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My idea on how how to get electric cars main stream!

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    • #38292
      billneu
      Participant

      Two of the biggest issues with current electric cars is:
      1) Really expensive and limited life propriety batteries
      2) Time required to recharge batteries.

      Answer to issue 1:

      Make all cars use the same batteries. Like all batteries that we consumers use now make them all the same. Make all electric cars so they use exacly the same batteries i.e. AA,AAA,C D and now Z sized. This would lower the cost of batteries since now they could be massed produced by many competing companies.

      Answer to issue 2:
      Since all batteries will now be the same towns could now create battery depot/(gas stations or electron stations) where a consumer could then just drive up and have a them pull your dead battery out and replace it with one or more that were charged the night before with off peak electricty or wind mill power or offpeak hydroelectric power. The above batteries would be made all the same and designed with the intent of being easly removed and replaced in your car in minutes if not seconds. Each battery would have a meter built in that would tell them just eactly how much energy was in this particular battery. And since each depot would have hundreds of these batteries old/bad batteries could be removed and new ones could be added as needed. The cost could be paid for with a surcharge on all battery fills throught the year.

      Now we could start making vehicles that could hold more than one or two of these batteries and larger vehicles could have multiple cells depending on just how much power they may need for their daily work load. So a small 2 person comuter may only have two batteries, while a large half ton pickup may be able to have say 6 or more cells.

      So please post your comments to my solution to getting electric cars main stream!

      Bill Neuhauser P.E.

    • #40160
      Alex Luft
      Keymaster

      Hey Bill — those are some great ideas! I think what you propose is necessary to jump-start the EV trend at first, since eventually car makers will move to proprietarize these things to their competitive advantage.

      However, this may be exactly whats needed at first to get people over the many roadblocks of mass EV adoption.

      Also, I’m sure some would point out that the solutions you propose have limitations, but I’d say that those can be overcome with good processes; for instance, the swapping stations will need to have convenient and reliable payment and inventory systems, etc.

    • #40161
      RjION
      Participant

      Your idea on how how to get electric cars main stream!

      I’ll be dead before this happens

    • #40165
      Vic1212
      Participant

      just depend on if government have enough money to do that

    • #40166
      Alex Luft
      Keymaster

      Of course the possibility of prioritizing the move to EVs has all kinds of political intricacies… But given that the populus at large doesn’t seem to care about moving away from petroleum, I’d say that the priority is currently low. Unless — as @vic1212 hinted — money is dedicated to the matter and goals are set. We’ll see, but I still think its possible.

    • #40167
      billneu
      Participant

      I’m saying this is why EVs aren’t and won’t be mainstream anytime soon. How many years did it take for the gas car to become mainstream? And the main reason was that no one could easily acquire gas, gas stations were few and far between.

      And now a new issue dealing with EVs is the fact that the gas tanks are so expensive (batteries), and how we deal with that is to make them a standard size and type so we can mass produce the heck out of them until they are cheap like a real gas tank is! And one of the benefits of this would be that they could recharge them at night when electricity is cheapest. Keep in mind one of the biggest issues with electricity production is the lack of storage during off-peak times, this would induce a huge amount of electric storage as more and more EVs hit the street.

      As an engineer, I’m just trying to explain to GM and others where they are missing the boat! I guess it takes a Civil engineer to tell a Mechanical engineer how to be practical!

      KISS

      Bill Neuhauser

    • #40168
      chevtothemax
      Participant

      I like your idea Bill. the standardized battery size is a great idea and the charging staition does have some problems (in my eye) but those could be overcome.

    • #40169
      Babersher
      Participant

      Yes, like all new, bold solutions, there are problems, but they can be fixed.

      Its a great idea, but I feel like the American people lack the will to make it a reality.

      Now if gas was $6, attitudes might change!

    • #40170
      Vic1212
      Participant

      ^that’s true!! I think as of right now you can’t really replace everything to electric vehicle considering that electric cars cannot go long trips and might take several years for electric cars to do that.

