China vies to be world's leader in electric cars

NY Times

Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all- electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit?s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today.

?China is well positioned to lead in this,? said David Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General Motors...

Continued:

formatting link

Reply to
aagm
Loading thread data ...

Someone's going to have to make a battery or a fuel cell that will run a car with air conditioning and provide heat to warm the car at least 300 miles between charges or refills for them to be successful. Nothing that I know of is practical or on the horizon for the driving of typical Americans. I just drove my car to the grocery store and back probably used 1/3 gallon of gasoline. Ran the heater which used the waste heat from the engine to heat the car. For this kind of trip with batteries it would have taken 50 lbs of battery maybe a hundred and that's without any heat. I suppose cars will have some kind of heat pump using the AC but then you get into ambient temperature problems. Golf carts, forklifts, and trolling motors/batteries are reality and what we talk abut electric cars. A fuel cell? That would be great if someone could make a practical one for a car. Maybe an electric car someday but probably not in my lifetime.

Reply to
Fat Moe

I've heard it said that we've squeezed pretty much all of the energy storage that's possible out of chemical battery storage, and what we need to take it further is some new elements added to the periodic table (which naturally isin't going to happen).

I wouldn't worry about China and what it says about electric cars. It's just economic sabre-rattling on their part, or a way to motivate their people, give them some economic hope.

Reply to
MoPar Man

And here is a Nisson electric,

formatting link

Reply to
Fat Moe

Based on the article... big deal. Any fool can put an electric motor and state of the art battery pack in a chassis.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

forget about the electric car suplying the heat. Well insulated car hot in the garage before you go.

Reply to
Björn

chinas biggest fear is the devaluation of the dollars. They own a lot of them and are beginning to ease out of that heap of worthless paper.

Reply to
Björn

Not GM

Reply to
Björn

Hah! So did the car provide the heat to heat the garage? Sounds like an Al Gore-ish false economy to me.

Reply to
Bill Putney

What an idiot - and a skandihooligan idiot at that!

Reply to
Happy Trails

Heating the car from a battery is a nono You can plug in the car and heat it from the mains either at home or where you park. Heating the car from some other source is what you do.

Reply to
Björn

The electrical car will never heat the car from a battery. It is stupid to think so.

Reply to
Björn

No, their biggest fear is domestic unemployment and civil unrest. Which is completely unrelated to their holdings of foreign currency.

Reply to
MoPar Man

I tend to agree. Unless there's an immediate breakthrough in electric storage, the all-electric car will just be a rich mans toy.

The best "electric" for todays technology would use a small gas-powered motor-generator. ( lawnmower sized gas engine? ) to constantly feed the battery pack. It would also produce ( waste ) heat for the cabin.

Air-conditioning may be a bit harder....

Economics will be a big factor too.

90% of my trips are in-town, 20 miles or less. I COULD get by with an affordable golf cart.....
Reply to
Anonymous

Hence my comment about the A Gore-ish false economy - meaning that proponents of the electric with a vested interest in making it look more economical than it really is will conveniently "forget" to factor in the cost of the heat and the gullible "green" consumer who believes anything they're told and wouldn't know how to factor something like that in even if they had enough brain cells to realize that it *is* a factor won't know the difference and will "feel good" about buying one. (pardon the run-on sentence)

Reply to
Bill Putney

But it's not stupid in some people's minds to fail to factor that heat (the cost of the watts that will need to be converted into that heat) into the cost of ownership and use. Heck - why don't you just tell the green people that with global warming (which isn't real, but you can't tell them that) there will be no need for any added heat. They'll believe anything like that that you tell them.

Reply to
Bill Putney

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.