John & Angela wrote:
time2roll wrote:
With any luck these systems will be electric driven soon. NO belts on my electric vehicle.
Yep. On either of ours either. Also no hoses, air filters, oil filters, fuel filters, plug wires, spark plugs, etc etc etc. Oh and no fuel. Kinda cool going from 2000 moving parts to 18...and three of them are wipers. I bought a jug of washer fluid two years ago, just finished it. So about 2.29 total maintenance for two vehicles for two years.
Now we just need someone to get a viable 1/2 ton on the market. Yah I know EV's are not a panacea but they work for us.
You've painted a fairly positive picture of electric cars..with seemingly few negatives. But there certainly is the range issue, especially in very cold, rural climates with many miles to travel between Point A and point B...and few if any charging areas within these long, hard distances. It's one thing to try to eke out extra distance by traveling slow while carefully monitoring how much electric power is left in San Diego...quite another when it's -34 below in Saskatchewan or Montana and you've still got a fair distance to go...but the batteries discharged quicker than anticipated in the above mentioned deep freeze.
How much does it cost to replace the batteries ? I've heard quite expensive. I think the batteries are warranted for around 8 years or so....but given the expense of replacing it, I wonder what the resale value would be of an electric car at around 7 years.
Electric cars have their place in cities and as a second car for in town running around, but if all you can afford is one vehicle and you have to have it be a jack of all trades in range, varying weather and it has to be ready to go for multi members of the family...than maybe it's not as practical as needed.
Still at this point I see it as a vehicle for the technologically adventurous who can afford to have an electric vehicle as a second, perhaps a third car, but not the main and only family vehicle.
Will the all electric vehicle eventually get there and be able to be considered as the one and only vehicle for one family with multi drivers and handle a variety of mileage range driving at any time of the day/night...used by different family members ?
Certainly as the technology progresses. But for now, I think lack of range/charging time has been the bugaboo to wider use by people.
I could be wrong, but I think it may of been Jay Leno who said that the modern electric car mile range was not significantly better that his old 19 teen... something... Baker Electric.
The electric only car still seems to be a second or third vehicle for the enthusiast * with extra cash flow...or the an individual whose driving pattern is predictable, relatively low mileage.
* BTW, I'm an enthusiast that fits this bill, only no electric cars...but I do have a couple of vintage motorcycles that piqued my interest over the years.
Again, electric power has a long way to go as a practical alternative to the internal combustion engine...particularly the modern variety...low emissions, very good efficiency and ability to fuel up almost everywhere. No it's not perfect, but then neither is the all electric car.
I do think that hybrid..electric paired with IC engine and an efficient regenerative system to recharge is a very good option, one that we may consider down the road.
