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Is This A Glimpse Into Our Future?
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Ahhh BA, the horsey’s still had to eat.
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And after horsey’s eat, unless they are on a low residual diet, they have to …
At the end of the day, most forms of energy leave us with a dirty residual of some kind.
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Sometime ago I read and posted an article about what the future might be like if Prevost Coaches were more like a diesel locomotive, where onboard electric diesel generators provided the power to run the drive train and to power the onboard batteries for in-house use. Perhaps a combo of what Musk wants to do; short-term rapid battery charging and perhaps an onboard generator that will continue to provide power charging to the batteries while the Coach is traveling down the road and cut down on the recharging time when the Coach comes to a stop and plugged into shore power. Electric motors would be so much better as a drive train than what is on the market today.
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Locomotives have evolved to where they are quite efficient. A new locomotive (when we were supplying parts to GE for their locomotives) had a 6000 HP diesel engine that ran at a constant fuel efficient speed.
Power and speed regulation was handled by banks of inverters. But unlike railroads our power needs have a lot of variables. Railroads have almost flat tracks. They do go up grades, but if you notice most of their tracks meander following the terrain at a constant altitude. We have interstates with steep grades and we also have a lot of stop and go. If we could run our engines at a constant fuel efficient speed we could approach the efficiency of railroads, but no matter how people discuss battery powered vehicles at some point an engine comes into play to create the electricity to keep them charged.
If we want battery power for environmental reasons, then we need to stop shipping electric from wind farms or hydro=electric generating stations around the country and just convert them into local truck stops for battery recharging.
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Thanks Jon that was infor. I was not aware of. I just think for mechanical reliability, electric motors hold a great future in transportation not for the environmental issues, that being a positive of course, but for performance. I have to believe because of men like Musk the technology is going to expand rapidly as current truck and bus makes will work harder to stay ahead of the Musk’s of the world. The future is bright and exciting.
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Musk is selling snake oil.
Go hop in one of his battery powered cars and see what it takes to go from coast to coast.
Even if a way is figured to slam a charge in his batteries in the same amount of time it takes to fill a gas tank how long will it be before there are enough filling stations with the ability to deliver the fast charge?
Multiply the issues relating to filling a car battery with electric many times over for heavy vehicles.
He is not selling electric cars or batteries but he is selling stock.
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You guys are focused on just a part of the picture. Yes, trucks go coast to coast…. but a lot are just moving product local. Yes, some cars go across country… but many more cars just drive locally. And… how many of us have more than 1 car. I have a jeep, a Mercedes, a truck, a van, a bus. If you’re a 1 car person…. don’t get electric. An electric serves a purpose.
I had an electric Fiat for commenting to work. And it did take me about 3 weeks to get over what is known as “range anxiety” and I quickly loved that car. It was great. Fast, quite, very nimble. I never ran out of juice even if I took a side trip because it was my special purpose car Like for some a truck is for moving stuff.
Tesla will be first and will sell a lot of trucks to people who will use them best for what they are best for. Local stuff. Not long distance. He doesn’t have to sell every truck in the country to be wildly successful.
He’ll sell a lot of them. One thing I learned with my electric car was that the cost for power was cheaper when delivered over wire instead of a nozzle. That will matter to a lot of fleets
i also know lots of friends with teslas. And the performance of a p100d is indescribable. It’s awesome.
the super charger network has only taken a few years to develop. It’s right under your noses. It if you don’t have one teslayou might not realize it. Just like until you buy a jeep – you don’t notice all the other jeeps on the road Yeah, it will take time but I will be right there when an electric bus comes No more noisy engine no more stepping out at dirty fueling stops . I can’t wait and I hope it comes in my lifetime I’ve already done the electric car and I love it
I want the new sports car they introduced after the truck. 0-60 in 1.9!?!?!? Oh my!
I’m in Silicon Valley where there are A LOT of electric cars around…. I’m lucky to know lots of people that have then and can try out different ones. Yes… you need the infrastructure for them… but once it’s there… electric is great. Speaking from experience.
