We needed them yesterday, but at least it's movement in the right direction.

Can't Rick Perry offer some legislation to stop GM? (being sarcastic, folks. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him try)

The race for the future is really on now.

Imagine the silent NASCAR races

I'm just going to post some bike videos, but there are car videos too. Notice that no one is using a steam catapult to launch.

The bike in the far lane is not set up for drag racing. This demonstration is just for fun. He's still plenty quick.

Zoom-Zoom...
NASCAR... aka
Non
Athletic
Sport
Centered
Around
Rednecks
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of its kind to allow in one vehicle, all electric for most of the driving people do, and when extended driving was necessary, it would switch to gas. They actually were the leaders in that technology, and the benefit it provided was because the infrastructure still isn't there for all electric cars if travelling long distances.

Chrysler to that concept and improved it in their Pacifica minivan. Mitsubishi will be releasing their outlander SUV with that technology at the end of the year.

Toyota was the first to develop and market hybrid technology, but as for plug in hybrids, they are really lagging, because I suspect they are trying to push their hydrogen fuel cells, which will take a good while to develop the infrastructure

I however see trump and his humpers fixing it so that it will be very expensive one way or another to do that. I mean he is planning on making solar power very expensive. I think that anything that is good for our environment and helps prices go down will be made so expensive by trump and his humpers that using it will not make financial sense.

The NHRA official number One Drag Racer of all time built an electric dragster a couple of years ago. His goal is 200 mph in the quarter mile.

-90% (nitromethane) Jimmy

Increase the range.. to about 300-350 miles between charges and
Easier method of charging.. Like inductive charging.. You just pull up and the bottom of the car connects with the charging station.. Like what they are doing with cell phones.. No wires..
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and make the batteries easily switchable...meaning you pull up go in and while you get a cup of coffee, somebody switches the drained battery out with a freshly charged one...The old one goes on a solar powered deep-charge rack (like a trickle-charger) and in 2 weeks it's ready to get switched again.

If we're going to insist that capitalism be the answer, than the most efficient form of it will be required. No more tax breaks for Bad Ideas or Disproven Systems (and that should go double for banks)

That would work also. Faster than a drive up charge also.. I was thinking when you come home at nite, it would charge all evening..
Or a fast battery.. Capacitors charge very quickly so if it was like a capacitive type battery.. Or cables all over the country attached to the auto.. . Wait we tried that... called 'em electric trollys..
Oh never mind....
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We're going to have to completely redo the power grid to deal with the load we have now PLUS everyone's car. And in the rural parts of the country, how do we deal with charging while underway? (Hell, how do we deal with it in the major cities?)

because the service stations are so far apart and apt to be closed at random times, use prehistoric pumps, and you can't buy gas when there's no employee present because they certainly don't take cards, etc.

Good fucking luck driving through NV or Eastern OR in an electric car.

At least without sufficient savings to make up for the inconvenience of needing to track down a rental gas vehicle (how if GM is going all electric) when they need to go out of town?

LOL

In 50 years there will still be 49' Chevy Pickups showing up at car shows. But it is fun to complain about non-existent problems

This is Tesla's Supercharger map.

https://www.tesla.com/findus#/bounds/40.761885680291,-73.977541319709,40.759187719708,-73.980239280292,d?search=supercharger,&name=us

There are, as of right now, one fewer Supercharger in the state of Wyoming (seven) than there are in the LA Basin (eight). None of the eight are actually in Los Angeles.

There are none in Seattle. There's a Tesla dealership and a Tesla service center, but no publicly accessible Superchargers.

There are none in Portland, OR.

There are three in the San Francisco Bay area. None are in San Francisco. One is at the Tesla factory.

There is one in Chicago. It has 10 pumps. Chicago has 2.7 million people.

There's one in Boston. One in New York City.

There are a bunch of them on the Interstates. There's one here in Coeur d'Alene, ID, that hardly ever gets used.

The Model S went on sale in 2012. Not being able to get the damn car out of Los Angeles for three days because you're still charging the car off the outlet in your hotel bathroom should NOT be an ongoing issue!

...Europe appears to embrace the concept a little more enthusiastically.

https://www.tesla.com/findus#/bounds/69.0599709,24.1773101,55.0059799,10.579799999999977,d?search=supercharger,&name=Sweden

approach has auto makers scared. Add in companies like Google and Apple that are designing cars around the computer and that clearly is the future.

With little demand, the price of gasoline will plummet making my vintage internal combustion engine car much more cheaper to operate

I tend to travel short range but with heavy loads. Towing capacity would be fantastic. Done deal. I can't really afford a new car/truck but I'd find a way......

And closed only .33 off of that high.

I own a few shares of Tesla myself, to hold for the long term. It's not too late to get in, imo.

The oil companies and their cronies in Congress are not gonna like this one bit!

Electric-driven transportation is not the utopia many think it to be. The world needs to focus on expanding and improving mass transportation, primarily rail. Eventually, humans will have to get used to not being able to jump in a private vehicle and go anywhere, anytime, at will.

See: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141880075#post16

I've made the trip from Prineville, Oregon, to Boise, Idaho, and back. Here's Lake County, Oregon:



[link:http://www.trover.com/d/j1s8-hart-mountain-national-antelope-refuge-lake-county-oregon|Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge,
Lake County, Oregon]

How many trains per day do you propose to serve the residents of Lake County, Oregon?

What we're doing now - including going to electrics - is not long-term sustainable. We will hit those brick walls.

Reminds me of my "day trips" in the badlands of Wyoming in a rental car on field service job off-days, many years ago. Hardly a sign of humanity in sight other than a gravel road, and dead silence.

Also treasure my photo collection from the Oregon coast (Reedsport paper mill jobs).

Until full electric infrastructure is in place...
Cargo ships have been using it for years... Diesel/Electric. The most efficient way to use a internal combustion engine weather gas/diesel/natural gas is to have it run continuously at one speed. Never varying. then the output of the engine would attach to a efficient generator to charge batteries or some sort of storage device. Run the electric to power the wheels. Varying the speed or power would not effect the engine's efficiency.
I don't think we will ever get rid of the internal combustion engine in the near future but It's gonna go the way of the buggy whip... Still around but hardly used...
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