The problem with hydrogen is that it's expensive to produce and the infrastructure to support it would be also be expensive when compared to electricity, IIRC.
I think advanced development in batteries is probably where the money is going to go, seeing that you can deploy and test that more rapidly on a plethora of devices. There has been some advances in nanotubes recently on the battery side also that look promising. We're in the middle of a revolution with all that.
This is a problem with gasoline vehicles too though... Block heaters have been used forever to get the car warm in places with cold weather. I remember my sister having to plug her gas car overnight.
The second generation Prius actually innovated on this by pumping hot coolant into insulated thermos when you shutdown the car. The coolant remains hot for up to 3 days.
I agree, but future is the keyword. The battery tech is not quite there yet, even though it has improved tremendously lately.
Fortunately there are many more wavelengths in the EM spectrum than just visible light. I think we might see more success in the future by collecting more energetic frequencies.
C'mon dude...are you REALLY trying to convince me that a solar collector on the roof of a car (even if it collected 100% of the potential energy of the entire spectrum) is going to provide enough energy to power the car?
Look, I'm a big advocate of solar energy in the proper applications but thats a square peg you are trying to pound into that round hole...
Nice family photo Cosmic...That 1st horse looks tall...How many hands?
He's not super tall...mid 15's...just real stocky and athletic...Nice family photo Cosmic...That 1st horse looks tall...How many hands?
BTW, thats the problem with all of the renewables as it applies to personal transportation...none of them are really portable except for biofuels.
An equine Dejuan Blair if you will.
No Blair is fat...An equine Dejuan Blair if you will.
An equine Dejuan Blair if you will.
Good description!
They probably have similar thermal coefficients.
Somebody needs to invent a solar-absorbing paint...
I don't care about it that much.
You were giving out the other info for free, just thought I'd ask.
I'm not sure that a person who is going to spend $50-$75K for a car just because it gets close to 50MPG is worried about overall costs savings, of course, don't tell conscienceless wing-nuts that or their heads are likely to explode....
...for the avg consumer, a Honda or Hyndai which get about 40MPG, but costs between 20-28K, are much more financially sensible....
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ebruary/71963/
Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Show Lackluster Sales in February
Autoblog reports that the Chevy Volt sold 281 units in February, down from 321 in February. Meanwhile, sales of the Nissan Leaf dropped from 87 to 67. The trend seems pretty dismal:
. . . here's the big scorecard for all sales of these vehicles thus far:
Volt: 928
Leaf: 173
Ouch.
It's going to take a long time at this rate to hit their sales target. Here's Charles Ghosn, the CEO of Renault, saying that he's going to sell 500,000 electric cars a year by 2013:
173 down, 499,827 to go.On the eve of the market debut of the Nissan Leaf electric car, Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Renault-Nissan alliance, said the only constraint on sales for the next three years will be how many battery packs the factories could churn out.
Deliveries of the Leaf are scheduled to start next month. Mr. Ghosn, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday afternoon, did not say just how many he expected to sell in the first three years. He said, however, that the Leaf would hit 500,000 units a year in three years. Mass production, he explained, would lower costs enough to make the car a sales success without subsidies sooner than once expected. He said he once thought that number was a million cars a year, but now believed it was from 500,000 to 1 million.
The planning for the Volt has been similarly optimistic flights of fancy:
Production of Chevrolet's Volt was supposed to be limited to 10k units this year, a target GM has already set its sights on surpassing. With 2012 volume projections now reaching 25k units, the next step in The General's quest to prove that the Volt is a viable vehicle is a staggering goal: doubling its 2013 production target from 60k to 120k units of production. According to Bloomberg, GM has not officially announced the 120k volume goal and may not build that many Volts in 2013 at all, if energy prices and supplier challenges don't allow it. And though supplier issues could well leave the goal out of reach, even if GM is able to ramp up production to fulfill its 120k unit goal by next year, there are no signs yet that the market will support those production levels. After all, GM is essentially banking on the kind of volume-to-price niche that BMW has taken years to cultivate with its 3 Series... which starts at prices slightly below the Volt's $41k, and still moved fewer than 110k units last year.
As Autoblog says, the question is: "Why?" Is this just the slow ramp-up of new production? Are the dealers falling down on the job? Did weather and the short month keep buyers off the lots? Did we simply need to see higher gas prices to goose demand, meaning that sales will now take off? Or did two major auto manufacturers dump huge sums of money into a technology that is struggling to get its sales volumes into the four figures?
It certainly wouldn't be the first time that companies have made this sort of colossal misjudgment. It wouldn't even be the first time an auto company has done so. (Remember the Edsel)? March and April sales volumes should be telling: gas prices are high, and the Leaf is supposed to hit 4,000 production units this month. If volumes remain low, we may be looking at green elephants.
I believe this already exists. It is just not yet economical to deploy.Somebody needs to invent a solar-absorbing paint...
Somebody needs to invent a solar-absorbing paint...
Already exists. It's called -- black.
*rimshot*
I knew that was coming, hence my smiley. Of course, I meant one that can convert said solar energy into a useful form of energy.
I guess you could gen enough power to recharge your laptop or phone.
Every little bit could help. But more importantly, it could possibly "charge up" the car while stuck in a parking lot somewhere on a sunny day, extending the possible range/usage.
There probably is a way to do that already but I'll bet the conversion to electricity is real low.
Oh yeah, most likely.
At about a 7% yearly increase in prices, that means we will pass $7/gal in about 8 years.
Given that prices on the hybrids, and their technology efficiencies are getting lower and better respectively, that mark is probably less.
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