Watching "Future Cars" on the Science channel and saw this..

0-60 in 3.6 seconds...over 300 miles per charge.
People may have to give a serious look at the Volt, if they get the power cells @ the price they need to be profitable.

 

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

Acceleration 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds
Top Speed Over 130 mph
Range 250 miles EPA highway
Energy Storage System Custom microprocessor-controlled lithium-ion battery pack

 

Also, Opel Diesel performance..Eco Speedster:
155mph top speed...135mpg...112hp...ultra lightweight.

 

If this technology was really affordable, some engineers would turn up missing, like a lot of scientists seem to do..

 

Another one:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...ese_pm_loo.php

Eight 100hp motors, one inboard of each wheel...lithium ion.
0-60 in 4 seconds...possibly 250mph!?
3 Million Yen/ $260K

Many people's perceptions of electric cars are that they are; Slow, heavy short trip vehicles, requiring long recharge times...guess that's changing fast.
I still wonder;
How long a battery will last?
What do you do with your old ones?
What's the re-fit gonna cost?

 

Zero emissions? That is false advertising. Take into account the emissions used to generate the electricity.

But I digress. Sure, its possible to make a performance electric car. The question is where is the fun? There's no rumble!

 

Instead up putting a Borla on it, you just up the size of the Engine sub and Amp

 

Wouldn't be embarassing to be blown away at a light by an electric car?
I don't think it would be near as much fun, or cheap and easy to modify..
I think it might be a great alternative in smog ridden inner cities like LA...
At least it shows electric doesn't have to equate to boring.
They'll be harder to accept for our generation than the next...the generation "I" as it's being called (after internet) will probably like their cars full of every imaginable elctronic gadget, tied into the internet etc, more than the mechanical side we like.

 

True, but if we're going to go back through the entire enegry chain for electric vehicles, it's only fair that we do it for gas vehicles too. So does a a PLEV, ULEV, SULEV, etc. vehicle really meet those standards if we include the emissions from the refineries, oil tankers, etc.?

 

So maybe a Hydrogen car is the only true non polluter??
Their testing Hydrogen fuel cell motors in Go-Kart racing in Holland?..I believe.

 

Depends. If the hydrogen is generated using a clean source such as wind, solar, nuclear then that helps. Currently the most economical means of producing hydrogen is to reform it from natural gas which releases a lot of carbon dioxide. And if it is used in a fuel cell, then that's another step in the right direction (burning hydrogen in an IC engine still produces oxides of nitrogen).

But depending on your definitions, you could argue pollution is caused anywhere: transporting the hydrogen, compressing it, building the solar cells/wind turbine/nuclear plant to generate it, and so on.

 

Yeah. The coal burned at the power plant is worse than the gasoline burned in a normal car

Now if every plant was nuclear...

 

What about the materials used to produce the hydrogen powered car? Surely they're producing emissions in the manufacturing processes. (I'm thinking of the membrane used in hydrogen fuel cells for one thing.)


Better yet... how about a nuclear powered car? Anyone working on a prototype of "Mr. Fusion"?

 

BTW, my brother has gone for a ride in the Wrightspeed X1 prototype. He's not a "carguy" but he said it was incredible!

http://www.wrightspeed.com/x1.html

 

...Every greenpeace activist in the world would suffer simultaneous heart attacks.

I say we go for it.