Comments on: Could The Electric Car Save Us?

One Expert Says It's The Only Good Alternative To Gasoline-Powered Autos

[lawyertom1]

The problem with nuc''s is that they are unfortunately susceptible to terrorist attack, with the nasty effect of causing a chemical explosion of the nuclear fuel [think big dirty bomb like effect]. Despite the so-called increased security since 911, nuc''s are still way too vulnerable. When I worked on this issue in a classified project many decades ago, I was appalled at the vulnerability of our nuc''s. Until all current nuc''s are replaced by the more fail-safe designs that are unfortunately only on the drawing board at this point, reliance on nuc''s is foolish in the extreme.

[lawyertom1]

While there is no question that an electric, or electric hybrid [small engine to charge batteries when batteries begin to run low], cars would be a major step forward, a key question is going to be the source of the electricity. If we expand our reliance on coal, we will come out ahead, but not nearly as much than if we begin to move to a more environmentally friendly generation source.

[Snerdguy]

I recently read about a company which just patented a technology to produce a electrical storage device that will allow for a truly practical electric car. They are teaming up with a small manufacturer that already produces electric vehicles to develop an affordable car that goes five hundred miles on a charge. It will also recharge in about five minutes. The device is not a chemical battery and should be long lasting. If this works, I believe it will make the internal combustion driven car obsolete.

You could have been the one GM. But, you dropped the ball and you are becoming a dinosaur. You and the other big car companies that suppressed energy conserving technologies may not have such a sunny future.

[feelfree1]

Here is another relevant video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_Q7Z4L21E

[feelfree1]

USAyesterday,

I knew that I could find something to disagree with you on;-)

Nuclear power is very expensive, takes a lot of energy input to produce, is dangerous to operate, provides a feedstock for nuclear bombs, (plutonium), and we have no idea how to handle the waste, which is piling up, and which remains extremely dangerous for thousands and thousands of years.

Nuclear power is the desired alternative of the corporatists, because there is a lot of money in it for them. I am opposed to it.

[cfin5]

All of this "Save the Earth" stuff will never be allowed to happen. At around 46 cents per gallon tax at the pump the government would go broke before first break monday morning if they lost even half of that. We have had folks come up with excellent fuel conservation ideas that work.......And POOOOF! They''re gone.

[kesac4650]

What happens when Daddy comes home from work to a suburb of a major city that has teetered on the edge of a brownout for years, and then he and thousands more just like him all plug in their battery chargers, about the same time the go inside and turn down the thermistat to the airconditioning, and begin the evening surge in power useage?
It will not be pretty.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Could The Electric Car Save Us?"

This is an interesting idea. Zero to 60 in 4 seconds, with a 200 mile range?

One could certainly run over a lot of neo-fascists with such a machine.

[radiob-2009]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/the_hybrid_mini.php

Read the article Jowand. And remember Clintons famous campaign promise to convert all vehicles to natural gas in 92?

[jowand]

What are you going to plug them into for the electrical source? Electricity produced from what? There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.

[radiob-2009]

What about the electric generating wheels ?

[woodelf5]

This is NOT a solution. It is the same basic technology as a steam locomotive! Only with long power lines and expensive batteries! It would cause the burning of immense quantities of coal and simply transfer pollution to the area around power plants.


We need to think NON-combustion. It is time for humankind to move beyond the fire stage of development.

[emma915]

What a shock! The suggestion that an electric car could save us from big oil? Tell that to the people who were manufacturing them for the Department of Energy in the 1980s. . . . . . That is, of course, until big business convinced Ronald Reagan to shut it down. Your tax dollars WASTED!

[sparks224]

GM and Big Oil will not be forgiven for their sins.

We don''t just need a new car, we need a new car company.

[toolmangler-2009]

Make it cheap enough for the under $50K per year crowd and you''ll sell out every time. They cannot afford a car ''and'' gas at the same time.

[sparks224]

I don''t trust GM. They sell pickup trucks with electric windows (Suburbans, Escalades, Tahoes, etc.). That''s the business the''re in. That''s what they''re committed to. I don''t here them talking about the new nano battery technology or super capacitors. They are NOT serious about changing the game.

[chevyvolt]

To join with us on the grass roots approach to getting the Chevy Volt on the road, go to:
http://www.gm-volt.com

[socrates392]

That Tesla Roadster looks sweet!!! If only I had enough money to afford it. Looks like I''ll have to wait for the Volt. :(