Electric Cars

[WylieCoyote]

I was wondering the other day 'why, in this day and age have we not got commercially useable electric cars?'

It's a serious point - why?

Got me pondering futher. SURELY in 2008 we more than have the technology. In 1969 we landed a man on the moon and flew at twice the speed of sound. In the last nearly 40 years we've conquered space, we're getting there with conquering the oceans, the medical miracles we can perform just boggles the mind, we've cloned a sheep, a household computer is now incredibly powerful - you can buy a powerful computer that fits into the palm of your hand, a phone that tells you exactly in the world where you are and so on. I can pick up my phone now and talk to anyone I want instantly anywhere in the world. The scientific stuff we can do is just mind blowing.

So, why, in 2008 can we 'not' build electric cars. Why is it so difficult? IS IT that difficult? I think not. The BMW 5 series is well-credited with having more computing power than the Apollo 11 space mission for heavens sake.

Surely getting someone with a white coat and lots of pens in their pocket to solder a few batteries together and link them to a motor to drive wheels is not difficult.

I think we can do it - I think we more than have the technology to do a hell of a lot more than just build an electric car. I think the problem is, the manufacturers are not allowed to do it. Onto my conspiracy theory. I'm sure that governments ban the production and implementation of fully electric cars. Let's face it - how many people would buy one? I sure as hell would. I'd be first in the showroom. I don't think I'd be anywhere near alone either

Problem is, if lots of people suddenly buy electric cars that are functional and sensibly priced, demand for traditional fuel would plummet - which would be a HUGE revenue loss for every government. This is at the centre of why I believe they don't exist - governments and people in power would lose too much money.

I think we have the technology to build an electric car - I even think we have the technology to build an electric car that can stand up on it's back wheels and dance the funky chicken but fo some reason, they hold back.

Just my little theory :)

[Parthiban]

I totally agree with you mate, I think there has been pressure on the car manufacturers to hold back on the technology. Similar to how there's been a big push for diesels just before an astronomical rise in diesel prices.........

[Mike_B]

There is one massive problem with electric cars - they take ages to charge up. I filled up my GS with an enormous quantity of energy yesterday, in the form of petrol. It took about 3 minutes at the pump, and enough energy was fed into the car to propel the 1.8 ton behemoth for 300ish miles with unseemly haste. That amount of energy fits into a small space somewhere under the back seat. If I should not happen to use the car for a couple of months, it will start right back up with exactly the same amount of fuel in the tank as when I left it. Batteries just can't do that.

Batteries just don't have the energy density and take too long to charge. Half the boot on the GS450h is given over to batteries and they can barely propel it for a mile or so. The only way to make electrically driven cars work properly is to use fuel cells rather than batteries - but hydrogen is incredibly difficult to store and transport, not to mention expensive to make and explosive if it leaks. If batteries could be made so much better, why aren't we seeing them in laptops and phones, where they would be genuinely useful and no threat to tax revenue?

I really don't buy the conspiracy theory argument. Government are notoriously incompetent in most aspects of their work, yet people will willingly believe they can accurately and consistently bury information about alien invasions, World Trade Centre controlled demolitions, and 'powering cars using only water' etc. Sorry, it'd be nice if it was true, but it just isn't. Besides which, the revenues from licensing and manufacturing such technology would lead to far greater tax revenues in countries such as Japan or Korea where they have no natural resources beyond the ingenuity of their inhabitants. One could readily understand why oil-rich countries, even first world ones not totally dependent on oil revenue (such as the UK or Finland), might wish to suppress such technology, but this doesn't explain why countries who would gain from it haven't managed to achieve it either.

One quick question though - how would you make the electricity needed to charge the cars, and why would that not lead to income stream to replace that of oil taxes?

[The Editor]

Dilithium Crystals - That's the answer !!!

The Ed

[dave1]

The cars that they say you can charge overnight from your home mains electricty supply are no more eco friendly than normally fuelled cars. How is the electricity produced???

