An Electric Car

[SHRED]

Yeah...this is cool...but when will an affordable commuter car be built?
http://www.teslamotors.com/

I drive 50 miles round trip and would buy an electric in a heartbeat if I could find the following:

*Freeway speed capable
*5 star safety rating
*At least a 100 mile range
*Affordable price (15-20k)
*Outstanding warranty and support service network

[pooja]

1. Hybrid would be better for now.. too bad they are so expensive.

[greenman3610]

3. PCs were expensive too

now that's changed.
now that serious research is going into this,
(I am sure most, if not all, of the bigs know this
is a survival issue)
you'll see electric components like battery
storage come down like the price of
hard drive memory has come down in the
last 10 years.

GM and Toyota know China is about to
enter the international car market in a big way.
Look for a zippy hybrid for $15,000.

[wakeme2008]

2. Well the price is not in your ballpark

:) $100,000

[dcfirefighter]

4. I think cars are relatively sinful

but at least that car makes that sin look as much fun as the other sins are.

[Dissenting_Prole]

5. I think your problem is...

that you still plan to drive 50 miles round-trip to work. Get over it, those days are almost over. There won't be enough windmills built in time to service the thousands of electric cars that everyone can't afford to buy.

After reading your list, it's nice to see that you're willing to make some sacrifices (sarcasm).

I want, I want, I want.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. True, but...

Places like suburban America are built on the assumption of personal transport. If you want to do away with cars (which would be nice) you need to rehouse about 90,000,000 people.

Tricky.

[Dissenting_Prole]

7. Well, that's their tough luck, isn't it?

The turbulence of the Long Emergency will produce a lot of economic losers, and many of these will be members of an angry and aggrieved former middle class. - James Howard Kunstler

You're right. It's tricky. Not everyone is going to come out of this crisis on top. Government and business are not going to be able to save our collective asses, nor are they interested. The entitled and the whiners are going to be left behind. I guess it's down to survival of the smartest now, isn't it?

Those who cling on to their 50-mile commutes and electric cars are wasting their energy.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. But how much choice do they have?

To pick a current parallel, it's like the Lebanese who've been told to leave their homes by the IDF: Sure, they may want to leave, but where do they go?

The US - like a lot of countries - just doesn't have the housing for a non-commuting lifestyle.

Some who move early will get lucky. The rest are hosed.

I jumped from UK commuting to rural NZ about 2 years ago: Even then, I thought of it as beating the rush. I still worry about the others, though.

[Dissenting_Prole]

9. They have a choice.

They can make decisions now that will allow them to navigate the coming energy crisis.

But not everyone will. That's the reality of the situation. You seem bent on solving everyone's problems.

Some who move early will get lucky. The rest are hosed.

Read and understand the wisdom of your own words.

Some who move early will get lucky. The rest are hosed.

[phantom power]

15. yes, but...

it seems to me that the point is, most will not "get lucky." And that is regardless of whether or not they see the light. If all 100M people (to pick a number) suddenly saw the light tomorrow, it would become like a lottery, yes? Not a sign of virtue, just dumb luck.

Furthermore, we can leave aside any subjective moral considerations, and simply ask whether the problem can be solved. If 1% of these people can adjust, then 99% can't. The problem is 99% unsolved whether they are enlightened or not, and regardless of whether that makes them deserving or undeserving of their fate.

[megatherium]

13. "coal"

There will not be a real shortage of electricity in this country for a long time. (But the climate, that's another story.)

[mopinko]

10. the kind of bashing in this thread,

of someone trying to find a way to do something right, is just stupid.

[Dissenting_Prole]

11. I assume you're talking about me.

The issue is not about doing the "right" thing. It's not about doing something warm and fuzzy for the planet while continuing to consume at an unsustainable rate.

The issue is the delusion that we can keep on living our lives the way we have been using some other technology that is dependent on cheap energy.

What is "stupid" is that most of us are not willing to consider any alternative way of living that would allow us to use less energy while reducing consumption of resources, like moving closer to where you work, or changing job/career so you can walk or bike to work without having to relocate.

Get over your love affair with the automobile, folks. The automobile doesn't give a shit about you. If you're waiting for someone to deliver all the conveniences you're accustomed to, wrapped in new technology, at a price that everybody can afford by next year, you are going to be very disappointed. You are going to end up, as Dead_Parrot put it, "hosed".

No one is building an electric car on the scale it needs to be built. No one is building the infrastructure to fuel it. It will take twenty years. We will be extremely lucky if peak oil and economic collapse don't happen within five years. You won't have unemployed people trading in 23mpg SUVs (no buyers) on $30,000 electric cars at a time when the economy can't grow by 3% because oil extraction is declining by 3-5% per year.

I'm not being pessimistic. I'm being realistic.

By the way, I drive a Smart that gets 75mpg. But I'm an early-adopter who plans not to get hosed. At some point (when gas is $7 a gallon) I will sell it to some poor idiot who still thinks the future is about commuting, and I'll buy a better bike.

[mopinko]

12. being holier than thou will not save the planet, either.

life is complicated. people's personal choices are just as limited as the tech fix that you decry. you are making the perfect the enemy of the good. at a time when there is no room for enemies.
you have no idea that this person does not consume less energy than you. or what kind of issues they juggle.
lighten up.

[Dissenting_Prole]

14. Yawn

n/t