sit in the desert and fry

chublil,
I agree totally with your comments plus an infrastructure for "convenient & fast" charging would need to established. What would one do in the wide open spaces of areas like the plains states of the Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc?

chublil,
I agree totally with your comments plus an infrastructure for "convenient & fast" charging would need to established. What would one do in the wide open spaces of areas like the plains states of the Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc?

Until someone invents a viable battery, the electric car is a dream. Its funny how far charging technology has gone and yet they are still charging the same load source developed in 1910! Fuel cells using methanol or hydrogen will be the best bet, but they are still a long way from being the norm.

Getting the government involved in anything will assure things will get screwed up, make it cost more, provide slow & a bureaucratic process.

sounds like the EV's might have a good market in Holland. As for the price of batteries they do need to come down a lot to make it worth while. The goverments who want to promote this should have a rental system for them to make them affordable

EV's "might" be good on flat level roads/highways - but trips through the mountains that is another story.
Those replacement battery packs for hybrids are a bit price too - $5k - $7.5 (USD)

The biggest land most people with Electric Cars will get is when the time comes to dispose of the batteries.

When the various EPA's get involved and people understand the compliance issues, cost etc of getting rid of the dead units will the true costs of ownership become apparent.

Already most EPA's are making Electric Forklift Battery disposal a nightmare, just wait to see what happens when Electric cars and Hybrids need to change batteries. !!!!!!!???????????????

In IVT magazene there was a survay about what some exsperts think about how the forklift industry will change over the next 10 years all of hume said that all small trucks in europe will mainly be electric. There are many problems with Hydrogen one being stroring the hydrogen the second it can cause quite a bit of rain when the vaper is released into the atmostfear and finally cost they need to use plantinum in quite lare parts and this is exspensive. So really both cars and forklifts will have to look at other alternatives if they want to come up with a solution.

Hydrogen fuel cells may well be the way forward. Maybe the oil companies would be able to move into supplying the fuel, which might stop them trying to kill off EV technolology. Probably easier than battery changing. Though some fork truck manufacturers have good systems for this, and no doubt a bit more thought could potentially make this quicker than filling up! Personally I can't see widespread charging at home, or elsewhere taking off in a big way. Another problem is simply generating enough electricity, that will have to improve hugely. I think the only certainty is that EVs are the future, whether hydrogen or battery powered, (or maybe both) the drive and control are of course essentially the same.

One of the reasons that the 'car' industry wants to 'pay out billions a year' is because they can not put a patent on 'prior art', so if we talk about it here, then it is just about a worthless idea to the car companies that want to have the idea as a patentable unique selling point.
There is no profit in re-inventing the wheel.
Some of the things that battery motive automotive vehicles should take from battery motive industrial vehicle is a positive (mechanical, not electronic) method to disconnect the battery power from the electric drive motor, to be able to be positive there will never be a run away condition as was claimed about the Prius. If Toyota had a battery disconnect lever that opened the circuit between the motor and batteries, there would never have been a question as to the possible causes of the run-away.
Other lessons have to do with the science of battery recharging and just how much "regen" -really- happens (not just how much is generated, but how much the battery really gains).

AndyPandy i think this is the only way it will catch on they would have to be able to exchange the batery in less then 10min. But it could silde out on a a rack that can be placed on a trolly and changed. The rack would be able to fit into racking for charging. This could be done through the car dealer ship with a sat nav that could tell you where your nearest one is when the charge gets low. They could also have some on motaways. All the bateries will mean more are being produced one car would average around two batteris each so it will work out cheaper. Why does the car industry pay out billions a year when they can just look on here.

I feel there is a lesson to be learnt for electric cars from Forklifts.
Battery changing. If charged batteries where available at depots so cars could use the battery power, pull in change a battery and continue they could be more attractive. If all electric cars used a standard battery which was as easy to change as filling up with fuel you could see them catching on. There would be a requirement for a **** of a lot of batteries, but it is a thought.

Battery powered electric cars are pretty much useless for most people due to range issuse.

Hydrogen fuel cell is the way forward.

Battery technology needs to get a lot better before electric cars become worth thinking about.