Funny ad or funny business?

I hope we both live another 20 years, because I don't see this happening in that time frame.

Installing solar panels on top of that fancy e-lec-tric bug out vehicle, are ya?

 

I say use the forest like a farm, add a little man hands on intelegant design. And just kill off the last spotted owls because it's perfectly natural for spices to go extinct, there are hardly any left and no one ever sees them, just time to let them go. It's also natural for a new species to arise and wipe out others.
It's unnatural for one spices to care if another goes extinct if that spices isn't a food source or part of some symbiotic relationship.
Mother nature is not nice or kind or fair, she is an unforgiving bitch.
Less money I spend I on gas or diesel the more I can spend on silencers, ammo, grenade launcher, maybe a machine gun, some day.
That's one of the best things about the nissan leaf, no one expects a heavily armed, very pissed off veteran to be driving one.

These are projections based on a DoE reports and they are usually pretty accurate.

Bugging out was never my plan. Installing solar panels on an electric vehicle is stupid.

300 mile purely vehicles are already for sale. If they will actually go any where near 300 miles is open for debate.

I have a gasoline powered car.
Plus plug in hybrid cars with unlimited range are already on sale.
So have near 0 interest in range extending the leaf.

 

People who bought Tesla's and then experience problems are surprised to find out that nobody can work on their car but Tesla... Unauthorized work on 'your' car results in Tesla sending it a kill code. It is essentially removed from the updates list. It'll no longer be able to fast charge. Who really has time to read all that fine print anyway?

Here's a do it yourselfer with a hankerin' to put a stye in the eye of Tesla.
Rich Rebuilds

 

@ghrit "Motor fuels are not the only choke hold the "oil barons" have on the public testes. Consider the price of power plant fuels and its effect on electricity rates. Consider also where state revenue will come from if motor fuel tax revenue is reduced."
You're absolutely correct! And, why I said "they will change the world"; however, I should have been more specific, because personally, I believe that is ONLY if Solar can be harnessed to support these electric cars then I believe we have a game changer. And, if that happens, we will see propaganda and/or push back like never before in history.

@oil pan 4 "I can produce electrical power a lot easier than I can produce my own gasoline or diesel. Therefore I can produce an endless supply of my own electric car fuel for however long the panels last."
Exactly!

@BTPost "I put EV Crowd in the same Category as the "Do NOT log the Forest" Crowd"
I suppose their hearts are in the right place but the problem is they don't have the sense that God gave a goose. And, I never could understand the "Don't Log the Forest" crowd because it's a renewable resource, seems to be more logical to say/support "Replant the Forest!" I mean, do they wish the world to go without wood and wood products. I am sure they are fond of their toilet paper.

 

Tesla has their own BS special design fast chargers.
They wanted to design their own external charger cord, but they took so long to start producing their cars the j1772 was already industry standard.

Everyone else, ford, GM, nissan, honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, euro manufacturs are all using the j1772 charger. Which allows the on board vehicle charger to charge the vehicle with 100-250 VAC external power at up to 6.6kw.
Then nissan, honda, Toyota, maybe some others use the high voltage DC charger fast charger called the CHAdeMO protocol where the vehicle computer controls an external 480v 3 phase powered charger and the charger puts out up to 125 amps of the required DC battery voltage, maximum charger output is limited to 50kw.
Smaller single phase not as fast chargers are also available but are limited to 10 to 12kw.

 

I'm letting the early adopters take the risks and pay the associated expenses that are always a part of being on the cutting edge. For EV's IMO its about power generation, distribution, and storage. When/if the technology matures to make EV's more practical (for my used) than gas or diesel I'll make the switch.

Right now the only one I would consider is a Prius or similar hybrid because the design and systems have been around long enough that it's proven, battery life and expenses are known and to me it doubles as a drivable 12 Volt generator system that could be used to augment an off grid habitat.

 

The manufacturers are not going to batteries standardize voltage, let alone battery design.

The industry already standardized around chargers that can charge different voltage batteries.

Early battery voltages were all over the place, GM was using 144v, Toyota were running about 270vdc and that range is what a lot of early hybrid and electric cars used aside from honda they were different using around 350v.

