The wife and I were in Victoria BC a few weeks ago and saw this neat little thing, it had a mini dump too. It looked to me to be about the size of your mini trucks and maybe even smaller. They were using it for landscaping in Victoria and promoting them. Don't remember the price but I think it was alot. like $20,000 or maybe more
that's a lot of money to pay for that kind of humiliation....maybe it's just me but that little bugger is aesthetically challanged:sly:
Yea we thought that too, it's the cab I didn't like. The lift box was well done though, it looked like aluminum everywhere. Oh and one more thing, top speed was around 40-50k if I remember right. So electrics still have a way to go I guess. Although I saw a video of a drag bike that was wicked fast, so they CAN get the power from batteries, but always seem to come up short on cars and trucks don't they.
The real problem with electric vehicles has always been batteries and power storage...lithium is great for batteries in small electronics and is also proven in road-going vehicles..big problem is that lithium is a finite resource with few suppliers,and recycling of used lithium batteries is still not perfected.. The average useable electric vehicle with a range of say 200 miles per charge will use more lithium ion batteries than all the electronic devices in a single Walmart put together....Odd that no one is seeming to be looking at this huge flaw in the electric vehicle plan.....all the manufacturers at the moment are planning to use lithium ion batteries,wonder where the lithium will come from ??:sly:
Zero emissions statements always rub me wrong. May be zero during the operational life cycle, but they sure as heck aren’t zero during production and disposal. In most cases electric vehicles have a significantly higher carbon footprint and environmental emission during the manufacturing and disposal part of the vehicle life cycle. Mostly from the additional hazardous chemical handling needed to create, recycle, and/or dispose of for the batteries. If that dont make you feel guilty, well... it should... The total environmental footprint of an EV vs a Petro vehilce isnt helping the environment one iota even when compared to each other. I haven’t even factored in how inefficient it is to produce electricity 1000's of miles away through the use of, ya you guessed it, fossil fuels, then delivered to your home and wasted on the charging cycle, etc etc... An EV vehicle will only slow the demand for foreign oil and hopefully geopolitical unrest... that’s about it... The good for your conscience and good for the environment is a fat lie. ok im off my soap box...
I dunno, I know a guy who lives off the grid and drives a home made electric vehicle. He's got a solar array and a windmill... but his car only has a 20 mile range. That said if I were going to buy an EV I'd go either this route: http://inhabitat.com/2010/06/10/motoczysz-e1pc-the-worlds-most-advanced-electric-motorcycle/ Or this route: http://www.teslamotors.com/ Needless to say I'll never have the bank to do either
Have you checked out Tesla's new S model? 7 passenger seating, 300 mile range 45 minute charge time, 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and under 50k! Holy freeking crap!
I know im like a year late on a reply but i just had a wild hair to read this post again.... ok... Modify fupabox's graphic above... Remove Electric car and replace with solar panel factory. Just as the Electric car that drives out of the garrage and is "clean" so are the solar pannels headed for your house..... :frustration: A solar powered solar pannel factory is not possible.... here is a joke of an excuse for one.... http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...er_solar_panel_factory_with_solar_energy.html
I agree that electric is not as clean as people may think, however it is a step in the right direction. I don't want to get into a full blown alternative energy discussion here, but ev's will in theory increase demand for cleaner electricity. We are a long way away, but this is a turning point in the automotive industry. We have a client who has converted 3 kei vehicles from us into electrics. Fast, powerful and can go quite a ways without a charge. Driving all day in town on deliveries etc used only 15% of the available charge. This is in a city of 300000. I currently live in a seasonal holiday town. Year round population of only a few hundred. Town is only a couple miles long. Electric truck would be perfect for myself. Less than 2 min drive to anywhere in town. My Suzuki doesn't even get up to operating temp! I just can't afford the initial outlay of cash!
last thing ill say on the subject =D Agree totally, but let me add another layer to it. I agree b/c in my mind, its all getting "my piece" of the action so someone else doesn’t. If i had solar cells, wind, electric car etc. I could do more with less than the next guy and maintain an edge over the next guy from a "standard of living" point of view... good for me... not for the environment... Hugh? ... ok ... I will pose this little known fact; The Jevons Paradox; Which states that as efficiency increases, consumption INCREASES, not decreases. So in fact efficient cars actually pollute more! Mind boggling eh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
only thing clean about solar panels is once they are made the only other pollution they can make is in the landfills.
when Ontario Hydro began switching over to "greener" energy sources,smart meters,and higher efficiency standards...they knew they had to charge more for less....I really hate that.....but in reality Jevons Paradox never kicked in ..just as it didnt kick in when water conservation was implemented....What happened is that we conserved water..cut our electricity use drastically and now the water and electricity utility companies are not earning enough so they need to jack the rates to compensate for lost revenues...when you truly conserve less it ends up costing more .. or the" paradox of conservation" .. unless you can get off the grid conserving is the worst thing you can do:frustration:
Do you have any idea about gas? I do drive an electric motorcycle http://www.evalbum.com/preview.php?vid=2053. Driving my car cost me $4 per day, driving the bike cost $0.23 per day. To all those who think gas is cleaner, think again. Did you know the biggest consumer of electricity is refineries? Not to mention the carbon cost in drilling, pumping, storing, shipping, storing, shipping, storing, refining, storing, refining again, storing, shipping, storing and then pumping to your tank. Check out the show Fully Charged on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fully+charged+show&aq=1 . There is a lot of info available. Robert
