EV Corridor Funded With Our Taxes

[tpreitzel]

OK, fisharmor. I'm posting this thread especially for you since I know you want to vent all that pent-up frustration. ;) Frankly, I agree with some of your objections, i.e. objections against using taxes to subsidize infrastructure in FA Rant #12 ;), but I do want you to remain on-topic as much as possible. Unfortunately, wasting taxpayer money on charging stations likely won't spawn the dawn of electric transportation, but a new highly energy dense battery system (Ni-Li) capable of powering vehicles with ranges of 500 miles without recharging will likely do so. In this thread, feel free to vent.

http://www.huliq.com/8684/87821/electric-car-corridor-eugene-oregon-vancouver-british-columbia-coming-soon

FA Rant: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showpost.php?p=2357244&postcount=2
FA Rant: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showpost.php?p=2357712&postcount=4
FA Rant: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showpost.php?p=2357945&postcount=7
FA Rant: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showpost.php?p=2358069&postcount=10
FA Rant: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showpost.php?p=2364874&postcount=12

[Elwar]

My alternative energy of choice is electric but I don't feel that the government should be having a hand in choosing the winner of this race. Especially when another tech could have won but due to government intervention the best tech is left to the history books.

[Elwar]

From the article it looks like a bunch of greenies looking for some feel good face time in front of cameras instead of any real solution.

They need to embrace capitalism if they truly want this to work. They could spend very little to have someone develop a pay as you go charging system that businesses would want in their parking lot.

Just get an IEEE standard on charge systems and let the entrepenuers handle charging stations.

[TonySutton]

Can anyone tell me how much money Henry Ford got from the federal, state and local governments to develop and rollout gas automobiles and service stations?

[Zippyjuan]

Remember that if everybody does go electric that we will have to build many more power generating plants like coal fired and nuclear powered plants to make the electricity. Now if you could make a car with a solar panel on its roof which was capable of generating all the electricity it needed- then you would definatelyl have something! Fossile fuels are currently the #1 source of electrical energy in the US- unless you change that too, you are really not saving much on carbon emissions by going with an electric car. Then there is the issue of battery disposal.

Study: Electric cars not as green as you think
by Erik Palm Font size Print E-mail Share 96 comments Yahoo! BuzzThe environmental benefits of electric cars are being questioned in Germany by a surprising actor: the green movement. But those risks don't apply in the U.S., the American electric-car lobby asserts.


(Credit: J?rgen Matijevic/WWF)
The German branch of the environmental group World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has conducted a study together with IZES, a German institute for future energy systems, on the environmental impact of electric vehicles in Germany.

Just like the U.S., Germany has an ambitious goal of introducing electric vehicles. Germany, which today has 41 million cars, aims to have 1 million electric cars or plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2020. The conclusion of the study is that these electric cars only reduce greenhouse gases marginally.

The study, which was published in German in March, has not been widely circulated in English yet. The WWF Germany said a summary in English is set for publication this summer.

"What surprised us was that the carbon dioxide savings were so small," Viviane Raddatz, vehicle expert at WWF Germany, said in a phone interview from Berlin.

In a best-case scenario, the WWF assumes that the 1 million electric cars or plug-in vehicles would be running on renewable electricity and used at maximum mileage. Electric vehicles do not yet have the range of regular cars.

The carbon dioxide emission reductions from these 1 million electrical vehicles in Germany's transportation sector would be only 1 percent, according to the study, and overall national carbon dioxide emissions would only be cut by 0.1 percent. "That is not a very big deal," Raddatz said, adding that "it is not going to help us out of the transportation emission mess."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10231102-54.html

[Elwar]

Now if you could make a car with a solar panel on its roof which was capable of generating all the electricity it needed- then you would definatelyl have something!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10231102-54.html

The weight of the solar panel and the amount of time it would take to recharge from the solar cell on the roof would make it inhibitive.

From one calculation I saw, you'd have to let your car sit for about 7 days before you could drive it about 30 miles or so.

If solar output was enough we'd have solar panels on our cars right now using it just to charge up our car battery that only has to start the car and run the car's electronics. Then you wouldn't need an alternator.

[tpreitzel]

More on this corridor from the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010131927_electriccars25m.html

No, electric charging stations won't be analogous of cell towers to the cellphone, because electric cars with an adequate battery system, e.g. Ni-Li cells with about 4x the energy density of Li-Ion, will basically render electric charging stations, the "cell tower of electric vehicles", moot (mute) except for long distances, e.g. > 500 miles. ;)

Notice the section about shipping the Ford Focus to Microsoft's campus on a flat-bed truck. Why not drive the Focus to the campus, instead? Bad PR. ;) Ahem. For the latter, we need a better battery system, e.g. Ni-Li and freer markets, not subsidized charging stations.