RE: Electric cars: Three secrets to success
the US already had a great electric car... the EV1 failed, not because of it proformance (which never received a complaint from anyone that actually leased one)... not because of its cost, not because of it speed or power... it failed because of pressure on the GM by the oil companies, and indirectly a complete lack of advertising, which was largely irrelevent since there weren't enough to supply demand in the first place.
90-100 miles was acheived long ago; people say they want 300 miles per charge despite only the average american only needing less than 40 miles (34.4 miles) worth of fuel per day, meaning that 300 miles would last them 8-9 days 2-4 times longer than a tank of gas would last... hence they litterally expect electric vehcile to be 2-4 time BETTER for the same cost, while also not being pollutive... which is unrealistic.... it can be done, but the easiest way to do that is to harshly tax the sales of pollutive vehicles (non electric vehicles), the only three other ways it can be down is if A) we let decades pass until the technology for electricy vehicles fall in price until its on par or cheaper than the technology behind internal combustion. B) dramatic subsidies to electric vehicle (such as a nation wide adoptation of calfornia's green power/green vehicle subsidies) or C) found and nationalize an electric car company; nationalized companies are ALWAYS cheaper to run and as a result the private sector really can't compete with them on price points, because they would be being produced for what it costs to produce them, not what it cost after a few thousands people takes their cut of a few million dollars each, and pay their employs exorbant wages for work that is mostly done by machines... to the point where oftern times people working in food production plants work harder for minimum wage
charging stations, for one if electric cars were done right you'd NEVER need a charging stattion unless your in the middle of a desert with nothing around for 100 miles, for 2, an electric car can be powered by ANYTHING which can generate electricity, or likewise anything that can be converted to electricity... and for 3, charging stations really wont be needed in the same way gas stations are needed, for instance road can be made to charge batteries while they are being driven on, parking spaces can be made to recharge batteries they are parked, and most can be charged from regular duplex recepticle (electricity outlet) during the hours your asleep.
@firth
if you expect electric cars to cost equal or less than gas powered cars and get the same proformance your going to be waiting atleast a decade or two, thats not even a realistic goal... however the lifetime cost of electric cars is ALREADY less than gas powered cars due to the fact that gas powered cars require alot more maintaince, and an electric car can even be charged for free, good luck getting the same deal from a gas station as you do from solar panels or a wind turbine charging your car.
or we can get around this by upping the gas tax in the US and canada to be more inline with what most countries pay for fuel (at least one country pays as much in fuel tax as the US pays for fuel including all appliccable taxes) to more accurately reflect the cost of using gasoline, which is only a fraction of the true cost.
power from and electric vehichle is different from powere from a internal combustion car.... hence why electric cars can outrun ferrari's, eve most sports cars can't outpace an electric car in acceleration.... and NO-ONE EVER needs to be driving more than 130km/h, thats 30% higher than a speed limit here (canada) anyways, and i think thats about the fastest speed limit in the US too... anything faster than that and you beliong either on a race track or in jail anyways.
and BTW, because you obviously don't know this, but electrc cars can do about 400km/h for up to 8 hours constantly, effectively meaning their proformance (in speed) can be on par with formula 1, for a fraction of the cost; $300,000 for the 8 wheel all-wheel drive, station wagon look-alike race version, and $200,000 for the economical version (much less battery power).
say hello to tata (or one of over 10 chinese electric vehicle producers)... because the US for the most part blew their chance to lead the market, by letting the preceeding industry, dictate to the emerging industry... their best shot now seems to be tesla motors, but i doubt the big 3 will ever lead the electric car industry... heck they've been getting whipped in sales on traditional cars, mostly because they don't make anything worth a damn anymore, and haven't in about 30 years; aside from prototypes/concept cars and the EV1, which was the least good american production car before the tesla roadster, before that you have to go all the way back to american muscle cars in the late 70's to get quality production car.... though back then a good car wasn't an economical car.
