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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Over here in New Zealand , it's just past $2.00 per litre for 91 oct so for us it's $9 a imp gallon and they saying could be up to $2.50 by the end of the year ,food too is going up at the same rate as the oil prices so soon I be pushing the car and digging up the lawn and planting vegetable. Years ago ,I heard someone invent something that made his car run on water ,well I think it's time he got it out of the cupboard and made some good money. 
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Replying to: steve_ (May 21, 2008 7:25 pm) Couldn't say if any electric is self propelled, my new one is and its the first one I have had that is. Sure makes it a whole lot easier to mow since the lot is graded (not so much that its that noticeable but enough to make mowing a chore after a while). Its also the first mower I have ever seen with a hose attachment, just attach a hose turn on the water and run the mower and it cleans it out.
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Replying to: snakeweasel (May 22, 2008 3:55 am) This year though, I've seen him out there, cutting the yard himself. He has an electric push mower and I don't think it's very strong, because it seems to take him forever, and he's constantly wrestling around with the extension cord. He never gets the whole yard done in one sitting, either. I dunno what his story is...whether he's falling on hard financial times, or if he's just doing it to save money, or if he's doing it for the environment. I'm sure that lawn crew coming in with their gasoline powered equipment, not to mention the big truck they drive up in, use up a lot of gas and put out a lot of pollutants.
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Replying to: bpizzuti (May 22, 2008 1:43 am) This scenario is so implausible as to be just plain silly. First off we are talking about a public charging station so it would have nothing to do with someone's electric bill. And nobody would pre-pay for $50 worth of electricity. Even at 20 cents per kWh that's 250 kWh. A battery pack that large would weigh 5,000 lbs. And finally where would this electricity thief be putting this stolen power? In his own EV with it's 5,000 lb battery pack? Early EV owners are going to be relatively affluent and "green" minded. Not the type of people who'd be getting up in the dead of night to steal a few dollars of electricity. If this charging station vulnerability is one of the biggest obstacles you can think of for EVs then they have a bright future.
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Replying to: tpe (May 22, 2008 4:15 am) People were talking about charging stations at apartment complexes wired to the electrical feed for the apartment itself, so it's hardly improbable. And nobody would pre-pay for $50 worth of electricity. When you use a credit card to fuel your car, it just goes until it's full and then charges the credit card. There's no reason why a public charging station would work any differently. And finally where would this electricity thief be putting this stolen power? In his own EV with it's 5,000 lb battery pack? In a word, yep. If it takes less than overnight to charge the EV, then what's the point of having charge-while-you-sleep charging stations? That's why I advocate gas-station-type charging stations where you swipe, "pump" your batteries to full, then drive away after 5 minutes. Any scenario where you plug your car into a charger and then leave it for X amount of time is an invitation for theives to tap into the power feed that you paid for. Early EV owners are going to be relatively affluent and "green" minded. Not the type of people who'd be getting up in the dead of night to steal a few dollars of electricity. Eventually the idea is for them to be ubiquitous...and this is the sort of problem that could likely happen at that point. It's important to play devils advocate and think of these things ahead of time in order to account for them. |
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Replying to: tpe (May 22, 2008 4:15 am) The vandalism issue is significant, but I think the ice/rain connection issue in a public spot is more daunting. That will have to be pretty fool-proof so you're 18-year old daughter, or 80-year old father don't electrocute themselves. I also think that if the majority of vehicles on the road are EV's and the power goes out for a few days, that areas transport will quickly shutdown unless this imaginary fleet of recharging vehicles materializes. I've been through ice-storms and blizzards before and the reason the area recovers is because a) I have heating oil in a tank, b) I have a tank of gas and gas cans to get keep me mobile for 1-2 weeks, and 3) because I store wood for heating purposes. Those are fuels that I STORE - which is the important concept. If I rely on electricity which is transmitted as I need it and several hundred miles of powerlines are down, you're in trouble. And a pure-EV is not going to have a good range when it is sitting at 0F, needs to warmup the vehicle - defrost windows, and provide lights, heat, and wipers, as well as propel the vehicle; which will be less efficient in snow. I don't see EV's being very popular in northern climes, unless there are much better batteries. |
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Replying to: kernick (May 22, 2008 5:19 am) I live in an area that has ice storms. I've yet to experience one that wasn't forecast. With this in mind an EV owner will make sure he's got a charged battery. Just like everyone runs out to the store to stock up on essentials before the storm hits. I've also been in ice/snow storms where whether or not you had gas in your vehicle or a charged battery pack was irrelevant since you weren't driving any place regardless.
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they said that gas in Britain is up to 6 pounds a gallon. That would be $12 U.S. at current exchange rates. I imagine their pain is worse than ours at $4, even given the disparity between the two countries in terms of public transit availability, etc. I see the oil CEOs are on Capitol Hill in hearings again today. They're whining that the U.S. is the only nation around the world to bar its citizens from drilling its own resources. I guess they are trying to imply that if we had drilled ANWR, gas would be $1.50 right now. Pshaw. Talk about duck and cover. Of course, nothing will come of the hearings, nothing ever does. |
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I only full my tank once a month. But i am worried about the economy. I think we need to switch to plugin cars like the chevy volt. |
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Replying to: kernick (May 22, 2008 5:19 am) And thanks to everyone for ignoring the spammer. 
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