[SINC]

15 minutes? 5 minutes is usually enough on the worst days.

Have you forgotten what -40° is like when a vehicle has been outside, unattended in the snow and blowing snow for six hours, from your days in Edmonton?

 

[eMacMan]

This is a reasonable article - the market is not ready for all electric - yet. The claim of high battery costs is the same one that was initially made about hybrids and turned out not to be a factor. I hope it is the same for electric cars when they hit the road. As production increases, the price will come down. Recycling will also kick in as these batteries are designed to be recycled.

Also, even the dirtiest coal generated electricity coming from the grid equals about 15% of the emissions that a regular car would generate. An 85% reduction is better than none.

I plan on being an early adopter once all electrics become available. Meanwhile, hybrids are currently proving their reliability and moving the market in the right direction. The plug in Prius might also be a good interim choice if the first electrics do not stand up to expectations as far as reliability and infrastructure support goes in the next couple of years.

Actually get the price down and all electrics or electrics supplemented with a 500cc generator make sense for commuting. However CO2 emissions are a relatively minor concern. Add even10KWH/day to the average household use and suddenly you need more power generation and more high voltage transmission lines to get it to the cities. Hydro sounds good until you factor in the environmental devastation that accompanies big hydro projects. We have all seen the problems related to nuclear power generation. And while you may want massive high power lines running through your back yard, many farmers and ranchers do not. As has also been pointed out wind turbines kill more birds by a factor of 100s as compared to the oil sands. Oh and case you had not noticed Canada does not have a lot of daylight during the four months when extra power generation is most needed.

Beyond that extra capacity is a big time expense and a reduction in gas tax revenue means that governments will need to make that up as well, probably by tacking an additional tax onto our electric bills. So the net result could easily see seniors on fixed incomes facing electric bills that double or even worse.

Again I am sure you can afford to see your utilities double or perhaps quadruple but many of us cannot.

So while I favour electric vehicles I think an annual fee to replace lost gas tax revenue is in order for those vehicles. Perhaps a secondary fee to help offset the need for greater power generation capacity should also be considered.

 

[dona83]

I must've been only 5, I just remember the car being really cold, much colder in the car than it was outside. lol.

It got down to -23 with windchill in 2008! Brrr!

 

[eMacMan]

I must've been only 5, I just remember the car being really cold, much colder in the car than it was outside. lol.

It got down to -23 with windchill in 2008! Brrr!

Pre-fuel injection days I can remember having to sit out there with my foot on the throttle for five minute just to get the carb warmed up enough that it would idle without icing. Came back inside and had a hot cuppa then back out to a still cold car with square wheels. I also remember the one Ford I owned. Hard to reach the cable connection to the starter and it would suddenly need to be scraped clean just as the temps dipped to about -30°F.

Newer cars do much better at extremely cold temps. Usually if the battery will crank it they start.

If it hits -40° nowadays my plan is to just stay home until things warm up or really bundle up and walk.

 

[SINC]

Ahem:

Toyota to fix 650,000 Prius hybrids for heat risk | Reuters