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2008-07-19 Home Front Economy
McCain: Electric car 'vital' to oil independence
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Posted by Fred 2008-07-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ]  Top

#1 Excuse me but the power grid in California can barely sustain our existing load today. Where are we going to get the infrastructure and additional power plants needed to fuel cars from the grid?

It SOUNDS like a nice idea until you begin to ask where the power is going to come from, particularly in summer. Now if you build about 50 nuclear plants and double the grid capacity, now we're talking.
Posted by Chaith Panda7870 2008-07-19 00:41||   2008-07-19 00:41|| Front Page Top

#2 A local Guam restaurant patron likes to say that NICHOLAI TESLA believed it was possible for man to possess vast amounts of power, including for personal travel in advanced vehicle designs, widout need of using or burning any fossil fuels which Tesla recognized was bad for the environment.

PATRON > opined that many US-WORLD POLITICOS + INDUSTRIALISTS HATED TESLA BECUZ HIS IDEAS WERE SO ADVANCED AS TO NOT REQUIRE HUGE MASSES OF PEOPLE = HUMAN LABOR TO OPERATE, THUS WAS POLITICALLY UNPOPULAR OR IMPOSSIBLE TO SUPPORT BY BOTH GOVT AND BIG INDUSTRY. In this Age of GLOBAL WARMING, Tesla's anti-fossil, pro-electro energy ideas have become relevant iff not absolutely vital??? PATRON > also opined that, despite any rhetoric or offcial denials to the contray, the USGovt + USDOD always knew Tesla's ideas had substantive merit, and is what is being dev and empowered over at AREA 51 + OTHER SECRET US MIL/SCIFACS???
Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-07-19 01:31||   2008-07-19 01:31|| Front Page Top

#3 Tesla is dead. My dog told me last week that he can turn meat into chocolate.
Posted by Chaith Panda7870 2008-07-19 01:33||   2008-07-19 01:33|| Front Page Top

#4 Or hybrids. Everyone's copying the Prius.
Posted by McZoid 2008-07-19 04:24||   2008-07-19 04:24|| Front Page Top

#5 Electric cars will make the energy imports problem much worse, without nuclear.

Hybrids are just more efficient petrol cars. Diesels are just as efficient as hybrids and a lot cheaper.
Posted by phil_b 2008-07-19 04:47||   2008-07-19 04:47|| Front Page Top

#6 And to continue with phil_b's notion, diesel engines last longer and are more service-free.

Also a cross-platform fuel since homes can be heated with diesel.
Posted by no mo uro 2008-07-19 05:52||   2008-07-19 05:52|| Front Page Top

#7 McCain was bought off by the powerful car battery industry!! NO BLOOD FOR BATTERIES!!!!
/moonbat
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2008-07-19 08:32||   2008-07-19 08:32|| Front Page Top

#8 Politicians always think they can legislate technological innovation.
Posted by Anonymoose 2008-07-19 09:05||   2008-07-19 09:05|| Front Page Top

#9 The anticipated demand for electric cars would be at night when demand is VERY low right now. Range is getting up around 125 miles per charge, and battery life is well over 100,000 miles. I'm frankly surprised to hear so much negative commenting on it here. I'll admit the concept isn't very sexy, but you can charge the car for about $.30 a day. Check out the Chevy Volt website, it's worth the read.
Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-07-19 09:24||   2008-07-19 09:24|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm pretty much in favor of anything that keeps us from pumping more cash into the ME oilcracies. We need to starve the beast once and for all.
Posted by eltoroverde 2008-07-19 09:32||   2008-07-19 09:32|| Front Page Top

#11 The answer is two-fold:

Diesel-Electric cars, Nuclear power plants.

Diesel-Electric car allows the diesle to run a constant speed, which gets the greatest economy from it. Electric drive motors, computer controlled, as well as regenerative braking, provide efficiency in terms of how the energy is expended. Batteries are there for regulating power, and can be used alone for short runs, liek to the grocery, etc - the typical 5 mile or less trip. For long trips or added power, the diesel would directly drive the vehicle's electrical drive.

That way not as much battery power and space is needed as in a typical gasoline hybrid, and its a much cleaner design, one that is well known and been in use in submarines since WW2.
Posted by OldSpook 2008-07-19 09:33||   2008-07-19 09:33|| Front Page Top

#12 For comparison's sake, do a google search on "subaru diesel." It'll bring up articles about the diesel-equipped Legacy wagons they're selling in Europe now.

