Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
That's a red herring, because it's never going to happen. Electric drive will be a small part of the transportation mix, and probably not even close to the dominant component in our lifetime. Basically they'll be toys for the rich, and urban runabouts for 2+ vehicle households with other ICE vehicles.
EDIT: there's also the option of time-of-day usage. Power co's are shifting to pricing schemes and technological arrangment that will strongly encourage people to shift their optional power-intensive behaviour to off-peak times when the grid has spare capacity. EG: the car gets charged in the evening/night, unless of course you want to pay 2x more for the day time juice. This is coming regardless of the impact of EV's.
Yes, and I don't buy it as a serious issue. (And neither is is technologically insurmountable: Expect some kind of noise maker in production EV's at "idle/crawl" speeds. )
There are numerous models of ICE luxury cars that are virtually silent at low speeds as well. (Where's the outcry against quiet-as-the-breeze Lexus luxobarges? ) Where's the epidemic of blind people being run down by stealth bicyclists?
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Makes sense. The idea still merits application in select cases, like those I mentioned before. They make good rentals.
Sounds like a solid incentive. Unfortunately, the fact that a consumer will be diverting his/her money from gasoline to a powerplant, the financial and environmental effects will remain the same. The car will be expensive, as I can imagine electricity bills. That's not convincing enough to consider it, at least not for me.
In the article that I read, Chevy worked with the National Federation of the Blind to come up with some sort of distinct audible warning for they're upcoming Volt. (Quite a creative name) That could also be a drawback, because the driver might feel safeguarded, leaving pedestrians to react to such unnatural cues. Kids and the elderly in particular are what concern me. Nothing beats a responsible driver. Not sure what an "ICE" vehicle is, but I live in an uppity area where people own those kind of cars. They still have that "engine sound" to them, (Kind of like a continous "ksh" noise) however insulated the cabin may be. "Stealth bicyclists?" You mustn't know any bicyclists. Those people might be even more aware of traffic flow and mindful of people crossing the street or walking/jogging in the sidewalk than a blind person! They're very in tune with their senses because they have to be. I share the road with them everyday out here in 45 MPH zones where my Sentra feels small. Those people are either crazy or inhumanly attentive. I'd say both.