Peri Hartman via EV wrote:
My best option, if my wife agrees, is to get a small van capable of at least 250 miles with heat and defrost on. Then we could be a one car household. A small NEV for local errands might be worthwhile, too. There are no such vans available at the moment (or even large SUVs aside from Tesla X, which is too expensive). The closest would be Phil's Promaster conversions, but they are too large for my needs and (I think) not quite enough range.
The technology certainly exists to do this. My 1992 Dodge minivan with manual transmission easily got 30 mpg, so its basic efficiency was good. It was rated to carry 1540 lbs, which is a lot of batteries. If converted into an EV with a Tesla pack, it should have been able to provide a 250-300 mile range.
But, no one wants to build such a thing. Today's "minivans" are a foot wider, 2 feet longer, weigh half a ton more, and can carry less weight. It seems that Americans can only get big expensive heavy vehicles.
Lee Hart -- All children are born engineers. Watch them at play. They're not just playing; they're experimenting, building and learning. That's engineering! Then we get them in school and squash it out of them. (Geoffrey Orsak, Southern Methodist University dean of engineering) -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
