On Nov 25, 2006, at 8:12 AM, Adam Maas wrote: > 125 mile range is useful only as a commuter, and even that's iffy in > many places (125 mile commutes aren't unheard of here in Southern > Ontario). That essentially makes it a second car (As people will > want to > drive longer distances in one go). a 250 mile range would make it far > more useful, but still limited.
Different needs. The quashed 250-300 mile per charge batteries would have solved most of that problem, along with the incremental charging infrastructure that was put in place through out populated portions of California. The only area where the mix of adequate charge capacity and incremental charging infrastructure really doesn't work is when you're looking at a long trip, due to charging time needed. I think most people, with an adequate infrastructure of charge stations, could deal with a 250 mile range per full charge. People who set out on a 1500 mile trip, however, have to budget 5 several hour charge stops at least. That's where a hybrid electric design gets its legs ... you carry the charging station along with you. > Similar, but the RAV4's are a generation newer, with better battery > tech. And based on a production platform unlike the EV1, which makes > them a lot cheaper to build and support. GM *could* have built the car on a production platform too. They *chose* not to. Who's fault is that? The drive system technology, although different by patents, turned out to be almost the same. > I'll just note that a car that's essentially warm weather only would > have a very restricted market in the First World (essentially the > southern US, Southern Europe and maybe New Zealand). One that's a > commuter and warm weather only has an even smaller market. I think > electric cars are a nice idea,and a niche product that will eventually > find a (small) market, but the hybrid solves most of the same problems > with far fewer downsides. Technically, I don't think your reservations about the batteries in cold climates are that big a deal (block heaters are regularly used for ICEs in such environments, no reason you couldn't do the same for a battery): the Prius routes part of the climate controlled airflow into the battery compartment to maintain its working environment for just this reason, Toyota offers a block heater for its ICE as well. Since you would normally have an electric car plugged in to charge when at rest, there's no reason the battery's environment can't be properly maintained rather than letting it cold soak to -40 F. NASA has been dealing with these sorts of issues in spacecraft design for many years, the solutions for a planetary battery are much less expensive as the environment is nowhere near as harsh. BTW: if you are really spending 5-6 hours per day continuous in a passenger car just to go about your daily business of just getting to and from work, well, you have other problems in my opinion. !! :-) > I'm expecting hybrids to move more towards electrics with onboard > charging as battery capacity increases though. I know Toyota has announced that they will have a plug-in version of the Synergy Drive system on the market within 24-48 months. I think the battery technology is ready for it, it's just the rest of the engineering and the manufacturing costs, which come down through volume production, that have to be dealt with. All in all, it seems a far far better thing than the hydrogen fuel cell technology that is currently the development favorite sponsored by the auto and oil industry. That just swaps one noose for another in my opinion. I happened upon a magazine on the rack yesterday, a projection of 2007 automobiles with a big "good and bad" listing based on owner surveys of similar 2004-2006 model year cars. In the family car category, the satisfaction/"buy another" rating for the Prius was 92%, the next nearest rating was 87%. Across all other categories, 87-88% was the maximum. It also got very high marks in the reliability/low frequency of repairs ratings. Looking at the survey, it didn't seem to highlight anything that would bias the ratings on the basis of drive system. Seems to me that the Prius is simply a good car that does the job it was designed to do well. And that's the bottom line: a gasoline, diesel, hybrid- electric or electric car should simply have to do well what it is designed to do. Not all things are possible with any one design. Just like with cameras ... Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
