Electric cars.

[cp40]

 

whats your thoughts?

anyone think they will get one.

 

Im not getting in one with the  gimp, after the way he used to drive scalextrics when we were kids.

 

 

saying on the news ,that they will start to replace cars with engines, by 2011.

[Dave]

They won't replace anything until the petrochemical companies decide there's enough money in it.

[Pilko]

"I'm an electric car. I can't go very fast, or very far. And if you drive me, people will think you're gaaay."

 

http://static1.videosift.com/thumbs/t/he/The_simpsons_electric_car_of_the_future.jpg

[Pilko]

Clip can be viewed here.

[cp40]

 

I'll get one when I can (a) fill it up (or whatever it is you do to electric cars) every few miles and (b) go more than 50 or 60 miles at a time without having to stop.

 

 

i think you plug it in, to charge it,... maybe you will be able to get an in-car charger tho.

[Adam]

If they made a system, where you simply had a battery tray (or a block), that was standard on all cars, that you just swapped out at "battery" stations, that might work. But charging them takes far too long.

[cp40]

If they made a system, where you simply had a battery tray (or a block), that was standard on all cars, that you just swapped out at "battery" stations, that might work. But charging them takes far too long.

 

 

they should invent peddle cars, that would be cheap, and tackle obesity at the same time.

[GM]

If they made a system, where you simply had a battery tray (or a block), that was standard on all cars, that you just swapped out at "battery" stations, that might work. But charging them takes far too long.

 

 

they should invent peddle cars, that would be cheap, and tackle obesity at the same time.

 

Very old technology though. The Flintstones had that.

 

Mind, Fred was a reet fat bastard as well...

[NJS]

Hydrogen looks a better better imo.

[Jimburst]

Don't see the point, at some point fossil fuels have to be burned to form the electricity anyway. Add to that the fact the GROUNDBREAKING Volt can go maximum 40 miles on a full charge means no one's ever gonna even need one.

[wacko]

They won't replace anything until the petrochemical companies decide there's enough money in it.

They really needn't sell oil as fuel. It's frankly a really dumb idea, because practically every man-made substance requires oil or some other fossil fuel. They're too precious to burn, truly.

 

Hydrogen looks a better better imo.

 

Definitely. Split water into hydrogen and oxygen, burn it and it turns back into water. Worth noting that if we burnt all the fossil fuels, there'd be no oxygen left...

 

I can't wait to have a fuel cell in my mobile and laptop. They'd run for weeks and you'd fill 'em from a bottle of booze in 15 seconds.

[Jimburst]

They won't replace anything until the petrochemical companies decide there's enough money in it.

They really needn't sell oil as fuel. It's frankly a really dumb idea, because practically every man-made substance requires oil or some other fossil fuel. They're too precious to burn, truly.

 

Hydrogen looks a better better imo.

 

Definitely. Split water into hydrogen and oxygen, burn it and it turns back into water. Worth noting that if we burnt all the fossil fuels, there'd be no oxygen left...

 

I can't wait to have a fuel cell in my mobile and laptop. They'd run for weeks and you'd fill 'em from a bottle of booze in 15 seconds.

 

Still, finding something to split the water in the first place that doesn't require fossil fuels to be burned in the first place (or the sun being terribly  inefficient/slow) is the problem there. Then something to compress the hydrogen without the use of electricity.

[Robster]

Toyota produce a car that runs on Hydrogen. Its only available in California at the moment. I think Shell have Hydrogen pumps at their filling stations there.

James May road tested it on the last series of Top Gear

[Dave]

[Adam]

Electricity is the way to go, simply because shell and bp will no longer have the world by the bollocks.

[wacko]

They won't replace anything until the petrochemical companies decide there's enough money in it.

They really needn't sell oil as fuel. It's frankly a really dumb idea, because practically every man-made substance requires oil or some other fossil fuel. They're too precious to burn, truly.

 

Hydrogen looks a better better imo.

 

Definitely. Split water into hydrogen and oxygen, burn it and it turns back into water. Worth noting that if we burnt all the fossil fuels, there'd be no oxygen left...

 

I can't wait to have a fuel cell in my mobile and laptop. They'd run for weeks and you'd fill 'em from a bottle of booze in 15 seconds.

 

Still, finding something to split the water in the first place that doesn't require fossil fuels to be burned in the first place (or the sun being terribly  inefficient/slow) is the problem there. Then something to compress the hydrogen without the use of electricity.

 

Just the first one, I think. We could use the hydrogen to compress itself, assuming we can split water efficiently enough. It's just such an obvious choice, we have to try.

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Would I buy one now? No. Would I buy one some time in the next 20 years? Quite possibly. It's relatively early days for electric cars but already they have electric cars that can out accelerate petrol cars. Over the next few years manufacturers will continue to develop Petrol and Diesel engines to be more and more fuel efficient due to environmental, economic, public and political pressure. At the same time they will be developing electric and hydrogen power.

[wacko]

Would I buy one now? No. Would I buy one some time in the next 20 years? Quite possibly. It's relatively early days for electric cars but already they have electric cars that can out accelerate petrol cars. Over the next few years manufacturers will continue to develop Petrol and Diesel engines to be more and more fuel efficient due to environmental, economic, public and political pressure. At the same time they will be developing electric and hydrogen power.

