Journal zogger's Journal: electric wheels nation 4
I've mentioned numerous times now that the Better Place project was the company to watch for the big breakthroughs and deployment of all electric vehicles. (and really cheaper ones coming from china once their quality gets standardized better). This is because they are addressing the whole stack, the cars (getting them designed and built in quantities by a major firm, which is Nissan/Renault), plus the charging infrastructure (charging points all over, plus easy battery swap out design), plus paying for the thing (they keep the upfront costs down in regards the battery packs, you get the car, they retain ownership of the batteries in most instances). Here is another update on their project.
One disappointment for me though is they still (as far as I know, might have changed there...) don't have plans for a pickup or delivery vehicles in the first deployments. I would have gone there first before general sales. To me, pickups make some sense for cheaper electric vehicles because they are designed to haul some weight in the first place, plus more room, plus so many of them are used commercially, giving the owner's business deductions, making them more affordable.
There is also the fleet sales angle, a common design bought in larger quantities. Although there are of course sedan fleet sales (examples would be municipalities buying police cars, etc, plus taxicab companies), I think the market there is heavily skewed towards work trucks and vans. Plus fleet sales lead to the fleet being parked and serviced in common maintenance areas, making initial deployment of charging stations a little easier.
Now what would be slick there, this is just a for instance, these theoretical companies that bought electric fleet trucks, might work a deal so their workers could get financed electric commuter sedans as well, directly through work and better costs achieved therefore, as an option they could take. So a simultaneous rollout of work trucks plus getting electric sedans out there on the road to build public mindshare that electric vehicles can "just work" for most purposes.
maybe too efficient of a rollout (Score:1)
Your idea of fleet sales and the concentrating of charging apparati that it would bring is astute, but maybe it is precisely this effect that might be why this would not be done as among the first steps, as the electrical grid might not be able to handle sudden, largish-scale adoptions.
I read somewhere that our grid operator overlords are a little worried about electric cars initially being too affordable. Something to the effect of that they can manage the necessary upgrades, by projecting which neighborho
Heh (Score:1)
You think they make.. forklifts? Has anyone been fired for buying an electric forklift? From what I gather, these here [commutercars.com] are basically powered by forklift motors. Pay no attention to the price...
zoom zoom zoom (Score:1)
Ya, saw those before, watched the vid of one tooling around fast. Kinda slick, if at first a bit odd looking..no matter.I am the last person to be concerned with "odd looking". Still spiffy rides though...not a hundred grand though..you can get like chevy or ranger conversion kits for around 20 grand...
Coincidently, I have recommended to people, who are looking for the cheapest home battery banks, to get electric forklift traction batteries. Most stored juice for the buck there. The things to stay away from
Re: (Score:1)
You want Nickel-Iron [beutilityfree.com].. but you'll need a monster truck