11.5 second Electric Car

LMAO!!!!
Made me remember the skill-saw and belt sander drag races I saw a few years back.

I totally agree with you. A combustion engine requires a lot more finesse to milk ever more power out of it. Engine building is a lot more tinkering.

It will always be fun to have a fire breathing monster to tinker with and take out to the track...
but petro-fuels need to go away for the daily commuter.

There really are no more valid excuses.

Even with old-school battery technologies, how many of us drive more than 60 miles round trip to work? Heck, my daily commute is 6.2 miles. (I got lucky)

The Tesla Roadster from my other link gets 245 miles to a charge. No, it won't get mileage like that when driving lead foot max performance, but for the majority of us, it might only need to be charged once a week.

 

I've tinkered with all kinds of fuel systems, including a fuel vaporizer in my 1975 T&C 440, where I got 46 MPG, and my buddy got 66 out of his 396 CID Chevy pickup.

One of the things that bugs me about most of these EV miracles is that the emissions are made in another country or in the mining of the minerals, or the transporting of the cells from god-knows-where.

And the song and dance that goes on and on. Toyota's Hydrogen fuel cell cars are leased, not sold. In the fine-print on the warranty, they say that these vehicles cannot operate safely in -30C. That eliminates the midwest completely. A lot of these vehicles are for Urban use, not rural or long-distance. The problem is it puts the burden on the homeowner to upgrade his electrical panel to charge the beast on a daily basis, and the cost to do so. Again, it transfers the emissions to the electrical generation source.

For all of those reasons, I prefer the steam engine. It barely emits anything from the fuel it uses to heat the water. Has full HP on the first rev, and needs no transmission.

I've even looked at fuel from water, but they won't work in cold like we have here. Its a derivative of Tesla's experiments with batteries. Converts water into usable Hydrogen.

And the real rub with battery minerals is that there isn't that much of it around. Canada, Afghanistan, Bolivia are the major known sources. No info on what timespan might be involved to deplete them, but its not even 100 years, like they estimate for oil.

 

I'm not a conspiracy fan, but the automotive industry has been doing a lot to make vehicles owner-unfriendly. The governments all over the world have been adding restrictive legislation on older vehicles. We've been conned various times with Oil Shortages, emission standards that leave the big luxury cars off the list, etc. etc.

Knowing that lithium battery minerals are in demand for power tools, and then pushing electric cars across URBANA, just smells like a plot to destroy the aftermarket carbon-fuelled auto industry. If the powertool industry is already charging up to $130 for a replacement battery for a drill or a sawzall, and these car batteries have a useful life that just barely makes it past the car warranty, where do we go next? You won't be able to go backward, because the clunker programs will ship them to Asia, and you won't have many new alternatives for electric, plastic cars.

Just smells fishy, this whole fuel conundrum and the now powerful green lobby.

I saw that news item about GM selling its battery division to Chevron too, and did the WTH! shock. Makes no sense to let the fox run the hen-house.

Maybe I'll buy a small ranchito in central Mexico and get a couple of burros to help me make a methane-powered steam engine.

 

How much does it cost to charge up an electric vehicle?
If I plug it in at work is my employer paying to charge it up?
Electricity costs money too.

 

Only bennfit in the earlydays of electric, plenty of businesses with live plug sockets out side

stealing juice to charge up a car will be a big crime one day.

 

Oh yeah, up here the lots all have sockets for block heaters.

 

pretty standard everywhere for the lawn crews, and all those building use to have standard hand open water spouts too like wall sockets, but then the water shortage happened [???] and now all those spouts need a special tool to turn it on.

outdoor wall sockets will be that way some day too.

 

I believe I've read where fire and safety people are very concerned about the battery operated cars when involved in accidents and where fire is concerned. A huge issue with toxic fumes, etc.

Also, disposal of the batteries when done - it's not a simple thing. And replacement batteries are a significant cost.

Generation of the electricity to charge them, be it from dams, coal fired generators, or whatever, is also contributing pollution. Already those systems are over taxed with brown outs a concern. Add to that all the recharging of vehicles and what does that create?

I'm not against the battery operated cars, I think they are a necessity, but it is not just a simple one replaces the other scenario and all is right with the world. I think we've got a good ten years yet before we see anything that resembles an efficient and cost effective, and safe, replacement for what we have now. And with mileage increasing dramatically in gas powered vehicles in the interim, and emissions dropping substantially at the same time, it will still be hard to move people over. I've got some friends, very technical and mechanical, who are very interested in replicating what the fellow has done in OR with his car. As a group they are very capable, all but one is now retired, and I suspect they will tackle it in the next year or two. It will be fun to see what they come up with. As a hobby only, mind you, and they are very thrifty so it will be an interesting venture.

As for steam powered cars, Norm, great idea but a bugger to shovel coal and drive at the same time. You think it is a long wait at a light while some idiot texts in front of you instead of pulling away at a green, wait till he's out there shovelling coal, or throwing logs, into his fire .

Mind you, you could use the extra steam to blow your loud horn at him and press your clothes.:banghead3:

 

Barry, this ain't great-granpa's converted steam engine.

http://www.pritchardpower.com.au/technology.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJq2Hc_mXFI

And a Solar Steam Train in Sacramento, CA and Australia.
http://solarsteamtrain.com/cms/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

I just wonder which government would be shameless enough to tax solar energy.

 

That's the other thing, do a real mass force to electric and people will make their own juice for free, I could make it apear out of thin air, litteraly if it was profitable enough.

mass transit and good shipping needs to change over asap not the general public.

the moving of good is what burns it up, over 75% of all oil is used to make diesel for business to move goods.

they are the ones who need to change, not the gen population.
Our change would make no change.

though big cities should have electric mass transit to aleve the need to drive.

Let driving be for pleasure again.

 

Up here, the emissions are:
24% Agriculture
23% Vehicle (Cars, Trains, Planes, Boats)
26% Industrial
24% Forestry (A lot of dry boreal forests, and a lot of plywood/OSB and paper plants.)

3% for the CO2 from hotair politicians telling us how hard they're working to 'balance' the Economic income with the safe emissions levels.

And all the attention is on the consumer. Grants for Industrial emissions are for 'Research' and Promotion, not science or new technology.