Gigafactory

Quote: rxwine

Well, I agree with you on the pitfalls of paper ideas to practical. Although eventually Thomas Edison got an idea right finally (for example) Just a 100 mistakes or so afterward.

Even then his boss stole the idea of his competitor........

Of course a common jack, moves thousands of pounds. Needs only your arm.

Perhaps moving batteries from the ground up is the best way.

Quote: rxwine

Of course a common jack, moves thousands of pounds. Needs only your arm.

Perhaps moving batteries from the ground up is the best way.

Musk made a big demo of that. I don't see it because the stations would be way expensive, needing a pit. And again, whatever would hold them in I assume bolts would be corrosion prone. Plus lots of labor.

I did just see where GTE is designing a charging system you merely park on top of, totally wireless. But it will still have charge time issues.

Reality remains, until you find an efficient way to charge the battery to full in less than 10 minutes it will be a long slog to sell most people on it.

Quote: Pacomartin

No matter how you cut it, putting 80 pounds of gasoline into a car is much easier and cheaper than anything you can do with batteries and electricity. And you can drive a few hundred miles on that gasoline. Plus the infrastructure is already in place.

Yes. But consider if we were talking about gasoline cars in 1900. The idea then would be close to the electric car today. How would you refuel? it's not as though you can just find gas anywhere! Yet by the 1930s or so, I suppose, you could just find gas anywhere.

The problem with electric cars is they face an established infrastructure and a successful model. If there was nothing like the gas-powered car to compare them to, we'd all think they were great.

Way too much to worry about. Do I have too
much weight, be sure and go slow up hills,
make sure I always have enough juice to
get to a station. Don't run the air a lot.

Quote: Evenbob

Way too much to worry about. Do I have too
much weight, be sure and go slow up hills,
make sure I always have enough juice to
get to a station. Don't run the air a lot.

Well you definitely need an exchange station once in awhile, or some manner of fueling.

Quote: rxwine

Well you definitely need an exchange station once in awhile, or some manner of fueling.

It's not like you can carry a 3 gallon gas
can around with you like in a regular car.

Quote: Evenbob

Way too much to worry about.

It seems like a just a very high profile, but still very tiny fringe market. In 7 years it has advanced from 3% to 3.5% (and that includes hybrids). The battery operated electric vehicle is about 20% of the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle market.


Sales figures sourced from HybridCars.com and direct reports submitted by EDTA member companies.
2014 Total Hybrid (HEV) Sales 570,475 Total Vehicle Sales 16,425,286 Electric Drive Market Share 3.47%
2009 Total Hybrid (HEV) Sales 290,292 Total Vehicle Sales 10,429,014 Electric Drive Market Share 2.78%
2008 Total Hybrid (HEV) Sales 313,673 Total Vehicle Sales 13,260,747 Electric Drive Market Share 2.37%
2007 Total Hybrid (HEV) Sales 352,274 Total Vehicle Sales 11,777,314 Electric Drive Market Share 2.99%

Quote: Pacomartin

It seems like a just a very high profile, but still very tiny fringe market. In 7 years it has advanced from 3% to 3.5% (and that includes hybrids). The battery operated electric vehicle is about 20% of the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle market.

The bottom line is that there are only so many people who will pay more money to save less money on gas. Some positive number in this share is for the CA ZEV mandates which force the manufacturer to eat the loss. FCA openly said they are not making one more than they have to make to fill said mandate.

Quote: AZDuffman

FCA openly said they are not making one more than they have to make to fill said mandate.

Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne is adamant in his belief cars running solely on electric power are too expensive and limiting to become mainstream.

Forbes pegged Elon Musk's net worth at $11.9 billion this year, so if not mainstream, there is a healthy small market.

A total of 200,000 low-speed small electric cars were sold in China in 2013, most of which are powered by lead-acid batteries.I think that the world market in low speed electric vehicles could be substantial. Maybe not mainstream, but still large.