What is Digg?Sponsored by She's Out of My League
Stop Missing The FAILs and LOLCats You Love view!
DiggFunnyVideos.com - There's a new section on Digg where you can see the top comedy stories from Digg.
88 Comments
- kmusser, on 04/26/2008, -0/+19Buried for ZAP being on the list, they've been scamming investors for years promising the next big thing and never delivering. Example:
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine ... - mBrutis, on 04/26/2008, -0/+18Well some of those aren't nearly as hideous as I expected. Even a couple badass lookin' ones in there.
- Cyberdactyl, on 04/26/2008, -1/+10The cars over say. . . 40K have almost zero chance of making significant impact.
- nixfu, on 04/26/2008, -1/+10One thing I wonder about is cabin heat and air conditioning.
It seems like those would be nearly impossible to provide due to the enormous drain they might cause on the batteries.
Being freezing in the winter, and sweating your balls off in the summer would sort of put a damper on the whole concept to me compared to non-electric. - gridbread, on 04/26/2008, -2/+10"BIO-DIESEL or some other fill-up variant"
Domestically owned electricity will be considerably cheaper and will cut down on emissions overall.
I know many current energy sources are not clean, but even a few plants compared to a TON of motorists with exhaust spewing tailpipes will make a difference.
"CAR IS TOO SMALL"
This mentality of my car needs to be XBOX HUEG is silly, plenty of countries function without the need for everyone and their grandma owning a behemoth log pulling truck or SUV.
I think if a lot of people review how they actually use their giant vehicles, they might find out they don't actually need one and it's more of a status symbol.
"CAR IS UGLY"
Some of these cars do look "interesting", I guess you could say, but I really don't care how my car looks, a car is just a tool.
"TOO SLOW"
We're not race car drivers, most of the time you're at a light or stuck behind a grandma driving 10 under the limit, otherwise you're probably speeding.
Most of these cars are adequate for highway speed, though I think a few are only meant for city driving.
I think most of everyone who has a problem with these electrics are car enthusiasts, and they basically want a type of car that would have been suitable in a world/lifestyle decades ago. - unpolloloco, on 04/26/2008, -4/+12Big issues I see with the electric car industry:
1) cheap cars have low speed (i.e. 25 mph) - these could be used as golf carts???
2) low range - 100 miles is not enough for most people (and most people can't afford the luxury of having multiple cars for multiple purposes (i.e. trips vs. going to the grocery store)
3) cost - to get a car with a decent range (at least 250-300 mi) and a speed above 70 mph (the minimum I'd think would be remotely marketable), you are stuck paying 100k+
4) charge times - 10 hours for a charge doesn't exactly cut it if you have to go more than 40 miles away from home.
5) ridiculous designs - aerodynamics seems to come secondary to looking as ridiculous as possible
6) safety - isn't mentioned, but doesn't seem to be a priority
All of these problems are fixable - just need a ton more work. Few more years, its definitely a possibility (aka its not big oil holding the electric car back) - tallin, on 04/26/2008, -0/+830 steps in the right direction. Hope to see at least a few of these companies really flourish in the next couple of years, especially those that are striving to reach affordable prices.
- nixfu, on 04/26/2008, -0/+6Well, electric cars lets you switch from having to have fuels used for each car to generating it somewhere else were you can pool all that energy need together and make your generation much more efficient and clean.
Much easier to build all sorts of clean energy technologies in one place doing lots of generation. - snowbell2, on 04/26/2008, -0/+6I hope these guys make it and put more pressure on other auto makers to get a clue.
- allaboutdatiki, on 04/26/2008, -0/+6Need to weed the list a bit?
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/04/13/spark-evs- ... - zippy757, on 04/26/2008, -1/+6...we can't get most Americans to drive regular sedans vs SUVs... why would anyone believe they would go for micro-cars ... ?
- inactive, on 04/26/2008, -0/+5I just put down my deposit for an Aptera typ-1 hybrid. It's less than $30,000. It has a top speed of 95mph. It gets 300mpg. It has a 600+ mile range.
- burningmanstan, on 04/26/2008, -0/+5Please try to keep up with current biofuel technology. Growing oil rich algae in salt ponds in the middle of the desert doesn't use crop land, drinkable water, or destroy forest. Nobody with any credibility ever told all those idiots to destroy the food infrastructure to create fuel.
