Why I Don't Want an Electric Car
The key piece of the MSNBC write up on the Nissan Leaf for me is this:
Nissan says it can take as long as 20 hours to charge up the car using a standard 120-volt circuit. If you hook up to a 240-volt Level 2 charging station — which can be installed in your home for the estimated cost of $2,200 — you can cut that time down to eight hours or so for a full charge.
Mind you, I don't drive much. And once I start my new job (commuting by air to Dallas), I'll be driving my own car even less. Even with all that though, it just doesn't seem practical. I drive without air conditioning in the summer (my car's unit is broken), but - I'm not going to an office. If I were driving to work in this area, A/C would be an absolute necessity, unless I wanted to arrive soaked. Since running full bore A/C uses the same power that drives the car, that lessens range, and given the ridiculous recharge time (few people have a 240 volt outlet in their garage), it becomes even less practical.
The only way I can see this working is for the battery packs to get small enough that a "charge station" would swap your battery for a fully charged one, and charge you based on the power you received and the state of the battery you came in with. Otherwise, I can't see why I would buy something like the Leaf instead of a hybrid.
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Comments
Re: Why I Don't Want an Electric Car
[Erikgj] November 16, 2010 14:32:49.043
Clean diesel would be an even better choice.
Re: Why I Don't Want an Electric Car
[Joachim] November 17, 2010 4:18:36.937
I agree. Battery packs for cars are simply a stupid idea. I wonder why nobody seems to have any interest in flow-redox technology. It is already in use (not for vehicles) and it would allow for tanking your car rather than replacing a battery. The fluid could be charged in sunny areas and transported in tankers, just like oil. To me,that sounds much more sensible both economically and ecologically. Not to speak of practicality...
Re: Why I Don't Want an Electric Car
[David Parshan] November 17, 2010 10:39:39.547
"The only way I can see this working is for the battery packs to get small enough that a "charge station" would swap your battery for a fully charged one, and charge you based on the power you received and the state of the battery you came in with."
There is a company with this idea. I thought of one slightly better, have the company own the battery packs and the car owner will lease them (similar to the propane tank exchange business), this will solve issues of end of life with the battery and reduce the upfront cost of the car. If electricity is so much cheaper than gas have the cost of the battery packs baked into the recharge cost which I would hope still be less than the cost of filling a car with gasoline.