Randy, The EVers have come a long way. I don't know anything about GM, but I had the same questions with respect to custom EVs.
I never cease to be amazed that the journalist types who hype this stuff in > the daily newspapers never seem to > notice that there is not likely going to be any heat available in this nice > little electric car. I live up here > where the ground is white for a lot of the year. I want to know how long > the battery will last when it is minus 25 > out and if I get electric heat as part of the deal. Multiple solutions to this. A lot of EVers are in New England, by the way, so this is a serious issue. Most custom EVs have fairly short ranges - like 20-40 miles - so as a consequence they are usually dedicated commuting cars with a predictable schedule, and don't have to stay warm much more than an hour tops. In addition, many EVers have plugs at work. It's a lot easier to make changes to your trip habits than it is to add range. :) The method that I prefer: set a timer and a regular old space heater in the car. Use a very small space heater; the car doesn't have much insulation, but of course it doesn't have much air to heat either. Comes on at 6 or 6:30am, leave at 7am and the car is toasty after heating using wall current. Small strip heater - or replug of space heater - maintains heat during drive. Plug in at work, same deal on the way home; you're probably charged after the first few hours anyway. Another option is just to use regular strip heat. It plugs in directly to your, say, 144VDC battery pack. Run it to a thermostat. Again, placement is key: you want to heat the air, not the walls of the car. Just like the house, the heat isn't on all the time. I've been ignoring the EVDL recently, but I vaguely recall a loss of ~25% of range based on people using strip heat the whole trip (from New England cold). Also, keep in mind we're talking about a single- or two-person commuter. When my W115 heater fan quit, I drove all winter with only bypass heat on the highway. (I understand that's in NC, it's a different ball game for you... all I'm saying is that you can put up with a fair amount once you know what you want to do. :) > I also want to know if the battery can sustain AC for my short trips around > town in the summer. The later Prius and 2008+ Ford Escape Hybrid use electric AC. It's really not that hard, heat is much worse in terms of electrical demand. > No one seems to make any comments on these issues. It is all about the > environment and the utopian dream that we > can carry on without polluting anything. Nothing practical ever mentioned. > You'd enjoy the EVDL; it is very practical, and interesting (to me at least) to read what people are doing to their cars - mostly our vintage, though I still haven't seen any MBZs. They don't do politics - that's a different list. :) I did find that many of the people who drive and have actually converted electric vehicles don't care that much for the political side, and shy away from the "everyone should drive an electric" mindset. EVs have plusses and minuses. For me, I'd like a 30 mile electric commuter to take me to and from home. Longer trips, trips to the store where I need trunk space, I'll take an internal combustion engine. I like the efficiency of electric motors, and I understand them better than ICEs. (I'm getting better with diesels; however, I don't think I'll ever fully comprehend carbs, and honestly I just dislike messing with modern gasoline fuel injection with all its bells and whistles. Gas engines are not, to me, a fun way to spend an afternoon.) I also prefer electricity to gasoline as a thing I want to have around me while driving on the road in an aging vehicle, but I've never witnessed the joy that is plasma in person - still I do feel like I'm better equipped to handle electrical problems than gasoline. In any case it is a change in habits, we'd probably need a third vehicle, and good components are pricey, so I don't have one yet. > Also have to wonder what happens when a couple of hundred thousand people > plug their car in at night. Does the > power go off all over or just in some areas? Do you have to shut off your > house AC so you can charge up the family > buggy? All over. No way the US infrastructure could handle it. However, there are lots of increasingly-powerful electric goodies in our houses. It's not like no one has ever used electricity before. If adoption is incremental, utility companies who aren't aiming for bankruptcy should observe increased utilization and ramp accordingly. I live in one of the most liberal cities in NC, on a block with a lot of very liberal and well-to-do college professors [okay, they're mostly at the other end of the block :], and I'm pretty sure only 5 or 6 of my neighbors would consider an electric car - even if available retail - in the next decade, so I don't think we're talking about a wholesale jump from ICE to EV in the forseeable future. On the other subject, I hate this idea of "MPG" ratings for electric or electric-hybrid vehicles. I've read an argument for "equivalent MPG" that is based on what the vehicle got as an ICE, modified to include electrical losses and exclude ICE frictional losses, but I think the whole concept is silly. With electric motors you can get efficiency numbers very easily; if it weren't for the legacy of "MPG" it would be a completely nonsensical rating. Where there is a small delta in MPG between driving hard and driving easy in an ICE, you can easily (from what I read :) double an EV range by driving correctly, so how the test is run becomes more important than the output. I still hear people that think clock speed is the most important number in a computer CPU, though, so I suspect that's a battle I'll never win. :) FWIW, -Tim > > > Randy > > -----Original Message----- > From: mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com > [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com]on Behalf Of Mitch Haley > Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:48 PM > To: Mercedes Discussion List > Subject: Re: [MBZ] Cash for clunkers hits home > > > WILTON wrote: > > 230 MPG sounds like magician's BS to me. > > It goes like this: you drive 40 miles on the battery, totally depleting it, > and > reducing its lifespan. Then you start the engine and drive ten miles. Since > you > used a quart of gas on your 50 mile drive, you must be getting 200mpg. If > politicians can lie, why not corporate PR hacks, especially from a > corporation > run by politicians? > > Mitch. > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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