With oil prices rising so fast, electricity prices are also massively up. The cost of the car, charging costs and the limited range and versatilaty would appear to negate electrically powered cars as a viable alternative.

[Ryo]

i got a vision of a huuuge warehouse somewhere in the world with all the technology parked up, all the formulas for turning a petrol car into one that runs on water and all the other magical and wakky ideas that will put the big oil barrons out of business. you can just imagine it cant you, joe bloggs from barnsley invents a super fuel solution, that will release the need for oil... the oil companies and the governments think this....

1. think of all the tax were going to loose from oil revenue,

2 oil comapines think , crap were doomed.

lets buy it for 20million, then it will never see the light of day again :)

its all business and crap ;)

but i have 100% beleif that when things really hit the fan and resources get seriously low, no one will get oil only military and the oil companies will bring a miracle out just when we needs one.

i was playing a puter game a while ago, and i think it will end up like this in the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdaMM6akPXU

watch the vid and think :)

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

Eco Diesel - made from plants. Fitted with particulate filters etc this could be a very clean technology. So where is it?

Diesel engines were originally invented to run on oil, so the technology is already there. I just cannot beleive that we don't have the like of Toyota actually making and marketing cars that can legitimately run on cooking oil. I know you can run older diesels on chip fat (as shown on Pulling Power a while back) which is recycled. I wouldn't try it, and even then the government will want you to own up and pay the duty! It's also pobably to do with the standard of oil and the fact that some idiot might not strain it and let the chips go in too!

Mind you - I went to ASDA the other day and did notice that a litre of "Spry crisp and dry" was more expnsive then derv though...reason...??? 'cos the lorry that delivers it runs on standard diesel so it's transportation costs are high due to the price of crude .

[Mike_B]

Eco Diesel - made from plants. Fitted with particulate filters etc this could be a very clean technology. So where is it?

Diesel engines were originally invented to run on oil, so the technology is already there. I just cannot beleive that we don't have the like of Toyota actually making and marketing cars that can legitimately run on cooking oil. I know you can run older diesels on chip fat (as shown on Pulling Power a while back) which is recycled. I wouldn't try it, and even then the government will want you to own up and pay the duty! It's also pobably to do with the standard of oil and the fact that some idiot might not strain it and let the chips go in too!

Well, there is the small problem - I seem to remember reading somewhere that to make enough vegetable oil to run the UKs vehicle fleet, you would require a field 20% bigger than the whole of the UK. Aren't global food prices high enough already? That said, compulsory recycling of used vegetable oil into motor fuel would seem a sensible if very small step.

Diesel engines still do run on oil, that's why the V5 of a diesel car will state 'heavy oil' in the box for 'fuel type'...

[LennyLexus]

I was wondering the other day 'why, in this day and age have we not got commercially useable electric cars?'

It's a serious point - why?

Its all poli-tricks of the "west". The technology has long existed to make this viable, the diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil but the US government destroyed the plans and paid the inventors off. Biofuels is now been branded as un-eco friendly before its even taken off.

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I was thinking of buying 11 arces and growing my own fuel (more BHP as well), 2'000 litres tax free for each member of the family, and stick two fingers up at them.

Mods edit this post if against club T&C's.

[TigerFish]

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What a load of rubbish.

[flotsam]

And why don't we uise something like the Fischer Tropsch method for generating fuel AND carbon capture?

I'm waiting for the electric cars where you plug into the mains for CHEAP, CHEAP driving.

[Rikos]

I'm waiting for the electric cars where you plug into the mains for CHEAP, CHEAP driving.

Cheap motoring ......................... one hugely expensive electricity bill!!

[Noel]

end ranting .... the Japanese aren't bowing to OPEC ... :)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIAL/CARS...production.html

It's a start .... :D

[dave1]

I'm waiting for the electric cars where you plug into the mains for CHEAP, CHEAP driving.

Read my post 5 on this thread......CHEAP, CHEAP----Please let everyone into the secret of getting CHEAP electricity!

[Fargo]

money is what it comes down to, not in the oil producers interest to change yet.