I’m new to this and I’m starting from the bottom so I don’t know all that much about EV’s .
Thats why I’m here , to learn whatever I can from you fine gentlemen. The thing that gets me is cruising ranges of like 50 miles per charge. There must be batteries that can exceed that. Am I missing something ?
Jerry
Good news.There are good batteries
Bad news. You would never save enough on gas to pay for them.
A good set of lithium Ion batteries cost from $8000.00 and up
[QUOTE=VWBeamer;3628]
Bad news. You would never save enough on gas to pay for them.
[/QUOTE]
you sure about that?
EV’s are less maintenance, so you won’t be doing like 3-400 bucks of oil changes, tuneups, Emissions testing every year. I spend about 3-3500 in gas a year, 2-250 a month, plus some road trips. Add in electricity being less than 10cents a kwh, and a typical pack for a car being 10,000 or more, thats a buck per total charge, so, maybe like $400 a year?
So it’d take me 2.5 years to break even and only pay for electricity to drive… compared to that $3k in gas a year? Lead acid breaks even sooner, but over 10 years, you’ll have to replace 3 packs, compared to MAYBE 1 with lifepo (yet to be proven).
To the OP, look at the tesla! 56kwh, 240miles/charge and over 200hp and an impressive 0-60. Of course its $100,000.
Just ask yourself, are you buying this for commuting, or for leisure? Get the care you really want for leisure, get an electric for commuting 40-60 miles a day. If you’ve got a ton of cash, get lifepo and be done with it.
I just think its funny when people frown on the fact that people are ONLY getting 50 miles. Its funny because the FUNDING/INTEREST FOR TECHNOLOGY WASN’T THERE UNTIL GAS PRICES STARTED GOING UP… now there’s this huge demand “oh, we need to do something, and SOON!” Just think if the oil companies, government, utilities put their efforts into solar, wind, power storage (batteries,caps)… THAT is why cars aren’t getting over 50 miles.
Plus, conversions are basing it on a heavy steel car, not a purpose built car made for being light and aerodynamic.
According to GM, there’s no market. Why is that? Its because most people in the world SCOFF at a car that could only get 50 miles. Even if it only cost a dollar to get that far, people will still ■■■■■. We are creatures of excess. But here’s the real question, how often do you have to drive over 50 miles a day? 70% or more of the people in the US drive less than 15 miles to work each way. 30 miles a day or less. FOR MOST PEOPLE! Do you NEED to drive that much, or do you just want to drive further once in a while?
Guys thanks for bringing me up to speed.
It appears that 50 miles per charge is pretty good , especially after just reading an article on the Chevy Volt where GM promised between 40 and 60 miles of range and this is GM talking. I’m sure they have enormous resources and even they are limited to that kind of range. I guess we are kind of held back until technology can progress enough to give us better batteries.
I did the math, driving 12000 miles a year, deisel would have to get to over 8 bucks a gallon for an electric car to save me money over my Jetta TDi.
Electric is only economical for short, slow trips. if you have aneed to go over 50 miles, or more than 25 miles at freeway speeds, you will spend more building the car, than you will ever save by just buying a economy car.
I looked into converting one of my 914 Porsche . a very small, light car with two trucks for batteries.
To go the range and speeds i want to go, ( a modest 50 miles at 70 miles an hour)it would cost about 28000 dollars for motors and lithium batteries.
28000 divided by 5 bucks a gallan for diesel, = 5600 gallons
42 miles a gallon, x 5600= 235,200 miles of fuel.
or about 20 years worth of fuel.
The good news is, I believe lithium batteries are the answer.
Since lithium is the 33 most common element on earth, the material cost for a lithium battery should drop as production is increased and stream lined. The other materials used, aluminum, copper and phosphate are also pretty common elements.
We have seen the price on lithium batteries drop even over the last few months. This dispite the rising demand.
Remember back in the 80’s, when a meg of RAM was $500 bucks? I believe that is where we are now with lithium.
If gas prices stay high, then we will see more companies invest in producing lithium EV batteries.
In 6-to 7 years, lithium batteries will be down around the price of lead Acid.
[QUOTE=VWBeamer;3636]
[B]
Electric is only economical for short, slow trips. if you have aneed to go over 50 miles, or more than 25 miles at freeway speeds, you will spend more building the car, than you will ever save by just buying a economy car.[/B]
or about 20 years worth of fuel.[/QUOTE]
exactly!
So for longer trips, higher speed, its more economical to get an economic car.
[QUOTE=VWBeamer;3638]The good news is, I believe lithium batteries are the answer.
Since lithium is the 33 most common element on earth, the material cost for a lithium battery should drop as production is increased and stream lined. The other materials used, aluminum, copper and phosphate are also pretty common elements.
We have seen the price on lithium batteries drop even over the last few months. This dispite the rising demand.
Remember back in the 80’s, when a meg of RAM was $500 bucks? I believe that is where we are now with lithium.
If gas prices stay high, then we will see more companies invest in producing lithium EV batteries.
In 6-to 7 years, lithium batteries will be down around the price of lead Acid.[/QUOTE]
that long? there are Headway cells, 3.2V 10Ah that can be had for around $15 a piece. If I bought 10 30Ah Lead batteries for a 120V 30Ah pack, it costs me almost $1100, plus shipping the lead. If I got some of those headway lifepo cells, 3 bats in parallel, 40 in series would get 120V 30Ah, so 120 cells. At 15 bucks a pop, thats $1800, and much lighter. I’d say its coming down quite well! Even the Lifebatt cells are coming down.