They get 50 MPG Hwy.

I think that's about double what the US version gets.

I'm fairly sure it doesn't meet the US requirements for smog reduction and whatnot.

I'm not sure if a version that did would have as good a mileage.

We've designed pollution regulations for cars for the half of the country where it never rains and wonder why all our cars get worse mileage than everywhere else.
Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-07-19 10:46||   2008-07-19 10:46|| Front Page Top

#13 GM VOLT

Build an EV

Fox Valley Electric Auto Association
Note that the state of Illinois provides $4,000 toward the purchase of batteries for a conversion.

Posted by 3dc 2008-07-19 11:21||   2008-07-19 11:21|| Front Page Top

#14 Jay Len has a 1909 Baker Electric car in his garage. The electric car is not new. If we are going to go "electric," we'd better fix up our grid and build a bunch of new power plants.

I saw where a new Prius has a solar panel to supplement the batteries.
Posted by JohnQC 2008-07-19 12:53||   2008-07-19 12:53|| Front Page Top

#15 "The anticipated demand for electric cars would be at night when demand is VERY low right now"

Horse crap. People are going to drive to work and want to plug their cars in. Or they are going to drive home and plug them in right away.

Anyone who believes people are going to let a discharged car sit there until night to charge it has a serious case of cranial rectosis. People are going to charge those things at all hours of the day.
Posted by Glineter Poodle2494 2008-07-19 14:05||   2008-07-19 14:05|| Front Page Top

#16 I actually drove an electric car for a few years long before it was fashionable, and I hated that thing.

Basically a souped up golf cart, it had no ergonomic design, would have been a death trap in an accident, was very heat intolerant and tended to blow large lead sink fuses, splattering hot lead all over the place.

The fuses had to be replaced on a hot circuit, since the batteries were wired in parallel. And the batteries would sometimes release enough hydrogen gas to form a flammable bubble under the seat, so when you touched the accelerator--bang!

The company that made it went out of business, and finally the car's owner gave it away to a local university engineering school, writing it off for a huge amount of money as a "research vehicle".

Right after it was parked in their lot and the paperwork signed, all four leaf springs broke, leaving the plastic body of the car resting on the asphalt.

What a POS. Awful memories.
Posted by Anonymoose 2008-07-19 14:53||   2008-07-19 14:53|| Front Page Top

#17 The Volt looks really good. I put myself on the waiting list for it as soon as I found out about it. I believe a modest Solar array on your garage banking energy all day will easily recharge the battery system. Good to see GM stretch for a new market. They are finally starting to act like a hungry company that is trying to get back on top.
Posted by TomAnon 2008-07-19 17:57||   2008-07-19 17:57|| Front Page Top

#18 What was it 'moose? Was it a home built?

Tesla is dead. My dog told me last week that he can turn meat into chocolate.

You dawg is lie! Is your dawg friend a Sheltie or and Irish Shelper? You can't trust them, they have good insticts but bad execution. Now Ima know a Border Collier that came close to making damn fine fudge, failed at reading the candy thermometre tho. Sad. Still it was ediable.
Posted by .5MT 2008-07-19 18:01|| www.cybernations.net]">[www.cybernations.net]  2008-07-19 18:01|| Front Page Top

#19 Well, the final product may have the same COLOR as chocolate...
Posted by Jomosing Bluetooth8431 2008-07-19 18:17||   2008-07-19 18:17|| Front Page Top

#20 I'd drive a diesel over a petrol vehicle any day, for the reliability alone. And I'm not the only person. Small diesel cars are becoming very popular.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23036860-5010760,00.html

Prices in AUD
Posted by phil_b 2008-07-19 19:02||   2008-07-19 19:02|| Front Page Top

#21 Can I can a Honda CRV in a diesel, phil?
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2008-07-19 20:19|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]  2008-07-19 20:19|| Front Page Top

#22 Soon, Barb, although you may have to move to India.

Link
Posted by phil_b 2008-07-19 23:03||   2008-07-19 23:03|| Front Page Top

#23 Ummmmm - thanks for the pix, phil.

No thanks to the move. :-(
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2008-07-19 23:42|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]  2008-07-19 23:42|| Front Page Top

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