Smart Car

[John Mc]

Why not introduce an all-electric car with 150 mile range, like others are doing? (or like GM had in 1996, with their EV1) Heck, there are even companies converting cars to all-electric that will outperform the Volt...

Where are these 150 mile all-electric cars? Is anyone selling them now, or expecting to have production models available in the next year or so?

Actually, 40 or 50 miles would do it for me, if it was actually 40 usable miles in rolling hills at 40-55 MPH. I'd also need regularly (5 days/week) take the batteries down that low without damaging them: a 40 mile range that left a lead-acid battery pack below 50% SOC would probably make for lousy battery life.

John

[Ron Wenrich]

Then you should get a Tesla Roadster.  It has a range of 220 mile on a single charge and does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds.  They use lithium-ion battery packs.  It has a modest price tag of $100,000.  Better hurry up and get one because the price goes up to $109,000 for the 2009 model.

[ADAMINMO]

Then you should get a Tesla Roadster.  It has a range of 220 mile on a single charge and does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds.  They use lithium-ion battery packs.  It has a modest price tag of $100,000.  Better hurry up and get one because the price goes up to $109,000 for the 2009 model.

That thing looks like a Ferrari but not worth the price to me. That would pay for a nice plot of land or 3 new pick up trucks that I could do more with!! Probably a real chick magnet though.

[Radar67]

If you can afford that car, you ain't worried about the price of gas.  ;)

[StorminN]

Where are these 150 mile all-electric cars? Is anyone selling them now, or expecting to have production models available in the next year or so?

John Mc,

The sad fact is, we had these all-electric cars available (albeit in low quantities) over 10 years ago. There was the GM EV1, the Honda EV+, the Toyota RAV4-EV, and some others with shorter ranges, like the Ford Ranger EV and the Chevy S10-EV.

Most of the existing or coming-soon all-electric cars that don't use lead-acid batteries have a range over 100 miles. The NiMh, Li-ion, and LiFePO4 batteries give them good range. There are a bunch of cars slated to be released in the next two years... here is a link to a summary of them, check out the Th!nk, Phoenix, Miles, and Smart models, especially:

EV summary .pdf

-Norm.

[shinnlinger]

I saw a movie "what happend to the electric car?" a few years ago about why we dont still have those little EV1 Gems.

BAsically the movie says GM took them back from all the lease holders (who wanted to buy them) and crushed them because they were TOO good and they were afraid it would cut into their bread and butter gasoline lines.

GM deserves every thing it is is now (not) getting.  They fought raising the CAFE standard so they could sell more suburbans and stopped making promising electric cars because they didn't profit from them as much as the suburbans.  Hard to make any profit if you cant sell anything.

[ADAMINMO]

I seen one of those S10-EV trucks on e-bay the other day. Pretty neat truck. Had an $11,000.00 price tag on it. Didn't look bad at all. Few small dings and a scratch ot 2 but looked good for a route truck. I think that is what it said it was used for.

[StorminN]

Shinnlinger,

You've got it exactly right. GM claims they didn't make any money on the EV1's, and that could be true... but they only made a handful of them, so they never got the benefit of the economy of scale for the components. I'm sure the first few thousand Prius' were expensive to manufacture, too... but who's making the money now?

GM's marketing for the EV1's was abysmal... I think that was shown in Who Killed the Electric Car? So once the CARB standard was repealed, GM scrapped the program (and all the EV1's) and instead chose to market and sell big SUV's and other vehicles... that they made a better profit on.

One thing I was wondering the other day was... where are all the Smart cars built, and where are the Priuses built?

-Norm.

[Ron Wenrich]

Smart cars are made in France by Mercedes Benz.  Prius is made in Japan, but will be manufactured in US next year. 

[shinnlinger]

Stormin,

It is hard to take money when you take a product from some one who wants to buy it and crush it so yeah I beleive they didn't make any $$$ with it.  THey didn't want to make any $$$ with it.

They had all sorts of celebrities (and everyday people)offering big dollars to keep their cars (talk about endorsment!) but no, hauled them to the arizona desert and crushed them before the electric car thing caught on.  MOst folks would be fine with a second car that got 150 miles on a charge.  Drive to work and come home and then plug it in.

There was an electric car company in Eugene OR (The Gizmo) that made single seaters that could go 40 miles or so at about 1 cent per mile.  I asked about rising electricity costs and he pointed out that if rates doubled it would be 2 cents a mile.

[StorminN]

There was an electric car company in Eugene OR (The Gizmo) that made single seaters that could go 40 miles or so at about 1 cent per mile.  I asked about rising electricity costs and he pointed out that if rates doubled it would be 2 cents a mile.

Not only that, but if push comes to shove, you can generate your own electricity... from solar, wind, PV. There have been a few articles in Home Power Magazine over the years with people that have PV arrays to charge their cars. Pete Seeger was one of them, AFAIR, he has a converted Ford Ranger pickup.

Conversely, I don't know any people that make their own gasoline... or ethanol, or biodiesel from their own oil (oil they have grown themselves). I know there are people out there doing this, but they are few & far between... definitely less common that people that own both electric cars and PV arrays...

-Norm.

[moonhill]

The Tesla Roadster folks are encouraging PV recharge systems.  Tim