Another electric car....

This isn't a toyota and carries a price tag higher than what I make in 5 years, but it sure looks nice.

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Reply to
Reasoned Insanity
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I just heard about this today on Car And Driver Radio. I guess it's a Lotus, either Elise or Exige, with an electric motor that can propel the car to 60MPH in about 3 seconds!

It has a range of about 250 miles and is powered by Lithium-Ion batteries.

The inital price was $100,000 and had to be paid in advance for the first few cars, and held in escrow. I guess once you paid for it, there was no backing out of the deal.

Reply to
Hachiroku

Anyone here happen to have the link to the one that was put out by GM or something like that? It was posted a few days ago, but for the life of me I can't find it. I know it involved people not being able to purchase electric vehicles after they leased them.

Reply to
Reasoned Insanity

Search for GM model EV1. The only car in modern history they ever produced as a GM and not Chevy, Olds, Buick, etc.

The Official Story:

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The Not So Official Story, and a whole raft of links:
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Among other reasons stated, they decided they couldn't sell them to the lessees because they would be on the hook for that federal requirement to supply replacement parts for 10 years, and vital operating parts longer.

There are a few EV1's that are in automotive museums that had enough pull to get one, and since the policy of the Nethercutt Collection is to keep all the cars in their collections at 100% road-ready status theirs probably is drivable. But the rest have long been destroyed.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Interesting article in many ways

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The EV1, General Motors' electric car, had failed, in part because it was expensive and poorly marketed. Most crippling, though, was the underperformance of the original lead-acid batteries and even the second-gen nickel metal hydride cells. Consumers wanted a vehicle that had a range greater than the EV1's (at best) 130 miles. The common wisdom was that batteries just weren't there yet.

But what did Detroit know about batteries? Eberhard had squeezed 20 hours of run time out of the little power pack on his eBook. Battery efficiency was an obsession among computer engineers, who were extracting more power from ever-smaller cells with each generation of laptops. GM seemed oblivious to the lessons emerging from the electronics industry.

Reply to
Gosi

GM greed killed that car.

Most cars you can buy, or pay within 3 - 5 years.

GM wanted to lease this car forever.

I bet they were concern that electric motors might last for long long time...

Most people don't like to buy product, you can never own.

Reply to
BrownTiger

Thanks for the link Bruce, I was wanting to show it to a friend the other day but then I couldn't find iit.

Reply to
Reasoned Insanity

The car and driver radio program also mentioned that the Prius only charges to 70%, and only discharges to 30%.

Interesting. They also mention that cell phones and laptops will work for

5 hours, then 3 hours, then 2 hours, and then it's time for a new battery.

They didn't mention the technology behind this: NiCad batteries and others build up a 'memory', that is, they 'remember' how long they are used for. If you have a NiCad in your laptop, the best thing you can do is leave it unplugged until the system starts begging for juice, and THEN plug it in. If you run it for 15 minutes, and then plug it in, and then run it for 15 mins, etc, soon the battery will not last longer than 15 minutes.

The Lithium-Ion battery overcomes this shortcoming to a very large degree, so you can run it for 15 minutes, and it will take a long time for a Li-Ion battery to build up a memory. They also charge faster, but don't tend to last quite as long when fully charged.

I believe the Prius and the Insight use NiCad's which would explain the

70-30% scheme.
Reply to
Hachiroku

Actually, current Toyota/Lexus and Honda hybrids are Nickel Metal Hydride.

Reply to
Ray O

New.

after 2 yrs.

After 4 yrs.

After 5 yrs.

But with care they can last longer.

Reply to
Just Facts

^^^^

Key Phrase. But, most people do what I said, and run them 15 minutes and then plug in the charger...

Reply to
Hachiroku

The instructions on my phone regarding battery use are contrary to what I've always read about batteries, that is, letting them get as low as possible and them charging them as fully as possible is best for overall battery performance. Instead, the instructions say to charge the phone whenever possible to keep it as topped off as possible. I've been following that advice since I got the phone a month ago, we'll see how it works.

Reply to
Ray O

That's a Lithium-Ion battery. They can be charged like that. You'll break or lose or trade in the phone before the battery even begins to build up a memory.

Reply to
Hachiroku

I hope so!

Reply to
Ray O

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