If that truck can move 80k 500 miles… it will move 50k 700. And if you drive 55(like some guys here do) you’ll go another 100. That’s something neat about electric. If you want to stretch it out you can. I could stretch my 90 miles range to 115 pretty easily.
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Walt, you may be correct, however as the resident cynic I see two flaws with widespread use of electric as opposed to gas or diesel or propane or whatever.
As the demand for electric ramps up it will not be long before the taxes we pay per gallon are applied to electric for cars. As the demand increases so will prices based on supply and demand ramp up. At some point the cost to drive per mile for fuel will be a wash. If you think I am overly pessimistic look at what you now pay for your phone(s), internet connection, television, and even radio if you use XM. Not a soul would have predicted how we now pay through the snoot for stuff that had almost no cost. There is no way in Hell the people whose hands are collecting money associated with fuel for vehicles are going to allow their share to be diminished, especially the governmental agencies that reap huge rewards from our purchases of fuel.
But if saving money is not the motivating factor for folks who are embracing electric cars then it is likely environmental and I seriously doubt the air gets cleaner or the nuclear waste gets to be less. The electric energy still has to be generated and no matter the source for generation unless we are using solar, hydro or wind power we still have pollution issues.
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Wal-Mart preorders:
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Yes, CA is already wanting to surcharge “grid tied” solar users for infrastructure costs that are embedded in electric costs. Someday that will happen for electric vehicles too. The “highway maintenance Fee” it’ll be called.
The short term energy savings will get the band wagon going and build the users that will need new infrastructure to support them.
And if Trump continues putting his foot in it… we’ll get back on the clean energy train next election and there will probably be yet more incentives to generate clean power to support these electric vehicles.
Aside from all the bad about CA they have done well trying to clean up power generation. A lot of solar, that hydro solar with the mirrors, and wind. Plus, a lot of houses have solar around here.
Sunpower panels are packing in the watts these days. It’s getting better by the day.
The day will come…. it’ll be the early adopters that are going to get all the subsidies and benefits. That Fiat I had for 3 years…. my fuel savings paid for it once it was said and done. My wife the accountant figured it out and went back and got herself one a week later! The getting is good right now… and probably will be for a decade.
Man…. I can’t wait to drive that new Tesla Roadster!!! 1.9 seconds fellas!!
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I just bought a new Z06 and if you get that battery powered car how about we do about 200 0-60 MPH runs and average their times to see who has the fastest?
No refueling allowed.
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Go easy on the political comments, we’re not going to go down that road.
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We had solar put on the house in Southern California this past March. The system was connected to California Edison in April. We pay a monthly Edison ‘connection’ fee that fluctuates between $5 and $25 per month depending how much electricity we use.
The solar company put on 63 roof panels and we haven’t had to pay a utility bill since installation (except for the connection fee). They will tally up the difference at the end of the year. If we used more than we generate, we’ll pay .16 per kilowatt hour, if we generate more than we use, they pay us 2 per kilowatt hour. (highway robbery!). We were locked in to the ‘old’ plan as of July 31st as the rules have changed whereas the kilowatt hour cost is higher and no pay for over production.
I was shocked when we received the utility bill that we were generating half of the energy in June than we did in April. A call to the engineer at the solar company told me that the summer heat (110+) reduces voltage which is normal. So, we did go into the red in July and August but now making up for it since it is much cooler. They fail to tell you this during the sales pitch.
We have about a 8.5 yr. payback with 30% tax credit.
I told the solar guys to make sure that we have enough generating power in case we purchase electric cars.
Mark
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Tesla’s Li battery pack is said to have the lifespan of 25 years. And their cars are expected to last over 300K miles. According to some YouTube videos anyway ? Their battery technology must be way ahead of the rest of the Li manufactures. The grand daddy inventor that created Li is working on a new type of battery technology. His name is Goodenough.
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We all know that Jon (aka Ned Ludd) is not an early adopter. I doubt he can even “Google” Ned Ludd.
But we love you anyway, Jon !!
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