bonsaidad

I know that hybrid cars are available at this present time, and is a step in the right direction, but will we ever see a solar powered car in our life times.
Or a way of re-charging an electric vehicle with solar power to run quite a distance before another re-charge is needed.

Better still, a car that runs on rubbish, just like the doc's Delorian in " Back to the future "



http://img.gazeta.ru/files/256651/delorian1.jpg



Best regards BD Paul

__________________
Old Chinese proverb says.
Go to bed with itchy bum.
Wake up with stinky finger.

Mortalis

Well considering that with the new electrics you will have a 300 mile range and that most people travel less than 40 miles per day I think thats quite a distance already but they are working on photovoltaic paint at this moment. That wont be for years but its coming. You can always charge your electric off grid with solar or the currently more efficient wind turbine tech.

bonsaidad

I honestly think that some of these large petroleum companies have had the means to create a electric driven car for a number of years now, but have kept it on the back shelf, until they have been forced to share their experiments, and finally put a vehicle into production.
I just average about 200 miles every two weeks, so an electric car would be quite economical for me to run.
Add to that a solar panel to re-charge it, and its going to cost me next to nothing on the weekly fuel bills.
Let's hope it comes sooner, than later.



Best regards BD Paul

__________________
Old Chinese proverb says.
Go to bed with itchy bum.
Wake up with stinky finger.

Mortalis

Your totally correct.. I have been researching electric cars alot in the past. in 2006 GM released the E-V1 electric but did so quietly with no advertisement in California a few hundred were leased not sold so they would still have control over them. After they "proved" there was no market for electric they could say they had tried. They neglected to use Lithium Ion batteries so the range was only about 60 miles per charge instead of 300 like the chevy volt that is to be released in 2009.

bonsaidad

Yes the companies have eventualy said, "we better get in first and try and corner the market", and frankly i am surprised the Japanese are not at the fore front of this technology, as they are with ever thing else.
The Japanese are moving at such a rate, the rest of the world has a job keeping up with them.
What is new today, is obsolete in a few months even if it is perfectly working, computers are the worse for this.

Maybe the Japanese know something, and are biding their time and choosing the right time to swoop on the electric car market.



Best regards BD Paul

__________________
Old Chinese proverb says.
Go to bed with itchy bum.
Wake up with stinky finger.

bonsaidad

Just came across this article on a new Citroen car.




Citroen?s ace new green concept - Paris Motor Show 2008 | MSN Cars | MSN UK


Best regards BD Paul

__________________
Old Chinese proverb says.
Go to bed with itchy bum.
Wake up with stinky finger.

shaggybirdman

well the other thing to consider it where your power is coming from. here in buffalo NY we get our electricity from a COAL plant. i'm not sure, but i'd think a coal plant would put out a larger footprint than a gas car if you could figure out how much emissions the plant puts out to produce 6-8 hours of charge time.

a li po battery in a car would still be a bomb. in the rc hobby we use them as flight/power packs. a 5-6 cell pack if charged wrong blows up violently. i know for a fact a li po that could power a car would be very expansive. a 6 cell 5000 mha battery for a heli costs $400+. so how much do you think 1 for a car would cost. last i herd you couldn't get a price on a replacement battery in either the honda, or toyota hybreads.

this photoelecric paint sounds cool, but i wonder what happens after a crash. do you have to repaint the hole panel, or just spot in the new paint? i'd think it would have to be a cirtin thickness to work, and very expansive. even down the road costs would be high.

i don't know the solution. we should have been working on the problem much sooner than we are. YES there was a 100 mpg carb made, and other such things including battery configurations that are just on a shelf somewhere. look at the tucker. the big 3 killed it because thay saw the threat in it's conception. some think no way are/were there such things, or activitys in the oil, and auto indrustrys. there sure are, and will be. if you don't thinks so put your head back in the sand. the oil companys don't care about polution till the government pushes real hard. then they complain it will take way too long, or cost too much to do it. besides i don't think the government realy cairs too much anyhow. what's the mpg, and emissions control on a tank, or ant military vehical? how bout commercial jets, and millitary jets? no immision controls on a jet engine that i can see.

like i said. i don't have the solution, but the problem is much bigger than just recycleing plastics or not. what kind of footprint does a plastics recycling plant have? does it cost more to recycle than just starting new?

what's the cost factor between ethonol vs gas production? from drilling to planting to the end product. if ethonol is the ticket how much corn goes to fuel vs food? the corn used to make ethonol is only good for corn starch, or ethenol.

ok i'v rambled on too much. what's your thoughts?