Hmmmm! If they are 220 I’m gonna put some wheels on my clothes dryer and sure hope the chargers wind up close to my home.

I guess they will have to star somewhere. Sort of like putting a gasoline tank with a couple of double hosed pumps stations into a town that pump so slow that a car needs to hog the pump for an hour before it is refilled.

Wonder if they will charge a carbon tax? Or maybe there wil be a carbon tax credit.

Good news indeed !! Obviously, there’ll be a charge for the “charge”. :)
Electrics will be a huge part of the motoring scene in the coming years (car of the year for 2012 is the Tesla Model “S”, and can go 300 miles on a single charge) and will become more and more viable even in northern climates as the technology develops. Someday, with a good solar panel and some storage capacity out in the garage (batteries and an inverter), pretty soon we’ll be able to run the family sedan on “sunlight”.
Very exciting times ahead.
Watch for the oil companies to do every thing they can to keep a lid on this in every way possible though, starting with derogatory ads, videos, – you name it !! I’ve already seen one on the Chevy Volt, that is so far from the facts of the incident its almost criminal.

I’m still trying to figure out why the batteries can’t be charged while driving. There are 4 wheels, if each one ran a generator wouldn’t that be enough to charge the batteries, even if you had a dual battery system where one was under use and the other was being charged while driving.

Our Mayor will be in the traveling mode.Maybe she will relocate?
Chjeers

“coming from the Province’s “Community Charging Infrastructure Fund”. You people do realize this is comming from taxpayer money for this fad of the day. If electric cars and infrastructure are such a good idea how come taxpayer money is involved? Here is some interesting information.

Electric Vehicles; Ineptitude, apathy … and piles of taxpayer money

http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2011/11/electric_vehicles_ineptitude_apathy_and_piles_of_taxpayer_money_1.html

“I’m still trying to figure out why the batteries can’t be charged while driving”.
What that would be is perpetual motion But, and we’re told that is impossible to attain, but the Chevy Volt actually does and “can” charge its batteries while driving by using a small gasoline motor that drives an alternator/generator, that in turn charge the onboard batteries that supply electric current to the wheel motors. There is no mechanical connection between the gasoline motor and the wheels, but you have the ability to run on electric only for about forty-fifty miles, then switch over to “chrarging mode” and the generator-alternator, can supply enough power to drive the car normally, and top up the batteries at the same time. Thusly, you have the same range as any gasoline powered car, but the ability to commute around the city every day without ever needing to be buying asoline.

Palomino you do realize the Telsa costs over a 100 grand. Also if you leave the car sitting somewhere not plugged in, the battery goes dead and you are out 30 grand.

Run on sunlight so you are inferring running the car for free. You left out the costs of charger, panels, car and battery replacement. Oh what about road taxes. Do you think it fare that electric cars do not pay road taxes?

“I’m still trying to figure out why the batteries can’t be charged while driving” Yes as in hybrids coasting to a stop or going down hill can charge the battery but you cannot have a perpetual motion machine there are losses that cannot be made up. That is why hybrids have engines or the volt having an engine driven generator.

“I’m still trying to figure out why the batteries can’t be charged while driving. There are 4 wheels, if each one ran a generator wouldn’t that be enough to charge the batteries, even if you had a dual battery system where one was under use and the other was being charged while driving.”

Congratulations, youve just invented perpetual motion ;)
Now all we need are frictionless bearings and resistance free wires!

seriously though, it is because generators take “HP” to turn, the energy is not free. So if you put a generator on each wheel it would add more load to the drive than it would produce in power. You would effectively go backwards. The only feasible way is to use a generation system as braking and “charge” the batteries to slow down the car instead of using the standard friction brakes. I do beleive some of the manufacturers are already doing this.

Yup, I’m fully aware of the price of a Tesla seamutt, and of the fact that there are so many orders for the car in backlog that there’s not even a “hope” of being able to buy one until far into 2013 at best!!
Are you aware of the price of a Nissan Leaf seamutt? Full electric but nowhere near the range or quality, but ever coming down in price as more and more electrics become available.
You’re out thirty grand if you let the battery go dead on an electric? You’re joking right? The batteries in an electric go dead while sitting no more than they do in a gasoline car or truck, unless of course you leave the lights on or some other power drain. My goodness, good thing you warned me about that !! Good thing we don’t have to scrap our gas hogs when we discover the battery went dead.

Using the onboard charger the Leaf can be charged from empty to full in about 8 hours, that is a long time to be sitting at a pump every 100 to 150km or so on your way to Vancouver…and you may not make it to Hixon if the temp is below -15. There is a warning to avoid storing the vehicle for over 7 days at below -25 or your batteries may die, or leaving them over 14 days on ‘E’

The 500 volt fast charge of 30 minutes may get you there faster but your batteries will pay the price for the speed, as well as you cannot fast charge your batteries more than once a week over 80% or you will kill them.

Battery life before recycling – note I said recycling, not “throw them in a ditch somewhere like someone suggested you’d have to do when their life is over, depending on use,is about ten years. You then replace with a rebuit one. Also remember, we are not talking about lead acid batteries here like you have in your car today. Electrics use far superior technology than those dinosaurs.
As for solar panels, inverters, etc., well, with the price of gasoline these days, I’m pretty sure you’d cover that cost real quick by eliminating most of that bill.
Road taxes? — again are you kidding me — when does anyone ever in any way get a leg up on government as to figuring out how to extract as much money as possible out of our pockets !! Guaranteed, every electric will be paying its fair share of taxes somewhere, even if it looks like its getting a break on the surface.
And — do you really think government wants to give up all that windfall tax money they rake in every day from gasoline and diesel sales !!
Yeah, right !!

