Better Place-enabling the mass adoption of electric vehicles in Australia

[dieselhead]

"Hybrids are like mermaids. When you want a fish, you have a woman. When you want a woman, you have a fish."

Carlos Ghosn, Renault CEO

Very interesting stuff indeed. And is coming soon to the East Coast of Oz.

Just watch this video that explains it all. The only problem is, Adelaide is not in, not yet...

Warning: This is an Old Thread This discussion is older than 120 days. information contained in it may no longer be current . Please think of the children before resurrecting this ancient thread!

[mania]

Whilst I do think battery vehicles are the way to go, really won't do much good whilst hazelwood is running..

[gmonkey]

i much preffer honda's use of hydrogen fuel cell, i mean atleast it runs on the same idea as fossil fuels, but recyclable material..

[dieselhead]

The idea is that we'll gradually convert to renewable energy to charge batteries. Shai Agassi said in his presentation that you need a solar panel the size of a car somewhere in the dessert to power a car using solar energy. We've got sun, God knows we've got plenty of room for solar panels, why wouldn't we then?

[mania]

i much preffer honda's use of hydrogen fuel cell, i mean atleast it runs on the same idea as fossil fuels, but recyclable material..

I don't see fuel cells becoming the norm. They may have a place aside cars, probably for buses, but as the norm? I hope not. They can be considered inefficient batteries that cannot be charged at the wall - rather need topping up at a station. That require huge amounts of hydrogen, an explosive gas, to be stored in a pressurized (and heavy) container somewhere in the car. That's been the major hold-up point about fuel cells for car companies everywhere. Not to mention that the fuel cell itself is still very expensive, and their efficiency appalling. The amount of energy that initially goes in to turning water in to hydrogen at the station is less then half the amount of energy that goes in to driving your wheels. By comparison, battery powered cars can be above 90% efficient, including all losses in transmitting the power, charging and discharging the batteries, and drivetrain losses. If fuel cells become the norm, it's probably because BP/Shell have had their hand in it, so that they can continue using their existing network of stations.

And I also dislike photovoltaic solar power , just for the sheer inefficiency. The solar panels cost a lot of energy to make, more then they give back in years of service, require a lot of resources, and they take up a lot of room. Give me wind, geothermal or nuclear anyday...

[gmonkey]

whatever happened to GMs car that ran on salt water??

[gmonkey]

they replaced the idea with the 'volt' which i think is kinda cool, but salt water would be sweet!!

[mania]

I don't believe that's possible... may have been jotted down on a concept car's spec page, but without any means of making it happen. Much like toyota's concept car which was claimed to be able to be run on pollution.

[AH08]

Wait until all the Prius owners have to replace their batteries every 5 year at about $6000. I read it some motor mag somewhere that it actually causes more pollution to make and get rid of the batteries than they save.

[sooty]

And I also dislike photovoltaic solar power , just for the sheer inefficiency. The solar panels cost a lot of energy to make, more then they give back in years of service, require a lot of resources, and they take up a lot of room.

For old solar panels, the above is all true, but with quantum dot based solar panels it's not, they're easily produced at little energy cost, not to mention substantially more efficient than current panels...
they'll become common soon enough