    • #40174
      RjION
      Participant

      To me Hybrid cars are a joke. They do nothing well, they only export pollution to where the power is being made. They only give do gooders a false sence of doing good. At best they are a stop gap by car manufacutres to meet cafe numbers till a real solution (hydrogen) can be made safe and cheap. No reason to build an infrastructure for something thats going to be short lived. Now if you don’t agree I’m not looking for a 5 page rant about how you think I’m wrong. I don’t think I’m wrong, and your not going to change my mind. If I’m proved to be wrong you can rub my nose in it then.

    • #40177
      wbodyfan
      Participant

      @RjION Who the hell is talking about hybrids? The topic is about EVs. Read much?

      As for the fact that you don’t think you’re wrong, why partake in discussions in the first place? You are wrong, but with you typical head in the sand mindset, it doesn’t matter, does it?

      Is you motto “I’m a rooster and the earth is flat – and no matter what you do you will never change my mind”?

    • #40178
      RjION
      Participant

      Sorry about that, didn’t mean to confuse, or upset you as much as it did. Would have thought you were intelligent enough to get the idea …………. Both are short lived. Never to be mainstrean no matter what .. spell it out or with acronyms. Both are doomed to be side notes. Time will tell who is right and who is wrong.

      As long as your in the mood for correcting things. Maybe correct your spelling.

      “Is you motto “I’m a rooster and the earth is flat – and no matter what you do you will never change my mind”? “

    • #40181
      Grawdaddy
      Participant

      @RjION

      $4.50+ gas and then we’ll see just how doomed EV’s are. And if you’re not moved by the price, that’s okay. There’s an 800 lb gorilla that will dicate the future of EV’s. He’s so simple, he can be summed up in a sentence:

      Crude oil is finite.

    • #40182
      RjION
      Participant

      Stopgap ………… never to be mainstream. Lets pick this up in five years and see how it’s going.

    • #40183
      Alex Luft
      Keymaster

      @RJION EVs are the end solution, not a stopgap. Hybrids, on the other hand, are.


      @Billneu
      ’s suggestions are for EVs, not hybrids.

    • #40184
      RjION
      Participant

      Hydrogen powered EV is the only way. Batteries and charging stations not a chance in Helsinki

    • #40185
      Alex Luft
      Keymaster

      Hydrogen-powered electric vehicles? Is that a contradiction?

    • #40190
      RjION
      Participant

      No not at all … it’s proof I can get an aurgument from most anything I say . Hydrogen is the only way.

      To me Hybrid cars are a joke. They do nothing well, they only export pollution to where the power is being made. They only give do gooders a false sence of doing good. At best they are a stop gap by car manufacutres to meet cafe numbers till a real solution (hydrogen) can be made safe and cheap. No reason to build an infrastructure for something thats going to be short lived. Now if you don’t agree I’m not looking for a 5 page rant about how you think I’m wrong. I don’t think I’m wrong, and your not going to change my mind. If I’m proved to be wrong you can rub my nose in it then.

      Everyone missed the real solution part of the statement and got to arguing. Thats what I like to inspire. Now all of you can see why I said … No reason to build an infrastructure for something thats going to be short lived. That means battery power is not the answer.

    • #40191
      Lex
      Participant

      RjION, Hydrogen has been around for quite some time now, and it works. but we wont see it anytime soon (uncle Sam cant sell water for the price of oil).

    • #40193
      RjION
      Participant

      LEX you may be on to something …………… and battery power is a joke

    • #40197
      Lex
      Participant

      RjION, So whats the deal? Honda, BMW, GM (and others) have this technology and its ready to go, but it’s not not available for the consumer, why not???

    • #40200
      RjION
      Participant

      You tell me …………….. Is the US stopping Japan from building and selling them in Japan. Is the US goverment keeping Germany from building and selling them in Germany?

    • #40201
      Alex Luft
      Keymaster

      Or it could be that hydrogen is not a feasible technology. At least not today.

    • #40203
      Lex
      Participant

      Who is the superpower?

    • #40204
      Lex
      Participant

      Imagine if US puts a huge chicken tax on all imported products from Japan or Germany? im sure they would rather make US happy.

    • #40209
      Grawdaddy
      Participant

      @RjION

      The “EV’s don’t have the infrastructure” excuse?

      You do realize that there are 110 and 220V service in every friggin’ house in North America and that they have been there for nearly a century, right? Don’t give us crap about an infrastructure that is already in place.

