GM: First VOLT, NOW Spark..

Yeah... who needs all those newfangled technologies like seat belts, air bags, gps, traction control, onstar, abs etc... We need to go back to when cars were simpler; back to when the gas mileage sucked and you died in a 25 MPH head on collision.

I couldnt agree more. I used to put my EV's in alot of car shows and talked to literally thousands of people about EV's. I had to field the same 3 questions over and over "Is that a solar car?" "How fast does it go?" "How far does it go?" The vast majority of conversations went like this: How fast does it go? 85 MPH How far will it go? About 50 miles Is that all? What if I want to want to drive to Vegas? How often do you go to Vegas? I went once last year.. Does your wife have a car? Yes... Couldnt you take your wife's car to Vegas? Yeah but.....

There was always a 'yeah but..." There is no practical or logical reason that an EV cant be a good commuter vehicle. My EV was a bit primitive, but it drove OK. I drive 15 miles (one way) to work, and I was able to charge at work, so it cost me nothing to operate. I drove it daily for about 6 months, saving me many hundreds of dollars. When I needed to travel I just took one of my other cars. Ben

Hmmm... lets see. More than 3/4 of all drivers in this country drive

40 miles or less per day. That means that over 75, 000, 000 people could use an EV to drive to work and back. If you figure that only 1/3 of those have second cars in the family for long trips, that means that only 25,000,000 people could benefit from one. That looks to me like a hell of a subset.

Ben

No doubt that EV will require us to plan ahead a little more but most people with two cars will have one car that they use for long trips and for most people, an EV could be worked into their daily routine.

Of course major problems need to be solved - costs of the vehicles and generating enough electricity among others. Both those problems will be solved. My guess is that it will be sooner than we think.

Towing batteries to extend range isn't a bad idea. I kind of like it. But you still have to charge them after some limited miles. It was towing a generator that didn't make much sense to me. You're just back to a hybrid then, but added a trailer.

--Vic

I guy that I know with a Prius hybrid had his car get stuck in a pretty dangerous place. Near as I can figure it, his wife was at the top of a big hill and the batteries were drained so the gas motor was supposed to kick in but the secondary battery that starts the motor was not working so the car just stopped. She was stuck just past the entrance to the tunnel. It's a blind curve so that's a bad place to be. My understanding is the the secondary battery ain't very reliable.

Well, i got stuck in a dangerous intersection when the fuel pump on my Ford pickup went out. Seems to be a "shit happens" deal. Don't know much about the Prius, except they were heavily subsidized at first, and seem to get good marks from owners. I've heard they were coming up with a plug-in, and maybe already have. The Volt may have pushed them to that. Plug-in and no gasoline is you choose is a big advantage to some. Also read that the batteries hold up well, and you can replace individual cells at pretty low cost now that there's an aftermarket. Mostly read some Prius forums to see if they go cross-country. They do, and get good MPG. I always take the low-cost path with cars, so I'll never own one. Technology is moving pretty fast on electric power now that most realize that gas prices are on a one-way street in the up direction.

--Vic

yep, 1% of the time.

The Tesla roadster has a battery package consisting of almost 7000 laptop cells. The cost of something like that must be mind-blowing. OTOH, it's able to supply a tremendous amount of kWs instantly. My guess is that most drivers wouldn't need such a beast of a battery but what the heck, it's probably a lot cheaper way to get power than turbos and cams and heads.

My VW used to have a common problem with the fuel pump relay being a sometimes thing due to a bad fuse box. I was able to move the car out of the stoplight intersection by putting it in gear and turning the key to the start position. I was surprised to see how well the car moved with the starter motor. That would be my only experience with electric cars.

Hopefully, the death of the internal combustion engine will occur before mine does. :-)

I admit lack of detail on this subject. I expect the CELLS are standard...today, but will change tomorrow. Are the BATTERIES constructed therefrom standard? Are the charge/discharge control circuits standard? Are the battery voltages standard? Is the battery plug standard?

