. Their charge times are not that much different. Their energy output is not that much different. Not to mention the condescending tone that says electric cars are better than gas or diesel in any way. They have not advanced much at all in 100 years.
Anyone familiar with science, and not the liberal arts idiot that reads headlines and thinks she’s got it all figured out, knows all about energy through their knowledge of chemistry and physics. We don’t get suckered into thinking some magic formula has somehow created energy out of thin air, or that some magic bean can hold infinite energy to propel a vehicle. We know the equations, the mass and energy equations. Actual discoveries of new chemistry are amazing, but these near daily announcements that electric car technology has finally broken through some sort of barrier when it hasn’t is nothing short of religious beliefs and damned annoying.
We saw this crap with FReeper kevmo and his Rossi nuclear cold fusion scam. Daily we got his “announcements” that a new breakthrough has happened and that Rossi would be showing the world a production unit in mere moments, only to never have a real display of any technology. Kevmo continued to announce the “sale” of the Rossi device; “Hundreds of thousands!”, he once proclaimed.
I think the world is tired of scam artists and useless “discoveries”, especially at taxpayer expense.
“exaggeration designed to attract more government funding”
There ya go. Well said.
If every battery ‘breakthrough’ materialized, they would be the size of a dime and power a car for 1000 miles.
The idea that battery propulsion for automobiles has never been investigated is ludicrous. Edison almost went broke trying to invent a better battery. Gasoline engines won out over electric 100 years ago because gasoline power works much better. Until someone comes up with a battery car that works as well as the equivalent gas powered car, I think the mocking is appropriate.
Tesla has been talking about selling a car in the 30k range. If that ever happens, it would still not be anything to brag about. You can go out right now and buy a brand new 2015 Honda Fit for 16k at full sticker price. If you are willing to buy Korean, you can get a new car for even less. The electric car cheerleaders like to engage in false equivalency by comparing their cars to BMW's and other pricy vehicles.
Range is an important factor.
So is recharge time, and so is the number of recharges that can be made before the battery degrades and you have to spend thousands of $ to replace it.
A HUGE factor that most proponents of electric cars fail to consider is the impact on the electrical grid (both from the standpoint of literally being able to charge all of these vehicles AND our A/C, lights, refrigerators, industry, etc., AS WELL AS the pollution caused by oil/coal/natural gas (and the drilling/mining necessary to obtain them). Not folks here, mind you (we’re conservative, and actually THINK instead of emoting), but the proponents in general.
My suggestion is to stop hoping for an electrical vehicle that can compete with a gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicle on price, range, fill-up/recharge time and durability - at least for the next 10-20 years or so. Also keep in mind that gas and diesel technology won’t stand still (and we have yet to see any diesel hybrids - which should get 20% -25% better mileage than gas hybrids with NO improvements in technology needed, only access to what is sold in Europe already)...so it is going to be a while before electric cars will take over a large percentage of the national fleet.
(and we have yet to see any diesel hybrids....................
http://www.gizmag.com/kia-diesel-electric-supercharger-hybrid/34231/
http://design-engine.com/the-undiscovered-option-the-diesel-electric-hybrid/
They offer a lot of “could’s” and “ifs.” They don’t even know how many charging cycles the battery design can survive.
No wonder they survive on government grants rather than private investment!
As soon as you add heat or Air conditioning to one of these things then your range will probably drop to 10 miles...LOL And you sure don’t want to get stuck in traffic with the heater running.
Just existing in a hot, humid environment will shorten the battery’s lifespan even if you’re not using the air conditioner.
Actually, we understand science. Many of us are engineers and scientists. Those touting electric cars are not. They operate at the same religious level as liberals spouting global warming.
The 200 mile range is only part of it. If charging technology gets you recharged in less than 30 minutes (safely) each cycle then we have something. If it’s six to eight hours in the garage outlet, that’s something else.
We have yet to see any diesel hybrids HERE - IN THE USA - as I mentioned in my post. These are Europe-only vehicles, as the 2nd article made abundantly clear several times.
This, in my mind, tells me that hybrid-cars [in the US] are not about efficiency, but about the green agenda
and the elites playing their Kronie games.
They’re coming.............as soon as we get rid of the enviro nazis in charge of the EPA............
I think the cold-fusion threads were the worst. ‘Kevmo’ even had money riding on the issue and was spamming FR with bogus press releases.
I presume you mocked early computers too.
Are these all pseudo advances?
What make the news in this article false?
It seems to me that battery technology has made significant advances in the last decade.
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