Hybrids and why they may the be wrong idea...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylan H

You raise some interesting examples there.

Lets take Northern Europe. In the UK, milk has been delivered to most urban homes for the past 40 years whatever the weather by electric milk floats. These things were crude way back when, now they look like museum pieces but you'll still find them working hard whatever the weather, whatever the temperature. So electric power works in cold weather.

Then you've got the Think which was one of the first properly usable electric cars on sale, designed in Norway where it is selling quite well. Norway is on a par with Canada when it comes to cold weather I believe. Of course there is the G-wiz which is selling well in London, still part of Northern Europe.

How about Denmark, I heard its pretty cold there too. They've got so little confidence in electric cars that they ran a pilot study with Better Place which found that lo and behold, electric cars do work in Denmark too and people are happy with them. Along with Israel, Denmark is investing 100s of millions of Euros to set up loads of electric charging points and battery swap stations and to lease thousands of electric cars.

How about China? Ever been there? Most Chinese can't be arsed to pedal their bicycles everywhere so they trade up to scooters as soon as they can afford them. Thing is noone buys petrol scooters if they can help it because electricity there is cheap as chips and petrol isn't. The roads there are already clogged up with electric powered scooters and bicycles.

Then you've got companies like BYD that build electric cars for the Chinese market and who are supposed to have more advanced technology than guys like GM and Toyota. Warren Buffett was so impressed by their chances that he invested $230 million into buying 10% of it. He's not often wrong.

I'm afraid events have already overtaken you to some extent Mark. In urban areas electric cars make sense. They may not work well in cold weather but that hasn't stopped them in the past and I don't think its going to stop them in the future.

Here is the thing Dylan: When you take an electric battery with around a 100 mile range, and you ask it to not only power a motor, but keep the windsheild clear, and keep the occupants warm, you reduce it's range radically. Yes, they use G-whizs and the milk floats but their range is limited. In cities, I can see using them, but I suspect the Norwegians aren't too impressed with them if you get stuck in snow or servere cold. I know batteries are getting better, but I also know at - 20C how happy my battery in my car is to turn over the motor. I can tell you that you should talk to the Norwegians and the like and find out how well those cars work in that cold...

Hey..if if works, and people like it, and car companies can make money doing it, fill your boots...but consider me not really interested. A limited range car doesn't work for me. Just driving my wife to work is a 70 km round trip.....

The reason GM never put their electric car projects to test anywhere but Arizona and Southern California was to avoid the cold, and there, they discovered that the A/C on hot days was much the same as the heat...it really worked on the battery. Electric cars are constantly compromising their range for the hotel loads people expect from their cars....