Electric cars are not a viable option because the car companies cannot put thier collective manufacturing might behind a product that has minimal long term profitability. It’s not good to have a car that can run as continuously and as trouble free as your refrigerator.
Yeah inflation is of course another matter. But regardless of the earning rate, you’ll have the same inflation. My annual increases have been somewhere around 1-2% for years though, even when working so I’m used to eating inflation.
dagosa Electric cars are not a viable option because the car companies cannot put thier collective manufacturing might behind a product that has minimal long term profitability. It's not good to have a car that can run as continuously and as trouble free as your refrigerator.
They can design electric cars to wear out just as fast as gas powered cars, which for the most part get scrapped for reasons other than a worn out power train.
Dag raised an interesting point. It is entirely possible that while it was never publicized discussions on the development of EVs in corporate boardrooms discussed the impact these would have on their long term revenue stream.
I’m reminded of Xerox executives that decided not to pursue computer networks and graphic user interfaces because they didn’t think they would be profitable long term.
I doubt the EV conspiracy. That means that they could build desirable EVs if they wanted to. If that was they case, why isn’t somebody else doing it? Tesla builds great $100,000 cars. I’m sure they’d build a great $40,000 car if they could. Battery cost is the problem, not a conspiracy.
Exactly
Somebody mentioned the Elio,well the difference is making a fair profit above costs,vs scalping(the scalping carrot comes in the form of an upgrade you want,but have to spend 7K to get,that was my falling out with Nissan,you had to buy an electronics or convenience package to get a LSD differential,I didnt bite
Like texases, I discount conspiracy theories, partly because of my experience with lithium ion batteries and power systems.
One of my hobbies is building and flying RC model airplanes and several years ago, I went all electric. I built a rather large scratch built model, 56 inch wing span, the plans called for a .60 cid two stroke or a .90 cid four stroke glow plug engine. I built it for an electric propulsion system using 4.4 ampere-hour six cell lithium polymer battery packs. Fully charged, the battery pack put out about 25 volts and delivers fifty to sixty amps to the motor at full power, depending on what prop diameter and pitch I am using. (usually a 16 inch diameter prop with a 10 inch pitch although as the batteries aged and the voltage sagged more under load, I went to a 17X10 prop to get some of the performance back)
The performance is spectacular but the battery pack, at about $300 is the single most expensive part of the whole plane, it is also about 20% of the plane’s total weight. The original batteries have been retired, they are just too tired to give the performance I like and I’m now on my second set of batteries. You can certainly understand why I am leery of the battery life on a Leaf or Tesla. How a Tesla will run when the batteries are 15 years old and have propelled the car for 100,000+ miles is still to be seen.
Talking about airplanes, how are the predators or drones powered I wonder. Sounds like they can stay in the air 24 hours and at 10,000 feet. That would be a lot of juice or a lot of fuel wouldn’t it?
The original Predator unmanned drone is powered by a 115 HP Rotax 914 if I’m not mistaken. A later larger version that can carry lots of ordnance is powered by a 760 shaft horsepower gas turbine.
Those little electric toy “drones” that the hobby shops sell have a duration measured in minutes, not hours.
The electric model I built can easily fly for 10 minutes or even longer if I just cruise and not do aerobatics.
Apples and oranges(size matters)(isnt 60cc s rather large for an RC plane?,excuse Me I just noticed the decimal,my screen resolution isnt quite up to snuff
60 cc and larger engines are not at all unheard of in radio control model airplanes.
good grief,a little person could almost ride in that thing.
Craziest thing I ever saw,was a Guy standing on the landing gear of a J-3,tinkering with the engine at altitude(I think it was the Pilot!)
Think Slim Pickins.
Merle Larson
http://www.pipercubforum.com/handprop.htm
That thing is huge. The biggest I’ve seen in an RC plane was previously this guy’s model BUFF.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=radio+controlled+b52+models&qpvt=radio+controlled+B52+models&qpvt=radio+controlled+B52+models&FORM=IGRE
There are a few modelers who have built electric giant scale model airplanes, but the price of the batteries alone is stupid-expensive.
Which brings us back to electric cars. You could probably buy a Tesla for 40K, if it came without batteries.
A local motorcycle dealer was selling a line of Zero brand electric motorcycles. I remember the version that had enough range for me to make it to work and back would have set me back nearly $20,000.
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/motorcycles/
Well that takes guts but what else do you do if the engine stops in mid flight? I suspect he maybe did this on purpose though to demonstrate starting the engine again.
^ Start looking for a farmer’s field, a golf course, or a straight stretch of highway. A cub stalls at 40 or so…get a 10 mph headwind and that drops to 30 across the ground. A whole lotta places to set her down at that speed.
For the moment anyway, diesel isn’t a bad option. On the way home tonight it’s 40 cents a gallon cheaper than gasoline.