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Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

  • Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Treesarepeople2
#31

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
Quote: Originally Posted by #juanView Post

So far Ron, there are no plug in hybrids, but there are many hybrids. As I said, virtually every auto manufacturer is building them. They are fuel efficient, and the technology is here.

If you think about it, lead/acid batteries are the way to go. They are cheap and they can be recycled into more lead/acid batteries.

Actually Juan... there ARE plug-in hybrids... there's evidence in that when the first wave of hybrids were in the show rooms, they had the plug-ins... but when the cars were released they did NOT. Hybrids are just another scam by the oil companies to keep our fossil fuel addiction alive. I am good friends with an environmental engineer who is disgusted with the industry since such viable/renewable options are not only being ignored, they are being suppressed and destroyed.
 
#juan
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#32

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
Quote: Originally Posted by Treesarepeople2View Post

Actually Juan... there ARE plug-in hybrids... there's evidence in that when the first wave of hybrids were in the show rooms, they had the plug-ins... but when the cars were released they did NOT. Hybrids are just another scam by the oil companies to keep our fossil fuel addiction alive. I am good friends with an environmental engineer who is disgusted with the industry since such viable/renewable options are not only being ignored, they are being suppressed and destroyed.

That is just nonsense. The plug-in hybrid entails a lot more than a plug-in cord. It will have a lot more battery and a larger generator/alternator and a completely new control system.
The hybrids are not a scam. They are the leading edge of the current technology. The newest Toyota Camry hybrid will get close to sixty mpg, and the Prius has achieved 80 mpg. Every auto manufacturer is building hybrids.
 
L Gilbert
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#33

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
High voltage? I doubt anything in a hybrid or straight electric has any more voltage running around than a regular gas guzzler. Want to hold an electrode on a starter while someone is turning the key? Or touch a spark plug electrode while a car is running?
At any rate, it only makes sense that the makers of vehicles that use combustibles would at least downplay the benefits of alternate energy vehicles. Why the surprise?
As far as trucks going to electric is concerned, Electrohauls have been carting tons of mine ore around for decades. Locomotives use diesel to run electric drive motors to get around.
 
Zzarchov
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#34

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
Quote: Originally Posted by #juanView Post

That is just nonsense. The plug-in hybrid entails a lot more than a plug-in cord. It will have a lot more battery and a larger generator/alternator and a completely new control system.
The hybrids are not a scam. They are the leading edge of the current technology. The newest Toyota Camry hybrid will get close to sixty mpg, and the Prius has achieved 80 mpg. Every auto manufacturer is building hybrids.

I wouldn't say leading edge. Its still a flawed system, its just using a flawed system better.

The best "Hybrid" I've seen is the Chevy volt. (which by the way is a plug-in, thats its whole appeal).

The idea of never needing Gas save on rare occassions is a better model.
 
Treesarepeople2
#35

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
Quote: Originally Posted by #juanView Post

That is just nonsense. The plug-in hybrid entails a lot more than a plug-in cord. It will have a lot more battery and a larger generator/alternator and a completely new control system.
The hybrids are not a scam. They are the leading edge of the current technology. The newest Toyota Camry hybrid will get close to sixty mpg, and the Prius has achieved 80 mpg. Every auto manufacturer is building hybrids.

Quote: Originally Posted by ZzarchovView Post

I wouldn't say leading edge. Its still a flawed system, its just using a flawed system better.

The best "Hybrid" I've seen is the Chevy volt. (which by the way is a plug-in, thats its whole appeal).

The idea of never needing Gas save on rare occassions is a better model.

60mpg? what about 0-5mpg? That's what a plugin electric motor is capable of. They have battery charges that can eaily last 7-12 hours! Those are the patents the oil companies buy up and lock away.

When a plug-in battery is charged at night. In our current mostly coal-burning supplied energy system, (like Saskatchewan's... which runs at peak use so 65% efficient and 35% waste) an electric car charging this actually SAVES energy, and some systems can put energy back into the grid...

So far, smaller and slower electric cars are springing up everywhere... I hope to drive past a dealership someday...
 
GreenFish66
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#36

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
Great thread to read..It will take many different energy sources to balance the playing field and be competitive!!.Help ensure longevity.Why rely on just one energy source, when you can have a selection of many..I like the chevy volt..!...Mean lookin machine,,Which is odd for an alternative energy car..Normally new energy efficient vehicles are small ,buggy and bubbly lookin'..lol
Like those smart cars...Might as well go with shuttle pods on a mono rail!...hmmmmmmmmm?lol
 
Trex
#37

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 1st, 2008
And back and forth we go.
Debating the merits of every particular reaction that generates an electron.

So I thought I would wade in on this occasion.

I posit there is no conspiracy.
The 1000 mile carb or fuel injection system does not exist.
The dirt cheap fuel cell is a dream.
A car that rapidly goes 100's of miles on a squirt of compressed air is not at the moment viable.

As an aside on of my old engineering prof's spent years and years working on fuel cells for NASA.
He freely admitted it was a nightmare.
Expensive, flammable, explosive and unreliable.
But hey, that was then.

My opinion is every car company is working as hard as it can on alternative energy sources.
Not hiding it.
GM and Ford need all the help they can get.
They would kill(literally) for a wonder car.

Same with big oil.
They ain't stupid.
Ultimately they are energy company's, not oil companies.
BP and Shell will buy into and support any profitable energy source.
They are spending 100's of millions trying to do just that.
The second they can jump over to clean energy and make a nickel they will.
Think of the PR and advertising.

Lots of smart folks are all over it.
Right now it just doesn't pay that well.

In the future it will.

Trex
 
dumpthemonarchy
#38

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 4th, 2008
I saw a headline on CNN tonight saying the Detroit shrinking three lack the votes in Congress for a bailout. I think Detroit is the walking dead and a bailout is corporate welfare, basically to extend the bankruptcy over three years instead of three months. But if Americans don't want to support it, then to see it crash and burn would be something.

The US is going its own way on land mines, Intl courts, etc., so it goes its own way here too, into automotive/manufacturing decline.

I think Canada should renegotiate NAFTA with the US and Mexico.
 
scratch
#39

Re: Time to bring back the electric car, we slaves of Big Oil and Detroit

Dec 4th, 2008
NAFTA re-negotiation would be a very prudent thing to do.

regards
scratch
 

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