The main drawback for electric cars for me is that they use batteries, which are not only very toxic but have a limited life span and their efficeny is drastically impacted by operating temperture, could you imagine trying to drive an electric car throught ariziona or alaska? not very practical...
The life span of my batteries is about 3-4 years; that's not too bad. And I run them all year. Around here, the temperature drops to -40C at night quite often, and -20C for weeks on end. All you need is insulation for the batteries. They are made of toxic materials, but it is all recyclable. Check the research: today, almost 98% of batteries are being recycled.
You said:
plus getting in an accident in an electric car could be hazard is, because of weight saving measures as well as the treat of being covered in really happy battery acid, which really helps the trees as well...
Modern batteries are composed of an acid gel, which doesn't spread like a liquid. And it isn't that corrosive; just wipe it off as soon as you can, and wash well at the next opportunity
Please be aware: You cannot generate power from a windmill attached to an electric car. You will waste more electricity moving the car than you will recover!
If you are parked for a long time in an open field, you could raise a windmill to try and pick up a standing breeze; you'd need a 12 foot prop to generate any significant energy, though.
I know of what I speak; I drive an electric car, and I took high school physics.<g>
I object to your lines: "Add to this that one big 3 automaker has pointed out how electrics are both hideously expensive"
That's only because they don't know how to build them. For instance, the GM EV1, a fine car, is built with: 1) an AC motor 2) a liquid cooling system 3) a special charging plug. None of these expensive features is needed in an electric car. The big companies are just used to doing things a certain way, and these concepts infect their EV designs.
I drive a custom built EV every day. No fancy charging circuit; just plug it in any wall plug. No fancy cooling system; don't need it. No fancy AC motor drive; I use a simple, cheap DC motor. {Sure the brushes will have to be replaced every 80,000 miles. Big deal. $10)
Not viable in Canada? Where do you get that from? There are 5 EV's on the road every day here in Ottawa. And they're not based on the National Research Council. They're based on the fact that Ottawa has a large community of retired and active engineers who realize how simple it is to build an electric car.
For example, my car has about 500 less moving parts than its gasoline eqivalent. And I have no:
Some of you are whining about "infrastructure". What problem? I can plug into an 110V AC socket. Home, work, visiting friends. No problem!
And, for those of you in Ontario, the only government support I could find is the Ontario Dept of Revenue: they will give you back your PST (Provincial Sales Tax) on an electric vehicle.
I got tired of it last year. I built an electric Miata for my own use. You can see picture of it here and here [That's the Corel building in the background.]
If you live in North America outside of California, and you want to drive an electric car, your choices are:
buy a modified Geo Metro from Selectria (a good car!)
build your own
So, that's what I did. I've been on the road since April, and driving this car is lots of fun! Silent! and fast: I've been over 130kph=82mph. It's become a bit of an "item" in the Corel parking garage!
I'd encourage anyone who can, to invest in an electric car. It's way better on the environment than any other form of currently available vehicle. [The Honda Insight is a close second: 80mpg and almost no CO emissions].
Pat Beirne Chief Engineer Corel
We've done that for a while
on
Linux BIOS
·
· Score: 4
At Rebel.com, we've had this kind of bios in the NetWinder since day 1. The original idea belongs to nettwerk (who's at VA now). The idea was that we wanted the NetWinder to be able to boot from: disk, zip drive, tftp, nfs or parallel-port-cdrom. The kernel knows how to do all that, so why not make a bios out of the kernel. PatB
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The life span of my batteries is about 3-4 years; that's not too bad. And I run them all year. Around here, the temperature drops to -40C at night quite often, and -20C for weeks on end. All you need is insulation for the batteries. They are made of toxic materials, but it is all recyclable. Check the research: today, almost 98% of batteries are being recycled.
You said:
Modern batteries are composed of an acid gel, which doesn't spread like a liquid. And it isn't that corrosive; just wipe it off as soon as you can, and wash well at the next opportunity
Please be aware: You cannot generate power from a windmill attached to an electric car. You will waste more electricity moving the car than you will recover!
If you are parked for a long time in an open field, you could raise a windmill to try and pick up a standing breeze; you'd need a 12 foot prop to generate any significant energy, though.
I know of what I speak; I drive an electric car, and I took high school physics.<g>
Pat Beirne
Corel
I object to your lines: "Add to this that one big 3 automaker has pointed out how electrics are both hideously expensive"
That's only because they don't know how to build them. For instance, the GM EV1, a fine car, is built with: 1) an AC motor 2) a liquid cooling system 3) a special charging plug. None of these expensive features is needed in an electric car. The big companies are just used to doing things a certain way, and these concepts infect their EV designs.
I drive a custom built EV every day. No fancy charging circuit; just plug it in any wall plug. No fancy cooling system; don't need it. No fancy AC motor drive; I use a simple, cheap DC motor. {Sure the brushes will have to be replaced every 80,000 miles. Big deal. $10)
Pat Beirne
Corel
Pat
For example, my car has about 500 less moving parts than its gasoline eqivalent. And I have no:
Instead, I have simply:
Real simiple.
Pat Beirne
Chief Engineer
Corel
Some of you are whining about "infrastructure". What problem? I can plug into an 110V AC socket. Home, work, visiting friends. No problem!
And, for those of you in Ontario, the only government support I could find is the Ontario Dept of Revenue: they will give you back your PST (Provincial Sales Tax) on an electric vehicle.
Pat
Beats me!
I got tired of it last year. I built an electric Miata for my own use. You can see picture of it here and here [That's the Corel building in the background.]If you live in North America outside of California, and you want to drive an electric car, your choices are:
- buy a modified Geo Metro from Selectria (a good car!)
- build your own
So, that's what I did. I've been on the road since April, and driving this car is lots of fun! Silent! and fast: I've been over 130kph=82mph. It's become a bit of an "item" in the Corel parking garage!I'd encourage anyone who can, to invest in an electric car. It's way better on the environment than any other form of currently available vehicle. [The Honda Insight is a close second: 80mpg and almost no CO emissions].
Pat Beirne
Chief Engineer
Corel
At Rebel.com, we've had this kind of bios in the NetWinder since day 1. The original idea belongs to nettwerk (who's at VA now). The idea was that we wanted the NetWinder to be able to boot from: disk, zip drive, tftp, nfs or parallel-port-cdrom. The kernel knows how to do all that, so why not make a bios out of the kernel. PatB