      As for shifting the pollution, well, nearly two third’s of eletricity here is produced by hydro. For you yanks, I suggest you do the same, or make turbines.

      Simply make electicity as effieciently and as cheaply as possible. Leave the battery tech to the automakers and let them have a range war. Once they meet the equivalent range of an ICE, it’s game over.

      It’s a damn sight better than hanging everything on hydrogen, a technology that genuinely DOESN’T have an infrastructure and is much more volitile than gas is.

    • #40210
      RjION
      Participant

      Grawdaddy: First read the subject of this thread. It has nothing to do with what power sorces are in houses.

      First Post

      Answer to issue 1:

      Make all cars use the same batteries. Like all batteries that we consumers use now make them all the same. Make all electric cars so they use exacly the same batteries i.e. AA,AAA,C D and now Z sized. This would lower the cost of batteries since now they could be massed produced by many competing companies.

      Answer to issue 2:
      Since all batteries will now be the same towns could now create battery depot/(gas stations or electron stations) where a consumer could then just drive up and have a them pull your dead battery out and replace it with one or more that were charged the night before with off peak electricty or wind mill power or offpeak hydroelectric power. The above batteries would be made all the same and designed with the intent of being easly removed and replaced in your car in minutes if not seconds. Each battery would have a meter built in that would tell them just eactly how much energy was in this particular battery. And since each depot would have hundreds of these batteries old/bad batteries could be removed and new ones could be added as needed. The cost could be paid for with a surcharge on all battery fills throught the year.

      Now we could start making vehicles that could hold more than one or two of these batteries and larger vehicles could have multiple cells depending on just how much power they may need for their daily work load. So a small 2 person comuter may only have two batteries, while a large half ton pickup may be able to have say 6 or more cells.

      So please post your comments to my solution to getting electric cars main stream!

      Bill Neuhauser P.E.

    • #40212
      Lex
      Participant

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EACRD70nYQ0
      This should be the future!

    • #40213
      RjION
      Participant

      The only way it’s going to work ….. Plug in battery charging is nonsence no matter how much one can say about your house has 110 and 220 power alraedy in it. Hell who knew our houses used electricity. Next someone is going to tell us some houses use gas to heat water or some crazy thing.

    • #40238
      Dinkus_McG
      Participant

      Good idea, thought about it and there are some issues.

      Maintenance, who is going to maintain the batteries?
      Making sure they have no memory effect. How would you charge for half charge or full charge. People does fuel up with any range on their tanks.
      How you know that you have a good battery? 50 miles down the road?
      Given to the amount of swapping, how long the batteries will last without deteriorating and if so, how you will dispose them?

      That idea can work if you own a fleet and you do your own service.

      Electric Motors are the best; bottomless torque and small. The problem is the delivery and the EV1 was a great car for its time. The battery cannot be build; is patent held by an oil company. Just Google this name Stanford R. Ovshinsky, you will be surprised what you will find.

      Oil prices are high enough to piss you off but low enough to discourage any other alternatives. All this Hybrid cars are more Gimmicky than what they are worth. Overpriced with a very low return of investment for the owner. Even to produce one it has a Manufacturing Carbon Footprint larger than installing a box over a Suburban Chassis and call it a Hummer H2. But Tree Hugers refuse to see that. If you want a low consumption car a VW TDI is the best approach. For been a Diesel, Bio Fuels can be used. They are Biodegradable and renewable. Biodiesel can be made even from Algae which has a higher yield of Vegetable Oil compared to Coconut Tree oil which is the 2nd best. On Diesel engines they burn completely but sometimes Soot comes out. Just for the simple fact that you can see the soot is not more polluting than gasoline engines. Diesel produce a particulate that is not more than the carbon particulate from a home chimney. Gasoline produce more toxic pollutant but since they are colorless/odorless people assume is less toxic.

    • #40253
      RjION
      Participant

      Battery powered cars are a joke .. always have been always will be. If some of youwant to talk yourself into how great they are … go buy one and see how it works out after 7 years.

    • #40261
      Mainwayne
      Participant

      How about a gas engine with a generator to power the car when the battery gets low.

    • #40265
      RjION
      Participant

      How about not

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