Marketing Hype or Manufacturing Hope?

An American launch was tried

Really? Maybe there is the problem

Looks cute, love to try one.

I have worked in Norway for the past twenty years and have followed with interest the eclectic car history, however why would they think that this electric car would play a role in the American auto industry when they cannot get most Norwegians to buy the car.

With the introduction of more electric cars, one will need more electricity. The technologies to produce it are coal and gas, hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind.

The last two are the most acceptable but are the least predictable. You cannot order more wind or sun at peak demand hours. There is some correlation with air conditioning and sun but it is not perfect either. Also, the electric grid is not likely to support millions of MW needed to recharge all the car batteries without major investment.

The solution is likely to be a combination of nuclear, solar, and wind disseminated along the grid as appropriate, near the consumption centers. This will minimize the distribution costs and reduce the need to build long distribution lines.

One benefit of the electric cars is the distribution of millions of rechargeable batteries that will be used to store the peak production from solar and wind farms. Maybe a small incentive will be added to reverse those battery charger energy flow and supply the grid when needed. It might be OK to return 10%-20% of the battery's charge to the grid. This might be the storage solution that we are looking for to make solar ans wind viable.

It is obvious to me that the solution to our energy problems will involve a level of integration and complementarity similar to what we see in Nature. We have to use the strength of one technology to compensate the weakness of another. For electric cars to operate properly, they will need a good battery. We cannot avoid it, the money has to be spent there. For wind and solar energy to be effective, we will need to find some storage. We only have to combine the two to obtain the benefits without adding much costs to the energy producer. It is very easy and inexpensive to produce by-directional battery charger.

This integration is the solution that everybody is looking for.

You cannot order more wind or sun at peak demand hours.

If the energy reaping mechanisms were configured similarly as the other forms they could be implemented with on demand capability.

Hi Marcot,

Thanks for the comments and talking about solar and wind energy supply with the addition of nuclear when needed. In an other blog concerning ethanol addition to gasoline, I would like to see only "photovoltaic batteries" = "pb". Your suggestion of battery operated cars are excellent. Their empty batteries could be recharged with "pb" or panels, depending of possibility and availability.

I think, the biggest problem is to create the changes. Human resists to changes! However, we cannot develop new suburbs with long travelling from home to work to home again. We have to change our style of life. We cannot continue as we go!

Imagine when we don't have gasoline to run our cars? What will be the solution? We have to work very hard on that problem today and not tomorrow.

Can a marketing individual see the importance of this situation and start to promote what we talk about? Ah again, it will be one individual! We created the cars, hamburgers, computers and its derivatives, all not necessary to our life or very little. During the last 50 years or close I am in Canada, and I can tell you, everything is much more expensive now than was there. Just the bread, it went from 10 cents to twenty or more times higher price. My salary was not multiplied by the same number. So, we can not create something brand new, just substitue the fuel we use to propel our cars by something really not polluting like gasoline?

It's a simple demand to help everyone live on Earth. Wait for reply, Gil.

Potential? Yeah, probably around 96 Volts or so wouldn't you think?

You may think less of its potential if you know that if you buy one you will have to lease the battery as part (part mind you) of a 'mobility fee' which will vary somewhat depending upon how much money Think wants to make and how many things - like a radio, you want inside your little tecnology wonder. An electric car where you don't even own the battery and have to pay monthly fees for as long as you drive it for the battery and all electrically powered equipment on-board? No wonder it failed - and why I predict it will fail again. Outside of being ugly and hardly large enough to have a wallet in your pocket when you squeeze in. Not to mention of course the complete lack of safety in an accident and... well, lets just finish this thing.

Cute?!!!! Looks ugly to me. Putrid in fact. Even more putrid if you look at the details of actually purchasing one and the cell phone company-like extra fees if you want to actually make the thing move down the road and have any amenities included.

Of course, if it did catch on, the governments plan to suck us dry with a $4.00 per gallon tax on gas would fall apart. The government would then look for any excuse to ban these things from the US. The second round of trying to save the failing US auto makers would provide part of that impetus while the rest would be provided by the tens of thousands of dead former drivers of these cars who got themselves into accidents at speeds over 5 miles per hour.

100% recyclable interior - wow, must be really comfortable - NOT!!!