Tesla Model S

[NMRam]

My biggest issue with straight electric vehicles (besides cost and questionable battery/maint costs) is that we drive such long distances to get anywhere in NM that the battery range just doesn't cut it on them. I could be swayed to a hybrid at some point in the future, but don't think I would ever go full electric until the technology evolves A LOT!

 

[azmidget91]

as an engineering student who is going to GM tomorrow to talk to them about a job, i am not a huge fan on the current electric cars. a guy i know who converted his bmw z4 calculates his cost to recharge and compares to current gas prices and says he only saves about $500 a year on fuel cost (btw cost him $20,000 to convert it...). i feel that going electric at this point is not the answer, and wont be untill you can charge the batter in a similar amount of time that it takes to fill your gas tank. untill then the public will not like electric cars. i think that if they can come up with a way to rapidly charge the batteries then it would be a good option.

 

[RedRider]

as an engineering student who is going to GM tomorrow to talk to them about a job, i am not a huge fan on the current electric cars. a guy i know who converted his bmw z4 calculates his cost to recharge and compares to current gas prices and says he only saves about $500 a year on fuel cost (btw cost him $20,000 to convert it...). i feel that going electric at this point is not the answer, and wont be untill you can charge the batter in a similar amount of time that it takes to fill your gas tank. untill then the public will not like electric cars. i think that if they can come up with a way to rapidly charge the batteries then it would be a good option.

I know a guy in Florida converted an old car to electric. Could this be the same guy?

 

[OldCracker29]

as an engineering student who is going to GM tomorrow to talk to them about a job, i am not a huge fan on the current electric cars. a guy i know who converted his bmw z4 calculates his cost to recharge and compares to current gas prices and says he only saves about $500 a year on fuel cost (btw cost him $20,000 to convert it...). i feel that going electric at this point is not the answer, and wont be untill you can charge the batter in a similar amount of time that it takes to fill your gas tank. untill then the public will not like electric cars. i think that if they can come up with a way to rapidly charge the batteries then it would be a good option.

I don't understand why they can't have some kind of system involving the rotation of the wheels. Something similar to those giant windmills.

 

[Black02Silverado]

I wonder how much your electric bill will go up charging that thing every night?

 

[azmidget91]

as an engineering student who is going to GM tomorrow to talk to them about a job, i am not a huge fan on the current electric cars. a guy i know who converted his bmw z4 calculates his cost to recharge and compares to current gas prices and says he only saves about $500 a year on fuel cost (btw cost him $20,000 to convert it...). i feel that going electric at this point is not the answer, and wont be untill you can charge the batter in a similar amount of time that it takes to fill your gas tank. untill then the public will not like electric cars. i think that if they can come up with a way to rapidly charge the batteries then it would be a good option.

I know a guy in Florida converted an old car to electric. Could this be the same guy?

Nope, tihs was the guys first conversion, there are ton of people out there who have done the swap

 

[NCSU_05_FX4]

I know a guy in Florida converted an old car to electric. Could this be the same guy?

His name wasn't Terry was it?

Batteries still kill the environment, and you still have to charge them using coal-fired plants.

I wonder how much your electric bill will go up charging that thing every night?

These are the big reasons I'm not buying into the electric car just yet. So you plug it into your house at night (I'd rather not run an extension cord from my house to my parking spot but that's just me) and it'll suck power, and I'm guessing it'll be at a pretty decent rate. So you're paying an increased power bill which cuts into those fuel savings you're getting.

On top of that, the majority of our power comes from coal plants, so really what you're driving is a coal powered car. Of course they'd never advertise it that way!

I don't understand why they can't have some kind of system involving the rotation of the wheels. Something similar to those giant windmills.

They kinda do with the regenerative braking. Problem with just attaching something to the wheels is it would take more energy to spin the wheel than you could collect from it (unless you are slowing down), so it's a net loss.

If you are braking you can capture some of the energy and store it, or if you were coasting downhill you could probably generate some power from that. Railroad locomotives use Dynamic Braking, where instead of using their electric motors to turn the wheels, they'll basically switch the direction of the generators and instead of supplying power to the wheels, they can generate power (and heat) which slows down the wheels and helps control the speed of a train when going downhill.

 

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

My biggest issue with straight electric vehicles (besides cost and questionable battery/maint costs) is that we drive such long distances to get anywhere in NM that the battery range just doesn't cut it on them. I could be swayed to a hybrid at some point in the future, but don't think I would ever go full electric until the technology evolves A LOT!

I also could consider to get a hybrid instead of a full electric at least until the technology evolve enough. There are already some interesting hybrid systems...

 

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

i feel that going electric at this point is not the answer, and wont be untill you can charge the batter in a similar amount of time that it takes to fill your gas tank. untill then the public will not like electric cars. i think that if they can come up with a way to rapidly charge the batteries then it would be a good option.

Not just the same amount of time, but also the same range should be retained in an electric car.