Most of the electric cars coming out today (Optimal Energy, Lightening Automobiles etc) use three facet interface which is just industrial interface. Your electric stove would use three facet and so you would really just need a line taken from your breaker up to your garage. Not so big of a deal really.
I understand that it would be easy to implement something that is coming out of your house, but the tech in that cartoon is using solar panels to feed the recharger, which would actually not work because most if not all solar panels feed 12v out to a charger which then charges a bank of battery's than the battery's feed a 12v to 120v-240v converter which would feed the car's charger, all that tech last time I looked into it was easily 5g's and that didn't include the car. The point of that cartoon at least from what I took I it from it was the party that the US would have when there dependance on oil would wean, of course the way I see it is that the electrical grid in NA is not yet ready for the kind of load that will be placed on it even if 10% of people convert to a plug in, and if we do need excess electrical production mothballed coal plants like Nanticoke will once again be pressed into service and negating allot of the good that the cartoon's setup would do.
Most charging would be off hours.
Remember batteries do not charge in a huge rush of current.
Reality is not a cartoon - there are already people out there doing it pretty much as the cartoon indicates.
I don't know where you get the idea that charging must be 240 volt.
Quote:
A quick walk around shows that the gasoline filler neck is still on the driver’s side of the Prius, but now there’s a matching filler door on the passenger’s side as well. Pop this second filler door and you’re greeted with an electrical outlet that accepts Toyota’s plug-in cord. The cord is small and lightweight with an inline black box at the plug end. It easily stows in the rear of the car for charging top-offs if you have an outlet at your destination. To charge, simply plug the car connector -- which has a handle somewhat like a gas nozzle -- into the Prius and the other end into a household outlet. Toyota says a full charge will take 3-4 hours when plugged into a 110 volt outlet or 1-1 ½ hours from a 220 volt outlet.
Not very high tech is it.....
PHEVs do have fossil based engines as well.
Solar has no where near the cost savings gradient that PHEV do so adoption will be slower BUT there is a synergy with solar, PHEV and feeding back into the grid or even the home.
••••
Electronic tolls will be ( already are really ) needed to support road maintenance so it will be user pays.
There is no other method for covering road maintenance that makes any sense.
Local roads can be covered by municipal tax.
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Talk of electric cars is great but I still haven't figured out where most folks are supposed to plug in. The one place where they make sense, the city, has very few options for people to charge their cars. The vast majority of city dwellers either park their cars on the street or in underground parking lots. You'd be breaking your neck tripping over extension cords.
The only thing that makes sense is some kind of electric hybrid where the car can be charged without plugging in.
Reality is not a cartoon - there are already people out there doing it pretty much as the cartoon indicates.
NO reality is not a cartoon but how much is the cost of doing all this and please show me actual figures. One more thing have you asked who is going to maintain that plug in car once it does brake down I'm sure that independent mechanics will be happy to loose business and the manufacturers will be more than happy to rape you when you have a problem with your electric car.
I rolled my Toyota Yaris three times this morning after hitting a six-foot-high dirt embankment at highway speed. I crawled out with no more than a bump on my head, seat belt burn, and a massively stiff neck. So, for all you small car safety-doubters out there, I’ve now got personal experience to say otherwise.
Inevitably, whenever we post about small electric cars, funky three-wheelers, or any other small fuel-efficient vehicle here at Gas 2.0, we get typical responses along the lines of “It may get 60 mpg, but that thing’s a death trap,” or “It’s nice to drive electric, but would you trust that car to your family?”
After this morning’s shenanigans, I can unequivocally say “Yes. Yes I would trust my family to a small fuel-efficient car, and I’m miraculously alive and mostly uninjured… so no, it’s not a death trap.”
My Yaris got 40 mpg and weighed about a quarter of a Chevy Suburban. From the outside it may not have looked very substantial, but it sure saved me on fuel costs. And, until today, I would have grudgingly agreed that it may not be as safe as driving a behemoth like the Suburban.
But now that my life has stopped flashing before my eyes, and I’ve had a chance to think, it is simply amazing that I walked away from that crash barely bleeding. I mean, just look at the remnants of my car.
In fact, after today, I think I fared better in my Yaris than I would have in a Suburban land yacht. Imagine how many times I would have flipped in the Suburban and the force of impact that would have come along with crashing an 8600 pound car?
So, for everybody out there that’s using safety as an excuse to not go green, I must ask you to please take a look at that picture of my car and the wonder of how I walked away well enough to write this post the same day. Then try turning around and telling me that these upcoming small alternative cars aren’t safe simply because they’re small.
It’s more a matter of engineering, and, at least in Toyota’s case, those engineers are miracle-workers.
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I don't know, my friend had an accident with his Toyota 4 Runner he hit a 2 year old Civic head on and the Civic is a total write off while his truck only suffered a popped ball joint which I helped him put back on and some minor body damage, the lady which was driving the Civic got injured bad enough that she was taken away in an ambulance. So might might not be right all the time but in my friends case he came away without a scratch and he thanks the 4Runner for being a big safe SUV.
The energy environmental crisis is much more complicated then the cars we drive. Reducing the amount of energy our cars use and the pollution they produce will only solve a small portion of our problem. The real problem is urban design. We need to re-design our cities for public transit and walking. The electric car is just window dressing that will only perpetuate the other pollution and energy problems we have.
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We need to re-design our cities for public transit and walking. The electric car is just window dressing that will only perpetuate the other pollution and energy problems we have.
While I tend to agree there needs to be higher density for different reasons removing vehicle contributions has enormous impact and does NOT require major infrastructure changes which takes decades to implement.
Transport is a MAJOR contributor to GHG and that CAN be changed for personal transport with very little life style shift.
PHEV are very much self funding with gasoline prices so high.
People WANT the flexibility that personal transport enables and making it available GHG free WITH significant savings in fuel = a winner all around.
Puts people to work building the new vehicles....could not be a better time and progressive forward thinking nations are getting on with it......big time.
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I don't know, my friend had an accident with his Toyota 4 Runner he hit a 2 year old Civic head on and the Civic is a total write off while his truck only suffered a popped ball joint which I helped him put back on and some minor body damage, the lady which was driving the Civic got injured bad enough that she was taken away in an ambulance. So might might not be right all the time but in my friends case he came away without a scratch and he thanks the 4Runner for being a big safe SUV.
Laterz
Until it rolls like a Banana!
It is all in the technology. Smart cars have taken the biggest beating for apparently not being safe or 'coffins on wheels' when they have better crash test ratings than most suv's and Dodge Durangos in particular.
They use the egg-shape cock pit design that super cars like Ferraris and Lambourghinis use since the whole body of supercars are fibre glass.
Go find videos on youtube of Smart cars smashing into cement walls.
Safe suv's is an oxy moron. They roll like bloody bananas everywhere.
Statistics indicate that SUV's are about 10% more dangerous then other vehicles. Manly because, as Adrian mentioned, they roll easily. One of the things that make them so dangerous is all the glass at such a height. I have driven them on a few occasions and they really feel unsafe. Brakes are too weak, and they handle like a super tanker. I'd much rather be in a smaller, nimbler vehicle.
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