[GRLUG] OFF TOPIC Electric Car

[John-Thomas Richards]

On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 05:33:15PM -0500, David Pembrook wrote:
> >
> > I'm with you, Bob, but that ain't gonna fly for most people.  Most
> > people will not buy a car that only gets 35 miles per charge.  What
> > if...what if...what if...?  This is anecdotal, but my wife keeps her van
> > full.  That is, she fills up when she gets to half a tank or so because,
> > well, YOU NEVER KNOW.  What if one of the kids gets hurt?  What if I
> > have to [insert unexpected need]?  I suspect there are many, many people
> > like that in this world.  I can drive 30 miles *in-town* on errands.  I
> > live in the near-northeast.  Gotta run to Costco.  That's about ten
> > miles—one way.  That's 20 miles round trip.  Hey, wanna stop by
> > such-and-such store on the way home?  Can't; charge is running low.
> > Such a car would need to get over 100 miles per charge for it to be
> > really practical.  Having a second car is a good idea, except it would
> > quickly become the only car used.  Why take the extremely-limited-range
> > car to Costco when, well, YOU NEVER KNOW.  People don't want to have to
> > calculate the number of miles they anticipate driving before deciding
> > which car to take.
> >
> > [snip]
> >   
> 
> Thus the need to an on board generator powered by some sort of fuel cell 
> that burns clean. I can exchange propane cylinders for my grill at the 
> gas station, why not a fuel cell.

I agree completely!  This reminds me of a manufacturer (it may be local;
don't remember who) that lost a ton of money every year due to downtime
on their forklifts/hilos.  (This particular manufacturer only uses
electric-power so as to avoid the smoke from gas-powered forklifts.)
When a forklift's batteries were drained, it was useless until it was
recharged, which took several hours.  They worked with the manufacturer
of the forklifts to devise a quick-replaceable battery and battery
compartment and purchased a lot of extra batteries.  When a forklift was
getting low, the driver would be able to swap to a newly-recharged
battery in a couple minutes.  All this to say that the car manufacturers
should come up with a standardized battery that can be replaced in less
than five minutes.  A "power station" (like a gas station) could buy
dozens (hundreds?  thousands?) of these to swap with customers, just
like you do with your propane cylinder.  If a battery goes bad (as they
are wont to do), the cost of replacing it is built in to the cost of
swapping batteries with customers (sort of a surcharge for each battery
swapped).  That would solve the problem of recharging taking way too
long to be practical.
-- 
john-thomas
------
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a
thousandfold.
Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 B.C.)