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January 2010 Posts
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[1:20:55] Join Bo, Ryan, Sean, and Miss Electric (Shannon) for a entertaining look at this week's news and major issues. Listen for the new disaster movie trailer about EVs!
In this episode:
Don't just listen to the EVcast -- experience and be a part of it! Join us at 1:00pm Eastern, M-F, in our live video broadcast and chat along with us!
Great title! - Sorry I couldn't join you at 4:30 am this morning (Down under) but I had a late night and 2 hours sleep is not enough. I'll watch it at my leasure today.Eric
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I just wanted to comment about Conservative versus Liberal opinion on EV. I am as Fiscally conservative as it gets. I feel that EVs are a great idea. As prices drop, they begin to make financial sense. If we couple EVs with increased alternative energy sources we should see a reduction in oil dependency.One reason I feel EVs have met such resistance in the market place arises from the mindset of many early EV companies. The marketing strategies have been "it will save the planet, you should buy my ugly tiny electric toy car". Tesla seems to have the right idea, build a car that is badass and happens to be electric. Americans, I believe, would be more prone to buy an EV that was advertised as a car not as a I-am-helping-save-the-planet Badge. People want comfortable cars. Build EVs that look like cars, drive like cars, and sell like cars and you will see more sales. EV-Car-Co has the right idea, build dealerships. If I am car shopping, I don't want to put a large deposit on a "waiting" list for a car still in development. I want to put my butt in a seat, test drive it, haggle over price, then drive my new ride home. Sell EVs like cars and they will sell.I would love to see some savvy entreprenuer work with "green" minded companies to set up an employee discount for buying an EV. Offer perks to employees such as premium parking with available charge stations. This allows the company to tout their Green Credentials. Slip in solar panel farms on the corporate grounds to run the charge stations and suddenly Mister Evil Corporate Giant is Mr. Socially Conscious Civic Partner. I am in Memphis, TN and wish people had the mindset here to become early adopters of the EV technology. With the recent announcement of GreenTech's billion dollar hybrid/fuel efficient car plant in Tunica, Ms (less than 30 miles from Memphis), maybe we will develop the mindset that Green isn't just a tree-hugger belief.If I had the capital, I would be the Memphis area dealer for EV-Car-Co. This is just my two Ultra-Conservative Cents worth.
Hi Bo & Ryan,Great show today and very funny too!About the Coulomb fast charging: There is another company that do the fast charging for fleets and industrial plants. It is Aerovironment http://www.avinc.com/engineering/mvs_fast_charging_system). This is the company that Nissan hired to install home chargers for the Leaf. It seems that they have been doing fast charging for years( some of their videos can also be found in http://www.posicharge.com/). As I understand it, the Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) can be charged to a maximum of 3C or 3x higher than its current rating. For example if the battery is rated at 100AH (ampere hour), you can charge it up to 300 amps, resulting in "minutes" of charging instead of hours. duty cycle of the charge varies with higher currents, much like the discharging characteristics.
John... That's some fast charger. Let's think... 300Amps at around 200Volts, that works out at 60,000 Watts; and that's just for one car. They'll need their own power station to run them !!!Eric
Hi guys! As always, enjoyed the show!
I must disagree that Mr Lutz explaining how the all-electric range drops in cold weather was a PR gaffe, for a couple of reasons. As has been pointed out in the Evcast before, unmet expectations in terms of the range for an EV is a big complaint of many. It is better to be honest and upfront about the range of your batteries from the beginning- and the American Public will need a lot of education and time to understand this. Additionally, this drop in range in the Winter makes for a wonderful segue into how the Volt’s Extended Range Electric Vehicle is better than other offerings that are all-electric- that sly fox, Bob Lutz;-)
John - thanks for the info on Aerovironment...I believe we mentioned that as well on a recent show; the company also makes "drones" for the military.
Paul - you make a good point. Highlighting the reduced range in cold weather and the need to use the range-extender for longer trips highlights the fact that you WON'T get stuck, as you might with an all-electric. (Kind of reminds me of the job interview strategy for answering the dreaded "What is your biggest weakness?" with "I am a perfectionist, so I can be too hard on myself" or "Because I am so committed to my work, I neglect my family by always putting the company first"). By the way, Lutz was quoted in the same article as saying: "The Volt has to be absolutely perfect and it’s got to perform exactly as advertised when it comes out." He's setting realistic expectations, and also subtly highlighting the advantage of the range-extender v. electric. Wait a second...that can't be right...when has Lutz ever been subtle?
The idea that EVs would overload the grid reminds me of a similar event in history.
Some years ago, politicians and environmentalists were pushing to change the law so that all new toilets could only use 1.6 gallons per flush. rather than the customary (for the time), 3.5 gallons per flush. Less than 50% of the water. Well, you can imagine the concerns. Would sewage be able to flow through the sewer system with only 3.5 gallons per flush. We would be creating a disaster with sewage backing up into our houses all for the sake of saving a few gallons of water. It would clearly be a mess that these dang environmentalists are going to cause.
Sure the people that ran the sew system said it was no problem. But that doesn't mean the news media won't find a Joe-The-Plumber to put on the tube to say he is worried.
Of course, much like EVs, new toilets would only be added very slowly over time. So it would be decades before large numbers of new toilets were going to effect the sewer system.
Fast forward to today, and get what, low flush toilets are no problem and no one even thinks about them anymore.
Not a good analogy to use with me John! in 1997 when we built our house the law in MA was a max of 1.0 gallons per flush. For 12 YEARS I played "Roto Rooter" man plunging every toilet for myself and my kids no matter what we had for dinner the night before. When I did not need to break out the plunger, I had to flush 4-5 times. Not only was this a huge waste of water, but a major annoyance. The state of MA realized this eventually and change the law back to 1.6 gallons. A few months ago we replaced all our toilets and we have yet to need to flush more than once, or take out that dreaded plunger. Moral of the story, sometimes the concerns are legit and sometimes actions do have negative side-effects, but we as people will usually get it right in the end.
" That's some fast charger. Let's think... 300Amps at around 200Volts, that works out at 60,000 Watts; and that's just for one car. They'll need their own power station to run them !!!"- That's the physics of it. Power is power, energy is energy. No way to get around it. The Posicharge even have a system up to 80kW. I think anything that big requires some really serious power system design. Demand & need will dictate whether public fast charging stations will be built or not.
Clifton,While some of our products still look like "tiny toy electric cars," we are doing EV conversions of existing highway cars now. Further we've taking a marketing approach just as you've suggested since we opened in Summer of '08 in MIDDLE TENNESSEE. We have some bigger news updates coming over the next couple of days, but you can learn a little more here http://www.verdegoh.comAlso, we're getting funding in place for Chattanooga and Knoxville right now. Memphis is on the list bit a little further down. Thanks to the EV Cast crew and all its readers for your support of the movement!
