Editor's Blog
Do you truly feel shitty about the oily pelicans in the Gulf? Do you want to throw a shoe in the face of the OPEC nations? When you gaze in the mirror do you want to see a lean green clean machine?
If yes, Yes, YES is your answer… it’s time to stroke your conscience and dreams by buying an EV (electric vehicle) now!
2010-2011 is a crucial moment in history as over a dozen EVs arrive on the market. Will you buy one? Are you cutting edge cool or a foul fossil Luddite? You can vote immediately for a superior future with your wallet, or hesitate awkwardly like an impacted bowel.
Don’t mumble that you’re contemplating a Prius hybrid. Wimp! That’s like bragging that you had sex after some drunk played with your nipples. Go All the Way! Purchase an all-electric car now or you’ll be ashamed of yourself forever.
I might get Nissan’s LEAF. I admire the name and adore the price: $25, 280 with rebates. That’s all I can afford other than the Triac tricycle from Salinas. Truth is, if I had the bucks I’d grab a Fiskar Karma (extended range) made in Finland. Nothing says “I’m sexy rich & smart” like that aerodynamic orgasm. The Tesla Roadstar is another wet dream, an electric erection, the hottest Palo Alto gizmo since the linear accelerator.
I’m hoping everybody buys every weird-looking toaster on wheels that gets manufactured so there’s abundant diversity and competition. I want to see teens in the Midwest puttering in Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcars (GEMs) that are built in North Dakota. I want Weego Whips from Atlanta racing for pink slips against the Aptera 2e from Carlsbad, California. BMW Mini-Es and SmartEVs battling for Euro-turf against VW’s E-Up! Brazil has its Fiat Palio, Honda its FCX Clarity, Subaru R1e, there’s a “Bright Idea” car – everybody’s going to offer a Plug-In.
Buy whatever you want as long as I see you at a charging station instead of slurping putrid petroleum. If you can’t buy an EV then I expect you to rent one: Enterprise just purchased 500 LEAFs. Let’s all participate in the transition away from war, smog, slimy beaches and corrupt “oiligarchies.”
The future is EV and solar. Are you the bright future? Or the scabby past? Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments below:
references:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/nissanleaf-electric-car-pricetag.htm
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/autos/0911/gallery.electric_car_startups/5.html
http://www.lohas-asia.org/2010/03/01/can-electric-vehicles-change-the-world-part-13-a-third-comeback/
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/how-the-electric-car-will-save-us/Content?oid=1520228
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jdhV_o-OTvpgmwFKPbTlSpagUBOQD9H7HUMG0
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12 Comments
I’ll buy one when it’s affordable. So far all hybrids and EV’s are novelty items.
I’m in my mid twenties and work close to minimum wage. Over the past seven months or so I’ve been saving money and carefully researching what’s affordable and what’s not.
I started with a simple comparison. I compared a standard honda civic to a Prius. If both were to be bought new, it’d take ten years to see the Prius pay off. This is supposing the battery doesn’t need to be replaced.
For people whom buy only on price, these cars are still a bad deal. They would need to drop bare minimum to 20,000 out the door.
The only affordable hybrid or electric I see is the concept FT-CH from Toyota (http://www.toyota.com/concept-vehicles/ftch.html). This car will supposedly be cheaper and get more mileage than the prius (also looks cooler).
Electric vehicles today are for the most part the equivalent of Gordon Gecko’s cell phone, clunky, not that great (but getting better) and expensive, but also a status symbol.
I don’t think, just like with cell phones, it will require any real societal push to get people in electrics. Their market demand and the availability of charge stations will expand exponentially in the wake of their technical advancements (longer range, durability, charge time, battery life, etc).
That’s why I like Tesla’s approach: sell luxury cars first, then move down the ladder. I’ll wait until the next model down from the Model S is available at around 30,000. Hopefully 2015 or 2016.
If they are smart they will offer a crossover though instead of only another sedan since there are far more people are willing to plunk down 30,000 for a minivan or a crossover than they are for a sedan, but I’d still by a sedan, as long as it was roomy enough for two booster seats in the back!
By 2020 we will look back at today’s electric vehicles with the same head shaking amusement as we do to a 1980 cell phone.
