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Blog Electric vehicles are playthings for the rich
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  • Author Author: iLOVEautomotive
  • Date Created: 17 Jun 2011 10:46 PM Date Created
  • Views 456 views
  • Likes 0 likes
  • Comments 2 comments
  • in:automotive
  • vehicles
  • sp:freescale
  • automotive
  • microcontroller
  • mcu
  • innovation
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Electric vehicles are playthings for the rich

iLOVEautomotive
iLOVEautomotive
17 Jun 2011

by Mike Garrard

image

 

Without doubt, electric vehicles have sex appeal. Not in the same way that a five litre 480hp V8 Mustang at full throttle does. The benefit is more cerebral.  They are the future, quiet and clean. Driving one comes with a feel good factor of saving the planet. I have one, and I love it, see here. It might even breed a certain little sanctimonious corner of the grey matter that makes one park it on the drive rather than put it in the garage.

 

Do we need them? Most certainly.  I don’t believe it is possible for the planet’s resources to support all of China and India at the consumption rates in the West, an astounding 200kWh per head, every day. If China were like the USA they would be buying 60M cars per year: that’s the entire world car production in 2009. Something has to change.


Even the most optimistic people, which I rashly assume is the US Geological Society, say peak oil will be somewhere around 2030; IEA thinks we’ve flatlined and others say that we’ve peaked already. For mass consumption, oil shale may not be the significant low cost oil replacement we want it to be.  Your children, or theirs, may be the last petrol heads on the planet.

 

 

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Top Comments

  • DAB
    DAB over 14 years ago +2
    As I have stated before, we need the Model T of electric vehicles. But before we go electric, we need to unplug from coal power. I am not nearly as worried about running out of oil as I am about a new…
  • Anonymous-58970
    Anonymous-58970 over 13 years ago in reply to DAB

    i Like your oppinion but if i have the parts for my project to put it together my lack of resource materials ($$$) my project might be look into and problely useful

     

     

    i tend to see tec new ways when my mind rebuilds them i have so meny bluprints in my mind it kinda overwhelming atm cus it whont let me finish my littlest projects (my fun projects) cant really  explain thing on paper or on forms im more hand on or on the move into projects

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  • DAB
    DAB over 14 years ago

    As I have stated before, we need the Model T of electric vehicles.

    But before we go electric, we need to unplug from coal power.

    I am not nearly as worried about running out of oil as I am about a new coal fired electric plant being built each week in china, which spews enough pollution into the air to kill 20,000 people each year, for each plant.

    Think about it, is it really worth the loss of that many people just for the illusion of being Green?

    As for China and India, they both already experience massive traffic delays as they do not have the infrastructure to support the vehicles they have, let alone a massive increase.

    As for those who feel they need to run around in a 450 Hp vehicle so they can break the speed laws, the whole idea is rediculous.  We do not need vehicles that go that fast, nor do we need to have people driving to work everyday in a vehicle that sits six people, while only one person is in each vehicle!

     

    I think it is time to rethink what freedom of the road should mean and reduce some of the options to a more sustainable level.  We can still establish a transportation system that would serve everyone, we just need to get out of the "I have to do it NOW!" mindframe.

    Speed kills!

    Slow down and enjoy the journey.

    It is the quality of life that matters, not the speed in which we travel it.

     

    Just my opinion.

    DAB

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