Stated another way, can I walk into the auto parts store and buy a BATTERY that will just bolt into ANY electric car? I think not. And I don't expect I ever will be able to. Ditto for my computer, electric drill, screwdriver, phone, hair trimmer, mp3 player, camera...anything rechargeable. The flashlight seems to be the last holdout that runs on "standard" CELLS.

Today, the life of the battery determines the life of most any rechargeable device. Cost of a new battery often results in a decision to scrap the device and get a whole new one.

Only timed I moved a car with the starter was by accident (-: Always just pushed stalled cars out of the way. Usually somebody jumped in to help. With the F-100 I had just rebuilt the 352 a couple months before. When it died I knew exactly what it was. The only thing I hadn't replaced was the fuel pump. A couple strokes of the accelerator pump confirmed it. Caught a bus to a parts store 1/2 mile away and walked/jogged back. Had my wife and a couple babies in the truck, and a toolbox. Whole deal was about half an hour, 5 minutes to change the pump. Those were the days.

Won't happen, but only for your sake, good luck!

--Vic

True, but if you've a mind to you can often open up those devices and build your own new battery. I've done it many times for shavers, cordless phones, cordless drills, etc., and even for a couple laptops. The rechargeable cells actually come in fairly standard sizes and can often be had pretty inexpensively in bulk, much cheaper than an assembled replacement battery. You just solder together as many as you need using the old battery as a pattern. It's definitely not rocket science but the big challenge is usually opening up the device without destroying it & so that you can put it back together. Soldering together

7000 2/3AA cells like in a Tesla battery might be a bit daunting, tho...

You forgot about the other problem to be solved. Repairing our roads. how do you think the roads get built and maintained? Gas taxes. who doesn't pay gas taxes now? a pure EV. Who do you think is going to get taxed heavily to fix the roads if there is a massive change to all EV cars? The government will get there money one way or the other. EV owners are getting a free ride now. It won't be so "FREE" in the future when fuel tax revenue drys up. Then the equation of economy is going to shift.

bob

If the only vehicle you have has a gas or diesel engine with just enough fuel in the tank to get to work and then you buy some fuel when you get off work, no problem.But, if the only vehicle you have is an electric vehicle, what then? cuhulin

While not untrue, you have gone off on a tangent.

99.99% of users won't rebuild a battery. Of the one in ten thousand left, almost none of them have the facilities to do it SAFELY. You have no idea the specs of the current cells. You have no idea the specs of the replacement cells. The charging algorithm is "undocumented". Most people buy the cheapest cells they can find on ebay from unknown salvagers in China. Soldering directly to cells is the norm.

A quick view of youtube or usenet groups will get you very much advice on how to UNSAFELY rebuild a pack. Those techniques applied to an electric car would be disasterous.

I've tried to interject sanity, but met with fomidable "resistance".

I once bought a wireless phone (not a cell phone, I have AT&T land line phone) at Walmart.A few years later when the hand set battery wouldn't recharge, I looked in Walmart for a new battery.About $10.00.I bought a corded phone for about $8.00. cuhulin

OK then, we'll just add that one to the pile. I know - it is a big pile.

This is an occupational hazard of people that buy used cars. My most fun experience was having to replace a fanbelt on a Toyota Van when it got stuck on the highway. The toughest part was getting a service station attendant to look for a belt hanging on the garage wall after hours. One time, I disconnected the windshield washer hose from the nozzle and used that to pump water into the radiator. Those were the days alright but hopefully, that's behind us. :-)

Ever bought a rechargeable drillmotor or saw? Same economics. I have a couple of them gathering dust.

I suspect an electric car would be about the same.

Tomorrow, October 21, at 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM (CST) on the Do It Yourself TV channel, Chad McQueen, Steve McQueen's son Chad commissions Gateway Classic Mustang to create a new version of his father's 1968 Mustang from the movie ''Bullitt''. cuhulin