I have seriously been considering retrofitting a pre-existing gasoline car into an electric car if only because I cannot buy an electric car from any car company. Toyota has taken the lead with the hybrid cars but I can't understand why they won't go all the way. Especially now with George Jr. and the Bushmen driving the price of gasoline so high. I know that the demand is out there. It seems to me like there's a lot of money to be made. Does anyone else agree?
Full electric just can't compete with the usability of the gasoline car in the hearts of red-blooded, peddle-to-the-metal, American drivers. What electric car can carry 4 people and their luggage four or five hundred miles at a time doing 65mph? And then do it again after a five minute refuling. Yeah, the pieces are all there. We have good motors and batteries, but they are still way too big, too heavy, and too slow to charge and we can't meet all the requirements at once. When the average Joe driver can trade in his gas dino for an electric, and not change his routine, then we might start really demanding EV's. This is why the hybrid is such a fantastic step in the right direction. We don't have to change a thing about our behavior to use these cars*. But, it adapts us to the idea of actually using electric transportation. Then the plug-in models start showing up and the pioneering ones amoung us show everybody how easy that is to do. Just plug her in at night for a big MPG boost. If you forget, no big deal, you just loose some MPG instead of not being able to frive the car. Then, as the battery tech progresses, we just ween ourselves onto EV, a little at a time. There is probably a current demand for full EV's, but nowhere near enough yet for an actual production model. For now, they will stay conversions and demos. *Didn't forget about all the MPG improving stuff we can do, but the whole point is you don't have to if you don't want to.
After the installation of buried power grids and electrical tracks to facilitate in-motion recharging, electric cars will be a better alternative.
yeah, you are right to that! have you heard of bio diesel? i guess that would make gasoline cheaper. an alternative. there are millions of consumers, could use up evrything in our resources.
Remember the GM EV1? They decided there wasn't a large enough market and got rid of them. EV1 vigil article
I do have a question about the idea of electric cars. I know the Prius Batteries are recyclable? But the batteries that would be best suited for this situation I'm guessing wouldn't be recyclable? So, when you start filling cars with banks of batteries, aren't you creating a new problem for the environment when these things start breaking? Such things as Lead, Acid or Mercury? Not to mention the newer Li-Poly batteries are a fire hazard. Just curious.
