2 Comment(s)
August 19, 2008 at 12:11pm
by thecodepounder FoxNews.com has the story of an electric car club, the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association, that meets monthly in Naperville, Illinois. Interesting to me is how much the electric car enthusiasts sound like the computer enthusiasts of the 1970s:
“We came to the conclusion a long time ago the car companies weren’t going to make electric cars for us, so we set out do it for ourselves,” said Lowe, an electric engineer and computer scientist. “It isn’t rocket science.”
For more on electric cars and the car companies’ history with same, check out Chris Paine’s excellent documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?
2 Comments
#1. kerry bradshaw 08.19.2008
Check out lying Chris Paine’s silly crockumentary of mindless lies, ably assisted by Ed (the pasty white fool) Begley, adn Tom (mediocre thespian) Hanks, two lovable morons out to rewrite history. Electric car ssuck. Period. Let’s see one of you shills buy a Mitsubishi EV when it comes out next year - goes 100 miles using a $20,000 battery pack that won’t last 5 years. Car costs $40,000.
I dare you lying pricks to buy one. Fat chance - you are big mouths, and only big mouths. Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. jerks, jerks, jerks, liars,jerks.
#2. thecodepounder 08.19.2008
Well, at least your argument is an intellectual one [/sarcasm].
Let me be sure I’ve got your major points correct: Ed Begley is pasty white and Tom Hanks is an overrated actor. Hmm, interesting…I don’t completely disagree, but then I don’t see how that bears on either’s veracity–in this movie or otherwise. Also, electric cars “suck” and they are too expensive for your tastes. Hmm, yes. Lastly, Mitsubishi is releasing a car next year that doesn’t, in your opinion, perform well. Ok, I see.
Wow, that’s a, um, how shall I put this, slightly “less than compelling” argument Kerry. But thanks for playing!
FWIW, no one is saying that electric cars are cheap. No one is saying that they perform on cross country road trips as well as any other vehicle. But I’ll take a plug-in electric or plug-in hybrid that goes 100+ miles on a charge any day and use it for commuting to work (53 miles round trip–95% of it highway). While electric cars certainly can’t be supported across the board given our nation’s current electric infrastructure, it seems a fairly reasonable alternative for many. I wouldn’t mind paying the equivalent of $0.70/gallon in electricity to commute to work. And I know what you’re probably thinking, but no, the maintenance costs of a true electric are no more than the costs of scheduled maintenance for a standard vehicle (of course, most people don’t actually service their “regular” cars to the degree suggested by the manufacturer). Let’s see buying electricity instead of regular unleaded gasoline would save me (at current gas prices–$3.359 when I filled up yesterday morning) roughly $2.65/gallon. And I fill up 6 times a month to the tune of 15-16 gallons per fill-up, so that’s, let’s see, $2.65/gallon x 15 gallons/fill-up x 6 fill-ups/month = $238.50/month savings on fuel. We’ll call it $225.00. Gee, that’s half my current monthly car note.
By the way, my current vehicle, a Cadillac CTS–loaded, cost more than $40k, and I buy a new car significantly more often than every 5 years.
So, basically, I think your argument is that “jerks” like me shouldn’t buy an electric car, because electric cars “suck”–in part because they are too expensive, even though they cost less than my current vehicle, and also because on a single charge they only go twice as far as I need to go in a single day. Add to this the fact that I’d save (at current prices) at least half of my current monthly car note on monthly fuel costs (I say “at least” because, again, the car you mentioned costs less than my current car) and YOU draw the indisputable conclusion that this is somehow BAD.
Wow! All I can say is… wow!
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