Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkFlame145
Sure 40 miles would be great if you live within 20 miles of work, but i know a lot of people that have an hour or more commute one way. The normal combustion engine has a lot left to offer in fuel economy. A company has a new bearing that will cut friction by a ton and improve fuel economy. I'm not saying electric vehicles are not a good option in the future, but the technology is not there yet. Maybe in 5 or 10 years it will. But there are some major road blocks in the way, such as weight, the amount of batteries (mostly laptop batteries) adds too much weight, which hurts range and performance. The Tesla weighs 2723lbs, while the car it is based on is a Lotus which weighs around 2000lbs. Most of that extra weight is from the batteries. Granted there is a company developing a compound that weighs similar to a sheet a paper that will hold a charge. The current and near future electric vehicles are a great start, just not the answer to replace the current combustion engines yet. By the way, I am a diesel person, which in my eyes is the best way to improve the modern car/truck
|
once again LEAF, NISSAN LEAF 100 mi range, NOT A HYBRID
will be OUT TO MARKET THIS YEAR
everyone wants to talk about the energy potential of gasoline, but when you are getting 20% efficiency it really can't compare to an electric vehicle that has efficiency somewhere between 75%-90%.....if it had much more to offer we wouldn't be sitting at the same efficiency numbers that we had 30-40 years ago
Also you should look into the new nano phosphate batteries (A123 prismatic, Altair NanoSafe) that are being made. Also it may be beneficial to look up and read some materials from the USABC, you may be surprised.
I am not suggesting they will replace every user's needs immediately, but certainly the commuters that travel to and from work 50 miles.....thats a lot of zero emission cars....keep your hummer but make your commuter car electric and eventually your range concerns will be handled (also the whole supply demand thing comes into play with the price of gas)