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74 Comments
- slyzxx, on 05/19/2009, -4/+34why must they make electric cars and hybrids ugly ? the only car which i`d buy is the tesla
- b9gh47q, on 05/19/2009, -1/+14I look forward to seeing how this project turns out, Nissan seems to know what they're doing lately.
- smemily, on 05/19/2009, -1/+11The range and price point put it in the realm of "feasible" for a lot of people, IMO.
- Wolfcaster, on 05/19/2009, -1/+10why do mainstream car companies insist on making EV cars look like crap?
- IvanB, on 05/19/2009, -1/+10Hopefully they are not too far away.
- zacharytelschow, on 05/19/2009, -2/+9I hope they can profitably build and sell electric cars at those prices, but I'll believe it once they do.
- UselessTrivia, on 05/19/2009, -2/+9Electric cars are awesome. If only we didn't need batteries to power them. Fuel cells would be fine, but they're a long way off. Something like supercapacitors would go a long way to making EVs more useful. Or some kind of liquid capacitative substance that could be pre-charged and dumped into a car like gas, only essentially it would be like pouring in juiced up battery acid, while pumping the dead stuff out to be recharged.
EVs have a ton of benefits people don't even think about. You can eliminate at least a dozen systems from the car because they're entirely unnecessary.
EVs don't need a transmission, in fact you don't even need differentials or drive shafts if you put a motor on each wheel, but there's a cost tradeoff there.
EVs don't need a complex radiator and water pumping system because they generate much less heat than a combustion engine. I'm not sure if passive air cooling is enough, but you don't need to handle nearly as much heat, so it would be smaller and less complex.
EVs don't need an exhaust system, for obvious reasons. A fuel cell car needs a way to vent or collect water vapor, but there's no catalytic convert needed, and some simple vents are probably enough to handle the small volume of water created.
Of course you add a few new systems as well, but most are electronic in nature, not moving parts that break down over time. - smemily, on 05/19/2009, -0/+7I thought this was a better article with much more detail.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
By the way the Cube body is on the prototype but that is not necessarily the production body of the car. It is just the body they are using to showcase the engine / battery tech right now. Not that Cube is a bad body, it's pretty much a Versa that's squarer, and the Versa' not a bad ride at all.
This article also provides alot more info on charging options and times.
Goddamn the bouncing comment box. - makisupa123, on 05/19/2009, -0/+6which pollutes a small fraction per energy produced as a tailpipe. FACT. Look it up.
- Konrad9, on 05/19/2009, -1/+7The Prius and Insight have their shape because it is the most efficient aerodynamic design. Not pretty, but extremely good at moving through the air.
As for some of the other designs... uh.. make it look futuristic? I have no idea. - jerrycan, on 05/19/2009, -0/+6They should make a Full EV on a lightened Sentra platform.
- empraptor, on 05/19/2009, -0/+5following things come to mind...
Given gasoline cars vs. electric cars on coal energy that pollute the same amount, I'd probably take coal for domestic source of energy.
still less pollution this way than using whatever combustion engine you can fit under the hood of a car, probably. there's only so much you can fit under the hood of a car. there's going to be more constraint to how efficient and clean they can be made when the fuel has to be burned inside it.
it's not just coal and gas that are being used to generate electricity now.
with power plants, source of pollution is centralized. so should be easier to monitor and control? also, there should be less constraint in size or cost of technology you use to increase efficiency and decrease pollution.
you can locate source of pollution away from large populations with power plants/electric cars.
and if electric vehicles become mainstream, running more "green" power plants or making pollution-reducing changes to power plants are going to have a bigger impact. - yerdaddy, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4220 isn't used for household refrigerators, but it is used for electric clothes driers and ovens/ranges.
Basically, getting a 220 outlet installed in your garage is probably a couple hundred buck job from an area electric contractor.
By the way, the high voltage (480) fast charge option is probably not as good for the battery. - warcin, on 05/19/2009, -6/+10I don't think they could have made it more ugly if they tried
- Amazetbm, on 05/19/2009, -2/+6It think it was to appeal to a niche market. They could have stuck hybrid systems in Civics and Tercels originally. But they would have had an extremely hard time convincing people to accept the mark up. So, they put the systems into a body that smug tree huggers would buy and it paid off.
