I drive 28 miles round-trip to work,and have an ornamental lamp post

Look at this.

Stephan Wilkinson
suggest a better Qotd

“What kind of stickers are on your car? Why?”
I predict 150 answers.

oldyak
would Elvis drive a EV?

Would Elvis read TTAC? Wouldn’t it be ElVis?

However, when it’s minus 15 degrees Celsius in early February, the snow’s still falling, and I need to heat that windshield and rear window (to keep ‘em clear) and my freezing feet, and need to get to work, and the last thing I need is max torque at zero rpm, I think electric is a bust. 8kWh of juice will be gone before I leave the driveway after shovelling away the plow’s wall of snow.

Same thing applies in reverse for A/C in Houston in summer.

What about traffic jams? You want extra stress wondering whether the juice is going to last?

A solar power panel on the vehicle’s roof would make about enough juice to run the DRL’s during a trip through Death Valley at high noon. Oh, and you want a sunroof too?

The local electric company bought electric Chevy vans for meter readers 15 years ago. Big ads, blah, blah, blah. I know all about ‘em, ’cause I worked there at the time. Experiment lasted about 3 months. Kaput.

I’m not ready for all electric, and neither are very many other people. Of course there are amateur kits out there to convert your current pride and joy to electric. Easy to do. Good luck if you try it. Just don’t short out any batteries in your enthusiasm, because the result isn’t much different from flicking that lighter to see if there’s any gas left in the tank. And if you think that doesn’t happen, let me tell you about a friend who appeared at school one day in winter with a huge red sunburned face and no eyebrows.

Throw some advanced batteries in with that system and you’ve got a neat very suable car. The best part is that the driveline (motor and controller) would last a long, long time. Something you could move from chassis to chassis.

Need one of those Chevron held NiMH batteries. The Lithium batteries are good too but still new…

If they don’t start building them pretty soon, I’m considering building one.

Plenty of turnkey electrics out there but they don’t get alot of press…

http://www.worldclassexotics.com/Electric%20car%20conv.htm

I want 100 mile range out of a five door hatchback be it a modern VW Rabbit or a CUV.

High density cities are not the application for EVs or hybrids as mass transit already takes care of most routine trips. If a secure place to park your car is a big problem than you probably don’t need a commuter car.

If the Volt was offered now in a full electric version, and about $20k; I’d buy one(I’m not real interested in the gas/electric version; I hate ICE maintenance).

If I could buy a full electric Escape, I’d buy it.

If the Tesla was cheaper; that would be my commuter.

When is one of these car makers going to step up to the plate and offer a full electric version of one of their existing models?

We’ve had the Rav4EV, and factory electric Rangers and S10’s. Not to mention some other obscure models. Hybrids are really close to being a full EV.

It’s not rocket science to build these things.

Why not offer it in two or three range models with prices to match?

I only need 50 miles. Some of you might want 100, 200, or 300. Even 500 miles for some money.

Why can’t some existing kit car company offer some “factory” electrics? Electric Lamborghini or Ferrari?

Goforit.

Uh, I’m not sure how JL will feel about that. However, I AM looking for more “Ask the Best and Brightest” questions. Send those to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com, please.

Goforit.

How many times are we going to beat this horse?

And, many of those garages have been converted to living space due to the astronomical cost of housing in SF. It’s not that unusual either for a home owner to rent out a room. So, even when they are environmentally correct, 1 car per family, and they have a garage still available for parking “a car”, where does the renter park their car. When I was in college and sharing a three bedroom apartment with two other guys, we each had our own car. How would that work in a typical apartment complex where the tenants can well outnumber the parking spaces?

Slow recharging of electric cars can work for many, maybe even most, people; but the development of either a method of quick charging cars or something else entirely will be needed before we can switch over to electric cars entirely and maintain anything near our current mobility.

Too bad there isn’t ANY new car that meets this criteria.

If performance were all that mattered, no one would drive a 1967 muscle car that gets taken at a stoplight by a V6 Camry.…

NOT. At least not any true musclecar with modern tires. Traction was the great limiter with the sixties cars. Still, that either proves how far cars have come or how wasteful appliance class cars have become. i don’t see too many Camry drivers using all that power.

As for electrics, a two car household could easily use one electric, at least for most people. Obviously city dwellers and rural users would have serious logistical problems with range and recharging…

That’s the sound of inefficiency. I can’t wait to prowl around in a silent car myself.

Of course, the Volt will only succeed if it matches the Prius in real-world practicality. Namely, it needs to be a midsized car that seats five with four doors (it’s a two door compact, although I think it does have a back seat of some sort (I don’t know if it seats four or five)), and cost the same price as the Prius (it’ll probably cost double). So, the Volt itself will fail. But a future Volt-like vehicle that meets those requirements may succeed.

Well, in real dollar terms, from 1981 until circa 2000 we didn’t wait, we lived gasoline going “back down” almost continuously.

Phil

The good news for me is that I only pay about 8 cents a kw/h after taxes and fees.

I like the idea of an all electric car I just don’t think they are cost effective and I can’t afford to walk the walk on that concept if it costs more to do so.

I’m currently in an apartment but assuming the cord is bog standard I have a plug right inside my door and I can park 8 feet from the door. I’d say a 12 or 16 ft extension cord would do the trick so long as I can charge on the weekend only or between 7pm and 10pm so I feel comfortable sitting around near the power cord enough to hear somebody mess with it and stop them.

Of course in the long term I’d buy a house and just charge in the garage.

When I was a kid my dad bought me an electric corvette car! It was cool and fast, for a kid anyway! It made this really cool whrrrrr sound and it would run really fast! I though by the time I’m an adult we would all be driving electrics! What the hell happened????

As for charging, if the tech improves, all charging stations could be charged by solar panels. The parking meters here in New York all work with a solar panels on top. I could imagine charging stations someday with solar panels attached all separate from the actual electrical grid!

If I owned a house I would put a solar panel on my garage and just plug my car in when I am home!

I’m 30 now so who knows when these cars would come out. When the EV1 came out I thought we were on the way! And then they disappeared!!! I thought I was going to buy one out of college! Damn you GM for taking my electric car away!!!!

I just can’t see electric cars being as wild, thrashy, insane, noisy as good ol’ ICE cars. And I’m not sure I can live with that.

Until we (the people) have the will to elect politians with the will to explore, drill, and refine, you may have to learn to live with that.

If the economy continues to tank, we ALL may have to learn to live with it.

When I prepare for athletic competitions, then it’s probably a 50-80 mile day.

I am planning for a modest roof-mounted PV system sometime in the next several years. With one inverter at maximum capacity, I think I can decrease my current electric bill by about half. I need to check and see if I can get a discount for off-peak electric usage…