Jetson Car Available in One Year

[ERD50]

Well it DID go 33,000 miles--it made it out of the lab and onto the street.

And the Jetsons would love it....

But here is the point:

The two-seater travels up to 55 mph and covers 185 miles on a fully charged battery.

...

the car is powered by solar cells that it hauls on a trailer. ...

It is much, much better for the environment to put those solar panels in a fixed place, out of the shade, and tilted optimally towards the sun. That gives more energy out, relative to the huge amount of energy it took to make the solar panel in the first place.

Their approach is actually anti-environmental, because it is not making the best use of the energy it took to make the solar panel. And it's dragging the panel around, wasting more energy.

The alternative is charge those batteries at night. Two benefits - those solar panels would be providing energy into the grid during the day when it is needed the most, and you would charge the car at night when the grid is underutilized.

Remember that it takes about two years for a solar panel, under optimal conditions, to produce the amount of energy it took to make it. So until that time, it is a net energy sink, not a 'saver' of energy. And anything you do to reduce that (like pull it around on a trailer), extends that energy payback time.

33,000 miles on the Sun's schedule - not a typical commuter schedule.

It should stay in the lab, IMO. It has no place on the street. I don't care how good you make the solar panels, they are still better off in a fixed mount, feeding the grid. So this whole exercise is pointless, it is going down the wrong path. A waste.

-ERD50

 

[samclem]

If a car is lightweight, slow to accelerate, and can't do at least 70 MPH, it will be a dangerous vehicle to have out on the roads/highhways. A motorcycle is probably safer per mile driven than many of these proposed small cheap electric cars. While a motorcyle offfers very little crash protection, it offers very good accident avoidance: You can out accelerate most cars (very handy for getting out of a trouble spot), it can keep up with traffic, your head is high enough to see over many sedans so you can spot trouble coming farther in advance, and it is narrow enough to allow the operators to squeeze between cars for safety (e.g. sitting at a light behind cars and hearing locked-up brakes from behind you--I'd quickly dart between the vehicles and let ther bumpers take any impending impact). No, I don't think motorcycles are safe vehicles, but in one of these low, slow, car-eggs you've got almost everything working against you from a safety perspective.

To be safe on the real-world roads I think you need to have the weight, accceleration, and top speed of an IC-powered car. That's not going to come cheap with today's battery technology.

Where's that cheap ultracapacitor we've been waiting for?

 

[Midpack]

I'd consider a VOLT w/o the range extender at the right price. There are only a few times a year that I use *my* car for a round trip over 40 miles, and some of those I could plug in during my visit to handle maybe a 60 to 80 mile round trip. We can take the other car for long trips.-ERD50

I thought it was intriguing too until I heard "Bob Lutz revealed to the Seattle Times that the price point for his company's Chevy Volt series hybrid electric vehicle will be $40,000, or around $10,000 more than originally estimated. Lutz also told the paper that the first-generation of the Volt would generate no profit for General Motors." And these guys want a bailout?

 

[ERD50]

Aptera Update -

Finally a car that looks like what Popular Science said we'd be driving in the year 2000.

View attachment 2787

The electric model is said to go 120 miles/charge. Lowest coefficient of drag of any car. Hybrid model said to get 230 MPG. Has special safety features. Cost: $28,000.

Aptera

The next big breakthrough in electric car technology is virtually always 1-2 years away.

And it still is... 2007, 2008... 2011 and out!


Electric car maker Aptera goes belly up

What a surprise!


-ERD50