This sounds interesting for me, a short trip driver. I'd never have to stop at a gas station.
- posted
17 years ago
This sounds interesting for me, a short trip driver. I'd never have to stop at a gas station.
Sounds great.....except.....it is GM.
I would not buy from GM or Ford now on a bet.
Both are losing money hand over fist and HAVE to cut costs to remain in business. Guess where the cuts will occur?
Toyota is working on one too. This announcement will only prod them into working harder, faster. It would be good for me because I don't make long trips and I'd just plug the thing in to recharge, never having to stop at a filling station. According to the article it will have an engine for backup just in case. For the long trips I still have my Sienna. We'll see what shakes out. I wonder how the gov. would handle gas tax when everybody is driving one of these things. Just think, we could have a solar powered charging station in the garage just for this, using no outside resources at all except for the sun.
Next year, GM will have a prototype hybrid that's hybrid enough to actually do the plug in thing? They are really late to the party. Their current hybrids are little more than bigger starter motors and controller that shut off the engine at stoplights (which I sometimes do, anyway).
All Toyota has to do is increase the battery capacity of their current vehicle. I'd like to see them develop an add-in pack that would go into the trunk for local electric operations (I'd use it most of the time) but could be pulled out and left behind for long trips (to maximize trunk space, vehicle weight and fuel economy - the hybrid aspect of the car does not offer much benefit on long freeway stretches).
However, when someone does introduce a hybrid with a significant battery-only range, I think you'd want to run the engine fairly regularly, weekly, maybe, just to keep everything lubed and working right.
Leave the electric pack at home. If you are stranded with a dead battery just start up the aux put-put with a small backup batter, like the ones they use in riding lawn mowers. Then charge the main battery. I only travel most of the time up to six miles one way and many times less. For long trips I still use my Sienna.
Can I expect a picture of your new system by email ;-)
You might have enjoyed one of these:
Somebody should market an electric fully licenseable kit car. Radio, heater ect could be options to be purchased and installed by the garage DYI'er later if so desired. Why hell they build airplanes in garages why not a high tech electric car. I would nickname it the ESRV (electric short range vehicle). You seen it here first.
The solar charging station could be another DIYer project. People are installing solar panels on motor homes along with deep cycle batteries they power the unit without using any outside resource except for the sun. Great for boondocking in the desert. A solar charging station should not be a big technical problem at all.
Looks like government BS killed it. Besides it's too heavy and big, don't need anything like it to do the little run around trips and back-forth to workplace. This is more what I had in mind only electric and shaped a little different with attention to home maintanence and easy to find parts:
....my email box is open.
Some nerd like Bill Gates will probably come out with a good kit and retire wealthy...
Something tells me that won't happen for a few years, at least until the Republicans can get back control. Small startups will be burdened with extra tax and government requirments to build a widget. I doubt anyone would want to gamble a life savings on something other than a sure thing.
Do you think Steve Jobs looked at tax policy before he decided to build the first Apple Computer? Before introducing the Mac? The Next?
Did Bill Gates look at employment law before starting up Microsoft?
Democrats have, in fact, been as good for business as anybody else. We do billions of dollars of business today over the Internet. Laugh all you like but it WAS Al Gore who made it possible. He never claimed to have invented it, he claimed to have taken the intiative to move it beyond ARPAnet and that is perfectly true (I was networking in those days). Would this have happened without Al Gore? Probably but it would have been years later that it occurred.
The fundamental problem with electric cars has nothing to do with tax, employment or any other government policy. In fact, government anti-polllution regs are GOOD for the electric car business. What hurts the electric car business is the electric cars themselves. The best ones were probably the EV-1 and the Rav4-EV. But people are reluctant to buy into technology with limited range and capability and uncertain technology. As a second or third car, an EV is OK. You could use one for around-twon but you'd still keep the Sienna for long voyages. This marginalizes the EV market. Then there's cost. And the teeny one you pointed to has extra-limited market because many people will perceive it as unsafe to operate in heavy or fast traffic. There's another little EV on the market called, I beleive, the Zebra. It's funamentally an electtric motorcycle with a cheesy fiberglass or plastic body. It's really pretty icky. A golf cart would be more luxurious. Airbags? Fuggeddaboudit! That really limits the market. I would be interested in one of these little vehicles but it would have to be pretty cheap and, operating it locally, I'm mindful that I could be T-boned by a Navigator anywhere along even my shortest trips.
Battery technology is holding the EV back. Gasoline (and diesel) packs the necessary energy density to move a car 400 miles or more. The hybrid is an interesting and realistic attempt to bridge this gap, providing some of the benefits of EVs with the range and utility of gassers.
So, I opened up my latest copy of "Scientific American" and there, on page
53, is a reference to "EDrive Systems" and "Hymotion," which offer plug-in hybrid upgrade capability for the Toyota Prius. Today.According to the EDrive FAQ, an EDrive-equipped Prius can go up to 30 miles before requiring the gas engine to kick in.
Hymotion:
No need to wait for GM.
I used to subscribe to SA. What issue? I'd like to read that article.
I've got numerous articles from years ago which I saved. The new SA is not as good, in my opinion.
How far back? I agree that it's not as good as it used to be. Remember the Amateur Scientist? That was my favorite column. I was saving the old ones but they just got to be too musty to keep. Until about two years ago, I still had articles clipped from SAs from the 60's. However, the "new" SA is far from bad.
I think it's the December issue; it's a mostly red cover with a picture of the skull of the recently discovered 3.2 million year old humanoid pictured on the front. The issue topic is "The Scientific American 50... " trends in business and/or science.
The article I mentioned is one of the "50". Look at the top of the page I referenced and the reference to EDrive Systems and Hymotion is near the end of the "50" item that continues from page 53.
============ Exactly right. Partially in response to private alterations to add plug in capability to Prius, Toyota is developing same. I believe they avoided the plug in capacity initially to minimize resistance to the Hybrid concept (you never have to plug it in).
The generic Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) information can be found at:
and The Electric Auto Association and its supporting sponsors, who do make kits for gasoline to pure electric conversion, can be found at:
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