- ATL, on 06/20/2009, -0/+4I'll believe it once they do and have done so for at least a couple of years.
- dpknc84, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4Needs more spoilers. Definitely more spoilers.
- fury420, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4actually, many EVs do need a complex radiator & coolant pumping system, however it is for the battery pack, and likely for AC on a hot day, not for the engine itself.
the tesla for example has a sophisticated battery pack temperature maintenance system to prevent accidental excessive discharge, explosion and damage to the pack
that said, I would assume its far less bulky & more efficient than what would be needed to cool a traditional ICE - foobs, on 05/19/2009, -1/+5Because some people actually give a crap about their carbon footprint. Also, buying into this helps companies invest more money to make the technology better. This is no different than how hybrids or any new technology starts out.
Sadly, many people will share your opinion and we'll be stuck moving forward at a snail's pace. - EtherGnat, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4I know there's going to be at least one idiot making this claim in any thread about electric vehicles. Thanks for not letting me down.
- chronopublish, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4The energy I get from the wall is domestically-produced instead of coming from OPEC.
Also: Even if 100% of your energy comes from coal, which it doesn't, it's still cleaner. MUCH cleaner.
Since electricity can be produced from a number of different sources, these cars smoothly adapt to any energy grid that can supply them. There's a guy in Britain who had a small windmill built in his backyard that produces 36,000 miles worth of range PER YEAR for his Tesla. - JCEEZ, on 05/19/2009, -1/+5but we don't have to kill brown people in far away lands for coal
- HypocriteDigg, on 05/19/2009, -0/+4Maybe if you would RTFA!!!! you would know why.
- Philbert, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3The Cube is seriously ugly, I really thought the commercial was a joke when I saw it.
- fury420, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3charging your electric car at a "gas station" as we think of them today will not be feasible with our current technology, unless you simply need a top-up to get home or something... even at 480v It'll take a fair bit of time to get a useful amount of juice in those batteries. However, if your interested, check out the ideas put forward by http://www.betterplace.com/, their concept of company-owned, easily replaceable battery packs swapped at a service station in mere minutes seems like a good idea
We are talking about a serious culture shift, back before the interstate highway system & the spread of automobiles people would have thought the required infrastructure of gasoline refilling stations to support our current auto usage would be absurd... It's all a matter of perspective - Jektal, on 05/19/2009, -1/+4Big outlet.
Assuming you're in the US, all houses have a 220 coming in, and it gets split to 110. All the normal outlets are 110. - AmazingA, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3Isn't this just the "mule" body? I don't think this is final design, but I'll admit I didn't read this particular article about it.
Edit:
Yeah, here's an article talking about it. It's a Cube's body
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey ... - kalvinb, on 05/19/2009, -2/+5It looks a lot like the Scion xB which is actually pretty popular.
- smemily, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
Wrong.
". The vehicle would be eligible for the $7,500 green car tax credit and, with an operating cost below $0.04 per mile, would be cheaper to run than a gasoline vehicle even if gas drops to $1.10 per gallon." - smemily, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
"The EV-02 can be charged at standard 110-volt outlets, but the charge time is considerably longer (about 14 hours) and Nissan sees this as a less-than-ideal emergency-only option. There is also a 480-volt rapid-charge option that can bring the battery up to 80 percent capacity in as little as 26 minutes. Nissan expects roadside service stations to adopt this more expensive--but much more convenient--offering, empowering drivers to take the EV-02 on longer trips. Home users are expected to stick with the 4-hour charging cycle, because of its low cost (about 90 cents per full charge) and low strain on the electrical grid." - smemily, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
"The vehicle would be unique in design, compact, and 99-percent recyclable, including the batteries. .....
The vehicle would be eligible for the $7,500 green car tax credit and, with an operating cost below $0.04 per mile, would be cheaper to run than a gasoline vehicle even if gas drops to $1.10 per gallon.
