Terry Blanton wrote:
On 4/27/07, Jed Rothwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Cars and trucks often catch on fire; I have seen many,
but I have never seen a battery burn.
LOL! More people have been killed by Ford Pintos than Dell laptops.
For that matter, more people have been killed by Ted Kennedy's car
than laptop batteries.
Actually, many laptops have burned:
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-18,GGLD:en&q=burning+laptop
Don't know how/why this thread got sidetracked to "death" - as that was
not even a remote suggestion, as far as manufacturer's *liability* goes.
Simple replacement cost is bad enough to kill your budget.
A PHEV in today's economy - without the advent (technology breakthrough)
of the 'bettery' requires $6,000 to 10,000 worth of lithium or metal
hydride batteries with a life expectancy of only a few years, in order
to guarantee a risk free round trip of 60 miles- 100 Klics.
If not for the exorbitant cost and low performance of the most advanced
batteries - we would have more of these vehicles on the road now.
Manufacturers are not that stupid, except maybe GM.
It does not even take a fire -certainly not a death- to render that
investment in batteries negative, in the sense that there is no such
thing as a "small" lithium leak - and the result will be not only a
complete replacement of batteries, but high labor and disposal fees.
That is totally *unacceptable* to any non-tree-hugging consumer; and
given our experience with laptops - the high recurrent replacement cost,
with or without a leak/fire/death is certain to be an overriding issue
with pug-ins using present day technology.
Once again - under any possible circumstances *using present day
technology* the lowest possible CO2 burden - and the reason that the
2007 Green Prize for automotive was awarded to the Honda CNG car - is
obvious. You can buy this vehicle now. And - when Honda and Toyota
"hybridize" the CNG powered ICE, then more bad news for the PHEV - even
if an EEStor "bettery' is in there by then, due to the much higher cost,
lower trip length, and higher (but shifted from tail-pipe to smokestack)
CO2.
Best of all environmentally - of course- is the *carbon neutral*
biodiesel fueled hybrid, and that is only months away from introduction
- actually available now in some localities (there are a few dozen
biodiesel stations nationwide) according to one web-site (and Willie
Nelson).
Jones
