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Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

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Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#51

Post by ratsbane »

beej71 wrote: post #41
kragen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the energy economics are different for planes and cars, though. There's no equivalent of regenerative braking, or for that matter stop-and-go traffic, for planes. And adding weight to a car doesn't make it use more energy at high speeds, which is how an old van can get 15 miles per gallon while a fully loaded semi truck gets 10 miles per gallon. Adding weight to a plane does make it use more energy. The effec…

> There's no equivalent of regenerative braking Point the nose down with the power off?

Nose up to slow down: altitude = stored energy

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#52

Post by ratsbane »

Geee wrote: post #25
iqster wrote: post #6

I don't understand why electricity must be generated at charging stations. "Electric charing stations must have charging equipment, generate their own electricity and have the capacity to distribute a lot of electricity." IMHO, the lack of a reasonable solution to the gas-station (err ... fill station?) problem is the key problem here. I was at the NYC auto show and saw the charging solutions for the Volt. They all s…

Lithium-titanate battery can be charged in 10min@250kW according to E-RA specs: http://www.raceabout.fi/era/ They have somewhat smaller capacity than conventional lithium-ion though.

250 kw?

If something shorts that's going to make a spark people will notice!

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#53

Post by dpark »

dlokshin wrote: post #49
jdietrich wrote: post #32

Here in the UK, gas (petrol) is well over $8 per US gallon (£1.30 per litre) and has been for some time. It hasn't been less than 79p a litre for nearly a decade. Most hybrid and electric cars are bought for use in London, where they are exempt from the $16 per day charge to drive into the city centre. I live in a large (>2 million population) city in the north of England and have never seen an electric car here.

The article is basing itself on market pressure while the UK is an example of regulatory pressure.

You don't think that $8 gas and $16 congestion charges created market pressure? If $8 gas in the UK doesn't make everyone switch to electric, how will $5 in the US do the trick?

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#54

Post by to3m »

dlokshin wrote: post #49
jdietrich wrote: post #32

Here in the UK, gas (petrol) is well over $8 per US gallon (£1.30 per litre) and has been for some time. It hasn't been less than 79p a litre for nearly a decade. Most hybrid and electric cars are bought for use in London, where they are exempt from the $16 per day charge to drive into the city centre. I live in a large (>2 million population) city in the north of England and have never seen an electric car here.

The article is basing itself on market pressure while the UK is an example of regulatory pressure.

Price is price...

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#55

Post by to3m »

untog wrote: post #24
crikli wrote: post #9

There is precedent, sorta, in aviation: 100LL hit $4.50 a couple years back and is now between $5-$8. Cessna started developing an electric 172 in 2010: http://green.autoblog.com/2010/08/11/cessna-developing-elect... I say "sorta" because it's not an industry-wide movement.

There's a sorta precedent in countries other than the US. Gas in the UK costs at least $9 per gallon, and there hasn't been a huge shift to electric cars: http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/road-freight-industry-ann... (that link is for businesses only, but if anyone had an incentive...)

It's more like $8.15-$8.30. I've heard various outlandish figures quoted, but in fact $8.15-$8.30 is a better approximation. I bought some normal unleaded petrol on Monday from Texaco, and it was £1.34/L. 1.34 (British pounds per litre) = 8.28686449 U.S. dollars per US gallon.

Perhaps if you visit a Texaco in the middle of nowhere, or a petrol station in central London, and you buy some 99 RON super unleaded, you could make it to $9/gal(US). Maybe diesel briefly touched $9/gal(US) earlier this year. It's possible. That's definitely the upper end of the price range, though!

...well, so far.

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#56

Post by jcslzr »

felipemnoa wrote: post #50
jcslzr wrote: post #28

Has any of you seen "Collapse"? Its a Documentary, and in it this guy states that there is no realistic substitution for oil, and once we run out of it society will collapse. Pretty scary.

If we run out of it all of a sudden yes. We are starting to feel the pain at least here in America and already we are starting to adapt. So no, our society won't collapse. We will find a way, we always do.

I hope we do, but it seems to me that a lot of components of an electric car will depend directly or indirectly to oil, that it will be like saying that if we run out of water, we can always drink coke.

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#57

Post by kragen »

ratsbane wrote: post #51
beej71 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no equivalent of regenerative braking Point the nose down with the power off?

Nose up to slow down: altitude = stored energy

Right, but you don't need an electric airplane to do that. With cars, electric is much more efficient for stop-and-go driving because regenerative braking becomes possible.

Re: Harvard study predicts electric car penetration when gas hits $4.5-$5.5/gall

#58

Post by kayoone »

felipemnoa wrote: post #48
kayoone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, wanted to write exactly that. US citizen cry about gasoline prices while most europeans already pay around $8 per gallon. Different driving habits ? Different studies show thats not true (posted in the comments here as well) Still i dont see electric cars becoming mainstream in the near future

I guess that is the main difference. US citizens are not willing to pay for more than 4 dollars and will start looking for ways to decrease that. You guys are already accustomed to $8 somehow. It really is a lot of money, don't know how you can afford it.

Its not that we are willing to pay that either, but we just dont have much choice as most electric cars arent capable of decent ranges yet and/or cost huge amounts of money for not alot of car.
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