Early days for electric cars, but not motors. They use them in super high-speed trains, so they must be good enough for cars. It's storing the energy for them that's the problem.

 

Remember, electric cars don't reduce pollution in any way, assuming they're charged with 'leccy from a filthy coal-fired power plant (and British plants are particularly filthy). They just move the pollution elsewhere.

[Adam]

Hydrogen looks good, but the power needed to split it is insane. Nuclear is the only way to split it, and they aren't cheap to build. Electric is the best option, why waste electricity splitting something, when you can just use the electricity to power the car.

 

The big issue is batteries, the motors are here, its simply the range and the charging time that puts people off.

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Would I buy one now? No. Would I buy one some time in the next 20 years? Quite possibly. It's relatively early days for electric cars but already they have electric cars that can out accelerate petrol cars. Over the next few years manufacturers will continue to develop Petrol and Diesel engines to be more and more fuel efficient due to environmental, economic, public and political pressure. At the same time they will be developing electric and hydrogen power.

Early days for electric cars, but not motors. They use them in super high-speed trains, so they must be good enough for cars. It's storing the energy for them that's the problem.

 

Remember, electric cars don't reduce pollution in any way, assuming they're charged with 'leccy from a filthy coal-fired power plant (and British plants are particularly filthy). They just move the pollution elsewhere.

Yes but the government class them as cleaner at the moment. As soon as electric cars become the norm the government will tax the shit out of people for using them with the excuse of "the electricity to power them is produced by coal-fired power plants". We can't win when it comes to that. Even clean hydrogen is produced with electricity.

 

Technology is pushed by circumstance hence the huge strides in technology made during the war years. Governments and companies throw a lot of money at Research and Development when they have a big incentive. The push away from Petrol and Diesel will mean more money being spent on other power technology. A train is a lot bigger than a car. With R & D will come smaller, lighter battery technology.

[Guest Heneage]

Kryten. 

[NJS]

Toyota produce a car that runs on Hydrogen. Its only available in California at the moment. I think Shell have Hydrogen pumps at their filling stations there.

James May road tested it on the last series of Top Gear

 

I think it was Honda and a huge factor is that Arnie passed a law insisinting that filling stations had hydrogen pumps.

 

Any such sea change in this country would also need huge infrastructure investment - just home charging wouldn't work.

 

 

[ikri]

Toyota produce a car that runs on Hydrogen. Its only available in California at the moment. I think Shell have Hydrogen pumps at their filling stations there.

James May road tested it on the last series of Top Gear

 

I think it was Honda and a huge factor is that Arnie passed a law insisinting that filling stations had hydrogen pumps.

 

Any such sea change in this country would also need huge infrastructure investment - just home charging wouldn't work.

 

 

 

Plus, charging electric cars overnight only really works if you have a garage or at the bare least a drive way.  If, like many many people in the UK, you park on the street in front of your home you're pretty screwed about recharging your car unless no one minds you training a power cord out over the pavement to your car.  Even then it assumes you can even park directly outside your own home, if parking is scarce and you have to park more than a few metres away you'll end up having enormous lengths of cable trailing around the streets.

[wacko]

Would I buy one now? No. Would I buy one some time in the next 20 years? Quite possibly. It's relatively early days for electric cars but already they have electric cars that can out accelerate petrol cars. Over the next few years manufacturers will continue to develop Petrol and Diesel engines to be more and more fuel efficient due to environmental, economic, public and political pressure. At the same time they will be developing electric and hydrogen power.

Early days for electric cars, but not motors. They use them in super high-speed trains, so they must be good enough for cars. It's storing the energy for them that's the problem.

 

Remember, electric cars don't reduce pollution in any way, assuming they're charged with 'leccy from a filthy coal-fired power plant (and British plants are particularly filthy). They just move the pollution elsewhere.

Yes but the government class them as cleaner at the moment. As soon as electric cars become the norm the government will tax the shit out of people for using them with the excuse of "the electricity to power them is produced by coal-fired power plants". We can't win when it comes to that. Even clean hydrogen is produced with electricity.

 

Technology is pushed by circumstance hence the huge strides in technology made during the war years. Governments and companies throw a lot of money at Research and Development when they have a big incentive. The push away from Petrol and Diesel will mean more money being spent on other power technology. A train is a lot bigger than a car. With R & D will come smaller, lighter battery technology.

Well, the goal is to find a more efficient way of getting hydrogen, ideally via enzymes or similar.

 

You'll always have to pay through the nose to use a car, and rightly so. There are a lot of externalities.

[Guest neesy111]

Hydrogen is the way forward, the problem is the infrastructure that it would cost for building 100,000's of plug in station's in the country

 

with hydrogen, we have the filling stations which would only need to be adapted to contain hydrogen

 

also with electric cars what happen's when you run out of juice, that's 3-4 hours waiting to get in charged up, with hydrogren it would be a simple fill up

 

but all of this can only be achieved when we have 100% of electricity coming from non-polluting sources, you can burn coal and oil and have no emission's, just the government won't give the money for the carbon capture system's which exist