- burningmanstan, on 04/26/2008, -0/+5Actually not many of them think that no tail pipe= no pollution. Also many of them are smart enough to realize that even an electric car grid powered by fossil fuel power plants is more efficient than millions of tiny inefficient gas engines and the infrastructure required to keep them fueled. Even if it was less efficient switching to electric is a step in the right direction because it lays the ground work for very clean transportation once greener power production becomes more prevalent. By the way I agree that nuclear is going to have to be a big part of the transition.
- 4321234, on 04/26/2008, -1/+6Tampons are aerodynamic.
- div2n, on 04/26/2008, -0/+4Nonsense. Dealing with carbon emissions--i.e. sequestering them and not letting them get into the air--is a MUCH easier proposition at hundreds or thousands of power plants versus hundreds of millions of cars.
- fagalagolopolis, on 04/26/2008, -2/+6So You Just Capitalized The First Letter In Each Word For Him?
- paulmer2003, on 04/26/2008, -0/+4Your comments scare me, empirefalling. Seriously. Gtfo envirofascist.
- inactive, on 04/26/2008, -0/+4think the republicans and arabs will ever let this happen?
- outofstep, on 04/26/2008, -0/+4A lot of the highway capable ones seem to good to be true in a lot of respects. Which company do we know can actually deliver?
- notadiggtard, on 04/26/2008, -4/+8Yes-let's divert land from food to fuel!Better yet,lets mow down the forests to plant biofuel crops!That's the ticket!
Fool. - notadiggtard, on 04/26/2008, -2/+5Correct.People have the fantasy that if the car doesn't have a tailpipe,it's not creating pollution.The same Idiots scream No Nukes!
There is no free ride. - apeweek, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3Diving in electricity is cheaper - much cheaper, even with a high electric rate. Here is Detroit there exists a 3 cents/KWH off-peak rate. So a car like the defunct GM EV-1, which got 6 miles per KWH, could drive around for ONE-HALF-CENT per mile. Even if your electric rate is several times this, we're still talking about just a penny or two per mile.
By way of comparison, a 20-mpg car, with gas at $4/gallon, costs 20 cents per mile - that's FORTY TIMES higher than the example I used above.
If people really realized how cheap they could be driving, we'd be banging down the doors of the automakers for a practical EV. - apeweek, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3Gas cars have it easy because all the waste heat made by the engine is easy to harness. However, that's not free energy. You pay for it in the form of energy inefficiency.
GM's EV-1 had a good approach. First of all, most gas cars have almost no insulation, as energy loss is not that much of a consideration - not so for the EV1. The cabin was well-insulated, designed to hold in the heat or cold, and the car used an efficient heat pump for heating/cooling that only drew about 1.5 KW at full blast. So even running full tilt for an hour, it would only sap about 4% of a 40KWH battery pack. - TheLoneHoot, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3The Subaru R1e looks like a nice choice:
http://www.subaru.com/sub/misc/2009/nyautoshow/r1/ ... - inactive, on 04/26/2008, -1/+4Dont forget really ugly and silly looking. No one in their right mind would be seen in these things. The Prius sells well because it looks like a car, not some silly sci fi toy.
- SourWorm, on 04/26/2008, -2/+5That's why I think the GM Volt looks like a promising stepping stone (http://gm-volt.com/about/) ... if it lives up to the hopeful specs. 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, max speed at least 100 mph, 40 mile range on battery and then it switches to a gas engine which charges the battery (as opposed to directly powering the wheels) and gets 50 mpg, and has a total range of over 600 miles. All for under 30k.
- rheaume, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3Nice way to wrap up the whiner stance, maybe they can ***** off back to the Radiohead thread?
- robbiev80, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3I'd love to have an electric car...but is their goal to make the most horrible looking car possible???
- lordmike, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3True, but the aggregate CO2 and particulate emissions from a power plant is much lower per joule of energy than an internal combustion engine. So, you still are making a difference. The one question is cost savings. Where I live, poorly designed nuclear power plants make our electricity extremely expensive. I'm not confident that the savings would be there with an all electric vehicle. How long does it take to charge? Will there be charging ports at gas stations at some point?
- 4321234, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3Yeah, but at least you don't have to worry if your car is running within current or future "air care" regulations. There's lots of older cars for sale cheap because it's too expensive to get them to meet emission testing rules. It would probably be easier-cheaper for the government to regulate power stations than every car on the road too.