.....
Electric vehicles are 60 percent cleaner than gasoline equivalents, even if the grid is 100 percent coal-fired. Since many grids are not completely coal-powered and will see more renewable power sources in the future, as government regulations put the green squeeze on utilities, that 60 percent will only get better." - Wrathernaut, on 05/19/2009, -1/+3At $7,000-$17,000 over the base price of the hideous Cube it's based on, they'd have to be using gold batteries NOT to be making metric ***** tons of money on this thing.
- theforrester, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2At first I read "Nissan’s EVO: The First Mass-Market Electric Car?" and I thought - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
But this, this is actually a YES. - chronopublish, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2With a 100 mile range, this car's battery should be big enough to qualify for a $7500 federal tax credit, which makes it cheaper than the Insight. Also, maintenance on an EV is much cheaper - no oil changes or engine maintenance costs whatsoever.
For those who don't need more range than that (which includes ALL multi-car households, incidentally), there are no significant drawbacks to owning an EV. Having to go to a gas station to fill my car is an annoying hassle - I can't wait to have an EV that charges at home and starts every day with a "full tank". - ThatGeek, on 05/19/2009, -3/+5why the hell couldnt they put their EV inside of a altima, or really any car not as fugtastic as their cube
- deadasdisco, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2and flames.
- askantik, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2This is a pretty ugly vehicle, but it's cool that it's big and still gets 100 miles on a charge. Essentially an electric SUV, though you have to wonder if it was smaller if it wouldn't get considerably higher range. But maybe it has to be big to hold the batteries. IDK.
- jturbo, on 05/19/2009, -2/+4A Scion with beedy eyes.
- smemily, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
That's not what the vehicle will actually look like. They're just reusing the Cube platform to show off the prototype engine / batteries for the time being. - Philbert, on 05/19/2009, -3/+5Frankly I like the look of the Prius, I could never figure out what everyone was complaining about.
- MrSilverblood, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2My old Maxima was the most reliable car I've ever owned. And my wife has a Sentra, it's never given her any trouble, so they are far from "garbage".
- carlosos, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2He said Honda Insight. The Prius isn't the only hybrid...
- chronopublish, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2You tend not to run out of power while you're "out and about" because you start every single day with a full charge. The car tells you how much range is left - assuming you don't need to travel more than 100 miles a day, you'd have no problem with this car.
- fury420, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2assuming that pure electric vehicles will always stay $5-15k more than an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle is a pretty big assumption, is it not?
What exactly makes gasoline engines so inexpensive in comparison other than our 100 years of expertise in their design & manufacture? - REWK, on 05/20/2009, -1/+3Why are car companies so stupid? Seriously? Throw an electric engine in an altima, maxima, or even a sentra and it will sell like no other. Throw it in something boxy and different and you lose all common sense. I'm going to throw something into the market that performs differently than anything out there and i'm going to make it look different from anything out there... it just doesn't work. The prius sold well and had people on waiting lists for months to possibly years because although it performed differently (personally i feel like i'm winding up the larger alternator every time i step on the peddle in a hybrid), they made the body style similar to something that the market was already familiar with.
- etx313, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2Scion xB = Rip off of the Nissan Cube, which is the shell for this test platform. The cube came first, Toyota stole the idea and sold it in america.
- ATL, on 06/20/2009, -0/+2or not sell any, smart guy
- smemily, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2That's a Nissan Cube that's being used as a prototype to showcase the engine/battery that will be used in a DIFFERENT CAR.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10210982-48.h ...
That is not the final design of the vehicle. - smemily, on 05/20/2009, -0/+285 mph top speed.
For some reason the least informative article about this vehicle, the one with no damned info in it, was the one to get dugg. Every other article on the thing has more info.
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/Nissan_EVTestCar/ ... - Goph09, on 05/20/2009, -1/+3maybe, just maybe if they wouldn't make electric, hybrid, or any economical car ugly as sin, people would buy them.
but *****, who in their right mind thought that was a good looking design? -
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