Just shows how much oil controls the market. If you can do that, what the hell is stopping major car manufacturers from doing it!
johnn,
Feb 13, 2:49am
The cost of the batteries, the length of charge time, the limited range.to name a few things
rob_man,
Feb 13, 2:53am
There was an early 80s Mirage running around West Auckland on batteries a few years ago. Haven't seen it for yonks.
moosie_21,
Feb 13, 3:15am
You can't tell me that car manufacturers couldn't make better batteries with quick recharge times tho! I'm all for keeping petrol cars, but I'm just saying it's being held back by corporate greed.
Why so sad! Turn that frown upside down :)
vtecintegra,
Feb 13, 3:42am
Its just not easy to do.The current way of thinking is batteries that can quickly be swapped - just exchange your flat pack for a fully charged one at a service station of you're in a hurry, otherwise charge overnight
Range is still comparatively poor though
lugee,
Feb 13, 3:45am
Battery tech isn't up there enough yet to make electric cars universally viable. And it won't be the end of high runninjg costs either when they finally do become viable, when this happens the electricity providers will almost own the transport industry and will go down the same route as oil companies have.
vtecintegra,
Feb 13, 4:24am
That auction shows a three year old electric vehicle (if you could call it that) that already has stuffed batteries.Not exactly an advertisement for the technology.
unideck,
Feb 13, 5:03am
Fish, call me, I have a 800cca battery you can have if that helps, 110ma off the Discovery TD5 just put a new 1000cca on so this is spare. I am in Thames tomorrow too ;)
intrade,
Feb 13, 5:11am
the guy is on youtube . he scrapped it the mitsu$hitti faild wof on structural rust .
intrade,
Feb 13, 5:12am
wotch the movie who killed the electric car to see what is going on and why we still dont have electric cars .
solarboy,
Feb 13, 5:25am
Didn't read the article that I indicated and that's highlighted again in your post did you !
unideck,
Feb 13, 5:30am
You got mail Fish ;)
solarboy,
Feb 13, 5:36am
Same crap, different poster. Ignorance is bliss I guess, that's the only "hurdle'"Read the widely known facts posted in the auction in my earlier post. We have 65% renewable power in the national grid and surplus overnight power generating capacity. Plenty of existing electric vehicles around the world are powering their vehicles from their rooftop solar arrays too so there's no shortage of ELECTRIC power.
sw20,
Feb 13, 6:23am
I like electric cars. If they were cheap enough I'd use one to commute in. They are not for long distance, they are commuter cars and city cars. 160km per charge seems to be the norm at the moment with available models around the world. Over 90% of Kiwi drivers would do less than 160km a day currently.
The downside at the moment is the price. The i-MIEV from Mitsubishi is probably be going to be the first electric car available here, and at $70k or so, rather expensive.
However to charge your car from flat to fully charged overnight will cost roughly $3.50. How many diesels, let alone petrol cars, can get 160km from $3.50 worth! Once the cost of the car is brought down to a more sensible level they will catch on.
drog,
Feb 13, 1:35pm
We could try a lot harder in all areas.http://wiki.answers.c- om/Q/What_is_the_record_mpg_fo- r_a_car
bigmuz1,
Feb 13, 1:39pm
Read an article about some guy in the states working on an electric car concept where the car would be free, but you would have to just pay for the recharges. he was designing robotic roadside changers that could take the battery pack out and replace it with a fully charged one in under 2 minutes, without even getting out of the car. Sounded like a great concept, dunno if it ever got off the ground
jkm,
Feb 13, 1:39pm
If electric cars become viable then the Government will have to slap a road user tax, similar to diesel tax, on them.
bigmuz1,
Feb 13, 2:51pm
Too late, they already have! there was talk of them being removed, but you certainly used to have to get RUC's exactly like diesel's do, don't know what the rates were tho
jsbike,
Feb 13, 4:10pm
Anyone seen "who killed the electric car"!
ginga4lyfe,
Feb 13, 4:33pm
it may be sacrilege, but a really good donor body may be a Mini body, plenty of space, lightweight as anything, and plenty of space to dump a electric engine inside it, only you would have to destroy the rear seating area in favor of Batteries, millions of Li-po batteries may be the best way to go, small lightweight, hi output, lastlong, But the only problem is, if one blows up, you got a MAJOR problem, and most likely will lead to death
sw20,
Feb 13, 4:58pm
Yep not a bad doco, but hardly points the finger firmly at any one cause.
elect70,
Feb 13, 6:11pm
Never catch on enough to be cost effective until , another major oil shock pushing price to $US 500 a bbl. Even the hybrids losing some of their initial favourregardless of how many actors buy them in the misguidedidea of being green . . Electricity is continuing to increase in price too . LikeCNGgone &few LPGcars around, dont think any makers doing dedicated LPG anymore , ford Austried it for while . Aint no conspiracy .
vtecintegra,
Feb 13, 7:10pm
Yes I read it.While that is impressive its hardly a practical vehicle when its stuffed with batteries and as pointed out in the article that is hardly normal driving.
If you put a giant petrol tank in the petrol equivalent and drove like that you could probably get thousands of miles
The Chevy Volt (made by GM, for fans of "Who Killed the Electric Car!") is out now and has a waiting list of about 30,000 buyers in the US. 55-80 ks of pure electric range and another 300 or so ks of petrol/hybrid range if you run out of charge. Awesome vehicle but quite expensive for now. http://www.gm-volt.com
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