Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Electric car that nobody can afford... so what's the point?


Recommended Posts

I'm guessing... because the filthy rich also want to pretend they're "going green"?

Let's build more soot-spewing electric plants, to keep all those environmentally friendly electric cars running! B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Johnny

I'm guessing... because the filthy rich also want to pretend they're "going green"?

Let's build more soot-spewing electric plants, to keep all those environmentally friendly electric cars running! B)

Honestly Jon, when is the last time you saw a "soot spewing" electric plant???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well; we do have quite a number of coal-fired plants; the burning of, and mining of, which are potentially highly polluting.... but, coal is relatively cheap, we have quite a reserve of it, and once mined, it's easy to transport..... and, it provides hundreds of thousands with employment throughout the work force. there's no simple answer to electric power until there are solar cells that are both affordable and efficient.... wind power is nearly impossible to implement efficiently because no-one wants the towers nearby... same with nuclear, only more so; nobody wants to live in Springfield.

the rich would buy this thing merely to appear ecologically responsible. and fool no one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Johnny

The plants are the cleanest they have ever been. There are huge deposits of "clean coal" out west that Clintomn seen fit to make "protected" lands so it couldn't be mined.

Maintained the VW of a Professor from Southern Illinois University that was running the "clean coal technology" studies. they developed a scrubber that would bring the pollution down below the government mandated standards big time and the answer to that??

The greens petitioned the government and EPA and got the standards raised even higher. they did this multiple times as they got the scrubber to reach and exceed the EPA limits!

Like anything else the tree huggers want taken away they will attack full on every way they can think up, most of the time without a legitimate claim!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Electric cars, from the very beginning back around 1900, have almost always been far more expensive than either steam or gasoline internal combustion. That said, early on, it was all about being easy to drive (those rolling "china cabinet" electrics of a century ago appealed to females lacking the upper body strength to hand crank a gasoline engine--bear in mind, it was just about this time of year in 1912 that Cadillac introduced the first practical electric starter for automobiles!), in addition to being virtually silent and of course, completely free of smelly exhaust and the inevitable odor of motor oil.

Of course, the proponents of electric cars today tend to see them as the commuter car alternative to gasoline power--fine if you are affluent enough to not only own one, but are a two (or more) car family. On paper, an electric does fit the role of a commuting car for most small and medium-sized cities--probably not so practical if you live in SOCAL, where commutes in and out of say, LA, entail a drive of perhaps 50 miles one-way. That just does not work with the available electric car technology--stretching the known range of a pure electric to the max, and with the relative scarcity of charging stations no matter where one looks!

It's a little-noticed fact that even in really good times over recent years, US gasoline consumption is actually down from say, the middle 1990's, due to the much greater fuel efficiency of modern cars (which is precisely why the federal gasoline tax as constituted no longer can begin to cover the maintenance of our highway system, and the same is also true for most states (This has been well documented in the press over the past 4-5 years, but since it's not sensational news, most people never read about it!).

Still, it would be fun to have the bucks to afford a Tesla--I've seen a couple of those on the street here--and to hear one screech the tires in otherwise total silence is almost deafening!

Art

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The plants are the cleanest they have ever been. There are huge deposits of "clean coal" out west that Clintomn seen fit to make "protected" lands so it couldn't be mined.

Maintained the VW of a Professor from Southern Illinois University that was running the "clean coal technology" studies. they developed a scrubber that would bring the pollution down below the government mandated standards big time and the answer to that??

The greens petitioned the government and EPA and got the standards raised even higher. they did this multiple times as they got the scrubber to reach and exceed the EPA limits!

Like anything else the tree huggers want taken away they will attack full on every way they can think up, most of the time without a legitimate claim!

Saw a news clip a couple of years back--of Al Gore giving a speech somewhere. The news camera's zero'd in on former Mr. Vice President's motorcade waiting for him to come out of the hall where he was speaking........a lineup of Chevy Suburbans, all of them happily idling, awaiting Gore's coming out of the building. So much for GREEN, Mr Gore!

Art

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gasoline car that nobody can afford... so what's the point?

http://wikicars.org/en/Bugatti_Veyron

Car that only goes in a straight line for a few seconds that nobody can afford... so what's the point?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/vintage-speed/anatomy-of-a-top-fuel-dragster

What does it matter? This is a model car forum. Typically, what we build is the stuff of fantasies. Sometimes those fantasies get built in 1:1 so who are you to complain about it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only truly "clean" energy is electricity created by dams, solar or wind (that is, after the dam or windmill is built or after the solar panels are installed). Electricity created in any other way (nuclear, coal-fired plants) produces pollution and hazardous waste. So electric cars may themselves be "clean," but you have to remember how the electricity they use got to the end of the plug...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw a news clip a couple of years back--of Al Gore giving a speech somewhere. The news camera's zero'd in on former Mr. Vice President's motorcade waiting for him to come out of the hall where he was speaking........a lineup of Chevy Suburbans, all of them happily idling, awaiting Gore's coming out of the building. So much for GREEN, Mr Gore!

Art

How do you know they were idling? I thought we were supposed to avoid politics on here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My problem with the electric cars is they still go the same distance on a charge as a 100 year old electric car.

That's where cars like the Volt have the advantage, while they don't have the all electric range, that little gasoline generator helps fix that little problem. All electric like that really isn't viable unless you want the ability to brag for having something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So...what's the point of a Lamborghini Aventador? Or a Fabergé egg? Or a 200-ft yacht? Etc.

Very simple,

Lamborghini-----To drive the heck out of,

Faberge Egg------To invest or just to collect,

Yacht-------To party on

When you can afford them you don't have to have a point, that's the point!!!!!!!!

Capitalism, enjoy the heck out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CadillacPat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So...what's the point of a Lamborghini Aventador? Etc.

I agree, there are mega-buck cars out there that run on gas that are just as impractical.

I guess I see electric cars as being a "solution" to the problem of cars that burn gas. Maybe that's because electric cars have been marketed as being practical, sensible alternatives to cars that pollute, and I've bought into the sales pitch. So seeing an electric car that's priced where just about nobody can afford it sort of defeats the purpose of it being a practical alternative to cars that run on gas, and it becomes nothing but a useless automotive exercise (unless, of course, you happen to be in a financial position to drop a million dollars on a car).

I guess it's sort of like solar panels that are so expensive to buy and install, that it would take you 20 years worth of electricity savings before you recoup the initial investment and actually begin to start saving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very simple,

Lamborghini-----To drive the heck out of,

Faberge Egg------To invest or just to collect,

Yacht-------To party on

When you can afford them you don't have to have a point, that's the point!!!!!!!!

Capitalism, enjoy the heck out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CadillacPat

I have to agree with that, well said

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I wanna know is why can't anybody else make an electric car that can

"carry the car a distance of 372 miles on a single charge."

They could. But at what cost? That's the trade-off. Hyper-productive batteries are still way expensive. The technology that's in that car, you're not going to see in a run-of-the-mill Prius. At least not yet.

But they're working on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who killed the electric car? The marketplace. When an electric pickup truck can be charged anywhere in less than ten minutes, and travel about 350 miles on a charge while carrying 1,000 pounds of cargo, I'll buy one. Until then, gasoline- or diesel-powered ones will do just fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...