EVcast #1: Electric Cars -- Past, Present, and Future

Well, I am a bit confused, the available models that you mentioned, none of them really work in terms of any practical application. However, I found a project in Finland, they are doing lithium battery conversions to new and used cars, these cars will be available late 2008. To start off, they are using a european spec Toyota Corolla, a decent size car, it will travel at 75 miles per hr for a distance of up to 300 kms.(just under 200 miles) I am not sure what the payload figure is but still, it is 4dr sedan with room for 5 people. These figures are totally within reason, and the cost of the car is about 25000 Euros. Now, that is pretty expensive on the whole, but then Finland has a very high motor vehicle tax, so that is part of the reason. But even at that, if you think about the whole package, it seems like a way to go.
Thanks for your efforts guys.
Harry

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"Practical" is all relevant of course.  I do agree, however, that for most people these solutions are not practical.  I have not put my money down on any of these current options because they are not practical for me.  They are step in the right direction.  From all current sources, it looks like we will not be seeing "practical" EVs here in the US until late 2009 / 2010.

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The audio needs to be balanced better between speakers. If I turn up the volume to hear the guest, my eardrums are blown out when the host speaks.

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Are you guys going to put some feed aggregators on the site so We can get the podcast on our iPods?

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Click on the "Subscribe to this Podcast
via iTunes!" link on the left side, or click on the RSS logo at the top of this screen

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Can you please give a list of companies working on electric cars and there projected release dates.

You mentioned the Volt.
I know about Zenn Motor with the cityZENN projected release of Fall 2009.

Also, are you worried about other ways the EV's could be killed off, like viable alternative fuels like the Algae oil where they look to be able to produce up to 10,000 gallons p/a a year. It would be much better to be able to use all the vehicles we have instead of scraping all of them.

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Zenn is a 4th company. The only car that looks conventional. Read their press releases for a high speed car coming out in 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsBkxFS4lag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M88k6Ipp3c

Easily best EV on market.

PV produces the equilivent of 180,000 gallons per acre per year.

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We did not include NEV (neighborhood EVs) because a) there are many of them and b) they are really a niche product.  However, the cityZENN promised can possibly be the first EV to really change the industry forever.  I am sure we will do a whole show on this one soon.

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Oh really?It has been around for over 100 years? I think why they ignore it before is because they haven't experience the financial crisis but now EVs are all over the world because of our economic crisis. Most EV are made by Asian like Mitsubishi, Toyota etc. I think other manufacturer can do better like Mercedes but what I don't like is mercedes benz parts are so expensive.

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Well EV's are great. Just wondring how much power will it consume for <a href http://www.truckpartsdiscount.com/>Truck Parts</a>? Trucks are big, highly powered vehicles. So can Electricity power trucks alone?

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Moreover,<a href http://www.truckpartsdiscount.com/>Truck Parts</a> needs much electricity for them to work properly. Especially the truck engine of course.

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Moreover,<a href="http://www.truckpartsdiscount.com/">Truck Parts</a> needs much electricity for them to work properly. Especially the truck engine of course.

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