Yup, and I’m gonna set out for Vancouver in my “leaf” at 15 below, and try to make Hixon before I need to set up in a motel for eight hours so I can make the next hop to Quesnel, so I can do the same.
We’re taliking commuters here at the moment – to and from work or shopping daily, not road trips to Disneyland.

palomino: Uh, I think you need ‘gasoline’ to run the little ‘gasoline powered generator’.

And I really wonder how much of a charge you’ll get for a dollar at those charging stations? Bet you’ll find that they eat up the loonies pretty quickly before you get a full charge. What? you thought they’d be free!?? HA,HA,HA! What were you thinking??

Its probably another reason the BCHydro was so anxious to get smart meters installed. Those things are probably programmed to recognise a ‘charging station’ when it comes online and guess what, you won’t get the ‘low consumption rate’ then! No, it will probably be a rate higher than ‘peak period’.

Wasn’t me that said it’d be free Give More.
It was me that said there’d be a charge for the “charge”.
Best re-read the post.

Rebuilt NIMH? Are you joking palomino? The only way to get back to full life is to get a new pack – ever heard of a ‘rebuilt’ laptop battery (and there are millions of those)? The only way to rebuild them is to strip the guts and put in new cells which is probably more cash than a new one.

As a commuter below -15 you have a range of about 50k if you have a brand new one on a full charge. If you drive it to work you better have a garage there or charging station to keep the packs warm or you may be calling BCAA for a boost when your 8 hour shift is over

If you go on a vacation and forget to plug your little car in on some type of timer system and the batteries sit close to dead for two weeks, or you take off and there is a cold snap, it may be time for a new pack when you return and your vacation cost you +/- 15k maybe more in labour for tearing the car half apart to change them

The plans are to have some sort of use for half dead Leaf batteries by the time you have to spend 15k for a new one so you can get some type of exchange on your old one, but in PG you can almost rule that one out.

Being as it will take about 8-10 years to break even on the car compared with a gas jobby they may become like a bic – toss em when the batteries wear out and get a new one

There in lies part of the problem alright. If you assume the charging is “free” (which it wont be of course, someone has to pay for the power) and take a comparable small gas powered car here are some rough numbers:
$15000 for replacement batteries
thats $12500 litres of fuel at $1.20 per L
many new cars can run 6 litres / 100km so thats over 200,000 kms before you break even on a set of batteries. I dont know that you would ever break even…

Palomino didn’t read my battery link did ya.

Here read this,

http://inhabitat.com/bricked-tesla-roadster-battery-launches-electric-vehicle-debate/

So haw many cars can one of these subsidized charging stations charge.

Has the city given an update on how there electric golf cart is working out?

Electric vehicles have their niche uses but for general transportation in the north not so much.

It isn’t about the savings to the pocketbook (as there are pretty much none and arguably the costs of ownership is more), it is about saving the environment.

For the average Joe you can think about saving the environment IF you don’t end up on the soup lines doing so. Right now (and for the foreseeable near future) an electric car in the north is for municipalities that can fudge the numbers and trick the public into thinking there is an actual ‘savings’

$15000 for replacement batteries
———————————–

Thats some bargin. I can buy a basic Corrola for less the that amount and not worry where my next stop will be.
Cheers

Can anyone explain to me why all these electric cars use a specialized plug in system that is only available if you have welder just to charge the battery?

It seems to me that to charge a 24 or 48 volt DC system, all one needs is a NEMA 5–15R, the standard electricity outlet found in every household and building in north America.

Or is this just another way to drag dollars from our pockets.

Special rates out of the smart meter at home for car charging, and what kind of rates from these “Charging Centres”?

slinky you have been swallowing the koolaid if you think electric cars are easy on the enviroment. Read the link in my first post about batteries.

Battery powered clothes dryers? There’s a thought.

Solar powered clothes dryers? Definately green.

Solar powered clothes dryer? Wouldn’t that be a clothesline?

A politically correct term for a clothesline I will have you know sir.Sorta like if you don’t go to church you are “Ecclesiasticlly challenged” and you don’t take yer kid to the woodshed anymore. You take him to the “attitude adjustment centre”.

The next car that I plan to buy is a Tesla. That is a few years away, once i finish paying off my van.

The thing with these charging stations, is that they are getting the infrastructure in place as these vehicles become more common. Of course there will be a charge to use them. Just like it costs to put gas in your vehicle.

In case you people do not know, the electric cars can be charged at your home, and you do not have to have use these other charging stations.

In the case of the Tesla, you can get a full charge in about half an hour. In less time than it is eat in a restaurant when you are travelling.

If you’ve ever flown in to Vancouver, or Los Angeles, and looked down at that brown smog soup that you’re about to land in and suck in with every breath while you’re there, it becomes very apparent that the day will come when we will no longer be able to drive our oil burners in some areas because our sheer survival will depend on our not doing this anymore !!
Yes, it will be less practical to run electrics in the north in the immediate future, but emerging technology will eventually overcome the obstacles, and zero emission vehicles will become the ride of choice through necessity if nothing else.
There are already batteries under development that work like capacitors and can be fully charged in less than a minute, and while they are still under development, will become mainstream in just a few short years. Once this happens, full electrics will be as common as any other form of transportation we use today.