Plug in, turn on, drive off
By jmara
Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 11:06 am in General.
If you’d like to encourage automakers to consider building plug-in hybrid vehicles, you can make your feelings known by cruising over to the Plug-In Partner Web site and “signing” its online petition. This is a national campaign to let automakers know there is a demand for such vehicles. “Automakers aren’t convinced there are enough buyers” for such cars, Bob Howard, PG&E vice president of gas transmission and distribution, said. PG&E supports the Plug-In Partners campaign.
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September 2nd, 2006 at 6:52 am
Plug in hybrids are certainly a vast improvement over the impractical
electric cars coming on the market. The Tesla, for example, at around $90,000+ only has a rangeof 250 miles an requires 3 1/2 HOURS to
recharge. There won’t be any public charging stations built for
this sucker. George Gooney and other self styled environmentalists
are spreading false rumors that this car is environmentally
cleaner than any hybrid. Sorry, empty headed Hollywood folks, but
the Honda Impulse hybrid is overall the best for the environment.
The main point here is that the Tesla, using lithionion batteries,
has a battery pack of 6751 cells that cost over $20,000. And that’s probably using the cheapo lithion ions with the internal defects
as ffound in Apple, Dell and other laptops. Lifespan is a mere 4 to 5
years, making yearly battery costs of over $5,000. There is no reason to believe that a plug in hybrid will either 1) improve air quality, or 2) be cost effective. I applaud the automakers for refusing to be
pushed into building more complicated vehicles simply because the consumer falsely believes they would be improvements. Until a more
economical battery comes along, and electricity is generated by non-fossil fuels more than 30% of the time, plug-in hybrids will remain a fraud.