a. palmer jr.

Lithium Ion Batteries and GEVs: False Gods for the New Millennium

John, Thanks for the article and a chance to respond. I feel that in the future various kinds of power is going to be needed for transportation. Depending on your position in life, you'll have to make the choice of what kind of power suits your needs. The population keeps growing and around here when a kid gets to be 16 he has to have a car...it's kind of a right of passage. Given that premise, all forms of energy will be in short supply. I think some of us retired folks would get along very well with a BEV. I hardly travel more than 30 miles at a time and usually just to town and back, 3 miles. Others who commute to work and don't have public transportation will be using hybrids or something that still uses some type of gasoline or NG unless we come up with a nuclear powered car. I'll bet that's what the Iranians are secretly working on right now!

Battery Investing for Beginners, Part 2

As usual, a well put-together article. Thanks John.

Battery Investing for Beginners

Concerning fuel savings: If fuel economy is a serious matter, anyone with a brain can see that it doesn't take a four wheel drive, six thousand pound vehicle with three hundred fifty horsepower to propel a 110 pound female to the supermarket! Until we can get people to thinking conservatively we can't begin to save any fuel or become independent of the middle east. All it would take, in this instance is a very small, 2 person vehicle with adequate room for groceries. An electric vehicle would be perfect for this. You hear the argument that EVs aren't good for long trips. I can't remember the last time I took a trip in a car over 100 miles each way. Many older people like myself don't feel like driving 300 miles a day or have a reason to do so. Besides, a person could own a gasoline or diesel car for long trips. EVs should be great sellers if they can figure out how to keep the price down.

How PHEVs and EVs Will Sabotage America's Drive for Energy Independence

I think that when people really get serious about gas mileage and electrical mileage, so to speak, we'll start making our vehicles (and ourselves) as light as possible. Vehicle weight, especially in the city, with all the starts and stops, determines for a large part how much gas mileage you are going to get. Once a vehicle gets rolling, up to a point, it takes less energy to keep it rolling. The point I'm speaking of is wind resistance. We see people all the time driving huge vehicles with only one person on board...what do they need all the extra space for? There should be vehicles built for limited passenger use for people like them (and me) that rarely have passengers. That would save some weight and even add some space for the driver. I drive a Cavalier to work and it has a cramped up driver's seat area but look around and you have a back seat and front passenger seat unoccupied. I could drive a smaller car and still have more room if it was designed differently.

Auto Batteries: Short Term Revenue Growth Favors Lead-Acid by 6 to 1

As in anything, new technology is expensive but necessary if things are to evolve. True, this EV changeover is going to be costly but we need to look at what it might solve and that is possibly our energy dependence on other countries. I would love to see the day when the USA, England, Spain and others are not reliant on our enemies for oil, natural gas and other things. I think the battery technology we can handle right here in the USA.

The Plug In Vehicle Scam

You may be correct about the family of four traveling at highway speeds but how many people, like myself, travel to work in a car by themselves 5 to 20 miles. An electric car would be ideal for a situation like mine. I have another car for the family travels at highway speeds and would use the electric strictly for work. Imagine how many barrels of oil that would save if everyone in my situation had an electric!!

Lithium Batteries: Nothing But Illusion

How about a nuclear powered car? I can see that as a real opportunity for the do-it-yourself mechanic!

Axion Power: Time Is Right for Gas Guzzlers to Dual Mode EV Conversions

You didn't mention anything about capacitors, I think a lot of cars of the future will employ lots of capacitors for electrical storage. Also another opportunity for places like Starbucks to offer battery charging while having a cup of latte' and maybe surfing the web while waiting for your battery to charge. It probably wouldn't take that long, and if the automakers would make their batteries fairly universal we could have battery changing stations so you wouldn't have to wait hardly any. I'm sure these ideas are for a little further down the road but it is coming up soon.

Time for America to Fire First Shot in the EV Revolution

It appears America is hardly going to fire even the second or third shot, let alone first. Smith electric vehicles has trucks of all sizes for sale and in use NOW. I also read about the Chinese, with help from our own Warren Buffett about to mass produce a real nice looking car for sale in USA sooner than we can produce one. I think it might be a plug in hybrid but still better than our efforts. You might check their website on Smith. It is smithelectricvehicles....