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Old 07-01-2012, 10:07 PM   #21 (permalink)
Ryland
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
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honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1
90 day: 79.71 mpg (US)

green wedge - '81 Commuter Vehicles Inc. Commuti-Car

Blue VX - '93 Honda Civic VX
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More and more cars are going to electric power steering, the Toyota MR2 has had electric power steering for years, same with a number of Volvo's, the Toyota Matrix, Prius and I think a hand full of other current Toyota's have electric power steering, the EV that my parents just bought has after market power steering installed and it works great, feels just like any other car I've driven with power steering, slightly lighter feel then my Civic VX that has fully manual steering, it feels very natural, same with a friends of mine Porsche EV that he installed electric power steering on, no weird feel at all, you really have to get out and drive a few EV's and see how nice they really are to drive before making blanket statements about how poor they handle because no one has figured out how to make them work right!

I am not a fan of battery swap, to me it's like asking all of the auto makers to put a single standard engine in every car made so when it comes time to do a tune up or emission test you can just pull the engine and drop another one in in a matter of minutes, I want a 5kwh battery pack in my little car while the next person wants a 10kwh or even a 30kwh battery pack, some packs are flat and fit in the floor while others are a long block that runs down the center of the vehicle.
For the same reason I don't like the idea of leasing the battery, EV's sell for more on Ebay if they have a battery pack in them and can be test driven, a leased battery brings the resale value of a used EV down a great deal because now you are paying a used car price but are paying full price every month for a battery and if I'm buying a new car that I plan to keep for 10 years owning the battery is going to be cheaper then renting a battery for 10 years.

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