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Friday, December 9, 2011

Just as cell phones and personal computers did, I believe electric cars can evolve into a marketable product line.


First off, the range between recharges needs to extend well over 300-miles.  Next, the recharge time needs to drop from hours to minutes.  Third, recharge sites need to be as ubiquitous as gasoline filling stations.  Fourth, the unsubsidized purchase price needs to be competitive with conventional cars.  Fifth, battery life and electrical components should be fully guaranteed for five-years.  Finally, they should be as stylish, as roomy, as comfortable, and as fast as conventional cars.

I believe in the USA free market and I believe in the American People, and I believe that technological evolution results in lifestyle revolutions.  No government agency mandated iPods, iPhones, or iPads.  As this electric car business evolves, I can imagine some big-name big-box retailer offering low-cost recharge sites for shoppers followed by a big-name hotel/motel chain offering low-cost recharge sites for travelers.  If the automakers can capture the imagination of the American people as they did in the 1950s and 1960s, seeing the USA in your E-Chevrolet can become an adventure.  Every Mom and Pop business along the Old Route 66 can offer curbside recharge sites where the old curbside gasoline pumps used to be.


By at

3 comments:

  1. SteveDecember 9, 2011 at 2:48 PM

    0. The price of gasoline must increase.

    As long as the American driver can jump into his American Land Boat and pump cheap gas into it, there is zero incentive to change. There always must be incentive for change. In the case of things like the iPhone, it was the ability to do things that the consumer wanted to to at a reasonable price point. This includes keeping up with the Jones'.

    For things like transportation there is no such thing as a free market. Look at the Interstate highway system; billions of dollars has been pumped into it to subsidize the car industry and the petroleum industry. I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing*, but there is no "free market" here. It's difficult to find a free market anywhere these days.

    * Yes, I am willing to say that there are some very bad aspects to this, but that's a different discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaddyBearDecember 9, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I have to agree with Steve. It's going to take more than "it's just as good" to get me to leave a tried and true technology to something new and shiny. The cost of driving a petroleum powered car will have to be much more than the cost of driving a coal-powered car before I make the move.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 21, 2011 at 4:13 PM

    Without some basic new discoveries in physics it's not going to happen. The energy density of batteries just isn't there.

    The energy density of gasoline is about 45 MJ/kg.

    The best I know of is a lithium battery at about 1.3 MJ/KG but this has safety problems.

    A lead-acid battery has only .1 MJ/kg.

    Until these get closer together there are big problems, without worrying about the difference between refueling with gasoline and recharging.

    ReplyDelete

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