Ecotricity CEO's Electric Car Is "Not Another Tesla"

A practical sports car? Right. Sounds like he, like others are feeding their egos with "see what I want to do for the planet" videos.

We don't need wind powered sports cars right now. Few people will buy a sports car.

We need practical vehicles for the masses like 4 doors sedans, minivans and yes, SUV's that are powered electrically.

30mph crap or 100+ speed demon.

Can't I have something half-way in between?
A four-door sedan or hatchback?
At a reasonable price?
With reasonable range?

I really have no use for a monster car.

I'd like to see one, yes, but only one. Where's MY electric car?

Why do we have only: electric super cars and electric shopping carts, why cant we have a decent 100% electric car that seats four people, and doesn't cost a fortune?

The reason is mostly economics.

1) Realities of current mass-produced battery technologies mean that you can pick two: affordable; fast; long range.

You can have a cheap car that gets long range at 25mph, a cheap car that goes fast enough for 40 miles or less, or an expensive car that goes fast and a long way. A fully electric 4 door sedan is certainly possible, but it would cost more than a roadster for the same range. (heavier less aerodynamic car need more batteries = $$$$$)

2) Cars that must meet safety standards for highway use are MUCH more expensive to develop and market. Many cars have to be built just for crashing, and the tests themselves are extremely expensive as well.

3) New companies have huge barriers to entry into the car market. Existing manufacturers with all the money needed and without the barrier to entry have a huge incentive to stick with the status quo for as long as possible.

4) Oil cartels have every incentive to suppress any new energy storage technologies. (The level of obstruction of progress here will vary by the thickness of your tinfoil hat.)

There's something that I think about every time I hear about an electric car.

Here is Australia, in the summer time. Melbourne gets blackouts due to the level of heat, and more specifically combating that heat by the use of air-con.

So, say we all have electric cars. The majority of people with 9-5 jobs will be arriving home at about 6pm. All of them will be "plugging in" at the same time.

What sort of drain on our electrical system will that have? Blackouts during the day are acceptable, as inconvenient as they are. But at 6pm, when it starts to get dark.... what do you do?

Light some candles, plug in the car and go read a book after dinner, which will have to be cooked on a gas stove because there's a blackout. Can't watch the news after dinner. No TV. And when you wake up in the morning, you find you phone battery flat and your car won't go because there was a blackout all night.

Then there's the fact of energy source. While this richie with a vision talks about a car indirectly powered by wind. Many countries don't have that option. I looked up green energy sources for my area. The closest I found was one company, that charges twice as much as the rest. And it's not available in the biggest city in Australia. In fact, it's not even in the same state.

I really want electric cars to make it, somehow. But I can't see how they will, when the source we use to charge them is still dirty. At least in this country.

SteveC

in australia, i'm surprised that your gov. isn't thinking about solar.

every home could have solar panels on top, then plug in your electric car into that.

solar ovens would work well too... (no electrics/gas supply)

if you get rid of polluting cars then even the atmosphere round cities would be improved and even more solar energy could be made.