On Nov 25, 2006, at 9:06 AM, Adam Maas wrote: >> 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. !! :-) > > Just a note, but with 100kph limits on the 400 series highways, > that's a > little less than 4 hours, 2 each way, not 5-6 hours. There's a > relatively large difference there.
Not that I think a 2 hour commute is sensible but ... So let's say you have a 2 hour one-way commute @ 100kph average speed, and you'll be at your turnabout waypoint for 2 hours. That's about 125 miles, 2 hours charging time while there (enough time for a half charge), add another hour driving for side trips (grocery, bank, etc), and another 125 miles for homeward drive at which point the car goes back on the charger. if you've got 250 miles range on a full charge, that means you have reserve capacity for about double your daily need at any given time. The issue is not total capacity or range, it's infrastructure to support the incremental charging required to support this typical use model. That was the point of the California initiative which included charging station infrastructure, not just the cars. And, as I said before, it doesn't solve the long distance, continuous use needs for trips of great duration. That's a different problem that the hybrid electric design solves. A plug-in hybrid would achieve both solutions as well, or a revolution in battery/charging technology to allow very fast charging while at typical duration rest stops about every 60-90 minutes, which seems to be most people's long distance driving behavior judging by what I saw crossing the US last week. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
