Why Alaska Might Be the Best Place for Electric Cars
by Timothy Hurst on May 1, 2012
Let me first preface this piece by saying Alaska may not, in fact, be the best place to own and operate an electric car. Confused? Let me explain. A new study (pdf) by the Union of Concerned Scientists explores the often asked but rarely answered questions surrounding the issue of whether some geographic regions may be better than others for electric cars in terms of their environmental impact.
Other than the fact that the battery would freeze, and that essentially every destination in Alaska is beyond the range of an electric car, and that you would probably burn out the motor when you high center it in the snow – it sounds like a great idea.
Best place for an electric car is in a temperate climate where you don’t have to run the heater or A/C, thus preserving mileage per battery charge. I’m thinking, California.
Leave it to environmentalists or journalists with no scientific training (“science and math are too hard”) to approach the issue from the most narrow of mindsets. I like to think that the engineer in me thinks on a more practical level, but then again, this is such common sense that even a caveman could do it.
Some parts of California, others, no way. Some large cities in the south east.
Personally the best place for an EV is the golf course or on University campuses. Even ome of the senior housing projects are good candidates for EV. Not on the real roads.
That mars opportunity rover is golf cart slow and does not run on real roads. Still good after 11 years with nice ‘n temperate weather. haha.
Mike, I pity your quotes having no bearing with reality on real world EV’s..
AdnyJ;
There appears to be a mutual agreement as I feel likewise about the majority of your claims.
🙂
This reminds me of a county meeting I attended 30 years ago. They were trying to find the best place to put in a new land fill. The sanitation folks chose the location that was most central, closesst to the most main roads and an interstate and proceeded to show how much time and fuel they would save by chosing this location. Only problem was all those factors also made it prime real estate for commercial and residential development. The county board of supervisors, realizing the tax base would improve to a much greater extent if the developers got their way, told the sanitation folks to put their landfill in a different location.
Love to see a long term test of an electric car over the winter in Alaska. I would also like it to be driven like a regular car, that is, warmed up for a while before going anywhere to get the passenger compartment comfortable. Wonder if the would have enough juice to make it to the end of the street.
Probably not, because the low clearance wouldn’t get it out of the driveway in the snow. ;^)
I made the mistake of reading the source. I am now a little bit stupider because of it.
So, tell us all about the lithium cells used on the martian rovers. One is trapped, the other is still going strong after 11 years. You want a cold season pack? Simply change the electrolyte for something more suitable.
Duh!
A guy I know took his wife to the restaurant one cold night. Living in a small town where a lot of people know this very rich man and his electric cars was reminded by well wishers he left his side lights on. The car is a porshe 356 speedster with a cloth roof.
He didn’t tell people he knowingly left his 4KW heater on continuously as well. So when they climbed back into the car it was already toasty warm with dry windows. So what if he used up a small fraction of his pack. He has a quality of life that fuel cars abysmally fail upon.
The $50 million car.
Beck Speedsters as a glider aren’t cheap at $60K but he’d sell it you for a hell of a lot less than $50M and give you a barrel of his finest whiskey for you to fondle like a gorgeous woman in the passenger seat. It has an easy range of 150 miles and does 0-60 in 6.5 seconds and costs pennies to run. His next test is modifying his 2008 Escalade because it blows cold air up his skirt. This can sink 340KW so won’t lose a jot of performance over original.
Oh yes, he lives in Missouri. Work that one out.
Golf carts they are not. You are on a loser here Steve, sorry. But I’m glad to find your new home for climate news 🙂
Even the Nissan Leaf does 60 in 9.2 seconds and 90 miles if driven steadily. That car is so quiet Nissan had to redesign the standard wiper mechanism because it was too intrusive.
Coupled with EU vehicle costs and taxation that car is possibly one of the cheapest to buy, own and run over its lifetime.
I bought an electric bicycle once for a friend. The battery died after three months and cost more to replace than the original cost of the bicycle. Same story with electric cars.
I sold my pride and joy pedal racing bike to a friend and that was wrecked after three months.
There is a reason why it died. My first car lasted two years ‘cos it was shit. I’ve replaced three screens and one battery on my nieces last laptop in two years. I’ve owned it for four years, no changes.
The Leaf battery pack is guaranteed for either 7 or ten years, I forget but never mind.
LiFePo4 cells are good for 1,500~3,000 80% charges before they lose 20% of capacity but it takes one goof to force a cell into reverse voltage for one moment and its stone dead. Plenty more have boiled the electrolyte overnight and burned everything down when the gases mix with loose wires, usually from a shitty home brew BMS.
The same people used to play with fuel. But Darwinism pared them down.
p.s. bicycles use Li poly cells. Scary! Laptops use LiCo cells. More short lived garbage. Both are no good for reliability.
Seems the leaf and every other EV run afoul at test time.
http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/11/10/nissan-leaf-fails-real-life-test-miserably
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestvoices/2013516051_nissanleaffailsrarenorthwestweathertest.html
http://www.itulip.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-21385.html
The “Karma”
http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/09/karma-107k-plug-in-hybrid-dies-on-test-track-company-got-528m-us-loan-guarantee/
So, how many miles do YOU travel in a day? This is a mommies car. Not a fancy Sunday driver or a main car. I used to do 60 miles a day for three years due to work and it wrecked me and cost £thousands in fuel and service charges. Charging at home overnight would of saved years of hassle too. Even a fuel pump that took a card attempted to scam me of £250!!!!
Oh yes, that “Government subsidy”. It’s not. The savings on the countries external debt makes it an investment. That’s how Gov’ts work. Don’t bebabes in the wood. They give you nothing.
For a true view of what people think of these cars read the Nissan Leaf forums. The only Leaf that returned a bad mileage was found to have a loose Battery connection so it ran the pack in a safe mode.
What high pitched whine at speed? I heard a very soft, quiet hum like a Trappist monk! Just as UK’s Jeremy Clarkson portrayed after he drove a Leaf a total of 95 miles so it deliberately ran out of juice in Lincoln (Had to drive around the town a further 10 miles). Used a carefully chosen route to avoid known charging infrastructure and we are not to know of camp sites, The 32A commando point on the A1 they avoided, OpenChargeMap locations and interested people/hobbyists/companies who have put their addresses on a charger database etc. etc..
As goes the Karma.
Nitty gritty. The heavily subsidized firm, A123’s cells/packs were made in China with poor quality control and mixed batch marking after proclaiming ISO standards. Now they have to
recall EVERY pack at a cost of over $55M. These batteries are not serviceable by design. FAIL by scammer monkeys. Obama was not happy.
Oxisenergy are about to enter into production LiS cells. Double the charge density of whats on the market now and expect to give 650Whr/Kg for 2015. This, if not unobtainium will make fuel cars largely irrelevant in any country.
The fuel car will have its day when owning horses is proven to be nothing but hassle.
The electric car will have its day when fuel cars prove nothing but hassle.