The Electric Car

Same here. I wont buy a new vehicle. What is really needed and I bet would be a commercial hit is a conversion kit. Take a small car like a Neon, Cavalier, Escort, Corolla, Camry and get rid of the gas powertrain components and install electric motors and batteries. Hell, even a 30 mile range would be sufficient for most of the population for a city car. 'Mother Earth News' used to have ads in the back for How-To books to convert gas cars to electric.

 

Yep they are expensive, and at this point probably luxury items, but so were gas powered cars when they hit the market, and remained for for a long time. The prices of electric cars are dropping a lot faster than gas powered cars did. As the technology develops, the prices will continue to start. We are only at the very start!

 

Where's the evidence that electric cars are dropping in price? I notice that Chevy is not making next year's model any cheaper.

 

I wouldn't expect new models from same factory to get any cheaper. It's going to take a revolution. Currently there barely enough consumer interest for a spark let alone revolution. There's evidence corporations and utility companies don't even want EV's to succeed even at a small niche level. I know I'll never buy new in my life. I'll also never contract my utility company to setup alternative power systems in my house. If you go that route expect premiums and low returns. If you wand EV and alt. power on a budget your going to have to get your hands dirty with EV kits and gorilla solar/turbine systems. Get an electric scooter if you can't afford a car.

 

Oil and utility corp's are the most powerful political and economical forces when it comes to anything like electric cars and alt. energy moving into their turf. With that tone it will be very difficult to get these things onto the commercial market.

Scooters suck in the winter but if the price is right I can see e-scooters being a commercial hit.

Honda's first electric vehicle to hit the road in Europe will be a scooter. The auto manufacturer began testing its zero emissions scooter in Barcelona this week as part of a test program to help Honda analyze how the new technology performs with European driving patterns. The EV-neo is already available for lease in Japan, and the Barcelona City Council will be the first EU customers to receive the e-scooters.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_...t-charging-e-scooters-in-spain/#ixzz1j0DKJMqu
Article says it will cost around $5500

At the price Chevy is charging vs the Leaf or Prius I dont get the huge disparity? Maybe if Chevy had incorporated solar cells on the roof the price difference would make more sense.

 

I drove an electric forklift for years at a food processing plant. There was nothing high tech about it, no fancy mosfet motor controller, just resistors and switches and a big 48v battery we swapped out with a block and tackle every 8 hours. In 8 hours that lift was in constant use and moving 120-160 tonnes of product into cold storage.

 

Yep, theres huge potential for EV's. US car companies have to get the will to push them. But with $40k price tags that GM is wanting it aint going to happen.
I still think a conversion kit to convert a small gas car to electric would be a hit. Like you said we arent talking nuclear technology to build a battery powered powertrain.

 

Its not nuclear but the tech involved developing the lithium ion battery for commercial transportation , is very Complex. These powertrains are computer intense applications that all togeather rival the space shuttle in technology. Granted this could have been done 30 yrs ago except Battery makers didnt want to research and develop it then.

 

I luv the electric car ...sadly it will not come to pass as the world economy would collapse if it became popular for consumers....no aftermarket parts sales/ steel industry would stop....mechanics would be done for(any twit can maintain an elec car).do you think the oil gangsters would let the electric company (monopolies)get control of that cash flow....NOT!

 

This is easy, I was doing this 40 years ago at college.

1. Get a lightweight car, so European or Jap.
2. Take the engine and gearbox out and replace it with an electric motor.
3. Drop 2 big cheap deep cycle batteries in, to get you to the shops and back.
4. Put a small diesel powered generator next to the electric motor.
5. Add a $5 control pack to charge the batteries.
6. T-cut out the scratches and drive away.

Cost:- $1000, result 200mpg. Performance, same as a 30mpg BS Prius.

Problem: THE WORLD DOESN'T WANT IT.

 

Tesla Roadster has a base price of US$109,000 in the United States, GB£86,950 in the United Kingdom, A$191,888 in Australia, and ˆ84,000 in continental Europe.

 

Well that would just be conspicuous consumption...:devil:

 

Mass produced electric cars are a joke, a token effort made to make dumbshit celebrities feel green, when in reality there are the complete opposite.

Electric cars (with backup) should be cheaper than conventional cars and do 100-200mpg, but the oil companies don't want them, so you will continue being offered crap like the Toyota Pruis, the world's most polluting car to build. Drive it properly and get 30mpg, there are conventional cars in the UK, equally small inside to the Prius, that will do 80mpg. They will not kill the planet building them either.

A real electric car will take you 30 miles down the road, before you get out and push and then leave you stranded for a day. I had an old Ford like that years ago and took it down the junk yard.

Wise up guys!!

 

I can't see being able to do all that for $1000. I was looking at a Dodge Neon conversion for about $8K. Could probably pull off a real budget bare minimum EV for $5K with the right used parts. For a $1K EV car, best I could do is weld two electric scooters together and make some kind of rag top!

 

The point I am making is that the "technology" has been around for decades and we are being offered $100,000 dollar cars, or cars that will cover only 30 miles before you have to push them, or the total bullshit Prius. And we call this green technology, ha ha ha!

There is no reason why a mass produced electric/ICE backup car capable of up to 200mpg, with no range limit, should cost more than a convention cheap car. Two electric scooters and a rag top is a bodge, I am referring to mass production.

They already have a $1000 car in India, so even $1000 is possible, this really isn't rocket-science.

 

no, but a thousand dollar any car is 'exploitation-of cheap labor-science'...

 

I like my car and I would never pay to put any of that electric running shit in it

 

One word: Hemp. The industry tries to act all smart and developed, and yet is so thick. Makes me facepalm....

 

The electric car...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RESC54vHr40"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RESC54vHr40



:rofl:

 

People do it with forklift motors and a handful of batteries for a bit. Theres a guy who did a yugo for 800 bucks. But it topped out at like 25 and went like 13 miles on a charge, and he got tho car free, i think, and did plenty of fab work, etc.

The poster you quoted is full of shit, using a generator to drive motors is no better than a direct drive gas motor, and could be a lot worse, the attraction is with the ability to have a pure electric but still be able to gas up and go on a trip if you need.

To have a freeway worthy electric with more than the range of a toy, get ready for a 3-8k conversion cost, with more always being better, more range and power.

and probly 10k+, as a conservative estimate, for the drift car i'd like to build.