These stories of all electric cars raise some questions, but note that the Tesla driver whose car burned up said he would buy another one in a minute. Gotta love these enviros.
The Fisker isn’t really a consideration, but the Tesla has sold a number of units.
The Volt is a car? A real option for transportation for someone who needs to get transported? More than a statement of solidarity with the pantheists?
As long as we’re talking innovations that are dangerous, why not much talk about compressed natural gas, which is equivalence in TNT is attention getting. Put enough small vehicles powered with natural gas on the roads and my bet is that T Boone Pickens will say, for energy security the risk is worth it. Saddle up, you IED Drivers.
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/365191/print
What kind of insurance would be appropriate for electric cars–or natural gas vehicles?
sho nuff going green is stupid–and you, mr. jared, can’t get past your feelings of “wanting to do the right thing” even when the plan is bogus.
Trying to go green is a great idea but a lot of work still needs to be done to make any major changes. They are also trying to develop and market electric vehicles for mass transportation. It is interesting to watch the progression of this technology.
Right you are. I neglected to specify an attached garage. Mine is under the bedroom.
sure. If I had one. (My garage is detached from my house!). And (iirc) all of the Tesla issues have involved a underbody puncture from road debris, not sitting in the garage being charged. Had an 1970 Oldsmoble with the venerable 350/4 get a punctured oil pan from road debris. Now, it didn’t catch fire but it was just as destroyed.
natgas cars have been used by many people in Poland with no adverse effects. A friend of mine got a regular Japanese car (forgot make) converted for relatively little money. Most gas station had infrastructure to dispense nagas. For some time, natgas was much cheaper than gasoline and many people did this. I think calling natgas cars IED versus gasoline cars being somehow safe is a little uninformed.
of course. that’s why there should be a choice. not a mandate and not artificial support/subsidies for either. let the market decide.
But would you charge your Tesla overnight in your garage?
An electric car may be fine put putting around town but for some people, like me, I drive 11 miles interstate at 70-80 mph and another 10 miles at 55-70 mph on a six lane highway each way to work and back home. I think I’ll stick with my 370Z for a little while longer..
the gov’t isn’t providing subsidies, the utilities are trying to use the free market to balance their demand loading. They also offer free weekends (when loading is also very very low).
“…and with some electric provider incentives could make sense for me…” You are now part of the problem.
I also like the idea of electric cars, but I do not think it is right to have the government require utilities (and, really, other ratepayers) to subsidize my likes.
I dunno….I work in the oil business. Our parking lot has numerous Volts and hybrids. Car/van pooling have corprate support. I gotta pay the same price for gasoline as everyone else. A pure electric option can be viable, and with some electric provider incentives could make sense for me. I drive 40-50 miles per day, and TXU now offers “Free Nights”, meaning any electricity used between 10pm – 6am is free. An overnight charge for free is good. What makes it untenable is the premium I have to pay to buy an electric. If they were priced similarly, it would work for me.
It would seem no one has huge interest in electric cars. Mitsubishi just reduced the price of their i-MiEV by $6,135.
http://insideevs.com/2014-mitsubishi-i-miev-reduced-by-6130-now-from-22995-which-includes-fast-charging/
Every form of transportation involves risks. As the capacity increases — speed, size, range — some of those risks increase. The number of electric cars is still small enough that evaluating their risks compared to gasoline cars is difficult. The same is true for CNG — although I’ve been worried a bit about the compressed-gas component.
One hopes there’s a highly feasible mechanism for safely venting the CNG in an accident, similar to the safety valves on home propane tanks maybe.
I’d be fine with electric cars if they were as efficient — truly efficient — as gas vehicles. So far, they aren’t. That means their real environmental footprint is larger than a conventional vehicle’s footprint. Or tire track.