Now most manufacturers are using 350 to 400v.

 

Energy dances all around us and exists in many forms. The trick is to figure out how to harness and store it. For example, take any two objects. There is electric and thermal potential between them unless they are touching. There is also a gravitational force that wants to pull them together as well as potential energy unless they are at the center of the earth (and even then there would be potential energy between them and the sun. At some point we will figure out the true fundamentals of energy and a few seconds later will likely destroy ourselves with it. And that's why I'm sticking with fossil fuels for now.

 

Or just get a plug in vehicle with a small battery that can do 20 to 40 miles of electric range and has a gasoline engine to go on longer trips.

Enough battery material can't be mined currently to build even 10% of the vehicles sold now with 250 mile batteries.
Not enough cobalt is the hold up.
And you need lithium cobalt batteries to make high energy density batteries that preform over a wide range of temperatures and discharge levels.
Cobalt free lithium chemistry batteries are out there but they suck in the cold and are damaged when charged at temperatures less than +20°F and are damaged if discharged above a certain temperature (I believe around 120 to 125 degrees F)

 

I thought about putting Peltier diodes over the top of my hybrid but never got around to it.

Peltier diodes when energized conduct heat from one side to the other. Computer coolers, coffee cup warmers are examples.

When de-energized the diodes generate voltage relative to the difference in temperature on both sides of the diodes. An example is the campfire pot that will charge your USB devices.

This could be used as a passive charging system for hybrid or electric vehicles. Paint schemes would enhance the effects but may be counterproductive seasonally. In a hybrid vehicle, Peltier diodes on the exhaust system could make an added bonus.

I thought it was a good idea anyway.

 

Wind power, solar power, electric cars, and a lot of the other green dreams only exist because of money supports and tax laws. If you tax the electricity used for the chargers at the regular rate, remove all subsidies, and install a transponder system to charge them their fair share of the road infrastructure costs rather than using the gasoline tax as a proxy, you would see a decline in their adoption. Likewise if you made the grid tie solar and wind pay their full share of building, legacy costs, and maintaining the electric distribution system, the capacity has to exist to cover the worst case situation and why should the non green users pay for their backups. Likewise if they really want "wilderness" areas, stop the pipelines, don't burn coal or oil, etc,, why should the rest of us be forced to pay for their desires?

 

From the late 1990s when the first hybrid Toyotas and later the hybrod Hondas came out they had tiny batteries, less than 1or 2kwh of capacity and they were not designed to be plugged in and charged daily. The batteries were recharged when driving and during braking.
There was a dealer service and troubleshooting kit that for the various hondas and Toyotas that would allow the battery to be plugged in charged for certain diagnostic tests, a few people started using this charger as part of their daily driving routine, but the majority of these cars were never once charged with external power.
Or the vehicle was modified to be externally charged.

I believe the 2010 the chevy volt was the first plug in hybrid that was designed to be plugged in and charged on a daily basis.
Toyota with the prius didn't allow for plug in charging until 2016ym.

 

Meh. I live in Alaska. The juice just to keep the battery hot is more than it's worth. My son lives in TX and drives a Nissian Leaf.

He sets it to change at night after 2 Am - the power Co pays him to charge the car. At work, he has access to a 6kW charger for $5/month. He likes his, but then, it is a bit warmer in TX.

 

North of about MA pure electric vehicles aren't worth it.
You would waste a lot of time and energy just trying to keep the battery above freezing to charge it.

For example if a 400lb battery (such as a leaf battery) had the specific heat of water, which it wont it will be lower, and a 300 watt heater like used in the leaf battery it would take around 3 hours per degree F to increase temperature, with no losses.
My guess is the specific heat of a lithium battery would be more like 1/4 to 1/3 that of water. So it would probably warm up at a rate of more like 1 degree per hour.
The leaf chemistry should be able to charge with out issue down to about 0F or -5F, then run the heater combined with normal charging heat should bring the battery up to acceptable temperature.

 

After a good day's worth of driving, has he mentioned how many hours it takes to charge it, overnight?