Originally posted by: heymrdj
Originally posted by: BeauJangles
Originally posted by: heymrdj
My main response is that I will never ever buy an electric car of my own free will even if I had 10 million dollars to spend on it until they can go 1,000 miles per day while only taking stops that need a few minutes (IE equivalent to gassing up the truck). This is what I can do with my Expedition, I expect the same of any replacement car. I'm not driving 250 miles to wait 8 hours on a recharge.
Oh and a 2,000lb hauling capacity and 5,000 lb towing capacity is good too.
Uhh... most people (99%) don't need a car that can drive 1,000 miles per day, haul 2,000 lbs and tow 5,000.
I doubt you need that either and, if you really do, then this car isn't aimed at you because it's a.... wait for it... SPORTS CAR.
It's more like 60% of people need a car that can go 1,000 miles a day 10% of the time. Of course in your all knowing wisdom thinking that something that has to plug in every day to keep running is actually freedom, I can see how you'd think that 99% of people don't need it. But surprisingly, even if you think Bush has destroyed our economy and that the American dream is all bum impossible, people still do take something called a....wait for it.... VACATION. :shocked:
60% of people need a car that go 1,000 miles in a day? How many people take vacations over 1,000 miles away and drive all 1,000 miles in a single day? That's 14 straight hours of driving @ 70 mph. Shit, when I was in college I drove that much only a handful of times and I didn't do it in a sports car.
You seem to not understand that this car is basically a Lotus Elise. It's not a mini van, it's not an SUV, it's a sports car. I don't know if you've ever been in one (an Elise), but the thing is tiny. It's not a car you take on vacations. It's the car you pull out of your driveway to go to the beach, to cruise around town, and to go on a little joy ride, not the car you pile your family into and drive across the country.
I'll still contend that the vast majority of America can easily survive on a car that can go ~250 miles / day on a single charge. True, you can't take it on a long vacation, but that's a once-a-year occurrence for most families. The vast, vast majority of miles driven by people are in their city, within less than fifty miles of their home.
The short-term answer will be cars like the Volt, the Prius, and whatever Honda's offering is called. The longer-term could likely be supercap cars, which would deliver a few hundred miles of all-electric range and a short (5 - 10 min) recharge time.