Snobike Mike
Banned
It is white but I haven't been out that way this week.
|
|
|
Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?
- Thread starter PrivatePilot
- Start date
It is white but I haven't been out that way this week.
Snobike Mike
Banned
Lol!!!
Yes there are lots of white ones because that's the "free" color (along with black but I'm not having a black car ever again....).
Such a sweet car...great sound! Neighbour has a 335xi with tuned exhaust (can't remember name...starts with B?) but when he starts it up...I think it moves a little every time.
Does anyone (Brian P I am looking at you) know why they aren't putting heatpumps in these electric cars? They already have most of the parts for A/C, they just need a few more parts and it would heat the car much more efficiently than electric grids. Hell, if heat is the biggest problem, they should directly burn the fuel in a tiny heater as opposed to running an engine to heat up the car (didn't VW do this at some point?).
technically, its a "plug in" hybrid. not a true hybrid.
They and others actually leap frogged electric car tech by getting ahead on Hydrogen power cars. ZERO emissions, 5 min filling, and long range! and no silly plugging in your car every night.
The challenge for automakers and whats stopping this from taking off is setting up filling station infrastructure. The same problem Tesla is having with their supercharging stations.
look up the Honda Clarity sometime....
Heat pumps are not suited for something like automotive use where rapid heating is required, and they become ineffective (or horribly inefficient) below a certain ambient temperature.
The heat output also has a very low delta T, so at best one would receive lukewarm air through the vents if it's anything below 0 outside.
Heatpumps are ok for slow heating applications, or *maintaining* the temp of al already heated structure, but not at all useful for the rapid heating most expect for a car.
I'd say the Voltec is a lot more sophisticated overall with the variety of modes it offers and as you said has a battery with a meaningful size to handle most of shorter runs purely off the battery in its EV mode. So the similarity ends really quickly, in my view.
Don't be silly. Anyone who follows the developments knows that Honda's fuel cell is called a fool cell actually, because it tries to convince us that "widely" available and "easily" stored and transported hydrogen is the magical pill. Sorry, only a fool would think that a supercharging station networks are more expensive or difficult to implement than hydrogen refueling stations.
I am actually pleasantly surprised that Ontario Liberals didn't offer taxpayers money to Honda to bring the cars here ... they are certainly stupid enough to fall for it, like California.
I am not against exploring the avenues, but it's fairly clear that electricity widely available in the distribution network today will be the "next" fuel, not the one coming from hydrogen fuel cell.
I actually cannot believe that you'd pull the Honda Clarity card out of your magic hat ... seriously??
By the way, what's the replacement cost on a Civic hybrid or Accord hybrid battery?
The ones in the Beetles were horribly unreliable, and when they did work they basically had one heat setting – hot lava.
It's not a bad idea however, commercial vehicles use a very similar system except they typically burn diesel - google "Espar cab heat".
I'm not sure how efficient they are in the grand scheme of things however, but when compared to a 13L diesel idling all night to keep the cab warm verses an Espar, they win. Not sure the math would be the same for a gasoline fired one however, I would think they would be some serious safety related concerns using gasoline versus diesel as well.
Slightly relevant...my buddy has a RAM1500 Hemi (Rat Pack or whatever) and it's been converted to propane a few years back. It's a work truck that's putting on a stupid amount of kms / week. When we drove to Montreal a few years back, I drove my Civic (Si) and he drove that thing....I paid $60 to fill up my gas tank, he paid $23 to fill up 100L of propane. I think the conversion was like $5k but it works for him.
I remember in Poland when gas prices were through the roof, everyone was converting to propane/nat gas because the savings were ridiculous and made all types of sense. Now with more diesels driving around, no one is doing the conversion anymore as their L/100km is so low it's no longer worth it.
I remember in Poland when gas prices were through the roof, everyone was converting to propane/nat gas because the savings were ridiculous and made all types of sense. Now with more diesels driving around, no one is doing the conversion anymore as their L/100km is so low it's no longer worth it.
They're actually very different, with the Accord being the more familiar 'parallel' drive type, while the Volt is a 'series' hybrid. Also the Volt can be charged off the grid (plug-in), which is a feature usually found on hybrids with large battery capacities.
But in the final analysis you're right. What matters when it comes to savings is the car's battery-only range, and the Volt is in a league of its own amongst hybrids in that respect. But it's no EV.
It's a true hybrid.
Stop jerking off on Honda's hydrogen hysteria and start getting educated on the tech that works.
-D-
Banned
funny thing is in 2000-2006 or so the EV cars were already here, they even had RAV 4's and the small Ford trucks.
Death of the Electric car documentary.
It's funny watching today how they make it seem like they are just starting out.
Think about it, computer in 2000 vs today...cellphone today vs. then...but somehow they can't figure out a decent Hybrid.
In that documentary, GM bought some advanced battery patents and I think sold it to Shell who then put it in the basement.
When you can buy a car that does the job for $10k less...that's a lot of gas to burn before you get to the cost of the hybrid/EV.
Death of the Electric car documentary.
It's funny watching today how they make it seem like they are just starting out.
Think about it, computer in 2000 vs today...cellphone today vs. then...but somehow they can't figure out a decent Hybrid.
In that documentary, GM bought some advanced battery patents and I think sold it to Shell who then put it in the basement.
When you can buy a car that does the job for $10k less...that's a lot of gas to burn before you get to the cost of the hybrid/EV.
Snobike Mike
Banned
Indeed. It's an electric revolution that never was:
http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/motor-mouth-an-electric-revolution-that-never-was
There's a lot of rumors, stories etc. in regards to who and how really the electric car was killed ... but I think very few individuals really know, while we all think we do know.
Just the things you listed, smartphones, computers ... they took off because the necessary revolution, so to speak, made it possible ... smaller, more efficient chips made the devices smaller and affordable for the critical mass to play role. With EV car, we are very slowly getting there, because the battery breakthrough has not really happened yet. All we see is older technologies being made more and more efficient, sort of like ICE being better and better, opposed to what it used to be.
EV's will need a kick, so the batteries (or energy storage) of the future can push the technology down to all cars not just high-end Tesla's and being affordable (under 40K CAD) without crazy high tax payer driven incentives. People smarter than me have stated that it will be impossible to reach should the batteries still look like a lithium based can, connected together in a pack, because there are cost and design limitation due to basic principles of physics. Is it a good middle step? Certainly, but unfortunately not for everyone ...
Last edited:
Make gas cost around $3-5/L and then you will see a MASSIVE increase in the amount of electric/hybrid vehicles and models available...every time there is an increase in small fuel efficient cars when gas goes up...gas goes down a bit and then boom everyone goes back and trucks are back selling like hotcakes. People are stupid, they need to be hit where it hurts in order to make an actual change in lifestyle choices.
Snobike Mike
Banned
Aside from killing the economy, a surge of that proportion on the electrical grid will render it toast so that too is not feasible.
|
|
|
|
|