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The Revenge of the Electric Car
e360.yale.edu — After years of false starts and failures, the electric car may finally be poised to go big-time. With automakers from GM to Chrysler to Nissan preparing to roll out new plug-in hybrids or all-electric models, it looks like the transition from gasoline to electricity is now irreversible.
ericnicolaas- 77 diggs
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- ericnicolaas, on 09/26/2008, -0/+6"In the world today, electrons are easier to come by than hydrocarbons. To get oil, you have to drill thousands of feet below the surface of the earth – often in a hostile nation – pump it up, refine it, ship it (via pipeline or tanker), then store it until somebody comes along with a thirsty SUV. All in all, an expensive and rigid system. Electrons, on the other hand, come from many places: wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams, nukes and even burning coal. This simple fact upends everything. With electric cars, we’re not dependent on sheiks in the Middle East. We’re dependent on our own ingenuity."
Well said. Very well said. - NoozeHound, on 09/26/2008, -0/+3I wonder what it's going to take to actually wean us off oil, particularly the US. Let's face it, any government that tries to tax it into unpopularity won't be around too long. Demonstrations ramped up when fuel went too high, with hauliers and the like demanding action in the UK to reduce the tax.
Once a cost can be put on saving the world, it can be laid off against the cost of electronic vehicles by the government. Generous trade-ins and subsidies will be probably be the best route to get consumers on board, that and exciting new models.
I'm guessing that I'm not alone in seeing 'green' lorries, those powered by natural gas. If the government were to provide replacement subsidies for electrically-powered fire tenders and ambulances for local authorities and to hauliers and coach companies for trading-up from derv to juice it would probably be a much bigger carbon reduction and the technology would develop faster.
Of course the Digg headline then would be along the lines of:
'World Drowning in Dumped Dirty Vehicles'
So it would have to be a retro-fit to existing vehicles to make it work without waste - we just wouldn't have the recycling capacity to cope otherwise.
Roll on news of the electric dumper truck then. - StevenAM, on 09/26/2008, -0/+1Gas cars will never die, mainly because of nostalgia and the "feel" of one. I surely welcome an economical electric car that could save myself and the world a ton of money on gas, etc. The problem I see is that somehow the prices of these vehicles will not be on the same lines as the gas' counterpart. If you could buy a $12,000 electric/hybrid that had all the basics of an equivalently priced gas-powered vehicle then I'm all in. Eh, we'll just have to wait and see.
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