On psychology of gas prices and stupid people
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the people that do this usually have no idea that they could be saving hundreds by doing a few simple and free/cheap mods to their car and changing their driving style. that would be more cost effective than saving a few bucks at the pump, provided you dont burn it away idling your car for 30 mins. but thats not how most people think. they only worry about cost when they need to fill up the tank, not while driving.
...meanwhile i will keep getting +5mpg above the old epa sticker numbers and patiently wait til i can afford an electric car with solar charging station. paying for fuel to drive will be outdated soon enough. and in 10 yrs, most electrics will cost around $20k or less with the tax breaks. heck today you could pick up a nissan leaf in cali for around $22k after rebates. batteries are simple things and the cost will come down. most older nimh hybrid batteries can be rebuilt better than new for around $1.2k, nowhere near the $5k hybrid haters will have you believe. lithium is still expensive, but so was nimh 8 yrs ago.
Solar generation and windmills are wonderful ideas, but they generate very little electricity. For the foreseeable future, the vast majority of electric cars will be coal powered.
The problem is a question of energy density. That is, the amount of energy contained in a given quantity of a fuel. Gasoline, diesel, natural gas, etc are all very energy dense, and this is what makes them good vehicle fuels. IMO, the real future has to be in Hydrogen. It's the only thing out there that compares to gasoline in energy density, and when you use it as a fuel the by-product is pure water vapor. The trouble is in building the infrastructure to store and transport hydrogen to the consumer.
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they do have quite a few massive solar charge facilities setup so im sure its possible to expand them into more states. i have also seen personal stations at home. i agree on the raw materials aspect, but the same applies to regular gas cars made today. where does all the metal and plastic come from? destructive and costly mining and oil drilling ofcourse. but at least once an electric car is built, the environmental impact stops. and you dont have to breathe in toxic fumes every time you want to drive somewhere. or make sure you drive around enough so the car warms up properly. electric cars dont care what the temp and elevation are, how long you drive, or any other problems that gas engines have like worrying about oil and coolant changes, trans fluid, etc. its all battery and electric motor. you just eliminated a huge chunk of maintenance costs and potential problems. geothermal is also a great alternative when solar doesnt work well for a given area. the sad part is, GM made a really good electric car way back in 1997 i believe, called the EV1. to this day, it is still the most advanced electric ever built. the only thing that could use improving is the lead acid battery pack. the car itself was a marvel of technology and had the lowest drag coefficient of any production car. there are just other vested interests keeping the electric car out of the picture or making it look like the technology will not work, when in fact history has shown us it works better than anything else. go watch the film "who killed the electric car" and report back lol.
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Re: On psychology of gas prices and stupid people
Solar generation and windmills are wonderful ideas, but they generate very little electricity. For the foreseeable future, the vast majority of electric cars will be coal powered.
The problem is a question of energy density. That is, the amount of energy contained in a given quantity of a fuel. Gasoline, diesel, natural gas, etc are all very energy dense, and this is what makes them good vehicle fuels. IMO, the real future has to be in Hydrogen. It's the only thing out there that compares to gasoline in energy density, and when you use it as a fuel the by-product is pure water vapor. The trouble is in building the infrastructure to store and transport hydrogen to the consumer.
The problem is a question of energy density. That is, the amount of energy contained in a given quantity of a fuel. Gasoline, diesel, natural gas, etc are all very energy dense, and this is what makes them good vehicle fuels. IMO, the real future has to be in Hydrogen. It's the only thing out there that compares to gasoline in energy density, and when you use it as a fuel the by-product is pure water vapor. The trouble is in building the infrastructure to store and transport hydrogen to the consumer.
I understand that the hydrogen infrastructure and refining is going to be a hurdle that has to be overcome for it to truly reach the mainstream but the same was true for gasoline at one point. A large part of that infrastructure is already there in terms of gas stations and propane distribution systems so personally I don't think it's that much of a leap to make the hydrogen fuel cell car a reality.
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