- TheLoneHoot, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3I guess that makes sense coming from someone who probably feels he only needs to "see" a woman naked in a book. Fact of the matter is, not everybody lives where trains and bus lines run. Tell a farmer in Nebraska to take the bus to the feed store.
Mass transit is a wonderful thing, when available, and electric is less poluting than fossil fuels, but you shouldn't denegrate private ownership of a vehicle without understanding FULLY the needs of the person who owns one. For example, when you're late for school and have missed the bus, I bet you're really glad you're mom has that Chrysler Town & Country minivan. - eviljolly, on 04/26/2008, -3/+5Interesting article, but I don't like the term "Green car madness." It makes it sound like you have to be crazy to want to pollute less. There's nothing "mad" about being green.
Oh, and I drive a V8 Amercan muscle car in case you were wondering :P - Bkaufman, on 04/26/2008, -5/+7Electric cars are garbage if we haven't switched the grid to something that doesn't emit carbon. Wind and solar are great, but nuclear is really the only option to generate large amounts of electricity.
- Myztry, on 04/27/2008, -0/+2Golf buggies for the masses. No more parking your car at the Golf Club lot.
Drive straight up to tee-off as the rich have been doing for decades. - betona, on 04/27/2008, -0/+2I think you could cover your entire roof with solar cells and maybe have barely enough to power your house. But it would give you an excuse to call in that you won't make it in to work on cloudy and rainy days because you can't charge your car.
- inactive, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Yeah gotta have that SUV to makeup for a small 2mm dick.
- nonymous666, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Most awkward sounding news article title of the day.
- pixeldust, on 04/26/2008, -2/+4Sad that pretty much all of them are either A. Really expensive, B. Really slow, C. Really small, or D. combination of A,B,C. Got to start somewhere though I guess.
- ChanM, on 04/26/2008, -4/+6What's up with the Fisher Price Design of the cars?
- bobbydigi87, on 04/27/2008, -0/+2The Wrightspeed x-1, the one that looks exactly like a ariel atom, looks fun to drive.
- rheaume, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2I will but you wont
- apeweek, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Solution to most of the problems you list - buy an EV conversion.
1) I bought a used EV conversion from eBay: It does freeway speeds just fine.
2) Low range: you gotta spend money for range, but this is not an issue with a second car. My EV is used for commuting, shopping, almost everything else except long trips.
3) cost: My eBay used EV conversion cost me just $2000, plus another couple thousand to fix it up. And the cost-per-mile for electricity is ridiculously cheap - just a penny per mile for electricity, compared to almost 20 cents/mile for my gas car.
4) Charge times: Overnight charging is an acquired taste. I personally love the idea of charging overnight at home, and never visiting gas stations again. (Also, I charge up at work, for free!)
5) No ridiculous designs with EV conversions. These look just like the donor cars.
6) Again, EV conversions are just as safe as the donor cars.
Here's a website with about a thousand EV owners and their cars: http://evalbum.com
Used EVs at very reasonable prices are also available on that site. - TheLoneHoot, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2spoken like a true *****
- TheLoneHoot, on 04/26/2008, -1/+3And humans will never go into space, and we'll never have computers in the home.
Wrong dumbass - I've have REGULARLY seen 3 GEM cars and 2 of those Meyers single seaters in my area. It's not like you're going to see TONS of them next week or anything, but you will start seeing them.
Do you think we'll ever mix peanut butter and chocolate? IMPOSSIBLE! - unpolloloco, on 04/26/2008, -1/+3As a consumer, why should I buy that car over a $15k 40 mpg (non-hybrid) civic? The money I'd save by buying the civic would be enough to buy 150k miles worth of gas. I like the concept, but the price still needs some work (eventually will become feasible, but still has some problems right now).
Also, the Volt's UGLY!!! (and its made by GM - I'd prefer having a car that doesn't break down every 10k miles and one that's warranted by a manufacturer with a positive net worth) - freonchill, on 04/26/2008, -2/+4where are the affordable ones?
- HP844182, on 04/26/2008, -1/+31. Go Fast
2. Cheap
3. Big
Pick two - chrgrose, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2I saw one of the Think models on the highway just yesterday.
And there was much rejoicing. *yey!* - carpespasm, on 04/26/2008, -1/+3Man, that ventureone is sexy as hell!
-
Show 51 - 90 of 90 discussions
