Macaque

another day, another step along the way. This time it's Mitsubishi -

 

"...The company plans to conduct test drives using the batteries in prototype vehicles by as early as next year. MHI showed a prototype electric vehicle powered by li-ion batteries last year at the Renewable Energy 2006 International Exhibition in Japan. The company also reportedly plans to develop electric motors for cars, with the intention of packaging batteries and motors together..."

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/re...subis.html#more

City centres will love them. The planet will hate them.

Methinks you have totally missed the point I was making macaque - you identify the bad end of the chain but you insist on campaigning against the good end.

 

If the power generators are the bad guys, campaign against the bad guys. Don't use their behaviour as some excuse to attack someone else and delay progress in areas where progress is possible. Otherwise it sounds like your agenda is nothing to do with the environment at all, and you are merely hired to do the rounds of green forums rubbishing every threat to the oilbased carmakers..

 

(and as we all know - there are people who do just that)

 

pvp

You can take it how you like but a solution is only as good as the weakest link. Right now we burn a lot of coal and gas to generate our electricity. Electric cars will always be less efficient because there are energy losses between the combustion stage and the driving stage that conventional cars don't have.

Until we have a good source of renewable electricity, we should not be developing electric cars. Cars driven by biodesiel or ethanol are a better solution. They make zero net contribution to atmospheric CO2 (since the CO2 has be captured by the plants).

Without cheap renewable electricity, electric cars are horribly ungreen and people should wake up to this.

"Horribly ungreen" is a gross exaggeration of course. There are environmental and health benefits in the congested areas where such vehicles currently operate.

 

The ultimate ideal - for me and many others at least - is for all road vehicles to be electric, and for all power stations to be generating power in the greenest way. There is a long way to go on the latter - but plenty of pressure to do so. But frustration at slowness in one end of the system is no excuse for postponing efforts at the other end. It is perfectly sensible to push for progress all along the line and to applaud each step that is made in the right direction.

 

Campaigning FOR greener electricity production doesn't have to involve campaigning AGAINST electric vehicles. Dont't be such a grumpy curmudgeon!

 

And besides - the move towards all-electric vehicles is happening anyway. Check out today's update from Tanfield (TAN). Watch out for an imminent fleet announcement from Modec of Coventry (Tesco have bought 15 of their electric vans and are coming for more). Have a look at the Subaru R1e - a beautiful little electric car which is selling nicely in Japan (where tax concessions favour it). Subaru confirm they aware of huge demand for them to market it worldwide - which they will do so in 2009 - by which time the high price of battery packs is expected to have begun tumbling. (At present the batteries typically make up half the price of a car - and the R1e would cost aupwards of £17k in the UK now). See the Phoenix Motorcars sports utility vehicle (above).

 

Following the succes of its 7.5t Newton truck, Tanfield is pressing ahead with introducing a 12t version for the US market, followed later by an electric artic. Plus a new large-Transit sized Edison van range.

 

2007 looks like being a breakthrough year in terms of public reralisation that electric vehicles are arriving rather than just being talked about.

 

That King Canute knew a thing or two about the futility of trying to stem the tide. The tide is running in favour of electric vehicles - with or without you on board Macaque

pvp

 

PS: I notice your only other posting appears to be an attack on another of the greener vehicle fuels. Do you have some vested interest in oil-based transport?

Electric cars are nimby cars. They are cleaner where they are used but they cause much higher CO2 and acid emmissions. We should actively campaign against them unless the source of electricity is renewable.

It always surprises me that electric cars get such a good press. They are horribly ungreen unless the electricity is generated from a renewable source.