[OlyPerson]

What do you guys think of all the big innovations to do with electric cars lately? I think it's an amazing thing, I mean even if all the electricity is taken from coal power plants, they still produce 70% of the emissions, and if a lot of that energy is taken from renewable resources... wow. 0 emission vehicles, for less money. As it is now, BEVs (battery electric vehicles) can have a range of up to 350 miles on a single relatively short charge. They just cost a lot, but if they are mass produced, then the prices would come down and no more oil! I think it's an amazing technology that has just been destroyed by greedy oil companies, what do you guys think of them?

[Wolfeymole]

Never mind batteries Oly, what about Vegetable Oil
http://www.ravenfamily.org/andyg/vegoil.htm

[OlyPerson]

Vegetable oil is still essentially a finite source. By extracting oil from plants, one needs plants, and those plants need to be planted somewhere. This cultivation of plants requires a lot from the land, so there needs to be lots of fertilizers (derived from oil). With plants now being used as fuels, the profits of them being used as such will go up and farmers will have huge incentives to plant crops used for this, putting huge stress on the land, and also more of a reason to cut down forests (Amazon rainforest, anyone?), which would totally defeat the purpose of this "global warming friendly" resource. Electric cars + less reliance on cars and renewable sources of electricity (wind, hydro, tidal, solar) I fully believe is the only way to combat this issue.
Think about this, what would car makers rather make? Totally new electric vehicles, or just slightly tweeked current cars? We can't trust what they say, it's all about the business. We just need to throw business away for a time, suffer immediate and short term losses, and set our world community to be less of a shithole for the world.

[Wolfeymole]

Lets talk G8 Oly
We care but do the respective governments?
They could make cars tomorrow that would run on water and never rust but where is the profit?
It's a wastes of time even talking about this.

[OlyPerson]

Why is it a waste of time?

[tater03]

I think it is basically a good idea but I have heard the the batteries only last for like four years at the most and that they cost over 4,000.00 to replace. I don't know about anyone else but I don't think I could afford that every 9-4 years.

[OlyPerson]

With mass production, they will cost significantly less. Think SSD for computers, now they are expensive but perhaps soon they will be much less when more are made. Also, progressing technology is enabling them to last longer and longer.
http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html
That's a company starting to create even better batteries, just look at the specs:

• Large configuration choices
• No operational safety issues
• Three times the power of existing batteries
• A one-minute recharge
• High cycle life—10,000 to 15,000 charges vs. 750 for existing batteries
• The capability to operate in extreme temperatures:
  -22° to 480° Fahrenheit
• Low life-cycle costs

(copied and pasted from the site above)

[tater03]

Thanks for the information. I will have to check out the links. I am glad to see that they are getting better. I like the one minute recharge. Now that would be nice.