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February 2010 Posts
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[1:33:51]
Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield and Guests Marc Geller and Alef Arendsen as they discuss the week's news in the EV world. This show also contains a tribue to those killed earlier this week from Tesla Motors. Show notes below. This show is sponsored by EVcarco.com.
News:
BYD - are they copycats? - (original story link)
Volt undergoing cold weather testing in Canada.
Volvo aren't going electric for North America, but will release C30 electric to Europe.
Washington State to introduce $100 EV tax?
GM canada supports $1.4m of research in Ottawan University, Ca.
Amsterdam's big incentive grants to businesses to go green.
Nissan Leaf advert - another ad with the Ev at the end.
EVcarco announce deal with TazzariZero.
Jerry Flint - Says the leaf will fail.
Tribue to Tesla employees killed in plane crash earlier this week.- by Chelsea Sexton.
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!
Thanks for the show, Nikki, Marc and Alef- enjoyed it as always!
What's the saying- imitation is the greatest form of flattery? China must ADORE capitalists then;-) Honestly though- I would be more concerned with the quality of what comes out of China more than what they may have copied- until they have developed a proven product, their track record for manufacturing safe and reliable goods is against them- the Yugo comes to mind for comparison, if y'all remember that 80's offering. Still, it will be had to ignore any country that has a cheap labor force numbering over a billion.
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How did I miss this. Aptera was on Jay Leno's Garage. 10 minutes.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/at-the-garage/electric/aptera-electric-car/
Why does it seem so hard to envision swappable batteries? I have worked in warehouses for 22 years. Our electric lifts run swappable batteries. Gets low, change it. When it gets changed ya log it, check the water, service it, and charge it. How Hard is it to realize the beauty? Rented battery goes bad and its someone elses problem. I own the battery and it goes bad, dang I need to refinance my house to replace the battery pack. I love the idea of a swappable battery. To make people more comfortable, a small trailer with a generator to rent for long trips would be okay. I mean seriously Uhaul rents trailers, why not generator trailers.
Hi Clifton- I see several problems with swapping the battery packs in EV's- first, you are not swapping a small battery for a forklift or two, but batteries for thousands of cars in a given area that each weigh several hundred pounds.
Additionally, you are likely to get very different battery packs in terms of perfomance- you may take care of your pack, but the previous user of the next pack you get swapped with out may not have- so now you get 65 miles on a charge when you expected 100 miles- or you run out of juice or the battery fails and you are 20 miles from a swap station- now you have issues with who is responsible for this cost- which is going to be you even if Better Place 'pays' for it- the cost will come back to you in your leasing fee.
Also, since not all automakers, if not most, will want to conform their cars to one size fits all, your own EV choices will be very limited.
Lastly- instead of paying for one, installed battery pack, which is expensive, you now have to pay for multiple packs and the infrastructure to swap them out. In batteries, as in any other industry, leasing is never cheaper for the consumer- that's why car companies like them so much- but there will be much more overhead in this type of 'lease.' than a regular car, so you will pay proportionately more.
And Better Place wants to build this even as many battery companies are developing and building new and better batteries, some of which hold the promise of being able to take a quick charge- it would be cheaper to build quick charge stations, the cost of which will be borne by the small quickie-stores for the same reason they install gas pumps, to bring you into their store to buy over-priced bear and bread. Also, with the nature of most of our driving habits and daily range, the vast majority of EV's will be able to be charged overnight and have NO NEED of having their batteries swapped out. I foresee that there will not be many quick charge stations built in town, but more on the Highways between cities for longer trips. Even with current technology, the Nissan Leaf will have two plugs on it- one for 110 or 220 volt charging- the other for 440 volt, 3-phase fast charging, that will quick-charge the battery from 0 to 80% in fifteen minutes- future battery technologies will be better.