They’re not novelties but are useful, expensive devices. They had certain advantages, such as lower cost of operations, reliability (electric motors are solid) and effeciency.
Also, your calculations fail to account for the externalities of using fossil fuels. You’ll end up paying for them whether your calculations reflect them or not.
Hi David — have you seen the Aptera? It is anything but clunky — it has a very futuristic design
http://www.aptera.com/ — I also disagree that electric cars are expensive — you can get a big minivan called the “Moose” from Triac for only $16,995.
David, You’re right. We don’t need a marketing campaign for electric cars. I’m bemused at the introduction of new products – compact discs, PC’s, HD, electric cars, etc. We hear the same complaints every time – “It’s too expensive/slow/clunky/big/inefficient” or “Only the rich can afford this”.
Then design & efficiency improve, price drops & people soon forget the old clunky “only the rich” initial product. No doubt, when solar becomes more efficient/less costly, it too will start selling like hot cakes.
I wasn’t really referring so much to appearance when I made that comparison, more capabililty.
There is probably a car that meets one of the targets I mentioned, be in range, speed, capacity, battery life. But none meet all of them. There is always a big but hidden somewhere, a compromise to be made.
I’m just saying we are going to look back 10 years from now at today’s EV’s and go wow, I can’t believe people actually used those dinosaurs!
But the same goes for ICE vehicles. In 10 or 15 years my 3 year old son and others of his generation will probably think we were crazy to go hurtling around at 70 miles an hour with a payload of combustible liquid beneath our feet that roars like a lion and belches foul odors.
The direct cost of oil imports for the US are about $40B a month – more than twice the trade deficit with China and Mexico combined.
The official cost estimate for the wars to fight the people funded by our oil imports is $15B a month and rising.
If the Tesla S costs $50K, we could have 1M brand new US made Tesla electric cars every month and build a new nuclear reactor every 6 months for the same amount of money as the oil & war policy we have now.
Oil has been huge liability for the US since 1973 when US oil production peaked and we flipped from being a net exporter to a net importer. Since then, corrupt elements of our government in collusion with the oil cartel and foreign powers have propped up consumption with an endless list of government interventions and subsidies ranging from tax credits to bailouts to war.
If you’ve got 30+ grand to drop on some bulky piece of plastic from an industrial-age meatpower factory you have more than enough to convert a *cool* car to electric. I did the math last year: a serviceable used DeLorian chassis + full electric conversion (done by professionals) is about $35k.
Not a Back to the Future fan? Don’t appreciate irony? No sweat, you can get anything from a 1962 Galaxie 500 to a 2010 VW switched over – though weight of the chassis, storage space (for batteries), and other factors may affect performance and cost. There are several companies all over the world doing this at present and plenty of mechanics out there who’d love the challenge. Google for shops on your continent.
If you’re feeling *really* adventurous, and you’re wealthier or more skilled than I presently dream of being, you could just have a custom car built up from scratch. Though regulations in the U.S. and other fascist oligarchies lock you into using base components from a Fuhrer-approved model, you can pretty much make it look like whatever you want if you keep the VIN placard don’t dick around with the frame (at least in ways that the shutzstaffel can tell when they pull you over out of pure jealous steroidal rage).
In any case just remember, you’re not locked into the uber-fail of feeding more money to the same jerks who have been putting this change off for decades now and burying the technology needed to do it. Ride the wave of post-industrial decentralization and do two cool things at once – recycle something you love and pay someone who’s not wearing a corporate monkeysuit to do it.
I think someone is in need of a vacation at a FEMA Re-education Camp. You are not being a good Corporate Citizen, comrade.
How about just a motorbike that wakes me with enthusiasm to go to the greenmarket rather than grocers? Refrigerated saddlebags, truck capability when I want it; why don’t we have cloud transport to match cloud computing? I have this pool of hardware…..
Yes it all needs maintenance, thanks for offering crossover perversion, but it’s the same maintenance. Regreasing, new seals on schedule, re-bolting the ladder racks.
How about learning how to convert your car to run on water? Or maybe use biodiesel for your car? We need to know everything that can help us stop buying from these hungry zombie pelicans!
According to Scientific American (still?) “this” month, most of the electricity for those of us on the Illinois power grid comes from coal. Better to stick with the Prius.