Many years ago, sometime in the mid-80's, when I was selling insurance for Combined and traveling all over most of Washington and Idaho, I stopped at a house that had an electric VW bus for sale. The people said that it would go about 25 miles on a charge, and then they just plugged it in and recharged the battery. They had moved out to a small farm in the country, so it was not practical for them anymore, because the trip to town and back more than used up the 25 miles that it could travel before being recharged, and that was why they were selling it. I never saw another one like it, but always wondered why VW quit making the electric ones. Eventually, I learned that this was not a factory VW, it was one that someone had modified, like the one that your friend made, @Ike Willis . However they set the VW up, it apparently ran fine and just needed to be charged after going the 25 miles. I would love to have an electric vehicle for just putzing around town with. The newer ones go much further than 25 miles without a charge, and once you had a solar panel to charge them with, you could run the vehicle for free except for when the batteries needed replacing.
I was researching gas golf carts for around town use and one company built electric golf carts with solar panels built into the canopy, to increase distances or time between charges. Don't know how well that works. Might be worth a try.
I wouldn't mind a dual fuel vehicle that ran on either/both gas and electricity, as long as I would be able to charge it at home. I wonder if the reason they weren't able to push the dealerships through in Houston and Dallas is due to the petrochemical industry being so strong in this region?
@Yvonne Smith and @Ike Willis, it seems that solar power systems are not reliable. This question was posed to an official of the solar power company a few years back during an interview - if indeed solar power is true, then why don't we just shift to that and forget Meralco? Meralco is the provider of electricity in Metro Manila and suburbs. The official said that solar power is efficient but the materials are expensive for now. However, it will become cheaper when the patronage rises since mass production will lower the cost. No one agreed with that answer. Even in Germany, where the best solar panels originated, they cannot eclipse the cost of energy vis-a-vis the present supplier (power companies). In China, they are now producing solar panels, presumably cheap, but still they cannot compete with the power supplier in terms of cost. Huh, sorry, I segued too much.
I don't understand how the cost to operate the electric vehicle is better than the cost of gas for the vehicle. We still have to make the electricity doesn't plugging into your power source at home run your monthly bill up. I do believe a better source of power for the vehicles is needed I am just not sure if electricity is the best way to go.
There is also the fact that most of the power generated in this country is generated by coal, and we have a government that is intent upon using the false premise of the environment to cut the profits of the coal companies until they are forced to sell to our president's friends.
This may be a segue but you have to pardon me. I just noticed that @Ken Anderson appears to be very critical of Barack Obama, hahahaaa. No offense, it just makes me smile to hear a person grumble against the government, a government official or even a political candidate. I had been receiving emails from abroad to that effect - they are blaming everything on Obama. One uncle is a die-hard anti-Obama and who is now a die-hard Trumper or whatever. When we had Marcos as the president who became dictator, the word crony surfaced, that's the term used to describe the president's friends who gained wealth thru their influence and connection to the president. Now a new term with the same meaning is being used on our present president's friends. They call it KKK which means Kaklase, Kaibigan, Kabarilan looosely translated as Classmate, Friends, target shooting chums.
Yes, here it's often referred to as cronyism, or nepotism. @Ken Anderson is correct, O is targeting various industries, and coal is one of them. There has been a lot of corruption within the solar industry here in the U.S., with several politicians profiting handsomely.
Actually the problem I see with electric cars is where to recharge them. One reason why I'm not driving -- besides doing it in this city is not the best option due to the heavy load traffic -- is that I dislike the idea of being enslaved to a car needs and demands, so now go and figure when the charging stations are still so counted. The project of hybrid electric cars was introduced in this city about a year ago, with a recharging point outside the mayor's office, and a few other in selected Walmart stores. Recharge was free, but even this way, the project was a total failure. It may be successful sometime in the future, when infrastructure to power electric cars can be widely available, and certainly these are a better alternative to regular automobiles.
Just saw on the news: http://www.greencarreports.com/news...r-is-committed-project-to-ship-in-2019-report
There will never be a long-term inexpensive source of energy. Given that governments and companies (which in many cases are the same thing) know what we are willing to pay for energy, the price for whatever sources of energy might be developed will eventually be raised to the levels that we are willing to pay, or taxed so that you are paying that amount. Once electric powered cars become more of a norm, we'll find that charging stations will be charging us roughly the same amount of money (per mile) to recharge our cars as we are currently paying for gasoline. Look at the price of gasoline. Given that gas prices have been going down here for the past couple of years, every legislative session someone introduces a bill to raise the tax on gasoline. Since they know that we are willing to pay more for gasoline than what the gasoline is currently costing us, they want to collect that in taxes instead. Of course, once the price of gasoline goes up again, the extra taxes will never be rescinded.
Yesterday, a film director approach my husband for a chat. The director's son in Orange County (CA) has a reservation for Tesla Car at $70k. The son would sell his BMW when the Tesla arrives. It is a clean car because it is full electric, no noise either. But my husband has apprehension on the availability of charging stations. Besides, unlike the gasoline where you can fill up in 5 or 10 minutes, the electric car needs hours to gain a full charge. But since the film director is very proud of his son, whatever apprehension was ignored and he talks as if the Tesla car is perfect. I will post an update here when I get some news on that Tesla car of the film director's son.
If only electric car manufacturers could do away with the batteries and siphon the cars power electronically from the overhead power lines that are everywhere.