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9 Comments
- MiddleAmerica, on 01/01/2009, -0/+11I had this idea about two years ago & can prove it!
I'm suing Toyota! - PoizonFrog, on 01/01/2009, -1/+6Maybe you can get some auto bailout dollars to help with legal expenses. Tell em you're too Digg to fail...
; ) - MsLaurel, on 01/02/2009, -0/+4Secret? Not:
From:
http://www.sierraclub.org/wecandoit/home/electric_ ...
"Darrell Dickey regularly commutes to work 24 miles, one way, by bike. But when it's too cold or wet for the bike, or when he and his family travel long distances from their home in Davis, California, he drives a battery-powered electric vehicle that he charges with photovoltaic (PV) panels mounted on his garage roof.
"'Five years ago, I spent about $45,000 and got a brand new car (the RAv4EV) and the solar system,' he says. 'We're still driving the car every day, and the solar system will continue to make fuel for whatever EV we drive in the future. For $45,000 we bought a new car and fuel for the rest or our lives.'
"In 1996, Dickey was invited to test-drive the GM 'Impact', which he then leased for two years. (The Impact later became the EV1, the first modern electric vehicle.) 'We loved that car and hated to give it back,' he says. But the Toyota Rav4EV had just become available for purchase, so he bought the electric vehicle he is driving today.''" - MiddleAmerica, on 01/03/2009, -1/+3
I know cars, physics, & general technology (I try to keep up).
About two years ago I came up with the idea of selling a plug-in hybrid with a solar panel to help charge it.
I found that currently the solar equipment is about $3,000 (fully charged on a mildly cloudy day). Installation is cheap, like $500-$1000. Batteries to store it is an option that costs about another $2,000.
However you slice it, these are reasonable current prices that can be added as options to plug-in hybrid cars. A normal deluxe leather/sport package on an average car will cost you approximately $5,000, so these "green" options are within the range of marketability.
The market economics work out fine, there is a big market for this.
I've looked at sunshine in the US, the efficiency of the solar systems, the charge time, the price, the load on the electrical grid for millions of cars (charging at night is key, off hours when demand is low), the environmental impact of producing the solar & battery equipment, the range that most people drive, etc, etc, etc and it still comes out many TENS of times better (more efficient) than any petroleum fuel, even with the most cutting edge technology.
This won't solve all of our problems, but it would be an almost oil free cost competitive alternative to tens of millions of people in a very short period of time.
Not to mention, lead the way in the direction for a healthier & hopefully longer future for humanity.
- Hodor, on 01/06/2009, -0/+1what a bright idea, thanks for shining some light on this AP.
http://www.instantrimshot.com/ - greenfyre, on 01/03/2009, -0/+1Good point, bailouts get a lot more money than lawsuits, and with a lot less work.
- MiddleAmerica, on 01/03/2009, -1/+1
ps:
I love cars, they have a lot of great qualities that are easy to love. I've even designed cars as well as invented some technology to make them better (don't get me into suspension systems).
But they are wasteful & inefficient like no other single product.
Not to mention traffic!
Yet, I still am pretty certain that cars are going to be around for a long time.
Here is a wake-up call, Ford sells one million F-150 crappy trucks per year.
That will make you think, eh?
Its time to force manufacturers to conform to the ecological & market needs. (if they want help for being irresponsible for decades)
I am very interested in what the auto bailouts are going to require in 2009. I don't have high hopes, but I do hope for some requirements for them to make much, much better products, as well as be more careful with their profits (that's another issue, Ford blew much of their mountains of profits from the 90s & early 2000s from SUVs on risky aerospace stocks. I think GM did the same.).
I do want American manufacturers to succeed, I really, really do.
In my opinion, any car manufacturer that wants to succeed in the near future will have to be very innovative.
As an American who has also worked for & with several dozen manufacturers here, gotten to know hundreds of people in these companies, to the point that I've considered some of these companies my family, I promise, I do care about this issue.
I just hope the bailouts have some decent conditions....
- shupy, on 01/04/2009, -1/+1The biggest problem for American auto companies is from the top.
The propaganda that has convinced people that American companies can't compete because of auto worker pay is disgusting. American companies don't compete because they do not produce an equal product. I TRIED to buy American. My previous was a Chrysler, piece of crap. Lousy quality, terrible customer service, no resale value. The Chrysler was a money vampire, and only 4 years old. The amount of repair I had to do on that car with less than 50,000 miles on it was ridiculous. Besides, the big three make a lot of their cars in Mexico, so what is the point of buying American? I now drive a Toyota, made in the USA, equal in price to the Chrysler, and I expect to have it for ten years without putting a couple thousand into it every year to keep it on the road.
That's why American car companies are not competeing. People want a reliable fuel efficient car that isn't worthless after two or three years. American car companies don't even have to innovate, just copy what's out there. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if the car were decent. It's not the worker's fault, look to the CEOs making 20 million a year or so. They are the ones making the decision to scrimp on parts quality to save money, and that money saved goes to profit and CEO bonuses.
I hope the big three hangs out long enough so that the work force can transition to other jobs. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to trust. Time to let them go.
And I really want to see the companies in this country wise up and recognize that none of these CEO's are woth multi-million dollar salaries. - inactive, on 01/02/2009, -2/+1Vaporware. Battery technology hasn't caught up. That's what's holding it all back.
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